January 15
2008: A report is released ending the investigation by the Navy into the April 21, 2007, crash of the No. 6 U.S. Navy Blue Angels McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18 Hornet during the final minutes of the air show at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort. The lone fatality was the pilot, Lt. Commander Kevin “Kojak” Davis. Eight nearby residents were injured, and millions of dollars worth of private property damage were caused by the crash. The report states that when LCDR Davis pulled back into a 6.8-G pull, he lost control of the aircraft due to G-force-induced Loss Of Consciousness (G-LOC).
January 16
1865: U.S. Army Gen. William T. Sherman issued Special Field Order No. 15, appropriating the Sea Islands and coastal lands for freedmen. Gen. Rufus Saxon was given the task of assigning the head of each family 40 acres and the temporary use of a horse or mule, likely the origin of the expression “40 acres and a mule.”
January 17
1711: The Lords Proprietors chartered the “building of a town to be called Beaufort Town” in honor of the new Proprietor, Henry Somerset, the Duke of Beaufort. The town was “to be located on the Port Royal River on Port Royal Island.” The Port Royal River was later renamed the Beaufort River.
January 19
1907: The Great Fire of Beaufort, allegedly started by three young boys hiding in a barn to smoke a cigarette, burned more than 40 houses and businesses in Beaufort and did more than $150,000 of damage – roughly $5 million in today’s dollars.
— Compiled by Mike McCombs
