Kentucky Trivia ● Kentucky Tweets

June 25, 1830, Ephraim McDowell, physician and surgeon who introduced pioneering techniques in abdominal surgery passed away in Danville.

June 24, 1842, Lexingtonian Thomas Marshall dueled James Webb, editor of the New York Courier and Enquirer in Delaware.  Marshall challenged, and on the second exchange of shots, wounded Col. Webb in the left knee, which lamed him for life.  The challenged man chose pistols at ten paces.
Famous Kentucky Duels by J. Winston Coleman, Jr.; pg:143

June 25, 1876, Madison County native Private Thomas W. Stivers was one of twenty-four men awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

June 25, 1888, Constable Sadosa Connellee, Scott County Constable’s Office, died from a gunshot while attempting to serve a summons regarding an unpaid debt.

June 25, 1890, Isaac Burns Murphy raced in the most memorable contest of his life.  Matched against a white counterpart, jockey Ed “Snapper” Garrison, the race would settle the debate about which rider was the better jockey in a match race with definite racial overtones.  Murphy won in a race so close it is known to be one of the first “photo finishes” in horse racing history.  Murphy’s popularity soon fell after this race.

June 25, 1903, Deputy Marshal Gus Hall, Olive Hill Police Department, died while attempting to serve a warrant on a man wanted for stealing tools.  The suspect opened fire on Deputy Marshal Hall with a shotgun, killing him.

June 25, 1903, Stony Point native author John Fox Jr. published The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come, his wildly popular book that became one of the first American novels to sell more than a million copies.  Fox attended Transylvania University before graduating from Harvard in 1883 at age 20.

June 25, 1931, Deputy Sheriff Hugh H. Bryant, Morgan County Sheriff’s Office, was shot and killed in Morehead while intervening in an incident involving a drunk and disorderly man.

June 25, 1941, Officer William Paul Ketron, Nicholasville Police Department, died while investigating the shooting of a man that had been reported an hour earlier.  He and the police chief had gone to the suspect’s home to question him.  As Officer Ketron walked around the back of the home the suspect fired a shot from inside, killing him.

June 25, 1947, the Keeneland Foundation dedicated and “permanently loaned” an electron microscope to the UK for research.  The state used the microscope, the latest development in its field, and the only one in Kentucky, for bacteriological and other research.

June 25, 1950, the Korean War began.

June 25, 1967, Army PFC Ottis Reed from Meta from Pike County died in the Vietnam War.

June 25, 1968, Army SFC Roberto Braghini from Radcliff and Army SP4 Charles C. Sales from Owensboro, and Army PFC Phillip M. Weddington from Valley Station in Jefferson County, died in the Vietnam War.

June 25, 1969, Army SP4 Barry N. Thompson from Coxs Creek in Nelson County died in the Vietnam War.

June 25, 1970, Army SP4 Osborne Mattingly, Jr. from California in Campbell County and Marine Corps CPL David M. Walters from Sadieville in Scott County, died in the Vietnam War.

June 25, 1980, Congress ended a long and heated fight over peace-time draft registration and gave President Carter enough money to sign up an estimated 4 million young men in the weeks ahead.

June 25, 1993, Louisville football coach Howard Schnellenberger, left, and Kentucky football coach Bill Curry at a news conference announced that the two schools had finally agreed to play each other after a seven-decade absence.

On June 25, 1996, Cornelia Serpell resigned from the Legislative Ethics Commission, the 3^rd member to quit in a week, over lawmakers’ changes that weakened the watchdog panel’s authority.  Meanwhile, a Frankfort mom gave birth to a 10-pound, 13-ounce boy.

June 25, 1998, Louisville native Matt Anderson made his MLB debut for the Detroit Tigers.

June 25, 2008, a workplace shooting occurred at an Atlantis Plastics factory in Henderson.

Effective June 25, 2013, the Kentucky Long Rifle was named and designated the official gun of the Commonwealth.  

Effective June 25, 2013, Clark County, was named and designated as the birthplace of beer cheese.

Effective June 25, 2013, Ale-8-One is named and designated as an original Kentucky soft drink.

June 25, 2015, continuing a record-setting recent run of draft picks, six more Wildcats are selected in the 2015 NBA Draft, tying UK’s own 2012 record mark.  Karl-Anthony Towns becomes the third UK player in program history to go No. 1, and an NBA-record-tying four Wildcats are taken in the lottery.

Localtonians wish a Happy Anniversary to Jordan Smith and Kristen Denny, who wed in 2016 in Middlesboro.

June 25, 2018, Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest received the 2018 American Public Gardens Association’s Operational Sustainability Award.  The award recognizes “outstanding dedication and achievements in promoting sustainability through programs, operation, facilities and/or research.”

June 25, 2018, Lexington native Tyler Clippard received his World Series ring.

On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Loretta Lynn among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.

June 25, 2020, Governor A. Beshear announced eight more people died from coronavirus for a new total of 546.  The ages of three of the dead were 63, 69, 89, and 377 were hospitalized at the time.  Also, in Frankfort that day, Capitol protestors demanded justice for Breonna Taylor.  Meanwhile, a federal judge ruled the governor went “too far” in limiting in-person protests at the Capitol during the coronavirus protest.

On June 25, 2021, Lexington became the 2^nd Kentucky city to ban no-knock warrants.  Meanwhile, in Eastern Kentucky, the Christian Appalachian Project had a giveaway at Lawrence County High School in Louisa due to recent floods and the coronavirus lockdowns.  It was the 8^th distribution event for the organization, and it was a larger turnout than expected.