April 15

Today is the Federal Income Tax payment deadline in the United States. 

1861     President Abraham Lincoln declared a state of insurrection and called out Union troops Following the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina.  He calls for 75,000 volunteers for Federal service, somewhat countering the often stated claim that nobody expected a long or major war.

1869  John Campbell, Wyoming's first Territorial Governor, took the oath of office.

1890  Laramie passed an anti gambling ordinance: Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society. 

1892  Governor Barber  requested that Colonel Van Horn of the U.S. Army "obtain the custody of and take to Fort McKinney and there give protection to the men belonging to the invading party who were arrested before the surrender, and who are now confined in the county-jail at Buffalo."

1905  Tennis played for the first time in Saratoga. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1916  The Casper Daily Press: April 15, 1916
 

In this edition we're reminded that Easter of 1916 was in mid April, unlike this year when it was in mid March.

1917  The Sunday State Leader for April 15, 1917: A plot against Pathfinder.
 

I've stopped the frequent updates of Wyoming newspapers here as the story I was really tracking, the Punitive Expedition, has closed out as a day to day item of concern.  Not that Mexico doesn't keep appearing, as this paper demonstrates.  But by mid April it finally seemed evident to everyone that the US was not going to be fighting Mexico as a stand in for Germany. We were really going to fight Germany.

Not that the papers don't remain interesting, and here's an example.

As far as I know, there was never a serious attempt to blow up Pathfinder Dam, but a story about a belief that there was hit the front page of this Cheyenne newspaper.  Lots of panicky stories like this were going around as people saw German agents everywhere.

As is also evident here, the war was giving a boost to prohibitionist.

U.S. Army issues corrected manuals, April 15, 1917

 

Showing how things were going, and of course with fresh experience from the Punitive Expedition in hand, the U.S. Army issued a set of corrected manuals just in time for training the greatly expanded Army that it was creating.  These included:

Infantry drill regulations, United States army, 1911 : corrected to April 15, 1917 (changes nos. 1 to 19).

Rules of Land Warfare, 1914. Corrected to April 15, 1917 (Changes Nos. 1 and 2). War Department Document No. 467

Details about Small Arms Firing Manual, 1913:  Corrected to April 15, 1917 (Changes Nos 1-18)

Manual of Interior Guard Duty, 1914:  Corrected to April 15, 1917 

Regulations for the Army of the United States, 1913, corrected to April 15, 1917 (Changes nos. 1 to 55) 

Field service regulations, United States Army, 1914 : corrected to April 15, 1917 (changes nos. 1-6) 

A Manuel For Courts-Martial, U S Army, Corrected to April 15, 1917

There were most likely additional manuals in this corrected set.

1922  Wyoming Democratic Senator John Kendrick introduced a resolution to investigate oil sales at Teapot Dome, Wyoming (the Naval Petroleum Oil Reserve).

Saturday, April 15, 1922. The Teapot Dome Scandal Breaks.

The Saturday Evening Post decided to grace the cover of its Easter issue, with Easter being April 16 that year, with a Leyendecker portrait of a woman looking at her Easter bonnet.

Country Gentleman, however, went with a different theme.

Some in Washington, D. C. took time to play polo on this day.

Horses were much in evidence on that Holy Saturday in Washington, D. C., as a Junior Horse Show was also held.

The White House received visitors.

Which included a party of Camp Fire Girls.

Not everyone was taking the day off, however.

Today In Wyoming's History: April 15: 1922  1922  Wyoming Democratic Senator John Kendrick introduced a resolution to investigate oil sales at Teapot Dome, Wyoming (the Naval Petroleum Oil Reserve).

As the U.S. Senate's history site notes:

Senate Investigates the "Teapot Dome" Scandal

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April 15, 1922

On April 15, 1922, Wyoming Democratic senator John Kendrick introduced a resolution that set in motion one of the most significant investigations in Senate history. On the previous day, the Wall Street Journal had reported an unprecedented secret arrangement in which the secretary of the Interior, without competitive bidding, had leased the U.S. naval petroleum reserve at Wyoming's Teapot Dome to a private oil company. Wisconsin Republican senator Robert La Follette arranged for the Senate Committee on Public Lands to investigate the matter. His suspicions deepened after someone ransacked his quarters in the Senate Office Building.

Expecting this to be a tedious and probably futile inquiry, the committee's Republican leadership allowed the panel's most junior minority member, Montana Democrat Thomas Walsh, to chair the panel. Preeminent among the many difficult questions facing him was, "How did Interior Secretary Albert Fall get so rich so quickly?"

Eventually, the investigation uncovered Secretary Fall's shady dealings, and Senator Walsh became a national hero. Fall would end up as the first former cabinet officer to go to prison. This and a subsequent Senate inquiry triggered several court cases testing the extent of the Senate's investigative powers. One of those cases resulted in the landmark 1927 Supreme Court decision McGrain v. Daugherty that, for the first time, explicitly established Congress's right to compel witnesses to testify before its committees.

Not unexpectedly, the Teapot Dome story, which was just breaking, and had been broken in the East the day prior, was big news in Wyoming.

1946  End of Special Session of the Legislature concerning funding of the University of Wyoming.

Elsewhere:

1207     St. Francis of Assisi renounces worldly goods.

1947   Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

1952   The maiden flight of the B-52 Stratofortress.