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The Battle of Mons occurred in which the BEF held the German forces, but began a month long retreat to the Marne.
Irishman Maurice James Dease became the first British officer to be killed in action, for which he additionally won the Victoria Cross.
The machine gun crews were constantly being knocked out. So cramped was their position that when a man was hit he had to be removed before another could take his place. The approach from the trench was across the open, and whenever a gun stopped Lieutenant Maurice Dease... went up to see what was wrong. To do this once called for no ordinary courage. To repeat it several times could only be done with real heroism. Dease was badly wounded on these journeys, but insisted on remaining at duty as long as one of his crew could fire. The third wound proved fatal, and a well deserved VC was awarded him posthumously. By this time both guns had ceased firing, and all the crew had been knocked out. In response to an inquiry whether anyone else knew how to operate the guns Private Godley came forward. He cleared the emplacement under heavy fire and brought the gun into action. But he had not been firing long before the gun was hit and put completely out of action. The water jackets of both guns were riddled with bullets, so that they were no longer of any use. Godley himself was badly wounded and later fell into the hands of the Germans.
German troops killed 654 Belgian civilians in Dinant, Belgium in confusion or panic regarding francs-tireurs
The French were defeated in the Battle of the Ardennes and the Battle of Charleroi.
The Battle of Tannenberg began between the German Army and the Imperial Russian Army.
The Battle of Kraśnik began between the Austro Hungarian Army and the Imperial Russian Army.
Japan declared war on Germany. China canceled the German lease of the Kiaochow Bay.
New Zealand occupied the German colony of German Samoa, following an unopposed invasion.
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The Belgian Catholic Party won 41 out of 88 seats of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives.
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Álvaro Obregón's forces captured Tepic and thus the only railroad between the ports of Guadalajara and Colima.
Robert Bartlett arrived in Emma Harbour.
A day late, but the day prior, May 15, Colorado National Guardsman Sergeant Patrick N. Cullom testified that soldiers in his company shot and killed labor activist Louis Tikas and two other fellow strikers while they tried to escape during the Ludlow Massacre. Moreover, it was revealed that large numbers of strikebreakers were recent enlistees in the subject unit.
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It was the first official Mother's Day, the proclamation having been issued yesterday.
The U.S. Navy brought back the bodies of service men who had died over a snit over how the Mexican government was to apologize for a mistake.
Shipwrecked Karluck captain Robert Bartlett left Intuit guide Kataktovik in Emma Town, Siberia and traveled with a Russian escort to Emma Harbor in his ongoing effort to seek a rescue for the Canadian Arctic Expedition survivors on Wrangel Island.
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Fighting in Veracruz ceased and the occupation of the city began.
35,000 obsolescent German, Austrian and Italian rifles and 5,000,000 rounds of ammunition were smuggled into Ulster from Germany and distributed by automobile in the Larne Gun Running incident to Ulster loyalists in anticipation of fighting over the issue of independence, with the Ulster Volunteers opposed to it.
Captain Robert Bartlett and Kataktovik reached Emma Town having traveled 700 miles in their effort to secure relief for his stranded party. They secured passage there to Emma Harbour, a weeks journey, so that he could travel to Alaska by ship from there.
The Brooklyn Federal League team was photographed.
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Pancho Villa refused to delivery the body of William S. Benton to US and British authorities but stated he's allow relatives to visit his burial site, escorted.
The Ulster Unionist Party distributed posters addressing concerns about the Ulster Volunteer Force attempting to assure that it was formed solely due to its disputes with London, which probably wasn't particularly comforting.
Captain Robert Barrett led the last survivors from the Canadian Arctic Expedition's Shipwreck Camp to Wrangel Island, leaving a note on their whereabouts in a copper drum in case the icebound camp drifted into an area where it could be found.
Robert Peary, meanwhile, speculated in the press that the Canadian expedition had set up camp near the Alaskan coastline.
Famous Maine commander Joshua Chamberlain, who won a Medal of Honor for his actions at Gettysburg, died at age 85.
He had gone on to serve as the Governor of Maine.
While famous for his role in the Civil War, he had started off his adult life with the intent of becoming a Congregationalist minister, which was his mother's desire. His father had hoped for a military career for him. Marrying in 1855, he took up a career as a teacher before the Civil War. He of course served notably in the Civil War. After the war he served four one year terms as Governor of Maine (what a horrific though to have to run a campaign every year), resumed teaching at the university level, practiced law, and engaged in various business activities.
Career U.S. Navy sailor John King won his second Medal of Honor.
The citation read:
Watertender, serving on board the U.S.S. Salem, for extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession on the occasion of the accident to one of the boilers of that vessel, 13 September 1909.
The citation for his first one read:
On board the U.S.S. Vicksburg, for heroism in the line of his profession at the time of the accident to the boilers, 29 May 1901.
He was an Irish immigrant, retired in 1916, reentered the Navy during World War One, and retired again in 1919. He died in 1938 at age 73.
A destroyer was named after him, and coincidentally I served in the National Guard with a fellow who had served on that ship.
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African American Sgt. William Harvey Carney, 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on July 18, 1863.
While the first Medal of Honor was awarded to a black soldier in 1864, the 1863 action at the assault on Ft. Wagner, South Carolina, is the earliest date for which such an award was conferred on an African American.
The Associated Press was incorporated.
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Samoa officially became an unwilling part of the German Empire. Wilhelm Solf became the first governor. Chief Mata'afa, who had fought against the Germans, was named as the paramount chief of the western Samoa colony and Kaiser Wilhelm II was designated as the Paramount King.
Of interest, Solf would die in 1936, his efforts to create a new moderate German political party after the rise of Nazism having failed, but his wife, Johanna, would form the Solf Circle resistance group and personally sheltered Jews along with one of her daughters. She was arrested and put in a concentration camp, but survived and passed away in 1954.
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The Battle of Mazocoba was fought in Sonora, Mexico between Yaqui rebels and the Mexican army. It resulted in largescale Yaqui losses, but not conclusive tactical conclusion.
Yesterday was our first mention of the Yaqui people and the Yaqui Wars. Yaqui resistance to Spanish, and then Mexican, authority dated from 1533 to 1929.
Weyerhauser was incorporated in Washington state.
Pvt. Frank T. O. Walker would preform the actions that resulted in his being awarded the Medal of Honor. His citation reads:
The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Private Frank T. O. Walker, United States Army, for most distinguished gallantry on 18 January 1900, while serving with Company F, 46th Infantry, U.S. Volunteers, in action at Taal, Luzon, Philippine Islands. Under heavy fire of the enemy Private Walker rescued a dying comrade who was sinking beneath the water.
Walker was a volunteer from Massachusetts. He'd die in 1904, at age 26 and apparently as a civilian.
The Delaware Supreme Court refused to admit Philadelphia attorney Carrie B. Kilgore as she was a woman, and therefore barred by a Delaware provision that attorneys at law musts be eligible to vote.
L. Frank Baum and illustrator W. W. Denslow jointly copyrighted their new book, The Land of Oz.
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