Kentucky Trivia ● Kentucky Tweets

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 1^st degree, the Bachelor of Arts, to Robert R. Barr, the 1^st such degree conferred in the West.

On April 7, 1832, Jacob Yoder died in Spencer County.  A huge cast-iron tablet, the 1^st 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 1^st 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 1^st 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 1^st 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. 

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.

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 1^st 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, 1992, UK basketball retired the jerseys of Deron Feldhaus #12 from Maysville, John Pelphrey #34 from Paintsville, Richie Farmer #32 from Manchester, and Sean Woods #11 to the Rupp Arena rafters.

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 lb., 12 ozs. in Slate Creek in Bath County.

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.

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.

April 7, 2018, a CNN reporter picked-up a backpack after a supposed chemical attack and sniffed it.  Almost touching her nose to the bag, she said, “there is definitely something….that stings.”  Yet, it remains unclear why she had no concerns or protective equipment for her safety.  Award winning journalist Aaron Mate uncovered the Syrian false flag chemical attack and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) coverup.

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.

On April 7, 2021, the coronavirus continued to stay off the newspapers’ front pages for the 1^st time in a year.  Kentucky’s new law making it easier to vote took the top spot because it bucked a national trend of more restrictive election laws.

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.