Monday, May 24, 1926. National Parks created. Oil concessions extended. Tokachi erupts.

The U.S. Senate passed bills creating Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee.

You can tell the likes of Harriet Hageman and Deseret Mike Lee weren't in Congress at the time.

The Kingdom of Iraq extended the "D'Arcy Concession" of the oil fields in the Diyala Governorate for an additional 35 years past its scheduled expiration date of May 27, 1961. In reality, events would cause the concessions to be renegotiated after World War Two and expire in 1958, the year that the Kingdom of Iraq itself expired.

Most of the concession territory was in Iran and was cancelled in 1932.

Mount Tokachi erupted in Hokkaidō, Japan, killing 140 people.

The volcano is located within the Daisetsuzan National Park.

Last edition:

Thursday, May 20, 1926. Trains and Planes.

Labels: 1920s, 1926, 1930, 1930s, Aircraft, Barnstorming, Calvin Coolidge, Ernst Udet, law, Railroads, Transportation

Thursday, May 20, 1976. Kleptocracy.

The President of Zaire Mobutu Sese Seko endorsed kleptocracy, the practice of public officials stealing tax money for personal use, in a speech at a stadium before 70,000 people and millions of listeners, noting that he himself "personally spent on average more than 35 percent of the national budget on himself" during the 1970s and 1980s.

He warned; "If you want to steal, steal in a nice way, but if you steal too much to become rich overnight you will soon be caught."

He was eventually overthrown and died in exile at age 66.

This sort of open corruption used to be pretty much a third world thing, and I guess it still is in some ways.  Now, of course, we're seeing corruption of a different type, but rivaling, or exceeding it, in the United States, which pretty much informs the world of what we now are.

The acrylic bubble of the Montreal Biosphere, designed by Buckminster Fuller for Expo 67, was destroyed by a fire during remodeling.

It was rebuilt, but without the transparent panels, and reopened in 1990.

Baseball great Ramón Hernández was born in Venezuela.

Last edition:

Friday, May 7, 1976. Jacelyne Khoueiry at Martyrs' Square.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, 1980s, 1986, 2010s, 2012, 2014, Abortion, Catholic, Charitable organizations, Lebanese Civil War, Lebanon, Maronite Catholic, Palestinian Liberation Organization, religion, Women

Monday, May 20, 1946. Air disaster in Manhattan, War in Iran, Nationalization of Coal in the UK.

The House of Commons voted to nationalize the British coal industry.  The House of Lords would follow and Royal Assent would be received on July l2.

C-45.  By LanceBarber at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Liftarn using CommonsHelper., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12001474

A C-45 crashed into the 58th floor of the Bank of Manhattan building killing all five passengers but nobody else, given that it occurred at 8:00 p.m.

Things were not going well in Iran.

We've dealt with this a bit already, but this event was caused by Soviet support for Azerbaijani and Kurdish rebels. 

Cher in high school.

Cherilyn Sarkisian, better known by her stage name Cher, was born in El Centro, California.  Bobby Murcer, the baseball announcer and player, was born in Oklahoma City.

Murcer passed away in 2008, but Cher is still with us.

Last edition:

Sunday, May 19, 1946. Food protests in Japan.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, Civil Unrest, Food, Japan, Labor unrest, Occupation of Japan, Railroads, Strike Wave of 1945-1946

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

Friday, May 3, 1901. The Panic of 1901.

The Panic of 1901 started with a stock market crash, the first in U.S. history.

148 city blocks in Jacksonville, Florida were destroyed by fire.

Last edition:

Wednesday, April 24, 1901. First American League game as a major league.

Labels: 1900s, 1901, baseball

Sunday, April 30, 1911. Fire in Bangor, Maine.

 One third of Bangor Maine was destroyed by fire.

Diaz indicated that he would go.

Last edition:

Tuesday, April 25, 1911 Ceasefire in Mexico.

Labels: 1910s, 1911, Francisco I. Madero, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Porfirio Díaz

Wednesday, April 5, 1876. Arsenal Hill Explosion.

Stored munitions detonated in Arsenal Hill, now Capitol Hills, at Salt Lake City. shattering massive amounts of glass in the city itself.

The munitions were a remnant of former stores that simply had not been removed.

Last edition:

Monday, April 3, 1876. The Denver municipal election.

Labels: 1870s, 1876, Colorado (Denver), Election of 1876, Politics

Monday, April 1, 1946. The April 1, 1946 Aleutian Islands Earthquake

The April 1, 1946 Aleutian Islands earthquake occurred which resulted in an tsunami that devastated parts of Hawaii, most notably Hilo.  Up to 173 people were killed, mostly in Hawaii.

People fleeing the tsunami in Hilo.

Warnings were given but many ignored them, thinking them an April Fools Day joke.  The event is responsible for a much improved warning system.

Bituminous coal miners went on strike in the U.S.

The U.S. Navy destroyed 24 Japanese submarines.  Seems like a terrible waste really.

The UK made Singapore a Crown Colony and separated it and its mostly Chinese ethnic population from Malaya.

What does Russia want was a question that was posed (from more than one Reddit sub).

Last edition:

Sunday, March 31, 1946. Arresting Nazis, Russia pays up, you have to wonder about Дональд, Field Marshall Gort passes.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, Allied Occupation of Germany, British Army, Disease, Donald Trump, Greece, Heroes, Nazi Party, Russia, USSR, World War One, Дональд Трамп — агент России

Wednesday, March 20, 1946. Tule Lake closes but its residents struggles continue.

The final adjudication of the cases of Japanese internees who had renounced their citizenship during World War Two concluded, resulting in the closure of Tule Lake War Relocation Center.  The litigation reversed their loss of citizenship, but the Justice Department would reverse that.  It would take until the 1960s for their citizenship to be restored.

Almost all of those who had renounced their citizenship had recanted, and for that matter not all of the renunciations were genuine.

There were two air disasters in the news:

26 DIE IN C-47 CRASH; AB-29 FALLS WITH 7; Army Plane Explodes in Sierras, Lost 'Superfort' Is Found South of San Francisco

Last edition:

Saturday, March 16, 1946. Route 66. George Mikan turns pro.

Labels: 1920s, 1926, 1940s, 1946, 1960s, 1970s, basketball, Cartoons, Highways, J.R. Williams, Music, Personalities, Post War United States (and Canada), Swing Music, television, Transportation

The Agrarian's Lament: Nebraska is burning and its time to stop pretending this is normal.

The Agrarian's Lament: Nebraska is burning and its time to stop pretendin...:   Actually, that time was some time ago, but for those "clean coal" and "drill baby drill" people, you are converting th...

Nebraska is burning and its time to stop pretending this is normal.

 

Actually, that time was some time ago, but for those "clean coal" and "drill baby drill" people, you are converting the planet into an image of Hell.

It's not too late to address this, but it'll take major action.  The good news is that a nation that can waste billions of dollars on a war with Iran for no reason whatsoever, can afford to address it, and reverse it.

And not only, that, the rest of the world is leaping ahead of us in alternative energy systems, including China in spite of what the dolt in the White House says.

Simply believing that because we've always done things one way means its okay, or that our pocketbooks depend on coal and oil mean sit okay, is absolute lunacy.  The day of fossil fuels either needs to end, or they'll end us.

And as a final note, all too often I've heard farmers and ranchers take the global warming is a fib line. This year, there's no water in the west, none coming, and there will be none . We won't be growing anything. 

Wake up.

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.

Labels: 1920s, 1926, Advertising, Alabama, Cartoons, Costa Rica, Country & Western Music, Crime, Disaster, Electrical Power, Hillbilly Music, Music, Personalities, Railroads, Wyoming (Casper), Wyoming (Natrona County)

Sunday, March 14, 1926. Reddy Kilowatt introduced. Manhunt in Natrona County.

 

Introduced on this day in 1926, the cartoon emphasized, in its introduction, electrical appliances and how they made life easier.  Power companies used the cartoon figure for decades.  I well recall it from when I was a kid.

There'd been a jail brake in Casper.

A railway disaster in Costa Rica resulted in the deaths of 248 people.

One via Reddit's 100 Years Ago sub, 16 year old Maybelle Addington married 27-year old Ezra J. "Eck" Carter, brother of A.P. Carter, in Virginia giving rise to the "first family of country music".

Country music, we'd note, is a bit deceptive in this context. As we've discussed before, Country & Western were actually two categories of music identified by early record companies, as was Rhythm & Blues.  Western ballads, associated with cowboys and ranching, was really its own distinct genre, as was "Country", which was sometimes referred to as "Hillbilly Music".  The current categories of C&W, Folk, etc, really hadn't set in, in a hard and fast way, either.  Folk and Country music were in fact very rapidly evolving.  Blues, which of course also had a Southern rural origin, was frequently picked up by Country artists at the time, even while it was breaking out in new directions in the Midwest and East coast, where it has already given rise to Jazz.

Last edition:

Saturday, March 13, 1926. Daydreaming.

Labels: 1920s, 1926, Art, Clothing, Daily Living

Saturday, February 2, 1946. Twenty Questions.

There was news on the Elk Mountain disaster, including that miners had a role in discovering the crash.

I wouldn't have associated miners with this incident in any fashion.  Nor did I realize that Elk Mountain was that high. I've been on the neighboring peaks without realizing that.

The Rocky Mountain News reported on the disaster as well.

An advertisement from the same edition of the Sherican Press.:

And this:

I wish.

The USSR annexed the Kurils.

Russia holds them today.

They need to give them back.

The Rocky Mountain News was inspiriting panic.

I loved the Rocky Mountain News in the70s and 80s.  I didn't really realize it had such a tabloid origin, even though it was a tabloid.

Sunspots disrupted radio communication between North America and Europe between 4:05 am and 7:00 am EST.

Twenty Questions, hosted by Fred van Deventer and based on the  on the "Animal, Vegetable or Mineral" parlor game, premiered on the Mutual Broadcasting System.

Last edition:

Thursday, January 31, 1946. United Flight 14 crashed into Elk Mountain.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, Aircraft, Disaster, Wyoming (Elk Mountain)

Thursday, January 31, 1946. United Flight 14 crashed into Elk Mountain.

United Airlines Flight 14, flying from Boise to Denver, crashed into Elk Mountain, Wyoming, killing all 21 persons on board.

The plane is apparently the last one to have crashed into Elk Mountain, and was also apparently the fifth to do so.

The distant Elk Mountain from Shirley Basin.

Last edition:

Tuesday, January 22, 1946. Central Intelligence Group formed.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, 1947, actors and actresses, Central Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence Group, Iran, Kurds, Office of Strategic Services, Post War United States (and Canada), USSR, Women

Sunday, December 27, 1925. Between time.

Basil III (الأنبا باسيليوس, Ⲁⲃⲃⲁ Ⲃⲁⲥⲓⲗⲓⲟⲥ) bebame the 17th Metropolitan of the Holy and Great City of Our Lord, Jerusalem (Holy Zion), and Archbishop of the Holy and Ancient Archdiocese of Jerusalem, all Palestine and the Near East.

A mine explosion killed 52 coal miners in Palaú, in the Mexican state of Coahuila.

The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Kentucky, December 27, 1925

Last edition:

Saturday, December 26, 1925.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Art, Boxing Day, Communism, Crime, football, Imperialism, India, Italy, J. C. Leyendecker, Somalia, Somaliland