Kentucky Trivia ● Kentucky Tweets

November 18, 1806, or thereabout, Capt. Lewis and Mr. Clark arrived in Frankfort with Mr. Chouteau and Chief Shahaka, his family, and an interpreter.  A party of Osages also went along.  They all went on to Washington, except Mr. Clark.  He visited his brothers in Louisville, and then went on to Virginia to woo Julia Hancock.  Clark was not interested in the gala receptions given in Washington in January 1807, in honor of the expedition’s triumphant return so Capt. Lewis attended without Mr. Clark.

November 18, 1861, the Confederate Sovereignty Convention met in the Clark House in Logan County for three days.  A total of 116 delegates from 65 counties passed an Act of Secession from the Federal Union and established Bowling Green as the capital and George W. Johnson from Scott County as provisional governor.  This is Kentucky by Robert A. Powell pg: 116

November 18, 1883, all major cities in the U.S. operated under standard time.  However, Lexingtonians lived and worked according to solar time (also called sun time or God’s time) because landowners (farmers) exercised a disproportionate amount of power in the region.  Madam Belle by Maryjean Wall pg: 107

November 18, 1896, Cloverport native Eli Houston Murray passed away.  He governed the Utah Territory between 1880 and 1886.  Locals named Murray, Utah for him.  The newly appointed anti-Mormon territorial governor openly supported Utah’s Liberal Party.

Saturday, November 18, 1893, the annual Male-Manual football rivalry, the longest-running, continuously played high school football series in Kentucky, began.

November 18, 1903, the Carnegie Corporation of New York awarded Owensboro $30,000 to build a library.

November 18, 1911, the last Battle on Broadway took place when Transy beat UK 12-5 in football.  With the NCAA creation, Transylvania University entered Division III while Kentucky stayed in Division I.  Almost a hundred years after the last game, the Lexington Herald-Leader wrote that the rivalry was “arguably more intense and controversial than any experienced in UK’s history.”

November 18, 1922, the Kentucky Wildcats shutout the Alabama Crimson Tide 6-0 in Lexington.

November 18, 1922, Dade Park opened the gates for their 1^st Thoroughbred meet.  One month earlier, they officially opened with a Grand Circuit harness meet.  Ellis Park, originally Dade Park, was built in 1922 by the Green River Jockey Club.  The founders wanted the longest stretch run in America and the original plans were to create a track 1 1/2M long.  Architect Ernest F. Bohme from Lexington developed the plans for Ellis Park, but he miscalculated and built the stretch 3/8 of a mile shorter.

November 18, 1945, after receiving a telegram from the house and senate leadership, Governor S. Willis conferred with Lt. Gov. Tuggle, Barbourville, and called a special session.  Legislatures wanted to forestall a cut on public assistance.

Localtonians wish a Happy Anniversary to Alben William Barkley and Jane Rucker Hadley, who wed in 1949.  He was the oldest (71) vice-president and the only one to marry in office.  Truman insisted on Barkley’s inclusion in all cabinet-level meetings and on the National Security Council because of his legislative expertise.  His extraordinary speaking abilities made him the administration’s principal spokesman.  A new V.P. Seal took effect when Barkley was inaugurated in 1949 and remained in use for nearly 27 years.

November 18, 1950, the Kroger Company canceled delivery of all merchandise to its 74 grocery stores in Kentucky and Southern Indiana.  They had to; Truck Drivers Local 89 went on strike and were picketing the warehouses.

November 18, 1955, Kentucky and Indiana ruled out a specific bridge site asked for by New Albany.  The two governors would decide soon afterward.

November 18, 1967, Army SP4 James A. Dailey from Moorefield in Nicholas County died fighting in the Vietnam War.

November 18, 1967, U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas (69) and his wife, Cathleen (24), led a five-mile hike in the Clifty Wilderness area in opposition to the proposed damming of the Red River Gorge.  The Sierra Club invited the Justice, who had written many books about wilderness areas, to the protest hike to fight the construction of the proposed reservoir.  “I don’t think the cause is lost,” Douglas said.  “If I thought that, I wouldn’t be here.”  The Douglas family visit drew local and national attention to the cause.

November 18, 1971, Army PFC Charles H. Richie from Berea died fighting in the Vietnam War.

November 18, 1972, eleven people died in a twin-engine plane crash, in a farm field near Elkton, in Todd County, returning from a high school football game between Madison and Trigg Counties.  Ten of the victims were from Richmond.

November 18, 1977, the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the city of Southgate received sovereign immunity and were dropped as a defendant in the Beverly Hills Supper fire six months after the tragedy.

November 18, 1978, Morehead State quarterback Phil Simms, in his last Eagle’s game, scrambled under pressure from an Eastern Kentucky defender during the Colonels’ 30-0 win in Richmond.  The future Super Bowl XXI MVP finished his college career with 5,545 yards passing, an Ohio Valley Conference record.

November 18, 1980, the 1^st Kentuckian received $172,170 in federal court after the swine-flu vaccine paralyzed him.  Guillain-Barre Syndrome resulted from the government’s 1976 swine-flu inoculation program.

November 18, 1985, Vice President George Bush dedicated the Lucille Parker Markey Cancer Center at UK.  He then attended a $500-a-couple fundraising dinner for U.S. Rep. Larry Hopkins in downtown Lexington.

November 18, 1988, Rep. Donnie Gedling of Hardinsburg, Chairman of the Kentucky General Assembly’s Tobacco Taskforce, said that UofL’s proposal to segregate smokers and ban smoking on campus is an insult to Kentucky farmers.

November 18, 1995, the 14^th annual Kentucky Book Fair occurred in Frankfort, featuring 130 regional and national writers.  The event drew 5,000 participants and sold about 11,000 books.  Andy Rooney and Nick Clooney were two of the better-known attendees.

November 18, 2001, Rick Pitino coached his 1^st basketball game as UofL’s head coach.  The Cardinals crushed South Alabama 92-38.

November 18, 2005, Muhammad Ali joined his family, friends, colleagues, and admirers from 12 countries and 32 states to celebrate the grand opening of the $54 million Muhammad Ali Center.

November 18, 2006, the Santa Special rolled into Shelbiana, Pike County, for the 64^th year.  Volunteers tossed armfuls of candy, moon pies, coloring books, dolls, and other toys from the parked train cars.  The annual expedition delivers more than 15 tons of Christmas gifts to children living along a 110-mile stretch in the rural mountains of Kentucky, WVA, and TN.

November 18, 2012, Allan Hsiao, the son of Taiwanese immigrants who attended high school in Louisville, became a Rhodes Scholar, one of 32 Americans to do for the year.

November 18, 2016, after decades of discussion and 3.5 years of construction, officials and citizens celebrated the substantial completion of the Louisville downtown crossing portion of the Ohio River Bridges Project, a $1.3 billion endeavor.

On November 18, 2020, as the U.S death toll hit 250,000, Governor A. Beshear unveiled wide-ranging restrictions to curb the 3^rd surge of coronavirus, from shutting schools down to eliminating indoor restaurant seating.  Restaurant owners claimed, “This is the breaking point.”  Meanwhile, the KHSAA voted to delay and shorten the basketball season.

Positives:  2,753 / 144,753
Deaths:  15 / 1,712 – 1^st Death 3/16/20
50&over: 1,666 / 49-30: 43 / 29&under: 3

November 18, 2021, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked a federal judge for 55 years to complete a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for data and information on the approval of Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine.