Skip to content

TODAY IN KENTUCKY HISTORY

Kentucky Trivia

July 26, 1863, John Jacob Crittenden, born in “Virginia” but what is now Kentucky, died in Frankfort.  The 22nd Secretary of State of Kentucky, 17th governor, 15th and 22nd U. S. Attorney General, and a U.S. Senator made Kentucky proud.

July 26, 1863, Morgan’s Great Raid of 1863 ended in Northern Ohio after 45 days.  Morgan and his men captured and paroled about 6,000 Union soldiers, destroyed 34 bridges, disrupted the railroads at more than 60 places, and diverted tens of thousands of troops from other duties.  Although it distracted some Union soldiers from the Vicksburg and Gettysburg Campaigns and temporarily alarmed the North, the raids did not do the damage Morgan had hoped for.

July 26, 1889, Bourbon County lynched James Kelly, a black male, for rape.

July 26, 1892, Jailer Kavanaugh Tipton and Deputy Sheriff Thomas Howard, Montgomery County Sheriff Office, died by gunshots from a horse thief as they attempted to arrest him in a house near the head of Peter Trace Creek in Menifee County.

July 26, 1894, Nicholas County lynched William Tyler, a black male, for rape.

July 26, 1907, Deputy Sheriff Carlo Brummet, Harlan County Sheriff’s Office, died in a shootout while attempting to serve a warrant on a man for seduction.  Deputy Brummet located the man on top of Cumberland Mountain, on the Kentucky – Virginia border, when the shootout began.

July 26, 1923, the Burley Tobacco Growers’ Cooperative Association hosted a farm festival, pageant, and picnic at Vaughn’s Woods on Lexington’s Winchester Pike.  About 500 attended “The Court of Agriculture.”

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Powderly native Jewel Franklin Guy, born in 1926 in Muhlenberg County.

On July 26, 1931, the Ashland Refining Company charged customers 15 more cents for crude oil produced in Eastern Kentucky.  A Texas firm was the only other oil company buying Eastern Kentucky oil then.

July 26, 1945, the last of the 1942 Harlan election fraud trials ended abruptly.  The U.S. failed to make a case against the election commissioners and four tabulators, charged with conspiracy to pad A.B. Chandler’s majority of 2,421 votes in 10 precincts.

July 26, 1945, Don Thompson, a 20-year-old southpaw, hurled an 8-0 shutout victory for the Louisville Colonels over the Hoosiers at Parkway Field.  It was the 1st no-hitter in the city since 1882.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Pikeville native Woody Blackburn, born in 1952.  Woody won the PGA Walt Disney World National Team Championship in 1976 and the Isuzu-Andy Williams San Diego Open in 1985.

July 26, 1953, Marine Corps PFC Louis W. Baldwin from Covington in Kenton County died in the Korean War.

On July 26, 1955, UK announced they wanted to group a few of their sorority houses on a new UK-owned “Sorority Row” between Maxwell St. and College View.  The National organizations had the opportunity to purchase the lots.

July 26, 1967, Army PFC Michael R. Harris, Jr. from Hopkinsville in Christian County and Army PFC Jerry R. Holbrook from Mayking in Letcher County, died in the Vietnam War.

July 26, 1968, Patrolman Donald Ronnebaum, Covington Police Department, died when a tractor trailer struck him while assisting at the scene of an accident on the highway.

July 26, 1970, Earle Combs became a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, N.Y.

July 26, 1971, Army CPL Ralph E. McElrath from Paducah died in the Vietnam War.

On July 26, 1971, Muhammad Ali (32-1) fought Jimmy Ellis (30-6) in the Houston Astrodome.  A month before the bout, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Ali’s draft conviction and quashed his five-year prison sentence.  Ellis sparred more than 1,000 rounds against Ali and even had Dundee in his corner with Ali’s blessing.  However, Ali stung Ellis with a straight right in the 4th round and treated the rest of the fight like another sparring session.  The referee stopped the fight in the 12th round after Ali threw another hard right, sending Ellis into the ropes.

July 26, 1976, Charlie Whittingham repeated a sweep in the Sunset Handicap, with “Caucasus” running 1st, “King Pellinore” 2nd, and “Riot in Paris” running 3rd.

July 26, 1980, Joe Bowen finished his stilt walk from Los Angeles to Bowen in Powell County, the furthest distance ever walked on stilts, 2,985 miles.  He began the journey on February 20.

On July 26, 1985, Kentuckians learned about an unidentified animal called the “Possum Trot Muller” roaming the woods of Somerset.  The varmint could strip, chew, claw, and otherwise separate trees from their bark.  It got a hold of many.  The older locals nicknamed it and believed it to be a large cat or bear.

July 26, 1991, Aaron Jordan, 13, of Jessamine County gave his lamb a pep talk before they competed at the 4th annual lamb show at UK’s E.S. Good Barn.

Kentucky Trivia:  Originally a dairy barn, the E. S. Good Barn has been renovated several times to provide office space. In 1974, UK named it for Professor E. S. Good, head of Animal Husbandry and Animal Industries in the early twentieth century and active in the classroom until his death in 1958.

July 26, 2000, Jay Hinkle of the Americas Horse Council started to spread the word that the federal government wanted to help horsemen through the Mare Reductive Loss Syndrome (MRLS) deaths by providing low interest loans.  The money mostly benefited the small and younger breeders just starting their nurseries.

July 26, 2008, Commentator scored a dominant, front-running victory in the $750,000 Whitney Handicap at Saratoga Race Course with John Velazquez up.  “This is a good illustration to anyone – don’t ever give up,” said Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito, who also won the race with him in 2005.  Commentator joined five-time Horse of the Year Kelso and Discovery, both three-time winners, as the only repeat winners of the Whitney.

July 26, 2011, Lexington native Collin Cowgill made his MLB debut for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

On July 26, 2012, the Cincinnati Bengals ended a 15-year tradition, and Georgetown businesses adjusted without the team’s summer camp invading the community.  The NFL made rule changes giving players more downtime, and staff thought it best for the players to be closer to their homes instead of a dorm.  Meanwhile, the UK athletic department announced they had purchased software to track student-athletes’ Twitter accounts.

July 26, 2016, Don Edwards, a retired Lexington Herald-Leader columnist who chronicled life in the Bluegrass with passion, wit, and humor for 22 years passed on at 75.

On July 26, 2016, the Hillary Clinton campaign approved a proposal from her foreign policy advisors to vilify Donald Trump by “stirring up” a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security services.   This is according to the F.B.I.’s Durham Report.

July 26, 2018, Patrick Baker’s brother and sister-in-law hosted a political fundraiser for Governor M. Bevin in Corbin.  They raised $21,500 to retire a debt from the governor’s 2015 campaign.  Bevin then granted Patrick a pardon for a December 2019 viscous murder.  In January 2022, the feds sentenced Patrick to 39 years for the same murder with no parole.

On July 26, 2020, the White House doctor recommended Kentucky close bars and reduce restaurant capacity.  Governor A. Beshear then announced four new deaths.  He had already issued a mandatory mask order and limited gatherings to 10 or fewer people.  Meanwhile, N. Pelosi blasted the GOP for “stalling” the trillion dollar relief package, while President D. Trump extended the rent moratorium.

By July 26, 2021, the coronavirus had accelerated and intensified the Culture Wars as society grew more divisive and less patient.  Americans had no room for compromise, or so it seemed.  A culture war is a conflict between social groups and the struggle for dominance of their values, beliefs, and practices.

July 26, 2022, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission granted a Massachusetts company a license to race horses.  The minutemen planned to invest $55 million for a quarter horse racing facility / historical horse racing gambling venue near Ashland.  The commission awarded the state’s 9th horse racing license – only nine are allowed – to Revolutionary Racing Kentucky LLC.