18 March 1782
On this date in 1782 – Southern statesman, Secretary of War, and U.S. Vice-President John C. Calhoun was born in Abbeville, South Carolina.
Other Years:
- 1541 – Hernando de Soto observed the first recorded flood in American history on the Mississippi River.
- 1865 – The Confederate States Congress adjourned its final sesion.
- 1937 – A gas explosion at the school in New London, Texas killed 294 victims.
- 1954 – Texas tycoon Howard Hughes bought RKO Pictures for $23,489,478, making it the first motion picture studio to be owned by an individual.
- 1968 – The U.S. Congress repealed the requirement for a gold reserve to back U.S. currency and took America off the gold standard.
- 1981 – The U.S. government disclosed that it tested biological weapons in Texas in 1966.
- 1990 – In Tampa, Florida, a little league player was killed when hit with a pitch.
- 2003 – FBI agents raided the corporate headquarters of the HealthSouth Corporation in Birmingham, Alabama on suspicion of corporate fraud by the company’s executives.
Read: Why Know Southern History?
© 2022 KnowSouthernHistory.Org
All Rights Reserved