Today in History

February 28

1844 -- The Arkansas State Gazette printed on this day an announcement of formation of a committee to draw up principles for creation of the Far West Seminary near Mount Comfort.
1874 -- J.E. Vaughn announced by advertisement on this day that his livery stables would begin running a new line of hacks every Monday between Fayetteville and Vinita, Oklahoma, where patrons could connect with the Atlantic and Pacific Railway, and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway.

February 27

1835 -- Patent for the land of the original town was issued on this day by President Andrew Jackson. It was described as the south half NE one-quarter and north half of SE quarter, Section 16, Township 16, Range 30 West. In easier terms to understand, this is the land bounded by College Avenue on the east, Gregg Avenue on the west, Dickson Street on the north, and South Street on the south.
1845 -- The Far West Seminary, a school built near Mount Comfort by Fayetteville residents, caught fire and burned on this day.
1925 -- The Fayetteville Outlook Club was founded on this day. The women’s study club met twice monthly through the year 1978 to discuss literature and current events.
1947 -- The University of Arkansas Board of Trustees hired Edward Durell Stone on this day to design a Fine Arts Center for the UA campus. Stone, a former student at the university and later a professor at Yale, designed the first integrated fine arts building in America for the Arkansas campus.

February 26

1988 -- Wynton Marsalis, the New Orleans jazz trumpeter, performed at the Union Ballroom on the University of Arkansas campus on this day.

February 25

1862 -- General Benjamin McCulloch ordered Confederate forces under his command to burn all the commercial buildings, military stores and vacant houses in Fayetteville on this day. After setting torches to the city, the Confederate troops retreated beyond the Boston Mountains but returned within a week headed north to do battle at Pea Ridge.
1970 -- United Press International reported from Fayetteville on this day that four people had been arrested on charges of maiming two relatives whom they believed to be witches. A 28-year-old woman and her 16-year-old sister were attacked because the relatives thought that they had cast a spell on a 5-year-old epileptic girl.
1974 -- Bill Clinton, a law professor at the University of Arkansas, announced his first bid for public office on this day. Clinton ran unsuccessfully for the House seat in Arkansas’s 3rd Congressional District against the incumbent Republican, John Paul Hammerschmidt.

February 24

1840 -- The Honorable Edward Cross accepted nomination from a group of Washington County residents for re-election to the United States Congress on this day.
1912 -- Students at the University of Arkansas published an underground newspaper on this day. Called The X-Ray, the newspaper listed student grievances. Leaders of the student dissent were expelled, and more than 500 students boycotted classes the next day. Governor Donaghey eventually worked out a compromise to reinstate the students.

February 23

1892 -- Vance Randolph, the Ozark folklorist who lived his last years in Fayetteville, was born in Pittsburgh, Kansas, on this day.
1951 -- Actors Charles Boyer, Agnes Moorehead, Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Charles Laughton performed Bernard Shaw’s “Don Juan in Hell” on this day at the University of Arkansas fieldhouse.
1969 -- Senators George McGovern and Daniel Inouye spoke at the University of Arkansas on this day as part of the Symposium ‘69.
1972 -- The Old Washington County Courthouse, built in 1905 at the intersection of College Avenue and Center Street, was added to the National Register of Historic Places on this day.

February 22

1847 -- Archibald Yell, a Fayetteville resident who was Arkansas’s first Congressman and its second state governor, died on this day during the Battle of Buena Vista, one of the largest battles of the Mexican War.
1854 -- Sophia Sawyer, the longtime Fayetteville educator and missionary, died on this day and was the first person to be buried in Evergreen Cemetery.
1927 -- Will Rogers, the famous cowboy humorist and then-mayor of Beverly Hills, California, spoke at the University of Arkansas on this day. He said that Arkansas was one of the few campuses constructing new school buildings rather than athletic gymnasiums, mostly a poke at the rather dilapidated fieldhouse in which he spoke.
1950 -- Martha Graham, the famed choreographer, brought her dance troupe to perform at the University of Arkansas on this day.

February 21

1953 -- The University of Arkansas broadcast its first television program on this day. Two visiting professors of art, David Smith and Edward Millman, gave a presentation about their art during a half-hour show broadcast by KOTV in Tulsa. David Durst, chair of the UA art department, moderated the show, the first of a weekly series titled Arkansas Preview.
1970 -- Bill Russell, former player and coach for the Boston Celtics basketball team, spoke at the University of Arkansas on this day.
1976 -- Black Oak Arkansas and lead singer singer Jim Dandy Mangam performed on this day to a near-riotous crowd of 5,000 fans in Barnhill Arena.
1978 -- The Amazing Kreskin, the world-renowned mentalist, performed for a sell-out crowd of students at the University of Arkansas on this day. Kreskin claimed not to use extrasensory perception but rather extra-sensitive perception to devine the numbers of Social Security cards, link wedding rings together and hypnotize members of the audience through his power of suggestion.

February 20

1935 -- Author Ellen Gilchrist was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on this day. The winner of the American Book Award, Gilchrist has lived in Fayetteville since the 1970s.
1953 -- Pianist Oscar Levant, best known for his interpretations of Gershwin’s works, performed with the University of Arkansas Symphony Orchestra on this day.

February 19

We have no historical notes of interest yet for this date. If your business was established on this date, or your school opened or your community event was first held on this date, let us know. Send us a note.