TODAY IN KENTUCKY HISTORY

Kentucky Trivia ● Kentucky Tweets

Localtonians wish a Happy Anniversary to Sarah Maxwell and John Maxwell, who wed in 1779.  It was said to be the first union inside the Lexington Fort.

April 9, 1786, William Christian died near present day Jeffersonville, Indiana while chasing a band of Wabash.  Kentuckians named Christian County in his honor.

On April 9, 1862, Paris native Richard Hawes became Kentucky’s 2nd Confederate governor.  Hawes replaced George W. Johnson, who died in the Battle of Shiloh on April 8.  When General Bragg invaded Kentucky in October 1862 and captured Frankfort, he held an inauguration ceremony for Hawes.  However, General Don Carlos Buell and his Union forces interrupted the affair and ran them out of town.

April 9, 1864, Lexington native Oliver Frazer passed away at Eothen, his country home, after an illness of several months.  Matthew Harris Jouett trained him before he studied in Europe.  Oliver then came back home to excel as a portrait painter.

April 9, 1865, Shelby County native John H. Callahan earned the Medal of Honor for capturing a Confederate flag during the Battle of Fort Blakely.  He was one of fourteen men awarded with the Medal of Honor at this battle.

April 9, 1865, 1:00 p.m., General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant.

April 9, 1880, the first organized football game was played in Kentucky when Kentucky University (now Transylvania University) beat Centre College 13 ¾ – 0 in a cow pasture.  There were fifteen players on each team, and when one was injured and removed, he could not re-enter the game.

April 9, 1884, William Strong and Henry Kilburn, two African Americans, were lynched in Eastern Kentucky, possibly Breathitt County.  Both men were accused of murdering a white male.  The first recorded lynching in Kentucky was two years earlier.

April 9, 1920, state troops, sheriffs, deputies, and the Leitchfield machine gun squad served 50 individuals warrants from the special Night Rider grand jury in Mayfield.  Thirty-four Knight Riders, hearing of the sweep, turned themselves in.  The fifty “bills” included 44 arsons.

On April 9, 1930, around 1,500 students from approximately 300 High Schools began arriving on UK’s campus to open the 10th annual “High School Week.”  Activities included contests in oratory, debate, declamation, and achievement tests.  The remainder of the week focused on musical events and the annual high school music festival. 

April 9, 1934, Patrolman Clarence Quinton Evans and Corporal Saxton Dutschke, Louisville Police Department, were killed when their patrol wagon was struck by another vehicle at the intersection of 7th and Chestnut at 2255 hours.

April 9, 1942, Deputy Sheriff Marion Martin, Knott County Sheriff’s Office, died of wounds he received the previous day when he was shot after responding to a disturbance call at a bar.  As Deputy Martin entered the bar, he was shot by one of the men inside.  The suspect was shot dead by Deputy Marion before he died.

April 9, 1951, Army PVT Charles Vickers from Daviess County died in the Korean War.

April 9, 1956, Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson shivered in the dugout as they played the Milwaukee Braves in a preseason baseball game in Louisville’s Parkway Field.  The temperature was 44 degrees and the California native joked; “Now I know why they call it bluegrass.  It’s frozen!”  It was the start of the 37-year-old Robinson’s last season in professional baseball.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Louisville native Oliver Wesley Barnett, born in 1966.  He was a former NFL defensive lineman for the Falcons, Bills, and 49ers.

April 9, 1967, Gay Brewer won a green jacket by one stroke over lifelong friend Bobby Nichols.  It was the 1st live television broadcast of a golf tournament from the U.S. to Europe.  Brewer called winning the Masters “the biggest thrill I’ve had in golf.”  In the 1966 Masters, Gay bogeyed the final hole to finish in a three-way tie after regulation play but ended up finishing third to Jack Nicklaus, following an 18-hole playoff.  This was Gay’s only major win. 

April 9, 1968, Army SSG Kenneth A. Hardin from Morehead in Rowan County died in the Vietnam War.

April 9, 1969, Army PFC’s James H. Adams from Whitehouse in Johnson County and William L. Overstreet from Elk Horn in Taylor County, both died in the Vietnam War.

April 9, 1970, city officials told the Lexington Public Library they would be losing their two Bookmobiles due to politics and lack of funding.

April 9, 1975, Muhlenberg County barley edged Pike County to retain its long-standing position as Kentucky’s top coal producing county.  The Kentucky Department of Mines and Minerals also confirmed that the Commonwealth produced 136,792,843 tons of coal an increase of 9,285,523 tons from 1973 totals.

April 9, 1984, President Reagan honored Sherleen Sisney from Jefferson County’s Ballard High School for being the 1984 Teacher of the Year.  About 45 of her former and current students attended the Rose Garden ceremony.  In 33 years of the award, Ms. Sisney was the 1st recipient from Kentucky.

April 9, 1989, the Harlem Globetrotters played or 4,000 fans in Rupp Arena.  

April 9, 1990, the Kentucky Derby Festival Board named General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. as their grand marshal for the Pegasus Parade.  Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Bill Shoemaker lay in a hospital partially paralyzed and in critical condition after a car wreck.

April 9, 1998, President Clinton spoke to the Carroll County High School about reducing teen smoking.

April 9, 2000, Lexington native Scott Downs made his MLB debut with the Chicago Cubs.

April 9, 2001, the Lexington Legends baseball team and over 8,000 fans enjoyed their first home game by beating the Hagerstown Suns, 15-1.

Kentucky Trivia:  No public money was involved in the Legends franchise.  Alan Stein brought together a group of 22 investors under the name Lexington Professional Baseball Co, LLC.  The company has 28 total employees across all of its locations and generates $4.81 million in sales (USD).

April 9, 2007, the University of Arkansas basketball team named Paintsville native John Pelfrey as their new head coach.

On April 9, 2012, the most people on seesaws simultaneously was 204, which the Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights achieved, according to the Guinness World Records.

April 9, 2017, a Keeneland graduate trifecta comes in for Keeneland’s GIII $150,000 Beaumont Stakes.

April 9, 2020, Governor A. Beshear announced 134 new positive cases of coronavirus for a total 1,452.  He also announced six new deaths for a total of 79.  Nursing homes begged for help as supplies of masks, gloves, and gowns were in very short supply.  

On April 9, 2021, a Kentucky judge temporarily blocked the state from enforcing some of the governor’s executive Covid-19 orders against several restaurants and breweries.