Kentucky Trivia
Don’t own so much clutter that you will be relieved to see your house catch fire. Wendell Berry
August 6, 1801, Edward West, who had 1st exhibited his miniature steamboat on the waters of the Town Branch in 1793 , showed a vastly improved model. The following year he would receive a patent. The Squire’ s Sketches of Lexington by J. Winston Coleman, Jr.; pg: 24
On August 6, 1855, Kentucky held an election, later known as Bloody Monday , all due to anti-immigrant sentiment . In one of Louisville’s darkest days, rumors started that foreigners and Catholics had interfered with the voting process. Therefore, the American Know-Nothing Party formed mobs, positioned themselves at various polling places, and started two bloody riots. The 1st riot occurred in the German district at 4 p.m. in the 1st Ward on Louisville’s east end. The 2nd riot occurred from 6 p.m. until midnight in the Irish 8th Ward in the west end. Officially, 22 individuals died; however some estimates place the number much higher.
August 6, 1923, Miss Chloe Gifford passed the bar, the only female graduate of UK’s law school . Meanwhile, Governor Morrow returned from a Wisconsin fishing trip at Camp Tenderfoot on Tenderfoot Lake. The governor and his party enjoyed lavish entertainment at the millionaire summer colony.
August 6, 1932, Deputy Sheriff Frank Bowman, Bell County Sheriff’s Department , died while arresting two men for being drunk in public. Deputy Bowman told them to walk the railroad tracks and leave; instead, one man turned around and shot him. They arrested the subject, convicted him of manslaughter, and sentenced him to 10 years. He paroled in 1940 and died from a gunshot blast in 1947.
On August 6, 1941, Lexington expected record crowds for the traveling circus for a one night two performance stay . The festivities would open with a late morning parade of 40 animals, horse-drawn floats, and music. The 1st show began at 2:30 pm and the 2nd at 8:00 pm.
August 6, 1950, Army PVT Manuel H. Neff from Harrison County died in the Korean War.
August 6, 1954, state officials expressed concern over Frankfort’s plans to lease the northwest section of the Old Capitol grounds for a 150-car parking lot. Governor L. Weatherby agonized, and the Filson Club urged him to stop the “desecration.” The grounds had been a public square for 168 years.
Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to London native James Darrell Scott , born in 1959.
August 6, 1966, Army PFC Douglass A. Johnson from Vine Grove in Hardin County and Army SP4 Lawrence J. Peak from Louisville , died in the Vietnam War.
August 6, 1966, Muhammad Ali (25-0) fought Brian London (35-13) in Earls Court Arena, London . The “Blackpool Tower,” possessed mediocre boxing skills and lost three times before facing Ali. Ingemar Johansson had said London would have struggled to beat his sister. Ali toyed with him for a couple rounds before knocking him unconscious in the 3rd round at Dundee’s insistence.
August 6, 1967, Marine Corps LCPL Bobby R. Mefford from Russellville in Logan County died in the Vietnam War.
August 6, 1969, Army SP4 Roy L. Felty from Brooklyn in Butler County died in the Vietnam War.
On August 6, 1972, a racial disturbance involving an estimated 300 to 400 prisoners broke out at the Kentucky State Reformatory near LaGrange . An equal number of blacks and whites went head to head in the courtyard. The riot stopped after guards shot three prisoners.
August 6, 1975, Governor J. Carroll picked D.W. Harrison to head the New Department of Energy .
For the most part, on August 6, 1977, Kentuckians came together for the annual Fancy Farm picnic . The crowd seemed more focused on the tons of barbecue and fresh garden vegetable than the politicking. One memorable comment, “All Gable could see was a dollar sign and strip mining the Daniel Boone National Forest.”
August 6, 1977, Nearly On Time, ridden by Steve Cauthen, won the 50th running of the Whitney Stakes as three-time Horse of the Year Forgo finished last.
August 6, 1984, Kentucky Chief Justice Robert F. Stephens swore in a robot as a Kentucky State Trooper with badge #219 . The Chevron Corporation donated the $14,750 robot, which taught traffic safety in Kentucky schools.
August 6, 1985, for the 2nd time in four years MLB players went on strike . The 1981 strike lasted 50 days.
August 6, 1994, Bill Clinton finally made it to Fancy Farm’s political picnic in the form of a life-size cutout. Mitch offered a quarter to any politician that wanted their picture taken with the president. Senator W. Ford and Governor P. Patton obliged within 10 seconds. Candidates running for offices across the nation shunned the president who helped kill America’s middle class with NAFTA.
August 6, 2002, workers covered Churchill’s fabled 107-year-old twin spires from view for renovation repairs after they discovered water damage. Two weeks before the Derby, track officials noticed the kingpole above the north tower leaning to the south.
August 6, 2005, Marine Lance CPL Chase J. Comley, 21, of Lexington , died fighting in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
August 6, 2010, the race heard around the world ran . Usain Bolt experienced his 1st defeat in two years after Lexington native Tyson Gay beat him at 100 meters in Stockholm.
Saturday, August 6, 2011, it takes a 3rd party candidate to tell it like it is . Gatewood Galbreath let corporate lawyer turned politician, Governor S. Beshear, have it and held nothing back.
August 6, 2013, Deputy Sheriff Chad Shaw, McCracken County Sheriff’s Office , suffered a fatal heart attack following an arrest earlier in the day. Deputy Shaw had responded to an automobile accident, where he discovered one of the drivers had an active warrant. He placed the driver into custody and completed the arrest, but collapsed a short time later.
On August 6, 2016, with Kentucky’s few remaining statewide Democratic officeholders skipping Fancy Farm , Senator Rand Paul’s challenger, Lexington Mayor Jim Gray, launched an aggressive campaign by himself. However, most locals cared more about Walking Dead Day in Cynthiana to welcome home the show’s creator Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore, both Kentucky natives.
August 6, 2016, a Keeneland graduate trifecta won Saratoga’s GI $500,000 Test Stakes for three-year-old fillies.
On August 6, 2020, President D. Trump predicted that an experimental vaccine would be available by November 9; his critics said that was too hopeful . Senator J. Biden sounded vaccine-hesitant and believed the new drug would “not likely to go through all the tests that need to be and the trials that are required.” Meanwhile, Governor A. Beshear informed Kentuckians the Kentucky State Fair would be closed to the general public, and extended the mask-wearing mandate. He did not know what would happen for the September 5 Kentucky Derby.
August 6, 2021, all Kentucky universities and colleges required masks on campus for the fall 2021 semester , regardless of vaccine status, due to the Delta variant. Additionally, the Railbird Music Festival announced all attendees must be vaccinated or have tested negative within 72 hours.
August 6, 2022, U.S. Senate candidate Charles Booker and Kentucky Attorney General, and candidate for governor, Daniel Cameron spoke at the 142nd annual St. Jerome’s Fancy Farm. In keeping with the Commonwealth’s increasingly GOP electorate, they also had more speakers. Unlike last year, though, a few Blue candidates invited to attend showed up. Fancy Farm needed another Gatewood or 3rd party candidate to rejuvenate the stale picnic.
August 6, 2022, a Kentucky bred, with a Todd Pletcher exacta, won the GI $1,000,000 Whitney Stakes at the Spa. The disappointing five horse field had no show betting.