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TODAY IN KENTUCKY HISTORY

August 15-17, 1782, Captain Caldwell and his combined Shawnee and Wyandot forces attempted to surprise Bryant’s Station.  The war party fired on the fort, burned the stable, and tried to stop the re-enforcement of men from Lexington.  Next, they demanded the fort surrender, but the pioneers refused.  The Warriors finally left after a 24-hour siege.  Captain Caldwell then marched to the Battle of Lower Blue Licks.  The Squire’s Sketches of Lexington by J. Winston Coleman, Jr.; pg: 17

August 15, 1832, Governor Metcalfe rode the 1st stretch of the Lexington and Ohio Railroad, 1.5 miles and everyone marveled that one horse could pull 40 passengers.  By the following March, they completed six more miles towards Frankfort.  Lexington: Heart of the Bluegrass by John Dean Wright; pg: 51

Kentucky Trivia:  Today, Kentucky is home to a little over 2,600 miles of track although during the industry’s heyday this number peaked to nearly 4,000 miles.

August 15, 1851, locals claimed to have found a silver mine in Muhlenburg County.

On August 15, 1862, after five months of writing poetry in solitary confinement, Munfordville native Simon Buckner got exchanged for Union Brig. Gen. George A. McCall.  Upon release, Buckner got promoted to major general and ordered to Chattanooga, TN to join Gen. Braxton Bragg’s Army of Mississippi.  He became our 30th governor in 1887.

Tuesday, August 15, 1922, 1,200 miners ended their strike against the Cumberland Valley division of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, centered in Corbin.  In Lexington, James K. Patterson, UK’s 1st president, passed away in his home on campus while a large fire on Walnut Hill Farm on Newton Pike destroyed a barn and killed three horses.  In Deatsville, 12 men robbed T.W. Samuels Distillery of 47 cases and rode off in a two-horse wagon after they bounded the guards.

On August 15, 1925, forty-two Kentucky National Guards of Calvary Troop C, 53rd Machine Gun Squadron left Lexington on a Louisville & Nashville train for Camp Knox.  They spent two weeks training in the military encampment.  Troop C’s horses shipped the day before.

August 15, 1931, Deputy Sheriff Oza Bentle Moore, of the Lewis County Police Department, died in a motorcycle accident while en route to serve a warrant.

August 15, 1933, the Kentucky General Assembly met in extraordinary session, the 1st since 1917.  Governor R. Laffoon had six requests for the legislative body.  Tax alcohol, relief for the poor, two new laws for banks to obey, repeal the 18th amendment, and debt forgiveness on some automobile costs. Relief for the poor drove the session.

On August 15, 1948, Daisy May, Belle’s 1st daughter, died in Dearborn, MI., where she lived after her diagnosis as a mentally deficient child.  Belle’s attempt to shelter her daughter from her mother’s chosen profession resulted in Daisy May’s interment in an unmarked but recorded grave in St. Hedwig Cemetery in Dearborn.

August 15, 1950, Army PVT Leroy Abbott from Muhlenberg County, Army PFC Benjamin F. Bristow from Campbell County, Army PFC Harlon C. Feltner from Boyd County, Army PVT Clifton D. Lundey, Jr. from Whitley County, Army PFC Brook T. Powell from Clay County, Army PFC Donald H. Roop from Floyd County, and Army SGT James W. Southard from Rockcastle County, died in the Korean War.

August 15, 1953, America overthrew a democratically elected leader in Iran by force.  President D. Eisenhower ordered the covert action advocated by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, and implemented under the supervision of his brother Allen Dulles the Director of Central Intelligence.

August 15, 1961, Louisville Vice Squad detectives examined a “hemp plant” limb stripped of leaves for use as “marijuana.” The police found the plant in one of the backyards of Louisville’s most extensive roundup of narcotics peddlers.  Police arrested 200 players.

August 15, 1967, Army PFC James E. Milligan from Pleasure Ridge in Jefferson County died in the Vietnam War.

August 15, 1969, Army PFC James D. Anderson from Smiths Grove in Warren County died in the Vietnam War.

August 15, 1973, the 70th Kentucky Fair & Exposition Center opened its doors at 7:00 a.m.; $1.25 for adults, .25 cents for children, and $1.00 for a carload before 11:00 a.m. on weekdays.  Governor W. Ford spoke on opening night and occupied his booth for three to four hours each day of opening week.  The fair expected 550,000 visitors over ten days.

August 15, 1978, four separate groups of Harlan County parents protested either bad roads or poor school conditions by setting up picket lines that prevented several hundred children from attending classes.

On August 15, 1981, Kentucky teachers stood in defiant silence as Governor John Y. Brown arrived.  They listened without response to his speech, ignored his offer to ask questions, and watched him leave without applause.  The KEA had advised Brown not to attend, but he invited himself.  The governor wanted to explain that teachers were not exempt from the Commonwealth’s across-the-board budget cuts.

August 15, 1988, George Barry Bingham, Sr., the family patriarch who dominated local media in Louisville, passed away. 

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Louisville native Jennifer Shrader Lawrence, born in 1990.  A Kentucky bred tops the A-List.

August 15, 2001, Kentucky reported that high school students dropped out at a higher rate in 2000 than they did in 1999.  The dropout rate climbed to 5.06%.  Four counties had double digits rates:  Perry 15.6%, Knox 12%, Breathitt 11.4%, and Henderson County 10.6%.

August 15, 2005, a Mount Sterling judge threw out animal cruelty charges against hundreds of people who attended a cockfight in April, saying the statute was unclear and the state legislature should address the issue.  The Human Society called the ruling outrageous.  The Jeffersonville raid seized $420,000.

On August 15, 2005, the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority approved sweeping new drug rules that many horsemen objected to.  This brought Kentucky in line with 15 other states that adopted uniform rules that limit race-day medication.  Previously, Kentucky allowed pain medication and other drugs hours before a race.

On August 15, 2011, the Jockey Club addressed the declining foal crop in North America.  In 2011, the crop numbered 22,653; in 2012, the number dropped to 21,470, and it has fallen every year since 2015.  The 2021 foal crop reached 17,840.   

On August 15, 2019, Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton sued Governor M. Bevin, claiming his administration had no authority to dismiss two of her three staffers.  The governor had every right to change his running mate; however, why he picked a person that likes to help the for-profit healthcare industry is questionable. 

August 15, 2020, Lexington’s Diocese released a list of predator priests who served in Lexington Catholic Churches.  Meanwhile, educators across the state grappled with how to reach students on the losing end of the digital divide as pupils stayed home to learn.  Transy adjusted to the restrictions by offering a free 5th year.

August 15, 2020, a Kentucky bred and Keeneland graduate won Saratoga’s GI $500,000 Alabama Stakes.

August 15, 2021, academics coined “great resignation” to describe the masses who lost their jobs either through coercion or by choice, another unintended consequence of the mandatory flu restrictions.  In April, nearly 4,000,000 Americans or 2.8% of the workforce stopped working.

August 15, 2021, the Taliban fighters enter Kabul, the Afghanistan capital; the Afghan president flees, and the U.S. evacuates diplomats from its embassy by helicopter.  The pathetic exit of Americans began after 20 years of occupation.  We would start a new war on Russia’s border within months.

On August 15, 2022, a judge ruled UK HealthCare improperly used the Kentucky Department of Revenue and state tax statutes to collect unpaid bills from patients.  In the 2018 class action lawsuit, patients said the hospital turned over all unpaid bills to the Kentucky Department of Revenue for collections.  The department added interest and a 25% collection fee, taking payment from patients’ wages and tax returns to cover the bills.  The plaintiffs sued former UK HealthCare’s treasurer Susan Krauss and state treasurer Allison Ball for improperly collecting unpaid bills.

On August 15, 2023, Town Branch Park, Lexington’s newest 10-acre downtown project, broke ground after years of prep work.  The $39 million bought a large permanent stage with a lawn to listen on, a children’s play area, water features, a dog park, art installations, and much more.  Over 16,000 people contributed to this day.  A private foundation will manage the park.