Sweet Home Alabama – Today In Southern History

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.

Read: Why Know Southern History?

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