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TODAY IN KENTUCKY HISTORY

November 17, 1788, Lexington established the 1st Masonic Lodge west of the Allegheny Mountains.

Localtonians wish a Happy Anniversary to Governor J. Proctor Knott and Mary E. Forman, who wed in 1852.  Mary died during the couple’s 1st child’s birth.  Knott then married his cousin, Sarah R. McElroy in 1858.  Governor Knott was our 29th governor and a native of Raywick in Marion County. 

November 17, 1884, Police Officer James Edgar, of the Covington Police Department, succumbed to a gunshot wound sustained four days earlier, when he and his partner attempted to arrest five men they had discovered burglarizing a grocery store.

November 17, 1894, The Daily Racing Forum printed their 1st edition.

Localtonians wish a Happy Anniversary to Desha Breckinridge and Madeline McDowell, who married in 1898.  The ceremony was a small, private wedding at the Ashland Estate in Lexington.  Desha was a lawyer and editor for the Lexington Herald, which his father owned at the time.  A Democrat, Breckinridge was frequently at odds with both parties in championing such causes as business regulation, child labor laws, education, prison reform, and women’s suffrage.  Madeline was Henry Clay’s Great-Granddaughter, a leader in the Women’s Suffrage Movement, and one of Kentucky’s leading progressive reformers; her work helped establish Kentucky’s juvenile court system.  The two met while Madeline wrote book reviews for the Lexington Herald.  Through the pages of the newspaper, they became successful leaders of the Progressive Movement in Kentucky.

November 17, 1900, Kentucky State College (UK) defeated the Louisville YMCA 12-0.

November 17, 1920, Miss Lottie James became the 1st woman in Kentucky to sit on a jury.  Both sides in the murder trial accepted the decision the day before the trial started.

At 9:00 a.m., Friday, November 17, 1933, the Tulane Green Wave coaching staff, university officials, and local press met the Wildcats at the train station a day before the big game in New Orleans, built as the “Battle of the Stars.”  Sports fans rated the game the best in the South, with 26,000 expected to attend.  The Kentucky team arrived in two special Pullman cars and spent the remainder of the day sightseeing.  Meanwhile, UK confirmed they asked Alabama Coach Frank Thomas to move to Lexington.  He declined and coached the Tide from 1931 to 1946.

On November 17, 1941, President Lincoln’s letter to Gen. J. Hooker to assume command of the Army of the Potomac brought $15,000 to the estate sale of Col. L. J. Kolb.  A copy of the Star-Spangled Banner, penned and signed by Francis Scott Key, went for $7,750.

November 17, 1951, Army PVT Lester Hubbard from Clay County and Army SGT Melvin T. Whittaker from Warren County both died fighting in the Korean War.

On November 17, 1955, Governor L. Weatherby and Chief Justice Brady M. Stewart dedicated the first major renovation of the Governor’s Mansion.  The original costs in 1921 were $1,820,000; this renovation cost $2,500,000.  The governor thought it would boost tourism for the state.  Other renovations included 1982 (Governor Brown) and 2007 (Governor Fletcher).

November 17, 1965, Army PFC Jimmy F. Boren from Cadiz in Trigg County, Army PFC Robert L. Davis from Providence in Webster County, Army SP4 Jimmy Harris from Beattyville in Lee County and Army SP4 James C. Jackson from Oil Springs in Johnson County all died fighting in the Vietnam War.

November 17, 1966, Marine Corps PFC Norman E. Guillaume, Jr. from Louisville died fighting in the Vietnam War.

On November 17, 1967, Surveyor 6 made a “historic hop” on the moon when scientists confirmed it became the first rocket to lift off the lunar surface.  The three-legged picture-taking spacecraft lifted 10 feet off the ground for 6.5 seconds and landed 10 feet away.  It remains on the moon today.

November 17, 1968, Army 1SG George C. Rowland from Owensboro died fighting in the Vietnam War.

November 17, 1971, Shelby County native Dr. Alice N. Pickett passed away.  In the 1960s, when the Louisville Courier-Journal and Louisville Times contributed considerably to the local Red Cross, they did so in her name to honor her years of service to the organization.  In 1957, UK bestowed her the Sullivan Medallion for Service.  The Kentucky Encyclopedia edited by John E. Kleber; pg: 721

November 17, 1971, Muhamad Ali (33-1) fought Buster Mathis (29-2) in the Houston Astrodome.  Mathis came in at 256 pounds and was overweight, while Ali was the heaviest he’d ever been.  Some said Ali took it easy on Mathis, hardly training for the fight, which went the distance.  Some criticized Ali for not finishing Mathis, but he said he would not hurt a man just for the benefit of the writers.  “I gotta sleep at night,” said Ali.

November 17, 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (5–4) that Kentucky legislators could not make school officials post a copy of the Ten Commandments (purchased with private contributions) in every public classroom.  The High Court said it violated the 1st Amendment’s establishment clause, the separation of church and state.

November 17, 1981, a wrecking ball brought down Lexington’s historical Phoenix Hotel.  Click to see. Future governor Wallace Wilkinson oversaw destruction and had planned to build the World Coal Center skyscraper on the site.  It never got built, and the land eventually became the Lexington Public Library, Park Plaza Apartments, and Phoenix Park.

Click to see the construction of Humana’s headquarters in downtown Louisville on November 17, 1983.  The 27-story skyscraper opened in June 1985, boasting 588,400 square feet of space.  The $60 million building is double-tiered and the 24th-floor roof garden overlooking Main Street offers a stunning view of the Ohio River.  Humana sued the architecture firm over structural defects 38 years later, in 2023.

November 17, 1987, Springfield native and two-time World Series Champion Samuel Paul Derringer passed away.  Paul pitched for three National League teams from 1931 to 1945, primarily with the Cincinnati Reds.  In 1958, he became a founding member of the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame.

On November 17, 1990, Asbury Theological Seminary announced a $38.9 million gift from Ralph Beeson, an insurance executive.  This was the largest gift the school had ever received, almost double the $20 million permanent endowment.

Friday night, November 17, 1995, Tim Couch broke the high school national record for passing yards ending the game with a total of 11,871 yards.  Couch finished his career with national records for career passing yards (12,104 yards), career passing touchdowns (133), and career pass completions (872).  He also ranked 2nd in career pass attempts (1,372) and 7th in career pass completion percentage (63.6%).  The 6-foot-5, 215-pound Couch made the Leslie County varsity football team as a seventh-grader and backed up his brother, Greg, as an eighth-grader before starting the next four seasons.

On November 17, 2002, more than 4,000 unpaid extras played a role in the match race between Seabiscuit and War Admiral on the last day of filming Seabiscuit at Keeneland.  Directors transformed the track into a depression-era Pimlico Race Course to recreate the famous match race.

November 17, 2003, more than one in four Kentucky schools failed to meet new academic standards required by the new federal “No Child Left Behind” law.  The Kentucky Department of Education released the data showing 470 schools out of 1,179 failed to make “adequate yearly progress.”

November 17, 2010, Zenyatta announced her retirement, a month after winning Hollywood’s Grade I Lady’s Secret Stakes for the 3rd time and breaking the all-time North American record for Grade/Group I victories by a filly/mare.  She also tied the all-time North American record for consecutive victories without defeat and broke the North American female earnings record.

November 17, 2012, seniors carried Joker Phillips off the field after beating Samford 34-3 in their final home game while the band played My Old Kentucky Home.  For a night, UK could forget the empty stands, the losing record, and Joker getting fired.

Kentucky Trivia:  All three of Coach Phillips’s senior classes won their last home game.  The program hadn’t even seen two consecutive victories in home finales since 1976.

On November 17, 2017, crews completed the three-story, 700-space underground parking garage; therefore, construction began on the 1st building of Lexington’s CentrePointe project more than nine years after the Webb Brothers announced the downtown project.

November 17, 2019, the possible 1st case of coronavirus emerged in Hubei province, China.

On November 17, 2020, Kentucky reported its deadliest day from the coronavirus, 33.  Governor A. Beshear said he would announce new restrictions within 24 hours without any details because “asking nicely” is not getting the job done.  Andy alleged, “The house is on fire at this point, and we need everybody to join the bucket brigade and do what it takes to address this crisis.”  As the holidays grew near, many Americans were on edge; however, test kits were now available over the counter.

November 17, 2021, Governor A. Beshear announced all experimentally vaccinated Kentucky adults could now receive the experimental vaccine booster, less than a year before they introduced the 1st vaccine.

November 17, 2022, a day after the GOP won the House, Thomas Massie and Rand Paul spoke out about ending the vaccine mandates.  President Biden dropped the directives in May 2023.

On November 17, 2023, Matt Jones gave a shout-out to Daniel Thomas of Bell County.  Mr. Kentucky Football and Matt enjoyed the same stomping grounds growing up.

Sunrise & Tractor