Thursday, September 23, 1909. The Gunnison Tunnel opened.

President Taft opened the Gunnison Tunnel in Colorado.

It was the longest tunnel in the world at the time and transformed the region into a cropland. Alfalfa, wheat, corn, oats, potatoes, beans, onions and fruit--apples, pears and cherries and starting in the 1960s, Moravian malting barley for Coors beer. 

The British magazine Truth exposed barbarities by the Peruvian Amazon Company.

The Arctic Club of American honored Dr. Frederick Cook as the discoverer of the North Pole at a banquet in his honor.  Three months later his claim would be rejected.

Last edition:

Tuesday, September 21, 1909. Arctic Rivals in New York.

Labels: 1900s, 1909, Arctic, Cody Wyoming, Frederick Cook, New York, Peary's Eighth Arctic Expedition, San Francisco California, Science, Shoshone Cavern, Wyoming, Wyoming (Basin), Wyoming (Cody)

Tuesday, September 21, 1909. Arctic Rivals in New York.

San Francisco after reconstruction.

Today In Wyoming's History: September 21: 1909  Municipal natural gas service starts in Basin. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

Cook returned to a hero's welcome in New York City.

Peary received  a hero's welcome in Sydney, New York.

The Shoshone Cavern National Monument, Wyoming, was created by executive order of President Taft.  On May 17, 1954, it was transferred to the City of Cody.

Albert Einstein publicly presented his general theory of relativity for the first time at a gathering of German natural scientists and physicians

Last edition:

Monday, September 20, 1909. The Grand Isle Hurricane of 1909 and The South Africa Act of 1909.

Labels: 1900s, 1909, 1910, 1910s, Boer War, British Empire, Disaster, New Orleans Louisiana, South Africa, United Kingdom, Weather

 

Monday, September 20, 1909. The Grand Isle Hurricane of 1909 and The South Africa Act of 1909.

The Grand Isle Hurricane of 1909 destroyed much of New Orleans, killing 350 people.

Parliament passed the South Africa Act 1909, effective May 31, 1910, uniting the Cape of Good Hope and Natal with the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony, to create the Union of South Africa.  The latter two colonies were conquests of the Boer War.

Many of the residents of the latter two entities weren't thrilled above developments.

Last edition:

Thursday, September 16, 1909. Hitler evicted.

Labels: 1900s, 1909, Adolf Hitler, Art, Austria, Austria (Vienna), James Montgomery Flagg

Thursday, September 16, 1909. Hitler evicted.

One Adolf Hitler, an Austrian, age 20, was evicted from his lodgings at Sechshauserstrasse 58 in Vienna.

He had no money, no income, and no forwarding address.  He was homeless.

Life magazine came out.

Last edition:

Tuesday, September 14, 1909. Taft and the Federal Reserve.

Labels: 1900s, 1909, Animals, Bison, Equine Transportation, Federal Reserve, William Howard Taft

Tuesday, September 14, 1909. Taft and the Federal Reserve.

William Howard Taft announced his support for a national bank.  It would become the Federal Reserve.

Last edition.

Monday, September 13, 1909. John King wins his second Medal of Honor.

Labels: 1900s, 1909, 1910s, 1916, 1919, boats and ships, Heroes, Personalities, U.S. Navy, World War One

Monday, September 13, 1909. John King wins his second Medal of Honor.

Career U.S. Navy sailor John King won his second Medal of Honor.

The citation read:

Watertender, serving on board the U.S.S. Salem, for extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession on the occasion of the accident to one of the boilers of that vessel, 13 September 1909.

The citation for his first one read:

On board the U.S.S. Vicksburg, for heroism in the line of his profession at the time of the accident to the boilers, 29 May 1901.

He was an Irish immigrant, retired in 1916, reentered the Navy during World War One, and retired again in 1919.  He died in 1938 at age 73.

A destroyer was named after him, and coincidentally I served in the National Guard with a fellow who had served on that ship.

Last edition:

Sunday, September 12, 1909. Zapata and El Roghi.

Labels: 1900s, 1909, Agrarianism, Emiliano Zapata, Mexico, Morocco, Personalities

Sunday, September 12, 1909. Zapata and El Roghi.

The city leaders of San Miguel Anenecuilco elected Emiliano Zapata to recover lands owned by the village, his initiation in what would become a career as a Mexican agrarian rebel.

He was thirty years old.

Moroccan rebel Jilali ben Driss al-Youssefi al-Zerhouni (الجيلالي بن إدريس اليوسفي الزرهوني), commonly known as El Roghi (الرُقي ar-ruqī) meaning "the pretender" and Bou Hmara (بو حمارة) meaning the man on a female donkey was put to death after being hideously tortured.

Last edition:

Friday, September 10, 1909. Mean dogs and the mail.

Labels: 1900s, 1909, 1910s, Animals, British Army, Dogs, Horatio Herbert Kitchener, India, Indian Army, Personalities, Post Office

Friday, September 10, 1909. Mean dogs and the mail.

The U.S. Post Office excused letter carriers from delivering mail to residences with vicious dogs.

Kitchener in 1910.

Lord Kitchener was promoted to Field Marshal after completing his reorganization of forces in India.

Last edition:

Thursday, September 9, 1909. Chinese National Library established.

Slow medicine

Perhaps another example of how things once were in the early automobile, late horse, era:

Slow ambulance -- "Broke Her Arm.

"Mrs. Frank Jameson of Ervay was kicked on the left arm by a horse Sunday and sustained a fractured bone, and she passed through this city Monday on her way to the Douglas hospital, where she will have the fracture reduced. She was accompanied by her son Lawrence.

From the Casper Star Tribunes history column. The date was September 1909.

Thursday, September 9, 1909. Chinese National Library established.

The National Library of China was created, which is truly remarkable given the turmoil China was in, and would be, clean through the 40s.

The 1,600 foot long Santa Monica Pier opened opened to the public in Santa Monica, California.

 E.H. Harriman, 61, railroad magnate, died at age 61.  He's probably best remembered to the public due to the reference to his name in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Last edition:

Tuesday, September 7, 1909. New York Times: "Peary Discovers the North Pole After Eight Trials in 23 Years."

Labels: 1900s, 1909, Aircraft, France, Movies, Peary's Eighth Arctic Expedition, The Press, Turkey

Tuesday, September 7, 1909. New York Times: "Peary Discovers the North Pole After Eight Trials in 23 Years."

So read the headlines.

Eugene Lefebvre crashed an airplane at Juvisy-sur-Orge in France and was killed, the first pilot to die flying an airplane.

Elias Kazantzoglou (Ηλίας Καζαντζόγλουz), better known as Elias Kazan, film director, was born in Istanbul to ethnically Greek parents.

Last edition:

Monday, September 6, 1909. Peary claims the North Pole.

Labels: 1900s, 1909, Arctic, Blog Mirror, Exploration, Peary's Eighth Arctic Expedition

Monday, September 6, 1909. Peary claims the North Pole.

Robert Pesry telegraphed his claim to the North Pole to the New York Times.

I have the pole, April sixth. Expect arrive Chateau Bay September seventh. Secure control wire for me there and arrange expedite transmission big story. PEARY.

He claimed an April 6, 1909 date.  Cook had claimed an April 21, 1908 date.  It's clear that Cook didn't make it to the pole, and that Peary believed he had, but it's not clear that he actually did.

Mystery of the Arctic Ice: Who was First to the North Pole

Last edition:

Saturday, September 4, 1909. Scouting and borders.

Labels: 1900s, 1909, Aircraft, Boy Scouts, children, China, Germany, Girl Guides, Korea, London England, Men, People's Republic of China, Teenagers, The roles of men and women, Women, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture

Saturday, September 4, 1909. Scouting and borders.

The first Boy Scout Rally was held at Crystal Palace, London.  11,000 Scouts attended.

A group of girls approached the Scout's founder, Sir Robert Baden-Powell, and asked for him to create an organization for girls, which was then entrusted to his sister, Agnes Baden-Powell.  They would become the Girl Guides.

I'm tempted to comment on declined standards, and contemporary events, but I'll forgo it.

Japan and China agreed to the positioning of the north east Chinese-Korean border at the Gando Convention.  The boundary that was established was a natural one, being a watercourse.

Today, due to 19th and 20th Century migration, a large ethnically Korean population lives north of North Korea in the People's Republic of China, in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture which rivals the combined North and South Korea in size.

Orville Wright made the first airplane flight in Germany.

Last edition

Wednesday, September 1, 1909. Claiming the North Pole.

Labels: 1900s, 1909, Arctic, Frederick Cook, Philippines

Wednesday, September 1, 1909. Claiming the North Pole.

The Leconte Observatory in Brussels received a message cabled from Lerwick in the Shetland Islands as follows:

Reached north pole April 21, 1908. Discovered land far north. Return to Copenhagen by steamer Hans Eged. (Signed) FREDERICK COOK

Not everyone was convinced, and not without good reason, but he no doubt believed it, and it was hard to establish, then and now.

Does it really matter? It's almost impossible to see how, but then in future years reaching the Moon might seem similarly irrelevant.

Or significant.

Cook died in 1940 at age 75, his reputation never recovered from the attacks that would soon occur on it.

Baguio, Philippines, elevation 5,100 ft, was incorporated.

Baguio, 1909.

The American Governor General would make it his summer residence due to its cool summer temperatures.

Last edition:

Sunday, August 29, 1909. Banking the turn.

Labels: 1900s, 1909, Air Racing, Aircraft, France, Personalities

Sunday, August 29, 1909. Banking the turn.

Glenn Curtiss, banking his turns, won the world's first airplane race which took place at Rheims, France.

Banking was unknown as a flying technique to retain speed until that time.

Last edition:

Friday, August 27, 1909. Another coup in Greece

Labels: 1900s, 1909, 1950s, 1958, 1970s, Aircraft, Greece, Greek Army

Friday, August 27, 1909. Another coup in Greece

Honestly, I don't know when these started, or ended (1970s?) but yet another military coup in Greece occurred on this day.

Henry Farman became the first person to fly an airplane 100 miles.  He accordingly won the Grand Prix de la Champagne endurance test.

Farman would live to age 84 and die in 1958.

Last edition:

Thursday, August 26, 1909. A hostel idea.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, 1919, 1930s, 1936, 1940s, 1942, 1960s, 1961, boats and ships, Camping, Christmas Truce, Education, Germany, hiking, Hitler Youth, Radio, Weather, World War One, Youth Organizations

Thursday, August 26, 1909. A hostel idea.

The youth hostel movement was born when a group of hikers lead by Richard Schirrmann found shelter in a school in a thunderstorm.

Schirrmann was a teacher as well as an outdoorsman.  During World War One he served in the German Army, participating the 1915 Christmas truce, something that lingered in his area for quite some time after Christmas.  He founded the Youth Hostel Association in 1919 and founded the children's village "Staumühle" on a former military training ground near Paderborn, where my German ancestors hail from.  HE served as the President of the International Youth Hostelling Associating until the Nazis forced him to resign and put the control of the hostels under the Hitler Youth in 1936.  He rebuilt the association after the war.  He married late, in 1942, but had six children with his wife before dying in 1961 at age 87.

The SS Cartago telegraphed a report of a hurricane near the Yucatan, the first radio warning of a tropical storm.

Last edition:

Monday, August 23, 1909. Bill Bergen sets a record.

Labels: 1900s, 1909, 1940s, 1943, baseball, Sports

Monday, August 23, 1909. Bill Bergen sets a record.

Catcher Bill Bergen of the Brooklyn Dodgers  threw out six batters on the base paths in a game against St. Louis.

The record still stands.

Bergen died in 1943 at age 65.

Last edition:

Sunday, August 22, 1909. Telephone lines.

Labels: 1900s, 1909, Sheridan Wyoming, St. Joan d'Arc, telephone, Wyoming, Wyoming (Sheridan)

Sunday, August 22, 1909. Telephone lines.

Msgr Leon Cristiani invoked the blessing of St. Joan d'Arc upon Miss Therese Belin, curing her of tuberculosis. 

Today In Wyoming's History: August 22:1909  Construction began on Sheridan based telephone lines.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

Last edition:

Saturday, August 21, 1909 The Great Victor Fire.

Labels: 1900s, 1909, Colorado, Colorado (Victor), Disaster, Victor Colorado

Saturday, August 21, 1909 The Great Victor Fire.

A major downtown fire broke out in Victor, Colorado.  The fire was caused by a prostitute in the city's red light district catching a gown she was washing in kerosene with a cigarette.  The fire rapidly spread from the red light district to the downtown.

The burnt area was rapidly rebuilt.

A set of great grandparents lived in Victor at the time.

Last edition:

August 20, 1909. Sheridan Wyoming.

Labels: 1900s, 1909, panographic photographs, panoramic, Photography, Sheridan Wyoming

Friday, August 20, 1909. Sheridan Wyoming.

Sheridan Wyoming, 1909.

Last edition: