The International Organisation of Vine and Wine (Organisation Internationale de la vigne et du vin; OIV), and international organization of wine making countries, formed.
The first fax was sent across the ocean, transmitted from New York City to London. The transmission was a photograph of Calvin Coolidge.
Last edition:
It was Thanksgiving.
The Coolidge's went to church
The first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was held. It was billed the Macy's Christmas Parade.
Football games occured, reflecting a custom dating back to pre Reformation England.
Last edition:
French forces liberated Strasbourg.
The Canadian cabinet made 16,000 Canadian conscripts, previously not liable for overseas deployment, available for the same.
Soviet troops took Cop, Czechoslovakia and Tokay, Hungary.
The Royal Navy disbanded the British Eastern Fleet. Escort carriers and older ships were formed into the British East Indies Fleet with modern ships detached for service in the British Pacific Fleet.
Last edition:
The news of the election hit the papers.
The former Emperor of China, Puyi, was expelled from the Forbidden City by Gen. Feng Yuxiang who unilaterally revoked the Articles of Favourable Treatment of the Great Qing Emperor after His Abdication
Puyi lived a tragic life, having been born into the anachronism of the Chinese Empire at a time it was collapsing. He'd go on to be Emperor of Manchukuo, the Japanese puppet state in Manchuria, a prisoner of the Soviet Union, a prisoner of the Red Chinese, and finally, a gardener. He died in 1967 at age 61.
President Coolidge made a Thanksgiving proclamation:
Last edition:
Governor John Wentworth, British colonial governor of New Hampshire and Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, issued a proclamation setting November 24th as a day of public thanksgiving for all God's goodness in the harvest, health and blessings, as well as for the King and family.
Last edition:
October 27, 1874
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
We are reminded by the changing seasons that it is time to pause in our daily avocations and offer thanks to Almighty God for the mercies and abundance of the year which is drawing to a close.
The blessings of free government continue to be vouchsafed to us; the earth has responded to the labor of the husbandman; the land has been free from pestilence; internal order is being maintained, and peace with other powers has prevailed.
It is fitting that at stated periods we should cease from our accustomed pursuits and from the turmoil of our daily lives and unite in thankfulness for the blessings of the past and in the cultivation of kindly feelings toward each other.
Now, therefore, recognizing these considerations, I, Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States, do recommend to all citizens to assemble in their respective places of worship on Thursday, the 26th day of November next, and express their thanks for the mercy and favor of Almighty God, and, laying aside all political contentions and all secular occupations, to observe such day as a day of rest, thanksgiving, and praise.
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 27th day of October, 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.
Last edition:
It was Thanksgiving Day for 1923, Calvin Coolidge having fixed the very late date for this year on November 5.
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
The American people, from their earliest days, have observed the wise custom of acknowledging each year the bounty with which divine Providence has favored them. In the beginnings, this acknowledgment was a voluntary return of thanks by the community for the fruitfulness of the harvest. Though our mode of life has greatly changed, this custom has always survived. It has made thanksgiving day not only one of the oldest but one of the most characteristic observances of our country. On that day, in home and church, in family and in public gatherings, the whole nation has for generations paid the tribute due from grateful hearts for blessings bestowed.
To center our thought in this way upon the favor which we have been shown has been altogether wise and desirable. It has given opportunity justly to balance the good and the evil which we have experienced. In that we have never failed to find reasons for being grateful to God for a generous preponderance of the good. Even in the least propitious times, a broad contemplation of our whole position has never failed to disclose overwhelming reasons for thankfulness. Thus viewing our situation, we have found warrant for a more hopeful and confident attitude toward the future.
In this current year, we now approach the time which has been accepted by custom as most fitting for the calm survey of our estate and the return of thanks. We shall the more keenly realize our good fortune, if we will, in deep sincerity, give to it due thought, and more especially, if we will compare it with that of any other community in the world.
The year has brought to our people two tragic experiences which have deeply affected them. One was the death of our beloved President Harding, which has been mourned wherever there is a realization of the worth of high ideals, noble purpose and unselfish service carried even to the end of supreme sacrifice. His loss recalled the nation to a less captious and more charitable attitude. It sobered the whole thought of the country. A little later came the unparalleled disaster to the friendly people of Japan. This called forth from the people of the United States a demonstration of deep and humane feeling. It was wrought into the substance of good works. It created new evidences of our international friendship, which is a guarantee of world peace. It replenished the charitable impulse of the country.
By experiences such as these, men and nations are tested and refined. We have been blessed with much of material prosperity. We shall be better able to appreciate it if we remember the privations others have suffered, and we shall be the more worthy of it if we use it for their relief. We will do well then to render thanks for the good that has come to us, and show by our actions that we have become stronger, wiser, and truer by the chastenings which have been imposed upon us. We will thus prepare ourselves for the part we must take in a world which forever needs the full measure of service. We have been a most favored people. We ought to be a most generous people. We have been a most blessed people. We ought to be a most thankful people.
Wherefore, I, Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States, do hereby fix and designate Thursday, the twenty-ninth day of November, as Thanksgiving Day, and recommend its general observance throughout the land. It is urged that the people, gathering in their homes and their usual places of worship, give expression to their gratitude for the benefits and blessings that a gracious Providence has bestowed upon them, and seek the guidance of Almighty God, that they may deserve a continuance of His favor.
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 5th day of November, in the year of our Lord, One Thousand Nine Hundred and Twenty-three, and of the Independence of the United States, the One Hundred and Forty-eighth.
CALVIN COOLIDGE
By the President:
CHARLES E. HUGHES, Secretary of State.
The Casper paper apparently gave its staff the day off, but the Saratoga one did not, and also informed its readers that childhood vaccinations for smallpox were now mandatory.
Wilhelm Marx was chosen as the new Chancellor of Germany. He's serve twice in the 1920s.
.jpg)
He was charged with criminal activity in the early 30s by the Nazi regime for his leadership of the People's Association for Catholic Germany (Volksverein für das katholische Deutschland) but the charge against him was dropped in 1935. He died in 1946. The Catholic association he headed, which had dated back to the 1890s, was recreated as the Volksverein Mönchengladbach after World War Two.
It was Thanksgiving Day in the United States. The proclamation for the day had been issued on November 11, before President Roosevelt left for Cairo.
Proclamation 2600—Thanksgiving Day, 1943
November 11, 1943
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
God’s help to us has been great in this year of march towards world-wide liberty. In brotherhood with warriors of other United Nations our gallant men have won victories, have freed our homes from fear, have made tyranny tremble, and have laid the foundation for freedom of life in a world which will be free.
Our forges and hearths and mills have wrought well; and our weapons have not failed. Our farmers, victory gardeners, and crop volunteers have gathered and stored a heavy harvest in the barns and bins and cellars. Our total food production for the year is the greatest in the annals of our country.
For all these things we are devoutly thankful, knowing also that so great mercies exact from us the greatest measure of sacrifice and service.
Now, Therefore, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Thursday, November 25, 1943, as a day for expressing our thanks to God for His blessings. November having been set aside as "Food Fights for Freedom" month, it is fitting that Thanksgiving Day be made the culmination of the observance of the month by a high resolve on the part of all to produce and save food and to "share and play square" with food.
May we on Thanksgiving Day and on every day express our gratitude and zealously devote ourselves to our duties as individuals and as a nation. May each of us dedicate his utmost efforts to speeding the victory which will bring new opportunities for peace and brotherhood among men.
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed.
DONE at the City of Washington this 11th day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixty-eighth.
Signature of Franklin D. Roosevelt
My father and his family no doubt enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving meal. My father and his siblings would have been on the Thanksgiving holiday.
In Cairo, the conference regarding the Far East concluded.
The Battle of Cape St. George was fought between the U.S. Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy between Buka and New Ireland in the Solomons. The battle ensured as part of a Japanese effort to reinforce Buka whiel also removing air technicians. Three of the five Japanese ships, the Ōnami, the Makinami, and the Yūgiri, were sunk, bringing nighttime resupply efforts by the Japanese to an end.
The Australian Army prevailed over the Japanese at the Battle of Sattelberg.
Bombers of the US 14th Air Force hit Formosa (Taiwan) for the first time in a raid on the airbase at Shinchiku. Forty-two Japanese aircraft were destroyed. Formosa had been part of the Japanese Empire since 1895.
RAF Bomber Command Chief Sir Arthur Harris declared that Berlin would be bombed "until the heart of Nazi Germany ceases to beat."
The I-9 was sunk by the USS Radford off of Makin Island. The U-600 and &-849 were sunk in the Atlantic.
1621,with the Pilgrims and local Natives, right?
Not hardly, buckwheat.
1578 with Marin Frobisher and his men holding a Thanksgiving feast, somewhere in North America, thankful for not dying crossing the Atlantic. It might have been in Newfoundland, or maybe on the Canadian Atlantic Arctic, or maybe somewhere else on the Canadian Atlantic coast.
All of the above courtesy of Craig Beard.
But wait, Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés had a Mass of Thanksgiving celebrated on September 8, 1565 upon his landing in Florida. That beats out Frobisher by over a decade. And if that doesn't count, coming after Frobisher, but before Champlain, was Juan de Oñate in 1598, who led an expedition of 500 people, and 7,000 head of livestock through the harsh Chihuahua to a location that is now El Paso and, on April 30, 1598 dedicated a day of Thanksgiving.
What does all this tell us? Well, what we've noted before. Thanksgivings are a common thing in Christian cultures. The "first" Thanksgiving really wasn't, and it wasn't particularly unique.
Wyoming Catholic Cowboys - raw and real: Hog Leg: Nothing says America like shooting guns and watching the Super Bowl. A nice sunny afternoon was the perfect time to try out my newly borrowe...
This is interesting.
The Super Bowl used to be a bigger deal in this house than it now is. Seems like a lot of things once were.
I’m not a football fan at all, and I didn't really start watching the Super Bowl until my wife and I were married. She is a football fan and will watch the season, and always watches the Super Bowl.
When we were first married, there were Super Bowl parties. We didn't have kids at first, and my wife's brothers were young at the time. Later, however, it carried on until the kids were teens. Then something changed, including the giving up of the farm (the farm, not the ranch), longer travel distances, and some residential changes at the ranch. Ultimately, the parties just sort of stopped, although I'm sure my two brothers-in-law, who live in houses at the ranch yard, still observe a party, and my father and mother-in-law, who live a few miles away, likely travel to that.
Much lower key than it used to be. No big gatherings like there once were.
Back in the day, we had a couple of them at our house.
Basically, the dining fare was always simple. Sandwiches bought at one of the local grocery stores, chips and beer. Typical football stuff.
At some parties at the farm, there were bowling pin shooting matches. For those not familiar with them, people shot bowling pins from some distance with pistols. It was fun. Frankly, I don't think a lot of people are all that interested in the Super Bowl to start with, and at least at the Super Bowl parties with bowling pin matches people went out to the match, and it ran into the game, which says something.
The other day also, I wrote on community.
I note this because, at one time, Schuetzen matches were big deals in German American communities. And while they involved rifles, and indeed very specialized rifles, they were also big community events.
And such things aren't unique to just those mentioned. In parts of the country, men participating in "turkey shoots" were pretty common.
Of course, shooting clubs and matches still exist nearly everywhere, and lots of men, and women, participate in matches.
Less common, however, are the rural informal matches.
All sorts of rural activities were once associated with holidays, and events. I guess that the Super Bowl is some sort of large-scale informal civil holiday, even though of course it always occurs on a Sunday. Indeed, the playing of the game on a Sunday is curious. I put a little (very little) time looking into that, and found this CBS Sports comment on it, which it must be first noted explained that football really started being popular in the 1920s.
Sunday was a free day during a decade where it was common to work on Saturdays, so the APFA played most of their games on that day. Fast forward 30 years to the advent of television networks, who were desperately looking for programming on Sundays in the 1950s.
That makes some sense to me, as I still work on Saturdays.
I'd note, however, that is this makes sense, it doesn't quite explain why baseball games occur all throughout the week, and I think there are Monday night professional football games as well, albeit televised ones.
I wonder, however, if it has deeper roots than that. American football is the successor to Rugby, and Rugby and Soccer were hugely popular in the United Kingdom. Prior to major league fun sucker Oliver Cromwell taking over the English government, in the United Kingdom, Sunday had been a day for church and then games.
This went back to Medieval times, before the Reformation. People worked, and worked hard, six days out of seven, but on the seventh, they rested. And resting meant going to Mass, and then having fun, and fun often meant games and beer, as well as other activities. In spite of their best efforts, major Protestant reformers weren't really able to make a dent in village observance of tradition until Cromwell came in and really started ruining things. To Calvinist of the day like Cromwell, Sunday was a day for church and nothing else, although contrary to what some may suspect they were not opposed to alcohol. Cromwell's Puritan government banned sports.
It's no wonder he was posthumously beheaded.
Cromwell and his ilk did a lot of damage to the Christian religion in the Untied Kingdom, and if you really want to track the decline in religious observance in the UK to something, you can lay it somewhat at the bottom of his severed head. Indeed, while hardly noted, what we're seeing going on today, in some ways, is the final stages of the Reformation playing out, and playing out badly.
Anyhow, after Cromwell was gone and the Crown restored, games came back, and they came back on Sunday. Not just proto-football, but all sorts of games. And games became hugely associated with certain religious holidays in the United Kingdom. The day after Christmas, Boxing Day, is one such example, as is New Years, the latter of which is a religious holiday in and of itself.
I suspect, however, that this had a lasting influence. I don't know for sure, but I think football is on Sunday as Sunday was the day of rest, and watching the village football game and having a tankard of ale was all part of that, after church. I also suspect that this is the reason that some American holidays are associated with football, such as Thanksgiving, which had its origin as a religious holiday, and New Years, which as noted also is.
Now, of course, with the corrupting influence of money, it's become nearly a religion to some people in and of itself. People who dare not miss a single football game never step foot in a church.
Also lost, however, is the remaining communal part of that. Watching a game played that's actually local, rather than corporate national, to a large extent. And one free of advertising. Indeed, the Super Bowl has become the number one premiere venue for innovative advertising, some of which isn't bad.
Anyhow, maybe the Super Bowl Party, in some form if properly done, is a step back in time to when the game was more a vehicle than an end in and of itself, and when it wasn't such a show that a big freakish half-time performance was expected.
We can hope so.
Well, at least I didn't miss this one.
This day was Thanksgiving Day in 1922.
Unlike the entry for 1942, I can't give any personal recollections for my parents, or speculations on what they did, as they weren't born yet.
President Harding had earlier made a proclamation in advance of and in recognition of the day.
THANKSGIVING - 1922 BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - A PROCLAMATION
In the beginnings of our country the custom was established by the devout fathers of observing annually a day of Thanksgiving for the bounties and protection which Divine Providence had extended throughout the year. It has come to be perhaps the most characteristic of our national observances, and as the season approaches for its annual recurrence, it is fitting formally to direct attention to this ancient institution of our people and to call upon them again to unite in its appropriate celebration.
The year which now approaches its end has been marked, in the experience of our nation, by a complexity of trials and of triumphs, of difficulties and of achievements, which we must regard as our inevitable portion in such an epoch as that through which all mankind is moving. As we survey the experience of the passing twelve-month we shall find that our estate presents very much to justify a nationwide and most sincere testimony of gratitude for the bounty which has been bestowed upon us. Though we have lived in the shadow of the hard consequences of great conflict, our country has been at peace and has been able to contribute toward the maintenance and perpetuation of peace in the world. We have seen the race of mankind make gratifying progress on the way to permanent peace, toward order and restored confidence in its high destiny. For the Divine guidance which has enabled us, in growing fraternity with other peoples, to attain so much of progress; for the bounteous yield which has come to us from the resources of our soil and our industry, we owe our tribute of gratitude, and with it our acknowledgment of the duty and obligation to our own people and to the unfortunate, the suffering, the distracted of other lands. Let us in all humility acknowledge how great is our debt to the Providence which has generously dealt with us, and give devout assurance of unselfish purpose to play a helpful and ennobling part in human advancement. It is much to be desired that in rendering homage for the blessings which have come to us, we should earnestly testify our continued and increasing aim to make our own great fortune a means of helping and serving, as best we can, the cause of all humanity. Now, therefore, I, Warren G. Harding, President of the United States of America, do designate Thursday, the thirtieth day of November, as a day of Thanksgiving, supplication and devotion. I recommend that the people gather at their family altars and in their houses of worship to render thanks to God for the bounties they have enjoyed and to petition that these may be continued in the year before us.
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 second day of November, in the year of our Lord, one thousand nine hundred and twenty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and forty-seventh.
Liam Lynch, the Chief of Staff for the Irish Republican Army, issued orders to the IRA authorizing the assassination of Irish Free State officials in retaliation for the execution of those caught with handguns contrary to an Irish emergency law earlier in the week. The order further provided:
All members of the Provisional 'Parliament' who were present and voted for the Murder Bill will be shot at sight. Houses of members... who are known to support Murder Bill will be destroyed. Free State army officers who approve of Murder Bill will be shot at sight; also all ex-British army officers and men who joined the Free State army since 6 December 1921.
Lynch was shot by Free State troops himself on December 6, 1923.
On the same day, oddly enough, the British announced the withdrawal of its remaining troops from Ireland, starting on December 12 and to be completed by January 5. The UK also closed its post offices in China, something that had been operating for fifty years.
A riot over rationing in Mexico resulted in the deaths of seventeen people in clashes with police in Mexico City.
Aisin-Gioro Puyi (溥儀) age 17, the former Emperor of China, and future Emperor of collaborationist Manchucko, married Gobulo Wanrong (郭布羅·婉容), age 16, in an elaborate ceremony in the Forbidden City.
In spite of the termination of the monarchy, some of its traditions were still strong, and Puyi had been ordered to marry by the Dowager Empress. Wanrong was chosen from a collection of photographs he was given and was in fact his second choice after being informed that his first choice was suitable only to be a concubine. A marriage to the first choice, Erdet Wenxiu 額爾德特·文繡, was performed later that night in an example of hopeless oddity.
The Chinese royal family was quite frankly extraordinarily weird in many ways by this time, and its maintenance after its fall preserved its oddities. The marriages may not have been consummated, but if they were they were certainly not happy in numerous ways. Puyi himself noted that they were strained as the two women were effectively slaves, rather than real spouses. There is some fairly serious speculation that Puyi was homosexual, in spite of having at least one other concubine.
Wanrong lived a miserable life in spite of being the claimant to the title of Empress. As Empress of Manchuko she entered into affairs and became pregnant by a court chauffeur. The baby was murdered after birth. She would have divorced Puyi, but the Japanese precluded it. She was taken prisoner towards the end of the Second World War by the Red Chinese. She died in their captivity at age 39 in June, 1945.
Not too surprisingly, Wenxiu was also unhappy in her role as a second class wife and had a troubled relationship with Wanrong and Piyu. She divorced him in 1931 and latter married Major Liu Zhendong in 1947. He later became a car dealership and then the two of them lived in poverty following the Red Chinese victory in the Chinese Civil War. She died in 1953.
As if this isn't odd enough, and in spite of the questions this raises, Puyi would take two more consorts over time, Tatara Yuling 他他拉·玉齡 and Li Yuqin. Puyi grew to be very fond of Yuling, who died undergoing medical treatment in 1942 at age 22. There are some suspicions regarding her death as her physician was Japanese and she was known to harbor negative thoughts about the Japanese. Puyi kept a picture of her with him until his death. Yuling was half Korean.
Yuquin married Puyi in 1943 and was with Empress Wanrong when she attempted to flee at teh endo fthe Second World War. She was released from capitivy in 1946 and became a textile factory employee and a library employee. She sought a divorce from Puyi in 1955 but oddly was ordered to reconcile with him by the Red Chinese government. They none the less divorced in 1958 and she latter married technician Huang Yugeng (黃毓庚). She died in 2001 in Changchun.
Puyi lived until 1967, dying in Red China. The Soviets saved his life by refusing to extradite him to the Republic of China, which viewed him as a traitor.
50,000 gathered to hear Hitler speak in Munich.
For the past thirty-six hours I had received no orders or information from a higher level. In a few hours I was liable to be confronted with the following situation:(a) Either I must remain in position on my western and northern fronts and very soon see the army front rolled up from behind (in which case I should formally be complying with the orders issued to me), or else(b) I must make the only possible decision and turn with all my might on the enemy who was about to stab the army from behind. In the latter event, clearly, the eastern and northem fronts can no longer be held and it an only be a matter of breaking through to the south-west.In case of (b) I should admittedly be doing justice to the situation but should also - for the second time - be guilty of disobeying an order.(3) In this difficult situation I sent the Fuhrer a signal asking for freedom to take such a final decision if it should become necessary. I wanted to have this authority in order to guard against issuing the only possible order in that situation too late....The airlift of the last three days has brought only a fraction of the calculated minimum requirement (600 tons = 300 Ju daily). In the very next few days supplies can lead to a crisis of the utmost gravity.I still believe, however, that the army can hold out for a time. On the other hand - even if anything like a corridor is cut through to me - it is still not possible to tell whether the daily increasing weakness of the army, combined with the lack of accommodation and wood for constructional and heating purposes, will allow the area around Stalingrad to be held for any length of time.
