Saturday, December 8, 1900. James Roosevelt dies.

James Roosevelt, the father of Franklin Roosevelt, died.  Franklin was in Harvard.  Franklin was 18 years old.

This oddly recalled what had happened to Theodore Roosevelt, whose father had died while he was a student at Harvard.  He was 19 at the time.  His father was 46.  James Roosevelt, in contrast, was 72.

James and Franklin in 1895.

James was a graduate of Harvard Law School. We'll abstain from noting recently lumaries in depth, such as Cotton and Cruz, who apparently skipped a lot of law classes and still managed to obtain a degree.  He married his second cousin Rebecca Howland in 1853, with her dying in 1876.  In 1880 he married another cousin (sixth cousin) Sara Ann Delano, whom he met at a party celebrating Theodore Roosevelt's graduation from Harvard.  She was 26 years his junior, and was 26 years old.  His health decline markedly in later years and this was worsened when his yacht exploded and sank in 1900.

He is buried next to the graves of his two wives.

A lot of what's discussed in this story would be regarded as a little shocking today, but was quite common at the time.  It shouldn't be surprising that the Roosevelts commonly married their cousins.  Franklin did as well.  It's who they knew and were familiar with.  And it shouldn't be surprising either than there were sometimes age gaps we'd consider shocking now.  Living in a married state was the norm for most adults, and in close circles such as this the availability of individuals caused large age gaps.  Additionally, while the average age of marriage really hasn't changed over the years, widowers marrying again was very common and they commonly married women younger then them for a variety of natural reasons.

Pope Leo XIII issued Conditae a Christo recognizing Congregations of simple vows as belonging to the religious state. In the same document he made a distinction between Diocesan and Pontifical Institutes.

The US called off plans to send a warship to Morocco over the issue of unpaid debts in recognition of Ramadan because of the religious difficulties it would have caused to the Sultan of Morocco.

Last edition:

Friday, December 7, 1900. Surrender, bids and disappearances. Mars calls, but doesn't.

Monday, December 7, 1925. At the height of their game.

 

He was a Cuban chess champion.

Congressman Nicholas Longworth, the husband of Alice Roosevelt, was elected Speaker of the House.

Rocky Kansas (Rocco Tazzo), defeated Jimmy Goodrich to win the world light heavyweight boxing championship.

Last edition:

Sunday, December 6, 1925: Red Grange Saves the NFL

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Blog Mirror, children, Education, football, Mussolini, Racism, The relationship between men and women, W.E.B. DuBois, Women, Yeoman's First Law of History

Tuesday, September 18, 1945. The first desegregation student protest.

White students in Gary, Indiana, walked out of their schools to protest racial integration.  It was the first such example of this in the United States, and an early effort to desegrated segregated schools.

The Red Chinese won the Battle of Xiangshuikou 

Secretary of War Henry Stimson resigned.  He'd also held the post from 1911-13 under Taft.

Stimson regarded Taft as the most efficient President he served under, and he served under more administrations than any other person in U.S. history.  He said that the best President was "Roosevelt", not making a distinction between the two Roosevelts.

Look was out, with Ingrid Bergman on the covery in her role in The Bells of St. Mary.

Last edition:

Friday, September 14, 1945. Strike!

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Belgium, Corporatism, It was because of World War Two, Labor unrest, Post WWII Occupation of Germany, Strike Wave of 1945-1945, The Post War Economy Myth, Unions

Holy Saturday, April 11, 1925. East of the Sun, West of the Moon.

The James Simpson-Roosevelt Asiatic Expedition, sponsored by the Field Museum of Natural History and organized by Kermit Roosevelt and his brother Theodore Roosevelt Jr., departed from New York City for Central Asia.  The expedition would return with over 2,000 specimens of small mammals, birds and reptiles, and 70 large mammals, including the Ovis Poli, the great wild sheep and result in the great book East of the Sun, West of the Moon by Theodore Roosevelt Jr.

Last edition:

Saturday, April 4, 1925. Recalling Lexington and Concord.

Labels: 1770s, 1775, 1920s, 1925, Adolf Hitler, American Revolution, Art, Easter, German SS, Mail, Post Office, The Battle of Lexington and Concord, Weimar Germany

Sunday, February 4, 1945. The Yalta Conference begins.

The Yalta Conference started in Yalta, in the Crimea, under the unfortunate circumstance of the Red Army only being 40 miles from Berlin.  It was, of course, halted.

The postwar order and the war with Japan were the topics.  It would be one of the most consequential conferences of the 20th Century.  

Even in the photograph above it's easy to tell that Franklin Roosevelt was not well.  The truth is, he was on death's door, and knew it.  Those around him knew it too.  At least one of those around him were far more friendly to a Communist world view than was known, except to the Soviets themselves.

Manila was being closed in on by the US Army from two directions.

The Battle of Pokoku and Irrawaddy River operations began in Burma.

The USS Barbel was sunk by Japanese aircraft off Palawan.

The USAAF raids Iwo Jima for a second day with B-24s and B-29s.

Last edition:

Saturday, February 3, 1945. When you see those photos of a Red Army sergeant raising the Soviet flag over Berlin, and the city looks wrecked, it wasn't actually the ground combat that caused that.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Army, Battle of Manila, Francisco Franco, French Army, Nazi Germany, Philippines, Red Army, Spain, U.S. Air Force, World War Two

Sunday, November 19, 1944. Sixth War Loan.

 

November 19, 1944

The Sixth War Loan Drive that starts tomorrow is something more than just a money-raising affair.

We cannot all fight the enemy face to face. We cannot all produce the weapons and the raw materials that are so vital to our armed forces.

But there is one front on which all of us—every man, woman, and child—can serve, and serve for the duration. We can all practice self-denial. We can all sacrifice some of our comforts to the needs of the men in service; and yes, even some of our needs to their comforts.

The war in the present month of November alone will cost us seven and one-half billions of dollars. That is two hundred and fifty millions a day.

That is why every war bond that you buy is so important.

The war is not over- no, not by many a costly battle. While we have every reason to be proud of what has been done—even optimistic about the ultimate outcome—we have no reason to be complacent about the tough road that still lies ahead of us.

We have just been through a wartime election, demonstrating to the people of the world the deep roots of our democratic faith.

This Sixth War Loan, I am confident, will be a further example of democracy in action in a world at war.

There is an old saying about sticking to the plow until you have reached the end of the furrow. Every rule of common sense and patriotic thought makes that maxim applicable to our conduct in this war.

And so in the name of our wounded and sick, in the name of our dead, and in the name of future generations of Americans, I ask you to plow out this furrow to a successful and victorious end.

Franklin Roosevelt. 

The cost of the war was estimated at that point to be $250,000,000 per day.

The British Second Army gook Geilenkirchen, Germany.

The submarine USS Sculpin was scuttled off Truk after being damaged by the Yamagumo.

Last edition:

Saturday, November 18, 1944. Entering Metz.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Battle of Metz, Belgian Resistance Movements, boats and ships, Imperial Japanese Navy, World War Two

And can't we please bring back the Roosevelts?