July 17
2021: Beaufort karate instructor Chuck Elias is promoted to ninth-degree Black Belt at the United Fighting Arts Federation (UFAF) International Training Conference in Las Vegas. At the time of his promotion, by Chuck Norris, there were only 10 ninth-degree black belts in the system.
July 18
2019: Beaufort’s Mike Rainey, dealing with a damaged propeller, made an emergency landing on the 18th fairway of the Cat Island Golf Course in his vintage 1943 De Haviland Tiger Moth biplane.
2020: After the annual concert on the sandbar in the Beaufort River that usually coincides with the Beaufort Water Festival was canceled because of COVID-19, dozens of boaters held an impromptu gathering at the sandbar anyway.
July 21
2008: Beaufort Mayor Bill Rauch resigns with less than four months left in his administration after being charged the previous week by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission with insider trading. Mayor Pro Tempore George H. O’Kelley Jr. presides over the Beaufort City Council and held the office on an interim basis until November.
2019: Erin “Tank” Morris is named the 65th commodore at the close of the 64th Beaufort Water Festival. Morris took the reins from Brian Patrick.
— Compiled by Mike McCombs
