Today in History

[LizzieMaine]

September 9, 1933

CUBAN JUNTA OF 5 RESIGNS
Sergeant Heads Army

Havana, Sept. 8 -- In a move to prevent armed intervention by United States naval forces now in Cuban waters, the revolutionary junta of five men who have served as a de facto government of this distracted island since Tuesday resigned today and turned their attention to forming a coalition cabinet.

The dubious authority which they have exercised since the recent coup d'etat was placed in the hands of Fulgencio Batista, army sergeant and leader of the revoly, who was elevated to the rank of colonel in the establishment of a virtual military dictatorship. A state of anarchy and chaos impends.

Regular officers of the Cuban army, most of whom are West Point graduates, stated flatly however that they would refuse to serve under the leadership of the broad-shouldered and fiery radical sergeant. Two hundred officers, after a stormy meeting tonight, agreed unanimously to support the De Cespedes government, charging that the present Batista regime is communistic in nature.

 

[Fletch]

September 9, 1926
The Radio Corporation of America inaugurates its new subsidiary, the National Broadcasting Company. Programs begin November 15 over a network of 22 stations, extending west no further than Kansas City.

 

[LizzieMaine]

September 11, 1931

YACHTING TRAGEDY ENACTED BY WIFE
Former Boston Woman Shows How Pirates Killed Rich Husband on Boat

by Staff Correspondent

New York, Sept. 11 -- Mrs. Benjamin Collings, 26, today reenacted for police the reported murder of her husband by pirates on the cabin cruiser Penguin in Long Island Sound Wednesday night.

The former Lillian Chellus, of Boston, was accompanied by detectives and a police matron on the Penguin in Oyster Bay during her dramatic demonstration of the manner in which she says two gunman boarded the craft, bound her husband, and tossed him overboard, attacked and then marooned her in another boat, and finally set their five year old daughter adrift in the night in the lightless Penguin.

Reenactment of the tragic melodrama began immediately after Mrs. Collings breakfasted at a Garden City hotel, where she slept a few hours under guard of a police matron. Meanwhile, her diary, found with a broken oar beneath floorboards of the blood-stained Penguin was being studied by other detectives. It contained the names of several Boston men and women.

Hours of questioning of Mrs. Collings failed to produce any major discrepancies in this strange story, which she first related yesterday when screams resulted in her discovery marooned on an anchored motorboat in Oyster Bay.

The full horror of what happened Wednesday night aboard the Penguin, at anchor in Northport Bay, and afterward, dawned slowly even in the minds of veteran police officers long used to estimating the true nature of a situation at first glance. Weird, melodramatic, fantastic, the whole occurrence seemed less real than a page out of some blood-and-thunder adventure story. Yet bloodstained cushions and a broken oar, found aboard the Penguin, were grim reminders that it was indeed fact, not fiction.

The Collings's little girl, Barbara, whom the pirates left aboard the Penguin alone when after throwing Collings overboard, they forced Mrs. Collings to accompany them on a small boat, gave police Inspector Harold King one valuable clue. "I heard," she said, "my daddy say 'that's the bunk,' and then the other man talked, and my daddy said 'do you think that's the right thing to do with a woman on board?'"

The little girl appeared none the worse for her adventure -- too young, indeed, to realize the tragedy that had befallen her. "She's a little brick," said H. L. Noteman of New Rochelle, who rescued her. "She wasn't at all afraid, didn't cry once, and chatted with us like we were old friends."

Collings, Inspector King learned, was well-to-do, if not wealthy. He had an independent income, it was stated, of approximately $3000 to $5000 a year. His home in Stanford was valued at between $50,000 and $75,000

Collings' body has not been found.

 

[Fletch]

Note the free use of "enacted" vs. re-enacted." A jaded, modern reader who ignores banner headlines would read the column hed and think Mrs. Collings pulled the job. :eusa_doh:

"A Paper for People Who Think"
The American was a Hearst sheet, all of which carried this slogan. It earned some kidding back in the day, including the Harvard Lampoon pretending to quote Pravda, "A Paper for People Who Think They Think." WRH himself got in on it when he had a front page faked up for a cocktail evening at the Castle, with the tagline "A Paper for People Who Drink."

Now, where are you getting these? Some fantabulous archive someplace? Or are they all insulating your house?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Note the free use of "enacted" vs. re-enacted." A jaded, modern reader who ignores banner headlines would read the column hed and think Mrs. Collings pulled the job. :eusa_doh:

"A Paper for People Who Think"
The American was a Hearst sheet, all of which carried this slogan. It earned some kidding back in the day, including the Harvard Lampoon pretending to quote Pravda, "A Paper for People Who Think They Think." WRH himself got in on it when he had a front page faked up for a cocktail evening at the Castle, with the tagline "A Paper for People Who Drink."

Now, where are you getting these? Some fantabulous archive someplace? Or are they all insulating your house?

They're all from my -- ah -- personal archives, assembled over decades of gleaning flea markets and library discard piles. I have a stack of them about four feet high packed in a closet, and have been sorting thru for the first time in years to see what's there.

The Hearst sheets, in whatever city, were terrible rags. The Record -- the Boston tabloid -- was also a Hearst paper, a sleazy stepsister to the Mirror in New York, and makes its latter-day descendant, the Boston Herald, look like the Christian Science Monitor by comparison.

 

[LizzieMaine]

September 12, 1933

MAINE FAVORS REPEAL BY VOTE OF ALMOST 2 TO 1

Portland, Me. Sept 11 (AP) -- Prohibition Maine, with the admittedly wet cities to be heard from, rolled steadily toward Repeal tonight.

More than one-half the state's precincts showed a majority of very nearly two to one for the convention delegates unofficially pledged to vote for approval of the 21st, the Repeal Amendment.

The vote from 326 of the State's 632 precincts was -- For: 38,426, Against: 20,635.

LEAD IN EVERY COUNTY

The wets led in every county, and in only one county -- York -- where an independent repeal slate complicated the situation for the foes of prohibition -- did there appear a chance for a dry delegate to be elected to the convention of 80 that will assemble on December 6th to take formal action.

Prohibition leaders declined to concede defeat, even as they saw the rural places, where they have always found their greatest strength, slip into the wet column.

The Rev. Frederick W. Smith, superintendent of the Maine Christian Civic League, the state's anti-saloon organization, at 11 o'clock said he had no statement and was not sure he would have any later. "I'm still clam-mouthed," he said.

SEARCH CELLARS FOR CLUE TO FIEND

Working in a widening circle until the entire district within a mile radius of Union Sq, Somerville, is covered, state and local detectives will conduct a minute search of every accessible store, warehouse, home and cellar today in an intensive effort to locate fresh clues in the fiendish murder of 10 -year-old Peggy McCarthy.

Back yards will be scoured by the officers, basements will be ransacked, refuse cans and furnaces, vacant lots and wood sheds, factories and sewers -- all will be subjected to the closest possible scrutiny. And for the first time the proven training ability of a famous police dog, the Doberman Pinscher Blitz Von Der Voss that was successful in unearthing the body of little Nellie Keras, slain Norwood girl, will be utilized.

DOG STARTS ON TRAIL

The dog will be given garments of the murdered girl to smell. He will nose shoes which she formerly wore. And then, starting at Capone's Shoe Repair shop on Somerville Ave. where the girl was last seen, he will attempt to pick up the trail Peggy took until she met death at the hands of her murderer.

Meanwhile, police were still looking for a mustached and middle-aged foreigner who is reported to have tried to lure six children away with him in the district in the past few days.

 

[LizzieMaine]

September 13, 1938

(New York Daily News, Page 2)

HITLER ROARS DEFI
by Edward W. Beattie Jr.
United Press Staff Correspondent

Nurnberg, Germany, Sept. 12 -- Adolf Hitler tonight demanded "the right of self determination" for the 3,500,000 Sudeten Germans of Czechoslovakia and defied France and Great Britain to halt him or swerve him from his decision.

"If the Sudeten Germans cannot defend themselves, they will receive help from us!" the Fuehrer thundered to a worldwide audience of countless millions looking for a verdict of peace or war. Hitler's demand, made in the most dramatic hour of his career, was regarded as the opening gun of a Nazi campaign for a plebiscite in Czechoslovakia.

Nazi officials said Hitler had gone as far as he could without an outright ultimatum on Praha. He made it clear, they said, that Germany was ready to aid the Sudetens with any measures necessary, including armed force, unless the "persecution" of the German minority ceases.

Hitler informed the world that Sudeten autonomy was not enough, and that he wanted "Anschluss", like his Austrian annexation of last March, according to informed Nazis.

FEARFUL EUROPE

Reichsfuehrer Hitler lit the punk but withheld it from the fuse of the European powder barrel last night. His speech, defying Great Britain and France to interfere with his "right" to "liberate" Czechoslovakia's 3,500,000 Sudeten Germans doomed the continent to remain an armed camp indefinitely. Developments were:

FRENCH BACK CZECHS - The Cabinet in Paris gave Premier Deladier full power to mobilize and take "all necessary military measures" to help Czechoslovakia.

BRITAIN STANDS FIRM -- The British Cabinet reaffirmed determination to support France in case Germany invades Czechoslovakia.

CZECHS IN FERMENT -- The Government at Praha stood ready to declare martial law in Sudetenland to maintain order at all costs.

U. S. ON THE ALERT -- American diplomats were busy in half a dozen capitals, keeping Washington informed and preparing the way to give help to Americans abroad should war come.

F. D. R. IN TOUCH -- Between visits to the bedside of his son James in Rochester, Minn., the President kept in telephone communication with Secretary of State Hull.

 

[LizzieMaine]

September 14, 1938

"We interrupt this program for the following Press-Radio news bulletin --"

9:35 AM -- "Brussels! Adolf Hitler has called a conference of all his high military and political and political chiefs at his Bavarian home for this afternoon, the Belgian foreign minister has just informed the foreign office!"

11 AM -- "London! The British Cabinet met in crucial session and it is said discussed plans for early and complete mobilization! Paris! French government has completed plans for mobilizing two million reservists so as to have four million men under arms within a short time!"

12:35PM -- "Eger! The United Press reports that fighting has broken out between Czech soldiers and Sudeten Germans in the town of Habersparirk. Reports say about two thousand were engaged!"

4 PM -- "Washington! President Roosevelt described the European situation as very serious. He is getting up to the minute reports from the State Department!"

4:16PM -- "British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain will fly to Germany tomorrow to have a personal interview with Adolf Hitler, in a final effort to head off a European war. This was officially announced by the British Government a few minutes ago!"

6 PM -- "London! The whole aspect of the European crisis has changed within the last two hours. Just when war seemed only minutes away and actual fighting was going on in Czechoslovakia, the British prime minister announced his decision to meet Hitler face to face in a supreme effort to avert a conflict. Statesmen all over Europe are hailing Chamberlain's move as a magnificent gesture, although it breaks all traditions of the old time diplomacy. This will be the first time in history that the head of a government ever pleaded personally with another government's leader in a war crisis!"

"These bulletins have come to you from the Press-Radio Bureau. For further details, see your local newspaper!"

-- CBS radio, 9/14/38

 

[Story]

September 15, 1940

RAF Fighter Command is claiming victory over the Luftwaffe after a day of heavy bombing raids ended in big losses for the enemy.

According to the RAF, 176 enemy aircraft were destroyed by fighter planes. At least another nine aircraft were hit by anti-aircraft guns.

British casualties were much lighter - only 25 aircraft lost with 13 pilots killed or missing.

The Air Ministry says the German losses are the highest since 18 August, five days after the Battle of Britain began in earnest.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/15/newsid_3521000/3521611.stm

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[LizzieMaine]

September 15, 1938

"Neville Chamberlain flew this morning from London to Munich. The aged Prime Minister had never flown before, never been up in a plane. From Munich, Chamberlain took a special train to Berchtesgarden, a little town high in the Bavarian Alps.

"Within an hour of his arrival, Chamberlain was taken by car from the hotel to Hitler's hermit retreat high on the mountain.. Hitler served tea to his English guest, and the conference began.

"The Prime Minister himself spoke to the newspaper correspondents as follows: 'I had a very friendly talk with Herr Hitler. I am returning to London and will meet Herr Hitler again sometime later."

-- Lowell Thomas, Sunoco's News Voice of the Air, NBC radio.

"The Czechs, like everyone else in the world, have their eyes focused tonight on Berchtesgarden. Czechoslovakia, like every nation in the world, wants peace -- but not peace at any price. What the Czechs want to know tonight is whether, when the conference is resumed, Mr. Chamberlain will get from Mr. Hitler his peace exclusively at the cost of Czechoslovakia. There are many people here who, in private conversation at least, believe that is Mr. Chamberlain's plan -- a peace in which the Czechoslovaks make all the concessions."

-- William L. Shirer, reporting from Prague, CBS radio.

 

[dhermann1]

A couple of interesting sidenotes to that: Winston Churchill, in contrast to Chamberlain, had taken 130 hours of flying lessons in 1913 (which scared the crap out of his wife), and flew as often as he could.
Also, if the western powers had not so totally forced the Czechs into capitulating, there is a good chance their very skilled and highly prepared military would have given the Germans a stunning bloody nose, at which point the German generals would have executed the coup d'etat they had all planned and ready. The unexpected success of the move into Czechoslovakia prevented the coup, and guaranteed the outbreak of World War II barely a year later. The ironies of history.

 

[carter]

SEARCH CELLARS FOR CLUE TO FIEND

Working in a widening circle until the entire district within a mile radius of Union Sq, Somerville, is covered, state and local detectives will conduct a minute search of every accessible store, warehouse, home and cellar today in an intensive effort to locate fresh clues in the fiendish murder of 10 -year-old Peggy McCarthy.

Back yards will be scoured by the officers, basements will be ransacked, refuse cans and furnaces, vacant lots and wood sheds, factories and sewers -- all will be subjected to the closest possible scrutiny. And for the first time the proven training ability of a famous police dog, the Doberman Pinscher Blitz Von Der Voss that was successful in unearthing the body of little Nellie Keras, slain Norwood girl, will be utilized.

DOG STARTS ON TRAIL

The dog will be given garments of the murdered girl to smell. He will nose shoes which she formerly wore. And then, starting at Capone's Shoe Repair shop on Somerville Ave. where the girl was last seen, he will attempt to pick up the trail Peggy took until she met death at the hands of her murderer.

Meanwhile, police were still looking for a mustached and middle-aged foreigner who is reported to have tried to lure six children away with him in the district in the past few days.

Lizzie, Will we receive any updates related to this fiend? Just wondering how the hunt proceeded and whether the case was solved. Carter

 

[LizzieMaine]

Lizzie, Will we receive any updates related to this fiend? Just wondering how the hunt proceeded and whether the case was solved. Carter

Oh yes, there'll be several updates on this story over the next week. If there's one thing a Hearst tabloid loved to exploit for all it's worth, it's a fiendish murder case.

 

[LizzieMaine]

September 16, 1938

"Prime Minister Chamberlain, when he arrived at Heston, made the following statement to the crowd: 'I have come back again rather quicker than I had expected...Yesterday afternoon I had a long talk with Herr Hitler. It was a frank talk but a friendly one, and I feel satisfied now that each of us fully understands what is in the mind of the other. You won't, of course, expect me to discuss now what may be the results of that talk. What I have got to do now is discuss them with my colleagues and I would advise you not to accept prematurely any unauthorized account of what took place in the conversation. I am going to have another talk with Herr Hitler, only this time he has told me that it is his intention to come half way to meet me. He wishes to spare an old man another such long journey'"

-- CBS radio, 12:45pm

 

[LizzieMaine]

September 18, 1933

FEAR EIGHT LOST IN STORM -- STATE IN PERIL OF FLOOD

One death, possibly larger loss of life and enormous property damage resulted from storms which deluged Boston and New England for the past two days.

A train wreck was prevented yesterday when a Hingham boy warned New Haven officials of a washout at Hingham. From Nantucket, sideswiped by the tropical hurricane comes the report that two fishing vessels, each with four men on board, are feared lost, All small craft anchored around the island were submurged or cast ashore. From Hull to Scituate hundreds of small craft were torn loose from their moorings and either swamped or washed ashore.

ULTIMATUM TO KIN TO GIVE UP CAHILL -- GIRL'S NAME IN DIARY OF EX-COWBOY

State police hastily rushed from Somerville police headquarters to bring in for questioning a girl believed to be a sweetheart of Harry Cahill, ex-cowboy, wanted for questioning in the fiend murder of 10 year old Peggy McCarthy.

The name of this girl -- the first woman known to have been involved in Cahill's life -- was discovered in a little black notebook siezed with Cahill's effects when police raided his Somerville room. The woman's name was encircled with enduring words written by Cahill. Authorities refused to reveal the girl's name or where she lived.

Discovery of the identity of this woman in Cahill's life came just as District Attorney Warren L. Bishop served a first ultimatum to Cahill's family, demanding his surrender by 10 o'clock Saturday morning. If Cahill does not surrender by that time, Bishop will not only redouble every police effort to find the hunted man but for the first time in the history of Middlesex County, he will go on the radio and make every citizen a vigilante in the manhunt.

 

[carter]

A tabloid with something for everyone?

Interesting news this morning.
That storm was a real humdinger!
It looks like Mr. Cahill (an ex-cowboy) is in a heap of trouble.
Is that the National Recovery Administration logo in the upper left corner of the paper?
And who is the woman on the lower right of the front page?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Interesting news this morning.
That storm was a real humdinger!
It looks like Mr. Cahill (an ex-cowboy) is in a heap of trouble.
Is that the National Recovery Administration logo in the upper left corner of the paper?
And who is the woman on the lower right of the front page?

The Record was one of those kinds of papers that most people would claim they "found on the subway" if they got caught reading it, but it does make for fascinating study today. "A gum-chewer's sheetlet," as one critic called it.

That is indeed the NRA logo -- Hearst was a bitter opponent of the New Deal later on, but in its first months he was gung-ho for it, and all his papers signed the NRA code. As a result, some reporters saw their wages raised to eighteen dollars a week.

The gal at lower right is Adrienne Ames, Exotic Screen Star. The full caption reads "REACHES RENO! Adrienne Ames, Exotic Screen Star arrived yesterday by plane in Reno from Hollywood to establish residence for divorce from Stephen Ames, wealthy New Yorker."

Mr. Cahill was an obvious criminal type -- how else to explain a green shirt with a blue serge suit?

 

[carter]

The more things change...

"A gum-chewer's sheetlet" could very accurately apply to a lot of today's publications as well.

The story of the Ames marriage or, perhaps, trainwreck, would probably be fascinating fodder for their readers.

 

[LizzieMaine]

September 19, 1939

The Red Russian Army had plunged in as far as 50 miles into crumbling Poland early this morning. An estimated 2,000,000 troops were using planes, tanks, and artillery in a whirlwind westward invasion which Moscow described as a "sacred duty" to "liberate" 11,000,000 Ukranians and White Russians who occupy one-third of Poland.

Polish troops were fighting back -- fiercely in spots -- but the Soviet claimed capture of a dozen towns, nine Polish planes shot down, the population "jubilant," and resistance weak. At once city the German air force helped the Russians. The Soviet invasion was over the entire border of more than 500 miles, and was inthree main drives.

One of the cities claimed was Zalesczyki, last temporary seat of the Polish government. Soviet guns shelled that city, according to a German dispatch from Budapest.

 

[LizzieMaine]

September 21, 1938

"Some believe that if the immediate issues could somehow be resolved without resort to force the ambitions of all the powers in Europe would have been largely met and the crisis over. Ladies and gentlemen, I find no justification for such an opinion.

"It is the government's wish to bring about appeasement in Europe. Any other intention would be as foolish as it would be wrong. But if appeasement is to mean what it says, it must not be at the expense either of our right of interests or of our national implications or our sense of fair dealing. Appeasement will neither be long nor lasting at such a price."

-- Anthony Eden, CBS radio, 2:30pm.

"A tragic message came from Prague! It was an official announcement at the end of a long and painful session of the Czechoslovak cabinet, and its words were 'Under irresistible pressure from Great Britain and France, the Czech government has been forced to accept with pain the proposals elaborated in London.' In short -- surrender! Complete, humiliating and abject! Surrender, but at least peace. From London we then learned Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain has ordered an airplane to take him to the Rhineland, where he'll meet Chancellor Hitler."

-- Lowell Thomas, Sunoco's News Voice of the Air, NBC radio, 6:45 pm.

Meanwhile, New Englanders had more pressing concern, as the most destructive storm to hit the region in the 20th Century slammed into the northeast coast: