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15 Sep 1858 Butterfield Overland Mail Company begins first transcontinental mail service between eastern and western regions


NEW YORK HERALD, Oct. 10, 1858 "* First transcontinental mail service success * Arrives at San Francisco, California"

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September 15 1858 – The Butterfield Overland Mail Company begins the first transcontinental mail service between eastern and western regions of the nation, from St. Louis to San Francisco, sending out its first two stages. The company's motto was "Remember, boys, nothing on God's earth must stop the United States mail!" The line continued to operate until May 10, 1869, the day the first transcontinental railroad was completed.

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Image courtesy Southern Arizona News-Examiner and Rare & Early Newspapers

Nobility. Leave behind a better world: 8th Duke of Wellington, WWii hero, in 40 years planted more than one million trees

"Leave this world a little better than you found it." - Robert Baden-Powell

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The 8th Duke of Wellington, who has died aged 99, led a level-headed and responsible life. He earned a Military Cross in the Second World War - a distinguished soldier who kept a judicious eye on the legacy of his ancestor, the victor of Waterloo.

Arthur Valerian Wellesley was born in Rome on July 2 1915, the centenary year of his great-great-grandfather’s victory over the French. His father was Lord Gerald Wellesley, the third son of the 4th Duke, an author and diplomat who later qualified as an architect and succeeded as the 7th Duke in 1943. Valerian’s mother was Dottie Ashton, a wealthy industrialist’s daughter and poet who married her husband in 1914 and published a volume of letters from the poet WB Yeats and another containing her letters to him after his death.

His father sent him to read History and Languages at New College, Oxford, where he was a member of the Bullingdon Club; at the same time he enjoyed London society, dancing with suitable girls at grand balls and less suitable ones in subterranean nightclubs. As a result he failed his finals and was sent to a London crammer, run by an attractive widow, and then to France to learn French. He was commissioned into the Royal Horse Guards, which taught him sword, lance and revolver drill, tent pegging and other cavalry exercises.  read more »

22 Sep 1914 - German U-boat devastates British squadron, sinking three cruisers in one hour

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In the North Sea on September 22, 1914, the German submarine U-9 sinks three British cruisers, the Aboukir, the Hogue and the Cressy, in just over one hour.
In the first two months of war, the German High Seas Fleet made little effort to move from its headquarters in Wilhelmshaven. The one naval battle, fought at Heligoland Bight in late August, ended in a convincing British victory, with three German battleships sunk, three more damaged and 1,200 German sailors killed or wounded.

In the wake of Heligoland Bight, Kaiser Wilhelm and the German leadership concluded that the navy should be kept off the open seas, as its best use was as a defensive weapon. As the war continued, Germany’s greatest weapon at sea would not be its light cruisers but its lethal U-boat submarine, which was far more sophisticated than those built by other nations at that time. The typical U-boat was 214 feet long, carried 35 men and 12 torpedoes and could travel underwater for two hours at a time.

The one-sided battle on September 22, which claimed three British cruisers and the lives of 1,400 sailors, alerted the British to the deadly effectiveness of the submarine, which had been generally unrecognized up to that time. In the first few years of World War I, German U-boats took a terrible toll on Allied shipping. By 1917, however, the continued unrestricted U-boat attacks on American vessels traveling to Britain prompted the previously neutral United States to declare war on Germany. The infusion of American ships, troops and arms into World War I, as well as the economic support the U.S. supplied to the Allied powers, would eventually turn the tide of the war against Germany.  read more »

The Price is Right, or not? Crude oil prices in 150 years: 1861-2013; US college fees increasing 10 to 20-fold in past 40 years


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150 Years Of "Real" Oil Prices
In real terms, the price of crude oil has not been more expensive since the Pennsylvania Boom over 150 years ago...


Galloping inflation in American college fees
For decades, college fees have risen faster than Americans' ability to pay them. Median household income has grown by a factor of 6.5 in the past 40 years, but the cost of attending a state college has increased by a factor of 15 for in-state students and 24 for out-of-state students. The cost of attending a private college has increased by a factor of more than 13 (a year in the Ivy League will set you back $38,000, excluding bed and board). Academic inflation makes most other kinds look modest by comparison.

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Image courtesy Oil Prices and The Economist / BLS / FHFA / Thomson Reuters

Surviving sailor's book: "Out of the Depths". WWII, Pacific. USS Indianapolis torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-58

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USS Indianapolis was a Portland class heavy cruiser of the US Navy, flagship for Admiral Raymond Spruance while he commanded the Fifth Fleet in battles across the Central Pacific. On 30 July 1945, the ship was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-58, sinking in 12 minutes. Of 1,196 crewmen aboard, 300 went down with the ship. The remaining 900 faced exposure, dehydration, saltwater poisoning, and shark attacks. Her sinking led to the greatest single loss of life at sea in the history of the U.S. Navy.

On 30 July 1945, the ship was torpedoed by the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-58, sinking in 12 minutes. Of 1,196 crewmen aboard, approximately 300 went down with the ship.

The remaining 900 faced exposure, dehydration, saltwater poisoning, and shark attacks.

Out of the Depths: A WWII Vet's Miracle of Survival Edgar Harrell, survived the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in 1945.
Harrell saw fierce combat on the ship - events that shook him to the core. The 89-year-old vividly recalls one harrowing incident when a Japanese kamikaze plane struck the Indianapolis in the battle for Okinawa. "I can remember seeing that plane, thinking that life is over," Harrell shared. "This is the end of life because he's diving for the fantail."  read more »

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