9th August 1915 (Monday)

BORN TODAY: in Manchester – Michael Young (Baron Young of Dartington), English socialist, Labour Party propagandist, East-End sociologist, “social visionary and innovator”, consumer champion and co-founder of the University of the Third Age, and of “Grandparents Plus”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Young,_Baron_Young_of_Dartington

War!

War from the air: Sixteen civilians die in a zeppelin raid on Goole in East Yorkshire when the vessel’s Kapitänleutnant mistakenly believes he is targetting the city of Kingston upon Hull.

http://www.iancastlezeppelin.co.uk/910-august-1915-1/4586640763

28th July 1915 (Wednesday)

BORN TODAY: in Kensington, London – Brigadier Peter Young: Monmouth; Oxford; the Commandos; and Sandhurst Royal Military Academy. Military historian.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Young_(historian)

12th May 1915 (Wednesday)

BORN TODAY: in Canada – Doris Edna Gray, BSc, MSc, PhD and research fellow at the University of Western Ontario, and later Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Hong Kong. Later still, a retiree in Dunblane, Scotland, where she bequeathed “a sum of money to the Women’s Engineering Society to encourage women in Scotland to become professional engineers. Part of this sum of money was allocated to provide £1,000 per year for women studying in Scotland” (the Doris Gray Scottish Scholarships).

http://www.wes.org.uk/content/professor-doris-gray

http://www.wes.org.uk/content/doris-gray-scottish-scholarships

14th July 1914 (Tuesday)

BORN TODAY: in Panama, Kenneth B Clark – psychologist who studied the effects of racial prejudice on children.

http://www.nndb.com/people/883/000115538/

World Affairs: In a telegram to the German Kaiser, Baron Tschirschky (the German Ambassador to Vienna) confirms that Hungarian premier, Count Tisza, has been brought around to the idea of war, and that the Austro-Hungarian authorities have decided to send an ultimatum to the Serbian government. The text will be ready by 19th July, but a decision has been made to delay issuing it until after the French President, Poincare, finishes his state visit to Russia, to reduce the likelihood of a quick and well coordinated reponse from Russia and France.

http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/julycrisis_kaiserscomments.htm

Exploration: In London’s docklands, the SS “Montcalm” arrives from Manitoba, Canada with a cargo of 99 “endurance dogs”. Each dog has travelled first by freight train from Winnipeg to Manitoba and each is caged individually. They are part of the preparations for Ernest Shackleton’s trans-Antarctic expedition. The “Endurance” will leave Plymouth, bound first for Buenos Aires, on 8th August.

http://www.enduranceobituaries.co.uk/thedogs.htm

Mysteries: The German cargo ship “Werner Kunstmann” founders on the Goswick Sands in England’s northern waters. “Reputed to have been scuppered following reports that she was on route to supply her cargo of iron ore to German factories which had been building up in their preparations for the start of World War 1. All 17crew were saved when the ship ran aground in fine weather on the Goswick sand ridge and was lost”. [The Berwick Advertiser].

http://www.berwick-advertiser.co.uk/news/district-news/then-and-now-german-ship-100-years-after-she-ran-aground-at-goswick-1-3401689

Womens’ Suffrage: Militant suffragette Maude Edwards is released from Perth prison on the grounds that “excitement is injurious to [her] health”.

http://www.scottisharchivesforschools.org/suffragettes/maudeEdwardsSource03.asp

 

10th July 1914 (Friday)

BORN TODAY: in Singapore: the Old Boys Association  of the Anglo-Chinese School (established 1886). School mission: “To be a beacon of truth and light, a world class institution through the holistic development of our students”.

http://www.acsindep.moe.edu.sg/acs_indep/pages/ACS_History

World Affairs: In Belgrade, Serbia, Nicholas Genrikhovich Hartwig, the Russian Ambassador to Serbia – a “Pan-Slavist” said to be “more Serbian than the Serbians” – collapses and dies of a massive heart attack while visiting Baron von Gieslingen, the Austrian Ambassador in Belgrade. The Serbian press immediately publishes several inflammatory articles accusing the Austrians of poisoning Hartwig while he was a guest at their legation. The very first fatality of World War 1?

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

Society and culture: In Halifax, Nova Scotia, the local police force poses for photographs during a general inspection.  The followng day the Halifax Herald reports that “The policemen were out in full force with the exception of one or two who are on the sick list”.

Science and technology: in Tambaroora, New South Wales, a telephone is installed at the post office and public telephone facilities become available for the first time.

http://hillendfamilyhistory.com/hill-end-tambaroora/tambaroora-history/tambaroora-post-office/

 

 

 

8th July 1914 (Wednesday)

BORN TODAY:

~ In Calcutta (now Kolkata) in British India – “Comrade Jyoti Basu, the last surviving member of the first polit bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM) and the former Chief Minister of the state of West Bengal” [Proletarian online]

http://www.cpgb-ml.org/index.php?secName=proletarian&subName=display&art=593

~ in Killowen, Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland – Sister Rose (Anne Mary) Lynch, teacher of religion, history, english, french and music [Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine of Siena Newcastle Natal].

http://dominicansisters.co.uk/november-2/

~ In Pittsburgh, PA – William Clarence (“Billy”) Eckstein – “the first African-American singing idol” [NNDB].

http://www.nndb.com/people/912/000047771/

In Grand Rapids, Michigan – Barbara Louise Karduz, daughter, wife, mother, grandmother.

http://www.wittichfuneralhome.com/obituary/125611/Barbara-Kardux/

Womens’ suffrage:  From the Glasgow Herald, 9th July 1914:

“A dastardly attempt was made in the early hours of yesterday morning by suffragists to fire and blow up Burns’s Cottage, Alloway, the birthplace of the national poet, which is annually visited by thousands of pilgrims from all parts of the world. The attempted outrage was fortunately frustrated by the timely appearance on the scene of the night watchman, but the fact that an attempt was made to destroy a shrine that Scotsmen in all parts of the world regard as sacred has roused in the locality the most intense indignation.”

After further investigation the arsonist, Janet Parker, is discovered to be the niece of the First Earl Kitchener, soon to be appointed the UK’s Secretary of State (Minister) for War.

http://digital.nls.uk/scotlandspages/timeline/1914.html

 

26th June 1914 (Friday)

BORN TODAY: in Stroud, in the West of England – Laurence Edward Alan “Laurie” Lee, Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE), poet, dreamer, romantic, adventurer etc, often asked by young students “where Laurie Lee was buried” [Wikipedia].

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

Society and Culture: in Poulshot Church of England School, in rural Wiltshire, the Head Teacher is concerned about attendance, noting that “the farmers are busy with their hay, and some of the children are being made use of in the hay field occasionally.”

http://history.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/getimage.php?id=5344

Transportation: In the City of Kingston-upon-Hull, on England’s East Coast, King George V officially opens the King Geroge Dock, mainly built for the export of coal.

http://hulldockbargeworld.weebly.com/king-george-dock.html

 

 

17th June 1914 (Wednesday)

BORN TODAY: in Tientsin, China – to missionary parents – John Hersey, journalist, author, lecturer and professor.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-john-hersey-1500188.html

Society and Culture:

~ Mary Dorothy Lyndon of Athens, Georgia, becomes the first woman ever to be awarded a degree by the Univeristy of Georgia.

http://accheritage.blogspot.com/2010/06/17-june-1914-athenian-is-first-woman-to.html

~ In London, 26 year old Marcus Mosiah Garvey boards the steamship “Trent” to return home to Jamaica after two years studying law and philosophy at London’s Birkbeck College, and working for the “African Times and Orient Review.”  [Wikipedia}   ” I read ‘Up From Slavery’ and then my doom – if I may so call it – of being a race leader dawned on me”. [Barbados Underground].

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

https://barbadosunderground.wordpress.com/tag/marcus-garvey/

Sport: In England, the Western Times newspaper reports that the Exeter City football (soccer) team have played their first match (a few days ago) in a tour of South America, against a team representing North Argentina. The final score is reported at 1-0, but the cablegram received is unclear about which team was victorious.

“The cablegram received by Mr. Sid Thomas, the Secretary of the club yesterday, gives the score 1-0. According to the usual rule of the home teams score coming first, North Argentina won. On the other hand it is argued that the message means that the City were victorious. Supporters will have to possess themselves in patience.” [Western Times – Wednesday 17 June 1914]

http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/

 

http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/

9th June 1914 (Tuesday)

BORN TODAY: In Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in Northern England – Adam Wakenshaw, VC, Private, 9th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, who died from “acts of conspicuous gallantry” manning his anti-tank gun in Mersa Matruh, Egypt, on 27th June 1942, aged 28.

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

Society and education: In Kalamazoo, Michigan, maths student Claire Wright is studying for an exam tomorrow: “Oh if I can only pass it but I don’t see how its possible because I haven’t studied it all term“. [Kalamazoo Valley Museum]

http://kvm.kvcc.edu/diaries/2014/06/02/june-9-11-1914/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=june-9-11-1914

 

1st April 1914 (Wednesday)

BORN TODAY: On the island of Java, in Indonesia – the city of Malang, “a trade centre of agricultural area in which sugar, rice, coffee, tea, corn, peanuts, cassava, and cinchona bark are grown”. Happy Centenary, Malang!

http://www.eastjava.com/tourism/malang/citytour/about-us.html

Society and culture: In the village of Burston, near Diss, in rural Norfolk, England, schoolchildren, supported by their parents, begin what will become (allegedly) the longest strike in history, in protest at the dismissal of their teacher.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/dna/place-lancashire/plain/A6017456

Extreme Weather: In Massachusetts, it rains molasses. (well, it is April 1st, after all).

http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-nws-molasses-pic,0,6074134.photo