I wouldn't normally note that, but as the populist far right is busy trying to make a martyr out of Kirk as a victim of a left wing shooter (which so far we're not really certain was the motivation), it probably ought to be mentioned.
The US today has a late Weimar Republic feel to it.
Germany observed its first memorial day.
German communists disrupted a noontime two minutes of silence, with German police moving in to restore order.
Jewish Berliners held a separate service in the memory of Jewish German soldiers who were killed during the war, as a Jewish cleric was not allowed to deliver a prayer at the Reichstag ceremony held that day.
Soviet agents raided Stolpce Poland in a mission to free two members of the Communist Party of Western Belarus. Seven Polish policemen were killed but the Soviet mission failed and would cause a reassessment of such attacks.
An American plane had made the leap to Iceland in the around the world flight:
Ja'far al-Askari resigned as Prime Minister of Iraq in protest of the Constituent Assembly voting to ratify the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty approving the terms of the Mandate for Mesopotamia and making Iraq a British protectorate.
British novelist Joseph Conrad died.
Last edition:
And related to the theme of the day, in a way, an elopement was frustrated. The intended bride was 16, the groom 20.
I wonder if that ended it, or if their union later developed? Seems like the parents, implicitly, were not thrilled. Note also the judge intended to go ahead with it.
Ritualized bride kidnapping is a surprisingly common human custom, perhaps derived from actual bride kidnapping. In Christian societies actual bride kidnapping cannot give rise to a valid marriage, but in many non-Christian societies, including pre-Christian European ones, it was fairly common. The entire origin of Rome came about that way.
After the rise of Christianity in various cultures, some retained a ritualized form of which, as in this instance, existed to overcome parental objections. The bride was complicit in her kidnapping and consent was generally given afterward with a negotiation on the bride's price. This was common, for example, in Medieval Scandinavia. Implicit in the negotiation was; 1) as women could freely consent to marriage, there was no stopping it, and 2) the girl was likely "ruined" by that time, or would be so regarded. Additionally, the use of force by the groom implied that the kidnapping was not so much that, but an armed intervention in favor of the couple's intentions, which was a dicey thing to disregard without violence.
In spite of the constant boosterism, the real nature of Casper was showing through. Pool Hall fights were breaking out during an era when Casper had a really thriving open red-light district. "Shirt Sleeves" slim was going to be escorted out of town.
In boosterism, a parachute jump was planned over a new subdivision.
Mother's Day (Muttertag) was officially recognized for the first time in Germany, although it had been widely celebrated the year prior. Lacking the nationalist tones that it had in Germany, the day had been recognized in the United States since 1908. The celebration also spread to Czechoslovakia and Poland for the first time in 1923.
It was of course Mother's Day in the US.
In Philadelphia, the unknown mother of the unknown soldier was honored.
In various states, such as Michigan, the Governor issued a proclamation in honor of the day.
A Proclamation By the Governor
Mothers' Day Proclamation By the Governor
In compliance with our beautiful custom, which in a few years has come to be universally observed throughout the land, the time has come to set apart a day in honor of American motherhood.
The American home is at once the cradle and the bulwark of all that is finest and best in our present day civilization, and the American mother is the heart of that home. If the home spirit is what it should be the major portion of the credit belongs to her.
It is impossible for us to compute the debt we owe our mothers, and it is only fitting that in this way we should pay our tribute of respect and devotion to the mothers of the nation, living and dead.
Therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me as Governor of the State of Michigan, I do hereby designate and proclaim Sunday, May thirteenth, 1923, as Mothers' Day, and I call upon our people, both old and young, to gather in their several places of worship and take part in services appropriate to the day.
And let absent sons and daughters take this occasion to visit the mother in the old home, or, where such a visit is impossible, let them send a message of cheer and greeting.
In accordance with a resolution of the Congress of the United States, I further request the people of Michigan on the day aforesaid to display the United States flag in their homes and in other suitable places, as a fitting expression of their desire to pay homage to American motherhood.
Given under my hand and the Great Seal of the State this Twenty-seventh day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and twenty-three, and of the Commonwealth the eightyseventh.
Alex J Governor.
By the Governor:
Oddly, the Casper paper for the day didn't mention Mother's Day at all.
Greece made its final use of the Julian calendar, thereby going from today, which was February 15 on the Julian, to March 1 the following day, reflecting the switch to the Gregorian calendar.
President Harding signed the Smoot-Burton Act compromising the British war debt somewhat.
France deported the policemen in Bouchum and Herne away from their cities.
Blues great Bessie Smith was in the studio.
Smith was a musical giant in her day, but was buried in an unmarked grave when she died due to injuries from an automobile accident in 1937. In 1970s ,that was addressed and a new tombstone was erected.
The inner chamber of the Tomb of Tutankhamun was opened by Howard Carter's archeological party.
The Conference of Ambassadors of the Allied Powers, which did not include the US, as the US had gone into international hiding on the basis that ignoring the world makes you safe from it, approved the transfer of Memel to Lithuania. We dealt with this previously and the nature of this oddly disputed small Baltic territory.
Italy ratified the Washington Naval Treaty and the Treaty of Santa Margherita, the latter of which settled a territorial dispute with Yugoslavia,
The German National Socialist Party, the NASDP, commonly called the Nazi Party, held its first party congress. It was held in Munich, where the party was centered at the time, and drew 6,000 members.
The tiny Republic of San Marino was forced by local fascists into union with Italy. The micro state has since regained independence.
The Republic of the Rif released the remaining 326 prisoners of war it held to Spain, in exchange for 4,000,000 pesetas. 261 POWS had died in Rifian captivity.
The Country Gentleman had an age-old theme.
Of interest, that style of winter hat is still very popular with outdoorsmen and agriculturalist. I have two of them.
The Saturday Evening Post had an extraordinarily boring cover.
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The Allied Reparation Commission found Germany in willful default on its coal delivery requires pursuant to the Versailles Treaty, thus setting the stage for the French occupation. On the same day, France and Belgium's commissioners voted to occupy the Ruhr. The United Kingdom opposed the measure. The U.S. had already bowed out.
The Ruhr is an industrial region of Germany and was traditionally a coal mining region, drawing quite a few ethnic Poles at one time due to their experience in coal mining. Locally, quite a few of those from the region refer to it as "Pott", which is a derivate of "Pütt", a derivative of "pit", or mine. By 1925, the Ruhrgebiet had around 3,800,000 inhabitants including Eastern Europe immigrants, but also including immigrants from France, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Today the region is part of North Rhine-Westphalia, a British creation during the post World War Two British occupation, which merged the Rhineland with Westphalia. Oddly, it's been preserved since that time, although at least some distantly descended Westphalians might wonder why.
A U.S. Federal board charged with studying vocational education found that 1,700,000 children dropped out of school prior to the 8th grade, and thereby impairing their occupational opportunities.
The Gorakhpus Sessions Court in Indian returned verdicts on a February 5, 1922, burning of a police station that resulted in 22 police deaths. Forty-seven people were acquitted, 107 were found guilty of various charges, with nineteen being sentenced to death and fourteen to life imprisonment.
It was New Year's Eve, 1922.
That meant a lot of parties. Parties occurring during Prohibition. A fair number of them were dry, but a fair number were not.
French Prime Minister Raymond Poincare rejected German Chancellor Wilhelm Cuno's proposal for a non-aggression pact with Germany, which would have replaced French troops in the Rhineland with an international disinterested force.
Frankly, were I Poincare, I would have rejected it also. What international force, following the Great War, would have even qualified as disinterested?
We mentioned Cuno here the other day, he was an economist. Of some interest, he was born in 1876 and would die in 1933. Poincare was born in 1860, and would outlive him, dying in 1934.
The Nine Power Treaty went into effect. We've run the text of the treaty, signed by the U.S. France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Japan, the United Kingdom, Portugal, and China previously.
United States Supreme Court Justice Mahlon Pitney retired following his having suffered a stroke.
Pitney was conservative, but also a libertarian, and has received praise in the modern era for being consistently libertarian. He hailed from New Jersey, where his family had been located since colonial times, and only served for ten years before his stroke idled him. He died in 1924 at age 66.
The Casper Daily Tribune had a cartoon on the cover regarding the Hays of the Hays Production Code, which we just discussed.
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The Council of People's Commissars re-elected most of the members of the ruling "All-Russian Executive Committee" (hmmmm. . . . "All Russian") but did put in four new members. Three of them were:
Joseph Stalin. We know about him. He was appointed Minister of Nationalities.
Lev Kamenev. He was appointed Third Vice President, which says something about the absurd nature of Soviet government in that they had up to at least three VP's. One's enough.
His fate? Shot in the 1930s, of course.
Grigory Sokolnikov. He was appointed Minister of Finance.
His fate? Assassinated in prison in 1939.
Well, they served a monstrosity that used murder. Can we be surprised that they were murdered?
It might be worth noting that some of these figures, maybe all of them, were "rehabilitated", which didn't do them any good, but then they were pretty complicit with bringing anonymous death upon millions.
James Joyce's novel Ulysses was banned in the UK. I've never read it, but then its a book whose memory is mostly preserved by English professors with few actually reading it, much like a lot of what Hemingway wrote is. If tempted to read it, pick up Flannery O'Connor instead.
Germany's floating debt passed 1,000,000,000,000 ℛℳ.
The Allied Reparations Committee's delegates voted 3 to 1 to declare Germany to have voluntarily defaulted in its Great War reparations, this stemming from a delayed timber delivery to France.
Only the United Kingdom dissented.
Mussolini ordered that Italian coinage be redesigned to bear the fasces.
Wilhelm Cuno.
Businessman Wilhelm Cuno was appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Friedrich Ebert. It was an appointment, not an elective, commission.
An independent politician, Cuno would serve in the role for less than a year and then retire from politics. He'd become an economic advisor to Hitler in 1932, which he didn't do long either, given his death in 1933.
The French Chamber of Deputies approved Raymond Poincare's policy of France abstaining on paying its war debts unit it had received reparations due from Germany.
Former White Russian General Viktor Pokrovsky, age 33, died while resisting arreste by Belgian authorities. They were conducting a murder investigation.
Germany defaulted on its reparations payments.
The Casper Daily Tribune ran a cartoon attacking Governor Carey on the front page.
Frankly, even now, I’m shocked.
As can be seen, Casper was expanding in 1922 and the stresses that involved were apparently getting to people.
Walther Rathenau, German Foreign Minster, was assassinated by right wing German nationalist. Germany's march towards Nazism was commencing.
On the same day Hitler began serving his prison sentence.
The American Professional Football Association voted to change its name to the National Football League.
The English Ladies Football Association hold its only championship.
Japan announced it would withdraw its occupation forces from Siberia, save for Sakhalin Island, by the end of October.
April 16 was Easter Sunday in 1922.
On that date, Michael Collins survived an assassination attempt when his attackers failed to recognize him in Rutland Square in Dublin, and shot at some cars instead. Collins was carrying a revolver and fired at his would be attackers.
Germany and Soviet Russia entered the Treaty of Rapallo which renounced all territorial and financial claims the two countries had against each other and restored diplomatic relations.
Japan's famous Imperial Hotel sustained damage in a fire.
First crop dusting being conducted.The first flight featured Army Air Corps pilot John A. Macready and aircraft engineer Etienne Dormoy who performed the test with a Curtiss JN4 over a field outside of Troy, Ohio. Lead arsenate was sprayed to attack caterpillars.
Macready would complete an Army career prior to World War Two, leaving the service in 1926, but was recalled to serve in the Second World War. He retired from the Army Air Force in 1948. He was a legendary pilot at the time and had many firsts while in the service, including being the first Air Corps pilot to parachute from a stricken aircraft at night.
