1771  
North Carolina Royal Governor William Tryon with a force of less than 1500 militiamen faced an ad hoc army of about 2000 “Regulators” at the Battle of Alamance, a few miles west of Hillsborough, NC.  At issue was the Regulators' refusal to pay taxes until corruption and abuses in the government of the colony ceased.  Tryon's governmental forces won the day. The Regulators disbanded, and in the “exodus of the Regulators” that ensued, they crossed the spine of the Appalachian chain and settled in the Tennessee country. These were the “Overmountain Men” who settled Sycamore Shoals and other settlements in what is now East Tennessee. Robert Beverley, The East Tennessee Almanac (Franklin, NC: Sanctuary Press, 1992), p. 120 and www.rootsweb.com/~ncalaman/battleof alamance.html.

1839  
Methodist circuit rider William Gannaway Brownlow published from his iron works four miles southeast of Elizabethton the first edition of one of the state's earliest newspapers, the Tennessee Whig. The following year Brownlow moved the paper's operation to Jonesboro.

1926  
The 500-seat Bonnie Kate Theater, designed by architect J. Frank Spires of Welch, WV, opened. The theater was built by Roy Trump, who presided over the installation of avante garde seating, making the Bonnie Kate the first “rocking chair theater” east of the Mississippi. Michael and Lanette Depew, Images of America: Elizabethton. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2004, p. 42.

1997  
Milligan College President Marshall Leggett's (1951) campaign to raise money for the refurbishment of Seeger Chapel resulted in a Johnson City Symphony Orchestra benefit co-sponsored by Paty Lumber, The Hoover-Price Foundation, and King Pharmaceuticals. The symphony performed Brahm's Requiem. Clinton Jack Holloway (1995), Age Deo Fide et Amore: A History of Milligan College 1940-1966. (Unpublished thesis, Emmanuel School of Religion, 1998), p. 81.


Elsewhere . . .

Birthdays: In 1763 chemist Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin in Saint-André-d'Hébertot in Normandy, France . . .  in 1801 US Secretary of State William Henry Seward in Florida, NY . . .in 1913 jazz clarinetist Woody Herman in Milwaukee, WI . . .in  1929 Adrienne Rich in Baltimore, MD.

In 1527 Florence, Italy, became a republic.

In 1532 Sir Thomas More resigned as English Henry VIII's Lord Chancellor.

In 1770 Marie Antoinette of Austria, aged 14, married Prince Louis of France, age 15. 

In 1804 The Senate and Tribune of France proclaimed an emperorship in the lineage and heredity of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Do you know something that happened on this day in Milligan history?  Is this the birthday of a Milligan personality?  The anniversary of a Milligan event?  If so, send it to Phi Alpha Theta at phialphatheta@milligan.edu.