Monday, October 25, 1824. Davy Crockett announces for office.

Davy Crockett announced his intention to run for the U.S. House of Representatives for Tennesee.

He lost the election.

Last edition:

Monday, October 4, 1824. The first Mexican Constitution.

Labels: 1820s, 1824, law, Mexico

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

August 17, 1774. Militia Muster.

The first known muster of Tennessee Militiamen took place when Capt. Evan Shelby and 49 militiamen,  formed a volunteer company to fight with Virginia militia in Lord Dunmore’s War. 

The company was called the Fincastle Company.

Last edition:

Tuesday, August 16, 1774. No to the British judiciary.

Labels: 1770s, 1774, American Revolution, Colonial North America, Connecticut, Court, Courthouses, Massachetts

Friday, September 10, 1943. Betrayal.

Prime Minister Badoglio and King Victor Emanuell III made their way through German lines to escape to Allied held Italy.

Twenty-two Italian ships arrived at Malta.

The Vatican closed the doors of St. Peter's Basilica and blocked the Sant'Anna Gate at noon to give sanctuary to Italians who had fled there.

The Berliner resistance movement the Solf Circle was betrayed by an uncover Gestapo agent, Dr. Paul Reckzeh, following a tea party attended by the group.  Reckzeh was a Swiss physician.  The groups downfall would ultimately lead to the downfall of the Abwehr as the group had connections with it.

Most of the members of the group, although not all of it, would later be executed.  Reckzeh was arrested by he Soviets and held after the war until tried by them in 1950.  He was released in 1952 and lived in East Germany, where he betrayed his daughter Barbara to the East German authorities when she tried to flee to the West. He died in 1996 in Hamburg, having spent most of his adult life in Germany and having had a role in two hideous acts for two hideous regimes.

P-39 Airacobra  at Berry Field, Tennessee, September 10, 1943.

Sunday, March 4, 1973. Allende's minority rule.

Chilean elections resulted in the opposition Confederation of Democracy winning control of the Senate and House, but falling short of the 2/3ds necessary to impeach Salvador Allende or block his policies.

The Confederation's symbol.

While not seeking to excuse things in retroactive advance, it might be noted that this meant that Allende's left wing Popular Unit alliance was a minority government, which is very rarely noted.

The Popular Unity alliance's symbol.

Voting also took place in France but failed to yield a clear result.

The British yacht Auuralyn was struck by a whale and sunk off of Guatemala, putting Marice and Maralyn Bailey adrift for 117 days.

A large group of U.S. Air Force and Navy POWs held by North Vietnam was released, including Norman C. Gaddis and Leo K. Thorsness who would be highly decorated.

Gaddis had been in the service since 1941, with a brief post World War Two period in the reserves, having joined after Pearl Harbor.  Born into poverty in Tennessee, he lives there today at age 99.  His Distinguished Service Citation would read:

For exceptionally meritorious and distinguished service in a position of great responsibility to the Government of the United States. General Gaddis distinguished himself while a Prisoner of War in North Vietnam from December 1970 to February 1973. During this period, General Gaddis displayed professional competence, unwavering devotion and loyalty to his country in the execution of his duties in staff and command positions while in potentially volatile daily contact with the Vietnamese guards and officers. General Gaddis performed his duties in accord with the Code of Conduct, exhibiting leadership, courage, and determination, regardless of the cost in the many tortures and beatings which he had to endure. The singularly distinctive accomplishments of General Gaddis reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.

Thorsness had joined the Air Force in 1951 as an enlisted man, before returning to school after the war and later rejoining as an officer.  His Medal of Honor Citation reads:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. As pilot of an F-105 aircraft, Lt. Col. Thorsness was on a surface-to-air missile suppression mission over North Vietnam. Lt. Col. Thorsness and his wingman attacked and silenced a surface-to-air missile site with air-to-ground missiles, and then destroyed a second surface-to-air missile site with bombs. In the attack on the second missile site, Lt. Col. Thorsness' wingman was shot down by intensive antiaircraft fire, and the two crewmembers abandoned their aircraft. Lt. Col. Thorsness circled the descending parachutes to keep the crewmembers in sight and relay their position to the Search and Rescue Center. During this maneuver, a MIG-17 was sighted in the area. Lt. Col. Thorsness immediately initiated an attack and destroyed the MIG. Because his aircraft was low on fuel, he was forced to depart the area in search of a tanker. Upon being advised that two helicopters were orbiting over the downed crew's position and that there were hostile MIGs in the area posing a serious threat to the helicopters, Lt. Col. Thorsness, despite his low fuel condition, decided to return alone through a hostile environment of surface-to-air missile and antiaircraft defenses to the downed crew's position. As he approached the area, he spotted four MIG-17 aircraft and immediately initiated an attack on the MIGs, damaging one and driving the others away from the rescue scene. When it became apparent that an aircraft in the area was critically low on fuel and the crew would have to abandon the aircraft unless they could reach a tanker, Lt. Col. Thorsness, although critically short on fuel himself, helped to avert further possible loss of life and a friendly aircraft by recovering at a forward operating base, thus allowing the aircraft in emergency fuel condition to refuel safely. Lt. Col. Thorsness' extraordinary heroism, self-sacrifice, and personal bravery involving conspicuous risk of life were in the highest traditions of the military service, and have reflected great credit upon himself and the U.S. Air Force.

Other POWs released included Douglas Peterson, who was later the ambassador to Communist Vietnam and William P. Lawrence, who was later Superintendent of the Naval Academy.

Peterson, whose first wife had died, interestingly met Vietnamese born Vi Le who was serving as Australia's senior trade commissioner in the country.  They married, and he retired to Australia so that the couple could be closer to her family.

Lawrence is the author of the Tennessee state poem, which reads:

Oh Tennessee, My Tennessee

What Love and Pride I Feel for Thee.

You Proud Ole State, the Volunteer,

Your Proud Traditions I Hold Dear.

I Revere Your Heroes

Who Bravely Fought our Country's Foes.

 

Renowned Statesmen, so Wise and Strong,

Who Served our Country Well and Long.

I Thrill at Thought of Mountains Grand;

Rolling Green Hills and Fertile Farm Land; 

Earth Rich with Stone, Mineral and Ore;

Forests Dense and Wild Flowers Galore;

 

Powerful Rivers that Bring us Light;

Deep Lakes with Fish and Fowl in Flight;

Thriving Cities and Industries;

Fine Schools and Universities;

Strong Folks of Pioneer Descent,

Simple, Honest, and Reverent. 

 

Beauty and Hospitality

Are the Hallmarks of Tennessee.

 

And O'er the World as I May Roam,

No Place Exceeds my Boyhood Home.

And Oh How Much I Long to See

My Native Land, My Tennessee.

August 31, 1920. Building.

On this date in 1920, John Lloyd Wright was given a patent for what would become Lincoln Logs.

Wright had been marketing the toy logs since 1918, and had based them upon his observations of Tokyo's Imperial Hotel's foundation, designed by his father, Frankly Lloyd Wright.   The foundation featured an interlocking log structure to give it flexibility during earthquakes.

The standing hotel following the devastating 1923 earthquake.

An election held on this date in Hannibal Missouri was the first to be conducted following the 19th Amendment going into effect.  Marie Ruoff Byrum was the first woman voter to cast a ballot to have been given the right to vote under the amendment.

Of course, women had been voting for some time in states that had adopted universal suffrage on their own, including Wyoming's female voters.

Mrs Byrum lived until age 73.  She had been involved in politics and had retired to Florida in her later years.

Tennessee, which had been the 36th state to vote to add the 19th Amendment, on this day voted to rescind their ratification in an effort to reverse course on it.  The effort came too late as retroactive post ratification rescissions are not allowable, assuming recessions are at all, which itself isn't clear.

It's odd that it was attempted in this context.  If the vote had preceded the adoption of the Amendment that would have raised a Constitutional question, but doing it after the ratification would fairly obviously do nothing.

1862 French map used as a template in 1920.

French Genera Henri Gouraud issued a decree that set Lebanon's borders in anticipation of creating a separate Lebanese territory the following day.

The Big Picture. Nashville Terminal, 1905.

Nashville terminal, 1905

June 14, 1920. The woods.

Fire tower on Cherokee National Forest

The Cherokee National Forest was established on this day in 1920.  The Tennessee National Forest contains over 600,000 acres within its boundaries.

Candidate Hoover went golfing at Chevy Chase.

Today is Flag Day, that holiday honoring the adoption of the pattern of the flag we have used all these years.  Here's an item about that day in 1920 from the One Tube Radio blog:

Flag Day 1920.

August 30, 1919. Fallon to Carson City, through the night, Knoxville riots, Socialist emergency.

The Motor Transport Convoy had a long day, starting at 6:30 a.m on August 30 and ending at 2:30 a.m. on August 31.  During that 20 hours they went 66 miles.  Conditions were so bad that the soldiers had to push the vehicles through some stretches of road.

Keep in mind that this was a road that was otherwise open for civilian use. . . but without the aid of soldiers to push.

The convoy was met by Nevada's Governor, reflecting the fact that the city on the far western edge of the state is the state's capital.

The Red Summer continued on when Knoxville, Tennessee, erupted into violence.  A start of the riots was the arrest of Maurice Mays, a biracial politician, for the murder of a white woman even though there was no basis to believe that he was the killer.  This resulted in a lynch mob developing that ultimately rioted.  This in turn caused black residents to arm themselves for their own protection and to seal off part of the city.  Violence later developed.

Mays was later tried and in spite of a lack of evidence, convicted.  His conviction was overturned by the Tennessee Supreme Court and he was re-tried, found guilty again,and sentenced to death.  His suspected father, the former white mayor of Knoxville, with whom he had a friendly relationship, committed suicide a few years thereafter.

In Chicago the Socialist Party convened an Emergency Session.

The Socialist Party of America was a rising political party at the time, it's boat rising with the rising tide of radical political parties everywhere.  The emergency was the invitation by Lenin for certain Socialist elements to join the Communist International which was causing a rift in the party.  The party was dominated by its "right wing", which on this day achieved control of the convention on its opening day, bringing the rift with the "left wing" to an immediate head.

The Country Gentleman came out featuring an article on "counterfeit farms".  I wish the article was available so I could learn what they were writing about.

And the movies saw the first release of Dangerous Nan McGrew, which would be re-released in the 1930s in the form of a Betty Boop cartoon.

And the Gasoline Alley gang, which seemed to be on vacation, went golfing.

April 30, 1919. The USS Tennessee launched, brewing of beer to cease.

Helen Lenore Roberts, age 16, the daughter of Tennessee's Governor Albert H. Roberts, at the April 30, 1919 launching of the USS Tennessee.  Brooklyn Navy Yard.

The USS Tennessee, which was completed to late to serve in World War One but which would go on to see service in World War Two, was launched.

Dignitaries, including Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt and Governor Roberts, at the launching of the USS Tennessee.

The Tennessee was the first ship of its class, for which the class was named.  She was at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, but was not sunk in the surprise attack. She went on to see service in nearly all of the principal Pacific engagments.

On the same day, pioneering Navy pilot Lt. Com. Patrick Bellinger was photographed.

Navy Pilot Patrick N. L. Bellinger, who would be part of the Navy's Trans Atlantic flight, photographed on this day in 1919.

The occasion was the naming of pilots who were to take part in the soon to be launched Navy Trans Atlantic flight.  Bellinger would go on to complete a forty year career in the Navy and rise to flag officer rank during World War Two.

There was a lot of tense news also going around on April 30, 1919.

Italy had walked out of the Paris Peace Conference over the issue of the city of Fiume.  Like a lot of European cities in this era, the population was quite mixed and no one state had really good claims to what had been a multi ethnic Austrian Empire port city. The Italians, however, did not see it that way.

The big news, however, was the launching of an anarchist terror campaign in the United States, the first bomb of which had gone off the day prior.  A postal office worker realized the connection between the package which had gone off and others, so that more explosions did not occur immediately.

Also on that day was the news that the brewing of beer was to cease on May 1, 1919.

And Carranza's finances weren't looking good.

Transportation disasters and milestones, and a draft war. July 9, 1918.

101, officially, (it may have been 121) people were killed and 175 injured in  a train collision of two trains belonging to the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway near Nashville.  Many were black munitions workers on their way to work in Nashville.

The locomotives were actually repaired and put back into service, being retired in 1947 and 1948.

It is the worst railroad accident in American history.

Elsewhere, and more specifically in Alberta, American aviatrix Katherine Stinson made the first airmail flight in Western Canada, flying a mail sack from Edmonton to Calgary.

Stinson had been flying for six years at the time and had already set air records. Indeed, she's figured on our blog before.  She would later become an architect and worked in that profession for may years.

In other news of the day, July 9, was day two of the Cleburne County Draft War in Arkansas.  The small armed conflict involved draft resisting members of the Jehovah's Witnesses who became involved in a gunfight with local law enforcement and then fled into the rural hills, picking up other draft resistors on the way.  The Arkansas National Guard responded to search for them.  The event would end in a few days, after the loss of one life in the conflict, when the resistors surrendered.  This was one of three "draft wars" in Arkansas, which was highly rural and retained strong aspects of the Southern ruralism at the time, which would occur during World War One.

Martin Luther King, Jr. leads his last march. March 28, 1968

On this day in 1968 Martin Luther King, Jr. lead what was to become his last march in Memphis, Tennessee.  The occasion was a sanitation workers strike.  The march unfortunately descended into a riot and the police shot sixteen year old Larry Payne.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

While King had no role in the violence and was opposed to violence of any kind, he felt deeply distressed by what had occurred and felt that he had failed in his appearance.

Sunday, July 26, 1914. Running guns.

The United Kingdom's offer to mediate the point of pride crisis between Austro Hungaria, Germany, Serbia and Russia was rejected by Germany and Russia.

Mary Spring Rice and Molly Childers aboard the Childeres yacht Asgard during the deluded Howth gun-running

Erskine Childers and Molly Childers landed over 1,000 firearm's into Ireland from Childer's yacht.  The event resulted in gunfire and bayonet prods upon Irish Volunteers.

The rifles were obsolete G71s.  Had they been deployed in combat, they would have been hopelessly obsolete.

The Albanian Assembly of Delvino was dissolved.

And so Europe hurtled towards war.  Continental Europe over a point of pride and who Seriba should be aligned to. Great Britain on who Ulster should be loyal to.

The Catholic The Cathedral of the Incarnation in Nashville, Tennessee was opened to the public.

Philippe Thys won the 12th /Tour de France.

Last edition:

Saturday, July 25, 1914. Austro Hungaria mobilizes.

Labels: 1910s, 1914, Austro Hungaria, Austro Hungarian Army, July Crisis, Russia, Serbia

Monday, September 27, 1909. Reserving the oil.

President Taft withdrew 3,041,000 acres of public lands in California and Wyoming from further claims, thereby reserving the oil for use by the United States Navy.   The oil lands were being very rapidly claimed by placer oil claims and would have been unavailable, had this not been done, within a few months.

This provides the basis of today's strategic oil reserves.  No doubt, had current Wyoming political forces been around at the time, they would have protested this beneficial and necessary action, and probably branded President Taft a communist.

Dedication ceremony for Confederate monument in Mulberry, Tennessee, September 27, 1909.

Last edition:

Sunday, September 26, 1909. Willie Boy, William Mike and Carlotta Mike.

Labels: 1900s, 1909, 1960, 1960s, 1969, 1969 at the Movies, Crime, Movies, Native Americans, The relationship between men and women, The written word

Saturday, April 10, 1909 Finnish, Métis Tragedy, and Arctic Tragedy.

Czar Nicholas II approved a recommendation that "laws of general Imperial interest concerning Finland" be enacted by the Duma, in which Finland had a single representative, rather than its own legislative assemble.  It was part of the process of Russification of the country which had commenced in 1899, reversing the original imperial policy put in place in 1808 when Sweden had lost Finland to Russia.

The Finn's have inhabited Finland since at least 9,000 BC, and probably longer.  The first references to it as an entity come from Catholic sources in the 12th Century as the Church began to Christianize the country, but it had no real political organization.  It came under the control of Sweden the following century, with Sweden losing it to Russia in the Finnish War of 1808-1809.  The Russification policy, something the Russians have exhibited ever since the 19th Century wherever it has control, and which effectively continues to the present day, would result in the Finnish independence movement.

Canada opened up the Métis lands in Alberta to homesteaders.  250 claims by French Canadians were registered on the first day.

Professor Ross G. Marvin of Cornell became Admiral Peary's Eighth Arctic Expedition's only fatality when he drowned, maybe.

His body was found floating and appeared to have gone through thin ice, as reported by Inuit guide Kudlookto.  However, in 1926 Kudlookto claimed he had shot and killed Marvin, either because Marvin had started acting irrationally, or because Marvin refused to let Kudlookto's cousin, another member of the expedition, rest.  Peary's daughter (as you'll recall his sons were by his native mistress and were left up in the Arctic in the abandoned care of their mother), discounted the story, although how she would know what happened in reality is another matter. Presumably from information supplied by her father.

It's hard to imagine why Kudlookto would make the story of killing Marvin up, although people do odd things.

Peary's account.

He had been on a prior expedition.  He was 29 years old at the time of his death.

Cipriano Castoro, the former President of Venezuela, was forcibly ejected from Martinique by the French.

Jonesboro, Tenn, April 10, 1909.

Last prior edition:

Friday, April 9, 1909. Establishing Mother's Day.

Location: South Dakota, USA