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TODAY IN KENTUCKY HISTORY

Kentucky Trivia ● Kentucky Tweets

March 19, 1782, settlers observed an unoccupied Indian raft floating past Boonesborough down the Kentucky River.  To the alert frontiersmen, this indicated Natives were crossing the river higher up, probably to gain the rear of the unprotected settlements in that area.  They promptly got word to Captain James Estill at his station, located about 15 miles south of Boonesborough as well as to Colonel Benjamin Logan, commanding officer of the region at Logan’s Station.

March 19, 1782, Col. Benjamin Logan sent messengers to Capt. James Estill at Estill’s Station, seeking his help against Wyandot Natives in the Boonesborough area.

Kentucky County Map 1265x628 1
Kentucky Counties

March 19, 1903, Deputy Sheriff James Wesley Williams, Marion County Sheriff’s Office, died in a gun battle with a suspicious man he attempted to question. When Deputy Williams and his posse tried to approach the man, he drew two pistols and opened fire.

The March 19, 1911, Courier-Journal edition explained the duel between two Louisville magistrates in 1792.  It took place in a small opening in the woods, at the back of present day Broadway.  They chose rifles used at sixty yards.  The 12 ½ cent fee for issuing a warrant caused the conflict.  As the duel began, the seconds decided not to shoot at each other for a trivial sum and then proposed the winner receive a gallon of whiskey.  Famous Kentucky Duels by J. Winston Coleman, Jr.; pg: 135

March 19, 1911, Deputy Sheriff Charles Smith, Pike County Sheriff’s Office, died when he accompanied two U.S. Deputy Marshals in arresting a moonshiner at Long Fork.  The man surrendered; however, the man’s mother and two sisters opened fire.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Neon native Martha Carson, born in 1921 in Letcher County.  Her rock & roll-flavored gospel tunes influenced her country peers, most notably Elvis Presley.

March 19, 1925, Governor W.J. Fields mailed an invitation to the Boone Family Association to hold their 1st convention and reunion in Lexington the June 1 weekend.  President William Boone Douglass of Washington, D.C., stated the association would help celebrate the city’s sesqui-centennial in a parade and other activities.

March 19, 1927, Deputy Sheriff Albert Phipps and Deputy Sheriff Alvin Tackett, Floyd County Sheriff’s Office, succumbed to gunshot wounds sustained arresting several men for moonshining in Weeksbury.

March 19, 1928, the General Assembly officially adopted My Old Kentucky Home as the state song 76 years after Stephen Foster wrote it.  Mrs. Grant Lilly presented the idea to legislators in 1928.

March 19, 1949, 18-year-old William Lee “Bill” Shoemaker, considered too small to be a jockey, rode his 1st race at Del Mar on a filly called Waxahachie.  They finished 5th.  Prophetically, Johnny Longden rode the winner.  This cagey veteran cut off the young jockey coming out of the starting gate.  Shoemaker eventually avenged himself when he broke Longden’s record for career wins in 1970.

March 19, 1951, Hopkinsville native Thomas R. Underwood became Kentucky’s 35th Class II Senator by appointment.  He filled the remaining term of Middletown native, Senator Virgil Munday Chapman, who died in a car wreck days earlier.

March 19, 1953, legislatures approved blue & white auto license plates to honor UK football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant.  The main and background color would switch every year from blue to white.  The gesture wasn’t enough to keep the “Bear,” he resigned at the end of the year.  It Happened Today in Kentucky History by Robert A. Powell, pg: 32.

Kentucky Trivia:  In 1974, the state began to reuse plates for multiple years when they introduced the decal sticker.  The state then initiated the Alpha System in 1975.  The 1st actual graphic change came in 1989 when the plates showed a mare with foal under the Churchill Downs twin spires.

March 19, 1966, Coach Rupp appeared in his last Final Four in one of the most historical events in basketball.  Rupp’s Runts lost in the NCAA championship game, 72-65, to Texas Western.  The game marked the 1st time a starting five of all-black players won the title.  They did it against Kentucky’s all-white squad.

March 19, 1968, Army SP5 Harold S. Wood, Jr. from Lewisburg in Logan County died in the Vietnam War.

March 19, 1969, Marine Corps PFC John F. Allen from Bowling Green died in the Vietnam War.

March 19, 1983, Greg Bates tipped in a missed shot at the buzzer to secure the Henry Clay Blue Devils a 35-33 triple-overtime victory from Carlisle County.  Henry Clay won its 6th state title, the 1st since 1924 when the school was known as Lexington High.  Some say it was one of the greatest Boys’ Sweet 16 games played.

Sweet 16 Trivia:  Greg Bates’ follow shot just ahead of the final buzzer in the 3rd overtime decided the longest Kentucky state championship game since the famed four-overtime epic between Ashland and Carr Creek in 1928.

March 19, 1987, Conservation Officer Robert C. Banker, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, died after issuing a man a citation for fishing without a license on the spillway of Lacy Lake in Christian County.

March 19, 1988, Ballard defeated Clay County 88-79 to capture the Kentucky’s Boys’ Sweet 16 State High School Basketball Championship in Freedom Hall with 19,575 spectators.

Sweet 16 Trivia:  Richie Farmer’s 51 points in the state championship game shattered the previous record for the state finals, 44 by Central’s Ron King in 1969. In all of Sweet Sixteen history, only “King” Kelly Coleman, 68 points in the 1956 third-place game, has ever scored more points in a state tourney game.

March 19, 1989, in the wake of an NCAA investigation, Eddie Sutton resigned as UK basketball coach.

Kentucky Trivia:  There have been 22 Kentucky head basketball coaches.

March 19, 1998, south of Long Island, NY, the USS Kentucky (SSBN-737) collided with the USS San Juan (SSN-751).   The two submarines were conducting a joint training drill before deployment.  USS Kentucky returned to patrol the next day.

March 19, 1998, Larry S. Salachi of Stanton caught a state record White Sucker weighing 1.63 lbs. in Slate Creek, Montgomery County.

640px White Sucker Catostomus commersonii
White Sucker

March 19, 2003 President George W. Bush announced Operation Iraqi Freedom had begun.

March 19, 2005, the South Laurel Cardinals defeated the Warren Central Dragons 72-59 for the KHSAA Boys’ Sweet 16 State Basketball Championship.  Rupp Arena hosted the game and 16,927 spectators.

Sweet 16 Trivia:  South Laurel’s Walt Allen beat Pleasure Ridge Park in the semifinals with the winning shot with seven seconds left in double-overtime, then came back and scored 30 points in the state title game.

March 19, 2005, Army SPC Jonathan A. Hughes, 21, of Lebanon, died in Iraq Operation Iraqi Freedom.

March 19, 2005, a connection into the Roppel Cave portion of Mammoth Cave was surveyed from a small cave under Eudora Ridge, adding approximately three miles to the National Park.  The newly found entrance to the cave, now termed the “Hoover Entrance”, had been discovered in September 2003.

March 19, 2009, William Henton, from Central City, caught a state record Yellow Bass weighing 1 lb., 6.4 ozs.  He landed it at Cumberland River Lake Barkley Tailwaters.

Yellow Bass
Yellow Bass

March 19, 2011, 12-year-old Emily Keaton from Pikeville won the 18th annual Kentucky Derby Festival Spelling Bee.  She beat 61 others by correctly spelling “ephedrine.”  She also won the 2010 Championship.

On March 19, 2011, around 14,644 fans witnessed Christian County defeat Rowan County 65-63 in Rupp Arena for the KHSAA Sweet 16 Boys’ State Basketball Championship.  Christian County’s Veontae Lewis cashed a jumper from the left corner ahead of the final buzzer in the 2nd overtime.

March 19, 2013, officials placed the sister of former Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer on paid leave from her job at the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance.  Her boss described the ethics charges as “serious.”

March 19, 2013, Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, told a Louisville audience that he agreed with the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protestors.  He also blamed the growing inequality gap on Washington D.C. and Wall Street.  The OWS lasted from September till November 2011.

March 19, 2016, a Kentucky bred won the GI $500,000 Santa Margarita Stakes for fillies and mares four-year-old and upward.

Sunday, March 19, 2017, Bowling Green (36-2) defeated Cooper (31-5) by a score of 67-56 in front of 11,346 fans in Rupp Arena to capture the 100th KHSAA Sweet 16 Boys’ Basketball Tournament.  Bowling Green, who won their 1st title, never trailed.

March 19, 2020, Kentucky confirmed the 2nd coronavirus death when a 64-year-old Louisville man died six days earlier.  He actually died before the 1st Kentucky victim; however, his autopsy tests were delayed.  The governor also announced 12 new, and 47 total positive cases.

March 19, 2020, Governor A. Beshear signed an executive order banning all gatherings, including church services and the General Assembly adjourned for a week.  In D.C., President Trump suspended all travel from Europe and Mitch proposed checks for individual Americans and billions for corporations.  The 1st of three $1 trillion relief packages would soon be debated in Congress.

March 19, 2021, after 12 new positive cases and 200 quarantines in Fayette County Schools, education officials received reports of large parties and sleepovers where Fayette County children did not wear masks.  The state also reported that 1 in 4 Kentuckians received vaccines, with over 1,000,000 vaccination shots given.

March 19, 2021, in an appearance before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Dr. Anthony Fauci said that a cornavirus vaccine for kids would likely need to go into wide circulation for the U.S. to reach herd immunity.

March 19, 2022, George Rogers Clark Cardinals (GRC) defeated Warren Central 43-42 to capture the KHSAA Boys’ Sweet 16 State Championship.  The game was back and forth until the final seconds.  GRC won their 1st title in 1951.

March 19, 2022, a Kentucky bred won Oaklawn Park’s GIII $500,000 Essex Handicap for four-year-olds and upward.  It was close for 2nd place.