Porfirio Díaz opened anew session of the Congress of Mexico outlining his plans for reform, including limiting presidential terms to one.
Tsinghua University opened in Beijing.
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Last edition:
Showing posts with label China. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 1, 2026
Friday, March 20, 2026
Two Weapons stories as the US heads towards ground troops deploying, again, in the middle east.
The Marine Corps, which insists on avoiding equipment adopted first by the Army, looked at the M7,and said, nah. . .
M7 Rifle.
Marines not interested in switching from M27 to Army’s M7 anytime soon
Chances are good, I'd rate them as overwhelming, that the USMC will be using M27s within a week or two in Iran. This will be the modified HK416's first major combat use, maybe its first use at all.
M27 Automatic Rifle.
Marines in China with M1895 Navy Lee, at the time at which the Army was using the Krag. They didn't use it long.
And there's now drone killing ammunition:
U.S. Military Unveils "Drone Killer" Rifle Cartridges | An Official Journal Of The NRA
The pelletized ammunition sort of resembles "snake shot" for pistols used by outdoorsmen in the summer months. It was developed by the Navy.
Monday, March 16, 2026
The end of the American Century and planning for what comes next.
Donald Trump is systematically accelerating American decline making what might have happened over a two or more decades, had the existing trends remained and the U.S. not corrected itself, take place over a matter of months.
By the end of the Trump presidency, even if that end happens this year with him being taken out of the White House in a straight jacket, the US will not be the world's dominant economic power. China will be, followed by the European Union. The US will not be the leader of the free world, that's already ceased to be the case. The EU is. The US won't even be the moral leader of North America. Canada is.
And thanks to the war with Iran, the US is rapidly ceasing to be the military power it once was. Traditionally declining global powers lose that status last, and I suppose that's what's happening to us, but in a matter of months rather than decades, as is the norm. We are, right now, losing a war with a third rate power and we don't even know why we are fighting it, other than that Bibi Netanyahu wanted it fought while he had somebody he could coax in the White House. Right now, nations that looked to us since 1939 for help are quitting that, or have quit. Maybe only a few remain in the Pacific, but that will end within a matter of months.
Had Trump not pushed this all into high gear, it might have happened over a long period of time anyhow. The US hasn't been in control of its budget for decades and that was going to cause this to occur no matter what. We might have been able to arrest that with a major effort, but that would have required most of the current members of Congress to get new jobs. Now, however, things are so accelerated much of this is just going to happen all on its own.
Americans had better get used to it quickly and, for that matter, they'd better start planning for a post Trump world where we dance to the tune called by others, not to the one we called.
While we can lament this in many ways, not all of it will be bad. We will have to start rebuilding coalitions, but we're going to have to accept that we'll be regarded as a junior, and stupid, member of them. We deserve that. We're going to start building green energy and the like as people are going to tell us to and we're going to like it. People like Chuck Gray who run around screaming "not on my watch" will be looking at green power in California by the end of 2027.
We're going to have to look at reforming our tax and economic structure. A lot of the giant moneybucks people like Musk will be leaving anyhow. They love money, not the country, and the money will be leaving. We're going to have to pay for what we buying, and what the Baby Boomer and their parents bought, in terms of a government. Foreign countries are going to give us no choice. We're not going to be the world's banker within the next two years.
People who worried about "forever wars" and the like, after the war against Iran is over, won't have to so much anymore. They'll get what they wanted, just not the way they wanted it. We'll crawl back to our alliances, but we'll be a comparative minor member in many ways. As we can't pay for the huge military we have, we likely won't have it. I'll look at that in another post.
Nothing lasts forever and you don't appreciate the good things, in many cases, while you have them. Trump hasn't done the United States one single favor in either of his administrations. He'll go down in history as the worst President in American history. His legacy will be the acceleration of the end of the American Century.
Sunday, March 15, 2026
Monday, March 15, 1926. Boxer Rebellion Echoes, Manhunt ends, National Guard Cavalry Inspection.
The signatories to the Boxer Protocol gave China an ultimatum for the commanders of the Taku Forts, who had just fired on the Japanese, to remove all mines placed at the mouth of the Pei River and to end their blockade of Tianjin by noon on Friday, March 19.
At least 12 ships from the U.S. Navy, the Royal Navy, the Imperial Japanese Navy, France and Italy were blocked from traveling into the Pei River to Tianjin. They were authorized to end the blockade by force if necessary.
A manhunt came to an end:
Of interest to us here, an inspection of National Guard cavalry was taking place in what was a unit that comprised Idaho and Wyoming National Guardsmen. I knew that had happened later (the joint command), but I wasn't aware of it being so early, well before the 115th Cavalry Regiment came into existence.
Last edition:
Sunday, March 14, 1926. Reddy Kilowatt introduced. Manhunt in Natrona County.
Thursday, March 12, 2026
Friday, March 12, 1926. The Savoy opens.
The Savoy opened in Harlem, and would remain open until 1958.
Japanese destroyers were fired upon by the Chinese from the Taku Forts.
Last edition:
Thursday, March 11, 1926. Governments and labor.
Sunday, February 8, 2026
Friday, February 8, 1946. Kim Il Sung's rise. Viola Faber, accused of murdering her stepson, gives birth.
Kim Il Sung was elected Chairman of the Interim People's Committee in the Soviet occupied portion of Korea. Originally, the Soviets preferred Cho Man-sik to lead a "popular front" government but Cho, to his credit, refused to support a Soviet-backed entity. Red Army General Terentii Shtykov supported Kim over Pak Hon-yong to lead the Provisional People's Committee for North Korea, and therefore Kim was selected on this date.
He remained subordinate to General Shtykov until the Chinese intervention in the Korean War.
More strike problems on the front page of The Rocky Mountain News.
A person had to read deeper into the News to see the story on Viola Elliot. Page 5, where you need to go, is set out below.
She was accused of the beating death of her stepson, Robert. She denied it, but she was convicted of second degree murder. Her 8 year old son by a previous marriage was a witness for the prosecution at the trial and Mrs. Elliot admitted at the time of arrest that she had hit and kicked the child on the occasion of his death. She later changed her story and claimed he'd tripped on his pajamas.
Her parents and husband said they'd stand by her at the time of her arrest, but I wonder if that was still the case later on. At her sentencing, she stated that Leslie was just as responsible for the death and the judge agreed. Leslie had already been arraigned for assault and battery and assessory after the fact. In April she petitioned the County to make her children wards of the County, to which her husband objected. They were noted to be "estranged" by that time.
Viola was 27 years old and on her second marriage at the time. She would have had her first child, if her son who testified was the first at age 19 in 1937 or 1938. The paper mentioned that there were three children, including the murdered boy. Interestingly, I can find one other reference to a "Miss Viola Elliot" from 1937 indicating that Viola Elliot was employed as an arts and crafts teacher. A 1943 edition mentions a Viola Elliott as being just back in town after visiting her husband in Tennessee, who was probably in the service.
Viola received 15 to 20 years for the murder.
Leslie would receive six months for assault and battery.
Her mother, Alice Faber, testified at the trial, as did her father. Alice died in 1966 and is buried in Denver. Her obituary listed Viola as still living, still with the last name Elliot, and in Denver. The Fabers also had a son named Wilmer, who was alive at the time. The boy who testified at the trial was living in California.
Her father died in 1961.
Arguments were occuring on the Bomb.
A resort was being planned near Fort Logan.
An impressive imposter story was reported.
Last edition:
Thursday, February 7, 1946. France attacks in Bến Tre Province, Truman speaks. Bikinis appear in the press. Strike controls. Army shoes on the market.
Sunday, December 21, 2025
Friday, December 21, 1945. Patton dies.
George S. Patton died at age 60, the result of injuries sustained in an automobile accident several days earlier.
The general's daughter woke up in the United States and saw him standing, in full uniform, at the foot of her bed, where he smiled. His daughter Beatrice received a phone call in which he asked "Little Bee, are you alright?'” An attempt to confirm the call in the morning ended up in the information that no oversees call had been placed.
Such incidents are not uncommon. A fairly large number of people experience post death visitations of people they knew, with it most commonly being the case that they happen very soon after the person's death. Indeed, in ancient times, Jews believed that the spirits of the dead were not aware of their deaths for a three day period, and the Irish custom of a wake stems from a desire to stay awake with the recently departed to help them know that they had died.
Patton was one of the most controversial American generals of the Second World War. A member of the cavalry branch, he's famously recalled as an armor general. Almost all of the really effective armor generals in the U.S. Army from the Second World War were cavalrymen. While now hugely admired, during the war the two slapping incidents he was involved in nearly cost him his career.
Patton, although he died due to an accident, fits into a fairly large collection of senior military officers that died right after the war.
The Battle of Shaobo in China ended in a Communist victory. It was another one of the battles in which Chiang Kai Shek pitted Chinese collaborationist units that had rejoined the Nationalist against the Communists.
From the same newspaper as above:
Casper received news that the Texas Refinery was going to expand.
It's now closed.
Ethiopian Airlines was founded.
Last edition:
Thursday, December 20, 1945. Tires.
Thursday, November 27, 2025
Tuesday, November 27, 1945. Slinky first sold.
The legendary toy The Slinky went on sale for the first time. Gimbels in Philadelphia offered it.
Patrick J. Hurley, attorney and career civil servant, resigned as Ambassador of China having submitted a blistering letter of resignation the day prior.
Born in Oklahoma to Irish immigrant parents, he's started off in life as a cowboy and mule driver before becoming a lawyer. His work as a mule driver started when he was only 11 years old, and he attempted to join the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry at age 15. He graduated with a law degree from National University School of Law in 1908 and went to work in Tulsa. He received a second law degree from George Washington University in 1913, by which time he was already a successful businessman and rising in Republican politics. He served in the Oklahoma National Guard during the Punitive Expedition and was a Judge Advocate during World War One, as well as serving as an artillery officer, for which he received a Silver Star. He was the Assistant Secretary of War under Hoover. He started of World War Two as a General before going on to be a diplomat. He'd retire to New Mexico where he'd die in 1963.
Most assessments of his role in China are not favorable.
As the Sheridan paper makes plain, the US was busy beating itself up over Pearl Harbor, even as the early rumblings of the Cold War were beginning.
He was replaced in his role by George Marshall, a role that Marshall is generally not recalled for.
Norway adopted the UN Charter.
Last edition:
Monday, November 26, 1945. Now's the Time, Wolves and War Brides, Questionable claim about Goering, Test tube babies in Virgin hospitals, Japanese social insurance, ties for Christmas.
Tuesday, November 25, 2025
Wednesday, November 25, 1925. Hats.
The Turkish Hat Law, banning non Western headgear, took effect.
Beijing's Forbidden City was opened to the public for the first time.
Last edition:
Tuesday, November 24, 1925. William F. Buckley born
Monday, October 20, 2025
Saturday, October 20, 1945. 100%?
The Battle of Ambarawa began between Indonesian and Dutch forces, proof, I suppose, that war doesn't tire people from war, in spite of what people may suppose.
Mongolia voted 100% in favor of leaving China, which it had really done in 1911 anyway, with over a 98% voter turnout.
100%?
And that voter turn out?
Anyhow, Mongolia became de facto independent in 1911, although China entered with force in 1919. In one of the bizarro incitements of history, the Chinese were forced out by the forces of the uber creepy White Russian forces of Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, whose forces were in turn routed by the Red Army in 1921, whereupon it became a defacto Soviet satellite.
Last edition:
Friday, October 12, 1945. Operation Beleaguer.
Sunday, October 12, 2025
Friday, October 12, 1945. Operation Beleaguer.
I missed this when it started, which was October 10, so I'll note it here. This was day two of Operation Beleaguer, the Marine Corps occupation of northeastern China's Hebei and Shandong provinces from 1945 until 1949.
Members of the 1st Marine Division in China. Two Chinese women appear in this photograph, one dressed in Western clothing, even though the Marine Corps attempted to strictly prevent romances breaking out between Marines and Chinese civilians. People are people, so such interactions are essentially impossible to stop, but this particular story is very understudied, in part because Asian women were not covered by the War Brides Act, but marriages nonetheless occured. 5,132 Chinese women entered the United States as spouses of servicemen after World War Two, which included women who married Army Air Corps servicemen who had served in China during the war. This is, overall, a small number, and indeed its must smaller than the number of Japanese women who married U.S. servicemen after 1950, which reflects official policy, cultural differences, and lingering US prejudice in the period against the Chinese.
It was not a combat operation, although some combat would ultimately occur, but focused on the repatriation of more than 600,000 Japanese and Koreans that remained in China at the end of World War II to their homelands. Having said that, the looming crisis in post war China in which a seemingly defeated Communist Party began to advance in the country's civil war was not far from anyone's mind and the primary mission of force was to prevent the People's Liberation Army from accepting the surrender of Japanese soldiers in Northern China and to secure that region of China for the Nationalist Government, which had been an American ally throughout the war. Landings actually commenced as early as September 30. By the end of the operation in 1949, the 1st Marine Division would be a covering force for the evacuation of foreign nationals.
U.S. Marines had been in China well before World War Two, but in this instance the it was effectively a different Marine Corps than the one that had existed up until 1940. The Marine Corps had only been a major combat force once previously, and that had been during World War One when the 4th Marine Brigade had been part of the US Second Division. The 1st Marine Division dated back only to February 1, 1941 when the military started to enormously expand in anticipation of going to war. Given its prior history, only the Marines themselves really anticipated being a major ground combat element in the war, ultimately expanding to six divisions. Six divisions is a huge Marine Corps, but the Corps was dwarfed in size by the Army, even in terms of Pacific combat, where the Army deployed twenty two divisions.
With the end of the war the service began to return men quite rapidly to civilian status and members of the Marine Corps, the vast majority of whom were wartime volunteers, anticipated the same. Prior to the war Marines tended to be career oriented to a high degree, and frankly about as rough of set of characters as could be imagined. By 1945 most of them were toughened civilians in uniform, comparable to volunteers in the U.S. Army, and some were conscripts. Nobody anticipated being sent into China, even though prior to the war Marines had served there.
Because the military was in fact demobilizing, this would prove to be a problem for the 1st Marine Division in China, as it soon began to suffer attrition due to members being discharged. It's combat efficiency dropped, and at the same time, it became increasingly obvious that the Communists were going to win the Chinese Civil War.
While going to China was a surprise to the Marines, the found when they arrived that the Chinese were wildly enthusiastic about their appearance. No doubt their showing up meant not only that they were liberated from the Japanese, but also from the Communists and the Nationalist, at least for a time.
On this, while we're jumping way ahead of our story, it's also worth noting that this points out a problem in the "who lost China" line of the Republican Party following the evacuation of the Chinese Nationalist from the mainland. There are a lot of elements to that story, but the GOP at the time, suddenly shocked following the Berlin Blockade and then the fall of the Nationalist government in China, looked for somebody to blame.
It might be noted at first, that they should have looked at themselves. The GOP had been actively highly isolationist prior to World War Two and evcen leading up the last year before the war there were strong elements within the party that opposed entering the war. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor followed by the German declaration of war on the U.S. solved that for a time, but upon the restoration of peace, the main branch of the GOP returned to isolationism. The US didn't become isolationist as the 79th Congress remained controlled by Democrats. The 80th Congress did not, but it was somewhat ineffectual for that period (which is nothing compared to today). The 80th Congress, however, notably presided over the fall of China.
Be that as it may, some have suggested that US inaction over China was due to the penetration of the US by Soviet spies in the 1930s, and there may be a little to that, but only a little. M. Stanton Evans hinted at that in his revisionist biography of Joseph McCarthy, which is quite well done and a good read. But even there, the suggestion was that Communist elements managed to hold up arms shipments to the Nationalist. Even were that true, any follower of this site could see that in 1945 China was awash in arms and yet at the same time the Nationalist were losing battle after battle.
It is something worth exploring. Before the war with Japan, the Nationalist were winning. After the war, it just took five years for them to lose.
Anyhow,, realistically, looking at Operation Beleaguer, what really could have been done? The US was not going to be able to send U.S. troops into a Chinese Civil War right after World War Two. There was no public will for that at all and no moral within the U.S. military that would have allowed for that to have occured.
Elsewhere in China, the Shangdang Campaign ended in communist victory.
German general Anton Dostler was sentenced to death in Rome for war crimes.
The Norwegian Supreme Court upheld the death sentence imposed on Vidkun Quisling.
Last edition:
Friday, October 10, 2025
Sunday, October 11, 1925. The line of duty.
The China Zhi Gong Party as founded in the United States in San Francisco by a pair of exiled former warlords who opposed the the Kuomintang. It remains today as one of the eight minor Chinese political parties currently permitted to exist as flunkies.
M'eh.
FBI agent Edwin C. Shanahan, was fatally shot after following a suspected car thief, Martin James Durkin, to a garage. He was the first FBI agent to die in the line of duty.
It was a bit of an immigrants take. Dunkin was an Irish American, and so was Shanahan. Cop, and cop killer, both of recent immigrant stock, a story that was not uncommon.
Dunkin was convicted and remained in prison until 1954. He died in 1981.
The Senators beat the Pirates 6 to 3 in game four of the 1925 World Series.
At Locarno delegates agreed that due consideration would be given to Germany's special military status until such time as a general arms reduction plan could be implemented across Europe. This was thought to secure Germany's entry into the League of Nations.
Last edition:
Saturday, October 10, 1925. The Chinese Imperial Collection.
Wednesday, October 10, 1945. Uncle Mike: "The World's Worst Series".
October 10, 1945: "The World's Worst Series"
The Detroit Tigers won the World Series, beating the Chicago Cubs 9 to 3 in game four.
The Chongqing Negotiations (Chinese: 重慶談判) came to an end.
The negotiations were between the Nationalist and the Communists and marked a resumption, after a twenty year gap, of efforts between the two contesting sides to resolve their differences. Both sides signed the Double Tenth Agreement at the end.
This day would be the last meeting between Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong.
The Double Tenth Agreement provided:
- The CCP recognized the KMT as the legitimate ruling party of China
- All political parties within China were legalized.
- The KMT and CCP would end the war between them.
- The formation of a political consultative conference to discuss plans for state building with guaranteed representation of all political parties.
- The abolition of CCP and KMT secret services.
- Holding a general election to determine the next ruling party of China.
- Putting an end to political tutelage within China.
Neither side really fully intended to honor the treaty and it is clear that the Communists did not.
The British completed the reoccupation of the Andaman Islands.
The Allied Control Council abolished the Nazi Party.
The Communist Party of Korea was founded, unfortunately.
Joseph Darnand, a French hero of the Great War, far right politician between the wars to the point of belonging to the La Cagoule terrorist organization, decorated French soldier again upon the German invasion of 1940 only to form the collaborationist militia, Service d'ordre légionnaire (SOL) and become a member of the SS, was executed. He was 48.
CBS successfully conducted an experiment in color television.
Last edition:
Friday, October 5, 1945. Hollywood Black Friday.
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