Today in History - April 22

Unassigned Lands, Oklahoma District, 1889

Rome wasn’t built in a day, but Guthrie and Oklahoma City sure were. The Homestead Act of 1862 provided for 160 acres of unoccupied lands to settlers in the west, but it wasn’t until after the battles of the Civil War and a later re-settlement of some Amerindian tribes that the lands of Oklahoma were opened up.

But! they weren’t uneventedly opened up with a trickle of people coming here and there, like the beginning of the settlements in Oregon. Before the ink had even dried on the Homestead Act amendment, people were gathering at the borders of the territory, with bikes, horses, and wagons, ready to rush in and stake their claim. A bugle call and cannon fire sounded the opening of the territories at meridian noon, and by sundown that same day, the towns of Guthrie and Oklahoma City had over 10,000 residents, and the beginnings of city governments had been seeded.

Though they may have only been a tent city the first few days of their existence, groundwork was finalized within days, schools opened up by the second week (with volunteer schoolteachers teaching classes of children outside, even before buildings were erected), and within a month, there were five banks and six newspapers in Oklahoma City alone.

Guthrie was known as the “most modern town in the West” for many years, and served as the original capital of Oklahoma Territory and State. It was also one of the most integrated - though African-Americans weren’t allowed to rush in with the first whites, both Northerners and freed slaves followed shortly after the initial settlement, and played an integral part in the growth of both Guthrie and Oklahoma. Since the early 1900s, he city has since been by Oklahoma City, which became the State capital in 1911.

But don’t write Guthrie off as just some has-been - the city has retained its original Victorian architecture downtown (which the faster-growing cities did not bother to do), and has one of the best Westward Expansion-focused museums in the country. Guided tours and self-tours of historical landmarks as well as a rich rodeo and Bluegrass culture, have led to Guthrie becoming one of the must-see cities of the United States for any history buff.

Images:

Top: “The Oklahoma Land Rush” by John Steuart Curry
Bottom Left: A more rural settlement, following additional land being opened up in 1893.
Bottom Right: Guthrie as a booming tent city, 1889.

(Source: digital.library.okstate.edu)

Today in History - April 21

Morlancourt Ridge, Vaux-sur-Somme, France, 1918

On April 21, 1918, the aviator known as “The Red Baron” was fatally wounded over Amiens, France. Probably the most well-known flying ace in history, the Red Baron’s real name was Baron Manfred von Richthofen, and he had the highest official air combat victory tally of any WWI fighter pilot, with the general consensus being 80 planes downed. 

When the Great War started, the Red Baron was not involved in flight - indeed, very few people were, as it was a relatively new concept. Initially a cavalry reconnaissance member, barbed wire and machine gun fire prevented any horseback recon from taking place, and the unit became de facto infantry. Wanting to get more involved in battles, Manfred von Richthofen applied to get a transfer to die Fliegertruppen des deutschen Kaiserreiches, the Imperial German Army Air Service. That transfer request was granted, and Manfred found his niche.

Rising quickly in skill and rank, the Red Baron eventually led “The Flying Circus” unit, and became something of a combination cult hero, propagandist’s dream boy, and an almost mythological figure to the Germans. But he wasn’t immortal, much to Germany’s dismay, and the populace’s morale.

Von Richthofen had been shot down in another plane prior to his fatal flight, and suffered a fairly serious head wound from that 1917 incident. Despite offers of a ground job, he adamantly refused to stay out of the sky, and went on to rack up several more kills prior to his last take-off. Though there’s still controversy over who exactly shot down the Red Baron (popular lore says it was the Canadian Roy Brown, who did at the least maim him, but the bullet that killed him was from Anti-Aircraft guns down below), what we do know for sure, is that on April 21, 1918, a German legend ground to a halt.

Photos:

Top Left: 1918 Picture postcard of Manfred von Richthofen, by Nicola Perscheid and Willi Sanke at Sanke Postcards.
Top Right: Last photo of Richthofen, preparing for flight on April 21, 1918.
Bottom: Manfred von Richthofen with the other members of Jasta 11, 1916.

(Source: pbs.org)

Today in History - April 19

Downe, Kent, England, 1888

On April 19, 1888, Charles Robert Darwin passed away at Down House, in Downe, Kent, at age 73. He was active in the natural history community to his last, and was buried with great pomp and ceremony in Westminster Abbey, next to Isaac Newton and John Herschel.

Though his earlier works were clearly influential, one of his most accurate and long-standing books was his last - The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Earthworms. In fact, his observations on the anatomy and function of earthworms were so thorough that the species he covered in his book have largely been ignored in basic research until recently, when the concept and ability to test for “gut flora” (bacteria in the digestive system) arose in the early 2000s.

(Source: macroevolution.net)

tweed-eyes:

Mela Koehler (Austrian, Vienna 1885–1960 Stockholm)

(via my-ear-trumpet)

biomedicalephemera:

Radiolab: Guts

How do our squishy guts work? How did we figure out that the stomach is where digestion takes place, and the bowels were not, indeed, the “seat of human sympathy”? Why was a disfigured hunter considered a walking scientific marvel, and why were people licking his stomach*? Find out all that and more in this latest Radiolab podcast!

Featuring Mary Roach, Carl Zimmer, and, of course, Jad and Robert. Lots of good old science, new science, bacteria, and acid!

*The latter part of this question may or may not be answered. But it happened.