Kentucky Trivia ● Kentucky Tweets

“Be joyful because it is humanly possible.”  Wendell Berry

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Union County native Ormsby MacKnight, born in 1810.  An astronomer and Union soldier, he published the 1^st magazine in the U.S. dedicated to astronomy.  He is also known for ordering the Civil War raid known as the Great Locomotive Chase.

August 28, 1891, Scott County lynched Frank Dudley, a black male, for murder.

August 28, 1922, Sheriff William Sherman Mathis, Muhlenberg County Sheriff’s Department, succumbed to wounds sustained the previous day as he and his two deputies attempted to serve a warrant at the wrong house.

August 28, 1925, Ray Ross hung from a scaffold in the jail yard on East Short Street in Lexington.  Ross was a 25-year-old black male who supposedly attacked and raped a 9-year-old black female.  The Fayette Circuit Court Judge ordered the hanging to occur in an enclosure and limited admittance to 100 persons.  However, the local press said a huge crowd gathered and cheered loudly while watching the execution.
The Squire’ Sketches of Lexington by J. Winston Coleman, Jr.; pg: 83

August 28, 1928, Constable Rucker D. Cain, Madison County Constable’s Office, died in the Needmore area while attempting to arrest a man for being drunk in public.  The man raised a shotgun and shot him in the chest.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Louisville native Vonda Neel McIntyre, born in 1948.  Vonda wrote science fiction including Enterprise: The First Adventure and The Entropy Effect.

August 28, 1950, the question of televising the 1952 presidential nominating convention as a public service or under commercial sponsorship came under discussion by committee officials.  Of course, we all know how that turned out; corporations sponsored their platform.

On August 28, 1963, Louisville native Mary Travers of Peter, Paul, and Mary, performed Blowin’ in the Wind at the Lincoln Memorial.  At the same event, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech to a crowd of 250,000 civil rights marchers.  The trio also joined Joan Baez and Bob Dylan to lead the demonstrators singing We Shall Overcome.

August 28, 1966, Marine Corps CPL William R. Taylor from Bardstown died in the Vietnam War.

August 28, 1967, Army PFC Theodore Brown from LeJunior in Harlan County, Marine Corps LCPL Michael J. Caller from Louisville, and Marine Corps LCPL William J. Hart, Jr. from Louisville, died in the Vietnam War.

August 28, 1968, Army PFC Jimmy L. Harris from Louisville died in the Vietnam War.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Middlesboro native Matthew Harper Jones, born in 1978.  Matt founded Kentucky Sports Radio and other Kentucky related ventures.

August 28, 1980, Governor John Y. Brown, Jr., went on KET and appealed to Kentuckians for 30 minutes, asking them to recognize the financial crisis that caused a $114 million shortfall in the state’s revenue.  In addition, he wanted to prep the state for the many cuts he would later initiate.

On August 28, 1990, the U.S. Drug Czar William Bennett visited the Daniel Boone National Forest with Governor W. Wilkinson and 13 reps from state and federal agencies that made up the governor’s Marijuana Task Force.  In their first two months, the task force seized 300,000 plants with a street value of $2.8 billion.

August 28, 1999, Bruce W. Midkiff from Owensboro caught a WORLD RECORD 104 pound Blue Catfish in the Ohio River near Cannelton Dam Tailwaters.  Bruce’s catch beat the previous state record set the same day below the same dam.  Bruce caught his on a live skipjack.  When he took the fish to the Game Warden in McLean County to get it officially weighed, they told him to put on hats and shirts from tackle manufactures, and they would pay him for the advertising rights and might display the fish in tanks at different stores.  He declined all offers and released the fish at the Owensboro boat ramp.

August 28, 2001, the Bluegrass Stockyards held their 1^st on-line auction.  The virtual auction took bids from seven different states.

August 28, 2004, Louisville native Nate Morris, 23, raised more than $50,000 from dozens of donors for President Bush’s re-election campaign.  The sum qualified him as a “Bush Maverick,” the youngest in an elite group of fund-raisers who helped fill the president’s record $228 million war chest.

August 28, 2004, the Queen of Saratoga, gets drenched again, this time in the Saratoga’s winner circle for the 135^th Travers Stakes.  She also accepted a Belmont trophy in the pouring rain.

August 28, 2006, Kentucky was still reeling from Flight 5191’s crash which occurred two mornings earlier.  Flags flew at half-staff, and a farmworker came forward with an eyewitness account.

August 28, 2010, the GI $1,000,000 Travers Stakes needed a photo to see which Keeneland graduate won.

August 28, 2012, Chief of Police Herbert D. Proffitt, Tompkinsville Police Department, died from a gunshot when ambushed in his driveway by a man he had arrested multiple times over the past 40 years.  The 81-year-old suspect fled the scene but was in custody several hours later.

August 28, 2019, Lexington’s four major public high schools hired more security staff and bought more metal detectors, they planned to do the same for their middle schools.

On August 28, 2020, Governor A. Beshear said the rate of people testing positive remained below 5%, which was “good news.”  Meanwhile, the number of new cases in Kentucky’s colleges continued to climb.  The eight new deaths included ages 69, 73, and 92; the report only listed three, however all were over 50.

Positives:  792 / 46,797
Deaths:  8 / 918 – 1^st death March 16, 2020
50&over: 891 / 49-30: 26 / 29&under: 1

On August 28, 2021, more than 30,000 stood in line to show their coronavirus paperwork before rocking out at Keeneland for the 2^nd annual Railbird Festival.  Meanwhile, over in Frankfort, U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie and other politicians on his side of the aisle joined a large rally and protested the coronavirus restrictions.

August 28, 2021, a Kentucky bred won Saratoga’s GI $1,250,000 Travers Stakes by a neck in the 152^nd edition.