Monday, January 12, 1925. Ordering Thompsons.

The North Side Gang attempted a drive by assassination of Al Capone, with the would be killers armed with Thompson submachine guns.

Capone was inside a nearby restaurant at the time, conducting business, and only his bodyguard was wounded. The event did cause him to order Thompsons himself, which were not restricted from purchase in any fashion at the time.

These would have been the M1921 Thompson, not the M1928 Thompson that is more familiar to most people, although telling the difference between the two at a glance is difficult.  They were extremely expensive.

Period Thompson advertisement.  Thompson marketed them to police and for self defense, but of course at the price, they weren't economically attractive to regular people, and they were to criminal organizations, as well as to the police.

Last edition:

Sunday, January 11, 1925. Jargon of the Juveniles, Times Signal, Zanesville.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Teenagers, The Roaring Twenties, the spoken word

Sunday, January 17, 1915. Messing around in Arabia.

 Ottoman stragglers were rounded up by the Russians at Sarikamish.

The Arab houses of Āl Rashīd and Āl Saʻūd fought the Battle of Jarrab north of Al Majma'ah. Āl Rashīd prevailed.  Pre war civil servant and wartime British military advisor William Shakespear, a close friend of Ibn Saud, was killed, resulting in diminished British influence over the House of Saud.

African American radical Lucy Parsons led an unemployed march of 10,000 workers in Chicago.  The event would result in a program for the unemployed.

Last edition:

Saturday, January 16, 1915. Cape Evans.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, 1970s, 1973, Antarctic, boats and ships, Greece, Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, Monarchy, U.S. Navy

Thursday, April 23, 1914. Wrigley Field Opens, War Panic.

 

April 23, 1914: Chicago Feds open Weeghman Park, later known as Wrigley Field

The first game was between the Chicago Whales and the Kansas City Packers.

The Casper paper may have been a bit off the mark:

Mexicans were not happy, however, about the massively heavy-handed overreaction of the United States at Veracruz.

Last prior edition:

Wednesday, April 22, 1914. Fighting in Veracruz

1910s, 1914, baseball, Battle of Veracruz, Mexico, Teenagers, U.S. Navy, United States Marine Corps, Vera Cruz Mexico

Thursday, February 8, 1900. Freak blizzards, Failed Boer attacks, Je me souviens, Okinawan legacy.

A freak blizzard, if any blizzard is a freak, broke out in the Midwest in which the unseasonably warm temperature in Chicago was 62 °F (17 °C) at 7:00 am, and fell to 10 °F (−12 °C) by 11:00 pm.  The drop in temperature stands as a record to this day.

The Boers attacked the British in Ladysmith, South Africa, but were turned back.

The the States of Jersey permitted the use of the English language in its parliamentary debates for the first time, which is a crying shame.

French had been the language that was used until that time, and in my view, still should be.

Fiddlin' Joe Martin was born January 8, 1900 in  Edwards, Mississippi.

Okinawan Toyama Kyuzo, from Kin Town, arrived in Hawaii.  He was the first of many from Okinawa.

Actress Dorothy I. Adams was born in Hannah, North Dakota.  She played Wilma Cameron's mother in the bittersweet The Best Years of Our Lives, one of the best movies of all time, and the best film about the tragic, and tragically flawed "Greatest Generation".  It's hard to believe that she was only 46 years old when the film was made, which interestingly links in, a bit, to a comment made must yesterday.

Last edition:

Wednesday, February 7, 1900. Plague comes to the United States.

Labels: 1900, 1900–1904 San Francisco plague, 1900s, California (San Fransico), China, Disease, Education, Great Plague, Satire, Wyoming Freedom Caucus