On this date in 1945… 

While covering the men of his company near Holtzwihr, France, Texan 2nd Lt. Audie Murphy killed more than 240 German soldiers and destroyed 6 tanks. For this and other courageous actions, Murphy became the most decorated American soldier of WWII.

• 1716 – A Creek and Yamassee delegation arrived at the neutral Cherokee village of Tugaloo in northeastern Georgia. Rather than talking peace, the delegation urges the Cherokee to help attack South Carolina settlements. The Cherokee killed the representatives.
• 1838 – Tennessee enacted the first prohibition law in the United States
• 1861 – Georgia state troops seized Oglethorpe Barracks and Fort Jackson.
• 1861 – Louisiana seceded from the union.
• 1861 – The “Arkansaw” comedian Harry McCarthy began writing The Bonnie Blue Flag after witnesing the unfurling of the new Mississippi Republic flag in Jackson.
• 1875 – As many as 40 Mexican and Indian cattle rustlers attacked a squad from troop G, ninth cavalry outside Ringgold Barracks, Texas killing two troopers. Several suspects were captured and 9 Mexicans were found guilty of murder.
• 1983 – Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant died in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

On this date in 1993… 

Muslim extremist Mir Aimal Qazi fired on CIA employees as they waited in their cars at a stoplight near the entrance of Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Langley, Virginia.  Two CIA employees were killed and three others wounded. Qazi was convicted of capital murder and executed by lethal injection in 2002.

• 1947 – Al Capone died of complications of syphilis, pneumonia, and heart failure at Palm Island, Florida after fearing all his life he would suffer a violent death.
• 1999 – In Louisville, KY, Matthew Scott received the first hand transplant in the United States.
• 2010 – In Arlington, TX, the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame opened.

On this date in 1814…

An attack by Andrew Jackson’s force of American soldiers and Indian allies caused considerable losses on the Red Stick Creeks led by William Weatherford at Enitachopco Creek in Alabama.

• 1781- Lt. Col. Henry Lee and Francis Marion’s Patriot troops raided British installations at Georgetown, South Carolina.
• 1806 – Cherokee Chief Doublehead and 16 others signed a treaty ceding lands on the north side of the Tennessee River for a little over $10,000, a cotton gin, and a gristmill. Cherokee traditionalists will kill Doublehead for making the agreement.
• 1861 – Georgia state troops took control of the federal arsenal in Augusta.
• 1940 – The movie, The Grapes of Wrath was released, detailing the hardships of Oklahoma’s Dust Bowl victims as they searched for work in California.
• 1952 – Texas organized its first NFL team the Dallas Texans (formerly the NY Yanks.)

On this date in 1812…

An estimated magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit the Missouri boot-heel during the New Madrid earthquake swarm and was felt all across the South. When Shawnee chief Tecumseh had visited the Creek Indians, he told them to wait for a sign which would tell then it was time to begin their uprising against the whites. Tecumseh said he would stamp the ground and make every house in Tuckabatchee fall down. Many Creek felt this tremor was the sign.

• 1861 – The Louisiana secession convention convened.
• 1897 – Elva Zona Heaster is found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The resulting murder trial of her husband is perhaps the only case in United States history where the alleged testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction.
• 1964 – The 24th Amendment abolished the poll tax, which had originally been instituted in 11 southern states. 
• 1973 – U.S. President Richard Nixon announced an accord had been reached to end the Vietnam War.

On this date in 1973…

The US Supreme Court issued its Roe v. Wade opinion legalizing abortion-on-demand and over-ruling laws against infanticide in all Southern states. Federally endosed infanticide continued in the US for almost 50 years until June of 2022 when the Supreme Court reversed its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and returned the issue to the will of the individual states.

• 1599 – In retaliation for an ambushed patrol, Spanish soldiers attacked the Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico, burning most of the village and killing more than 600 Indians and enslaving 500 others.
• 1875 – D.W. Griffith, early film director and producer best known for Birth of a Nation and Intolerance was born in LaGrange, Kentucky.
• 1879 – James Shields began a term as a U.S. Senator from Missouri. He had previously served Illinois and Minnesota. He was the first Senator to serve three states
• 1961 – Wilma Rudolph, from St. Bethlehem, Tennessee set a world indoor record in the women’s 60-yard dash, 6.9 seconds.
• 1985 – A cold wave damaged 90% of Florida’s citrus crop.
• 2000 – Elian Gonzalez’s grandmothers met privately with U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno as they appealed for help in removing the boy from his Florida relatives and reuniting him with his father in Cuba.
• 2001 – Authorities captured four of the “Texas 7” in a Woodland Park, Colorado convenience store with a fifth convict killed himself inside a motor home.
• 2002 – Lawyers suing Texas-based Enron Corp. asked a court to prevent further shredding of documents due to the pending federal investigation.