Today in History for Sept. 1, 2015

Frederick Russell Burnham

Sept. 1, 1557 – French navigator and explorer Jacques Cartier passed away at the age of 65 in St. Malo, France. Cartier claimed what is now Canada for France and was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named "The Country of Canadas", after the Iroquois names for the two big settlements he saw at Stadacona (Quebec City) and at Hochelaga (Montreal Island).

Sept. 1, 1775 - Richard Penn and Arthur Lee, representing the Continental Congress, presented the so-called Olive Branch Petition to the Earl of Dartmouth. Britain’s King George III, however, refused to receive the petition, which, written by John Dickinson, appealed directly to the king and expressed hope for reconciliation between the colonies and Great Britain.

Sept. 1, 1807 – Former U.S. vice president Aaron Burr was acquitted of treason in U.S. Circuit Court in Richmond, Va. due to lack of witnesses, despite the full force of the Jefferson administration’s political influence against him. Burr was accused of plotting to annex parts of Louisiana and Spanish territory in Mexico to be used toward the establishment of an independent republic.

Sept. 1, 1813 – The Kimbell-James Massacre occurred around 3 p.m. at Ransom Kimball’s large cabin about one mile from Fort Sinquefield in Clarke County, Ala., leaving 13 women and children dead. Six survivors escaped to Fort Sinquefield.

Sept. 1, 1824 – During his extended tour of the United States, the Marquis de Lafayette visited Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Sept. 1, 1838 – American explorer William Clark died at the age of 68 in St. Louis, Mo. Along with Meriwether Lewis, Clark helped lead the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1803 to 1806 across the Louisiana Purchase to the Pacific Ocean, and claimed the Pacific Northwest for the United States.

Sept. 1, 1841 – James G. Butler was commissioned as Monroe County, Alabama’s Circuit Court Clerk.

Sept. 1, 1850 – National Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder Jim O’Rourke was born in Bridgeport, Conn. During his career, he played for the Middleton Mansfields, the Boston Red Stockings/Boston Red Caps, the Providence Grays, the Buffalo Bisons, the New York Giants and the Washington Senators. He also managed the Bisons and the Senators and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1945.

Sept. 1, 1850 – P.T. Barnum brought Jenny Lind to New York. Lind, the “Swedish Nightingale,” was a gifted soprano who was wildly popular in Europe, and Barnum became aware of her in 1849, as she was wrapping up her third London season. The tour was a huge financial success, although Lind was uncomfortable with Barnum’s publicity tactics.

Sept. 1, 1859 - A solar superstorm peaked with a massive coronal ejection heading directly toward Earth. Known as the Carrington Event, this powerful geomagnetic storm caused the failure of telegraph systems, and auroras were seen all over the world.

Sept. 1, 1861 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought near Fort Scott, Kansas.

Sept. 1, 1861 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought at Bennett’s Mill, Mo. A three-day Federal operation also began in Jefferson County, Mo.

Sept. 1, 1861 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought at Blue Creek and another at Burlington, West Virginia.

Sept. 1, 1862 – During the Civil War, a skirmish occurred at Huntsville, Ala.

Sept. 1, 1862 - Confederates captured Lexington, Ky., and Union General John Pope evacuated Centerville, Va.

Sept. 1, 1862 - In Virginia, the 90-minute Battle of Chantilly took place two days after the Confederate victory at the Second Battle of Bull Run. Confederate General Robert E. Lee attacked retreating Union troops in the middle of an intense thunderstorm. Union officer Philip Kearny was killed when he accidentally rode behind Confederate lines at Chantilly, and General Robert E. Lee later returned Kearny's body under a flag of truce. Confederate casualties numbered about 500, while the Union lost 700.

Sept. 1, 1863 – During the Civil War, various skirmishes occurred at Will’s Creek, Davis’, Tap’s and Neal’s Gaps, or Devil’s Backbone, Ala., leading up to the Chickamauga Campaign.

Sept. 1, 1864 - Union Army General William Tecumseh Sherman laid siege to Atlanta, Ga., a critical Confederate hub, shelling civilians and cutting off supply lines. The Confederates, under General John Bell Hood, retreated, destroying the city's munitions as they went.

Sept. 1, 1875 – American novelist Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of the popular fictional character Tarzan, King of the Apes, was born in Chicago. The character captured the public’s imagination, spawning more than 40 novels, a comic book series, and numerous Hollywood films.

Sept. 1, 1888 - Author Clement Wood was born in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Sept. 1, 1890 – Famous Alabama outlaw Rube Burrow single-handedly robbed the northbound Louisville & Nashville passenger train No. 6 on the Escambia River, northeast of Flomaton. This was his eighth and final train robbery.

Sept. 1, 1894 – E.J. Ricou was appointed Monroeville, Ala. postmaster, succeeding Mrs. M.C. McLean who had resigned.

Sept. 1, 1895 – Prof. C.C. Sellers’s School in the Axle community (in Monroe County, Ala.?) was scheduled to reopen at the start of the new school year.

Sept. 1, 1896 – John D. Watson was commissioned as Monroe County, Alabama’s Sheriff.

Sept. 1, 1902 – “A Trip to the Moon,” arguably the first science-fiction film, premiered in France.

Sept. 1, 1904 – Johnny Mack Brown, nicknamed “The Dothan Antelope,” was born in Dothan, Ala. He would go on to star as a halfback at Alabama and help lead the Crimson Tide to the 1926 national title. He later had a long, successful career as an actor in Hollywood.

Sept. 1, 1906 - Jack Coombs of the American League’s Philadelphia Athletics pitched 24 innings against the Boston Red Sox.

Sept. 1, 1914 - Prof. J.M. Sowell department Monroeville, Ala. for Scottsboro, where he’d accepted a job as head of a school there.

Sept. 1, 1914 – Up to this date, reports showed that 1,094 bales of cotton had been ginned in Monroe County, Ala. from the 1914 crop, compared with 1,532 bales ginned prior to Sept. 1, 1913.

Sept. 1, 1915 – The Evergreen Courant reported that J.R. Myers of Owassa had been appointed registrar of Conecuh County, Ala. Under a new law, there was only one registrar for each county, instead of four as before.

Sept. 1, 1915 – L.W. Locklin visited Monroeville, Ala. and told The Monroe Journal that he’d recently sold his home and entire real estate holdings at Perdue Hill to a “northern party” was planned to locate a “Polish colony in that vicinity.”

Sept. 1, 1934 - Following Alabama's lead, a nationwide textile strike began, with 15,000 Alabama workers among the 400,000 strikers nationwide. The Alabama strike, which had started in July, had survived threats of violence and even the brief abduction of strike leader John Dean. The largest walkout in Alabama and U.S. history at the time, the strike ended Sept. 22 after mediation efforts by the Roosevelt administration.

Sept. 1, 1937 – Reports showed that 2,309 bales of cotton had been ginned in Conecuh County, Ala. from the 1937 cotton crop prior to Sept. 1, compared to 3,111 bales ginned to the same date in 1936.

Sept. 1, 1939 – World War II began in Europe as Nazi Germany and Slovakia invaded Poland at 5:11 a.m. Britain and France, allied with Poland, entered the war two days later, but by then it was too late to save Poland.

Sept. 1, 1939 – E.T. Millsap was elected Commander of American Legion Post No. 61 of Monroe County during a meeting in Monroeville, Ala. Other elected officers included E.S. Gardner, Adjutant; Jim Sawyer, Vice Commander; Sullivan Murphy, Chaplain; W.E. Deer, Historian; and R.T. Daniels, Sergeant-At-Arms.

Sept. 1, 1939 – According to the cotton ginning census, only 348 bales of cotton had been ginned in Monroe County, Ala. prior to this date, compared to 5,967 bales ginned prior to Sept. 1, 1938. This shortage was due to high amounts of rain and wind.

Sept. 1, 1945 - The U.S. received official word of Japan's formal surrender that ended World War II.

Sept. 1, 1947 – American soldier and adventurer Frederick Russell Burnham passed away at the age of 86 in Santa Barbara, Calif. He is known for his service to the British South Africa Company and to the British Army in colonial Africa, and for teaching woodcraft to Robert Baden-Powell in Rhodesia. He helped inspire the founding of the international Scouting Movement.

Sept. 1, 1948 – The football teams at Evergreen and Repton began fall football practice in preparation for their season-opener against each other on Sept. 17 in Evergreen, Ala.

Sept. 1, 1950 – Army SFC Robert L. Booker of Conecuh County, Ala. and Army PFC Willie D. Daw of Escambia County, Ala. were killed in action in Korea.

Sept. 1, 1952 – Reports showed that 3,388 bales of cotton had been ginned in Conecuh County, Ala. from the crop of 1952 prior to 1952, compared with 5,403 bales in 1951.

Sept. 1, 1952 – “The Old Man and the Sea,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Ernest Hemingway, was first published.

Sept. 1, 1955 – Byron Warren became the new Ford dealer in Conecuh County, Ala. when he bought out the old Evergreen Motor Car Co. and changed the name to Warren Ford Co.

Sept. 1, 1964 - Pitcher Masanori Murakami became the first Japanese man to play in U.S. baseball’s major leagues. Murakami pitched a scoreless eighth inning for the San Francisco Giants in a 4-1 loss to the New York Mets in front of 39,379 fans at Shea Stadium.

Sept. 1, 1965 – Birmingham, Ala. native Lee May made his Major League Baseball debut, taking the field for the first time as a member of the Cincinnati Reds.

Sept. 1, 1970 – E.G. Kivette got 54-1/2 cents per pound for his first of the season cotton bale from Eugene Darby of the E-Z Flo Chemical Co. of Owassa, Ala. when the bale was auctioned off at the L&N Depot by Evergreen Mayor Henry Sessions. The 665-pound bale was ginned at the Castleberry Gin Co.

Sept. 1, 1972 – Students in Conecuh County, Ala. public schools were scheduled to begin the 1972-73 term on this Friday, according to a schedule for the school year released by Superintendent of Education Harvey G. Pate.

Sept. 1, 1978 – The Alston-Cobb House (Clarke County Historical Museum) in Grove Hill, Ala. was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage.

Sept. 1, 1978 – Lyeffion High School beat area rival Conecuh County High School, 6-0, in overtime at Thomasson Field in Castleberry, Ala. Lyeffion fullback Kenny Gorum plunged over from the three for the only score. Michael Goldthrip’s extra point try was wide. Outstanding Lyeffion players in that game included Mike Brown, Eric Finklea, Rickey Gill, Michael Goldthrip, Rickey Johnson, Donald Lee, David Mims, Herman Mobley, James Riley, Tim Searcy and Ardell Taylor. Ronny Williams was head coach, and Ed Johnson was assistant coach. Outstanding Conecuh County High School players in that game included Rickey Reeves. Donald Wiggins was head coach.

Sept. 1, 1982 - J.R. Richard returned to Major League Baseball after a two-year absence following a near-fatal stroke.

Sept. 1, 1985 – A joint American–French expedition led, by Dr. Robert Ballard and Jean Louis Michel, located the wreckage of the RMS Titanic. The wreck site is located 963 miles northeast of New York and 453 miles southeast of the Newfoundland coast.

Sept. 1, 1988 – Gov. Guy Hunt declared the Town of Castleberry as the “Strawberry Capital of Alabama”

Sept. 1, 1989 – Excel improved to 2-0 on the season with a 41-0 win over Millry in Excel, Ala.

Sept. 1, 1994 – The first ever J.F. Shields-J.U. Blacksher football game was played in Beatrice, Ala. Shields won, 20-18.

Sept. 1, 1995 – Excel opened the 1995 football season with a 48-0 win at Red Level, Ala.

Sept. 1, 1997 – The death of Diana, Princess of Wales, was announced by Buckingham Palace. In France, the prosecutor's office announced that the driver of the car, in which Britain's Princess Diana was killed, was over the legal alcohol limit.

Sept. 1, 1998 - Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals hit his 56th and 57th home runs to set a new National League record. He would eventually reach a total of 70 for the season on Sept. 27.

Sept. 1, 1998 - J.K. Rowling's book "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" was released in the U.S. This was the first book in the Harry Potter series.

Sept. 1, 1999 - Twenty-two of Major League Baseball's 68 permanent umpires were replaced. The problem arose from their union's failed attempt to force an early start to negotiations for a new labor contract.

Sept. 1, 2007 – “Into the Wild,” a film based on Jon Krakauer’s 1996 best-selling non-fiction book of the same name that tells the true story of a young adventurer who died in Alaska, debuted at the Telluride Film Festival before opening in wide release the following month.