Alexander Campbell (born in Dungloe, County Donegal, Ireland, died 21 June 1877 in Mauch Chunk, Carbon County, Pennsylvania) was a businessman who, along with three other alleged Molly Maguires members, was hanged for the murders of two mine operatives.
Campbell proclaimed his innocence to the end, and in doing so, slapped a muddy handprint on the wall of his prison cell, declaring that the mark would remain forever as a sign of his innocence. Legend has it that despite many attempts to remove it, including building a new wall, the mark still remains today.
Other Notes of Interest:
1798 - Irish Rebellion of 1798: The British Army defeats Irish rebels at Battle of Vinegar Hill
1898 - Guam becomes a U.S. territory.
1919 - Royal Canadian Mounted Police fire a volley into a crowd of unemployed war veterans, killing two, during the Winnipeg General Strike.
1940 - World War II: France surrenders to Germany.
1942 - World War II: A Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at nearby Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by the Japanese against the U.S. mainland.
1948 - Columbia Records introduces the long-playing record album in a public demonstration at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.
1964 - Three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Mickey Schwerner, are murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi, United States, by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
1982 - John Hinckley is found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
2002 - The World Health Organization declares Europe polio free.
Notable Births:
1002 - Pope Leo IX
1812 - Moses Hess, Jewish socialist and nationalist
1850 - Daniel Carter Beard, founder of the Boy Scouts of America
1892 - Reinhold Niebuhr, Protestant theologian
1905 - Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and writer
1910 - Aleksandr Tvardovsky, Soviet poet
1925 - Maureen Stapleton, American actress
1947 - Michael Gross, American actor (dad from Family Ties)
1973 - Juliette Lewis, American actress
1982 - Prince William of Wales, British prince
Notable Deaths:
1377 - King Edward III of England (I fart in your general direction!)
1527 - Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian historian and political author
1591 - Aloysius Gonzaga, Italian saint
1796 - Richard Gridley, American Revolutionary soldier
1893 - Leland Stanford, American business tycoon and founder of Stanford University
1934 - Thorne Smith, American author (Turnabout, Dream's End, The Night Life of the Gods)
1979 - Angus Maclise, American mystic, shaman, musician, and composer
1987 - Madman Muntz, American entrepreneur, businessman, electrical engineer, TV commercial actor
1997 - Fidel Velázquez Sánchez, Mexican labour leader
2001 - John Lee Hooker, American musician (Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom)
2007 - Bob Evans, American restaurateur
