Monday, November 23, 1925. USS Wyoming commences an overhaul.

Today In Wyoming's History: November 23: 1925   The USS Wyoming commences an overhaul at the New York Navy Yard.

Not wanting that to be the only item for the day, we offer the following (note, this was in error, this is a paper from 1923):

The paper noted that it was for the whole family, clean, and unbiased.  It might have been all of those things, but what a bunch of horrible news.

Note the big collection of drug charges.

A surplus store in Casper was going out of business.

The building that business occupied is still there.  It's an office building today, right between the Rib & Chop House and the Ugly Bug Fly Shop, both of which occupy old buildings that were also there, but neither of which were in operation at the time.

Rib & Chop is going out of business with the conclusion of the year.  The most famous occupant of that building was The Wonder Bar which opened in 1937 and which was a Casper institution, with ups and downs, for decades.

Last edition:  

Saturday, November 21, 1925. Lava Beds.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Art, Calvin Coolidge, football, Geology, Lava Beds National Monument, nature

Saturday, November 20, 1875. Winking at collision in the Black Hills and the Las Cuevas War.

Commanding General of the U.S. Army William Tecumseh Sherman wrote to Lt. Gen. Philip Sheridan :

I know that the matter of the Black Hills was settled in all events for this year. In the spring it may result in collision and trouble.. . . I understand that the president and the Interior Department will wink at it.

Cpt. McNelly.

Texas Ranger Captain Leander McNelly and his men crossed into Mexico to retrieve more than 200 stolen cattle.  He was backed by troops of the U.S. Army, but they did not cross.  The Rangers advanced on the stronghold of Juan Flores Salinas, local leader of the rural guard at the Rincon de Cucharras outpost of the Las Cuevas ranch and a  battle ensued in which about 80 Mexican militiamen were killed, and McNelly ordered a retreat back across the river.  The Army covered his retreat across the river with a Gatling Gun.

At that point, Major A. J. Alexander from Fort Ringgold arrived with a message from Colonel Potter at Fort Brown, which read:

Advise Captain McNelly to return at once to this side of the river. Inform him that you are directed not to support him in any way while he remains on Mexican territory. If McNelly is attacked by Mexican forces on Mexican soil, do not render him any assistance. Let me know if McNelly acts on this advice.

McNelly advised the Army that he would not comply.

At sundown, another message arrived:

Major Alexander, commanding: Secretary of War Belknap orders you to demand McNelly return at once to Texas. Do not support him in any manner. Inform the Secretary if McNelly acts on these orders and returns to Texas. Signed, Colonel Potter.

McNelly issued the reply, which was:

In less than a minute, Captain McNelly penned his now famous reply:

Near Las Cuevas, Mexico, Nov. 20 1875. I shall remain in Mexico with my rangers and cross back at my discretion. Give my compliments to the Secretary of War and tell him and his United States soldiers to go to hell. Signed, Lee H. McNelly, commanding.

Over the Rio Grande his force encountered resistance.  Up to 80 Mexicans were killed in the battle before he retreated.  A smaller force of Rangers would cross the border the following day and recover over 400 stolen cattle.

McNelly's troops crossed again on the 21st and proceeded to a customs house where the cattle had been moved to, and which were now promised to be returned.  The Mexican officer in charge refused to treat with him on a Sunday, which it now was and was taken prisoner. The prisoner was threatened with death and around 400 cattle were crossed into Texas.

McNelly died of tuberculosis in 1877 at age 33.  A liberty ship was named after him during World War Two.

Last edition:

Friday, November 12, 1875. Tacoma, Washington, incorporated.

Labels: 1870s, 1875, Washington, Washington (Tacoma)

Wednesday, November 17, 1915. Fighting in Haiti and Egypt.

Marines under the command of Smedley Butler, who would become profoundly anti war later on, captured Fort Rivière, the last rebel stronghold in Haiti, resulting in 50 rebel casualties.

Senussi tribesman attacked the village of Sollum, Egypt where forces loyal to the Allies were stationed.  Two Bedouin soldiers were killed and  the telegraph lines sabotaged.

The British Red Cross hospital ship HMHS Anglia struck a mine in the English Channel and sank with the loss of 134 lives.

Last edition:

Tuesday, November 16, 1915. Coca Cola receives a patent.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Food, Patents

Friday, November 16, 1945. UNESCO founded. USS Laramie decommissioned.

UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, was founded.

The Azerbaijan People's Government, a puppet of the Soviet Union, began an uprising in Iranian Azerbaijan Province.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower testified before the House Military Affairs Committee that “Nothing guides Russian policy so much as a desire for friendship with the United States.”   The NYT headline read:

Eisenhower Holds Training Essential to Safety of U.S.; General Says It Is Best Way to Avoid War, or if Sudden Blow Comes to Avert Disaster --Declares Russia Wants Amity EISENHOWER HOLDS TRAINING IS VITAL Says Russia Wants U.S. Amity Time Is of the Essence, He Says

Today In Wyoming's History: November 16: 

1945  USS Laramie decommissioned. 

 

Last edition:

Tuesday, November 13, 1945. "Man's material discoveries have outpaced his moral progress."

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Charles de Gaulle, Clement Attlee, Displaced Persons, French Third Republic, Harry S. Truman, It was because of World War Two, Palestine, the spoken word, United Kingdom, United States

Monday, November 14, 1910. First Ship Launch.

Eugene B. Ely took off in an airplane from the USS Birmingham in the first shipboard takeoff.

He landed in Hampton Roads.

He'd follow that up by being the first person to land an airplane on a ship on January 18, 1911.

Not too surprisingly, he died in an aviation accident on October 19, 1911. He received a posthumous Distinguished Flying Cross on February 16, 1933.

Last edition:

Tuesday, November 8, 1910. The Republican Party loses the House.

Labels: 1910, 1910s, 62nd Congress, Democratic Party, Progressive Party, Republican Party, Socialism

Thursday, November 12, 1925. Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five.

Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five (Lous, his then wife Lil Hardin Armstrong on piano, Edward "Kid" Ory on trombone, Johnny Dodds on clarinet and Johnny St. Cyr on guitar and banjo) recorded their first songs for Okeh Records.

The British submarine HMS M1 was hit by the SS Vidar and sank in the English Channel with the loss of all 69 hands.

Last edition:

Sunday, November 8, 1925. The Eagle.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, 1925 at the movies

Monday, November 10, 1975. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

 

The massive Great Lakes freighter went down with all 29 hands.

The storm.

The ballad commemorating the ships loss would come out the following year.

Italy and Yugoslavia signed the Treaty of Osimo resolving the long running dispute over Trieste.

The Communists forces of the MPLA  defeated the FNLA in a battle over the capital of Angola, Luanda.

The United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 3379 equating Zionism with racism.  The Resolution would be revoked in 1991.

Last edition:

Thursday, October 30, 1975. King Juan Carlos I of Spain became acting head of state of the country after Franco conceded he was too ill to govern.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Francisco Franco, Spain

Saturday, November 10, 1900. The Wreck of the City of Monticello.

 

The City of Monticello was dashed against the rocks in the Bay of Fundy, 4 miles from its destination of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, with the loss of 31 lives.

Last edition:

Wednesday, November 7, 1900. The Treaty of Washington.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, Canada, It was because of the Spanish American War, Philippines

Monday, November 7, 1910. Dawn of commercial aviation.

The first commercial airplane flight took place when Wright Company pilot Philip Parmalee transported two bolts of silk (worth $1,000) from Dayton, Ohio, to Columbus, for delivery to the Morehouse-Martens Department Store in Columbus.

Predictably, Parmalee died two years later in an airplane crash.

Philip Parmalee

Oddly enough, showing the dangers of an earlier age, his mother had been killed when he was a child by a runaway horse.

The HMCS Rainbow arrived at Esquimault, British Columbia, to begin her service patrolling the Pacific coast.  She was the Royal Canadian Navy's second ship.

Last edition:

Thursday, November 3, 1910. La Matanza

Labels: 1910, 1910s, Crime, La Matanza, Mexico, New York, Panama, Plan of San Diego, Republican Party, Texas, The Madness of King Donald, The Second Trump Administration, William Howard Taft

Saturday, October 27, 1945. Navy Day.

 

Stamp issued on this day in 1945.

Today is Navy Day, and has been since the day was first established.  This was, of course, the first Navy Day since the end of World War Two and was a huge deal accordingly.

Ships anchored in the Hudson for Navy Day.

President Truman commissioned the new aircraft carrier the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt.  In so doing, he delivered this address:

Mayor La Guardia, ladies and gentlemen:

I am grateful for the magnificent reception which you have given me today in this great city of New York. I know that it is given me only as the representative of the gallant men and women of our naval forces, and on their behalf, as well as my own, I thank you.

New York joins the rest of the Nation in paying honor and tribute to the four million fighting Americans of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard—and to the ships which carried them to victory.

On opposite sides of the world, across two oceans, our Navy opened a highway for the armies and air forces of the United States. They landed our gallant men, millions of them, on the beachheads of final triumph. Fighting from Murmansk, the English Channel and the Tyrrhenian Sea, to Midway, Guadalcanal, Leyte Gulf and Okinawa—they won the greatest naval victories in history. Together with their brothers in arms in the Army and Air Force, and with the men of the Merchant Marine, they have helped to win for mankind all over the world a new opportunity to live in peace and dignity—and we hope, in security.

In the harbor and rivers of New York City and in other ports along the coasts and rivers of the country, ships of that mighty United States Navy are at anchor. I hope that you and the people everywhere will visit them and their crews, seeing for yourselves what your sons and daughters, your labor and your money, have fashioned into an invincible weapon of liberty.

The fleet, on V-J Day, consisted of 1200 warships, more than 50,000 supporting and landing craft, and over 40,000 navy planes. By that day, ours was a sea power never before equalled in the history of the world. There were great carrier task forces capable of tracking down and sinking the enemy's fleets, beating down his air power, and pouring destruction on his war-making industries. There were submarines which roamed the seas, invading the enemy's own ports, and destroying his shipping in all the oceans. There were amphibious forces capable of landing soldiers on beaches from Normandy to the Philippines. There were great battleships and cruisers which swept the enemy ships from the seas and bombarded his shore defense almost at will.

And history will never forget that great leader who, from his first day in office, fought to reestablish a strong American Navy—who watched that Navy and all the other might of this Nation grow into an invincible force for victory—who sought to make that force an instrument for a just and lasting peace—and who gave his life in the effort—Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The roll call of the battles of this fleet reads like a sign post around the globe—on the road to final victory: North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Normandy, and Southern France; the Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal, and the Solomons; Tarawa, Saipan, Guam, the Philippine Sea, Leyte Gulf; Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Nothing which the enemy held on any coast was safe from its attack.

Now we are in the process of demobilizing our naval force. We are laying up ships. We are breaking up aircraft squadrons. We are rolling up bases, and releasing officers and men. But when our demobilization is all finished as planned, the United States will still be the greatest naval power on earth.

In addition to that naval power, we shall still have one of the most powerful air forces in the world. And just the other day, so that on short notice we could mobilize a powerful and well-equipped land, sea, and air force, I asked the Congress to adopt universal training.

Why do we seek to preserve this powerful Naval and Air Force, and establish this strong Army reserve? Why do we need to do that?

We have assured the world time and again—and I repeat it now—that we do not seek for ourselves one inch of territory in any place in the world. Outside of the right to establish necessary bases for our own protection, we look for nothing which belongs to any other power.

We do need this kind of armed might, however, for four principal tasks:

First, our Army, Navy, and Air Force, in collaboration with our allies, must enforce the terms of peace imposed upon our defeated enemies.

Second, we must fulfill the military obligations which we are undertaking as a member of the United Nations Organization—to support a lasting peace, by force if necessary.

Third, we must cooperate with other American nations to preserve the territorial integrity and the political independence of the nations of the Western Hemisphere.

Fourth, in this troubled and uncertain world, our military forces must be adequate to discharge the fundamental mission laid upon them by the Constitution of the United States—to "provide for the common defense" of the United States.

These four military tasks are directed not toward war—not toward conquest—but toward peace.

We seek to use our military strength solely to preserve the peace of the world. For we now know that this is the only sure way to make our own freedom secure.

That is the basis of the foreign policy of the people of the United States.

The foreign policy of the United States is based firmly on fundamental principles of righteousness and justice. In carrying out those principles we shall firmly adhere to what we believe to be right; and we shall not give our approval to any compromise with evil.

But we know that we cannot attain perfection in this world overnight. We shall not let our search for perfection obstruct our steady progress toward international cooperation. We must be prepared to fulfill our responsibilities as best we can, within the framework of our fundamental principles, even though we recognize that we have to operate in an imperfect world.

Let me restate the fundamentals of that foreign policy of the United States:

1. We seek no territorial expansion or selfish advantage. We have no plans for aggression against any other state, large or small. We have no objective which need clash with the peaceful aims of any other nation.

2. We believe in the eventual return of sovereign rights and self-government to all peoples who have been deprived of them by force.

3. We shall approve no territorial changes in any friendly part of the world unless they accord with the freely expressed wishes of the people concerned.

4. We believe that all peoples who are prepared for self-government should be permitted to choose their own form of government by their own freely expressed choice, without interference from any foreign source. That is true in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, as well as in the Western Hemisphere.

5. By the combined and cooperative action of our war allies, we shall help the defeated enemy states establish peaceful democratic governments of their own free choice. And we shall try to attain a world in which Nazism, Fascism, and military aggression cannot exist.

6. We shall refuse to recognize any government imposed upon any nation by the force of any foreign power. In some cases it may be impossible to prevent forceful imposition of such a government. But the United States will not recognize any such government.

7. We believe that all nations should have the freedom of the seas and equal rights to the navigation of boundary rivers and waterways and of rivers and waterways which pass through more than one country.

8. We believe that all states which are accepted in the society of nations should have access on equal terms to the trade and the raw materials of the world.

9. We believe that the sovereign states of the Western Hemisphere, without interference from outside the Western Hemisphere, must work together as good neighbors in the solution of their common problems.

10. We believe that full economic collaboration between all nations, great and small, is essential to the improvement of living conditions all over the world, and to the establishment of freedom from fear and freedom from want.

11. We shall continue to strive to promote freedom of expression and freedom of religion throughout the peace-loving areas of the world.

12. We are convinced that the preservation of peace between nations requires a United Nations Organization composed of all the peace-loving nations of the world who are willing jointly to use force if necessary to insure peace.

Now, that is the foreign policy which guides the United States. That is the foreign policy with which it confidently faces the future.

It may not be put into effect tomorrow or the next day. But nonetheless, it is our policy; and we shall seek to achieve it. It may take a long time, but it is worth waiting for, and it is worth striving to attain.

The Ten Commandments themselves have not yet been universally achieved over these thousands of years. Yet we struggle constantly to achieve them, and in many ways we come closer to them each year. Though we may meet setbacks from time to time, we shall not relent in our efforts to bring the Golden Rule into the international affairs of the world.

We are now passing through a difficult phase of international relations. Unfortunately it has always been true after past wars, that the unity among allies, forged by their common peril, has tended to wear out as the danger passed.

The world cannot afford any letdown in the united determination of the allies in this war to accomplish a lasting peace. The world cannot afford to let the cooperative spirit of the allies in this war disintegrate. The world simply cannot allow this to happen. The people in the United States, in Russia, and Britain, in France and China, in collaboration with all the other peace-loving people, must take the course of current history into their own hands and mold it in a new direction-the direction of continued cooperation. It was a common danger which united us before victory. Let it be a common hope which continues to draw us together in the years to come.

The atomic bombs which fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki must be made a signal, not for the old process of falling apart but for a new era—an era of ever-closer unity and ever-closer friendship among peaceful nations.

Building a peace requires as much moral stamina as waging a war. Perhaps it requires even more, because it is so laborious and painstaking and undramatic. It requires undying patience and continuous application. But it can give us, if we stay with it, the greatest reward that there is in the whole field of human effort.

Differences of the kind that exist today among nations that fought together so long and so valiantly for victory are not hopeless or irreconcilable. There are no conflicts of interest among the victorious powers so deeply rooted that they cannot be resolved. But their solution will require a combination of forbearance and firmness. It will require a steadfast adherence to the high principles which we have enunciated. It will also require a willingness to find a common ground as to the methods of applying those principles.

Our American policy is a policy of friendly partnership with all peaceful nations, and of full support for the United Nations Organization. It is a policy that has the strong backing of the American people. It is a policy around which we can rally without fear or misgiving.

The more widely and clearly that policy is understood abroad, the better and surer will be the peace. For our own part we must seek to understand the special problems of other nations. We must seek to understand their own legitimate urge toward security as they see it.

The immediate, the greatest threat to us is the threat of disillusionment, the danger of insidious skepticism—a loss of faith in the effectiveness of international cooperation. Such a loss of faith would be dangerous at any time. In an atomic age it would be nothing short of disastrous.

There has been talk about the atomic bomb scrapping all navies, armies, and air forces. For the present, I think that such talk is 100 percent wrong. Today, control of the seas rests in the fleets of the United States and her allies. There is no substitute for them. We have learned the bitter lesson that the weakness of this great Republic invites men of ill-will to shake the very foundations of civilization all over the world. And we had two concrete lessons in that.

What the distant future of the atomic research will bring to the fleet which we honor today, no one can foretell. But the fundamental mission of the Navy has not changed. Control of our sea approaches and of the skies above them is still the key to our freedom and to our ability to help enforce the peace of the world. No enemy will ever strike us directly except across the sea. We cannot reach out to help stop and defeat an aggressor without crossing the sea. Therefore, the Navy, armed with whatever weapons science brings forth, is still dedicated to its historic task: control of the ocean approaches to our country and of the skies above them.

The atomic bomb does not alter the basic foreign policy of the United States. It makes the development and application of our policy more urgent than we could have dreamed 6 months ago. It means that we must be prepared to approach international problems with greater speed, with greater determination, with greater ingenuity, in order to meet a situation for which there is no precedent.

We must find the answer to the problems created by the release of atomic energy—we must find the answers to the many other problems of peace—in partnership with all the peoples of the United Nations. For their stake in world peace is as great as our own.

As I said in my message to the Congress, discussion of the atomic bomb with Great Britain and Canada and later with other nations cannot wait upon the formal organization of the United Nations. These discussions, looking toward a free exchange of fundamental scientific information, will be begun in the near future. But I emphasize again, as I have before, that these discussions will not be concerned with the processes of manufacturing the atomic bomb or any other instruments of war.

In our possession of this weapon, as in our possession of other new weapons, there is no threat to any nation. The world, which has seen the United States in two great recent wars, knows that full well. The possession in our hands of this new power of destruction we regard as a sacred trust. Because of our love of peace, the thoughtful people of the world know that that trust will not be violated, that it will be faithfully executed.

Indeed, the highest hope of the American people is that world cooperation for peace will soon reach such a state of perfection that atomic methods of destruction can be definitely and effectively outlawed forever.

We have sought, and we will continue to seek, the attainment of that objective. We shall pursue that course with all the wisdom, patience, and determination that the God of Peace can bestow upon a people who are trying to follow in His path.

The Battle of Surabaya began in Indonesia.

Last edition:

Friday, October 26, 1945. Cowards.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Albert Einstein, Allied Occupation of Germany, Bulgaria, Communism, Nazi Germany, Nazi Party, Nuremberg Trials, War Crimes, Weapons

Thursday, October 9, 1000. Leif Erikson steps foot on North America. . . well probably not but it is Leif Erikson Day.

 

Today is Leif Erikson Day, commemorating the date on which Leif and his crew set foot on North America, probably on Newfoundland.

Well, it was sometime in the fall, probably, and it was in the year 1,000. . . well maybe.

Anyhow, he did do that.

This day is actually set by the a reenactment ship, the Norwegian ship the Restoration, reaching North America in 1825.

Leif was born in Iceland to Erik the Red and his wife Thjodhild and, probably contrary to what many might suppose, he was a Catholic, the religion of his mother.  Interestingly, this was the same year that Iceland converted to Christianity.

Last edition for 1825:

Thursday, March 24, 1825. State Colonization Law of March 24, 1825.

Labels: 1820s, 1825, Hudson's Bay Company, The Frontier West, Washington

Saturday, October 3, 1925. The launch of the USS Lexington.

The USS Lexington was launched.  

She was damaged beyond repair on May 8, 1942.

Friday, May 8, 1942. Strategic victory at Coral Sea, Mutiny in the Cocos, World War One hero commissioned for the Second World War.

A conference opened in Buenos Aires to discuss constructing a Pan American Highway.

It was a Saturday.

And it was football season.

Last edition:

Friday, October 2, 1925. Television.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Disaster, entertainment, Josephine Baker, Morocco, Railroads, Rif War, Spanish Army, technology, television, Virginia

Friday, September 25, 1925. Moving the Kurds.

The Turkish Reform Council for the East issued its report to the Grand National Assembly recommending the relocation of the Kurdish minority to an area east of the Euphrates River.

It also recommended that in the rest of Turkey only Turkish could be spoken and that Kurds should be barred from higher level offices.

Submachine guns were used in crime for the first time during a mob assassination attempt in Chicago.  The weapon used was a  Thompson Submachine Gun, a type that would become synonymous with gangsters.

The USS S-51 struck the merchant ship City of Rome and sank off of the coast of Rhode Island, killing 33 of its 36 crewmen.

The Washington Senators, September 25, 1925.

Last edition:

Thursday, September 24, 1925. French advance in Syria.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Automobiles, Druze, French Army, Great Syrian Revolt

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, September 10, 1945. Eh? (Additional Labels)

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, September 10, 1945. Eh?: Post war news items were getting a bit weird. Mike the Headless chicken was ineffectively beheaded, and would go on to become sort of a frea...