On this date in 1864…

General John Bell Hood sacrificed Patrick Cleburne and most of the Army of Tennessee in a disastrous frontal attack at the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee. Confederates lost more than 6,000 of their force as casualties including fourteen Confederate generals (six killed or mortally wounded, seven wounded, and one captured) and 55 regimental commanders.

• 1782 – The United States and Britain signed preliminary peace articles in Paris, ending the Revolutionary War.
• 1803 – Spain ceded all claims on Louisiana Territory to France.
• 1835 – Samuel Langhorne Clemens, aka Mark Twain, was born in Florida, Missouri.
• 1954 – Elizabeth Hodges was injured when a meteorite weighing 8½-pounds crashed through the roof of her house in Sylacauga, Alabama.
• 1988 – Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co. took over RJR Nabisco Inc. with a bid of $24.53 billion.

On this date in 1863…

Confederate troops under Gen. James Longsreet tried to penetrate the defenses of Knoxville, Tennessee with a doomed attack on Ft. Sanders. Confederates were slowed by the first use of wire entanglements made of telegraph wire. This Confederate defeat, plus the loss of Chattanooga on November 25, secured much of East Tennessee under federal control.

• 1813 – Red Stick Creeks and a force of almost 1000 Georgia militia, and 400 pro-American Creeks under General John Floyd meet at the the Red Stick Creek stronghold of Autossee, in modern Macon County, Alabama. Artillery wins the day for the allies. The Red Sticks suffer 200 fatalities, while the Americans have only eleven dead.
• 1929 – The first airplane flight over the South Pole was made by U.S. Navy Lt. Comdr. Richard E. Byrd of Winchester, Virginia. 
• 1963 – U.S. President Johnson named a commission headed by Earl Warren to investigate the Dallas, Texas assassination of President Kennedy.
• 1971 – The Professional Golf Championship was held at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida for the first time. 
• 1987 – Cuban detainees released 26 hostages they’d been holding for more than a week at the Federal Detention Center in Oakdale, Louisiana. 

On this date in 1729…

A combined force of Yazoo, Chickasaw, and Natchez Indians destroyed Fort Rosalie, near the site of modern Natchez, Mississippi. French Commander Etcheparre Chepart was warned of the coming attack from the Natchee Sun, Queen Stung Arm, but arrogantly refused to believe it. The massacre claimed 138 French men, 35 women, and 56 children. Chepart was killed while hiding in his garden. The incident began the Fourth (and final) Natchez War and ended in the systematic annihilation of the Natchez Tribe by the French.

• 1861 – Missouri was officially admitted to the Confederate States of America. 1862 – The cavalry Battle of Cane Hill, Arkansas claimed 475 combined casualties.
• 1871 – The Ku Klux Klan trials began in Federal District Court in South Carolina.
• 1919 – American-born Lady Astor, Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor of Danville, Virginia, was elected the first female member of the British Parliament
• 1925 – The “WSM Barn Dance” debuted on the Nashville radio. In 1927, the show’s name changed to the Grand Ole Opry and fans came to live performancesat the downtown WSM studios.
• 1929 – Ernie Nevers of the St. Louis Cardinals became the first professional football player to score six touchdowns in a single game.
• 1938 – The 4th Heisman Trophy was awarded to Davey O’Brien, the quarterback of Texas Christian University
• 1963 – U.S. President Johnson announced that Cape Canaveral, Florida would be renamed Cape Kennedy in honor of his assassinated predecessor. The name was changed back to Cape Canaveral in 1973 by a vote of residents.
• 1995 – U.S. President Clinton signed a $6 billion road bill that ended the federal 55 mph speed limit.

On this date in 1863…

Federal troops hanged uniformed Confederate scout Sam Davis as a spy in Giles Co, Tennessee because he wouldn’t inform on his comrades. Davis stated with his last words that “I would die a thousand deaths before I would betray a friend.”

• 1863 – Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne won a Confederate victory at the Battle of Ringgold Gap, Georgia and caused high federal casualties while giving the Confederate Army of Tennessee safe passage through the Georgia mountains.
• 1868 – The 7th U.S. Cavalry under Gen. George Custer attacked Chief Black Kettle’s band of Cheyenne Indians at their camp on the Washita River in Indian Territory. Custer’s troops killed as many as 200 men, women, and children in what became known as the Washita Massacre.
• 1926 – The historic restoration of Williamsburg, Virginia began.
• 1951 – Hosea Richardson became the first black horse racing jockey to be licensed in Florida. 
• 1963 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas delivered his first address to a joint session of Congress.

On this date in 1864…

Wayward federal troops invading Texas were cornered by Kiowa, Comanche and Plains Apache warriors at the First Battle of Adobe Walls, one of the largest battles ever fought between Indians and the United States Army. After forcing the federals to retreat to high ground, the warriors assaulted continually until exhausted. The federal troops finally escaped and claimed they won a victory.

• 1789 – U.S. President Washington set aside this day to observe the adoption of the Constitution of the United States. 
• 1835 – In the first in a series of revenge killings, Charley Emathla, who signed the agreement committing the Seminole to removal from Florida, was killed. Many believe that he was killed by Chief Osceola.
• 1939 – Anna Mae Bullock, better known as singer Tina Turner, was born in Nutbush, Tennessee.
• 1998 – Terry “Hulk” Hogan of Augusta, Georgia announced that he was retiring from pro wrestling and would run for president in 2000.
• 2011 – The Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity Rover spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.