Saturday, March 15, 1924. Passing symbols and elections.

Today In Wyoming's History: March 15: 1924  The wreck of the six masted schooner Wyoming was located off of Pollock Rip, Massachusetts.  She went down with all 18 hands.

Maj. Gen. DeRosey Cabell, age 62, Chief of Staff during the Punitive Expedition under Pershing, died.  He had been retired since 1919.

Cabell.

Brig Gen. Richard Henry Pratt, former head of the Carlisle Indian School and advocate for cultural assimilation of Native Americans, died at age 83.  He coined the word "racism", but also advocated for the policy that he expressed as "Kill the Indian...save the man."

An election was held in the Dominican Republic for its president and Congress.

Kenya held a legislative election under its new constitution

King Fuad I opened the initial session of Egypt's first constitutional parliament.

Monday, January 28, 1974. End of the Siege of Suez.

The Israeli siege of the Egyptian city of Suez ended at noon.  The IDF withdrew and the 20,000 encircled Egyptians were able to withdraw across the Suez Canal.

Suez.

Both Time and Newsweek's covers dealt with the Nixon tape. U.S. News & World Report's cover was on inflation.  

Sports Illustrated had a cheesecake photo, although it hadn't crossed over into pornography on the cover yet, for its swimsuit issue. Ann Simonton was the cover model, who was actually relatively covered.

Indonesian President Suharto took control of the country's internal security agency.

Bolivia was declared to be in a state of siege following a peasant uprising at Cochambamba.

Mohammed Ali and Joe Frazier fought for a second time in a non-title fight.  Ali won.

George Foreman was the heavyweight champion at the time.

Friday, January 18, 1974. Disengagement.

Israel and Egypt signed the Israel-Egypt Disengagement Treaty of 1974.

It stated:

A.  Egypt and Israel will scrupulously observe the cease-fire on land, sea, and air called for by the UN Security Council and will refrain from the time of the signing of this document from all military or para-military actions against each other.

B. The military forces of Egypt and Israel will be separated in accordance with the following principles:

1. All Egyptian forces on the east side of the Canal will be deployed west of the line designated as Line A on the attached map. All Israeli forces, including those west of the Suez Canal and the Bitter Lakes, will be deployed east of the line designated as Line B on the attached map.

2. The area between the Egyptian and Israeli lines will be a zone of disengagement in which the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) will be stationed. The UNEF will continue to consist of units from countries that are not permanent members of the Security Council.

3. The area between the Egyptian line and the Suez Canal will be limited in armament and forces.

4. The area between the Israeli line (Line B on the attached map) and the line designated as Line C on the attached map, which runs along the western base of the mountains where the Gidi and Mitla Passes are located, will be limited in armament and forces.

5. The limitations referred to in paragraphs 3 and 4 will be inspected by UNEF. Existing procedures of the UNEF, including the attaching of Egyptian and Israeli liaison officers to UNEF, will be continued.

6. Air forces of the two sides will be permitted to operate up to their respective lines without interference from the other side.

C. The detailed implementation of the disengagement of forces will be worked out by military representatives of Egypt and Israel, who will agree on the stages of this process. These representatives will meet no later than 48 hours after the signature of this agreement at Kilometre 101 under the aegis of the United Nations for this purpose. They will complete this task within five days. Disengagement will begin within 48 hours after the completion of the work of the military representatives and in no event later than seven days after the signature of this agreement. The process of disengagement will be completed not later than 40 days after it begins.

D. This agreement is not regarded by Egypt and Israel as a final peace agreement. It constitutes a first step toward a final, just and durable peace according to the provisions of Security Council Resolution 338 and within the framework of the Geneva Conference.

For Egypt: For Israel:

General Abdul Gani al Garnasy Lt. Gen. David Elazar, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army

The Six Million Dollar Man premiered on television. 

Not to be flippant, but October just sucks in the Middle East.

 

29 October 1956

Saturday, October 27, 1973 Ceasefire.

Israel and Egypt announced a ceasefire in the Yom Kippur War.  Part of the agreement was for the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force.  China declared it would not help pay for the force.

Nixon stated at a press conference; “So long as I can carry out that responsibility for which I was elected, I will continue to do my job."

A 1.4 kg meteorite hit in Fremont County, Colorado.

The largest? The Hamas v. Israel War.

I have now heard over and over in the press that the upcoming Israeli invasion is the "largest" this or that, suggesting that this is the biggest war, or the biggest deployment of troops, in Israel's history.

Is it?

Well, you have to have a sense of history to gauge that.

I've recently been running some items on the Yom Kippur War, which occured 50 years ago, and which brought the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of war.  That pitted about 400,000 Israeli troops against the armies of Egypt and Syria, plus another 100,000 troops from other regional states.  Right at about 1,000,000 Arab troops contested the Israelis.

Now, in this one, we do hear that 300,000 IDF reservists have been called up, and yes, that's a bunch.  The total number of mass Israeli troops may exceed those that were hastily called up in 1973. We'll see. But the scope of the contest is, so far, smaller.  Indeed, the calling up of the reservists may be in the hopes of keeping it smaller.

In the Six Day War, Israel had 264,000 troops, but only deployed 100,000 of them.  The Arab forces had over 500,000 troops, but only deployed about 250,000 of them.

Israel isn't going to send all of is troops into Gaza.  A lot of those troops were likely called up in order to secure its northern border.  Assuming that it invades Gaza with this model, it certainly will not be Israel's largest war, but it might mean the largest overall manpower size for the IDF in its history.

Not that the threat of this being much larger doesn't exist.  Iran seems intent on making it so.

Wednesday, October 24, 1973. War Powers.

President Nixon vetoed the War Powers Act.  His veto was overridden on November 7.

A second ceasefire between Egypt and Israel went into effect in the Yom Kippur War.  By this point in the war Egyptian gains had been more than reversed.

At the same time, the Soviet Union threatened to deploy its troops to aid Syria, giving a warning to the US to that effect. As a result, the U.S. went to Defcon 3

Kojak premiered.

The day was the first UN World Development Information Day, which coincided with United Nations Day.

People seem shocked to learn that Egypt isn't letting Gazans in.

Which means that they've never been paying attention. Egypt has always strictly controlled access of Palestinians from Gaza.

They don't want Hamas in either.

Wednesday, October 10, 1973. Vice President Agnew resigns.

Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigned as Vice President and then, on the same day, plead no contest to income tax evasion, this baack in the day when such accusations would doom your position in office.

Angew was the son of a Greek immigrant father and an American mother of English background.  Mixed marriages were unusual for those of Greek ethnicity in the first place and even more unusually, he was raised as an Episcopalian rather than as Greek Orthodox.  He served in the Army during World War Two and entered politics thereafter.

His tax troubles lead Maryland to disbar him as "morally obtuse", back when there was such a thing as a state bar that would disbar somebody for being morally obtuse.  He died in 1996.

The USSR began airlifting military equipment to Egypt and Syria.

The Senate passed the War Powers Act.  It'd be vetoed, but Congress over road the veto.

Famed economist Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises died in New York at age 92.

Saturday, October 6, 1973. The October War commences.

Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel timed for the Yom Kippur holy day.  The attack oddly commenced at 2:05 p.m.

It would be the largest of the Arab Israeli Wars, and one in which the Israeli Defense Force fared much more poorly than it had previously.  Egypt's goals were limited, involving crossing the Suez Canal, which they succeeded in doing.  Israeli forces would ultimately repulse the invading forces and come very near the Syrian capital of Damascus, but the results allowed the Egyptians to bargain for peace terms with Israel in later years.

Arab forces fared very well at first, catching the IDF off guard.  Syrian advances caused the Israeli government to distribute Israel's small stock of nuclear weapons to is air force in case Arab forces advanced inside Israel itself, making this a non superpower war that came relatively close to becoming a nuclear one.

Thursday, August 26, 1943. War bond baseball.

$800,000,000 worth of War Bonds were sold for an exhibition baseball game that features seven of the then twelve living members of the Baseball Hall of Fame; Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson, Tris Speaker, Honus Wagner, Eddie Collins, George Sisler, and Connie Mack as the manager.

The event also featured entertainment from James Cagney, Ethel Merman, Cab Calloway, Milton Berle, Joe E. Lewis, Carole Landis and Ralph Bellamy.

Babe Ruth hit his last home run during the game, more of which can be read about here:

1943 All Pacific Recreation Fund – Service All-Stars vs Los Angeles & Hollywood

The 800 million dollars was equivalent to over 10.7 billion dollars in current funds.

The Germans occupied the Alpine passes with Italy in anticipation of the Italians surrendering.

The USSR recognized Egypt.

The US, Canada and British governments give limited recognition to the Free French Committee of National Liberation.

Friday, August 3, 1923. Silent Cal awoken, sworn in, and goes back to bed

On this day in 1923, Silent Cal Coolidge, staying on the family homestead in Vermont, was awoken in the early morning hours, and then went back to bed.

Coolidge was a Massachusetts barred lawyer from Vermont, who had entered the profession at the urging of his father after graduating from Amherst.  He practiced commercial law and operated under the maxim that he best served his client's by staying out of court, showing his wisdom.  While practicing law he entered local politics, rose in that field, and had become Governor of Massachusetts prior to becoming Harding's Vice President.

Harding died at 7:30 p.m. on August 2.  He had fallen ill, as we have noted, on his trip sought from a Canadian port of call on his Voyage of Understanding, with his illness first attributed to food poisoning. The exact cause of his death has never really been determined, and there's some speculation that the nature of medical knowledge of the day contributed directly to it.  The Coolidge residence in Vermont lacked electricity or telephones and Coolidge wasn't informed until after 2:00 a.m..  He dressed, said a prayer, went downstairs and took the oath of office from his father, who was a notary.

He then went back to bed.

Coolidge was a wise and practical man.

Later in the day Coolidge would take the train to Washington, D.C.

Kenesaw Mountain Landis suspended baseball for the day.

The Irish Free State passed the Defence Forces (Temporary Provisions) Act", to create "an armed force to be called Oglaigh na hEireann (hereinafter referred to as the Forces) consisting of such number of officers, non-commissioned officers, and men as may from time to time be provided".

Nazir Gayed Roufail (نظير جيد روفائيل, IPA: [nɑˈzˤiːɾ ˈɡæjjed ɾʊfæˈʔiːl]) was born Salaam, Egpyt. He would become Pope Shenouda III (Coptic: Ⲡⲁⲡⲁ Ⲁⲃⲃⲁ Ϣⲉⲛⲟⲩϯ ⲅ̅   Papa Abba Šenoude pimah šoumt; Arabic: بابا الإسكندرية شنودة الثالث Bābā al-Iskandarīyah Shinūdah al-Thālith) of the The Coptic Orthodox Church (Coptic: Ϯⲉⲕ̀ⲕⲗⲏⲥⲓⲁ ⲛ̀ⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ⲛ̀ⲟⲣⲑⲟⲇⲟⲝⲟⲥ, romanized: Ti-eklisia en-remenkimi en-orthodhoxos; Arabic: الكنيسة القبطية الأرثوذكسية, romanized: al-Kanīsa al-Qibṭiyya al-ʾUrṯūḏuksiyya).  He would occupy that position for over 40 years.

The Coptic Church is not in communion with Rome, but is an Apostolic Christian Church with Apostolic Succession.   The Catholic Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church grew closer together during his reign.

Confederate spy Laura Ratcliffe, universally recognized as gracious and cheerful, died after being bedridden following an accident at her home in Virginia. She was 87.

Friday, July 20, 1973. The death of Bruce Lee.

Actor and martial artist Bruce Lee Bruce Lee ( 李小龍) born Lee Jun-fan, (李振藩) 32 years of age, died from an allergic reaction to the meprobamate, the active ingredient in the painkiller Equagesic.

Bruce Lee from publicity photo for Fists of Fury.

Lee retains a cult following today, although I'm not part of it.  He is widely regarded as the greatest martial arts practitioner of all time.

Lee was born in San Francisco, and therefore could claim U.S. citizenship, although his family returned to Hong Kong immediately before the outbreak of the war n the Pacific.  His father was a famous Cantonese opera singer.  He was of mixed Chinese and European ancestry.  He left a wife and two children.  His son Brandon Lee would follow his footsteps and would tragically die when a firearm being used as a prop was loaded with improperly made dummy rounds.  His daughter Shannon is an actress, singer, and businesswoman.

Japan Air Lines Flight 404 was hijacked by the Japanese Red Army and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.  It would eventually be flown to Benghazi were the passengers were released and the 747 blown up.

Muammar Gaddafi announced his resignation as the leader of Libya following the failure of his plans to unite the country with Egypt.  He'd get over the resignation and reverse it three days later, following his cabinet's announcement that they'd also resign.  

Efforts to form a larger Arab republic centered on Egypt have existed since World War One with serval putative efforts to establish it.  Egypt itself was the most powerful and significant Middle Eastern state up until 1973, when the importance of oil, which Egypt has little of, began to eclipse it. 

Sunday, July 15, 2023. Harding drives a golden spike.

Harding drove in a golden spike on the Alaska Railroad at Nenana, a town near Fairbanks.

Harding was really putting in the miles, and saw a great deal of Alaska during his trip, at a point in time at which it was fairly difficult to do so.

The most dangerous major airline in the world, Aeroflot, saw its birth when its predecessor, Dobrolet, began operations with a flight from Moscow to Nizhny.

Egypt banned its citizens from making the Hajj in reaction to the King of Hejaz barring an Egyptian medical mission which was part of it.  The latter was done as an assertion of sovereignty by the Kingdom, which was not long to remain.

Tuesday, March 6, 1923. The Halibut Treaty. Formation of the Egyptian Feminist Unioin (الاتحاد النسائي المصري), Irish blood borthers.

Canada and the United States signed the Convention for the Preservation of Halibut Fishery of the Northern Pacific Ocean, referred to commonly as the "Halibut Treaty".  It was the first treaty Canada signed without involving the United Kingdom.  The environmental treaty was a pioneering treat regulating the fishing of halibut.

Halibut are just about the tastiest fish ever.

Alaska fishermen cleaning halibut.

In some unrealistic alternative version of me, in the summer I travel to Alaska to fish for salmon and halibut, before working my way south through the Yukon and Alberta to catch the early game seasons there, before returning to the Cowboy State.  Due to multiple citizenship, I'd never touch a foreign land.

But, in reality, Monday through Friday I'll be in my office.

On the same day, German Chancellor Cuno told the Reichstag, smarting over the Belgian and French (the Belgian part is typically forgotten) armed occupation of the Ruhr, that Germany would not negotiate with the French directly, but only through an intermediary.

While the French and Belgian occupation of the Ruhr is now nearly universally condemned, it should be recalled that the two Francophone countries had seen substantial armed occupation at the hands of a non-repentant Germany, which in both instances had killed civilians in ways that would foreshadow the Second World War.  Had the French simply remained in the Ruhr, it might be recalled, or enforced their treaty rights at the time that the Germans under Hitler reoccupied it, the Second World War would not have occurred.

British Prime Minister Bonar Law, for his part, was being pressured on the same day to form a more definitive stance to the situation.

The Egyptian Feminist Union  (الاتحاد النسائي المصري),  was founded at the home of Egyptian activist Huda Sha'arawi.

تأسس الاتحاد النسائي المصري في منزل الناشطة المصرية هدى شعراوي.

It still exists.

Five Irish soldiers were killed by a Republican booby trap at Baranarigh Wood in Kerry.  The following day a bloody reprisal was carried out by the Free State against nine IRA prisoners.

Pilots of the United States Army Air Corps posed for this photograph:

Dapper men in an extremely dangerous job.

Children had fun with an elephant in Miami, before fun suckers took the joy out of all such things, and out of much of daily life as well.

Friday, December 4, 1942. The airwar starts for Italy.

Carlson's Patrol concluded successfully for the U.S. Marines on Guadalcanal.

American aircraft raided Italy for the first time, with B-24s of the 9th Air Force hitting Naples from bases in the Middle East.

The B-24s were of the 98th and 376th Bombardment Groups and were based in Egypt. They crossed the Mediterranean at 20,300 ft, came in undetected and raided Naples unnoticed. In the process, they were confused with a flight of German Ju 52 transports.  Their target was the harbor and they sank the Italian cruiser Muzio Attendolo.

Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King met with Franklin Roosevelt.

Roosevelt, also on this day, ordered the Works Progress Administration dissolved, or as he put it, given an "honorable discharge".  It would take until June 30, 1943, to dissolve it, however.

The swashbuckler The Black Swan, featuring Tyrone Power and Maureen O'Hara was released.  It'd be a huge hit.

Wednesday, November 18, 1942. Cyrene.

The 8th Army, on this day in 42, reached Cyrene, Libya.

That Libyan city was founded in 631 BC.  It is likely most well known to people in the west for the reason that it was the place of origin of Simon of Cyrene.  At the time, it had a large Jewish population of approximately 100,000, due to a forcible settlement there during the Egyptian reign of Greek general Ptolemy Soter.  It would become, like many Libyan coastal cities, an important center of early Christianity.

Marshal Pétain granted Vichy Prime Minister Pierre Laval the authority to rule by decree.  Vichy was had already become a rump state and had, for all practical purposes, lost its legitimacy at this point.

President Roosevelt ordered the registration for Selective Service of all men who had turned 18 years of age after July 1, 1942, thereby increasing the conscription pool by 500,000 men.

Saturday, November 4, 1922. Ottoman vestiges.

The Country Gentleman appeared on the stands with an election themed issue.

I don't know if women really had to give their ages. They don't know, of course, except I suppose at the time of their registration.

A young maid with kittens made up the sad cover of the Saturday Evening Post in a Rockwell illustration.

Ahmet Tevfik Pasha resigned as Grand Vizar of the Ottoman Empire, there no longer being the post following its elimination by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, and there also no longer being an Ottoman Empire.

The position was essentially that of Prime Minster by power of attorney through the Sultan, who also no longer existed.

On the same day Ali Kemal, former Turkish Interior Minister, was kidnapped from a barbershop in Istambul under orders of the military governor of Izmir.  He'd be murdered two days later.

Colorado was hit by severe weather:

The Colorado killer tornadoes of November 4, 1922

British archeologist discovered the Tomb of King Tutankhamen.

This story has never fascinated me the way it does other people.  This is not to say that it isn't significant, it certainly is, but many people are fascinated with it, which I'm afraid I am not.

Tuesday, October 24, 1972. Jackie Robinson passes.

Jackie Robinson died on this day in 1972.

He was only 53 years old when he died of a heart attack, a condition brought on by diabetes and heart disease.

Silent screen actress Clair Windsor, whose career bridged into sound, died at age 80.

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat conveyed a council of war in which he announced plans to launch a limited war against Israel.

Field Marshal Sadeq, had not reported to the Supreme Council what the purpose of the meeting was to be, and even though he was ordered to prepare a plan of war by October 1, he was fired a few days later.

The Japanese crime syndicate the Yakuza divided its operations into territories, thereby ending years of inter gang strife.

Tuesday, September 29, 1942. The British launch Operation Braganza, and the Japanese try again in Oregon.

The British launched Operation Braganza with the goal of capturing the ground around Deir el Munassib in Egypt.  It would fail.

The Japanese tried again with a second submarine launched seaplane bombing mission against the forest in Oregon, hoping to set them on fire. They did not.

The great comedic actress Madeline Kahn was born in Boston, Massachusetts.

Lahn was born to Bernard and Freda Wolfson, who divorced when she was two.  Her mother later married Hiller Kahn who adopted her.  Her mother had wanted to be an actress and for a time pursued that goal.  Kahn graduated in 1964 with a degree in speech therapy from Hofra University and began purusing an actiing career herself soon after.

Kahn in 1964.

Starting with roles on Broadway, she broke into film in 1968 and by 1972 was in the major motion picture, What's Up Doc?, which I've never seen.  The following year, she was in Paper Moon, which is a great film, for which she secured an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.  She was in a series of notable roles after that.  In the 1990s she was in the television series Cosby, which was hugely respected, but which is now probably un-airable due to the later revelations about Bill Cosby.  She died in 1999 of ovarian cancer at age 57.