Sunday, September 30, 2018

Today -100: September 30, 1918: Of armistices, shotguns, and Spanish Flu


German troops are pulling out of Romania. And going to “reinforce” Bulgaria where they plan to march right through Sofia so that the Bulgarians can all see how much reinforcing the Germans are doing and they certainly wouldn’t want to try to pull out of the war now that there are all these German soldiers reinforcing them in their capital, would they?

Bulgarian delegates (a general, the finance minister, and a former cabinet minister) arrive in Saloniki to discuss an armistice.

Germany complains to the US about its soldiers’ use of shotguns, which it says are illegal under the Hague Convention of 1899 (which the US denies applies to repeating shotguns). It’s threatening to execute soldiers captured with shotguns. The US says, Yeah, well we’ll execute your guys right back.

The US Dept of War stops NY from sending people to Europe to collect ballots from the 200,000 New Yorkers serving in the military there. Republicans say those soldiers would certainly all have voted Republican; the Dems say nuh ah.

Massachusetts is up to 85,000+ sick with Spanish Flu. And 1,226 dead so far. The Boston Elevated Railway Company discontinues all smoking cars for the duration.


This BBC doc on the Spanish Flu that aired this week is nothing mind-blowing, but worth watching.


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