Today -100: June 5, 1918: Of street lights, our present interest in democracy, and Poland

New York will order the street lighting reduced on certain streets to reduce the ability of German bombers launched at night from submarines (which is not a thing) to identify from the air streets with more lighting, such as 5th Avenue and Broadway, and thus figure out where bombing targets are located.

Woodrow Wilson telegrams the Louisiana Legislature, urging it to adopt women’s suffrage (this is at the state level, not the federal amendment). He says it is of “worldwide significance... affording a standard by which to judge our present interest in the complete establishment of democracy.”

Charles Warren Fairbanks, Theodore Roosevelt’s vice president and Charles Evans Hughes’s reluctant running mate in 1916, dies.

The German Reichstag is working on a bill to create army units of convicts.

The primes minister of Britain, France and Italy agree that the creation of a unified independent Polish state is now one of their goals. They also “note with satisfaction” US Secretary of State Lansing’s declaration in favor of the national aspirations of the Czechs and Jugoslavs. It’s impressive how fast the latter term has come into common usage.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.