Cavalry in Helena, Racial Oppression, and the First Train Robbery : MySaline’s Daily History October 6th

See the archive of MySaline’s Daily History issues at www.mysaline.com/history.

Saline County, Arkansas

No Saline County events mad history on this day, so go do something great! Meanwhile, see below for history from Arkansas, United States and the World.

Arkansas

1863 — Union cavalry leaves Helena for a nighttime expedition toward LaGrange. On the evening of October 6, Major Eagleton Carmichael led about 100 Union cavalrymen from Helena toward LaGrange in search of Confederate Lieutenant Joe Green. The expedition captured four Confederate soldiers and several horses, saddles, bridles and weapons before returning to Helena the next day.

1880 — Two men are lynched near Jacksonport. Gill Roland and John Dickinson, two white men accused of killing a man named John Nieman in Newport, were taken from the Jackson County jail by a masked mob early October 6 and later found hanging from a tree. They had not yet gone to trial.

1885 — Dan Hunley is lynched near Tuckerman. Hunley, an African American man, was accused of attacking a young white girl near Tuckerman. He was captured in a cotton field on October 6 and was taken from his guards by an armed group. Contemporary accounts indicate that he was subsequently shot or hanged. The historical record reflects the racial violence and extrajudicial killings that occurred in Arkansas during this era.

1906 — Violence intensifies during the Argenta Race Riot. On the evening of October 6, John B. Lindsey and his son Milton were ambushed as they walked near the Colum establishment in Argenta, now North Little Rock. The shooting was followed by fires, rumors and additional violence that continued into October 7. The episode resulted in deaths, destruction of property and the temporary displacement of numerous Black families.

2006 — The Southern Tenant Farmers Museum opens in Tyronza. The museum opened on October 6, focusing on the history of the Southern tenant-farming system and the labor movement that developed in response to it, including the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union. Arkansas State University operates the museum in the historic Mitchell-East Building.

United States

1866 — The Reno brothers carry out what is generally considered the first train robbery in U.S. history. Masked men boarded an eastbound Ohio & Mississippi Railroad passenger train near Seymour, Indiana, robbed an Adams Express car and escaped with money from a safe. The robbery helped usher in the era of the notorious American train robber.

1926 — Babe Ruth hits three home runs in one World Series game. Ruth homered three times against the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 4 of the 1926 World Series, setting a World Series record that stood for decades. The Yankees won the game 10–5, although the Cardinals ultimately won the championship.

1927 — The Jazz Singer premieres in New York, ushering in the era of talking pictures. Starring Al Jolson, the Warner Bros. film was largely silent but included about two minutes of synchronized spoken dialogue and singing. Its success accelerated Hollywood’s transition from silent films to sound.

1949 — Iva Toguri D’Aquino, known as “Tokyo Rose,” is sentenced for treason. The American citizen was convicted in San Francisco of treason for her wartime broadcasts from Radio Tokyo. She was sentenced to ten years in prison and later released; President Gerald Ford pardoned her in 1977.

1976 — President Gerald Ford makes his controversial “no Soviet domination” statement. During the second presidential debate of the 1976 campaign, Ford said he did not believe there was Soviet domination of Eastern Europe. His answer became one of the most memorable moments of the campaign and was widely criticized.

1979 — Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to visit the White House. President Jimmy Carter welcomed the pope during his historic October 1979 visit to the United States. The pontiff also addressed the United Nations and visited several American cities during the trip.

World

1908 — Austria-Hungary formally annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Dual Monarchy announced the annexation of the two Ottoman provinces on October 6, intensifying tensions in the Balkans. The move contributed to the international rivalries that helped set the stage for World War I.

1973 — Egypt and Syria launch a surprise attack on Israel, beginning the Yom Kippur War. The coordinated attack began on October 6, during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur and the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The nearly three-week war dramatically changed the political and military landscape of the Middle East and contributed to the 1973 oil crisis.

1976 — The Cubana de Aviación bombing kills 73 people. Cubana Flight 455 exploded shortly after leaving Barbados on October 6. All 73 people aboard were killed. The bombing became one of the earliest major terrorist attacks against a commercial airliner.

1981 — Egyptian President Anwar Sadat is assassinated. Sadat was reviewing a military parade in Cairo marking the anniversary of the Egyptian crossing of the Suez Canal during the 1973 war when members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad attacked. Sadat died from his wounds. He had shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin after negotiating the Camp David Accords.

1995 — Astronomers announce the discovery of 51 Pegasi b, the first confirmed exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star. The discovery by Swiss astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz opened a new era in the search for planets beyond our solar system. The planet, a gas giant orbiting its star every 4.2 days, later became known as a prototype “hot Jupiter.”

2007 — Jason Lewis completes the first human-powered circumnavigation of the globe. Lewis finished a journey that had taken more than 13 years and covered roughly 46,000 miles, using bicycles, rollerblades, a pedal-powered boat and other human-powered transportation. He completed the expedition in Greenwich, England, on October 6.

See the archive of MySaline’s Daily History issues at www.mysaline.com/history.