Friday September 21, 1921. The USS Alabama and Billy Mitchell

Near Miami, September 23, 1921.

 

Stony Lake, New York.  September 23, 1921.

Lake Bratingham, New York.  September 23, 1921.

On this day in 1921, the Army Air Corp began bombing experiments on the USS Alabama, BB-8, a decommissioned Illinois Class, pre dreadnought battleship.

USS Alabama.

The tests used a variety of scenarios before direct bombing of the ship which would ultimately cause her to sink.  The sinking itself was used by Billy Mitchell as evidence that aircraft could sink large ships, but in reality, as pointed out by the Navy, the Alabama's example was less than convincing.  The ship was an old one, was undefended, and took two days to sink even after the fatal hits were made.

Wednesday September 17, 1941. Destruction.

Äyräpään kirkko, oikealla maantie. Äyräpää 1941.09.17 (Äyräpää church, road on the right. Äyräpää 9/19/1941).  The church was a Lutheran Church, that being the predominant Chritian faith in Finland.  This village was ceded to the Soviet Union following World War Two and nothing of it exists today.

On this day in 1941, Werner Heisenberg and Danish scientist Niels Bohr had some sort of conversation about something.  According to Heisenberg, it was about atomic weaponry. According to Bohr, it wasn't.  Both men, who knew each other well, were attending a conference.

Bohr would flee to the United States, through Sweden, and then the United Kingdom, in 1943, as the Germans tightened their restrictions on Danish Jews.  In the US he'd be involved with the Manhattan Project but was not one of the physicists who was stationed with the project.

The U.S. Army dropped paratroopers in maneuvers for the first time, that event coming in the war games in Louisiana.

More on both of these can be found here.

Today in World War II History—September 17, 1941

Also in the item above, on this day the Germans began the deportation of Jews out of the formal Reich.

The USS Hornet was in dry dock.

Tuesday September 13, 1921. White Castle's founded.

Arapahoe Glacier, Colorado. September 13, 1921.

 

White Castle, the hamburger chain, opened its first restaurant in Wichita Kansas.  It was the very first fast food restaurant.

Chicago White Castle in the 1980s.

I've never eaten at a White Castle, which I believe is famous for sliders.  For that matter, over the years I've gotten to where I'm not a big fan of fast food burgers for some reason, preferring the slow food ones from the grill.  But it is quite a difference in the food landscape that White Castle brought about.

Gen. Billy Mitchell submitted a report to his commanding officer containing his strong dissent from a report that battleships remained superior to aerial bombardment.  He further recommended that the Department of War and the Department of the Navy be consolidated into a single department, with the service branches all being sub departments.

While he's justifiable recalled as a visionary today, in truth ships were much less vulnerable to aerial attack at the time than often imagined, and the recent tests conducted on captured German ships had in fact tended to prove that. This would soon change, but not in the way really imagined at the time, as heavy bombers never did develop as a strong anti shipping weapon.

Friday, September 2, 1921. Famine

Houston Texas, September 2, 1921.

On this day in 1921 food aid from Western countries arrived in Riga, Latvia for transport to the Soviet Union as famine relief.  The US was the largest contributor.

The famine was human induced, caused by the incompetence and stupidity of the communist economic system in multiple ways.

On the same day, Federal troops arrived in West Virginia, but President Harding declared they would not be used to impose martial law as long as civil law continued to function.  The threat, of course, was the private warfare between union coal miners and non-union/company forces.

Japanese dignitaries were photographed in Washington, D.C.

 

Baron Kyuro Shideharu

Belle Case LaFollette, wife of Sen. Robert LaFollette, was photographed walking their dog.

Saturday August 13, 1921. The Plymouth Pageant.

"Mounted Performers", Pilgrim Tercentenary Pageant, Plymouth, Mass.

"Royal Progress".

 

Tuesday August 9, 1921. Skylines, Swearing Ins and Disasters.

Los Angeles skyline, August 9, 1921

Rif forces took Monte Arruit after a negotiated surrender.  For reasons that remain unclear, including confusion or just a disobeying of orders, the Riffians then killed all about 400 to 500 of the 2,000 prisoners, keeping those who remained for bargaining purposes.

Charles R. Forbes was sworn in as the head of the U.S. Veterans Bureau.

The Scottish born Forbes had an unusual personal history and should have been suitable for his appointed role.  He had joined the Marine Corps as a musician at age 16.  Upon leaving the Marines, he attended university and graduated with a degree in engineering.  In spite of that, however, he then enlisted in the Army in 1900 at age 22, overcoming an early charge of being AWOL at one point early in his service to leave the Army as a Sergeant First Class in 1908.  He entered the Army again in 1917 and was a Lt. Col. by the end of his World War One service.

His period of leadership of the Veterans Bureau was marked by corruption and his divorce from his wife, who accused him of neglect.  He didn't finish his full term and resigned in 1923.  He was charged due to his activities with crimes which lead to a conviction, and an eight-month period of incarceration in Leavenworth.

Monday August 1, 1921. Looking at the 300th Anniversary of the founding of Plymouth, MA, from the prospective of the 400th

On this day in 1921, President Harding addressed a crowd at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in celebration of the 300th anniversary of the founding of an English colony there.  Why they regarded the founding as 1621 in 1921, and we regard it as 1620 in 2021, isn't really clear to me.

At any rate, apparently this year there's been trouble actually figuring out how to celebrate the anniversary, with COVID 19 playing a definite role in that.  Celebrations planned last year were pushed into this year, and a news story indicates they're still up in the air.

A 400th anniversary only comes about once, of course, so something ought to be done to mark the event, although the big shadow that hangs over it is the reassessment of the country's early history and its association with colonization, imperialism, and race.  This started prior to 2021 with the New York Times releasing its 1620 Project, which has been controversial, and under the Trump Administration sparked the 1776 Project, which in turn was immediately terminated following the election of President Biden.  Nonetheless, this may be an event which the dampening impact of SARS-CoV-2 which is oddly a good thing in some ways, although the disease and pandemic certainly are not.

On the same day, President Harding informed Congress that the US was obligated to loan $5,000,000 to Liberia under an agreement reached in September, 1918.  The loan itself had come about in the context of World War One, and was part of an inducement for the Liberian declaration of war against Germany.  Germany had constituted 75% of Liberian trade prior to the war.

It was the first flight for the Curtis CR-1, a racing airplane designed for the U.S. Navy.

A grand total of four were built.

If it seems odd that a racing plane was built for the navy, racing aircraft were a major feature of fighter, or as they were then called "pursuit" aircraft development between the wars. Even the Supermarine Spitfire was developed from a racer.

The relationship between the CR-1 and the Curtis Hawk series of biplane fighters is obvious.

Curtis P-6.

I've always thought the P-6 was one of the most beautiful biplanes every built.

In Spain, riots broke out and troops mutinied over recent Spanish defeats in Morocco. At this point, in fact, Spanish Morocco was in control of the Rifian government, save for a small portion still held by the Spanish.

Friday July 29, 1921. A dark and momentous day.

On this day in 1921 an obscure Austrian born veteran of World War One, who had been employed by the Reichsheer to inform on an obscure upstart German political party, was voted its head in an election with a foreordained result.  In doing so, Adolph Hitler replaced Anton Drexler as the leader of the German Workers Party, with only one person voting no.

The election in the then tiny party came about due to an interparty feud in which Hitler, who had become the party's primary spokesman, had resigned on July 11.  Given that Hitler had become the most notable public figure of the party, even early on, a deal was reached in which he would become its leader, with the title führer, and Drexler was cease to be more than a figure in the party.  That deal resulted in Hitler's accession to dictatorship status on this day in 1921.

The evolution of events was remarkable. Drexler had been a primary figure in the party from its onset and was the partial originator of its original anti-Semitic platform.  Hitler was an early member, but not one of the earliest members.  Effectively, Hilter had co-opted the leadership of what would soon be renamed the National Socialist German Workers Party, the Nazi party.

There was no reason to believe that the Nazis would go anywhere in 1921. They were only one of a plethora of radical German parties with mushy ideas.  Even the virulent anti-Semitism wasn't unique to the Nazi Party, but common in extreme right wing German parties of the time.  The only really unique thing about the party was Hitler himself, who would prove to be a charismatic leader.

The title "Socialist" wasn't unique to them by any means either, but the change in name, which would come about soon, and due to Hitler, has led to decades of debate on how socialist the Nazi Party was. Early on, it was fairly socialist, but this changed during the party's early years to where it adopted autarky as an economic platform.  The fact that capitalist were generally not shy about the Nazi Party demonstrates that by the early 1930s it was not regarded as a socialist party by German industrialist and business figures.

Drexler dropped out of the party after the Beer Hall Putsch, which he had no role in, and only rejoined it in 1933 after it had come into power.  He died at age 57 in 1942 due to alcoholism.  He was not unique in being a very early member of the party who was sidelined after Hitler took over.  Nobody in the movement was admirable, but if Drexler had resisted Hitler's taking over the party, and if its members had supported him, the Nazis in the form they were soon to become would never have come into being, and Hitler would have faded from history.

The Council On Foreign Relations, a think tank, was formed on this day in 1921.  The organization ponders the international relations and policy of the United States.

Friday July 23, 1921. Standing Inspection.

 The Virginia National Guard stood for inspection on this date at Camp (now Fort) Meade.

The Virginia National Guard wasn't the only group of men, and they were all men at the time, tenting, or at least camping of a sort.

President Harding, Thomas A. Edison, Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone also were on this day in 21.

The men had been a camping circle for years, styling themselves the Vagabonds.  It gave them a chance to get away, and discuss stuff.

On this day the Chinese Communist Party met for the first time.  It had 57 members and adjourned from a room meeting to one on a boat, which was safer.  The meeting was in the Chinese French Concession in Shanghai, which remains an area of China that features French architecture.

On the same day, also in China, Sun Yat-sen announced that his self-declared government was ceasing relations with the government in Beijing.

Thursday July 21, 1921. A big stage.

Personnel of The Tercentenary Pageant, "The Pilgrim Spirit," Plymouth, Massachusetts, 1921.

The landing of the passengers of the Mayflower was apparently celebrated with a large pageant in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in July, 1921. These photographs were taken of the very large cast of that play.

Grand finale.

On the same day, David Lloyd George presented the British peace proposal to the Irish delegation.  It featured, as noted  yesterday, Dominion status for Ireland along the same lines as that had been granted to Canada and Australia, among others, with the United Kingdom retaining control of Irish foreign policy and military matters.

The Army Air Corps completed sinking the Ostfriesland.

In the Black Sea another ship went down, but due to a submarine, as the Soviet submarine Trotsky sank the Soviet ship Sawa as it attempted to make a run to defect to the Whites.  The Civil War was not yet over and sailors were changing their minds.

At some point, although I don't know when, somebody would have changed the name of the Trotsky, assuming she was still in service, as he'd fall out of favor with Stalin after Lenin's death and eventually a Soviet agent would put an ice pick into his head in Mexico.

Russell Stover and Christian Kent Nelson launched Nelson's I-Scream Bar, which later became famous as the Eskimo Pie, and which is now sold as Edy's Pie.  The chocolate covered ice cream bar was rebranded this year as Eskimo is regarded as a derogatory term.

People were experimenting with motor travel:

ALONZO’S DIARY ENTRY, 21 JULY 1921

Monday, June 27, 1921. Jacksonville Florida and Crowley Louisiana photographed, Chinese Special Mission in Washington, Senator Shortridge goes fishing.

 

 

June 24, 1921. 11th Field Artillery Brigade, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, Cigar Makers, and Mondell visiting Harding.

11th Field Artillery Brigade, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.  June 24, 1921.

The text on the photo reads:

"Just before passing in review before the Department Commander in this closely massed formation on June 24, 1921. (About 400 vehicles). No motor failed and formation remained intact, a record that will rarely be equalled and never surpassed. Tiemann N. Horn, Colonel 13th Field Artillery commanding. To General John J. Pershing, with the compliments of the brigade. R. L. Dancy, Army & Navy Photographer.".

Employees of 7-20-4, R. G. Sullivan, Cigar Factory, Manchester, N.H., no. 192, 100 [percent] Members of Cigar Makers, International Union, June 24, '21

On the same day, the employees of a cigar factory in Manchester, New Hampshire, were photographed.

As was President Harding with Wyoming's Congressman, Frank Wheeler Mondell.  Apparently that inspired President Harding to don an exceedingly large cowboy hat.

Mondell was originally from St. Louis, Missouri and had become a rancher and farmer in Wyoming, as well as a businessman involved in railroad construction.  He'd was Newcastle's mayor from 1888 to 1895 and served in Congress from 1895 to 1896 and then again from 1899 to 1923.  He was the House majority leader in the 66th and 67th Congresses.

Monday, June 6, 1921. College pudding.

Caption says it all, from this day in 1921.

Bill Gatewood of the Detroit Stars pitches the first no-hitter in the history of the Negro National League, defeating the Cuban Stars, 4 - 0.  The black leagues are now incorporated into the National League for history and statistical purposes, an omission that was only recently corrected.

Gatewood was already 39 years old at the time and had been involved in baseball for many years.  He'd go on to be a manager in the black leagues but at some point he slipped into obscurity.  He died in 1962 at age 81 and was buried in an unmarked grave, something that was only corrected in 2010.

On this day, the British government declared an end to reprisal burnings of houses in Ireland as they tended to end up burning manor houses, which tended to belong to wealthy Protestant loyalist.

Oops.

Veterans of the Great War, in the US, were already turning into "old vets" and participating in those things that old vets participate in.

 

Veterans of 2nd Div. Reviewing Division, at Camp Travis, Texas, June 6th, 1921.

Somewhere, probably outside of Washington D. C., the DAR was adding an annex.

Passengers onboard the Canadian Pacific's Melita ship, yes the CP had ships, had this menu for this Monday in 1921.

 

Menu from Reddit's Menu subreddit.

College pudding?   A recipe is here:  Foods of England.

May 31, 1921. The Tulsa Riot.

On this day in 1921 two days of disastrous rioting occurred in Tulsa, Oklahoma, directed at the city's prosperous African American community.

The nightmare commenced when a young black man, Dick Rowland, age 19 was briefly arrested the day prior on suspicion of the assault of Sarah Page, maybe age 17. 

The originating event remains obscure as Rowland, a shoeshiner, and the Page, an elevator operator, were present in an office building which otherwise seems to have been supposed to have been closed for Memorial Day.  What's clear is that Rowland was taking the elevator to a floor of the Drexel Building, where Page worked, as it was the only nearby restroom that accommodated blacks.  What happened isn't clear, but the most common theory is that Rowland lost his footing in the elevator, with elevators of the era being somewhat difficult to operate, and that he reached out to Page to steady herself.

A woman's scream was heard and the young man ran from the building.  Somebody reported the incident to the police, but it isn't clear whom it was.  Rowland was arrested but the police later released him as they did not find anything supporting a charge.

While released, the young man took refuge in the Greenwood district of Tulsa, sometimes billed "The Black Wall Street" due to its prosperity, in the home of his mother or step mother.  The event hit the press and black residents soon feared for the results. Dick Rowland was arrested again and a local newspaper claimed he would be lynched, a reasonable fear. Armed black residents took up positions to protect him against a feared assault at the courthouse.

With this having occurred, large numbers of white Tulsa residents also took up arms and ultimately confronted the black residents trying to provide security at the courthouse.  Shots were fired and the riot commenced, resulting in the attack upon the city's Greenwood district.  Early in the morning of June 1 fires were started in the district and it seems that private aircraft, some potentially carrying policemen, circled overhead with some of the planes having passengers who may have shot at Greenwood residents and dropped Molotov cocktails.  The number of people killed in the riot has not been precisely determined.  The devastation to the district was massive.

Oklahoma National Guard truck with wounded.

Ultimately, order had to be restored by the Oklahoma National Guard, which was done with some difficulty.  Around 6,000 black residents were detained and numerous black residents of Greenwood left homeless.  No whites were arrested or prosecuted, although the Tulsa chief of police did lose his position as police inaction was a final straw on a long list corruption complaints against him.  

Rowland was released from custody in September after Page wrote a letter to authorities noting that she did not want him prosecuted.

Of Rowland and Page nearly nothing is known.  There's been speculation over the years if they knew each other, and if they even had a relationship of some sort, although there's nothing to support that. Rowland was well liked and known to local lawyers who did not believe the charges against him.  After the event, he simply disappeared from history.

About Page, this was her only entry into history.  Normally noted as being 17 years old there's even speculation that she was a 15 year old divorcee.  She simply showed up as an unknown figure in this tragic event, and then disappeared again.

The US Railway Labor Board announced that railroad employees would face a 12% reduction in income.

The Arapahoe Peaks in Colorado were photographed.

Arapahoe Peaks and Glacier.

May 24, 1921. Clarkston, Washington and Lewiston, Idaho, Bulhoek Massacre, and the Northern Irish vote.

Clarkston, Washington and Lewiston,  Idaho.  May 24, 1921.

Nothing stays the same, of course.

While I haven't been to Clarkson/Lewiston, I dare say its changed.  I'd take the 1921 variant over today's, almost certainly.

Slightly colorized version of the same photograph.

On this day in 1921 voters in Northern Ireland ovewhelmingly voted for unionist candidates.

In South Africa a 163 Xhosa followers of a Xhosa excommunicated lay Methodist minister were killed in what is known as the Bulhoek Massacre.  They were killed by heavily armed police in a battle whose beginning is confused.  The community was made of a group known as the Israelites who followed the beliefs of their founders apocalyptical predictions. 

May 23, 1921. Cities on the Red River, Harding on Memorial Day, the Seeger's go camping.

Moorhead, Minnesota and Fargo, North Dakota, are a across the Red River from each other.  On this day in 1921 they were photographed. 

In Leipzig, war crimes trials commenced. Only twelve Germans would stand trial, but the concept of trying an enemy combatant was a new one which became established as a result of the Great War.  The results were mixed.

Also on this day, President Harding issued a Memorial Day address, which stated:

Our republic has been at war before, it has asked and received the supreme sacrifices of its sons and daughters, and faith in America has been justified. Many sons and daughters made the sublime offering and went to hallowed graves as the Nation’s defenders. But we never before sent so many to battle under the flag in foreign land, never before was there the impressive spectacle of thousands of dead returned to find eternal resting place in the beloved homeland…

These dead know nothing of our ceremony today. They sense nothing of the sentiment or the tenderness which brings their wasted bodies to the homeland for burial close to kin and friends and cherished associations. These poor bodies are but the clay tenements once possessed of souls which flamed in patriotic devotion, lighted new hopes on the battle grounds of civilization, and in their sacrifices sped on to accuse autocracy before the court of eternal justice.

We are not met for them, though we love and honor and speak a grateful tribute. It would be futile to speak to those who do not hear or to sorrow for those who cannot sense it or to exalt those who cannot know. But we can speak for country, we can reach those who sorrowed and sacrificed through their service, who suffered through their going, who glory with the Republic through their heroic achievements, who rejoice in the civilization, their heroism preserved. Every funeral, every memorial, every tribute is for the living–an offering in compensation of sorrow. When the light of life goes out there is a new radiance in eternity, and somehow the glow of it relieves the darkness which is left behind.
Never a death but somewhere a new life; never a sacrifice but somewhere an atonement; never a service but somewhere and somehow an achievement. These had served, which is the supreme inspiration in living. They have earned everlasting gratitude, which is the supreme solace in dying…

I would not wish a Nation for which men are not willing to fight and, if need be, to die, but I do wish for a nation where it is not necessary to ask that sacrifice. I do not pretend that millennial days have come, but I can believe in the possibility of a Nation being so righteous as never to make a war of conquest and a Nation so powerful in righteousness that none will dare invoke her wrath. I wish for us such an America. These heroes were sacrificed in the supreme conflict of all human history. They saw democracy challenged and defended it. They saw civilization threatened and rescued it. They saw America affronted and resented it. They saw our Nation’s rights imperiled and stamped those rights with a new sanctity and renewed security.

We shall not forget, no matter whether they lie amid the sweetness and the bloom of the homeland or sleep in the soil they crimsoned. Our mindfulness, our gratitude, our reverence shall be in the preserved Republic and maintained liberties and the supreme justice for which they died. 

Warren G. Harding

 The professor Charles Seeger family went camping.

The baby in the photo is Pete Seeger.

May 12, 1921. Storms.

Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa.

The Great Geomagnetic Storm of 1921 commenced on this day, or rather the giant sunspot that's attributed to it was observed first on this day. The actual impact would commence the following day.

So, more to come on that.

Canadian naturalist Farley Mowat was born in Bellville, Ontario.  Mowat was a controversial Canadian author and naturalist.  Born in Ontario, his family moved to Saskatchewan during the 1920s where he was exposed to the outdoors.  In 1939 he joined the Canadian Army and he served throughout the rest of the war, seeing extensive service in Italy and even seeing service in France in 1940 prior to the British evacuation of the country.   His wartime service was the source for three of his books.

A highly prolific writer who wrote both on natural topics and fiction, Mowat came to be highly criticized for several of his works which, critics have argued, were highly fictionalized.  Nonetheless, his works have their defenders who maintain that in spite of their faults, they got the feel of their topics right.

He may be best remembered for his book Never Cry Wolf, which was made into a successful movie.

Edmund Able, who invented the heating element for Mr. Coffee, was also born on this day in 1921.

A mass arrest of Romanian Communist was carried out.

Sewer line going in on this day in Pittsburgh.

 

April 22, 1921. Lancaster schools.

Millersview Normal School, now Millersville University, April 22, 1921.  Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Franklin and Marshall Academy, now Franklin and Marshall College, April 22, 1921.  Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

 

April 18, 1921. Service.

On this Monday, April 18, 1921, Edith Barnett, who had died serving as an American nurse in far off Siberia, was remembered with a tombstone marked in English and Russian.  She had died of Typhus while serving as a Red Cross nurse there.

Some Gave All: April 18, 1921. "Grave of Edith Barnett of New Yo...:  

April 18, 1921. "Grave of Edith Barnett of New York City. An American Red Cross nurse who died in Siberia, Aug. 15, 1919. Monument placed at Tomsk, Siberia on April 18, 1921. Photograph taken on April 19, 1921"

Ontario voted, in a plebiscite, to ban the sale and importation of alcohol by a 60% margin.  An attempt at repealing the ordinance the following year by the same means failed.

How would you have voted?  I'm not a teetotaler, but I'm sure I would have voted for the measure.

Jacksonville Florida was photographed from the St. John's Bridge.

View of the Jacksonville Florida St John's Bridge, April 18, 1921.

President Harding seems to have had a busy day greeting groups.

Harding with Community House Kids.  I'm not sure who they were, but it appears to probably be a church based group.

Harding and Women's Commission for World Disarmament.  The group obviously did not succeed in its goals.

Gen. Herbert Lord of the Quartermaster Corps received an award consisting of draft horseshoes.

I don't know the actual occasion, but it may have been recognizing his service which was principally in administering its budget.  He'd go on to occupy the position of head of the OMB, although under a different title at the time, in the Harding Administration.