The Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition completed its exploration of the River of Doubt by reuniting with a relief party led by Lt. Antonio Pyrineus. The meeting had been prearranged.
Three men died during the expedition, and Roosevelt had come very close to doing so. His health never recovered, although he'd very soon be agitating for an American entry into World War One, and seeking appointment to a volunteer division for that effort.
The Cheyenne paper was predicting that was going to break out at any moment, but I mostly put this issue up for the interesting cereal and flour advertisement.
It is interesting that "The Girl I Left Behind Me" was still a popular military tune, apparently, at the time.
Post Toasties getting in the war mood, however, is a classic.
Apparently Cheyenne had its own brand of flour at the time.
Fighting in Veracruz ceased and the occupation of the city began.
Raising the flat at Veracruz, April 27, 1924.
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.
Emma Harbor, 1921.
The Brooklyn Federal League team was photographed.
Street fighting was engaged in at Veracruz between landed US forces and Mexican forces as US forces advanced beyond the waterfront to secure their positions. The Mexican forces included civilians who had received distributed Mexican arms.
Street fighting was unusual for Americans at the time, and the sailors had trouble adapting to it, whereas the Marines quickly did.
The city center was taken by 11:00.
The Titanic Engineers' Memorial was unveiled at Southampton, UK.
Babe Ruth, age 19, pitched his first major league game for the Baltimore Orioles.
A force of 2,300 U.S. Marines and Sailors landed in Vera Cruz over the spat the US was engaging in over the Tampico Affair. Fighting broke out by noon and the Battle of Veracruz was on.
The House of Representatives voted 337 to 37 in favor of the intervention.
The papers were full of speculation about a war between the US and Mexico.
Don Martin de Leon to the provincial delegation of San Fernando de Bexar for an Empresario Grant in Texas to settle forty-one Mexican families "of good moral character" and to found the town of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Jesús Victoria. The Mexican settlement was unusual, as most of the period grants were to colonizing Americans.
De Leon was supportive of the Texas revolution against Mexico, but disdainful of the American colonists in Texas. As a major person of Spanish heritage, his life became difficult after Texas independence, and he ended up taking his family and livestock to Louisiana.
Calvin Coolidge, just one day after saying he had decided a new Attorney General, nominated Harlan Fiske Stone to that position.
Stone, who had been the dean of Columbia Law School, would go on from that position to the United States Supreme Court and ultimately Chief Justice.
The Bulgarian Communist Party was outlawed due to its role in attempting to overthrow the government.
A large demonstration broke out at the funeral of German monarchist Wilhelm Dreyer who had died in a French prison following his dynamiting a train in the French occupied Ruhr.
The Cla McIver rescued passengers of the SS Frangestan which had caught on fire. The 1,200 mostly Muslim passengers were on their way to Mecca.
Bobby Ávila, 1954 American League batting champion and Player of the Year, was born in Veracruz. He'd later be mayor of the city.
Well, it was the "Night Mail" edition. You'd get it Saturday morning.
The local paper was a day behind on Daugherty, but only to the extent that you got this edition first thing in the morning, or in Saturday's morning mail.
Morning mail?
Yes, morning mail. Mail was delivered twice per day until 1950. It varied a bit by city, however, with some cities restricting that to businesses, and some covering everyone. Some cities had business delivery more than once per day, with some delivering to businesses up to seven times per day.
Twice per day home delivery ended on April 17, 1950. For businesses, that ended in 1969.
The same issue had a tragic story of a love gone lethally wrong, and a shooting at the Lavoye.
The final addition, from the next day, followed up on that last story.
Senator George W. Pepper of Pennsylvania. at the bat with the Page boys at the Capitol, 25 March 1924
Casper adopted a blue law:
I wish we had one now.
I really do.
Also, while De la Huerta was now in exile, some fighting was apparently still going on, tragically.
The Greek parliament voted to boot out the monarchy and declare a republic, subject to an April 13, 1924 referendum.
British aviators joined in a de facto race with the US Army in attempting to be the first to complete an airborne circumnavigation of the world, when British teams departed from Calshot, near South Hampton.
Adolfo de la Huerta went into exile to Florida, following his initial flight to Los Angeles after the collapse of his revolution in Mexico. He's soon return to Los Angeles.
The World Court of the League of Nations issued its decision in the border dispute between Poland and Czechoslovakia within the Orava Territory. Czechoslovakia was allowed to retain Javorina and Ždiar in return for ceding Nižná Lipnica to Poland. Poland ceded territory around Sucha Góra and Glodōvka became Suchá Hora and Hladovka in what is now Slovakia. The dispute had led to conflict in 1919.
The Delahueristas surrendered with President Álvaro Obregón offering them an amnesty which they largely accepted and de la Huerta entered into the US, going to Los Angeles. Mexican army officers who had been part of the revolution who held a rank higher than major were ordered to be executed.
De la Huerta's revolution came after Obregón endorsed Plutarco Calles as his successor and was favored by Catholics, conservatives and a considerable portion of the army officers. Obregón was supported by the U.S. government, agrarians, workers and it resulted in the establishment of the Mexican Air Force.
An Irish Army demobilization, resulting in reduced numbers, met the opposition of the Irish Republican Army Organization (IRAO) which delivered an ultimatum to President Cosgrave from Major-General Liam Tobin and Colonel Charles Dalton, demanding it cease. Defense Minister Richard Mulcahy ordered the arrest of both officers on charges of mutiny.
The Berliner gyrocopter No. 5 gave its first successful demonstration. U.S. Army Lt. Harold R. Harris flew it for one minutes and 20 seconds at the College Park Airport, near the University of Maryland, in front of the press and members of the U.S. Navy.
The Beverly Hills Speedway hosted its final race, which was attended by 85,000 automobile racing fans. Harlan Fengler broke the world's record for a 250 mile race, averaging 116.6 mph.
Fengler would go on to be the Chief Steward of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from 1958 until 1974. He passed away in 1981 at age 78.
Pascual Orozco was a Mexican Revolutionary who originally supported Madero before falling out with him. He was of immediate Basque descent, something we tend not to think about in regard to Mexico, which is in fact more ethnically diverse than we commonly imagine. He was an early recruit to Madero's 1910 revolution, and was a natural military leader, and could be rather morbid. After his January 2, 1911, victory at Cañón del Mal Paso he ordered the dead Federal soldiers stripped and sent the uniforms to Presidente Díaz with a note that read, "Ahí te van las hojas, mándame más tamales" ("Here are the wrappers, send me more tamales.").
On May 10, 1911 Orozco and Pancho Villa seized Ciudad Juárez, against Madero's orders, a victory which caused Díaz to briefly resign the presidency. Madero would naively choose to negotiate with the regime, which resulted in The Treaty of Ciudad Juárez allowing for the resignations of Díaz and his vice president, allowing them to go into exile, establishing an Interim Presidency under Francisco León de la Barra, and keeping the Federal Army intact.
Like Zapata, he went into rebellion against the Madero government, which he felt had betrayed the revolution. He openly declared revolt on March 3, 1912, financing it with his own money and confiscated livestock sold in Texas. His forces were known as the Orozquistas and the Colorados (the Reds). They defeated Federal troops in Chihuahua under José González Salas. Madero in turn sent Victoriano Huerta against him, who in turn were more successful. A wounded Orozco fled to the US. After Madero was assassinated and Huerta installed, Orozco promised to support him if reforms were made, and he was installed as the Supreme Commander of the Mexican Federal forces. As such he defeated the Constitutionalist at Ciudad Camargo, Mapula, Santa Rosalía, Zacatecas, and Torreón, causing his former revolutionary confederates to regard him, not without justification, as a traitor.
He refused to recognize the government of Carvajal after Huerta's fall and was driven into exile again. He traveled in the US in opposition to Carranza along with Huerta. In 1915, he was arrested in the US, but escaped. An unclear incident at the Dick Love ranch in Texas led to claims that he and other like-minded combatants had stolen horses from the ranch, which in turn resulted in a small party of the 13th Cavalry, Texas Rangers, and local deputies pursing the supposed horse thieve with Orozco being killed once the party was holed up. What exactly occured is not clear.
His body interred in the Masonic Holding Vault at the Concordia Cemetery in El Paso by his wife, dressed in the uniform of a Mexican general, at a service attended by a very larger gathering of admirers. In 1925 his remains were retuned to Chihuahua.
Why the commemorative? I have no idea. He is not an obscure figure in the Mexican Revolution, but not a well known one like Villa or Zapata. I can't see where he's associated with the M1911 either, a weapon that was brand new at the time the Revolution broken out. The .38 Super, which is apparently popular in Mexico, wasn't intruduced by Colt until 1929.
Mexican Federal troops won a significant contest at Ocotlán.
Yugoslavian troops carried out the massacre of 25 Albanian-minority civilians in the Kosovan town of Dubnica, then set fire to the town as part of the effort of suppressing the Drenica-Dukagin Uprisings.
Today In Wyoming's History: February 8: 1924 President Coolidge signed a resolution ordering the Doheny and Sinclair petroleum leases to be nullified due to the Teapot Dome scandal.
And also:
The first execution by lethal gas was carried out in Carson City, Nevada. Gee Jon, a Chinese national, was the subject of the execution for a gang slaying.
Texas executed five prisoners on the same day, all African Americans, in the first use by Texas of the electric chair.
The Soviet Union created the Nakhchivan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within Azerbaijan. On January 20, 1990, it became the first part of the USSR to bolt.
Adolfo de la Huerta and his staff withdrew by boat to Mérida, Yucatán, after federal troops recaptured Veracruz.
Crowd going to the National Cathedral, under construction, where President Wilson had been laid to rest.
Italy recognized the Soviet Union.
Around this time, Colt began to ship what is called the "Colt Transition Model 1911", which were actually the first of the M1911A1s.
The Colt M1911 is a John Browning designed semi-automatic pistol that can legitimately be regarded s the greatest handgun ever made, although there are, or perhaps more accurately were, a few other contenders. Other than the mostly John Browning Designed Hi Power, none of the other contenders remain in service somewhere however and the M1911 has by far the longest period of service.
Adopted by the U.S. on March 29, 1911, in 1923 the handgun received some minor modifications, the most significant of which is a curved spring housing which changed the profile of the grip. The trigger was also shortened. In 1924 the modified design started to ship, this month, from Colt. The M1911A1 designation came in 1926.
Large quantities of M1911s were made in World War One, and even larger quantities of M1911A1s were made during World War Two. So many were in fact made that no new orders were placed for M1911s through the rest of its primary service life, up to when the M9 Beretta 9mm handgun was ordered to replace it.
MEU(SOC) pistol.
The M9 actually failed to completely replace the M1911A1, although it nearly did so. Some small quantities of M1911A1s that had been issued to officers remained in ongoing use. In addition, the pistol never ceased being used by special troops, who favored it over the 9mm M9 due to its larger .45ACP cartridge. The Marines nearly immediately resisted the change and adopted a reworked and custom-built M1911, with flat spring housing, as the MEU(SOC) pistol for close combat, taking in quantities of M9s at the same time.
Female Marine firing M45A1.
During the war in Afghanistan, the M1911 started to reappear in force, being rebuilt by service armorers and with some small numbers being once again purchased for special forces. In 2012 the Marine Corps began to acquire modernized M1911s, with the flat spring housing, which were ultimately adopted as the Marine Corps service pistol with the designation M45. Theoretically, these passed out of service in 2022, but it's frankly unlikely that they fully did. The pistol almost certain remains in use to some degree by the US.
The pistol, given all of this, has an incredibly long service life, likely the longest of any US weapon. And the M1911 itself has rebounded in popularity and is as popular as a civilian handgun as ever, perhaps more popular than ever. As a police weapon, it was used by the FBI for decades, and also in various cartridge chamberings by law enforcement agencies. No handgun rivals it.
