Tuesday, July 13, 1915. Internment.

The Castle Mountain Internment Camp for Canadian enemy aliens was established in Banff National Park, Canada.

The Central Powers renewed their Eastern Front offensive and pushed the Russians back to the Bug.

Last edition:

Sunday, July 11, 1915. Garza enters Mexico City. Revolutionary ambush in Brownsville.

Labels: Battle of Rufiji Delta, Constitutionalist Army, German East Africa, German Kriegsmarine, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Mexico City, Plan of San Diego, police, Royal Navy, Sedicionistas, Texas, Texas (Brownsville)

Saturday, July 10, 1915. Writing the Mexican governments about Huerta.

The Secretary of State to the Confidential Agent of the Constitutionalist Government of Mexico.

Department of State,

Washington, July 10, 1915.

Sir: The Department has received your letter of July 1, in which, by direction of the so-called Constitutionalist Government of Mexico, you request the extradition of General Victoriano Huerta and the detention of Messrs. Felix Diaz, Manuel Mondragon and Aurelio Blanquet with a view to their extradition.

In reply you are informed that, owing to the absence of a recognized Federal Government in Mexico and the well-known conditions existing throughout the Republic, the Department must decline to comply with the request for the extradition of General Huerta.

I am [etc.]

For the Secretary of State:

Cone Johnson.

And; 

The Secretary of State to the Attorney for the Conventionist Government of Mexico.

Department of State,

Washington, July 10, 1915.

Sir: The Department has received your telegram of July 2, in regard to the requisition for the extradition of General Victoriano Huerta addressed by General Fidel Avila, Governor of Chihuahua, to the Honorable James E. Ferguson, Governor of Texas.

I am [etc.]

For the Secretary of State:

Cone Johnson.

And: 

The Secretary of State to the Confidential Agent of the Provisional Government of Mexico.

Department of State,

Washington, July 10, 1915.

Sir: The Department has received your letter of July 3, in relation to the desired extradition of General Victoriano Huerta.

I am [etc.]

Robert Lansing.

The Russians attacked  the hills west of the town of Malazgirt, Turkey, assuming defenses to be  weak which they were not, leading to a Russian defeat.

Last edition:

Friday, July 9, 1915. First casualty of the Border War.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, East German Army, Mexican Border War, Personalities, Texas, World War One

Friday, July 9, 1915. First casualty of the Border War.

 A Mexican raider was shot and killed in a raid on the King Ranch near Kingsville, Texax, becoming hte first fatality of the Border War.  He was killed by a cowhand.

Austrian born German Gen. Victor Franke, commander of the German forces in German South West Africa, surrendered  his small command, and effectively the colony, to the Allies.

Franke lived until 1936.

Last edition.

Thursday, July 8, 1915. The Women's Peace Army.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Army, cavalry, Plan of San Diego, Sedicionistas, Texas, Women, World war one Australia

Thursday, July 8, 1915. The Women's Peace Army.

The Australian Women's Peace Army was formed to protest to Australia's involvement in World War I.

The Plan of San Diego was resulting in some exchanges of fire in Texas.

Last edition:

Wednesday, July 7, 1915. Last meeting of the Mexican Convention.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Armenian Genocide, Austro Hungarian Army, boats and ships, First Battle of the Isonzo, Italian Army, Italian Navy, Kentucky, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Ohio, Terrorism, Weather, World War One

Wednesday, July 7, 1915. Last meeting of the Mexican Convention.

With the country already in a state of civil war, Mexico's governmental Convention convened its last meeting.

The RM Amalfi was sunk by the German submarine UB-15.

The Italians failed to break through Austro Hungarian lines in the Alps.

A bomb planted by Eric Muenter, who had already killed himself, exploded on the munitions ship SS Minnehaha.  Damage was minor.

Swedish diplomat Cossva Anckarsvärd, stationed in Constantinople, reported to his government that "persecutions of the Armenians have reached hair-raising proportions".  He predicted Armenian extermination.

Tornadic weather hit Kentucky hard.  A major windstorm caused significant damage in Cincinnati.

Last edition:

Tuesday, July 6, 1915. Hiding ship.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Battle of Rufiji Delta, German Kriegsmarine, Illinois, Royal Navy, Tanzania, World War One

Tuesday, July 6, 1915. Hiding ship.

The SMS Königsberg emerged from hiding in the Rufiji River for eight months and exchanged fire with British monitor ships HMS Mersey and HMS Severn, forcing both British ships to withdraw.

Illinois adopted its flag.

Last edition:

Monday, July 5, 1915. Anarchist end, Ottoman failure, British withdrawal.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Anarchy, Arabia, Arabs, Battle of Gully Ravine, British Army, Crime, Gallipoli, Ottoman Army, World War One, Yemen

Monday, July 5, 1915. Anarchist end, Ottoman failure, British withdrawal.

 Anarchist bomber Eric Muenter committed suicide while in New York police custody.

The Ottoman Army failed at a final attempt to recapture ground in the Battle of Gully Ravine.

British forces withdrew from Lahij, South Arabia.

Last edition:

Sunday, July 4, 1915. Sedicionistas hit Los Indios. Ottomans and Arabs tribesmen hit Lahij, South Arabia (جنوب الجزيرة العربية).

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Arabs, British Army, Holidays, Immigration, Independence Day, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Ottoman Army, Ottoman Empire, Plan of San Diego, Sedicionistas, Texas, World War One, Yemen

Sunday, July 4, 1915. Sedicionistas hit Los Indios. Ottomans and Arabs tribesmen hit Lahij, South Arabia (جنوب الجزيرة العربية).

Sedicionistas hoped to bring the territory south of the C line back into Mexico.

Sedicionistas, hoping to spark a revolution in the southern US to bring what had formerly part of Mexico back into the country, launched their first cross border raid, hitting the Los Indios Ranch in Cameron County, Texas.

Interestingly, in some parts of the US July 4, 1915 was Americanization Day.

It would  be so defined by the movement supporting it up until entry into World War One and would later become Loyalty Day.

The Ottomans and loyal Arab tribesmen attacked British held Lahij in South Arabia (جنوب الجزيرة العربية), or Greater Yemen).  The city on the Indian Ocean is now in Yemen.

Related threads:

Wednesday, January 6, 1915. The Plan of San Diego.

Last edition:

Saturday, July 3, 1915. Muenter bombs Morgan.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Anarchy, Art, Crime, Independence Day, J. C. Leyendecker, J. P. Morgan, James Montgomery Flagg, Personalities, World War One

Saturday, July 3, 1915. Muenter bombs Morgan.

Anarchist Eric Muenter fled Washington D.C. to New York City where he planted a bomb on the munitions ship SS Minnehaha. He then traveled to the home of J. P. Morgan Jr. with more dynamite and two revolvers, invaded the house intending to take the family hostage and force the Morgan company to stop financing munitions shipments to Europe for the Allied war effort.

He was clearly deluded.

Morgan was at home with his wife and butler and they subdued Muenter despite the anarchist shooting Morgan twice in the groin and leg.

Morgan recovered within the month.  Muenter was arrested.

Muenter was decidedly odd, but very intelligent.  Born in Uelzen, Province of Hanover, he immigrated with his parents and three sisters to Chicago at the age of 18.  While still a student, Muenter worked as a German and French instructor at Racine College and Kenwood Preparatory School between 1895 and 1896,[5] then graduated with his A.B. from the University of Chicago in 1899.  He was a German instructor during this period, but went back to Europe for fourteen months.  He taught German at the University of Kanas in 1902, and then began instructing German at Harvard while he was a student there.

In 1906, while still a student at Harvard, he murdered his first wife by poison.  He went on the run after that, but in those pre Internet, pre drivers license, per Social Security days, he managed to actually resume teaching and studying.  He graduated from Texas A&M University in 1909 and taught at the University of Oklahoma,Vanderbilt University Emory and Henry College and Cornell University, where he earned a PhD.  He remarried during this period.

It was a Saturday.

Last edition:

Friday, July 2, 1915. Porfirio Díaz dies in exile. Muenter bombs the Senate.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Anarchy, Battle of Gully Ravine, David Lloyd George, Gallipoli, German Kriegsmarine, Imperial Russian Navy, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Ottoman Army, Porfirio Díaz, United Kingdom, World War One

Friday, July 2, 1915. Porfirio Díaz dies in exile. Muenter bombs the Senate.

A giant in the history of Mexico, liberal Mexican general and dictator Porfirio Díaz died in exile in Paris.  His wife and surviving son (his three other children died as children) were allowed to return to Mexico.

Díaz would be remembered now as a giant in the history of Mexico, and indeed to some extent he is, if he could have surrendered power democratically in 1910.  He was not of a democratic mindset, but had been a moderating and liberal influence in the country's history and had been very successful as a technocratic dictator, advancing the countries economy a great deal.  Time was ripe for him to surrender power in 1910, and he could be remembered today for advancing the country and bringing into democracy, rather than a man whose attachment to power sent it into radicalism and civil war.

There's also a lesson here about politicians hanging on after their time . . . and into old age. . . 

An opponent of war, German-American anarchist Eric Muenter planted a time bomb in the Senate reception room of the United States Capitol, Washington, D.C.  It went off at midnight and didn't hurt anyone. He stated that his goal was to "make enough noise to be heard above the voices that clamor for war. This explosion is an exclamation point in my appeal for peace."

People with a similar political view would soon be amongst the revolutionary combatants in Russia, but oh well.

Parliament passed the Munitions of War Act to address the shortage of artillery shells in the UK. David Lloyd George was appointed Minister of Munitions to oversee the effort.

At Gallipoli, where a lot of shells were being used, the Ottoman 1st Division staged a second counterattack in the Battle of Gully Ravine and got within 30 metres of British trenches before losses became unbearable.  Ottoman commanding officer Faik Paşa then ordered Ottoman troops to dig in, violating orders from General Otto Liman von Sanders.Paşa was relieved and replaced with Mehmet Ali Paşa, which is confusing.

The Imperial Russian Navy's Baltic Sea squadron attacked a German squadron laying mines in the Baltic Sea at the Battle of Åland Islands. The SMS Albatross was hit and ran aground, with 27 sailors dead and another 49 wounded. The SMS Prinz Adalbert and Prinz Heinrich sailed to assist the German squadron, but British submarine HMS E9 torpedoed Prinz Adalbert and forced it to struggle to shore, damaged.

The Chilean Navy took the submarine Guacolda from the Fore River Shipyard. Built for the Royal Navy, US neutrality laws precluded the British from taking delivery.

Last edition:

Thursday, July 1, 1915. Synchronization Gear.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Aircraft, Battle of Gully Ravine, Battle of Otavi, British Army, Gallipoli, German Luftwaffe, Michael Lee, Music, Public Land, South African Army, The Blues, U.S. Navy, United States Forest Service, World War One

Thursday, July 1, 1915. Synchronization Gear.

South African forces under Louis Botha defeated German colonial forces at the Battle of Otavi in German South West Africa with assistance from Canada, Great Britain, Portugal and Portuguese Angola. 

The Battle of Gully Ravine started at Gallipoli.  Two Victoria Cross awards would occur due to today's actions.

German fighter pilot Kurt Wintgens became the first person to shoot down a plane using a machine gun equipped with synchronization gear, starting the "Fokker Scourge".

Of the event, he wrote:

Dear Karl:

Unfortunately I gave you the wrong address last time, for during my voyage to Mühlhausen I got a different destination and for the time being I am with the Bavarian (unit) Abteilung 6b. Up to now nothing of real interest happened. In Mannheim I had tested the machine and then from Strasbourg by air to the Front, where lately a (Morane) Parasol fighter monoplane à la Garros had made its presence felt.

I had flown to the Front a couple of times without seeing an opponent, until yesterday evening when the big moment came. Time: 6:00 o'clock. Place: east of Lunéville. Altitude: between 2,000 and 2,500 m. Suddenly I notice a monoplane in front of me, about 300 m higher. And at the same moment he had already dived in front of me, fiercely firing his machine gun decently. But as I, at once, dived in an opposite direction under him, he missed wildly. After four attacks I reached his altitude in a large turn, and now my machine gun did some talking. I attacked at such a close distance that we looked each other into the face.

After my third attack he did the most stupid thing that he could do – he fled. I turned the crate on the spot and had him at once, beautifully, in my (gun)sight. Rapid fire for about four seconds, and down went his nose. I could follow him until 500 meters, then, unfortunately, I was fired upon from the ground too hotly; the fight (now) being far over the French lines. Hopefully, I'll soon meet a biplane.

Cordial greetings and so long,

Your friend,

— Kurt"

He'd be killed in action in September, 1916.

The US Navy started the Office of Naval Aeronautics.

The United States Forest Service combined the Jemez National Forest and Pecos National Forest in northern New Mexico to establish the Santa Fe National Forest, which luckily for us today was not hacked up to be sold by Sen. Mike Lee.

The Moapa National Forest was absorbed into the Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada, which fortunately Mike Lee has to keep his hands off of for the time being.

New York City established in the Child Welfare Board.

Blues great Willie Dixon was born.

Last edition:

Wednesday, June 30, 1915. Armenian massacre.

Labels: Armenia, Armenian Genocide, boats and ships, French Army, Gallipoli, Mexican Revolution, Ottoman Army, Ottoman Empire, Shabin-Karahisar uprising, Texas (El Paso), Victoriano Huerta

Tuesday, June 29, 1915. Airpower comes to the forests.

 

June 29, 1915: First Aerial Fire Patrol Took Flight

June 29, 1915: First Aerial Fire Patrol Took Flight

It was a forest overflight.

British colonial forces captured Ngaundere in Cameroon.

Last edition:

Monday, June 28, 1915. Huerta busted, Recreation vital.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Central Powers, Imperial Russian Army, Leasure, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Outdoor Recreation, Pascual Orozco, Recreation, Texas (El Paso), Victoriano Huerta, World War One

Tuesday, December 16, 1924. Looking back.

The Spanish confiscation (Desamortización española) law, authorizing the government of Spain to steal the property and lands of the Catholic Church, a popular enlightenment and Reformation despoliation that happened in many places, was repealed. 

The barbarity had been in place since 1766.

Amongst other things, the law resulted in millions of acres of forest falling into private hands, being deforested, with the cost of reforestation exceeding the value of their sales.  The confiscations of the 19th Century were one of the biggest environmental disasters in Iberian history.

The Supreme Court of Hungary confiscated the property of former president Mihály Károlyi for high treason. He had been convicted of negotiating with Italy in 1915 to keep the Italians out of World War One in exchange for Austrian territory, and for allowing a communist revolution to happen in 1919 by deserting his position.

Last edition:

Saturday, December 13, 1924. Albanian invasion.

Labels: 1920s, 1924, Albania, Art, Yugoslavia

June 16, 1924. The end of the Lone Scouts.

 

The Lone Scouts of America, which had been formed in 1915, merged with the Boy Scouts of America.

Founded as a Scouting organization, the LSA was formed by W. D. Boyce, publisher of the Chicago Ledger and the Saturday Blade.  Bryce was of the view that the BSA didn't help rural boys as the BSA wasn't attracting enough young males to the organization, backing up something that I said here the toher day. . . Scouting was an urban, not a rural, movement.

James West of the early BSA disagreed with Bryce on an organization being needed, as he felt that 4H fulfilled the needs of rural youth.

Lone Scouts were just that, lone.  No leaders were required, although LSA members could form "tribes" if there were other members nearby. Or they could form a "mail tribe" and interact in that fashion. All members received The Lone Scout in the mail.  In 1924 a radio program was added. No uniforms existed until World War One, when the Lone Scout Supply Company was created to form one.

Racism appeared in 1922 when the organization determined to no longer accept black youth.  In that same year, the masthead of The Lone Scout changed from "A Real Boys Magazine" to "The White Boys' Magazine."

The merger came about due to the persistence of the Boy Scouts, which thereafter ran a "lone scout" program, although many of the LSA members dropped out.  When Cub Scouts were added in 1930, a Lone Cub Scouting program was also added.  The program still exists today, with the requirements being, according to Scouting USA:

The Lone Scout plan is a way for any youth ages 7 to 10 (or who is in the first through fifth grades) to become a Lone Cub Scout; or ages 11 to 17 to become a Lone Scouts BSA member. A youth applies for membership as an individual Lone Scout only if he or she cannot conveniently join a Cub Scout pack or Scouts BSA troop.

Scouting was a big deal, so it's not too surprising to find that some famous personalities had been Lone Scouts.  Burl Ives, who we mentioned the other day, was.  Also in the organization were Broderick Crawford, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Orval Faubus, Hubert Humphrey; Fred MacMurray, and Harry Morgan.

King Victor Emmanuel III held an extraordinary council to discuss the Matteotti crisis.  Mussolini's grasp on power appeared to be slipping.

Last prior edition:

Saturday, June 14, 1924. Flag Day.

Labels: 1920s, 1924, California, Flag Day, Holidays, Ku Klux Klan, Unions