Showing posts with label 2007. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2007. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 9, 2023

Monday, August 9, 1943. Blessed Franz Jägerstätter

 


Franz Jägerstätter, 36, Austrian farmer and conscientious objector, was executed by the Germans.

Born into poverty and illegitimacy, he was the son of a farmer and chambermaid who could not afford to marry.  He was initially raised by his grandmother, the pious Elisabeth Huber.  His father was killed in World War One and his mother latter married Heinrich Jägerstätter, who adopted him and who gave him his farm upon his marriage.

Irreligious in his youth, he underwent a sudden religious conversion after fathering an illegitimate child and spending a period of time in community exile, during which he worked for several years in iron mines.  Upon returning he became profoundly religions and in turn married a deeply religious spouse.  Upon the German invasion of Austria he openly opposed the Nazis and while he did serve in the German Army in 1940 he refused to take the Hitler oath.  Called back into service in 1943 he refused combat duty, although he did offer to serve as a medic, which was ignored.  He was ultimately died and executed on this day.

He was beatified in 2007.

From Sarah Sundin's blog:

Today in World War II History—August 9, 1943: 80 Years Ago—Aug. 9, 1943: On New Georgia in the Solomon Islands, US northern and southern landing forces link.

The US signed a military assistance treaty with Ethiopia.

Life Magazine hit the stands with an article on female steelworkers.

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Wednesday, June 14, 1922. Birth of Robin Olds

 


Legendary fighter pilot Robert "Robin" Olds, Jr., son of an Army Air Corps officer of the same name, was born this day in Hawaii.

He became a triple ace, scoring kills in World War Two, Korea and Vietnam, and retired as a Brigadier General in 1973.  His father had been a Major General.

Olds was a larger than life character in every way.  He was married for many years to starlet Ella Raines, although their marriage eventually ended in divorce and he remarried (he still came in at half the total number of marriages than his father).  His penchant for drinking likely kept him from rising higher in the Air Force than he did.  He served on the Steamboat Springs Planning Commission in retirement.

He died in 2007 at age 84.

Friday, November 20, 2020

November 20, 1920. Seasonal scenes. Reflections of a century ago and today.


 On this day in 1920, the White House Thanksgiving entre was delivered in a White House shaped crate.


I don't know if this was before the moronic custom of "pardoning the turkey" or not.  Of note, this turkey isn't as plump as the ones you see today in this role for a simple reason, farm turkeys have been genetically selected in the past century to be plump, and hence are more plump than their ancestors of a century ago, save for wild turkeys, which are just about like this.

The custom of collections for the needy was in swing.


The House of Mercy was collecting donations on this day in 1920.  The organization was an Anglican organization that aided unwed mothers.

I have no idea what the giant dog represented.

The House of Mercy now has the unfortunate status of having its named as part of a goofball dance play, Escape from the House of Mercy, by the highly woke who performed it briefly pre Coronavirus Pandemic at a park which is at the location of the New York House of Mercy.  Further performances of this silly stupidity have been postponed until COVID 19 is beat, by which time hopefully the woke will have moved on to something else.

This helps demonstrate, however, that the well off and historically ignorant section of society has no real understanding of conditions of the past in numerous ways.  Society at large in 1920 wasn't as wealthy as it is in 2020, the government largely did not fund welfare systems, and the ability of almost any woman to support herself and an infant without a male income winner was darned near impossible.  Institutions designed to address this weren't hotel resorts, to be sure, but the alternatives tended towards abject destitution.  Fruity dancers aren't likely to experience that condition today, in a much wealthier society in which there are extensive publicly funded social institutions.

Various notables were photographed, and some honored, at some sort of big event in Washington D.C.   This included General Payton March and his family.

Secretary of War Newton Baker and his son Jack also were there.


What this was isn't clear to me, but my guess is that it was a football game.

The Country Gentleman hit the stands with a seasonal cover illustration.


The Russian Orthodox Church issued a Ukase, a set of instructions with the force of canonical law, directing Bishops to carry on outside of Russia, a measure which acknowledged that in most of the country and its former empire the Communist Party was now in control and was suppressing religion. The move lead to the formation of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.  It still exist today in spite of the fall of the Soviet Union, but it reentered communion with the Church in Russia in 2007.  The ROCOR was not the only Russian Orthodox body outside of the Soviet Union, and a small element of its membership went into schism at the time of the reunion. The Russian Orthodox Church is the largest Orthodox Church.