Portugal severed diplomatic relations with the Spanish Republic.
The Zephyr was getting some press.
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Showing posts with label Spain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spain. Show all posts
Saturday, October 24, 2026
Saturday, October 24, 1936. The Estado Novo severs relations with the Republic.
Friday, October 23, 2026
Friday, October 23, 1936. No neutrality.
The Soviet Union informed the European committee of non-intervention in Spain that Russia would no longer be bound by the neutrality agreement which it wasn't honoring anyway.
The German Condor Legion was ordered to Spain. Elements were already there.
The Denver Zephyr made a non-stop run from Chicago to Denver in 12 hours, 12 minutes, and 27 seconds.
The Denver Zephyr in 1936. By SMU Central University Libraries - Chicago, Burlington & Quincy R.R., Original 'Denver Zephyr' Train, No restrictions, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45183743
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Thursday, October 22, 1936. Worsening conflicts
Thursday, October 22, 2026
Thursday, October 22, 1936. Worsening conflicts
Spanish General José Miaja was put in charge of the Republican defence of Madrid, where things were getting overall worse in general.
Contrary to the common assumption, about 40% of Spanish Army officers remained loyal to the Spanish Republic.
And it wasn't just in Europe where things were getting worse.
The far political right wasn't just on the march in Spain. The Belgian far right wing Rexist Party announced its intention to march on Brussels in order to "sweep out the Paul van Zeeland government and its corruption" in a move inspired by Mussolini's march on Rome. Van Zeeland declared martial law.
The News issued its awards it its photo contest.
And a cartoon shows how some common comments I'll hear from some people today were common ninety years ago.
University education was expanding, but was far from what it is now. It's interesting to see the contempt of youth for professors expressed here.
I don't think that's a common view, but I have heard it from the time I was in university, up to now, from time to time, probably most recently when Chuck Gray's current campaign manager just went off on how professors at the University of Wyoming were all left wing, coming from a person whose views are closer to those who were advancing on Madrid on this day in 1936.
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Friday, October 16, 1936. Siege of Oviedo broken.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Thursday, October 15, 1936. Battle of Sigüenza ends.
Sigüenza fell to the Nationalist after a battle that had commenced on August 7.
Jewish teachers were banned from public schools in Germany.
The news of Wallace Simpson's divorce was not reported in the United Kingdom and the the British Empire, as well as in Germany, Italy, Russia and Greece, in an example of press self censorship.
“Booneville, Owsley County, Kentucky. Pack Horse Librarian returning of the mountain side for a new supply of books to be distributed to rural and isolated sections of the county.“ October 15, 1936.
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Wednesday, October 14, 1936. Shifting alliances.
Wednesday, October 7, 2026
Wednesday, October 7, 1936. Soviet Ultimatum over Spain.
The USSR issued an ultimatum to Portugal, Italy and Germany that unless they stopped aiding the Spanish Nationalist in the ongoing civil war, the USSR would take an active involvement.
On the same day, German armored troops arrived in Spain as trainers with their focus being on tanks and antitank guns.
José Antonio Aguirre became the 1st President of the Basque Country, an autonomous region in the Spanish Republic. He'd muster local forces to fight on the Republican side, and accordingly went into exile for the rest of life when the Nationalist won the civil war. He died in 1960 of a heart attack at age 56 and, as a Catholic, was given a funeral Mass.
Agrarian Party member, and Lutheran Pietist, Kyösti Kallio became Prime Minister of Finland.
The Dodgers fired Casey Stengel.
Last edition:
Tuesday, October 6, 1936. Yankees take the series.
Labels: 1930s, 1936, 1936 Spanish Elections, 1936 World Series, Anarchy, Communism, Communists, Spain
Tuesday, October 6, 2026
Tuesday, October 6, 1936. Yankees take the series.
The New York Yankees beat the New Your Giants in game six of the World Series, thereby winning the 1936 World Series.
The anarchist Regional Defence Council of Aragon was established. It would control the eastern half of Aragon for a year until the Spanish Republic dissolved it due to pressure from Communists. Spain, of course, had already fallen into civil war earlier in the year following the Popular Front victory in the Spanish elections.
Friday, August 7, 2026
Saturday, August 7, 1926. Calles rejects foreign mediation.
Calles rejected foreign mediation which had been offered in hopes of resolving the crises brought about by the Calles Law.
Spain, led by the dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera, and Italy, led by dictator Benito Mussolini, signed a Treaty of Friendship.
The first British Grand Prix was held.
It was a Saturday.
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Tuesday, August 3, 1926. Uprising in Mexico.
Tuesday, August 4, 2026
Friday, August 4, 1876,. Death of an American commander in Cuba.
Henry Mike Reeve Carroll, who went by Henry Reeve, died in combat against Spanish troops in Cuba at age 26, where he had gone from revolutionary volunteer in 1869 to the rank of general in a Cuban revolutionary army. He was a prior child soldier in the Civil War, in which he's served as a drummer.
The Ten Years War was the cause he died in, which lasted from 1868 to 1878. The Cuban revolutionaries would lose the war and Cuban independence would come about, instead, as a result of the later Spanish American War, which up until the current war with Iran stood as the war fought by the US on the least justifiable grounds.
The 5th Cavalry arrived at Goose Creek in Wyoming to reinforce a resting up Crook's command.
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August 3, 1876. All were invited to attend.
Thursday, July 30, 2026
Friday, July 30, 1976. Spanish pardons.
Spanish King Juan Carlos I issued a general amnesty for most of Spain's 650 political prisoners and reinstated university professors who had been dismissed for political activities.
Bruce Jenner won the gold medal in the men's decathlon at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.
A great athlete, and noting that it's not popular to say it, Jenner always appeared a bit odd and at least to me, even back in the 70s and 80s he came across as a homosexual. He later took up a female persona. He was married three times prior to that.
Last edition:
Wednesday, July 28, 1976. Earthquakes in northeastern China killed 650,000 people.
Tuesday, May 26, 2026
Wednesday, May 26, 1926. Riffians surrender.
Flag of the Rif Republic.
The Riffians surrendered, bringing to an end the Rif War.
Last edition:
Tuesday, May 25, 1926. Ukrainian assassination in Paris.
Labels: 1920s, 1926, Calvin Coolidge, Crime, law, Personalities, Russian Civil War, Ukraine, Ukrainian National Army
Tuesday, March 24, 2026
The Madness of King Donald. The 25th Amendment Watch List, Tenth Edition. Finger on the nuclear trigger.
Oh yeah, that's the look of a sane man, right? Photo by LAURENT GILLIERON / POOL / AFP via Getty Images, posted under Fair Use Exception.
Kaitlan Collins: "Mr. President, what would you say to sex abuse survivors of Epstein who haven’t seen justice”
Donald Trump: “You know, I’ve never seen you smile”
Man, that's creepy.
I wonder how many teenage girls head that after they were raped at Epstein Island?
February 7, 2026
Trump claimed in an interview with the New York Post that Venezuela failed to get their AAA rockets off the ground during the U.S.'s raid as the US used a "discombobulator" on them.
Um. . .sure.
In a bit of a defense for the deranged prince, what the military probably was referring to was an electronic jamming system. While no doubt the most recent variants are quite advanced, such systems have been around for a very long time.
Trump's incredibly racist post depicting the Obama's as apes was taken down and blamed on a staffer.
Um. . . sure.
Trump is also claiming that the US has wanted a triumphal arch for 200 years, with is complete nonsense and which is only slightly less weird than his claim that Presidents have wanted the giant outhouse he hopes to build for 100 years.
February 9, 2026
Loss of inhibitions can be a sign of dementia.
This is definitely a "get off my lawn" moment.
February 10, 2026
A spoiled brat and a real estate developer by trade, he sees the world through a pinhole. His mind is turning to much. He needs to be removed.
February 20, 2026
I flew to Iraq. I was extremely brave. I said to my people, 'Am I allowed to give myself the Congressional Medal of Honor?'…Someday I'm going to try. I'm going to test the law
Donald Trump.
February 21, 2026
Greenland has universal health care.
Greenland is presently taking care of a U.S sailor evacuated from a U.S. submarine. . . by a Danish Seahawk helicopter.
Trump is completely delusional. He should be removed.
Greenland doesn't need this, and moreover, Greenland's universal healthcare is something Americans lack. If anything, Denmark should send a hospital ship to us.
This is patently absurd. Frankly, at this point, anyone supporting Trump is not doing so out of faith in him, unless they're just willfully ignorant. So outside of that, why on Earth is anyone not demanding that he be removed?
March 4, 2026
Mad King Donny is threatening to cut off all trade with Spain.
March 16, 2026
This is the first installment of this since Trump ignored his advisers and launched a war against Iran that he thought might last a few days and bring him a big victory.
It isn't. It's wrecking the economy and there's no end in sight. He is, of course, having a complete fit:
Given this, the stress of his complete impotence here is going to get worse and worse, and probably with that, his behavior He's threatening not to directly take on the Press, which may finally cause the US press to grow a spine.
And things may be beginning to finally happen:
A theory very close to the one I've advanced here.
We are now in a very dangerous place in the globe. Trump is an immoral man, and he's demented. He's also getting desperate. At some point my guess is he'll start asking Hegseth about what nuclear weapons might do here. And he will commit, to some degree, U.S. ground forces.
March 22, 2026
In his madness and frustration over his massive, and frankly stupid, miscalculation over Iran's reaction to being attacked in an illegal war by the US, Donald Trump is now resorting to broadcasting his illegal intentions on social media. If Iran does not open the Straits of Hormuz, which its not going to, he's going to order US forces to illegally strike the electrical power structure of Iran.
Trump is a monster. The 25th Amendment must be invoked now.
With Trump reaching new levels of barbarism and insanity, we will close with this edition.
March 24, 2026
Mark Jacob on how the press ignores the biggest Trump story
"The president of the United States is clearly mentally unfit for office."
And with this entry, which nails it, we'll go on to a new edition.
To sum it up, Donald Trump is insane.
Cont:
Last edition:
The Madness of King Donald. The 25th Amendment Watch List, Ninth Edition. Trump is insane and the end of the United States as a great nation.
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Thursday, December 10, 1925. The first apparition at Pontevedra.
Then a novitiate at the Dorothean convent of Pontevedra, Spain, Lúcia de Jesus Rosa dos Santos, later Maria Lúcia of Jesus and of the Immaculate Heart, the only survivor of the children who received the apparitions at Fatima, Portugal, received a new apparacition in the form of the Virgin Mary, covered in thorns, with the Child Jesus, who addressed her first:
Have compassion on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother, covered with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce It at every moment, and there is no one to make an act of reparation to remove them.
Virgin Mary then spoke:
Look, My daughter, at My Heart, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce Me at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try to console Me and announce in My name that I promise to assist at the moment of death, with all the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep Me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to Me..
The apparition did not receive canonical investigation, but it is the origin, along with Fatima, of the First Saturday Devotion.
I'll admit that I tend not to be up on devotions, so I'm posting this from Catholic Answers on this one:
The Five First Saturdays Devotion is a request made by Our Lady of Fatima. The Blessed Mother promised to assist at the hour of death with the graces necessary for salvation all who, as an act of reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on the first five Saturdays of consecutive months:
- Go to confession
- Receive Holy Communion
- Say five decades of the rosary
- Keep Mary company for fifteen minutes meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the rosary
The sacramental confession can be received within twenty days either before or after the reception of Communion, as the Holy See’s Apostolic Penitentiary has decreed, provided the communicant is in a state of grace for Communion.
Reception of Holy Communion must take place within twenty-four hours of the first Saturday. The reception of Communion need not be part of participating in a Mass.
The fifteen minutes of meditation are in addition to the recitation of the Rosary.
For information on our Blessed Mother, check out Bible Mary by Fr. John Waiss.
One of the interesting things about this event, put in overall context, is that Fatima, which is by far the best remembered apparition, can be viewed as potentially one in a series of apparitions, of which it was the most signficant.
Last edition:
Wednesday, December 9, 1925. Metropolitan Peter of Krutitsy arrested.
Labels: 1920s, 1925, 1930s, 1937, Christianity, Personalities, Philippines, religion, Russian Orthodox Church, USSR
Wednesday, December 3, 2025
Thursday, December 3, 1925. Spain, Ulster and Romania.
Spain's Prime Minister Miguel Primo de Rivera, in power since 1923 when he was installed following a military coup, made the first step toward transition to a civilian government.
I note this as the common belief that Spain went from a democratic government into a fascist one with the Spanish Civil War is quite incorrect. Spain's government was extremely unstable prior to the war and indeed the 20th Century, prior to Franco's death, was largely non democratic.
The Northern Irish Border Agreement was signed by representatives of Northern Ireland (Sir James Craig), the Irish Free State (W. T. Cosgrave) and the United Kingdom (Stanley Baldwin), delineating the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.
The Romanian Army court-martialed and convicted 84 participants in the 1924 Tatarbunary Uprising. Most of those convicted were Moldavians.
Last edition:
Tuesday, December 1, 1925. Hoping to avoid war and hedging the bets.
Thursday, November 20, 2025
Thursday, November 20, 1975. Death of Franco.
Franco with Eisenhower in 1959.
Francisco Franco died at age 82, ending his long dictatorship and bringing the country back to the path of democracy.Franco, in spite of his long reign, remains one of the most enigmatic of 20th Century figures Often cited to be a fascist, he was not, but he was certainly a fascist fellow traveler in the 1940s, and Spain's true Fascists, the Falangists, were consolidated under his rule and had no choice but to follow them, even though he very occasionally suppressed them. He supported the Axis in much of World War Two while managing to avoid actually having Spain become a full blown combatant. German submarines had refuge at Spanish ports for a time, and early in the Battle of Britain the Luftwaffe used northern Spain for launching aircraft on Great Britain1 Fascistic Spanish troops fought as a German foreign legion.2 Always savvy to political winds, he began to draw away from the Axis late war. He might be best compared to Petain in his political alignment, but even that is imperfect.
A monarchist at heart, he restored the Spanish monarchy late in his rule, but even at that he did not ever release power. Death brought that.
Franco's rule commenced with the Spanish Civil War, which he was not originally the right wing military head of. The war itself was basically a military revolt against an incoming Communist regime. Franco fought the war well, but it also maximized violence in some notable ways. Approximately 420,000 Spaniards were killed by way of extrajudicial killings during the Civil War, and in state executions immediately following its end in 1939, a remarkable figure given that Republican combat deaths were about 110,000, and Nationalist about 90,000. Killings tapered off thereafter and into the 50s. His rule emphasized Spanish nationalism and traditionalism, enforcing by force of law.
Economically, his policies were murky, and for some time the country adopted autarky, which was the economic theory favored by the Nazis, and which didn't work out for them either. Economic disaster resulted in reform.
Like France, Spain attempted to retain its empire post World War Two, but Franco was forced to yield to the times. When France yielded to Moroccan independence, Spain largely did as well, but retained some holdings. Spain fought a war with Morocco to hold on to the Spanish Sahara, but in 1975 it ultimately ceded to Moroccan wishes. Spain,under Franco, provided bases to the OAS in its effort to retain French control of Algeria.
Unlike most of the far right dictators of the European 20th Century, Franco always retained a bit of a following in certain sectors of the US, and still does. In some circles he was viewed as the only alternative to Spanish communism, and in fact, in terms of the Spanish Civil War, that might actually be right. That wouldn't excuse the nature of his rule, however.3
Others, more alarmingly, are currently attracted to his politics. A Wyoming Hageman intern, for example, resigned his position when he was found to be a follower of Francoist websites, although he later successfully reemerged as a Turning Point USA figure at the University of Wyoming, brining the late Charlie Kirk to the campus.. Some figures on the Illiberal Democracy, National Conservative, side of the GOP are very close to being Francoist in their views. Indeed, absent the economic aspects of it, Francoism is nearly the model of how certain Illiberal Democrats imagine Western nations should be run.
This is one of those things I can actually remember from 1975 and place the date on. For some reason, on this date, I was traveling with my father in our 1973 Mercury Comet. I think we were going to Cheyenne. The radio news broke in continually with updates on Franco's physical decline.4
A report by the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee confirmed that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had tried twice to assassinate Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, and once to tried to poison Congo Premier Patrice Lumumba. It also confirmed that the CIA had supplied aid to insurgentes who later assassinated South Vietnam's President Ngo Dinh Diem and Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo.
However, it also confirmed that "No foreign leaders were killed as a result of assassination plots initiated by officials of the United States", which is good I guess, but it wasn't for want of trying in the case of Castro. Diem and Lumumba were in fact both assassinated, but not by the US, in spite of the ongoing belief that the US actively participated in Diem's assassination.
Dr. Heinrich Schuetz was sentenced to ten years in prison after being convicted of war crimes in Munich, West Germany. In 1942 as an SS colonel he had injected bacteria into eleven Catholic priests at Dachau.
Footnotes:
1. Churchill has his diplomats quietly approach the Spanish government and informed them that the UK was aware of where the Luftwaffe plains taking off in northern Spain were coming from, and that the UK would bomb the airbases if it didn't stop. It stopped.
2. The unit started off as an outright Spanish contribution to the German effort in the USSR, but after the Allies complained, troops in the Spanish Army were ordered to return home to Spain or resign. Those who resigned remained behind as a unit in the German SS.
3. My mother, who was well aware of the Spanish Communist sacrilegious desecration of Catholic churches, took the position that Franco was Spain's only choice against Communism. My father took the much more nuanced view that whichever side won, the Spanish were going to lose.
In the US, the Republicans were generally seen, in the Great Depression, as liberal democrats, which they largely were not. As the war progressed, the Republicans became more communistic as Spanish Communists, with support from Moscow, presumed victory and began to purge the rival forces on the left. American leftists famously contributed the Abraham Lincoln Brigade of volunteers to the Republican cause, some of whom were American Communists. In the pre Cold War era, the full nature of Communism was not really very well understood in the US.
In Europe, in contrast, the war drew volunteers to both sides. Both Irish and English mercenaries volunteered, for example, to serve under Franco.
4. The fact that it was a Thursday means my father took a very rare off day from work. What I think we were doing is going to Warren Air Force Base so we could pick up uniforms for the Civil Air Patrol. When we were there I recall a supply sergeant gave my father a USAF "Dumbo Collar" OG-107 Field Jacket. My father unsarcastically loved it and wore it as a winter outdoors coat for the rest of his life.
I was 13 years old.
The next time I would be on Warren AFB would be when I was 17. I had applied for admission to the Air Force Academy and was required to go there for a physical. My father likely drove me down as I probably wouldn't have driven to Cheyenne as a 17 year old. I can recall when I checked in the Air Force medic noted my name and told me he had the same first name, albeit in Spanish.
As I was also an applicant to the U.S. Military Academy (and the Naval Academy) I took an Army physical at the local Army National Guard armory.
I obviously didn't get in, which I'm glad about, I think.
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