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TODAY IN KENTUCKY HISTORY

Kentucky Trivia ● Kentucky Tweets

June 6, 1776, a meeting held in Fort Harrod elected George Rogers Clark and Gabriel John Jones to persuade the Virginia legislature to create a new county from Virginia’s extensive land holdings.

June 6, 1867, Danville native Theodore O’Hara died.  Theodore is best known for the poem “Bivouac of the Dead”, which is quoted in many cemeteries around the globe.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Mud River native William Anderson Alexander, born in 1889.  William was a college football legend.

June 6, 1896, heavy favorite, Margrave gave five pounds to his three competitors to win the 21st Preakness Stakes.  The 1 1/16 miles went in 1:51 to win $1,500.  Harry Griffin, from New York City, rode the winner.  The Belmont ran four days earlier and the Derby one month earlier.

June 6, 1919, Samuel D. Riddle’s Man o’ War made his racing debut at Belmont Park, going on a straight course of 5 furlongs against other two-year-olds.  Despite having jockey Johnny Loftus using much restraint throughout the race, Man o’ War won by a comfortable six lengths and made quite an impression in the papers.  Man o’ War won $500.00.  Just three days later he won his second race at odds of 7-10.

June 6, 1926, Deputy Constable Pete Miracle, Bell County Constable’s Office, died from a gunshot as he attempted to arrest a man he suspected of transporting illegal liquor.

June 6, 1930, Deputy Sheriff Ebb Gibson, Letcher County Sheriff’s Office, died from a gunshot while attempting to arrest a man in Mayking.  The man had stolen tools from a coal company.

June 6, 1931, Special Deputy Ed Stephens and Deputy Constable Posey Scott Floyd County Constable’s Office, died while attempting to arrest a suspect.  They encountered several members of the man’s family during the search and a shootout followed.

June 6, 1932, after a rape guilty verdict, Hardinsburg hanged Sam Jennings in public.  Between 1920 and 1938, a Kentucky statute permitted a jury to impose public hanging for the crime of rape.  This was the next to last public execution in America, the last being Rainey Bethea’s, carried out four years later in Owensboro.

June 6, 1936, Granville won the 68th Belmont Stakes by a nose over Mr. Bones going the 1 1/16 miles in 1:45 and earned $29,800.  Thirty-five days earlier he finished last in the Derby and on May 16th he finished 2nd in the Preakness.

June 6, 1944, Operation D-Day occurred on the beaches of Normandy, France.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Falmouth native Phillip Allen Sharp, born in 1944.  Dr. Sharp is a geneticist and molecular biologist who co-discovered RNA splicing.  He shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Richard J. Roberts.

June 6, 1951, Army PFC J.P. Melton from Wayne County, Army SFC Thomas P. Pettit from Grant County, and Army PFC Marvin W. Smith from Lincoln County, died in the Korean War.

June 6, 1956, Esker Carroll caught a state record Flathead Catfish weighing 97 pounds in the Green River.  The all-tackle world record stands at 123 pounds caught in the Elk City Reservoir in Kansas in 1998.

June 6, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated.

June 6, 1968, Army PFC Robert L. Smith from Smithland in Livingston County and Army MSG Clarence E. Hornbuckle, Jr., both died in the Vietnam War.

June 6, 1969, Army SP4 Ralph Honaker from Ivyton in Magoffin County and Army SGT James L. Todtenbier in Covington, died in the Vietnam War.

June 6, 1970, High Echelon won the 102nd Belmont Stakes worth $158,750 over nine others on a sloppy track.  Hall of Fame trainer Hirsch Jacobs died in January so his son took over for Echelon’s run at the Triple Crown series.  They ran 3rd in the Derby and 4th in the Preakness.

June 6, 1980, after denying knowledge of payments twice while governor, ex-governor Julian Carroll, refreshed his memory, in a courtroom, and remembered discussing the controversial payment.  The Paducah car dealer made the payment and received a state truck contact.  Carroll testified in the car dealer’s theft by deception trial that happened during his administration.

June 6, 1992, a Versailles native and Keeneland graduate won the 124th Belmont Stakes and earned $458,880.  A.P. Indy’s 2:26 was the 2nd-fastest time in the Belmont Stakes, just two seconds slower than his maternal grandsire Secretariat.  He is part of the only three-generation sequence of Belmont Stakes winners.  His sire Seattle Slew won the race in 1977, A.P. Indy in 1992, and his daughter Rags to Riches beat the boys in 2007.

June 6, 1996, Governor Martha Layne Collins accepted a new job with the University of Kentucky as Director of International Business and Management Center.  She left her job as president of St. Catherine College after six years.

June 6, 1998, Victory Gallop won the 130th Belmont Stakes, by a nose, in 2:29.16 to win $600,000.  Gary Stevens won his 2nd of three Belmonts on the Canadian bred in a thrilling classic.  Trainer Elliott Walden placed 2nd in the Derby and Preakness behind Real Quiet.

June 6, 2001, Kentucky coal industry officials, frustrated by what they said were 1,000 mine jobs they couldn’t fill, began to recruit from Ukraine.  Twenty men accepted terms to work in Kentucky.

June 6, 2003, a 4.5 magnitude earthquake hit 2 km north of Bardwell, Carlisle County, at 12:29 in the afternoon.

June 6, 2006, Lexington Legends starting pitcher Roger Clemens joined the Lexington Legend’s mascots and 8-year-old Jonah Dixon, a member of the Southwest Lexington Reds, for the National Anthem.

June 6, 2009, Kentucky bred Summer Bird paid $25.80 when he won the $1,000,000 Belmont Stakes.  The stewards disregarded an inquiry into the stretch run.  Summer Bird died in Japan due to colic at age seven.

June 6, 2015, eight colts ran in the 147th Belmont Stakes in Elmont, New York at the Belmont Park for a $1,500,000 purse.  Kentucky bred American Pharoah earned $800,000, the Triple Crown (TC), and became the 1st horse to win the TC since Affirmed in 1978.  The 12th TC winner ran in 2:26.65, the 6th-fastest of all time and the 2nd-fastest (following only Secretariat in 1973) amongst TC winners.

June 6, 2020, Stuart Chaifetz, an investigator for Showing Animals Respect & Kindness (SHARK), placed a call to the Kentucky State Police informing about a cockfight, in progress, in a barn behind Honest Abe’s bar at 303 Low Gap Road in Pine Knot.  A SHARK camera captured two State Police cars arriving at the cockfight scene––and then allowing 33 vehicles, primarily new-looking pickup trucks, to leave.

Kentucky Trivia:  Dogfighting is a felony under Kentucky law.  However, cockfighting is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail under the definition of second-degree cruelty to animals, “causing an animal to fight for pleasure or profit.” Cockfighting is a felony in Virginia and most other states, so cockfighters come to Kentucky because of the lesser charge.

June 6, 2021, a key Democratic Senator J. Manchin(W.VA) voted no for the largest overhaul of a U.S. election law in at least a generation, defying his party and the White House.  Proving once again the left wing and the right wing belong to the same beast; war, corporate capture, donor privilege, for profit healthcare, and election control.