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TODAY IN KENTUCKY HISTORY

June 23, 1792, the young Commonwealth created Shelby County from Jefferson County.  Shelby was named in honor of Isaac Shelby, 1st and 5th governor.  Shelbyville is the county seat.  Other localities include: Bagdad, Chestnut Grove, Christianburg, Clark, Clay Village, Cropper, Finchville, Harrisonville, Hemp Ridge, Hooper, Mt. Eden, Mulberry, Olive Branch, Peytona, Pleasureville, Scotts Station, Simpsonville, Southville, Todds Point and Waddy.  The 12th county created covers 386 square miles.

On June 23, 1857, John Clarke Young passed away in Danville.  In 1830, he was named President of Centre College.  During his twenty-seven-year presidency, enrollment increased from 33 to 225, the endowment grew to over $100,000, and the college’s reputation for excellence spread.  An enslaver, Young preached gradual emancipation rather than abolition – he twice freed families of his slaves.  Mr. Young died while President of Centre and rest in Danville.

On June 23, 1857, the U.S. government granted William Kelly a patent for an alternative steel-making method in which air is blown through molten pig iron to oxidize and remove undesirable impurities.  In 1846, he and his brother purchased a Lyon County iron manufacturing company on the Cumberland River and renamed it Kelly & Company.  The brothers also bought 14,000 acres of timberland for charcoal to fuel the company’s furnaces.

On June 23, 1866, H. Howard Gratz revived the Kentucky Gazette after the Civil War had ended, and the paper ran until 1910.  John and Fielding Bradford printed the 1st issue in August 1787, lasting until 1840.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Paducah native Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb, born in 1876.  At one point, he was the highest-paid staff reporter in the U.S.

Localtonians wish a Happy Anniversary to Alben W. Barkey and Dorothy Brower, who wed in 1903.  Unfortunately, Dorothy died in 1947 when Alben sat in the Senate. Barkley remarried two years later when was the V.P.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Louisville native Helen Humes, born in 1913.  Helen shaped and defined the sound of vocal swing music.

Localtonians wish a Happy Anniversary to Keen Johnson and Eunice Nichols, who wed in 1917.  Keen became our 45th governor and the only journalist to hold the office.

June 23, 1919, Man o’ War ran his fourth race in June, all in New York.  He won Aqueduct’s 29th running of the 5F Hudson Handicap for two-year-olds in 1:01.60.  He carried 130 pounds, which is unheard of those days for the juvenile ranks.  Conceding 21 pounds he stretched out easily winning by 1 1/2 lengths.  His connections earned $2,825 in the $3,500 purse.

On June 23, 1923, James I. Hamilton, 62, one of the largest land owners in Garrard County, died instantly at 11:00 am in a pistol duel with Ciell Pointer, 35, a tenant on his farm.  Ciell received one flesh wound walked to a neighbor and called the sheriff.  The sheriff escorted him to jail and later to Lexington for fear of mob retribution and arrested him for murder.

June 23, 1928, as Central Kentucky leaders gathered in Lexington at Lake Ellerslie to show their disdain for commercializing the Cumberland Falls, a Louisville businessman donated a color motion picture film to the Kentucky Progress Commission in Frankfort.  The film promoted the state’s natural beauty, industries, horses, and even a Cardinal in its natural habitat.

June 23, 1935, Deputy Sheriff Victor Green, Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, died from a gunshot by a suspect who was upset over a case he was working on.

On June 23, 1937, the special Court of Appeals held that Kentucky’s personal and corporate income tax law enacted in 1936 was constitutional.  In the 1st year the tax raised $2 million.

June 23, 1945, Pavot, by Man o’ War, with Eddie Arcaro aboard, won the 77th Belmont Stakes.  Net value to winner was $52,675.  This was Eddie’s 3rd of six Belmont wins.  All the Triple Crown races were moved further out due to the war.

June 23, 1945, Lexington native James G. Scrugham passed.  Nevada elected him as U.S. Senator and their 14th governor.

June 23, 1951, Army SGT Louis O. Chinn from Fayette County died in the Korean War.

On June 23, 1960, record downpours and violent thunderstorms hit Central Kentucky, causing severe damage and two deaths.  The rain washed away two bridges in Casey County’s Green River Valley.

June 23, 1965, Daniel Carter Beard’s Boyhood Home became a National Historic Landmark. “Uncle Dan” founded the Boy Scouts of America and was the National Scout Commissioner from the 1910 founding to his death in 1941.

By C. Bedford Crenshaw

June 23, 1966, Army PFC John E. Hampton from Whitesburg died in the Vietnam War.

June 23, 1968, Army CPL Gary Wilkinson from Murray in Calloway County died in the Vietnam War.

June 23, 1971, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) put Ashland Oil, Inc. on 180-day notice to stop polluting the Big Sandy River.  The EPA had only served 12 of these notices in its history; Kentucky had its first.

June 23, 1972, U.S. lawmakers passed Title IX, a landmark measure that banned sexual discrimination in education and fostered unapparelled growth in women’s athletics nationwide for the following five decades.

On June 23, 1979, the nationwide strike by independent truckers continued to grow, causing severe disruptions to food and fuel deliveries amid signs that President Carter was preparing to give in to their demands for more fuel.  Truckers who crossed the picket line were shot at or stoned while driving on highways in at least 20 states.  The protest addressed higher fuel prices, fewer supplies, and government regulations that unfairly inhibited businesses.

June 23, 1980, a hitman supposedly killed a well-known builder in Lexington, Tony Johnson, according to the F.B.I.  His wife and two of his three children found him at his shop.  Tony planned to be a key witness in a lawsuit about his former employer.

On June 23, 1980, the National Weather Service predicted June would be Central Kentucky’s driest month.  So far, only a half inch of rain had fallen, and the record was 1.18 inches in 1936.  Meanwhile, a gunman killed five people in a church, President Carter lashed out at the Soviets, and Bjorn Borg went after Rod Laver’s Wimbledon records.

Kentucky Trivia: The driest June ever recorded in Kentucky was in 1936. Specifically, during that year, Bowling Green received only 0.12 inches of rain, Louisville had 0.35 inches, and Lexington recorded 1.18 inches, with 1.06 inches falling on a single day according to the National Weather Service.

June 23, 1986, Historic Locust Grove in Louisville became a U.S. National Historic Landmark.

June 23, 1992, while an ex-Kentucky lawmaker faced a judge for taking $63,000 in bribes from competing sides of horse racing legislation, Kentucky’s Chief Justice lost a minor battle in his very public divorce hearings.  Meanwhile, on the national scene, Brooklyn erupted in riots after the government put John Gotti away for life while 3rd Party candidate Ross Perot called out President George H. W. Bush’s numerous dirty tricks to destroy the businessman’s reputation.

June 23, 1994, Anthony Lynch from Salyersville caught a state record Longear Sunfish weighing .83 pounds in a Magoffin County strip mine pond.

By June 23, 1996, one in four Americans had gone without medical coverage for a month or more between early 1992 and mid-1994.  This stat made news as Congress worked on a stalled insurance reform bill.  It stayed stuck, and nothing ever came of it.  Insurance companies and Big Pharma ensured that it did.  People who owned stock in the two industries were pleased with the result.

On June 23, 2000, Toyota launched an internet-based system to streamline their North American parts purchasing.  The initial plan was to eliminate errors, reduce paperwork, and speed decision-making to strengthen supplier relationships.

June 23, 2005, Army SGT Joseph M. Tackett 22, of Whitehouse in Johnson County, died of a non-combat-related injury in Baghdad during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

June 23, 2005, Army SGT 1st Class Christopher W. Phelps, 39, of Louisville, died in Bagdad fighting in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

On June 23, 2009, the Grand Ole Opry inducted the Kentucky duo Montgomery Gentry, with Marty Stuart and Little Jimmy Dickens as presenters.  Eddie Montgomery hails from Danville, and Troy Gentry, who died in a helicopter crash in 2017, was from Lexington.

June 23, 2010, Army SPC Russell E. Madden 29, of Dayton, died in Afghanistan, fighting in Operation Enduring Freedom.

June 23, 2015, Trooper Eric Keith Chrisman, Kentucky State Police, died in a vehicle crash on US Route 62 near the Tennessee River Bridge in Livingston County at 5:48 pm.

June 23, 2017, Kentucky politicians acted with disdain when California announced a travel restriction to Kentucky because of what they felt were discriminatory laws toward gay and transgender people.

Kentucky held its primary election on June 23, 2020, instead of May due to the coronavirus endemic.  Fayette County voters had to stand in line for 90 minutes to pull the lever at Commonwealth Stadium.  Louisville also had one location, the Kentucky Fair and Exhibition Center, which ran smoothly.  The mail-in ballots spurned a higher-than-expected turnout.

On June 23, 2021, UK went to court to try to get Wendell and Tayna Berry’s lawsuit thrown out.  The Berrys fought the university when the school announced they would remove a mural depicting enslaved people.  UK had no intentions of destroying the art; they just wanted to move it.  Black students claimed it was hurtful, traumatic, and it hurt their feelings.  Ann Rice O’Hanlon, Tayna’s aunt, painted the piece in the 1930s.

June 23, 2022, while the Supreme Court expanded gun rights by ruling Americans could carry them in public for self-defense, fires destroyed several historic buildings in downtown Millersburg in Bourbon County.  Meanwhile, Governor A. Beshear announced an expansion for the candle factory, where eight people died during the 2021 tornados.

On Thursday night, June 23, 2022, Mitch M. broke his career-spanning tradition of opposing gun regulation.  He and 14 fellow party members (excluding R. Paul) voted yes on the Safer Communities Act, the most significant gun reform bill since 1994.  Two days later, President Biden signed it into law.

On June 23, 2023, M. McConnell announced Kentucky’s cut of the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure and Jobs Act (IJA), three years after printing close to $6 trillion after politicians shut down society.  Mitch broke party ranks and voted for Biden’s IJA.  Mitch and Hal are masters of directing the socialist money to their districts; they have made a career out of it.  Lexington received $8.1 million to fix a railroad overpass, Jackson received $21.1 million for the Pan Bowl Lake Dam, and Bellevue received $3.7 million for a Riverfront trial.

On June 23, 2023, Andy Barr seemed to be angling for a new career with the MIC as an international arms salesman if he ever had to get a real job.  Google says it pays very well.  Meanwhile, Thomas continued to expose Russiagate (like shooting fish in a barrel).

On Sunday, June 23, 2024, the governor, king of the feel-good social post, applauded an award-winning Kentucky Hero, Ellie Hunt from Bardstown!