How To Use This Site




How To Use This Site


This blog was updated on a daily basis for about two years, with those daily entries ceasing on December 31, 2013. The blog is still active, however, and we hope that people stopping in, who find something lacking, will add to the daily entries.

The blog still receives new posts as well, but now it receives them on items of Wyoming history. That has always been a feature of the blog, but Wyoming's history is rich and there are many items that are not fully covered here, if covered at all. Over time, we hope to remedy that.

You can obtain an entire month's listings by hitting on the appropriate month below, or an individual day by hitting on that calendar date.
Use 2013 for the search date, as that's the day regular dates were established and fixed.

Alternatively, the months are listed immediately below, with the individual days appearing backwards (oldest first).

We hope you enjoy this site.

Saturday, October 12, 2013

October 12

October 12 is National Farmers Day in the United States.

Irrigated Wyoming hay field.

1869  First Territorial Legislature convened.

1876  Cantonment Reno established.


1918  Countdown on the Great War: The Flu Marches On, The German Navy Quits the Air but not the Sea, The British start Demobilizing in the Desert. October 12, 1918.


Women marching in a Liberty Loan Campaign.

1. General Pershing relieves himself as commander of the 1st Army and turns command of it over to Gen. Hunter Liggett. This occurred as the 2nd Army had been formed on October 10 and Pershing was the overall commander of the AEF, which had now grown to two armies.


Scene at advanced first aid station of the 325th Inf. Wounded arriving on stretchers, while in the background a German munitions dump is burning at Marcq. American Red Cross north of Fleville, Ardennes, France

2.  The Imperial German Navy flew its last airship mission of World War One.  The German navy commanded the Zepplin fleet that had been used to bomb targets in Great Britain.

3.  The Imperial German Navy remained active in the Atlantic, however and damaged the USAT Amphion and sank the Norwegian cargo ship Laila and the Italian ship Tripoli II.  The Swedish ship Ohio collided with another ship in a British escorted convoy and also sank.

4.  Shipping wise, the RMS Niagra docked in New Zeland brining the Spanish Flu with it.

5.   Fire ignited by railroad sparks destroyed Cloquest Minnesota and resulted in the deaths of 453 people.

6.  While there was no official talk of there being a Central Powers collapse, the British began to demobilize its forces in the Middle East in light of the Otttoman collapse there.
6th Australian light-horse regiment leaving Jerusalem for demobilization camp. Oct. 12th, 1918.

7.  Flu deaths were now undeniably rising.




1944  Ground was broken for St. Paul’s Memorial Hospital in Evanston.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1964  President Lyndon Johnson delivered a speech in Casper.  Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.

In his speech, he stated:
Senator McGee; Teno Roncalio; my old friend, former Senator Joe Hickey; my dose and able assistant, Mike Manatos, from Rock Springs; ladies and gentlemen; boys and girls:
This looks to me like it is Democratic country. I know now how we are going to win the West--right here.
I have come out here today to discuss our economy and to satisfy my wife.
She came out here last month--and she hasn't stopped talking about it ever since.
But Wyoming is familiar territory. As Gale told you, I visited here 6 years ago. I asked you to give us your help, give us your hand, give us your heart, send a young man to Washington that was young enough to do the job and able enough to get it done. You did it. I want you to send him back.
Today Gale McGee holds 6 years' seniority on the most powerful committee in the Congress, the Appropriations Committee. And I don't believe you people want to change horses after you have one that is reliable, you have one that gets the job done, you have one that loves your State, and you have one that your President needs to help him keep peace in the world.
Today Gale McGee holds a place as my trusted friend and confidant.
Today Gale McGee is one of the most able Senators in Washington.
When beef prices went into a slump, we had a drought all over the country, our cattle prices started going down, Gale McGee went into action. Instead of just beefing about it, and being a crybaby, he did something for beef.
He started the biggest promotion of beef ever done in this country, and he has not only done it in this country, he has done it all over the world where we are now shipping some of our cattle. Yes, he pushed beef exports. He got us to buy more beef for our soldiers, more for our schools and more for our people in need.
He started to work reducing imports. We set up a Presidential commission to study the marketing practices of food chains, and he is a member of that commission and a very able one.
Today, for the first time in 2 years, imports are down and prices of fat beef are going up. This rising trend will reach the feeder cattle people and we do not intend to stop until it does. I am proud of what Gale McGee has done to help the cowmen of America.
This is the kind of responsible government your President believes in.
Responsible government means prudent government. And that is why, as your President, I have waged an all-out attack against waste in government. That is why the first day I went in as your President, I said I will say to the taxpayers of this country I am going to give you a dollar's value for every dollar spent. That means spending your tax dollars only where they need to be spent.
Some people laughed when I started saving on light bulbs around the White House and turning out a few lights and chandeliers. But they quit laughing at me when the Defense Department savings reached $2,800 million. They didn't laugh at me.
They quit laughing when other departments managed to save more than $400 million this year, and the year is not over yet. They didn't laugh so hard when we cut this year's budget nearly $1 billion under last year's budget.
They didn't laugh so much when this July we had 25,000 fewer employees working for the Federal Government than we had July a year ago.
So prudent government, careful government, businessman government has tightened its belt. We have streamlined its operations. We have begun to do a better job for less money.
But responsibility means more than that. And that is why Gale McGee and I have been working to build Wyoming's prosperity.
We passed the wilderness bill to help preserve nature's wealth in Wyoming and the West.
You know how Gale McGee voted, and you know how my opponent voted. My opponent voted "no."
We passed the biggest tax cut, a $12 billion tax cut, in the history of the Nation.
You know how Gale McGee voted, and you know how my opponent voted. He voted "no."
We passed a bill for higher education to help meet the needs of our children, needs which have doubled in the last 10 years.
You know how Gale McGee voted. You know how my opponent voted. Well, I guess you guessed it--he voted "no."
I believe this kind of spending that we have done has been responsible spending.
I think it was prudent when we spent $11 million during the last 3 1/2 years to help Wyoming's small businessmen, when we spent $975,000 to develop Jackson Hole as a great recreation center; when we spent $80 million, this past year alone, to help build Wyoming's highways.
And there is a final responsibility.
The war on waste has a third front. For the world's greatest waste would be the waste of human lives in a nuclear holocaust. I think that you know that as one of the products of Oak Ridge today we hold in our hand the most awesome, the mightiest, the most frightening power that was ever held in the hand of man.
I think that you know just a few months back when President Kennedy sat with his Security Council for 37 meetings when Mr. Khrushchev had brought his missiles into Cuba, I think you knew that your Commander in Chief, day and night, got the best advice that he could get in this Nation, and you had selected his thumb to be the thumb that went on the button if it had to go there.
But his caution and his care and his good judgment resulted in these two men looking at each other, eyeball to eyeball, and both of them deciding that it was not wise, that it was not just, that it was not right to put their thumb on that button and automatically wipe out the lives of 300 million people.
You have 3 weeks to make your choice of what thumb you want controlling that button. You will select one of two parties. You will select one of two persons. You will select one of two leaders to conduct the relations of America with other nations.
The most important single thing in your life is peace, peace at home, peace in the world. In the 10 months since I have been President, I have conferred with 85 of the world's leaders. I have tried to reason with them. I have tried to plan with them. I have tried to submit to them proposals for consideration that would bring about disarmament.
As long as I am your President, I am not going to rattle our rockets, I am not going to bluff with our bombs. I am going to keep our guard up at all times and our hand out.
But I am going to be willing to go anywhere, see anyone, talk any time to try to bring peace to this world so these mothers will not have to give up their boys and have them wiped out in a nuclear holocaust.
We are the mightiest nation in the world. We have more bombers, we have more missiles, we have well trained men. But if we do not have peace in the world, everything else fades into insignificance.
So I hope that you people will realize that in the next 3 weeks you are going to make a choice. You are going to make a selection, you are going to determine who you want to represent you in the next 4 years. You are going to determine what kind of an economic policy this country has, whether we go backwards or whether we go forward.
Today, wholesale prices are 1 percent down from what they were a year ago. Today 72 million men are working. Today corporations are making $12 billion more after taxes than they made 4 years ago when Mr. Kennedy came in. Today the workers of America are getting $60 billion more after taxes than they got in 1961. Today our farm income is $12 billion, and you pull down all of our programs and all of our plans and you will cut that income overnight the first year to $6 billion.
Well, you want to think that over. A fellow down in my country the other day said the traveling salesmen kept bothering him, coming in wanting to know who he would vote for, for President. He said he finally went out and got 15 Kennedy half dollars and put them in his britches pocket. He said every time one of them came in and asked him, he started rattling those half dollars and said, "This sounds pretty good to me. I like it the way it is."
The future of this Nation lies here in the West, but you must have leadership. You must have vision. You must have progressive men to carry forward your plans. You have that in Teno, if you send him to Congress; you have that in Gale, already with 6 years' experience in the United States Senate. I need them both. I plead with you to go out, in the next 3 weeks, and help elect them as representatives of the State of Wyoming.
I have been to Wyoming a number of times. I like your white-faced Herefords. I like your cowmen. I know your oilmen. I know something about the economy of this State and the problems of this State. I think I have been your friend and I just want to repeat to you today what I said that awesome afternoon when tragedy befell us and our great President was taken from us, and on a moment's notice I had to assume the awesome responsibilities of the Presidency.
I said then with God's help and with your help, and with your prayers, I would do the best I could. I have done the best I could. I have represented all the people of this Nation. I have been President of all the States.
If you think I should be turned out after 11 months, you have that privilege and that right, and that is your duty to do it November 3d.
But if you think we should go forward with a program of peace in the world, of trying to love thy neighbor as thyself, trying to live with other nations instead of destroying them, if you think we should continue to move this Nation forward, that we should have vision, we should have plans, we should have programs, we should have education for our children, we should have highways to transport our people, we should have a good, sound agricultural program, we should have business and labor trying to work together, instead of spending all their time fighting--in short, we ought to have peace in the world and peace at home--if you think that, I will appreciate your voting the Democratic ticket November 3d.
This has been a delightful day. We visited many States. We yet have to go to Denver and then to Boise, Idaho, and then into Washington tonight.
I want to thank all of you. Wyoming is one of the smaller States in the country. This is one of the largest crowds I have seen. I expect per capita-wise you have just about bested all the other States, and I want to tell you that I consider it a great tribute to your people. I am deeply thankful to you for coming out.
Goodby and God bless you.
From:  http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=26595#axzz2hhsV7a2I

Congressman Gerald Ford was nominated to be Vice President by Richard Nixon.

Also on that day President Nixon authorized Operation Nickel Grass, the airlift of weapons to Israel. 

 

M60 tank being loaded as part of Operation Nickel Grass

The operation revealed severe problems with the U.S. airlift capacity and would likely have not been possible without the assistance of Portugal, whose Azores facilities reduced the need for air-to-air refueling.  The transfer of equipment would also leave the United States dangerously short of some sorts of military equipment, including radios, something that was compounded by the fact that the U.S. was transferring a large volume of equipment to the Republic of Vietnam at the same time.

This would directly result in the Arab Oil Embargo, which had been threatened. The embargo commenced on October 17.  

U.S. oil production had peaked in 1970.  Oil imports rose by 52% between 1969 and 1972, an era when fuel efficiency was disregarded.  By 1972 the U.S. was importing 83% of its oil from the Middle East, but the real cost of petroleum had declined from the late 1950s.

The low cost of petroleum was a major factor in American post-war affluence from the mid 1940s through the 1960s.  The embargo resulted in a major expansion of Wyoming's oil and gas industry, and in some ways fundamentally completed a shift in the state's economy that had been slowly ongoing since World War One, replacing agriculture with hydrocarbon extraction as the predominant industry.

We often hear a lot of anecdotal information about this topic today.  

In this context, it's interesting to note that petroleum consumption is not much greater today in the U.S. than it was in 1973, but domestic production is the highest, by far, it's ever been.  Importation of petroleum is falling, but it's also higher than it was in 1973, but exportation of petroleum is the highest it's ever been, exceeding the amount produced in 1973.  If experts are balanced against imports, we're at an effective all-time low for importation.  In effect, presently, all we're doing with importation is balancing sources.


People hate this thought locally, but with renewable energy sources coming online, there's a real chance that petroleum consumption will fall for the first time since the 1970s, which would have the impact of reducing imports to irrelevancy.  Any way its looked at, the U.S. is no hostage to Middle Eastern oil any more.

It turned out that Europe wasn't hostage to Russian hydrocarbons either, so all of this reflects a fundamental shift in the world's economy.

Price has certainly changed over time.


Juan and Isabel Person were sworn into office as the elected president and vice president of Argentina


Friday, October 11, 2013

Owen Wister: Inventor of the Good-guy Cowboy | WyoHistory.org

Owen Wister: Inventor of the Good-guy Cowboy | WyoHistory.org

October 11

1809         Meriwether Lewis, soldier, explorer, dies by his own hand at age 39.  Lewis had performed heroically with the Corps of Discovery, but he suffered from what today would be regarded as periodic episodes of severe depression.

1869  The Red River Rebellion commences in Manitoba when Canadian surveyor Adam Clark Webb and his crew try to mark off a long farm field belonging to Metis André Nault.  Nault asked them to leave and they refused.  Metis then intervened, without arms, and compelled the surveyors to depart.  The Metis had roots down into Montana and traveled for hunting as far south as Wyoming's Powder River Basin.

1890  Wyoming's first state elected officers took their offices.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1912  The film Charge of the Light Brigade premiered.  The film has scenes that were filmed at the Army/Army National Guard training range of Pole Mountain in it.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1914  Richard Daniels Jr., one of the child actors in the Our Gang series, born in Rock Springs.  Daniels would continue to act in to his early adult years and remained popular with fans, but ultimately intentionally dropped out of sight.  He died at age 55 due to the effects of alcoholism.

1918  Countdown on the Great War. October 11, 1918. The flu takes hold in Wyoming.
Private Frank Sovicki, 338407, Company C, Fourth Infantry, of 318 East Central St., Shenandoah, PA., first Amer to escape from a German prison camp. Escaped to Switzerland, October 11, 1918.

1.  Allied forces take Niis, Serbia.

2.  The flu spreads in Wyoming:


The state was now reporting 2,000 cases of the Spanish Flu.

4th Liberty Loan parade, St. Helena Training Station.  October 11, 1918.

1929  JC Penney, whose first store was in Kemmerer, opens store #1252 in Milford, Delaware, making his company the first retail chain to have an outlet in every state (the 48) in the US.

1936  Franklin and Elanor Roosevelt attended Sunday morning services at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Cheyenne.  In that earlier era, the extent to which the relationship between the President and First Lady was somewhat strained was not really apparent to the general public, although it was somewhat known to their close associates.  This had resulted from an affair that Franklin Roosevelt had with Elanor's social secretary early in their marriage. The marriage never really recovered as a traditional marriage thereafter and the pair went on to be close political partners with an unusual relationship thereafter.

1936  Educator, lawyer, author, engineer, and polymath Grace Hebard died in Laramie.

1968  Apollo 7 launched, Coup in Panama. October 11, 1968
Florida as viewed from Apollo 7.

1.  It was the first of the Apollo missions to be manned.

2.  Panama underwent a military coup.  It would remain controlled by its military for quite some time thereafter.  The democratically elected Arnulfo Arias had been in office twice before, in the 40s and 50s, but was in office for only eleven days on this occasion.

1919  October 11, 1919. Air Derby, Disasters At Sea, Strife in Russia, Newspapers by Air.
Lt. B. W. Maynard, right, in front of a DH-4.  Sgt. Kline was Maynard's mechanic and in the second seat. This photo was taken during the Air Derby.

The press was taking an interest in a particular pilot, B. W. Maynard.  Maynard was an Army aviator, but the press liked the idea that Maynard was an ordained minister, which he was not. Rather, prior to World War One, he had been a seminary student at Wake Forest.



Maynard had become an Army pilot during World War One, and he was still flying in 1919, just after the war was over.  He was killed in 1922 preforming stunts in a "flying circus" event.


Too much was going on, on this day, otherwise to really summarize it. Even the headlines of the papers were a mess.


One new oddity was, however, that the Casper Herald flew newspapers to Riverton, showing how much the Air Deby had captivated the imagination of the state.



2015:  Casper's Balefill Fire was rolling.

Holscher's Hub: Casper Bale Fill Fire, October, 11 2015

Holscher's Hub: Casper Bale Fill Fire, October 2015










































































2019  International Day of the Girl Child.



Elsewhere:

1649  The Sack of Wexford occurred in which the English New Model Army troops stormed the town of Wexford, Ireland and killed over 2,000 Irish Confederate troops and 1,500 civilians. [/quote]

One of the casualties of the New Model Army that day was a direct ancestor of mine, a resident of Wexford armed to resist the Cromwellian forces.