Sunday, July 6, 1924 Plutarco Elias Calles elected.

Plutarco Elias Calles of the Partido Laborista Mexicano won Mexico's presidential election with 84.1% of the vote.  Before the emergence of the PRI, which Calles founded, it was the labor party, a democratic socialist party, was the most powerful party in Mexico.

That Mexico, which had just endured a violent attempt at overthrowing the government, was able to successfully stage an election was a triumph of democracy, albeit a temporary one as the PRI would later lock the country up into being a one party state with the PRI as the official party.

Calles was a left wing figure who had come up as a general in the Mexican War.  A controversial figure, he's admired by some for his work on social and institutional changes in Mexico, and an attempt, albeit only partially successful, to reform a military then dominated by revolutionary generals who were a threat to the government itself.  His administration, however, attacked the Church which lead to the January 1, 1927 Catholic rebellion known as the Cristero War, arguably the last chapter of the Mexican Revolution, in which 200,000 Mexicans died and would ultimately bring about the reelection of Alvaro Obregón in 1928.  He was exiled to the United States in 1936 but returned in 1941 when the PRI was firmly in power.  By that time, closer to death, he had become a spiritualist.

The Johnstown Meteor fell to earth in Colorado and interrupted a nearby funeral.  It's only one of eleven such events that have been witnessed.

Johnstown is famous today for the Buc-ee's located there.

Last edition:

Saturday, July 5, 1924. Hitting a concrete wall.

Labels: 1920s, 1924, 1924 Olympics, Art, baseball, Brazil, France, Germany, J. C. Leyendecker

Sunday, January 10, 1943. The final assault at Stalingrad begins.

The Soviets commenced the final assault on Stalingrad.

Sarah Sundin notes, for the same day:

Today in World War II History—January 10, 1943: US launches major offensive on Guadalcanal. Off New Britain, Japanese destroyers and aircraft sink giant submarine USS Argonaut.

The USS Argonaut was a V class submarine launched in 1927 which was in fact of a class that was the largest non-nuclear submarines ever built by the US, with the V-4 being the absolute largest.  It was designed primarily for laying mines.

USS Argonaut.

The American First Party was formed in Detroit by Gerald L. K. Smith.  It should be noted that this is just one of several parties that have used this name.

It was a hyper isolationist party that nominated Smith in 1944 for the Oval Office and then went down in spectacular defeat.  It was thereafter merged into the Christian Nationalist Party.  Indeed, Smith, a Protestant minister, had founded the Christian Nationalist Crusade the year prior.  He had at one time been a major supporter of Huey Long, which brings to mind once again Shepherd's piece on fanatics.  Among other things, Smith was quite antisemitic.

Smith died in 1976, but the Christian Nationalist Crusade went away in 1973.  The Christian Nationalist Party was its political wing.  It's also only one of several parties that have used that name.

Friday November 14, 1941. The Ark Royal Sinks, the Marines Leave, and Suspicion.

Suspicion, the film, not the feeling, premiered on this day in 1941. 

The Ark Royal, hit yesterday by a torpedo, sank.

Remarkably, only one life was lost due to the sinking.

The movie is also mentioned on Sarah Sundin's excellent blog, along with the item that the United States ordered the withdrawal of Marines from China to the Philippines along with the river gunboats of the U.S. Navy.

Today in World War II History—November 14, 1941

The Marine Corps had a presence in China that dated back to the 19th Century, as indeed did the U.S. Army (the 6th Cavalry had once patrolled in northern China).  In context however, the Marines in China in 1941 were there, as were the Navy's gunboats, as part of a military mission in the country to protect American lives and property in the context of the Chinese Civil War. They'd been placed there with that mission in 1927.

Their withdrawal came at this point as it war with Japan was regarded as nearly inevitable and the Navy and Marine Corps mission in the country placed those assigned to it at the mercy of the Japanese, given their location.  The Marine Corps returned to China following the war's end, but were withdrawn again in 1948 as the Nationalist began to slide towards defeat.

And now, Mt. Krakatoa is erupting. . .

or actually Anak Krakatau, which means, in the Indonesian language, the child of Krakatoa.  That latter volcano, of course, blew itself off the face of the earth in 1883, destroying half of the island that it had formed, and leaving a subsea caldera. That in turn depressed the temperature of the planet by .72F, darkened the skies and caused a year of spectacular sunsets and sunrises.  It also resulted in the direct deaths 36,417 people.

Ash plume from Anak Krakatau in 2010.

Anak Krakatau came up out of its caldera in 1927 in the the destructive process of rebuilding the island, making the distinction between Anak Krakatau and Krakatoa merely one of human perception.  The volcano's 2018 eruption produced a deadly tsunami that killed over 400 people.  No deaths have been reported this year, but the ash has ascended to 50,000 feet.

Mid Week At Work: Tobacco, cats, and dogs.

"Men rolling barrels of tobacco across platform over water onto the already crowded CORKER for Louisville, Dec. 11, 1919"

"War dogs decorated for bravery. Group of War dogs decorated by French War department for heroism work on the fighting front"

"This "Kitty" belonged to the Sultan of Turkey. Mrs. Martin K. Metcalf, wife of Commander Metcalf, U.S.N., holding "Pansy" a thoroughbred Turkish cat who formerly did her "meowing" in the palace of the Sultan of Turkey. The cat, brought to Washington from Turkey by Commander Metcalf, is eight years old. She will be one of the interesting entrants in the cat show to be held in Washington at the Wardman Park Hotel, February 1 and 2"

Monday, March 15, 1909. Walking.

Edward Payson Weston, age 71, let the New York Post Office bound for San Francisco on foot, seeking to become the first person to do so.

He would in fact succeed, taking 105 days to accomplish the task.

Weston was a major figure in the rise of pedestrianism, something that was very much in vogue at the time.  After his last major walk in 1913, he warned that automobiles were making people lazy and sedentary, something he was really correct about.  He urged people to talk up waking for exercise and competition.

Not without some irony, he was rendered unable to walk after being hit by a car in 1927, and he passed away in 1929 at age 90.

Congress was called into a special session to consider the Payne Tariff act.

Last prior:

Saturday, March 13, 1909. Sulphur Springs Florida and Augusta Georgia.

Related threads:

Walking