Thursday, Feburary 7, 1924. De la Huerta retreats and the M1911A1 is born.

Adolfo de la Huerta and his staff withdrew by boat to Mérida, Yucatán, after federal troops recaptured Veracruz.

Crowd going to the National Cathedral, under construction, where President Wilson had been laid to rest.

Italy recognized the Soviet Union.

Around this time, Colt began to ship what is called the "Colt Transition Model 1911", which were actually the first of the M1911A1s.

The Colt M1911 is a John Browning designed semi-automatic pistol that can legitimately be regarded s the greatest handgun ever made, although there are, or perhaps more accurately were, a few other contenders.  Other than the mostly John Browning Designed Hi Power, none of the other contenders remain in service somewhere however and the M1911 has by far the longest period of service.

Adopted by the U.S. on March 29, 1911, in 1923 the handgun received some minor modifications, the most significant of which is a curved spring housing which changed the profile of the grip.  The trigger was also shortened.  In 1924 the modified design started to ship, this month, from Colt.  The M1911A1 designation came in 1926.  

Large quantities of M1911s were made in World War One, and even larger quantities of M1911A1s were made during World War Two. So many were in fact made that no new orders were placed for M1911s through the rest of its primary service life, up to when the M9 Beretta 9mm handgun was ordered to replace it.

MEU(SOC) pistol.

The M9 actually failed to completely replace the M1911A1, although it nearly did so.  Some small quantities of M1911A1s that had been issued to officers remained in ongoing use.  In addition, the pistol never ceased being used by special troops, who favored it over the 9mm M9 due to its larger .45ACP cartridge.  The Marines nearly immediately resisted the change and adopted a reworked and custom-built M1911, with flat spring housing, as the MEU(SOC) pistol for close combat, taking in quantities of M9s at the same time.

Female Marine firing M45A1.

During the war in Afghanistan, the M1911 started to reappear in force, being rebuilt by service armorers and with some small numbers being once again purchased for special forces.  In 2012 the Marine Corps began to acquire modernized M1911s, with the flat spring housing, which were ultimately adopted as the Marine Corps service pistol with the designation M45. Theoretically, these passed out of service in 2022, but it's frankly unlikely that they fully did.  The pistol almost certain remains in use to some degree by the US.

The pistol, given all of this, has an incredibly long service life, likely the longest of any US weapon.  And the M1911 itself has rebounded in popularity and is as popular as a civilian handgun as ever, perhaps more popular than ever.  As a police weapon, it was used by the FBI for decades, and also in various cartridge chamberings by law enforcement agencies.  No handgun rivals it.

Related Threads:

Everything Old is New Again. Yeoman's laws of History and Behavior and the U.S. Military Sidearm.

The Punitive Expedition and technology. A 20th Century Expedition.

Persistent Myths XIV: The Korean War Edition

Wednesday, Februay 6, 1924. Two Deaths.

Woodrow Wilson was laid to rest in a vault beneath the center isle of the chapel of the Washington National Cathedral, making him the only U.S. President to be buried in Washington, D.C.

There were protests outside the German Embassy due to the legation refusing to offer condolences for the death of the late President.  It also refused, at first, to fly its flag at half staff.

Later that day it relented and the flag was at half staff.

Monday, February 4, 1924 War President Finds Peace In Final Passing.

The peace for Wilson theme wsa repeated in other venues.

"Peace at last for a lover of peace",  Washington Post.

Mohandas K. Gandhi was released from incarceration in Ahmedabad for sedition due to illness.

after serving less than two years of his six-year prison sentence for sedition.

Sunday, February 3, 1924. Wilson's Last Sleep

He would in fact die that night, at age 67.

To the people of the United States:

The death of Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States from March 4, 1913, to March 4, 1921, which occurred at 11:15 o’clock today at his home at Washington, District of Columbia, deprives the country of a most distinguished citizen, and is an event which causes universal and genuine sorrow. To many of us it brings the sense of a profound personal bereavement.

His early profession as a lawyer was abandoned to enter academic life. In this chosen field he attained the highest rank as an educator, and has left his impress upon the intellectual thought of the country. From the Presidency of Princeton University he was called by his fellow citizens to be the Chief Executive of the State of New Jersey. The duties of this high office he so conducted as to win the confidence of the people of the United States, who twice elected him to the Chief Magistrate of the Republic. As President of the United States he was moved by an earnest desire to promote the best interests of the country as he conceived them. His acts were prompted by high motives and his sincerity of purpose can not be questioned. He led the nation through the terrific struggle of the world war with a lofty idealism which never failed him.

He gave utterance to the aspiration of humanity with an eloquence which held the attention of all the earth and made America a new and enlarged influence in the destiny of mankind.

In testimony of the respect in which his memory is held by the Government and people of the United States, I do hereby direct that the flags of the White House and of the several Departmental buildings be displayed at half staff for a period of thirty days, and that suitable military and naval honors under orders of the Secretary of War and of the Secretary of the Navy may be rendered on the day of the funeral.

Calvin Coolidge. 

While we keep harping on it, and yes medicine has really advanced since 1924, Wilson's death at age 67 wasn't surprising then, and really isn't now.  He was old, by age 67.  Electing a President older than that is foolish.

Alimony, a film, was released.

Like many films of this era, the plot is melodramatic and a bit hard to follows.  Apparently, the female protagonist sells her inventor husband's nifty invention to a wealthy oilman who covets her.  She leaves her husband due to a made up affair, demanding a huge alimony, which she obtains.  However, she wasn't fooled, and goes on to marry him again on her terms, whatever that means.

Saturday, February 2, 1924. Wilson lingers, gun battle at Lysite.

Wilson's lingering passing was the major headline, but the gun battle at Lysite caught my eye.

Gun battle at Lysite?

Lysite and Lost Cabin

Lysite and Lost Cabin, in the distance.

Well, why not?

Locals schools were about to be named for Presidents, including one that I went to.

Wilson did fall into a coma that evening.

Albert B. Fall, 2/2/24.

Fall refused to testify.

Alexei Rykov took over for the dead Lenin as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union, and Felix Dzerzhinsky became the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the National Economy.

And, yes, Rykov fell from grace under Stalin, was arrested in 1938, and killed in 1941.

Dzerzhinsky, a Pole, would save Stalin the trouble by dying of a heart attack in 1926.  He got to remain a Soviet hero that way.

Weekly magazines were out.

Three generations of an Irish family posed for a photographer beside their lodgings at Alexander Street, Waterford.

Friday, February 1, 1924. Wilson in grave condition.

Woodrow Wilson was gravely ill.

Hiester Richard Hornberger Jr., better known by his pen name, Richard Hooker, was born in New Jerseay.  A physician who practiced in Maine, he's remembered for his novel M*A*S*H which was based on his experiences as an Army doctor during the Korean War.

Saturday, November 10, 1923. The loyal dog Hachikō (ハチ公).

Hachikō (ハチ公) an Akita, was born. The dog would return daily to wait for his deceased owner to return from work for over nine years, living to be eleven years old.

The Saturday magazines were on the stand.

Former President Woodrow Wilson condemned the U.S. isolationist policy as "cowardly and dishonorable" in a radio address.

Crown Prince Wilhelm of German returned to Germany from the Netherlands.

Ludendorff was released on parole, demonstrating one of the problems Weimar Germany had with suppressing anti-democratic uprisings. . . the tendency to let those on the right, go.

Wednesday, March 18, 1914. "Among the things that Wyoming may be thankful is that it is not on the borderland of barbarous Mexico". Enduring jingoism.

British Wilson, border news?

Wilson was in fact an anglophile, but his government certainly wasn't dominated by the British.

And Mexico barbarous?

Some old headlines are oddly contemporary, as are some jingoistic views, we have to say.  This almost sounds like a Trump rally, as over the weekend he declared that some migrants aren't human.

Barbarous?

Is the cigarette ad a football helmet, or a pilot's helmet?

And the brown bottle thing is correct:

The Boomerang was less dramatic, but it did have an interesting item on pipe smoking at a St. Patrick's Day party.