Timeline Tennessee
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Ten. Web Ring: http://web.utk.edu/~kizzer/genehist/tghring/
215 Mil BC The rocks of northern
Tennessee began to bend under the pressure of continental collision.
Oil migrated from deep in the earth into cracks and folds in the rocks.
(SFC, 9/3/04, p.W4)
1673 Sep 21, James Needham
returned to Virginia after exploring the land to the west, which would
become Tennessee.
(HN, 9/21/98)
1760 Aug 7, Ft. Loudon, Tennessee,
surrendered to Cherokee Indians.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1768 Nov 5, William Johnson, the
northern Indian Commissioner, signed a treaty with the Iroquois Indians
to acquire much of the land between the Tennessee and Ohio rivers for
future settlement.
(HN, 11/5/98)
1784 Aug 23, Eastern Tennessee
settlers declared their area an independent state and named it
Franklin; a year later the Continental Congress rejected it.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1790 Oct 3, John Ross, Chief of
the United Cherokee Nation from 1839 to 1866, was born near Lookout
Mountain, Tennessee. Although his father was Scottish and his mother
only part Cherokee, Ross was named Tsan-Usdi (Little John) and raised
in the Cherokee tradition. A settled people with successful farms,
strong schools, and a representative government, the Cherokee resided
on 43,000 square miles of land they had held for centuries.
(LCTH, 10/3/99)
1794 Sep 10, America's first
non-denominational college, Blount College (later the University of
Tennessee), was chartered.
(AP, 9/10/97)
1796 Jun 1, Tennessee became the
16th state of the Union.
(AP, 6/1/97)
1796 Andrew Jackson was elected as
Tennessee’s 1st congressman.
(SSFC, 10/30/05, p.M3)
1797 Jul 7, The US House of
Representatives exercised its constitutional power of impeachment, and
voted to charge Senator William Blount of Tennessee with "a high
misdemeanor, entirely inconsistent with his public duty and trust as a
Senator." Blount had financial problems which led him to enter into a
conspiracy with British officers to enlist frontiersmen and Cherokee
Indians to assist the British in conquering parts of Spanish Florida
and Louisiana.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1798 Dec 17, The 1st impeachment
trial against a US senator, William Blount of Ten., began.
(MC, 12/17/01)
1801 Jul 5, David G. Farragut
(d.1870), American naval hero, was born in Knoxville, Tenn.
(AP, 7/5/97)
1802 Andrew Jackson was elected to
command the Tennessee militia.
(SSFC, 10/30/05, p.M3)
1809 Meriwether Lewis died of
gunshot wounds near present-day Hohenwald, Tenn. It was uncertain
whether he was killed or committed suicide.
(SFC,12/17/97, p.A7)
1817 Oct 20, The 1st Mississippi
"Showboat," left Nashville on maiden voyage.
(MC, 10/20/01)
1817 Nov 10, The Tennessee
legislature enacted laws that defined the common boundary with Georgia
and created a boundary commission to jointly survey and mark the state
border.
(www.profsurv.com/archive.php?article=1215&issue=86)
1818 Jun 1, Mathematician James
Camak demarcated the border between Georgia and Tennessee. Due to a
faulty sextant and bad astronomical charts he drew the line a mile
south of the intended boundary, the 35th parallel.
(Econ, 3/15/08,
p.42)(www.profsurv.com/archive.php?article=1215&issue=86)
1820 An iron forge was established
by settler Isaac Love on the Little Pigeon River at the foot of the
Great Smokey Mountains.
(SFC, 6/9/97, p.A3)
1821 Jul 13, Confederate cavalry
commander Nathan Bedford Forrest was born in Tennessee's Bedford County.
(AP, 7/13/97)
1824 Oct 22, The Tennessee
Legislature adjourned ending Davy Crockett's state political career.
Crockett died at the legendary siege of the Alamo in 1836.
(HN, 10/22/98)
1828 John Overlord, Andrew Jackson
and James Winchester, the founders of Memphis, Tenn., bestowed an
easement to the Mississippi riverfront for a promenade.
(Econ, 4/10/04, p.24)
1837 Mar 17, Upon his return to
his home in Tennessee, Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the
U.S., proclaimed that he left office "with barely $90 in my pocket."
The old soldier and war hero who had served as president for eight
years, spoke those words when he returned to his home in Tennessee.
(HNQ, 8/6/98)
1838 Jan 26, Tennessee became the
1st state to prohibit alcohol.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1838 Feb 24, Thomas Benton Smith,
Brig. General (Confederate Army), was born in Mechanicsville,
Tennessee. He was wounded at Stone’s River/Murfreesboro and again at
Chickamauga. He was captured at the Battle of Nashville (1864) where he
was beaten over the head with a sword by Col. William Linn McMillen of
the 95th Ohio Infantry. His brain was exposed and it was believed he
would die. He recovered partially and spent the last 47 years of his
life in the State Asylum in Nashville, Tennessee, where he died on May
21, 1923. He’s buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Nashville, Davidson
County, Tennessee.
(MC, 2/24/02)(Internet)
1845 Jun 8, Andrew Jackson, 7th
president of the US, died in Nashville, Tenn. His health had
deteriorated over the last 30 years and in 1999 scientists cited lead
poisoning from an 1813 wound as the primary cause of his health
problems. In 1945 Arthur Schlesinger Jr. authored “The Age of Jackson,”
for which he won a Pulitzer Prize. Dr. Robert Remini later authored a
3-volume biography. In 2005 H.W. Brands authored “Andrew Jackson: A
Life and Times.” In 2008 Jon Meacham authored “American Lion: Andrew
Jackson in the white House.”
(AP, 6/8/97)(SFC, 8/11/99, p.A2)(SSFC, 10/30/05,
p.M3)(Econ, 3/10/07, p.85)(SSFC, 12/7/08, Books p.1)
1849 Jun 15, James Polk (b.1845),
the 11th president of the United States, died in Nashville, Tenn. In
2008 Walter R. Borneman authored “Polk: The Man Who Transformed the
Presidency and America.”
(AP, 6/15/97)(HN, 6/15/98)(WSJ, 5/16/08, p.W8)
c1849 Numerous Tennesseans went to
California for the gold rush. In 1998 Tennessee historian Walter T.
Durham wrote "Volunteer Forty-Niners," an account of the Tennesseans
experiences in California.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.E5)
1850 Jack Daniel, founder of the
Jack Daniel distillery, was born.
(SFEC, 10/22/00, p.T3)
1861 May 6, Arkansas and Tennessee
becomes 9th & 10th state to secede from US. [see Jun 8]
(AP, 5/6/97)(HN, 5/6/98)(MC, 5/6/02)
1861 Jun 8, Tennessee voted to
secede from the Union and joined the Confederacy. [see May 6]
(AP, 6/8/97)(HN, 6/8/98)
1861 Jun 24, Tennessee became the
11th and last state to secede from US.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1861 Jul 1, The US War Department
decreed that Kansas and Tennessee were to be canvassed for volunteers.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1862 Feb 6, The Battle of Fort
Henry, Tenn., began the Mississippi Valley campaign.
(HN, 2/6/99)
1862 Feb 13, Four-day Battle of
Fort Donelson, Tenn., began. General Grant said, "What determined my
attack on Donelson was as much the knowledge I had gained of its
commanders in Mexico as anything else."
(HN, 2/13/98)
1862 Feb 15, Grant launched a
major assault on Fort Donelson, Tenn.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1862 Feb 25, Confederate troops
abandoned Nashville, Tenn., in the face of Grant's advance.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1862 Mar 15, General John Hunt
Morgan began four days of raids near the city of Gallatin, Tenn. "The
Yankees will never take me a prisoner again," vowed Confederate General
John Hunt Morgan.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1862 Apr 6, The Civil War battle
of Shiloh began as the Confederates attacked Union forces in Tennessee.
The battle left some 24,000 casualties and secured the West for the
Union
(SFC, 6/19/96, p.E5)(HT, 4/97, p.13)(AP, 4/6/97)(AM,
May/Jun 97 p.27)
1862 Apr 7, Union forces led by
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederates at the battle of Shiloh
in Tennessee. Gen. Ulysses Grant after the Battle of Shiloh said: "I
saw an open field... so covered with dead that it would have been
possible to walk across... in any direction, stepping on dead bodies
without a foot touching the ground." More than 9,000 Americans died.
(SFC, 6/19/96, p.E5)(HT, 4/97, p.13)(AP, 4/7/97)
1862 May 10, Battle of Plum Run
Bend, TN (Plum Point Bend).
(MC, 5/10/02)
1862 Jun 4, Confederates evacuated
Ft. Pillow, Tenn.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1862 Jun 6, The city of Memphis
surrendered to the Union Navy after an intense naval engagement on the
Mississippi River.
(HN, 6/6/98)
1862 Jul 13, Confederate General
Nathan Bedford Forrest defeated a Union army at Murfreesboro,
Tennessee. [see Aug 13]
(HN, 7/13/98)
1862 Jun, Confederate Gen. Braxton
Bragg was appointed to succeed Gen. Beauregard as commander of the Army
of Tennessee.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braxton_Bragg)
1862 Aug 13, Confederate General
Nathan Bedford Forrest defeated a Union army under Thomas Crittenden at
Murfreesboro, Tennessee. [see Jul 13]
(HN, 8/13/98)
1862 Aug 30, In the Battle of
Altamont, Tennessee, Confederates beat Union forces.
(MC, 8/30/01)
1862 Sep 17, Battle of Cumberland
Gap, Tenn., was evacuated by Federals.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1862 Oct 22, Confederate troops
reconquered the Cumberland Gap in Tennessee.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1862 Dec 3, Confederate rebels
attacked a Federal forage train on the Hardin Pike near Nashville,
Tenn.
(HN, 12/3/98)
1862 Dec 13, Confederate forces
dealt Union troops a major defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg, Va.
The Battle of Fredericksburg ended at Marye’s Heights with the bloody
slaughter of Union troops, while Confederate President Davis reviewed
Braxton Bragg’s troops at Murfreesboro, Tenn.
(WUD, 1994, p.565)(AP, 12/13/97)(HN, 12/13/98)
1862 Dec 19, Skirmish at
Jackson-Salem Church, Tenn., left 80 casualties.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1862 Dec 27, Rosecrans’ army moved
slowly toward Bragg at Murfreesboro.
(HN, 12/27/98)
1862 Dec 31, Union General William
Rosecrans' army repelled two Confederate attacks at the Battle of
Murfreesboro (Stone's River).
(HN, 12/31/98)
1862 Pres. Lincoln made Andrew
Johnson the military governor of Tennessee after Federal forces
captured Nashville.
(SFC, 12/21/98, p.A3)
1862 The Rhea County Spartans, an
all-girl cavalry company in Tennessee, began as a lark during the
American Civil War, but soon attracted the attention of unamused Union
officers. The Rhea County Girls` Company was created through a
combination of boredom and the desire to be a part of the war for
Southern independence. Almost all of the "sidesaddle soldiers" had
fathers or brothers in the Confederate military, and the young ladies
evidently felt frustrated because their gender prevented them from
enlisting. Since they could not actually join the Confederate Army,
they did the next best thing: They created an army of their own.
(HNQ, 4/12/01)
1863 Jan 1, Confederate General
Braxton Bragg and Union General William Rosecrans readjusted their
troops as the Battle of Murfreesboro continued.
(HN, 1/1/99)
1863 Jan 2, In the second day of
hard fighting at Stone's River, near Murfreesboro, Tenn., Union troops
defeated the Confederates. The battle, which began Dec 31, involved
80,000 troops and left 24,000 casualties.
(HN, 1/2/99)(AM, 11/04, p.28)
1863 Feb 24, Confederate Gen.
Nathan Bedford Forrest made a raid on Brentwood, Tennessee.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1863 Mar 25, There was a skirmish
at Brentwood, Tennessee.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1863 Apr 10, Rebel Gen. Earl Van
Dorn attacked at Franklin, Tenn.
(MC, 4/10/02)
1863 May 25, Federal authorities
in Tennessee turned over former Ohio congressman Clement L.
Vallandigham to the Confederates. President Abraham Lincoln had changed
his sentence to banishment from the United States after his conviction
of expressing alleged pro-Confederate sentiments.
(HN, 5/25/99)
1863 Jul 4, Skirmish at Smithburg,
TN.
(Maggio, 98)
1863 Aug 16, Union General William
S. Rosecrans moved his army south from Tullahoma, Tennessee to attack
Confederate forces in Chattanooga.
(HN, 8/16/99)
1863 Sep 8, Federal troops
reconquered the Cumberland Gap, Tennessee.
(MC, 9/8/01)
1863 Sep 8, Battle of Telford's
Depot, Ten.
(MC, 9/8/01)
1863 Sep 9, The Union Army of the
Cumberland passed through Chattanooga as they chased after the
retreating Confederates following the Battle of Cumberland Gap.
(HN, 9/9/98)(MC, 9/9/01)
1863 Sep 21, Union troops under
Major Gen’l. William S. Rosecrans defeated at Chickamauga sought refuge
in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which was then besieged by Confederate
troops. There they lost 10,000 horses and mules to starvation.
(HT, 4/97, p.52)(HN, 9/21/98)
1863 Sep 23, The Confederate siege
of Chattanooga began.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1863 Oct 10, The Skirmish at Blue
Springs, Tennessee, resulted in 166 casualties.
(MC, 10/10/01)
1863 Oct 11, Skirmish at Rheatown,
Henderson's Mill, Tennessee.
(MC, 10/11/01)
1863 Oct 23, Gen’l. Grant arrived
at Chattanooga. [see Oct 24]
(HT, 4/97, p.56)
1863 Oct 24, General Ulysses S.
Grant arrived in Chattanooga, Tennessee to find the Union Army there
starving. [see Oct 23]
(HN, 10/24/98)
1863 Oct 28-29, In a rare
night attack, Confederates under Gen. James Longstreet attacked a
Federal force near Chattanooga in the Battle of Wauhatchie, Tennessee.
Longstreet hoped to cut the Federal supply line, the “cracker line,”
but failed. The principal commanders were: Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker [US]
and Brig. Gen. Micah Jenkins [CS]. Estimated causalities: 828 total (US
420; CS 408).
(HN,
10/28/98)(http://www2.cr.nps.gov/abpp/battles/tn021.htm)
1863 Nov 4, From the main
Confederate Army at Chattanooga, Tenn., Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's
troops were sent northeast to besiege Knoxville
(HN, 11/4/98)
1863 Nov
6, The Battle of Rogersville took place at Big Creek in Hawkins County,
Tennessee. Union troops, under the command of Col. Israel Garrard,
faced Confederates under the overall command of Brig. Gen. William E.
Jones. Confederates won and sent prisoners sent to Libby Prison in
Richmond, Virginia.
(http://johnsettles.com/roger.htm)
1863 Nov 12, Confederate General
James Longstreet arrived at Loudon, Tennessee to assist the attack on
Union General Ambrose Burnside’s troops at Knoxville.
(HN, 11/12/98)
1863 Nov 14, Gen Nathan Bedford
Forrest was assigned to command of West Tennessee.
(MC, 11/14/01)
1863 Nov 16, At the Battle of
Campbell's Station, Ten., there were 492 causalities.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1863 Nov 17-Dec 4th, Battle of
Knoxville, Ten.
(MC, 11/17/01)
1863 Nov 23, At Chattanooga Gen’l.
Thomas’ men drove the Confederates from Orchard Knob. Union forces won
the Battle of Orchard Knob, Tenn. The Battle of Chattanooga, one of the
most decisive battles of the American Civil War, also began in
Tennessee.
(HN, 11/23/01)
1863 Nov 24, In the Battle Above
the Clouds, Union Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker's forces took Lookout
Mountain, near Chattanooga, Tenn. The battle for Lookout Mountain was
fought in a layer of fog whose lower level began at the Cravens House,
used as Rebel headquarters. Gen’l. Hooker later commissioned painter
James Walker to render a picture of the battle for $20,000.
(HFA, ‘96, p.42)(HT, 4/97, p.56)(HN, 11/24/98)
1863 Nov 25, The Union ended the
siege of Chattanooga, Tenn., with the Battle of Missionary Ridge, Tenn.
(HN, 11/25/98)
1863 Nov 29, The Battle of Fort
Sanders, Knoxville, Tenn., ended in Confederate withdrawal. There were
8-900 casualties.
(HN, 11/29/98)(MC, 11/29/01)
1863 Dec 2, General Braxton Bragg
turned over command of the Army of Tennessee to General William Hardee
at Dalton, Ga.
(HN, 12/2/98)
1863 Dec 3, Confederate General
Longstreet abandoned his siege at Knoxville, Ten., and moved his army
east and north toward Greeneville. This withdrawal marked the end of
the Fall Campaign in Tennessee.
(HN, 12/3/98)(MC, 12/3/01)
1863 Dec 14, Longstreet attacked
Union troops at Bean’s Station, Tenn.
(HN, 12/14/98)
1864 Apr 12, Confederate forces
under Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest captured Fort Pillow, Tennessee, and
killed many black Union troops there. Charged with ruthless killing,
Forrest argued that the soldiers had been killed trying to escape;
however, racial animosity on the part of his troops was undoubtedly a
factor.
(HN, 4/12/99)(
http://www.civilwarweb.com/articles/05-99/ftpillow.htm)
1864 Jul 18, Confederate Brig.
Gen. John Bell Hood (33), commanding a corps under Gen. Johnston, was
promoted to the temporary rank of full general, and given command of
the Army of Tennessee just outside the gates of Atlanta.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bell_Hood)
1864 Sep 16, Confederate General
Nathan Bedford Forrest led 4,500 men out of Verona, Miss. to harass
Union outposts in northern Alabama and Tennessee.
(HN, 9/16/98)
1864 Sep 26, General Nathan
Bedford Forrest and his men assaulted a Federal garrison near Pulaski,
Tennessee.
(HN, 9/26/99)
1864 Nov 4, There was a
Confederate assault on the Union depot and headquarters at Reynoldsburg
Island, near Johnsonville, Tennessee. Paddle-wheelers USS Key West,
Acting Lt. King; USS Tawah, Acting Lt. Goudy; and small steamer U.S.S.
Elfin, Acting Master Augustus F. Thompson; were destroyed after an
engagement with Confederate batteries off Johnsonville, Ten., along
with several transport steamers and a large quantity of supplies.
(www.multied.com/navy/cwnavalhistory/November1864.html)
1864 Nov 21, Confederate General
John Bell Hood launched the Franklin-Nashville Campaign into Tennessee
from northern Alabama. Hood led the Army of the Tennessee in its
offensive into Tennessee, which was decisively broken in the battles of
Franklin and Nashville. Hood, a graduate of West Point, had been in the
U.S. Cavalry until the Civil War broke out. He was seriously wounded
attacking Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg and later
lost a leg at Chickamauga in September of that year. In 1864, he was
appointed a Lieutenant General under Joseph E. Johnston‘s command in
defense of Atlanta. In July, Confederate president Jefferson Davis put
Hood in command who promptly attacked Sherman‘s Union army and was
repulsed. Hood then attempted a long march to the north and west to
assault Sherman‘s rear and ran into Union Army of the Cumberland. The
November Battle of Franklin and December Battle of Nashville decisively
defeated Hood‘s Army which was harassed and almost destroyed in its
retreat. Hood‘s own request to end his command was granted the
following month. After the war he lived in New Orleans.
(HNQ,
11/4/00)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin-Nashville_Campaign)
1864 Nov 29, The Battle of Spring
Hill, Ten., a prelude to the Battle of Franklin (aka Thomason's
Station), was fought. General John Bell Hood’s Army of Tennessee
marched from Columbia toward Spring Hill to isolate major portions of
Union forces from each other, hoping to defeat each in turn before they
could unite and overwhelm him.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Spring_Hill)
1864 Nov 30, The Union won the
Battle of Franklin, Tenn., where John B. Hood ordered a disastrous
assault on Union earthworks. There were 7,700 casualties. Maj. Gen’l.
Patrick R. Cleburne, division commander in the Army of Tennessee, was
killed at the battle of Franklin. In early 1864 he had advocated the
abolition of slavery and the formal opening of the Confederate Army of
the Freedmen. In 2005 Robert Hicks authored the novel “The Widow of the
South,” set around the Battle of Franklin.
(HN, 11/30/98)(SFC, 11/29/02, p.A23)(AM, 11/04,
p.28)(SSFC, 9/4/05, p.F1)
1864 Dec 1, Franklin-Nashville
Campaign began.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1864 Dec 1, Raid at Stoneman:
Knoxville, Ten., to Saltville, Va.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1864 Dec 5, Confederate General
Hood sent Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry and a division of infantry
towards Murfreesboro, Tenn.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1864 Dec 15, The battle at
Nashville began.
(HN, 12/15/98)
1864 Dec 16, Union forces under
General George H. Thomas routed Confederate forces under Gen. Hood at
the battle at Nashville, Tenn. There were some 4,400 casualties.
(HFA, ‘96, p.20)(HN, 12/16/98)(AH, 10/02, p.43)
1865 Jan 23, General John Bell
Hood was relieved of his command of the Army of Tennessee.
(AH, 10/02, p.38)
1865 Feb 22, Tennessee adopted a
new constitution abolishing slavery.
(HN, 2/22/98)(AP, 2/22/99)
1865 Apr 27, The steamer Sultana
caught fire and burned after one of its boilers exploded on the
Mississippi River near Memphis, Tenn., killing more than 1,400 paroled
Union prisoners on their way home. One account reported 1,547 people
dead. At least 1,238 of the 2,031 passengers, mostly former Union POWs,
were killed.
(AP, 4/27/97)(SFC, 3/13/99, p.E6)(HN, 4/27/99)(MC,
4/27/02)
1865 Dec 24, Several veterans of
the Confederate Army formed a private social club in Pulaski, Tenn.,
called the Ku Klux Klan.
(AP, 12/24/97)
1866 Apr 2, Pres. ended war in
Ala, Ark, Fla, Ga, Miss, La, NC, SC, Ten & Va.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1866 Jul 24, Tennessee became the
first state to be readmitted to the Union after the Civil War.
(AP, 7/24/97)
1866 The Ku Klux Klan is generally
acknowledged to have started in Pulaski, Tenn., in this year. [see Dec
24, 1865]
(WSJ, 7/15/96, p.A1)
1866 Jasper Daniel (Jack Daniel)
started distilling whiskey in Lynchburg, Tenn.
(SFC, 2/04/04, p.D2)
1868 The Ku Klux Klan was imported
to South Carolina from Tennessee, where it had originated. During South
Carolina’s election campaign this year the Klan murdered 8 blacks, two
of them state congressmen.
(AH, 6/03, p.27)
1869 Feb 20, Tenn. Gov. W.C.
Brownlow declared martial law in Ku Klux Klan crisis.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1870 Aug 6, White conservatives
suppressed the black vote and captured Tenn. Legislature.
(MC, 8/6/02)
1870 George Dickel (d.1894),
purchased a site in Cascade Hollow, Tenn., and soon began producing
Cascade Tennessee Whisky.
(SFC, 2/04/04, p.D2)
1875 Jul 31, The 17th president of
the United States, Andrew Johnson, died in Carter Station, Tenn., at
age 66. He succeeded Abraham Lincoln and was the only president to face
impeachment proceedings.
(AP, 7/31/97)(HN, 7/31/98)
1877 Oct 29, Nathan Bedford
Forrest (b.1821), former Confederate cavalry general, died in Memphis,
Tenn. He amassed a fortune as a plantation owner and slave trader,
importing Africans long after the practice had been made illegal. At 40
he enlisted as a private in the Confederate army at the outset of the
Civil War, rising to a cavalry general in a year. In 1867 the newly
formed Ku Klux Klan elected Forrest its honorary Grand Wizard or
national leader, but he publicly denied being involved. In 1869, he
ordered the Klan to disband because of the members' increasing
violence. Two years later, a congressional investigation concluded his
involvement had been limited to his attempt to disband it.
(AP,
11/4/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Bedford_Forrest)
1877 Apr, the 1st issue of the
Chattanooga Daily Dispatch was produced with Adolph Ochs as business
solicitor.
(SFEM, 1/16/00, p.10)
1878 Jul 2, The Chattanooga Times
was first published under the ownership of Adolph Ochs. The 9-year-old
paper at Eighth and Cherry Streets had plummeted under S.A. Cunningham
to a circulation of 250. Ochs acquired the New York Times 18 years
later. The Chattanooga Times merged with the Chattanooga Free Press in
1998.
(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A19)(SFEM, 1/16/00, p.10)
1878 The Nashville Banner began
publishing.
(SFC, 2/17/98, p.A3)
1880 Jan 21, 1st US sewage
disposal system, separate from storm drains, was established in Memphis.
(MC, 1/21/02)
1881 The Tennessee Coal and
Railroad Co. was renamed to the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Co.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, R45)
1884 Feb 19, A series of tornadoes
left an estimated 800 people dead in 7 US states (Miss, Ala, NC, SC,
Tenn., Ky & In).
(WSJ, 9/13/01, p.B11)(MC, 2/19/02)
1884 The colony of Rugby had 350
residents. Thomas Hughes (1822-96), English novelist, reformer, jurist,
and author of "John Brown’s School Days," purchased 75,000 acres in
rural Tennessee and founded the colony of Rugby. It was a school for
the younger children of England’s wealthy families who were not
eligible to inherit family estates. It was meant to teach farming and
other useful skills.
(WUD, 1994, p.691)
1886 Sep 14, George K. Anderson of
Memphis, Tennessee, patented typewriter ribbon.
(http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bltypewriter.htm)
1887 Dec 13, Corporal Alvin C.
York of Wolf River Valley, Tennessee, was born. York was awarded the
Congressional Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Service Cross for
heroism during World War I's Argonne Offensive. York was a reluctant
soldier, but his frontier upbringing had made him an outstanding
marksman. [see Oct 8, 1918]
(HN, 12/13/98)
1892 Thomas Green Ryman, saloon
and riverboat owner, built the Union Gospel Tabernacle in Nashville for
revivalist Sam Jones. It later became the original home of the Grand
Ole Opry.
(SFCM, 3/11/01, p.43)
1894 George Dickel, producer of
Cascade Tennessee Whisky, died. His widow and relatives renamed the
whiskey after him.
(SFC, 2/04/04, p.D2)
1897 The city of Nashville built a
full-size temporary replica of the Greek Parthenon for the Tennessee
Centennial Exposition. The lath and plaster building stood for 23 years
until it was razed in 1920 to make way for a permanent version,
completed in 1931.
(HN, 1/20/00)
1900-1935 The Knoxville Table Co. operated in
downtown Knoxville, Tenn., during this period.
(SFC, 4/12/06, p.G4)
1903 May 26, Estes Kefauver,
senator from Tennessee, was born. He wanted the Democratic nomination
for president against John Kennedy.
(HN, 5/26/99)
1903 Former outlaws Cole Younger
and Frank James teamed up to tour Tennessee in their own Wild West Show.
(SFC, 12/29/96, zone 1 p.2)
1904 Sep 24, Sixty-two died and
120 were injured in head-on train collision in Tennessee.
(HN, 9/24/98)
1907 Oct 22, President Theodore
Roosevelt visited The Hermitage, the Nashville, Tenn., home of the late
President Andrew Jackson. Years later, Maxwell House claimed that
Roosevelt had praised a cup of its coffee during this visit by saying
it was "good to the last drop."
(AP, 10/22/07)
1907 Dec 26, Albert Gore Sr.,
later US Representative and Senator, was born in Granville.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.C14)
1908 In Owl Holler Rev. George
Went Hensley initiated the practice of handling serpents at the
Holiness Church dedication after some former cohorts emptied a mass of
snakes before him.
(WSJ, 5/26/00, p.W15)
1910 Tennessee passed a
Prohibition law that gave distillers one year to dismantle their
operations. George Dickel's operations moved to Kentucky and Jack
Daniel's to Missouri and Alabama. Prohibition knocked both out of
business in 1920.
(SFC, 2/04/04, p.D2)
1916 Feb 29, Dinah Shore, actress
and singer, was born. [see Mar 1, 1917]
(SFC, 2/29/00, p.A1)
1916 Sep 6, Clarence Saunders
opened his first Piggly Wiggly grocery store in Memphis, Tenn. He
pioneered self-service in the US and obtained a patent. He later
franchised over a 1,000 stores.
(WSJ, 11/16/98, p.A12)(Econ, 10/2/04, p.18)(AP,
9/6/06)
1916 Oct 7, In the most lopsided
victory in college football history, Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland
University of Lebanon, Tennessee, 222-0 in Atlanta.
(http://gtalumni.org/Publications/magazine/spr98/div11.html)
1917 Mar 1, Dinah Shore, singer
(See the USA in a Chevrolet), was born in Winchester, Ten. [see Feb 29,
1916]
(SC, 3/1/02)
1918 Jul 9, 101 people were killed
as an inbound local train collided with an outbound express in
Nashville, Tenn.
(AP, 7/9/97)
1920 Aug
18, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment to the
Constitution, which guaranteed the right of all American women to vote.
This completed the three-quarters necessary to put the amendment into
effect. Aaron Sargent, who wrote the 19th amendment, also built
Grandmere's Inn in Nevada City. Carrie Chapman Catt, founder of the
League of Women Voters, played a crucial role in its passage. She also
held some very racist views: she called the ballots of proletarian
voters "undesirable" and referred to Indians as "savages." [see Aug 26,
1920]
(SFC, 4/14/96, T-3)(SFC, 6/9/96, p.B-11)(AP,
8/18/97)(HN, 8/18/01)
1920 Eastman Chemical Co. was
founded in Kingsport as a unit of Eastman Kodak Co. It was spun off in
1994. In 1998 the company agreed to pay an $11 million fine for
price-fixing on sorbates, a chemical used to keep food and beverages
fresh.
(SFC, 10/2/98, p.B6)
1925 Mar 13, The Tennessee
legislature passed the Butler Bill which prohibited the teaching of
evolution in the public schools. [see Mar 21,23]
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.74-76)(AP, 3/13/97)
1925 Mar 21, Tennessee passed an
anti-evolution law, which prohibited the teaching of evolution. [see
Mar 13,23]
(HNQ, 1/27/00)
1925 Mar 23, Tennessee became the
1st state to outlaw teaching the theory of evolution. Tennessee’s
Governor Austin Peay said, "the very integrity of the Bible in its
statement of man’s divine creation is denied by any theory that man
descended or has ascended from any lower order of animals." [see Mar
13,21]
(SS, 3/23/02)(MC, 3/23/02)
1925 May 25, John Scopes was
indicted for teaching Darwinian theory in school.
(HN, 5/25/98)
1925 Jun 10, Tennessee adopted a
new biology text book denying the theory of evolution.
(HN, 6/10/98)
1925 Jul 10, The Scopes "Monkey
Trial," started. It was the result of a conspiracy hatched at
Robinson's Drug Store in Dayton, Tenn. John Scopes, a young high-school
teacher, was to become the test case on the legality of Tennessee's
anti-evolution law. An aging William Jennings Bryan, Nebraska
fundamentalist and politician, was the prosecutor and Clarence Darrow
was Scopes' defense attorney. Earlier in 1925, the Tennessee State
legislature had passed a law making it illegal to teach the theory of
evolution in schools. Many people believed that Darwin's theory
contradicted the idea of biblical creation. The trial, complete with
the spectacle of a cynical Darrow interrogating Bryan on the witness
stand as "an expert on the Bible," aroused national interest and caused
heated controversy over Darwin's evolution theory. Scopes was judged
guilty and fined $100, but later let off on a technicality. The trial
coverage dealt a blow to American anti-evolution forces. It was the
first trial to be broadcast by radio. Bryan died six days later.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.74-76)(TMC, 1994, p.1925)(HNPD,
7/10/98)
1925 Jul 21, The so-called "Monkey
Trial" ended in Dayton, Tenn., with John T. Scopes convicted of
violating state law for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution. Scopes
was found guilty and was fined $100. The conviction was later
overturned on a technicality.
(HN, 7/21/99)(AP, 7/21/08)
1925 Aug 11, Carl Rowan (d.2000)
was born in Ravenscroft. He was later appointed by Pres. Kennedy as
Deputy sec. of State, became a prize winning journalist and authored 8
books. [see Sep 23, 2000]
(SFEC, 9/24/00, p.D15)
1925 Nov 28, The "WSM Barn Dance",
later known as "The Grand Ole Opry" (1927), Nashville’s famed home of
country music, made its radio debut on station WSM. The call letters
came from the slogan "We Shield Millions" of sponsor National Life and
Accident Insurance Co. Edwin Craig, a wireless buff with a stake in the
insurance company, had recently sold the radio idea to the insurance
board. In 1999 Charles K. Wolfe published "A Good Natured Riot: The
Birth of the Grand Ole Opry." In 2007 Craig Havighurst authored “Air
Castle of the South.”
(SFC, 7/20/96, p.E4)(AP, 11/28/97)(WSJ, 7/23/99,
p.W7)(WSJ, 10/17/07, p.D9)
1927 Aug 1, In Bristol, Tennessee,
the Carter Family (A.P., wife Sara, and cousin Maybelle) came down from
the mountains of Virginia and began recording their country style
"hillbilly" music for Ralph Peer of the Victor Talking Machine
Co. Jimmy Rogers (1898-1933) came from Mississippi to record.
(Hem., 4/97, p.68)(WSJ, 8/1/02, p.A1)
1927 Dec, In Nashville, Ten.,
after harmonica wizard DeFord Bailey played his "Pan American Blues,"
WSM Announcer Judge Hay got the idea to change the name of the show
from the "Barn Dance" to the "Grand Ole Opry."
(www.pbs.org/deford/timeline/index.html)
1927 The fundamentalist Christian
Bob Jones University in Cleveland, Tenn., was founded by Bob Jones.
(SFC,11/13/97, p.A28)
1928 The John H. Daniel Co. was
founded in Knoxville, Tennessee, for producing men’s suits. By 2004
global competition led the company to import tailors from Turkey.
(WSJ, 4/12/05, p.A1)
1929 Feb, Morris Frank and Jack
Humphrey began operating the 1st Seeing Eye school in the US in
Nashville, Tenn. Frank had trained under Humphrey in Switzerland at a
kennel owned by Dorothy Eustis. Buddy was Frank's 1st dog and in 1936
became the 1st seeing-eye dog to ride as a passenger on an American
commercial airline.
(ON, 12/03, p.5)
1931
Mar 18, Jackie Mitchell became the 2nd female in professional baseball
as she signed with the Chattanooga Lookouts, a Tennessee Class AA minor
league team. In 1898, Lizzie Arlington played one game, pitching for
Reading (PA) against Allentown.
(www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/mitchell.html)
1931 Apr 2, Virne "Jackie"
Mitchell became the 2nd woman to play for an all-male pro baseball
team. In an exhibition game against the New York Yankees, she struck
out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game in Chattanooga,
Tennessee.
(HN,
4/2/01)(www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/mitchell.html)
1933 May 18, The Tennessee Valley
Authority Act was signed by President Roosevelt. The TVA proceed to
build damns in the Tennessee Valley.
(AP, 5/18/97)(HN, 5/18/99)
1937 Nov 15, Eighteen lawsuits
were bought against the Tennessee Valley Authority, calling for its
dissolution.
(HN, 11/15/98)
1938 Aug, Prentice Cooper
(1895-1969) received the Democratic nomination for governor of
Tennessee. He was elected and served as governor from 1939-1945.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prentice_Cooper)
1939 May 25, Dixie [Virginia]
Carter, actress (Designing Women, Edge of Night), was born in
McLemoresville, TN.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1939 Aug 12, George Hamilton,
actor (Love at 1st Bite, Where the Boys Are), was born in Memphis, Ten.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1939 Financier William R. Lovett
bought the Piggly Wiggly business and later moved the headquarters to
Jacksonville, Fla.
(WSJ, 11/16/98, p.A12)
1939-1952 Albert Gore Sr. served as a US
Representative.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.C14)
1940 The Great Smokey Mountains
National Park was dedicated.
(SFC, 6/9/97, p.A3)
1940 The Mountain Dew beverage, a
lemon-lime mixer, was trademarked by Barney and Ally Hartman of
Knoxville, Tenn. In 1948 a cartoon drawing of Willy the Hillbilly was
trademarked and used on bottles until the early 1970s. Pepsi bought
Mountain Dew in 1964.
(SFC, 6/25/08, p.G3)
1941 Mar 1, W47NV, the 1st US FM
radio station to broadcast with a commercial license, went on the air
in Nashville, TN.
(www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=3021)
1942 Mar 25, Aretha Franklin,
American singer, the "Queen of Soul," was born in Memphis, Tenn.
(HN, 3/25/01)(SSFC, 6/30/02, Par p.30)
1942 Aug 20, Isaac Hayes, composer
(Shaft), was born in Covington, TN.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1943 Roy Acuff, country music
superstar, invited the governor of Tennessee to a party. Gov. Prentice
Cooper snubbed him saying that he and his awful musicians were making
Tennessee “the hillbilly capital of the United States.”
(Econ, 12/23/06,
p.45)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prentice_Cooper)
1945 The Arrowmont School of Arts
and Crafts was founded in Gatlinburg, Ten.
(WSJ, 12/24/03, p.D7)
1945-1947 A nutrition study at Vanderbilt Univ. gave
a radioactive iron tracer to 829 women. Four of their children later
died of childhood cancers. In 1998 a $10.3 million settlement was
awarded to the women.
(SFC, 7/28/98, p.A2)
1946 Jan 19, Dolly Rebecca Parton,
country singer (Dolly, 9 to 5), was born in Sevierville, Ten.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1946 Feb 26, A race riot in
Columbia, TN, killed 2 people and 10 wounded.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1947 May 28, Sondra Locke, actress
(Heart Is a Lonely Hunter), was born in Shelbyville, Tenn.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1948 Redd Stewart (d.2003)
co-wrote "Tennessee Waltz" with Pee Wee King to the melody of King's
"No Name Waltz," while on a road trip from Nashville to Texarkana. A
1950 recording by Patti Page sold a reported 3 million copies.
(SFC, 8/6/03, p.A18)
1949 Mar 19, The 1st museum
devoted exclusively to atomic energy opened at Oak Ridge, Ten.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1950 Dec 4, University of
Tennessee defied court rulings by rejecting five Negro applicants.
(HN, 12/4/98)
1950 Sam Phillips formed Sun
Records in Memphis, Ten. In 1954 Elvis Presley, who walked into his
studio to record a present for his mother.
(WSJ, 6/16/00, p.W2)
1951 Feb 28, The Senate committee
headed by Estes Kefauver, D-Ten., issued a preliminary report saying at
least two major crime syndicates were operating in the United States.
(AP, 2/28/02)
1952 Feb 22, Bill Frist, surgeon
and US Senator (1994-), was born in Nashville, Tenn.
(WSJ, 6/27/05, p.A10)
1952 Aug 1, Kemmons Wilson
(d.2003) opened the first Holiday Inn just outside Memphis, Tenn.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1952 Sam Phillips (d.2003) founded
Sun Records in Memphis, Ten. Phillips produced Elvis Presley's 1st
record in 1954.
(SFC, 8/1/03, p.A19)
1953-1970 Albert Gore Sr. (d.1998 at 90) served as US
Senator. He opposed the war in Vietnam while his son served there as an
Army journalist.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.C14)
1954 Jan 4, Elvis Presley recorded
a 10 minute demo in Nashville.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1954 Jul 5, Elvis Presley's first
commercial recording session took place at Sun Records in Memphis,
Tenn. The song he recorded was "That's All Right (Mama)."
(AP, 7/5/97)
1954 Jul 7, Elvis Presley made his
radio debut as Memphis, Tennessee, station WHBQ played his first
recording for Sun Records, "That’s All Right (Mama)."
(AP, 7/7/00)
1954 A major flood along the
Tennessee River took away a third of Pittsburg Landing, held by Union
troops during the 1862 Confederate attack at Shiloh.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.27)
1955 Sam Phillips launched WHER,
the nation’s 1st all-woman radio station, in Memphis.
(WSJ, 6/16/00, p.W2)
1956 Feb 10, Elvis Presley
recorded "Heartbreak Hotel" for RCA. Truckdriver, Elvis Presley, began
Rock-n-Roll with his song "Don’t Be Cruel," written by Otis Blackwell
(d.2002 at 70). He also appeared for the first time on the Ed Sullivan
TV Show. He also recorded the Lieber and Stoller song "Hound Dog" and
"Heartbreak Hotel," the first of his 45 records to sell over a million
copies.
(TMC, 1994, p.1956)(SFC,1/22/97, p.A20)(SFEC,
4/6/97, DB p.65)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A31)(MC, 2/10/02)
1956 Jan 20, Buddy Holly recorded
"Blue Days Black Night" in Nashville. [see Jan 26]
(MC, 1/20/02)
1956 Jan 26, Buddy Holly had his
1st formal recording session. [see Jan 20]
(MC, 1/26/02)
1956 Sep 2, Tennessee National
Guardsmen halted rioters protesting the admission of 12
African-Americans to schools in Clinton.
(HN, 9/2/98)
1956 Sep 3, Tanks were deployed
against racist demonstrators in Clinton, Tennessee.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1957 Sep 9, Nashville's new Hattie
Cotton Elementary School was dynamited.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1957 Oct 17, The movie "Jailhouse
Rock," starring Elvis Presley, had its world premiere in Memphis, Tenn.
(AP, 10/17/07)
1958 Mar 24, Rock 'n' roll singer
Elvis Presley was inducted into the Army in Memphis, Tenn. After nearly
six months of basic training at Fort Hood, Texas, Presley was posted to
Friedberg, West Germany; he was honorably discharged in 1960.
(AP, 3/23/08)
1958 Aug 14, Gladys Love Smith
Presley (48), Elvis Presley's mother, died in Memphis, Tenn.
(AP, 8/14/08)
1958 Oct 5, Racially desegregated
Clinton High School in Clinton, Tenn., was mostly leveled by an early
morning bombing.
(AP, 10/5/08)
1961 Jimmy Rogers was the first
inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tenn. A new
facility was scheduled to open in 200.
(WSJ, 9/26/97, p.A20)(WSJ, 8/12/99, p.A18)
1962 Mar 26, The U.S. Supreme
Court in Baker vs. Carr gave federal courts the power to order
reapportionment of seats in a state legislature, a decision that
eventually led to the doctrine of "one man, one vote." It arose from a
Tennessee case in which Carr was the state attorney general.
(AP, 3/26/02)(SFC, 8/1/03, p.A27)
1962 Danny Thomas founded the St.
Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.
(SSFC, 4/20/03, Par p.5)
1963 Mar 5, A private plane crash
near Camden, Tenn., claimed the lives of country music performers
Patsy Cline (30), "Cowboy" Copas and "Hawkshaw" Hawkins, as well as
pilot Randy Hughes, Cline's manager.
(AP, 3/5/08)
1966 Aug 20, The Beatles were
pelted with rotten fruit during a Memphis concert.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1967 May 18, Tennessee Gov. Buford
Ellington signed a measure repealing the "Monkey Law" against teaching
evolution that was used to prosecute John T. Scopes in 1925.
(AP, 5/18/07)(SC, 5/18/02)
1967 Jul 20, Race riots took place
in Memphis, Tenn.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1968 Mar 28, In Memphis a riot
erupted during a protest march in support of striking sanitation
workers led by Martin Luther King. One African-American marcher was
killed and King urged calm as National Guard troops are called to
Memphis to restore order. King subsequently departed Memphis, but vowed
to return on April 4 to attend another march.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.A3)(http://tinyurl.com/atrl3z)
1968 Apr 3, Less than 24 hours
before he was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., civil rights leader
Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "mountaintop" speech to a rally of
striking sanitation workers, "It really doesn't matter with me now,
because I've been to the mountain top, and I don't mind."
(AP, 4/3/98)
1968 Apr 4, Civil rights leader
Martin Luther King, 39, was assassinated while standing on the balcony
of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. James Earl Ray (d.1998)
confessed and pleaded guilty in Mar, 1969, but later tried to recant
and said he was a fall guy. In 1993 Lloyd Jowers (d.2000), a Memphis
businessman, said on ABC-TV that he had hired King's killer as a favor
to an underworld figure who was a friend. Jowers said he received
$100,000 from Memphis produce merchant Frank Liberto to arrange King’s
murder. In 1997 Ray identified an arms smuggler named "Raoul" as the
real killer. In 1998 a former FBI agent produced documents from Ray’s
car with the name Raul. In 1999 a civil trial jury in Memphis ruled
that the 1968 killing of Rev. Martin Luther King was a conspiracy. The
jury concluded that Lloyd Jowers, a former café owner, had
conspired with elements of the Memphis Police Dept., the federal
government and organized crime to kill King. In 2000 a Justice Dept.
report rejected allegations of conspiracy. In 2002 Rev. Ronald Denton
Wilson (61) said that his father, Henry Clay Wilson (d.1990), had shot
King.
(SF E&C, 1/15/1995, A-15)(WUD, 1994,
p.1687)(SFC, 12/26/96, p.A3)(AP, 4/4/97)(SFC, 4/7/97, p.A10)(SFC,
3/25/98, p.A3)(SFC, 4/24/98, p.A1)(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.A12)(SFC,
11/23/99, p.A9)(SFC, 12/9/99, p.A1)(SFC, 12/10/99, p.A15)(SFC, 5/24/00,
p.C5)(SFC, 6/10/00, p.A3)(SFC, 4/4/02, p.A2)
1969 Mar 10, James Earl Ray
pleaded guilty to the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King in Memphis,
Tenn., and was sentenced to 99 years in jail. Ray later repudiated that
plea.
(AP, 3/10/98)(HN, 3/10/98)
1969 The Young America’s
Foundation was founded at Vanderbilt University to teach patriotism,
limited, government and other values espoused by later Pres. Ronald
Reagan. In 1998 the foundation purchased the 680-acre Reagan ranch
north of Santa Barbara.
(SFC, 4/21/98,
p.A3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_America%27s_Foundation)
1971 May 3, James Earl Ray
(1928-1998), Martin Luther King's assassin (1968), was caught in a jail
break attempt in Tennessee.
(HN,
5/3/98)(www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,915028,00.html)
1971 Stephen Gaskin (b.1935) and
some 300 hundred San Francisco hippies started the Tennessee rural
commune called The Farm. It was located on a 1,750 acre property in
Lewis County and based not on rules but on agreements.
(Wired, 5/97,
p.110)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Gaskin)
1971 The Country Music Wax Museum
opened in Nashville. It closed down in 1997.
(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.A4)
1972 In Knoxville the sale of
liquor by the glass was banned until this year.
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.A4)
1972 The Nashville Banner, owned
for over nine decades by the Stahlman family, was sold to Gannett.
(SFC, 2/17/98, p.A3)
1972 Occidental Minerals under
Armand Hammer bought zing-bearing property on the Caney Fork River in
Carthage. The property was sold to the Gore family a year later with a
$20,000 per year mineral royalty.
(WSJ, 6/29/00, p.A26)
1973 Feb 15, Friendsville Academy
in Tenn. ended a 138-game basketball losing streak.
(http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/jmoriello/2008/02/12/This_Week_in_History_Feb)
1974 Apr 3, A series of 148 deadly
tornadoes struck wide parts of the South and Midwest before jumping
across the border into Canada; some 330 people were killed in 13 states
(Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi,
North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West
Virginia. Total property damage was estimated at $600 million. In 2007
Mark Levine authored “F5: Devastation, Survival, and the Most Violent
Tornado Outbreak of the 20th Century.”
(AP, 4/3/99)(WSJ, 9/13/01, p.B11)(SSFC, 9/4/05,
p.A7)(WSJ, 6/16/07, p.P10)
1975 Feb 25, In Tennessee Marcia
Trimble (9) disappeared while delivering Girl Scout cookies in her
Nashville neighborhood. Her body was discovered on Easter Sunday and
evidence led police to believe that she had been sexually assaulted and
strangled to death. In 2009 Jerome Barrett (62) was convicted of
2nd-degree murder based on DNA testing. He was already serving a life
sentence for the 1975 rape and murder of a Vanderbilt Univ. student.
(SSFC, 7/19/09,
p.A13)(www.wsmv.com/news/14760190/detail.html)
1977 Jun 10, James Earl Ray, the
convicted assassin of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.,
escaped from Brushy Mountain State Prison in Tennessee with six others;
he was recaptured June 13.
(AP, 6/10/97)
1977 Jun 13, James Earl Ray, the
convicted assassin of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King
Junior, was recaptured following his escape three days earlier from a
Tennessee prison.
(AP, 6/13/00)
1977 Jun 26, 42 people were killed
when a fire sent toxic smoke pouring through the Maury County Jail in
Columbia, Tenn.
(AP, 6/26/97)
1977 Aug 16, Elvis Presley
(b.1935), The "King" of rock-n-roll, died in the upstairs bedroom suite
at Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tenn. of a drug overdose at 42. Elvis
died of heart failure after years of substance abuse. In 1994 Peter
Guralnick published "Last Train to Memphis," the first of a 2-part
biography on Elvis. In 1998 Guralnick published "Careless Love." More
than 150 books were in print on Elvis in 1997. In 1998 Ernest Jorgensen
published "Elvis Presley: A Life in Music. The Complete Recording
sessions."
(SFEC, 2/9/97, Par p.7)(SFEC, 8/3/97, DB p.33)(AP,
8/16/97)(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.D7)(WSJ, 1/7/98, p.W1)
1978
Jul 4, Memphis fire fighters halted 3-day strike
under a court order. At least 350 fires were reported during the
strike. The city police director charged that the strikers set almost
all of the fires, which broke out mostly in abandoned buildings.
(http://tinyurl.com/34xkkk)
1978 Oct 23, Maybelle Carter
(b.1909), Virginia-born country singer, died in Nashville, Tenn. She
was a member of the original Carter Family, which was formed in 1927 by
her brother-in-law, A. P. Carter, who was married to her cousin, Sara,
also a part of the trio.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maybelle_Carter)
1978 Dec 15, Aides of Tennessee
Gov. Ray Blanton (1930-1996) were charged with accepting money in
exchange for approving paroles. Two were convicted and sent to prison.
The scandal inspired a book, ''Marie: A True Story'' (1983) by Peter
Maas.
(SFC, 11/25/96,
p.A3)(http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=B049)
1979 The Nashville Banner was sold
by Gannett to 3 local businessmen after Gannett bought the Tennessean.
Irby C. Simpkins Jr. and Brownlee O. Currey bought out the 3rd partner
2 years later.
(SFC, 2/17/98, p.A3)
1979 Cary Ann Medlin (8) was
raped, sodomized and killed. Robert Glen Coe admitted the murder but
recanted before his 1981 trial. He was convicted and sentenced to
death. In 1999 and 2000 the state Supreme Court and a federal judge
issued a stay of execution. Coe was executed by injection on April 19,
2000.
(SFC, 10/12/99, p.A3)(SFC, 3/24/00, p.A5)(SFC,
4/20/00, p.A4)
1980 The state’s wine industry
began with the opening of Highland Manor.
(WSJ, 6/2/00, p.W1)
1981 Jun, Former Tennessee Gov.
Ray Blanton (1930-1996) was convicted of mail fraud, conspiracy, and
extortion for selling liquor licenses and served twenty-two months in a
federal penitentiary.
(http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=B049)
1981 Nov 5, Dr. George Nichopoulas
of Tennessee was acquitted of over prescribing addictive drugs for
Elvis Presley.
(http://tinyurl.com/397gkf)
1982 Apr 23, The Unabomber mailed
a pipe bomb from Provo, Utah, to Penn state Univ. It was forwarded to
Vanderbilt Univ. scientist Patrick C. Fisher. It was later attributed
to the Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski [see May 5].
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A3)(SFEC,11/9/97, Z1 p.4)
1982 May 1, The 1982 World's Fair
opened in Knoxville, Tenn.
(SFC, 6/9/97, p.A3)(AP, 5/1/07)
1982 May 5, Janet Smith, a
secretary, was injured when a bomb package was opened at Vanderbilt
Univ.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A3)(SFEC,11/9/97, Z1p.4)
1982 Jul 2, DeFord Bailey
(b.1899), harmonica wizard and star of the Grand Ole Opry, died. He was
the first black musician to join the Opry’s regular cast.
(AH, 10/07,
p.74)(www.pbs.org/deford/timeline/index.html)
1983 Feb 24, Tennessee Williams,
US playwright born as Thomas Lanier Williams (1911), died in NYC. He
left a $10 million estate to support his sister and directed that
anything left go to support aspiring writers at the Univ. of the South
of Sewanee. His plays included “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “The Rose
Tattoo” originally titled "The Eclipse of May 29, 1919." In 1995 Lyle
Leverich (d.1999 at 79) published "Tom: The Unknown Tennessee
Williams," a definitive work on the playwright's formative years.
(www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/dir/williams_tennessee/)(SFC,
12/25/99, p.B4)
1983 A Columbia Dam project along
the Duck River was scrapped over environmental concerns. In 2001 a
13,000-acre parcel was donated by the TVA to the state for public use.
(SFC, 8/15/01, p.A4)
1985 Jul 12, Lance Cpl. Suzanne
Marie Collins (b.1966) was raped, murdered and mutilated near the Naval
Air Station base at Millington, Tenn. Sedley Alley was convicted for
the murder in 1987 and sentenced to death. In 2006 Alley was executed
by lethal injected for the murder.
(SFC, 6/29/06,
p.A3)(www.answers.com/topic/suzanne-marie-collins)
1985 Jul 14, Carolyn Muncey’s
badly beaten body was found near her home in eastern Tennessee. Paul
House was convicted in 1986 and sentenced to die for the murder. In
2008 DNA evidence indicated he was not responsible for her sexual
assault and a federal judge ordered that he be quickly retried or
released.
(SFC, 5/29/08,
p.A2)(www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/10/60minutes/main660438.shtml)
1985 Johnny Russell (d.2001 at
61), songwriter, joined the Grand Ole Opry.
(SFC, 7/4/01, p.D4)
1986 Dollywood, a theme park owned
by country singer Dolly Parton, opened in Pigeon Forge.
(SFC, 6/9/97, p.A3)
1987 Aug 15, Thousands of people
marched past the grave of Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tenn., as they
began an all-night vigil marking the 10th anniversary of his death.
(AP, 8/15/97)
1988 Apr 21, Tennessee Sen. Al
Gore gave up his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination,
assuring supporters that "there will be other days for me and for the
causes that matter to us."
(AP, 4/21/98)
1988 Dec 6, Rock-and-roll pioneer
Roy Orbison died near Nashville, Tenn., at age 52.
(AP, 12/6/98)
1990 Jul 30, GM’s first Saturn car
rolled off the line at Spring Hill, Tennessee. In the fall, GM
introduced its all-new Saturn cars to compete against the imports in
the small car market. Roger Smith, GM’s CEO, announced the secret
Saturn project in 1985 in order to "leap-frog" the Japanese car makers.
(www.gm.com/company/corp_info/history/gmhis1990.html)
1990 Dec 11, In Chattanooga,
Ten.,12 died in a 99 vehicle accident on I-75 due to fog.
(www.southeastroads.com/i-075c_tn.html)
1991 Mar 23, In Tennessee 20
tornadoes killed 5 people.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1991 Dec 4, The Judds’ final
concert took place in Nashville.
(www.wynonna.com/?em653=22855_0__0_~0_-1_3_2006_0_0&content=judds)
1992 Nov 23, Roy Acuff (b.1903),
country music star, died in Nashville, Tenn., at age 89.
(AP, 11/23/97)
1992 Judge David Lanier was
convicted of violating the civil rights of 5 women at his courthouse in
Dyersburg. He began his prison sentence in 1993 but was set free by an
appeals court in 1995. In 1997 he fled to Mexico and was arrested after
two months in Mexico.
(SFC, 10/15/97, p.A6)
1992 Hospital Corporation of
America (HCA), founded by the Frist family and taken private in the
late 1980s, launched a public offering.
(WSJ, 6/27/05, p.A10)
1993 Jun 5, Country star Conway
Twitty (born as Harold Lloyd Jenkins) died in Springfield, Mo., at age
59. He was entombed in Gallatin, Tenn.
(AP, 6/5/98)(SSFC, 12/15/02, Par p.2)
1994 Nov 8, Bill Frist (b.1952),
M.D., was elected Senator from Tennessee. His family founded the HCA
hospital chain. In 1989 Frist authored “Transplant, A Heart Surgeon's
Account of the Life-And-Death Dramas of the New Medicine.”
(Econ, 4/30/05, p.32)(http://frist.senate.gov/)
1994 Nov 12, Wilma Rudolph,
Olympic gold medalist in track and field, died in Nashville, Tenn., at
age 54.
(AP, 11/12/99)
1994 Tennessee, facing a $250
million deficit in Medicaid administration, gave several managed-care
organizations the job of administering the program, TennCare. By the
end of 2004 costs rose to $8 billion.
(Econ, 1/22/05, p.33)
1995 Jan 8, The Inner City Church
in Knoxville, Tenn., burned down. Arson was suspected and
investigations by the FBI and ATF were later begun.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A16)
1995 Don Sundquist was inaugurated
as governor of Tennessee. He was re-elected in 1998.
(www.hermitage.com/tennpol.htm)
1995 Compass Records was founded
by banjo master Alison Brown and husband bassist Garry West. They
established a name recording contemporary folk artists.
(WSJ, 12/2/98, p.A20)
1995 Carol Buckley and Scott Blais
founded the Elephant Sanctuary on a 800-acre farm in Hohenwald, Tenn.
(SSFC, 2/24/02, Par p.14)
1996 Jan 29, A Navy F-14 fighter
jet crashed in Nashville, Tennessee, demolishing three houses and
killing five people.
(AP, 1/29/01)
1996 In Tennessee the Watts Bar
nuclear power plant came on line after 23 years of construction and a
cost of $6.9 billion.
(SFC, 5/5/07, p.A6)(Econ, 9/8/07, p.71)
1996 In Tennessee the US Dept. of
Energy began converting the K-25 building at Oak Ridge, which anchored
the world’s first full-scale uranium enrichment factory, into an
industrial park. By 2008 it was estimated that K-25 would be leveled by
late 2010, and the rest of the site finished by 2016 at a cost of $3
billion.
(WSJ, 6/2/08, p.A2)
1997 Mar 1, Severe storms hit
Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi, and spawned tornadoes in
Arkansas blamed for two dozen deaths.
(AP, 3/1/98)
1997 Aug 10, In Nashville a riot
erupted when a police officer killed a black murder suspect.
(WSJ, 8/11/97, p.A1)
1997 Dec 1, In Shelbyville Daryl
Keith Holton shot and killed his 3 sons and his ex-wife’s daughter
(ages 4-13), because he could not get custody. He turned himself in to
police.
(SFC, 12/2/97, p.A8)
xxxx "Marie, A True Story" by
Peter Maas told how Marie Ragghianti exposed the widespread sale of
pardons and paroles by the Tennessee office of the governor where she
worked.
(SFEC, 4/20/97, Par p.4)
1998 Feb 3, In Savannah a
helicopter used to install power lines struck a worker on a utility
pole and crashed. Three people were killed and 2 injured.
(SFC, 2/4/98, p.A3)
1998 Feb 20, The last edition of
the 122-year-old Nashville Banner was published due to dropping
circulation.
(SFC, 2/17/98, p.A3)
1998 Mar 29, The Lady Vols of
Tennessee won a third straight NCAA basketball championship, defeating
Louisiana Tech.
(AP, 3/29/99)
1998 Apr 6, Tammy Wynette (55),
country singer, died at her Nashville, Tenn., home. Her songs included
the 1968 hit "Stand by Your Man." In 2000 Jackie Daly authored the
biography "Tammy Wynette."
(SFC, 4/798, p.A7)(AP, 4/6/99)(WSJ, 6/2/00, p.W10)
1998 Apr 16, Tornadoes claimed 11
lives in Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky.
(SFC, 4/17/98, p.A1)(AP, 4/16/08)
1998 Apr 24, A 13-foot bronze
statue of Alex Haley (d.1992), the author of the 1976 Pulitzer Prize
book "Roots," was unveiled in Knoxville.
(SFC, 4/25/98, p.A3)
1998 May 19, In Fayetteville,
Tenn., an honor student (18) killed a classmate, who was dating his
ex-girlfriend. Jacob Davis was convicted in 1999 for the murder of
Nicholas Creson (18) and sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 4/21/99, p.A6)(SFC, 7/30/99, p.A9)
1998 Jul 14, Flash floods hit
Tennessee and Alabama and 2 people were reported killed. Meanwhile hot
weather in Texas was responsible for some 23 deaths where temperatures
hit over 100 for the last 26 days.
(SFC, 7/15/98, p.A3)
1998 Jul 19, Workers for Saturn
Corp., a division of GM in Tennessee, authorized union leaders to call
their first-ever strike.
(SFEC, 7/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 19, Tommy Burks, the
state incumbent Democrat Senator, was shot and killed at his 1,000 acre
hog farm near Monterey. His rival, Byron (Low Tax) Looper, was arrested
a week later for the killing. In 2000 Looper was found guilty and
sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 10/24/98, p.A1)(SFC, 8/24/00, p.A10)
1998 Oct 30, Four abortion clinics
in 3 states, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee, received letters claiming
to contain deadly anthrax bacteria. The letters were tested and found
to be free of anthrax.
(SFC, 10/31/98, p.A3)(SFEC, 11/1/98, p.A11)
1998 Nov 12, In McMinnville Warren
County High School was closed due to a gasoline-like smell that caused
some people to experience headaches. Over the next 2 days some 171
people went to the emergency room. In 2000 a medical report diagnosed
the event as a mass psychogenic illness.
(SFEC, 5/7/00, p.A30)
1998 Dec 5, Former Senator Albert
Gore Senior (90), father of the vice president, died at his home in
Carthage, Tenn.
(AP, 12/5/99)
1998 The Jugg Sisters, Sheri Lynn
Nichols and Brenda Kay Wilkins, began a Nashville tour bus operation
that focused on the underbelly of the city.
(SFEC, 1/2/00, p.T8)
1999 Jan 17, In Tennessee
tornadoes left 9 people dead and 100 injured with extensive damage in
28 counties.
(SFC, 1/18/99, p.A5)(WSJ, 1/19/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 22, More twisters hit the
South and 8 people were killed. The 100 year-old Quapaw district of
Little Rock was hit hard as was the historic district of Carksville,
Tenn.
(SFC, 1/23/99, p.A3)
1999 May 6, The storm in Oklahoma
that killed 41 people moved on to Tennessee and took killed 4 people.
(SFC, 5/7/99, p.A3)
1999 Popcorn Sutton (1946-2009),
Tennessee moonshiner, authored his autobigraphy “Me and My Likker.”
(WSJ, 3/20/09, p.A12)
2000 Jan 30, In Atlanta the St.
Louis Rams defeated the Tennessee Titans 23-16 in Super Bowl XXXIV.
(SFC, 1/31/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 4, Lynette Cole, Miss
Tennessee, won the Miss USA pageant.
(SFEC, 2/6/00, p.A4)
2000 Mar 8, In Memphis, Tenn., an
off-duty firefighter, Frederick Williams (41), shot and killed 2
firefighters and a sheriff's deputy. Letter carrier Stacey Williams
(32), Williams’ wife, was also found dead at the site where a fire was
started.
(SFC, 3/9/00, p.A3)(SFC, 3/10/00, p.D3)
2000 Apr 19, Robert Glen Coe,
convicted for the 1979 murder and rape of Cary Ann Medlin (8), was
executed by injection. This was the state’s first execution in 40 years.
(SFC, 10/12/99, p.A3)(SFC, 3/24/00, p.A5)(SFC,
4/20/00, p.A4)
2000 Apr 28, The Rock’n’Soul
Museum opened at the new Gibson Guitar plant in Memphis.
(SFC, 4/28/00, p.C10)
2001 Jun 30, Chet Atkins, a
guitarist who helped create the Nashville sound, died at age 77.
(WSJ, 7/2/01, p.A1)(SSFC, 7/1/01, p.A25)
2001 Aug 14, A 13,000-acre parcel
along the Duck River was donated by the TVA to the state for public
use. The Columbia Dam project on the land was scrapped in 1983 due to
environmental concerns.
(SFC, 8/15/01, p.A4)
2001 Aug 19, A Greyhound bus
enroute to Nashville flipped on I-24. One man was killed and 45 people
were injured.
(SFC, 8/20/01, p.A4)
2001 Oct 3, Near Manchester,
Tennessee, Damir Igric (29), a Croatian passenger on a Greyhound bus,
slit the throat of the bus driver and caused a roll over that killed 7
people including Igric.
(SFC, 10/4/01, p.C16)(AP, 10/4/06)
2001 The new $37 million,
130,000-sq.-foot Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum opened in
Nashville.
(WSJ, 7/13/01, p.W10)
2002 Mar 18, Flooding hit
Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia following a 2nd day of heavy rains.
(SFC, 3/19/02, p.A3)
2002 Apr 4, A driver and 4
children were killed when a day-care van veered from I-240 and struck a
utility pole.
(WSJ, 4/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 28, Storms hit the Ohio
and Tennessee valleys with tornadoes in Missouri and Maryland. At least
6 people were killed.
(SFC, 4/29/02, p.A3)(WSJ, 4/30/02, p.A1)(AP, 4/28/07)
2002 Jun, The Bonnaroo music
festival began in Manchester, Tennessee.
(Econ, 7/25/09, p.31)
2002 Jul 1, Tennesseans found
their government in a partial shutdown after lawmakers failed to pass a
balanced budget over the weekend in a stalemate over how to cover an
$800 million deficit.
(AP, 7/1/02)
2002 Jul 3, The Tennessee
Legislature passed a 1-cent sales tax increase, the highest in state
history, and ended a partial government shutdown.
(SFC, 7/4/02, p.A4)
2002 Sep 15, In Knoxville,
Tennessee, a Norfolk Southern train derailed near and one car with
93,000 pounds of sulfuric acid ruptured. The liquid acid vaporized
creating a toxic cloud.
(SFC, 9/16/02, p.A7)
2002 Nov 10, A series of
pulverizing storms barreled through more than a half-dozen US states
including Tennessee, Ohio, Alabama, Mississippi and Pennsylvania,
killing at least 36 people. More than 100 were injured.
(SFC, 11/12/02, p.A4)(AP, 11/10/07)
2002 Dec 20, Trent Lott (61) of
Mississippi stepped down as Senate Majority Leader and Sen. Bill Frist
(50), a Tennessee heart surgeon, was expected to replace him.
(SFC, 12/20/02, p.A3)(SFC, 12/21/02, p.A1)
2003 Jan 17, Gertrude Janeway
(93), the last known widow of a Union veteran from the Civil War, died
in Blaine, Tenn. She had married John Janeway in 1927 when he was 81
and she was barely 18.
(AP, 1/17/08)
2003 Feb 12, Kemmons Wilson (90),
founder of the Holiday Inn chain, died in Memphis, Tenn.
(WSJ, 2/13/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 22, Felice Bryant (77),
bluegrass song writer, died in Gatlinburg, Tenn.. She and her late
husband wrote such tunes as "Bye Bye Love" and other Everly Brothers
hits and "Rocky Top" (1968).
(SFC, 4/23/03, A21)(AP, 4/22/08)
2003 May 5, Tornadoes across
Missouri, Kansas and Tennessee left at least 40 people dead.
(SFC, 5/6/03, p.A3)
2003 Jul 30, Sam Phillips
(b.1923), founder of Sun Records (1952), died in Memphis. Phillips
produced Elvis Presley's 1st record.
(SFC, 8/1/03, p.A19)
2003 Sep 25, In Nashville, Tenn.,
8 people died in a nursing home fire.
(SFC, 9/27/03, p.A3)
2004 Jan 15, Tennessee Gov.
Bredesen told an economic development conference that he wants the
change the way workers' compensation is paid.
(USAT, 1/16/04, p.10A)
2004 Jan 20, Tennessee began its
state lottery, more than a year following voter approval.
(USAT, 1/20/04, p.3A)
2004 Dec 30, In Tennessee 2
couples were charged with defrauding Wal-Mart of $1.5 million in 19
states by switching UPC bar codes.
(SFC, 12/31/04, p.C3)
2004 Tennessee State Sen. John
Ford testified in a juvenile court hearing that he keeps two homes,
living with two different women whose children he fathered.
(AP, 1/24/05)
2005 Jan 7, In Cleveland, Tenn.,
Ray Marsh, former crematory operator, pleaded guilty to dumping 334
bodies and passing cement dust off as their remains. He was sentenced
to 12 years in prison.
(SFC, 1/8/05, p.A3)
2005 Mar 2, In Tennessee a school
bus driver was shot and killed by a 14-year old student, who was
recently disciplined by the driver for using snuff.
(WSJ, 3/3/05, p.A1)
2005 May 26, In Tennessee 4
lawmakers and a member of a powerful political family were indicted on
charges of taking bribes in a FBI sting dubbed “Tennessee Waltz.” State
Sen. John Ford had received payments totalling $55,000 and boasted to
undercover agents: “You are talking to the guy that makes the deals.”
(SFC, 5/27/05, p.A12)(Econ, 6/4/05, p.32)
2005 Aug 10, Tennessee prison
inmate George Hyatte and his wife, Jennifer, surrendered in Columbus,
Ohio, a day after she'd allegedly ambushed two prison guards at a
courthouse, killing one of them, to help her husband escape. Jennifer
Hyatte was later sentenced to life in prison by agreeing to testify
against her husband. George Hyatte, already facing 41 years of
incarceration, awaited trial in the murder of Wayne Morgan and escaping
jail.
(AP,
8/10/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_courthouse_shooting)
2005 Nov 8, In Jacksboro,
Tennessee, Ken Bartley Jr. (15) shot to death assistant principal Ken
Bruce and wounded 2 other school officials with a handgun at Campbell
County Comprehensive High School. On April 10, 2007, Bartley pleaded
guilty to one count of second-degree murder and two counts of attempted
second-degree murder, and was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
(AP,
11/9/05)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbell_County_High_School_(Tennessee))
2005 Nov 15, Nearly 3 dozen
tornadoes hit Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee destroying dozens of
homes and killing 2 people.
(SFC, 11/17/05, p.A14)
2005 Nov 18, A federal jury in
Tennessee held that Nicolas Carranza (72), a former Salvadoran colonel,
was responsible for murder and torture during the 1980s civil war in El
Salvador and ordered him to pay $6 million in damages to his accusers.
(SFC, 11/19/05, p.A5)
2006 Feb 24, Tennessee stopped
issuing driving certificates to illegal immigrants after finding the
program invited fraud and bribes.
(WSJ, 2/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 11, Rural house fires in
Tennessee and Indiana killed 15 members of two families, and most of
the victims were children.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 22, In Tennessee, Matthew
Winkler (31), a minister at Selmer's Church of Christ, was found dead
in the parsonage after he missed an evening service and church members
went searching for him. On March 24 Tennessee authorities said they
would charge Mary Winkler, the minister's wife with first-degree
murder. In 2007 Mary Winkler was sentenced to 3 years in prison. She
had testified that her husband abused her physically and emotionally.
(AP, 3/24/06)(AP, 6/9/07)
2006 Mar 24, In Selmer, Tenn.,
Mary Winkler was charged with shooting to death her minister husband,
Matthew Winkler, in the parsonage of their church. In 2007 Mary
Winkler was convicted of voluntary manslaughter.
(AP,
3/24/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Winkler)
2006 Apr 2, Thunderstorms packing
tornadoes and hail as big as softballs ripped through eight US states,
killing at least 27 people. Tennessee was hit hardest, with tornadoes
striking five western counties and killing 23 people, including an
infant. Severe thunderstorms, many producing tornadoes, also struck
parts of Iowa, Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, Ohio, Illinois and
Indiana. Strong wind was blamed or at least three deaths in Missouri.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 7, In Tennessee 10 people
were killed as tornadoes hit the area for the 2nd time in a week.
(AP, 4/8/06)
2006 Apr 13, In Tennessee’s
Cherokee National Forest a black bear killed a 6-year-old girl and
critically injured her mother and 2-year-old brother.
(AP, 4/14/06)
2006 May 11, In Kingston, Tenn.,
deputy Bill Jones and a friend were shot and killed as they served
felony warrants alleging aggravated assault. Jones was shot 33 times by
two brothers at a rural farmhouse. Leon Houston (47) and his brother,
Rocky Houston (46), were accused of shooting Jones and Mike Brown.
Court records show the brothers had filed at least 15 federal lawsuits
since 1991 against federal and state judges, police officers, clerks,
attorneys and companies. Each petition claimed their civil rights were
violated while trying to expose government fraud. All were dismissed.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 Jun 8, A jury in Memphis,
Tenn., convicted former state Sen. Roscoe Dixon for his role in the
Tennessee Waltz bribery sting. He was convicted on all five counts,
which centered on accepting $9,500 in bribe money to influence
legislation that would have been beneficial to E-Cycle Management Inc.,
a fake company the FBI created to orchestrate the Waltz sting.
(http://tinyurl.com/kt8od)(WSJ, 6/9/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 24, HCA Inc., the largest
US for-profit hospital operator, has agreed to be purchased by a group
of investors for about $21.3 billion plus the assumption of $11.7
billion in debt. Shareholders of the Nashville-based company, which was
founded by the family of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, will
receive $51 in cash for each share of common stock.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2007 Jan 6, The body of Calvin
Jenks (24), a Tennessee state trooper, was found beside his patrol car
near the intersection of state highways 14 and 54. He was shot during a
traffic stop. The next day police arrested two people they believed
were responsible for the killing.
(AP, 1/7/07)
2007 Jan 6, In Knoxville, Tenn.,
Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom were last seen as they left a
friend’s apartment. Newsom’s shot and burned body was found the next
day along some railroad tracks. Christian’s body was discovered 2 days
later in a trash can at a house rented by one of the suspects. Both had
been sexually assaulted. 4 black suspects and an accessory faced murder
trials.
(SFC, 5/19/07, p.A4)
2007 Mar 23, Rachel Smith of
Tennessee bested 50 other aspiring beauty queens to win the title of
Miss USA.
(AP, 3/24/07)
2007 Apr 3, After a nine-year
title drought, Tennessee's Lady Vols basketball team captured a seventh
national title, beating Rutgers 59-46.
(AP, 4/3/08)
2007 Apr 19, A jury in Selmer,
Tenn., convicted Mary Winkler of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting
death of her preacher-husband, Matthew. Winkler spent seven months in
custody, with two months served in a mental facility.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2007 Jun 8, Mary Winkler, who'd
killed her preacher husband with a shotgun blast to the back as he lay
in bed, was sentenced in Selmer, Tenn., to three years in prison. She
ended up serving 67 days in custody, 12 in jail and the rest in a
mental health facility.
(AP, 6/9/08)
2007 Jun 16, In Selmer, Tenn., a
drag-racing car lost control during a parade and careened into a crowd,
killing 6 people and injuring up to 15 others. In 2008 an indictment
was unsealed charging Troy Critchley (38) with 6 counts of vehicular
homicide and 22 counts of reckless aggravated assault.
(AP, 6/17/07)(SFC, 3/21/08, p.A4)
2007 Jul 10, It was reported that
more than 500 Tennessee streams are polluted with E. coli bacteria,
according to information from the Tennessee Department of Environment
and Conservation.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Sep 1, In eastern Tennessee a
small plane carrying 5 Jehovah’s Witness ministers crashed in the
Cherokee National Forest killing all 5 aboard.
(SFC, 9/3/07, p.A3)
2007 Sep 5, Fred Thompson
(b.1942), former Tennessee Senator (1994-2002) as well as film and TV
character actor, announced himself as a formal Republican candidate for
the US presidency on the Jay Leno show. Thompson quit the race on Jan
22, 2008.
(SFC, 9/6/07,
p.A4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Thompson)(SFC, 1/23/08, p.A11)
2007 Sep 30, Taylor Bradford (21),
a University of Memphis football player, was fatally shot on campus in
what was believed to be a targeted attack. Classes for the next day
were canceled as a precaution.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Nov 7, Kenny Chesney won as
entertainer of the year and Carrie Underwood won as best female
vocalist at the annual Country Music Association Awards in Nashville.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.A2)
2008 Feb 5, Storms swept across
southeast US as Super Tuesday primaries were ending. At least 31 people
were killed in Tennessee, 13 in Arkansas, 7 in Kentucky and four in
Alabama. It was one of the 15 worst tornado death tolls since 1950, and
the nation's deadliest barrage of tornadoes since 76 people were killed
in Pennsylvania and Ohio on May 31, 1985. The death toll rose to 59.
(AP, 2/6/08)(AP, 2/7/08)(WSJ, 2/8/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 3, In Memphis, Tennessee,
police found 6 bodies, including 2 men, 2 women and 2 boys, and 3
seriously wounded children, aged 1-12, in the Binghampton neighborhood.
Jessie L. Dotson (33), the brother of one of the dead men and a
convicted killer recently released from prison, was arrested March 7.
(SFC, 3/5/08, p.A5)(AP, 3/9/08)
2008 Jul 27, In Knoxville,
Tennessee, Jim D. Adkisson (58) entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian
Universalist Church during a children's performance and killed 2
people. In 2009 Adkisson pleaded guilty to killing 2 people and
wounding 6 others because he hated the church’s liberal politics.
(AP, 7/28/08)(SFC, 7/28/08, p.A2)(SFC, 2/10/09, p.A7)
2008 Oct 22, Sheriffs' deputies in
Crockett County, Tenn., arrested two suspects, Daniel Cowart (20) of
Bells, Tenn., and Paul Schlesselman (18) of Helena-West Helena, Ark.,
on unspecified charges. On Oct 27 federal authorities charged the 2
white supremacists for allegedly plotting to go on a national killing
spree, shooting and decapitating black people and ultimately targeting
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
(AP, 10/28/08)
2008 Oct 24, In Tennessee a sport
utility vehicle carrying 4 cheerleaders collided with an oncoming car
on a wet, foggy highway in Scott County, northwest of Knoxville. 3
cheerleaders were killed and a 4th died the next day. A passenger in
the car also was killed.
(AP, 10/26/08)
2008 Nov 4, In Tennessee John
McCain beat Barack Obama by 15 points. Republicans held their 4 US
House seats and took control of both chambers of the state legislature
for the first time since Reconstruction.
(WSJ, 11/22/08, p.A2)
2008 Dec 22, In Tennessee a dam
broke at the Kingston Fossil Plant spilling some 5.4 million cubic
yards of toxic coal ash sludge near the Emory River. TVA officials
later said the spill does not threaten water in the Tennessee River,
which is fed in part by the Emory River. On Jan 2 federal data showed
arsenic levels over 100 times the acceptable amount in the Emory River.
In February the TVA estimated cleanup costs of up to $825 million. In
May the estimate for cleanup was raised to $975 million.
(SFC, 12/25/08, p.A6)(WSJ, 12/26/08, p.A2)(SFC,
12/27/08, p.A2)(SFC, 1/3/09, p.A3)(WSJ, 2/13/09, p.A1)(SFC, 5/2/09,
p.A4)
2009 Feb 4, Dr. Randeep Mann
allegedly bombed the car of Dr. Trent Pierce, the chairman of the
Tennessee state medical board, in revenge for punishment after 10 of
Mann’s patients fatally overdosed on drugs he had prescribed. Pierce
lost an eye and was severely burned.
(http://a11news.com/1760/dr-randeep-mann-is-car-bomb-suspect/)(SFC,
1/7/10, p.A4)
2009 Jan 9, Jon Hager (67), who
performed in the musical comedy duo The Hager Twins on "Hee-Haw," died
in Nashville. His brother Jim died in May, 2008. The syndicated TV
show, which debuted in 1969, satirized country life with a mixture of
music and comedy.
(AP, 1/10/09)
2009 Apr 10, Areas of Tennessee
were hit by a savage line of storms that wrecked homes, killed a mother
and her baby and injured dozens of others.
(AP, 4/11/09)
2009 Jun 4, In Tennessee handguns
will soon be allowed in bars and restaurants under a new law passed by
state legislators who voted to override Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen's
veto. The legislation takes effect July 14 and retains an existing ban
on consuming alcohol while carrying a handgun. Restaurant owners can
still opt to ban weapons from their establishments.
(AP, 6/5/09)
2009 Jul 4, In Tennessee Steve
McNair (36), a four-time Pro Bowl selection, was found dead with
multiple gunshot wounds on a sofa in his Nashville condominium living
room. Sahel Kazemi, (20), discovered near him, was killed by a single
gunshot wound. McNair was married with four children.
(AP, 7/5/09)
2009 Jul 18, In southern Tennessee
5 people were found dead in two neighboring rural homes near
Fayetteville, and a sixth body was discovered at a business about 30
miles away in Huntsville, Ala. Jacob Shaffer (30) of Fayetteville was
charged later that day with homicide.
(AP, 7/19/09)
2009 Jul 28, Tennessee state Sen.
Paul Stanley (47) resigned in Nashville after his extramarital affair
with an intern (22) was revealed by an investigation into an extortion
case. McKensie Morrison’s boyfriend was charged with trying to extort
$10,000 from the GOP lawmaker.
(SFC, 7/29/09, p.A6)
2009 Sep 7, In Tennessee 3 people
were shot to death at a mobile home near Lafayette.
(SFC, 9/8/09, p.A6)
2009 Nov 20, A US judge blocked a
Tennessee law that allowed people to bring handguns into restaurants
and bars.
(Reuters, 11/23/09)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Tennessee
End of file.