January 5

1883  Cheyenne was lighted by electric lights.  Attribution. Wyoming State Historical Society.

1904  A stage play based on Owen Wister's novel The Virginian opened on Broadway in New York.   This is remarkable in that the novel had been written only two years earlier, showing the enormous popularity of what is, to some degree, the archetype of Western novel.  The book, and hence the play, is set entirely in Wyoming, and is loosely based on the strife in Wyoming's cattle industry of the 1880s and 1890s.

1917   The Casper Daily News for January 5, 1917. Amuse your chickens.
 

This Casper paper doesn't have anything on the front page on the ending of the Joint Commission with Mexico, unlike the one Cheyenne paper did on this day (the other Cheyenne paper also did not).

I'm posing this one to show that, basically.  Some of the headlines are the same as those that ran in Cheyenne, some not.  Things like that, then as now, are up to the paper.

By focusing on stories that relate to the Punitive Expedition I'm likely giving a false impression that every paper, everywhere, was equally focused as the Cheyenne ones were.  Not so.  This Casper paper (one of two or three that were published in Casper at that time) did not focus on it nearly to the same extent, for whatever reason.  That's important to note.

Crime and scandal figured largely in this issue. The exploration of oil prospects near Powder River, which would cause a boom there, was going on in a major way.  And the odd item in the bottom left hand corner.  "Chickens should be amused, says expert."

The Cheyenne State Leader for January 5, 1917: Joint Commission to Disband
 

Something was clearly going on. . . the Joint Commission with Mexico was getting set to disband, but it was clear that Carranza's demand on the United States, leave, was going to be met.  It seemed that Wilson and Carranza had arrived at the same point. . . for different reasons.

As reported in Cheyenne's other paper a day ago, wildlife was on the increase in the state.  And a scandal back east figured large in the headlines.

1925 Nellie T. Ross succeeded her late husband as governor of Wyoming, becoming the first female governor in U.S. history. She won her first election easily, but was narrowly defeated in the 1926 election during which her refusal to campaign for herself and her support of prohibition hurt her. She later went on to be Superintendent of Mints in the Franklin Roosevelt Administration. She's an interesting political figure in that not only was she the first woman governor in the US, but her career was accidental. Never well off financially, keeping her career going was a necessity from the very onset, as her husband had borrowed money from his life insurance policy in order to run for governor. She lived to be 101 years old.

1949 Harry S. Truman labeled his domestic program the "Fair Deal" in his State of the Union Address.

1959  John J. Hickey takes office as Governor.

1975  Ed Herschler began his 12 years as Governor.

1987  Mike Sullivan takes office as Governor.  Sullivan would later serve as Ambassador to Ireland under President Clinton.

2018  Leslie Blythe, well know figure and spokesperson for Rocky Mountain Power fell victim to the terrible flu epidemic afflicting the nation.