February 23

1540   Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado began his unsuccessful search for the fabled Seven Cities of Gold in the American Southwest. Antonio de Mendoza, Viceroy of Mexico, sent Francisco Coronado overland to search for the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola in present day New Mexico.  A dramatic mounted exploration, to say the least.

1836  The siege of the Alamo began.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1847     U.S. troops under Gen. Zachary Taylor defeated Mexican general Santa Anna at the Battle of Buena Vista in Mexico.

1905  A creamery in Cheyenne began selling pasteurized milk.

The benefits of pasteurization, and the feature of a local creamery, are things that are almost wholly forgotten today.  Today, most milk is transported quite some distance before it is sold in a local store, but as recently as the 1950s, most significantly sized towns in Wyoming had a creamery, that being a local business that bought raw milk, pasteurized it, and sold it.  Here's an example of such a (former) facility in Casper.

Pasteurization, a process by which a liquid is heated and then rapidly cooled, was a major innovation in food safety, and is commonly used today for most dairy products and some beer.  The ability of a local facility to sell pasteurized milk was no doubt a major boon for local consumers in Cheyenne.  Now, however, there's a movement to sell certain products directly from farms and outside the food safety system.  Raw milk isn't something that a person usually encounters in Wyoming (unless a person lives on a farm or ranch that actually has a dairy cow, which few do) but it's a growing movement nationwide.  Not too surprisingly, there have been some health issues associated with it.

1917   The National Vocational Act (Smith Hughes Act) signed into law.
 

The National Vocational Act was the first American law to provide a direct Federal role in high school education.  It was signed into law on this day, in 1917.

Student in technical high school, 1916.

The act was aimed at students who were going to work directly on farms but its scope was broader than that and it had the support of Labor, which helped cause it to pass.  It's stated purpose was to support those "who have entered upon or who are preparing to enter upon the work of the farm" and funding was provided for that goal.  It also included mandated the creation of a Board of Vocational Education in each state, which lead to some districts combining their existing board with that purpose and others having a separate board just for that purpose.

 Girls in automobile mechanics class, Central High, Washington D. C., 1927.

The act was a really significant development in terms of the evolution of the relationship between the states and the Federal government. There had been prior acts on the topic of education, including a vocational act that this was a successor to, but this was the first Federal provision to directly impose requirements upon a state in regards to education and the first to provide Federal funding to the states.  In these regards, this was a fairly revolutionary Progressive Era step and its one that lead to later broader steps, perhaps culminating in the creation of the US Department of Education in 1979. We are now so used to the concept of that cabinet level entity existing that its hard to imagine that its a relatively recent arrival in terms of Federal agencies.  It's start can be seen to exist with the passage of the Smith Hughes Act into law in this day, one hundred years ago as of this posting.

Seal of the Department of Education.

 

Every school district in Wyoming continues to have at least some vocational training.  Natrona County has a completely separate high school campus, recently built, for scientific and vocational training.

1921  February 23, 1921. Pioneering Air Mail Flight.

Lex Anteinternet: February 23, 1921. Ridiculing customs.: 

February 23, 1921. Ridiculing customs.

We always reform or ridicule, not the customs of the remote past, but the new customs of the day before yesterday, which are just beginning to grow old. This is true of furniture and parents.

G.K. Chesterton, Chicago Tribune, February 23, 1921.

Jack Knight. Note the heavy early aviator's dress.  Knight died in 1945 of malaria contracted on a trip to South American that was working on securing a reliable source of rubber to the wartime allies.

The United States Postal Service completed a pioneering air mail run in which Jack Knight, taking off on the prior day from San Francisco, landed at Cheyenne, Wyoming, and then took off and flew through the night to Chicago.  Ernest M. Allison ten took over and lasted at 4:50 p.m. at Roosevelt Field at Long Island, New York.

The flight demonstrated that air mail was feasible.

While successful, it was also conducted under extreme odds, involving arctic conditions and nighttime fires to light the way.  Knight was justifiably regarded as a hero during his lifetime.

1941  Blizzard conditions stalled traffic in the state.  This was, of course, in the pre 4x4 days.  Prior to World War Two 4x4 vehicles were almost unheard of and were limited to industrial vehicles. Almost every vehicle was a rear wheel drive 2x4.

1948  An earthquake in Yellowstone was felt regionally.

1950  A special session of the legislature called to deal with the problem of grasshopper infestation concluded.

1969  Gov. Hathaway signed into law a State severance tax bill. The bill had been extremely controversial, with there being strong arguments by the opposition that passing it would cause Wyoming's extractive industries to greatly reduce their activity. The arguments failed to stop the bill, and the severance tax did not greatly impact the extractive industries.  Today, Wyoming's is nearly entirely funded by severance taxes.

1985  The Bison adopted as the state mammal.

1990  First Day of Issue Ceremony  for the stamp based on Conrad Schwiering's painting High Mountain Meadows held in Cheyenne.