Friday April 25, 1975. White Christmas.

The U.S. Embassy in Saigon decided that to signal "Evacuation Day" for  Americans, the Defense Attaché Office (DAO) radio station would broadcast the phrase "the temperature is 105 degrees and rising" followed by playing Bing Crosby's recording of the song "White Christmas".

The last Australians, including their ambassador, were evacuated by the RAAF.

91.7% of eligible Portuguese voters turned out for the first multiparty election in the country in nearly fifty years.  The Socialist Party won 116 of the 250 seats, Social Democrats won 81 and the Portuguese Communist Party 30 seats.

There had been real fears the Communist Party would win.

The Liga Comunista 23 de Septiembre raided a branch of the Banco de Comercio at Villa Coapa, Mexico City, killing six police who were guarding the bank.  They killed two more policemen and two bystanders in their escape.

Last edition

Thursday, April 24, 1975. Wings of Freedom

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Aircraft, Colorado, homosexuality, law, Saigon Vietnam, South Vietnam, Sweden, Terrorism, The Fall of Saigon, Vietnam, Vietnam War, West Germany

May 7, 1920. Races

Collegiate airplane race activity at Mitchel Field, Long Island, May 7, 1920.

On this day in 1920 the first ever Collegiate Airplane Race occured in New York.

Collegiate airplane race participants J.T. Trippe (1899-1981) and George Willard Horne, who flew for Yale at Mitchel Field, Long Island, May 7, 1920.

Collegiate airplane race participants Robert K. Perry and Harry Goodman, who flew for Williams College at Mitchel Field, Long Island, May 7, 1920 

 Collegiate airplane race participants Lansing Colton Holden, Jr. (1896-1938) and Zenos Ramsey Miller (1896-1922), who flew for Princeton at Mitchel Field, Long Island, May 7, 1920.

collegiate airplane race participants Joseph Ferdinand Lersch and David Amos Royer, who flew for University of Pennsylvania at Mitchel Field, Long Island,

On the same day, Carranza gathered his troops and departed Mexico City for Vera Cruz, falling back on a tactic he'd previously used against Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata.  While this was portrayed as a flight from the city, which was about to be attacked by rebel forces, it also at least partially acknowledged that Mexico City is difficult to defend.

A city which changed hands today was Kiev, which fell to Polish forces in the Russo Polish War.

Excélsior, Mexico City's second oldest newspaper, founded

And there was certainly a lot of news for it to follow.

Mexico, which was still fighting a civil war, but which was slowly seeing the Constitutionalist solidify their hold on the country, and which had recently adopted a new constitution and formed a new government, was much in the news.  In the US it continued to hit the headlines nearly daily, thanks to German blundering efforts to entice the country into a war with the United States, should the US enter the war against Germany.

In the midst of that, Rafael Alducin founded the Excélsior.

Rafael Alducin

He was just 28 years old at the time.  After his death at age 35 publication of the paper was taken over by a worker's cooperative. It remains in publication today, although cooperative ownership collapsed in 2006 after the fall of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, after which the paper was sold to new ownership.

Sunday, August 9, 1914. The end of the second phase of the Mexican Revolution.

The leaders of the Constitutionalist met with interim Mexican president Francisco S. Carvajal and the unconditional surrender of the Federals in exchange for safe passage of all federal troops and senior government leaders out of Mexico City. The defeated Federals left the following day.

Montenegro declared war on Austro Hungaria.

The French dirigible overflew portions of Germany.

British ships received definitive actual wartime orders to pursue the German warships SMS Goeben and Breslau.

The Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane James Duhig dedicated the opening of St Brigid's Church in Brisbane.

Last edition:

Saturday, August 8, 1914. Leaving for the Antarctic.

Labels: 1910s, 1914, Alsace-Lorraine, Antarctic, Battle of the Frontiers, Cameroon, Exploration, German Empire, Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, law, United Kingdom, World War One