BORN TODAY: in Bristol – Mary Fedden, British artist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Fedden
Transportation: Ten die in a rail crash in the English Midlands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weedon_rail_crashes
Category Archives: Accidents
22nd May 1915 (Saturday)
Railway Accident: At Quintinshill, near Gretna Green, on the Scottish-English border, a railway crash involving five trains turns to an inferno when the gas lamps in one of the trains, carrying troops bound for Gallipoli, ignite. With the destruction of the Regimental records the exact number of deaths is never fixed with certainty, but certainly exceeds two hundred. [Wikipedia].
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintinshill_rail_disaster#cite_ref-nb1_1-0
26th April 1915 (Monday)
BORN TODAY: in Furth, Bayern, Germany – Ludwig Schweickert, European wrestler killed in action during World War 2.
http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/sc/ludwig-schweickert-1.html
ACCIDENTS: In the English village of Brayton in Cumberland, a pit explosion injures 8 miners, seven of whom will subsequently die of their injuries.
http://www.rumneys.co.uk/braytondomain/accidents/1915_disaster.htm
War!
World affairs: In London, Italian diplomats agree to declare war on Germany and her allies within one month, in exchange for territory in the South Tyrol, and in the Adriatic, including Gorizia, Istria and most of Dalmatia – the homes of 230,000 German speaking Austrians and around 750,000 Slovenes and Croats, far outnumbering the 650,000 Italians also residing there. [The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919].
Dardanelles: British submarine E-14 successfully passes through the Dardanelles, reaching the sea of Marmara and sinking a Turkish gunboat. [Burg & Purcell].
25th March, 1915 (Thursday)
BORN TODAY:
Tsutomu Sekido, Japanese skier at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Bavaria.
Béla Háray, Hungarian ice-hockey and hockey player at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Bavaria and the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.
1936 was the last year when both Winter and Summer Olympics were held in the same country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsutomu_Sekido
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9la_H%C3%A1ray
Accidents: Off Honolulu in Hawaii, the US Submarine F-4 sinks while on maneuvres with the loss of its crew of 21 sub-mariners, the first loss of a US submarine while at sea.
23rd February 1915 (Tuesday)
BORN TODAY* in Glen Cove, Nassau County, New York – Walter Shorenstein “San Francisco real estate mogul” [nndb.com]
http://www.nndb.com/people/187/000238470/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Shorenstein
* or perhaps, on Feb 15th?
The perils of modern transport: In Exeter, in England’s west country, the Western Times reports the sad death yesterday of Mr George Creedy, retired policeman, aged 82. Earlier in the month Mr Creedy, who was deaf, had stepped into the path of an oncoming tram in Exeter’s main street.
http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/_events/1915-this-week.php
War!
In the Dardanelles: British troops occupy the Greek Island of Lemnos as part of the attempt to capture the Dardanelles and the sea route to Constantinople.
http://www.burnleyinthegreatwar.info/lemnoscemeteries.htm
Colonial tensions: British instructions for the “colonial contingents” (including Australians and New Zealanders) in Egypt include stern advice on dealing with “natives”
“The ill-treatment of natives is a very serious offence, and all cases are to be fully investigated and reported to Divisional Headquarters before disposal….
“Men should be warned against striking natives, altercations with them should be carefully avoided. They should be particularly warned against donkey boys and dragomen [ie guides and interpreters] as most of these know the english language and are apt to become familiar… They should have as little dealings with natives as possible, whose one idea is to make money out of them.”
https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/RCDIG0000578/?image=1&fullscreen=true
4th February, 1915 (Thursday)
BORN TODAY: In London – Norman Joseph Wisdom, OBE, flyweight boxing champion, magician’s sidekick, Charlie Chaplin’s “favourite clown”, cult figure in Albania, granted the freedom of the city of Tirana.
“I was born in very sorry circumstances. Both of my parents were very sorry.” [Wikipedia]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Wisdom
War!
Middle East: The British Viceroy of India, Charles Hardinge, Lord Penshurst (who is responsible for overseeing British policy and interests in the Middle East) arrives in Basra for a tour of inspection of the British and (mainly) Anglo-Indian troops there [Roger Ford: “Eden to Armageddon: World War 1 in the Middle East”].
War at Sea: Germany publicly declares a war zone encircling the British Isles in which all merchant ships, regardless of their origin or purpose, may be sunk by submarines without warning. [Burg & Purcell].
http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/germanadmiraltydeclaration.htm
Peace:
Accident at the quayside: At dock in Great Yarmouth, on England’s east coast, E-class submariner and Petty Officer First Class, Albert George Hodder, is returning from a shopping trip into the town when he slips from a gangplank into a strong cold current and is drowned.
18th January 1915 (Monday)
BORN TODAY:
~ in Trikala, Greece – Vassilis Tsitsanis – songwriter and bouzouki player. “One of the leading Greek composers of his time and widely regarded as one of the founders of modern Rebetika” [Wikipedia].
~ Also, in Poznan, Poland – Kazimierz Wichniarz, actor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vassilis_Tsitsanis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazimierz_Wichniarz
War!
War from the air: After dark, two German zeppelins successfully bomb the towns of Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn on England’s east coast, returning undamaged to their base near Hamburg [Burg & Purcell].
War at Sea: His (British) Majesty’s submarine E10 sinks in the North Sea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shipwrecks_in_January_1915
Asia-Pacific: In what “westerners” call “the Far East”, the Japanese government issues its “twenty-one demands” to the Republican government of China in an attempt to build on its gains in Manchuria and Northern China during the first sino-Japanese war (1894-95) and the Russo-Japanese war (1904-05).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-One_Demands
Peace:
Railway accident: In Colima-Guadalajara Mexico, a train crash kills around 600 people.
(some sources place this event a day or two later).
17th January 1915 (Sunday)
BORN TODAY: (only in the USA) – Vincent Kosuga – American onion farmer “best known for manipulating the onion futures market. Though he made millions of dollars on commodity trading, his actions were highly controversial and attracted government scrutiny. This scrutiny led to the passing of the Onion Future Act, which banned the trading of futures contracts on onions.” [Wikipedia]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Kosuga
War!
In the East: Russia occupies the historic region of Bukovina (now divided between Ukraine and Romania), and also Western Ukraine.
http://www.historyorb.com/events/date/1915/january
Peace
Mining accidents: At the village of Halmer End, in England’s North Staffordshire coal-fields, a coal gas explosion kills 9 miners, including Arthur Shufflebottom, aged just 16.
http://www.healeyhero.co.uk/rescue/Collection/jl/mini1915_A.htm
Society and culture: in the USA, the radical labour organizer and anarchist Lucy Parsons lead a hunger march in Chicago.
New Year’s Day, 1915 (Friday)
BORN TODAY: in Medyn, in the Kaluga Oblast in the western Russian Empire – Izaak Fleischfarb, zionist, and later communist, activist. Later better known as Józef “The Butcher” Światło, known for supervising the torture of inmates on behalf of the Ministry of Public Security (sic) in Poland. Later, after defecting to the west, he worked for the CIA and Radio Free Europe. Apparently he died in 1994, although “documents relating to him are still classified in the United States and not available to researchers. [Wikipedia].
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B3zef_%C5%9Awiat%C5%82o
War!
War at Sea: In the French La Manche/ English Channel, German submarine U24 torpedoes and sinks the British battleship “Formidable” with the loss of 547 seamen. {Burg and Purcell].
Far from the front: In Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia, two men later identified as muslims from British India (now Pakistan) shoot dead four people and wound seven more, before being killed by police and military officers (“The Battle of Broken HIll”). Flying the Ottoman flag, the two former camel-drivers at Broken Hill open fire on a train carrying picnickers celebrating the New Year holiday.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Broken_Hill
Peace:
Railway accident: In Ilford, East of London, two morning passenger trains collide. Ten passengers die, and “upwards of 500 passengers have notified the Company of personal injuries or of shock sustained.”
http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docsummary.php?docID=313
Dissent: The Herald League Rooms in Buchanan Street, Glasgow, Scotland are the venue today for a meeting of the Glasgow Anarchist Group, an activist group supporting anti-war and anti-conscription policies.
http://sites.scran.ac.uk/redclyde/redclyde/rc001.htm
Oh, Brave, Unhappy, New Year…
28th December 1914 (Monday)
BORN TODAY: Stan Ogden.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Youens
War!
How the other half lives: Major General Sir John Hanbury-Williams, GCVO (Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order), KCB (Knight Commander of Britain), CMG (Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George) lunches with His Imperial Highness Tsar Nicholas II, (last) Emperor of Russia, Grand Duke of Finland, and (titular) King of Poland, officially known as “Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias”. These august gentlemen exchange anecdotes about Sir John’s ancestor, Sir Charles Hanbury-Williams, who was Ambassador to Russia in the time of the Empress Catherine (in the 18th century).
http://www.alexanderpalace.org/hanbury/1914.html
Peace
On a stormy night in rural Essex in England, the Reverend Jospeh Thomas, who is also a “special corporal” (part-time volunteer policeman) disappears while on patrol. The next day he is found, drowned, presumed to have slipped and been carried away by floodwater during his patrol.
http://www.essex.police.uk/memorial/roll-of-honour.php?rollOfHonourId=80
onehundredyearsagotoday 