• USA - January 12, 1915, US House of Representatives rejected a proposal to give women the right to vote.

• New York - 1916, Margaret Sanger was taken to court for preaching “birth control” (a term coined by Sanger). After opening the nations first birth control clinic, the 36-year-old ex-nurse was arrested and sentenced to 30 days in jail.

• New Mexico - 1916, Mexican national Pancho Villa and his band of rebels invade Columbia, New Mexico. General John Pershing and 4,000 Army troops chased Villa for a year across northern Mexico, without luck.

• Baseball - 1918, the Boston Red Sox win the World Series! A rare headline not seen again until the next century (2004).

• Tennessee Hero - 1918, Alvin York was awarded the Medal of Honor and Croix de Guerre for heroism during WW1. After being denying conscientious-objector status, he single handedly charged a German machine-gun emplacement, killing 25 and capturing 132 prisoners.

Notable Deaths -
* Tour de France Champion: Francois Faber (Lux) 1887-1915, died on the battlefield in 1915 while serving in the French Foreign Legend. Francois Faber was TdF champion in 1909, raced every year from 1906 to 1914, finishing 7th in 1907, 2nd in 1908, 2nd in 1910, 5th in 1913, and 9th in 1914.

* Tour de France Champion: Lucien “Petit-Breton” Mazan (Fra) 1882-1917, died when his car crashed while on a special mission behind enemy lines. Lucien Mazan was TdF champion in 1907 and 1908, raced every year from 1905 to 1914, finishing 5th in 1905 and 4th in 1906.

* Tour de France Champion: Octave Lapize (Fra) 1887-1917, died in the 1917 battle at Verdun when his plane was shot down during a combat mission. Octave Lapize was TdF champion in 1910, raced every year from 1909 to 1914.

* Giro d'Italia Champion: Carlo Oriani (Ita) 1888-1917, died December 3, 1917. Carlo Oriani was Giro d'Italia champion in 1913, and Giro di Lombardia champion in 1912.

Abdul Hamid II, 1842-1918, he inherited the Ottoman Empire in 1876. His erratic rule of the Empire lasted until 1909, when he was deposed by a group of young Turkish reformers. Hamid died in 1918, about the time the WW1 peace treaties dissolved the 600-year-old Ottoman Empire.

Booker T. Washington, 1856-1915, born into slavery, he educated himself and became the leading African-American educator of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Rasputen, 1872-1916, an illiterate Siberian, he gained a reputation as a spiritual healer and gained the trust of the Russian Czar in 1907. His fraud helped weaken the Russian throne. While in prison, he was poised, shot and thrown in the Neva River, where he drowned.

William F. Cody, 1846-1917, known as Buffalo Bill, the Army scout and buffalo hunter, launched a ‘Wild West Show’ in 1883. Despite the popularity gained by his barnstorming troupe, he died a poor man.

Nicholas Alexandrovich Romanov, 1868-1918, the last Czar of Russia. He abdicated in 1917 and was executed with his family July 16, 1918.

1914

1919

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