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TODAY IN KENTUCKY HISTORY

April 8, 1782, John Floyd, his brother, Charles, and Alexander Breckinridge traveled from Floyd’s Station on Beargrass Creek to Bullitt’s Lick.  Native Americans attacked them, and John received severe injuries and died two days later at the Lick.  Kentucky lost two of her three-county lieutenants in less than eight months.

April 8, 1826, Henry Clay challenged John Randolph of Roanoke to a duel after John insulted him in a Senate speech.  The clash occurred near Pimmitt Run in Northern Virginia.  Both of their 1st shots missed.  Clay’s 2nd shots also missed. Randolph then raised his pistol and fired it in the air.  The duel ended with a handshake.

April 8, 1836, Colonel Sidney Sherman led the Kentucky Rifles at the Battle of San Jacinto where they made the famous war cry, “Remember the Alamo!”  The battle ended Mexico’s land disputes with the U.S.

April 8, 1862, Scott County native George Washington Johnson, the 1st of two Confederate governors of Kentucky, died in the Battle of Shiloh in TN.  Kentucky swore in the 2nd governor, Richard Hawes, two months later.

On April 8, 1864, Henry and Lucretia were finally laid to rest together.  Lucretia had died two days earlier, and they buried her with Henry, who had been moved from his original resting place close by to Lexington Cemetery’s grand monument.  Mr. Clay had died 12 years prior.

April 8, 1922, William White, a Jack’s Creek Pike farmer, shot his neighbor Arthur Johnson, 30ish, six times in a Lexington Post office; two bullets hit the victim.  Wright stood over Johnson as he died and said, “Damn You; I got you this time where you won’t come back.”  He told the police at the scene, “I had to do it.”  Mr. & Mrs. White arrived in Lexington by buggy.

On April 8, 1925, Lexington followed Louisville’s lead and other major cities by placing metal cans in the downtown district for trash.  Only one entity, a sign painter and advertising company, bid the Lexington contract and won.  They provided 30 cans and charged $1 per can per month.

April 8, 1931, Craig Johnson, 23, scion of a wealthy Danville family, shot Hugh “Reddy” Smith, 56, also from a prominent Danville family, after an all-night dice game.  Witnesses said the liquor made Johnson “crazed.”

April 8, 1948, Keeneland opened the 11-day Spring Meet during which an afternoon windstorm caused considerable damage in Central Kentucky.  The storms led to the death of a groom, injured three others, and heavily damaged two barns.

April 8, 1951, Army CPL’s Earl L. Hoffman from Hardin County and William F. Ledington, Jr., from Laurel County died in the Korean War.

April 8, 1952, Army SGT Donald Burdette from Marion County died in the Korean War.

April 8, 1960, a Civil Rights Bill passed after eight weeks of 18 U.S Senators trying to stop the passage every step of the way.  This little-known Civil Rights Act helped prove racially discriminatory voter-registration practices and provided evidence to help pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  Kentucky Senators Morton and Cooper both voted in favor.

April 8, 1967, Army SGT Roger D. Cooper from Fordsville in Ohio County died in the Vietnam War.

April 8, 1968, Army SSG Robert H. Colegrove from Grayson in Carter County died in the Vietnam War.

April 8, 1969, Army SP4 James R. O’Banion from Florence in Boone County died in the Vietnam War.

April 8, 1969, acting Chief of Police Ronnie Carroll Carter, Carrollton Police Department, died when an automobile fell off of a hydraulic lift and crushed him as he waited for his patrol car to get fixed.

April 8, 1970, Army SGT Troy H. Batterton from Pleasureville died in the Vietnam War.

On Wednesday, April 8, 1970, Lexington Police arrested four men at a bar called “The Living Room” on Main St. for impersonating female dancers.  The men wore makeup, wigs, and dresses and danced to hit records for the patrons.  Chief of Detectives acted on a tip and after two nights of undercover work.  They charged the men for violating ordinance 14:12, which prohibits wearing disguises.

On April 8, 1971, Democrat State Auditor Mary Foast, seeking the job again, called state-issued revenue bonds a cancer.  “Our park’s system is infected with this type of cancer, referring to the department’s $1.4 million debt.  She was okay with the state’s general bonds, but revenue bonds totaled $845.3 million.  Kentucky ranked #1 in per capita revenue bond indebtedness.  She recognized the importance of parks but said that future generations might have more pressing needs.

On April 8, 1971, Governor Nunn told a crowd that conservation is “one of the most misused words in the English language.”  He blamed people using the word for their own needs.  Nunn stated the need for wise conservation practices in the future.  The governor claimed by 2000, the need for recreational land would triple, the land for homes, schools, and factories would rise by 215%, transportation would need 125% more land, 133% more land for wildlife refuges, and 180% more land for reservoirs.

On April 8, 1972, Trooper James Willard McNeely and Patrol Officer David Childs of the Kentucky Water Patrol drowned when their boat went over Dam 4 on the Kentucky River.  The officers were searching for two missing juveniles.

On April 8, 1975, 100 people gathered on UK’s campus to support four students in jail for refusing to testify to a grand jury.  Police released two students the day prior.  The FBI wanted information on two ladies who had visited Lexington.  Something a bank robbery.  The students had raised $2,500 for the legal fund.  The Organization of Women and many others nationwide donated and followed the case closely.

April 8, 1981, locals sentenced a Richmond man to death for the murder of a convenience store clerk, the 1st death sentence handed down in Madison County in 44 years.  Kentucky electrocuted him in Eddyville in 1997, Kentucky’s 1st after the reinstatement of capital punishment by the U.S. in 1976.

Kentucky Trivia:  Since the reinstatement of capital punishment in the U.S. in 1976, Kentucky has executed three people; one in 1997, 1998, and 2008; all for murder.  All the executions occurred at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville.

April 8, 1987, former Governor Julian Carroll asked the current Lt. Governor S. Beshear in a letter, to drop out of the gubernatorial race.  Beshear said the request was “too ridiculous to respond.”

April 8, 1992, tennis great Arthur Ashe announced that he had contracted AIDS from brain surgery.  He died in 1993 from complications due to the virus.

April 8, 1994, Francis Tuttle, 93, attended Keeneland opening day, a tradition she has kept since opening day in 1936.

April 8, 1994, the Court of Appeals ruled that Kentuckians could be arrested if they’re caught driving drunk on their own property.

April 8, 1997, Host Communications announced that Paris (Bourbon County) native and UK grad Tom Leach would replace Ralph Hacker as the radio voice for Kentucky football.  Hacker kept calling UK’s basketball games.

April 8, 2001, Tiger Woods won the Masters to claim ownership of all four majors at the same time.

On April 8, 2004, Marine CPL Nicholas J. Dieruf, 21, of Versailles, died in Iraq, fighting in Operation Iraqi Freedom.  Nicholas married three months earlier.

By April 8, 2006, federal regulators called coal operator Harold K. Simpson a scofflaw.  In Kentucky, where Harold had mined Knox, Bell, Harlan, Letcher, and Perry Counties for 30 years, locals say he is a decent, hardworking guy.  By this date, he had only paid $50k of $1.1 million in fines.

April 8, 2012, Butler (Pendleton County) native Nate Jones made his MLB debut for the Chicago White Sox.

April 8, 2012, Lexington native Robbie Ross made his MLB debut with the Texas Rangers.

April 8, 2013, the University of Louisville introduced Rick Pitino as a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame class of 2013 hours before taking the court for the national championship.

On April 8, 2013, Louisville defeated Michigan 82–76 to win the NCAA Basketball Championship, the school’s third and first since 1986.  However, the NCAA vacated the title five years later.

On April 8, 2017, Alec Baldwin returned to Saturday Night Live to impersonate President Trump with a skit set in Union.  He took questions from supporters in a surprise town hall meeting.  Trump earned 67.9% of the votes in Boone County.

On April 8, 2017, Keeneland’s GII $1,000,000 Bluegrass Stakes for three-year-olds finished with a Keeneland graduate exacta.  The winner paid $64.60 to win and placed 18th in the Kentucky Derby.  However, five Blue Grass Starters did run in the Derby.

April 8, 2017, a New Jersey bred won Aqueduct’s GI $750,000 Wood Memorial for three-year-olds.  However, the colt finished 10th in the Derby.

On April 8, 2017, a Kentucky-bred and Keeneland graduate won the GI $1,002,415 Santa Anita Derby.  Unfortunately, the winner placed 9th in May.  The Florida Derby winner, Always Dreaming, won the Roses.

On April 8, 2018, locals dedicated Historical Marker #2532, commemorating the history and people of Eastern Cemetery, one of the oldest cemeteries in Louisville.  Locals 1st documented the burial ground in the 1840s before its 1854 incorporation.

On Sunday, April 8, 2018, Charles P. Roland, a retired UK Professor and noted historian, turned 100.  An expert in the Civil War may be the last who grew up hearing first-hand accounts from battlefield veterans.  “He is a born storyteller, with an eye for colorful and telling detail, and he wrote in a manner that was accessible to general readers as well as historians.”  George Herring, retired UK History Professor.

April 8, 2019, gubernatorial candidate Adam Edelen called for decriminalizing marijuana possession, on a Lexington stump.

April 8, 2020, Governor A. Beshear issued another Executive Order (EO) restricting entrance into essential life stores to one family member at a time; adding more restrictions to his original state of emergency two weeks earlier.  The EO also prohibited door-to-door sales and enabled doctors to renew prescriptions via telehealth.  Wednesday saw 204 new cases, another new record, to total 1,346.  Eight people died with the virus, bringing that total to “at least” 73.

By Wednesday, April 8, 2020, locals made 30,000 calls to a tip line Governor A. Beshear set up to tattle on businesses that stayed open.  The tips led the state to consult with lawyers before issuing 18 citations to businesses in multiple counties to temporarily close down.  Only four closed, one being a factory in Hart County that had already opened back up.

On Wednesday, April 8, 2020, Kentucky learned we would receive a whopping $2.4 billion from Trump’s CARES Act.  The state received $1.59 billion of it to pay for virus-related expenses.  Smaller sums went to schools, universities, public transportation, childcare, housing, and etc.   The Commonwealth would receive billions more for the flu before it was over.

April 8, 2021, after days off the front page, the coronavirus headlines returned when the governor begged Kentuckians to get vaccinated.  “We are in an absolute race with variants to prevent any type of 4th surge.  We need you to sign up for whichever vaccine is available.”

On April 8, 2022, Maker’s Mark and Keeneland teamed up again and offered pre-signed bottles at local retail stores.  The presidents of the distillery and racetrack signed each bottle, as did one of the three female all-time winningest jockeys: Julie Krone, Rosie Napravnik, or Donna Barton Brothers.

On April 8, 2023, a Kentucky bred won the GI $1 million Blue Grass Stakes.  The winner finished 7th in May.

On April 8, 2023, a Kentucky bred won the GII $750,000 Wood Memorial Stakes.  The winner paid $120 to win and later scratched from the Derby.

On April 8, 2023, a Kentucky bred won the GI $751,500 Santa Anita Derby by a nose but scratched from the Derby.  Mage won the 2023 Derby after placing in the Florida Derby, his 3rd lifetime race.

On April 8, 2024, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson celebrated her historic confirmation as the 1st Black woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court with a declaration that “anything is possible” in America and a reference to fulfilling the dreams of slaves.

On April 8, 2024, the solar eclipse occurred.  The day before, UK told people that picked up glasses at the library not to use them.