Kentucky Trivia
“A corporation, essentially, is a pile of money to which a number of persons have sold their moral allegiance.” Wendell Berry
On August 9, 1777, pioneers surrounded 10 or 12 Native Americans near Fort Harrod. They killed three and wounded others; the plunder sold for upwards of seventy pounds.
August 9, 1798, Hunter and Beaumont established The Palladium , the Commonwealth’s 7th newspaper, in Frankfort. The paper lasted 16 years. Kentucky in Retrospect by Lila Jones Kingston pg: 39.
August 9, 1803, John Kennedy started the 1st regular stage coach line in Kentucky , running from Lexington to the Olympia Springs in Bath County by way of Winchester and Mt. Sterling. The coach left Lexington at 4:00 a.m. and arrived at the springs the same day for 21 shillings. The Squire’s Sketches of Lexington by J. Winston Coleman, Jr.; pg: 25
On August 9, 1890, Lexingtonian Mary Breckinridge Desha and two companions organized the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). She served as one of the original vice presidents general and an executive committee member, suggested the DAR’s seal, and signed the group’s incorporation papers in 1891. The DAR Congress of 1898 officially recognized her as one of the organization’s founders. A controversy with another DAR vice-president general, who attacked Desha’s suffragist sympathies, ended in the resignation of that official.
Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Covington native Robert L. Surtees , born in 1906. Robert was a cinematographer who won three Academy Awards for the films King Solomon’s Mines , The Bad and the Beautiful, and the 1959 version of Ben-Hur .
August 9, 1909, Trigg County lynched Wallace Miller , a black male, for rape.
Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Lee County native Garvice Delmar Kincaid , born in 1912. The Madison High School graduate helped purchase Central Bank. Kincaid became its president at age thirty-two, the youngest bank president in Kentucky then.
Monday, August 9, 1920, the Lexington Colored Fair opened with an 11:00 am automobile parade through downtown , said to be the largest in history. Opening day was Children’s Day; they all got free ice cream and watermelon. Tuesday was Athletic Day with a special visit by boxer Jack Johnson. Horse racing took place every afternoon.
On August 9, 1926, John D. Rockefeller gave Transylvania University (TU) an $80,000 check . He promised the check in 1920 with stipulations the school pay all debts and have $160,000 in the bank within four years. TU finally hired a president who requested two more years to meet the requirements.
August 9, 1936, Harvey Calvin DeZarn, Chief of Police of Manchester , died in front of the city jail at approximately 11:00 pm. He was leaving the facility after investigating a disturbance between prisoners when a shotgun blast fired from across the street hit him.
August 9, 1943, Fasig-Tipton operated the 1st yearling sale at Keeneland under a tent in the paddock. Fred W. Hooper paid $10,200 for the yearling Hoop, Jr., who won the Kentucky Derby two years later.
Kentucky Trivia : Some say Kentucky is a hotbed for horse racing because of the calcium-rich grass, which gathers minerals from the limestone bed that runs beneath the state’s central region. However, in the late 19th century, strict gambling laws outlawed betting in east coast states, where horse racing was prominent. Because Kentucky didn’t prohibit horse betting, breeders moved their operations to God’s country and stayed.
August 9, 1950, Army PVT Bobby E. Lawson from Bell County died in the Korean War.
August 9, 1956, the Hollywood Civil War epic, Raintree County filmed in Danville.
By August 9, 1960, almost 3,000 generous individuals bought “Circus Daddy” tickets for the Oleika Temple Shriners circus at the Lexington Trotting Track . A Circus Daddy bought tickets for the less fortunate.
August 9, 1971, Army SP4 Arnold Lovins from London died in the Vietnam War.
August 9, 1974, President Nixon resigned and President Ford became the 38th President.
August 9, 1975, Jim Dan Bob won the 7F Governor’s Cup at Ellis Park in 1:25.1/5 before a crowd of 8,873 which included Governor J. Carroll. The winner paid $37.20.
On August 9, 1981, Fort Knox native Len Barker pitched two scoreless innings before 72,086 fans in his home stadium at the 1981 Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Cleveland. The lengthy players’ strike had just ended.
Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Lexington native Tyson Gay , born in 1982.
On August 9, 1989, the last Concorde ever built, out of 20, touched down at Blue Grass Airport . A crowd estimated at 3,500 to 5,000 gathered in and around the airport to see the modern jet.
On August 9, 1990, President George H.W. Bush, the ex-CIA Chief and his Democratic allies laid the groundwork for America’s perpetual wars . The Pentagon announced that 250,000 pairs of boots would soon be in the Middle East to protect Saudi Arabia. We finally left the region in 2020 under embarrassing circumstances and went straight to the Russian border. Meanwhile, Speaker Nancy Pelosi taunted the Chinese. President Eisenhower’s fears about the MIC are, in fact, a reality.
August 9, 1995, in a landmark decision, the Clinton administration allowed the FDA to regulate tobacco for the 1st time. Clinton believed curbing tobacco use among young people was the cheapest, easiest, quickest thing you could do to change the whole dynamic of America’s healthcare. Meanwhile, Jerry Garcia died in his sleep.
On August 9, 2008, the rebel group Roman Catholic Women Priests, in defiance of the Church’s 2,000-year ban on women in the priesthood, ordained Janice Sevre-Duszynska in Jessamine County. She expected to be excommunicated.
August 9, 2014, Juddmonte Farm’s Kentucky homebred won the GII $500,000 Fourstardave Handicap Stakes for three-year-olds and upward.
On August 9, 2019, Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton finally responded publically to Governor M. Bevin’s firing of her staff member in January . At the end of their term, Bevin disrespected Ms. Hampton, chose another running mate, and lost re-election.
On August 9, 2020, the state reported one new death, a 71-year-old, for a 773 total . Governor A. Beshear said, “Some good news and some bad news. In good news, the week ended with about 330 fewer cases from last week. That’s directly attributable to people wearing their facial coverings or masks. Please keep it up; wear them even more, especially inside. “On the bad side, our positivity rate will be higher, meaning that the virus continues to spread aggressively.”
On August 9, 2021, Bowling Green-based Med Center Health mandated employees in leadership roles must get vaccinated ASAP . The other employees had till September 1. Bowling Green healthcare facilities led the way in Kentucky for vaccine mandates.
August 9, 2022, while a super-majority of Kentucky schools moved away from mask mandates , Eastern Kentucky communities debated whether or not to build schools back on flood plains. Floods had wrecked McDowell Elementary in Floyd County four times since 1989. Meanwhile, the F.B.I. raided D. Trump’s Florida home for classified documents.