Saturday, July 13, 1901. A good effort.

Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont became the first person to fly around the Eiffel Tower three times, a requirement for winning ta prize of 100,000 francs sponsored by oilman Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe.

He didn't get it as he failed to timely complete a round trip between the Longchamp Racecourse and the Tower within less than half an hour. 

William McKinley became the first President to ride in an automobile.

It was a Saturday, and the Saturday Evening Post ran this odd cover.

The accompanying article was "An American Invasion".

Last edition:

Wednesday, July 10, 1901. Registering for 160 acres of Oklahoma.

Labels: 1870s, 1876, 1900s, 1901, Agrarianism, China, Crime, Minnesota, Minnesota (Northfield), Northfield Minnesota Raid, Oklahoma, Qing Dynasty, The James Gang

Sunday, July 9, 1911. Partido Constitucional Progresista

Francisco I. Madero issued a manifesto changing the name of his movement the Progressive Constitutionalist Party (Partido Constitucional Progresista).

France and Germany agreed to negotiate an end to the Agadir Crisis.

Last edition:

Saturday, July 8, 1911. Aspinwall rides into New York.

Labels: 1910s, 1911, 62nd Congress, Art, children, entertainment, Equine Transportation, New York, Weather, William F. Cody, Women

Saturday, July 8, 1911. Aspinwall rides into New York.

Nan Aspinwall arrived in New York City, making her the first women to cross the United States by horse.

She was a performer in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and made the trip after a bet with Buffalo Bill Cody.

It was a Saturday, and on the East Coast, a hot one.

Vice President James S. Sherman broke a Congressional tradition by bringing an electric fan into the Senate Chamber.

Members of Congress followed his example that very day.

Burbank California was incorporated.

Last edition:

Friday, July 7, 1911. Fur seals, heat wave.

Labels: 1910s, 1911, children, Conservation, Diplomacy, East Coast, Environmentalism, Ireland, Monarchy, United Kingdom, Weather

Thursday, July 1, 1926. Sweden creates an air arm, Safeway and Skaggs merge, Canada goes back on the gold standard.

The Country Gentleman had switched over to being a monthly at this point.

The Swedish Air Force was founded with the merger of the aviation elements of the Swedish army and navy.

Safeway and Skaggs merged with the Safeway as the surviving entity.  It had 995 stores.

The march of the chain grocery store was of course on. Casper had a Piggly Wiggly at this time, but it also retained a huge number of local grocery stores at this time.

Canada returned to the gold standard.

Last edition:

Monday, June 28, 1926. Mel Brooks born in Brooklyn.

Labels: 1920s, 1926, actors and actresses, Canada, Comedians, entertainment, Immigration, Judaism, New York (Brooklyn)

Saturday, July 1, 1911. The Agadir Crisis commences.

Germany delivered the unwelcome news to France that Germany had dispatched the SMS Panther with troops to occupy Agadir, part of French Morocco, on the pretext that it was to protect German citizens there.

The action would bring Europe to the edge of war.

Australia introduced compulsory military service for men ages 12 to 26, although half were exempted in various ways.

The Jewish Literary Society was closed by Imperial authorities in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

It was a Saturday, and the Saturday before Independence Day.

Last edition:

Friday, June 30, 1911. The Navy acquires an airplane.

Labels: 1910s, 1911, Aircraft, Infantry, Morocco, Spain, Spanish Army, Spanish Empire, U.S. Navy

Saturday, June 29, 1946. Operation Agatha.

The British Army launched Operation Agatha, the arrest of suspected Jewish terrorist in Palestine.  The Haganah escalated terrorist attacks in response.

It was a Saturday.

Last edition:

Friday, June 28, 1946. First Hāfu (ハーフ).

Saturday, June 19, 1926. Cadaverum cremationis.

Pope Pius XI promulgated the papal instruction Cadaverum cremationis, affirming the Catholic ban on cremation.  The prohibition would be relaxed by Pope Paul VI on June 5, 1964, but at least with some Catholics, myself included, the practice is looked down upon. Subsequent popes have also written on the practice.

DeFord Bailey became the first African-American to be listed in newspaper radio schedules as a performer on the WSM Barn Dance (The Grand Ole Opry).  He had performed on the show previously.

from the studio of the Nashville radio station WSM. As authors note in a biography of Bailey, "he had probably begun regular appearances before then.

It was a Saturday.

Last edition:

Friday, June 18, 1926. Egyptian troops at Mecca.

Labels: 1920s, 1926, 69th Congress, Egyptian Army, Food, Greece, Hobby and Interest Organizations, Islam, Localism, Mecca, Monarchy, Philately, Russia, trends

The only substitute for an experience we ourselves have never lived through is art and literature. They possess a wonderful ability: beyond distinctions of language, custom, social structure, they can convey the life experience of one whole nation to another.

The only substitute for an experience we ourselves have never lived through is art and literature. They possess a wonderful ability: beyond distinctions of language, custom, social structure, they can convey the life experience of one whole nation to another.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Painted Bricks: An outcry erupts as a whale mural beloved by many in Dallas is replaced with art for the World Cup

Painted Bricks: An outcry erupts as a whale mural beloved by many ...:  One more reason to hate soccer: An outcry erupts as a whale mural beloved by many in Dallas is replaced with art for the World Cup This is ...

An outcry erupts as a whale mural beloved by many in Dallas is replaced with art for the World Cup

 One more reason to hate soccer:

An outcry erupts as a whale mural beloved by many in Dallas is replaced with art for the World Cup

This is the stupidest era in recent history.

Saturday, May 15, 1926.

 

Last edition:

Wednesday, May 12, 1926. The May Coup.

Labels: 1920s, 1926, Arctic, Exploration, Józef Piłsudski, Lighter than air aircraft, May Coup, Poland, Roald Amundsen, United Kingdom

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.

Labels: 1920s, 1926, Banana Wars, French Air Force, Morocco, Navy, Nicaragua, Rif War

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.

Labels: 1920s, 1926, Aircraft, Ethnicities, Personalities, Women

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:

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

Labels: 1920s, 1926, Islam, Monarchy, Saudi Arabia (Medina), United Kingdom

Saturday, April 17, 1926.

Last edition:

Saturday, April 10, 1926. "Big Business and State Socialism are very much alike, especially Big Business."

Labels: 1920s, 1926, Art, Card Games, Chesterton, Clothing, Education, Geology, Golf, Hawaii, Native Americans, Random snippets, The Press, Youth Organizations

Saturday, April 10, 1926. "Big Business and State Socialism are very much alike, especially Big Business."

It was a Saturday.

Chesterton penned one of his observations:

Big Business and State Socialism are very much alike, especially Big Business. 

G.K. Chesterton (G.K.’s Weekly, April 10, 1926)

Quill and Scroll, the high school journalism honor society, was founded at a convention held at the University of Iowa.

Mauna Loa erupted.  

Last edition:

Wednesday, April 7, 1926. Gibson shoots at Mussolini.

Labels: 1920s, 1926, Crime, Italy, Mussolini

Holy Saturday, April 3, 1926

Last edition:

Friday, April 2, 1926. "Fianna Fáil"

Labels: 1920s, 1926, California (Los Angeles), Calvin Coolidge, Eamon de Valera, Fianna Fáil, Ireland, Irish Free State, League of Nations

Tuesday, March 28, 1876. The Haitō Edict.

The Japanese government issued the Haitō Edict, The Sword Abolishment Edict (廃刀令) prohibiting people, with the exception of former lords (daimyōs), the military, and law enforcement officials, from carrying weapons in public, including swords.

It was an attack on the former samurai class, with their establishment itself having already been eliminated.

Heavily romanticized, the samurai were one of the traditional Japanese classes which were an impediment on the Meji government consolidating power and modernizing the country.  Regular citizens bearing arms had been banned in 1870 as part of the effort and the Imperial Japanese Army, with conscription, established in 1873.  The moves were resented, but successful in consolidating imperial power.

Last edition:

Sunday, March 26, 1876. Big Horn Expedition returns.

Labels: 1870s, 1876, 1877, 1890s, 1899, Army, Big Horn Expedition, Great Sioux War, Personalities, Wyoming (Ft. Fetterman)