Kentucky Trivia ● Kentucky Tweets

Don’t own so much clutter that you will be relieved to see your house catch fire. Wendell Berry, Farming: a hand book

August 6, 1801, Edward West, who had first exhibited his miniature steamboat on the waters of the Town Branch in 1793, showed a vastly improved model.  The next year he would receive a patent.
The Squire’ 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.  It was one of Louisville’s darkest days in its history.  Rumors started that foreigners and Catholics had interfered with the process of voting.  Therefore, the American Know-Nothing Party formed mobs, positioned themselves at various polling places, and started two bloody riots.  The 1^st riot occurred in the German district at 4 p.m. in the 1^st Ward on Louisville’s east end.  The 2^nd riot occurred from 6 p.m. until midnight in the Irish 8^th Ward in west end.  Although the official death toll was 22, some estimates place the number much higher.

August 6, 1923, Miss Chloe Gifford passed the bar.  She was 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 millionaire summer colony gave the governor and his partly lavish entertainment.

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 was found dead from a shotgun blast in 1947.

On August 6, 1941, Lexington expected record crowds for the traveling circus for a one night two performance stay.  The festivities opened with a late morning parade with 40 animals, horse-drawn floats, and music.  The 1^st show began at 2:30 pm and the 2^nd 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 the city of Frankfort’s plans to lease the northwest section of the Old Capitol grounds for a 150 car parking lot.  Governor 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.  London, known as the “Blackpool Tower,” was a mediocre boxer who had been beaten by Cooper three times before he fought 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 third 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.

August 6, 1972, a racial disturbance involving an estimated 300 to 400 prisoners broke out at the Kentucky State Reformatory near LaGrange.  An equal amount of blacks and whites went head to head on the courtyard.  The riot stopped only after shotgun blasts from guards and three prisoners shot.

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, fractional politics were put aside during the annual Fancy Farm picnic.  Instead, the crowd seemed more focused on the tons of barbecue and fresh garden vegetables.  One memorable comment, “All Gable could see was a dollar sign and strip mining the Daniel Boone National Forest.”

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 2^nd 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 Patton obliged within 10 seconds.  Candidates running for offices across the nation were shunning Clinton.

August 6, 2002, workers covered Churchill’s fabled 107-year-old twin spires from view for renovation repairs after Churchill Downs discovered water damage.  Two weeks before the Derby, track officials notice 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 first defeat in two years after Lexington native Tyson Gay beat him at 100 meters at the DN Galan meeting in Stockholm.

Saturday, August 6, 2011, it takes a 3^rd party candidate to tell it like it is.  Gatewood Galbreath let Governor S. Beshear have it at Fancy Farm 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 was able to place the driver into custody and complete the arrest.  He collapsed a short time later.

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 a vaccine would be available by November 9; his critics said that was too hopeful.  Senator 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 he 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.