Thursday, December 2, 1875. Mine disaster and mine strike.

Today In Wyoming's History: December 2;  1905   Diamondville mine explosion killed 18 men.

A strike at the mines came to a conclusion in Rock Springs.

Last edition:

Monday ,November 22, 1875. The death of Vice President Henry Wilson.

Labels: 1870s, 1875, 1877, Civil War, Colorado, Death, Free Soil Party, law, Native Americans, Politics, Republican Party, U.S. Grant, Ute, Whigs

Thursday, November 29, 1900. Thanksgiving Disaster.

In what is known as the Thanksgiving Day Disaster, thirteen peopl ewere killed and over 80 seriously injured when the roof of the Pacific Glass Works collapsed in Palo Alto California during the Stanford v. California football game. The injured and killed were on the roof watching the game.

Mildred Elizabeth Gillars, known as "Axis Sally", was born in Portland, Maine.  An expatriate since 1933, she was in Germany when the U.S. entered the war but remained there as her fiance urged her to do so.  He was killed on the Eastern Front.  She became a radio propogandist and was convicted of a single count of treason, her sentence likely cut back as she was under the influence of a German American radio personality after the death of her fiance.  She converted to Catholicism while in prison and went to live at the Our Lady of Bethlehem Convent in Columbus, Ohio, and taught German, French, and music at St. Joseph Academy, Columbus. She returned to Ohio Wesleyan in 1973 to complete her university degree, which she had earlier abandoned in the 1920.  She never apologized for her actions, and died at age 87 in 1988.

Last edition:

Sunday, November 25, 1900. Cumann na nGaedheal.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, Ireland, Politics, United Kingdom

Monday, November 22, 1915. British turned back in Mesopotamia.

The Indian Expeditionary Force D, mostly made up of Indian units and under the command of Gen. Sir John Nixon, attacked a more powerful force of Ottoman troops under the command of Nureddin Pasha near the site of the ancient city of Ctesiphon, located on the Tigris southeast of Baghdad.

Both sides took high casualty rates, but the battle arrested British progress in Mesopotamia and forced a British withdrawal.

The French evacuated the Vardar region of Macedonia in light of the defeat of the Serbian Army.

While the fighting in Europe had much of the front news attention in the US, in Texas it was Villa's plight south of the border, and how that might spill into the US.

Larrabee State Park was created in Washington.

The circus/carnival train owned by Con T. Kennedy was hit head on by the engine of a Central of Georgia passenger train east of Columbus, Georgia.  The resulting crash resulted in at least 15 deaths of circus workers and perhaps up to 25, who were buried in a common grave.

Last edition:

Sunday, November 20, 1915. Villa in retreat. . . again.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Allies, Álvaro Obregón, British Army, Constitutionalist Army, Conventionists, Egypt, Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Pancho Villa

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, November 10, 1975. The Wreck of the Edmun...

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, November 10, 1975. The Wreck of the Edmun...:   The massive Great Lakes freighter went down with all 29 hands. The storm. The ballad commemorating the ships loss would come out the follo...

 

Edmund Fitzgerald: Wyoming Meteorologist Vividly Recalls 'The Witch Of November'

Monday, November 10, 1975. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

 

The massive Great Lakes freighter went down with all 29 hands.

The storm.

The ballad commemorating the ships loss would come out the following year.

Italy and Yugoslavia signed the Treaty of Osimo resolving the long running dispute over Trieste.

The Communists forces of the MPLA  defeated the FNLA in a battle over the capital of Angola, Luanda.

The United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 3379 equating Zionism with racism.  The Resolution would be revoked in 1991.

Last edition:

Thursday, October 30, 1975. King Juan Carlos I of Spain became acting head of state of the country after Franco conceded he was too ill to govern.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Francisco Franco, Spain

Saturday, November 10, 1900. The Wreck of the City of Monticello.

 

The City of Monticello was dashed against the rocks in the Bay of Fundy, 4 miles from its destination of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, with the loss of 31 lives.

Last edition:

Wednesday, November 7, 1900. The Treaty of Washington.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, Canada, It was because of the Spanish American War, Philippines

Tuesday, October 26, 1875. The Virginia City Fire.

Virginia City, Nevada suffered a devastating fire when a kerosene lamp fell over and ignited a structure while high winds were blowing in the city.

Last edition:  

Sunday, October 9, 1875. Mormon Tabernacle Dedicated.

Labels: 1870s, 1875, Mormon, religion, Utah, Utah (Salt Lake City), Yeoman's First Law of History

Friday, October 2, 1925. Television.

The first television transmission was made in London.  The experimental broadcast was made by Scottish inventor John Logie Baird.

Spanish troops entered the Rif capital of Ajdir.

The Pact of the Vidoni Palace was signed at the Palazzo Vidoni-Caffarelli in Rome between the Fascist-dominated General Confederation of Italian Industry) (Confederazione Generale dell'Industria Italiana or CGI) and the Fascist-controlled National Confederation of Trade Union Corporations labor union.  It abolished all other unions, including Catholic and Socialist unions, and gave the government effectively corporatist control, on the fascist model, of labor.

200 feet of the roof on the western end of the Church Hill Tunnel, Virginia collapsed killing 40 workers.

La Revue Nègre featuring Josephine Baker’s comic Charleston opened in Paris. Baker became a huge success overnight.

Baker was an enormous talent.  Her shows of the era likely wouldn't have been legal in much of the United States due to the nudity or near nudity that they featured.

Last edition:

Monday, September 28, 1925. Senators meet with Coolidge.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Agriculture, baseball, Calvin Coolidge, Daily Living, Montana, Sports

Friday, September 25, 1925. Moving the Kurds.

The Turkish Reform Council for the East issued its report to the Grand National Assembly recommending the relocation of the Kurdish minority to an area east of the Euphrates River.

It also recommended that in the rest of Turkey only Turkish could be spoken and that Kurds should be barred from higher level offices.

Submachine guns were used in crime for the first time during a mob assassination attempt in Chicago.  The weapon used was a  Thompson Submachine Gun, a type that would become synonymous with gangsters.

The USS S-51 struck the merchant ship City of Rome and sank off of the coast of Rhode Island, killing 33 of its 36 crewmen.

The Washington Senators, September 25, 1925.

Last edition:

Thursday, September 24, 1925. French advance in Syria.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Automobiles, Druze, French Army, Great Syrian Revolt

Wyoming’s Red Canyon Fire balloons to over 107,000 acres amid evacuations, emergency order

Wyoming’s Red Canyon Fire balloons to over 107,000 acres amid evacuations, emergency order: Fire area now stretches from 11 miles east of Thermopolis to the borders of Fremont and Washakie counties. Large rural areas are under evacuation orders.

George F. Will: Five ways to stop the onrushing debt disaster

Will continues to try to warn of this, which is an onrushing disaster.  The Big Ugly makes it worse, but Congress is doing nothing about it.

As noted in the article, increasing taxes by 14% would take care of it.  It should be done.

Five ways to stop the onrushing debt disaster

Tuesday, July 29, 1945. The sinking of the USS Indianapolis. The 509th Composite Group receives orders for Operation Silverplate. The last Medal of Honor of World War Two.

The USS Indianapolis was sunk by the submarine I-58. Secrecy due to its role in delivering the atomic bomb to Tinian would keep its sinking secrete for several days, leading to the greatest mass shark attack in history.

The 509th Composite Group of the United States Air Force received the order that would lead to the dropping of the first atomic bomb.

Melvin Mayfield performed the actions that resulted in his winning the Medal of Honor.

He displayed conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty while fighting in the Cordillera Mountains of Luzon, Philippine Islands. When 2 Filipino companies were pinned down under a torrent of enemy fire that converged on them from a circular ridge commanding their position, Cpl. Mayfield, in a gallant single-handed effort to aid them, rushed from shell hole to shell hole until he reached 4 enemy caves atop the barren fire-swept hill. With grenades and his carbine, he assaulted each of the caves while enemy fire pounded about him. However, before he annihilated the last hostile redoubt, a machinegun bullet destroyed his weapon and slashed his left hand. Disregarding his wound, he secured more grenades and dauntlessly charged again into the face of pointblank fire to help destroy a hostile observation post. By his gallant determination and heroic leadership, Cpl. Mayfield inspired the men to eliminate all remaining pockets of resistance in the area and to press the advance against the enemy.

You'll note that this occurred on Luzon, which the US had declared to be secured. 

He survived the war and died in 1990 at age 71.  

His action was the last action of the war to result in a Medal of Honor.

Henry Ford issued a statement declaring:

the nation and the world are on the threshold of a prosperity and standard of living that never before were considered possible.

I'm not a fan of Ford's, but he was correct, perhaps beyond his wildest imagination.

The British 8th Army, the Desert Rats, was disbanded.

Last edition:

Saturday, July 28, 1945. Taking no notice.

Labels: 1940s 1945, boats and ships, Cartoons, Clement Attlee, Disaster, Imperial Japanese Army, Imperial Japanese Navy, Japan, New York, Potsdam Conference, U.S. Air Force, United Nations, World War Two

Saturday, July 28, 1945. Taking no notice.

Japanese Prime Minister Kantarō Suzuki gave a response to the Potsdam Declaration stating that Japan would "take no notice" of the Potsdam Declaration. 

A B-25 flying in heavy fog struck the Empire State Building.

B-29s bombed Aomori.

Japanese battleships Haruna and Ise and,the aircraft carrier Amagi, the old cruiser Izumo, the light cruiser Oyodo and a destroyer were sunk by aircraft.

The USS Callaghan was sunk by a Yokosuka K5Y kamikaze attack off Okinawa.

The Japanese 28th Army attempted to withdraw across the Sittang River in Burma, suffering over 13,000 killed and drowned in the attempt.

The Potsdam Conference resulmeds with the appearance of Prime Minister Attlee.

The Senate ratified the Charter of the United Nations.

Jim Davis, the creator of the Garfield comic strip,was born in Marion, Indiana.

Last edition:

Friday, July 27, 1945. Preparing the bomb.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Chinese Army, Imperial Japanese Army, Japan, Tinian, U.S. Air Force, United Kingdom, Weapons, Winston Churchill, World War Two

Wednesday, July 18, 1945. Explosions.

President Truman informed Prime Minister Churchill that the atomic bomb test had been successful in a stating: "Babies satisfactorily born." 

Not so coincidently, American interest in Soviet participation in the war against Japan was noticeably lessened.

A fire broke out on the jetty of the Bedford Magazine during the evening causing a chain reaction of fires, explosions, and concussions that continued for more than 24 hours.  Fifteen people were killed.

Captured German mines in Italy exploded destroying an American Red Cross club resulting in the death of 36 people.

Aircraft from the USS Wasp attacked Wake Island.

The U.S. Army Air Force, flying out of Okinawa, bombed Kiangwan airfield near Shanghai.

The Brazilian Expeditionary Force parades through Rio de Janeiro marking its return from Italy.

The Belgian senate voted to forbid the return of Leopold III.

Last edition:

Tuesday, July 17, 1945. The Potsdam Conference begins.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Allies, Harry S. Truman, Joseph Stalin, Post WWII Occupation of Germany, Potsdam Conference, Royal Navy, United Kingdom, United States, USSR, Winston Churchill, World War Two

Where's the outrage?

Kristi Noem didn’t approve FEMA rescue teams for over 72 hours after the Texas floods, following a rule she imposed that required her personal sign-off on any operation over $100,000.

Was there not a Barbie dress up outfit for the occasion?

This was pretty clearly going to cost over $100,000.

When Bush II was President, there was outrage that he didn't go to Louisiana to view hurricane damage immediately.

The very same thing was true when Obama was President.

Joe Biden took flack for not reacting to floods in South Carolina instantly.

Is anyone demanding that King Don put his golf shoes on the ground in Texas?

Not that I think it would do anything.  I always thought the outcry about a President not going to to a disaster was absurd.  Noem, however, deserves criticism here.

So, frankly, does the State of Texas, which falls into the "don't tax me" camp, and therefore has inadequate warning systems.

You do get what you pay for, and lack of payment can be tragically lethal.  That sort of tragedy is going to be increasing during the Trump era, and for quite some time thereafter.

For the meantime, MAGA's should be howling.  Shouldn't they expect the same level of direct involvement that Bush and Obama had?

And for Federal help. . . Wyoming delegation. . . what are you going to do to help us. . . it's fire season.

Monday, July 9, 1945. Dutch land at Balikpapan.

Dutch troops landed north of Balikpapan, completing the encirclement of the bay.

Chinese troops captured the Tanchuk airbase.

The Brazilian cruiser Bahia accidentally sank itself by hitting itself during antiaircraft firing exercises.  294 men were killed.

Charles de Gaulle proposed a national referendum to decide the system of government in France.

A crowd of 30,000 gathered in Perth for the funeral procession of John Curtin to Karrakatta Cemetery.

A total solar eclipse was visible across parts of the northern hemisphere, including parts of North America.

Life magazine featured a model in a bikini, something that various magazines had been doing a lot of in 1945.

Last edition:

Sunday, July 8, 1945. The Camp Salina Massacre.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, 1970, 1970s, Army, Australian Army, boats and ships, Borneo, Crime, Dutch Navy, Prisoners of War, South China Sea, U.S. Navy, Utah

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 94th edition. Portents? The problem of Evil.

 

Halley's comet depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry, showing how big of event it was and how it was viewed, particularly after the events of 1066.

In ancient times, some things were seen as portents  A warning of things to come.  Sometimes, of course, that was appreciated retrospectively.

A terrible flood has resulted in loss of life in Texas, most tragically at Camp Mystic, a Christian girls’ summer camp near the Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country.

It'll seem odd noting it, but this is right after the codification of Trump's agenda in the Big Ugly Bill, which took an axe to solar and wind electricity support.

In Wyoming it's been popular to criticize those project.  It likely has been in Texas too, and everywhere in the US in which petroleum has been a major economic factor.  In those areas, the climate change is a fib line of reasoning has been popular, mostly based on the thesis that what's good for my wallet can't be bad for anything.

The weather recently has been weird.

Some will likely point out that flooding in Texas isn't a new thing.  Indeed, the great Stevie Ray Vaughan put out an lp called Texas Flood which featured the great blues number It's Flooding Down In Texas.

 

All of which is quite true.

And none of which demonstrates that the weather has been normal.  It hasn't been.

I read once, years ago, a comment by a Catholic monk pertaining to the problem of evil, "why does God allow bad things to happen?"  I've seen various explanations over the years, but he related he had actually asked that question, directed as a petition (prayer) to God.  He received an answer, that being "Why do you?"

Indeed, why do we?

Here's one we can avoid, and even reverse.  It's our duty to do so.

One thing I'd also note.  The Big Ugly takes money from things like NOAA and from weather prediction.  One of the thing that's being complained of in Texas is the lack of weather warnings before the terrible storm.

We're going to see a lot more of that.

So again, why do we?

Last edition:

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 93d Edition. Porn industry retstricted, Supreme Court weigh in as Wyoming requires age verification on adult sites, Dudes in the lady room, and on women's teams, Trump helping where no law or help was needed.

Labels: 2020s, 2025, 2025 Wyoming Legislative Post Mortem, 2025 Wyoming Legislative Session, children, flap de jour, law, Populism, pornography, Teenagers, The Second Trump Administration, Wyoming, Zeitgeist

Thursday, July 3, 1975. The U.S. Civil Service Commission ended restrictions on hiring homosexuals.

The U.S. Civil Service Commission ended restrictions on hiring homosexuals.

It's almost shocking to think that there was such a ban, but indeed there was. The stated purpose of the ban was to prevent embarrassment to the agency.

Las Vegas endured a terrible flash flood.

Alex Trebek before Jeopardy, in an example from today:

Last edition:

Wednesday, July 2, 1975. Dead Savage Spring.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Death, fishing, Geology, Place names, United States Geological Survey, Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park

Tuesday, June 23, 1925. The Gros Ventre Landslide.

The Gros Ventre landslide near Jackson occurred following heavy rains and a 4.0 magnitude earthquake.  Approximately 38,000,000 m3 (1.3×109 cu ft) of sedimentary rock came down the Tetons, dammed a river, and created the Lower Slide Lake.  The dam partially failed in 1927, wiping out Kelly.

Last edition:

Sunday, June 21, 1925. Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League

Labels: 1920s, 1925, 1929, China, Chinese Warlord Era, Communism, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Tuesday, June 10, 1975. Refugees.

Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass held a concert at Camp Talega, Camp Pendleton, to entertain Vietnamese refugees.

President Ford reported that 3,341 refugees had been relocated to third countries, with a majority going to Canada.

An artillery salute at Shea stadium for the Army's 200th anniversary went wrong.

Last edition:

Sunday, June 8, 1978. Võ Văn Ba.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Espionage, North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Vietnam, Vietnam War