July 6, 1802, Edward West, a Lexington inventor and silversmith , received a patent for his steamboat. Robert Fulton’s better-known vessel on a larger scale received a patent the following year.
July 6, 1819, President Monroe and two future presidents, Gen. Andrew Jackson and Lt. Col. Zachary Taylor, left Lexington and traveled to Harrodsburg.
July 6, 1859, two surveyors representing Kentucky and Tennessee wandered off course from a marked Beech Tree on the bank of Drakes Creek in current Simpson County . They turned their compasses ¾’s of a mile north from a Black Jack Oak, creating a 100-acre indentation. Today this error is known as Black Jack Corner or the Middleton Offset.
July 6, 1863, Morgan’s Raiders took Burkesville , thence Lebanon and Bardstown and crossed the Ohio River at Brandenburg. Kentucky In Retrospect 1792-1967 , by Lila Jones Kingston, pg: 83
July 6, 1887, Mary E. Britton spoke to the 9th Annual Kentucky Negro Education Association (KNEA) Convention in Danville on behalf of woman’s suffrage. She argued: “that women, like men, had a right to define their own fate within the laws of the land, and that laws should be equally applied to both women and men.” Her remarks were later published as “Woman’s Suffrage: A Potent Agency in Public Reform,”
July 6, 1884, Todd County lynched Dick Henderson , a black male, for cutting a white boy.
July 6, 1888, Henderson lynched Miles Petty, a black male, for murder.
July 6, 1893, Henry Whitestone passed away in Louisville , one of Kentucky’s most famous architects. Henry introduced the Italianate style to Louisville and is best known for his 1869 design of the 2nd Galt House and the 1877 offices of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad (now CSX Transportation). He also designed James C. Ford’s residence (1858-59) and the Ronald-Brennan house (1870). The Ronald-Brennan house is one of his many works listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
July 6, 1902, Chief of Police Alexander Yost, Catlettsburg Police Department , succumbed to heat exhaustion while on duty in extreme temperatures on the 4th of July.
July 6, 1912, Harlan County Deputy Sherriff Neil Christian succumbed to a gunshot wound sustained two days earlier after a man shot him seeking revenge against the deputy.
July 6, 1928, Deputy Sheriff John Hensley and Sheriff Floyd Ball, Harlan County Sheriff’s Office , died from gunshots arresting three men who had just crashed their car through a barricade onto a newly-constructed highway 12 miles west of Harlan.
Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Louisville native Ned Beatty , born in 1937.
On July 6, 1940, Adolf Hitler reached his height of power after returning to Berlin from his conquests. He returned home to a tumultuous welcome as he rode over a vast carpet of flowers with Norwegian lands, Holland, Belgium, and Paris under his control. Propaganda said the hundreds of thousands that filled the parade route felt a Napoleonic theme and compared the fuehrer to Napoleon and Caesar. Meanwhile, in Central Kentucky, business people positioned themselves for the lucrative beer distribution rights.
On July 6, 1952, V.P. Alben Barkley changed political course and actively sought the presidential nomination instead of waiting for an offer. He would be one of the 12 nominees to enter the race. The 74-year-old said his friends persuaded him to get active. Meanwhile, the 16th Lexington Junior League Horse Show started at the Lexington Trots Breeders Association track.
July 6, 1963, Wise Charge won the $37,000, six furlongs Junior Derby in Miles Park.
July 6, 1966, Army SFC William C. Fraley from Ashland in the Vietnam War.
July 6, 1967, Marine Corps SGT Donald C. Pike from Danville and Army SGT William J. Price from Louisville , died in the Vietnam War.
July 6, 1968, Army PFC William R. Curry from Columbia in Adair County died on the Vietnam War.
July 6, 1969, Army PFC David E. Buttery from Berea died in the Vietnam War.
July 6, 1971, Dale and Roy Rogers appeared at the State Fair .
July 6, 1975, Ruffian and Foolish Pleasure entered Belmont’s starting gate in front of more than 50,000 spectators, ready to run a mile and a quarter.
July 6, 1977, in the 2nd of their ten meetings, Alydar defeated Affirmed to win the Great American Stakes at Belmont Park to even the rivalry at 1-1; Alydar would win two more.
On July 6, 1983, a Bourbon County grand jury indicted the Bourbon County Judge Executive and seven magistrates on a misdemeanor for willfully neglecting the discharge of their official duties. Meanwhile, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled 5-2 the state could not buy textbooks for private schools because the constitution didn’t allow it.
July 6, 1984, Walter Mondale, the likely presidential nominee, hosted and interviewed Governor Martha Layne Collins to be his V.P. nominee. Mondale stated that Collins, the nation’s highest-ranking woman Democrat was “clearly compatible.”
July 6, 1990, Danville native William Richard Higgins died at the hands of his capturers in Lebanon.
On July 6, 1996, Kentuckians learned about the tiny mites that devastated the honeybee community . In the seven years since they appeared in Kentucky, the mites cut the bee population by more than half. The mites completely killed the feral bee population which live in dead wood.
July 6, 2010, Army PFC Michael S. Pridham, 19, of Louisville , died in Afghanistan fighting in Operation Enduring Freedom.
July 6, 2013, Randy Kirk from Maysville caught a state record 5 lbs., 8 ozs. Bullhead Catfish in a private pond in Mason County.
Saturday, July 6, 2019, New York arrested Jeffrey Epstein .
July 6, 2020, Governor A. Beshear, “We can stay on this plateau and hopefully move to a steady decline in cases only if we follow the guidelines for social distancing, hand washing, wearing cloth facemasks, and limiting exposure to large crowds. Kentuckians need to get tested regularly and answer the phone when they are called by contact tracers.”
July 6, 2022, Kentuckians learned about the youngest member of Mensa , two-year-old Isla McNabb, who lives in Oldham County with her family. The McNabbs said they decided to have Isla, who will turn 3 in November, join Mensa to tap into the organization’s resources.