Kentucky Trivia
July 16, 1819, Francis Waring dueled Jacob Holdman with smoothbore pistols of the flint-lock type at ten paces on a farm one mile from Frankfort. Waring died instantly, and Holdman became disabled for life. Famous Kentucky Duels by J. Winston Coleman, Jr.; pg: 59
Localtonians wish a Happy Anniversary to Edward Troye, who wed Corneila Van de Graff of Scott County in 1839. They settled in Central Kentucky, where he lived for the next 35 years. The Swiss-born American painter of Thoroughbred horses passed away and rests in Georgetown.
Self Portrait in a Carriage , oil on canvas, 1852, Yale University Art Gallery On July 16, 1882, Mary Todd Lincoln passed away in Springfield, Illinois . The First Lady sat next to her husband when he died in mid-April and did not move out of the White House till May 23. In 1868 she moved with her son Tad to Germany and commenced her battle with Congress over a presidential widow’s pension. In 1871, a year after receiving the annual stipend of $3,000, she moved to the U.S., where her youngest son, Tad, died of pleurisy. In 1875 her only surviving son, Robert, committed her to a private asylum for the insane, and after four long months, she left. Fearing that Robert would commit her again, she moved to Pau, France, from 1878 to 1881. She returned to her sister’s home in Springfield, Illinois, when her health made it necessary. She died of a stroke and rests in the Lincoln Tomb at Springfield’s Oak Ridge Cemetery.
July 16, 1894, Allen County lynched Marion Howard , a black male, for rape.
July 16, 1895, Clark County lynched Robert Haggard , a black male, for attempted rape.
Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to James Still , born in 1906. The Appalachian poet, novelist, and folklorist lived most of his life in a log house along the Dead Mare Branch of Little Carr Creek in Knott County. His novel River of Earth depicted the struggles of coal mining in Eastern Kentucky.
July 16, 1920, Deputy Sheriff Edward Perry Webb, Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office , succumbed to gunshot wounds sustained five days earlier when he and another officer arrested a man in Catalpa for beating his wife. When the two deputies got off of the train they observed the man fleeing. As they caught up to him the man opened fire with a revolver, striking Deputy Webb five times.
July 16, 1927, Deputy Sheriff Patrick Hagans Bates, Letcher County Sheriff’s Office , succumbed to gunshot wounds sustained six days earlier while making an arrest.
July 16, 1938, Seabiscuit won the inaugural Hollywood Gold Cup . When Hollywood Park shut down in 2013, the race moved to Arcadia Park and now is named the Gold Cup at Santa Anita.
July 16, 1950, ten Kentuckians died in the Korean War: Army PFC George L. Barron from Fayette County , Army PVT Billie J. Gray from Laurel County , Army PVT Calvin K. Nixon from Jefferson County , Army PFC Johnnie E. Radford from Cumberland County , Army PFC Raymond Sallee from Mercer County , Army PFC Bobby Schweingruber from Whitley County , Army CPL Henry Stidham from Perry County , Army PFC Charles A. Tabor from Jefferson County , Army PFC Ishmael Watts from Breathitt County , Army PVT Robert A. Wright from Daviess County .
July 16, 1952, Army PVT Clarence M. Bush from Batten County died in the Korean War.
July 16, 1956, Jesse Stuart, 49, famed poet and novelist, hinted from his home in Greenup that he wanted to return to his 1st love; teaching . He suffered a heart attack two years earlier and had since been in semi-retirement. McKell High School needed a principal.
July 16, 1967, Army PFC Charles I. Carter from Shelbyville died in the Vietnam War.
July 16, 1969, Air Force CAPT James V. Dawson from Ashland died in the Vietnam War.
On July 16, 1970, President R. Nixon welcomed Prince Charles , 21, and his sister Princess Anne, 19, for their 1st American visit. The welcoming party surprised Prince Charles, he was not expecting all the pomp surrounding his White House visit.
July 16, 1982, the Kentucky Court of Appeals overturned Morehead’s Wet/Dry election, which the people decided by 67 votes . The dry forces claimed the wets failed to announce the vote properly, and the judges agreed.
July 16, 1991, a co-founder of Humana, Wendell Cherry, died . Cherry spent a fortune on art; he once sold a Picasso self-portrait for $47.85 million. This is what your health insurance money buys. Don’t hate the player; hate the game.
Picasso self-portrait July 16, 1996, to celebrate the Model T Ford Club’s 40th anniversary , 300 of the WWI autos drove from Lexington to Frankfort. One of 1915 Tin Lizzies stood out with numerous flags. The day prior, the Kentucky Horse Park hosted a horseless carriage convention for flivver owners and fans.
July 16, 2005, an Adair County jury awarded a Columbia man over $6 million whose lost part of his leg from the knee down after a lawn mower accident. The injured man tried to step off the riding mower.
June 16, 2010, David Dick, 80, died on his Bourbon County farm after serving the public through journalism during the Walter Cronkite era. He won an Emmy for his coverage of the attempted assassination of George Wallace during his bid for president in 1972 and covered Guyana’s mass suicides.
July 16, 2018, a 21-year-old hacker from Stanford plead guilty to designing, marketing, and selling software through his company LuminosityLink. The software enabled his customers to remotely access and control another person’s computers without their knowledge. Colton Grubbs received 30 months in federal prison after selling the software for $39.99 to over 6,000 customers worldwide.
July 16, 2019, an Army scout pleaded guilty to going AWOL at a court-martial in Fort Knox and received only six months . The young man fled the war when he became disturbed by a tactic of planting equipment to lure Iraqis so American Snipers could shoot them. When his complaints about the “special kill teams” failed, he left.
On July 16, 2020, while Atty. Gen. D. Cameron asked a judge to block all of Governor A. Beasher’s virus restrictions and from stopping any more mandates, Jerry Lundergan received a 21-month prison sentence.
