Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to James Masterson , born in 1752. James built Lexington’s original frame house. Masterson and John Maxwell also erected the old blockhouse at Mill and Main Streets, first called “Maxwell and Masterson’s Station” and later “Lexington.”
April 7, 1802, Transylvania University awarded its 1st degree , the Bachelor of Arts, to Robert R. Barr, the 1st such degree conferred in the West.
On April 7, 1832, Jacob Yoder died in Spencer County . A huge cast-iron tablet, the 1st cast west of the Alleghenies, marks his final resting place in the family burial grounds. This is Kentucky by Robert A. Powell, pg: 118
Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Louisville native Allen Allensworth , born in 1842. A Kentucky slave, Allen escaped during the American Civil War to become a Union soldier, Army Chaplin, Baptist minister, and educator. He was the 1st African American to reach the rank of lieutenant colonel.
April 7, 1856, Louisville’s “High School” opened . It is the oldest high school in Kentucky, one of the 80 oldest in America. After other high schools opened in the years following, officials renamed it “Louisville Male High School.” The 1st two graduates in 1859 were Lewis D. Kastenbine (who later became a Louisville physician) and James S. Pirtle (a prominent Louisville judge).
April 7, 1864, Lucretia (Hart) Clay passed away in Lexington . Mrs. Clay bore five sons and six daughters. She preferred to manage her Ashland Estate and her children than to be in Washington, D.C. playing a politician’s wife. Lucretia lived to be 84.
April 7, 1919, Special Deputy Sheriff David L. Elliott, Harlan County Sheriff’s Office , died from a gunshot at the train station in Pineville while arresting a man who had murdered Deputy Sheriff R. Johnson the previous night.
April 7, 1934, Corporal Saxton Helm Dutschke and Patrolman Clarence Evans, Louisville Police Department , died when a vehicle struck their patrol wagon.
April 7, 1940, Kentuckians saw an annular eclipse of the sun at 2:35 from 5:15 p.m . The shadow covered ¾ of the sun’s face at 4:00 p.m.
April 7, 1949, Woodford County native Pierre Whiting, Sr. passed over . The janitor at UK for 57 years may have been the 1st African American employed at the university. Still, he worked longer than any other employee. Whiting’s started in 1888, and retired in 1945.
April 7, 1950, Chief of Police William Givens Burden, Kuttawa Police Department , died from a gunshot as he and a Kentucky state trooper served a warrant on a woman wanted for threatening with intent to kill. The woman’s husband opened fire with a 410-gauge shotgun.
April 7, 1951, Army CPL Charles R. Beach from Gallatin County died in the Korean War.
April 7, 1957, Deputy Sheriff Clifford R. Highhouse, Kenton County Sheriff’s Office , suffered a fatal heart attack while directing traffic around an accident scene in front of 407 Ludlow Highway in Ludlow.
April 7, 1960, Charles B. Nuckolls, 66, principal for Ashland’s Booker T. Washington Elementary for 39 years, received the Kentucky Education Association’s annual Lincoln Key Award. Mr. Nuckolls mentored many young Kentucky African Americans.
On April 7, 1965, UK hosted a centennial conference where Russian Max Lerner spoke. He prophesied that as America moved into a “computer-geared, information-directed, leisure-oriented society, measures must be taken so the nation will not become a brave new world squeezed dry of human values or a world in which man becomes automated.” He also gave numerous examples of why America and Russia resemble each other more than any other nations on Earth.
April 7, 1969, Marine Corps PFC Donald M. Kinney from Louisville died in the Vietnam War.
April 7, 1971, Army SP4 Joseph L. Armstrong from Vine Grove in Hardin County died in the Vietnam War.
On April 7, 1974, sixteen victims of Brandenburg’s tornadoes laid in their caskets at the Meade County High School gym. Locals came to pay their last respects.
April 7, 1979, Steve Cauthen rode his 1st winner in Europe in a handicap race at Salisbury Racecourse . He would become a three-time British Champion jockey who won ten classic European races, including the 2,000 Guineas, the Epsom Derby twice, and the St. Leger Stakes three times. He also won the Irish Oaks twice, and in 1989 won the French Derby, Irish Derby, and in 1991, the Derby Italiano.
April 7, 1983, the Commonwealth’s largest utility, Kentucky Utilities, Co., complained their rejection of a requested 12.6% rate increase was “unfair.” The previous month, the Public Service Commission granted only $13 million and scolded KU for wasting money.
April 7, 1987, in a Donald Trump-like manner, Senator Joe Biden exaggerated his scholarly achievements while insulting a reporter.
April 7, 1988, Lexington native Scott Arnold made his MLB debut with the St. Louis Cardinals.
April 7, 1998, Governor Paul E. Patton signed House Bill 801 to acknowledge all American Indian people, tribes, and organizations in Kentucky. It also designated November as Native American Indian Month.
April 7, 2004, Army Staff SGT George S. Rentschler 31, of Louisville , died in Baghdad, fighting in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
April 7, 2005, Larry Salchli from Stanton caught a state record Northern Hog Sucker weighing 1.75 pounds in Bath County’s Slate Creek. Larry holds another fishing record as well.
April 7, 2008, the Federal Reserve added another $50 billion to its “Term Auction Facility .” They would add another $50 billion in two weeks to stop the global financial crisis that started three months later. Eight months later, both G. Bush and Barry Obama would bail out their Wall Street friends within days of each other. Nobody faced any consequences.
On Thursday, April 7, 2010, in the third year of the UK giving tours anywhere they burn coal and natural gas to create steam heat and hot water all year long, officials acknowledged the school’s oldest coal-fired boiler, built in 1977, wouldn’t meet the “much stricter” pollution standards if installed in 2010. Groups in the 2010 tour urged the school to quit using coal by 2015. UK is still burning coal in 2025.
April 7, 2013, the Lady Cardinals fought back from behind to beat California in the semi-finals to advance to the Championship game for the NCAA title.
On Monday, April, 7, 2014, Coach Calipari and his Wildcats lost to the Huskies in Arlington, TX by a score of 60-54 in the NCAA finals. James Young led the Cats with 20 points.
On April 7, 2016, while everyone learned of Ogden Mills “Dinny” Phipps’s death the day before, Keeneland announced some sobering news. Since the switch back to dirt from Polytrack in 2014’s Fall meet, handle and attendance continually dropped for the three meets.
On April 7, 2019, a UK law professor, Joshua Douglas, wrote an editorial explaining in detail why Kentucky makes it hard for people to vote . In the last gubernatorial election, only 32% of Kentuckians voted.
By April 7, 2021, the coronavirus continued to stay off the newspapers’ front pages for the 1st time in a year . Kentucky’s new law that made it easier to vote took the top headline because it bucked a national trend of more restrictive election laws.
On April 7, 2022, while Governor A. Beshear vetoed a charter school bill and transgender sports bill, paper recycling returned to Central Kentucky after a three-year hiatus thanks to a $3 million update to equipment. The new recycled paper would not be shipped to China anymore. The General Assembly overrode the governor’s veto, making it illegal for boys to play girls’ sports in Kentucky.
On Thursday, April 7, 2023, former UK swimmer Riley Gaines barricaded herself in a room of a San Francisco State University building until she felt safe. This lasted three hours following a speech to students about women’s sports. Gaines’ highest ranking was 5th place in the NCAA WD1 200yds Freestyle Final in March 2022, where she raced trans athlete Lia Thomas.
On April 7, 2024, the Kentucky governor touted his job creation numbers. Hopefully they all paid a living wage.
On April 7, 2024, Rep. T. Massie continued to guard against Washington, D.C.’s invasion of Americans’ right to privacy. In late April, Congress passed and President Biden signed the most sweeping expansion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in nearly 20 years. Mitch McConnell “demanded” the bill pass.
