Simon Bolivar Buckner (1823–1914) was a soldier in the Mexican–American War and a Confederate lieutenant general in the American Civil War. He graduated from West Point and taught there for five years, with an interlude during the Mexican–American War. He left the army in 1855 to manage real estate he inherited in Chicago. In 1857, he returned to his native state (Kentucky) and was appointed adjutant general by Governor Beriah Magoffin. He attempted to enforce Kentucky's neutrality policy during the early days of the Civil War, but enlisted in the Confederate Army in September 1861. He was the first Confederate general to surrender an army, doing so at the Battle of Fort Donelson in 1862. He also participated in Braxton Bragg's failed attempt to invade Kentucky. On August 30, 1887, he was inaugurated governor of Kentucky. As governor, he worked to suppress the Hatfield-McCoy feud and the Rowan County War and ordered an audit that prompted state treasurer James W. Tate to abscond with $250,000 from the state treasury. He unsuccessfully sought a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1895 and the U.S. Vice-Presidency in 1896.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_B._Buckner
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1799:
Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland: A squadron of the navy of the Batavian Republic surrendered to the Royal Navy without a fight near Wieringen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlieter_Incident
1836:
Real estate entrepreneurs John Kirby Allen and Augustus Chapman Allen founded the city of Houston on land near the banks of Buffalo Bayou in present-day Texas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston
1896:
Philippine Revolution: In the Battle of San Juan del Monte, the first real battle of the war, a Katipunan force temporarily captured a powder magazine before being beaten back by a Spanish garrison. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_San_Juan_del_Monte
1942:
Second World War: Erwin Rommel launched the last major Axis offensive of the Western Desert Campaign, attacking the British Eighth Army position near El Alamein, Egypt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Alam_el_Halfa
1984:
Space Shuttle Discovery took off on its maiden voyage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Discovery
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
leech: 1. (transitive) To apply a leech medicinally, so that it sucks blood from the patient. 2. (transitive) To drain (resources) without giving back. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/leech
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy, and when wrenched by misery to vice and hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change without torture such as you cannot even imagine. --Mary Shelley https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mary_Shelley
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