31 October 1861 

The St. Louis Secession Flag

Other Years:

• 1860 – Juliette Gordon Low, the founder off the Girl Scouts, was born in Savannah, Georgia.
• 1961 – A federal judge ruled that Birmingham, Alabama, laws against integrated playing fields were illegal.
• 1969 – Wal-Mart Discount City stores were incorporated in Bentonville, Arkansas.
• 1969 – A race riot erupted in Jacksonville, Florida.
• 2002 – A federal grand jury in Houston, Texas formally indicted former Enron Corporation chief financial officer Andrew Fastow on 78 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice related to the company’s collapse.

Read: Why Know Southern History?

30 October 1866 

The James-Younger Gang in 1871

 

Other Years:

• 1831 – After leading the bloodiest slave revolt in American history, Nat Turner was apprehended in Southampton County, Virginia.
• 1862 – A hurricane struck and foundered many of a fleet of 75 federal blockade ships off the North Carolina coast.
• 1875 – The reconstruction constitution of Missouri was ratified by popular vote.
• 1979 – Richard Arrington, Jr. was elected the first black mayor of Birmingham, Alabama.
• 2001 – Michael Jordan returned to the NBA with the Washington Wizards after a 3 1/2 year retirement.

Read: Why Know Southern History?

29 October 1929 

 

Other Years:

• 1618 – Sir Walter Raleigh was beheaded under a sentence that had been brought against him 15 years earlier for conspiracy against King James I. 
• 1877 – Confederate Lt. General Nathan Bedford Forrest died at Memphis, Tennessee.
• 1904 – First intercity trucking service opened between Colorado City and Snyder, Texas.
• 1940 – The first peacetime military draft began in the U.S.
• 1960 – Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) fo Louisville, Kentucky won his first professional fight.
• 1969 – The U.S. Supreme Court ordered an immediate end to all school segregation.
• 1995 – Jerry Rice of Starkville, Mississippi. p;aying for the San Francisco 49ers, became the NFL’s career leading receiver yards with 14,040 yards.

Read: Why Know Southern History?

28 October 1919 

 

Other Years:

• 1793 – Eli Whitney applied for a patent for his cotton gin. 
• 1863 – Confederate General James Longstreet’s division engaged federal troops at Wauhatchie, Tennessee, in rare night attack.  A total of 865 were killed or wounded. 
• 1904 – The St. Louis Police Department became the first to use fingerprinting.
• 1962 – Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev informed the U.S. that he had ordered the dismantling of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.
• 1965 – The  630 foot high Gateway Arch was completed in St Louis, Missouri.
• 1981- Edward M McIntrye was elected as the first black mayor of Augusta, Georgia.

Read: Why Know Southern History?

27 October 1702 

On this date in 1702…

 

Other Years:

• 1787 – The first of the Federalist Papers supporting ratification of the U.S. Constitution was published.
• 1810 – U.S. President James Madison signed the law that annexed the Republic of West Florida as U.S. Territory.
• 1838 – Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issued the Extermination Order, which orders all Mormons to leave the state or be exterminated.
• 1864 – Federal troops attacked the South Side Railroad at Petersburg, Virginia.
• 1962 – The Soviet Union adds to the Cuban Missile Crisis by calling for the dismantling of U.S. missile basis in Turkey.
• 1981 – Andrew Young, former UN Ambassador, was elected mayor of Atlanta, Georgia.
• 2002 – Floridan Emmitt Smith, playing for the Dallas Cowboys, became the all-time leading rusher in the NFL when he extended his career yardage to 16,743 also scoring his 150th career touchdown.

Read: Why Know Southern History?