April 11

1803   Napoleon's Treasury Minister offered to sell Louisiana for $15,000,000.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1865  USS Wyoming recommissioned.

1890  Natrona County organized.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1892  The siege at the TA Ranch had fully set in, with Johnson County residents moving the siege line slowly forward by advancing bails of hay and while pounding the buildings with rifle fire.  Heavy rifles, even including a .45-145, a heavy "buffalo" rifle, were employed to fire on the structures.  One invader made his escape, but the rest were holed up. An effort by 20 invaders to saddle their horses resulted in several horses being shot.  A couple of men were lightly wounded.  A snow fall continued all day and into the night, making the night bright.  The Johnson County men asked for the loan of a cannon from Ft. McKinney but were refused.

1898  President McKinley asked Congress for a declaration of war against Spain.

1899  The Treaty of Paris ending the Spanish-American declared in effect.

1913  Albert S. Burleson, Postmaster General, proposes to President Wilson to introduce segregation into the Railway Mail Service at a Cabinet Meeting. Wilson would act on the proposal and segregate the agency, which had been integrated since 1881.

1916   Casper Daily Press: April 11, 1916
 

1918  Natrona County Tribune, April 11, 1918. US troops engage Mexican raiders
 

Of course most of the news was on the war in Europe, where it was reported that Americans were being committed to battle in the British sector, the British and the Portuguese now being pressed, as we know, by Operation Georgette.

But the Tribune, which unlike the other Casper paper wasn't completely dominated by oil news on the cover, also reported that there had been a skirmish with Mexican forces of some sort, probably raiders, along the border.  One of the Cheyenne papers also included this on the front page, so the troubles to the south managed to reappear even in the midst of the massive 1918 German Spring Offensive.

As it turned out, this skirmish was only that, with American troops apparently repulsing an attempted raid into Texas by Mexican forces of some sort.

1941  President Roosevelt issued an executive order creating the Office of Price Administration.

1952  Wyoming Catholic Register begins publication.

1956  The Colorado River Storage Act passed Congress, ultimately resulting in Flaming Gorge Dam. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1964  Dedication of the copper plated Tyrannosauruses Rex built by S. H. Knight, at the University of Wyoming.  The life size dinosaur statute is located just outside of the entrance of the Geology Museum at the S. H. Knight Building on the campus.   Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1968   President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (the Fair Housing Act).
 

President Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

It was one of his hallmark achievements.

On this day, in 1968, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968 into law.  The act prohibited discrimination in housing rentals and sales based on race, religion or national origin.  

Prior to this bill such discrimination had been common.  Indeed, restrictive covenants in deeds for entire subdivisions commonly did just that.  One such example from Casper prohibited the sale of houses to "Mongolians".

1973  Vore Buffalo Jump added to the National Register of Historic Places.

1976  The Apple I created.

1994  The Brush Creek Work Center in Carbon County added to the National Registry of Historic Places.

1996  Jessica Dubroff, age 7, and her father and flight instructor, died when airplane crashed after takeoff from Cheyenne Regional in a storm. Dubroff was attempting to be the youngest person to fly across the United States at the time.