19th April 1913 (Saturday)

BORN TODAY, probably in Bombay (now Mumbai) – Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, 7th Baronet of Bombay, a title first bestowed (on the first Baronet, also Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy) in 1857, and then to each of the intermediate five – all known as Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy. in 1915 the Imperial Legislative Council (the legislature for India during the British Raj) passed the Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy Baronetcy Act to ensure that all successors will take this name and no other. The 7th Baronet (Sir James Jejeebhoy) died in 2006 and the eight Baronet (you guessed it) is now 55 years old. His heir apparent is Jehangir Jejeebhoy. There is no indication that the Jejeebhoys are related to Jehangir Cowasji Jehangir Readymoney (1853-1934), another famous member of the Bombay Parsi community, who makes an appearance here solely on the basis of his splendid name.

World Affairs: Montenegro refuses to participate in an armistice which is signed between Bulgaria/ Serbia and Turkey.

Society, Empire and Culture: in the Spanish zone (protectorate) of Morocco, Mulay al-Mahdi bin Isma’il bin Muhammad is appointed as “Jalifato” (Sultan’s representative).

Sport: At London’s Crystal Palace, Aston Villa beat Sunderland 1-0 in the 42nd FA Cup Final.

Accidents: In Paris, Isadora Duncan’s two children and their nanny drown after the car they are in plunges into the River Seine. After stalling the engine, the driver forgets to apply the handbrake before hand-cranking the engine.

11th April 1913 (Friday)

BORN TODAY, in Paris, France – Oleg Cassini (Loiewski), fashion designer who dated Grace Kelly, Betty Grable, Lana Turner and Ursula Andress, and married Gene Tierney, but not necessarily in that order.

World Affairs: Nathaniel Griffith Lerotholi becomes paramount chief of Basutoland (a British Colony – Lesotho since independence in 1966).

Human Rights: The US Postmaster General proposes the segregation of black and white employees in the US postal service, and is unopposed, leading to active segregation of bathrooms and lunchrooms for employees later in the year.

The S.S Sutlej arrives in Fiji carrying 808 indentured Indian labourers destined to work in the plantations.

Women’s Suffrage: A cricket pavilion at the Tunbridge Wells cricket ground in England is burnt to the ground. The suffragettes leave their calling card – including a photograph of Mrs Pankhurst.

 

Society and Culture: In Marietta, Ohio, US, where martial law is still in place following the recent flooding, colonel John Patterson, President of the National Cash Register Company and a recent visitor as part of the Ohio (flood) relief commission, advocates diverting the Muskingum river to avoid Marietta and reduce the risk of future flooding.

At the old Parliament Building in Budapest, Abdu’l-Bahá, founder of the Baha’i faith, speaks to an audience of over 1000 listeners.

In Clanfield, Oxfordshire, UK, Frederick Whipp, 96 old former agricultural worker,  is buried in the local churchyard. He died recently in the Witney Union  workhouse in Curbridge.

Migration: At Mosman, in Sydney Australia, Gracius Joseph Broinowski dies, aged 76. Born in Poland in 1837 he studied at Munich University before leaving for Australia on a “windjammer” in 1857. He married the daughter of a whaling captain in 1863 and settled in Sydney around 1880, becoming famous for his illustrated works on Australian ornithology.

25th February 1913 (Tuesday)

BORN TODAY, in Cuyahoga, Ohio – Jim (James Gilmore) Backus, the voice of Mr Magoo, voted the “29th greatest cartoon character of all time” in 2002.

World Affairs: Enrique Varela, Prime Minister of Peru, resigns.

Arms Race: The German U Boat SM-U38 is laid down by Germainwerft in Kiel. It will eventually become the third most successful u-boat operating during World War I, sinking 138 ships (300,000 tons in total).

Accidents & disasters: In New Kensington, Pennsylvania, USA, a huge explosion at the Valley Camp Mine kills two, injures two others and leaves rescue workers unclear how many miners are trapped behind a “wall of flame” underground. A rescue party later in the day narrowly escapes death itself after a second explosion.

Women’s suffrage: The UK Home Office (Government ministry) reports that Lilian Lenton (aka Ida Inkley) who was arrested a few days ago and charged with an arson attack has been discharged from prison in response to her hunger strike after “her condition became so serious that…her life would have been in immediate danger if forcible feeding had been continued or if she had been allowed to remain longer without food”.

Meanwhile in the Eastern US, the second suffrage hike from New York City to Washington continues through its 13th day.

Society & culture: Horatio Nelson, 3rd Earl Nelson, dies aged 89. His father, Thomas Bolton, was the nephew of THE Nelson, “1st Viscount Nelson”. Mr Bolton inherited the title “Earl Nelson” in 1835, which prompted him to change his surname to “Nelson”. Since his father’s death the 3rd Earl had lived in “Trafalgar House” in Wiltshire, which had been known as Standlynch since the time of the Doomsday Book (11th century) but was renamed Trafalgar by Act of Parliament in honor of the original Nelson, in 1814, twelve years after his death.

 

23rd February 1913 (Sunday)

BORN TODAY, in Ashekpur, Tangail District, Bengal, India (now part of Bangladesh) – Protul Chandra Sorcar, Indian magician and presenter of the Indrajal show, live and on Television.

Law and Order: In Clarendon County, South Carolina, Marion Cantri is lynched for the crime of assault.

Joseph Stalin is arrested by the Russian secret police as he arrives in Petrograd for the International Women’s Day. He is imprisoned for four years, and will be released in 4 years time, shortly before the Russian Revolution.

Society and Culture: Meanwhile Tsar Nicholas II and his family attend a lavish Gala ball at the “Assembly of Nobles” (now the Philharmonic Hall) in St Petersburg.

Second Balkan War (prelude): Romania agrees to an arbitration over its disputed boundary with Bulgaria

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7th February 1913 (Friday)

BORN TODAY: in Barcelona, Spain – Ramon Mercader, Spanish communist and Soviet Agent who murdered Leon Trotsky in Mexico in 1940. Mercader served 20 years in a Mexican prison, was awarded the Order of Lenin by Joseph Stalin, made a hero of the Soviet Union in 1961 and died in Cuba in 1978.

Accidents & disasters: At the Rufford Colliery Nr Mansfield, Nottinghamshire (UK), a water barrel weighing over 5 tons and being used to remove excess water falls down the mine shaft killing 14 men and injuring 4 others.

Meanwhile at the Lanarkshire Colliery in Scotland, an accumulation of gas causes an explosion killing a mine worker and overcoming members ot the rescue party with noxious fumes.

Labour relations: in the Coal Mine Wars of West Virginia, USA, a shooting incident between striking workers and mine guards provokes a strong response from the mine authorities and guards, who use an armored train in an attempt to arrest strikers for “inciting a riot”.  In the resulting confrontation strikers are shot dead by gun-fire from the “Bull Moose Special” armored train.

Society and Culture: Boston Opera Company star baritone Vanni Marcoux is so busy taking his bows to rapturous applause at the end of his performance that he is struck by heavy descending stage curtain and hospitalized with concussion.

Wilfred Owen, WW1 soldier and poet, relinquishes his position as Lay Assistant to the Reverend Wigan of Dunsden Parish, near Reading (UK) after physical and mental breakdown.

30th January 1913 (Thursday)

BORN TODAY, in Buckinghamshire, England – Percy Thrower, gardener, “Dig for Victory” campaigner, and broadcaster.

Ireland: The UK House of Lords rejects the Home Rule for Ireland Bill.

First Balkan War: Hazan Riza Pasha, the 41 year old Ottoman Governor of Scutari, who is defending the Albanian city against the ongoing Montenegrin siege, is assassinated in a plot by Essad Pasha Toptani, who takes over the command the following day.

Extreme Weather: A tropical cyclone hits Cairns, Queensland, Australia, taking the roof off the railway station, destroying the local banana crop and lifting houses from their blocks.

Law and Order: at Lewes Prison in England, the “Hooded Man’ (George Mackay, also known as John Williams) is hanged after being convicted earlier this month of murdering (shooting) a policeman in Eastbourne to avoid arrest.

Entertainment: The Sheffield (UK) Daily Telegraph advertises, at the “Sheffield Jungle” :

“Ginger, An Orang-Outang with accomplishments that know no laws. See him [at] The Jungle, daily at (about) 4.10 and 9.10.”

 

29th January 1913 (Wednesday)

BORN TODAY, In Louisville, Kentucky – Victor Mature, famous US film actor whose film career ran for 45 years, from 1939 to 1984.

Women’s suffrage: The Morning Post reports that after a confrontation with police officers at the entrance to the (UK) House of Commons over 20 “suffragists” (sic) , including “General” Drummond and “Miss” Sylvia Pankhurst have been arrested. Following an incitement to “destroy property” windows have been smashed at the Home Office, the Treasury and other Government Departments. The assembled crowds [of men?] had been hostile to the suffragists (?suffragettes), and some had to be “put into cabs or assisted on to omnibuses when matters became threatening”.

Shipping news: The Greek cargo steamer, Aeolus SS, carrying coal from Newport (Wales) to Piraeus in Greece, runs aground and is wrecked on the Wolves Rocks in the Bristol Channel (UK).

Society and Culture: The Nedlands Primary School opens for 33 pupils in Western Australia.

Congratulations, Nedlands Primary School!

26th January 1913 (Sunday)

BORN TODAY, in Rome, Italy – Mario Riva – The popular Italian film actor and TV personality who died in Verona in 1960 after falling from a stage.

Also Adolf Vodicka, from Czechoslovakia, one of the few surviving combatants of the Spanish Civil War, where he fought as part of the International Brigade.

First Balkan War: Ottoman and Bulgarian forces meet at the Battle of Bulair as the Turks make an attempt to relieve Adrionople (Edirne). In the resulting Bulgarian victory around 50% of the Turkish forces are killed.

Society and Culture: John Paul Jones, a US Naval Hero (or rebel “privateer” and terrorist, depending on your point of view) who died in 1792 in Paris, alone and forgotten, and who has spent much of the intervening period buried beneath a laundry in a Paris suburb, finds his final resting place – a marble sarcophagus (modelled on the tomb of Napoleon) in the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, USA.

Colonial unrest: the USS Rainbow shifts her location from Olongapo to Cavite and remains in the Phillippines until 28 March 1913. The US is in the final stages of a 14 year war against insurgents in the Phillippines, which hostilities will end in June this year at the Battle of Bud Bagsak.

19th January 1913 (Sunday)

BORN TODAY – Rudolf Walter Wanderone, Jr., in New York City. As “Minnesota Fats”, a nickname he adopted from a film character allegedly based on him (from “The Hustler”, 1961), Rudy entered the American Billiard Congress Hall of Fame.

Antarctic Exploration: The five surviving mules from the Scott and Oates expedition are shot, after the rescue party reaches the Terra Nova (rescue ship). “The mules had played a vital historical role in the expedition for without them the world may never have known about the fate of Scott and his companions” [British Mule Society  Journal, Spring, 2004].

Another quiet Sunday, unless you happened to be Fats Minnesota’s mum or an unlucky mule in Antarctica…

14th January 1913 (Tuesday)

BORN TODAY – in Evangeline Parish, Louisiana, Luderin Darbone – Cajun-Western swing fiddler for the Hackberry Ramblers. He died in Sulphur, Louisiana in 2008, aged 95.

Also, Walter Liesner, who at the age of 94 years and 268 days (2007)  sets a Guinness world record by becoming the oldest person to perform a back flip into a swimming pool, in Wetzlar, Germany.

First Balkan War: – the London peace conference closes without reaching a successful outcome between the negotiating countries.

The Greek army achieves successes against the Turks (Ottoman Empire) in the early stages of the Battle of Bizani.

Science and technology: John Joseph Rawlings, engineer and building contractor from Richmond, England, is granted a patent (22680/11) for his new invention, the “Rawlplug”, an improved method for fixing objects to masonry walls.