Monday, August 7, 1876. Margaretha Geertruida Zelle born.

Frisian Margaretha Geertruida Zelle was born in Leeuwarden to a then well to do family, the eldest child of Antje and Adam Zelle. The family's fortunes would decline before she was a teen.

She'd become the famous/infamous Mata Hari, in some ways an early, well, Sydney Sweeney, but also with scandalous romance attached. Those escapades ultimately lead to charges of espionage, based on what she was acquiring from her French male associates.

Frankly, she was not unattractive, but was never the great beauty of legend.  She was a surprisingly old 41 years of age when she was executed in 1917, and the mother of two.

Margaretha on the day of her arrest.

Her daughter Nonnie would die two years later age age 21.

Last edition:

Sunday, August 6, 1876. The lesson of history is rarely learned by the actors themselves.

Labels: 1870s, 1877, 1880s, 1885, Army, Battle of Little Big Horn, Heroes, Kentucky, Montana (Rosebud Creek)

Monday, July 12, 1926. Amhrán na bhFiann.

The national anthem of the Republic of Ireland, Amhrán na bhFiann (A Soldier's Song) was officially adopted as Ireland's national anthem.

The irony is, of course, that Ireland won its independence through the use of small arms, in an era in which the British had much more lax gun control.  Ireland is amongst the most restrictive nations regarding gun control today. 

General Motors acquired the Flint Institute of Technology in Michigan and renamed it the General Motors Institute of Technology. It is now known as Kettering University.

Gertrude Bell, archeologist, writer, spy, and friend of T. E. Lawrence died at age 57.  

Bell never married.  Starting in 1892 she was courted by British diplomat Henry Cadogan but was refused permission to marry him after her father discovered that Cadogan was deeply in debt and not her social equal. Cadogan died in 1893.  Thereafter she was briefly involved with British colonial administrator Sir Frank Swettenham and then Major Charles Doughty-Wylie, a married man, with whom she exchanged love letters from 1913 to 1915 but did not stray beyond that. Doughty-Wylie died in April 1915 during the Gallipoli Campaign, which devastated Bell.

Her death was due to an overdose of sleeping pills.  It is not known if it was accidental or a suicide.

She was the founder of the Iraqi Museum.

Last edition:

Sunday, July 11, 1926. The National Revolutionary Army takes Changsha, Hunan.

Labels: 1920s, 1926, Chiang Kai-shek, China, China (Hunan), Chinese Warlord Era, France, It was because of World War One, Kuomintang, National Revolutionary Army, Northern Expedition, Weather

Roads to the Great War: America's Children at War

Roads to the Great War: America's Children at War: America's schoolchildren served on the home front during World War I. Although American children were geographically removed from the ph...

Roads to the Great War: The Incredible 32 Days of June 1916

Roads to the Great War: The Incredible 32 Days of June 1916: Stretch June 1916 a little, adding a day at each end—31 May and 1 July. This minor astronomical adjustment allows adding two monumental even...

At last, the Trump's have a chance to erase the stain of no service.

Reporter: How long are you willing to wait for a response from Iran?

Trump: Don’t rush me. We were in Vietnam for 18 years.

From a press conference yesterday.

I must ask who is "we"?  Trump wasn't in Vietnam for 18 years. . 18 months, or shoot,. 18 hours.  

No Trump has served in any U.S. war. . . ever.  While there are reasons that explain it, Trump's grandfather was regarded as a draft evader in his native Germany and had to leave as a result, upon returning home after having made his initial fortune in lodging and prostitution.

Well, at last, it appears this historical stain can be addressed.

The White House posted this as a pin for "no pannicans".  People who really trust in Trump.

And who could trust more in the demented octogenarian than members of the Trump family itself.  This must be the Designated Insignia for a 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, a la Spanish American War, unit for Trump's new forever wars.

Oh, just imagine the glory.  Don Jr. and Barron can be the first off the Blackhawk in Iran, or Cuba, and finally be under fire.  Sure, some of them may get blown away, just like Quentin Roosevelt in World War One, but they will have given their lives for the thing that matters most to Donald Trump, that being Donald Trump.  

Not that an entire unit can be filled up with just Trumps.  There's a lot of them, but not that many.  Just like the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, recruiting can occur quickly and the unit can be filled up with rich swells and MAGAs.  Elon Musk missed his mandatory military service in his native South Africa. . .well here's his chance.  Name appear on the Epstein lists. . .well here's the chance to blot that out.  Maybe even the prince formerly known as Andrew can join.

And Bebos. . . there's a spot for you!  

And of course all the smaller MAGAs can go.  No reason single men like Chuck Gray and Reid Rasner can't show their undying love of the leader.  And some with military experience can finally prove their mettle in the new Trumpian world.  After all, Theodore Roosevelt left his position in the Department of the Navy to fight in Cuba. . . there's no reason that J.D. Vance can't resume his military career. And Marco Rubio might get his chance to lead a charge up San Juan Hill.

And triumphal arch will at last serve a purpose.  The dead bodies of the Trump Riders can be dumped into the hollow core of the monstrosity.  A fitting purpose for it.

Sunday, March 31, 1946. Arresting Nazis, Russia pays up, you have to wonder about Дональд, Field Marshall Gort passes.

7,000 Allied soldiers served warrants on Nazi officials.  Ausgezeichnet!

The first Greek elections since 1936 took place, with the Communist Party of Greece refusing to participate.  

Russia, as a political subdivision of the USSR, paid its U.N. dues of $1,725,000, under the thesis that the USSR had multiple representation in the UN.

Trump would probably support an effort of Russia not to pay, which was feared at the time, sending the leader of the nation a Я люблю тебя, Дональд note, like he does in an implied way to the current leader of Russia constantly.

What's up with that?

Field Marshal John Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort became yet another World War Two senior officer to die following the war, albeit his death was due to liver cancer.

He was a recipient of the Victoria Cross in World War One.

Last edition:

Monday, January 14, 1946. Wartime and Post War foodstuffs.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, Army, Cartoons, Iran, J.R. Williams, Mountain Troops, Personalities, The Cold War, U.S. Navy, United States, USSR, World War Two

Tuesday, March 16, 1926. Sgt. Stubby crosses the Rainbow Bridge.

Boston Terrier Sgt. Stubby, mascot of the mascot of the 102nd Infantry Regiment, died at age 10.  He'd served for 18 months in France in the Great War, participating in 100 battles and four offensives.  He provided warnings of attacks and of the use of mustard gas, and captured a German soldier by holding him by the seat of his pants.

He was a genuinely heroic dog.

The Casper recaptured fugitives indicated that they'd left Casper by rail.

I posted this page for the bus schedule.  I have a detailed thread coming up on trains, and then noted this.  I wasn't aware that there was a bus by 1926.

A closer look.

What isn't clear is how long the bus trip took.

There is bus service from Casper today.  Greyhound.  We'll take a look at that in some future post.

Apparently unrestrained immigration was worrying some.  Others were worrying about Wyoming's oilfield population leaving for Texas.

Robert Goddard launched the first liquid fuel rocket in the United States at his Aunt Effie's farm in Auburn, Massachusetts.

Rocketry, like aviation, advanced like crazy.  By World War Two rockets would be in use as ground weapons, air to air weapons, and of course, with the first ballistic missiles.

Last edition:

Monday, March 15, 1926. Boxer Rebellion Echoes, Manhunt ends, National Guard Cavalry Inspection.

Labels: 1920s, 1926, Boxer Rebellion, cavalry, China, Costa Rica, Crime, Disaster, French Navy, Idaho Army National Guard, Imperial Japanese Navy, Italian Navy, Railroads, Royal Navy, U.S. Navy, Wyoming National Guard

In the event of conscription (and Trumpite insiders say the demented octogenarian is considering it) conscript ICE first, and then deploy them.

Chuck, Reid, John. . . history awaits.

There's precedent for it.

When Woodrow Wilson, after campaigning on keeping us out of war, committed us to the greatest one in the world's history at that time since the Napoleonic Wars, he was faced with the problem that his pacificist Attorney General was of the view that National Guardsmen could be Federalized only to spats within the United States.  That's what kept them on the border, but not over it, during the Punitive Expedition.

But somebody came up with the brilliant idea that as the U.S. was introducing conscription, the entire Guard could just be conscripted. . . so it was, on August 5, 1917, specifically.

ICE already acts like an occupying military force, and it dresses like one.  It's familiar with weapons, as we all know.  If troops are needed for boots on the ground, draft them en masse. 

I'm not joking.  Those who signed up for ICE had to be comfortable with MAGA extremism.  Let them go fight for MAGA.  Draft them into the Army, and if boots are going in, send them.

I'll note I've seen a similar idea posted elsewhere:

Draft MAGA First for Trump’s war!

Go fight for their Trump!

I feel the same way here.  I'm tired of the rah rah MAGAs who are were against war until Trump was for it, and support anything that Trump supports.  Over half of the American public feels Donald Trump is a demented twat waffle.  Let those who admire him go fight and if necessary die for their beloved.  They portray Trump as a hero. . . well here's there very own chance to be one themselves.

Let the Trumps go first.  Barron is of military age and, based on the life history of his family, is more likely to be a boil on the butt of humanity than something benefitting it. Service would do him, and his two brothers, and heck his sisters good.  Maybe the Trump family will pull itself out of the world it lives in and inflicts on the rest of us if they see a little of the rest of it that isn't so rich and gaudy.

Let them go fight, and if necessary die, in their father's war.

And the same for Wyoming mega MAGA Trumpites.  Chuck Gray is still young enough to serve and hasn't had a real job a day in his life.  He's not married and doesn't have any dependents either.  Here's his chance.  He can come back a veteran, maybe a hero, or, if in a body bag, well, there won't be a widow or orphan. Reid Rasner already has the crewcut, and he's single too.  Let him go put his life on the line for Donald.  He talks might big, let him put his mouth, and his body, where his words are.   Yes, there's risk involved, but if that risk isn't accepted, well the words were just that.

Chuck and Reid, a recruiting station is a near as the mall.

And then there's all the "I'm a veteran" candidates out there who on the far right in Wyoming.  Well, if there's one thing being a veteran qualifies you for its military service.  Brent Bien.  . . your chance to show us your mettle once again awaits. . . 

Shoot, let non veteran John Barrasso go.  Heck, make him go.  He's been practicing the Patton "war face" for years.  Yes, he's a geezer, but I'm confident if he asked Donny, Donny would let him go and shortly forget who he was. 

Most Americans didn't want this war.  Most Americans shouldn't have to fight in it.  Perhaps only those who are willing to volunteer for it within the service right now should have to.  We let servicemen with moronic objections to vaccinations out of the service during the Biden Administration.  We should let those who have no desire to fight and die for whatever we're fighting and dying for now get out, if they don't want to serve. Their ranks can be filled by MAGA, ICE, and Trumps.

But it won't happen.

ICE will simply carry on as it is, until 2027.  MAGAs will continue to support any dumbass thing Trump spews out of his decaying brain.  People who have connections with Epstein Island will go on doing what they do.

And if we're still in it by fall and its turning to shit, well 9 out of the 10 "Trump was always right" crowed will deny they ever saw anything in him.  They knew, they'll claim, he was a fraud all along.

Only the dead, Santayana tells us, have seen an end to war.  It's a pretty good guess that no Trumps and no fire breathing MAGA politicians are going to see war at all.  They're okay with Trumps war, but not so much that they'll ever seek out to fight in it.

Not that this is a surprise.  Trump has always felt that servicemen are schmucks.  He's loyal to no one other than himself, and perhaps to those who have something over him.  The dead, well, you know, that just happens.

Thursday, March 9, 1916. Germany declares war on Portugal,

Germany declared war on Portugal.

The Germans attacked the commune of Cumières-le-Mort-Homme from Béthincourt, France.

The Italians launched an offensive around Gorizia and Tolmin.

The Western Frontier Force left Sidi Barrani and marched to capture Sollum, Egypt from the Ottoman Empire and their Senussi allies.

Arnold Spencer-Smith of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition died while en route to Hut Point for medical treatment for exhaustion and scurvy.

And peace was about to end for the United States:

Remembering Pancho Villa’s attack on Columbus, N.M.

 

Thursday, March  9, 1916. The Raid On Columbus New Mexico. 

And with this entry, the day to day tracking of events from January 1, 1914, up to the this date in 1926, is complete. There won't be any daily updates for 1916 hereafter, as we've already done that.

Anyone tracking this in the future will note that our styles changed over time.  Indeed, considerably.  For one thing, on later posts you can always look back and see the post right before it in a link.  When we started these daily entries in 2016, that wasn't the case.  In some instances, however, that feature has been later added.

Additionally, as with the entries from March 9, 2016, we often did more than one, if there was more than one thing to feature for the day.  At some point we stopped doing that.

You'll still find, for the time being, daily updates, when there's something worth noting, for 1876.  We're unlikely to carry that past the summer, however, as the 1870sn are really outside the focus of the blog.  I've thought about stopping it earlier, and may do that.

You will likely still see events carrying forward from 1901, which started with 1900.  This is backfill, frankly, for the 1910 to 1920 period that is the focus of the blog. The same is true for the 1911 entries, which are backfilling up to 1914.  As 1911 is already within the Mexican Revolution period, that will carry on, even though the first decade of the 20th Century may very well not.

We don't post many entries from the 1920s now that we're up to 1926, although we do occasionally. This is really outside the focus period of the blog and by 1926 the country was on to a new era.  The same is true for the 1940s, now that we're past the Second World War, although we still post a few.  The fifty years ago entries, now into 1976, are few and far between as well as there just aren't that many things I find interesting from that period, historically, which of course I have a personal memory of.

Anyhow, I hope the readers enjoyed reading the daily entries from March 9, 1916 up to March 9, 1926, and enjoyed the backfill that brought in the rest of World War One and the daily happenings as it was going on.  The immediate prewar era, 1910 to the end of 1913, will still be getting backfilled, which we hope you also enjoy.

Last edition:

Wednesday, March 8, 1916. Villa crosses the border.

Labels: 1910, 1916, Battle of Columbus, Battle of Dujaila, British Army, Columbus New Mexico, Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, Iraq, Mexican Border War, Ottoman Army, Pancho Villa, The Punitive Expedition, World War One

Wednesday, March 8, 1916. Villa crosses the border.

Pancho Villa and about 400 of his men crossed the Mexican border near Columbus New Mexico.

The town had a U.S. Army garrison of 600.  

The town was also the home of Sam Ravel, a man to whom Villa had given money to buy arms but who had not delivered, although that is unlikely to have been the reason for the attack, as we discussed here:

The Columbus Raid. Why did it occur?

Ottoman forces stopped a much larger British force attempting to relieve Kut.

The sledging party of the second arm of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was reduced to three walking members during their return trek from Mount Hope in the Antarctic.

Last edition:

Tuesday, March 7, 1916. Villa close to the border.

Labels: 1910s, 1916, boats and ships, British Army, Egypt, Mexican Border War, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Pancho Villa, Royal Navy, Senussi

Tuesday, February 22, 1916. German advance at Verdun.

The Germans advanced to Fabas, France, in their offensive at Verdun.

The French executed Phan Xích Long following an attempted prison breakout days earlier.

Last edition:

Monday, February 21, 1916. The Battle of Verdun commences.

Labels: 1910s, 1916, Albania, Battle of Verdun, boats and ships, Commercial fishing, French Army, German Army, German Kriegsmarine, Italian Navy, Personalities, Verdun France

Weekend Update #170: Russian Advances Are Slower Than The Battle Of The Somme Trump And Putin Together, Different Examples

 

Weekend Update #170: Russian Advances Are Slower Than The Battle Of The Somme

Trump And Putin Together, Different Examples

Monday, December 31, 1945. The end of a historical episode and the dawn of a new one, additional labels.

Thursday, December 23, 1915. Villa defeated again.

 

The news reported a Villa defeat.

Henry Ford Abandons His Peace Ship

Last edition:

Wednesday, December 22, 1915. Hartmannswillerkopf ends.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Alsace-Lorraine, Battle of Hartmannswillerkopf, Mexican Border War, Mexican Revolution, World War One

Thursday, November 5, 1925. The Big Parade.

 

Released on this day in 1925, the film is regarded as one of the greatest films about World War One.

The picture also would be associated with a level of tragedy for its stars.  John Gilbert died in 1936 at age 38 due to alcoholism.  He managed to marry four times in his short life, and was not married at the time of his death.  His costar in the film, Renee Adoree made the transition to sound movies, but died in 1933 at age 35 of tuberculosis.  She'd married twice, but was not married at the time of her death.

Born in the Russian Empire, with his true name never definitively learned, Sidney Reilly, a British spy, was executed by the Soviets.

He had a prolific career as a spy, leading to his nickname as The Ace of Spies.  He was reported a model for James Bond.  Early in his life as an emigre he went by the last name of Rosenblum, which would suggest Jewish heritage.  In the late 19th Century he seems to have worked for Scotland Yard as a paid informant on immigrant matters.  He married widow Margaret Thomas at Holborn Registry Office in London in 1898 after her husband had died under conditions that suggested poisoning, something of note as Rosenblum was working as sort of a herbalist at the time.  She was wealthy and that, by extension, made him wealthy.  Soon after that, he began his career as a spy, spying for the British and the Japanese in the lead up to the Russo Japanese War.

While it is difficult to determine the range of his activities, it is claimed that:

• He pretended to be a Russian arms merchant to spy on Dutch weapons shipments to the Boers during the Boer War.
• He obtained intelligence on Russian military defences in Manchuria for the Kempeitai.
• He obtained Persian oil concessions for the British Admiralty in events surrounding the D'Arcy Concession.
• He infiltrated a Krupp armaments plant in prewar Germany and stole weapon plans.
• He seduced the wife of a Russian minister to glean information about German weapons shipments to Russia.
• He attempted to overthrow the Russian Bolshevik government and to rescue the imprisoned Romanov family, actions which lead to his being sentenced to death in absentia.
• He served as a courier to transport the forged Zinoviev letter into the United Kingdom.

He had been lured by into the Soviet Union by the Cheka, posing as anti Soviet agents.

It's difficult to tell the overall truth of his activities.  British intelligence is notoriously able to keep its secrets for one thing.  Reilly was good at keeping them as well, and as he worked for various entities he had a strong reason to.  Like the James Bond character that's supposedly based upon him, he had a strong affinity for women and married up to three or four times, with other alleged affairs in addition.  His last marriage was to actress Pepita Bobadilla.

Last edition:

Wednesday, November 4, 1925. Now or then?

Labels: 1920s, 1925, 1925 Election, Democratic Party, History repeating itself or at least rhyming, New Jersey, New York

Wednesday, October 20, 1915. Arms okay for Carranza.

The impact of Woodrow Wilsons' administration recognizing Carranza, whose followers had blown off the Convention of Aguascalientes, and who personally hated the United States, was becoming immediately clear.

Arms to Carranza. . . that would tip the scales for sure.

While Wilson had his hand on the scale of the Mexican Revolution, he was issuing a proclaimation about American Thanksgiving.

President Wilson issued a proclamation regarding Thanksgiving.

Proclamation 1316—Thanksgiving Day, 1915

October 20, 1915

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

It has long been the honoured custom of our people to turn in the fruitful autumn of the year in praise and thanksgiving to Almighty God for His many blessings and mercies to us as a nation. The year that is now drawing to a close since we last observed our day of national thanksgiving has been, while a year of discipline because of the mighty forces of war and of change which have disturbed the world, also a year of special blessing for us.

Another year of peace has been vouchsafed us; another year in which not only to take thought of our duty to ourselves and to mankind but also to adjust ourselves to the many responsibilities thrust upon us by a war which has involved almost the whole of Europe. We have been able to assert our rights and the rights of mankind without breach of friendship with the great nations with whom we have had to deal; and while we have asserted rights we have been able also to perform duties and exercise privileges of succour and helpfulness which should serve to demonstrate our desire to make the offices of friendship the means of truly disinterested and unselfish service. Our ability to serve all who could avail themselves of our services in the midst of crisis has been increased, by a gracious Providence, by more and more abundant crops. our ample financial resources have enabled us to steady the markets of the world and facilitate necessary movements of commerce which the war might otherwise have rendered impossible; and our people have come more and more to a sober realization of the part they have been called upon to play in a time when all the world is shaken by unparalleled distresses and disasters. The extraordinary circumstances of such a time have done much to quicken our national consciousness and deepen and confirm our confidence in the principles of peace and freedom by which we have always sought to be guided. Out of darkness and perplexity have come firmer counsels of policy and clearer perceptions of the essential welfare of the nation. We have prospered while other peoples were at war, but our prosperity has been vouchsafed us, we believe, only that we might the better perform the functions which war rendered it impossible for them to perform.

Now, Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Thursday the twenty-fifth of November next as a day of thanksgiving and prayer, and invite the people throughout the land to cease from their wonted occupations and in their several homes and places of worship render thanks to Almighty God.

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 twentieth day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fifteen and of the independence of the United States the one hundred and fortieth.

Signature of Woodrow Wilson

Louis Botha, once a Boer General, of the South African Party won the 1915 South African general election and retained power.

French forces reached the town of Krivolak on the Vardar river in Vardar Macedonia. The British dug in at a mountain pass near Kosturino and Doiran Like.

The Ottoman Empire brought an end to Armenian resistance at Urfa.

The British Commonwealth recognized women as bus and tram operators for the duration, something that had been going on for some time.

Sweden established the Swedish Infantry Officers College.

Whatever It Is, I’m Against It: Today -100: October 20, 1915: With bleeding heart ...: Headline of the Day -100:  Male voters in New Jersey reject women’s suffrage in the referendum by roughly 133,000 to 184,000. It los...

Last edition:

Tuesday, October 19, 1915. The US extends recognition to Carranza.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Bulgaria, Constitutionalist Army, Italy, Mexican Border War, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Russia, Texas, Texas (Brownsville), Venustiano Carranza, World War One