June 13, 1775, with the main fort nearly finished, D. Boone set out to Snody’s Station in Virginia to bring his family back to Boonesborough. Richard Callaway and Thomas Hart accompanied him for the same reason. A group of men also hiked for the sole purpose to bring salt back they had to abandon on an earlier trip.
Kentucky Trivia: In 1810, Tennessee produced 801,245 gallons of distilled spirits, Pennsylvania 6,552,284, Virginia 2,367,589, Kentucky 2,220,773, North Carolina 1,386,691 gallons and Ohio 1,212,266.
June 13-17, 1800, near the present-day community of Schochoh of Adairville in Logan County, Presbyterian minister James McGready began a normal sacramental service that turned into a multi-day revival at the Red River Meeting House. Word spread of the Holy Spirit being present and hundreds arrived from a 100-mile radius and many were said to be “slain in the spirit.” The crowd grew so large that the meeting was moved outdoors to hear McGready, John Rankin, William Hodge, and brothers John and William McGee preach.
June 13, 1874, Saxon won the 8th Belmont Stakes by a neck over eight others. The 1 ½ miles went in 2:39 ½ and earned $4,200. Belmont Park made their first distance change from a 1 5/8; however, they would continue experimenting with other distances. The first Derby would be the following year.
Tuesday, June 13, 1889, Eric beat two others and won the 23rd Belmont Stakes, going 1 ½ miles in 2:47 ¼ for $4,960. For 16 years, the distance was 1 ½, but it would change again in 1890. This would be the last year Jerome Park would host the race.
Friday, June 13, 1913, Henry Payne Whitney’s Prince Eugene beat August Belmont’s Rock View and three other entries to win the 45th Belmont Stakes. The distance was 1 3/8 miles and went in 2:18 to set a new track record. Mr. Whitney received $2,825. There was no legal gambling for this Belmont Stakes due to the Hart-Agnew Bill that banned all NY gambling.
June 13, 1926, Deputy Sheriff James Robert “Bob” Wright, Letcher County Sheriff Office, died from a gunshot as he, a prohibition officer, and several other deputies served a search a warrant at a boarding house in Burdine.
June 13, 1931, Twenty Grand beat two others to win the 63rd Belmont Stakes. The 1 ½ miles went in 2:29 1/3 and earned $58,770. Twenty Grand placed 2nd in the Preakness which ran 34 days earlier and won the Derby a week after the Preakness.
On June 13, 1944, the Keeneland Association leased its grounds and facilities to the Breeders’ Sales Company. The company dismantled its 1929 sales arena and moved it to Keeneland from its Paris Pike location.
June 13, 1968, the gray squirrel became the state wild animal game species.
June 13, 1969, Marine Corps PFC Kenneth R. Harris from Grays Knob in Harlan County died in the Vietnam War.
June 13, 1970, A.E. Sellers of Louisville set a state fishing record by catching a 7 lbs. 10 ozs. Kentucky Bass. Also known as a Spotted Bass, it is our state fish. In Kentucky, adult spotted bass are commonly 8 to 15 inches in length, weighing 2 lbs. and 8 ozs. Mr. Sellers caught the bass in a farm pond. It’s believed that the fish got trapped in the pond by receding floodwaters, where it grew to such enormous size.
On June 13, 1971, around 75,000 people watched the Unlimited Hydroplane Kentucky Governor’s Cup from the banks of the Ohio River in Owensboro. Bill Muncey took the $7,000 grand prize home.
On June 13, 1972, the National Register of Historic Places added the Glen Willis home in Frankfort. In the 1790s, Willis Atwell Lee constructed a double log cabin and bestowed the name “Glen Willis” on it.
By Jwarf2June 13, 1980, corporate nursing home executives attacked Dr. Grady Stumbo, Secretary for the Department of Human Resources. The Courier-Journal exposed neglect and abuse in several Kentucky nursing homes, and Dr. Stumbo made some changes to improve residents’ lives. However, the corporate nursing home executives claimed the state acted illegally and attacked Stumbo personally.
June 13, 1995, a rate increase by Kentucky’s largest health insurer, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Kentucky, violated a promise they made a year earlier not raise rates. “We have raised questions on two or three issues and none of them have been answered,” Insurance Commissioner Don Stephens stated.
Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Lexington native DeVore Ledridge, born in 2001. DeVore rose to fame as a teen starring as Amelia in the Disney television series Bizaardvark. She created a popular YouTube channel, and 2.6 million fans follow her on TikTok.
June 13, 2003, Western Kentucky reported the first case of Monkeypox in the state. The woman had handled prairie dogs.
June 13, 2003, one miner working for the Cody Mining Company died in an underground explosion in McDowell, Floyd County. After the investigation, federal authorities stated the company ran its #1 mine in an “appalling and egregiously unsafe manner.” Cody Mining received 71 citations and fined $4.2 million.
June 13, 2007, Chief of Police Randy Lacy, Clay City Police Department, died when a prisoner was sitting in the back seat of his patrol car. The chief was transporting a prisoner for driving under the influence of alcohol. The prisoner produced a gun and shot the chief in the back of the head.
June 13, 2015, Paducah native Mike Broadway made his MLB debut with the San Francisco Giants.
June 13, 2021, the Lexington Herald-Leader spotlighted Ryan Sullivan from his Los Angles clothing business. It started as a Henry Clay High School project and turned into a $1.6 million clothing company thanks to TikToK and hard work.
June 13, 2022, Kentucky released the 2021 Drug Overdose Report claiming that 2,250 Kentuckians died from drug overdoses in 2021, a 14.5% increase compared with 2020. The U.S. reported more than 107,000 overdose deaths between December 2020 to December 2021. Isolated locals mandated by virus restrictions with a rise of Fentanyl use drove the morbid stats.
On June 13, 2023, many members of Congress grilled Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, accusing her of misrepresenting vaccine effectiveness. James Comer quickly turned the conversation to social media censorship of vaccine information. During the pandemic, many social platforms, such as Facebook, banned vaccine “misinformation,” which turned out to be true. Comer also accused the Biden administration of promoting misinformation by saying vaccines would prevent all hospitalizations and deaths, which was not valid.