1919

Today in History 06/02/18

Leave a Comment
Undated photograph of Luigi Galleani (Public Domain)(1919) Anarchist bombs explode in eight US cities
Operatives of Italian anarchist Luigi Galleani detonate package bombs in eight cities, causing property destruction and two deaths. The future US president and his wife, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, narrowly escape a blast, having walked by a package moments before it detonated.
The 1919 United States anarchist bombings were a series of bombings and attempted bombings carried out by anarchist followers of Luigi Galleani from April through June 1919. These bombings led to the Red Scare of 1919–20.
Palmer Bombing
Damage done by the bomb at Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer’s house.
wiki/1919_United_States_anarchist_bombings
4.10.m18

(1919) Anarchist bombs explode in eight US cities.
Also on this day,
1897 | Twain alive
1953 | Elizabeth II crowned
2004 | Game show phenom debuts

Today in History 03/23/18

Italian statesman Benito Mussolini making a speech in Milan, Italy, circa 1920 (© Albert Harlingue/Roger Viollet/Getty Images)(1919) Mussolini establishes the Italian fascist movement
Breaking with socialism, WWI vet Benito Mussolini merges two organizations to found his own nationalist ideological movement, the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento, which will become the National Fascist Party. Now known as “Il Duce” (the leader), he will go on to align with Hitler as an Axis power in World War II.
Italian Fascism, also known simply as Fascism, is the original fascist ideology as developed in Italy. The ideology is associated with a series of three political parties led by Benito Mussolini: the Fascist Revolutionary Party founded in 1915, the succeeding National Fascist Party which was renamed at the Third Fascist Congress on 7–10 November 1921 and ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943 and the Republican Fascist Party that ruled the Italian Social Republic from 1943 to 1945. Italian Fascism is also associated with the post-war Italian Social Movement and subsequent Italian neo-fascist movements.
Benito Mussolini Roman Salute
Il Duce: Prime Minister Benito Mussolini
wiki/Italian_Fascism
4.8.d17

Today in History 01/16/18

Two men pour alcohol down a drain during Prohibition, circa 1920. (© Buyenlarge/Getty Images)(1919) Alcohol Prohibition ratified in US
Banning the making, selling, or transport of “intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes,” the 18th Amendment is ratified by the US after a strong push by a loose coalition of “dry crusaders.” Prohibition won’t go into effect for another year, but will be repealed in 1933.
Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages from 1920 to 1933. During the 19th century, alcoholism, family violence, and saloon-based political corruption prompted activists, led by pietistic Protestants, to end the alcoholic beverage trade to cure the ill society and weaken the political opposition. One result was that many communities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries introduced alcohol prohibition, with the subsequent enforcement in law becoming a hotly debated issue. Prohibition supporters, called “drys”, presented it as a victory for public morals and health.
Start date: 1920
End date: 1933

Detroit police prohibition
Detroit police inspecting equipment found in a clandestine underground brewery.
wiki/Prohibition_in_the_United_States
4.8.d17

Today in History 08/11/17

German flags in front of the of Reichstag building in Berlin (© Westend61/Getty Images)(1919) From the ashes of war Germany’s first democracy emerges
A constitutional assembly in Weimar, Germany, adopts a parliamentary democracy, the first in the country’s history, replacing centuries of imperial rule. The massive chaos and loss caused by German defeat in World War I has led to the Weimar Republic, but Nazi rule is less than 15 years away.
Weimar Republic was an unofficial, historical designation for the German state between 1919 and 1933. The name derives from the city of Weimar, where its constitutional assembly first took place. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich; it had remained unchanged since 1871. In English the country was usually known simply as Germany. A national assembly was convened in Weimar, where a new constitution for the Deutsches Reich was written, and adopted on 11 August 1919. In its fourteen years, the Weimar Republic faced numerous problems, including hyperinflation, political extremism, as well as contentious relationships with the victors of the First World War. The people of Germany blamed the Weimar Republic rather than their wartime leaders for the country’s defeat and for the humiliating terms of the Treaty of Versailles. However, the Weimar Republic government successfully reformed the currency, unified tax policies, and organized the railway system. Weimar Germany fulfilled most of the requirements of the Treaty of Versailles although it never completely met its disarmament requirements, and eventually paid only a small portion of the war reparations. Under the Locarno Treaties, Germany accepted the western borders of the republic, but continued to dispute the Eastern border.
Founded: Nov 09, 1918
Dissolved: 1933
Population: 62.41 million (1925)
Area: 181,000 sq miles (468,787 km²)
Capital: Berlin
Official language: German
Map of the German Reich, (Republic of Weimar/Third Reich) 1919–1937
Map of the German Reich, (Republic of Weimar/Third Reich) 1919–1937

wiki/Weimar_Republic
4.4.j17

Today in History 06/02/17

Undated photograph of Mark Twain (© Universal History Archive/Getty Images)(1897) Mark Twain is still very much alive
Accomplished man of American letters, and possessor of an impressively arid wit, Mark Twain recounts for the New York Journal a visit from a journalist who mistakenly believed the author might be deceased. “The report of my death was an exaggeration,” Twain tells the reporter.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. Among his novels are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its sequel, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the latter often called “The Great American Novel”.
Lived: Nov 30, 1835 – Apr 21, 1910 (age 74)
Height: 5′ 9″ (1.74 m)
Spouse: Olivia Langdon Clemens (m. 1870 – 1904)
Children: Langdon Clemens (Son) · Clara Clemens (Daughter) · Jean Clemens (Daughter) · Susy Clemens (Daughter)
Buried: Woodlawn Cemetery
Siblings: Orion Clemens (Brother) · Henry Clemens (Brother) · Benjamin Clemens (Brother) · Pamela Clemens (Sister) · Margaret Clemens (Sister) · Pleasant Clemens (Brother)
Highlights
  • 1864: Twain moved to San Francisco in 1864, still as a journalist, and met writers such as Bret Harte and Artemus Ward.

  • 1865: His humorous story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”, was published in 1865, based on a story that he heard at Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California where he had spent some time as a miner.

  • 1870: She rejected his first marriage proposal, but they were married in Elmira, New York in February 1870, where he courted her and managed to overcome her father’s initial reluctance.

  • 1861: He had unsuccessfully attempted to secure the rights for The Prince and the Pauper in 1881, in conjunction with his Montreal trip.

  • 1901: A subsequent article, “To My Missionary Critics” published in The North American Review in April 1901, unapologetically continues his attack, but with the focus shifted from Ament to his missionary superiors, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

  • 1910: Twain’s prediction was accurate; he died of a heart attack on April 21, 1910 in Redding, Connecticut, one day after the comet’s closest approach to Earth.

wiki/Mark_Twain
Undated photograph of Luigi Galleani (Public Domain)(1919) Anarchist bombs explode in eight US cities
Operatives of Italian anarchist Luigi Galleani detonate package bombs in eight cities, causing property destruction and two deaths. The future US president and his wife, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, narrowly escape a blast, having walked by a package moments before it detonated.
The 1919 United States anarchist bombings were a series of bombings and attempted bombings carried out by anarchist followers of Luigi Galleani from April through June 1919. These bombings led to the Red Scare of 1919–20.
Palmer Bombing

wiki/1919_United_States_anarchist_bombings
Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey during her coronation on June 2, 1953 (© Hulton Archive/Getty Images)(1953) A young queen is crowned in Westminster Abbey
In the first major event to be televised internationally, Elizabeth Windsor, 25, is crowned Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. Sixteen months in preparation, the coronation hosts 8,000 guests to witness the ceremony from inside London’s Westminster Abbey, while millions across Europe watch on live TV.
The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II as monarch of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan and Ceylon took place on 2 June 1953 at Westminster Abbey. Elizabeth ascended the throne at the age of 25, upon the death of her father, King George VI, on 6 February 1952, and was proclaimed queen by her various privy and executive councils shortly afterwards. The coronation took place more than a year later because of the tradition that holding such a festival is inappropriate during the period of mourning that follows the death of a monarch. During the service, she took and subscribed an oath to, among other things, govern the peoples according to their respective laws and customs, was anointed with holy oil, presented and invested with regalia, and crowned.
Date: Jun 02, 1953

wiki/Coronation_of_Queen_Elizabeth_II
Ken Jennings in the 'Jeopardy!' studio (© Jeopardy Productions via Getty Images)(2004) Ken Jennings begins ‘Jeopardy!’ streak
Contestant Ken Jennings wins on ‘Jeopardy!,’ beginning a 74-game streak that will net him about $2.5 million. He will finally lose nearly six months later, with an incorrect response to the Final Jeopardy! answer, ‘Most of this firm’s 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year.’
Kenneth Wayne “Ken” Jennings III is an American game show contestant and author. Jennings holds the record for the longest winning streak on the U.S. syndicated game show Jeopardy! and as being the second highest-earning contestant in game show history. In 2004, Jennings won 74 Jeopardy! games before he was defeated by challenger Nancy Zerg on his 75th appearance. His total earnings on Jeopardy! are $3,196,300, consisting of $2,520,700 over his 74 wins, a $2,000 second-place prize in his 75th appearance, a $500,000 second-place prize in the Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions, a $100,000 win for second-place prize in the Jeopardy Battle of the Decades, as well as half of a $300,000 prize in the IBM Challenge, when he competed against Watson.
Born: May 23, 1974 (age 43) · Edmonds, WA
Net worth: $4 million USD (2017)
Spouse: Mindy Jennings
Education: Brigham Young University · University of Washington · Seoul Foreign School
Children: Dylan Jennings (Son)

wiki/Ken_Jennings
4.2.m17