March
1
1941
- W47NV Nashville became the
first FM radio station to be
licensed for commercial
operation, on 44.7 MHz with 20
kw. This station went off the air
in 1951.
1917 - Frances Rose
"Dinah" Shore, a singer
during the golden age of American
pop music, was born in
Winchester, Tennessee. Dinah
launched her professional career
in Nashville and worked her way
through college with her own
radio show Our Little
Cheerleader of Song on WSM
radio. She graduated from
Vanderbilt University with a
degree in sociology, then moved
to New York in 1938 to pursue a
singing career. Her name was
changed when a station manager
mistakenly called her
"Dinah," the name of
the blues song she used to
audition. In 1951, she became the
first woman to host her own
television variety program The
Dinah Shore Show. The
fifteen minute-long show aired
twice a week on NBC through 1956.
Between 1956 and 1963 NBC aired
the hour-long Dinah Shore
Chevy Show and she became
famous for her "See the USA
in a Chevrolet" advertising
jingle sung for the sponsor. From
1970 until 1974 she appeared in
the thirty-minute Dinah's
Place. The show went into
syndication as a ninety-minute
program called Dinah and
aired through 1980. She died of
cancer in Beverly Hills,
California, in 1994.
March
2
1793
- Pioneer warrior, politician,
and statesman Sam Houston was
born at Timber Ridge, Rockbridge
County, in the Shenandoah Valley
of Virginia. Shortly after the
death of his father, his mother
moved the family to a farm on
Baker Creek south of Maryville in
Blount County, Tennessee. Among
the many positions he held,
Houston served as governor of
both Tennessee and Texas and as a
two-term president of Texas. He
is remembered for his lifelong
friendship with the Cherokee,
having been adopted as a member
of the tribe by Chief
Oo-Loo-Te-Ka and given the name The
Raven. Houston is without
doubt one of the most interesting
figures to immerge from the early
days of the western pioneer
movement in this county and is
worthy of lengthy study by any
student of American history.
  March
3
1862
- United States President Abraham
Lincoln appointed former
Tennessee Governor Andrew Johnson
as military governor of the
state. "Considered a traitor
to his state by the Confederates,
Johnson was convinced that most
Tennesseans had been led into
secession by the false
persuasions of their leaders. He
tried to induce citizens to take
the oath of allegiance to the
federal government, and when this
failed he resorted to coercion.
City and county offices were
declared vacant when
officeholders refused to take the
oath; prominent citizens were
imprisoned for remaining
steadfast to the Confederacy; and
private property of secessionists
was confiscated. Johnson also
tried to re-establish civil
government, based on a loyal
electorate, but was unable to do
so before he left for Washington
to become vice president of the
United States." --Tennessee
Blue Book 1991-1994, page
321.
March 4
1865
- William Gannaway Brownlow was
elected governor and new members
of the state legislature were
elected under the newly amended
Tennessee Constitution that had
been ratified by a vote of the
people on February 22, 1865.
Brownlow was reelected as
governor in 1867 and in 1869, he
was elected to represent
Tennessee in the United States
Senate, where he served until
1875. "The four years from
1865 to 1869 have generally been
called the Brownlow Period.
It was the time of Reconstruction,
and exhibited in its details
almost every phase of the
stormiest revolutionary
tendencies, and the vilest
political and personal
animosities. All persons who had
either directly or indirectly
taken any part in the war against
the Union, or who had in any way
given aid or sympathy to the
Confederacy, were not allowed to
vote at any election. This placed
control of the state in the hands
of the minority of the
people." --A History of
Tennessee From 1663 to 1914
by G.R. McGee, page 223.
March 5
1969
- The Tennessee General Assembly
adopted House Joint Resolution
42, declaring agate, a
cryptocrystalline quartz found in
only a few areas of the state, as
the state gemstone.
March 6
1961
- Tennessee ratified Amendment
XXIII to the United States
Constitution that provides the
citizens of the District of
Columbia with appropriate rights
of voting in national elections
for President and Vice President
of the United States. With the
ratification of this amendment
District citizens were permitted
to elect presidential electors
who would be in addition to the
electors from the States and who
would participate in electing the
President and Vice President.
National ratification of the
amendment was completed on March
29, 1961.
March 7
2000
- Composer of The Tennessee
Waltz Julius Frank Anthony
Kuczynski aka "Pee Wee
King" died from
complications of a heart attack
in Louisville, Kentucky. King,
co-wrote the song, that was named
one of the official state songs
of Tennessee in 1955, with Redd
Stewart. Singer Patti Page
popularized the hauntingly
beautiful song in 1950 when it
hit Number One of the pop charts
and sold almost 5 million copies
in six months. Gene Autry invited
King to join his band and it was
he who gave King, who stood 5
feet 7 inches in height, his
famous nickname. King, who was
named to the Country Music Hall
of Fame in 1974, also had hits
with Slow Poke, Bonaparte's
Retreat, and You Belong
To Me. Born in 1914, King, a
native of Wisconsin, was 86 years
old.
|
