Knox County
Madison County
Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Mercer County native Matthew Harris Jouett , born in 1788. The Transylvania University graduate is considered the greatest portrait painter Kentucky has produced. Some notable portraits painted by Jouett are Henry Clay, Governor Letcher, John J. Crittenden, Isaac Shelby, and a full-length portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette.
On April 22, 1836, John Rowan and a group of influential Kentuckians met in the Secretary of State’s office in the Frankfort town square and formed the Kentucky Historical Society to preserve the Commonwealth’s history. It was the 11th Historical Society formed in the U.S. Rowan served as the Society’s first president until 1843.
April 22, 1861, the Mobile & Ohio Railroad Company opened the longest railroad under one management in the country from Mobile, Alabama, to Columbus (Hickman County). The tracks were also the 1st in the Western Hemisphere to be steel instead of iron. The Columbus terminal operated until 1881. This Is Kentucky by Robert A. Powell; pg: 62
April 22, 1863, the Tompkinsville Courthouse and other buildings were burnt to the ground in Monroe County. All of the records were lost. CSA forces retaliated after Union men burned Celina, TN’s courthouse.
On April 22, 1884, the General Assembly honored Joel Tanner Hart , one of Kentucky’s favorite artists and sculptors, when they approved funds to remove his remains from Florence, Italy, to a Frankfort cemetery.
Hart’s Henry Clay
On April 22, 1923, Bill Sunday started a six-week stay in Louisville . The reverend told the press he came to fight sin, not to tell anyone how to run a city.
April 22, 1924, Police Officer Anthony Siemon, Newport Police Department , succumbed to stab wounds sustained 23 days earlier when arresting two brothers on West 5th Street.
April 22, 1929, Chief of Police John Hunley, Prestonsburg Police Department , died from a gunshot when he arrested three drunk men causing a disturbance. Two of the men were apprehended, convicted of murder, and sentenced to life.
Localtonians wish a Happy Anniversary to former Kentucky U.S. Class III Senator Johnson N. Camden, Jr, 65, and Agnes McAvoy Clay, 41, who wed in 1930. The couple lived at Spring Hill, one of Woodford County’s most impressive estates. Johnson’s dad, a tycoon, died unexpectedly when Jr was 43 years old and supposedly left $25 million.
April 22, 1944, Chief of Police Virgil Smith, Beattyville Police Department , died from a gunshot around 6 p.m. inside the Beattyville police station by a prisoner during an escape attempt.
April 22, 1949, Elizabethtown (Hardin County) native Charles B. Middleton passed over . During a film career that began at age 46 and lasted almost 30 years, he appeared in nearly 200 films and numerous plays. He is perhaps best remembered for his role as the villainous emperor Ming the Merciless in the three Flash Gordon serials made between 1936 and 1940.
April 22, 1951, Army SGT James W. Riddle from Adair County died fighting in the Korean War.
April 22, 1953, Army PVT Donald W. Harris from Knox County died fighting in the Korean War.
April 22, 1967, Army PFC Arnold L. Brock from Kettle Island in Bell County and Army PFC Ewell Lee Jr. from Liberty in Casey County died in the Vietnam War.
April 22, 1976, the U.S. National Register of Historic Places accepted Fayette County’s Hurricane Hall . Patrick Henry Thomson inherited the house in 1856 and maintained a private school on the estate. The Thomson family had 12 children that ran through the house like a hurricane. The home, along with 381 acres has been for sale for two years.
By Kyman1959
April 22, 1980, by a tie vote, the Kentucky Supreme Court upheld a state law requiring that a copy of the Ten Commandments remain posted in each public elementary and secondary school classroom.
Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Murray native Dustin Lee Howard, born in 1986. Better known as Chuck Taylor on the professional wrestler circuit, he began his career at age 15, under the tutelage of Brandon Walker at the Old School Wrestling Training Academy in Hardin (Marshall County).
April 22, 1998, Leif Meadows from Stanton caught a state record Golden Redhorse weighing 4.31 pounds in the Red River.
April 22, 2000, Tiznow finished a nondescript 6th at 13.80-1 odds in his career debut at Santa Anita.
April 22, 2003, Ashland (Boyd County) native Brandon Webb made his MLB pitching debut with the Arizona Diamondbacks against the Montreal Expos. During his tenure with Kentucky, Webb set the all-time single-season record for strikeouts by a Wildcat in 2000 with 123.
April 22, 2008, the Seahawks cut Florence (Boone County) native Shaun Alexander . The future Hall of Famer would play with the Redskins for the remainder of the year and then retire.
April 22, 2010, the world celebrated the 40th anniversary of Earth Day .
On April 22, 2019, The Nature Conservancy bought 100,000 acres on the TN/KY border. The sale included 55,000 acres in Bell, Knox, and Leslie Counties, the largest acquisition by the organization in Kentucky. The conservancy will continue to mine and log the land, promising that the profits will go back to the communities they came from.
April 22, 2021, the governor announced that 18 vaccinated residents caught coronavirus in an Eastern Kentucky nursing home, and one passed . These breakthrough cases came at a time when Kentucky’s vaccination rate slowed down. Andy continued to push the vaccine hard, “With 37% of Kentuckians vaccinated, there is still a risk of a 4th spike. If people don’t get vaccinated, new variants will cause an increase in cases.”
On April 22, 2022, a jury awarded a bean counter for UK Healthcare $1.75 million after the university fired him in 2017 after the man complained his $330,000 salary was too low. Meanwhile, the Feds arrested a Lexington man after lying to get a coronavirus relief loan for $50,000. Government watchdogs estimate fraudsters stole $280 billion in COVID-19 relief funding.
On April 22, 2023, Big Rivers Electric Corporation imploded two smoke stacks and boilers at the Sebree (Webster County) Station , that operated from 1966 to 2016. The polluted compound from coal ash is above federal advisory levels. The groundwater contains arsenic, boron, chloride, cobalt, fluoride, lithium, mercury, and more.
By April 22, 2024, the race to replace Mitch was on. The Republican Party’s master fundraiser spent decades selling out to any corporation willing to pay. In return, the donors influenced legislation. McConnell, the longest-serving Senate party leader, raised more than $1 billion. The only one that comes close to his fundraising prowess is Nancy Pelosi.
