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TODAYIN KENTUCKY HISTORY

Kentucky Trivia ● Kentucky Tweets

February 8, 1837, the U.S. Senate elected Louisville native Richard Mentor Johnson the 9th U.S. Vice President.  His selection marked the 1st and only time the Senate exercised its prerogative under the U.S. Constitution’s 12th Amendment, which provides, “if no person has a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President.”

February 8, 1839, Kentucky created Breathitt County from Clay County, Estill County, and Perry County and named it in honor of John Breathitt, Kentucky’s 11th governor.  Jackson is the county seat.  Other localities include: Altro, Bays, Caney, Canoe, Chenowee, Clayhole, Cockrell Fork, (on a line between Breathitt and Perry Counties) Crockettsville, Elkatawa, Evanston, Fishtrap, Flintville, Frozen/Frozen Creek, Fugates Fork, Gauge, Haddix, Hardshell Caney, Hayes Branch, Leatherwood, Lost Creek, Morris Fork, Ned, Nix Branch, Noble, Noctor, Oakdale, Portsmouth, Quicksand, River Caney, Riverside, Rose Branch, Rousseau, Rowdy, Saldee, Sebastians Branch, Shoulder Blade/Shoulderblade, Smith Branch, South Fork, Stevenson, Troublesome Creek, Turners Creek, Vancleve, War Creek, Watts, Whick, Wilstacy, and Wolf Coal.  The 89th county created, Breathitt County covers 495 square miles.

KY 1838
640px Map of Kentucky highlighting Breathitt County.svg
By David Benbennick

February 8, 1893, Kentucky philanthropist, social reformer, school founder, and letter writer, “Miss Jennie Casseday passed over.

Feb 8 Cassiday
Jennie Casseday of Louisville : her intimate life as told by her sister, Mrs. Fannie Casseday Duncan.

February 8, 1900, Governor W. Goebel’s body returned to Frankfort from Covington for his official funeral.  Around 6,000 strong attended the event, despite a miserable rainy day.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Millersburg native Mae Street Kidd.  In 1904, she was born to a black mother and a white father, who refused to acknowledge her existence.  Nevertheless, from a segregated education, she became a pioneer in business, politics, and civil rights, who broke ground for Kentucky women and African Americans.  After her successful life insurance career, she served the Red Cross, and then opened her cosmetics line.  In addition, she helped create the Louisville Urban League Guild and joined Kentucky’s House of Representatives.

February 8, 1908, State University, Lexington (UK) hosted and defeated the Louisville Coliseum Club, 29-28, in the State College Gymnasium.  The Lexington Herald provided two different names for UK, depending on the article; they were “State College Cadets” and “Kentucky State College.”

February 8, 1915, Constable W. W. Tartt, Graves County Constable’s Office, died at Melber by a man that he and another constable arrested for breaking into a house.  Three nights later, a mob of more than 50 men seized the suspect from the county jail at Maysville, hanged him from a tree on the courthouse lawn, and riddled his body with bullets.

February 8, 1915, La Grange native D.W. Griffith premiered his Birth of a Nation in the Los Angeles Clune’s Auditorium.

February 8, 1922, via the Lincoln County Representative, Frankfort addressed Isaac Shelby’s neglected grave.  The bill requested $3,000 to properly mark Kentucky’s 1st & 4th governor.

February 8, 1930, James Grayson received a life sentence by a Warren County jury.  He murdered Mr. Kirby, a Smiths Grove banker, who died while pursuing the three bandits that robbed the Bank of Oakland for $1,753.

February 8, 1942, officials announced the token fares on Louisville street cars and buses increased from 3-for-20 cents to 2-for-15 cents.  The cash fare remained at 10 cents.

February 8, 1946, Patrolman Cleophus John “Clay” Eifert, Covington Police Department, died from a gunshot to the chest, climbing a staircase while responding to a domestic disturbance at a downtown rooming house.  Before collapsing, the officer fired six shots, striking the gunman in the leg.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Louisville native John Richard Gott III, born in 1947.  The professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University is known for his work on time travel and the Doomsday argument.

February 8, 1949, Rupp’s Cats crushed the visiting Vols 71-56 in Alumni Gymnasium.  Alex Groza scored 34 points.

February 8, 1950, in a resounding triumph for Governor E. Clements, the House killed a proposal to allow $12,200,000 a year more to education after a 6.5-hour session.  The Kentucky Education Association suffered one of its worst defeats in recent years.

February 8, 1960, Kentucky lawmakers, by a vote of 58 to 18, increased their daily expense allowance from $10 to $25 a day.  Twelve members did not vote and eleven were absent.   

February 8, 1968, Army SP4 Larry J. McCubbins from Fairdale in Jefferson County, Marine Corps PFC Ronald L. Pembleton in Nicholasville in Jessamine County and Army PFC Joseph B. Robinson from Ashland in Boyd County died in the Vietnam War.

February 8, 1969, Army SP4 Robert H. Parcher from Louisville and Army SP4 Henry L. Palmer from Madisonville in Hopkins, died in the Vietnam War.

February 8, 1971, Army SGT Joseph W. Miley from Covington in Kenton County died in the Vietnam War.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Fort Campbell native and MLB player Aaron Lane Cook, born in 1979.  

February 8, 1981, the Boston Celtics retired Newport native Dave Cowens’s #18 jersey.

February 8, 1989, Springfield native Georgia Davis Powers, known as Montgomery, exhibited her photographs at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C.: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America.

Kentucky Trivia:  In 1968, Georgia Davis Powers became the 1st African-American woman elected to the Kentucky State Senate, 33 years after Charles W. Anderson, Jr.  became the 1st African-American.

On February 8, 1992, Humana Inc. propped up Dr. Rich with a thriving Kentucky practice after Kansas took his medical license.  During his brief Commonwealth tenure, patients sued him for malpractice and police charged him twice for shoplifting.

February 8, 1996, corporate America’s media division won another major battle in the war against U.S. citizens when President Bill Clinton signed the Telecommunications Bill into law.

February 8, 2000, Louisville announced a $60 million investment into turning human waste into fertilizer pellets.   The project would have diverted 250 million tons of sludge from landfills.

February 8, 2011, Kindred Healthcare of Louisville announced they bought St. Louis based RehabCare for $940 million.  With this deal, Kindred become the nation’s largest provider of rehabilitation and long-term hospital care.  In 2017, Humana bought Kindred for $4 billion and Kindred is no longer a publicly-traded company.

HealthCare Trivia:  Health Insurance companies are a drain on American society.  The only two ways for these corporate leeches to make a profit is to maximum premiums and or decline payouts.

On February 8, 2014, a state-wide poll found that most Kentuckians favored raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.25.  Citizens also favored a state-wide smoking ban.

February 8, 2014, while Lexington’s 1st Black Fire Chief Keith Jackson settled into his job, Georgia Powers Davis, 90, sat down for an interview to reflect on her career advocating for Kentucky’s underdog minorities.

February 8, 2019, the Commissioner and Operations Director of the Kentucky Department of Corrections received a pink slip, part of the Justice Cabinet’s desire to change leadership.

February 8, 2020, Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman became the 1st U.S. Lt. Gov. to give birth while in office.  Evelynne Jeanette Coleman-O’Bryan became a Kentuckian at 9:40 a.m.

February 8, 2020, a Keeneland exacta and Kentucky bred won Tampa Bay Downs’s GIII $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes for Kentucky Derby points.  The winner ran in the Derby.

February 8, 2021, while Governor A. Beshear reported the fewest new virus cases since December, a State Senator requested Alice Dunnigan’s statute be placed in the Capitols of Frankfort and Washington, D.C.

February 8, 2021, an international copper company, Wieland North America, Inc., announced Louisville as their headquarters.  They promised 75 jobs at an average pay of $95.00 per hour over the next decade.

February 8, 2022, Rep. Hal Rogers told an individual to kiss his ass after she told him to put on a mask.  The incident reflected the division and tension face coverings had become.  Corporate media in cable and print successfully politicized the new flu strain.  In doing so, they continued to divide the public while their corporate advertisers conquered its goals.