Monday, December 17, 2018

Today -100: December 17, 1918: I did not want to come to this dump in the first place


Pres. Wilson commutes the death sentence imposed on Priv. Solomon Losofsky of Newark, who said on arriving at Camp Dix, “I did not want to come to this dump in the first place and I have no respect for the flag or the country.”

Pres. Wilson is made a citizen of Paris, receiving a gold medal, a beret, and a baguette to commemorate the occasion. Or whatever the stereotypes about the French were  in 1918.

The Portuguese government takes advantage of the assassination of President Sidónio Pais to arrest the leaders of the opposition parties, as was the custom.

It’s rumored that Pope Benedict will wander outside the precincts of the Vatican, which all popes have refused to do since 1871 to protest Italy’s refusal to recognize the Vatican as a separate state (the Church also orders Catholics not to participate in Italian politics). I could be wrong, but I don’t think any pope does leave the Vatican until the Concordat with Mussolini.


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3 comments:

  1. No American soldiers were actually executed for this type of "crime," were they? I see that the British executed hundreds for desertion but can't find any examples of war-related executions in the United States.

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  2. For that type, no. There were 30-something executions, mostly I believe for non-war-related things like rape, drunken brawl fatalities etc. I'm not actually sure whether any were executed for desertion (I do know Priv. Eddie Slovik was famously executed for deserted during World War II, and by famously I mean I vaguely remember a tv movie starring Martin Sheen).

    France executed quite a few of its poilus, higher per capita than, say, Germany.

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  3. Thanks. Still a lot lot of executions for generally non-capital crimes.

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