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Historical Marker Database @hmdb.org · 17/08/2026

By the way, if you check out the #MarkeroftheWeek on HMdb.org (the main page) you can usually see a different picture than just a closeup of the marker. This week’s is the wide shot of the marker.

Third Lederer Expedition Marker (wide shot).
Photographed by J. J. Prats, September 19, 2009

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Historical Marker Database @hmdb.org · 26/02/2025

#OtD in 1932, Country Music Legend Johnny Cash was born! www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=235196

In the early morning hours of May 11, 1965, Johnny Cash was arrested for public drunkenness after he was found picking flowers on this site following a show at Mississippi State University the previous evening. Cash, who spent the night at the Oktibbeha County Jail, memorialized the incident through the song “Starkville City Jail,” which he most famously performed at another correctional institution; it was captured on his 1969 album Live at San Quentin.

Johnny Cash was known for his rebellious nature, which was expressed through advocacy for the underdog, an independent stance in the music industry, and also, for a time, his personal behavior. “There is that beast there in me, and I got to keep him caged, or he’ll eat me alive,” he told the New York Times in 1994, when the success of his album American Recordings prompted a resurgence of his career. Cash was born in Kingsland, Arkansas, on February 26, 1932, and grew up across the state in the Dyess Colony, a Depression-era federal project for cotton farmers. Obsessed with music as a child, Cash developed his skills while serving in the Air Force in Germany as a radio intercept operator. After his discharge he settled in Memphis, where he created his signature sound together with guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant.

Cash began touring widely in 1955 following the success of his first singles for Memphis’ Sun Records, and his reputation was solidified with #1 hits including “I Walk the Line,” “Guess Things Happen That Way,” and “Ballad of a Teenage Queen.” A regular visitor to Mississippi, he played the prestigious Jimmie Rodgers Festival in both 1957 and 1959. His hit-making streak continued through 1965, when his arrest following his show at Mississippi State University received national attention; one Associated Press headline referenced his cover of a song by his childhood hero Jimmie Rodgers—“Johnny Cash is in the jailhouse now.” Cash was able to post bond, and after appearing in court performed the following day on the campus of the University of Mississippi.

Cash recorded many songs about incarceration, including “Folsom Prison Blues,” inspired by the film Walls of Folsom Prison and the loneliness he felt during his military service in Germany; “In the Jailhouse Now;” “I Got Stripes;” “Austin Prison;” “San Quentin;” “Starkville City Jail;” and “There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang,” a duet with Waylon Jennings that warns, “You don’t go writing

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Historical Marker Database @hmdb.org · 17/02/2025

#OtD in 1883, the west side of the Diamond Mine in Illinois collapsed www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=6868 #IllinoisHistory #MineSafetyHistory #historicalmarker

The Diamond Mine of the Wilmington Coal Mining and Manufacturing Company, located near Braidwood on the Grundy-Will County line, was the site of a major mine disaster in Illinois.

The mine was on a marshy tract of land that had no natural drainage. At midday of February 16, 1883, the east side of the mine collapsed from the weight of melting snow, ice, and heavy rains. An alarm was sounded, and miners who were near the escapment shaft hurried to the surface. The main passage to the shaft flooded rapidly, and the weight of the water sealed the ventilation doors in the tunnels. Escape became impossible, and rescue attempts were futile.

Other mines in the area suspended operations, and their workers helped build a dam on the site. For thirty-eight days seven steam pumps removed water from the mine. Volunteers descended the shaft on March 25, and the first bodies were recovered on March 26. The recovery effort was hampered by accumulations of debris and gas as well as by falling rock. Several days later the mine was sealed with the remaining forty-six bodies entombed.

Numerous men and boys died in the disaster; two were thirteen years of age, and two were fourteen. Contributions for families of the victims were received from across the United States and totaled more than $42,000, including $10,000 appropriated by the Illinois General Assembly. In 1898 the United Mine Workers of America placed a monument at the site.

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Historical Marker Database @hmdb.org · 15/02/2025

#OtD in 1947, cabdriver Thomas W. Brown was found dead in #SouthCarolina, leading to the lynching of his last known passenger, Willie Earle. (Marker missing since 2012) www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=40503 @blackhistorydb.bsky.social @civilrightsorg.bsky.social #southcarolinahistory #lynchinghistory

The Willie Earle lynching was the last recorded in S.C. and one of the last in the South. On the night of February 15, 1947, white cabdriver Thomas W. Brown was found mortally wounded beside his cab in Pickens County. Earle, a young black man, was thought to be Brown’s last passenger. He was arrested near Liberty on February 16, accused of assault and robbery, and held in the Pickens County Jail.

Early on February 17, 1947, a white mob forced the Pickens Co. jailer to give Earle up. They drove Earle back to Greenville, lynched him, and left his body on Bramlett Rd. Brown died later that day. The May 12-21 trial of 31 men, rare at the time, drew national attention. Though 26 men admitted being part of the mob, an all-white jury acquitted all defendants. Outrage led to new federal civil rights policies.

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Historical Marker Database @hmdb.org · 14/02/2025

#OtD in 1781, Nathanael Greene crossed the Dan River in Virginia www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=205833 #VirginiaHistory @historians.org @americanrevolution.bsky.social

This quiet crossing awaited its place in history.

John Boyd and his family began operations of Boyd's Ferry here in 1749, carrying people, wagons, and supplies across the river on long flatboats. In early 1781, General Nathanael Greene prepared Boyd's Ferry in Virginia as a crossing for his army. Even before his American army hurried to the Dan River on February 14, 1781, ferry boats from along the river were brought here to cary Greene's troops to the other side. Earthworks were built along the riverbanks to protect the army as it crossed.

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Historical Marker Database @hmdb.org · 12/02/2025

#OtD in 1946, Sgt. Isaac Woodard was beaten and blinded by law enforcement enforcement in South Carolina, prompting Truman to form a Council on Civil Rights. www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=239263 #CivilRightsHistory #BlackHistory @civilrightsmatter.bsky.social @blackhistorydb.bsky.social

Sgt. Isaac Woodard, a black soldier, was removed from a bus in Batesburg and arrested on Feb. 12, 1946, after a dispute with the bus driver. Woodard was beaten and blinded by a town police officer and the next day convicted in town court for “drunk and disorderly.” The incident led Harry Truman to form a Council on Civil Rights and issue Executive Order 9981, which desegregated the U.S. Armed Forces in 1948.

The police officer was charged with violating Woodard’s civil rights but was acquitted by an all-white jury. The result troubled the presiding judge, J. Waties Waring, who would go on to issue landmark civil rights rulings, including a dissent in Briggs v. Elliott (1952), which became a model for Brown v. Board of Education (1954). In 2018 a judge, on the town’s motion, expunged Woodard’s conviction.

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Historical Marker Database @hmdb.org · 10/02/2025

#OtD in 1899, Milligan, Ohio recorded a temperature of -39°F (-39°C), its lowest recorded temperature ever. www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=122407 #ohiohistory @ohiohistory.bsky.social

On February 10. 1899, a United States Weather Bureau Station operated by Steve Eveland, in the small hamlet of Milligan, Ohio, now part of McLuney, reported a temperature of 39 degrees below zero. To date, this is the lowest temperature officially recorded in Ohio. Milligan’s location in the flat valley of the Moxahala Creek made it susceptible to cold air masses drained from surrounding elevations. The record-breaking temperature in Milligan was recorded in the midst of a severe cold spell throughout Ohio that began on February 8 and ended on February 15, 1899 when temperatures reached a few degrees above zero. While Milligan can no longer be found on a map, it has been known as the coldest spot in Ohio for over one hundred years.

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Historical Marker Database @hmdb.org · 08/02/2025

#OtD in 1854, Cedartown, Georgia was incorporated. www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=197547 #Cedartown #georgiahistory

The earliest known inhabitants in the Cedartown area were the Cherokee Indians, who had taken over the surrounding territory from the Creek Indians in the 1760's. Cherokee settlements in the area were known as Char'le Town, Cedar Town and Clean Town. By the 1820's white traders and scouts began to settle in the area, and trading posts were established near Tanyard Branch and the Big Spring. After gold was discovered in the northeast part of the state, Georgia pushed for the removal of the Cherokee Indian Nation by opening their land to settlement in 1832. As a result of land lotteries held by the state, white settlers streamed into the area. A post office was established in Cedar Town in 1833, and the First Baptist Church founded in 1835.

The new settlers of Cedar Valley were rarely resisted by the Cherokee, but the lawless nature of the new settlements led to conflicts between bands of outlaws and settlers attempting to build new communities. One notorious band, called the “Pony Club,” terrorized white and Indian farmers alike. It was not until a group of settlers, called the “Slick Club,” challenged the Pony Club that a sense of law and order was obtained. As Cedar Town grew, pressure to remove the Cherokee from the State of Georgia mounted, and in 1838 Federal troops oversaw the forced migration of the Cherokee to new lands in what is now Oklahoma, known as the Trail of Tears.

Residents began to lobby for the creation of a new county to serve the Cedar Town area. In 1851, Polk County (named for President James K. Polk) was formed and its county seat assigned to Cedar Town. With Cedar Town now requiring a new courthouse, Asa Prior, a planter with a substantial landholding near the original trading posts and Cherokee village, dedicated a tract of land in 1852 for establishing a courthouse and laying out of town plots. Cedar Town was incorporated February 8, 1854.

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Historical Marker Database @hmdb.org · 07/02/2025

#OtD in 1997, Plaza Ramón Frade León was dedicated in Cayey, #PuertoRico 🇵🇷 www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=225586 #puertoricanhistory #cayeypr @puertorockxxx.bsky.social @puertoricosky.bsky.social

Nuestra plaza de recreo existe desde tiempo inmemorable, pero su primera construcción arquitectónica data entre el 1850 (c) al 1853 (c). Era usada como punto de encuentro, reunión, convivencia, lugar de intercambio, mercadeo y despositario. La iglesia católica Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, ubicada a su frente, estaba separada de ella por una calle que para el 1919 el.9oiminaron, quedando desde entonces unidas en un mismo predio. El nombre Plaza Ramón Frade León fue designado un viernes, 7 de febrero de 1997.

[English translation:]
Our city square has existed forever, but it was built up ca. 1850-1853. It has been used as a meeting point, place of exchange, place of business and dropoff. The Catholic Iglesia Señora de la Asunción, located at its east, was originally separated from the plaza by a street that was removed by 1919. Since then the two have been joined. Plaza Ramón Frade León was so named on Friday, February 7, 1997.

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Historical Marker Database @hmdb.org · 06/02/2025

#OtD in 1827, the first bridge over the Merrimack River in #Newberryport, #Massachusetts fell. www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=263633 @mhs1791.bsky.social #MassachusettsHistory

On This Site
The first bridge over the navigable
waters of the Merrimack River was
erected by Timothy Palmer in 1792.

It was superseded in 1810 by a
chain suspension bridge built by
John Templeman from plans furnished
by James Finley of Fayette County, PA.

February 6, 1827 the supporting chains
gave way and the bridge with a heavily
loaded ox cart fell into the river.
It was rebuilt during the following
summer and maintained as a toll bridge
until August 4, 1868, when it was
laid out as a public highway.

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Historical Marker Database @hmdb.org · 05/02/2025

#OtD in 1860, E.P. Sanderson, a philanthropist and steel company owner, was born in Pittsfield, New Hampshire www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=260867

Agents for the Cotton Mill lived in this house during the 19th Century. Agent James A. Treat's nephew, E.P. Sanderson, one of Pittsfield's most generous benefactors, was born here February 5, 1860. Sanderson attended local schools and later founded the enormously successful. E.P. Sanderson Steel Co. of Cambridge, Mass. With his son, Robert, he ran the company for the next 18 years. Upon his death in 1930, Sanderson placed an unusual stipulation in his will which resulted in the Town of Pittsfield inheriting the bulk of his fortune in 1972. Today the Sanderson Trust Fund distributes large sums annually to worthy local projects.

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Historical Marker Database @hmdb.org · 04/02/2025

#OtD in 1913, Rosa Parks was born in Alabama www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=36503 @alabamareflector.com @montgomeryale.bsky.social

Born in Tuskegee, AL on February 4, 1913, to James McCauley, a carpenter, and Leona Edwards, a teacher. Moved with mother and brother to Pine Level, AL after parents' separation. Enrolled in Mrs. White's School for Girls at age 11 and received her high school diploma from Alabama State Teachers College Laboratory High School. Married Montgomery barber Raymond Parks in 1932; both became active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which Mrs. Parks served as local chapter secretary. Family relocated to Detroit, MI in 1957 as result of hostility received after her courageous refusal to give up her bus seat. In 1988, the "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement" was inducted as an honorary member into Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, the oldest African American sorority in the nation. Rosa Parks was the sole class of 2008 inductee into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame.

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Historical Marker Database @hmdb.org · 03/02/2025

#OTD in 1959 was the #DaytheMusicDied www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=190786

Jiles Perry "J.P." Richardson, Jr. was born on October 24, 1930 to Jiles and Elsie Bernice (Stalsby) Richardson in Sabine Pass (26 mi. SE); the family moved to Beaumont when he was six. As a teenager, Richardson began writing songs with country and western influences. Following graduation from Beaumont High School in 1947, he attended Lamar College, where he sang in the choir and played in the band. He also became a disc jockey for radio station KTRM. It was there he developed his "Big Bopper" character and his musical style shifted toward rockabilly, combining country and western with rock and roll. He served two years in the Army but returned to radio work in Beaumont, and as a DJ in 1957 Richardson raised money for charity by spinning records continuously for more than 122 hours. Around the same time, Mercury Records executive Shelby Singleton signed him to a contract, and the Big Bopper went on tour along the east coast. His recording Chantilly Lace was on the top of the charts for six weeks in 1958 and earned him a gold record after being listed among the Top 100 for 25 weeks.

At the age of 28, married with two children, rock and roll star J.P. Richardson joined a group of young musicians on another national tour. Tragically, on February 3, 1959, their plane crashed in Iowa, killing him and fellow artists Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens. Richardson's body was returned here for burial. In addition to the 21 songs he recorded as the Big Bopper, he wrote many more, including Running Bear and White Lightnin', made popular by other singers. J.P. Richardson, Jr. is remembered for his musical talent as well as his larger-than-life persona as the Big Bopper.

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Historical Marker Database @hmdb.org · 26/01/2025

#MarkeroftheWeek Charles de Foucauld in Bani Antar, Morocco 🇲🇦 www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=249405 #moroccanhistory @visitmorocco.bsky.social

Dans cette maison qui etait le Siege du Consulat de France l’explorateur Charles de Foucauld s’est arrete le 28 janvier 1884 venant du Souss
Hommage du Syndicat d’Initiative

English translation
In this house, which was the Seat of the Consulate of France,
the explorer Charles de Foucauld stopped on January 28, 1884 coming from the Souss
Tribute of the Tourist Office

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Historical Marker Database @hmdb.org · 17/01/2025

#MarkeroftheWeek Captain Kathryn Janeway in Bloomington, #Indiana www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=244757 #indianahistory #startrek #voyager

In the Star Trek universe, Captain Kathryn Janeway is born right here in Bloomington, Indiana, May 20, 2336. From her rural beginnings, Janeway moved up the Starfleet ranks as a scientist and began a journey that led her to be captain of the starship Voyageur.

Captain Janeway's character portrayed a woman true to her core beliefs - a leader with the flexibility to adapt to new situations and the grit to tackle tremendous challenges. In the Star Trek: Voyager pilot, Janeway is faced with a moral decision that shapes the trajectory of the series and helps define the character's development throughout the show.

Stranded in the Delta Quadrant, the crew of the U.S.S. Voyager discovers the technology used to pull them across the galaxy had the ability to send them back. To do so, through, would leave a whole planet's population in peril. With the weight of a life-long trek back to Earth before them, scaled against the devastation of an entire species, Captain Janeway orders the destruction of the one thing that could send them home. Stranded at the precipice of their journey, the guilt of that choice feeds Janeway's motivation to see her crew safely home.

The character's success, alongside many male-dominated programs in 1990s television, broke gender barriers. Janeway demonstrated a leadership grounded in intelligence, tenacity, integrity, and faith in herself and her crew. She stood as a symbol of possibility for women across the planet and inspired a generation of real-world scientists, artists, politicians, astronauts, writers, and more.

Star Trek's history of tackling big social questions carved a place for Kathryn Janeway as well. As Captain of the wayward starship Voyager, Janeway helped guide the show's narratives through issues such as civil rights, artificial intelligence, the definition of sentience, and the value of one life over another.

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