Artillery Hill, Camp Wheeler, Macon, Georgia. October 2, 1917.

The Big Picture: Medical Officer Training Corps, Camp Greenleaf (M.O.T.C.), Ft. Oglethorpe, Ga., Aug. 20, 1917

Georgian Orthodox Church declares its resumed autocephaly.

 Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Kyrion II, who was elevated to that role upon the Georgian Orthodox Church declaring autocephaly in 1917.  He'd returned from monastic exile to assume that role.  He was murdered by an unknown assailant on June 27, 1918, and his murder remains a mystery to this day.

On this day in 1917, the Georgian Orthodox Church restored its autocephalous (self-governing) status within the Orthodox family of Apostolic churches.

This is likely a somewhat complicated story, and I'm not familiar with it, but it seems that it had been autocephalous since 1010, however, in 1811 it was put under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church, with there being a great deal of protest about that in the Georgian community. 

Following the overthrow of Czar Nicholas II, the Georgian Bishops unilaterally restored autocephaly on this date. In spite of the obvious stress the Russian Empire was under, the Russian Orthodox Church did not accept this.  Oddly enough, in spite of enduring two decades of Stalinist repression of the most severe varieties, it was Stalin who ordered the Russian Orthodox Church to recognize its independence in 1943, at which time Stalin was easing up on the churches in an effort to gain the support of every element of Soviet society in the face of the German invasion.

 

Wednesday, March 31, 1909. Common Cup.

The Kansas State Board of Health banned the "common drinking cup" on trains and in public schools.

1919 Red Cross poster instructing parents to teach their children to never use a common drinking cup.

Common drinking cups were very common and it would take years to really fully prohibit their use.  Their elimination gave rise to the water fountain, which had no cup, and to disposable cups.

Georgian ended its "convict lease system" with 1,200 convicted felons thereby returned from private stockades to county jails.

The Serbian ambassador to Austro Hungaria presented his government's formal acceptance of the Austrian annexation of Bosnia.

Hull No. 401, the keel of the RMS Titanic, was laid at the Harland and Wolff shipyards in Belfast.

The company still exists and still has a shipyard in Belfast.  Founded in 1861, it was nationalized in 1977, and then privatized again in 1989.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, March 30, 1909. The Army abandons Ft. Washakie.

1900s, 1909, Arapaho people, Army, cavalry, Ethnicities, Frontier Wyoming, Shoshone people, The Frontier West, Wind River Reservation, Wyoming

Thursday, March 18, 1909. Tragedies.

Today In Wyoming's History: March 18:  1909.  Guernsey hotel keeper John "Posey" Ryan murdered his estranged wife, and her daughter, in the Palmer Restaurant in Cheyenne.  From WyoHistory.org. 

In other horrifying Cheyenne news:

In Denmark, Einar Dessau spoke over the radio to a government post six miles distant, becoming the first person to speak over the radio.

I can, on good days, speak well over three times that distance on my GMRS radio, or on bad ones, about half that.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr., the fourth child of Franklin and Elanor Roosevelt, was born.  He died eight months later on November 8, 1909.  Five years later the Roosevelt's would name their fifth child the same name.  He would live until 1988.  His son also named Franklin remains with us to this day.

Tampa waterfront, March 18, 1909.

Tampa, March 18, 1909.

Savanah, Georgia, March 18, 1909.

Saturday, March 13, 1909. Sulphur Springs Florida and Augusta Georgia.

 

Last prior:

Wednesday, March 10, 1909. Field Gray.