Today in History for July 11, 2014

First edition cover of "TKAM"

July 11, 1804 – Vice President Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton during a duel outside Weehawken, N.J. Burr would be arrested in 1807 at McIntosh Bluff, which was then a part of the Mississippi Territory, but in present-day Washington County, Ala. 

July 11, 1831 – The federal government granted an 80-acre tract of land to Monroe County Probate Judge Henry W. Taylor for a town to be established at the Crossroads. Monroeville’s present-day town square rests in about the center of this original land grant.

July 11, 1861 - Union troops under General George B. McClellan score another major victory in the struggle for western Virginia at the Battle of Rich Mountain.

July 11, 1914 - In his major league debut, George Herman "Babe" Ruth pitches seven strong innings to lead the Boston Red Sox over the Cleveland Indians, 4-3.

July 11, 1930 - The thermometer at the Evergreen weather observation station registered high mark of 107.5 degrees on both July 11 and July 12, 1930.

July 11, 1947 – Forty-one men were formally inducted into the Monroeville Kiwanis Club on its first ever Charter Night nearly two months after the club was formed.

July 11, 1960 – J.B. Lippincott & Co. published the first edition of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”

July 11, 1979 - The American space laboratory Skylab tumbled down to Earth, scattering debris over the Indian Ocean and sparsely populated Western Australia.