Russian poet Nikolay Gumilyov, who refused to accommodate himself to Communism, was arrested by the Cheka. He'd shortly be tried and executed on charges of being part of a non-existent anti-communist plot. He shared his fate with sixty others.
Gumilyov spent much of his life outside of Russia, but joined the army when World War One arrived, serving as a cavalry officer. Following the Russian Revolution, he made no secret of his contempt for Communism and openly continued to make the sign of the cross in public.
On this day in 1921, Mussolini entered into a short-lived pact with several other Italian radical parties, those parties all being from the left.
While the Pact of Pacification would not last, its one of the examples of the early history of fascism which creates confusion as to where it stands on the political scale. The parties to the agreement were all left-wing parties, and of course Mussolini had at one time been a Socialist. Fascism itself adopted a sort of corporatist economic policy when it came into power.
Elsewhere in budding fascist movements, the Nazi Party formed the Sturmabteilung, the SA, which would form its fighting wing. The militant SA was instrumental in the party's rise to power in the late 1920s and early 1930s, but would be suppressed after the Nazis came to power as those who had accommodated themselves to Nazi rule were put off by it, and it further was an open rival to the German army, which it sought to replace. This would ultimately lead to the violent 1934 purge of the organization in which its leadership was violently put down. Contrary to widespread belief, however, it continued to exist, effectively marginalized, until the collapse of Nazi Germany. Following the war, it was declared to be a criminal organization.
First "Crop Dusting". August 3, 1921.
On this day in 1921, crop dusting, spraying pesticides by air, was performed for the first time in an experiment involving the U.S. Army and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
First crop dusting being conducted.The first flight featured Army Air Corps pilot John A. Macready and aircraft engineer Etienne Dormoy who performed the test with a Curtiss JN4 over a field outside of Troy, Ohio. Lead arsenate was sprayed to attack caterpillars.
Dormay left, Macready right.
Macready would complete an Army career prior to World War Two, leaving the service in 1926, but was recalled to serve in the Second World War. He retired from the Army Air Force in 1948. He was a legendary pilot at the time and had many firsts while in the service, including being the first Air Corps pilot to parachute from a stricken aircraft at night.
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