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TODAY IN KENTUCKY HISTORY

Kentucky Trivia ● Kentucky Tweets

March 21, 1775, Virginia Governor Dunmore issued a strong proclamation against Richard Henderson and the Transylvania Company.

March 21, 1782, Captain Estill’s party regrouped between Drowning Creek’s mouth and the mouth of the Red River.  After a brief discussion, they decided to pursue the Natives at once.  Of the 40 men in Captain Estill’s party, five had families in Estill’s Station.  These were the men that would return at once to guard the fort.

March 21, 1803, locals consumed the 1st wine from Kentucky’s 1st vineyard.

Kentucky Trivia:  Kentucky currently boasts more than sixty wineries with 600 grapevine acres producing 200,000 gallons annually.

March 21, 1864, Confederate guerrillas burned the Rowan County Courthouse.

March 21, 1864, Union troops fled the Bath County Courthouse as Confederates invaded the city.

March 21, 1870, the General Assembly “concerning the death of Lewis Collins of Maysville, expressed its “deep regret” at his death.  Collins was “a native Kentuckian of great purity of character and enlarged public spirit.”  Lewis Collins is known as the state’s 1st historian.  He owned and edited The Eagle newspaper in Maysville for 27 years.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Lexington native Richard Charles Stoll, born in 1876.  The judge was a prominent alumnus of UK, then known as State College, Lexington, Kentucky.  Before a football game, he spontaneously picked the school’s color scheme.  The school later named the original football stadium after him.

March 21, 1897, two men went to the gallows, behind the courthouse in Newport, for the last public hanging in Campbell County.  Locals found him guilty of decapitating a pregnant 22-year-old named Ms. Pearl Bryan.  The community got so infatuated; the courthouse sold tickets to the courtroom. More than 5,000 people stood outside the Newport courthouse for updates.

Kentucky County Map 1265x628 2
Kentucky Counties

March 21, 1903, Deputy Sheriff Bert Casteel, Laurel County Sheriff’s Department, died from a gunshot as he and his brother served a warrant.

March 21, 1906, the Kentucky General Assembly approved, and Governor J.C.W. Beckham signed into law legislation creating Eastern Kentucky State Normal School, known today as Eastern Kentucky University.

March 21, 1910, the General Assembly approved “an act to establish a Bureau of Vital Statistics and to provide for the immediate registration of all births and deaths throughout the State of Kentucky.”

March 21, 1921, Deputy Constable Levi L. Mason and Constable W. H. S. Ritchie Bell County Constable’s Office, died in an ambush while accompanying federal prohibition officers in a moonshine raid near Brownie’s Creek in Bell County.  A father and son received life in prison.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Birmingham native Joseph Franklin “Jumping Joe” Fulks, born in 1921.  Birmingham is now underwater due to the Kentucky Lake.

March 21, 1930, Kentucky named a Freeport, Illinois high school coach named Adolph Rupp as its head basketball coach.

March 21, 1931, the du Pont Manual Boys and the Woodburn Girls won the 13th annual State Basketball Championships in UK’s Alumni Gym.  Manual defeated Tofu 34-23 and Woodburn defeated Ashland 24-19.

Sweet 16 Trivia:  Manual’s Neal Arnston became the 1st coach in history to win the Boys’ Sweet 16 three times (1923, ’25, ’31). Only two coaches have subsequently matched him: Paul Jenkins (Ashland 1933, ’34; Male 1945) and Ralph Carlisle (Lafayette, 1950, ’53, ’57).

March 21, 1942, the temporary organization called the Central Kentucky Hemp Growers Co-Operative Association urged all Hemp Fiber producers to attend the next meeting.  The fiber producers needed to convince the government to release the 1,900 frozen bushels at the Kentucky-Illinois plant in Versailles, the fiber was destined for Wisconsin.  The temporary association planned on becoming permanent.

March 21, 1945, Hill Top native Franklin Runyon Sousley died in the Iwo Jima Battle of World War II.  He was one of the six Marines who raised the 2nd of two U.S. flags on top of Mount Suribachi.

March 21, 1953, Army PVT Roy L. Smith from Bell County died in the Korean War.

March 21, 1953, Lafayette star Vernon Hatton held the Boys’ State Basketball Championship trophy with Coach Ralph Carlisle.  The Generals defeated Paducah Tilghman, 84-53, in Lexington’s Memorial Coliseum for their 3rd title, the 2nd one in four years.  It was a standing-room crowd of nearly 13,000 at the 36th annual state tournament.

March 21, 1958, in the Wildcats’ 1st game in Freedom Hall, Vernon Hatton’s layup with 17 seconds left pushed the Wildcats past Temple, 61-60, and into the NCAA Championship game.

March 21, 1959, North Marshall edged Manual 64-63 in Memorial Coliseum to win the Boys’ Sweet 16 Basketball Tournament.

March 21, 1965, Alabama Governor George Wallace refused to protect peaceful protestors; therefore, President Johnson committed to do so.  Protected by 1,900 members of the Alabama National Guard, many FBI agents, federal marshals, and the marchers began their historical journey from Selma to Montgomery.  Limited by a Judge’s order to 300 marchers on two highway lanes, they averaged 10 miles a day along U.S. Route 80, known in Alabama as the “Jefferson Davis Highway.”

Celebrities such as Harry Belafonte and Lena Horne entertained the marchers as they camped at night in supporters’ yards; the demonstrators swelled to 25,000 on the last day when Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke in Montgomery.

March 21, 1969, Army 1LT Leonard L. Preston, Jr. from Lexington and Marine Corps PFC Philip B. Thompson from Monticello in Wayne County, both died in the Vietnam War.

March 21, 1970, Army SGT Freddie D. Mize from Somerset in Pulaski County died in the Vietnam War.

On March 21, 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that citizens who had lived in a state for 30 days were residents and thus eligible to vote there. Governor W. Ford called a Special Session to correct Kentucky’s legislation.

March 21, 1976, UK won its 2nd NIT Championship by defeating North Carolina-Charlotte, 71-67 in NYC.

March 21, 1981, Simon Kenton became the 1st team out of the 9th region to capture the Kentucky Boys’ Sweet 16 Basketball tournament by defeating the Mason County Royals.  The Pioneers had never danced; they didn’t expect it in 1981.  Nevertheless, the team pulled off a miracle in front of 21,287 people, at the time, the largest crowd for a championship game.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Cynthiana native Celia Ammerman, born in 1983.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Kentucky bred Easy Goer, born in 1986 on Calumet Farm.  His father, Alydar, was proud.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Maysville native and Wildcat Darius Tiyon Miller, born in 1990.

March 21, 1998, Scott County defeated Paintsville 89-78 for the Boys’ Sweet 16 State Basketball Championship with 18,867 watching in Rupp Arena.  Paintsville’s J.R. VanHoose ended his career with 272 points in Sweet 16 games, only behind Clay County’s Richie Farmer (317).

March 21, 1999, Willy Kan Wai-yue, a female jockey in Hong Kong, died after a spill at Sha Tin Racecourse.  In the 3rd race on a rainy day, Kan’s mount clipped heels.

March 21, 2009, a young couple who met and fell in love at the White Castle in London tied the knot in that same restaurant.  According to the Corbin Times-Tribune, “The White Castle closed its dining room Saturday morning and employees transformed the fast-food booths into a candle-lit reception area.”

March 21, 2009, after losing in the state finals three times (1978, 1990 and 2008), the Covington Holmes Bulldogs claimed the school’s 1st Sweet 16 Boys’ Basketball Championship.  They defeated the Central Yellow Jackets of Louisville, 67-63, with 15,632 fans in Rupp Arena.

March 21, 2020, a Kentucky bred and Keeneland graduate won the GII $1,000,000 Louisiana Derby.

March 21, 2020, a 67-year-old male from Anderson County became the 3rd Kentucky coronavirus victim.  Governor A. Beshear also announced 24 new cases for a total of 87, while pleading for everyone to stay home.  Nationwide, 285 individuals lost the battle.

March 21, 2020, as the schools closed, families grappled with distance learning.  Three Floyd County bus drivers delivered meals and homework packets every day for the week.  One day they delivered 101 meals to the Mudd Creek community, much of which on unpaved roads.

March 21, 2021, Wolfgang Kratzenberg from Verona caught a state record Saugeye weighing 9 lbs., 0.5 ozs.  He landed it in Bullock Pen Lake in Boone and Grant Counties.

Monday, March 21, 2022, rescuers located the body of James Brown, 33, 2.5 miles deep inside a Harlan County mine after a section of roof collapsed on Sunday night.  Meanwhile, the assembly overrode the governor’s veto on two bills.  One bill cut unemployment benefits, the other ended the state of emergency for Covid, which meant the Commonwealth missed out on $50 million in food stamps.  The legislatures stated “help wanted” signs littered the state.