Kentucky Trivia ● Kentucky Tweets

“June 21, 1761, four men left Alexandria for Kentucky.  They fought their way through the trackless western Virginian woods, across the deep stream, and over the mountainous crags to the rugged canyon of the Red River tributaries.”  For eight years, John Swift and his three friends mined, smelted, and left much of their silver ore behind for current day treasure hunters.  
The Kentucky by Thomas D. Clark pg: 33

June 21, 1781, Daniel Boone, represented the new Fayette County in Virginia’s General Assemble and presented a petition to the Virginia’s House of Representatives for Lexington to become an established town.  It would take another year but Lexington finally became official.

Localtonians wish a Happy Anniversary to President Zachary Taylor (25) who wed Margaret Smith near Louisville, in 1810.

June 21, 1875, the U.S. Post Office released the 1^st postage stamp to honor Zachary Taylor, who lived in Kentucky twice as long as Abe and four times as long as J. Davis.
It Happened Today In Kentucky History by Robert A. Powell pg: 66

June 21, 1893, Aristides passed away after winning the 1^st Kentucky Derby 18 years earlier.  Hal Price McGrath bred the chestnut with a white star and two hind stockings, foaled in 1872.  Aristides raced 21 times with nine wins, five places, and one show.  In 1988, Churchill Downs inaugurated the Aristides Stakes.  A life-sized bronze statue of Aristides, by Carl Regutti, stands at Churchill Downs Clubhouse Gardens as a memorial, one of two horse statutes on the grounds.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Ashland native Ann Rice O’Hanlon, born in 1908.  She painted the controversial historical Kentucky themed mural UK took down.

June 21, 1912, a particular refrigeration car built for the Lexington & Interurban Railway to ship products from the Elmendorf Dairy went into service.  In 1905, James Ben Ali Haggin of Elmendorf Farm began expanding his dairy cattle herd to replace his thoroughbreds.  Eventually, Haggin, in collaboration with UK, developed one of the nation’s leading “model” dairies.  This collaboration led to the development of the modern dairy industry.

June 21, 1919, Man o’ War, won the 7^th running of the Youthful Stakes at Jamaica Park going 5.5 furlongs in 1:06.60.  The purse was $5,000 and the winner took home $3,850.

June 21, 1930, Constable W. P. Damron, Pike County Constable’s Office, died from a gunshot while assisting two Kentucky game wardens investigate illegal fishing near Nigh.

June 21, 1940, Newport native and inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, John T. Thompson, died.

On June 21, 1945, high authorities said at a supreme headquarters conference in Paris, France, that the Allies had “very good evidence” Hitler was dead.  Meanwhile, in Kansas City, Dwight D. Eisenhower, General of the Army, and 53 members of his official party returned home from Europe in a grand affair.

June 21, 1945, David M. Look, owner of Castleton Farm died.  As a young child he attended private schools in Louisville.  After a successful business career, in 1913, David bought one of Fayette County’s grand estates from the Castleton family.

June 21, 1949, the University of Kentucky accepted enrollment of African-American students.  Among the first to register were Augustus Mack, center, vocational agriculture teacher at Douglass High School and to his left, Mrs. Arnetta Neal, Douglass elementary school principal.  Both entered the UK graduate school for Masters Degrees in education.

June 21, 1952, Army PFC William M. Bennett from Hardin County died in the Korean War.

June 21, 1956, Governor A. Chandler appointed Robert Humphreys as a Class II Senator.  After Senator W. Barkley’s death, the seat sat empty for 52 days.  Robert only served 138 days.

June 21, 1957, Constable Arlin Elvis Curneal, Hopkins County Constable’s Office, died in an automobile accident while pursuing a speeding vehicle.

June 21, 1964, Southgate’s Jim Bunning pitched MLB’s 7^th perfect game as a Philadelphia Philly, defeating the Mets 6-0 in the first game of a doubleheader at Shea Stadium.  A father of seven children at the time, Bunning pitched his perfect game on Father’s Day.  It was the first regular-season perfect game since 1922 (a perfect game occurred in the 1956 World Series).  He faced 27 batters, no one reached base, struck out ten, and threw only 89 pitches or fewer than ten an inning.  As the perfect game developed, Bunning defied the baseball superstition that no one should talk about a no-hitter in progress, speaking to his teammates about the perfect game to keep himself relaxed and loosen up his teammates.  Bunning had abided by the tradition during a near-no hitter a few weeks before, determining afterward that keeping quiet didn’t help.  South Portsmouth native John Stephenson was Bunning’s last strikeout of the game.  He was the only person to throw a perfect game and serve in the U.S. Senate.

Kentucky Trivia:  Senator Bunning is one of four Kentuckians in the Baseball Hall of Fame.  He is the only Kentucky pitcher to be inducted.

June 21, 1967, Army SSG Billy J. Watkins from Paducah died in the Vietnam War.

June 21, 1968, Army SGT William L. Law from Greenup and Marine Corps James L. Luttrell from Owensboro, died in the Vietnam War.

June 21, 1974, local officials held groundbreaking ceremonies for Lexington Center/Rupp Arena.

June 21, 1975, Ruffian won the Coaching Club American Oaks (GI).

June 21, 1987, Dayton native Todd Benzinger made his MLB debut for the Boston Red Sox.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Lawrenceburg native Tyler Childers, born in 1991.

In testimony before Congress on June 21, 1994, the FDA accused Brown & Williamson of knowingly manipulating nicotine levels in some of its cigarettes.  B&W chairman Thomas Sandefur rejected the claim, stating that “the brands that use Y1 deliver essentially the same nicotine as the products they replaced” and accused the FDA of “grandstanding” for political purposes.  Several members of Congress suggested that this proved that tobacco executives committed perjury when they denied knowing smoking was addictive in their April 1994 testimony before Congress.

June 21, 1994, Columbia native Lance Burton opened his $27 million production in the 274-seat Lance Burton Theater in Monte Carlo Resort in Las Vegas.  Entertainment Today magazine listed it as the #1 family magic act, and during its 13-year run, Burton earned an estimated $110 million.

June 21, 1999, Conservation Officer Bernard Dean Ratliff, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, suffered a fatal heart attack after participating in his agency’s physical fitness program.

June 21, 2000, for only the 3^rd time in Kentucky history, the Judicial Conduct Commission removed a state judge, District Judge William R. Woods, from his bench.

June 21, 2001, Kentucky lawmakers made the Appalachian dulcimer the official musical instrument of Kentucky.

Kentucky Trivia:  The dulcimer first appeared in the early 19th century among Scotch-Irish immigrant communities in the Appalachians.  Historians speculate that early settlers were unable to craft the more complex, dramatically curved violin, due to a lack of tools and time.  The dulcimer has acquired a number of nicknames including “harmonium,” “hog fiddle,” “music box,” “harmony box,” and “mountain zither.”

June 21, 2004, Marine Lance CPL Deshon E. Otey 24, of Hardin, died in Iraq fighting in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

June 21, 2008, Andy Pelphrey from Stambaugh caught a state record Blacknose Dace weighing 0.008 lbs. in Hood Creek in Lawrence County.

June 21, 2013, Andy Pelphrey from Stambaugh caught a state record Spottail Shiner weighing 0.01 lbs. in Paintsville Lake.

June 21, 2019, disgraced Social Security disability attorney Eric Conn lost his prized replica of the Lincoln Memorial that sat in his office parking lot, the center of the largest Social Security fraud investigation in U.S. history.  A local businessman donated the statue to Floyd County and placed it in the Middle Creek National Battlefield, a civil war battlefield near Prestonsburg.

Kentucky Trivia:  Floyd County Judge Executive Robbie Williams stated the statue was worth about $200,000 and would cost $30,000 to prepare the site and move it.  The statue has been called the ‘Second Largest Seated Lincoln Statue in the World;’ after the Memorial on the National Mall.  However, the seated Lincoln statue in Boise, Idaho, is taller at 9 feet without a base.

On June 21, 2020, restaurants faced new issues as they began to reopen; however, Keeneland canceled Picnic with Pops, and the unemployed dealt with their benefits ending.

June 21, 2021, the Teachers’ Retirement System of Kentucky approved a new set of assumptions about the future that will add $3 billion in unfunded liability to its books and require as much as $200 million more annually from the state budget.

On June 21, 2021, Jonathan Webb, founder, and CEO of AppHarvest, opened two new facilities in Pulaski and Rowan counties.  AppHarvest, the company working to create indoor food-growing facilities in Kentucky, wants 12 sites producing vegetables and fruits by the end of 2025; they are halfway there.