December 10

Today is Wyoming Day

1838  Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar inaugurated the second president of the Republic of Texas.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1869  Territorial Governor John Campbell signed a bill giving full suffrage and public rights to women in Wyoming.  This was the first law passed in the US explicitly granting to women the franchise.  The bill provided that:  ""Every woman of the age of eighteen years residing in this territory, may, at every election cast her vote; and her right to the elective franchise and to hold office under the election laws of the territory shall be the same of electors."  Gov. Campbell's comment, in signing the bill into law, was:  "I have the honor to inform the Council that I have approved 'An act to grant to the Women of Wyoming Territory the right of Suffrage and to hold office.'" 


Critics, or perhaps rather cynics, have sometimes claimed that this served no other purpose other than to raise the number of citizens eligible to vote, and thereby increase the likelihood of early admission as a state, but that view doesn't reflect the early reality of this move.  In fact, Wyoming's politicians were notably egalitarian for the time and too women as members of the body politic seriously.  During the Territorial period women even served on juries, something that was very unusual in the United States at the time, although they lost this right for a time after statehood.

1869  Territorial school laws goes into effect requiring public schools to be funded by taxation.

1898  The Treaty of Paris was signed concluding an agreement to end the Spanish American War.

1906  President Theodore Roosevelt awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.

1909     Red Cloud, (Maȟpíya Lúta) Oglala Sioux warrior and chief, and the only Indian leader to have won a war with the United States in the post 1860 time frame which resulted in a favorable treaty from the Indian prospective, died at the Pine Ridge Reservation.  He was 87 years old, and his fairly long life was not uncommon for Indians of this time frame who were not killed by injuries or disease, showing that the often cited assumption that people who lived in a state of nature lived short lives is in error.  After winning Red Cloud's War, a war waged over the Powder River Basin and the Big Horns, he declined to participate in further wars against the United States, which seems to have been motivated by a visit to Washington D.C in which he became aware of the odds against the Plains Indians.  He did not become passive, and warned the United States that its treatment of Indians on the Reservation would lead to further armed conflict, which of course was correct.

While his most famous actions are associated with Wyoming, Red Cloud was born in Nebrasaka which inducted him in recent years into the Nebraska Hall of Fame.

1916 Sunday State Leader for December 10, 1916: Osborne resigns as Assistant Secretary of State, Carranza will sign protocol, Funston explains ban of rivals.
 

December 10, 1916, was a peculiar newspaper day as the Cheyenne State Leader published three editions, only one of which was regular news. The others were holiday features.

In this one, the straight news one, we are told that Carranza will sign the protocol with the US. But will he really?

We also learn that Assistant Secretary of State Osborne resigned that position in order to return to Wyoming.

The news also featured a story on why U.S. Commander in the Southwest, Frederick Funston, banned religious revivals in his region of authority.

And girls from Chicago were looking for husbands.

1918  December 10, 1918. Watering in the Rhine, Welcoming the Troops Home, Massacre in Palestine, Bolsheviks worry about Russians.

Cpt. M. W. Lanham, 2nd Bde, 1st Div, waters his horse "Von Hindenburg", in the Rhine.  Ostensibly Von Hindenburg was the first American horse to drink from the Rhine.

Back home, Casperites were learning what locals and friends of locals had done during the war. . . and a big party was being planned for the returning troops.

Note making the news, a terrible massacre was perpetrated by New Zealand troops, and a few Australians, in the town of Surafend Palestine in reprisal for the murder of a New Zealander soldier.  At least 40 male villagers of that town were killed in the event.

And the Bolsheviks, a movement that had long depended upon revolutionary citizenry, made its fear of that citizenry plain when it ordered that civilians turn in their arms.  Even edged weapons were included in the decree, although shotguns were not.

1919 

December 10, 1919. Air First and a Coal Day

The prize posted by the Australian government of 10,000 Australian pounds (then the unit of currency in Australia) for the first aircraft piloted by Australians to fly from England to the Australia was claimed by the crew of a Vickers Vimy bomber, entered into the contest by Vickers.

The plane was crewed by pilots Cpt. Ross Macpherson Smith and his brother Lt. Keith Macpherson Smith, with mechanics Sgt. W. H. Shiers and J.M. Bennett.  The plane made the trip from Hounslow Heath to Australian starting on November 12, 1919.

Cpt. Smith was killed test piloting a Vickers Viking seaplane in 1922.  Lt. Smith became a Vickers executive and an airline industry figure, dying of natural causes in 1955 at age 64.

Elsewhere, questions began to come up about the nature of diplomatic officer Jenkin's kidnapping even as Republicans continued to press for action of some sort against Mexico.  And as the mine strike ended, kids in Casper were let out of school due to lack of coal for heat.

1920 Woodrow Wilson receives the Nobel Peace Prize.

1941 Guam surrenders to a Japanese landing force after a two day battle. Japanese aircraft sink HMSs Prince of Wales and Repulse, South China Sea. Japanese naval aircraft bomb Cavite Navy Yard, Manila Bay. Japanese troops begin landings in northern Luzon. USS Enterprise aircraft sink sub I-70..

2010  Sothebys auctions a flag attributed to the Seventh Cavalry and used at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

2011 Wyoming experiences a total eclipse of the moon.

August 13

1806  John Colter honorably discharged from the U.S. Army two months early in order to allow him to depart the Corps of Discovery and lead two trappers back up the Upper Missouri.

1868  Alonzo M. Clark, Wyoming's Governor from 1931 to 1933,  born in Flint, Indiana.  He was a teacher by profession and was Secretary of State at the time of Frank Emerson's death, which caused him to assuem the role of Governor.   Attribution:  On This Day.

1869  First Republican Party Convention in the state held at Point of Rocks. First Democratic Party Convention held at Rawlins.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1896  The Wild Bunch rob a bank in Montpelier Idaho, the first crime attributed to them.

1898  Colorado and Wyoming volunteer infantry raise the US flag for the first time over Manila.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1916:  Cheyenne Sunday Leader, August 13,1916: Deutschland Sunk?, Guard to the border, Wyoming Guard sure it will go.
 

Lots of sobering news in this Sunday edition of the Leader.  Guard to deploy, French and Russian gains in Europe, and the Deutschland reported potentially sunk. She wasn't and would survive the war.

The weather was going to be partly cloudy with a chance of rain, much like our weather today, a century later. 

 Sheridan State Enterprise, August 13, 1916. All National Guardsmen to deploy to the border.

 

All Guardsmen were ordered deployed to the border, and the situation with Mexico appeared to be getting a bit more tense again.

Meanwhile, the Russians and French were reported gaining in the war in Europe, and a front page cartoon worried that Japan was taking US trade while the US focused on war production for Europe.

The Basin Republican for August 13, 1916. "Great Scott Woodrow! I've been Up in the Air Almost Four Years!"

 

As we'll see with the two following posts, the Basin Republican was one of the local papers that must not have subscribed to a wire service, and therefore published almost all local news.  It did, however, in this election year run an add directed at Woodrow Wilson, captioned "Great Scott Woodrow!  I've been Up in the Air Almost Four Years!"

1919  August 13, 1919. Rawlins to the Red Desert.

If the diarist had found the prior day a bleak one, he most definitely did today.

The roads in Wyoming were, simply put, bad and the Lincoln Highway at this time made wide use of an an abandoned Union Pacific railroad bed, that being, undoubtedly, the bed of the original transcontinental rail line which is visible throughout its old course, both in the form of the bed itself and on the ash path on either side of it.  So going was slow, and at one point a very wide detour had to be made.

At the end of the day, for the first time on the trip, the convoy camped out in an unoccupied area with no nearby towns or cities.  This is probably the camp at which Dwight Eisenhower famously told the party to expect an Indian attack as a joke.

In other military endeavors, ammunition ships that were started before the war continued to be finished.

Man-o-War, the racehorse named after a type of ship, was defeated for the first time on this day in 1919 by a horse named, appropriately enough, Upset

1922  Sunday, August 12, 1922. The news.

Quite the news day, really.

The Herald started off with the harrowing news of trains marooned in the Southwest, due to ongoing labor problems.

 

We're reminded by the page below that there was once an elected position of "County Surveyor". This has obviously gone by the wayside, which raises the question of what other elective offices are really obsolete as elective offices today.

Rules were changing for football.

And airplane rides were for the offering.

I'd forgotten there was once a town called "Teapot".

The Herald wanted to keep the Union Pacific brand off of the range.  

Recently, of course, the state had an opportunity to buy the checkerboard from the UP's successor in interest and blew it.

A Colorado newspaper was happy with something Governor Carey had done, but what it was, I really don't know.

A restaurant was holding a contest for a name.

Charles Winter was running for office.  His son, who lived to nearly be 100, worked in my office building nearly up to that very age.

The train situation, we'd note, wasn't only in the Herald.

1927  Tim McCoy began filming the movie "Wyoming".  He moved to Wyoming after college, and was briefly the AG of the Wyoming National Guard. Attribution:  On This Day.

July 28

1856  The Martin Handcart Company began its ill fated trip from Missouri, rather late in the season.

1865  Powder River Campaign commenced.  The campaign under the command of  Brigadier General Patrick E. Connor was to "rein in the Arapaho, Cheyenne and Sioux".

1866  Congress passed an act authorizing the Army to raise units of Black soldiers as part of the Regular Army.

1868     The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect.

1869  An Indian raid near Atlantic City kills three miners.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1898   Spain, through the offices of the French embassy in Washington, D.C., requested peace terms in its war with the United States.

1908.  The "Star", a Casper livery stable, burned down.  The fire was kept form spreading, but the fire was a major disaster in the town, resulting in the loss of eleven horses, a hearse, and a large amount of feed.

1913  Sheridan cattleman John B. Kendrick moves into his mansion "Trail's End."  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1914    July 28, 1914. WAR.

WAR

World War One had arrived, even as more remote press outlets reported hope that it might be averted.  Austro Hungaria transmitted its declaration of war against Serbia by telegram, something sort of weirdly akin to doing it by Twitter today, assuming that anyone actually bothered to declare war in our modern era.

Repression of the Catholic Church commenced in Mexico, and was to be an enduring feature of the Mexican Republic for decades, causing long lasting damage ot the faith of the nation.

The Royal Navy and the French Navy were ordered to capture the  Goeben and Breslau which had been under repair in the Adriatic.  The ships bolted for the Dardanelles.

The first launch of an aerial torpedo was accomplished by the Royal Navy Air Service.

1917   Cokeville Telephone Company incorporated.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1920  Pancho Villa surrendered to the Mexican government.

1932     Federal troops dispersed the "Bonus Army".

1938  Cheyenne Light, Fuel & Power began to purchase power from the Seminoe Dam.

2018  Today was National Cowboy Day for 2018.

2018  Tornadoes touch down south of Douglas and near Glendo Reservoir.

July 1

Today is Canada Day

It may seem odd to note this, but Wyoming has a strong connection with Canada.  Some of the state's early significant figures were Canadians, such as Tom Beau Soleil (Tom Sun).  The city of Casper was placed by merchants, one of whom was a Canadian.  Prior to statehood, Canadian metis travelled as far south as Wyoming's Powder River Basin, and during the early ranching days Wyoming cowboys ranged into Alberta for work.

1861  The first stagecoaches to use the Northern (Central) Route via Forts Kearny, Laramie and Bridger began to use that route, which was no doubt rather dangerous at the time.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1862  The US outlawed polygamy by way of the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act which also granted large tracts of public land to the states with the directive to sell for the support of institutions teaching the mechanical and agricultural arts. It also obligated state male university students to military training. The education initiative resulted in 68 land-grant colleges.  This act lead directly to the University of Wyoming (the land grant part, obviously).

The polygamy part of this was fairly obviously aimed at Mormon communities, principally in Utah but also in neighboring states.

1898  The pivitol battle of the Spanish American War, the Battle of El Canay and San Juan Heights, sees the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry,lead at that time by its former second in command, Theodore Roosevelt, the 17th U.S. Infantry, 10th U.S. Infantry, 21st U.S. Infantry, 13th U.S. Infantry, and the 10th U.S. Cavalry,  prevail.  While Wyoming's 2nd Volunteer Cavalry remained in the United States, this epic event does have some association with Wyoming, as some of the participants did.  It also saw the completion of Theodore Roosevelt's rise to hero status, something that was particularly the case in the West.  Also, there were a number of Wyoming citizens in the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, and one Wyoming native in the 10th U.S. Cavalry and another in the 17th U.S. Infantry whose performance in action that day was quite notable.  The 10th U.S. Cavalry, it should be noted, was a segregated (ie., black) unit, whose officers were white, but whose enlisted men were black.

1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry

Medal of Honor Citations from this event associated with Wyoming:

BAKER, EDWARD L., JR.  Sergeant Major, 10th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Santiago, Cuba, 1 July 1898. Birth: Laramie County, Wyo. Date of issue: 3 July 1902. Citation: Left cover and, under fire, rescued a wounded comrade from drowning.

Baker is a very unusual example of a black soldier in the segregated Army as he was promoted to the rank of Captain following the Spanish American War and retired at that rank in 1902.  He was in a command position, at that rank, in the 49th Infantry.

ROBERTS, CHARLES D.Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army, 17th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At El Caney, Cuba, 1 July 1898. Entered service at: Fort D. A. Russell, Wyo. Birth: Fort D. A. Russell, Wyo. Date of issue: 21 June 1899. Citation: Gallantly assisted in the rescue of the wounded from in front of the lines under heavy fire of the enemy.

1916   Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower, married on this date in 1916 in Denver.
 

The Eisenhower's at his duty station in San Antonio, 1916.

On this date, in 1916, Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower wed in Denver Colorado, her hometown.  She was 19 years old, and he was 25. The wedding took place at her parents home and was presided over by a Presbyterian minister.  The couple met in San Antonio where she was attending finishing school, and where the family also wintered.  Her father was a meat packing executive for Doud & Montgomery and had retired at age 36.  Dwight Eisenhower was, of course, a serving office in the U.S. Army.  An excellent training officer, Eisenhower was not assigned a role that lead in his entering Mexico during the Punitive Expedition, and indeed he remained in the United States in a training role during World War One.

1919.  Wyoming's state prohibition act went into effect. I can't help but note that Prohibition went into effect immediately prior to the big 4th of July Holiday.

And of course, Wartime Prohibition ironically went into effect on the same day, although exactly what it prohibited remained unclear.

The Wyoming State Tribune took the occasion to have a really unusual front page, framed by a cartoon, the only example of that I've ever seen.

Casper noted John Barleycorn's passing for all time (the papers had persistently been, we'd note, on the "right side of history" on this one, i.e., for Prohibition and its inevitable triumph, but also noted the big July 4th celebration it was planning, which would stretch over three days.

The Cheyenne State Tribune was still featuring the Dempsey fight and advertising its upcoming Frontier Days.

The always sober Laramie Boomerang didn't even note the arrival of state prohibition.

1920  A parachutist died due to a parachute failure, above the Casper airport.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1931   The USS Wyoming BM-10 was redesignated as AG-17. Attribution:  On This Day.

1955 The LST-1077 renamed the USS Park County.

1963   The 90th Missile Wing was activated at Warren Air Force Base.Attribution:  On This Day.

2014   A special legislative committee of the Wyoming of the Wyoming Legislature has released its draft report finding that Education Secretary Hill is culpable of misconduct in her office which rise to the level of making her liable to impeachment. She will have fifteen days to comment on the draft, after which the final report will be issued.

As Hill is leaving off and has only six months left on her term, it would seem unlikely that the Legislature will convene in a special session to consider a bill of impeachment.  Hill is presently a Republican candidate for the governor's office where she is running against incumbent Republican governor Matt Mead.

June 27

1893  Grand Opening celebration, featuring William F. Cody, occurs at the Sheridan Inn.

1895  Berlin, Wyoming laid out in the  Big Horn Basin.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1898  The First Wyoming Volunteer Infantry, part of the Third Philippine Expedition, was with it when it left for the Philippines starting on this day.  The process would take through the 29th.

1916   The News Around the State for June 27, 1916
 

Tuesday June 27, 1916, saw a variety of approaches to the news of the ongoing crisis with Mexico.

The Wyoming Tribune, a Cheyenne paper that tended to be dramatic in its headlines, was dramatic for June 27.

Quite the dramatic cartoon about "civilization following the flag" as well, presenting a colonial view that a person can't imagine seeing in a paper today. Indeed, its hard not to imagine the cartoon offering offense, and frankly even viewing it now, it offers it.

The Sheridan Record, however, was less so, if still pretty presenting some pretty worrisome news.

The Laramie Republican was the least dramatic of the examples we have here, but presented the same set of news stories, more ore less.

1919 

June 27, 1919. Introduction of the Volstead Act, the men of the 148th coming to Casper, an uncertain Peace, horses and oil, violence in Tennessee, Annapolis and Rock Springs.

On this day in 1919 the Volstead Act, the bill that was tailored to carry out Prohibition under the 18th Amendment, was introduced into the House of Representatives.

On this day in 1919 there was still time to have a beer. Soon, there wouldn't be.

An enforcing act was necessary in order to make Prohibition actually come into effect, something that's occasionally missed in this story.  Compounding the overall confusion, many states had passed state laws on the topic, including Wyoming, so in those places Prohibition was coming into law earlier, and with different provisions.  In some localities, such as Colorado, it already had.

It hadn't come into effect just yet, which meant that Casperites had time left to toast returning members of the 148th Field Artillery, recently discharged from their military service, just as they were also contemplating Germany signing a treaty that would end the war, but which appeared likely to result in an uncertain future.

That uncertain peace headlined the Wyoming State Tribune, which also featured an article that would be regarded as racist today, because it was.  That latter storing being how Mexican women were going to be liberated from the chains of tradition by adopting more progressive, non Mexican, values regarding their gender.

The 15th Cavalry, it was noted, was also going to appear in Cheyenne for new billets that afternoon.

Cavalry of that period was still horse cavalry, of course, and horses remained an important part of the economy in every fashion.  Advertisements for a horse auction in Campbell County appeared right on the cover of Wright's newspaper, which noted that it was published weekly "in the interests of dry-farming and stockraising in Wyoming".

Today, of course, when you think of Wright, you think of oil, gas, and coal.  You probably don't think of farming at all, let alone dry farming, although ranching is still there.

A photographer visited the Burk Waggoner oilfield of Texas on this day, giving a glimpse of what oil production in 1919 was like.

In far off Tennessee, Sheriff Milton Harvie Stephens of Williamson County, was murdered by horse thieves.  He was 74 years old and had held the office for one year.  That crime demonstrates that the value of the old means of travel, and the crimes it was associated with, kept on. The fact that Stephens was employed as a sheriff at age 74 also says something about the working environment of the day.

In that same region of the country, sort of, riots occurred in Annapolis between Navy trainees who were training to be mess attendants and local residents. The riot is regarded as part of the Red Summer, but the oddity of it was that the rioters were all black on both sides.  Mess attendants were normally black or Filipinos in the segregated Navy of that period and in this case it was black local residents who were in conflict with the sailors. The cause was that sailors had been harassing local women.

Strife and violence also seems to have broken out that day in Rock Springs.

June 24

1864   Colorado Governor John Evans warns that all peaceful Indians in the region must report to the Sand Creek reservation or risk being attacked.  This set in motion that lead to the chain of events that caused the infamous Sand Creek Massacre, The Battle of Red Buttes, and the Battle of Platte Bridge Station.

1876  Crow and Arikara Scouts with Custer's command report the presence of a large village in the Little Big Horn Valley, Montanan, which they are able to see from the Wolf Mountains fifteen miles away.  They report the pony herd to be "like worms crawling on the grass,".  They asked for a soldier to confirm the sighting. Lt. Charles Varnum, Chief of Scouts, did this and subsequently escorted Custer to the same spot, who could not see the village.

Varnum survived the Battle of the Little Big Horn and commanded Co. B, 7th Cav, at Wounded Knee in 1890.  He retired under disability while stationed in the Philippines in 1907, where he remained a reserve office.  He ultimately retired from that position in 1918 and returned to the United States.  When he died in 1936 he was the last surviving officer of the Little Big Horn battle.

1876   Albert Curtis was killed by A.W. Chandler on the Little Laramie River for sheep trespass. This 1876 killing is a surprisingly early incident in what would come to be increasing violence between sheepmen and cattlemen.  Curtis' father was a judge in Ohio.

1891  For the first time, the Chief Justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court performed a wedding.

1898   "Battery A, Wyoming Light Artillery" left for San Francisco, for deployment to the Philippines..Attribution:  On This Day.

1916   The Cheyenne Leader for June 24, 1916: News of Carrizal hits the press.
 

The U.S. Army set back at Carrizal hit the press in full force by June 24.  On the same day the press reported that the Germans had one another victory at Verdun, while stopping the "Slavs", when in fact the Russian offensive had terminated the German's hopes at Verdun.

1919  June 24, 1919. Marching towards Versailles, on the border, and home.

Wyomingites received the official news on this day that the Germans were going to sign the Versailles treaty.

Clearly, a lot of them were not happy about it and there was some resistance to it still in some quarters.

They also learned that things were still tense on the country's border with Mexico.

Fitting for the day, they also learned that the last of Wyoming's National Guardsmen, those in the 148th Field Artillery, would be arriving back in the state that night.

1921  Congressman Mondell visited President Harding.

June 24, 1921. 11th Field Artillery Brigade, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, Cigar Makers, and Mondell visiting Harding.

11th Field Artillery Brigade, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.  June 24, 1921.

The text on the photo reads:

"Just before passing in review before the Department Commander in this closely massed formation on June 24, 1921. (About 400 vehicles). No motor failed and formation remained intact, a record that will rarely be equalled and never surpassed. Tiemann N. Horn, Colonel 13th Field Artillery commanding. To General John J. Pershing, with the compliments of the brigade. R. L. Dancy, Army & Navy Photographer.".

Employees of 7-20-4, R. G. Sullivan, Cigar Factory, Manchester, N.H., no. 192, 100 [percent] Members of Cigar Makers, International Union, June 24, '21

On the same day, the employees of a cigar factory in Manchester, New Hampshire, were photographed.

As was President Harding with Wyoming's Congressman, Frank Wheeler Mondell.  Apparently that inspired President Harding to don an exceedingly large cowboy hat.

Mondell was originally from St. Louis, Missouri and had become a rancher and farmer in Wyoming, as well as a businessman involved in railroad construction.  He'd was Newcastle's mayor from 1888 to 1895 and served in Congress from 1895 to 1896 and then again from 1899 to 1923.  He was the House majority leader in the 66th and 67th Congresses.

1939  The first performance of the Cody night rodeo occurred.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

2016:  The British vote to leave the European Union
 

 From another era, but seemingly the way a little over half the population of the United Kingdom viewed events to some exent.

Fueled at least in part by a feeling that the membership in the EU had subjected the island nation to a level of immigration from the Middle East that it could not absorb, and further stoked by long discontent with statist European EU administration that clashed with the more democratic British tradition, the British voting population voted to get out of the EU.  This was only the fourth referendum in the UK's history, one of the other four, ironically, being one in the 1970s on whether or not the UK should join. 

Opposition to leaving the European Union was the stated policy of both the Labour and the Conservative parties and so the success of the Brexit position came against the influence of Britain's oldest most established parties, showing perhaps how deep the resentment against the EU had become.  Much of the opposition platform was focused on the unknown economic impact of leaving, showing what we stated in a post yesterday is in fact, a fact; people don't focus that much on economics on these sorts of decisions, which are more about a sense of nationhood and emotion than currency.  The British basically voted to try to make sure their island nation, or nations, remained theirs rather than moving into a less certain national future.  While this seems to have come to a surprise to many, and indeed I'm surprised that Brexit won, it may reflect a rising tide of such sentiment across Europe, which now has more countries, albeit within the EU, than it did in 1990 when the Soviet Union fell.

This has caused some speculation that Scotch seperatists might now succeed in taking Scotland out of the UK so it can get back into the EU, and even if Northern Ireland might now reunite with Ireland.  I doubt that very much and think the speculation about nationalistic Ulster particularly misplaced.  Indeed, by far the more likely, if still not likely, national implications is that forces wanting to take Germany, France or Ireland out of the EU will now have some success with their movements.  Again, I don't think that likely to occur, but then I didn't think this was likely either.

You really can't fault an independent nation for wanting to go on its own. So wise or not, a raise of the beer glass to the UK and best wishes to it.

On the implication, nobody knows what they will be other than some short term financial ups and downs which may come to nothing.  More likely is that the UK will simply quietly exist over the next several years and resume independent relations with a somewhat spiteful European Union thereafter. That will likely cause a downturn in the European economy in the short term but a rise in it in the long term as it will free the UK from some of the EU's less rational economic policies. And this might cause the EU to reconsider some of its approach to how it does things which have been heavily bureaucratic and not very democratic.

One immediate impact has been political fallout, and as part of  that Conservative British Prime Minister David Cameron, who successfully shepherded the nation through the recent referendum in Scotland about whether that nation would stay or leave the United Kingdom, resigned, or rather indicated that he will be stepping down.  Cameron has been quite unpopular recently and not all of his "conservative" position have really been that and to some extent his unpopularity may have been a partial source of the Brexit vote.  He'll be leaving in October, and indicated in his departing speech:  "A negotiation with the European Union will need to begin under a new prime minister and I think it's right that this new prime minister takes the decision about when to trigger Article 50 and start the formal and legal process of leaving the EU".  He was gracious in his departure and understandably is leaving this for the next administration to handle.  It'll be interesting to see how in fact it is handled, as the Brexit vote did not succeed by a huge margin and Parliament is not technically bound to follow it, although it seems like it will.

In regard to politicians, perhaps the oddest commentary came from Donald Trump, who is oddly enough in Scotland right now.  Most American politicians would be wise enough to shut up on events of this type, but some have seen the hard right political movements in  Europe, and this is sort of (and sort of not) in that category, as part of the same general societal movement that brought Trump into the position of GOP nominee. Trump congratulated the  Brexit vote and then noted that if the pound fell it would be good for one of his golf courses in Scotland.