This date in Delaware history

Compiled by Roger A. Martin
Special to the Coastal Point

1821 — The Sunday School Act was passed by the General Assembly, whereby the state would give 20 cents for every white student of any school started in the state

1922 — William and Nellie Smith of Harrington sold 30 acres for $6,000 to the Kent-Sussex Fair Association — land upon which was to be built a grandstand and track.

Feb. 4

1833 — The Delaware General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the people of the Eastern Shore of Maryland to be united with those of Delaware, but nothing came of it in Maryland.

1899 — Cordelia Botkin of San Francisco, Calif., was convicted and given life imprisonment for the murder of Ida Deane and Mary Dunning of Dover. They died after eating poisoned chocolate candy sent by Botkin in the mail.

Feb. 5

1796 — The stage trip between Philadelphia and Baltimore took five days with “roads in fearful condition.”

1833 — Newark College (later the University of Delaware) was chartered by the General Assembly.

1941 — The City of Dover requested bids on the construction of an airport southeast of town. The site of 587 acres was purchased from Charles Paradee, Arthur Davis and Michael Scanlon, and eventually became the Dover Air Force Base.

2003 — The remains of the seven astronauts killed in the explosion of the returning space shuttle Columbia over Texas four days prior arrived at the Dover Air Force mortuary for processing and identification of remains to be returned to their families.

Feb. 6

1831 — Joseph B. Rodney, son of the late Caesar A. Rodney, was killed in Fairfax County, Va., on a sleigh ride.

1963 — The Delaware River and Bay Authority was formed to create a ferry line between Cape May, N.J., and Lewes.

2005 — Former Gov. Elbert N. Carvel, three days from his 95th birthday, died peacefully at his home in Laurel. Until his death, John Townsend had been the longest surviving governor (1917-1921) when he died in 1964 at age 92.

Feb. 7

1640 — The ship Key of Kalmar, which first brought Swedish settlers to Wilmington two years prior, left its home port on its second expedition for New Sweden (Delaware River).

1822 — The Delaware House of Representatives failed to abolish slavery by a vote of 11-6.

1970 — The Black Student Union at the University of Delaware interrupted the Honors Day program by seizing a microphone and calling for the appointment of an Afro-American studies professor.

Feb. 8

1865 — The Delaware General Assembly rejected the 13th Amendment (abolishment of slavery) to the U.S. Constitution even though it became law across the land 10 months later.

1915 — Jacob Miller and his wife, from Norfolk, Va., were the first Old Order Amish to arrive and live in the Dover area.

1939 — The Warner Theater, Wilmington’s last big movie house, opened at 210 West 10th Street. Admission tickets cost 25 cents until 2 p.m. and slightly more thereafter.

Feb. 9

1796 — Delaware’s legislature laid the groundwork for statewide public schools by stating that “all money accruing from marriage and tavern licenses should be appropriated as a fund for the establishment of public schools.”

1831 — With the Delaware River full of ice, Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River was raked by a $100,000 fire. Maj. Benjamin K. Pierce, brother to future President Franklin Pierce, was forced to abandon Fort Delaware for New Castle taking with him his four infant children and the body of his wife, who had died of disease three days before. The contingent, along with 150 troops, took refuge in the Arsenal on the Green.

1955 — The Delaware State News reported that Delaware’s U.S. Sen. John Williams, of Millsboro, uncovered corruption in the office of the Internal Revenue Bureau in St. Louis.