TDISH

Dixie Puts America in Space – Today In Southern History

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5 May 1961  

On this date in 1961…

The first American astronaut, Alan B. Shepard, Jr., blasted into space from Cape Canaveral, Florida inside the Freedom 7 space capsule a 15-minute suborbital flight as part of the Mercury spaceflight program. The space program was a largely Southern endeavor, with the rockets and vehicles produced in Alabama, launched from Florida, and the flights trained and controlled from Texas. 

Other Years:

  • 1800 – William Augusta Bowles, with Creek and Cherokee allies, proclaimed a new nation, Muscogee, out of lands claimed by Spain along the Gulf coast. As “Director-General” of Muscogee, Bowles declared war on Spain and began a campaign against their posts along the Gulf.
  • 1862 – The Battle of Williamsburg, Virginia.
  • 1863 – Confederate troops routed federal forces at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia
  • 1863 – In the middle of the night a company of federal troops broke down the door, barged into Ohio politician and Southern sympathizer Clement Vallandigham’s home, and dragged him from his bed. He was hurried off to Cincinnati to be tried for sedition.
  • 1864 – The Battle of the Wilderness, Virginia began.
  • 1925 – High school science teacher John Scopes was arrested for teaching evolution in a Tennessee public school.
  • 1939 – Flash flooding killed 75 people in northeastern Kentucky.
  • 1947 – Flooding in the Mississippi Valley flooding killed 16 people and caused $850 million in damage.
  • 1966 – Willie Mays of Westfield, Alabama broke the National League record for home runs when he hit his 512th. 

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Freedom Summer – Today In Southern History

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4 May 1864  

On this date in 1964…

The Mississippi Freedom Summer Project was begun by the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), a coalition of four civil rights organizations: the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE); the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to carry out a unified voter registration program in the state of Mississippi. 

Other Years:

  • 1863 – The Battle of Chancellorsville ended when the federal army fled the field.
  • 1863 – Battle of Salem Church, Virginia.
  • 1865 – The Confederate departments of Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana were surrendered at Citronelle, Alabama.
  • 1990 – Latvia renewed its claim of independence from the Soviet Union.

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Gone With the Wind – Today In Southern History

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3 May 1937  

On this date in 1937…

Margaret Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her Southern opus, Gone with the Wind.

Other Years:

  • 1568 – French forces slaughtered hundreds of Spanish and their Indian allies in Florida. 
  • 1802 – Washington, DC, was incorporated.
  • 1863 – The second Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia.
  • 1864 – Confederate troops unsuccessfully assaulted Federal positions on the third day of battle at Alexandria, Louisiana.
  • 1901 – Fire destroyed 1,700 buildings in Jacksonville, Florida.
  • 1921 – Western Virginia imposed the first state sales tax.
  • 1933 – Nellie Ross of St. Joseph, Missouri took over as the first woman director of the U.S. Mint. 
  • 1971 – Anti-Vietnam War protesters calling themselves the Mayday Tribe began four days of demonstrations in Washington, D.C., aimed at shutting down the U.S. capital.
  • 1971 – James Earl Ray, convicted of the Martin Luther King assassination, failed in a jailbreak attempt. 
  • 1988 – More than 4,200 kg Colombian cocaine was seized at Tarpon Springs Florida.
  • 2006 – Zacarias Moussaoui was sentenced to life in prison in Alexandria, Virginia for his part in the 9-11 terror plot.

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Chancellorsville – Today In Southern History

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2 May 1863  

On this date in 1863…

Confederate forces totally routed Federal troops at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Stonewall Jackson was wounded by friendly fire while scouting forward positions that evening and lost an arm. General Robert E. Lee was reported to have said, “He may have lost his left arm, but I have lost my right arm.”  Jackson later died of pneumonia.

Other Years:

  • 1776 – France and Spain agreed to donate arms to American patriots fighting the British. 
  • 1865 – U.S. President Andrew Johnson offered $100,000 bounty for the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. 
  • 1871 – Indians raided settlements near Fort Seldon, in southern New Mexico. Cavalry pursued the Indians for more than 200 miles, but failed to catch them.
  • 1890 – The Territory of Oklahoma was created from confiscated Indian lands in Indian Territory.
  • 1922 – WBAP-AM began broadcasting from Fort Worth, Texas.
  • 1954 – Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals set a new major league record when he hit 5 home runs against the New York Giants.
  • 1955 – Tennessee Williams won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
  • 1993 – Federal and state authorities announced they had recovered the remains of David Koresh from the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas.

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The Stainless Banner – Today In Southern History

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1 May 1863  

On this date in 1863…

The Second National Confederate Flag, “The Stainless Banner” was officially adopted by the Confederate States Congress.

Other Years:

  • 1805 – The state of Virginia passed a law requiring all freed slaves to leave the state, or risk imprisonment or deportation. 
  • 1807 – Confederate General John B. Magruder was born in Port Royal, Virginia.
  • 1833 – A census of the Creek tribe’s upper towns registered 14,142 people, including 445 Negro slaves.
  • 1841 – The first emigrant wagon train left Independence, Missouri, for California.
  • 1852 – Frontier legend Calamity Jane was born as Martha Jane Canary in Princeton Missouri.
  • 1863 – The Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia began.
  • 1863 – The Battle of Port Gibson, Mississippi.
  • 1864 – The Battle of Alexandria, Louisiana in the Red River Campaign began.
  • 1867 – Black voter registration began active Reconstruction in the South.
  •  1877 – U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes withdrew all Federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction.
  • 1889 – Asa Candler published a full-page advertisement in The Atlanta Journal proclaiming his wholesale and retail drug business as the “sole proprietors of Coca-Cola/.
  • 1960 – A U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union and its pilot, Francis Gary Powers of Jenkins, Kentucky was taken prisoner.
  • 1976 – The Empress Lilly, a replica of a Mississippi River paddle wheeler, was dedicated at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
  • 1991 – Texas Ranger Nolan Ryan pitched a record 7th no-hitter to beat Toronto 3-0.

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Casey Jones – Today In Southern History

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30 April 1900  

On this date in 1900…

Trying to make up time from a late departure, legendary railroader William Luther “Casey” Jones was killed when his Illinois-Central #382 engine collided with a parked train at Vaughn, Mississippi.  Jones was the only fatality and stayed at the controls until impact.  His heroism is credited with preventing the deaths of his passengers.


Other Years:

  • 1562 – The first French colonists in North America, led by Jean Ribault, arrived in Florida.
  • 1682 – French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle a four-day stay with the Tensas Indians on Lake Saint Joseph in Louisiana and signed a peace treaty with them.
  • 1803 – The U.S. signed the the Louisiana Purchase Treaty and doubled the size of U.S. territory in exchange for $15 million.
  • 1812 – Louisiana became the 18th U.S. state.
  • 1860 – Manuelito and 1000 Navaho warriors attacked Fort Defiance in Northwestern Arizona which had been built on Navaho grazing land. During the day long fight the Navaho captured a few out buildings before the cavalrymen regrouped and drove them back.  
  • 1864 – Confederates fought in waist deep water at the Battle of Jenkins Ferry, Arkansas to drive federal General Frederick Steele’s invaders across the flooded Saline River and back to Little Rock. 
  • 1871 – White and Mexican settlers attacked Chief Eskiminzin’s Aravaipa Apache camp in response to raids near Tucson in what became known as the “Camp Grant Massacre” in Arizona Territory. More than 140 were killed.

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The Pascagoula Tribe – Today In Southern History

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29 April 17000  

On this date in 1700…

Sieur d’Iberville, Pierre le Moynevisited the Pascagoula Indian village, one day’s walk from French Biloxi. The Indians have been hit hard by diseases brought by Europeans, but d’Iberville is still impressed by the beauty of the Pascagoula women.


Other Years:

  • 1862 – Federal troops under Admiral David Farragut occupied New Orleans, Louisiana.
  • 1967 – Muhammad Ali (formerly known as Cassius Clay) was stripped of his world boxing title after refusing to submit to the U.S. military draft.
  • 1974 – U.S. President Richard Nixon announced the release of edited transcripts of White House tape recordings relating to the Watergate scandal.
  • 1975 – In Operation Frequent Wind, the U.S. evacuated U.S. citizens from Saigon before an expected North Vietnamese takeover.
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