Sunday, December 24, 1944. The high water mark of the German offensive.

The highwater mark of Wacht am Rhein was reached at Celles.  By the end of the day, the Germans had exhausted their offensive capabilities.

Gen. Frederick Castle performed the actions that resulted in his winning a posthumous Medal of Honor.

He was air commander and leader of more than 2,000 heavy bombers in a strike against German airfields on 24 December 1944. En route to the target, the failure of 1 engine forced him to relinquish his place at the head of the formation. In order not to endanger friendly troops on the ground below, he refused to jettison his bombs to gain speed maneuverability. His lagging, unescorted aircraft became the target of numerous enemy fighters which ripped the left wing with cannon shells, set the oxygen system afire, and wounded 2 members of the crew. Repeated attacks started fires in 2 engines, leaving the Flying Fortress in imminent danger of exploding. Realizing the hopelessness of the situation, the bail-out order was given. Without regard for his personal safety he gallantly remained alone at the controls to afford all other crewmembers an opportunity to escape. Still another attack exploded gasoline tanks in the right wing, and the bomber plunged earthward, carrying Gen. Castle to his death. His intrepidity and willing sacrifice of his life to save members of the crew were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service.

Race riots broke out between black and white Marines on Guam.

The U-486 sank the Belgian troopship Léopoldville in the English Channel, killing 763 American soldiers and 56 crew. 

V1s killed 42 in Manchester, England.

Anti German and anti fascist Hungarian politician Endre Kálmán Bajcsy-Zsilinszky was executed.

Today In Wyoming's History: December 24:  1944   All beef products are again being rationed. New quotas are introduced for most other commodities as well.

Last edition:

Saturday, December 23, 1944. German command worries.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Arizona, Bastogne, Battle of Leyte, Battle of the Bulge, Christmas, Gerd von Runstedt, Prisoners of War, Siege of Bastogne, U.S. Air Force, World War Two

Friday, December 24, 1909. US Court determining Armenian ethnicity.

The Federal Court in Boston ruled that Armenians were white, and therefore eligible for citizenship.  Some had been denied naturalization on the basis they were "Asiatic".

Japanese Protestant Christian Toyohiko Kagawa (賀川 豊彦) established a Christian mission and social welfare organization that still exists.

Last edition:

Thursday, December 23, 1909. USS Utah launched

Labels: 1900s, 1909, 1940s, 1941, Art, boats and ships, Christmas, James Montgomery Flagg, Pearl Harbor Hawaii, U.S. Navy

Tuesday, November 3, 1874. The Election Massacre of 1874.

The Election Massacre of 1874 (Coup of 1874) near Eufaula, Alabama when the White League  killed between estimated 15-40 black voters and wounded 70 and drove away more than 1,000 unarmed black people at the polls, hijacking the election in a majority black community.

Last edition:

Sunday, November 1, 1874. The Battle of Sunset Pass

Labels: 1870s, 1874, Apache People, Arizona, Army, cavalry, Indian Wars, Native Americans, Personalities, Spanish American War

Saturday, October 24, 1874. Domestic terrorists.

 

October 24, 1874 political cartoon by Thomas Nast decrying the alliance between the White League and the Ku Klux Klan in the South.

Last edition:

Monday, September 28, 1874. The Battle of Palo Duro Canyon.

Labels: 1870s, 1874, Army, Battle of Palo Dura Canyon, Cheyenne, Comanche, Indian Wars, Kiowa Tribe, Personalities, Ranald Mackenzie, Red River War, Texas

Thursday, September 22, 1774. ""it always appeared a most iniquitous scheme to me to fight ourselves for what we are daily robbing and plundering from those who have as good a right to freedom as we have."

 Abagail Adams.

:Last edition:

Saturday, September 17, 1774. Congress adopts the Suffolk Resolves.

1770s, 1774, American Revolution, Colonial North America, First Continental Congress, Suffolk Resolves

Monday, September 15, 1874. Grant addresses the situation in Louisiana. Treaty No. 4.

 

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Whereas it has been satisfactorily represented to me that turbulent and disorderly persons have combined together with force and arms to overthrow the State government of Louisiana and to resist the laws and constituted authorities of said State: and

Whereas it is provided in the Constitution of the United States that the United States shall protect every State in this Union, on application of the legislature, or of the executive when the legislature can not be convened, against domestic violence; and

Whereas it is provided in the laws of the United States that in all cases of insurrection in any State or of obstruction to the laws thereof it shall be lawful for the President of the United States, on application of the legislature of such State, or of the executive when the legislature can not be convened, to call forth the militia of any other State or States, or to employ such part of the land and naval forces as shall be judged necessary, for the purpose of suppressing such insurrection or causing the laws to be duly executed; and

Whereas the legislature of said State is not now in session and can not be convened in time to meet the present emergency, and the executive of said State, under section 4 of Article IV of the Constitution of the United States and the laws passed in pursuance thereof, has therefore made application to me for such part of the military force of the United States as may be necessary and adequate to protect said State and the citizens thereof against domestic violence and to enforce the due execution of the laws; and

Whereas it is required that whenever it may be necessary, in the judgment of the President, to use the military force for the purpose aforesaid, he shall forthwith, by proclamation, command such insurgents to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective homes within a limited time.

Now, therefore, I, Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States, do hereby make proclamation and command said turbulent and disorderly persons to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes within five days from this date, and hereafter to submit themselves to the laws and constituted authorities of said State; and I invoke the aid and cooperation of all good citizens thereof to uphold law and preserve the public peace.

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 15th day of September, A.D. 1874, and of the Independence of the United States the ninety-ninth.

U.S. GRANT.

By the President:

HAMILTON FISH, Secretary of State.

Treaty No. 4 was signed between the Cree and Saulteaux and the Crown in Canada.

Last edition:

Sunday, September 14, 1874. Battle of Liberty Place.

Labels: 1870s, 1874, Army, Louisiana, Louisiana National Guard, Racism, Reconstruction

Sunday, September 14, 1874. Battle of Liberty Place.

An attempted racist coup took place in New Orleans by the Crescent City White League .  5,000 members of the white Confederate veterans militia fought the racially integrated New Orleans Metropolitan Police and state militia in what became known as the Battle of Liberty Place.

After three days of fighting pending intervention by Federal troops caused the white rats to withdraw.

Being in the U.S. Army during these days must have been really something else.  Reconstruction duty in the South, Indian Wars in the West.

Last edition:

Saturday, September 12, 1874. Battle of Buffalo Wallow

Labels: 1870s, 1874, 1910s, 1913, Battle of Buffalo Wallow, Battle of Sweetwater, cavalry, Comanche, Heroes, Indian Wars, Kiowa Tribe, Native Americans, Red River War

Wednesday, August 26, 1874. Lynching black suspects and violating the Second Amendment.

A mob of white men broke into the Gibson County, Tennessee Jail, in Treton and lynched sixteen black prisoners.

They had been accused of shooting two white men.

The following day the Mayor of Trenton ordered the firearms of all of Trenton's black residents confiscated, under pain of death, a clearly unconstitutional action.

Things like this, and the event of the day prior, help demonstrate the value of the Second Amendment.

The National Rifle Association, fwiw, was formed just three years prior, but at that time principally engaged in promoting marksmanship.

Last edition:

Tuesday, August 25, 1874. The Coushatta Massacre.

Labels: 1870s, 1874, Democratic Party, It was because of the Civil War, Louisiana, Racism, Reconstruction, Republican Party, Terrorism

Tuesday, August 25, 1874. The Coushatta Massacre.

The terroristic White League attacked and killed African American farmer Thomas Floyd in the first of a series of attacks on Republican Party members and freedmen in Louisiana.  Ultimately several deaths occured, but nobody was brought to trial in spite of the arrest of 25 people.

The attacks were part of an overall effort to drive Republicans out of the state.

While it would anger some people for it to be noted, the Republican Party at the time was the liberal party in favor of expansive democracy, whereas the Democratic Party was the opposite.  Just as Louisiana's Democrats of the time regarded the Republicans as unspeakable enemies, the opposite is true today.  Likewise, as the Democratic Party was the party of the white South in 1874, the Republican Party is the same now. 

Last edition:

Wednesday, August 19, 1874. Taking back.

Labels: 1870s, 1874, Executive Orders, Montana, Native Americans, U.S. Grant

Saturday, July 26, 1924. Other around the world flights.

Argentinian pilot Pedro Zanni and mechanic Felipe Beltrame began their rather belated attempt to fly around the world.

Larry Estridge became the last person to win the World Colored Middleweight Championship, defeating title holder Panama Joe Gans in a 10-round bout at Yankee Stadium.  Segregation of titles by race would thereafter rightfully be abandoned.

The KKK held a rally in Issaquah, Washington that drew at least 13,000 people.

The weekly magazines were out.

The Saturday Evening Post with a girl who had a scouting uniform of some type, or perhaps was wearing an oddly colored representation of  Navy white shirt, with red instead of blue.

Country Gentleman had a classic of a draft team.

Last edition:

Friday, July 25, 1924. Speeding the game up.

Labels: 1920s, 1924, Albania, Armenia, baseball, Cheyenne, Ethnicities, Greece, Kosovo, Rodeo

Monday, July 17, 1944. The Port Chicago Disaster

The Port Chicago (California) Disaster occured.

The Port Chicago Disaster: 320 American Lives Forever Remembered

Port Chicago – The Explosion

Navy History Matters

Port Chicago – The most solemn memorial you’ll never visit

From the Corps of Engineer's item above:

On July 17, 1944, at 10:18 p.m., 320 sailors and civilians were killed instantly when the ship they were loading with bombs and munitions suddenly exploded. The incredibly powerful explosion destroyed two ships. Only small fragments remained of the ship being loaded, another nearby that was filled with flammable fuel was tossed more than 500 yards from the pier and rendered into scrap. The simultaneous explosion of all the munitions and fuel produced a massive fireball that lit the night sky and threw white-hot debris nearly 12,000 feet in the air. Windows on homes and businesses shattered throughout the Bay Area, reportedly as far away as San Francisco 30 miles to the west.

More than 200 of those killed that night were enlisted African American soldiers who were loading the ships, working for a military that was, at the time, racially segregated. The explosion and following events led to the largest Naval mutiny in U.S. history. More than 250 anxiety-ridden soldiers, many still in shock, refused to continue to load ammunition since no changes or improvements to operating procedures were made. Adding insult to injury, the black soldiers were not allowed the same post-incident “survivors’ leave” that the white officers they worked for received.

Threatened with a court martial unless they returned to loading ammunition, most of the black soldiers reluctantly went back to work, but 50 soldiers refused.  According to accounts in The Port Chicago Disaster, many of the sailors were still in shock, troubled by the memory of the horrible explosion.

“Everybody was scared,” one survivor recalled. “If somebody dropped a box or slammed a door ... Everybody was still nervous.”

The 50 black soldiers who refused to return were consequently put on trial and found guilty of organized mutiny. All of the men were dishonorably discharged and handed sentences ranging from eight to 15 years in jail. However, when the war ended just two months later, the harsh sentences were reduced to 17 months.

Led by attorney Thurgood Marshall, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) relentlessly pushed to have the verdict for the Port Chicago 50 overturned.

The British prevailed in the Second Battle of Odon.

An RAF Spitfire of the RCAF piloted by Charley Fox strafed a random German command car that turned out to be carrying Erwin Rommel.  Rommel was wounded and taken out of commission for a while.  His driver was killed. Kluge takes temporary command.

Fox was a humble man and upon being identified as the pilot in later years expressed regret for the killing, as he accepted the stories that Rommel was planning to participate in the July 20 plot.  He worked in a shoe factory after the war and died in an automobile accident, ironically, in 2008.

The U.S. Army penetrates the perimeter of Saint-Lô

Napalm was used for the first time in an Army Air Force raid conducted by P-38s on on a fuel depot at Coutances, near  Saint-Lô.

The Royal Navy attempted a raid on the Tipitz in Norway but it was unsuccessful.

The Finns prevailed in the Battles of Vuosalmi and Nietjärvi.

57,600 German prisoners of war captured by the Red Army were marched through Moscow.

Japanese Admiral Nomura replaced Shmada as Minister of the Navy.

The U-347 and U-361 were sunk by the RAF.  The I-166 was sunk in the Strati of Malacca by the Royal Navy.

The British government announced a plan for the mass construction of housing following the war.

Franklin Roosevelt announced he would leave the choice of his running mate to the Democratic Convention.

Last edition:

Sunday, July 16, 1944. Polish claims and a great escape.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Army, Artillery, Battle of Saint-Lô, Bretton Woods, British Army, Italy, Operation Dragoon, Operation Overlord, Polish Government in Exile, Prisoners of War, Red Army, World War Two

Thursday, July 6, 1944. Advances on Eastern Front, Halted on Western Front, Tragedy in Connecticut, Racism at Camp Hood.

Admiral Horthy ordered a halt to the deportation of Hungarian Jews, clearly seeing which way the war was going.  Hungary had not supported this policy initially, but upon being invaded by the Germans early in 1944 Jewish deportation commenced.

The Red Army took Kovel and Svir.

The Polish 3d Division took Osemo, Italy.

The U.S. Army took Namber airfield on Numfoor.

Allied progress was generally halted in Normandy.

De Gaulle arrived in Washington for talks on his administration and forces. Bretton Woods, of course, the boozy conference on post-war economics, was rolling on at the same time.

The tragic Hartford Circus Fire resulted in 167 deaths and 700 injuries in Hartford, Connecticut.  Up to 7,000 people when the tent caught fire, with the cause never being determined.

U. S. Army Lieutenant Jackie Robinson, stationed at Camp Hood, Texas, was instructed to move to a seat farther back in the back of an Army bus and refused, resulting in his court-martialed.  Army buses were not segregated.

Robinson had originally been an enlisted cavalryman who had been sent to OCS, and was now a cavalry officer serving in an armor unit.  His commander, Paul L. Bates, refused to authorize the prosecution whereupon he was transferred to another unit and then charged with multiple offenses, including public drunkenness even though Robinson did not drink.  He was tried in August 1944, and acquitted.

The delay caused by the trial prevented him from going overseas with his unit.  He was transferred to Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky, and served as an army athletics coach before being discharged in November 1944.

Council of war, Saipan, July 6, 1944.

Last edition:

Wednesday July 5, 1944. Third Army in Normandy.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Army, Battle of the Atlantic, boats and ships, Canadian Army, George S. Patton, German Kriegsmarine, Operation Overlord, Operation Windsor, U.S. Navy, World War Two

June 16, 1924. The end of the Lone Scouts.

 

The Lone Scouts of America, which had been formed in 1915, merged with the Boy Scouts of America.

Founded as a Scouting organization, the LSA was formed by W. D. Boyce, publisher of the Chicago Ledger and the Saturday Blade.  Bryce was of the view that the BSA didn't help rural boys as the BSA wasn't attracting enough young males to the organization, backing up something that I said here the toher day. . . Scouting was an urban, not a rural, movement.

James West of the early BSA disagreed with Bryce on an organization being needed, as he felt that 4H fulfilled the needs of rural youth.

Lone Scouts were just that, lone.  No leaders were required, although LSA members could form "tribes" if there were other members nearby. Or they could form a "mail tribe" and interact in that fashion. All members received The Lone Scout in the mail.  In 1924 a radio program was added. No uniforms existed until World War One, when the Lone Scout Supply Company was created to form one.

Racism appeared in 1922 when the organization determined to no longer accept black youth.  In that same year, the masthead of The Lone Scout changed from "A Real Boys Magazine" to "The White Boys' Magazine."

The merger came about due to the persistence of the Boy Scouts, which thereafter ran a "lone scout" program, although many of the LSA members dropped out.  When Cub Scouts were added in 1930, a Lone Cub Scouting program was also added.  The program still exists today, with the requirements being, according to Scouting USA:

The Lone Scout plan is a way for any youth ages 7 to 10 (or who is in the first through fifth grades) to become a Lone Cub Scout; or ages 11 to 17 to become a Lone Scouts BSA member. A youth applies for membership as an individual Lone Scout only if he or she cannot conveniently join a Cub Scout pack or Scouts BSA troop.

Scouting was a big deal, so it's not too surprising to find that some famous personalities had been Lone Scouts.  Burl Ives, who we mentioned the other day, was.  Also in the organization were Broderick Crawford, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Orval Faubus, Hubert Humphrey; Fred MacMurray, and Harry Morgan.

King Victor Emmanuel III held an extraordinary council to discuss the Matteotti crisis.  Mussolini's grasp on power appeared to be slipping.

Last prior edition:

Saturday, June 14, 1924. Flag Day.

Labels: 1920s, 1924, California, Flag Day, Holidays, Ku Klux Klan, Unions

Saturday, April 5, 1924. Fighting the KKK in Lilly.

We haven't featured one for awhile, as they haven't been great, but on this day, The Country Gentleman restored the dignity of magazine cover art with a spring theme.

The Ku Klux Klan shot 22 people in Lilly, Pennsylvania, killing two.  The gunfire was sort of the equivalent of a drive by shooting, with the KKK shooting randomly into the town's railroad station after some townsmen, miner workers who were heavily immigrants from Eastern Europe, had "played a stream of water from the town fire hose upon the visitors(KKK) as they were marching back to the station." 

The KKK was in Lilly for one of their ceremonies in a local field and was returning to the station for transport to Johnstown, PA.  They did catch the train, and upon arrival at Johnstown they were met with 50 policemen who arrested 25 Klansman and confiscated 50 firearms.  The next day, an additional four residents of Lilly were arrested. Twenty-nine people were charged with murder.

Lilly was a mining town, and like most of them it had a strong contingent of Catholic and Orthodox miners, members of ethnicities that the Klan didn't like. A strong UMW union town, the residents weren't cowed by the KKK.  A monument to their efforts has been placed in the town in recent years.

Locally, there were concerns about spring floods. And the flight around the globe was suffering delays.

And the accusations against the former Attorney General Daugherty were getting bizarre.

Last prior edition:

Friday, April 4, 1924. Wolves in Albany County.

1920s, 1924, 2020, 2020s, 2024, Animals, baseball, Crime, Prohibition, The Roaring Twenties, Wolves