January 13

1794     President George Washington approved a measure adding two stars and two stripes to the American flag, following the admission of Vermont and Kentucky to the union.

1846  President Taylor dispatches U.S. troops to Texas in anticipation of trouble with Mexico.

1877   Corporal  Charles A. Bessey, Company A, 3d U.S. Cavalry wins the Congressional Medal of Honor for an action near Elkhorn Creek, Wyo., 13 January 1877. Citation. While scouting with 4 men and attacked in ambush by 14 hostile Indians, held his ground, 2 of his men being wounded, and kept up the fight until himself wounded in the side, and then went to the assistance of his wounded comrades.

"Elkhorn" is a common  name for creeks in Wyoming, so exactly where this occurred I do not know.

1885  Wyoming Territorial Governor William Hale died.

1888.  The post office at Ft. D. A. Russel re-established.

1890  Union Pacific carpenters went on strike in Cheyenne.  Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.

1899  US Senator F.E. Warren introduced a bill for the erection of an Army post near Sheridan, Wyoming.

1899  Wyoming Governor  Jack R. Gage born.

1918  Cold Snap
 

We haven't been putting up that many newspapers recently, but if we had, you'd have noticed this occurring.  The early winter of 1917-1918 was really cold.

Brutal Winter Weather Of December 1917 and January 1918

December 1917 through January 1918 still stands today as the coldest and snowiest December-January period ever recorded in Louisville, Lexington, Bowling Green, and several other locations across southern Indiana and central Kentucky. The 49 inches of snow that buried Louisville during those two months beats the 2nd snowiest December-January by more than a foot and a half!

And I mean cold everywhere.  From the Mexico Es Cultura Site:

The hurricane season that hit the Gulf of Mexico usually starts between April and May and ends in November. Rarely there were extreme weather events of this magnitude outside of those months. However, according to the chronicles, in the coasts of Texas and Tamaulipas was recorded a strong hurricane at the beginning of January 1918.

The hurricane destroyed the poor houses of Tampico and flooded the city, as well as the towns of Nuevo Laredo and Laredo, Texas. The traditional neighborhood of Doña Cecilia was practically destroyed. On the other hand, a cold front from the glaciers of the North Pole caused severe snowfall in the cities of Monterrey, Saltillo, Ciudad Victoria, and San Luis Potosí, among other towns, mostly on the border side.

Local governments requested the help of President Venustiano Carranza to send medicine, food and blankets to help the most population in need.

Cold in Wyoming too.

The Wyoming newspapers, or at least one Cheyenne one, had been making fun of the cold in Nebraska earlier in the week, noting how much warmer it was in Wyoming, when of course the weather changed, as it will, and the mercury dropped. For the second half of the week of January 8, 1918, temperatures were down in the negative range.  Finally around this time of the week, after having been down that low the day prior, it looked like some relief was on the way.

The Cheyenne newspaper was noting temperatures were anticipated to go back up to above 35F, which shared placement with rifle practice being introduced to colleges.  Bad weather got more notice however.

This sort of temperature would be brutal at any point, but it's easy to forget looking back a century at 1918, which shares mental familiarity with us today, that houses were heated much differently.  We've dealt with this before, but today, most Wyoming houses are heated with natural gas, a clean burning efficient heating fuel.  Some houses (like mine) are heated with electrical heating elements.  In 1918, most houses in this area would have burned coal. Some houses would have been heated with wood fires, particularly rural ones.  Indeed, even houses heated by coal would have been partially heated by wood cook stoves for a lot of the day.

By this period, I should note, major buildings started having boilers.  And some, indeed a lot of, homes also had radiant steam heat as well.  I'm really far from an expert on these even though they exist everywhere to this day, but generally they require a boiler and that requires a fuel.  Around here, today,  the fuel is natural gas.  In other places it remains heating oil.  At that time it would have meant coal.  So when we speak of a house being heated by coal, we don't mean simply burning coal for heat, although I've been in modern houses where residents did just that, or in shops where the owners did just that.

A World War One vintage poster of the United States Fuel Administration.  This period poster nicely illustrates how coal fit in.  Homeowners were being urged to buy coal early in the year.  That coal wasn't delivered, in this poster, by a truck, but rather by a dump wagon drawn by heavy draft horses.  Given the light dress of the laborer and the depiction of foliage the poster must have been released during the summer.

 

Burning coal for heat entails some factors that we don't consider here in the West much, but those who still use heating oil in the East probably do.  For one thing, you have to order it and store it.  The poster above from World War One shows that this was a concern pretty far in advance of winter.  And at least according to my mother, who recalled their coal furnace in Montreal, fleas came with the coal for some reason.

 

 Coal furnace.  I've never seen one.

 

And of course, coal smells when it burns.  Almost any town would have been smoky in the winter.  Here in Wyoming people often lament the winds during winter, but I have to wonder if some wind (not enough to blow the furnace out, which can happen, weren't welcome as they'd blow the smoke out of town.

 

That would have meant, fwiw, that most towns would have had a smokey haze above them all winter.  Indeed, one thing I didn't like about Laramie when I lived there was all the wood smoke, as so many students burned wood at the time, and I still don't like that.  It's one of the reasons why I've resisted a wood burning insert in my own house for so many years, while my wife, who grew up with them in rural conditions, would like one.

 

"African American schoolgirls with teacher, learning to cook on a wood stove in classroom."  This is an odd photo put up here only to illustrate a wood burning cook stove.  Using these is much different than using a modern electric or gas oven, but I have to suspect that most of these girls learned as much about cooking at home as they did in the classroom.  Having said that, Home Economics remained a class a lot of girls took when I was in junior high in the 1970s.

For a lot of the day, in almost every home occupied by a family, or in every boarding house, the kitchen was putting out heat via a cook stove.  Cooking with a wood burning stove is generally fairly slow, so what this meant is that the stove generally burned for hours.  Chances are that in a lot of homes the fire was stoked right around 4:00 am or so, or certainly not later than 5:00, in contemplation of cooking a meal about an hour later.  The heavy cast iron stove would put out heat for at least 30 minutes if not an hour after it was last stoked, so kitchens started likely heating up around 4:15 and stayed that way until at least 7:00, if not until 9:00.  In many homes the heating process would start again around 11:00, if children were at home or if a male occupant returned to his house at noon. Most men likely didn't, so the stove may have remained cold or lukewarm during the mid day but get stoked back up around 3:00 in anticipation of serving around 6:00.  Cooking was slow.  Some such stoves on many days would have been fired back up much earlier, depending upon what was being cooked for that evening.  And the stove likely burned to a degree until 7:00 and started getting cold around 7:30.

A lot of business establishments of various types would have had a stove as well that they kept running basically all day long.

So, lots of wood smoke to add to the coal smoke.  Neat.

1929   Wyatt Earp died in Los Angeles.

1943  It is reported that 2,600 school teachers are employed in Wyoming.  Attribution.  Wyoming State Historical Society.

2015  Legislature commences general session.

Elsewhere:

1929   Wyatt Earp died in Los Angeles.

1937   The United States bars US citizens from serving in the Spanish Civil War.   This occurred a the same time that left wing American volunteers were forming the Lincoln Battalion/Brigade, which would first see action in February, 1937.  Foreign volunteers, in addition to outright foreign military missions, saw some action on both sides of the war, with some countries actually seeing volunteers on both sides of the war.

1950  The Soviet Union boycotts the UN Security Council over the issue of which government is the legitimate Chinese government, a move that will ultimately allow the UN to intervene in the Korean War.

January 12

1828 The U.S. and Mexico agree to the border falling on the Sabine River.

1872  Grand Duke Alexis commences a hunting expedition with Gen. Phil Sheridan, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, and William F. Cody. Their trip would include Nebraska and Colorado.  He later became an admiral in the Imperial Russian Navy, but while his influence was significant on modernization of the Navy he'd be relieved of command during the Russo Japanese War.

The Grand Duke's trip to the West,. which was part of a grand tour of the United States, symbolized a type of tourism in effect at the time, which included not only hunting expeditions such as this 1872 example, but also well equipped and well funded touring expeditions.  It also provides an example, albeit a little pondered one, on the limitations of transportation at the time.  Such expeditions were grand by necessity, although not usually this grand, as the limits on transportation meant that those heading out into the wilds of the West had very limited options if they were not intending to move there permanently, and even if they did.  Prior to the very recent advent of modern travel, those venturing beyond towns were either planning on very much roughing it, in which case they were rapidly hunting by absolute necessity, or they were extraordinarily well supplied from the onset.  While trips into and back out of the West and Wyoming were engaged in by much less well healed individuals than the Grand Duke, such as the early example by Francis Parkman, they were either relatively well provisioned or pretty darned spartan.  A good example of a contrary approach was a hunting expedition into the Big Horns by Theodore Roosevelt while he was a rancher, which actually had to start hunting well before that, and did the entire way, just in order to have the adequate provisions necessary to arrive at the intended destination.

1878  First issue of Carbon County News published. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1886  An explosion in the Almy coal mine killed thirteen miners.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1915 The United States House of Representatives rejected a proposal to give women the right to vote anti nationwide. It did exist in some individual states.

1963  Rock Springs hits its record low of -37F.

1995  Wolves retintroduced to Yellowstone National Park.

Blog Mirror: Lex Anteinternet: Weather reports

Lex Anteinternet: Weather reports: Today is the anniversary of the horrible blizzard of 1888 , which holds status as the worst storm to have ever hit the northern plains.  Th...

January 11

1868  Vigilance Committee formed in Cheyenne. Attribution:  On This Day.

1886  Tom Horn, at that time a scout for the Army, enters Mexico with an Army expedition seeking out Geronimo.

1888 The great blizzard of 1888 comes into Wyoming in full force.  The storm is regarded as the worst storm in Wyoming's history, killing a fair number of people and hundreds, if not thousands of cattle.  The winter itself was the worst in Wyoming's history, and was devastating on the livestock industry of the Northern Plains, putting many ranches permanently out of business, and causing operational changes amongst those that survived.

1929  The Cambria casino dance hall opened in Niobrara County.  Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.

1970  Fire destroys two downtown blocks in Cheyenne.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

Elsewhere:

1917  Massive explosion in Lyndhurst, New Jersey
 

On this day in 1917 a massive explosion occurred at a recently constructed ammunition plant which was providing ammunition under contract to Canada.  Sabotage was suspected at the time but a commission found in 1931 that there was no evidence to support that claim.

The disaster was bad enough but would have been worse but for the heroic act of Theresa Louise "Tessie" McNamara in staying at her post as a switchboard operator and providing notice to each link on the circuit that a fire had broken out and people needed to evacuate.  She's credited with saving up to 1,400 lives.

The belief at the time that the explosion was caused by German sabotage contributed to growing American support for entering the war in Europe.  Ironically, the Black Tom explosion of that past July had been caused by German saboteurs but that was not known at the time. So the Germans were blamed in the minds of some for an explosion they had not caused, but were not blamed for one which they had.

1917  The Zimmerman Note sent

A encoded telegram was sent from the Foreign Secretary of the German Empire Arthur Zimmermann to the German ambassador to Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt reading as follows..

We intend to begin on the first of February unrestricted submarine warfare. We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United States of America neutral. In the event of this not succeeding, we make Mexico a proposal of alliance on the following basis: make war together, make peace together, generous financial support and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The settlement in detail is left to you. You will inform the President of the above most secretly as soon as the outbreak of war with the United States of America is certain and add the suggestion that he should, on his own initiative, invite Japan to immediate adherence and at the same time mediate between Japan and ourselves. Please call the President's attention to the fact that the ruthless employment of our submarines now offers the prospect of compelling England in a few months to make peace.

Signed, ZIMMERMANN

The text proposed to invite Mexico into World War One as a Germany ally with the enticement that it was to receive those territories lost during the Mexican War.  Rather obviously Germany lacked a concrete understanding as to the degree of Mexican military strength, but as absurd as it sounds, in 1915 some vague Mexican revolutionary forces actually considered, and indeed attempted, to sponsor an uprising in that territory, albeit to little effect.  And Carranza's government did study the proposal, finding it unrealistic.

The note was decoded by the British in subsequent days, as will be seen, with negative consequences for Germany.

1917  The birth of the "pickup"
 

Courtesy of the 100 Years Ago Today Subreddit and the 365 Days of Motoring website we learn that today was the day that Ford introduced the TT, that is, its Model T based pickup truck.  Or rather, truck, they weren't all boxed trucks, but trucks in general.

It wasn't simply a Model T conversion. The chassis was heavier than that of the Model T, reflecting its intended use.

Apparently it was originally just a chassis, and the body was up to the owners.  According to 365 Days of Motoring, Ford offered the complete package, body and all, starting in 1924.  The grand total for production for 1917 was three.  Yes, only three, but the following year over 40,000 would be built and numbers were always higher than throughout its ten year production run.

Pickups have always been a big deal in the American West. Somehow, however, they've come to be a huge deal in the American automotive market in general and make up a big percentage of vehicles sold each year.

1919  January 11, 1919. Casper Gets Gas (no. . . really). Women ponder keeping their jobs.

Wyoming Oil World, and industry paper in Wyoming with a circulation of about 18,000, reported that Casper was going to be piped for natural gas.

It's somewhat odd to think of a time that Casper didn't have natural gas.  When I was a kid, natural gas in Casper was so cheap that the gas company would install gas yard lamps for free.  One of our neighbors had one.  Because of the way it worked, it burned night and day in their backyard, an odd thing to think of now, although gas flares, of course, aren't exactly a thing of the past in the oil patch.

Powder River Basin gas flare.

Elsewhere airmen who would later climb to higher heights of fame were now on occupation duty in Germany, including the legendary Billy Mitchell, and Lewis H. Brereton who would have air and ground commands during World War Two.

A group of serious looking American airmen; Brigadier General William Mitchell, chief of Air Service, his staff. From left to right: French Capt. R. Vallois, Ltc. Lewis Hyde Brereton (1890-1967, who rose to senior command in World War Two), Brigadier General William Mitchell, Maj. Ira Beaman Joralemon (1884-1975, who became a mining engineer), Capt. O. E. Marrel, First Lieutenant E. F, Schwab.  Dierdorf, Germany, January 11, 1919.

Some Americans were still in France, of course.

90th Division officers Major General Henry Tureman Allen, Cavalry (1859-1930).  He'd been commissioned after graduating from West Point in 1882 and was a veteran of the Spanish American War, the Philippine Insurrection, and the Punitive Expedition.  His son Captain Henry T. Allen Jr. (1889-1971). The Younger Allen would participate in the 1920 Olympics as an Army equestrian competitor. At the time, all equestrian competitors were Army officers. And Captain Sidney Webster Fish (1885-1950), of the famous New York political family.  Cote d'Or, France, January 11, 1919.

And some women weren't excited about giving up their wartime jobs.

And of course, there were always donuts.

1921.   The 1921 legislative session for Wyoming commenced.

Blog Mirror: Lex Anteinternet: Why not John D. Pedersen?

Lex Anteinternet: Why not John D. Pedersen?: Followers of Wyoming's Legislature will note that there's a bill in the current legislature seeking to designate Freedom Arm's .454 Casull ...

January 10

1862  Samuel Colt died at age 47.

1870  Standard Oil incorporated.  Standard would be a significant oil refiner in Wyoming, including having a massive refinery in the 20th Century bordering Casper.

The Standard Oil Refinery in Casper Wyoming, which is now the site of the Three Crowns Golf Course.

1882  Seventh Territorial Legislature convened.

1888  Tenth Territorial Legislature convened.

1891  First State Legislature concluded.

1891   The Legislature approves a Great Seal, but the matter results in an embarrassing controversy as one Legislator switches his design for the one actually approved. Neither the original approved seal nor the bogus seal were used during the controversy and a later seal was approved which ended the matter.

1893  First State Legislature convened by law convened.

1899 Fifth State Legislature convened.

1905  Eight State Legislature convened..

1917  William F. Cody died

William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody passes on 
 

William F. Cody, a figure truly "fabled in song and story", died on this day in 1917 in Denver, Colorado.

 Cody in 1903.

Cody was born in 1846 in Iowa but spent his early years in Toronto, Ontario, before his family returned to US, settling in Kansas.  His father died when he was eleven and he went to work as a mounted messenger.   He jointed the Pony Express at age 14.  And he served as a teenage civilian scout to the U.S. Army during the Mormon War.  He served in the Union Army during the Civil War and then as a scout for the Army thereafter, winning the Medal of Honor in 1872.

 William F. Cody as a Union soldier.

His award of the Medal of Honor was at a time at which it was the nation's only military medal and the criteria were less severe than they later became.  His was one of hundreds stricken under a military review that was tightening up the requirements in 1917, although mercifully that came the month after his death.  The medal, however, was restored in his case, in 1989.  The restoration included four other civilian scouts.  Interestingly, although Cody was a showman, he never made a big deal of having received the medal.

 Cody as an Army scout.  His appearance here is typical for the era, including some shirt embellishments that were quite common, but not what we'd normally associate with the rugged frontier today.

After serving as s civilian scout Cody became a buffalo hunter, as is well known.  He hunted under a contract with the Kansas Pacific Railway in order to supply meat to railroad construction crews.

Cody in 1880.  Cody appears to be armed with a sporting version of the trapdoor Springfield military rifle in this photograph.

In 1883 he founded is Wild West Show, which resulted in the spread and preservation of his name, although he had appeared on stage as early as 1872.  His show toured the globe.

In 1895 he was instrumental in founding the town in Park County, Wyoming, that bears his name.  He entered ranching in the area at the same time.  He also founded the Erma Hotel.

He was for forty years to Louisa Frederici, although in the early 20th Century Cody sued her for divorce. Divorce was not automatic in those days and he lost the suit and, in fact, the couple later reconciled.  The couple had four children but Cody would outlive three of them and Louisa outlived all of them.  He was baptized as a Catholic the day prior to his death.  His funeral was held in Denver and buried at Lookout Mountain near Golden Colorado that summer.  Efforts by partisans in Wyoming to have him relocated to Cody lead to the grave site being reinforced to prevent that from occurring involuntarily.

1917  National Women's Party commences White House protest
 

The picketers would until June 1919, with police interruption.

1920  January 10, 1920. Germany signs the Protocol and the Great War officially ends (except for the U.S.). . .

And thereby avoids an Allied occupation.

It read:

PROTOCOL SIGNED BY GERMANY JANUARY 10, 1920

At the moment of proceeding to the first deposit of ratifications of the Treaty of Peace, it is placed on record that the following obligations, which Germany had undertaken to execute by the Armistice Conventions and supplementary Agreements, have not been executed or have not been completely fulfilled:
(1) Armistice Convention of November 11,1918/5 Clause VII; obligation to deliver 5,000 locomotives and 150,000 wagons. 42 locomotives and 4,460 wagons are still to be delivered;
(2) Armistice Convention of November 11, 1918, Clause XII; obligation to withdraw the German troops in Russian territory within the frontiers of Germany, as soon as the' Allies shall think the moment suitable. The withdrawal of these troops has not been effected, despite the reiterated instructions of August 27, September 27 and October 10, 1919;
(3) Armistice Convention of November 11,1918, Clause XIV; obligation to cease at once all requisitions, seizures or coercive measures in Russian territory. The German troops have continued to have recourse to such measures;
(4) Armistice Convention of November 11, 1918, Clause XIX; obligation to return immediately all documents, specie, stocks, shares, paper money, together with plant for the issue thereof, affecting public or private interests in the invaded countries. The complete lists of specie and securities carried off, collected or confiscated by the Germans in the invaded countries have not been supplied;
(5) Armistice Convention of November 11, 1918, Clause XXII; obligation to surrender all German submarines. Destruction of the German submarine U.C. 48 off Ferrol by order of her German commander, and destruction in the North Sea of certain submarines proceeding to England for surrender;
(6) Armistice Convention of November 11, 1918, Clause XXIII; obligation to maintain in Allied ports the German ~arships designated by the Allied and Associated Powers, these ships being intended to be ultimately handedover. Clause XXXI; obligation not to destroy any ship before delivery. Destruction of the said ships at Scapa Flow on June 21, 1919;
(7) Protocol of December 17, 1918, Annex to the Armistice Convention of December 13, 1918; obligation to restore the works of art and artistic documents carried off in France and Belgium. All the works of art removed into the unoccupied parts of Germany have not been restored;
(8) Armistice Convention of January 16, 1919/6 Clause III and Protocol 392/1 Additional Clause III of July 25, 1919; obligation to hand over agricultural machinery in the place of the supplementary railway material provided for in Tables 1 and 2 annexed to the Protocol of Spa of December 17, 1918. The following machines had not been delivered on the stipulated date of October 1, 1919. 40 "Heucke" steam plough outfits; all the cultivators for the outfits; all the spades; 1,500 shovels; 1,130 T.F. 23/26 ploughs; 1,765 T.F. 18/21 ploughs; 1,512 T.F. 23/26 ploughs; 629 T.F. 0 m. 20 Brabant ploughs; 1,205 T.F.o m. 26 Brabant ploughs; 4,282 harrows of 2 k. 500; 2,157 steel cultivators; 966 2 m. 50 manure distributors; 1,608 3 m. 50 manure distributors;
(9) Armistice Convention of January 16, 1919, Clause VI; obligation to restore the industrial material carried off from French and Belgian territory. All this material has not been restored;
(10) Convention of January 16,1919, Clause VIII; obligation to place the German merchant fleet under the control of the Allied and Associated Powers. A certain number of ships whose delivery had been demanded under this clause have not yet been handed over;
(11) Protocols of the Conferences of Brussels of March 13 and 14, 1919; obligation not to export war material of all kinds. Exportation of aeronautical material to Sweden, Holland and Denmark.
A certain number of the above provisions which have not been executed or have not been executed in full have been renewed by the Treaty of June 28, 1919, whose coming into force will ipso facto render the sanctions there provided applicable. This applies particularly to the various measures to be taken on account of reparation.
Further, the question of the evacuation of the Baltic provinces has been the subject of an exchange of notes and of decisions which are being carried out. The Allied and Associated Powers expressly confirming the contents of their notes, Germany by the present Protocol undertakes to continue to execute them faithfully and strictly.
Finally, as the Allied and Associated Powers could not allow to p'ass without penalty the other failures to execute the Armistice Conventions and violations so serious as the destruction of the German fleet at Scapa Flow, the destruction of U.C. 48 off Ferrol and the destruction in the North Sea ofcertain submarines on their way to England for surrender, Germany undertakes:
(1) A. To hand over as reparation for the destruction of the German fleet at Scapa Flow: .
(a) Within 60 days from the date of the signature of the present Protocol and in the conditions laid down in the second paragraph of Article 185 of the Treaty of Peace the five following light cruisers:
Konigsberg,
Pillau,
Graudenz,
Regensburg,
Strassburg.
(b) Within 90 days from the date of the signature of the present Protocol, and in good condition and ready for service in every respect, such a number of floating docks, floating cranes, tugs and dredgers, equivalent to a total displacement of 400,000 tons, as the Principal Allied and Associated Powers may require. As regards the docks, the lifting power will be considered as the displacement. In the number of docks referred to above there will be about 75 per cent. of docks over 10,000 tons. The whole of this material will be handed over on the spot;
B. To deliver within 10 days from the signature of the present Protocol a complete list of all floating docks, floating cranes, tugs and dredgers which are German property. This list, which will be delivered to the Naval Inter Allied Commission of Control referred to in Article 209 of the Treaty of Peace, will specify the material which on November 11, 1918, belonged to the German Government or in which the German Government had at that date an important interest;
C. The officers and men who formed the crews of the warships sunk at Scapa Flow and who are at present detained by the Principal Allied and Associated Powers will, with the exception of those whose surrender is provided for by Article 228 of the Treaty of Peace, be repatriated at latest when Germany has carried out the provisions of Paragraphs A. and B. above;
D. The destroyer B. 98 will be considered as one of the 42 destroyers whose delivery is provided for by Article 185 of the Treaty of Peace;
(2) To hand over within 10 days from the signature of the present Protocol the engines and motors of the submarines U. 137 and U. 138 as compensation for the destruction of U.C. 48;
(3) To pay to the Allied and Associated Governments before January 31, 1920, the value of the aeronautical material exported, in accordance with the decision which will be given and the valuation which will be made and notified by the Aeronautical Inter-Allied Commission of Control referred to in Article 210 of the Treaty of Peace. In the event of Germany not fulfilling these obligations within the periods laid down above, the Allied and Associated Powers reserve the right to take all military or other measures of coercion which they may consider appropriate.
Done at Paris, the tenth day of January, one thousand nine hundred and twenty, at four o'clock p.m. [For Germany:] V. SIMSON FREIHERR VON LERSNER

The ongoing refusal of the United States to ratify the Versailles Treaty meant that for the U.S., World War One technically remained ongoing.

Today, due to the treaty, was the beginning date for the League of Nations, which technically remained in existence until 1946.

Senate Minority Leader, Oscar Underwood.

In the U.S., the House of Representatives refused to seat Victor L. Berger, a duly elected member from Winsconson, who had been convicted under the Espionage Act.  Berger was an Austrian American member of the Socialist Party whose newspaper had been opposed to the war. The Supreme Court would overturn his conviction in 1921.

 Victor L. Berger after Congress refused to seat him in the House of Representatives, January 10, 1920.

World War One, therefore, remained very much a thing.

In Washington D. C., representatives of the Soviet Union were in town.

Mr. L. Martens, Representative of the Russian Soviet Republic and his party photographed in Washington, D.C., January 10, 1920. Left to Right Mr. G. Nuorteva, Secty. Mrs. Nuorteva, their son Matti Nuorteva, Kenneth Durant Publicity Representative and Mr. Martens.

In Russia, a platoon of American soldiers under Sheridan Wyoming's 2d Lt. Paul Kendall defeated an attack by a Soviet armored train near Posolyskaya, Siberia (entry from WyoHistory.org).  Armored trains had become a strange but big feature of the Russian Civil War.

Kendall had been born in Kansas but raised in Sheridan.  He entered West Point in 1916 and graduated in 1918, due to the shortened class cycle World War One caused.  He received the Distinguished Service Cross for his action in Siberia on this day.

Kendall would go on to a career in the U.S. Army and rose to the rank of Lt. Gen., commanding troops in World War Two and the Korean War.  

1922  The Laramie County Sheriff conducted a series of raids on stills.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1923 President Harding orders the withdrawal of US troops from Germany.

1933 Twenty-second state Legislature convened.

1939  Twenty-filth State Legislature convened.

1944  A United States Army Air Force plane crashed near Cheyenne, killing the pilot. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1961  Thirty-sixth State Legislature convened.

1967  Thirty-ninth State Legislature convened.

1989  Fiftieth State Legislature convened.

1995  Fifty-third State Legislature convened.

2017  Sixty-fourth State Legislature convenes.

Blog Mirror: Lex Anteinternet: What people read

Lex Anteinternet: What people read: We've had this blog up for a couple of years now, with the first posts being in 2009 . There were none in 2010, but we really took off in p...

January 9

1867  Laramie County created by Dakota Territorial Legislature.

1875  The officer's quarters at Ft. D. A. Russell were destroyed by fire.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1879 Cheyenne prisoners revolt at Fort Robinson, Nebraska.

1887  A blizzard hit Wyoming and Montana with record snowfall and record cold, making this one of the worst days of the worst winters on record.

1917  The Fourteenth Legislature convened.

1918 The Battle of Bear Valley, revolutionary Yaqui natives and the United States Army in southern Arizona; the last US v. Indian battle.

 Aftermath of the battle with Yaqui prisoners under guard.

The Army element was from the 10th Cavalry. The Yaqui's opened fire on the approaching 10th Cavalry troopers and the battle lasted approximately 30 minutes, with no US casualties. The Yaquis, however, who were hostile to Mexican forces at the time (which caused the battle to occur, as theYaqui's mistook the approaching 10th Cavalrymen for Mexicans, lost their commander and the capture of nine of their members.

This is an odd side story to the Mexican Revolution as the Yaqui's, by this point in that event, were hoping to establish an independent state in Sonora and were at war in Mexico towards that aim.  At the same time, Yaqui's had been crossing into the United States to work, and supplying their forces with arms from the funds raised towards that goal.  The Mexican government had in turn asked the United States for assistance in preventing this from occurring, while American ranchers in Arizona were finding themselves in conflict themselves with Yaqui parties.  This had resulted in increased American military patrol activity on the border.

Bear Valley itself was a natural border crossing that had seen increased strife prior to this event.  On January 8 a local rancher reported a cow being butchered to an element of the 10th Cavalry, which then deployed to the area.  The following day they saw, from a distance, the Yaqui's crossing into the area mounted.  The unit deployed as dismounted skirmishers in anticipation of action but did not encounter the Yaqui's so they returned to their mounts and proceeded in that fashion, when they were fired upon by the Yaqui force which mistook them for Mexican troops.  The commander of the action later recounted it, in a book he later wrote, as follows:

The Cavalry line maintained its forward movement, checked at times by the hostile fire, but constantly keeping contact with the Indians. Within thirty minutes or so the return shooting lessened. Then the troop concentrated heavy fire on a confined area containing a small group, which had developed into a rear guard for the others. The fire effect soon stopped most of the enemy action. Suddenly a Yaqui stood up waving his arms in surrender. Captain Ryder immediately blew long blasts on his whistle for the order to 'cease fire,' and after some scattered shooting the fight was over. Then upon command the troopers moved forward cautiously and surrounded them. This was a bunch of ten Yaquis, who had slowed the Cavalry advance to enable most of their band to escape. It was a courageous stand by a brave group of Indians; and the Cavalrymen treated them with the respect due to fighting men. Especially astonishing was the discovery that one of the Yaquis was an eleven-year-old boy. The youngster had fought bravely alongside his elders, firing a rifle that was almost as long as he was tall. ...Though time has perhaps dimmed some details, the fact that this was my first experience under fire—and it was a hot one even though they were poor marksmen—most of the action was indelibly imprinted on my mind. After the Yaquis were captured we lined them up with their hands above their heads and searched them. One kept his hands around his middle. Fearing that he might have a knife to use on some trooper, I grabbed his hands and yanked them up. His stomach practically fell out. This was the man who had been hit by my corporal's shot. He was wearing two belts of ammunition around his waist and more over each shoulder. The bullet had hit one of the cartridges in his belt, causing it to be exploded, making the flash of fire I saw. Then the bullet entered one side and came out the other, laying his stomach open. He was the chief of the group. We patched him up with first aid kits, mounted him on a horse, and took him to camp. He was a tough Indian, made hardly a groan and hung onto the saddle. If there were more hit we could not find them. Indians do not leave any wounded behind if they can possibly carry them along. One of my men spoke a mixture of Spanish, and secured the information from a prisoner that about twenty others got away. I immediately sent Lieutenant Scott, who had joined the fight, to take a strong detail and search the country for a few miles. However they did not find anything of the remainder of the band. It was dark when we returned to camp. I sent some soldiers to try and get an automobile or any transportation at the mining camps for the wounded Yaqui, but none could be located until morning. He was sent to the Army hospital at Nogales and died that day. We collected all the packs and arms of the Indians. There were a dozen or more rifles, some .30-30 Winchester carbines and German Mausers, lots of ammunition, powder and lead, and bullet molds. The next day when you [Colonel Wharfield] and Capt. Pink Armstrong with Troop H came in from the squadron camp to relieve us, we pulled out for Nogales. The Yaquis were mounted on some extra animals, and not being horse-Indians were a sorry sight when we arrived in town. Some were actually stuck to the saddles from bloody chafing and raw blisters they had stoically endured during the trip. Those Yaquis were just as good fighting men as any Apache...."

The battle ended with a peculiar result in that the prisoners proved to readily adjust to Army life and confessed that they opened fire only because of the mistaken identify.  They then volunteered for service in the U.S. Army, which was declined. They were then sent to trail for illegally transporting arms and ammunition into the United States, a felony, to which they confessed and were sentenced to a token thirty days in jail.  The sentence was preferable to them to being deported to Mexico for obvious reasons.

And so ended the Indian Wars in the context of the armed forces of the United States engaging in combat with Native Americans.  Strife with Indians in Mexico, however, between Indian bands and Mexican civilians would continue for at least another decade or so.  It's interesting to note that the final battle between soldiers of the United States and Native Americans would involve the 10th Cavalry, whose enlisted men were black.  It's also interesting to note that this final battle in a series of battles and wars stretching back at least to 1675 is almost a forgotten footnote that came as the United States found itself fighting in Europe for the first time in history in a war that would usher in the new era of mechanized warfare.

January 8

1790  George Washington delivered the first state of the union address.  The address follows:

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:

I embrace with great satisfaction the opportunity which now presents itself of congratulating you on the present favorable prospects of our public affairs. The recent accession of the important state of north Carolina to the Constitution of the United States (of which official information has been received), the rising credit and respectability of our country, the general and increasing good will toward the government of the Union, and the concord, peace, and plenty with which we are blessed are circumstances auspicious in an eminent degree to our national prosperity.

In resuming your consultations for the general good you can not but derive encouragement from the reflection that the measures of the last session have been as satisfactory to your constituents as the novelty and difficulty of the work allowed you to hope. Still further to realize their expectations and to secure the blessings which a gracious Providence has placed within our reach will in the course of the present important session call for the cool and deliberate exertion of your patriotism, firmness, and wisdom.

Among the many interesting objects which will engage your attention that of providing for the common defense will merit particular regard. To be prepared for war is on e of the most effectual means of preserving peace.

A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies.

The proper establishment of the troops which may be deemed indispensable will be entitled to mature consideration. In the arrangements which may be made respecting it it will be of importance to conciliate the comfortable support of the officers and soldiers with a due regard to economy.

There was reason to hope that the pacific measures adopted with regard to certain hostile tribes of Indians would have relieved the inhabitants of our southern and western frontiers from their depredations, but you will perceive from the information contained in the papers which I shall direct to be laid before you (comprehending a communication from the Commonwealth of Virginia) that we ought to be prepared to afford protection to those parts of the Union, and, if necessary, to punish aggressors.

The interests of the United States require that our intercourse with other nations should be facilitated by such provisions as will enable me to fulfill my duty in that respect in the manner which circumstances may render most conducive to the public good, and to this end that the compensation to be made to the persons who may be employed should, according to the nature of their appointments, be defined by law, and a competent fund designated for defraying the expenses incident to the conduct of foreign affairs.

Various considerations also render it expedient that the terms on which foreigners may be admitted to the rights of citizens should be speedily ascertained by a uniform rule of naturalization.

Uniformity in the currency, weights, and measures of the United States is an object of great importance, and will, I am persuaded, be duly attended to.

The advancement of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures by all proper means will not, I trust, need recommendation; but I can not forbear intimating to you the expediency of giving effectual encouragement as well to the introduction of new and useful inventions from abroad as to the exertions of skill and genius in producing them at home, and of facilitating the intercourse between the distant parts of our country by a due attention to the post-office and post-roads.

Nor am I less persuaded that you will agree with me in opinion that there is nothing which can better deserve your patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness. In one in which the measures of government receive their impressions so immediately from the sense of the community as in ours it is proportionably essential.

To the security of a free constitution it contributes in various ways - by convincing those who are intrusted with the public administration that every valuable end of government is best answered by the enlightened confidence of the people, and by teaching the people themselves to know and to value their own rights; to discern and provide against invasions of them; to distinguish between oppression and the necessary exercise of lawful authority; between burthens proceeding from a disregard to their convenience and those resulting from the inevitable exigencies of society; to discriminate the spirit of liberty from that of licentiousness - cherishing the first, avoiding the last - and uniting a speedy but temperate vigilance against encroachments, with an inviolable respect to the laws.

Whether this desirable object will be best promoted by affording aids to seminaries of learning already established, by the institution of a national university, or by any other expedients will be well worthy of a place in the deliberations of the legislature.

Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:

I saw with peculiar pleasure at the close of the last session the resolution entered into by you expressive of your opinion that an adequate provision for the support of the public credit is a matter of high importance to the national honor and prosperity. In this sentiment I entirely concur; and to a perfect confidence in your best endeavors to devise such a provision as will be truly with the end I add an equal reliance on the cheerful cooperation of the other branch of the legislature.

It would be superfluous to specify inducements to a measure in which the character and interests of the United States are so obviously so deeply concerned, and which has received so explicit a sanction from your declaration.

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives:

I have directed the proper officers to lay before you, respectively, such papers and estimates as regard the affairs particularly recommended to your consideration, and necessary to convey to you that information of the state of the Union which it is my duty to afford.

The welfare of our country is the great object to which our cares and efforts ought to be directed, and I shall derive great satisfaction from a cooperation with you in the pleasing though arduous task of insuring to our fellow citizens the blessings which they have a right to expect from a free, efficient, and equal government.
GEORGE WASHINGTON

1815     U.S. forces led by Gen. Andrew Jackson defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans.  The battle was fought after the war was actually over, the peace treaty having been negotiated and signed, but the combatants did not know this in distant Louisiana.

Celebrating the 8th of January was once pretty common in the US, noting the second time the US had defeated the UK.  The celebration fell away over time, and certainly later events, like the Civil War, crowed out attention on the War of 1812.  However, prior to that, the event was celebrated somewhat like the 4th of July, with gatherings, speeches, songs, and the like.

1877  Troops under Nelson Miles attack Crazy Horse and his followers on the Tongue River in Montana, in what is known as the Battle of Wolf Mountains.  The battle started nearly by happenstance, as the encamped troops of Miles command, which had been in the field trying to chase down Crazy Horse, became aware of his nearby presence when Crazy Horse's part was sighted, moving, very early in the morning.  The Sioux hold off the army sufficiently long for their families to escape before they withdraw.  This would be the last battle commanded by Crazy Horse, who would surrender in May.  By the end of the Tongue River battle the Sioux were resorting to bows and arrows due to ammunition shortages.

Of note, this battle is often shorthanded to claim that "U.S. Cavalry" engaged Crazy Horse.  This is not correct.  Miles' command included infantry and artillery, but no cavalry, on this occasion.  There were mounted soldiers involved in this action, but they were provisional mounted infantry, not cavalry.  Creating mounted infantry out of infantry formations was not uncommon in the Indian Wars.

1884  Territorial legislature convenes in Cheyenne.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1891  The Board of Charities and Reform created by the Legislature.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1918 Woodrow Wilson Delivers his "Fourteen Points" to Congress in a Joint Session. January 8, 1918.
 

Woodrow Wilson delivered his Fourteen Points to Congress on this day, in which he defined American war aims.

 

 

 The text of the address:

Gentlemen of the Congress:

Once more, as repeatedly before, the spokesmen of the Central Empires have indicated their desire to discuss the objects of the war and the possible basis of a general peace. Parleys have been in progress at Brest-Litovsk between Russsian representatives and representatives of the Central Powers to which the attention of all the belligerents have been invited for the purpose of ascertaining whether it may be possible to extend these parleys into a general conference with regard to terms of peace and settlement.

The Russian representatives presented not only a perfectly definite statement of the principles upon which they would be willing to conclude peace but also an equally definite program of the concrete application of those principles. The representatives of the Central Powers, on their part, presented an outline of settlement which, if much less definite, seemed susceptible of liberal interpretation until their specific program of practical terms was added. That program proposed no concessions at all either to the sovereignty of Russia or to the preferences of the populations with whose fortunes it dealt, but meant, in a word, that the Central Empires were to keep every foot of territory their armed forces had occupied -- every province, every city, every point of vantage -- as a permanent addition to their territories and their power.

It is a reasonable conjecture that the general principles of settlement which they at first suggested originated with the more liberal statesmen of Germany and Austria, the men who have begun to feel the force of their own people's thought and purpose, while the concrete terms of actual settlement came from the military leaders who have no thought but to keep what they have got. The negotiations have been broken off. The Russian representatives were sincere and in earnest. They cannot entertain such proposals of conquest and domination.

The whole incident is full of significances. It is also full of perplexity. With whom are the Russian representatives dealing? For whom are the representatives of the Central Empires speaking? Are they speaking for the majorities of their respective parliaments or for the minority parties, that military and imperialistic minority which has so far dominated their whole policy and controlled the affairs of Turkey and of the Balkan states which have felt obliged to become their associates in this war?

The Russian representatives have insisted, very justly, very wisely, and in the true spirit of modern democracy, that the conferences they have been holding with the Teutonic and Turkish statesmen should be held within open, not closed, doors, and all the world has been audience, as was desired. To whom have we been listening, then? To those who speak the spirit and intention of the resolutions of the German Reichstag of the 9th of July last, the spirit and intention of the Liberal leaders and parties of Germany, or to those who resist and defy that spirit and intention and insist upon conquest and subjugation? Or are we listening, in fact, to both, unreconciled and in open and hopeless contradiction? These are very serious and pregnant questions. Upon the answer to them depends the peace of the world.

But, whatever the results of the parleys at Brest-Litovsk, whatever the confusions of counsel and of purpose in the utterances of the spokesmen of the Central Empires, they have again attempted to acquaint the world with their objects in the war and have again challenged their adversaries to say what their objects are and what sort of settlement they would deem just and satisfactory. There is no good reason why that challenge should not be responded to, and responded to with the utmost candor. We did not wait for it. Not once, but again and again, we have laid our whole thought and purpose before the world, not in general terms only, but each time with sufficient definition to make it clear what sort of definite terms of settlement must necessarily spring out of them. Within the last week Mr. Lloyd George has spoken with admirable candor and in admirable spirit for the people and Government of Great Britain.

There is no confusion of counsel among the adversaries of the Central Powers, no uncertainty of principle, no vagueness of detail. The only secrecy of counsel, the only lack of fearless frankness, the only failure to make definite statement of the objects of the war, lies with Germany and her allies. The issues of life and death hang upon these definitions. No statesman who has the least conception of his responsibility ought for a moment to permit himself to continue this tragical and appalling outpouring of blood and treasure unless he is sure beyond a peradventure that the objects of the vital sacrifice are part and parcel of the very life of Society and that the people for whom he speaks think them right and imperative as he does.

There is, moreover, a voice calling for these definitions of principle and of purpose which is, it seems to me, more thrilling and more compelling than any of the many moving voices with which the troubled air of the world is filled. It is the voice of the Russian people. They are prostrate and all but hopeless, it would seem, before the grim power of Germany, which has hitherto known no relenting and no pity. Their power, apparently, is shattered. And yet their soul is not subservient. They will not yield either in principle or in action. Their conception of what is right, of what is humane and honorable for them to accept, has been stated with a frankness, a largeness of view, a generosity of spirit, and a universal human sympathy which must challenge the admiration of every friend of mankind; and they have refused to compound their ideals or desert others that they themselves may be safe.

They call to us to say what it is that we desire, in what, if in anything, our purpose and our spirit differ from theirs; and I believe that the people of the United States would wish me to respond, with utter simplicity and frankness. Whether their present leaders believe it or not, it is our heartfelt desire and hope that some way may be opened whereby we may be privileged to assist the people of Russia to attain their utmost hope of liberty and ordered peace.

It will be our wish and purpose that the processes of peace, when they are begun, shall be absolutely open and that they shall involve and permit henceforth no secret understandings of any kind. The day of conquest and aggrandizement is gone by; so is also the day of secret covenants entered into in the interest of particular governments and likely at some unlooked-for moment to upset the peace of the world. It is this happy fact, now clear to the view of every public man whose thoughts do not still linger in an age that is dead and gone, which makes it possible for every nation whose purposes are consistent with justice and the peace of the world to avow nor or at any other time the objects it has in view.

We entered this war because violations of right had occurred which touched us to the quick and made the life of our own people impossible unless they were corrected and the world secure once for all against their recurrence. What we demand in this war, therefore, is nothing peculiar to ourselves. It is that the world be made fit and safe to live in; and particularly that it be made safe for every peace-loving nation which, like our own, wishes to live its own life, determine its own institutions, be assured of justice and fair dealing by the other peoples of the world as against force and selfish aggression. All the peoples of the world are in effect partners in this interest, and for our own part we see very clearly that unless justice be done to others it will not be done to us. The program of the world's peace, therefore, is our program; and that program, the only possible program, as we see it, is this:

I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.

II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of international covenants.

III. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance.

IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety.

V. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be determined.

VI. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement of all questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and freest cooperation of the other nations of the world in obtaining for her an unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity for the independent determination of her own political development and national policy and assure her of a sincere welcome into the society of free nations under institutions of her own choosing; and, more than a welcome, assistance also of every kind that she may need and may herself desire. The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to come will be the acid test of their good will, of their comprehension of her needs as distinguished from their own interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy.

VII. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated and restored, without any attempt to limit the sovereignty which she enjoys in common with all other free nations. No other single act will serve as this will serve to restore confidence among the nations in the laws which they have themselves set and determined for the government of their relations with one another. Without this healing act the whole structure and validity of international law is forever impaired.

VIII. All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions restored, and the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years, should be righted, in order that peace may once more be made secure in the interest of all.

IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality.

X. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity to autonomous development.

XI. Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated; occupied territories restored; Serbia accorded free and secure access to the sea; and the relations of the several Balkan states to one another determined by friendly counsel along historically established lines of allegiance and nationality; and international guarantees of the political and economic independence and territorial integrity of the several Balkan states should be entered into.

XII. The Turkish portion of the present Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which are now under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security of life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous development, and the Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations under international guarantees.

XIII. An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant.

XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.

In regard to these essential rectifications of wrong and assertions of right we feel ourselves to be intimate partners of all the governments and peoples associated together against the Imperialists. We cannot be separated in interest or divided in purpose. We stand together until the end. For such arrangements and covenants we are willing to fight and to continue to fight until they are achieved; but only because we wish the right to prevail and desire a just and stable peace such as can be secured only by removing the chief provocations to war, which this program does remove. We have no jealousy of German greatness, and there is nothing in this program that impairs it. We grudge her no achievement or distinction of learning or of pacific enterprise such as have made her record very bright and very enviable. We do not wish to injure her or to block in any way her legitimate influence or power. We do not wish to fight her either with arms or with hostile arrangements of trade if she is willing to associate herself with us and the other peace- loving nations of the world in covenants of justice and law and fair dealing. We wish her only to accept a place of equality among the peoples of the world, -- the new world in which we now live, -- instead of a place of mastery.

Neither do we presume to suggest to her any alteration or modification of her institutions. But it is necessary, we must frankly say, and necessary as a preliminary to any intelligent dealings with her on our part, that we should know whom her spokesmen speak for when they speak to us, whether for the Reichstag majority or for the military party and the men whose creed is imperial domination.

We have spoken now, surely, in terms too concrete to admit of any further doubt or question. An evident principle runs through the whole program I have outlined. It is the principle of justice to all peoples and nationalities, and their right to live on equal terms of liberty and safety with one another, whether they be strong or weak.

Unless this principle be made its foundation no part of the structure of international justice can stand. The people of the United States could act upon no other principle; and to the vindication of this principle they are ready to devote their lives, their honor, and everything they possess. The moral climax of this the culminating and final war for human liberty has come, and they are ready to put their own strength, their own highest purpose, their own integrity and devotion to the test.

 

Whatever the merits of the Fourteen Points may have been, Wilson hadn't run them past the Allies at the time he delivered them, which was a rather curious thing to do in light of the vast amount of blood that they'd already shed in the war, and in light of the fact that, as noted in one of the newspapers set out above, the Russians were surrendering at the time and victory was far from assured.  It would take the US ten months to secure Allied approval of the Fourteen Points although the British did not accept the freedom of the seas portion.  Nonetheless the Allies widely disseminated them as propaganda.  They did prove to be an incitement to the Central Powers to surrender.

In the US the speech was positively received for the most part except that leaders of the Republican Party immediately renounced the provisions for a League of Nations.

 

1926  Wyoming Pioneer Association incorporated.

1933  700 rabbits killed in rabbit hunt at Thermopolis.

1943  Wyoming announces its first winter antelope season.  Attribution. Wyoming State Historical Society.