December 9

1716   Martín de Alarcón, founder of San Antonio, appointed governor of Texas.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1854 The poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, published.

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

2.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

3.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

4.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air,
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

5.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

6.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honor the charge they made,
Honor the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred.

1867 The capital of Colorado Territory was moved from Golden to Denver.

1869  Governor Campbell approved the design for the Territorial Seal.  The Territorial Seal would continue on to be used to some extent after statehood, as the first State Seal was subject to extensive controversy as competing Senators submitted alternative variants, and Governor Barber was left with a mess.  This was, moreover, more than a little significant, as during this era State seals were used for National bank notes. Wyoming's therefore, carried the Territorial Seal in at least some instances after statehood.

A very fine article on the topic of the State Seal appears in the Vol 84, No 2, Spring 2012 , Annals of Wyoming, by former geology professor Peter Huntoon.

1873  The Territorial Legislature approved a measure moving the seat of Sweetwater County from South Pass City to Green River.

1890  A bill for the admission of Idaho and  Wyoming as states was introduced into Congress.

1898  A post office was established at Garrett.  Attribution. Wyoming State Historical Society.

1912  Henry A. Coffeen, former Wyoming Congressman, died. 

1941 China declared war on Japan, Germany and Italy. Hitler ordered US ships torpedoed. The 19th Bombardment Group attacks Japanese ships off the coast of Vigan, Luzon. USS Swordfish (SS-193) makes initial U.S. submarine attack on Japanese ship. Canadian government orders blackouts and closes Japanese-Canadian newspapers and schools. China declares war on Japan, after nine years of "incidents". They were, of course, already at war. Cuba, Guatemala, the Philippine Commonwealth, and the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea also declare war on Japan. Korea, of course, is already occupied by Japan. Japanese troops from Kwajelein occupy Tarawa in the Gilberts. Japanese bomb Nichols Field on Luzon. Japanese capture Khota Baru airfield on Malaya. Siam agrees to a cease fire with Japan, signaling an early defeat there. Japanese ground forces attack across the frontier of the New Territories; capture the key position of Shing Mun Redoubt; D Company of The Winnipeg Grenadiers dispatched to the mainland to strengthen this sector.

1960  Edwin Keith Thompson, former Wyoming Congressman, and Senator elect at the time of his death, died.

1976  A 5.1 earthquake occurred in Yellowstone National Park.

October 22

1812  Robert Stuart and a small party of Astorians crossed South Pass, making them the first Euro-Americans to do so.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1844 Louis Riel, Metis leader, Montana school teacher, was born, the eldest of eleven children, in a log cabin near St-Boniface, Manitoba.

1861 The first telegraph line linking West & East coasts of the US was completed.  The route went along the Oregon Trail.

1885 The Canadian Judicial Committee of the Privy Council rules against the appeal of Louis Riel's sentence resulting from the Metis Rebellion..

1943  Faced with the shortages caused by wartime,  the Green River Sportsman's Club discussed ammunition shortage situation and a rumored black market operating in the vicinity.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1964  Richard Nixon campaigned in Wyoming for Barry Goldwater. Attribution:  On This Day.

If anyone has the specifics on this item, I'd really appreciate knowing them. 

October 15

1887  Mail service discontinued between South Pass City and Lander.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1919  October 15, 1919. Airplane Mania

The 1919 Air Derby was still on and Lt. Maynard, who had one the transcontinental one way contest, was flying back across the United States to the east to hero's accolades.

And, as has been seen from other recent issues of these century old papers, the flying mania was spreading.  Just a few days ago a couple of papers were making deliveries to their outlying subscribers by airplane.  Today the Mrs. Mildred Chaplin, nee Harris, was in the news concerning an airborne event.

Harris in 1919

Harris was a Cheyenne native and at this point, one year into her marriage with Chaplin, was already separated from him or about to be, in spite of Harris' determination to save the marriage.

The marriage would end in 1920.  The whole affair provides an interesting insight into how certain news regarding celebrities varies from era to era, as the entire matter was really fairly scandalous.  Harris and Chaplin met when Harris was only 16 years old and at the time of their marriage she was just 17 and likely thought to be pregnant or she believed she was.  They would subsequently have a baby in 1919 who died after only three days of life and the marriage fell rapidly apart.  Harris had, overall, a tragic life, dying at age 42.

The entire event has the taint of scandal attached to it.  Chaplin was 35 yeas old, twenty years older than Harris, when the affair commenced with the teenage actress he'd met at a party.  The clearly involved a relationship that would have constituted statutory rape and which today would result in the end of Chaplin's career. At the time, and for decades thereafter, the marriage of couples in that situation precluded prosecution as married couples may not testify against each other, but perhaps the more significant aspect of the story to us in 2019 is that the marriage didn't result in an outcry, which it most definitely would now.  Instead it was celebrated and in Cheyenne it was certainly such.

The taint of scandal, or the presumption that there would have been one, is all the more the case as Chaplin's next wife, Lillita McMurry, was 16 years old when he started dating her at age 36.  That marriage would not last, and he'd next marry Paulette Goddard when he was in her early 20s. Goddard was the only one of Chaplin's four wives who was legally an adult at the time they started their relationship. That marriage didn't last, and he next met, romanced and married Oona O'Neil, who was 17 years old at the time. They married when she was 18 and he was 54, and remained married until his death at age 73.  With all that, Chaplin is still celebrated as a comedic genius (I really don't see it myself) and is widely admired, which would certainly note be the case today.

All of that, however, may simply be evidence how people are seemingly willing to allow teenage girls in particular to be exposed to creepy stuff on the presumption that it'll advance their careers.  In the 20th Century this continued on with actresses for ever, even featuring as a side story in the novel The Godfather (and briefly alluded to in the film).  It likely continued on until the modern "Me Too" movement, and can be argued to have spread into sports.

At the same time, hope that the Reds might fall in Russia was rising.

While in the US, fears over coal supplies, which were critical to industry and for that matter home heating, were rising.

1943  The Cheyenne chapter of American War Dads founded.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1962  Construction firm  Morrison-Knudsen won a contract to construct 200 Minuteman silos over an 8,300-square-mile area of Wyoming, Nebraska, and Colorado.

1966 Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area was established by Congress. Attribution:  On This Day.

1966  South Pass was added to the National Registry of Historic Places.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1984  Queen Elizabeth II visited her cousins, the Wallops, on their ranch in Sheridan.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1991  Verda James dies at the age of 90.  She was the first female Speaker of the House in Wyoming's legislature. James was born in Ontario and grew up in Iowa.  She was an educator by profession and served in the Legislature from 1954 to 1970.  An elementary school in Casper, where she resided, is named after her.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

2004   A Federal Court rejected President Clinton's 2001 ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.  Attribution:  On This Day.

2015:  Lois Layton, a well known Wyoming bird conservationist, passed away on October 15 at the age of 92.

Layton grew up on a ranch in Oklahoma and took a strong interest in nature. After moving to Casper in the 1950s, originally just a stop on her way to Alaska, she ultimately married and founded an institution dedicated to restoring injured birds, often raptors, to the wild.