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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, the first wine from Kentucky’s first vineyard was consumed.

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 first 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.  Stoll was a judge and prominent alumnus of UK, then known as State College, Lexington, Kentucky.  He is the namesake of the football team’s original football stadium and was the origin of the school’s color scheme.

March 21, 1897, two men went to the gallows, behind the courthouse in Newport, for the last public hanging in Campbell County.  They were guilty of decapitating 22-year-old Ms. Pearl Bryan, who was pregnant.  The trial was so large; tickets had to be sold to get into the courtroom.  More than 5,000 people stood outside the Newport courthouse for updates.

March 21, 1903, Deputy Sheriff Bert Casteel, Laurel County Sheriff’s Department, was shot and killed as he and his brother attempted to serve an arrest 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.  Today it is known 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, were killed from 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 Kentucky Lake.

March 21, 1930, a Freeport, Illinois high school coach named Adolph Rupp is named head basketball coach at UK.

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 second 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 second 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’ first game in Freedom Hall, Vernon Hatton’s layup with 17 seconds left pushes the Wildcats past Temple, 61-60, and into the NCAA Championship game.

March 21, 1965, with Governor Wallace refusing to protect peaceful protestors, President Johnson committed to do so.  Protected by 1,900 members of the Alabama National Guard, many FBI agents, and federal marshals, 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.

“Camping at night in supporters’ yards, marchers were entertained by celebrities such as Harry Belafonte and Lena Horne; the demonstrators swelled to 25,000 on the last day where 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 in that state and thus eligible to vote there.  Governor Ford called a Special Session to correct Kentucky’s legislation.

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

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 in Lexington with 18,867 spectators.

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.  She would die 2½ hours later in the hospital.

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, Covington’s Holmes Bulldogs defeated the Central Yellow Jackets of Louisville, 67-63, for the Boys’ Sweet 16 State Basketball Championship.  Approximately 15,632 people attended the game in Rupp Arena.

Sweet 16 Trivia:  2009-Ridge Wilson of Central vs. Holmes:  Staring at a two-point deficit at the end of overtime in the state championship gave versus Holmes, Wilson hit a turnaround jumper from the top of the key with one second remaining to send the game to a second overtime.  Wilson was the leading scorer in the game with 18 points.

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

March 21, 2020, Governor A. Beshear announced the 3rd Kentuckian to die from coronavirus, while pleading for everyone to stay home.

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.