Showing posts with label 1926. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1926. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 3, 2026

Thursday, June 3, 1926. Pole Mountain designated as a Wyoming National Guard training range.

Pole Mountain, which had been in use with a temporary designation since 1924, was designated as a approved Wyoming National Guard training range.  It would retain that status up until it was begun to be phased out in 1938 in favor of the New Camp Guernsey, but even at that, training would remain at Pole Mountain right up to until mobilization for the Second World War.

Last edition:

Tuesday, June 1, 1926. Marilyn Monroe and Andy Griffith.

Monday, June 1, 2026

Tuesday, June 1, 1926. Marilyn Monroe and Andy Griffith.


Norma Jeane Mortenson was born in Los Angeles to Gladys Pearl Baker, nee Monroe, who was married at the time to her second husband, Martin Edward Mortensen, but who was not her father.

Newton Baker and Gladys had married when she was only 14 years old. Baker was reportedly abusive.  The couple had two children.  Interestingly, she was born to an American family living in Mexico but one that had strong connections to California, where she grew up.

In 1923 the Bakers divorced and obtained custody of all three of the couple's children.  He, however, kidnapped the oldest two and moved to Kentucky.  Baker was effected by the Roaring 20s and conducted herself to some extent as a flapper and participant in the early feminist movement, which then as later advocated sexual laxity.  She was pregnant when she married Mortensen, who she soon found to be boring, leading to divorce.

Norma Jean's father was likely Charles Stanley Gifford, Gladys's superior at RKO Studios, where she was working.

Gladys and Norma Jeane.

Baker was likely mentally unstable ,which seems to have run in her family.  Based on what evidence exists, it seems like that there was a genetic component to this and she's spend much of the later years of her life institutionalized.

The rest of this story is, of course, well known.  While its speculation, it would seem likely that at least some of the genetic component of her mental instabilities visited themselves upon her daughter, who of course lived a very disrupted early life.

She outlived her daughter and died in 1984.

Andy Griffith was born in Mount Airy, North Carolina.  He was at first a voice comedian and later a famous television actor, best remembered for the Andy Griffith Show.  He was strongly connected to North Carolina his entire life.

The Andy Griffith Show almost defines a certain vision of rural America to this day, and it retains a very strong following.  Unlike the Sheriff protagonist of the show, Griffith married three times and had an affair with one of the shows love interests while it was running.  Irrespective of those failings, he remains widely admired.

Last edition:

Sunday, May 30, 1926. An oral arrangement.

Saturday, May 30, 2026

Sunday, May 30, 1926. An oral arrangement.

In an oral arrangement, Turkey gave  up claims to Mosul in exchange for 10% of the regions oil production for a period of twenty five years.

Last edition:

Wednesday, May 26, 1926. Riffians surrender.

Monday, May 25, 2026

Tuesday, May 25, 1926. Ukrainian assassination in Paris.

Former Ukrainian President and socialist, nationalist leader Symon Petiura was assassinated in Paris by Jewish Communist Anarchist Sholom Schwartzbard, who encountered him by happenstance.

Petiura had been head of the UNA which was responsible for the murder of thousands of Jewish Ukrainians.  He remains a controversial figure.  Schwartzbard would be acquitted of the charge of murder.  He later moved to South Africa.  He had served in World War One in the French Foreign Legion and the Russian Civil War as a Red Guard.  Following the war, he returned to France disillusioned with the outcome of the war.

President Coolidge signed the Public Buildings Act into law, providing funding for construction of federal buildings for the first time in over a decade.

Last edition:

Monday, May 24, 1926. National Parks created. Oil concessions extended. Tokachi erupts.

Sunday, May 24, 2026

Monday, May 24, 1926. National Parks created. Oil concessions extended. Tokachi erupts.

The U.S. Senate passed bills creating Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee.

You can tell the likes of Harriet Hageman and Deseret Mike Lee weren't in Congress at the time.

The Kingdom of Iraq extended the "D'Arcy Concession" of the oil fields in the Diyala Governorate for an additional 35 years past its scheduled expiration date of May 27, 1961. In reality, events would cause the concessions to be renegotiated after World War Two and expire in 1958, the year that the Kingdom of Iraq itself expired.

Most of the concession territory was in Iran and was cancelled in 1932.

Mount Tokachi erupted in Hokkaidō, Japan, killing 140 people.

The volcano is located within the Daisetsuzan National Park.

Last edition:

Thursday, May 20, 1926. Trains and Planes.

Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Thursday, May 20, 1926. Trains and Planes.

President Coolidge signed the Air Commerce Act providing for the licensing of pilots and commercial aircraft.  He also signed the Railway Labor act abolishing the Railroad Labor Board.

The Air Commerce Act provided for an  Aeronautics Branch within the U.S. Department of Commerce to implement and enforce regulations and is depicted as a story element in the film The Great Waldo Pepper.  The film accurately portrays the role of the Aeronautics Branch in brining barnstorming to an end.

1930 photograph by Ernst Udet, German fighter pilot in World War One and Luftwaffe officer during World War Two, upon whom the movie character Ernst Kessler is based in the movie The Great Waldo Pepper.  Udet was a barnstormer in the 1920s.

Last edition:

Wednesday, May 19, 1926. Bad coinage idea.


Tuesday, May 19, 2026

Wednesday, May 19, 1926. Bad coinage idea.

The first and only US coin, so far, to feature a sitting President, the United States Sesquicentennial Half Dollar was issued.


Hopefully this break in tradition will never be repeated.

Zhang Renjie became the first Chairman of the Kuomintang.  His influence would later decline and he immigrated to the United States in 1937.

The French Air Force bombed Damascus.

Last edition:

Saturday, May 15, 1926.

Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Wednesday, May 12, 1926. The May Coup.


Forces loyal to Marshal Józef Piłsudski rose up in a coup against Poland's democratically elected government in no small part due to his belief that he uniquely could and should control the country's destiny and his supporters opposition to democracy.  The coup would result in a new constitution which was in place at the outbreak of World War Two and at least theoretically in place throughout the war.

The Italian built Norge airship reached the North Pole with Roald Amundsen, pilot Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen, Lincoln Ellsworth, Italian engineer Umberto Nobile, Norwegian Navy commander Oscar Wisting and 11 other crew members.  It was the first flight over the North Pole.

The British Trades Union Congress called of its general strike.  A coal miners strike continued.

Last edition:

Saturday, May 8, 1926. First color feature film, testing a famous torpedo fuse, fire at Fenway Park, birth of Sir David Aattenborough.

Friday, May 8, 2026

Saturday, May 8, 1926. First color feature film, testing a famous torpedo fuse, fire at Fenway Park, birth of Sir David Aattenborough.

The first color feature film, The Black Pirate, was released.

Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin addressed the British public about the ongoing strike in the UK, the first such emergency radio broadcast of that type in that nation.

The first test of the Mark 6 torpedo exploder was conducted.


The secret device would not receive much in the field testing before World War Two, at which time it was learned that it had extremely dangerous flaws and defects that needed to be fixed immediately, although they were rapidly learned of and corrected early in the war.

Sir David Frederick Attenborough was born, and turns 100 years old today.  

A major fire broke out at Fenway Park.

It was a Saturday.





Last edition:

Friday, May 7, 1926. Resumed wars.

Thursday, May 7, 2026

Friday, May 7, 1926. Resumed wars.

U.S. sailors landed at Bluefield, Nicaragua to protect U.S. citizens in the wake of revived fighting in a civil war.

French aircraft bombed Rif positions in Morocco as the Rif War resumed.

Last edition:

Saturday, May 1, 1926. Things labor on May Day.

Friday, May 1, 2026

Saturday, May 1, 1926. Things labor on May Day.

Ford Motors introduced the 40 hour workweek into American industry.  They reduced what had been a 48 hour workweek to that level, with no reduction in pay.


Five people were killed and 28 injured in May Day fighting between Polish Communists and Socialists.

A lot of Americans seem to be too dim to realize there's a difference between the two, but there is.

800,000 British coal miners were locked out.






Last edition:

Friday, April 30, 1926. Bessie Coleman killed.

Thursday, April 30, 2026

Friday, April 30, 1926. Bessie Coleman killed.

Famous African American aviator Bessie Coleman was killed along with passenger, her mechanic and promoter, William D. Willis when her Curtiss JN-4 crashed. A post accident investigation found a wrench jammed in the controls which jammed them.


The airplane was newly purchased and in poor mechanical condition.  Her friends had urged her not to fly due to the condition.

Last edition:

Monday, April 26, 1926. Caroline Lockhart sued.

Sunday, April 26, 2026

Moday, April 26, 1926. Caroline Lockhart sued.

Caroline Lockhart was sued for liable in Cody.


Still a well known figure in Cody, it strikes me that Ms. Lockhart is probably hardly known anywhere else.  The eclectic Lockhart was a rancher and journalist.  She died in 1962 at age 91.

Last edition:

Wednesday, April 21, 1926. The Day of Sorrow.

Friday, April 24, 2026

Saturday, April 24, 1926. Neutral but hedging bets.

The Soviet Union and Weimar Germany pledged to remain neutral if either nation got into a war in the next five  years.

A Flapper Fanny cartoon for the day:


It was a Saturday.

The Saturday Evening Post had a Rockwell that would go on to be one of his favored illustrations.


Last edition:

Tuesday, April 21, 2026

Wednesday, April 21, 1926. The Day of Sorrow.

The Al-Baqi' cemetery in Medina was razed under orders of Saudi King Abdulaziz ibn Saud in what some Muslims recall as The Day of Sorrow (Persian: روز غم Ruz-e Gham, Urdu: یوم غم Yaum-e Gham).  The act was done  primarily to enforce Wahhabi doctrine forbidding building structures over graves, viewing that as idolatry.

The cemetery before it was flattened.  Numbered buildings are 1. Bayt al-Aḥzān (Arabic: بَيْت ٱلْأَحْزَان), House of the sorrow of Fatimah bint Muhammad 2. Mausoleum of four Shia Imams: Hasan ibn Ali (2nd), Ali ibn Husayn al-Sajjad (4th), Muhammad ibn Ali al-Baqir (5th), Ja'far ibn Muhammad as-Sadiq (6th) 3. Daughters of Muhammed 4. Wives of the Muhammed 5. 'Aqil and Abdullah ibn Ja'far 6. Malik and Nafi' 7. Ibrahim, the little son of the Muhammed 8. Halimah al-Sa'diyyah 9. Fatimah bint Asad 10. Uthman, the third Caliph.

The act was protested by both Sunni and Shiia clerics.

Queen Elizabeth II was born.

Last edition:

Saturday, April 17, 1926.