Today is Law Day in the United States, an observance created by the American Bar Association in the 1950s which was designed to counter Communist celebrations of May Day with a day dedicated to the rule of law.
1707 Parliament passes the Act of Union forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain.
1839 An 18 man party from Peoria, Illinois, under the leadership of Thomas J. Farnham, leaves Independence, Missouri, bound for Oregon.
1867 The Cheyenne leader, in boosterism typical for the day, declared Wyoming to be a "cattleman's paradise", citing to the grass and abundant water.
1868 Martha Jane Cannary, "Calamity Jane", arrived in Ft. Bridger.
1869 The Laramie Daily Sentinel starts publication: Attribution: On This Day.
1883 William F. Cody put on his first Wild West Show.
1898 The US defeats the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay, in the opening battle of the Spanish American War. The Philippines would see the deployment of Wyoming volunteers by the end of the year when the Philippine Insurrection rapidly followed the Spanish American War.
1900 The Scofield mine disaster kills over 200 men in Scofield, Utah.
1903 Basin incorporated. Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.
1909 Cheyenne replaces its volunteer fire department with a full time paid department. Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.
1916 Sinclair Oil Corporation founded on this day in 1916
Sinclair Oil Corporation, which recently announced a major turnaround at
its refinery in Casper Wyoming, was founded on this day in 1916.
The founder of the company, Harry F. Sinclair, created the company by merging the assets of eleven small petroleum companies.
The company has long had a presence in Wyoming with even a town being named after it.
1918 Casper Daily Press for May 1, 1918.
We return today to the Casper newspaper.
The headline was correct, actually. The Germans were stalling out massively in the second stage of the 1918 spring offensive. And they were making a massive effort, commencing on May 1, to move large numbers of troops to the West.
Not that this didn't pose its challenges. Only yesterday the Germans had help Ukraine take Sevastopol from the putative Crimean soviet republic. This was accompanied by the Ukrainian navy moving its ships out of harms way for the time being, although the Germans occupied those that were left. Lenin ordered their commander to scuttle them, and he refused, showing a Ukrainian navy that proved more loyal to Ukraine in 1918 than it did a couple of years back when it basically defected to Russia. And the Germans were fighting in Finland against the Red Finns for the White Finns.
Nonetheless, they were moving troops west now, which they should have done months ago. Having taken massive casualties in the spring offensive, they had little choice.
Eddie Rickenbacker, who really was a race car driver, made his appearance in the paper as a fighter pilot on this day, at least in the local paper, for the first time, thereby achieving the role for which he is remembered.
And Mother's Day was coming up.
1920 It was announced that Cheyenne was to become a principal stop on the new U.S. Air Mail service route.
1923 Frances Beard became State Historian. Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.
1980 Fort Sanders was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
2017 A complete freeze on state hiring commences.
