Thursday, July 2, 2020

July 2, 1920 Temerity?


Some of the headlines of a century ago serve as a reminder that "the right side of history" might not be or simply that some major societal change having been enacted into law doesn't mean that people's hearts and minds have followed.

The Democrats were at war with themselves over Prohibition. . . which had just become law.  Clearly a lot of Democrats hadn't accepted that.


And one Frank Hanson, parachutist, died in a practice jump at the Casper airfield, which at that time was just outside of what is now Evansville.  The pilot was Bert Cole.


This was the second fatality involving Cole. His year had started off with the death of Maude Toomey, a local teacher was a passenger in his plane when it crashed shortly after takeoff.  He'd acquired a new plane, which he was using in this instance, and which he piloted into a dive to attempt to break Hanson's fall.  Obviously that effort failed.

Early aviation was incredibly dangerous.  These two accidents provided evidence of that, with parachuting being particularly dangerous at the time.

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