This day in Lexington, April eighteenth — we're going back to seventeen seventy-five, when Paul Revere made his famous midnight ride warning that the British were coming. But here's what you might not know: our Lexington has deep ties to that original Lexington, Massachusetts, where the first shots of the American Revolution were fired the very next morning.

When Kentucky pioneers started naming settlements in the seventeen seventies and eighties, they honored those Massachusetts patriots by calling our community Lexington too. The town that would become our city was actually founded just a few years after that historic night, around seventeen seventy-nine, by explorers who wanted to commemorate the courage shown at Lexington and Concord.

So when we drive down Revolutionary Road or pass by the statue of John Hunt Morgan downtown, we're reminded that our Lexington carries forward the spirit of that April night almost two hundred and fifty years ago. Those Massachusetts farmers who stood up to the British Army helped inspire the name of the city we call home today.

That's your history for today.

Listen live: The Lexington Times runs a 24/7 local news livestream — watch on YouTube or on Facebook. This transcript is from a recent on-air segment.