Thursday, May 30, 1946. First post war Indianapolis 500.

The Indianapolis 500 was run for the first time since 1941.  George Robson, took the race.

Robson was killed in a racing accident that September.

Over 90 passengers were killed in a railway accident at Hengyang, China.

The day prior the Senate had defeated a really badly thought out plan by Truman to draft striking rail workers.

Air travel was expanding.

Last edition:

Saturday, May 25, 1946. Jordanian independence, Railroad strike ends.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, Harry S. Truman, Jordan, Labor unrest, Monarchy, Railroads, Strike Wave of 1945-1946, Unions

Monday, May 31, 1915. An Armenian provisional state.

Imperial Russian general Nikolai Yudenich arrived in Van, Turkey and appointed Armenian resistance leader Aram Manukian Governor of the Armenian provisional government.

British and Ottoman troops fought in the marshes of the Tigris between the towns of Amara and Qurna, Mesopotamia (Iraq).

The Germans pushed the French back at Souchez.

British and French colonial troops laid siege to German forts around Garua, German Cameroon.

Zeppelin L38 bombed London.

Italian Ralph DePalma won the 5th Indianapolis 500 driving a Mercedes 18/100.

Last edition:

Saturday, May 29, 1915. Success against the Ottomans.

Labels: 1910, 1915, ANZAC, Art, Australian Army, Gallipoli, New Zealand Army, Ottoman Army, World War One

Sunday, May 25, 1975. A Sunday in May.

Bobby Unser won the 1975 Indianapolis 500, which was halted after 435 miles due to a rainstorm.  My father likely would have watched this on television.

There was a lunar eclipse.

I turned 12 years old, although I don't remember it.  In 1975 we probably went to Mass the evening prior.  As this was a Sunday in May, we may have gone fishing on the river during the day.  We wouldn't have had a party or anything, but my parents would have gotten me a few gifts and likely my mother made some sort of a cake.

Last edition:

Saturday, May 24, 1975. Virus variola major.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Disease, India, Somalia

The 2024 Election, Part XXVI. The Early Voting Edition.

October 8, 2024.

Early voting starts today in Wyoming.

October 11, 2024

I have more complaints on grocery. The word grocery. You know, it's sorta simple word, but it sorta means like everything you eat. The stomach is speaking. It always does. And, uh, I have more complaints about that. Bacon and things going up.

Donald Trump.

I could be right now in the most beautiful ocean, on the sand, exposing my really beautiful body - so beautiful - to the sun and the surf…

Donald Trump.

Danica Patrick is going to moderate a J.D. Vance Town Hall.

cont:

Primary results: Eastern Shoshone Business Council and Entertainment Committee

October 21, 2024.

Arnold Palmer receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from George Bush.

Donald Trump started off a campaign rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, with a ten minute surreal ramble a out Latrobe native son, Arnold Palmer, stating as part of them:

Arnold Palmer was all man, and I say that in all due respect to women — and I love women.  But this guy, this guy, this is a guy that was all man. This man was strong and tough. And I refuse to say it, but when he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there, they said, "Oh my God, that's unbelievable".

He also included vulgar comments about Kamala Harris.

You have to tell Kamala Harris that you've had enough, that you just can't take it anymore, we can't stand you anymore, you're a shitass vice president. The worst. You're the worst vice president. Kamala, you're fired. Get the hell out of here.

This is, to say the least, vulgar and odd.

Indeed, while it'll sound like a conspiracy theory, at  this point I'm fairly convinced that National Conservatives have backed Trump so that they can get one of their own, J. D. Vance, in a position to take over once Trump is declared mentally in competent early in a second Trump administration, should it occur.  There's no way that they could elect a candidate as President on their own, but with a weirdly acting Trump, they may very well get one in this fashion.

Cont:

Two of the panelist on This Week openly stated that the Arnold Palmer comments are due to a mental decline in Trump.  One stated it was age related, and certainly they both implied it.

Cont:

Tapper: Is the closing message you really want voters to hear from Donald Trump stories about Arnold Palmer's genitals?

Johnson: Let's put the rhetoric aside

Tapper: People have concerns about his fitness and stability. Why is he talking about Arnold Palmer's genitals in front of Pennsylvania voters?

Johnson: Don't say it again we don't have to say it

October 22, 2024

Barrasso Joins Trump At Steelers Game; Crowd Gives Ex-Pres Thunderous Welcome

Primary results: Northern Arapaho Business Council sees some shake-ups moving into the general

Cont:

I just went down and voted.

I also didn't vote for the GOP or Democratic candidates for Senate and House.  The Democrats stand no chance at either office, and they keep nominating candidates too far on the progressive scale.  The GOP Senator up for reelection is shamelessly supporting Trump even though its highly unlikely he really agrees with him on much, which makes it all the worse. The House candidate up for reelection seems to have fully adopted the populist viewpoint. 

I'm a conservative.  I wrote a couple of actual conservatives in.

I voted for the measure to allow the state constitution to be amended to add a new category for residential property, even though I'm very unsure about it. And I voted for all the city optional tax measures.

The whole time I was there some ancient man with a MAGA hat was wondering around ambushing people waiting in line with his far right populist views.  He really hit some poor coal miner hard who clearly just wanted to be left alone to vote.

One of his points was that the United States didn't invent transgenderism.  Somehow, in his mind, this assertion was a reason to vote for Trump.

Cont:

It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a fucking Mexican!  Don’t pay it!

Trump's reaction, reportedly, to a bill received from the family of  Pvt. Vanessa Guillén after he had offered to pay funeral expenses.

Why can’t you be like the German generals?

Trump to John Kelly in showing frustration about their independence. Trump was apparently unaware of the July 20 plot, according to Kelly, and not aware that Erwin Rommel killed himself. 

Last edition:

The 2024 Election, Part XXV. The GOP yells "get off my lawn" edition.

Labels: 2020s, 2024 Election, American Solidarity Party, Democratic Party, Donald Trump, Immigration, J. D. Vance, Kamala Harris, Mental Health, Politics, Pope Francis, Populism, Republican Party

Moday, September 1, 1924. The Dawes Plan goes into effect.

The Dawes Plan went into effect.

The Russian All-Military Union, comprised of the remaining members of the White Russian Army, was founded in Yugoslavia by General Pyotr Wrangel in the Serbian town of Sremski Karlovci.  It was supposed to be an aid origination for White veterans.

П.Н.ВРАНГЕЛЬ, митрополит Антоний (Храповицкий) и другие гости и постояльцы в «Здравнице имени генерала Врангеля» в Белграде на Дединье. Надпись на фотографии: "В первый день святой Пасхи в здравнице в Топчидере 11/24 апреля 1927 года" 15,5 х 24 см. на картоне. владельческая запись на оборотной стороне, указывающая персонажей. подклейка прозрачным скотчем. очень редкое фото. Санаторий (здравницу) для больных русских военных в Белграде устроила жена полководца баронесса О.М.Врангель (1883-1968). В первом ряду сидят (слева направо): Сергей Николаевич Палеолог (бывший русский посланник в Сербии), генерал Пётр Николаевич Врангель, митрополит Антоний (Храповицкий), архиепископ Анастасий (Грибановский), Ольга Михайловна Врангель протоиерей Пётр Беловидов доктор Николай Александрович Терещенко (начальник «Здравницы»).

Amazingly, it still exists.

Joe Boyer was fatally injured  at the infamous Altoona Speedway in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

Last edition:

Saturday, August 30, 1924. Late summer scenes.

Labels: 1920s, 1924, Art, Calvin Coolidge, Currency, French League of Nation Mandates, German Weimar Republic, Illinois, inflation, It was because of World War One, Ku Klux Klan, Lebanon, Monarchy, Norman Rockwell

Sunday, February 24, 1924. Machines.

Mexican Federals defeated rebels in Tamaulipas.

The Berliner gyrocopter No. 5 gave its first successful demonstration.  U.S. Army Lt. Harold R. Harris flew it for one minutes and 20 seconds at the College Park Airport, near the University of Maryland, in front of the press and members of the U.S. Navy.

Harris has been mentioned here before due to his career as a test pilot.  He lived until 1988, dying at age 92.

The Beverly Hills Speedway hosted its final race, which was attended by 85,000 automobile racing fans.  Harlan Fengler broke the world's record for a 250 mile race, averaging 116.6 mph.

Fengler would go on to be the Chief Steward of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from 1958 until 1974.  He passed away in 1981 at age 78.

Saturday, May 26, 1923. The Twenty Four Hours of Le Mans

The first Le Mans automobile race took place.

The French executed some Germans who were committing acts of sabotage and the like against their occupation of the Ruhr.

One of the terrorist was one Albert Leo Schlageter, a former German officer of the Great War and a Freikorps officer who had engaged in acts of sabotage against the French.  He was not a "Red" and would go on to obtain mythic status in the German far right, including the early Nazis, who in fact murdered his betrayer.  The killers of that individual were one Rudolf Höss and Martin Bormann, who would later go on to roles in the Third Reich.  They were first captured and sentenced for their role in the murder.  

Bormann is well known, but Höss less so.  He was Auschwitz's longest commanding officer and was executed in 1947.  Facing execution, he came to see his actions as gravely immoral and wrote this out to his wife prior to his execution:

My conscience compels me to make the following declaration. In the solitude of my prison cell, I have come to the bitter recognition that I have sinned gravely against humanity. As Commandant of Auschwitz, I was responsible for carrying out part of the cruel plans of the 'Third Reich' for human destruction. In so doing I have inflicted terrible wounds on humanity. I caused unspeakable suffering for the Polish people in particular. I am to pay for this with my life. May the Lord God forgive one day what I have done. I ask the Polish people for forgiveness. In Polish prisons I experienced for the first time what human kindness is. Despite all that has happened I have experienced humane treatment which I could never have expected, and which has deeply shamed me. May the facts which are now coming out about the horrible crimes against humanity make the repetition of such cruel acts impossible for all time.

On this same day, a Communist lead strike in the Ruhr expanded.

The British made the Emirate of Transjordan autonomous, but not independent of British oversight. It would achieve full independence in 1946.

Turkey waived reparations claims against Greece at Lausanne in exchange for the Thracian territory.

Sunday, September 17, 1922. Separations.

The Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania declared its autocephalous nature at the conclusion of a conference.   That status would be recognized by the Patriarch of Constantinople in 1937.

Metropolitan Visarion Xhuvani, the head of the Albanian Orthodox Church during its unrecognized autocephalous stage.

Today there are seventeen autocephalous, i.e., self-governing, Orthodox Churches, with the most recent one to be granted that status being the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.  The topic can be a bit controversial in a larger Apostolic Christian sense, as the Catholic Church, which is also comprised of self-governing churches, and which by far makes up the largest body of Christians on Earth, does not recognize the theological claim of the Orthodox Churches that occupant of the Chair of St. Peter is the head of all the Apostolic Christian churches.  For its part, Orthodoxy recognizes the legitimacy of the Chair of St. Peter, but holds its occupant to be the "First among Equals".  The Catholic Church recognizes the legitimacy of the Orthodox Churches, but disputes its position on that point.

Orthodox Churches that obtain autocephalous status must do so through the Patriarch of Constantinople, who is the head of the "Mother Church".

The Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico formed through the union of a number of similarly minded parties.  Its goal was and remains independence for Puerto Rico.

Flag of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico.

The viability of Puerto Rico as a potential independent state is increasingly questionable.  It would always have been a small country, but the territory has become increasingly economically distressed.  Finding a legitimate reason for it not to obtain statehood, however, is also increasingly difficult to do.

The Kansas City Speedway held its first race.

The USGS guys were out again.

This photograph below is interesting.  It's the first one I can recall of a man wearing a t-shirt as outerwear.

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.

Tuesday, July 4, 1922. Independence Day.

It was, of course, Independence Day, and parades and celebrations took place in communities across the country, such as this one at Takoma Park, Maryland.

Sybil Bauer shattered a series of female swimming records on this day in 1922, swimming at Brighton Beach.

Bauer, who became engaged in college to future television host Ed Sullivan, went on to swim in the 1924 Olympics. The marriage did not take place, however, as she died at age 23 of cancer.

At Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the Marines reenacted the pivotal day of the battle.

The last race at the Tacoma Speedway took place.

Tuesday, May 30, 1922. Lincoln Memorial Dedicated.

Today was Memorial Day for 1922, the date at that time coming on May 30 and not being tied to a Sunday.

The day features national, and local, celebrations.

On this day in 1922, the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated.

The event drew many notables, including the surviving son of the late President, Robert Todd Lincoln.

Speeches were delivered by a collection of dignatories, including former President Taft and current President Harding.

One of the big events was the Indianapolis 500, then as now.

On the same day, Germany flew its flags at half-mast outside of the Reichstag over the loss of Upper Silesia.

Latvia signed a concordat with the Vatican, allowing Catholics freedom to practice their faith.