November 20

1837  Republic of Texas Secretary of State Robert A. Irion recommended that Texas grant copyrights.Attribution:  On This Day.

1866     First national convention of the Grand Army of the Republic.  The GAR would be represented by local chapters throughout the US, including Wyoming, leaving memorials in at least Casper and Basin, Wyoming.

1869  First issue of the Wyoming Tribune published in Cheyenne.

1886  Thomas Moonlight appointed Territorial Governor of Wyoming.

 

1903  Tom Horn hanged for the murder of Willie Nickell.  He was actually hung with the rope he made, like the popular proverb, as he braided the rope while serving time waiting for his execution.

1920  An emergency landing strip was bladed near Laramie. This was not, however, Brees Field. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1945  Mindful of an industry that had become significant in the state even well before World War One, Gov. Lester Hunt urged western governors to cooperate in selling the West to tourists who would follow the end of World War Two.  Attribution. Wyoming History Calendar.

Elsewhere:

1868  Ft. Omaha founded in Nebraska.

1871  John and David McDougall become the first farmers in Alberta.

1910  Francico Madero declares a revolution in Mexico.  Madero's revolution was a success in that Diaz fled the country in 1911. He died in France in 1915, but Madero died well before him, as he was assassinated by those loyal to Gen. Huerta, who had no sympathy with Madero's views.

 

Diaz's long life was one that featured many interesting turns. He joined the Mexican army in the first instance in order to fight against the United States in the Mexican War. He lead guerrillas against Santa Ana upon his return to Mexico. He fought the French with Juarez but was an opponent, sometimes a revolutionary, against Juarez thereafter. He came to rule Mexico in 1877 by popular election, and ironically stepped down after one term having run on that platform. He ran again in 1884 and remained in power until the revolution. While he ultimately was toppled in a revolution, his authoritarian rule of Mexico was the first real period of peace in Mexico since the revolution against Spain, and the country generally prospered. Had he stepped down, as he had indicated he was willing to do, he would be well remembered today.

 

Heurta would die in El Paso Texas, in exile, in 1916, where he was under house arrest after having been detected negotiating with the Germans for arms in violation of the Neutrality Act.

 

Of note here, the involvement in the US in the Mexican Revolution proved to be almost inevitable. The border region was chosen by participants in both sides as a place of refuge, to include both the humble and the conspiratory. Madero, Villa, and Huerta all chose the US as a place of refuge, and a place to base themselves in the hope to return to Mexico and achieve power. Tensions on the US border started with the revolution being declared in 1910, and as early as the first day of the revolution Mexican authorities were assuring the US not to have worries. Tensions would last long after World War One, and the cross border action that started before the war would continue on briefly after the war.

The Wyoming National Guard, like that of every other state, would see border service in this period, first being mustered to serve on the border in 1915.  National Guard service involved nearly constant active duty from March 1915 through World War One.

1917   The Battle of Cambrai opens, and Villa back on the front page. November 20, 1917.
 

As Wyomingites were headed towards Thanksgiving this week, they learned that the giant surprise British attack at Cabrai had been launched. The battle would feature British tanks in a major way.

And Pancho Villa was back in the headlines for the success of his old occupation, as he battled Carranza near the US border.

1919  November 20, 1919. Rumors

Carlisle was being reported as sassy and successful on this day in 1919.  In fact, his attempt at robbing a Union Pacific passenger train near Medicine Bow failed due to his own scruples. . . he couldn't rob soldiers, and he'd been wounded disarming a passenger.

Rumors were circulating that he'd sent a bragging telegram.  I'm not that familiar with the details of this story, but I don't believe that he did.

He had been lost track of, that's true.

But I don't believe that he'd made it to Casper.

The press was giving him greater abilities than he had.

1920 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Woodrow Wilson.

1941  Thursday November 20, 1941. Thanksgiving Day.

 This was Thanksgiving Day in 1941. . . unless it wasn't.

The situation was pretty confused, it's easier to read about it here:

Thanksgiving in World War II

American Thanksgiving is a fairly late Thanksgiving to start with. As has been noted here on earlier posts, this holiday is much less unique to the US than Americans think it is.  Most nations do it earlier, however.

It has moved around in the US case.  The Library of Congress's "Wise Guy" posts, summarize it as follows:

Is it time to buy the turkey? In 1939, it would have been difficult to plan your Thanksgiving dinner for 12.

Today, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. But that was not always the case. When Abraham Lincoln was president in 1863, he proclaimed the last Thursday of November to be our national Thanksgiving Day. In 1865, Thanksgiving was celebrated the first Thursday of November, because of a proclamation by President Andrew Johnson, and, in 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant chose the third Thursday for Thanksgiving Day. In all other years, until 1939, Thanksgiving was celebrated as Lincoln had designated, the last Thursday in November.

Then, in 1939, responding to pressure from the National Retail Dry Goods Association to extend the Christmas shopping season, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday back a week, to the next-to-last Thursday of the month. The association had made a similar request in 1933, but at that time, Roosevelt thought the change might cause too much confusion. As it turns out, waiting to make the change in 1939 didn't avoid any confusion.

At the time, the president's 1939 proclamation only directly applied to the District of Columbia and federal employees. While governors usually followed the president's lead with state proclamations for the same day, on this year, 23 of the 48 states observed Thanksgiving Day on November 23, 23 states celebrated on November 30, and Texas and Colorado declared both Thursdays to be holidays. Football coaches scrambled to reschedule games set for November 30, families didn't know when to have their holiday meals, calendars were inaccurate in half of the country, and people weren't sure when to start their Christmas shopping.

After two years of confusion and complaint, President Roosevelt signed legislation establishing Thanksgiving Day as the fourth Thursday in November. Roosevelt, recognizing the problems caused by his 1939 decree, had announced a plan to return to the traditional Thanksgiving date in 1942. But Congress introduced the legislation to ensure that future presidential proclamations could not affect the scheduling of the holiday. Their plan to designate the fourth Thursday of the month allowed Thanksgiving Day to fall on the last Thursday in five out of seven years.

This was the last  year of the confusion, and the split dates.  Sarah Sundin, on her blog, noted:

This was a hugely unpopular decision. While 32 states adopted the earlier date, 16 refused to. In 1939, 1940, and 1941, two dates were celebrated, depending on the state. The later original date was nicknamed “Republican Thanksgiving” and the new early date “Democrat Thanksgiving” or “Franksgiving.”

By mid-1941, Roosevelt admitted the earlier date had no effect on retail sales figures. On October 6, 1941, the House of Representatives voted to move Thanksgiving back to the last Thursday of November. The Senate amended the bill on December 9, 1941 (despite the previous day’s declaration of war on Japan) to make the holiday fall on the fourth Thursday, an accommodation for five-Thursday Novembers. The president signed the legislation on December 26, 1941.

So what about Wyoming in 1941?  Did we do Democratic Thanksgiving or Republican Thanksgiving this year?

Today.

Indeed, it's a little surprising, at least in a modern context, but Wyoming recognized today as the Thanksgiving Holiday for 1941. While Wyoming had a Republican legislature, and a Republican Governor, Nels H. Smith, serving his single term, it followed the Federal lead.

Lots of Americans were having their second military Thanksgiving.

Troops training in the field gathered around cook who is cooking turkey's with a M1937 field range.

Holidays in large wartime militaries, and while the US was not fully at war yet, this really was a wartime military, are a different deal by definition. The service does observe holidays and makes a pretty good effort at making them festive, but with lots of people away from home without wanting to be, they're going to be a bit odd.  Some troops, additionally, are going to be on duty, training, or deployed in far off locations.

As noted above, we've included a wartime photo of a cook in what is undoubtedly a staged photo cooking two turkeys in a M1937 field range, a gasoline powered stove.

They continued to be used through the Vietnam War.

Holiday or not, talks resumed in final earnest between the United States and Japan, with Japanese representatives presenting this proposal to the United States

1. Both the Governments of Japan and the United States undertake not to make any armed advancement into any of the regions in the South?eastern Asia and the Southern Pacific area excepting the part of French Indo-China where the Japanese troops are stationed at present.

2. The Japanese Government undertakes to withdraw its troops now stationed in French Indo-China upon either the restoration of peace between Japan and China or the establishment of an equitable peace in the Pacific area.

In the meantime the Government of Japan declares that it is prepared to remove its troops now stationed in the southern part of French Indo-China to the northern part of the said territory upon the conclusion of the present arrangement which shall later be embodied in the final agreement.

3. The Government of Japan and the United States shall co-operate with a view to securing the acquisition of those goods and commodities which the two countries need in Netherlands East Indies.

4. The Governments of Japan and the United States mutually undertake to restore their commercial relations to those prevailing prior to the freezing of the assets.

The Government of the United States shall supply Japan a required quantity of oil.

5. The Government of the United States undertakes to refrain from such measures and actions as will be prejudicial to the endeavors for the restoration of general peace between Japan and China.

The Germans captured Rostov on the Don in Russia and slowed the British advance in North Africa.

1942 NHL abolishes regular season overtime until World War II is over.

November 19

Today is recognized as World Men's Day in many nations.

1868  The Bear River City Riot occurred in which  parties supporting a lynched murder suspect and those supporting the lynching rioted.  The town Marshall bravely stood his ground against both sides, but there was serious destruction in the town and sixteen people died. Cavalry was dispatched from Ft. Bridger to restore order.

1909  George Sabin sentenced for Second Degree Murder for his part in the Spring Creek Raid.  He escaped on December 25,1913, while on a work gang in  Basin, and was never recaptured.

The sentencing is remarkable and significance as it effectively meant an end to private warfare over sheep in Wyoming, and it also meant that conventional justice had come to the Big Horn Basin, where previously juries would not convict in these circumstances.  This reflected in part the horror of the  Spring Creek assault, but also the fact that the Basin was now closer to the rest of the state, having been connected some time prior by rail.

1917   The Laramie Boomerang, November 19, 1917. Manufacture of Pleasure Cars To Be Stopped
 

Oh oh, resource demands were cutting into automobile production. Better get down to the car lot now!
The Spiker (soldier newspaper). November 19, 1917.

 

1918  November 19, 1918. The President's Proclamation on Thanksgiving, Wilson to go to Europe, Bolsheviks and Peace

1919  November 19, 1919. Robbing No. 19 and Rejecting the Versailles Treaty

Robbing a train as soon as you escape the pen for robbing trains does seem like a pretty bad idea.  At least one paper wondered if it was actually him.

You have to wonder what Carlisle was thinking.  How did he plan on getting away with this?

By this time, it was also clear that the proposed Versailles Peace Treaty was in real trouble in the U.S. Senate.

Indeed, it was in so much trouble that on this day in 1919, the Senate voted to reject the Treaty, with Republican opposition to the League of Nations being a major cause of that vote.

There would be a couple of more attempts, but the United States never did ratify the treaty, passing instead a peace treaty with Germany later that adopted much of it, but not all of it. The US would not join the League of Nations.

1980  Heaven's Gate, a widely panned at the time, highly expensive, cinematic interpretation of the Johnson  County War premiered.  The film has since gained some respect (I've never seen it) but it was not the success hoped for by its makers.

 Almost every popular work based upon the Johnson County War is a serious failure in some regards, with almost all of them being simplistic in some fashion and failing nearly completely to understand the complexities of what they try to depict.  While I have not seen this film, and have no real interest in doing so, I would be very surprised if it was much different.

1986  Zane Dean Beadles of the Denver Broncos born in Casper.
 
2009   The Coe East wing at Wyoming University was officially dedicated.

November 18

1832  William Hale born in New London Iowa.  He would serve as Territorial Governor from July 1882 until his death in 1885.

1869  Governor John A. Campbell proclaimed the day "a day of Thanksgiving and Praise."

1883  John (Manual Felipe) Phillips (Cardoso) died in Cheyenne Wyoming.  He is famously remembered as the civilian who rode 236 miles from Ft. Phil Kearny to Ft. Laramie following the Fetterman Fight.  Phillips is an interesting character and was born in the Azores in 1832, which he left at age 18 on a whaler bound for California in order to pan for gold.  He was a gold prospector across the West for 15 year.  He was actually at Ft. Phil Kearny as a party of miners he was left had pulled into the fort in September of 1866.His famous ride is somewhat inaccurately remembered, as he did not make the entire ride alone, as often imagined, but instead rode with Daniel Dixon.  Both men were paid $300.00 for their effort.  After this event Phillips switched occupations to that of mail courier, and then he became a tie hack in Elk Mountain Wyoming, supplying rails to the Union Pacific.  In 1870 he married and founded a ranch at Chugwater, Wyoming.  He and his wife sold the ranch in 1878, and he moved to Cheyenne where he lived until his death.

1883     The United States and Canada adopted a system of standard time zones.

1886 Chester A. Arthur, the 21st president of the United States, died in New York at age 56.

1889  The first train to arrive in Newcastle arrives.  Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.

1890  Francis E. Warren assumes the office of U.S. Senator from Wyoming.  He was Wyoming's first Senator.

1902   Frederick Remington drew pictures of dedication of Irma Hotel, Cody.  Courtesy of Wyoming State Archives via the Wyoming State Historical Society's calendar.

1918  November 18, 1918. Allies March on the Rhine and the Impact of the Loss of the War Stars More Fully In Germany

Photograph taken on November 18, 1918.

Particularly if you hang out in areas of the net where the things are somewhat pedantic, you'll see the claim that World War One "didn't end" on November 11, 1918, because the Versailles Treaty was signed in May, 1919.

Cheyenne newspaper noting the American and Allied march into Germany and the surrender of the German fleet.  This paper also notes the horrible death toll of the Spanish Flu Epidemic.

Well, dear reader, armies don't march into the "heart" of a nation that isn't defeated.  Nor does a non defeated nation, in a time of war, turn its ships over to the enemy.

Laramie newspaper noting much the same, but also noting one of the ways in which wars change things. . . air mail was expanding following the close of the war. . . and of course the war had changed airplanes much.

No, while you'll occasionally see that, it's clear German was not only on its knees in November 1918, it was a defeated nation in Revolution.

The Casper paper ran as its headline the reunification of Alsace with France. . .something that a defeated nation does is give up territory.

And Germany was getting smaller, as this headline noted.

1921 Friday November 18, 1921. No small beers, no new ships.

The U.S. Senate passed the Willis-Campbell Act on this day in 1921 prohibiting physicians from proscribing beer as a medical remedy. They could still prescribe hard alcohol and wine.

On the same day, the British suspended new ship construction in light of progress at the Washington Naval Conference talks.   And Roscoe Arbuckle's trial was proceeding.

Arbuckle with his defense team and brother.

Marshall Foch visited New York City's statue of Joan d'Arc.

Marshal Ferdinand Jean Marie Foch with mineralogist George Frederick Kunz at a ceremony held at the Joan of Arc statue in New York City. Standing at the right, is Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington, sculptor of the Joan of Arc statue, and Jacqueline Vernot holding flowers.

The Soviet Union, which was going to have an economy based on pure ownership by the proletariat of the means of production, figured out that banks were a necessity and crated a state bank.  The Soviet economy was collapsing.

1943  The Wyoming Department of Education released the results of a survey revealing that the state was short 70 teachers, no doubt the result of teachers having joined the armed forces during World War Two.  Attribution. Wyoming History Calendar.

2023.  Pine Ridge Reservation declared a state of emergency due to a rise in crime, with the same to last until January 1, 2025.

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November 17

1835  The people of Cincinnati, Ohio raised funds for two cannons for Texas that became known as the "twin sisters."  Attribution:  On This Day.

1880  Rain In The Face surrendered with 500 followers at Ft. Keogh.

1906  Eleven people were killed in a head on train collision near Azusa, Wyoming.  The collision was caused by a mistake in a train order in a telegraph, and most of the men killed were railroad employees in a day coach.

1910  First annual conference of Wyoming clergy held. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1918  Monuments that didn't happen. November 17, 1918.

American infantrymen crossing the Armistice Line at Etain, November 17, 1918.

American troops were marching into Germany while some were denying that a prostrate Germany was prostrate.  And at the same time a proposal was made to erect a monument to the Great War dead from Natrona County in front of the courthouse.

That courthouse is now gone.  Maybe that monument was erected and is gone now, but as far as I'm aware, the only outdoor memorial to Natrona County's World War One veterans came up in the 2000s, although there were early memorials of other types, those being a trench mortar in Veteran's Park, Caissons at Washington Park, and a swimming pool named in memory of a lost soldier of World War One at the same park.

1919  November 17, 1919. News of the Carlyle Escape Breaks

News broke on this day in 1919 that William Carlisle, the train robber, had escaped from the penitentiary.  He'd broken out on Saturday.

He would not be out for long.

1925  An earthquake occurred at Big Horn with the tremor felt in Johnson and Sheridan Counties.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1980  Christ Episcopal Church in Douglas added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Elsewhere:

1968     NBC outraged football fans by cutting away from the final minutes of a game to air a TV special, "Heidi," on schedule.

1970   Douglas Engelbart receives the patent for the first computer mouse.

2008     The vampire romance movie "Twilight" premiered in Los Angeles, an event destined in future years to be ranked with the Vandals sacking Rome as a really bad day for Western Civilization.

2012  From the Governor's office:

CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- Governor Matt Mead released the following statement regarding the refugee issue:

"No state should have to endure the threat of terrorists entering our borders," Governor Mead said. "The President needs to make certain an absolutely thorough vetting system is in place that will not allow terrorists from Syria or any other part of the world into our country. In light of the horrific terrorist attacks in Paris, I have joined other governors in demanding the refugee process be halted until it is guaranteed to provide the security demanded by Wyoming and United States citizens. I have written the President (letter attached) to make it known Wyoming will not accept a lackluster system that allows terrorists to slip through the cracks."

Governor Mead and other governors have a conference call with the President this afternoon.

I don't usually editorialize in these comments (although I do occasionally), but it's hard not to see this as a political reaction.  Given the lack of infrastructure for it, it is doubtful at best that any Syrian refugees would have been resettled in Wyoming.  A person can debate whether any terrorist  might enter the US in this fashion, but a person is also bound to consider the added humanitarian crisis that failing to address this situation will cause, and the added likelihood of that potentially inspiring violence in the future.

November 16

534   A second and final revision of the Codex Justinianus is published.   Compiling Roman law proved to be a difficult chore due to the many different versions of it in regards to any one particular topic.  While Roman law provides comparatively little basis for modern American law, outside of Louisiana, it was not wholly without influence to some degree.  The codification of the Roman law in Roman times provided the basis, later for the codification of French law under Napoleon.

1887  Legendary photographer of Wyoming, Charles Belden, born in California.

 

1878  The Commissary at Fort Fetterman listed the supplies on hand as being: 195 lbs. of turkey, 140 of codfish, and 11 lbs. of cherries. Date: Attribution:  Wyoming Historical Calendar.

 

1917   November 16, 1917: All the Distressing News. US Back in Mexico, in Combat in Europe, flag shaming in Lander, and Temptation in Philadelphia

The Laramie Boomerang correctly noted that the United States had crossed back into Mexico, but just right across the border.  This was something that the US would end up doing in a worried fashion for years, showing that while the Punitive Expedition might be over, armed intervention, to a degree, in Mexico, was not.

At the same time, the press was really overemphasizing US combat action in Europe. The US wouldn't really be fighting much for weeks and weeks.

And the on again, off again, hope that the Japanese would commit to ground action was back on again.

Meanwhile, in Lander, things were getting really ugly.  "German sympathizers" were being made to kiss the flag.

That probably didn't boost their loyalty any.

Villas expanding plans were also being noted. And, also, The Temptation Rag, a film, was being reported on, on the front page, something that takes a true scandal to occur now.

1942   Wyoming Senator Harry H. Schwartz introduced bill to protect Western stockmen from wartime eminent domain losses. 

 

1945  USS Laramie decommissioned. 

 

1973     President Richard M. Nixon signed the Alaska Pipeline measure into law.

 

1982  The Jahnke murder occurred in Cheyenne, in which Richard Janke Jr., aided by his sister, killed his abusive father. The murder was later the basis of a television movie entitled Right to Kill.

 

1993  A magnitude 3.5 earthquake occurred about 65 miles from Sheridan. 

 

2002  Tom Farris, who had been born in Casper Wyoming, and who had played football for three years in the National Football League following World War Two, died.

 

2015  In keeping with a request from President Obama, Governor Mead ordered flags in the state to fly at half mast until sundown, November 19, in honor of the dead of the recent terrorist attack in Paris.

November 15

1835  Troops under George Fisher and José Antonio Mexía attacked the Mexican garrison at Tampico.  The assault was not a success.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1907 J. P. Hehn stepped down as Warden of the State Penitentiary and Fred Hillenbrand became the warden.
1912  The Bishop Randall Hospital was officially opened in Lander, Wyoming.

1916:   The Cheyenne Leader for November 15, 1916: Mexicans repudiate pact for joint border control, train robbed in Missouri, trouble in a synagogue.
 

Some interesting news for November 15, 1916.

An attempt at a pact on the Mexican border appeared to fall through, to the frustration of the U.S. delegates.

A train was robbed in Kansas City, Missouri. The paper referenced Bill Carlisle, the famous Wyoming train robber who is usually credited with the last train robbery in the US.  This story would obviously cast doubt on that claim.

In Cheyenne there was dissension on the rabbi that had been serving there.

1917   November 15, 2017. Siberian rumors and Border battles.
 

Residents of Cheyenne were reading today about a rumored, and totally false, revival of the fortunes of Czar Nicolas II.  The Czar, they read, was crowned Czar. . . again. . . . in Siberia.

Not so much.

Russia was descending into complete chaos however. That was real enough.

And so was Villa's revival right on the border with Texas.  His troops had in fact taken Ojinaga.

Having gone from desperate in March 2015, to pursued the rest of 2015 and 2016, he was back in top form and contesting for control of northern Mexico, to American consternation and concern, once again.  And now while we had a major war on our hands.

1919.  William Carlyle, train robber, escaped from the Wyoming State Penitentiary.

1921  A truck used by John J. Pershing in the Great War was donated to the Wyoming State Museum.

1926     The National Broadcasting Co. debuted nationwide with a radio network of 24 stations.

1937   The first US Congressional session in air-conditioned chambers took place.

1940     The first 75,000 men were called to armed forces duty under peacetime conscription. This wast the first time in U.S. history in which there had been a peacetime draft, excluding annual militia musters.

1943  Harmonica player Larry Adler played at the University of Wyoming.  Adler was a well known harmonica player.

Novmeber 14

1890  Joseph M. Carey elected as the first U.S. Senator for Wyoming. F. E. Warren elected to a second senator for Wyoming.  At this time, the Legislator appointed the Senators, rather than the electorate electing them.

Carey was an 1864 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania College of Law, and became U.S. Attorney for the Territory of Wyoming in 1869.  He was on the Territorial Supreme Court from 1871 to 1876, when he left that field to become a rancher, founding a significant early ranch in Natrona County Wyoming, the CY.   He served as governor from 1890 to 1895, being Wyoming's first state governor, and then again from 1911 to 1915, during which time he supported the Progressive Party campaign for President of Theodore Roosevelt.

Gov. Carey in his second term at the launching of the USS Wyoming.

1897  An earthquake damaged the Grand Central Hotel in Casper.

1917   Back in the headlines. The Wyoming Tribune for November 14, 1917
 

Pancho Villa's forces were back in the headlines. . . with combat right on the US border.

A battle significant enough that it was not only pushing the Carranzaistas out of a disputed town. . . it pushed World War One and the Russian Revolution aside a bit as well.

Not that both didn't also show up.  Include a hopeful headline that the Bolsheviks were going down in defeat.

1918  And the war ends . . . in Africa. Prosperity means abolishing the eight hour day? Kaiser to be "brot" (the German word for bread . . . or a sandwich) to justice? Wilson taking jars? Eh? November 14, 1918.

As odd as it may seem, it was this day, November 14, 1918, when the Germans surrendered in Africa.

It took that long for news to reach British and German forces in Zambia, where they were still engaged in hostilities up until that time.

Paul von Lettow Vorbeck, commander of the German forces in Africa who would return to Germany a hero in March 1919 and actually be allowed to lead his returning troops through the Brandenburg Gate in full German African regalia.  He went on to be an anti Nazi monarchist right wing politician in the Reichtag and was reduced to poverty during the war and lived, for a time after it, on packages from his former enemies Smuts and Meinertzhagen, although is fortunes recovered before he died in 1964.

The same day was one for sort of odd headlines, or at least oddly spelled headlines, in the Casper newspaper.

1921  World Champion wrestler Jack Taylor of Wyoming lost the title in Boise to a Russian wrestler.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

Taylor was actually a Canadian, but he was living in Wyoming at the time.  He had just been defeated noted wrestler Jack Pasek at the Iris in Casper on October 31 in a three-hour match, so he was on a losing streak.

Taylor had originally hailed from Ontario and would return to Canada in later years, retiring to Edmonton, a city which is interestingly frequently compared to Casper, although for reasons that are unclear to me.

1935  The Crook County News reported Montana man killed by flying sheep, according to the Wyoming Historical Society's daily Wyoming post and calendar.  Necessarily, this article requires some explanation, as sheep don't regularly fly.

1969  November 14, 1969. Apollo 12 launched.

It was, of course, a mission to the moon.

Lightening struck the Saturn rocket twice as it was lifting off, taking all three fuel cells offline.  Irrespective of that, it flew normally.

November 13

1806  Pike's Peak Colorado observed by Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike during an expedition to locate the source of the Mississippi.

1835  Texas officially proclaimed Independence from Mexico, and called itself the Lone Star Republic.  The very south east most slice of the state was within the Mexican province of Mexico, and therefore within the newly proclaimed republic, although it was not inhabited by European Americans or Mexicans at the time.  Borders in northern Mexico were more than a little theoretical.

1854  The Horse Creek Skirmish when the Sioux attacked a mail stage near the present location of Torrington.

1867  The first passenger train, a Union Pacific train, arrived in Cheyenne, WY.

1890  Fire damaged a saloon in Rawlins, Wyoming (Courtesy the Wyoming Historical Society).

1895  Floyd Taliaferro  Alderson born in Sheridon.  Alderson grew up on a ranch near Sheridan and served in World War One before becoming an actor in the silent movie era.  He acted in 22 silent films and was able to transition into talking pictures. He retired from acting in the 1950s and returned to the family ranch where he painted in his retirement. During his acting years he acted under a variety of names, including most notably Wally Wales,but also as Hal Taliaferro and Floyd Taliaferro.

1901 First CB&Q passenger train arrives in Cody, Wyoming.

1916:   The Laramie Republican for Monday, November 13, 1916. Record Cold.
 

The weather a century ago definitely isn't what we're experiencing this year.

1917

The USS Wyoming becomes  Rear Admiral Hugh Rodman's, Commander Battleship Division 9, flagship. Attribution:  On This Day.

 

Dust storm in Colorado, 1935.

1918 Pondering the Post War World. . .hit and miss. . . the news of November 13, 1918.

On this mid week of 1918 (this paper was published on a Wednesday) the Wyoming State Tribune was pondering the post war world with some optimism.

Not all of which would prove warranted.

First we'll note, however, that the depiction of Germany's new borders was spot on, showing once again how remarkably accurate these World War One papers tended to be.  They weren't always, and this past week with rumors of the armistice arriving prematurely, and with additional rumors that Red German sailors who had in fact sabotaged their ships to some degree were going to come out fighting, they were off the mark more than a little. But by and large, they appear to be on in just about the same degree as modern papers tend to be.

But as to a post war economic boom. .  not so much.

In fact the end of the war brought on a mild recession that started this very year; 1918. That recession would continue on into 1919, when a recovery would be staged, but following that a severe recession hit in 1920 and lasted until 1921.  

Overall, both periods of recession were brief, and there were some oddities to them. The American recession of 1918 actually started in August, which is flat out bizarre when it is considered that the United States was really just getting fully committed to combat in the Great War at that time and that it was conscripting all the way through the end of the war, thereby creating labor shortages that were growing worse.  That a recession would hit should have been expected, but a rational expectation should have been that it would have hit in early 1919.  It didn't, and overall the first recession only lasted seven months.

The second much worse one hit in January 1920 and lasted until 1921. That one makes much more sense if we keep in mind that while the fighting ended, the war technically went on into 1919 and the United States continued to maintain and supply a large overseas army that was on occupation duty that entire time.  Indeed, combat troops finally left Europe in September 1919 but an occupation force of 16,000 U.S. troops based out of Coblenz remained in Germany until 1923.  And somewhat forgotten, while the fighting had ended in France and Belgium, it continued on in Russia where a U.S. commitment remained until fully withdrawn on April 1, 1920. 

Of course, this has an expression in what we was called the Jazz Age.  No era of any kind every has a clean break from one to another, but in this case the effects of the war in various ways lingered through the first recession until the lid really came off and the post war world set in which gave us the Roaring Twenties/Jazz Age, which continued on until the crash of October 1929.  The Jazz Age, in a lot of ways, was the preamble to the 1960s, brought to an abrupt end by the economic realities of the Great War.

In Wyoming, as is so often the case, the national economy didn't really follow the path of the national one.  The oil boom of the Great War came to a screeching halt with the end of the war.  Oil production and refining of course went on, and the conversion of Casper Wyoming from a minor oil town into a significant oil city, was permanent.  But a local recession was inevitable with the end of the war.

Amplifying that recession was a general recession in the agricultural sector as a whole.  Massive demands for meat, wool, leather, and grain came to a rapid end, and with it came an agricultural depression that lasted through the economic recovery and on into the next recession.  1919, in fact, was the last year in American history in which farm families shared economic parity with urban families.

So the paper got that one wrong.  But its map of post war Germany was quite right.  The rest of the new European map had yet to be worked out through the process of the Versailles Treaty and local effort in new nations, to include the effort of new wears that erupted following the collapse of empires in the Great War, but that process was going on at the very time this paper was printed.

Holland didn't really treat the deposed Kaiser Wilhelm II like any other interned German officer.  He became a permanent exiled resident who never did come to see his removal as justified or his actions as questionable.  He'd die there during World War Two.

And while the paper gave a positive prognosis on the news that Theodore Roosevelt was in the hospital but would recover, the old lion wasn't himself anymore.

1933   "(MONDAY)  UNITED STATES: The first dust storm of the great dust bowl era of the 1930s occurs. The dust storm, which has spread from Montana to the Ohio Valley yesterday, prevails from Georgia to Maine resulting in a black rain over New York and a brown snow in Vermont. Parts of South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa reported zero visibility yesterday. Today, dust reduces the visibility to half a mile (805 meters) in Tennessee. (Jack McKillop)"  Attribution:  The WWII History List.

1941  The United States Congress amends the Neutrality Act of 1935 to allow American merchant ships access to war zones.

1942     The minimum draft age was lowered from 21 to 18.

1943  The state penitentiary receives a contract for 8,000 U.S. Army blankets.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

November 12

1867  Peace conference commences at Ft. Laramie, Wyoming.  The goal was to arrive at a peaceful solution to strife between Americans and the northern Plains Indians.

1889  First municipal election in Newcastle. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1890  First Wyoming State Legislature convened.

1890  The United States government funded a land grant college for Wyoming, which would become the University of Wyoming.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1897  Milward Lee Simpson was born in Jackson.  He grew up in Meeteetse and Cody, served as an infantry lieutenant in World War One, and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1925.   He served as the 23rd Governor of Wyoming from 1955 to 1959, having been narrowly elected in 1954 and having been defeated for reelection in 1958.  He served as U.S. Senator from Wyoming from 1964 to 1967, filling the term of the late Edwin Keith Thomson who died in office.  Simpson was one of only six Republican U.S. Senators to vote against the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  One of his sons is long serving U.S. Senator Alan Simpson.

1916:   Sunday State Leader for November 12, 1916: Guard to remain Federalized, Villa avoids encounter with Carranza's troops.
 

The Laramie Republican for November 12, 1916: Villista outrages at Parral
 

1918  Great War Post Script. November 12, 1918: Mutinous German sailors decide to attack the Allies? Draftees still have to report.

The Cheyenne State Leader was wrong.  German sailors were not mobilizing to set sail to take on the Allies.

No, not even close.

The Casper Daily Press did better on the first post World War One day of 1918.

Like Cheyenne, there'd been a lot of celebrating the prior day.

That next day, however, those who had been selected to report for military training, i.e., conscripted, still had to go, even if the Selective Service System was immediately ceasing to classify men for additional conscription.

1920  November 12, 1920. First and lasts in sports, and in life events.

November 12, 1920: Man o' War's final run

Read about it at the above, an unfortunately seemingly inactive blog.

On the same day, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was hired as the Commissioner of Major League Baseball, and at the same time the major leagues took on their present organizational form.

This occured, of course, in the wake of the Black Sox Scandal and as part of an effort to address deficiencies in the organization of the sport and clear up its name.

Italy and what would become Yugoslavia entered into the Treaty of Rapallo. The treaty adjusted territorial boundaries between the nations, which had been disputed in the wake of World War One and the creation of the new state.  The new South Slav kingdom and Italy shared populations that were of the ethnicities of the other state. While the treaty did leave few Italians in Yugoslavia, about 500,000 South Slavs remained in what became Italian territory.

The border would be readjusted following World War Two.

Former resident of Cheyenne and teenage lover of Charlie Chaplin, actress Mildred Harris, was granted a divorce from Chaplin.

Harris' sad story, as well as her peculiar role in history (she's at least partially responsible for Wallace Simpson meeting King Edward VIII, has been addressed elsewhere on this blog.

President Wilson refused to sign the execution warrant for Sgt. Anthony F. Tamme, who had been convicted of espionage during World War One.

1981  The Wyoming (Ohio) Historical Society founded.

2012  For this year, Veteran's Day observed in the United States so as to make the day a three day holiday.

In spite of having fought wars in recent years, and in spite of there being an ongoing one currently, this day seems to have reduced in significance in recent years.  It is a Federal Holiday, but not a day that most people have off.  Schools are in session locally.  There are (as is the norm here) no parades.  Even the Star Tribune, which used to feature Veterans and their stories on this day, has only seen fit to run a single photo page commemorating the day.

2015:  Wyoming Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis, in office since January 2009, announced her intent to abstain running for office at the completion of this term.  Two Republicans announced they were interested in running, with one expressing a definite intent to do so, by the end of the day.

2018  Veterans Day for 2018, given that November 11 fell on a Sunday.

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