Kentucky Anniversaries
May 1, 1810
Butler County was formed from Logan and Ohio Counties.
May 17, 1817
Isaac Callahan, Thomas Begley, Jr., and Archelous Gibson are hanged for the murder of David Newberry. While the murder was in Clay County, there was a change of venue to Knox county, where the hangings occured.
May 17, 1875
The very first Kentucky Derby is run at Churchill Downs in Louisville. After returning from a trip to England to in 1872, Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr., grandson of the explorer William Clark, concocted the idea of a jockey club for fellow sportsmen to race and as a showcase for fine Kentucky horses. Clark built the track and named it for his mother, Abigail Prather Churchill. The first horse to win the first Kentucky Derby was Aristides, ridden by jockey Oliver Lewis.
May 1900
The USS Kentucky (BB-6) was commissioned in Newport News Virginia.