24 August 1974
On this date in 1974…
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s song “Sweet Home Alabama” hit the music charts. The thoroughly Southern anthem is one of many responses to former CSN&Y singer, Neil Young’s libelous and defamatory cut, “Southern Man.” One Southern businessman is reported to have offered $1,000 for Young’s head. Had Young’s song defamed any other ethnic group in America, he would have been driven out of the music industry.
Other Years:
- 1814 – British troops burned the White House and the U.S. Capitol when they invaded Washington, DC during the War of 1812.
- 1818 – The Quapaw tribe signed a treaty at St. Louis ceding land along the Arkansas and Red Rivers. One old Quapaw Chief, Saracen is allowed to remain at his home on Bayou Bartholomew in Arkansas.
- 1835 – The Choctaw, Comanche, Muscogee Creek, Cherokee, Osage, Quapaw, Seneca and Witchita tribes sign a peace treaty with the U.S. government at Camp Holmes near the Canadian River in Indian Territory.
- 1992 – Hurricane Andrew made landfall near Miami, Florida and left a path of devastation that extended to a second landfall in Louisiana. The Category 5 storm killed 39 and caused $26.5 billion damage. Homeowners in Miami set up armed patrols of their neighborhoods to prevent looting.
- 2001 – In McAllen, TX, Bridgestone/Firestone agreed to settle out of court and pay a reported $7.5 million to a family in a rollover accident in their Ford Explorer.
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