Kentucky Trivia
July 22, 1782, Native Americans killed Captain Nathaniel Hart of the Transylvania Company between White Oak Station and Boonesborough. Kentucky in Retrospect by1792-1967 by Lila Jones Kingston pg: 17
July 22, 1793, Isaac Hynes hosted the 1st Hardin County Court session in his home.
July 22, 1799, the 2nd Constitutional Convention convened in Frankfort to draft Kentucky’s 2nd constitution which took effect in November.
July 22, 1800, Governor Garrard won a 2nd term to be the 1st two-term governor . No other governor achieved this feat until legislators eased term-limit restrictions in a 1992 amendment, making it possible for Paul E. Patton’s re-election in 1999.
July 22, 1850, John J. Crittenden started his 2nd term as the U.S. 22nd Attorney General (AG). His 1st term as the 15th U.S. AG ended in 1841.
July 22, 1867, Littleton Wells, 22, deputy postmaster, dueled Saford P. Roberts, 24, clerk ; both courted the same girl. Littleton had proposed to the girl, but Roberts was who she wanted to marry. A fight had ensued at a picnic. They fought with Colt revolvers at the Welby Post Office (Historians assume it was Shelby County). After ten paces, Wells died with a ball through his brain; Roberts received a mortal wound to the heart. Famous Kentucky Duels by J. Winston Coleman, Jr.; pg: 146
Localtonians wish a Happy Anniversary to Joseph Seamon Cotter Sr. who wed Maria F. Cox , a fellow teacher in 1891.”
July 22, 1901, Deputy Sheriff Richard Read of Hardin County’s Sheriff Department , died by a man disturbing the peace at a public picnic. When ordered to be quiet, the suspect drew a revolver and shot him twice. On the same day they convicted him in court, an angry mob seized the suspect from the Hardin County Jail and hung him from the nearest tree.
July 22, 1902, Town Marshal James Cockrill, Jackson Police Department , died in an ambush from a 2nd floor window of the court house as he stood in front of a store. His murder resulted from trouble caused by the “Hargis Cockrill Feud,” is murderer was Curt Jett, “Wild Dog of the Mountains.”
July 22, 1937, the Lexington Junior League held their 1st horse show.
On July 22, 1944, Middlesboro native Leonard F. Mason served as an Automatic Rifleman against Japanese forces on the Asan-Adelup Beachhead in Guam . Held up and fired upon in a narrow gully, he bravely climbed to the enemy’s rear position. Critically wounded while pressing forward with his attack, Mason bravely cleared out the hostile situation. Evacuated to a hospital ship, he later succumbed to his wounds. Congress awarded him the Medal of Honor posthumously for his “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity” on this occasion.
July 22, 1950, Army PVT James C. Mullins from Letcher County , Army SFC Eugene H. Herkless from Johnson County , Army PVT James C. Mullins from Letcher County , Army PFC William H. Smith from Morgan County, and Air Force A2C Charles O. Spain from Mayfield in Graves County , died in the Vietnam War.
Localtonians wish a Happy Anniversary to Governor J. Carroll and Charlann Harting, who wed in 1951.
July 22, 1961, Muhammad Ali (8-0) fought Alonzo Johnson (18-7) at Freedom Hall State Fairgrounds in Louisville . The 1st nationally ranked fighter to get in the ring with Clay, the seasoned veteran had no real punching power. On a sweltering summer night Johnson gave it his all. The bout went the distance, with Clay winning a unanimous decision. However, the hometown fans booed Clay for the 1st time for his less-than-inspired performance.
July 22, 1966, Marine Corps LCPL Mitchell E. Cox from Louisville died in the Vietnam War.
July 22, 1967, Army SP4 Charles R. Leonard from Owensboro in Daviess County died in the Vietnam War.
July 22, 1969, Army PFC John S. Bailey, Jr. from Glasgow in Barren County died in the Vietnam War.
July 22, 1973, the Lexington police arrested one of their own for operating a patrol car under the influence of marijuana . The police report stated the arrest occurred at 4:20 a.m. while the officer fueled his vehicle at the police maintenance garage.
July 22, 1983, Governor John Y. Brown, Jr.’s condition changed from fair to good three days after his open-heart surgery. Also, on this day, his three-year-old son Lincoln visited him for the 1st time since the operation.
July 22, 2000, Mack Metcalf (42) of Kentucky and his wife Virginia Metcalf Merida (46) won $34.1 million in the Powerball Lottery . They split their winnings 60/40. Mack, a former forklift driver for Johnson Controls, bought a Mount Vernon-like estate in southern Kentucky, stocking it with horses and vintage cars. He died in 2003 at age 45. Virginia, who had worked as a corrugator for Indy Honeycomb, bought a Mercedes-Benz and a modern mansion overlooking the Ohio River. She surrounded herself with stray cats and was found dead in 2005.
July 22, 2004, Army SGT Tatjana Reed, 34, of Fort Campbell , died in Iraq fighting in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
July 22, 2017, Spectrum News in Louisville reported a man accussed Kentucky state Senator Julian Carroll of propositioning and groping a man back in 2005. Supposedly, the former governor told the man he would help him get into art school, but instead of helping with school, Carroll propositioned him for sex.
July 22, 2018, a Kentucky bred and Keeneland graduate won Saratoga’s GI $300,000 Coaching Club Oaks for three-year-old fillies.
July 22, 2019, a Kentucky doctor Dr. Raeford, who led a panel of experts on pain medicine, tried to help the federal government answer the question , “Is the new version of the painkiller OxyContin helping fight the opioid epidemic?” It became an issue when the FDA and the company that made the drug would not release any data to the panel. You know what they say, “you can never trust a drug dealer.”
July 22, 2020, a financial report stated that 17 of the top 25 most profitable U.S. corporations, including Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, Facebook, Pfizer, and Visa, made almost $85 billion more in 2020 than in previous years . The pandemic exposed systemic inequalities and massive failures in our economic system, leaving tens of millions of people in the U.S. without jobs, devastating public services, and bankrupting countless small businesses in the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression.
July 22, 2021, Toyota announced they produced their 10,000,000th Camry in Kentucky , a white SE. The 1,300-acre Georgetown plant was 35 years old and had made 13 million vehicles. In addition, the 1st RAV4 hybrid rolled off the line in early March 2021. The plant opened in Kentucky in 1988, with $1.5 billion invested since 2017. The Scott County plant employs more than 10,000 people.
July 22, 2022, Sydney McLaughlin set another world record while winning gold in the women’s 400-meter hurdles at the World Athletics Championships. McLaughlin ran a super-human 50.68 in the 1st -ever recorded time under 51 seconds. The 22-year-old USA track star and former Kentucky Wildcat obliterated her past best and previous world record of 51.41 seconds.