In Denmark, Einar Dessau spoke over the radio to a government post six miles distant, becoming the first person to speak over the radio.
Ostensibly exploring the practice of law before the internet. Heck, before good highways for that matter.
Monday, March 18, 2024
Thursday, March 18, 1909. Tragedies.
In Denmark, Einar Dessau spoke over the radio to a government post six miles distant, becoming the first person to speak over the radio.
Sunday, March 17, 2024
Tuesday, March 17, 1824. Irish in Savannah and Old Glory
Savannah, Georgia held its first St. Patrick's Day parade on this day in 1824.
We don't tend to think of the Irish immigrating to the American South, but there were some, although the story is complicated by the conflation of the Irish with the Scots Irish, the latter group actually being a Scottish Protestant population imported by the United Kingdom with the intent to create a sort of Protestant wall in Ulster. The actual Irish were a massively unpopular "race" in the United States at this point in time.
The name "Old Glory" was applied to the U.S. flag for the first time, with that coming from Cpt. William Driver, a commercial captain who received it from his mother and local women of Salem, Massachusetts. The name was applied to the individual flag.
Driver was an interesting character and had originally gone to sea at age 13 as a cabin boy. On an 1831 expedition to the South Pacific, his ship was the only one out of six that survived the trip, and his ship escorted 65 descendants of the Bounty survivors back to Pitcairn Island. He retired from sailing in 1837 and became a salesman. During the Civil War, he remained loyal to the Union while living in Nashville.
It remained in his family's possession until 1922, when it was donated to the Smithsonian.
The Anglo Dutch Treaty was entered into resolving issues that had arisen due to a prior treaty in 1814.
Last prior:
Thursday, March 11, 1824. Bureau of Indian Affairs formed.
Saturday, October 28, 2023
Some Gave All: Fort Gordon now Fort Eisenhower.
Fort Gordon now Fort Eisenhower.
The post in Georgia has been renamed for Kansan and former President, Dwight Eisenhower.
It's somewhat surprising to realize that nothing had been named for Eisenhower until now. Eisenhower is so well known to Americans, he really needs no introduction here.
Gordon might.
A lawyer and a plantation owner, Gordon was a cavalry commander during the Civil War. Following the South's defeat, he was elected to the U.S. Senate from Georgia, became its Governor, and then returned to the Senate. He never recanted from his racist views. He died in 1904.
Thursday, August 3, 2023
Tuesday, August 3, 1943. The Patton Slapping Incidents, part one.
The Red Army launched Operation Rumyantsev aimed at recovering to recapture Belgorod and Kharkov. As with many such actions, the offensive would gain ground, but feature huge Soviet material and manpower losses.
Gen. George S. Patton visited the 15th Evacuation Hospital in Nicosia, Cyprus and slapped Pvt Charles H. Kuhl with his gloves. Kuhl was in the hospital for malaria, dysentery and shell shock, and made the mistake of giving Patton the incomplete answer to an inquiry about why he was there with "I guess I just can't take it." The level of his illness was not appreciated until after the incident, and he had in fact been in the hosptial on two prior occasions prior to it occuring and returend to the front. The "can't take it" line had been put on his admittance notes.
Kuhl's malarial infection was undiagnosed at the time, and he was actually much sicker than initially believed. He passed off the Patton incident and didn't seem to think it a big deal. Patton later apologized directly to him, following the firestorm of bad publicity and official reprimand this incident was partially responsible for, and noted that Patton hadn't realized he was so ill.
Kuhl noted later that when he met Patton, Patton seemed to be quite worn out. Depictions of Patton fail to appreciate this, but he was constantly ill during World War Two, a condition probably partially brought on by chain-smoking cigars. Additionally, there is reason to suspect that he suffered from lingering after affects from horse accident related head injuries.
The incident is depicted in the movie Patton, although a second incident that would occur on August 10 is not. They would ultimately hit the press, but the public, contrary to what might be suspected, largely supported Patton.
Kuhl died at age 55 from a heart attack.
Friday, May 19, 2023
Saturday, May 19, 1923. Double Standards.
Lenin's USSR, which was ostensibly for the rights of small nations, executed the principal leaders of the Georgian Committee for the Independence of Georgia.
Zev won the Kentucky Derby. H was owned by Harry F. Sinclair of the Sinclair Oil Company.
Italian women marched for suffrage in Rome.
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Friday, October 13, 1921. Giants take the Series, Turks take former Imperial Russian Territory, Hine takes photographs of 4H Club members.
The Giants took the World Series with a 1 to 0 victory over the Yankees.
While both nations were in a shaky position at the time, it's worth remembering that Turkey, while on the defensive, was holding its own against Greece. France and the UK, initially allies in the Greek effort, had abandoned Greece as it became more aggressive in regard to its territorial demands and efforts. The Turks, on the other hand, had shown an inclination to look East into Turkic territories, something the USSR didn't need to happen. Moreover, the Soviet Union was having difficulty imposing its moronic economic system on an unwilling population and its political thumb on various ethnicities, so it was arguably in a worse position than Turkey was. Also, its population was enduring famine to the lunatic nature of its farm policy.
After World War Two Stalin pressed for the return of Imperial Russian lands, but Turkey resisted it, and the Western Allies backed Turkey's position. Soviet demands were dropped, but Georgia and Armenia have never been happy with the border that the treaty created.
A photographer took a photo of Jacksonville, Florida.
Monday, April 5, 2021
What's that voting bill actually say?
I confess, I haven't read the entire bill, and there are some distressing bills out there, but the Georgia bill is getting a lot of heat, without much light shed on it. Here it actually is:
Much of this bill really isn't as horrific as portrayed. It pretty much just regularizes practices just informally put into practice last election in Georgia. It does have a couple of bad provisions, including that its 95 pages in length. The no water aid in line, which may or may not still be in there (this thing is way to long to fully read) is horrific, but apparently was in it in order to try to stop electioneering at the polls.
By the same token, while I want to be suspicious of the new Wyoming bill because of the times, I can't really find anything objectionable to having to present a photo ID when you vote and I'm really sort of surprised that this isn't the law already. I do find the provision that a Medicaid Card will work to be laughably Boomer patronizing. . . that's not a photo ID. But overall, asking for a photo ID at the polls, while probably not really necessary, isn't really burdensome either.
Indeed, by and large the Wyoming legislature did a good job of defeating the really bad bills this session. The really absurd bill that sought to give the legislature veto power over interpretation of the Constitution, which was flagrantly unconstitutional, didn't make it out of committee, even though it had the backing of most of the county GOP committees. The horrific bill to limit juries to six, rather than twelve, which was snuck in and supported by the plaintiff's bar made it past the House and died in the Senate. The WICHE bill did pass, but the Governor caught the foul ball on that one.
Things aren't over yet and there are still some bills out there that I have no idea as to their status, and no doubt some I've never heard of. Most of the gun rights bills this session were wholly unnecessary or unconstitutional, but I don't know where they are at. The bill allowing out of states to carry concealed without a permit did pass and I'm not for that and don't think it a good idea as I think Wyomingites deserve some level of control, such a reciprocal permit, on people we don't know traveling through here. I'm probably in the minority on that one. The one hunting bill I was tracking failed, which was too bad.
Anyhow, there's all sorts of yelling on various bills around the country, and in Congress, but do people read them? Probably not. Probably most people don't have the time. But the reporting on them lacks nuance and can create misimpressions.
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
March 17, 1921. Soviet Triumphs
On this day in 1921 the Kronstadt Rebellion was crushed by the deployment of 60,000 troops of the Red Army. Most of the 10,000 sailors and 5,000 soldiers who were part of the uprising surrendered, but some fled over the frozen Gulf of Finland towards Helsinki, where 800 went arrived. The distance was over 150 miles. The siege itself resulted in 11,000 casualties.
Some news outlets in the United States claimed that the sailors were fighting for the restoration of Krensky's government, but this was far off the mark. The revolutionary sailors had anarchist sympathies but more than anything else they called into question the Communists fidelity to the ideals of the revolution, something well worth questioning given their exploitation of nearly everything.
On the same day the Soviet Russian government negotiated a ceasefire with the Georgian Menshevik government, allowing the government to go into exile.
Thursday, February 25, 2021
February 25, 1921. Cold Snap.
Monday, February 15, 2021
February 15, 1921. The Centennial of Teton and Sublette Counties.
1921 Sublette County formed.
Sunday, February 14, 2021
February 14, 1921. Valentines Day. Perhaps love does not conquer all, but then again maybe it does. Enter Skeezix and the grandfather of Maryam D'Abo gets a command.
On this day in 1921 cartoonist Frank King made a major plot change by introducing Skeezix, an abandoned baby, into the plot.
Gasoline Alley principally appealed to men, it had been noted, with its mostly male characters. Female characters were almost just accessories to the cartoon and the major character, as it had developed to date, was a confirmed bachelor. Women proved to have little interest in the cartoon, which is no wonder. It was almost demeaning to women.
King determined to attempt to change this by putting a helpless waif in the hands of Walt, the main character. Walt, a giant (overweight) World War One veteran frequently commented on knowing how good he had it by being unmarried. Now, all of a sudden, new dramatic tension was added by some poor unfortunate putting a helpless infant in his hands.
On the same day, realizing that it needed an experienced commander for a dedicated fight with the Red Army that was sure to come, the Democratic Republic of Georgia, put Giorgi Kvintadze in command of its forces.
Kvintadze had served in the Imperial Russian forces and had been in charge of the Georgian forces before, but the task was hopeless. He ended up in France following the Red conquest of Georgia and lived until 1970.
Due to his exile and the following marriages of his children, he is the grandfather of actress Maryam d'Abo. The D'Abo's are a large family of entertainers in various fields.
Saturday, February 13, 2021
February 13, 1921. Armenia revolts.
On this day in 1921 Armenians rose up against the Bolsheviks, who had been attempting to take over their country with the backing of the USSR. The Soviet sponsored effort was designed to turn the form province of Imperial Russia back over to Russia's hands and into that of the Reds.
The uprising took advantage of a Soviet invasion of Georgia, the last pro western nation which remained independent which had been part of Imperial Russia in the Caucuses. The use of Red forces for that left enough of a vacuum for Armenian nationalist to revolt. While the revolt was initially successful, obviously it failed long term and Armenia, the first nation in the world to officially adopt Christianity, returned unwillingly to the Soviet orbit.
It's sometimes noted that Lenin "supported" the rights of self determination of small states. By this point in 1921 the Reds had already reconquered almost all the lands once occupied by Imperial Russia in the southwest of the former empire and had fought or conspired to reconquer nearly every other section of the former Russian Empire. So much for self determination.
Friday, February 12, 2021
February 12, 1921. Covers, Installations, Rebellions, and Cocker Spaniels.
February 12, 1921, was a Saturday, and hence the day that a lot of print magazines hit the magazine stands, and mailboxes.
Judge, which often had amusing cover illustrations, managed to go full bore creepy with a home bootlegger looking over his shoulder at imagined law enforcement as he works on raisin wine, which sounds absolutely gross.
The monument to Women's Suffrage was hauled up to the capitol rotunda on this day 1921.
Winston Churchill, a member of the British government during the Great War, and a former cavalry officer in the British Army, was appointed Secretary of Colonies on this day in 1921.
In Georgia, a Soviet backed and inspired rebellion spread.
A cocker spaniel named Midkiff Seductive took Best In Show at Westminster.