On July 29, 1826, horsemen organized the Kentucky Association “to improve the breed of horses by encouraging the sports of the turf.” They held their 1st race in October at Williams Race Course, now the Lexington Cemetery. The Squire’s Sketches of Lexington by J. Winston Coleman, Jr. pg: 34
July 29, 1893, Town Marshal Andrew J. Blunk, Parkland Police Department , died arresting a man on a warrant. The Marshal’s murderer would probably have escaped with his life had not the 18-year-old son of the marshal avenged his father’s death on sight.
July 29, 1894, Officer William W. Weathered, Lexington Police Department , died from a gunshot while attempting to arrest a drunk man near South Broadway and Bolivar Street.
July 29, 1920, staging an 8th inning rally, the Louisville Colonels beat the St. Paul Saints 8-7 in Louisville in the 3rd game of the series. When the umpire called a St. Paul player out at home, in the 9th inning, a riot broke out, the stands emptied, and, many assaulted the umpire. The police had to be called to the stadium to stop the violence.
July 29, 1933, Sheriff Willie McKinley Winningham, Clinton County Sheriff’s Department , died while serving a warrant on a man in the highway community. Sheriff Winningham got shot in the man’s home with a .38 caliber handgun; however, Sheriff Winningham, alone at the time, returned fire and killed the suspect.
July 29, 1948, President H. Truman told of his vision of the eventual end of segregation of blacks in the Army and Navy.
July 29, 1950, Army SGT Bish Boggs from Laurel County , Army PFC James T. Brammer from Rowan County , Army PFC Ernest Gray from Hancock County, and Army PVT Leslie B. Latham from Hopkins County , died in the Korean War.
July 29, 1962, a federal court fined four defendants in a Chicago-Louisville horse race scratch-sheet operation $17,000 . They broke a new law banning the inter-state shipment of gambling material.
July 29, 1967, Army CPL Ervil T. Bray from Somerset , Navy SN William D. Collins from Paris , Marine Corps CPL Lee R. Taylor from Coalgood in Harlan County, and Navy AN Kerry D. Wisdom from Princeton in Caldwell County , died in the Vietnam War.
July 29, 1968, Army PFC Paul D. Aton from Franklin in Simpson County died in the Vietnam War.
July 29, 1970, the Army announced plans to sink nearly 3,000 tons of obsolete nerve gas rockets encased in concrete and steel coffins in the Atlantic Ocean, 250 miles of the Florida coast.
On July 29, 1974, Jim Host, publisher and president of Inside Kentucky Sports, Inc., announced Inside Kentucky Sports ceased the monthly publication format and would continue as a periodical, publishing special editions as deemed appropriate. The magazine started in 1972.
July 29, 1975, the EPA banned the pesticides chlordane and heptachlor .
Friday night, July 29, 1977, about 65 die-hard Elvis fans began to camp out at Rupp Arena to buy tickets that went on sale Sunday . The 10,400 tickets cost $5 to $15, and each person could buy ten. Rupp Arena expected 10,000 people to stand in line with an expected sellout time at noon; however, they sold out that evening. Elvis died on August 16; and he scheduled the Rupp concert on August 23.
July 29, 1985, astronaut Franklin Story Musgrave, who considers Lexington his hometown , returned to Earth from the Space Shuttle Program’s 19th flight and the Space Shuttle Challenger’s 8th flight.
July 29, 1986, Detective Jack S. Deuser, Jefferson County Police Department , died from electrocution when he dived into a creek to save a woman already electrocuted.
July 29, 1990, UK paid a Washington lobbying firm nearly $700,000 to help win special congressional legislation for a new research center. Senator W. Ford commented, “I really don’t know much about it; you will have to ask UK if they got their money worth.”
July 29, 1999, fourteen UK anthropology students wrapped up a five-week dig at the Boone Station State Historic Site in rural southern Fayette County . The Boone family settled the land about six miles from Fort Boonesborough after the fort became too crowded.
On July 29, 2000, George W. Bush, near the Louisville Slugger Museum, told rained-soaked Kentuckians that he would be the first Republican presidential nominee to carry the state since his father won the eight electoral votes in 1988. The high school and college cheerleader also campaigned in Owensboro and Covington.
U.S. Trivia: Four U.S. Presidents who were cheerleaders: 1. President Franklin Roosevelt was a cheerleader for Harvard College from 1900 to 1903. 2. President Eisenhower cheered for West Point Academy. 3. President Reagan cheered at Eureka College. 4. President George W. Bush rose to head cheerleader at Phillips Academy his senior year of high school in the 1960s and then cheered for Yale from 1964-68.
July 29, 2000, a Kentucky bred and Keeneland graduate won Delmar’s GII $207,000 Bing Crosby Stakes for three-year-olds and upward.
On July 29, 2003, Governor Jeb Bush, in his second term, arrived in Kentucky to campaign for Ernie Fletcher’s run for governor. President Bush helped the doctor at a later date. Ernie won six months later; however, Steve Beshear beat him soundly in his 2007 reelection bid. Jeb dropped out of politics when Donald Trump told him to be quiet and made a comment about all of Jeb’s corporate donors in a 2016 Republican debate.
On July 29, 2016, federal authorities released 67-year-old Stan Curtis from prison after serving his time. Presidents, mayors, and A-list celebrities appeared at his events when he asked. Curtis played a crucial role in landing Louisville’s 1st PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in 1996.
July 29, 2017, the Derby and Preakness winners battled in Saratoga’s GII $588,000 Jim Dandy Stakes for three-year-olds. A Kentucky bred won.
July 29, 2020, housing advocates asked Governor A. Beshear not to lift the eviction moratorium, possibly causing 220,000 Kentuckians to go homeless. Meanwhile, the governor announced 619 (28,727) new cases and five new deaths (724). The ages of those new deaths ranged from 58 to 87. Also, the governor told the press that Rich Storm was no longer the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources Commissioner, which started a long legal battle.
On July 29, 2023, a Kentucky bred won Saratoga’s $500,000 GII Jim Dandy Stakes for three-year-olds.