Friday, August 6, 1824. Battle of Junin

Simón Bolívar and  his forces defeated the Royalist at the Battle of Junin, basically assuring independence for Peru.

Last edition:

Wednesday, August 4, 1824. The US recognizes the Federation of Central American States.

Labels: 1820s, 1824, Central America, Costa Rica, Diplomacy, El Salvador, Federation of Central American States, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, United States

Wednesday, May 7, 1924. Liberty.

 

The American Popular Revolutionary Alliance was founded in Mexico City by Peruvian politician Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre as a Latin American left wing political party/alliance of left wing political parties.  It still exists.

The first issue of Liberty, dated May 10, appeared.  It lasted until July 1950.

German miners went on strike in he Ruhar over wages.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, May 6, 1924. After shocks of World War One and the beginnings of the 30s.

1920s, 1924, Fascism, German Weimar Republic, Macedonia, Marriage, Romania, The relationship between men and women, USSR, Women, Yugoslavia

February 10, 1824 become the leader of Peru.

On this day in 1824, Simón Bolívar, having already liberated what later became Venezuela, Columbia, Panama and Ecuador, became the leader of Peru, which he had recently liberated.

I frankly have mixed opinions on Bolivar, who did manage to boot Spain from much of South America, but didn't establish functioning democracies in the end.

Perhaps that would have been asking too much, however.

Monday, August 24, 1942. The Battle of the Eastern Solomons.

Stricken Japanese aircraft descending on the USS Enterprise.

The Battle of the Eastern Solomons commenced between the U.S. Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy. 

This day saw the sort of action that the naval war in the Pacific is recalled for.  Even though the battle for the Solomons had already featured a lot of surface action, this was a carrier battle, although, like at Midway, bombers of the United States Army Air Force participated as well.

Japanese aircraft exploding on the deck of the USS Enterprise.

Most of the action was on this day.  The Japanese lost the light carrier Ryūjō, a destroyer and a transport.  The USS Enterprise was heavily damaged, with a stricken Japanese aircraft hit her deck.

USS Enterprise under attack.

The battle was an American victory. 

Ryūjō under attack from B-17s.

Today in World War II History—August 24, 1942: Italians successfully charge Soviets at Izbushensky, Russia.

So notes Sarah Sundin.

Unit creast of the Savoia Cavallerria

The Italian cavalry charge by the Savoia Cavallerria was dramatic in the extreme, against heavy odds, and deployed the time tested cavalry tactic of charging into an ambushing enemy.  It worked, moreover, although the charging Italian elements took heavy losses.  Soviet losses, however, were in fact much higher.

The unit still exist, although dismounted, today.  It was saved as an Italian unit to some degree by the actions of Count Col. Pietro de Vito Piscicelli who, after the Italian surrender, found his unit in a position in which it could not surrender to the Western Allies.  Instead, he took the unit into Switzerland, where they were interned.  Interestingly, officers were allowed to keep their horses and sidearms while under Swiss authority until the end of the war.

Churchill arrived back in the UK after his trip to Moscow.

War information sheet put out by the United States.

In Peru, an earthquake killed 30 people.

Saturday January 24, 1942. The first surface engagement between the Allies and Japan.

A committee issued its report finding Admiral Kimmel and General Short at fault for failing to coordinate their defenses or taking appropriate measures, leading to the disaster at Pearl Harbor.

This significant item, or series of items, below:

Today in World War II History—January 24, 1942: Battle of Makassar Strait—first US naval surface action in Asian waters since Spanish-American War: US destroyers and US & Dutch aircraft sink six Japanese ships at Balikpapan, Borneo. US Flying Tigers P-40s shoot down 12 planes over Rangoon, Burma. New song in Top Ten: “I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good.”

The Battle of Makassar Strait was significant for the reasons noted, although the Japanese land action at Balikpapan was successful.

The Germans relieved a Soviet encirclement at Sukhinichi in a type of action that would remain common for the rest of the war.

Peru broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, Italy and Japan.

Abie's Irish Rose premiered on NBC. The radio comedy involves a wealthy Jewish widower whose son begins to court, and then secretly marries, an Irish Catholic girl.  The theme had been a long-running popular one and this was a radio adaptation of a play that had first premiered on May 23, 1922, and then made into a film in 1928.

It would be made into a film again in 1946.

The play, written by Anne Nichols, was loosely based on her own story, although in her case she had been raised in a strict Baptist family and married an Irish Catholic man.  It was an enduring American theme had appeared before, in other settings, by other authors, and would continue to be later. For example, O. E. Rölvaag had included it in his sequel to Giants In the Earth, Peter Victorious, but with the Irish Catholic girl marrying a Norwegian Lutheran.  It'd repeated directly in Brooklyn Bridge, the 1990s television show set in the 1950s and would, in a different twist, be repeated in the film Brooklyn, also set in the 1950s, with an Irish immigrant woman and an Italian American man, both Catholics but of different ethnic backgrounds.  In some altered form, perhaps involving somebody of Hispanic origin, it's probably ripe to be repeated.

Saturday December 13, 1941. The Niihau Incident.

The Niihau Incident, in which a Japanese pilot on Niihau secured the assistance of Japanese residents of that island to secure his release from captivity, and which saw a conflict develop between native Hawaiians and resident Japanese, came to an end when the pilot Shigenori Nishikaichi (西開地 重徳) was killed and the man aiding him killed himself.

The incident became significant in bringing the US Government to internment of Japanese and Japanese Americans.  

Niihau was inhabited primarily by native Hawaiians who spoke the language, and owned by a white family that generally precluded access to it to outsiders.  It had three Japanese residents, however, and all three helped 西開地 重徳 in his efforts after he crashed landed on the island.  

The incident had seen Hawila Kalehano, a native Hawaiian, disarm the Japanese pilot as he was concerned about the surprising event, but he otherwise treated him well.  The Hawaiians sent for Ishimatsu Shintani who was marred to a Hawaiian so he could translate.  Shintani didn't want to perform the task and only briefly spoke to the pilot. Thereafter, the Hawaiians sent for Yoshio Harada who had been born in Hawaii.  Harada was informed by Nishikaichi of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  The Harada's, husband and wife, decided to aid the pilot in recovering his papers and escaping.

That night the Hawaiians learned of the attack on a battery power radio.  They then confronted the pilot, and it was decided to hold the pilot and turn him over to the islands' owner, who was due to arrive the next day from Kaua'i.  The owner, Aylmer Robinson, did not arrive, however, as the military had stopped boat traffic after the attack.  The pilot was therefore put under guard in the Harada's house.  

On December 12 Shintani attempted to buy the pilot's papers but failed.  On the same day the Harada's and Nishikaichi attacked their guards and armed themselves, taking a hostage.  They confronted Kaleohano who ran and was shot at.  During the night, the escaped pilot and confederates torched the Japanese airplane.

During the night they took additional hostages but became aware that they were being deceived by the Hawaiians and that it was likely that they were going for help.  Ultimately a struggle developed in which the pilot shot one of the Hawaiians three times, but was nonetheless overpowered and had his throat slit.  Harada killed himself after the pilot was killed.  

Shintani returned to the island after the war, after spending the rest of it in an Internment Camp, and lived there the rest of his life.  Irene Harada was held as a prisoner until 1944.  She moved to Kaua'i and lived the rest of the war there, stating in a 1992 interview that she felt sorry for the pilot and wanted to help him.  In an interesting twist, the Japanese government thanked her in later years for her efforts on behalf of the pilot, in spite of her resistance to their doing so.

Authorities, already distrustful of those of Japanese ancestry in the US, were shocked by how quickly all of the Japanese residents of the small island went over to aid the Japanese pilot which had a role in helping to convince the authority to intern the Japanese and Japanese Americans on the continental United States.  They were not interred on the Hawaiian islands where they made up 1/3d of the population, but it was felt that it was not economically possible to do so nor that they constituted a danger because of the islands isolation.

Pacific Aviation Museum: The Ni'ihau Zero Incident

Indeed, the incident remains problematic to the social history of World War Two as it does demonstrate that in at least some instances some Japanese and Japanese Americans retained sufficiently strong loyalties to Japan that it could in fact override loyalty to the United States.  That does not excuse internment, but it makes it less irrational that it is sometimes portrayed to be.  The US and Canada had a long problematic relationship with their Japanese residents as it was in which they both unfairly constantly suspected them of being hostile aliens and had often thought of them as a potential fifth column.  The incident gave a real world example of this actually occurring.

The desperate quality of the pilots actions remain curious.  The Japanese Navy had designated the island as one to land on in an emergency, as they believed it to be uninhabited.  But how anyone who landed there was to be rescued is a mystery.  It would have required either a fellow pilot to land there at the time, which was a possibility, and take the others on, or it would have required rescue by a plane designated to that task, which would have been unlikely to have been dispatched.  In this case, the pilot attempted to use the plan3's radio to radio for help, but was unsuccessful.

The Royal Navy sank three Italian cruisers off of Tunisia in the Battle of Cape Bon.

Hungary declared war on the United States.

The United Kingdom, New Zealand and South Africa declared war on Bulgaria.

Honduras declared war on Germany and Italy.

The Today In World War Two blog has some interesting items, including the destruction of American airpower in the Philippines.

Today in World War II History—December 13, 1941

A glacier collapse caused 4,000 to 6,000 deaths in Peru when it fell into a lake and caused a morraine landslide.

Saturday July 5, 1941. The Ecuadorian-Peruvian War commences.

Border disputes between Ecuador and Peru erupted into full scale war.  Who started full scale combat is disputed, but the war generally went Peru's way during the month long fighting.

Ecuador was very outmatched in the fighting and has always maintained that it was invaded by Peru, which Peru has always denied.  At any rate, Peru's military was much more advanced than Ecuador's and this showed in the short war.

In 1942 Ecuador declared war on Japan, but not Germany, in order to improve its international position and in order to receive American military material support, which it did receive.  Peru declared war on the Axis powers in 1945.

The countries would fight two more border wars in the 20th Century.

This war was the first South American war to feature paratroopers, which Peru used in the war.

The Battle of Damour commenced in Lebanon. Damour was the French seat of government in Lebanon and is located to the south of Beirut.  The battle was fought principally by Australians on the British side.

On the same day, Auchinleck assumed his duties as the British Commander in Chief in the Middle East.

Auchinleck would be initially successful but would prove to be one of several British commanders in the Middle East who was unable to bring about a British victory.  He achieved early success against the Africa Korps after being assigned as CoC in the Middle East, but then suffered setbacks that Churchill felt merited a replacement.

Auchinleck had a major role in preparing the British Empire in that he modernized the Indian Army between the wars.  During that time, he met and married American Jessie Stewart who was regarded as a great beauty. She was 16 years his junior.

Jessie would in turn have an odd role in the British command during the war in that she commenced an affair with Auchinleck's friend, RAF commander Sir Richard Peirse.  The affair caused Peirce to be regarded as neglecting his duties and caused him to be recalled to the UK, with Mrs. Auchinleck going with him.  Peirse would be accordingly retired during the war, his career ending in a type of disgrace during the war itself.  Auchinleck never recovered from the divorce and carried Jesse's photograph in his wallet for the rest of his life,   That he genuinely adored Jesse is clear, and that the divorce also changed him is clear, but there remains a scholarly debate on whether Auchinleck himself my have had homosexual inclinations.  His biographer maintains that these rumors are false, but another writer asserts the opposite, citing "moral aversion" for Montgomery's inability to get along with him.

And as detailed here, German U-boats began patrolling in the Arctic.

Today in World War II History—July 5, 1941

January 16, 1919 (Other than Prohibition). Back to War? Wyoming National Guardsmen "in the heart of Prussia", Smaller Baseball Salaries?

The Cheyenne newspaper had some shocking headlines, in addition to the expected arrival of Prohibition, on this day in 1919.  Fears of a resumed war in Europe loomed large as German objections to the terms of the peace were developing.

News of a revolution in Argentina had been in the press all week long as well. And now there was news of a revolution in Peru.

And baseball salaries, reportedly huge just prior to this time, but certainly not retrospectively, were in the news.

Officers of the 49th Infantry Division arriving in New York on January 16, 1919.  Note the officer on the left is wearing pince nez glasses, still in style at the time.  The officer in the middle is wearing leather gloves of a type that would continue to see use for decades.

While fears of a revived war were in the press in Cheyenne, troops were none the less still pouring home.

Fantastic "yard long" panoramic photograph of Camp Custer, Michigan, copyrighted on this day in 1919.  Not taken on this day clearly, but a great photo.

The Peruvian Military Coup of October 3, 1968

On this day in 1968 the Army, lead by Gen. Juan Velasco Alvarado, overthrew the civilian government of President Belaunde.  The coup was accomplished without bloodshed and the deposed president was flown into exile in Argentina.

The coup was inspired by a scandal in the national oil industry which lead to fears that the civilian government would fall to a Communist revolution.  Resistance to it was very brief, after which the Army enacted a left wing government that itself acted in a semi socialist manner.  Land reform was a major feature of its efforts.  Overall, its economic policies were, however, a failure and its rule, very authoritarian.

Velasco was overthrown in a subsequent military coup in 1975 and died of natural causes in 1977.

Frenando Belaunde Terry, whom he deposed, returned from exile and was reelected President of Peru in 1980.

Peru declared its neutrality. August 21, 1916

Peru declared its neutrality in the Great War.  That it would need to do so shows the vast extent of the global conflict.

That there would have been any risk of Peru being drawn into the conflict was surely small, but keeping in mind that the British and Germans had clashed on the seas off of South America, and that indeed South American ports would come to see British and German warships visiting in ways that weren't always fully welcome, it makes sense.

Thursday, September 23, 1909. The Gunnison Tunnel opened.

President Taft opened the Gunnison Tunnel in Colorado.

It was the longest tunnel in the world at the time and transformed the region into a cropland. Alfalfa, wheat, corn, oats, potatoes, beans, onions and fruit--apples, pears and cherries and starting in the 1960s, Moravian malting barley for Coors beer. 

The British magazine Truth exposed barbarities by the Peruvian Amazon Company.

The Arctic Club of American honored Dr. Frederick Cook as the discoverer of the North Pole at a banquet in his honor.  Three months later his claim would be rejected.

Last edition:

Tuesday, September 21, 1909. Arctic Rivals in New York.

Labels: 1900s, 1909, Arctic, Cody Wyoming, Frederick Cook, New York, Peary's Eighth Arctic Expedition, San Francisco California, Science, Shoshone Cavern, Wyoming, Wyoming (Basin), Wyoming (Cody)