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TODAY IN KENTUCKY HISTORY

May 12, 1886, Cynthiana native Caleb Walton West began his 2nd term as governor of the Utah Territory.

May 12, 1888, Officer Thomas Donlon, Lexington Police Department, died from a gunshot while attempting to arrest a drunk man in a stable on North Mill Street.

Wednesday, May 12, 1897, Typhoon II beat five others to win the 23rd Kentucky Derby.  For the 2nd year, Churchill used the classic 1¼ miles.  This year, the field went in 2:12½ on a heavy track.  Julius C. Cahn owned and trained the colt with Fred Garner up to win $4,850.  Typhoon II was the last of three Derby winners bred in Tennessee.

May 12, 1908, the U.S. granted Nathan B. Stubblefield a patent for his “Wireless Telephone” (there was no word for radio at the time).

On Wednesday, May 12, 1909, the Preakness returned to Pimlico and has stayed ever since.  Effendi won with Willie Doyle up.  Ran at one mile, two traditions enjoyed today came from the the 1909 Preakness renewal.  The musical rendering of Maryland My Maryland began when a bugler, moved by the day’s spirit, began playing Maryland’s historic state song.  Inspired by the music, the rest of the band joined in, and the crowd reacted enthusiastically.  They also inaugurated the “painting of the colors” atop the weather vane.

May 12, 1917, Kalitan won the 42nd Preakness Stakes, one of two times the Derby and Preakness ran on the same day.  Kalitan became the 1st Preakness winner to receive the most valuable trophy in sports, the Woodlawn Vase.

Kentucky Trivia:  Tiffany and Company created the Woodlawn Vase in 1860 for the Woodlawn Racing Association in Louisville.  Caretakers buried it to keep it from falling into the wrong hands during the Civil War.   Starting in 1866, several tracks honored their stakes winners with the trophy; including tracks in Louisville, New Jersey, Coney Island, and finally staying in Baltimore in 1917.

May 12, 1917, Omar Khayyam, foaled in England, won the 43rd Kentucky Derby and became the 1st foreign bred horse to win the Roses.  The winning connections of owner C. K. G. Billings and Frederick Johnson, trainer Charles T. Patterson, and jockey Charles Borel won their only Derby and earned $16,600.  Omar Khayyam came to America as a yearling due to wartime conditions in England.

Monday, May 12, 1924, Nellie Morse won the 49th Preakness Stakes at 1 1/8 miles.  From 1911 to 1924, the 1 1/8 distance determined the winner.  In 1925, the distance would change to 1 3/16 miles, the distance today; however, Pimlico would still experiment with other distances in the coming years.

On May 12, 1932, authorities found Charles Lindbergh’s baby dead close to his estate in NJ.  America’s search for the child began on March 1.

May 12, 1953, Louisville proposed an ordinance that would ban the honking of a car horn unless in emergencies.  The fine for such an offense would range from $5 to $25.

On May 12, 1954, Central Baptist Hospital in Lexington opened its door to the 1st patients.  It took six years to build the new hospital due to fundraising efforts.  The H-shaped facility began with 173 beds and 25 bassinets.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Newport native Jerry Trimble, born in 1963.  Jerry is an actor, stuntman, youth motivational speaker, and former world kickboxing champion.

May 12, 1967, Air Force A1C Lawrence E. Lewis from Ashland in Boyd County died in the Vietnam War.

May 12, 1968, Army PFC James R. Lee from Louisville and Army SGT Robert M. Fletcher from Lynn from Greenup County died in the Vietnam War.

May 12, 1969, Marine Corps PFC Charles W. Ford from Louisville and Marine Corps PFC Marion D. Powell from Vine Grove from Hardin County died in the Vietnam War.

May 12, 1970, Army PFC Ronald E. Campbell from Richmond died in the Vietnam War.

May 12, 1973, the Kentucky Colonels lost the ABA Finals in Game 7 to the Indiana Pacers 88-81.

May 12, 1979, Patrolman Albert Berry Sallee, Jr., Louisville Police Department, died in a motorcycle accident.  All of the motorcycle officers had just been instructed to return to the station to pick up automobiles because of rain.

May 12, 1982, Harlan County Sherriff Paul Browning claimed a sniper shot him.  His deputy claimed he shot himself.  The shooting happened when Browning was on trial for plotting to kill two Harlan County officials.  Fast forward to 2008, Browning died from a gunshot wound to the head; his murderer then burned his body.

On May 12, 1987, W. Wilkerson asked S. Beshear and J. Y. Brown to stop the mud ads about gambling and cocaine during a primary debate; neither Steve nor John committed.  Ex-governor Brown wanted his job back, but Lt. Gov. S. Beshear attacked him relentlessly.  Wally distanced himself from the field by advocating for a state lottery and, with a late surge, crushed Brown by 58,000 votes.

May 12, 1994, Easy Goer, winner of the Gotham, Travers, Jockey Club Gold Cup, Wood Memorial, Whitney, Woodward, and Belmont, passed away.  

May 12, 1997, UK’s director of athletics, C.M. Newton, introduced Orlando “Tubby” Smith as head coach.

On May 12, 2001, a group representing 30 water utilities serving 2.7 million people up and down the 981 miles of Ohio River urged tighter controls on pollutants, including ammonia and some pathogens.

On Monday, May 12, 2003, Churchill Downs stewards cleared Jockey Jose Santos of wrongdoing while riding Funny Cide to victory in the Kentucky Derby.  A Miami Herald photograph started the inquiry whether he held something in his hand besides his whip when he crossed the finish line on May 3.  The newspaper’s carelessness created unnecessary drama.

May 12, 2007, Lexington native Austin Kearns in a home game against the Florida Marlins, hit a bases-empty inside-the-park home run, the 1st-ever for a Washington National player.

In the May 12, 2008, edition of The Jerusalem Post, President G. Bush said in a White House interview, “I’ll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office.”

May 12, 2008, Shirley Cunningham, Jr., William Gallion, and Melbourne Mills, Jr. go on trial for the infamous Fen-phen scandal and their Unbridled Greed.  Mr. Mills’s lawyer said his client was too drunk to be guilty.  The three lawyers supposedly bilked their clients out of $94 million in settlement money.

May 12, 2011, former Whitley County Sheriff Lawrence Hodge admitted in federal court that he was involved in numerous illegal activities during his tenure as sheriff, including conspiracy to commit extortion, distribute oxycodone, and money laundering.

On May 12, 2015, federal customs stopped a shipment of 250 pounds of hemp seeds from Italy, which Kentucky had planned to use as part of its first crop in decades.  Agriculture Commissioner James Comer, “We changed the state law, and we changed the federal law.  We did everything we were supposed to do, and the federal government is flexing its muscle during prime planting.”  Meanwhile, the Nicholas County hospital shutdown and a Laurel County traffic stop turned up 38 grams of meth.

On May 12, 2016, ex-President Bill Clinton popped in on Thursday Night Live in Lexington.  He campaigned in the Commonwealth twice in one week for his wife’s May 17 primary race.  President Clinton repealed the Glass Steagall Act in 1999, enabling Wall Street to gamble on new-found bank money.  Now the taxpayers bail out Wall St. every ten years with no consequences.

On May 12, 2017, rookie Congressman, Rep. J. Comer, came home to do his first Town Hall Meetings, and he calmed many arguments in a political environment he described as, “So much gloom and doom.  It can play games with your head.”  Trump served five months with crisis after crisis.  Russian xenophobia, F.B.I. issues, and replacing America’s healthcare were just a few.

On May 12, 2017, the Kentucky Court of Appeals, 2-1, sided with a clothing company that refused to print gay pride 2012 t-shirts for religious reasons.  Meanwhile, a judge admitted he accepted $609,000 in bribes from convicted lawyer Eric Conn to approve disability benefits.

On May 12, 2020, as Kentucky reopened, Governor A. Beshear said, “We’ve got to avoid the temptation for this summer to be like past summers.  Our health and economy have to be our top priority.”  As numbers went up in Western Kentucky, state totals stood at 6,853+ cases and 321 deaths.   Also, a Boone County man and several others filed a federal lawsuit against Andy for his bans on mass gatherings and the implications for political rallies and protests.

On May 12, 2020, Dr. Fauci testified before the U.S. Senate that officials underestimated the current 80,000 Americans who had died from coronavirus and warned against the “really serious” consequences of reopening too soon.  He then warned against the relaxation of social distancing and was “cautiously optimistic” that a vaccine would be effective and achieved within 1 or 2 years.

On May 12, 2021, some locals went into panic mode and bought all the gasoline they could find after a cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline.  State Transportation Secretary Jim Gray declared a state of emergency to speed up gas delivery to Kentucky.  The order waived restrictions on how long a truck driver could drive.  Meanwhile, President Biden and Mitch met for the 1st time since Biden took office.  The two significantly older men had worked together for 35 years.  Both are accountable to the same donors.

May 12, 2022, a day after AG Daniel Cameron announced his campaign for governor, his rival party filed an ethics complaint with the Executive Branch Ethics Commission.  They claimed Cameron violated the law by investigating the current governor in his role as AG.  Through a spokesman, Cameron said the complaint was a “joke,” and Beshear was acting “desperate.”

At 5:36 a.m., on May 12, 2022, Lucy Westlake became the youngest U.S. woman to climb Mt. Everest at 18 years, six months, and eight days old.  Lucy, who lived in Louisville from 2 to 12 years old, broke the record by just a few days. 

May 12, 2022, Senator Rand Paul single-handedly delayed a bipartisan effort to quickly send $40 billion in aid to Ukraine, which Congress had tried to fast-track.  The Senate needed unanimous consent to waive procedural hurdles.

On May 12, 2023, Andy posted pictures of himself handing out at least three Big Checks.  Two are pictured below for the good people of Hardin and Nelson Counties, and the third benefited Washington County.  The day also had some healthcare posts.

On Sunday, May 12, 2024, Andy and Thomas wished everyone a Happy Mother’s Day.