Kentucky Trivia ● Kentucky Tweets
April 30, 1745, Shireborn delivered Selima on the Earl of Godolphin’s stud farm near Newmarket.
April 30, 1789, New York City hosted the 1st U.S. presidential inaugural ceremony two months after George Washington became America’s 1st president. It was 1st of six times a Chief Justice did not swear in a president.
April 30, 1861, Senator Crittenden wrote his son: “Kentucky has not seceded, and I believe never will. She loves the Union and will cling to it as long as possible. And so, I hope, will you….God knows what is it to be the end.”
April 30, 1895, Fulton Gordon murdered his wife and her lover, the sitting governor’s son, Arch D. Brown. The double murder occurred in Lucy Smith’s house of ill repute. The coroner’s inquest ruled a justifiable homicide as the governor arrived in Louisville from Frankfort. The murder made the front page of The Courier-Journal for over a week straight.
April 30, 1902, Meade County lynched Ernet Dewley, a black male, for murderous assault.
April 30, 1904, Kentucky participated in the St. Louis World’s Fair with the “New Kentucky Home.” The building measured 138 by 80 feet and cost $32,690 to construct. Undoubtedly, the highlight of the “New Kentucky Home” was a room dedicated to Stephen Foster. It contained the desk where he penned the words to My Old Kentucky Home, Goodnight (if he ever actually visited Federal Hill in Bardstown).
April 30, 1922, A Ladies’ Man premiered at the brand new Million Dollar Theater in Los Angeles. Hunt Stromberg co-wrote and co-directed. The Louisville native also won a 1936 Academy Award.
April 30, 1923, Constable John Coles, Estill County Constable’s Office, died from a gunshot after raiding a moonshine still approximately seven miles from Irvine.
On April 30, 1925, the UK campus hosted Paris and Bowling Green for the state high school debate finals, a university-sponsored event. The 8:00 p.m. debate, opened to the public, used the same subject throughout the tournament; “Resolved: That the U.S. should enter the League of Nations.”
April 30, 1931, Jailer Arthur Waggoner Bowman, Hart County Jail, died from a gunshot while riding with a posse searching for a man wanted on a shooting charge.
April 30, 1938, Patrolman Frank E. Herrmann, Jefferson County Police Department, died after being struck by a car while investigating a package left in the roadway at Brownsboro Road.
On April 30, 1956, ex-V.P. Alben Barkley died at the end of a speech given to 1,000 students at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, VA. “I’m glad to be a junior [senator], I’m glad to sit on the back row; for I would rather be a servant in the House of the Lord than to sit in the seats of the mighty.” Senator Barkley then had a heart attack and tumbled into a microphone stand. To add to the drama, Mrs. Barkley watched helplessly in the audience. The 35th U.S. V.P. returned by a private ten-car train home to Paducah.
April 30, 1966, Police Officer O. J. Weldon, Cumberland Police Department, died by gunshot while investigating a possible domestic disturbance at a local home.
April 30, 1967, Marine Corps John B. Appleton from Louisville and Marine Corps LCPL Marvin A. Schafer from Butler in Pendleton County, all died in the Vietnam War.
April 30, 1968, Army SP4 Ernst Burton from Ewing in Fleming County died in the Vietnam War.
April 30, 1969, Army SGM Lovell F. Coen from Radcliff died in the Vietnam War.
April 30, 1971, the Kentucky Hotel hosted the 38th annual Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels dinner. More than 700 Kentucky Colonels and their guests ate, drank, talked, and listened to each other at the traditional Derby Eve banquet. Canonero II won the 97th Kentucky Derby the next day.
April 30, 1973, the Kentucky Colonels beat the Indiana Pacers in game two of the ABA finals, 114-102, in Freedom Hall.
April 30, 1976, Muhammad Ali (51-2) fought Jimmy Young (17-4-2) in Capital Centre, Landover, MD. Ali weighed more than ever been and turned in his worst performance ever, but Young only wanted to survive. The fight went the 15-round distance, and Ali won by unanimous decision.
April 30, 1993, a nearly three-year federal investigation of public corruption in Kentucky reached a climax with the extortion and racketeering convictions of former Kentucky House Speaker Don Blandford. During the 1992 legislative session, the FBI conducted an inquiry and sting operations known as Operation BOPTROT. The sting resulted in 21 convictions of sitting legislators, former legislators, or lobbyists.
April 30, 2000, Thomas Malone from Crofton caught a state record Brown Trout weighing 21 pounds in the Cumberland River, Lake Cumberland Tailwaters.
April 30, 2009, Governor Steve Beshear announced a Warren County woman, in a Georgia hospital, became Kentucky’s 1st confirmed case of Swine Flu or H1N1. The woman had recently returned to Kentucky from a trip to Mexico and a couple of days later traveled to Georgia, where she fell ill.
April 30, 2018, UK’s $200 million Student Center opened on Avenue of Champions.
On April 30, 2020, President Trump and the CDC launched Operation Warp Speed to produce a coronavirus vaccine as quickly as possible. In addition, airlines required face masks. Approximately 220 Kentuckians had died from coronavirus, 330 were in hospitals, and 178 were in intensive care units. The 1st Kentucky death occurred 45 days earlier.
April 30, 2021, Churchill Downs ran the 147th Kentucky Oaks with 40-50% capacity and Disneyland opened after being shut down for 13 months. Both entertainment facilities required masks and social distancing. Vaccination mandates began to enter into the equation as Berea College told all students they must be vaccinated to attend in-person classes. Over 100 million Americans had received their vaccinations.