Kentucky Trivia ● Kentucky Tweets

Growing up in Eastern Kentucky like I did, I’m used to having a few guns around to protect me.  Loretta Lynn

August 22, 1786, George Adams held a meeting to organize the county of Madison.  A group of local men met and elected the 1^st justices, 1^st clerk, 1^st sheriff, and their 1^st court.  Kentucky formally accepted the county in 1785.

August 22, 1897, Whitley County lynched Elkanah Sullivan, a white male, for murderous assault.

August 22, 1915. James Kenney, Belle’s husband of nine days, died in Lexington.

August 22, 1928, a parade of prize-winning live-stock on the race track at the night show and the visit of Governor F. Sampson during the day were features of the 4^th day of the Blue Grass Fair.

August 22, 1937, Levi Hall, McDowell’s Chief of Police died from a gunshot by a suspect who held a grudge against him for an incident earlier in the night.  The chief had encountered the man in town and sent him home for being drunk.  The man went home and obtained a 16-gauge shotgun and drove through town.  He located Chief Hall and opened fire from his car, striking him in the abdomen.

An estate auction on August 22, 1940, dispersed Belle Brezing’s personal possessions that remain hidden treasures in and about Lexington.

August 22, 1951, Army CPL Blythe Milton from Mayfield in Graves County died in the Korean War.

August 22, 1952, Army PVT Edward Lovins from Breathitt County died in the Korean War.

August 22, 1954, the very 1^st color program aired on WHAS-TV was CBS’s Toast of The Town, later named The Ed Sullivan Show.

August 22, 1965, Deputy Sheriff Caleb Dehart, Leslie County Sheriff’s Office, did by a gunshot from a man during a routine traffic stop.  The suspect was arrested a short time later.

August 22, 1967, Greg Page, a UK football player became paralyzed in practice.

August 22, 1969, Marine Corps SGT John M. Hill from Middletown in Jefferson County died in the Vietnam War.

August 22, 1972, police made the 1^st large scale arrest at the Republican National Convention, hauling in 212 protestors in Miami, FL.  Dr. Barton of Corbin, a husband of a committeewoman, lost two teeth from a rock thrown by a demonstrator.

August 22, 1975, Kentucky Colonels fans received an unexpected shock when John Y. Brown, Jr. and his wife Ellie, majority owners, announced the franchise lost over $3 million over the last five years.  The Browns asked the Kentucky State Fair Board for financial help.

August 22, 1984, Ralston Purina announced they would close their Louisville polymer plant for several days to double check all operating systems after last week’s spill of 1,000 gallons of sulfuric acid.

August 22, 1986, state officials announced that a Japanese company would build a $15 million auto parts plant in Butler County, eventually bringing 500 jobs to an area that suffers from unemployment of nearly 12%.

August 22, 1992, Patrolman Charles Kirksey Todd, Mayfield Police Department, died from stab wounds at a wedding.  He was off duty and was in attendance when an uninvited guest arrived and began a fight.  He attempted to intervene.

August 22, 1996, Butcher Hollow native Oliver Vanetta Lynn, Jr., commonly known as Doolittle Lynn or Doo, or Mooney, died.

August 22, 1998, Stanton native and Hall of fame trainer, Woodford Cefis Stephens, died.

On August 22, 2000, a retired Army officer and a top administrator at Spalding University became the 1^st African American Commissioner of the Kentucky State Police.

Kentucky Trivia:  99% of all first-time, full-time students at Spalding University receive financial aid.

On August 22, 2005, Lexington’s newspaper printed this aerial view; do you see a horse head?  Hint:  a dark patch of grass that resembles an eye, and the thicket surrounding the land looks like the horse’s head and neck.

August 22, 2010, Marine SGT Jason D. Calo, 23, of Lexington, died in Afghanistan fighting in Operation Enduring Freedom.

August 22, 2011, a Keeneland graduate trifecta won the GI $250,000 Del Mar Oaks for three-year-old fillies.

August 22, 2014, a Kentucky State Representative told the press his family took some satisfaction that the company that made 2.2 million beanbag chairs recalled them after his granddaughter in Kentucky and a child in Texas crawled inside and suffocated.

On August 22, 2019, Luther Deaton, CEO of Central Bank, purchased the 2019 Kentucky State Fair’s Grand Champion Ham for $1 million.  Last year, the ham sold for a record-breaking price of $2.8 million.  Since the start of the auction in 1964, the Kentucky Farm Bureau has raised about $13 million for charity.  Blake Penn of Penn’s Country Hams produced the 2019 winning ham.

August 22, 2020, the 2^nd Railbird Festival at Keeneland Racecourse began featuring 32 bands, while a Keeneland graduate won Saratoga’s GI $400,000 Fourstardave Handicap Stakes.

On August 22, 2020, the state’s public health commissioner, Dr. Steven Stack, reminded Kentuckians not to overlook their routine health needs during the pandemic.  “An unfortunate consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic has been people avoiding care for acute and chronic illness unrelated to the virus.”

^{Positives:  814 / 43,066
Deaths:  8 / 872 – 1st death March 16, 2020
50&over: 845 / 49-30: 26 / 29&under: 1}

August 22, 2021, Louisville announced that it may break a four-year HIV case average by the end of 2021, thanks in part to the coronavirus pandemic.  Michelle Rose, of Norton Infectious Diseases Institute, “Certainly, the pandemic has had an impact on overall testing and access to care, whether it’s individuals choosing to delay care or care not being readily available.”