Today in History for Aug. 6, 2015

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Aug. 6, 1777 – During the American Revolutionary War, the bloody Battle of Oriskany prevented American relief of the Siege of Fort Stanwix. During the incident, 800 militiamen under General Nicholas Herkimer from Tryon County, N.Y. (now Rome, N.Y.), were ambushed by a mixed party of British regulars and Mohawk Indians while attempting to relieve Fort Stanwix. Herkimer was mortally wounded during the ensuing fight and died 10 days later.

Aug. 6, 1787 – Sixty proof sheets of the Constitution of the United States were delivered to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the debate began over the first draft of the U.S. Constitution.

Aug. 6, 1809 – Victorian poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson was born in Lincolnshire, England. He’s one of the most popular poets in the English language, and was one of the last poets to sell as many books as a novelist. At his peak, he was one of the most famous people in England — possibly behind only Queen Victoria and the prime minister.

Aug. 6, 1817 – Amos Lawrence, founder of the mills which bore his name, sighted the “Monster of Gloucester” and issued a proclamation to that effect.

Aug. 6, 1856 – Walter Cleveland, the first child of Stephen and Eliza Creagh Cleveland, was born.

Aug. 6, 1861 – During the Civil War, Ambrose Everett Burnside, U.S. Army, was appointed brigadier general.


Aug. 6, 1861 - The Federal camp “Dick Robinson” was established near Lexington, Kentucky to bolster the standing of pro-Union men in the area.

Aug. 6, 1862 – During the Civil War, the C.S.S. Arkansas, the most feared Confederate ironclad on the Mississippi River, was blown up by her crew after suffering catastrophic mechanical problems and running aground during a battle with the U.S.S. Essex near Baton Rouge, La. The crew blew up the Arkansas to keep it from falling into Yankee hands. Although the Arkansas was never defeated, unreliable engines doomed the craft to an early death.

Aug. 6, 1863 – During the Civil War, the Union vessel, Sea Bride, was captured in the Atlantic Ocean, near the Cape of Good Hope, by the Confederate raider, CSS Alabama.

Aug. 6, 1864 – During the Civil War, a skirmish occurred on the Somerville Road near Decatur, Ala.

Aug. 6, 1864 - Union forces attacked the Confederates at Utoy Creek, and the Union forces were repulsed.

Aug. 6, 1881 – Sir Alexander Fleming, the bacteriologist who discovered the antibacterial properties of penicillin, was born in Lochfield, Scotland.

Aug. 6, 1885 – Prof. James A. York, who would serve as principal of Monroe County High School, was born at Pinckard in Dale County, Ala. He was elected in the latter part of 1918 to serve as principal at MCHS in Monroeville, Ala.

Aug. 6, 1890 - At New York's Auburn Prison, axe murderer William Kemmler became the first person to be executed by electric chair.

Aug. 6, 1890 - Cy Young achieved his first Major League Baseball pitching victory. He would accumulate 511 in his career.

Aug. 6, 1909 – Children’s author and National Book Award winner Norma Farber was born in Boston, Mass.

Aug. 6, 1915 – John Salter and Robert Watkins were hanged around 11 a.m. at the gallows at the Conecuh County Courthouse in Evergreen, Ala. by Sheriff Williams for the brutal murder of Martha Lassister on June 23. At the same time they made a brutal assault on Wiley House, left him for dead, set fire to his house and fled. Watkins was hung first, followed by Salter, and both were buried in the same grave.

Aug. 6, 1916 – Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Richard Hofstadter was born in Buffalo, N.Y.

Aug. 6, 1930 – During his Senate campaign, John Hollis Bankhead Jr. spoke to an overflow crowd at the Old Monroe County Courthouse in Monroeville, Ala.

Aug. 6, 1930 – New York Supreme Court Justice Joseph Force Crater, 41, stepped into a taxi in Manhattan near Times Square and mysteriously disappeared never to be seen again. He was declared legally dead in 1939.

Aug. 6, 1931 – A charity baseball game between the Methodists and the Baptists was scheduled to be played on this day in Evergreen, Ala. The game was sponsored by the Lions Club with proceeds to go to the Boy Scouts. The game was originally scheduled for June 23, but ended in a 0-0 tie due to rain.

Aug. 6-7, 1931 - The Second Battalion First Tank Regiment (Light) from Ft. Benning, Ga. was scheduled stop in Evergreen, Ala. enroute to Ft. Barrancas at Pensacola, Fla. Arrangements had been made to quarter the battalion on the grounds at the City School building. The unit consisted of 275 enlisted men and 17 officers, and they were expected to arrive around noon on Thurs., Aug. 6, spend the remainder of the day in Evergreen, before leaving the next morning for Pensacola.

Aug. 6, 1945 - The American B-29 bomber known as the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb named “Little Boy” on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. It was the first time that a nuclear weapon was ever used in warfare, and only the second time that a nuclear weapon had ever been exploded. It was dropped over Hiroshima at 8:15 in the morning, and it exploded 1,900 feet above the ground, killing 140,000 people, including 70,000 who were killed instantly. Capt. Robert Lewis watched the explosion from his cockpit and wrote in his journal, "My God, what have we done?"

Aug. 6, 1946 – National Baseball Hall of Fame second baseman Tony Lazzeri passed away at the age of 42 in San Francisco, Calif. During his career, he played for the New York Yankees, the Chicago Cubs, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1991.

Aug. 6, 1949 - Chicago White Sox player Luke Appling played in the 2,154th game of his 19-year Major League Baseball career.

Aug. 6, 1952 - Satchel Paige, at age 46, became the oldest pitcher to complete a Major League Baseball game.

Aug. 6, 1964 – Leon Eddins of Peterman, Ala., who owned a farm about two miles from Peterman, brought the first open cotton boll of the year to The Monroe Journal. The boll opened on Aug. 3, and he picked it on Aug. 5.

Aug. 6, 1964 - The oldest known tree, “Prometheus,” was cut down by a graduate student. The student and his research team hadn't recognized the pine tree's extreme age-- estimated to be 4,862 years old.

Aug. 6, 1965 – President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act.

Aug. 6, 1969 - The first fair ball to be hit completely out of Dodger Stadium occurred when Willie "Pops" Stargell of the Pittsburgh Pirates hit the ball 506 feet from home plate.

Aug. 6, 1970 - An anti-war rock festival was held at Shea Stadium in New York. Janis Joplin, Paul Simon, Steppenwolf and Johnny Winters were the acts.

Aug. 6, 1975 – Fictional Belgian detective Hercule Poirot received a front-page obituary in The New York Times after mystery writer Agatha Christie killed him off in her 1975 novel, “Curtain: Hercule Poirot’s Last Case.”

Aug. 6, 1982 - Pink Floyd's "The Wall" had its U.S. premiere in New York City.

Aug. 6, 1986 - Timothy Dalton became the fourth actor to be named "James Bond."

Aug. 6, 1990 – During the Gulf War, the United Nations Security Council ordered a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

Aug. 6, 1993 - The Beloit Industrial Institute in Dallas County, Ala. was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage.

Aug. 6, 1994 - Randolph County High School in Wedowee, Ala. was destroyed by fire. The principle's stand against interracial dating had caused much tension in the school.

Aug. 6, 1996 - “A Game of Thrones,” an epic fantasy novel by George R.R. Martin, was released for the first time. The book was the first in Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series.