Today in History for March 25, 2015

Baseball Hall of Famer Eddie Collins

March 25, 1306 – Robert the Bruce became king of Scotland.

March 25, 1558 – French friar and explorer Marcos de Niza passed away around age 63 in Mexico.

March 25, 1584 – Sir Walter Raleigh was granted a patent to colonize Virginia.

March 25, 1609 - Henry Hudson left on an exploration for the Dutch East India Co.

March 25, 1634 – The first settlers arrived in Maryland, which Lord Baltimore founded as a Catholic colony.

March 25, 1655 - Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens discovered Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. In recent years, the orange moon has been found to have lakes of hydrocarbons.

March 25, 1774 - The British Parliament passed the Boston Port Act. The act closed the port of Boston and demanded funds to pay for the tea that had been dumped into Boston Harbor during the Boston Tea Party on Dec. 16, 1773.

March 25, 1776 - The Continental Congress authorized a medal for General George Washington.

March 25, 1807 – The Slave Trade Act, which was passed by the British Parliament, became law, abolishing the slave trade in the British Empire.

March 25, 1811 – The Great Comet of 1811 was discovered by Honoré Flaugergues at 2.7 AU from the sun in the now-defunct constellation of Argo Navis. After being obscured for several days by moonlight, it was also found by Jean-Louis Pons on April 11, while Franz Xaver, Baron Von Zach was able to confirm Flaugergues' discovery the same night.

March 25, 1863 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought at Florence, Ala.

March 25, 1865 – Spurling’s Raid into Conecuh County, Ala. ended as his troops moved through Brooklyn and on to Pollard.

March 25, 1865 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought on Deer Park Road, Ala. A community named Deer Park is shown as being located in the general area of Montrose, Ala. on a period map.

March 25, 1865 – During the Civil War, there were skirmishes at the following Florida locations: Canoe Creek (or Bluff Springs,) Escambia River and Mitchell’s Creek. Canoe Creek and Mitchell’s Creek are tributaries of the Escambia River. These two creeks join the Escambia River just south of the community of Bluff Springs, Fla. This is closer to Pollard, Ala. than it is to Pensacola, Fla.

March 25, 1865 – One of two Federal columns directly involved in the Mobile Campaign came ashore on the Fish River in the Bon Secour area, off the eastern shore of Mobile Bay in boggy ground.

March 25, 1865 – The Civil War Siege of Petersburg, Va., which began on June 9, 1864, ended. 3rd Sgt. Louis Stahl of Conecuh Guards was wounded (Oct. 1864) at Petersburg, Va. (arm resected), and he survived war and moved to Marlin, Texas. Lewis Lavon Peacock also claimed to have been wounded at Petersburg. William Haskins of Conecuh Guards was killed at Petersburg.

March 25, 1865 - During the Civil War, Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia enacted its last offensive by attacking Fort Stedman in Petersburg, Virginia, in a desperate attempt to split the Union lines so Lee’s Army could break out of Petersburg. The attack failed, and within a week Lee was evacuating his positions around Petersburg.

March 25, 1905 - Rebel battle flags that were captured during the American Civil War were returned to the South.

March 25, 1914 - Agricultural scientist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug was born in Cresco, Iowa.

March 25, 1916 - Ishi, the last surviving member of the Yahi tribe of American Indians, died from tuberculosis.

March 25, 1921 - Alabama author Max Weatherly is born in Alco, La.

March 25, 1925 - Novelist and short-story writer Flannery O’Connor was born Mary Flannery O’Connor in Savannah, Georgia. Her first novel was “Wise Blood” (1952).

March 25, 1925 – In Lovecraftian fiction, a group of sailors had the misfortune to land up the island of R’lyeh and encountered Cthulhu itself.

March 25, 1930 – John Keel, the author of “The Mothman Prophecies,” was born in Hornell, N.Y.

March 25, 1931 - Nine black youths, soon to be known as the Scottsboro Boys, were arrested in Paint Rock, Ala. and jailed in Scottsboro, the Jackson County seat. Charged with raping two white women on a freight train from Chattanooga, the sheriff had to protect them from mob violence that night. Within a month, eight of the nine were sentenced to death. Based on questionable evidence, the convictions by an all-white jury generated international outrage.

March 25, 1932 - The Supreme Court handed down its decision in the case of Powell v. Alabama. The case arose out of the infamous Scottsboro case. Nine young black men were arrested and accused of raping two white women on train in Alabama. The boys were fortunate to barely escaped a lynch mob sent to kill them, but were railroaded into convictions and death sentences. The Supreme Court overturned the convictions on the basis that they did not have effective representation.

March 25, 1934 - Feminist writer and activist Gloria Steinem was born in Toledo, Ohio.

March 25, 1936 – Confederate soldier Arthur B. Hale, who served with Co. F of the 36th Alabama Infantry, passed away at the age of 96. He is buried in the Pleasant Hill Baptist Church Cemetery off Shiloh Road in Monroe County.

March 25, 1951 – Baseball Hall of Fame second baseman Eddie Collins passed away at the age of 63 in Boston, Mass. During his career, he played for the Philadelphia Athletics and the Chicago White Sox. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1939.

March 25, 1954 – The Evergreen Courant reported that the Conecuh County Training School girls basketball team improved to 39-0 by beating Westfield High School of Birmingham, 34-25, in the state basketball finals at Alabama State College in Montgomery. Mike Cheatham was CCTS’s head coach. Clementine Dukes, Ellen Stallworth, Etta Avant and Betty Jones were selected on the All State Girls Basketball Team.

March 25, 1954 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Alabama Public Service Commission had granted the L&N Railroad Co. permission to retire and dismantle its combination passenger and freight station building at Deer Range in Conecuh County, Ala.

March 25, 1957 – United States Customs seized copies of Allen Ginsberg's poem “Howl” on obscenity grounds.

March 25, 1965 – Civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King Jr. successfully completed their 4-day 50-mile march from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama.

March 25, 1966 – Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Glavine was born in Concord, Mass. He would go on to play for the Atlanta Braves and the New York Mets. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014.

March 25, 1971 - The Boston Patriots became the New England Patriots.

March 25, 1976 – White Columns (Tait-Starr Plantation) near Camden, Ala. was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage.

March 25, 1980 – In Lovecraftian fiction, the Wilmarth Foundation instituted Project Cthylla.

March 25, 1982 – St. Luke’s Episcopal Church at Cahaba, Ala. was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

March 25, 2004 – The Milner-Boone House in Georgiana, Ala. was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage.

March 25, 2005 – The Coleman-Crenshaw House near Greenville, Ala. was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and History.

March 25, 2006 - Shortly before leaving the Natalee Holloway disappearance case, Police Commissioner Gerald Dompig gave an interview to CBS correspondent Troy Roberts, which was broadcast on this day. In that interview, Dompig stated that he believes Holloway probably died from self-consumed alcohol and/or drug poisoning, was not murdered, and that someone later hid her body.