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October 9, 1829, a famous Lexington Duel between Pro-Slavery Charles Wickliffe and Lexington Gazette editor and Anti-Slavery George J. Trotter occurred shortly before 9:00 a.m. on the Scott/Fayette border . The duel has its roots in the acquittal of Charles Wickliffe for the murder of Thomas R. Benning, editor of the Kentucky Gazette . Wickliffe shot Benning during a disagreement over editorials, which criticized his father, politician Robert Wickliffe. Henry Clay acted as Wickliffe’s lawyer during his trial. Later that same year, Wickliffe challenged the new editor of the newspaper, George J. Trotter, to a duel over articles questioning the trial’s fairness. 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 : Since 2000 the record price for a Duveneck piece was $385,000 for Venetian Fruit Market , sold at Christie’s New York in 2007.
On October 9, 1888, Elijah Morgan, died in an ambush as he and Frank Grace travelled 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.
October 9, 1927, NY Yankee and Pebworth native Earl Combs , who made the deciding run in the 9th inning to win the World Series the day before, returned to Richmond to be with his family.
October 9, 1927, Chief of Police William Lou “Bill” Osborne, Martin Police Department and his 17-year-old son were shot and killed by a man who was seeking revenge against the Chief for shooting his uncle. The man went to Chief Osborne’s home and opened fire 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 Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT Treaties), the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties (START Treaties), the Anti-ballistic missile (ABM) Treaty, Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces 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 but in November 1939, the country music stage and radio show moved to Mt. Vernon, Kentucky.
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, 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.
October 9, 1984, Queen Elizabeth II and William Farish III inspected mares at Farish’s Lane’s End Farm in Woodford County. The Queen toured several horse farms on a six-day visit to the Bluegrass. She presented a silver Georgian trophy to the winner of a new Keeneland race named in her honor: the 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. The famous meteorite 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 racing Thoroughbreds. The track changed formats again and shut down in 2019.
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, 2015, during the day, Rupp Arena unveiled a giant video and booming sound system as part of a $15 million upgrade . Later that night, two horrible people debated each other to become president, H. Clinton and D. Trump.
On October 9, 2017, Lexington native Scott Pruitt, told a Pennsylvania crowd that he would end the war on coal as head of the EPA. Instead, he lasted one year, four months, and 22 days in office after allegedly using agency staff to perform nonofficial duties such as running errands 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 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.”
Positives: 1,059 / 78,456st Death 3/16/2050&over : 1,208 / 49-30 : 32 / 29&under : 2
October 9, 2021, the FDA and Phizer team announced they wanted to give the experiential vaccine to children ages 5-11. Previously the pharmaceutical companies only profited off humans 12 and older.