February 16

1878  The silver dollar become legal tender in the U.S.

1890   Robert C. Morris suggested the "Equality State" as a state motto.  Morris was the son of Esther Hobart Morris, and she lived with him in his house in Cheyenne in her later years.  He was a legislator in the early 20th Century, and served as the Clerk of the Wyoming Supreme Court.

1895  Third State Legislature concludes.

1901  Governor Richards signed an act that required county commissions to raise taxes for the purpose of building a residence for the governor.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1901  Sixth State Legislature concludes.

1907  Ninth State Legislature concludes.

1908  The Atlas Theatre opened in Cheyenne.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1917   America Here's My Boy
 

In a clear sign how things were beginning to go, and an early introduction to what would be a massive movement in the American public supporting the Great War and shaming those who didn't, the song America Here's My Boy was copyrighted on  this day and very soon released:

This came, of course, just before the US entered the war, but it would end up being an early World War One American hit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UJn9dHkD0E

I wouldn't rate it as great, but then music of this era. . . .

Anyhow, it was a bit of a reaction to I Didn't Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHEqjMf7Ojo

Band sound similar to the one above?

It's the same one.

At any rate, I doubt America Here's My Boy "expressed the sentiment of every American mother." I learned the year prior to my own mother's death that she worried that war would break out the entire time I was in the National Guard.

The Cheyenne Leader for February 16, 1917. Three Americans Captured by Mexicans Found Slain

 

More bad news from the Mexican border. . . and elsewhere.

The Wyoming Tribune for February 16, 1917. More troops being rushed to the border

 

More troops rushed to the border.

And the beginnings of JrROTC.

1918   The Cheyenne State Leader for February 16, 1918. Revolution in Mexico and Victory Pies
 

The Leader was correct, a new revolution had broken out in Mexico even as the contesting forces of Zapata and Villa continued their struggle against Carranza.

As the Mexican culture site puts it:

On February 16, 1918, soldiers loyal to the governor of the state of Guerrero, General Silvestre Mariscal, arrested Santiago Tlatelolco in the military prison, who took up arms to try to free his leader. Nearly 300 men who were under the command of Mariscal and had accompanied him to the Federal District took up arms in the Escuela de Tiro de San Lázaro, where they were quartered.

They were immediately repulsed by the law and order forces, under the command of General Miguel Madrigal, who defeated them and forced them to flee. Some escaped towards Peñón. Others, toward Tlalpan, where they tried to join the Zapatista armed forces that devastated the southern region of the Federal District.

So things really weren't settled south of the bordern.

North of the border restrictions on wheat were resulting in Victory Pies in restaurants.

Victory pies?

Well, what those apparently entailed is substituting out 1/3 of the flour substance for something other than wheat. 

Dancer turned aviator Vernon Castle was reported killed in an aviation accident in Texas.

Things were getting unsettled in Austria, which appeared to be teetering towards bowing out of the war.  Close to home, the war looked like it was bringing the Medical corps or cavalry back to Cheyenne. Cavalry had certainly had a presence there previously..

1919  The new Wyoming flag presented officially to Governor Robert D. Carey.

1929  Twentieth State Legislature concludes.

1935  Twenty Third State Legislature concludes.

1944  Wyoming's Senator Mahoney was reported as having said that victory in the Second World War was closer than most imagined, and the country should be prepared to rapidly convert to a peacetime economy.

The optimistic Mahoney was a Democrat who served four terms as a U.S. as  Wyoming's Senator, first from 1934 to 1953 and then again from 1954 to 1961.  Orginally from Massachusetts, he moved to Wyoming in 1916 as a writer for the Cheyenne State Leader, which was owned by John B. Kendrick. When Kendrick became Senator, he accompanied him there as a staff member, and graduated from Georgetown with a Bachelors of Law in 1920.  He was considered as a running mate in 1944.  He lost his seat when Dwight Eisenhower won the Presidential election in 1954, but regained a position of Senator upon the suicide of Lester Hunt.

1948 NBC-TV aired its first nightly newscast, "The Camel Newsreel Theatre," which consisted of Fox Movietone newsreels.

2011 Scott W. Skavdahl nominated the United States District Court Judge for the District of Wyoming, replacing the seat vacated by Judge William Downes.  Judge Skavdahl, like Judge Downes before him, occupies the Federal District Courthouse in Casper, a classic large Federal Courthouse built during the Great Depression.  Wyoming's other sitting Federal judges sit in Cheyenne.  Wyoming has quite an assortment of Federal Courthouses, but only two are in daily use.  Surprisingly, a number of Wyoming's Federal District Courthouses have been retired or even disposed of, even as the number of judges has grown.