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TODAY IN KENTUCKY HISTORY

October 9, 1829, Pro-Slavery man Charles Wickliffe dueled Anti-Slavery George J. Trotter, the Lexington Gazette editor, shortly before 9:00 a.m. on the Scott/Fayette border.  The duel was rooted in the acquittal of Charles Wickliffe for the murder of Thomas R. Benning, a previous Kentucky Gazette editor.  Wickliffe shot Benning during a disagreement over editorials which criticized his father, politician Robert Wickliffe.  Henry Clay acted as Wickliffe’s lawyer.  That same year, Wickliffe challenged Trotter to a duel over articles questioning the trial’s fairness.

Kentucky Trivia:  At the duel, each fired: Trotter’s bullet grazed Wickliffe’s hip, and Wickliffe missed.  “I demand a second fire,” Wickliffe demanded sharply.  “Sir, you will have it with pleasure,” replied Trotter.  Fifteen minutes later, the duelist fired again, and again Wickliffe missed, while Trotter’s bullet inflicted a mortal wound.  As Wickliffe lowered himself to the ground, he was asked if he was satisfied, and he replied, “I am, sir; I am unable to fire again.”  Famous Kentucky Duels by J. Winston Coleman, Jr.; pg:72

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Covington native Frank Duveneck an American figure and portrait painter, born in 1848.  The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Cincinnati Art Museum, Richmond Art Museum, Hyde Collection in Glen’s Falls, NY, Kenton County Library in Covington and several other galleries all displayed his work.  Once in Kurt Vonnegut’s private collection, the portrait, Young Man with Tousled Hair (the Street Urchin), is now in the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  The Lady with Fan (1873) and The Whistling Boy (1872) are his most famous paintings.

Kentucky Trivia: Frank Duveneck’s work has been offered at auction multiple times, with prices ranging from $140 to $385,000, depending on the piece.  The record price for Venetian Fruit Market, sold at Christie’s New York in 2007, has been $385,000 since 2000.

On October 9, 1888, Elijah Morgan died in an ambush as he and Frank Grace traveled to Hazard to try to bring the two warring sides together in the French-Eversole War.  The rumors swirled for weeks that he would die, and no one was surprised when he fell.  Locals believed he died in retaliation for the death of Shade Combs.

October 9, 1893, the Kentucky Futurity, one of the Commonwealth’s oldest and richest horse races, debuted at The Red Mile.  Oro Wilkes scored a grueling five-heat victory for driver J.A. Goldsmith to win $11,880.  The Kentucky Futurity is the oldest harness race of any importance, the Hambletonian only goes back to 1926.

October 9, 1894, Crittenden County lynched Berry Rich an unknown male for arson and theft.

On October 9, 1927, NY Yankee and Pebworth (Owsley County) native Earl Combs, whose 9th inning RB.I. the night before won the World Series, returned to Richmond to be with his family.  It would be the first time seeing his youngest son.

October 9, 1927, Chief of Police William Lou “Bill” Osborne, Martin Police Department and his 17-year-old son died from a gunshot by a man seeking revenge against the Chief for shooting his uncle.  The man went to Chief Osborne’s home and shot without warning, killing him and mortally wounding his son.  Despite the wound, he was able to return fire and fatally shot the suspect.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Louisville native Ambassador Thomas Graham Jr. born in 1933.  Ambassador Graham, a former senior U.S. diplomat took part in the negotiation of every single international arms control and non-proliferation agreement from 1970 to 1997.  The talks included the SALT Treaties, the START Treaties, the ABM Treaty, INF Treaty, Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty (NPT), Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty and Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).  Ambassador Graham attended Louisville Male High School.

October 9, 1937, the Renfro Valley Barn Dance debuted on WLW-AM radio.  The first broadcasts were from the Cincinnati Music Hall and Memorial Auditorium in Dayton, Ohio.  However, in November 1939, the country music stage and radio show moved to Mt. Vernon.

October 9, 1939, Governor A. B. (“Happy”) Chandler resigned as Kentucky’s 44th governor, and Lt. Governor Keen Johnson became the 45th governor.  Governor Johnson appointed Chandler the 31st Class II Senator after M.M. Logan died.  Chandler went on to win the special election and later the general election to serve as senator until 1945 when he resigned to become the 2nd Commissioner of Baseball.

October 9, 1944, click to see a group of motion picture stars arriving in Lexington for a three-state tour of Army camps and hospitals.  They landed in Lexington en route from Louisville to Darnall hospital near Danville. They did enjoy a tour of the Blue Grass horse farms the next morning through arrangements of Bob Cox, manager of the Kentucky Theater.

October 9, 1951, Army CPL Roy L. Layne from Floyd County and Army PFC Robert C. Dick from Pulaski County died fighting in the Korean War.

October 9, 1952, Army SGT Billie A. Smoot from Nicholas County died fighting in the Korean War.

October 9, 1967, Marine Corps James G. Farmer from Wallings in Harlan County died in the Vietnam War.

October 9, 1968, Marine Corps PFC Wardell L. Armstrong from Glasgow and Marine Corps LCPL Gary H. Smith from Pleasure Ridge Park, died fighting in the Vietnam War.

October 9, 1969, Army SSG George A. Elkins from Jefferson County died fighting in the Vietnam War.

Tuesday, October 9, 1984, click to see Queen Elizabeth II and William Farish III inspect mares at his Lane’s End Farm in Woodford County on the 2nd day of her 1st Kentucky visit.  The Queen toured several horse farms on a six-day stay to the Bluegrass.  On Saturday, she presented a silver Georgian trophy to the winner of a new Keeneland race named in her honor: the 1st annual Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup.

October 9, 1992, South East Coal informed Kentucky authorities that they intended to mine up to one million tons of coal under Lilley Cornett Woods in Letcher County.  They also claimed that if they were not able to mine the coal, they expected the state to pay for the one million tons of coal that is legally theirs.  Lilly Cornett worked for South East Coal as a miner and saved his money to buy the forest.  He succeeded in protecting the tract from mining and logging and following his death in 1964, his family sold it to the state, it has been protected ever since.

October 9, 1992, the Peekskill Meteorite fell to planet earth.  It is among the most historic meteorite events on record.  It broke up over Kentucky and passed over West Virginia and Pennsylvania on its north-northeast trajectory before striking a parked 1980 red Chevy Malibu at approximately 7:50 pm EDT in Peekskill, NY.

October 9, 1993, Bluegrass Downs in McCracken County switched their racing format from Quarter Horse racing to Thoroughbreds.  The track changed formats again and shut down in 2019.

On October 9, 1999, Loretta Lynn, Governor P. Patton, and 250 others gathered at Renfro Valley to break ground on Kentucky’s Country Music Hall of Fame.  Steady rain moved everyone inside the auditorium known as the New Barn.

October 9, 2007, one the largest coal-fired plants in the world, America Electric Power in Rockport, IN., agreed to cut coal-fired pollution in a sweeping $4.6 billion deal with the EPA.  The plant, located across the Ohio River from Owensboro carried pollution to Louisville and beyond.

On October 9, 2012, while UK reported that Medicaid prescribed narcotics more than any other drug to adult Kentuckians during the 2000s, Governor S. Beshear honored nine Kentucky artists with the 2012 Governor Awards in Arts.

October 9, 2016, during the day, Rupp Arena unveiled a giant video and booming sound system as part of a $15 million upgrade.  Later that night, H. Clinton and D. Trump debated.

On October 9, 2017, Lexington native Scott Pruitt, head of the EPA, told a Pennsylvania crowd that he would end the war on coal.  However, he lost his job precisely nine months later.  He allegedly used agency staff to perform nonofficial duties such as running errands in Washington D.C. to pick up his dry cleaning and driving him around to search for a favorite moisturizer.

October 9, 2019, Governor M. Bevin compared protesting Boyd County teachers to misbehaving children.  Others called it just plain protesting, a much needed thing in these Unites States.

On October 9, 2020, the governor announced 1,059 new cases and stated, “We continue to be in another escalation, this is the highest Friday in the last four weeks, and this will be our highest week, ever, when we finish it for the number of new cases.  We have to do better, folks.  We really need you to wear your mask.”

October 9, 2021, John Fitzgerald Johnson, also known as Grandmaster Jay, returned to Louisville one year after he led armed protestors down Louisville streets over the Breonna Taylor case.  The Black marchers carried pistols on their sides while carrying shotguns and AR-15s.  “It was the biggest public display by an armed militia I have ever seen,” said an expert who watches U.S militias, “Nobody was expecting it.”  Johnson returned to the city to feed the homeless in Cherokee Park.

On October 9, 2022, Matt Jones posted a tweet that highlighted how divisive politics had become. The beer thrower hasn’t realized the American public has more in common than differences.