On December 10th, 1920, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize, in recognition of his effort to create The League of Nations. This was a rare late award, permitted under the rules but not previously done. The reason for the delay was that some of the committee were reluctant because the U.S. Senate had failed to ratify the Treaty of Versailles in November, 1919.
Kansas WW1
Commemorating the First World War Centennial in Kansas
Author: James Patton (page 1 of 28)
This major motion picture will be released soon. Directed by Sam Mendes and produced by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners, it features George McKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth, Mark Strong and Richard Madden. You can read more about this and view the trailer here.
The 1919 Versailles Treaty required the payment of reparations to most of the Allied Powers for causing the war. No payments were to be made to Russia, who wasn’t represented at the conference, and the U.S. which refused to receive reparations or territorial concessions. The burden fell mostly on Germany, in an amount equivalent to $269 billion today. Cash reparations assessed to Austria, Hungary and Turkey were zeroed out due to their large territorial losses. Bulgaria paid about $1.4 billion in today’s money before their debt was cancelled in 1932.
During the Great War there were many persons who found ways to serve in humanitarian and medical capacities in spite of their ineligibility for military duty. The most numerous of these were the members of the British Voluntary Aid Detachments, familiarly known as ‘V.A.D.’s’, which numbered about 80,000 young women. These volunteers became nursing assistants and hospital workers, and Wikipedia lists twenty-three noteworthy V.A.D.’s, some of whom were Vera Brittain, Agatha Christie, E.M. Delafield, Amelia Earhart, Violet Jessop, and Freya Stark.
At some point in time, you may have heard the words ‘Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag’ and you may have wondered “what is a kit-bag?”
Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag
Smile, boys, that’s the style.
And smile, smile, smile,
While you’ve a lucifer to light your fag,
Blockades, embargoes and sanctions. Although these tactics are many centuries old, historians say that the first effective blockade was imposed on France by the Royal Navy under Admiral Edward Hawke (1705-1781) during the Seven Year’s War (1754-1763), which Americans know as The French and Indian War.
Yesterday the U.S. World War One Centennial Commission ran this story about a Virginia high school’s approach. You can read the article here.
One hundred years ago today this major sports event in Paris concluded, having started on June 22nd. Organized by the Y.M.C.A. and supported by Gen. John Pershing, participants from 14 allied nations competed in a sports complex built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in only three months. You can read the whole story here.
The National World War One Museum and Memorial in Kansas City has just opened this on-line exhibit. You can access it here.
Home movies began in 1923 when Eastman Kodak offered the 16 mm film. One could buy a kit of a camera, projector, tripod, screen and splicer for $335 (about $5,000 in today’s money). This Youtube clip was prepared by The National Archives from 16 mm movies sold for home use by The Empire Safety Film Co. The 16 mm film was called ‘safety film’ because it was made from cellulose diacetate rather than the highly flammable cellulose nitrate used in the theater product.
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