100 Years Ago Today

[Jimbuna]

9th March 1921

The ocean liner RMS Windsor Castle is launched (she serves as a troopship in WWII and is sunk by a German aircraft in 1943)


British tanks taking part in the Allied occupation of Düsseldorf.


Ship Losses:

Wandby (United Kingdom) The 3,981-gross register ton cargo ship was wrecked in fog without loss of life just off Walker's Point in Kennebunkport, Maine. Her wreck settled in up to 20 feet (6.1 m) of water.

[Jimbuna]

10th March 1921

Theodore Roosevelt Jr. is appointed the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. The post was previously held by Franklin D. Roosevelt as well as Jr.’s father Theodore Roosevelt.


Ship Losses:

Barbara Barr (United Kingdom) The schooner was abandoned in St. Mary's Bay, Newfoundland.

[Jimbuna]

11th March 1921

With the conquest of the Democratic Republic of Georgia imminent, the French Navy cruiser "Ernest Renan" transported Georgia's gold reserves and church reserves out of the port of Batumi, for shipment to the Georgian government-in-exile in France.

[Jimbuna]

12th March 1921

Lenin with the delegates of the 10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party.


British Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill opens the Cairo Conference to discuss the future of British policy in the Middle East, particularly in the former Ottoman territories of Iraq and Transjordan.


Queen Mary is awarded an honorary degree from Oxford, the first time a woman receives one.


Ship Losses:

Alverta T. (United States) The motor vessel capsized at New Orleans in heavy fog. Six drowned.
Douglas Adams (United Kingdom) The schooner departed Lisbon, Portugal for Twillingate, Newfoundland. No further trace, presumed foundered in the Atlantic Ocean with the loss of all hands.

[Jimbuna]

13th March 1921

Irish protestors demonstrating outside Mountjoy Prison, Dublin before the execution of six captured IRA members tomorrow.


Ship Losses:

Leonita (Spain) The cargo ship foundered in the Atlantic Ocean (36°24′N 7°30′W).

[Jimbuna]

14th March 1921

IRA members Patrick Moran, Thomas Whelan, Frank Flood, Patrick Doyle, Thomas Bryan, and Bernard Ryan (later known as the members of the “Forgotten Ten”) are executed in Dublin. Large crowds protest the executions outside of Mountjoy Prison.


Ship Losses:

Fredville (United Kingdom) The coaster collided with Vincennes Bridge ( United States) in the North Sea and sank. Her crew were rescued.
Frieda E. (United Kingdom) The schooner caught fire and was abandoned in the Atlantic Ocean (33°44′N 63°26′W). Her crew were rescued by Hofuku Maru ( Japan).
Guillermo (Spain) The cargo ship foundered in the Atlantic Ocean off Oporto, Portugal. Her crew were rescued by Niki ( Greece).

[Jimbuna]

15th March 1921

Talaat Pasha, former Grand Vizier and Interior Minister of the Ottoman Empire who initiated the Armenian genocide, is assassinated in Berlin by Armenian revolutionary Soghomon Tehlirian.

[Jimbuna]

16th March 1921

Service is held for 1609 American war dead transported back to the U.S. from the battlefields of France. The coffins were carried by the transport “Somme” to Hoboken, New Jersey.

[Jimbuna]

17th March 1921

In the face of the Red Army invasion, Georgian government officials evacuate the country through Batumi and go into exile. Red Army officers in Batumi.

[Jimbuna]

18th March 1921

Poland and Soviet Russia sign the Peace of Riga, ending the Soviet-Polish War on terms favorable to Poland. Russia will pay monetary compensation, and Belarus and Ukraine will be partitioned between Poland and Russia.


Ship Losses:

Zuzatzarte (Spain) The cargo ship was driven ashore near Bilbao and was wrecked.

[Jimbuna]

19th March 1921

One of the largest engagements of the Irish War of Independence occurs, as 1200 British troops attempt to encircle 100 soldiers of the IRA, led by Tom Barry (pictured), at Crossbarry, County Cork. British forces are instead ambushed, and the IRA escape with minimal casualties.


Prussian police are deployed to restore order in Mansfeld, Hettstedt and Eisleben. The United Communist Party of Germany is therefore postponing an uprising that was already planned. The March Action in Central Germany begin.

[Jimbuna]

20th March 1921

British delegates of the Cairo Conference, including Winston Churchill, TE Laurence, and Gertrude Bell, in front of the sphinx and pyramids.


French tanks and soldiers ensuring order during the Upper Silesia Plebiscite.

[Jimbuna]

21st March 1921

Stern view of the battleship USS Colorado before her launch tomorrow/


IRA forces ambush a train carrying British soldiers at the Headford Junction railway in County Kerry, resulting in the deaths of 9 British soldiers, two IRA soldiers, and three civilians. British soldiers searching trains in County Kerry.


Ship Losses:

City of Colombo (United Kingdom) The ocean liner ran aground off Petite Passage, New Brunswick, Canada. She was subsequently declared a total loss.
Elizabeth Charlotte (United Kingdom) The three-masted schooner departed King's Lynn, Norfolk for the Tyne. No further trace, presumed foundered in the North Sea with the loss of all hands.
Governor Brooke (United States) The schooner ran aground at Castillo and was abandoned. Her crew were rescued by Ballington ( United Kingdom).

[Jimbuna]

22nd March 1921

"March action" attempted armed insurrection by the Communist Party of Germany in Halle and Mansfeld. (“March action”, communist insurrection in central Germany (Max Hoelz) - train attacks in Ammendorf and Hettstedt)

[Jimbuna]

23rd March 1921

Alamitos oil well #1 begins drilling in Signal Hill, California (the well hits oil in June, turning the oil field into one of the most productive oil fields in the world.


First day of the March Action, a Communist attempt at a general strike in Germany. Buildings are bombed and trains are derailed in central Germany, and the city hall in Hamburg is seized. Pictured are bombed buildings in Hettstedt.