Today -100: May 4, 1911: Of crashes, peace, and raiders of the lost ark

Don’t think I’ve mentioned that the US has an air force now, which the NYT calls the Army Aero Corps, although I doubt that’s the official name. Anyway, its head, Lt Paul Beck, just had a little crash in the Texas desert after his engine cut out at 300 feet, but was uninjured.

Pres. Taft opens the Third National Peace Congress in Baltimore. Talking in a veiled way about Mexico, he says that the US is hampered in bringing peace by the suspicions of others about its territorial ambitions. Taft, the former governor of the Philippines, says the US has none.

Riots in Jerusalem because some English archaeologists are believed to have stolen the Ark of the Covenant (they then fled the country very quickly indeed, on a yacht)(possibly with a giant boulder rolling after them)(or should I be doing H. Rider Haggard jokes?).