28th April 1915 (Wednesday)

War!

Arms makers: in the US, the Bethlehem Steel Corporation issues its shipping note for “1,248 cases of three-inch calibre shrapnel shells, filled”, due to be carried across the Atlantic (from neutral USA) in the cargo hold of the passenger liner “Lusitania” to the (British) Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. The weapons do not appear in the ship’s final manifest.

http://www.lusitania.net/deadlycargo.htm

Peace makers: The International Congress of Women convenes at The Hague, Netherlands, with more than 1,200 delegates from 12 countries—including Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Poland, Belgium and the United States—all dedicated to the cause of peace and a resolution of the war. “With mourning hearts we stand united here….We grieve for many brave young men who have lost their lives on the battlefield before attaining their full manhood; we mourn with the poor mothers bereft of their sons; with the thousands of young widows and fatherless children, and we feel that we can no longer endure in this twentieth century of civilization that government should tolerate brute force as the only solution of international disputes”.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/international-congress-of-women-opens-at-the-hague

http://www.wilpf.org.uk/history/international-congress-of-women-1915/

News makers: The New York Times reports a recent explanation in Russia’s Duma [Parliament} explaining the presence of Russian troops in Persia:

“The presence of our troops in Persian territory by no means involves a violation of Persian neutrality. Our detachments were sent to that country some years ago for the definite purpose of establishing and maintaining order in districts contiguous to our possessions, of high economic importance to us, also to prevent the seizure of some of these districts by the Turks, who openly strove to create for themselves there, especially in the district of Urumiah, a convenient base for military operations against the Caucasus. The Persian Government, not having the actual power to maintain its neutrality, met the Turkish violation of the latter with protests, which, however, had no results.”

http://www.armenian-genocide.org/4-28-15-text.html

29th September 1914 (Tuesday)

BORN TODAY:

~ in Woodridge, Manitoba, Canada – Joseph Patrice Ephreme (“Andy”) Desjarlais, Métis fiddler.

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

~ In Natal, South Africa – Diederik Johannes Opperman, Professor of Afrikaans Literature at
the University of Stellenbosch, 1960 – 1979, and “one of South Africa’s most important poets and literary men”.

http://www.stellenboschwriters.com/opperman.html

War!

In the Middle East: the British gunboat HMS ESpiegle arrives from Ceylon (Sti Lanka) and takes up a position at the head of the Arabian/Persian Gulf with the task of protecting the British interests in the Anglo-Persian oil company, including the refinery on the Persian  island of Abadan. [“Eden to Armageddon: World War 1 in the Middle East”].

On the (english) Home Front, the Worcestershire Hunt (the organisation for hunting foxes in the County of Worcestershire) debates whether the hunt should continue in wartime:

“Masters of Foxhounds all over the country had been ‘robbed of their brood’ and, in many cases, few horses had been left except old cobs. Mr Jones said the Hunt should really go in for killing more foxes than usual because it was reported that there was a scarcity of foreign eggs. Major Baldwin strongly supported the policy of continuing the Hunt. Some of the subscribers had lost friends and others of them were busy and could not hunt, but they wanted to see the sport kept alive.” [Quoted on the Worcestershire World War 1 web-site].

http://www.ww1worcestershire.co.uk/key-dates/1914/09/disagreement-on-future-of-worcestershire-hunt/

16th October 1913 (Thursday)

BORN TODAY: In Florence, Italy – Cesar Bresgen – Austro-Hungarian composer and organist.

http://www.schott-music.com/shop/persons/az/cesar-bresgen/

Arms Race: At Portsmouth, Hampshire the British Royal Navy launches HMS Queen Elizabeth, a “super dreadnought” class battleship, first of a new generation of warships to be fuelled by oil instead of coal, which will mark a turning point in British geo-political strategy as its focus moves from coaling stations (Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, Aden etc) towards oil producing territory, most especially in Persia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Queen_Elizabeth_(1913)

Labour Relations: In South Africa railway workers and miners go out on strike in support of the Satyagraha campaign for Indian and Tamil rights.

http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/1913-satyagraha-campaign-resumes

Society and culture:  The Cornell Daily Sun reports a ruling from the Board of Student Representatives of Columbia University rejecting a petition from its journalism students claiming exemptions from its rules for freshers. “Freshmen must conform”. For the disappointed wannabe journalist this means that he will have to…

“wear a small skull cap with a white pearl button all year; he cannot walk on the grass; I he must not have cuffs on his trousers; he may not wear flashy ties or socks and he cannot smoke”

http://cdsun.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/cornell?a=d&d=CDS19131016.2.43.4