Friday, September 18, 1942. Far from home.

The Rohwer War Relocation Center, a Japanese American internment cap, opened in Desha County, Arkansas.

Popular myth has held that all internment camps were in the West, but this one obviously wasn't. 8,500 people were held there during the war, in a location that was probably as alien as imaginable from their homes.

FWIW, the current population of Desha County is nearly half of what it was in 1940.

The British occupied Tamataave on the east coast of Madagascar in their undeclared war on the Vichy French in Madagascar.

The British also concluded Operation Anglo, the long-running raid on Rhodes, successfully.

The 4,157 man 7th Marine Regiment and one battalion of the 11th Marine Regiment, land on Guadalcanal.  Additionally, food arrives, allowing the Marines to go back to full rations.

Saturday, July 29, 1922. Late July Summer.

The Saturday magazines hit the stands, with The Saturday Evening Post featuring a circus dog and clown by Leyendecker.

It's certainly a well done illustration, but I've always found clowns creepy.

An article appeared in that issue on Elanor Franklin, certainly an early one.

The Literary Digest featured a Rockwell.
 

And a poll on prohibition, which was already becoming unpopular, even though it had really only just recently become the law overall.

The Country Gentleman featured an illustration that likely couldn't grace the cover of a magazine today.

Colliers simply went with the always popular female portrait.

The German Mark hit a new low.

Oil was discovered at Smackover, Arkansas, that had a population of 100.  That population would reach 25,000 within a few months.

The government reported that the Catholic population of the United States had reached 23,000,000.

People were out doing Saturday things.

January 10, 1921. History lost.

On this day in 1921, the Census of 1890 was badly damaged in a fire at the Commerce Department.  Not only did the fire consume records, but the resulting effort to fight it also did. And, moreover, the records were left in deep water overnight with open windows in a result to dry them back out.

The result of the 1920 election were quietly certified by Congress.

Oil was struck in Arkansas.

September 30, 1919. The Elaine Massacre.

Richmond Virginia, September 30, 1919.

On this day in 1919 the Red Summer spread to Arkansas when over 100 black residents of the Elaine area were killed after violence erupted when white law enforcement officer, accompanied by one black trustee, arrived at a meeting of blacks associated with the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America. The Union had armed guards, which given the events of that summer and even that week was a wise precaution.

The union was a black sharecroppers union and there was no reason that it shouldn't have been meeting.   The entire event lead to convictions for murder of several black men that were later overturned by the United States Supreme Court.  That event can be regarded as a turning point in the Supreme Court's scrutiny of such matters and therefore, in some ways, the Elaine Massacres can be regarded as ushering in, very slowly, what would become the Civil Right Era.  The event also provides a very clear example of why the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution exists.

Tuesday, July 15, 1919. 1919 Motor Transport Convoy, Wooster to Bucyrus, Ohio. 63 miles in 11.75 hours.

The transcontinental Army motor convoy made good progress on this day in 1919, 63 miles in 11.75 hours.

Reference in these entries is made again and again to the "Militor". The Militor was a 3 ton artillery tractor that was equipped, in this case, with some sort of apparatus that allowed it to operate as a wrecker.  It was an Army designed truck and proved to be the hero of the expedition, being highly reliable and capable.

Militor

We don't think of the Army as designing its own vehicles, but it was to do this twice.  Once in this instance, and again some years later, again with artillery tractors. That second experiment would lead to the legendary 6x6 vehicles that would prove to be, in our opinion, the most effective military implement of World War Two, in the civilian produced version.  That design development came about during peacetime and due to considerations other than that of an ongoing massive war.

On this day as well, Pope Benedict XV issued a declaration in favor of equal political rights for women.

Elsewhere, Little Rock was photographed.

Transportation disasters and milestones, and a draft war. July 9, 1918.

101, officially, (it may have been 121) people were killed and 175 injured in  a train collision of two trains belonging to the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway near Nashville.  Many were black munitions workers on their way to work in Nashville.

The locomotives were actually repaired and put back into service, being retired in 1947 and 1948.

It is the worst railroad accident in American history.

Elsewhere, and more specifically in Alberta, American aviatrix Katherine Stinson made the first airmail flight in Western Canada, flying a mail sack from Edmonton to Calgary.

Stinson had been flying for six years at the time and had already set air records. Indeed, she's figured on our blog before.  She would later become an architect and worked in that profession for may years.

In other news of the day, July 9, was day two of the Cleburne County Draft War in Arkansas.  The small armed conflict involved draft resisting members of the Jehovah's Witnesses who became involved in a gunfight with local law enforcement and then fled into the rural hills, picking up other draft resistors on the way.  The Arkansas National Guard responded to search for them.  The event would end in a few days, after the loss of one life in the conflict, when the resistors surrendered.  This was one of three "draft wars" in Arkansas, which was highly rural and retained strong aspects of the Southern ruralism at the time, which would occur during World War One.

Camp Pike, Little Rock, Arkansas. March 5, 1918.

Camp Pike (National Army Cantonment), Little Rock, Arkansas, Nov. 5th, 1917

Sunday, July 12, 1914. Mehmedbašić arrested.

Muhamed Mehmedbašić, whom is generally forgotten, was apprehended for the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.  He was one of the principal planner of the killing plot.  A Muslim, he lived a complicated life supporting Serbian independence. 

Mehmedbašić in 1943.

He escaped from prison two days later in circumstances that remain suspicious, remained involved, perhaps, in various movements, and was killed by the Ustaše in 1943, showing perhaps that he remained a significant figure in some ways.

Albanian rebels captured Berat.

Shots were fired at the homes of striking miners in Hartford, Arkansas, causing them to riot thereafter.

Last edition:

Saturday, July 11, 1914. Babe Ruth premiers, as does the USS Nevada.

Labels: 1910s, 1914, 1940s, 1941, 1944, 1945, 1948, Anarchy, baseball, boats and ships, Diplomacy, Germany, Iwo Jima, July Crisis, Okinawa, Operation Dragoon, Serbia, U.S. Navy, World War One, World War Two