APRIL 16 — 1865 Battle of Columbus; 1869 Bassett represents U.S. in Haiti; 1883 Dodge City War; 1972 Chinese pandas come to U.S. zoo; 1986 Howard Stern breaks decency rules; 1996 Kiss announces reunion, tour
APRIL 16
1865-The Battle of Columbus,
…named the last battle of the civil war by the Georgia state government. There was also the Battle of Palmito Ranch in Texas, but that was way after the Confederacy dissolved. The Battle, also known as Wilson’s Raid and the Battle of Girard, Alabama, which is now Phoenix City was led by Union General James H. Wilson and was, as you can imagine being the last battle, a Union victory.
1869 – Ebenezer Bassett goes to Haiti.
He was our first African-American ambassador! He was an educator, abolitionist, and civil rights activist and went to Haiti to deal with the Black Republic. Haiti had undergone eight years or bloody civil war and a number of coup d’etat, so Bassett had a most difficult mission.
1883 – Dodge City War.
There were several Dodge City Wars, but this was one of the better ones. The Wickedest City in America, as it was called, was the most dangerous city in the land since its very beginning. The Dodge Cityu Gang had dominated law enforcement and monopolized the whiskey trade. Bat Masterson was involved.
Bat, who started out as a buffalo hunter, had his first gunfight in 1876 in Wheeler County, TX, over a girl named Mollie Brennan. If you’ve ever seen the Masterson TV series starring Gene Barry, this was supposedly how Bat got injured and needed a cane for the rest of his life. Not sure if that’s a real story or not, but that’s how the TV show put it.
Getting back to Dodge. Bat, who at the time served as a deputy for Wyatt Earp in Tombstone AZ, was summoned through an unsigned telegram to Dodge City. Apparently his brother Jim was having some real trouble with a couple of the town drunks. Bat made his way there as quickly as it could and confronted the two men threatening Jim, Bullets flew everywhere and amazingly no one was hurt. April 16th was Bat’s last shootout. Later on in his life, President Teddy Roosevelt appointed Bat as US marshal for the southern district of New York, and in 1921 he quietly died of a heart attack.
1972-Ling Ling and Hsing Hsing come to America from China. Two giant pandas! China in return got a pair of musk oxen from the U.S. The bears went on display at the National Zoo, and LingLing had a fatal heart attack in December 1992. Hsing Hsing finally had to be euthanized due to painful kidney failure in 1999.
Very sad.
1986 Shock Jock Howard Stern gets warned by the FCC. The complaint read that his broadcast “did not merely consist of an occasional off-color reference or expletive, but…a dwelling on sexual and excretory matters in a way that was patently offensive” You mean the FCC didn’t think the Butt Bongo Fiesta was funny?
Guess not. BABABOOEY!
1996- Kiss gets back together with all original members for the first time in 15 years in full makeup at the 38th Grammy Awards and announced a reunion tour.