Kentucky Trivia ● Kentucky Tweets
On July 2, 1819, President James Monroe, accompanied by General Andrew Jackson, became the 1st chief executive to visit Lexington. Military units and select locals met the entourage outside Lexington and escorted them to the Keen Hotel, later known as the Phoenix Hotel. During a four-day stay, he spoke at Transylvania, visited private homes, and attended a banquet at Mrs. Keen’s Postlethwait’s Tavern, where Governor Isaac Shelby and other dignitaries entertained him.
July 2, 1853, William F. Talbott placed an advertisement around Lexington offering to buy enslaved people to take to the New Orleans market. Talbott offered $1,200 for “No. 1 Young Men” and “$900 for No. 1 Young Women.” His office was located on Broadway.
July 2, 1863, CSA Morgan’s Raiders entered into Kentucky and battled with the Union forces in Burkesville.
July 2, 1874, Constable Joseph Mefford, Scott County Constable’s Office, died from a gunshot while attempting to arrest a drunk man at a community picnic six miles north of Stamping Ground, near the Owen County line.
Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Lexington native Sweet Evening Breeze, born in 1892.
Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Millersburg native Blanton Long Collier, born in 1906. He attended Paris High School, and after graduating from Georgetown College, he returned to his old high school to teach and coach sports for 16 years. After the war, Paul Brown, a Navy friend, hired Collier as an assistant coach for the Browns, a team under formation in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC). After seven years as Brown’s top aide, a span over which the Cleveland team won five league championships, Collier took a job as head football coach at Kentucky in 1954. His Kentucky Wildcats teams amassed a 41–36–3 win-loss-tie record over eight seasons. His coaching staff at Kentucky featured future coaching legends Chuck Knox, Howard Schnellenberger, and Don Shula.
Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Lexington native Thomas Pearce Bell, born in 1922. Bell played football under John Heber at Henry Clay High School and A.D. Kirwan at UK. Coach Bear Bryant encouraged Bell to officiate SEC games in 1952. After ten years in the SEC, Bell moved to the NFL, where he became one of the most celebrated and respected NFL referees. He led the referee crews in five NFC championship games, two AFC championship games, and two Super Bowls III and VII.
July 2, 1923, the National Farmer-Labor Party discussed picking Henry Ford as their candidate in a convention where “radicals and progressives” of all shades met in Chicago. Meanwhile, in Lexington, Mrs. A.D. Harmon became a Dean for Hamilton College.
Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Somerset native Jack I. Gregory, born in 1931. The U.S. Air Force general became the Commander-In-Chief of the Pacific Air Forces.
July 2, 1934, Deputy Sheriff Clark Smith, Knox County Sheriff’s Office, died from a gunshot while attempting to arrest a drunk man in Artemus.
July 2, 1951, Air Force 1st LT Eugene L. Ruiz from Louisville died from in the Korean War.
July 2, 1960, Kentucky accepted a 525-acre tract of land in Boone County to be developed as a state park to showcase Kentucky’s pre-historic past and the location of one of America’s earliest animal inhabitations.
July 2, 1967, Army CPL Frank W. Sawyer, Jr. from Louisville, Army PFC Denton R. Slack from Fordsville in Ohio County and Marine Corps PFC William L. Stevenson from Leitchfield in Grayson County, died in the Vietnam War.
July 2, 1969, Army SGT Jim Allen Wray from Coxs Creek in Nelson County died in the Vietnam War.
July 2, 1971, a horse bolted during the post parade for the 3rd race at Miles Park in Louisville and crashed through the fence into the spectators. At least 12 people went to the hospital, but all were treated and released. Meanwhile, a Jefferson County Juvenile Court judge spoke at a drug abuse seminar and told the audience marijuana should be legal.
July 2, 1972, Air Force 1st LT John M. Cole from Williamsburg in Whitley County died in the Vietnam War.
July 2, 1976, Chuck Berry performed at the Gram Parsons Memorial Country Rock Festival at the UK’s Memorial Coliseum. Berry went on at 1 a.m. After a lengthy set, he refused to leave the stage until promoters finally turned the power off at 2:30 a.m.
July 2, 1978, ex-President Richard Nixon made his 1st formal speech since resigning from the Presidency three years and eleven months earlier. Richard attended the opening of the new Richard M. Nixon Recreation Center in Hyden.
July 2, 1989, jockey Steve Cauthen became the 1st rider in history to sweep the world’s four major Derbies after winning the Irish Derby with Old Vic. He also won the Kentucky Derby with Affirmed (1978), the Epsom Derby twice with Slip Anchor (1985), Reference Point (1987), and the French Derby with Old Vic (1989).
July 2, 1992, a white Corvette Convertible rolled off the assembly line in Bowling Green and into the history books. It became the one-millionth Corvette. When 2022 ended there were over 1,780,000.
July 2, 2001, Robert Tools, 59, the 1st recipient of a self-contained artificial heart, died at Jewish Hospital in Louisville. The device and other equipment in his chest weighed more than four pounds and made a constant whirring sound. But ”as long as I can hear the sound, I know I am here,” Mr. Tools said, adding that he preferred it to the alternative, death. He lived five months.
July 2, 2006, fans voted Louisville native Dan Uggla to the 2006 Major League Baseball All-Star Game as a reserve; the 1st player in baseball history to be an All-Star in the same season in which he had been a Rule 5 pick.
July 2, 2010, U.S. Forest employees reopened the Red River Gorge after a bear attacked a hiker four days earlier. Meanwhile, Frankfort cut Medicaid $26 million from an already underfunded program while 60 National Guard members returned home from the Afghanistan War.
On July 2, 2021, immobile and willing Vanceburg residents received vaccination shots from a mobile medical crew. Approximately 76% of Lewis County locals refused the experimental vaccine, one of the highest averages in the Commonwealth.