Today in History for Jan. 11, 2015

Ambrose Burnside

Jan. 11, 1805 - The Michigan Territory was created.

Jan. 11, 1861 – At the Alabama Secession Convention, 61 representatives voted for immediate secession and 39 voted against, and Alabama became the fourth state to secede from the Union. The vote resulted in the passage of an Ordinance of Secession that declared Alabama a “Sovereign and Independent State.” Pinckney D. Bowles also first entered Confederate service on this day as a first lieutenant at Sparta in Conecuh County, Ala.

Jan. 11, 1862 - Union General Ambrose Burnside took a force of 15,000 and a flotilla of 80 ships down to North Carolina's Outer Banks.

Jan. 11, 1863 - Union General John McClernand and Admiral David Dixon Porter captured Arkansas Post, a Confederate stronghold on the Arkansas River. Porter had started bombing the fort the night before. The victory secured central Arkansas for the Union and lifted Northern morale just three weeks after the disastrous Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Jan. 11, 1863 – The CSS Alabama encountered and sunk the USS Hatteras off Galveston Lighthouse in Texas.

Jan. 11, 1864 – Gillchrist R. Boulware of the Conecuh Guards began working for the Confederate Secret Service Department and served with them until the end of the war in 1865. Boulware was born near Brooklyn on Aug. 15, 1842 and first entered Confederate service as a private at Sparta on April 1, 1861 with Co. E of the 4th Alabama Infantry Regiment.

Jan. 11, 1875 – William R. Sawyer named postmaster at Burnt Corn, Ala.

Jan. 11, 1888 - Alabama journalist Grover C. Hall was born in Heleburg, Ala.

Jan. 11, 1894 – The Crimson White student newspaper was established at the University of Alabama.

Jan. 11, 1908 – On this Saturday morning, fire was discovered in the residence of T.A. Waller in Conecuh County, Ala. The household goods were saved, but the building was a total loss. The origin of the fire was unknown.

Jan. 11, 1908 - U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt declared the massive Grand Canyon in northwestern Arizona a national monument, an area that includes more than 800,000 acres. "Let this great wonder of nature remain as it now is," he declared. "You cannot improve on it. But what you can do is keep it for your children, your children’s children, and all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American should see."

Jan. 11, 1919 – During World War I, Army Pvt. Andrew E. Snow of Uriah “died from disease” at Fort Logan H. Roots, Ark.

Jan. 11, 1935 – Amelia Earhart became the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California. In the first flight of its kind, Earhart departed Wheeler Field in Honolulu, Hawaii, on a solo flight to North America. Hawaiian commercial interests offered a $10,000 award to whoever accomplished the flight first. The next day, after traveling 2,400 miles in 18 hours, she safely landed at Oakland Airport in Oakland, California.

Jan. 11, 1964 – Monroe Journal employee Bruce Allen White passed away from a heart attack at the age of 30. A Marine Corps veteran who was critically wounded in WWII and was cited for gallantry in action on Saipan, he began working as a printer’s apprentice at The Journal in 1946. He went on to become an accomplished pressman and later the main make up man for the newspaper. Most of the ads that appeared in The Journal from 1955 through 1963 were his handiwork. The Monroe Journal’s 1966 Centennial Edition was dedicated in his memory.

Jan. 11, 1964 – Surgeon General of the United States Dr. Luther Terry of Red Level, Ala. published the landmark report “Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the United States,” saying that smoking may be hazardous to health, sparking national and worldwide anti-smoking efforts.

Jan. 11, 1967 – In an incident attributed to the Bermuda Triangle, a Chase YC-122, carrying four persons en route to Grand Bahama from Palm Beach, Fla., vanished in the Gulf Stream at some point northwest of Bimini.

Jan. 11, 1968 – Estelle Bryant Cobb of Evergreen celebrated her 102nd birthday. Cobb married the Dr. William Foster Cobb in 1895 in Barlow Bend. They lived there until they moved to Frisco City in 1916. Dr. Cobb practiced medicine in Clarke and Monroe counties for 50 years. She was a lifelong member of the Methodist Church and graduated from Alabama Conference Female College (now Huntingdon College, Montgomery) in 1888 when it was located at Tuskegee.

Jan. 11, 1973 - Owners of American League baseball teams voted to adopt the designated-hitter rule on a trial basis.

Jan. 11, 1983 – Sparta Academy’s varsity boys basketball team beat Fort Dale, 63-61, in Evergreen, and Sparta’s girls beat Fort Dale, 40-32. Russ Brown led Sparta’s boys with 23 points, and Cheri Johnson led Sparta’s girls with 16 points.

Jan. 11, 2010 - Mark McGwire admitted that he used steroids on and off for nearly a decade, including the 1998 season when he broke the then single-season home run record.

Jan. 11, 2012 - Jordan van der Sloot, a longtime suspect in the unsolved 2005 disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway in Aruba, pleaded guilty to the murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores, in Lima, Peru. Flores was killed on May 30, 2010, exactly five years to the day after Holloway went missing while on a high school graduation trip to the Caribbean island.