On June 17, 1781, locals constituted Severn’s Valley Baptist Church with 17 members in Hardin County. This church is the oldest Baptist congregation to exist continuously west of the Allegany mountains.
Localtonians wish a Happy Anniversary to Jefferson Davis (29) and Sarah Knox Taylor (21), who wed in 1835 in Louisville. Sarah was President Z. Taylor’s daughter and part of the notable Lee Family. She died three months later of malaria.
Localtonians wish a Happy Anniversary to Martin van Buren Bates and Anna Haining Swan, who wed in 1871. The ceremony occurred at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, drawing thousands of people hoping to attend the wedding. Their notoriety caused Queen Victoria to give them two extra-large diamond-studded gold watches as a wedding gift. The “The Kentucky Giant” was 7’ 9” tall (some accounts add two more inches) and the bride 7’ 5 1/2” tall.
June 17, 1883, Town Marshal George Freeman, Versailles Police Department, died by a gunshot by two brothers who held a grudge against him. They alleged that the marshal killed their brother a year earlier.
June 17, 1905, Missouri outlawed betting. The law explicitly prohibited the recording or registering of bets. However, in St. Louis, Delmar continued racing, declaring it would not be responsible for any betting. The Delmar bookies circumvented the felony by a system where the number on the admission badge identified bettors.
June 17, 1906, Sysonby died in his stall at Sheepshead Bay Racetrack of septic poisoning. Some 4,000 attended his funeral following a day of racing at the historic track. He won 14-15 lifetime starts.
June 17, 1909, Chief of Detectives Frank B. Stiggers, Kentucky Railroad Police, died from gunshot in Louisville, while speaking with a man who had threatened another railroad detective the previous day.
Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Blue Lick native and Hall of Famer, Clyde Julian “Red” Foley, born in 1910.
Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Annville native David Akeman aka Stringbean, born in 1915 in Jackson County.
June 17, 1922, two U.S. Army Fliers died in an Air Circus over Bowman Field after their planes crashed to the ground in flames. Over 3,000 spellbound spectators witnessed the tragedy. Soldiers and civilians suffered blistered faces trying to save the two men. The event raised money for the Waverly Hills Sanatorium.
June 17, 1927, Deputy Sheriff Philip Mark Daniels, Bell County Sheriff’s Department, died from a gunshot while investigating a disturbance at the Southern Mining Company camp in Insull.
June 17, 1932, Deputy Sheriff William Hamilton, Floyd County Sheriff’s Office, died while investigating the sounds of gunfire coming from a home in Pikeville. When he approached the homeowner and inquired about the gunshots the owner told him he was firing at a rat.
June 17, 1953, Army PFC, Harold F. Patterson from Henderson died in the Korean War.
On June 17, 1957, the legendary Smiley Pete died around 9:00 p.m. Born in 1943, speculated to be a mix of spitz, shepherd, and bird dog, he came to downtown Lexington around 1946 after his owner, rumored to be a traveling man, gave up trying to keep the wandering pup still. He set up his new home on the sidewalk between Welch’s Cigar Store and Brandy’s Kitchen on the east corner of Main and Limestone Streets, where the courthouse sits today. Smiley Pete would travel up and down the downtown streets, crossing busy intersections up to 50 times a day, without a care.
Localtonians wishes a Happy Birthday to Lexington native Dermontti Farra Dawson, born in 1965.
June 17, 1967, Army PFC William A. Dishman from Louisville died in the Vietnam War.
June 17, 1971, Army CPL Michael E. Ball from Newport died in the Vietnam War.
June 17, 1972, President R. Nixon had his peeps bug the Democratic National Headquarters in the Watergate Hotel.
June 17, 1990, over 1,700 people filed through the Capitol Rotunda to pay their final respects to Happy Chandler. Happy wore a grey suit and his customary Kentucky Wildcat tie.
June 17, 1991, the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery made national news when they exhumed Zachary Taylor’s remains to determine if poisoning caused his death and not an intestinal ailment as previously thought. A historian requested the exhumation. According to one theory, Zachary Taylor died suddenly by poison in 1850 because his political opponents knew Taylor wanted lands taken from Mexico in the U.S.-Mexican War to be free states.
June 17, 2004, Constable Steven Lloyd Hutchinson, Grayson County Constable’s Office, was struck and killed by a vehicle while attempting to apprehend a juvenile suspect at 2348 hours.
June 17, 2009, Robert Marsh from Erlanger caught a state record Grass Carp that weighed 58 lbs., 8 ozs. The record came from Forest Lawn Lake in Kenton County.
During a live online chat on June 17, 2013, an identified person (Edward Snowden) told/warned the public that U.S. authorities have access to phone calls, e-mails, and other communications far beyond constitutional bounds.
June 17, 2017, Venus Ramey Murphy passed away.
June 17, 2019, part of an O.Z. Tyler Distillery brickhouse collapsed. No one was hurt.
June 17, 2020, hundreds lined up to talk to a human in Frankfort about their unemployment benefits after the system crashed due to coronavirus shutdowns.
June 17, 2021, a group of lawyers received permission to continue their lawsuit against Keeneland and The Red Mile over their losses on historical racing machines. They decided to sue after the Kentucky Supreme Court said the machines were illegal because it was not pari-mutuel.
On Friday, June 17, 2022, United Kingdom’s Home Secretary Priti Patel signed an order to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the U.S. to face espionage charges, in a decision his organization said marked a “dark day for press freedom.” Wikileaks asserted that Assange “committed no crime and is not a criminal,” adding that he is a “journalist and a publisher” who “is being punished for doing his job.”
On June 17, 2023, Thomas Massie stirred the pot criticizing the 2024 elephant nominee for president, “Trump is using words like one might use a laser pointer with a cat. He said “voting” but media reports as if he said “voted.” He says “or worse” because he knows the $16M fine has been removed and the censure will be reintroduced. He wants to look like a boss if/when it passes.” The issue: Trump’s obsession with censoring his main D.C. nemesis, Adam Schiff, main pusher of the fake Steele Dossier. A Trump supporter responded to Massie, “You’re a cowardly, spineless traitor. You think we give AF about a censure with zero punishment? You’re a bad joke. LOSER!”