Saturday, June 5, 1976. Teton Dam collapse.

The Teton Dam collapsed in Idaho, resulting in a flood in the Snake River that destroyed Wilford, Idaho and flooded Rexburg.

Leaks in the dam started at 7:30 am and increased over a two hour period.  Crews were sent to repair the dam but by noon the earthen dam was beyond repair and collapsed.

Belfast pubs were bombed as part of ongoing IRA  and UVF campaigns.

Last edition:

Tuesday, June 1, 1976. End of the Cod Wars.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, Cod Wars, Diplomacy, Fish, fishing, Iceland, North Atlantic, United Kingdom

Thursday, June 14, 1945. Slogging.

The Chinese Army captured Ishan.

"Riflemen of the 2nd Bn., 381st Regiment of the Tenth Army's 96th Div. peer cautiously ahead as they advance across the summit of Yaeju-Dake escarpment (Big Apple Ridge) on Okinawa. 14 June 1945. 2nd Battalion, 381st Infantry Regiment, 96th Infantry Division."

Action continued on Okinawa, but the battle was finally winding down.

Likewise, action continued in the Philippines, and Bouganville.

The British arrested Joachim von Ribbentrop in Hamburg.

The Northern Ireland general election returned a Ulster Unionist Party majority.

A victory parade was held in Rangoon.

Gen. Eisenhower was awarded the French Order of Liberation by Gen. de Gaulle.

The US Joint Chiefs of Staff issue a directive to General MacArthur, General Arnold and Admiral Nimitz to prepare plans for the immediate occupation of the Japanese islands in the event of a sudden capitulation. 

Today In Wyoming's History: June 14--Flag Day: 1945  Shoshone and Washakie National Forests consolidated.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

Last edition:

Wednesday, June 13, 1945. Taking the Oruku Peninsula.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Australian Army, Borneo, Germany, Imperial Japanese Navy, Okinawa, Projekt Amerika, Rocketry, United States Marine Corps, Weapons, World War Two

Saturday, April 12, 1975. Eagle Pull.

US ambassador John Gunther Dean stepping off Marine Corps helicopter in Thailand.

Operation Eagle Pull took place with the US closure of its Cambodian embassy and the insertion of 180 Marines into Phnom Penh to start the evacuation of US civilians.  Approximately 300 people were evacuated, of which 82 were Americans.

Deputy Prime Minister Sisowath Sirik Matak refused to leave, stating in a letter to the American Ambassador, "I cannot, alas, leave in such a cowardly fashion....I have only committed this mistake of believing in you, the Americans."

The ARVN deployed aircraft against NVA units at Xuan Loc, with the South Vietnamese air force flying up to 120 sorties per day.

Six Catholic civilians are killed in a Ulster Volunteer Force gun and grenade attack on Strand Bar in Belfast, North Ireland

Josephine Baker died at age 68.

Last edition:

Friday, April 11, 1975. The looming end for Cambodia and the NVA takes the Spratlys.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Army of the Republic of Vietnam, Cambodian Civil War, China, Gerald Ford, North Vietnamese Army, Operation Eagle Pull, People's Republic of China, Spratly Islands, United States Marine Corps

Saturday, November 1, 1924. Political, and real, warfare.

It was Saturday.

Country Gentleman's cover was a follow-up from the prior week's.

Sultan bin Saqr Al Qasimi II invaded the Emirate of Sharjah resulting in the overthrow of  Khalid bin Ahmad Al Qasimi, who had been the Emir since 1914.

Sharjah was one of the Trucial States under British protectorate status. It is now one of the United Arab Emirates.

He'd find his rule ineffective as he was ignored by Beudoins and Khalid retained support.  He remained the titular rule, however, until his death in 1951.

The Royal Air Force introduced its Meteorological Flight Service.

Éamon de Valera was sentenced to a month in prison for entering Ulster illegally.

Frontier lawman Bill Tilghman, age 70, was shot and killed by drunken prohibition agement Wiley Lynn, who obviously wasn't that dedicated to the cause of his employment. Tilghman would lie in State in the Oklahoma state house.  Lynn would escape conviction, pleading self defense, but was killed in a gunfight in 1932.

The days headline did, and did not, read like today's.

Last edition:

Thursday, October 30, 1924. King maker.

Labels: 1920s, 1924, 1924 Election, Calvin Coolidge, Chinese Warlord Era, Ireland, Irish Army Mutiny, Irish Free State, Personalities

Thursday, April 4, 1974. I wanted to note Hank Aaron. . .

 The tornado Super Outbreak of 1974 concluded

It is the second second-largest tornado outbreak on record and most violent tornado outbreak ever recorded.  148 confirmed tornadoes hit Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and New York.

What I really wanted to note, but the story above is more important, is that Hank Aaron tied the career record of Babe Ruth on this day in a game in which his Braves played the Reds.

Jordanian women were granted the right to vote.  Parliament was also suspended at the time, so it wasn't as impactful immediately as it might sound.

The ban against the Ulster Volunteer Force, in effect since 1966, was lifted.  The loyalist militia had been formed the prior year, 1965.

While the UVF's motto is "For God and Ulster", and it was supposed to disband, since the 1994 ceasefire it reportedly has been involved in rioting, drug dealing, organized crime, loan-sharking and prostitution.  Some members have reportedly been involved in racist attacks.

I guess this all goes to show that even on days when there's an exciting event, a lot of cruddy things are occurring.

Last prior edition:

Friday, March 29, 1974. Kent State Indictments

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2023 Elections In Other Countries.

May 15, 2023

Turkey

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has governed the country for twenty years, is headed into a runoff election against Kemal Kilicdaroglu, having failed to secure 50% of the vote.

May 22, 2023

Ulster

Sinn Fein made big gains in local election in Northern Ireland this past week.

May 29, 2023

Turkey

Erdoğan unfortunately won the run-off election in Turkey.

May 30, 20223

Alberta, Canada

Danielle Smith's United Conservative Party won provincial elections yesterday. 

July 23, 2023

Spain exhibited cheating the prophet in that, contrary to predictions, there were no clear winners in its election.

The With center-right Christian Democratic Party, Partido Popular (PP) came in first, winning 136 seats. The far-right Vox party, which was predicted to be a kingmaker, won 33 seats and it might through in with the PP.  The ruling center-left Socialist party won 122 seats, with likely coalition partner Sumar at 31 seats.

But there's no telling, really.  The Socialist Party is in power. . . it might throw in with the PP.

So, it's hard to tell who won.  They're working out the deals now, but chances are that whoever won will not be in power long.

October 16, 2023

Left and center left parties took   248 seats in the 460-seat lower house of the Polish parliament, compared to the 200 taken by the governing Law and Justice party and 12 by a right wing partner.  

The government of Poland will accordingly change in the first European defeat of the king of right wing populism/National Conservatism that most notably emerged in Hungary and recently can be imperfectly argued to have gained ground in several other European countries.  It had made statements about openly following Hungary's lead.  As recently as 2019 it was gaining ground.

And it might still be.  Parliamentary politics are not the same as republican politics. The Law and Justice Party still was the largest vote getter, and the number of votes for it increased.  Effectively, it has 212 seats to 248 seats held by various other opposition parties that cross a political spectrum.  A government still has to be assembled and it will remain a major voice in the parliament.

November 23, 2023

Argentina.

Difficult to describe, socially conservative, a member of the Austrian school of economics, and sort of a libertarian, Javier Milei won the Argentine presidential election.

This election is so sui generis that it's hard to put in an international context.  The temptation is always to view these sorts of shifts as to the hard right, or hard left, and this would sort of be hard right, but it also reflects a rejection of Argentina's political history going back for 90 years or so.

The Netherlands.

The Dutch Party for Freedom made big election gains in the Dutch parliament, signaling a large leap to the far right in the country. While being expressed as a shock, this has been going on in the Netherlands for some time.

This victory makes it possible that its leader, Geert Wilders, could become prime minister of the country, but only if he is able to put together a coalition with other right wing and center right wing parties.

The party is strongly anti immigrant and wishes to leave the European Union.

Sunday, June 17, 1923. Dry Sunday

The Irish Free State saw its pubs swamped with visitors as Northern Ireland experienced its first "Dry Sunday", a day brought about due to a new law in Ulster.

Northern Ireland, reflecting its Presbyterian heritage, had a particularly notable set of Blue Laws.  Soccer was banned on Sundays prior to 2008.  Public playgrounds were closed on Sundays, and swings locked, in Belfast until 1965.  Stores over 280 square meters in size are still restricted to the hours of 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays.

Mount Etna erupted.

Released on this day in 1923.  The plot involved a woman who is widowed at 38 and takes a job as a college librarian and starts dating over the objection of her children.

Saturday, December 9, 1922. Ulster governments, Polish presidents, American comedians, French trains.

The office of the Governor of Northern Ireland was created.  The office assumed the role previously held by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for the prior 750 years.  The charge of the office was to "do and execute in due manner as respects Northern Ireland all things which by virtue of the Act and our said Letters Patent of 27 April 1921 or otherwise belonged to the office of Lord Lieutenant at the time of the passing of the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922."

This office would only exist until July 18, 1973.

Gabriel Józef Narutowicz a hydroelectric engineering and politician was chosen to be the first President of Poland.  He'd serve for five days after assuming office on December 11, as he was assassinated on December 16. 

John Elroy Sanford, better known by his stage name Redd Foxx, was born in St. Louis.

Foxx in 1966.

Foxx came up with a raunchy nightclub act before being cast in Sanford and Son in 1972, which propelled him into national fame. He was legitimately great in the role in which he portrayed an aged (beyond his actual years) father to a son who co-owned a junkyard with him.  The series had a predominate African American cast and dealt with the themes of the time, running until 1977.  A hugely popular series, it is still well remembered, and oddly its name is recalled in the Wyoming restaurant chain name "Sanfords".

The Calais-Mediterranée Express luxury train resumed service on its entire route in France.

Thursday, December 7, 1922. Coal, Boats, and Killings.

 

The Parliament of Northern Ireland voted unanimously to remain in the United Kingdom.  The Army of the Irish Free State severs communications with units based in Northern Ireland. Irish Parliamentarians and former members of the IRA Sean Hales of Cork and Padraig O'Maile of Mayo emerged from lunch at a hotel on Ormonde Quay in Dublin and were shot in revenge for the execution of IRA members earlier that week.  Hales was killed and O'Maile severely wounded.

The Northern Irish Parliament would govern Ulster on a home rule basis until 1972, when it was suspended due to its inability to address The Troubles.

The President's yacht was hit.

The public in Wyoming was apparently following the sensational trial of the Governor of Missippii and the results of a murder trail in Casper where the convicted assailant was a woman.

Monday, December 3, 1922. Erin go Bragh

The House of Lord voted to approve the Irish Free State Constitution Act of 1922 with only one dissenting vote.  That came from Lord Carson, who had blocked Home Rule in 1914, thereby ironically bringing about the Anglo-Irish War a couple of years later, and guaranteeing that Ireland would become an independent state.

Lord Carson, whose opposition to any independence for Ireland helped set it on the path to full independence.

Rudolph Valentino toured St. Louis.

Saturday, October 28, 1922. King Victor Emmanuel summons Mussolini.

The Saturday Evening Post went with a jester theme for its Halloween 1922 ediition, the Country Gentleman went with a jest.

King Victor Emmanuel III, Italy's king, refused a request from Prime Minister Luigi Facta to declare martial law to address the Fascist March on Rome.  The Italian army advised the king that it was fearful troops would disobey any order to fire on the Fascists, and therefore the request should be denied.

With this, the Italian government effectively surrendered to Fascism.  The King invited Mussolini to come to Rome to discuss the political situation with him.

KYW broadcast the first national radio transmission of a football game. The game was between Princeton and the University of Chicago.

Antrim Castle in Northern Ireland caught fire during a grand ball and was destroyed.  Suspicion existed that the castle fire may have been the work of the Irish Republican Army, but no charges were ever brought against anyone and no insurance claim was ever paid out.

Wednesday, September 2, 1942. The carrier escorted PQ-18

The escort carrier, the HMS Avenger.  She'd be sunk by a German submarine in November 1942, following Operation Torch, which would take all but 12 of her crew of over 500.

Today in World War II History—September 2, 1942: Allied convoy PQ-18 departs Scotland for USSR, the first Arctic convoy with an escort carrier and the first since the PQ-17 disaster; 13/40 ships will be lost.

From Sarah Sundin's blog.

Escort carriers were game changers.  While losing 13 out of 40 ships wasn't good, it was better than what the PQ-17 had experienced. With air cover, submarines were at a disadvantage.  The PQ-18 task force was, in fact, the largest and most successful Arctic run up to that time.

The carrier was the HMS Avenger, as Sundin's blog entry notes.

The U-222 and the U-626, German training submarines, collided in the Baltic sinking the U-222 which took 42 of her crew with her.

The German 46th Infantry Division, which had been dishonored following an unauthorized withdrawal due to Soviet landings on the Kerch peninsula in December 1941, crossed the Kerch Straits while the German 17th Army advanced into Novorossisk, putting Soviet positions on the Eastern Black Sea coast at extreme risk.  The Soviets began, on this night, evacuations from Black Sea ports which were harassed by German and Italian patrol boats.

The Germans sustained heavy material losses at Alam el Halfa resulting in an Afrika Korps withdrawal.

British commandos took a lighthouse and its occupants near Alderny without the Germans noticing and without loss in Operation Dryad.

Tom Williams of the Irish Republican Army was executed for the felony murder of Royal Ulster Constabulary officer Patrick Murphy.  This occurred when an IRA unit Williams was in command of staged a diversionary action against the RUC in order to allow parades commemorating the Easter Rebellion to occur.  Who killed Murphy is actually not known, but Williams was the acknowledged commander of the unit.

Monday, July 31, 1972. Operation Motorman

The British carried out Operation Motorman on this day in 1972, reoccupying those areas of Northern Ireland controlled by residents and/or the Irish Republican Army.

The operation was a success and reduced violence in the north significantly, although it didn't end it. 

Friday, July 21, 1972. Bloody Friday

By IrishBriton - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48182855

The Provisional Irish Republican Army carried out 22 bombings in Belfast, killing nine people in what became known as Bloody Friday.  The actions sparked a renewed British offensive against the IRA, which commenced the next day.

The "Provos" in some significant ways were able to conduct this sort of activity due to romanticized backing by Irish Americans.  It claimed lineage from the Irish Republican Army of the Irish Civil War period, but it had an evolved Socialist agenda that put it in the far left political sphere, which would partially explain how it obtained backing from Libya at the time.

The IRA itself did in fact carry on in existence after the Irish Civil War, even conducting a bombing campaign in 1939 against the United Kingdom.  In 1969, after the Troubles had commenced, the IRA split in two over the issue of abstentionism and forming a National Liberation Front with other left wing groups.  The group that became the Provos refused to vote on the second item, and opposed the first.  Sein Finn likewise split.

Thursday, June 22, 1922. Sir Henry Wilson assassinated.

Sir Henry Wilson, a British Field Marshall, was assassinated outside of his home in London by members of the Irish Republican Army

Wilson was from County Longford, Northern Ireland, and had briefly been a Unionist politician after retiring from the army.  He was noted as a political intriguer and had role in the unsuccessful introduction of conscription in Ireland during World War One as well as the pre-war Curragh Mutiny.  In the latter event, he encouraged British officers to resign rather than to take action against the Ulster Volunteers.  He opposed Irish independence to the end, and that likely cost him his life at the hands of those who also were for union, but not of the type that he was.  

Wilson regarded himself as Irish and in fact spoke with an Irish accent.  He was a member of the Church of Ireland, as would be expected, that being the Irish expression of the Anglican Communion, although he was known to occasionally attend Catholic services.  Interestingly, he did so even though he objected to its Roman orientation, and he was personally low church in the Anglican Communion.

Wilson was a controversial figure, although one who was generally popular in the British Army, and he had a long period of military service, having entered the British Army in 1882.

Saturday, November 6, 1914. Eulalio Gutiérrez declared President of Mexico

Eulalio Gutiérrez was declared President of Mexico during the Convention of Aguascalientes.

His presidency was best with problems from the onset as the warring parties that had prevailed in removing Huerta did not agree on much else.  Ultimately, he declared Carranza and Villa to be traitors to the revolution and removed himself to the United States.  He returned in 1920, but later participated in a  subsequent rebellion and again went to the US as an exile.  He returned to Mexico again in 1935 and died in 1939 at age 58.

Japanese troops stormed German defenses at Tsingtao.

Ottoman troops confronted Imperial Russian forces that had entered the country.

British troop conducted an amphibious landing at Fao, Iraq, in order to take the fortress there which threatened British shipping.

Irish member of Parliament Arthur O'Neill was killed in action at Zillebeke, Belgium.  He was an Ulster Unionist.

Last edition:

Thursday, November 5, 1914. Bears.

Labels: 1910s, 1914, British Empire, Casper Wyoming, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Fraternal Organizations, French Foreign Legion, Italy, Ottoman Empire, Royal Navy, United Kingdom, World War One, Wyoming (Casper)

Tuesday, July 14, 1914. Bastille Day.

The Government of Ireland Bill passed the House of Lord, allowing Ulster counties to vote on whether they wished to participate in Home Rule from Dublin.

Hungarian Prime Minister István Tisza, who had opposed going to war with Serbia, changed his view out of fear that if Austro Hungaria did not do so it would result in a breach of the alliance with Germany. 

It was Bastille Day.

Last edition:

Monday, July 13, 1914. Austrians conclude no Serbian involvement.

Labels: 1910s, 1914, Austro Hungaria, Canadian Arctic Expedition, Education, July Crisis, Ohio, Serbia, Weather, World War One

Friday, July 10, 1914. Loyalties.

The Provisional Government of Ulster met for the first time in the Ulster Hall.  It pledged to keep Ulster in trust for the King and British constitution.

Georgian born Nicholas Hartwig, the unlikely named Russian Minister to Serbia, died of a massive heart attack while visiting Austro Hungarian minister Baron Wladimir Giesl von Gieslingen in Belgrade.  He was an ardent pan Slav, who was said to be more Serbian than the Serbs.

Mountain Lake, Virginia.  July 10, 1914.

Last edition:

Thursday, July 9, 1914. Huerta defeated.

Labels: 1910s, 1914, Álvaro Obregón, Austro Hungaria, Central Powers, July Crisis, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Serbia, Swimming, World War One

Friday, April 24, 1914. Occupying Vera Cruz.

Fighting in Veracruz ceased and the occupation of the city began.

Raising the flat at Veracruz, April 27, 1924.

35,000 obsolescent German, Austrian and Italian rifles and 5,000,000 rounds of ammunition were smuggled into Ulster from Germany and distributed by automobile in the Larne Gun Running incident to Ulster loyalists in anticipation of fighting over the issue of independence, with the Ulster Volunteers opposed to it.

Captain Robert Bartlett and Kataktovik reached Emma Town having traveled 700 miles in their effort to secure relief for his stranded party.  They secured passage there to Emma Harbour, a weeks journey, so that he could travel to Alaska by ship from there.

Emma Harbor, 1921.

The Brooklyn Federal League team was photographed.

Last prior edition:

Thursday, April 23, 1914. Wrigley Field Opens, War Panic.

1910s, 1914, baseball, Battle of Veracruz, Chicago Illinois, Equine Transportation, Illinois (Chicago), Mexico, Mexico (Veracruz), The Press, Vera Cruz Mexico

Wednesday, March 25, 1914. Villa repulsed.

According to the Cheyenne paper, Villa had suffered a set back.

The same paper showed that Wyomingites were slamming Democrats as far back as that, and even earlier.

Also in that issue, some interesting items showing how local agriculture was.

And then there was this interesting item:

The Laramie paper was reporting on the distress in the British defense posture. We know, of course, what they did not, that they were on the eve of war.

Last prior edition:

Monday, March 23, 1914. Doubts about Roosevelt's fate on the River of Doubt.

1900s, 1909, 1910s, 1912, 1912 Election, 1914, Brazil, Exploration, Personalities, Roosevelt–Rondon Scientific Expedition, Theodore Roosevelt