The Mongolian "Department of Women's Development" was formed as Mongolia slipped into Communist repression.
Oil and the GOP was in the headlines.
On the "Old Calendar" (Julian calendar) this was December 25, so this was the date for Christmas, 1921.
This is actually considerably more complicated than it might seem, as the New Calendar is not the Gregorian Calendar used by the West and the Latin Rite of the Church, but rather the New Julian Calendar adopted in May 1923 by the Greek Orthodox Church. This caused a split over the calendar in the Orthodox Churches. The Russian Orthodox Church kept the Old Calendar, although by that time the Russian Orthodox Church was engaged in a struggle for its existence inside the Soviet Union, which was dedicated to its distinction. The civil government in Russia had adopted the Gregorian Calendar, used in the Western World, and now the whole world, on January 31, 1918.
Anyhow, in the Orthodox Churches, this was Christmas for 1921. With the largest Orthodox Church, the Russian Orthodox Church, under siege from the Communist government, and starvation rampant in Russia, it was not a happy one for the Orthodox.
The Dail approved the Anglo-Irish treaty, establishing the Irish Free State as a dominion. The vote was 64 to 57.
Dogsomyn Bodoo, Prime Minister of Mongolia, resigns after his efforts to make Mongolia into a Soviet style state meet with widespread opposition. He'd be arrested and executed the following August.
The Washington Naval Treaty agreed to ban the use of poison gas.
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This is also, I'd note, Orthodox Christmas for those Orthodox Churches that retain the Old Calendar today, and such Eastern Rite churches as may retain it.
Baron Roman Fyodorovich von Ungern-Sternberg was executed by the Red Army on this day in 1921.
Von Ungern-Sternberg was a frightening Baltic German of noble background who entered the Imperial Russian Army prior to World War One. Violent and erractic since his boyhood, he fought for a restoration of the Imperial crown in the Russian Civil War before crossing into Mongolia, where his forces fought for Mongolian independence. He was captured by the Red Army after it intervened in Mongolia, and executed on this day in 1921.
The National Women's Party was meeting this day a century ago.
Hannah Carey, a 48 year old waitress in Killarney, was killed by a shot fired from a Royal Irish Constabulary truck. She was likely not a victim of murder, but of an accident, as the RIC was reacting to an IRA attack upon a British Army unit just minutes prior.
She was the last causality of the Anglo Irish War.
On this day in 1921 the Anglo Irish War came to an end under an agreement between the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the President of the putative Irish Republic. The agreement had not only included an agreement to end the fighting, but also to engage in talks that would obviously outline the formalities, and there were indeed many to work out, of the existence between the two countries. The Irish delegation would leave for London on July 12, the following day.
The history of the English presence in Ireland is a complicated and not really subject to easy summation. England was a more powerful nation, comparatively, to Ireland dating back to the early days of the English kingdoms and as England's rule began to consolidate in a single king, that king often made claims of authority over Ireland even though they really were incapable of being enforced.
In 1169 the Normans, who were then into a century of their rule over England, having conquered the English thrown in 1066, invaded Ireland. The invasion started in the form of an Anglo Norman mercenary intervention on behalf of one of the Irish kings but grew in scale until the English crown intervened against both the Irish kings and the Anglo Norman mercenaries. The Crown then preceded over a period of years to consolidate its power in Ireland.
It is therefore commonly claimed that the Anglo Norman Invasion brought about "800 years of English rule" but it is not really true. Even after the invasion, direct English rule was somewhat weak and grew weaker. The Anglo Normans assimilated surprisingly rapidly and by the 15th Century English rule was mostly titular with Ireland ruled by its own parliament and the Crown largely ignored.
The Reformation, however, rapidly changes this and in 1542 King Henry VIII, not content with all of the other destructive things he was doing, proclaimed himself the King of Ireland. This was backed up by English military might and the contest took on a religious aspect given the English separation from Rome. Indeed, the British effectively chose to fight out some of their contests for power on Irish ground. Real British rule in Ireland, therefore, really dates to 1542.
In 1801 Parliament consolidate the rule with an Act of Union, making Ireland part of the United Kingdom. This was a political development that had been ongoing in Great Britain and had already brought about the union between Scotland and Wales that still exists. This union was more problematic in Ireland, however, given that Ireland's population was overwhelmingly Catholic and Catholics were repressed in the United Kingdom. The union was never really accepted by the Irish and a series of moves towards regaining independence occurred in following years.
Prior to World War One a strong move towards "home rule", which would have essentially granted Ireland regained independence in association with the Crown, leaving the British Parliament with authority on foreign policy, gained grown. These moves were strongly supported and strongly opposed. They were gaining enough strength prior to the Great War that, had the war not broken out, Ireland would have obtained home rule prior to 1920, and the following Irish history would likely have developed differently.
As it was, moves towards an open civil war were already afoot prior to World War One and indeed they caused an infamous mutiny within the ranks of the British Army in Ireland which looked as if it would oppose any sort of Irish political freedom. The British were still dealing with the aftermath of this mutiny when the Great War broke out, and the war quickly set all of these issues aside.
As we've been dealing here, the one group that didn't put them aside were Irish republicans, which struck during the late stages of the war itself in open rebellion. This move was very unpopular inside of Ireland whose sons were fighting in France, but it did gain international attention. At the same time, the republicans took the wise course of action of forming their own putative representative government, setting up rival institutions to the official British ones where they could, and declaring themselves to be the legitimate government of the nation.
Following the Great War the British government was wise enough to see the handwriting on the wall, even though surrendering one of the major portions of the United Kingdom was a gigantic concession. To some degree, much of recent UK history has stemmed from this, as the UK has slowly devolved rule to the other nations that remain in the United Kingdom.
This was of interest, to say the least, to the Irish American community in the United States. An article on how this was reported on can be read here:
Former President and current Supreme Court Justice William Howards Taft was sworn in as the Chief Justice.
On the same day, President Harding signed a new Naval Appropriations bill that reduced spending for the Navy by $80,000,000 for the upcoming year.
In fairness, the US was still winding down from World War One and now had a gigantic surplus of ships. The American people, for their part, were growing into disillusionment about their recent role in the Great War and the thesis that it was all a big plot by industrialist was starting to gain steam.
Perhaps related, or not, the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor concluded a meeting with a call for global disarmament by 1923.
The Bogd Khan was restored to titular head of Mongolia by Mongolian revolutionaries.
He was a Buddhist monk whose claim to power, or perhaps burden of it, was similar to that of the Dali Lama's and in fact he'd been born in Tibet and proclaimed the Bogd Khan in the presence of the Dali Lama and the Panchen Lama. He had ruled the country as its theocratic head since the onset of the Chinese revolution in 1911, but his powers were limited due to his religious position. During his first reign he'd been the subject of a propaganda campaign lead by the Chinese who wished to remove him and install a communist government.
In 1919 he was removed by the Chinese government as the crisis on the border with the infant Soviet Union developed. Showing his position in the country's people, he was reinstalled, ironically, by the communist revolutionaries on this day in 1921 and would retain his position, being the last to occupy it, until his death in 1924.
Mongolian communists declared themselves to be in control of Mongolia.
Revolutionaries in Mongolia, 1921.Events in Mongolia make for a confused story, but basically Mongolia had been a Chinese province for many years, but one that had little direct interference from China. In the late Quing Dynasty period, prior to the 1911 Chinese revolution, this began to change due to Chinese fears of Russian encroachment. This was highly unpopular in Mongolia, which was faced with an official Chinese policy of settlement and cultural replacement, and rebellion broke out. That lead to a Mongolian theocracy coming into power that negotiated a state of semi independence from China.
When the Russian Revolution and Civil War broke out, Mongolia reluctantly requested Chinese troops, who were sent, but who when asked to leave, did not. This sparked an independence movement that sought Soviet help In the meantime Russian White forces crossed into Mongolia.
Initially the Chinese were successful in expelling the Russian Whites, which caused the badly over stretched Soviets to forego intervening in Mongolia. The Whites invaded a second time in February, however, and then the Soviets reversed course.
The presence of the Russian Whites combined with a local insurrection gave the Soviets the opening they needed, and the Red Army invaded Mongolia. Seeing the inevitable the Chinese withdrew, but they did not recognize Mongolian sovereignty. The country would remain subject to Chinese claims for many years thereafter although its association with the Soviet Union effectively made it a Soviet satellite. The country would become fully independent, and non communist, in a third revolution following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The People's Republic of China recognized Mongolia as a state in 1946. The Nationalist had done so the prior year, but withdrew their recognition shortly thereafter. Nationalist recognition was preconditioned on the Soviets withdrawing support for the Chinese Communists. It would take until the 21st Century for the government in Taiwan to recognize Mongolia as an independent state.
Jack Johnson, former world heavyweight boxing champion, was released from prison. He was serving time for violation of the Mann Act. He would receive a posthumous pardon from Donald Trump.
The Soviet Union and the Empire of Japan signed a five year non aggression pact. It stated:
The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and His Majesty the Emperor of Japan, guided by a desire to strengthen peaceful and friendly relations between the two countries, have decided to conclude a pact on neutrality, for which purpose they have appointed as their Representatives:
The USSR violated it before its expiration, going to war with Japan in 1945.
Well. . . .it did.
The Soviet Union's late entry into the war was inevitable if cynical. The treaty had served its purpose by then allowing the USSR a free hand against Nazi Germany for four years and allowing Japan a free hand against the Western Allies for the same period of time.
On the same day, the USSR and the Japanese Empire reached an accord on Mongolia and Manchuria which stated:
In conformity with the spirit of the Pact on neutrality concluded on April 13, 1941, between the U.S.S.R. and Japan, the Government of the U.S.S.R. and the Government of Japan, in the interest of insuring peaceful and friendly relations between the two countries, solemnly declare that the U.S.S.R. pledges to respect the territorial integrity and inviolability of Manchoukuo and Japan pledges to respect the territorial integrity and inviolability of the Mongolian People's Republic.Moscow, April 13, 1941On behalf of the Government of the U.S.S.R.V. MOLOTOVOn behalf of the Government of JapanYOSUKE MATSUOKA YOSHITSUGU TATEKAWA
Pope Pius XII held Easter Mass inside a chapel in the Vatican rather in St. Peter's Square due to the war.
The Germans were advancing rapidly everywhere in Greece. And the Germans took Belgrade.
Imperial Russia dissolved the Mongolian Uryankhay Republic in the Tannu Uriankhai and Mongolian Uryankhay Krai.
Russian expansionism at work.
A bomb went off in Great Yarmouth. Authorities suspected suffragists. This was the second such incident they were suspected of in recent days.
In Casper, the paper issued what must have been, maybe, a real estate edition, as the paper was full of advertisements for lots, and this before the big World War One boom.
"Emmer" was to be used for cereal and manufactured in Wyoming.
It's a type of wheat. I'm sure you've had a hearty bowl of Emmer Breakfast Food.
Here's a relatively recent article on Emmer, mentioning the cereal company:
There was a terrible death in the jail of a man accused, seemingly with reason, of improper actions towards his adopted daughter. Interestingly, maybe, based on the old statutes we recently put up, he would have been guilty of three crimes at the time, as opposed to one now, that one also being a crime then.
Perhaps a bit more remarkable, he appears to have been dead for hours when discovered to be so.
All that is interesting, but it's actually the following advertisement for Budweiser that caused me to link in this issue:
Last prior edition:
The region had been part of China until it broke away during the 1911 Revolution.
Last prior edition:
