John Ballance, current Bienville Parish Sheriff, has both the desire and experience to continue to lead and protect the residents as your Sheriff.
“I consider it an honor and privilege to have served the citizens of Bienville Parish for the past 23 years,” said Ballance. “Under my leadership we have assembled one of the finest group of men and women who possess servant hearts and provide top quality law enforcement to best protect and serve our citizens.”
John has protected the residents of Bienville Parish as Sheriff since 2000. He was raised in Arcadia and at a very young age he became intrigued with law enforcement and knew he wanted to help people. Before serving as Sheriff, he worked for the Louisiana State Police for 22 years. John attended University of Louisiana Monroe where he graduated in Criminal Justice.
He believes in doing the right thing all the time and has instilled these values in his staff and Deputies. In his spare time, John enjoys spending time with his family, gardening, fishing and hunting.
According to the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer, we have seen a rise in crime rates across the country since 2019, but Bienville Parish has seen a decrease in crime rates during that same period. Sheriff Ballance believes this is due to maintaining a strong patrol presence coupled with proactive policing efforts.
“I have a strong desire to serve you, the citizens of Bienville Parish, and I pray that you will allow me the opportunity to continue to serve as your sheriff,” Ballance said. “May God continue to bless America, the State of Louisiana and Bienville Parish.”
In the upcoming weeks he will be publishing the many accomplishments, improvements and programs the department has made during his time as Sheriff to his campaign facebook page https://www.facebook.com/JohnBallanceforSheriff.
Eddie and Rachel Vise of Castor, La. are pleased to announce the engagement of their daughter, Kendall Vise, to Cade Young, son of Preston and Mandy Young, also of Castor, La.
Both Kendall and Cade are graduates of Castor High School. They are members of First Baptist of Castor where Cade’s father, Preston Young, is the preacher.
The wedding is set for November 4 at 4 p.m. and to take place on private land in Athens, La.
I am excited to formally announce my candidacy for the position of Bienville Parish Tax Assessor.
For the past six years, I have been employed in the Assessor’s Office where I have become a Certified Louisiana Deputy Assessor. During this time, I have developed an understanding of the technology used in the Assessor’s office and the offices we partner with. I strongly believe that maintaining those partnerships is vital in continuing to effectively perform the duties expected from the Bienville Parish Tax Assessor.
I am a lifelong resident of Arcadia and would love the chance to continue to serve the residents of Bienville Parish. Through my membership of First Baptist Church of Arcadia and my job as a Deputy Assessor, I have formed many valuable relationships. I look forward to forming many more throughout the parish through this campaign. After graduating from the University of Louisiana Monroe in 2021, I felt the desire to turn my part-time job in the parish into a full-time career serving the people of Bienville Parish.
It is my hope you will consider me during the upcoming election, and I appreciate this opportunity to share a little bit about my life. Thank you and God bless.
Members of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame’s Class of 2020 gathered with previously-inducted members on stage. This Legends Lineup concludes each year’s induction ceremony.
There are football legends, a women’s basketball great, four baseball icons, a two-time USA Olympian, a world-renowned (now elderly) weightlifting champion with an inspiring and patriotic life story, and five LSU Tigers.
They – and a fun-filled slate of events — are among the reasons to be in Natchitoches next Thursday, July 27 through Saturday, July 29, to enjoy the 2023 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Induction Celebration.
There are three free events, and four others which require admission charges. Only the grand finale, the Saturday evening, June 29 Induction Reception and Ceremony presented by State Farm Agents of Louisiana, is a dress up affair.
Two – the Friday Bowling Bash presented by BOM, in Alexandria at Four Seasons Bowling Center, and the Saturday morning New Orleans Saints and Pelicans Junior Training Camp on the Northwestern State campus – are activity filled.
Another – the Friday night Rockin’ River Fest Concert featuring Rockin’ Dopsie and The Zydeco Twisters, and rising country artist Jason Ashley, along with a 10-minute fireworks show over Cane River – is activity optional, dancing encouraged.
Tickets for the Bowling Bash, the Friday night VIP Taste of Tailgating party, the Saturday noon Round Table Luncheon, and the big finale, the Induction Reception and Ceremony, are available at LaSportsHall.com or by calling 318-238-4255.
Advance registration at LaSportsHall.com for kids 7-17 is required for the free Junior Training Camp, which will feature many of the 2023 inductees participating as coaches in football and basketball.
Two-time Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning (from New Orleans) joins four-time WNBA All-Star Alana Beard (a Shreveport native) and College World Series champion LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri in a star-studded 12-member induction class.
The LSHOF Class of 2023 also includes New Orleans native Ron Washington, who managed the Texas Rangers to a pair of World Series appearances and in 2021 helped the Atlanta Braves win the world’s championship; two-time LSU track and field USA Olympian and world champion Walter Davis; and Slidell native, Tulane great and Chicago Bears two-time Pro Bowl running back Matt Forte.
Also elected for induction are All-American LSU pitcher Paul Byrd, a 14-year Major League Baseball veteran who made the 1999 All-Star Game; Shreveport native Wendell Davis, who shattered LSU football receiving records before heading to the NFL; multiple national champion and world class weightlifter Walter Imahara, a UL-Lafayette legend; and retired Baton Rouge-Parkview Baptist baseball coach M.L. Woodruff, whose teams claimed 11 state championships.
Two south Louisiana sports journalists, Bruce Brown of Lafayette and longtime New Orleans Times-Picayune high school reporter Lori Lyons, will also be honored.
The LSHOF’s Class of 2023 will be enshrined Saturday, July 29, at the Hall of Fame’s home in Natchitoches to culminate the 64th Induction Celebration.
The Thursday reception, the Friday evening River Fest and the Junior Training Camp are free. As noted above, camp participants must register online in advance.
The 2023 Induction Celebration will be hosted by the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Foundation, the support organization for the Hall of Fame. The LSHOF Foundation was established as a 501 c 3 non-profit entity in 1975 and is governed by a statewide board of directors.
For information on sponsorship opportunities and other participation, contact Foundation President/CEO Ronnie Rantz at 225-802-6040 or RonnieRantz@LaSportsHall.com, or Greg Burke, Director of Business Development and Public Relations, at 318-663-5459 or GregBurke@LaSportsHall.com .
The Louisiana Gumbo Cook-Off is returning to the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival on Saturday July 22, in air-conditioned Prather Coliseum located at 220 South Jefferson Street on the Northwestern State University campus in Natchitoches. In honor of this year’s festival theme, Celebrating Louisiana’s Cultural Gumbo, the festival will see the long-awaited return of the Gumbo Cookoff, in which professionals and hobbyists alike can compete in any of three categories and demonstrate their cooking skills.
Registration and the Cooks’ Meeting will take place at 8:00 am. Tasting and judging will begin at 12:30 pm with winners be announced at 2:30 pm. There is no fee to compete in the Cookoff. Gumbo must be cooked on-site outside of Prather Coliseum.
The Gumbo Cook-Off is the Louisiana Folklife Center’s way of celebrating the state’s unique and storied foodways, as well as the rich culture behind the cooking of gumbo. The ways of preparing gumbo and the ingredients used are as varied as the people who cook it, so there is no better way to embody this year’s festival theme of Celebrating Louisiana’s Cultural Gumbo.
Don’t forget – July 26, 27, & 28 will be Awards Day at your neighborhood Bienville Parish Library. We’ll select the top readers from each participating age group, and the top reader from each library branch! The trophy will go to the top systemwide reader – who will it be? Be sure to attend the Awards Day Ceremony at your neighborhood Bienville Parish Library!
CHECKLIST OF THINGS TO REMEMBER!
1) Make sure your name is on your reading log.
2) Are all your books/pages listed on your log? We’ll be tallying up the number of books/pages and awards for the TOP READER in each library branch will be selected and the TOP READER in Bienville Parish will receive a special prize for your achievement!
3) If you’ve been keeping track of AR points, be sure to notate your points and total up how many points you’ve collected during the Summer.
DON’T FORGET TO SNAG ALL YOUR BRAG TAGS!
This reading incentive motivates your reader to read and collect all ten tags. It will impress teachers with how many books/pages they read during their summer vacation! While you’re collecting all ten brag tags, don’t forget to collect AR points. When you head back to school, you can show teachers that you’re ready for the new school year!
Also, check out the last Summer Reading Program event happening today!
You can catch M.L. Tarpley at the Castor Event Center at 10 a.m. or the Saline Branch at 2 p.m. This performance is an interactive show where kids think like an author and write a story LIVE! Some will even get to act in it!
The weather has started to heat up here in the middle of July and for the bass fisherman, he knows that some of the day’s most exciting and often best action occurs at the break of day.vThere is something about being on the water this time of year while all is quiet with a growing glow in the east as he casts a topwater lure next to the trunk of a cypress or willow.
When the twitch of the lure results in an explosive strike, it just about doesn’t get any better than this. Once the day brightens, the early morning action usually slows and the average bass angler heads home for the air conditioning once old Sol peaks over the cypresses.
For anglers who want to extend their bass fishing experience longer, the search is on for one lure to keep the bites coming, even after daytime temperatures rise. The Wobblehead meets all the characteristics of just such a lure.
This rather non-descript device features a slender curved slab of metal with a single hook onto which is attached a plain straight tail six inch plastic worm. Incidentally, there is no lure easier to retrieve than a Wobblehead; you simply cast it out and bring it back in a rather boring straight retrieve. However, there is nothing boring when a big bass gulps down the bait.
The curved metal body of the Wobblehead gives the lure its name; it wobbles side to side and gives the plastic worm tail an enticing swimming motion which resembles a favorite food for a foraging bass, a small swimming snake. Remember the last time you saw a snake swimming across the water? That’s the exact image you get when you reel in a Wobblehead.
These lures are especially effective when fished next to moss beds, where bass lurk out of the glare of the scorching sun waiting for something good to eat to pass by. A small snake slowly wagging overhead is often too much to pass up.
Cast out a Wobblehead in the heat this summer next to a patch of weeds and hang on. The results could leave you feeling “cool”.
Bream fishermen can still do their thing with these fighters even in the heat of summer.
Both bluegills and chinquapins can be caught even though the spawn is over and they have moved from their shallow spawning beds.
One of the most productive bream fishing forays I ever experienced was one swelteringvday several years ago when Eddie Halbrook took me to Grand Bayou lake near Coushatta wherevwe caught at least 50 big chinquapins fishing cold worms on the bottom on an 8 foot deep flat.
If you’re a crappie fishermen, here’s something you may want to try to improve yourvsummertime catch of tasty slabs.
If you want the best service from your waiter at a favorite restaurant, let it be known thatvyou’re a generous “tipper”. You’re more than likely to find him eager and willing to be at yourvservice. Keep this truth in mind the next time you head for the lake after summertime crappie. If you’re a good “tipper”, the crappie just might be much more cooperative.
Tipping explained means that you add something to your crappie jig to make it more enticing. Some anglers regularly tip their jigs with small shiners while others prefer commercial pea-sized niblets, grass shrimp or wax worms.
One of the best times to go for crappie during the heat of summer is to say indoors during the hottest part of the day and head for the lake at night. A bucket of shiners dangled beneath the lights around a pier or off the side of the boat will attract shiners or shad which attracts the crappie. It can be a bunch of fun and you won’t even need sunscreen.
Whether it’s bass, bream or crappie, you can still get your string stretched even in the middle of summer.
Q: “In light of what happened recently at the Virginia Walmart, how does one try to protect or save themselves?”
A: “Fight back.”
I realize that when this this question was penned, the inquirer wanted me to respond to a specific incident.However, surviving a situation like the recent shooting at the Chesapeake Virginia Walmart requires the exact same thinking, planning, and awareness necessary to survive any active shooter scenario.So, let’s discuss some things that might help us stay alive or save others.
Pay attention to people.Be aware of people’s behavior and be cognizant of changes in the behavior of those you are around most frequently.Mass murderers don’t act on a whim.They build up these atrocities in their minds long before they ever execute their plan to execute others.If you see something, say something.Look no further than the 2015 mass murder in San Bernardino, CA, to understand what happens when observers stay silent.
“Run – Hide – Fight.”I bet you’ve probably heard those three words spoken in that order more than once, especially if you’ve ever been required to undergo some nonsense “active shooter training.”I say “nonsense” because what I see commonly being offered to people in the workplace is little more than a 2-hour, mind numbing regurgitation of some “training” video.Or worse, being forced to sit through the video itself.As a trainer, I HATE the Run – Hide – Fight methodology.
It’s hard to believe, but there are still instructors teaching adults to run away as a first option, and to hide if they’re not particularly quick on their feet.Hide?Really?From actual bullets?(Insert face-palm emoji.)That might be good advice in some scenarios, but when someone is systematically killing people around you, the only thing that will stop them is somebody (ideally multiple somebodies) willing to fight back.
If you follow this column, you’ve heard me quote the late James Yeager of Tactical Response.Here’s another.In response to the Run – Hide – Fight methodology, James would say, “Run toward the danger, hide behind cover, and shoot the bad guy.”One thing is incredibly common among the cowards that commit acts of mass violence – they HATE being challenged.They don’t choose to murder people in businesses, schools, hospitals, or churches because they’re gluttons for competition.A challenge is the last thing they want.
If you’re an able-bodied adult, you need to fight back.Period.Challenging the bad guy will shorten his killing spree.I get it, he might kill you, but he might shoot you in the back if you run away.For all you know his accomplice(s) are around the corner, waiting to pick off any stragglers.Wouldn’t you rather die on your feet, fighting some evil bastard with all your strength than die on your knees, hiding in a broom closet?
I understand there are exceptions.You might need to protect someone who isn’t able-bodied.Maybe you need to rescue a child or secure a patient in a hospital room for example.I hear you, and I understand that the circumstances will always dictate the tactics.I’m merely suggesting that there is more than enough evidence to predict the most likely outcome(s) when an active killer is challenged by a would-be victim, and that evidence is heavily in favor of the good guys.Conversely, that pendulum swings both ways.If there’s an active killer afoot, and no one challenges him, he’ll go right on killing.
“But he has a gun.”No kidding.Where’s yours?“Well, I don’t carry one.”Sounds like a personal problem to me.“Well, I can’t carry one at ‘place X’.”Can’t you?“It’s not allowed.”Ah, I see.And therein lies the problem – Allowed VS Able.“There’s a sign that says, ‘no firearms permitted on premises.’”To whom does that rule apply?You and the person who wants to come shoot up the joint, or just you?“Crickets…”So, you mean to tell me the person intent on committing heinous violence is going to obey the sign on the door?(Insert eye-roll emoji.)All “gun free zone” signs do, is instill fearful obedience in people who have no evil intent and show murderers exactly where to go to be successful.
“But what if I get caught with my gun?”What if you get caught without it?Ever think of that?That question doesn’t get asked nearly enough during times of self-evaluation.And caught by whom?If you’re carrying your gun properly, who will ever know you have it to “catch you” in the first place?If you’re a good human with a gun and you’re properly trained to use it, CARRY YOUR DAMN GUN!If you’re not properly trained, fix that – then carry your gun.Remember, in good hands, a gun is a life-saving tool, not a life-taking one.
I’m not advocating recklessness or stupidity.There are definitely places you shouldn’t “smuggle” firearms – like a courthouse for example.I’m also not advocating you break the law – that’s a decision only you as an adult can make for yourself.There are situations where speeding is necessary to receive timely medical care – where damaging property is necessary to save a life.Sometimes breaking rules is necessary because bad guys don’t care about rules.
I’m simply encouraging you to use common sense and to think outside the proverbial “gun free box.”If you’re that concerned about being arrested, familiarize yourself with the “Doctrine of Competing Harms.”Keep your gun concealed on your person unless and until a bad guy needs to see the muzzle.Besides, if you’re forced to use your gun in a gun free zone, and you only shoot the bad guy, most mainstream media outlets won’t even learn your name because you won’t fit their agenda.
You can be ready when violence happens.That doesn’t just mean carrying a pistol.That means being situationally aware and paying attention to things that could save your life – or end it.Be prepared to meet violence head on – with or without a weapon.Until more people start doing that, the mass murder problem will continue to worsen.
I wonder how many murder victims, if they could talk to us now, would encourage good people to be armed?
Avoid what you can.Defeat what you can’t.
-Ryan
Please submit your questions to Ryan via email at Ryan@9and1tactical.com
(Ryan Barnette is not a licensed attorney or a medical provider, and no information provided in “Slicing the Pie,” or any other publication authored by Ryan Barnette should be construed, in any way, as official legal or medical advice.)
Yesterday evening, I was trying to relax after a super busy day of work meetings, running errands and shuttling the kids all over God’s green Earth. I was sitting in the recliner watching a television show. Well my 4-year-old had other plans.
She started fighting me for the remote because she wanted to watch one of her cartoons. She finally got it away from me, so I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a thing of Oreos. I sat back down in the recliner and very noisily opened them in front of Ashton.
She glanced over at me, eyeing my Oreos. So, I offered her a few. When she walked over from the couch to get it – I grabbed the remote back.
A look of utter shock mixed with disappointment came across her face. She straightened herself up, shook her head and said, “Wow, I never saw that coming.”
She walked back to the couch to enjoy her Oreos and MY television show.
I may have giggled and relished in my moment of triumph a little bit, but I believe it was a lesson well learned.
Life hits you out of nowhere sometimes and more often than not… you never see it coming. There is really only one thing that you can expect when it comes to life and that is the unexpected.
Sometimes those things may be unexpected in a bad way, like car trouble, a failed relationship or losing your job.
But sometimes they may be unexpected in a good way and sometimes you just have to find the good. Perhaps that car trouble slowed you down and prevented you from being involved in a wreck on your way to work. Maybe that failed relationship was holding you back from reaching your full potential. Maybe losing that job opened possibilities that you would have never dreamed of or even explored.
That is what life is all about, making the best out of what you are dealt because you definitely cannot control it.
I eventually felt bad for sneakily stealing the remote from Ashton. I tried to give it back to her, but when I offered it, she said, “It’s okay. I’ve got Oreos now.”
(Paige Nash is a wife, mother of three, publisher for the Bienville and Claiborne Parish Journal and a digital journalist for the Webster Parish Journal.)
If I were to make a list of my favorite fruits, it would be extensive. Peaches would top the list. The remaining players would vacillate by mood or season. Blackberries and blueberries are plentiful in these parts this time of year. I’ve loved bananas since I was a kid and ate a lot of pears in my youth. I like all varieties of grapes and most varieties of apples.
Typically, I would be ending my annual peach binge about now. Chilton County, Alabama peaches start making sometime in June and the season usually peters out in mid-July. Though 2023 will go down as an almost peach-less year. The late freeze on March 20th destroyed most of the fruit crops from north of Birmingham to the Coast. Local peach sightings have been rare.
My friend Tim Goggans, owner of Sandy Run Farm just outside of Hattiesburg, said he lost more than 80% of his blueberry and blackberry crop during that freeze. We’ve been able to get some berries from him as he has been taking care of his local clientele, but his bulk business is almost a wash.
I’m not sure if watermelon would ever make the top-20 list of my favorite fruits. But 2023 has become the year of the watermelon. I have been consuming copious amounts of watermelon this summer. I have probably eaten more watermelon in the past six weeks than I have in the previous 20 years. It’s probably the peach/blueberry/blackberry shortage that has caused this change in my summer fruit eating habits. Whatever it is, I have enjoyed and appreciated watermelon more than ever this summer.
I’m a salt-on-my-melon kind of guy. And whether it’s cantaloupe, honeydew, or watermelon, I like it salted. My grandmother used salt while eating melon. My mother used salt, too. I guess I was just raised that way. My wife thinks it’s ridiculous, but I’m OK with her being wrong.
My grandmother ate a slice of cantaloupe or a honeydew every morning. I don’t ever remember her serving or eating watermelon, but she was religious with the honeydew and cantaloupe and salt was always present (and lemon on honeydew). She lived to be a very healthy 96-years old.
I have written often about how peaches taste like summer. It’s the same for watermelon. They are available year round, but the locally grown summer melons taste best. There’s a chart that’s been floating around the internet that shows what to look for when choosing a watermelon, and apparently I’ve been choosing wrong for the past 60 years. According to the chart, the best watermelons are of uniform size and are heavy (not elongated). They should have an orange field spot and not a white one. Larger webbing means the melon will be sweet. Smaller webbing is a warning sign for a bland watermelon. You’ll know it’s ripe if the melon is dark and dull. If it’s shiny it’s not ripe.
I’m not a late comer to watermelons. I’ve been eating them most of my life, it’s just that— until this summer— I have prioritized other fruits ahead of watermelon. Maybe my aversion has to do with a high school incident that happened 46 years ago.
It was the summer of 1977. “Rocky” was in movie theaters, and “Hotel California” was on the radio. I was 15 years old and working nights as a radio station disc jockey. During the day I was on the summer cleaning crew at my high school to make extra money. The school was small and located on the outskirts of Hattiesburg, adjacent to a farm owned by the Duff family.
I was a member of a high school fraternity. One of my friends— and a coworker on the cleaning crew— was a pledge in the fraternity. This friend/pledge, Ricky, ended up doing most of the work on the cleaning crew that summer. We ordered him around a lot. “Pledge Ricky, wax the floors. Pledge Ricky, mow the grass. Pledge Ricky, fire up the incinerator.” I’m not sure if we knew what hazing was back then, but, at the time, this seemed less like hazing and more like laziness on everyone else’s part.
Ricky was new to our school. He wanted desperately to fit in, and he did all our bidding, without complaint. Ricky also owned a late 1960s model Volkswagen Beetle that various members of the crew would hop in at least once a day to go trail riding in the woods that led to the Duff farm.
One hot July day Ricky and I hopped in his Beetle with the hopes of “borrowing” a watermelon from the Duff family watermelon patch. I drove his beat up Volkswagen down the trail that led to the melon-filled field. Ricky probably would have never thought to steal a watermelon on his own. It was my idea. Unfortunately, his desire to fit in overruled his good judgment.
I parked the Volkswagen on the trail and sent him into the watermelon patch. He snuck halfway out and held one up. It looked good, but I wasn’t going to let him get off that easy. “Not big enough,” I yelled. He crept a little farther out and held up a larger one. “Bigger,” I said. He made it all the way to the other side of the field, and grabbed a watermelon that took most of his strength to hold over his head. “How’s this?” He asked.
“Perfect,” I said. “Let’s go!” On his way back to the car, I ordered, “Get two.” Ricky looked at me as if to say, “this isn’t worth it,” but he picked up a second watermelon nonetheless and began the long trudge across the watermelon patch.
It was at that moment we heard, “Hey! What are y’all doing?” coming from the Duff house. It was our classmate, Kenny Duff. We were caught.
Kenny hopped on a motorcycle and headed our way. “Run!” I yelled to Ricky.
From across the field, I could hear Ricky screaming while running through the watermelon patch. He was trying not to trip over other watermelons— kicking a few— but still carrying the giant watermelons under both arms. When I saw the motorcycle at the head of the jeep trail, I took off— without Ricky.
In my mind’s eye I can still see Ricky in the rear view mirror, eyes as big as saucers, tennis shoes covered with watermelon pulp, running behind me on the jeep trail. The look in his eyes was one of fright, bewilderment, and betrayal. He was pleading with me to stop the car. His car. I kept going. I don’t know how fast he was running, but I had the getaway car in third gear.
A slightly overweight fraternity pledge is no match for a motorcycle, and Ricky fell to the ground, landing on, and smashing, both watermelons. He was in a world of trouble. Kenny was not only the owner of the watermelon patch, but he was also the president of the fraternity, and there was a pledge meeting that night.
Ricky never told anyone who was driving the car.
After the Great Watermelon Heist of 1977, I quit my job at the school and focused on my budding radio career. I never again took anything that belonged to someone else.
I have never considered myself a bully and can recount countless times when I stood up for the little guy and the underdog in my youth. But writing this story as a 62-year-old man in 2023, I am ashamed of my behavior that day. Fraternity, or not, I shouldn’t have treated a fellow classmate that way.
I lost track of Ricky after high school. He moved off, probably up North where watermelons don’t grow. If I saw him today, I would apologize to him, and let him know that I am sorry, and that I was wrong, and— whether he knew it or not— he always fit in. In the end, he had been a much bigger man, than I. He had faced the music.
Yesterday, as I ate watermelon, I thought of Ricky, and how he was a better friend to me than I ever was to him. Lesson learned.
Onward.
Blueberry-Peach Shortcake
2 cups all-purpose flour 2 Tbl sugar, plus extra for sprinkling 1 Tbl baking powder 1/8 tsp salt 3/4 cup cold unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), diced 3 large eggs, lightly beaten 1/4 cup heavy cream, chilled
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract 1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons water or milk, for egg wash
1/4 cup sugar 4-5 ripe peaches, peeled, pitted, and thinly sliced (about 3 cups) 1 Tbl fresh lemon juice
1 pint blueberries
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Sift the flour, 2 tablespoon sugar, the baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Blend in the butter at the lowest speed and mix until the butter is the size of peas. Combine the eggs, heavy cream, sour cream and vanilla extract and quickly add to the flour and butter mixture. Mix until just blended. The dough will be sticky.
Dump the dough out onto a well-floured surface. Flour your hands and pat the dough out 3/4-inch thick. You should see lumps of butter in the dough.
Cut biscuits with a 2 3/4-inch cutter and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment.
Brush the tops with the egg wash. Sprinkle with sugar and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the outsides are crisp and the insides are fully baked. Let cool on a wire rack.
While the biscuits are baking, combine the 1/4 cup of sugar with the sliced peaches and lemon juice. Refrigerate until needed.
Split each shortcake in half crosswise and place the bottom half on a plate. Place a small amount of the peach mixture atop each biscuit bottom. Place one scoop of ice cream on the peaches and spoon the remaining peaches over the ice cream. Place the biscuit top over the filled bottom half and sprinkle each shortcake with 2-3 tablespoons of fresh blueberries, serve immediately.
Yield:
6-8 servings
(Robert St. John is a chef, restaurateur and published cookbook author who lives in Hattiesburg, Miss.)
1733 – John Winthrop was granted the first honorary Doctor of Law Degree given by Harvard College in Cambridge, MA.
1831 – Belgium became independent as Leopold I was proclaimed King of the Belgians.
1861 – The first major battle of the U.S. Civil War began. It was the Battle of Bull Run at Manassas Junction, VA. The Confederates won the battle.
1925 – The “Monkey Trial” ended in Dayton, TN. John T. Scopes was convicted and fined $100 for violating the state prohibition on teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution. The conviction was later overturned on a legal technicality because the judge had set the fine instead of the jury.
1930 – The Veterans Administration of the United States was established.
1931 – CBS aired the first regularly scheduled program to be simulcast on radio and television. The show featured singer Kate Smith, composer George Gershwin and New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker.
1931 – The Reno Race Track inaugurated the daily double in the U.S.
1940 – Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia were annexed by the Soviet Union.
1944 – American forces landed on Guam during World War II.
1947 – Loren MacIver’s portrait of Emmett Kelly as Willie the Clown appeared on the cover of “LIFE” magazine.
1949 – The U.S. Senate ratified the North Atlantic Treaty.
1954 – The Geneva Conference partitioned Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
1957 – Althea Gibson became the first black woman to win a major U.S. tennis title when she won the Women’s National clay-court singles competition.
1958 – The last of “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts” programs aired on CBS-TV.
1959 – A U.S. District Court judge in New York City ruled that “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” was not a dirty book.
1961 – Captain Virgil “Gus” Grissom became the second American to rocket into a sub-orbital pattern around the Earth. He was flying on the Liberty Bell 7.
1968 – Arnold Palmer became the first golfer to make a million dollars in career earnings after he tied for second place at the PGA Championship.
1980 – Draft registration began in the United States for 19 and 20-year-old men.
1987 – Mary Hart, of “Entertainment Tonight”, had her legs insured by Lloyd’s of London for $2 million.
1997 – The U.S.S. Constitution, which defended the United States during the War of 1812, set sail under its own power for the first time in 116 years.
1998 – Chinese gymnast Sang Lan, 17, was paralyzed after a fall while practicing for the women’s vault competition at the Goodwill Games in New York. Spinal surgery 4 days later failed to restore sensation below her upper chest.
2000 – NBC announced that they had found nearly all of Milton Berle’s kinescopes. The filmed recordings of Berle’s early TV shows had been the subject of a $30 million lawsuit filed by Berle the previous May.
2002 – WorldCom Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. At the time it was the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.
2004 – White House officials were briefed on the September 11 commission’s final report. The 575-page report concluded that hijackers exploited “deep institutional failings within our government.” The report was released to the public the next day.
2007 – The seventh and last book of the Harry Potter series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” was released.
2011 – In Florida, Space Shuttle Atlantis landed successfully at Kennedy Space Center after completing STS-135. It was the final flight of NASA’s space shuttle program.
Funeral service: 10 a.m. Saturday, July 22, 2023, Ashland Baptist Church, under the direction of Rockett-Nettles Funeral Home, Coushatta.
Burial: Hathorn Cemetery, Ashland.
James Franklin Tooke
August 2, 1931 – July 13, 2023
Homer, La.
Service pending through Rose-Neath Funeral Home, Homer, La.
Evelyn Strong
May 12, 1927 – July 13, 2023
Marthaville/Minden, La.
Private burial: Gardens of Memory Cemetery, Minden.
Bienville Parish Journal publishes paid complete obituaries – unlimited words and a photo, as well as unlimited access – $80. Contact your funeral provider or bpjnewsla@gmail.com . Must be paid in advance of publication. (Above death notices are free of charge.)
The Town of Arcadia has issued a water boil advisory for all water customers following a main water line break that occured during work being conducted by Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LADOTD) yesterday, July 16.
The break occured at the corner of Washington and MLK Drive.
It has been repaired but due to the amount of time the town was without water, they have issued this advisory. Labs have been conducted and once they are cleared, the advisory will be lifted.
The Town of Arcadia has made its way onto the agenda for the Louisiana Audit Advisory Council meeting to be held next Tuesday, July 25.
The council will be speaking on the investigative audit report conducted for the town back in May of this year. The report listed findings such as, improper incentives to town officials, unbudgeted expenses, emloyees paid for hours not accured and violations for open meeting laws.
The council meeting will be held in the Louisiana State Capitol Building – Senate Committee Room E at 10 a.m. For those interested, the meeting can be live streamed at the following link:
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) has scheduled a drawdown of Lake Bistineau in Webster, Bossier, and Bienville parishes to reduce the expansion of giant salvinia. The drawdown will also benefit fisheries production by improving aquatic habitat and reducing the amount of organic matter on the lake bottom.
LDWF has requested the Department of Transportation and Development open the water control structure on July 31. Once the water control structure is open, the lake should dewater at a rate of 4 to 6 inches per day until it reaches a potential maximum drawdown level of 8 feet below pool stage. This dewater rate could be impacted, however, by local rainfall in the surrounding watershed. Aquatic habitat conditions will be monitored during the drawdown and a gate closure date will be determined and announced at a later date.
During the drawdown, an estimated 10,000 acres of water will remain in the lake. Boaters can still access the lake during the drawdown from the following public boat launches: Port of Bistineau Launch, Bossier Public Launch, Grice’s, and Bayou Dorcheat Public Launch. Boaters are advised to use caution during the low water period, as boat lanes will not provide normal clearance of underwater obstructions.
The drawdown is a necessary component of LDWF’s integrated management plan to control overabundant aquatic vegetation growth and to improve the Lake Bistineau sport fishery. An annual cycle of high and low water fluctuation can provide beneficial effects similar to a natural overflow lake system. Herbicide applications will continue during the drawdown period. The Lake Bistineau Waterbody Management Plan can be viewed at: www.wlf.louisiana.gov/resources/category/freshwater-inland-fish/inland-waterbody-management-plans
For additional information regarding the drawdown, contact Jeff Sibley, LDWF Biologist Manager, at jsibley@wlf.la.gov or 318- 371-5294.
The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development would like to advise candidates, as they conduct their campaign for public office, to please keep the following in mind:
It is against Louisiana Law (see RS 48:347) to place signs within the right of way of a state highway.
Campaign signs placed in the state right of way will be removed and stored at the nearest DOTD parish maintenance unit for 30 days. Contact information for the DOTD Districts can be found below.
A good rule of thumb is to place your sign behind existing utility poles on property where you have received permission from the private property owner. Most utilities are within the DOTD right-of-way.
For directions about where and how to reclaim any of your signs that have been removed by DOTD personnel, please refer to the list below.
Thank you for your cooperation and your help in keeping our roadways safe for the citizens of Louisiana.
At 8:30 p.m. on November 24, 1992, a Gulfstream II jet piloted by John Joseph and co-piloted by John Messina, took off from Fort Lauderdale, Florida en route to Rockland, Maine. If everything went as expected, the flight would take two-and-a-half hours. They planned to land in Maine at 11:00 p.m. This $5 million twin-engine business jet was rated to carry a maximum of 19 passengers in addition to the pilot and co-pilot. On this flight, only about a half dozen passengers were onboard, including Joseph’s wife of just 14 months and their seven-month-old son. The pilot and co-pilot had thousands of flight hours between them. Joseph had been flying since 1978 and held several different jet and non-jet pilot’s licenses.
As you probably guessed, everything did not go as expected. At about 10:15 p.m., with only 45 minutes left to in the trip, a bearing in the jet’s left electrical generator failed. In case of a generator failure, the jet’s electrical system would automatically draw power from the other engine’s electrical generator. When this jet’s computer system switched to the right generator, a power surge in the electrical system tripped a circuit breaker. The second generator shut down. Without power from the generators, the jet relied on two small nickel cadmium batteries to power the jet’s radios, navigational gear, and other operational systems. When fully charged, these two batteries could only power the jet for about five minutes.
No alarms sounded when the two generators failed. Joseph and Messina only recognized that both generators had failed when the instrument panels began to dim. It had been about five minutes since the generators failed. Time was running out. As soon as Joseph was aware that there was a problem, he contacted the Washington Air Route Traffic Control Center, declared an emergency, and asked for a heading to Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. Before he could get a response from air traffic control, the two nickel cadmium batteries had exhausted their power supply and the jet’s entire electrical system failed. Like most jets, the Gulfstream II had a backup for the backup for the backup in case of electrical failure. Joseph tried to activate an instrument called a transformer rectifier to generate power but it, too, malfunctioned. Joesph and Messina immediately realized the severe trouble the crippled jet was in. All of the electrical navigational equipment had shut down, as had many of the jet’s crucial systems, such as electrically assisted flaps and brakes.
The jet was nearly eight miles high, traveling at about 400 miles per hour, and was approaching one of nation’s busiest airspaces with no radio communications, no navigational equipment, and no interior or exterior lights. The jet’s transponder, which transmits information such as the jet’s identification number, heading, speed, and altitude to air traffic controllers, also ceased to operate. Air traffic controllers could only see an unidentified blip on their radar screens. When Air traffic controllers realized Joseph’s jet’s electrical system had malfunctioned, they tried to contact Joseph by way of an emergency hand-held transceiver, another piece of emergency equipment, but the jet did not have one of the emergency transceivers.
In an act of desperation, an air traffic controller directed the pilot of a commercial jet to help locate Joseph’s jet. USAir Flight 1729 was traveling at the same speed as Joseph’s jet at an altitude of 20,000 feet. They were unsure of Joseph’s jet’s altitude. The air traffic controller told USAir pilot of Joseph’s jet’s electrical malfunction and said he would not be lit up. The USAir jet pilot saw Joseph’s jet directly in front of him about two miles away. They were heading directly toward each other. The air traffic controller held his breath as the symbol for the USAir jet and the blip converged. He breathed a sigh of relief when the symbols for the jets had passed each other and continued in opposite directions.
Back in Joseph’s jet, Messina shone a small flashlight in the cockpit for them to see by. Joseph had only a tiny magnetic compass and a small emergency attitude indicator which showed the relationship of the airplane’s wings in relation to the horizon for navigating the jet. There was no moon in the night sky on this night and all Joseph and Messina could see below them were dense clouds. In the distance, Joseph noticed a glow in the dense cloud cover. This, he surmised, had to be Washington, D.C. He aimed the jet towards the glow. At about 12,000, Joseph’s jet was engulfed by thick clouds. He continued his descent towards the glow. The jet continued its slow descent, but the clouds did not thin. Finally, at about 1,000 feet, Joseph’s jet broke out of the clouds. The first thing Joseph saw was a brightly lit obelisk in the night sky. It was the Washington Monument. Both pilot and co-pilot were relieved at the welcome sight. Joseph aimed the jet toward the Washington National Airport. Air Traffic controllers had rerouted the other jets from the area in anticipation of an emergency landing.
Joseph’s jet was not safe yet. They held their breath as they tried to lower the landing gear by using the emergency extension system. Another sigh of relief. This emergency system worked. They were unable to lower the jet’s flaps, which would normally slow a jet on approach. They touched town on the runway at the dangerous speed of about 170 miles per hour. The only brake they had was the emergency brake, which failed to respond until fully engaged. The locked tires only lasted a second or two before all four of them blew out. Somehow, the jet did not flip as it skidded to a stop. Finally, the harrowing ordeal was over.
Although terrifying, Joseph still flies his jets. He owns several. Throughout the emergency, air traffic controllers failed to realize that Joseph, the pilot of the Gulfstream II jet, would have been instantly recognizable had they seen his face. You and I have watched him in “Welcome Back, Kotter,” “Grease,” and “Saturday Night Fever.” The pilot who miraculously guided the jet to safety, despite horrifying odds, whose middle name is Joseph, was John Travolta.
A friend notified me over the weekend about a trio of local heroes who helped save a life down at Panama Beach following what’s been called an accidental shooting.
You can read the story in Tuesday’s Webster Parish Journal, so I won’t rehash all the details here – but kudos again to Melissa Gutierrez, Hillary Butler and April Pamintuan for their heroic deeds.
What I’d like to do now is again put out my standard call. To the readers of all our Journals – from down to Natchitoches and all the way up and over to Claiborne – I want to write stories about people like these three ladies who make a difference in the world around them.
Our globe is filled with negativity and bad news, so it is important to take the time to recognize the good deeds and positive contributions made by individuals in our communities. Whether it be a small act of kindness or a larger-scale project, these actions have the power to make a significant impact on the lives of those around us.
That’s what I try to do with my work for the Journal publications.
I ask for news to be shared with me. Good news. News that helps our world so we can have a bit of a chance to drown out all the cacophony brought on by the bad.
When you help me recognize these individuals it not only shows appreciation for their efforts, but also serves as an inspiration for others to follow in their footsteps. It highlights the importance of community involvement and encourages others to get involved and make a difference.
Recognizing those who do good things can also serve as a reminder of the positive impact that even small actions can have. It can inspire individuals to take action and make a difference, even in the smallest of ways. It can have a ripple effect. creating a chain reaction of positive change within the community.
So, please help me recognize those who do good things. Send me good deeds and good people.
In a world of dark, just turn on the light. And if you can’t do that, help me highlight those who can.
(Josh Beavers is an award winning writer and author. He has earned more than 40 individual writing awards and is syndicated in 12 North Louisiana news journals. The Louisiana Press Association has recognized him five times for excellence in opinion writing, and he has earned numerous Best Investigative Reporting Awards and Freedom of Information Awards for exposure of governmental corruption in Webster Parish.)
Give me ALL of the toffee filled baked goods!This Vanilla Heath Bar Coffee Cake included.I always love to bake on the weekends (and some evenings during the week!), and this was high on my agenda.It filled the kitchen with the sweetest aroma while baking.The little extra added pizazz of the crunchy toffee bits make it extra special.I hope you enjoy!
Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter, cold
1/4 cup oil
1 cup cake flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
One bag of Heath Toffee bits
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon vanilla
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.Lightly grease an 8×8 baking pan.
Place the butter, oil, flours, salt, and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer.Pour the oil in and stir with a spatula.Slice the butter into pats and add quickly to the mixture.Work the butter into the mixture with your hands until crumbly.Remove 1/2 cup of this mixture and add 5 ounces of toffee bits to it.Set aside.
Place the bowl into the stand mixer and add egg, yolk, sour cream, baking soda and vanilla.Beat on medium-high heat for 3 minutes.Remove the bowl and place half the batter into the baking pan. Spread evenly with an offset spatula.Sprinkle the reserved crumbly mixture over as evenly as possible.Add remaining batter, spreading with the offset spatula again.Top with more toffee bits.
Bake for 45 minutes or until done.
(Ashley Madden Rowton is a wife, mom and published cookbook author who lives in Minden, La.)
Dr. Donald Ray Moseley was born on October 19, 1933, in Ringgold, Louisiana, to Dayton and Rose Moseley and passed away Saturday, June 17, 2023 in Tyler, Texas.
As a dentist in a poor, rural community, Don often accepted vegetables and goods for payment. He also gave away dental care to countless patients who didn’t have the ability to pay. He was a quiet gentleman who believed in treating his neighbors with compassion and dignity, and he was well-loved in the area for this. Like his father before him, he recognized the importance of serving others. His father helped build the first Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children, and similarly Don fundraised for organizations like the American Heart Association. Don was a model citizen, perhaps motivated by a chance encounter with President Truman while Don was a young Boy Scout. Don went on to serve in the Dental Corps of the United States Navy, mostly in the Pacific. His three older brothers were all veterans of WW II, and this was a big influence on young Don. His sharp mind, love of reading, and strong work ethic propelled his life, studies, and career.
It was while stationed in San Diego, that he met his future bride, Patricia. She had a great voice and a microphone, and she soon had his heart.
He is preceded in death by his wife, Patricia Lessard Moseley. He is survived by his sons, Donald Ray Moseley, Jr. and wife, Tammy, and Lee Charles Moseley; six grandchildren, Brittney Heffernan and husband, Cole, Christopher Moseley and wife, Shannon, Emily Wootten and husband, Mitchell, Dayton Moseley, Noland Moseley, Lincoln Moseley and two great-grandchildren, Hudson Moseley and Hunter Moseley.
Arrangements for a future service date will be posted here when determined by the family.
When I look around today, and drive by the city pool, school playgrounds, sandlots and youth baseball complexes, a question often pops in my head. Where have all the kids gone? Yes, I know it’s 2023 and I understand it’s a different time than when I grew up during the 1970’s, but why is that? Well, there are several reasons why we don’t see kids out playing like we did. The number one reason…protection.
Today’s kids are growing up in the age of social media like You Tube, Twitter, Instagram and up to the minute news. The ‘70’s had basically three channels, NBC, ABC and CBS all of which only had two news broadcasts a day at 6:00 and 10:00 PM. Today, there are numerous 24-hour news channels where anything and everything is known about in a matter of minutes.
Kids today are sheltered and protected from the dangers of the world we live in due to the fears of what people see every day on the news. Parents today have a much tougher job of raising kids and worrying about the different types of dangers and challenges than existed for my parents.
Even though there were dangers when my generation grew up, it was a different time when so many bad things were never seen or heard about. The world was still a bad place, but no one really knew because of the lack of news coverage. The news was much simpler back in the ‘70’s and mostly void of daily murders or drive by shootings. The worst thing we heard about was the weekly death toll from the Vietnam War. We learned of the passing of Elvis Presley and updates on the Watergate scandal involving President Nixon. We heard about the nationwide gas shortage and the long lines at the pumps. But even then, there was almost always a feel-good story.
During my generation, parents trusted their kids to behave and play with responsibility. Now this was not always the case as kids have historically had a propensity to get into trouble. Common sense is what kept us alive as we understood what was risky versus what was just plain dumb, something kids today seem to lack. During my younger days, the main form of transportation was a bicycle. We rode our bikes around the entire community for miles, seven days a week. We spent countless summer hours outside every day no matter how hot it was.
No one stayed in the house because you weren’t allowed in the house. We played outside because our parents did not allow you to come inside unless you had a medical emergency. If you needed a drink of water, you turned the water hose on until the water got cold enough to drink. A water hose during my generation was necessary for survival! It not only kept us hydrated but was a great form of entertainment when it came to water balloon fights and a slip-n-slide.
Hungry? Well, we could usually find a fig, pear tree or black berry patch with good fruit on it to satisfy our craving. Sometimes we hopped on our bikes and went on a coke bottle run collecting as many bottles as we could find in ditches and trash cans so we could turn them in to the local country store in exchange for candy or maybe an ICEE.
It’s sad today to look around and see empty playgrounds and sandlots. You never see groups of kids riding their bikes anymore. You don’t see kids playing chase or climbing trees. Kids today have no idea what a treehouse really is! They have little imagination when it comes to playtime unless it involves a joystick. Because of the level of protection kids have today, they’re just not as mature as my generation was during the pre-teen and teenage years. Imagine your 18-year-old today having to go fight a war in hand-to-hand combat.
What concerns me the most is that the days of kids being free to play outside will never happen again. Kids are too busy on social media sites worrying about someone saying something negative or starting rumors. They are consumed with self-indulging issues that really don’t mean a thing. I only wish parents would take more control and give better guidance. In the meantime, I will continue to pray for kids to experience good fishing, good bike riding and good tree climbing, while not forgetting their sunscreen.
Good thing I’m elderly because it is evident as of two weekends ago when I went to my first ever T-Ball tournament that I could not afford to have a child today.
Not an athletic one, anyway.
This was the Dixie Baseball Regional Tournament (I think) at Tinsley Park in Bossier. For T-Ball. An All-Star Tournament. We now have all-star tournaments for 6- and 7-year-olds even though the ball is hit off a tee and there are no pitchers. This has been going on a good while; I’d just never seen it.
I knew the doings were big when I parked and could not hear any baseball things. That’s how far away the parks were and everyone had gotten there a lot earlier than I had. I like to walk, so no complaint there; just trying to convey how many people were parked here on this Saturday evening. It was like the cast party for Gone With The Wind.
The first sign of trouble was a nice lady walking toward me. She handed me a wrist band. “Here, I’ll save you 10 bucks,” she said and handed me the band. “I was in there five minutes.”
Mister Teddy did not know it cost money to watch T-Ball.
And now I have an idea how much money it costs to play T-Ball, or at least be the guardian of a person who plays T-Ball.
It’s a lot.
Jerseys. Colors. Full uniforms with “Saline” or “Ruston” or “Bossier” across the front. Dozens of teams. “Olla” and … is there a team from “Greater Olla” here? Seems everyone else in Louisiana is.
The winners are traveling to the Dixie World Series in Center, Texas this weekend, and if you’re going to that, best leave now because traffic will not be a walk in the park. (If you’re interested in sponsoring, Hospitality Tents are only $200 a day and the Team Dinner/Opening Ceremonies are just $1,500. This is a big jump from 30 years ago when T-Ball was a YMCA T-shirt and a cap and your cleanest dirty shorts, and when the “regular season” was over, you met at Johnny’s Pizza.)
It took less than five minutes for me to figure out two things.
One, the gear required. Full uniforms. Battery-operated fans. (Could have used those back in the day.) Bat bags. And a clever invention—a wagon. Most everyone had these fold-up wagons, and in them were chairs for Mee Maw and Pee Paw, coolers, fans, bat bags, and sometimes a baby.
And two, most everyone I saw was sweating, but also smiling. It wasn’t my scene, but then again, none of these people wanted to be on the No. 7 tee box with me. They pay for a wagon, I pay for a pitching wedge. Different strokes … Same feeling of fun.
The little team I went to support came in 14th out of 16 teams, I think, but they all looked happy as little dudes on Christmas morning.
Things change. Used to, “travel ball” was one trip each summer out of town for a two-day tournament so my guys could experience a hotel and be together for a weekend. Then it was wiffle ball in the parking lot at night. Low overhead, high return. It was a different time, I guess.
Today, if they were grading, I’d make an F in T-Ball.
Things change, but still … when was the last time you saw boys and girls riding bikes with their baseball gloves hooked to the handlebars, or playing pickup baseball at a park or wiffle in the yard? Something in my old soul always thought that would be timeless. At least it’s still free.
1525 – The Catholic princes of Germany formed the Dessau League to fight against the Reformation.
1553 – Fifteen-year-old Lady Jane Grey was deposed as Queen of England after claiming the crown for nine days. Mary, the daughter of King Henry VIII, was proclaimed Queen.
1788 – Prices plunged on the Paris stock market.
1799 – The Rosetta Stone, a tablet with hieroglyphic translations into Greek, was found in Egypt.
1848 – The Women’s Rights Convention took place in Seneca Fall, NY. Bloomers were introduced at the convention.
1870 – France declared war on Prussia.
1909 – The first unassisted triple play in major-league baseball was made by Cleveland Indians shortstop Neal Ball in a game against Boston.
1939 – Dr. Roy P. Scholz became the first surgeon to use fiberglass sutures.
1942 – German U-boats were withdrawn from positions off the U.S. Atlantic coast due to effective American anti-submarine countermeasures.
1943 – During World War II, more than 150 B-17 and 112 B-24 bombers attacked Rome for the first time.
1946 – Marilyn Monroe acted in her first screen test.
1960 – Juan Marichal (San Francisco Giants) became the first pitcher to get a one-hitter in his major league debut.
1964 – In Illinois, Cahokia Mounds was designated as a U.S. National Landmark.
1971 – In New York, the topping out ceremony for Two World Trade Center (South Tower) took place. The ceremony for One World Trade Center had taken place on December 23, 1970.
1974 – The House Judiciary Committee recommended that U.S. President Richard Nixon should stand trial in the Senate for any of the five impeachment charges against him.
1975 – The Apollo and Soyuz spacecrafts separated after being linked in orbit for two days.
1979 – In Nicaragua, the dictatorship of the Somozas was overthrown by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional or FSLN).
1982 – The U.S. Census Bureau reported that 14% of the population had an income below the official poverty level in 1981.
1984 – Geraldine Ferraro was nominated by the Democratic Party to become the first woman from a major political party to run for the office of U.S. Vice-President.
1985 – George Bell won first place in a biggest feet contest with a shoe size of 28-1/2. Bell, at age 26, stood 7 feet 10 inches tall.
1985 – Christa McAuliffe of New Hampshire was chosen to be the first schoolteacher to ride aboard the space shuttle. She died with six others when the Challenger exploded the following year.
