TODAY IN KENTUCKY HISTORY

Kentucky Trivia ● Kentucky Tweets

July 28, 1914, World War I began.

July 28, 1920, Governor E. Morrow, while in New York, captured a thief in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel as the thief exited the room he had just robbed.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Louisville native Anne McCarty Braden, born in 1924.  Anne became a civil rights activist, journalist, and educator dedicated to the cause of racial equality.

July 28, 1930, Greensburg set the hottest day in Kentucky when thermometer hit 114° F (46° C).  The summer of 1930 set many “hot” records in the Commonwealth.

July 28, 1935, Deputy Constable James Parsons, Carter County Constable’s Office, died from gunshots while attempting to arrest two drunk men selling moonshine outside of a church service in Clifty.

July 28, 1940, Deputy Sheriff James Henry Bowlin, Bell County Sheriff’s Department, succumbed to a gunshot wound sustained on April 21, 1940 while attempting to arrest three men who assaulted his son following a public meeting at Frakes.

July 28, 1940, Constable Clarence Lawson, Knox County Constable’s Office, died from a gunshot while transporting a prisoner from Corbin to Barboursville.

July 28, 1943, American Airlines Flight 63, a Douglas DC-3, crashed near Trammel in Allen County.  The crew lost control due to severe turbulence and violent downdrafts; 20 of the 22 people on board died.

July 28, 1949, a bay son of War Admiral, Lady Lark, brought the top price at Keeneland’s Summer Yearling Sales.  Hip number 390, consigned by Mereworth, sold to George Ring for $27,000.  In the background are auctioneers George Swinebroad, left, and Joe Palmer.

July 28, 1950, Sheriff Roy Conway, Pike County Sheriff’s Office, died in his front yard by two brothers angry over his crackdown on bootlegging and gambling.  Sheriff Conway and his deputies had raided their father’s drinking establishment earlier.  The two boys shot the Sheriff in the back.

July 28, 1950, Army PFC William H. Blevins from Johnson County died in the Korean War.

July 28, 1951, Army CPL Fred G. Hill from Morgan County died in the Korean War.

July 28, 1960, Kentucky Finance Commissioner Robert F. Matthews, Jr, disqualified Lexington’s Quality Meat Packing Company, the source of 90% of all meat consumed at state institutions, from future state bids.  The Commish removed the company after repeated warnings that they had delivered to Eddyville Penitentiary a consignment of bacon so salty that “the prisoners wouldn’t eat it.”

July 28, 1968, Marine Corps PFC John M. Lancaster from Louisville died in the Vietnam War.

July 28, 1970, Frank Burk, Jr., the son of Louisville’s mayor, reacted quickly and saved the life of a four-year-old girl.  After onlookers pulled her unconscious from an unsupervised public pool, Frank gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

July 28, 1975, Ilie Nastase displayed little of his court manners that earned the nickname “Nasty” at Louisville’s Pro Tennis Classic.

July 28, 1981, Governor John Y. Brown, Jr. requested federal aid for farmers in 72 counties due to wet weather during the planting season.

July 28, 1985, federal and state authorities began investigating allegations of absentee vote fraud in at least seven counties including Knox, Magoffin, Marion, Monroe , Clinton, Russell, and Garrard.

July 28, 1990, federal authorities indicted Kentucky pharmacists for illegally selling painkillers, tranquilizers, and sleeping pills.  During the previous 18 months, in an unprecedented wave of criminal cases, nine Kentucky pharmacists illegally dispensed drugs, allegedly.  Yet, not one received discipline from the Kentucky Pharmacy Board.  Does Big Pharma own everyone?

July 28, 1995, Louisville native Paul Byrd made his MLB debut for the New York Mets.

July 28, 2001, seven go to post in Saratoga’s GI $1,008,000 Whitney Handicap for three-year-olds and upward.

July 28, 2005, Governor E. Fletcher said he made a mistake by asking his field offices to help with applications for civil service jobs.  He went on to say that, in retrospect, dismantling the old patronage system produced a vacuum that needed filling.  He made the statements at the 1st meeting of a task force to study the state merit system.

July 28, 2010, Rick Pitino took the stand to tell the courtroom, “I could never rape a woman or be physically harmful to any woman.”  He also stated that the woman who accussed him, unzipped his pants.

July 28, 2015, after a long wait, the northbound lanes of I-65 from Louisville to Jeffersonville, IN, opened on the Abraham Lincoln Bridge.  The bridge officially opened in December.  The new bridge replaced the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge, known locally as the Second Street Bridge.

On July 28, 2017, Fort Knox native Randolph Bresnik launched into space, from Kazakhstan, aboard the Soyuz MS-05 to work on the International Space Station.  Bresnik returned to Earth on December 14, 2017.  The Soyuz MS-05 landed on 8:38 UTC.  The mission duration was 138 days, 16 hours, 56 minutes, and 37 seconds.

July 28, 2017, Jared Lorenzen launched “The Jared Lorenzen Project”, where he chronicled his attempts at battling his obesity.

July 28, 2018, a Kentucky bred won Saratoga’s GII $600,000 Jim Dandy Stakes for three-year-olds.

July 28, 2019, the federal government released a report claiming Kentucky teenagers were 140% more likely to die in a car crash than the average U.S. teen.

July 28, 2020, Joe Biden suggested the coronavirus vaccine wouldn’t be “real” and may not be “safe.”

On July 28, 2020, Louisville compared the coronavirus to a wildfire while Lexington set a record for the number of new cases.  The governor announced 532 new coronavirus cases and ten new deaths bringing the totals to 28,126 and 719.  He then pleaded to Kentuckians not to travel out of state and singled out downtown Lexington bars for not enforcing new rules to help stop the spread.

On July 28, 2021, a single-engine Boeing Stearman B75N1 airplane landed in an Athen’s driveway near I-75.  Meanwhile, in Frankfort, Governor A. Beshear told all state employees, again, to wear masks while working in state offices indoors.  This mandate included all visitors wear masks as well.