Baseball didn't make the front page on this day in 1924. The House passing the Japanese Exclusion Act did.
But it was opening day.
Ostensibly exploring the practice of law before the internet. Heck, before good highways for that matter.
Baseball didn't make the front page on this day in 1924. The House passing the Japanese Exclusion Act did.
But it was opening day.
Adolf Hitler, Ernst Pöhner, Hermann Kriebel and Friedrich Webe were sentenced to five years for his attempted overthrow of the German government. Erich Ludendorff was acquitted.
Hitler was released from incarceration in December, giving the world a sometimes unheeded lesson about the failure to treat coups seriously.
Northern Rhodesia, which is now Zambia, became a British protectorate, its status as a private colony administered by the British South Africa Company having ended.
The Royal Canadian Air Force received royal assent from King George V, having previously been the Canadian Air Force.
Calvin Coolidge gave a press conference, as he very frequently did. Replacing Daughter was a major topic in it.
The National Guard was still in the process of re-forming, literary, following Wilson's haphazard discharging of the conscripted Guard, which came about due to an odd process itself, following World War One. We've dealt with that elsewhere. The Wyoming National Guard (it was all the Army National Guard at the time) was being reformed as cavalry, rather than infantry, as it had been before the war, and had, by that time, taken on its new unit designation of the 115th Cavalry Regiment.
As part of that process, the Guard now had a newspaper.
The paper is interesting as it demonstrated the early organization of the 115th, with the Headquarters Troop being located in Laramie.
This from Reddit's 100 Years Ago sub, the Radio News was correctly predicting medicine, and television, and maybe the Internet, of the future.
Frank Capone, age 28, was shot by Chicago police in a gun battle. He was the older brother of Al Capone.
Last prior edition:
The Red Army crossed the Bug.
US troops held off a Japanese assault on the American beachhead at Bougainville.
Additional cavalry landed on Manus Island in the Admiralities.
The Japanese crossed the Chindwwin River in Burma.
The U-653 was sunk in the North Atlantic by the Royal Navy. The British submarine Stonehenge was lost in the Indian Ocean.
The State Anthem of the Soviet Union replaced The Internationale as the anthem of the USSR.
Last prior:
Teresa Gullace, seven months pregnant, was killed by a German soldier when she attempted to pass a sandwich to her husband, who was detained by the Germans in Rome. She was part of a group of women that had gathered to protest the Germans holding their husbands.
The scene was later depicted in Rosellini's 1945 Rome open city, one of three great films by the director set during World War Two and filmed immediately after, and which used amateur actors to a large degree.
The U.S. Army Air Force hit the Roman rail facilities at the Tiburtino, Littorio and Ostiense marshalling yards. There were 400 civilian casualties.
Over 500 railroad passengers died of carbon monoxide poisoning during a protracted stall in a tunnel at Balvano, Italy. It's one of the worst rail disasters of all time.
Stalin shut the door on further negotiations on the Polish border.
The Soviet Union created the Medal of Ushakov and the Medal of Nakhimov, both of which were awarded to sailors. Interestingly, they were both named after Imperial Russian officers.
Japanese troops on Los Negros launched a night attack, which was repulsed by US cavalrymen.
The 3d Infantry Division repulsed a German attack on the Anzio beachhead at Ponte Rotto. It would be the last German offensive action at Anzio.
Paul-Émile Janson, a Belgian Prime Minister just before World War Two, died at Buchewald at age 71.
Men of the 5th Cavalry Rgt. were landed on Los Negros to back up the previous landings. Momote Airfield was taken.
Lend Lease aid to Turkey was cut off. That it was ever extended is interesting, in that Turkey had not joined the war and in fact was still being courted by both sides.
Today in World War II History—February 23, 1944: Maj. Gen. Lucian Truscott assumes command of US VI Corps at Anzio. First US Army blood bank in the Mediterranean Theater opens at Naples medical center.
Cavalryman Lucian Truscott was one of the great ones.
Of interest, Truscott, who had started off his adult life as a school teacher before entering the Army during World War One (he did not see overseas service), was replacing another cavalryman, Gen. Lucas. His entry into teaching was based upon a lie, in that he represented, at age 16, that he was a high school graduate, which he was not. His entry into the Army, which was combined with a petition to become an officer, was based upon a compounded lie that he had attended, but not graduated from, college.
Truscott was an extremely able commander and the author of the excellent cavalry memoir, Twilight of the Cavalry. He's an example, additionally, on how the era allowed capable individuals to excel without full accreditation, something that does not occur nearly as much now.
The Soviet mass deportation of the Chechens commenced.
Resistance on Parry Island ended, and with it the hard fought Eniwetok campaign. Of the 3,400 Japanese troops committed to the defense of the atoll, 66 survived.
The Battle of Admin Box also ended in an Allied victory.
The late bluesman Johnny Winter was born in Beaumont, Texas. He passed away in 2014 at age 70.
The Battle of Kwajalein commenced with landings by the 4th Marine Division and the 7th Infantry Division under the command of Marine Corps General Holland "Howlin Mad" Smith, an acknowledged expert on amphibious warfare that some have called the "father of amphibious warfare".
Smith went to Auburn University, graduating in 1901, but his goal was to become an Army officer. He was already a cavalry 1st Sergeant in the Alabama National Guard. Nonetheless, following his undergraduate degree, he went to law school and obtained a Bachelor of Laws degree (JD's were not yet common) from the University of Alabama. He thereafter practiced law in Montgomery, Alabama for a year.
Apparently he had second thoughts about that and determined to revive his interest in joining the Army. He sought a commission, but none were available, so he instead obtained one from the Marine Corps, entering the Corps on March 20, 1905. He'd later claim not to have known of the existence of the Marine Corps until the Army recruiter told them they were not accepting applicants, and referred him to the Marine recruiter down the block, although that's almost certain false. The Marines were well known by 1905, and as he was seeking entry through a direct commission, an application process would have existed, rather than simply joining.
His first assignment as a Marine was in the Philippines. He first saw action in 1916 in the Dominican Republic. He was deployed to France in World War One in June 1917. He was awarded the Purple Heart for service in the Great War, for merit, something that was not done after World War One. During World War Two, he became instrumental in training both Marine and Army units in amphibious operations.
Smith, during World War Two, tended not to plan for disengagement of his forces once they were committed, something the Army regarded as foolhardy but which reflected the reality of amphibious operations. The "no plan for retreat" ethos, however, crept into the Marine Corps as a result, and was evidenced in it long after.
He retired in 1946, and lived until 1967, dying at age 84. His wife had already passed, but he was survived by a son, Rear Admiral John V. Smith, a 1934 Naval Academy graduate.
Sarah Sundin's entry on this event:
Today in World War II History—January 31, 1944: US Army and Marines land on Kwajalein & Majuro in the Marshall Islands, with the first use of the DUKW amphibious vehicle in the Pacific .
The Allies took Majuro in the Marshall's.
The landing force had expected opposition, but the Japanese had withdrawn to Kwajalein and Eniwetok, leaving a single warrant officer as a caretaker in what must have been an anxiety filled roll. He was captured, and along with him, one of the largest anchorages in the Pacific.
The U-592 was sunk by three Royal Navy sloops. All hands were lost.
36,000 Allied troops had already disembarked by the prior midnight, 13 had been killed, and 200 German prisoners of war taken, including a drunk German officer and orderly who had driven his staff car into an Allied landing craft. There'd be 50,000 troops on the ground by the end of the day.
Allied troops, under Lucas' command, took up forming defensive positions in anticipation of a counterattack, a decision that was soon controversial, and frankly, a mistake. This is interesting for a variety of reasons, one of which is that Lucas was originally a cavalry officer, with cavalry being the only branch in the U.S. Army that was dedicated to battlefield mobility and had a doctrine of always moving forward.That view as not shared by the other branches. Having said that, Lucas had transferred out of the cavalry after World War One.
The German forces did debate what to do. Kesselring, in command in Italy, believed the Gustav Line could be held along with the beachhead at Anzio. Von Vietinghoff favored withdrawing from the Gustav Line. The German High Command, meanwhile, allocated reserved from France, northern Italy and the Balkans to the effort.
By the week's end, the Allies would be facing 8 German divisions at Anzio.
The HMS Janus as sunk off shores by a Fritz X.
The Australian Army took Maukiryo in New Guinea.
The Detroit Red Wings beat the New York Rangers 15 to 0, which apparently remains a hockey record.
Pistol Packin' Mama was number one on the country charts.
The 112th Cavalry, which had been dismounted, landed at Arawe in the opening battle of the New Britain Campaign, Operation Cartwheel.
The 112th Cavalry was a cavalry regiment of the Texas National Guard. They had at first been retained along the boarder with Mexico until Mexican attitudes towards the war could be ascertained. They were deployed to the Pacific without horses and would never recover their mounts.
Australian forces took Lakona on New Guinea.
Three German officers and a collaborator were tried for war crimes by the Soviet Union. Abwehr Captain Wilhelm Langheld, SS Lieutenant Hans Ritz, Corporal Reinhard Retzlaff of the Secret Field Police, and Mikhail Bulanov of Kharkov were found guilty on December 18 and hanged the next day in what some inaccurately regard as the first war crimes trial.
The Soviets had, in fact, already conducted at least one. Unlike the prior ones, however, this one, whose results were basically foreordained, was photographed by the Soviets.
Famous musician Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller died of pneumonia at age 39 while traveling on the Los Angeles to Chicago Super Chief train.
The post in Georgia has been renamed for Kansan and former President, Dwight Eisenhower.
It's somewhat surprising to realize that nothing had been named for Eisenhower until now. Eisenhower is so well known to Americans, he really needs no introduction here.
Gordon might.
A lawyer and a plantation owner, Gordon was a cavalry commander during the Civil War. Following the South's defeat, he was elected to the U.S. Senate from Georgia, became its Governor, and then returned to the Senate. He never recanted from his racist views. He died in 1904.
The Distillery Bandits, who were apprehended after a gun battle, were all veterans of the U.S. Army's cavalry branch.
William Jennings's Bryan's motion that the Presbyterian General Assembly cut off financial support for any Presbyterian body teaching evolution was voted down.
The Mark dropped enormously.
The President played in a newspaper golf tournament.
Lt. Gen. Frank Maxwell Andrews, for whom Andrews Air Force Base is named, died in the crash of the B-24 Hot Stuff in Iceland, when it went down in bad weather.
He had been on an inspection tour in the United Kingdom.
Only the plane's tail gunner, SSgt George A. Eisel, survived the crash. Eisel had survived a previous B-24 crash in North Africa. He'd live until 1964 when he died at age 64. Married prior to the war, he and his wife never had any children.
Hot Stuff was the first B-24D to complete 25 missions, well before, it might be noted, the B-17 Memphis Belle did the same. Hardly anyone recalls Hot Stuff, as the Army went on to emphasize the Memphis Belle following the crash of Hot Stuff and the death of all but one of its crew. Of note, Hot Suff, predictably, had a much more salacious example of nose art than Memphis Belle, and it's interesting to speculate how the Army would have handled that had the plane been popularized. At any rate, the story that Memphis Belle was the first US bomber to complete 25 missions is a complete myth.
Andrews was the CO of the ETO at the time of this death. A West Point Graduate from the class of 1906, he had been in the cavalry branch from 1906 to 1917, when he was assigned to aviation over the objection of his commander. A prior objection had prevented his reassignment in 1914.
Sarah Sundin noted this event on her blog:
Today in World War II History—May 3, 1943: Lt. Gen. Frank Andrews, commander of US European Theater of Operations, is killed in a B-24 crash in Iceland. US II Corps takes Mateur, Tunisia.
She also noted the ongoing Allied advance in North Africa and the establishment of the British 6th Airborne Division.
Mine workers called off the coal strike.
The United States Supreme Court invalidated a Jeannette, PA ordinance that required Jehovah's Witness members to acquire peddler's licenses before distributing religious literature. The ordinance's license fee was a whopping $10.00/day.
Oklahoma! opened on Broadway.
Having a very long initial run, and having been revived from time to time, I have to admit, I've never seen it.
I have been, however, to Oklahoma on numerous occasions.
The Afrika Korps withdrew from Cap Serrat, the Tunisian city that's about as far north in Tunisia as you can go.
The British took El Aouana, Algeria. The ancient city is famous for the French discovery for four dolman there. Dating back to Roman times, the city was named Cavallo, "horse", by the Romans.
A photographer was apparently touring the Port of San Francisco, which I've also been to.
USS Albireo (AK-90), the former John G. Nicolay, a Navy cargo ship at San Francisco on this day.Actor Christopher (Ronald) Walken born on this day in 1943 in New York.
Russian writer and politician Pavel Nikolayevich Milyukov (Па́вел Никола́евич Милюко́в) died in exile in France on this day in 1943. He had been a member of the Provisional Russian Government after the fall of the monarchy. While an opponent of the Communists in his native land, he supported Stalin's efforts to expand Soviet territory and was an ardent supporter of the Soviet war effort against the Germans.
Today in World War II History—February 5, 1943: 80 Years Ago—Feb. 5, 1943: Nazis begin liquidating Bialystok ghetto; 1,000 Jews are killed and 10,000 are sent to Treblinka extermination camp.
The Battle of the Eastern Solomons commenced between the U.S. Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy.
This day saw the sort of action that the naval war in the Pacific is recalled for. Even though the battle for the Solomons had already featured a lot of surface action, this was a carrier battle, although, like at Midway, bombers of the United States Army Air Force participated as well.
Most of the action was on this day. The Japanese lost the light carrier Ryūjō, a destroyer and a transport. The USS Enterprise was heavily damaged, with a stricken Japanese aircraft hit her deck.
The battle was an American victory.
Today in World War II History—August 24, 1942: Italians successfully charge Soviets at Izbushensky, Russia.
So notes Sarah Sundin.
Unit creast of the Savoia Cavallerria
The Italian cavalry charge by the Savoia Cavallerria was dramatic in the extreme, against heavy odds, and deployed the time tested cavalry tactic of charging into an ambushing enemy. It worked, moreover, although the charging Italian elements took heavy losses. Soviet losses, however, were in fact much higher.
The unit still exist, although dismounted, today. It was saved as an Italian unit to some degree by the actions of Count Col. Pietro de Vito Piscicelli who, after the Italian surrender, found his unit in a position in which it could not surrender to the Western Allies. Instead, he took the unit into Switzerland, where they were interned. Interestingly, officers were allowed to keep their horses and sidearms while under Swiss authority until the end of the war.
Churchill arrived back in the UK after his trip to Moscow.