16 October 1859 

On this date in 1859…

John Brown and 21 armed northern terrorists took 60 hostages and seized the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.

Other Years:

• 1925 – The Texas State School Board prohibited the teaching of evolution.
• 1954 – Elvis Presley first appeared on the Louisiana Hayride show in Shreveport, Louisiana.
• 1957 – Queen Elizabeth & Prince Philip visited Williamsburg, Virginia.
• 1987 – After a 58 hour ordeal, rescuers freed Jessica McClure from the abandoned well that she had fallen into in Midland, Texas.
• 1991 – George Jo Hennard, age 35, killed 23 people then himself & wounded 20 others at a Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas.
• 1997 – Charles Schulz and his wife Jeannie announced that they would give $1 million toward the construction of a D-Day memorial to be placed in Virginia.
• 2002 – The Arthur Andersen accounting firm was sentenced to five years probation and fined $500,000 for obstructing a federal investigation of the energy company Enron. 

Read: Why Know Southern History?