November 15

1835  Troops under George Fisher and José Antonio Mexía attacked the Mexican garrison at Tampico.  The assault was not a success.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1907 J. P. Hehn stepped down as Warden of the State Penitentiary and Fred Hillenbrand became the warden.
1912  The Bishop Randall Hospital was officially opened in Lander, Wyoming.

1916:   The Cheyenne Leader for November 15, 1916: Mexicans repudiate pact for joint border control, train robbed in Missouri, trouble in a synagogue.
 

Some interesting news for November 15, 1916.

An attempt at a pact on the Mexican border appeared to fall through, to the frustration of the U.S. delegates.

A train was robbed in Kansas City, Missouri. The paper referenced Bill Carlisle, the famous Wyoming train robber who is usually credited with the last train robbery in the US.  This story would obviously cast doubt on that claim.

In Cheyenne there was dissension on the rabbi that had been serving there.

1917   November 15, 2017. Siberian rumors and Border battles.
 

Residents of Cheyenne were reading today about a rumored, and totally false, revival of the fortunes of Czar Nicolas II.  The Czar, they read, was crowned Czar. . . again. . . . in Siberia.

Not so much.

Russia was descending into complete chaos however. That was real enough.

And so was Villa's revival right on the border with Texas.  His troops had in fact taken Ojinaga.

Having gone from desperate in March 2015, to pursued the rest of 2015 and 2016, he was back in top form and contesting for control of northern Mexico, to American consternation and concern, once again.  And now while we had a major war on our hands.

1919.  William Carlyle, train robber, escaped from the Wyoming State Penitentiary.

1921  A truck used by John J. Pershing in the Great War was donated to the Wyoming State Museum.

1926     The National Broadcasting Co. debuted nationwide with a radio network of 24 stations.

1937   The first US Congressional session in air-conditioned chambers took place.

1940     The first 75,000 men were called to armed forces duty under peacetime conscription. This wast the first time in U.S. history in which there had been a peacetime draft, excluding annual militia musters.

1943  Harmonica player Larry Adler played at the University of Wyoming.  Adler was a well known harmonica player.

August 16

1825  Wyoming's first delegate to Congress, Stephen F. Nuckolls, born in Grayson County, Virginia.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1918  Typhus Fears In Casper and salamanders in the water, August 16, 1918.

Typhus is something we don't worry much about in the United States anymore, but at one time we did.  Problems with typhus in the water supply were a frequent source of concern for Casperites early in the city's history.

And fortunately an oilfield worker was only slightly burned, and returned to work on the Muddy Field. 

1919  August 16, 1919. Steep grades for the Motor Transport Convoy, the 35 miles between Fort Bridger and Evanston Wyoming.

Evanston, Wyoming's well preserved downtown.

Mountainous terrain became the challenge this day for the Motor Transport Convoy, as it passed from Fort Bridger to Evanston Wyoming.

A 12% grade is incredibly steep.

Former Union Pacific roundhouse in Evanston, Wyoming, now a museum.

In other vehicle news, the first automobile race at the Orange County California Fair was held.

Back home, Frank Hadsell was so impressed with the recent cover photograph on the August issue of the Wyoming Stockman Farmer, he was hoping to buy fifty copies.

1920.  The first airplane to land at Kemmerer crashed into a tree during the process of landing. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

2022.  In an extremely contentious primary contest, overshadowed by the January 6 insurrection, incumbent Elizabeth Cheney lost the Republican primary to Harriet Hageman for the position of U.S. Congressman from Wyoming.