6th September 1915 (Monday)

BORN TODAY: Little Willie – the world’s first tank.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-tank-produced

Society and culture: Scotland appoints Ms Emily Miller as its first ever policewoman.

http://www.chrislongmuir.co.uk/index.php/my-blog/35-first-policewoman-in-scotland-100-years-ago

War!

The Balkans: Bulgaria signs a military agreement with Germany agreeing to enter on the side of the Central Powers. In return for sending forces against Serbia and Montenegro (thereby re-opening the unresolved business of the recent Second Balkan War), Bulgaria is promised large parts of Macedonia, a sea port on the Adriatic and territorial concessions in European Turkey. [Burg & Purcell: “Almanac of World War 1”]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgaria%E2%80%93Germany_treaty_(1915)

4th March, 1915 (Thursday)

BORN TODAY: The Australian 4th Light Horse Brigade: “Shipped to Egypt without horses where it was broken up 26 August 1915″. [http://www.diggerhistory.info/].

http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-a-l-horse/4th_lh_bde.htm

War!

Counting chickens: The Allied “Triple Entente” nations – Russia, France and Britain – begin secret talks on how to divide up the lands of the Ottoman Empire (The “Constantinople Agreement”, agreed two weeks from today on 18th March 1915). In the event, the agreement is never implemented because: firstly, the British and French campaign in the Dardanelles fails; and secondly, the Russian empire collapses (temporarily at least) with the Bolshevik revolution in 1917, which takes Russia out the war (and the subsequent peace) completely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantinople_Agreement

In the Dardanelles: HMS Agamemnon spends the day with its 9.2 inch Mk XI guns trained relentlessly on the Turkish forts at Sedd el Bahr (“Walls of the Sea”).

Across Turkey’s north west frontier, in Bulgaria (its recent foe in the second Balkan War): The Bulgarian Armenian Committee telegraphs to London confirming a force of 20.000 Armenian Volunteers who want to fight against the Turks and await British assistance to assist them to Iskenderun province (the ancient greek city of Alexandretta on the borders of Turkey and what is now Syria).

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=80c_1416808936

Peace:

Life on the land: In Connecticut, USA – farmer Frank Seger records his day in his diary:

“8 Above” [that is,  8 Fahreneit – well below freezing]

“Clear & cold as Hell and Damnation. Began to warm up after noon. Heman took the milk. Lewis dug load of dirt down in the little meadow for box stall was 8 inches of frost. Cleaned out barn to load of munare [sic] up to Comestocks. Boys cut some stalks. I went up and helped Rubin Wolf saw down trees.”

http://www.onsegermountain.org/seger/march1915.html

29th October 1914 (Thursday)

BORN TODAY: in Oreshak in the Balkan mountains in Bulgaria – Marin Naydenov Minkov, later better known as Patriarch Maxim, the head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church from 1971 until his death in 2012.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxim_of_Bulgaria

War!

War at Sea: In Odessa on the Black Sea in Russia (now in Ukraine), the former German battleship and cruiser – Geoben and Breslau – now flying Turkish flags, stage a surprise attack, sinking the Russian gunboat Donetz, and also complete raids on the coastal cities of Sevastapol and Novorossiysk, causing significant damage.  Officially Turkey is still a neutral country, because there has been no previous declaration of war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pursuit_of_Goeben_and_Breslau

Society and Culture: In London, “Admiral His Serene Highness” Prince Louis of Battenberg, Austrian by birth, is forced to resign as Britain’s “First Sea Lord” (Chief of Naval Staff). The papers report that “though he is closely connected by birth or marriage with most of the great reigning houses of Europe – German, Russian, Spanish and Italian – he has won his present rank by ability, not by any exercise of influence”.

http://blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2013/10/28/prince-louis-alexander-mountbatten/

 

27th July 1914 (Monday)

BORN TODAY: The Association of Ethnic Bulgarians in Hungary, founded by the descendants of Bulgarian vegetable farmers who initially only came to Hungary for seasonal work, and brought with them a vegetable growing method that had been unknown in the country at the time.

http://emberijogok.kormany.hu/ethnic-bulgarians-in-hungary

Science and technology: In the US, the first transcontinental telephone line is completed, from New York to San Francisco. It will be tested in two days from now, but commercial services are delayed until 1915, to coincide with the San Francisco World Fair.

http://thisdayintechhistory.com/07/29/first-transcontinental-phone-call/

Society and Culture: As the countries of Europe increasingly move to a war footing, the German Kaiser “interrupts” his summer cruise to return to Germany.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_Crisis

 

 

21st July 1914 (Tuesday)

BORN TODAY: in Blois, France – Philippe Ariès, French medievalist and social historian of the family.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Ari%C3%A8s

World Affairs: In a telegram to the German Kaiser, his ambassador in Constantinople (Istanbul) expresses confidence that Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey will join the Triple Alliance of Austria-Hungary, Germany and Italy if the Austrians decide to administer a severe lesson to Serbia.  The Kaiser annotates the telegram: “We shall remind these gentlemen of this at the right moment”

http://alphahistory.com/worldwar1/telegrams-kaiser-july-crisis-1914/

Ireland: Unionist (pro-British) and Nationalist (anti-British) leaders are brought together for the “Buckingham Palace Conference on Ireland”. It is the first such organised attempt to find a solution to the deadlock over the Northern Counties. After one day, the British Prime Minister writes privately: “I have rarely felt more helpless in any particular affair, an impasse with unspeakable consequences, upon a matter which to English eyes seems inconceivably small and to Irish eyes immeasurably big.” The conference breaks up after three days without agreement. [Wikipedia]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckingham_Palace_Conference

Migration: In Vancouver, British Columbia, where the SS Kamagata Maru carrying Indian migrants is resisting efforts to send her away, HMCS Rainbow arrives and trains her six inch guns on the recalcitrant ship to show that the Canadian authorities are serious in their intentions NOT to welcome the migrants.

http://www.beerforvictory.com/24-may-1914-the-komagata-maru-incident/

Sport: In South America, the soccer team from Exeter, in England’s West Country, which has been touring South America, loses 2-0 in a match against Brazil “in what became known as the Brazilian national team’s first fixture’ [Western Morning News]. A centenary rematch is organised, which features the same kit and the original ball…

http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Brazil-replay-historic-centenary-match-Exeter/story-21217875-detail/story.html

http://dofooty.com/brazil-v-exeter-city-july-1914/

 

15th June 1914 (Monday)

BORN TODAY: in Râmnicu Sărat, Romania – Saul Steingerg: philosophy student in Bucharest; architecture student in Milan; emigree from Mussolini’s anti-semitic laws; refugee in the Dominican Republic; sponsored entrant to the US for his satirical cartoons for the “New Yorker”; military intelligence officer in China, North Africa and Italy; US artist and cartoonist; “a writer who draws“. [Wikipedia].

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Steinberg

World Affairs: In Sofia, the French Ambassador to Bulgaria reports of the deep unease caused for the Bulgarian public by the Russian Tsar’s visit to Romania, a neighbour so aggressive towards Bulgaria in the recent (Second) Balkan War.

Click to access ROMANIA-AND-THE-TRIPLE-ENTENTE.pdf

Arts and Literature: In London, the publishing house of Grant Richards publishes James Joyce’s “The Dubliners”. Joyce is currently living in Trieste, Austria-Hungary’s main seaport, on the Adriatic. By the end of the year only 379 copies of “The Dubliners” have been sold.

http://jamesjoyce.ie/day-4-march/

13th June 1914 (Saturday)

BORN TODAY: At Ashton under Lyne, Manchester, England – George Currie, Royal Navy Stoker, First Class, serving on HMS Hood at the age of 26 when it was sunk during the Battle of Denmark Strait. He was not one of the three men who survived.

http://www.hmshood.com/crew/memorial/c/CurrieG.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Hood_(51)

World Affairs:

~ Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany is spending the weekend  as the guest of  the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, at the Archduke’s  hunting lodge and country estate in Konopischt, Bohemia, in the Austria- Hungarian Empire (now in the Czech Republic). On the agenda is the tenuous balance of power in the Balkan’s in recent years, where  Ottomans, Habsurgs, Russians and Italians have been vying for position.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/kaiser-wilhelm-concludes-meeting-with-archduke-franz-ferdinand

~ in Paris, Jean Raphaël Adrien René Viviani is appointed the 81st Prime Minister of France by its President, Raymond Poincare

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Viviani

Science and technology: The Bulgarian island of  St. Anastasia in the Black Sea is blessed with a new lighhouse, visible from 10 miles.

http://gotoburgas.com/en/places-to-go/view/23

18th May 1914 (Monday)

BORN TODAY:

~ in Nové Mesto nad Váhom (“the new town on the River Vah”) in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (later in Czechoslovakia, now in Slovakia) – Stefan Schwarz, survivor of Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald, Professor of Mathematics, and Head of the Mathematical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences from 1966 until 1987.

http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Biographies/Schwarz_Stefan.html

~ In Plovdiv, Bulgaria – Boris Christoff, “probably the best known of all Bulgarian opera singers”.

http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/opera/OFB/stars/chr01.htm

~ in Kishinev in Imperial Russia (now Chișinău, capital of the Republic of  Moldova) – Alla Nikolayevna Bayanova, “Russian romance singer singer sometimes compared with Edith Piaf for her simple yet dramatic style of performance”. [Wikipedia].

 

Women’s Suffrage: In well-to-do Hampstead, in London – the personal property of Mrs Louisa Thomson Price is auctioned to settle her debts for unpaid taxation. Mrs Price is a member of the Women’s Tax Resistance League, whose motto is ” No taxation without representation”.

http://womanandhersphere.com/2013/07/08/suffrage-stories-womens-tax-resistance-league-sale-hampstead-may-1914/

30th April, 1914 (Thursday)

BORN TODAY:

~ In Johannesburg, South Africa – Kitty Black, “The Queen  of British pirate radio”.

http://www.offshoreradio.co.uk/kitty.htm

http://www.offshoreechos.com/Kitty%20Black.htm

~ On England’s Isle of Wight – Sir Christopher George Rhodes, soldier, actor, Baronet.

http://shelf3d.com/i/Christopher%20Rhodes

~ In Sofia, Bulgaria – Sijka Petrova, soprano.

 

18th September 1913 (Thursday)

BORN TODAY: RAF Halton, the air force base near Wendover in Buckinghamshire, England.

http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafhalton/publicinfo/centenaryyouthrugbyhistory.cfm

~ Also, in Chatham Islands in the South Pacific, Chatham Island Radio.

http://maritimeradio.org/zlc/

World Affairs (Second Balkan War): In Constantinople, representatives of Bulgaria and Turkey agree the delineation of the new Thracian border separating the two countries. [The Spectator, 20th September 1913]

http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/20th-september-1913/2/on-thursday-at-constantinople-articles-of-agreemen

Law, order and labour relations:

~ In the Colorado coalfields, at the Ludlow tented camp of striking miners evicted from their homes, company guard who has raped a number of miners’ wives, is shot dead.

http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr222/newsing.htm

~ In Ireland 300 striking farm workers from Swords, North of Dublin, march into Dublin, accompanied by the Swords pipe and drum band, to take part in labour demonstrations.

“The principal rallying-ground for the Larkinites” – The Swords Riot of 1913

Society and culture: In Heidelberg, Germany Princess Sophie Augustine Ida Karoline Pauline Agnes Elisabeth Ernestine von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach, aged 25,  shoots herself after her family refuse to allow her to marry the son of a local banker.

Music and entertainment: On Broadway, the Al Jolson musical “The Honeymoon Express” begins an eight month tour, including the songs: :The Spaniard That Blighted My Life”;  “You Made Me Love You”; and  “Who Paid the Rent for Mrs Rip Van Winkle ?”.

http://jolson.jimdo.com/theatre/broadway-shows/the-honeymoon-express/