100 Years Ago Today

[Jimbuna]

26th October 1920

U.S. submarines at drydock in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.


Baron Ungern-Sternberg attacks Urga. Taking advantage of the general confusion, several thousand white Russian guards, commanded by the Baltic general Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, from Siberia, invaded Mongolia and attacked the capital, Urga four times, to drive out the Chinese.

[Jimbuna]

27th October 1920

Norwegian sled dog breeder and racer Leonhard Seppala with his Siberian Huskies (he participates in the 1925 serum run to Nome, Alaska)


Ship Losses:

Bernard B. Conrad (United Kingdom) The schooner was abandoned in the Atlantic Ocean (45°50′N 38°54′W). Her crew were rescued by British Fern ( United Kingdom).
Hastier (Belgium) The cargo ship arrived at Antwerp with a fire in her cargo. She sank on 3 November. Hastier was raised in 1921 and scrapped in 1922.

[Jimbuna]

28th October 1920

British soldiers with a machine gun in Dublin during the Irish War of Independence.


30,000 people in London turn up to see the body of Terrence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork who died due to a hunger strike while jailed by the British.


Ship Losses:

Minard Castle (United Kingdom) The cargo ship collided with Maple ( United Kingdom) in the River Clyde and was beached at Dumbarton. She was refloated the next day.

[Jimbuna]

29th October 1920

Polish women soldiers marching in Krakow.


The Lord Mayor of Cork's coffin arrives in Cork escorted by the Black and Tans (the boat on the River Lee)


Ship Losses:

Sodegaura Maru (Japan) The cargo ship ran aground at Ninian, India. She was refloated on 8 November.

[Jimbuna]

30th October 1920

Turkish forces capture the city of Kars from Armenian forces. Armenian civilians fleeing the city.


The Lord Mayor of Cork's coffin at Cork City Hall.


Ship Losses:

Cape Fear (United States) The concrete ship collided with City of Atlanta ( United States) off Providence, Rhode Island and sank with the loss of twenty crew.

[Jimbuna]

31st October 1920

British soldiers manning a checkpoint in Ireland.


The death of Terence MacSwiney was mourned worldwide and thousands of his supporters lined the streets of Cork to see the funeral procession for their mayor, who had died from a hunger strike.


Ship Losses:

New York Maru (Japan) The cargo ship ran aground in the Red Sea off Mocha, Aden Protectorate. She was refloated on 17 November.

[Jimbuna]

1st November 1920

Armenia: Turks are reported to have seized the town of Hadjin and butchered 10,000 Armenians. The Town Had Withstood Siege for Eight Months.

President Millerand of France visiting the cemetery at Bagneux.


Kevin Barry, an Irish republican paramilitary, is executed at the age of 18 by the British for killing three British soldiers in an ambush. The execution further inflames conflict in Ireland.


Ship Losses:

Coast Battleship Number 1 (United States Navy) The decommissioned Indiana-class battleship (formerly USS Indiana) sank in shallow water in the Chesapeake Bay while in use as a target. Her wreck was sold for scrap.
Lothair (United Kingdom) The Thames barge was driven ashore at Felixstowe, Suffolk and was wrecked. Her crew were rescued by the Walton Lifeboat.
Posen (United Kingdom) The captured Nassau-class battleship (ex- Imperial German Navy) was driven ashore at Hawkcraig, Fife.

[Jimbuna]

2nd November 1920

James Daly is executed by the British for mutiny, which he did to protest the activity of the Black and Tans in Ireland. Daly is the last member of the British armed forces to be executed for mutiny.


Ship Losses:

Riberhuus (Germany) The cargo ship collided with Westwood ( United States) at Saint-Nazaire, Loire-Inférieure, France and sank.
Thomas Lagnelet (France) The schooner foundered on this date. Her crew were rescued.

[Jimbuna]

3rd November 1920

Warren Terhune, U.S. Navy Commander and Governor of American Samoa, commits suicide after an inquiry is launched concerning his governorship of the island.


View of the topdeck of captured German submarine U-140 at Philadelphia Naval Yard.

[Jimbuna]

4th November 1920

Former Vermont Governor Horace F. Graham, convicted of embezzlement of state funds while he had served as State Auditor, was sentenced to five years at hard labor in the state penitentiary. Two hours later, incumbent Governor Percival W. Clement issued Graham a pardon for all crimes.


Ship Losses:

Harvester (United States) The schooner departed Vavau, Tonga for San Francisco, California. No further trace, presumed foundered in the Pacific Ocean with the loss of all hands.
Les Aulnays (France) The cargo ship ran aground at Pointe du Touquet, Pas-de-Calais. She broke in two the next day and was a total loss.

[Jimbuna]

5th November 1920

Brigadier General Billy Mitchell (considered the father of the U.S. Air Force) with an Army airplane.


Ship Losses:

Guillane Ness (United Kingdom) The coaster was destroyed by fire in the North Sea off Montrose, Forfarshire. Her crew survived.
Loring R. Haskell (United Kingdom) The schooner foundered in White Bay. Her crew were rescued by Cactus ( United Kingdom).

[Jimbuna]

6th November 1920

Battleship USS Maryland while being fitted out.


Ship Losses:

Stella (Norway) The sail-powered cargo ship was driven ashore at Lyngvær, Norway, and was wrecked. Her crew were rescued.
HMS Stonehenge (Royal Navy) The destroyer was wrecked on the coast of the Ottoman Empire near Smyrna.

[Jimbuna]

7th November 1920

The bodies of four unidentified British soldiers buried at Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise are exhumed, and one will be chosen to be buried at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey: © IWM Q 109517


Ship Losses:

Barbadoes (United Kingdom) The trawler struck a mine and sank in the North Sea with the loss of all ten crew.

[Jimbuna]

8th November 1920

French Guard of Honor with a coffin containing the body of the Unknown Warrior at a chapel in Boulogne. The unidentified British soldier will be transported to London for Armistice Day: © IWM Q 70592


Red Army troops launch an offensive against the Army of Wrangel in the Crimean Peninsula to destroy the last remaining anti-Bolshevik forces in the Southern Front.


Ship Losses:

Cheechaco (United States) Stored for the winter on blocks high on the beach at Gambell on Saint Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, the 9-ton schooner was destroyed during a gale when an unusually high tide floated her off the blocks and she drifted away and was dashed to pieces on rocks and the beach.

[Jimbuna]

9th November 1920

British and French Guard of Honor escort a coffin containing the body of the Unknown Warrior to the HMS Verdun at Boulogne for transport to Britain: © IWM Q 70591


Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Supreme Allied Commander during World War One, saluting the coffin of Great Britain's "Unknown Warrior" at Boulogne Harbour on 9th November 1920 before its interment two days later in Westminster Abbey, London.


Trial of Avni Rustemi, an Albanian nationalist who assassinated former Albanian Prime Minister and Ottoman army officer Essad Pasha Toptani.


Ship Losses:

Ulla (Sweden) The steamer struck a mine in the North Sea, and sank immediately. The crew survived.