Topics Related to This Day in North Carolina History
Jerome Davis put North Carolina on the bull riding and rodeo map, becoming a competitive bull rider at age 11 and going on to win his first event as a freshman in high school. After many championships, Davis was paralyzed from the chest down after being thrown from a bull.
On August 9, 1949, the first locally-established arts council in the United States was formed in Winston-Salem.
The Junior League of Winston-Salem brought national community arts consultant Virginia Lee Comer to town in 1943 to study the cultural life of the community. Her strategy for cultural planning was to build connections between the community and its arts activities.
On August 9, 2003, a flood washed away the Pisgah Covered Bridge. Since rebuilt, the Pisgah Covered Bridge is the only surviving covered bridge in Randolph County, which once had more covered bridges than any other county in North Carolina.
On August 8, 1740, politician and zealous advocate for the Patriot cause Abner Nash was born.
From 1774 to 1776 Nash was a delegate to each of North Carolina’s five provincial congresses, while also serving as a member of the Provincial Council. He served in both houses of the fledgling General Assembly before being elected governor in 1780.
On August 8, 1908, Mary Reynolds was born in Winston to tobacco magnate R. J. Reynolds and his wife Katherine.
On August 7, 1972, Negro League ballplayer and Rocky Mount native Walter Fenner “Buck” Leonard was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Born in 1907, Leonard was forced to quit school at age 14. **To help support his mother and five siblings following his father’s death, young Leonard worked at a local hosiery mill, as a shoeshine and later for a railroad while playing semi-pro baseball for the Rocky Mount Elks and Rocky Mount Black Swans.
Kiffin Rockwell became one of the first Americans to join the Lafayette Escadrille, an American volunteer aerial combat squadron. In May 1916, Rockwell became the first American to shoot down an enemy plane. He was one of only four North Carolinians who flew for France in World War I.
On August 7, 1945, country singer and WBT radio personality Fred Kirby of Charlotte wrote the hit song “Atomic Power.” Kirby was so moved by the news of the dropping of the atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima the previous day that he was inspired to write the song comparing God’s power to that of the bomb and warning of the misuse of such power.
Later popular versions of the song would also include reference to Nagasaki, which was bombed on August 9, 1945.