Kentucky Trivia ● Kentucky Tweets

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Robert Patterson, born in 1753 in Pittsburg.  In 1775, Patterson traveled to Kentucky and claimed land on the North Fork of Cane Run, where he built a cabin.  Later, for the military, he donated land and helped build a fort nearby that would become the city of Lexington.

March 15, 1775, Captain James Harrod’s crew returned to Harrodstown.  After the treaty that followed Dunmore’s War, they returned to their homes and stayed; thus, Harrodsburg became the 1^st permanent settlement.

March 15, 1851, locals established Beattyville as Beatty.  The city rests in a valley where the North Fork and South Fork Rivers combine to create the Kentucky River’s headwaters.  Beattyville received its name in 1843 from a local landowner Sam Beatty.

March 15, 1870, locals incorporated Bellevue, in Campbell County.  Originally land granted to General James Taylor, he enjoyed an estate that exceeded $4 million.  His mansion remains on East 3^rd Street in Newport.  Bellevue translates from French as “beautiful view.”  Many say, the view James was referring to was his family’s plantation in Virginia.

March 15, 1888, Fulton County lynched Eli Nary, a black male for a barn-burning.  One source recorded 135 lynchings in Kentucky from 1882 to 1921.

Saturday, March 15, 1919, Lexington High School (Henry Clay) defeated Somerset 21-17 and won the State Basketball Championship.  UK’s Athletic Association awarded the winning team a silver Loving Cup.  Eight teams entered the contest in UK’s gymnasium.  Before the boys’ games, the girls’ tournament ended in a tie between Lexington High (Henry Clay) and Paris, and on Sunday night, Lexington won 22-4.

March 15, 1944, the 1944 General Assembly adjourned for the final time.  The sine die adjournment ended at 11:42 p.m.  Veteran legislators said it was the 1^st time a session had ended so early in their memory.  It was typical for a session to go well into the morning.  One of the last bills created was a separate department for alcohol beverage control.

March 15, 1951, Army PVT Earl B. Stewart from Clinton County died in the Korean War.

March 15, 1955, programming began for WLEX channel 18 in Lexington.  For the premiere, a coonskin cap signifying Lexington’s “Pioneer Station” was presented to Governor L. Wetherby.  Snooky Lanson, a star of NBC’s Your Hit Parade, was brought in for the premiere.  When he left the Campbell House for the premiere, his taxi driver knew nothing of the new station.  After convincing the driver that one existed, the cabbie took him to the WLAP transmitter site, where an engineer pointed them in the right direction.

March 15, 1961, UK took severe disciplinary actions against a hazing incident within the K Club, a social organization for athletes.  Three baseball players received injuries after an unauthorized initiation ceremony on Old Frankfort Pike.

March 15, 1965, Queen Elizabeth II ended 29 years of royal ostracism for the Duchess of Windsor when she met the American divorcee at the bedside of the ailing Duke of Windsor.

March 15, 1967, Army SP4 Donnie R. Beasley from Versailles and Army PFC Stevie R. Gibson from Roxana in Letcher County, both died in the Vietnam War.

March 15, 1969, Army PFC Donald R. Bledsoe from East Bernstadt in Laurel County died in the Vietnam War.

“This day, March 15, 1972, The Ides of March, may go down in Kentucky history as a very historic day,” proclaimed Louisville Mayor Frank Burke shortly after the Senate passed “Home-rule legislation.”

March 15, 1979, Jefferson County announced they were ready to bus 1^st graders to meet federal desegregation regulations.

On March 15, 1984, John Y. Brown, Jr., filed as a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat held by Walter “Dee” Huddleston just hours before the filing deadline.  Six weeks later, on April 27, he withdrew his candidacy.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Danville native Jacob Tamme, born in 1985.

March 15, 1986, Quadruplets, two girls and two boys were born to Dr. & Mrs. Phillip K. Blevins at the Chandler Medical Center.  The 1^st on record for Lexington.  It Happened Today In Kentucky History by Robert A. Powell pg: 30

March 15, 1992, Kentucky won their 17^th SEC Tournament in Birmingham over Alabama 80-54.  UK stopped the Tide’s three-year championship run as Coach Pitino’s got his 1^st SEC Championship.  Jamal Mashburn received MVP honors.  Eligible for postseason play for the 1^st time in three years, Kentucky would be eliminated in the NCAA tournament by “the Duke game.”

March 15, 1997, Louisville Eastern defeated Highlands 71-59 to win the KHSAA 80^th edition of the Sweet 16 Boys’ Basketball Tournament.  Rupp Arena hosted 12,276 fans for the final game.

March 15, 2000, Covington native Durward Kirby passed away.  With Alan Funt, Durward co-hosted the original Candid Camera show.

March 15, 2006, Jess Jackson sued Tom Van Meter and John Sikura in California, claiming they conspired against him to spend more money on horses than he needed to.  Additionally, Jackson claimed Van Meter and Sikura paid his bloodstock agents to make it happen.

March 15, 2010, twenty-six hundred Kentucky students participated in the 25^th anniversary of the Governor’s Cup Academic competition held in the Galt House.  Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Lexington won the Team Recall competition.

March 15, 2012, Missing, a TV series starring Ashley Judd premiered.

March 15, 2014, a Keeneland graduate won Oaklawn Park’s GII $600,000 Rebel Stakes.

March 15, 2015, Wyatt Hoefer from Louisville caught a Kentucky record Brook Trout weighting 3.65 lbs. in the Cumberland River tailwaters.

On March 15, 2019, teachers announced they wanted to sue the state for “unprecedented interference with their first amendment rights.”  The row came after the government requested attendance records during the Frankfort protests.  Meanwhile, the House passed a bill to strip Kentucky’s Secretary of State, Alison Lundergran Grimes, of power.

March 15, 2020, six people tested positive, and 150 were in quarantine in Cynthiana, Kentucky’s epicenter for the coronavirus.  In Frankfort, Beshear tested negative after attending the Speed Art Museum fundraiser where people spread the virus.  With 21 cases, Kentucky canceled all significant events, after the C.D.C. recommended no gatherings of 50 or more people.

March 15, 2021, after nine weeks of declining coronavirus cases, the state reported 5,000 Kentuckians had died in one year from the virus, and one million people received their vaccinations.  Also, in Frankfort, the Senate made teachers work 30 years instead of 27 to receive their full retirement benefits.

March 15, 2022, was another historic day in Frankfort when legislators passed the 1^st piece of legislation in the Old State Capitol since the creation of the current State Capitol building.  HR125 honored the contributions of the Kentucky Historical Society, among others.