Saturday, May 13, 1911. Massacre of Torreón

 

Maderistas took the railroad hub of Torreón in Coahuila.  After they entered the city, they killed 300 Chinese residents.  The event is the largest one of its type committed by Mexican revolutionaries during the war, but it was not the only one.

Zapata's forces attacked Cuautla.

Last edition:

Friday, May 12, 1911. On to Mexico City.

Labels: 1910s, 1911, Catholic, Christianity, Francisco I. Madero, Maderistas, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Mexico (Juarez), Mexico (Mexico City), Pancho Villa, Pascual Orozco, Protestant, religion

Friday, May 12, 1911. On to Mexico City.

Madero was declaring that if Diaz did not step down, his forces would march on Mexico City.

Pancho Villa and Pascual Orozco, accompanied by about 150 soldiers, came to speak to Francisco Madero to demand Gen. Navarro's execution.

A Protestant pastor, the same issue of the Casper noted, apparently didn't really understand the nature of the Sacrament of Confession.

Last edition:

Thursday, May 11, 1911. Madero creates a provisional cabinet.

Labels: 1910s, 1911, Battle of Cuautla, Emiliano Zapata, Francisco I. Madero, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Mexico (Cuautla), Mexico (Juarez), Personalities, Texas (El Paso), William Howard Taft

Thursday, May 11, 1911. Madero creates a provisional cabinet.

Francisco I. Madero set up a provisional cabinet and declared himself the head of the provisional government following the capture of Juarez by his troops.

Zapata's forces moved to encircle Cuautla in Morelos.

American site seers crossed from El Paso into Juarez to see the just captured city.

Gen. Navarro, who surrendered to the rebels at Juarez, was reinstated into the Mexican Army under Huerta.  Already in his 60s, he served one more year and retired in 1914.  He died in 1934 at age 92 and is buried in Juarez.

Taft clearly demonstrated that he had a much better understanding on what intervening in foreign locations with arms meant as compared to our current "president".

Last edition:

Wednesday, May 10, 1911. Madero takes Juarez in spite of himself.

Labels: 1910s, 1911, Battle of Ciudad Juárez, Maderistas, Magonistas, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Mexico (Juarez), Pancho Villa, Pascual Orozco

Wednesday, May 10, 1911. Madero takes Juarez in spite of himself.

Federal forces at Juarez surrendered to the forces of Pascual Orozco and Pancho Villa, who had attacked the city in defiance of Francisco Madero.

This was the first major loss of territory to Maderistas, although the attack on the city was in defiance of orders from Madero.  Tijuana had fallen the day prior to Magonistas.

Last edition:

Tuesday, May 9, 1911. Magonista rebels captured Tijuana.

Labels: 1910s, 1911, First Battle of Tijuana, Magonistas, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Mexico (Tijuana), Serbian Black Hand

Tuesday, May 9, 1911. Magonista rebels captured Tijuana.

 

Only a handful of Mexican nations fought in what was effectively an invasion by American and International Socialist in support of the Socialist Magonistas.

The constitution of Unification or Death (Уједињење или смрт), the Black Hand (Црна рука, Crna ruka) secret Serbian military society was signed.

Last edition:

Monday, May 8, 1911. Birth of U.S. Naval Aviation, Fighting at Tijuana, birth of Robert Johnson.

Labels: 1910s, 1911, 1920s, 1929, 1930s, 1931, 1938, Aircraft, First Battle of Tijuana, France, Germany, Magonistas, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Mexico (Tijuana), Morocco, Music, Personalities, Robert Johnson, The Blues

Monday, May 8, 1911. Birth of U.S. Naval Aviation, Fighting at Tijuana, birth of Robert Johnson.

The Navy awarded a contract to Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company for the Curtiss A-1 Triad, the first U.S. Navy contract for an airplane.

Curtiss A-1

China agreed to phase out production of opium in an agreement with the United Kingdom which in turn agreed to phase out export of the same drug from India.

Magonistas skirmished with Mexican Federal troops at Tijuana after the Federals refused a demand of surrender.

All but ten of the Magonista force was comprised of Americans or Europeans.

Germany warned France that occupation of the Moroccan city of Fes would be regarded as a violation of the agreement between the two nations.

Legendary and highly influential bluesman Robert Johnson was born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi.

Johnson was born illegitimately to Julia Major Dodds and Noah Johnson.  She was married at the time to Charles Dodds, a semi prosperous landowner and furniture make with whom she had ten children.  Charles Dodds relocated to Memphis when he was a baby to avoid lynching due to dispute with farmers and Julia took Robert to live with him, which he did for about eight years.  He first attended school there.  At some point the marriage fell apart, a person has to wonder if it was due to the illegitimate liaison, and the couple divorced.  Julia remarried sharecropper Will "Dusty" Willis and Robert returned to his mother and to the Mississippi. Delta and he continued school there, although he may have returned to Memphis from time to time for school.  He started using the last name Johnson when informed of his illegitimate birth.

Johnson took up being a bluesman early.  His acquisition of guitar skills suddenly as a teenager lead to rumors that he'd sold his soul for the skill, but it's notable that he was under the tutelage of Son House at the time.  He married fourteen year old Virginia Travis in 1929 and the couple lived on the farm of a half sister and her husband but the marriage did not last.  He fathered a child with Vergie Mae Smith in 1931 and then in that same year married Caletta Craft.  The child, Claud Johnson, would be rasied by his grandparents and be noted for his charity and religious devotion.  Caletta would die in 1933, leaving Robert and two children by prior relationships.

By that time Johnson was a dedicated bluesman gaining a reputation as a very skilled artists, a friendly fellow, but extremely shy with stage fright.  He had numerous romantic relationships with various women wherever he went.  He was recorded in 1936 and 1937 and his first recording did well.  He traveled very widely in the Eastern United States and was recognized as a major blues talent  He died in 1938 under uncertain conditions with explanations ranging from congenital syphilis to being poisoned.  News of his death traveled slowly and it is not actually known where he his buried.  John Hammond tried to book him for a major concert in Carnegie Hall only to learn of his death, and Alan Lomax tried to record him as late as 1941.

In 1961, Columbia released King of the Delta Blues Singers, an lp I have, which had a major influence on the rock scene of the era.  Rock musicians, including Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Robert Plant and Johnny Winters were heavily influenced by him.  Sweet Home Chicago and Crossroads have gone on to become blues and rock standards.

Last edition:

Sunday, May 7, 1911. Díaz promises to go, sometime.

Labels: 1910s, 1911, First Battle of Tijuana, Francisco I. Madero, Magonistas, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Mexico (Tijuana), Porfirio Díaz, Socialism

Sunday, May 7, 1911. Díaz promises to go, sometime.

Porfirio Díaz issued a "manifesto" declaring that he would eventually resign as President of Mexico but not until Madero's efforts to overthrow him ceased.

A promise to leave that came about in a war caused by a promise to leave was not likely to be successful.

Socialist Magonistas deployed outside of Tijuana in preparation to attack the small village.

Last edition:

Saturday, May 6, 1911. One Colorado Senator.

Labels: 1910s, 1911, 1913, Art, Colorado, Politics, Railroads, Women

Friday, May 5, 1911. La Cruz Blanca Neutral.

La Cruz Blanca Neutral, a medical relief organization taking a neutral stance in the Mexican Revolution, was formed.  The Red Cross refused to treat rebels in the conflict.

Last edition:

Monday, May 1, 1911. Light v. United States. "All the public lands of the nation are held in trust for the people of the whole country."

Labels: 1910s, 1911, 1912, Agriculture, Bill Allemand, Colorado, Court, Enemies of Public Lands, law, Nebraska, Public Land, Weather

Sunday, April 30, 1911. Fire in Bangor, Maine.

 One third of Bangor Maine was destroyed by fire.

Diaz indicated that he would go.

Last edition:

Tuesday, April 25, 1911 Ceasefire in Mexico.

Labels: 1910s, 1911, Francisco I. Madero, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Porfirio Díaz

Tuesday, April 25, 1911 Ceasefire in Mexico.

 A ceasefire was declared in the civil war in Mexico as Madero and Diaz agreed to hold talks.

Last edition:

Saturday, April 22, 1911. Zapata and Figueroa combine forces.

Labels: 1910s, 1911, Automobiles, baseball, Emiliano Zapata, Mexican Revolution, Mexico

Saturday, April 22, 1911. Zapata and Figueroa combine forces.

Emiliano Zapata met with Ambrosio Figueroa, head of the rebels in the state of Guerrero. They decide to combine their forces.

Baseball season was starting up.

Vehicles were on display.

Last edition:

Tuesday, April 18, 1911. Diaz complies and protests.

Labels: 1910s, 1911, Baja California, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Porfirio Díaz, Socialism, William Howard Taft

Thursday, February 11, 1926. Calles attacks the Church.

Plutarco Elías Calles nationalized all property of the Catholic church in Mexico.

The degree to which the leaders of the Mexican Revolution were anti Catholic in a very Catholic nation is hard to overestimate, although at the same time, particularly in some regions, Catholic viewpoints were very represented amongst the revolutionaries.  Emiliano Zapata in particularly was notably Catholic.

Be that as it may, Madero was not a practicing Catholic and had peculiar spiritual views.  He was in fact a spiritualist and a Mason.  Still, his victory in the revolution, temporary though it was, was seen by Catholics as an opportunity to form a Mexican Catholic political party, which they did.  The Church condemned Madero's assassination.

It was that killing that sparked the second stage of the revolution.   Álvaro Obregón and Calles both featured prominently in that, and both were anti Catholic.  Calles was also a Mason.  In that phase of the revolution, moreover, democratic forces, which had brought about Madero's rise, started to wane and with the murder of Zapata and the victory of Carranza Mexico headed off in a much more radically leftist direction. In some ways the Mexican Revolution, in spite of its romantic portrayal in American cinema, was much more of a 20th Century European Revolution, many of which featured radically anti Catholic leaders against Catholic populations in favor of utopian leftism.

Calles fit that mold and was the sort example in the office of president of Mexico.  His anti clerical laws would lead to the Cristero War the following year.

Mexico remains a very Catholic country to this day and the Mexican people are very Catholic. But like other religious communities, the period of anti religious domination hurt the religious nature of the people nonetheless and the culture of the country.  Mexico has never really recovered from the anti religious views of the revolution.  Ironically, one of the beneficiaries of that has been Protestant Millennialism which has been successful in drawing in religious Mexicans who are unchurched, a byproduct of the revolution.

Actor Leslie Nielsen was born in Regina, Saskatchewan.  He served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War Two as an aerial gunner, although he was not deployed overseas.

Last edition:

Wednesday, February 10, 1926. Going to the League.

Labels: 1920s, 1926, German Weimar Republic, Italy, League of Nations, South Tyrol, Tyrol

Sunday, February 5, 1911. First Battle of Bauche.

Mexican Federal troops, stopped the day prior at Bauche by rebels under Pascual Orozco, abandoned the railroad and commenced marching overland towards Juarez in an effort to relieve forces besieged there.

A revolution in Haiti was put down with the capture of rebel General Montreuil Guillaume.

Last edition:

Saturday, February 4, 1911. Deadlocks.

Labels: 1910s, 1911, Boer Armies, Boer War, Cartoons, Clifford K. Berryman, Francisco I. Madero, Government, Iran, Mexican Revolution, Persia, Personalities, Russia, Texas

Saturday, January 9, 1926. A different train attack.

Oddly enough, given the events that had happened ten years prior, Mexican rebels, under Colonel Manuel Núñez, opened fire on board a train  traveling from Guadalajara to Mexico City, ultimately destroying it and making away with 300,000 pesos. Eleven people were killed.

The Navy League of the United States released a report finding the United States Navy to be unprepared for war and short of the tonnage limitation set by the Washington Naval Treaty.

It was a Saturday.

Last edition:

Friday, January 8, 1926. Crownings.

Labels: 1920s, 1926, Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud, Bảo Đại, French Indochina, Kingdom of Hejaz, Mecca, Monarchy, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Vietnam (Huế)

Thursday, December 23, 1915. Villa defeated again.

 

The news reported a Villa defeat.

Henry Ford Abandons His Peace Ship

Last edition:

Wednesday, December 22, 1915. Hartmannswillerkopf ends.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Alsace-Lorraine, Battle of Hartmannswillerkopf, Mexican Border War, Mexican Revolution, World War One

Wednesday, October 20, 1915. Arms okay for Carranza.

The impact of Woodrow Wilsons' administration recognizing Carranza, whose followers had blown off the Convention of Aguascalientes, and who personally hated the United States, was becoming immediately clear.

Arms to Carranza. . . that would tip the scales for sure.

While Wilson had his hand on the scale of the Mexican Revolution, he was issuing a proclaimation about American Thanksgiving.

President Wilson issued a proclamation regarding Thanksgiving.

Proclamation 1316—Thanksgiving Day, 1915

October 20, 1915

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

It has long been the honoured custom of our people to turn in the fruitful autumn of the year in praise and thanksgiving to Almighty God for His many blessings and mercies to us as a nation. The year that is now drawing to a close since we last observed our day of national thanksgiving has been, while a year of discipline because of the mighty forces of war and of change which have disturbed the world, also a year of special blessing for us.

Another year of peace has been vouchsafed us; another year in which not only to take thought of our duty to ourselves and to mankind but also to adjust ourselves to the many responsibilities thrust upon us by a war which has involved almost the whole of Europe. We have been able to assert our rights and the rights of mankind without breach of friendship with the great nations with whom we have had to deal; and while we have asserted rights we have been able also to perform duties and exercise privileges of succour and helpfulness which should serve to demonstrate our desire to make the offices of friendship the means of truly disinterested and unselfish service. Our ability to serve all who could avail themselves of our services in the midst of crisis has been increased, by a gracious Providence, by more and more abundant crops. our ample financial resources have enabled us to steady the markets of the world and facilitate necessary movements of commerce which the war might otherwise have rendered impossible; and our people have come more and more to a sober realization of the part they have been called upon to play in a time when all the world is shaken by unparalleled distresses and disasters. The extraordinary circumstances of such a time have done much to quicken our national consciousness and deepen and confirm our confidence in the principles of peace and freedom by which we have always sought to be guided. Out of darkness and perplexity have come firmer counsels of policy and clearer perceptions of the essential welfare of the nation. We have prospered while other peoples were at war, but our prosperity has been vouchsafed us, we believe, only that we might the better perform the functions which war rendered it impossible for them to perform.

Now, Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Thursday the twenty-fifth of November next as a day of thanksgiving and prayer, and invite the people throughout the land to cease from their wonted occupations and in their several homes and places of worship render thanks to Almighty God.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington this twentieth day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fifteen and of the independence of the United States the one hundred and fortieth.

Signature of Woodrow Wilson

Louis Botha, once a Boer General, of the South African Party won the 1915 South African general election and retained power.

French forces reached the town of Krivolak on the Vardar river in Vardar Macedonia. The British dug in at a mountain pass near Kosturino and Doiran Like.

The Ottoman Empire brought an end to Armenian resistance at Urfa.

The British Commonwealth recognized women as bus and tram operators for the duration, something that had been going on for some time.

Sweden established the Swedish Infantry Officers College.

Whatever It Is, I’m Against It: Today -100: October 20, 1915: With bleeding heart ...: Headline of the Day -100:  Male voters in New Jersey reject women’s suffrage in the referendum by roughly 133,000 to 184,000. It los...

Last edition:

Tuesday, October 19, 1915. The US extends recognition to Carranza.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Bulgaria, Constitutionalist Army, Italy, Mexican Border War, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Russia, Texas, Texas (Brownsville), Venustiano Carranza, World War One