Kentucky Trivia
Dolittle looked just like a little toy soldier the first time I ever saw him. Loretta Lynn
August 27, 1774, Richard Henderson organized the Louisa Company to purchase a large territory or tract of land on the western waters from Native Americans to establish a proprietary colony.
August 27, 1812, locals held an impressive funeral for the fallen hero, Joseph Hamilton Daviess, who died in the Battle of Tippecanoe in November of 1811. The 1st western attorney to appear before the U.S. Supreme Court moved from Virginia to Danville in 1809. Joseph served as Grand Master of Kentucky’s Grand Masonic Lodge at his death.
On August 27, 1839, Governor James Clark, the 13th Kentucky governor, died in office. He rests in a private cemetery near his home in Winchester. Governor Charles Wickliffe became the 14th governor.
August 27, 1854, one of Kentucky’s deadliest F2 tornadoes struck Louisville at 12:12 p.m. Eighteen of the 25 deaths occurred in the Third Presbyterian Church, including many women and children. A mother and her three children died holding each other. The Louisville Daily Courier described the storm as “a whirlwind revolving left-wise.” Around 100 people received injuries during this two-mile funnel with a path width of 800 yards.
August 27, 1862, Bourbon County native Kenner Garrard served his last day as Commandant of Cadets of the United States Military Academy, West point, NY.
August 27, 1916, Deputy Sheriff George Dean, Harlan County Sheriff’s Office, died from a gunshot while controlling a rowdy crowd of spectators at a baseball game in Coxton.
August 27, 1925, Lexington native Mary Ellen Britton died in Lexington. Mary was a physician, educator, suffragist, journalist, and civil rights activist. She was also an original member of the Kentucky Negro Education Association, which formed in 1877.
Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Butcher Hollow native Doolittle Lynn, born in 1926.
August 27, 1930, the State Highway Commission announced the only gap in the Louisville-Memphis road, a ten-mile stretch in Todd County, would soon start construction as approved by Emery Dent, Blowing Green.
August 27, 1940, Mary Moorman Ryan, a 15-year-old Louisville girl who set three national swim records in Oregon, returned home with the Lakeside Swim Club for a surprise reception. The team also won the National Championship.
August 27, 1950, Army PVT Paul G. Herald from Owsley County died in the Korean War.
August 27, 1951, Army PFC Gilbert T. Coleman from Daviess County and Army PFC Harvey L. Frey from Jefferson County, died in the Korean War.
August 27, 1966, My My, a nine-year-old chestnut mare, won the Five-Gaited World’s Grand Championship for the 4th straight year in a row at the Kentucky State Fair Horse Show.
August 27, 1968, Marine Corps CPL John B. Becker from Cold Springshighland in Campbell County and Army PFC Christopher L. Hayes from Louisville, died in the Vietnam War.
On August 27, 1973, the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance, long praised as the national pioneer as a campaign spending watchdog, claimed it had no bite. The Registry was the nation’s 1st independent election finance reporting agency, which started in 1967. Still, it never prosecuted an offender, investigated violations reports, issued subpoenas, or held public meetings, all of which it had the power to do.
August 27, 1976, the 1st of two dress rehearsals of the Jefferson County desegregation program took place. Thousands of black students and their parents got bused across town to and from predominantly white schools.
On August 27, 1977, Alydar and Affirmed met for Round III in the GI Hopeful Stakes. Alydar drew alongside him, seemingly poised for an encore the Great American win. But this time, Affirmed would not let Alydar go by, winning by a half-length. “Affirmed won the Sanford for me and he won it nicely,” Cauthen said. “But that wasn’t the day he impressed me as the horse he turned out to be. That came in the Hopeful.” Score 2-1, Affirmed.
August 27, 1982, Forbes came out with its list of wealthiest Americans for the 1st time. Two Kentuckians made the top 400; Owsley Brown Fraizer and his cousin William Lee Lyons Brown, Jr.
Kentucky Trivia: George Brown, the founder of Brown-Foreman Corporation, was one of the 1st to sell whiskey in bottles sealed at the distillery. The reason customer service; bartenders, doctors, and pharmacists always complained of watered-down whiskey. Brown’s Old Forrester, the only brand with Brown’s name on the bottle, was his answer to his customer’s dilution problem.
August 27, 1990, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, a citizens group that lobbied specific issues, asked Governor W. Wilkinson to take emergency steps to limit the importation of out-of-state trash. The governor declined, stating executive orders would not stand in a court of law.
August 27, 2005, a Kentucky bred and Keeneland graduate won Saratoga’s $1,000,000 GI Travers Stakes.
Sunday, August 27, 2006, Comair Flight 5191, carrying 50 people to Atlanta, crashed near Lexington’s airport shortly after takeoff. Only the pilot survived. The jet had 47 passengers and three crew members. Light rain fell when it crashed into a field. The plane was largely intact afterward, but a fire did start. A spokesman for the NTSB said the plane took off from a runway that was too short for the plane’s weight.
August 27, 2008, Army SGT David K. Cooper, 25, of Williamsburg died in Iraq fighting in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
August 27, 2011, a Kentucky bred and Keeneland graduate won the GI $1,000,000 Travers Stakes.
August 27, 2011, the world’s largest water balloon fight occurred when 8,957 participants started throwing the balloons at the Christian Student Fellowship on UK’s campus. The participants threw 175,141 water balloons that day.
August 27, 2016, the Keeneland graduate $2 exacta paid $134.50 in the GI $1,250,000 Travers Stakes at the Spa.
On August 27, 2019, John Tilley, Kentucky’s prison chief, stated the state should lock up fewer people, but instead, it’s getting bigger jails. “I’ve sounded every alarm I know how to sound,” Tilley said. “I’ve stood on my head. I’ve become a lightning rod; I’ve become the boogeyman for anything that I suggest as reform and that I consider to be a commonsense solution. However, jails are an excellent way for counties to raise the money they desperately need, in many cases to replace the coal severance tax.”
Kentucky Trivia: While national incarceration rates declined, Kentucky saw an 11.2% increase, placing it 10th for putting its people behind bars. The Kentucky legislature rejected reform efforts, blocking an ambitious package of measures in 2018 that was supposed to save an estimated $340 million over the next ten years.
August 27, 2020, Gen G, a billion-dollar corporation, partnered with UK and promised that one of their incoming freshmen would receive a scholarship from their new scholarship program. Gen G provided $100,000 each year for the next ten years for U.S. scholarships to diversify the gaming industry.
On August 27, 2021, more than half of Kentucky’s acute care hospitals, 50 of 96, reported critical staffing shortages due to the “raging” coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, the state announced their 3rd and last person who won a million dollars for getting the vaccine, Mary Mattingly.