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.
