April 1
1895 - Early black recording star Alberta Hunter, whose career as a blues singer and writer spanned eight decades, was born in Memphis. At age 12, Hunter ran away from home and went to Chicago to follow her dreams of becoming a professional entertainer. There she worked her way up from performing in seedy joints to singing in some of the leading cabarets before beginning her recording career in New York in 1921. Besides writing her own material, Hunter also wrote for others. In Spring, 1923, Bessie Smith, a native of Chattanooga, recorded Hunters song "Down Hearted Blues," and by the end of the first year of release it had sold over two million copies. After performing opposite Paul Robeson in the 1927 premiere of the musical "Showboat" in London, Hunter gave Europe its first taste of the American blues sound when she took her jazz vocals to Holland, Denmark, and France. She gave of her talents to entertain military troops during World War II and the Korean War. Following the death of her mother in 1955, Hunter stopped performing to study nursing, and she served as a nurse in a New York hospital for over 20 years. But the stage beckoned and in 1977, at age 82, she returned to her first love of singing and she continued performing until her death at age 89 in 1984 in New York City.

1913 - Tennessee ratified the 17th Amendment to the United States Constitution that changed the method of selecting senators from election by state legislatures to popular election. Ratification of this amendment was completed on April 8, 1913.


April 2
1866 - United States President Andrew Johnson of Tennessee issued a proclamation declaring that the war between the states was over and restoring to the Union all the seceded states, except Texas. President Johnson said that there was "no armed resistance" in the Southern states and that laws "can be sustained and enforced therein by proper civil authority, State and Federal; that the people of said States are well and loyally disposed, and have conformed or will conform in their legislation to the condition of affairs growing out of the amendment to the Constitution prohibiting slavery within the borders and jurisdictions of the United States." He declared "that the insurrection...is at an end and is henceforth to be so regarded." Tennessee was one of the ten states restored that day joining Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.

ALSO ON THIS DAY, playing for the Chattanooga Lookouts minor league baseball team, 17-year-old Virne Beatrice "Jackie" Mitchell pitched back-to-back strike outs against legendary sluggers Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game against the New York Yankees at Engel Stadium in Chattanooga. Soon after the game, the commissioner of baseball ruled that, because they were not strong enough, women could not play professional baseball. Both Ruth and Gehrig always declared that the strikeouts were legitimate. Click "more information" to read more about Jackie Mitchell. "I dont know whats going to happen if they begin to let women in baseball. Of course, they will never make good. Why? Because they are too delicate. It would kill them to play ball every day." --Babe Ruth http://www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/mitchell.html


April 3
1974 - During the worst single outbreak of tornadoes in Tennessee history, 50 people died and 635 were injured as 28 tornadoes tore through 19 counties in Middle and East Tennessee, leaving behind an estimated $30 million in property damage. Tennessee was one of 13 states along a 2,500 mile path of destruction during a 16-hour super tornado outbreak in which 330 people died and 5,484 were injured in the worst tornado outbreak in the history of the United States. The other states besides Tennessee struck by the twisters were Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. To learn more about the tornado outbreak in Tennessee visit http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/storms/tennessee.html


April 4
1968 - Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in Memphis. President Lyndon B. Johnson declared Sunday, April 5, a national day of mourning and ordered United States flags on government buildings flown at hast mast. On the day of his burial, two Georgia mules pulled the casket while a funeral procession of over 30,000 persons followed. King had been a proponent of non-violent protest, but his murder touched off riots in 160 across the country that left 82 people dead and caused an estimated $69 million in property damage. Fifteen years after his death, President Ronald Reagan signed into law a bill making the third Monday of January a national holiday celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. King. "Now is the time to make justice a reality to all of God's children....Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must ever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force." --Martin Luther King, Jr. To read the entire text of the "I Have a Dream" speech made by Dr. King on August 28, 1963 visit http://www.holidays.net/mlk/speech.htm


April 5
1874 - Jesse Holman Jones, a businessman, developer, and constructor of the New Deal, was born in Robertson County. After he completed ninth grade, his last formal schooling, Jones and his family moved to Texas where he went from working in a tobacco factory to becoming the largest developer in the Houston area, owning about 100 buildings. He also had holdings in banks and the oil industry and was a mover in both the Democratic and Reoublican Parties. At the request of President Woodrow Wilson, Jones became the director general of military relief for the American Red Cross in World War I. He was appointed to the board of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, a new government entity established to combat the Great Depression, by President Herbert Hoover, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him as chairman of the RFC, a position he held from 1933 until 1939. Jones then served as head of the Federal Loan Agency. A noted philanthropist, Jones said, ""Success is measured by the service you render and the character of citizen you make rather than by the amount of money you amass." The old hospital in Springfield was named in his honor. http://www.pbs.org/jessejones/jesse_bio1.htm

ALSO ON THIS DAY, comedic actor Grady Sutton was born in Chattanooga. The "roly-poly" actor had a career that spanned 47 years playing bit characters to such greats as Laurel & Hardy, W.C. Fields, Phyllis Diller, and Katherine Hepburn. His film credits include "The Bank Dick," "The Blondes and the Redheads," "The Boy Friends," and the television comedy "The Pruitts of Southampton."


April 6
1862 - The Union Army of the Tennessee and Army of the Ohio under the command of Major General Ulysses S. Grant and Major General Don Carlos Buell met the Confederate Army of the Mississippi, that united troops from Nashville and Corinth, under the command of General Albert Sidney Johnston and General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard at Pittsburg Landing in Hardin County in what would be the bloodiest battle ever fought on Tennessee soil. The Confederate Military History/Tennessee notes, "Tennessee was represented on all parts of the field and in all commands. Her sons sustained and promoted the character and reputation of the State, and elevated the standard of courage, fidelity and patriotism. Their death-roll shows that they were in the fore-front of the battle....The sons of Tennessee, of every rank, were conspicuous for dash and steadiness in action, and for the maintenance of regimental and company organizations under all conditions....The great body of the Tennessee troops never fought better than at Shiloh. Though many of them had little training, they fought in the open field and exhibited remarkable steadiness and readiness to obey orders." In this two-day battle, fought in the Shiloh Churchyard, there were 23,746 estimated casualties, 13,047 of those were Union, 10,699 Confederate. One of those Rebel casualties was General Johnston, regarded by President Jefferson Davis as one of his ablest leaders. Only three days before, on April 3, General Johnston had readied his gallant troops, "I have put you in motion to offer battle to the invaders of your country." The 2nd Tennessee Infantry Regiment, that included Company G comprised of men from Whites Creek, entered the Battle of Shiloh with 385 soldiers. Of that number, 235 men, almost 65 percent of the Regiment, were reported killed, missing, or wounded. It is said that the pond on the battlefield was red with blood. To students of Tennessee history, no battle holds more emotional significance than the bloodbath at Shiloh. Sorely outnumbered, the Rebels were driven back into Mississippi and hopes of keeping any control over the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers were lost. Only a rearguard defense from General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his Raiders kept the Union from following the Confederates to the South. Read the Confederate Military History of Tennessee in the Battle of Shiloh at http://www.civilwarhome.com/CMHshiloh.htm.


April 7
1862 - Sorely outnumbered by invading Union forces, the Confederate Army of the Mississippi after a second day of fierce fighting withdrew from Pittsburg Landing in Hardin County, Tennessee, to Corinth ending the bloodiest battle ever fought on Tennessee soil. In the Battle of Shiloh, so named because it was fought on the grounds of the Shiloh Church, an estimated 23,746 men shed their last blood on Tennessee soil, 13,047 of those were Union, 10,699 Confederate. One of the Rebel casualties was General Albert Sydney Johnston, who lead the Confederate troops into the battle. He was killed by sniper fire while sitting astride his horse just after instructing one of his injured soldiers to seek medical attention. The 2nd Tennessee Infantry Regiment, that included Company G comprised of men from Whites Creek, entered the Battle of Shiloh with 385 soldiers. Of that number, 235 men, almost 65 percent of the Regiment, were reported killed, missing, or wounded. It is said that the pond on the battlefield was red with blood. Read the Confederate Military History of Tennessee in the Battle of Shiloh at http://www.civilwarhome.com/CMHshiloh.htm

ALSO ON THIS DAY, Tennessee has ratified two different amendments to the United States Constitution.

1865 - Tennessee ratified the 13th Amendment that ended slavery in the United States. "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." Ratification of the 13th Amendment was completed on December 6, 1865.

1911 - Tennessee ratified the 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution giving Congress the right to tax income. "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration." Ratification was completed on February 3, 1913.