Skip to content

TODAY IN KENTUCKY HISTORY

Kentucky Trivia ● Kentucky Tweets

Localtonians wish a Happy Anniversary to Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, who wed in 1806.  Their ceremony took place in the small community of Beechland, on the Little Beech River, and the Rev. Jesse Head officiated.

June 12, 1849, Louisville native Lewis Phectic Haslett received a patent for the gas mask.  Inhalation and exhalation occurred through two one-way clapper valves: one permitting the air to enter through a bulb-shaped filter, and the other permitting the exit of the air directly into the atmosphere.

Localtonians wish a Happy Anniversary to two-time Governor James B. McCreary and Catherine “Kate” Hughes, married in 1867.  Kate was the only daughter of a wealthy Fayette County farmer.  The couple had one son, Robert Hughes McCreary (1868-1932), who married Jessica Cornelia Newberry in 1892 and lived in Chicago.

June 12, 1875, Calvin won the 9th Belmont Stakes at Jerome Park, going 1 ½ miles in 2:42 ¼ to win $4,450 over 13 other entries.  Price McGrath, the winning owner and breeder, also owned the second-place finisher Aristides and the 4th place finisher Chesapeake.  August Belmont entered two.

June 12, 1900, Covington Police Department, Patrolman William McQuerry, died by one of two murder suspects he was attempting to arrest.  The murderer was later sentenced to life in the Kentucky Penitentiary at Frankfort and died while trying to escape in 1902.

June 12, 1908, Kentucky University officially changed their name to Transylvania University.

June 12, 1920, Man o’ War won the 52nd Belmont Stakes in a match race over Donnacona by 20 lengths setting a new world record of 2:14 1/3.  He beat the world record by 2 seconds and Sir Barton’s American record by three seconds.  Man o’ War won the Preakness a month earlier and, of course, didn’t run in the Derby.  Donnacona became only the 3rd horse in history to run in all three Triple Crown events.

June 12, 1922, Deputy Sheriff Charles A. Murchison, Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, died by a gunshot while attempting to arrest a man wanted for moonshining.

June 12, 1931, Fort Harrod State Park dedicated the Lincoln Marriage Temple 125 years after Abraham Lincoln’s parents wed.

June 12, 1933, Breathitt County Deputy Sheriff James Marshall died while walking a prisoner to the county jail in Jackson.  A group of men on a bridge shot him and then fled.

June 12, 1934, Washington County dedicated Lincoln Homestead Park, the site Abraham Lincoln’s grandfather settled in 1782.

Kentucky Trivia:  There are 34 significant statues in America dedicated to the legendary 16th president.  Four are in Kentucky: Louisville, Hodgenville, Frankfort, and Stanville in Floyd County.   In 2009, Stanville erected the newest Lincoln statue of the 34 on the list.  In 2019 it moved from Eric Conn’s law office to a Civil War battlefield.  

June 12, 1953, Army PFC Kaye D. Francis from Fayette County and Army PFC Clifton Hedgespeth from Taylor County died in the Korean War.

June 12, 1966, Army SGT Rene C. Lopez from Ft. Campbell in Christian County died in the Vietnam War.

June 12, 1969, Marine Corps PFC Thomas H. McStoots from Louisville and Army PFC Jake Osborne from Beattyville in Lee County died in the Vietnam War.

June 12, 1970, Army SGT Edward L. James II from Louisville died in the Vietnam War.

June 12, 1970, Janis Joplin and her newly formed band, Janis Joplin Full-Tilt Boogie, debuted in Freedom Hall.  It was the band’s first gig since they started rehearsing together a month and a half earlier.

June 12, 1971, the widow of Whitney M. Young, Jr. unearthed his body for reinternment in New York.  She wanted his body closer to her, and she objected to the “segregated nature of Greenwood cemetery in Lexington.  Mr. Young passed in March in Nigeria after a morning swim.

June 12, 1974, Ruffian ran her second race in Belmont in the 5.5F GIII Fashion Stakes, Jacinto Vasquez up.  Copernica, a bay daughter of Nijinsky II, should have been the favorite due to her previous wins, but the crowd sent Ruffian off as the first choice.  Also in the field was the unbeaten Jan Verzal, who was already a stakes winner, unlike Ruffian and Copernica.  As in her maiden race, Ruffian gained the lead in the first few strides and easily held off Copernica’s game challenge.  Winning by six and three-quarter lengths, Ruffian once again tied the track record.  Copernica, finishing second, was thirteen lengths ahead of the rest of the field and gave everything she had to the race.  Sadly, the brave little filly wasn’t the same horse after the Fashion Stakes.  Ruffian had broken her heart.

June 12, 1983, a federal grand jury continued to look into allegations of illegal gambling and cocaine trafficking centered on James P. Lambert, a long-time friend of Governor John Y. Brown.  The evidence came from cocaine, weapons, and personal papers confiscated from Lambert’s two Lexington homes weeks earlier.

June 12, 1993, the Harrison County Thorobreds blanked error-plagued Pleasure Ridge Park 6-0, to win the 53rd Kentucky State Baseball Championship.

June 12, 1997, Churchill officials found a sponge in the nostril of Early Conquest before a race.  Two days later, they found sponges in both nostrils of another horse.  Three days later Churchill Downs announced that a full exam of nostrils for sponges would occur before each race.  No other tracks have had a problem with saboteurs since the 1960s and the commission wanted to put an end to the problems at Churchill.

June 12, 1999, Danville’s Pioneer Playhouse launched their 50th season, the oldest outdoor theater in Kentucky.

June 12, 2001, Brigadoon State Nature Preserve in Barren County added 88 acres adjacent to the Barren River Lake for a total of 184 acres.

June 12, 2003, a federal judge blocked Louisville from enforcing most of its adult entertainment laws, including rules that prohibited nude and topless dancers from getting closer than three feet to customers or each other.  Some viewed the ruling as a win for free expression.

June 12, 2012, case #4, a 4-year-old colt died after racing.  Between November 4, 2011 and March 14, 2013, a 16 month period, Bob Baffert had seven horses die suddenly while racing or training at Hollywood Park’s main track.

June 12, 2020, UK students, faculty, administrators, and President Capilouto, gathered around the school’s health colleges to show support against healthcare inequality.  Donald Gillett II, executive director of the Kentucky Council of Churches, told the crowd to love others as they would love themselves and reform healthcare.  Two days earlier, Governor A. Beshear promised healthcare to all black Kentuckians.