Tuesday, December 6, 2016

History: The Year is 1911

I've uploaded year 1911 to the TSP Wiki...

http://tspwiki.com/index.php?title=1911

Here are some one liners...


The Colt M1911 Wins! -- The 1911 is selected as the US military sidearm.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire -- A fire breaks out in a sweat shop and a lot of teenage girls die.

The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax -- Somehow a casual mention of Eskimo words for snow builds into an urban legend. I talk about Margaret Mead and gender switching roles.

Notable Births -- L. Ron Hubbard, Ronald Reagan, Lucille Ball, and others.

In Other News -- The 1st sea plane, the 1st aircraft carrier landing, the 1st air strike, the 1st plane shot down and the richest black man in the USA dies.




The Colt M1911 Wins!

The competition has been fierce between the Colt M1911 designed by John Browning and the "Ten Shots Quick!" Savage 1907. The US military has set it's heart on a .45 caliber side arm. Six manufacturers submitted their designs for testing, but that was soon reduced to three. The Luger was dropped after the DWM Company refused to accommodate the changes the US government asked for. (Frankly, DWM thought they were being jerked around, and maybe that was true.) That left Colt and Savage. In the end, the 1911 came through the testing with fewer faults. The Savage pistols were returned, and the Colt became the service pistol for the US military until the 1970s when the military judged the 1911 to be getting a little long in the tooth. The Colt M1911 is still used by some forces today, and has fostered many clones in the civilian market, some better than others. The 1911 is favored by the survivalist for its reliability, availability of parts, and the use of the popular .45 ACP round. It also looks wicked cool. [1] [2] [3]

My Take by Alex Shrugged
Less than 200 of the Savage 1907s in .45 caliber were made for the trial. The 1907 was redesigned for .32 caliber (ACP) and advertised as a weapon for women to hold off burglars and tramps. Regarding the popular 1911 in the present day, I have no problem wading into religious or political subjects, but when it comes to firearms, I sit at the feet of my elders and listen carefully. Some 1911 owners speak like it's a religious experience. Others throw up their hands, and shout an impious word that rhymes with clock. I'm staying neutral. My wife loves the compact .45 that Smith and Wesson puts out. Looks like a 1911, but it isn't. She shoots like Annie Oakley though... better than I do.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

They scream and scream, but nothing can be done. If they can get out in the first 5 minutes, they are saved. Within 10 minutes, maybe or maybe not. Thereafter, they are dead. You must have heard what happened. Young teenage girls working feverishly to get their quota of sewing done before the workday ended. They are locked into the loft from the outside, presumably to keep union organizers out. Certainly it keeps the girls inside and working. 15 minutes before the end of the work day, someone accidentally drops a cigarette. The remnants of cloth and thread are spread all across the floor. Before they know it, the flames are upon them. The girls on the 8th floor try to put out the fire. They really try, but soon the water is gone. Some run to the fire escape, but it gives way under their weight. They plunge to their deaths. Others run to the doors that PULL open. They are crushed by the girls behind them PUSHING to get out. Bodies pile up by the doors as the girls are overcome with smoke. All in all, 146 die, half of them teenagers. Workplace safety becomes a subject of grave national interest. [4] [5]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
Just for context, at the same time union thugs blew up the LA Times building, killing several people, so the fear of worker reprisal was reasonable. Even if the employers gave in to the union's demands, union violence was still a possibility. Public opinion went back and forth regarding unions, sympathizing with the plight of the workers, but fearing the violence that sometimes erupted from unions. Violence was defined in those days as shootings, and letter bombs sent to your home.... you know... like Ted Kaczynski Una-bomber stuff. In the early 1900s some union members were little better than terrorists... or communists. Unions have improved since then. [6] [7]

The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax

You've heard about the many Eskimo words for "snow". It's a hoax. Professor Boas, anthropologist at Columbia University, has mentioned casually that the Inuit Eskimos have four root words for snow and it gets blown out of proportion. English has more than 4 words for snow, yet, with all the other strange rumors about the Inuits, such as wife sharing or abandoning grandpa on an ice flow to be eaten by polar bears, the legend grows about the number of words Inuits have for snow. Soon it is 7 words. Maybe 100 words. These so-called facts make it into articles of Amazing Stuff, and it becomes an urban legend. Professor Boas is really sorry. There is no stopping it. [8] [9]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
One of Professor Boa's students was the famous anthropologist, Margaret Mead. I read one of her books because of an on-going controversy over whether men and women are different other than physically. Dr. Mead had studied a primitive society that had a gender-bender mentality. The women were aggressive, and did all the hunting while the men walked with a mincing step and stayed home with the children. HOWEVER... the men dominated the social order. Hunting was not considered important, so that task was assigned to the women while the men concerned themselves with weightier matters. I told my psychiatrist friend about this male-dominance issue, and she laughed. If a man thinks that changing a diaper is the most important thing in the world, you can bet that he also thinks that a woman could not possibly do it correctly. There are always exceptions, but generally speaking, men do what men do, and when women encroach on manly things, the men find something else to dominate. [10]

Notable Births

  • L. Ron Hubbard (Author and founder of Scientology) [11]
  • Ronald Reagan (Actor, union leader, Governor of California, and President of the United States.) [12]
  • Lucille Ball (Star of "I Love Lucy" and producer of "Mission:Impossible" and "Star Trek".) [13]
  • And don't forget: Vincent Price, Danny Kaye, Ginger Rogers, Spike Jones, Roy Rogers, and freakin' Bill Monroe! [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19]

In Other News

  • Glenn Curtiss builds the 1st sea plane, and Eugene Ely lands a Curtiss plane on the afterdeck of the USS Pennsylvania. The US military buys a Curtiss... naturally. [20] [21] [22] [23]
  • The Italians perform the 1st aerial reconnaissance, and airstrike. Grenades are dropped on Turkish troops in Libya. The Turks establish a 'no fly zone' by shooting down the 1st airplane. [24] [25] [26]
  • The richest black man in the USA passes away. John Trower started with zip and leaves almost $28 million in 2015 dollars in trust for his family. He ran a catering business, invested in real estate and opened a vocational school. (He was not alone.) [27] [28]

This Year in Wikipedia

Year 1911, Wikipedia.

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