Monday, September 26, 2011

Today -100: September 26, 1911: Of lost Liberty


The French battleship Liberté blows up and sinks at Toulon, the explosion also damaging several nearby battleships. 300 or so people are killed, including 200 of the crew and people on other ships and in the port.

Before:


After:



The Liberté’s captain, who was not on board when it exploded, was Louis Jaurès, whose brother Jean was leader of the Socialist Party and a pacifist MP who was assassinated a couple of days before World War I began.

President Taft gives a speech to the National Conservation Congress in Kansas City. He says that agricultural productivity must be increased if the US is to feed its ever-increasing population. But he is optimistic that the US can support the 200,000,000 Americans that he predicts might exist in 50 years, although he does not say if that’s 200 million Taft-sized Americans or the economy-sized ones.

The State Dept says it doesn’t care if Italy invades and takes over Libya, as long as American traders still have rights under the Treaty of Tripoli (1796-7).

The Denver Evening Post suggests that the Philippines be sold to Japan, since the Filipinos have proven too uncivilized to ever be given self-government.

In Belfast, a conference of Unionist leaders pledges not to acknowledge any Irish government established under Home Rule and to create a provisional government for Northern Ireland in the event of Home Rule.

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