- Divya Sunderam
Sources:
To be determined
- Divya Sunderam Sources:
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This week in Kentucky history, almost a hundred years ago (1919), Louisville was in the midst of a flu epidemic. When the flu outbreak first became visible, kentucky officials did not report it to the Public Health service, but they were still able to calculate the number of deaths. Only three weeks in 180 people had died, not including the vast numbers of soldiers who both contracted the disease, and spread it throughout Kentucky. Normally the PHS would not have calculated the number of deaths for just one city, implying that the vastness of this outbreak must have been severe.In Lexington, the epidemic was not as bad as in Louisville and the rest of Kentucky, but still was not good. They were included in the state wide announcement to shut down, “all places of amusement, schools, churches, and other places of assembly,” in an attempt to prevent further spread of the disease.
Carter, Breathitt, and Harlan counties were hit the hardest, partly because of the mining, which forced hundreds of people and the virus in an inclosed space together for hours, and because they were also have a smallpox epidemic at the time, meaning that if someone’s immune system could handle one disease, there was no way it could handle two. There were at least five deaths a night in each mining town, some claiming to have one person from their neighborhood died a night. - Megan Slusarewicz Sources: http://www.flu.gov/pandemic/history/1918/your_state/southeast/kentucky/ To be determined
- Maya Hillis Sources: On Friday October 4th. 1991, the filly Whiteland Janice won the first heat in the final jewel of the Trotting Triple Crown. She overcame her biggest rival, Somatic, and the favored colt, Giant Victory, in the final quarter mile. For most of the race, she was in the middle of the group but steadily gained speed to end up at the top. She amazingly, won with two lengths between her and Somatic. In the second heat, Whiteland Janice was remained in the leading group and was second for most of the race. But, in the last quarter of the race, Somatic and Giant Victory, who was the champion of the Hambletonian, pulled ahead as she came in third. In her race-off with Somatic, the colt was ahead initially but in the last 200 feet, Janice sped ahead and was triumphant. And so, Whiteland Janice was the victor of the 99th Kentucky Futurity. She also became the 35th filly to win this race. Her owner, Fred V. Schubert of Exton, can probably still hear the cheers of success through his $67.5k. - Ivy Irihamye Sources: http://articles.latimes.com/1991-10-05/sports/sp-3070_1_heat http://www.upi.com/Archives/1991/10/05/Whiteland-Janice-wins-Futurity/8026686635200/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn_W3Yb0kN September 18th - September 20th, 1863: Battle of Chickamauga Results in Confederate Victory9/26/2015 Arguably the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Chickamauga was fought between the Confederate Army of Tennessee and the Union Army of the Cumberland. Essentially, the Confederates drove the Union army from Chiickamauga Creek (in northern Georgia) back into Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Generals involved were Braxton Bragg and James Longstreet (Confederate), and William S. Rosecrans and George Thomas (Union). In the summer of 1863, Confederate deserters fed the Yankees false information that Bragg was retreating. Rosecrans had already forced him out of Tullahoma, Tennessee; captured Chattanooga by September; and pursued Bragg into northern Georgia, a mountainous region. The action truly began on September 18th of 1863, when Bragg and his army marched to Chickamauga Creek, proceeding across. Rosecrans, however, had anticipated this move and his Union reinforcements were already present - thus the skirmish began. On September 19th, Bragg's army struggled to break the Union's strong line. The turning point of this battle was when James Longstreet brought in Confederate reinforcements, and General Thomas mistakenly created a gap in the Union line, through which the Confederates sauntered. While the rest of the Union retreated speedily to Chattanooga, Thomas and his corps stayed on the battlefield and ceased the Rebel attack. Someone down the line decided this steadfast action merited him the nickname, 'The Rock of Chickamauga.' Less than two months later, the battles for Chattanooga ensued. - Divya Sunderam Sources: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/confederates-score-a-victory-at-the-battle-of-chickamauga http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/chickamauga.html?tab=facts http://www.civilwar.org/hallowed-ground-magazine/fall-2010/fight-at-reeds-bridge.html http://www.civilwar.org/photos/galleries/chickamauga/images/veterans-of-chickamauga.jpg John T. Wilder was a New York Native that was best known for his contribution to the Union brigade, his Lightning Brigade, and his Spencer Repeating Rifles. Wilder enlisted not long after the Civil War broke out in 1861. Within months, Wilder was a leader as a colonel of his own brigade. In September, Wilder was stationed in Munfordville, Kentucky, at the same time Commander Braxton Braggs was beginning to march through the state. The location, an area that was important as a transportation hub, held the danger of being taken by the Confederates. Although Wilder was greatly outnumbered, he boldly refused surrender on September 13th, 1862, when the Confederate troops began attack. At the time, he was able to inflict casualties on the Confederates. However, as a few days passed, Wilder realized that Confederate forces were receiving reinforcements much more quickly than the Union was. Outnumbered 22000 to 4000, Wilder entered enemy lines under the guise of a truce after midnight on September 17th. Here, he met General Major Simon Boliver Buckner, who told Wilder of the futility of resistance. Convinced, Wilder accepted defeat and surrendered his entire Union garrison the following morning. “Well, it seems to me, I ought to surrender.” – John T. Wilder Following this event, Wilder was taken as a prisoner of war, only to be released in an exchange two months later. - Kelly Chen Sources: http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/biographies/john-t-wilder.html http://www.civilwarprofiles.com/john-t-wilder-and-the-spencer-repeating-rifle/ http://www.timelines.ws/states/KENTUCKY.HTML To be determined
- David Ma Sources: Kentucky had been split between the Union and Confederate causes: Kentuckians believed strongly in the value of the Constitution, but much of the population had owned slaves from the state's conception. Thus then-Governor Magoffin and the state legislature declared in 1861 that the state would remain neutral until invaded by either side.
As the war raged, the Kentucky legislature grew more and more aligned with the Union, and both sides rallied forces at the borders of the state. The first to enter, however, was General Leonidas Polk of the Confederates, giving the legislature grounds to end the neutrality and allow Union troops into the state. By the end of the War, some 50,000 white and 24,000 black Kentuckians fought on the union side, and 35,000 Kenuckians defected to the Confederates. The human cost was great, but in the end, Kentucky's participation on the side of the Union shifted the course of the war and ultimately assured the victory of the Union. - Joanna Slusarewicz Sources http://www.civilwar.org/hallowed-ground-magazine/spring-2010/civil-war-kentucky.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/ http://history.ky.gov/landmark/kentuckys-neutrality-during-the-civil-war/ http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/confederate-forces-enter-kentucky On August 27th, 2006, at around 6:00 am, Comair Flight 5191 crashed during takeoff from Lexington Bluegrass Airport.
The airplane was scheduled to depart from the airport to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, with 50 passengers and crew on board. However, an issue occurred, speculated due to pilot and flight crew error, ineffective procedures, or even the lack of two controllers during the time of takeoff.(The most likely cause was pilot error due to their ignorance towards their cues.) No matter what error occurred, the plane, scheduled to take off at Runway 22, instead went to Runway 26, a much shorter runway, so that it didn't achieve lift, and ran off the runway, crashing into the trees and fence at the airport's perimeter. Only 1 of the 50 passengers and crew survived, and that was First Officer James Polehinke, who was suspected of not following appropriate procedure and received many lawsuits from families. To be fair though, he did get hurt very, very badly, and tried to also file a lawsuit against the airport; there were probably other factors involved, but at this point, it's hard to say what exactly is to blame. Either way, this marks the 9th anniversary of the accident, and people still go to the memorial built in the University of Kentucky Arboretum for this event. Luckily, Bluegrass Airport has also changed many things about their policies and procedures for safety over the years, as well as rebuilding Runaway 26 so that it did not cross Runway 22. - Cici Mao Sources: http://www.ntsb.gov/news/events/Pages/Attempted_Takeoff_from_Wrong_Runway_Comair_Flight_5191_Bombardier_CL-600-2B19_N431CA_Lexington_Kentucky_August_27_2006.aspx http://www.wkyt.com/home/headlines/Wednesday-marks-eighth-anniversary-of-Comair-flight-5191-crash-272752561.html http://www.onthisday.com/date/2006/august/27 http://www.wkyt.com/home/headlines/Remembering-Comair-Flight-5191--323058751.html Okay, fun fun. Anyway, the blog posts will be revived now, and we'll be sticking to our last year's theme of "THIS DAY IN KENTUCKY HISTORY". However, due to the lack of any events that actually go on in Kentucky history that aren't related to extremely mundane things, or people getting born/dying, or some man celebrating his whatever-eth birthday, we've decided to also do "This Day in U.S. History" when something in Kentucky history can't be found for this week.
Now, this will only be done when we absolutely can't find anything interesting at all in KY history to talk about. Even so, the event in US History that will be chosen will still have some relation to Kentucky, obviously, since we don't want to stray from our state that much now would we? As for guidelines for posts, just bear in mind that we always must cite the sources that we use in our blog posts. Also, these blog posts will be as accurate as we can make them, but there may or may not be some inaccuracies, so if you see any, feel free to leave them in the comments and they'll be taken care of. Anyway, without further ado, we will now have our first blog post of this week. |
AuthorA very cool, and totally awesome, History Club! Archives
January 2016
CategoriesPlease remember to cite ALL the sources that you've used!!
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