#canadian northern railway

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"RUSHING THE C. N. R. LINE FROM PEMBROKE," Ottawa Citizen. October 15, 1913. Page 1. --- Contractor Expects Steel to be Laid to Portage Du Fort This Fall. ---- J. P. Mullarkey, contractor for the construction of the section of the Canadian Northern transcontinental railway between Ottawa and Pembroke, began to lay steel easterly from Pembroke two days ago. Before the severely cold weather comes, he says, he will have the steel laid as far as Portage du Fort, a distance of 27 miles.

Before the middle of next month the rails will be laid from Ottawa as far as Chats Falls. Then work on the construction of the two bridges over the Ottawa river, one at Portage du Fort and the other at Chats Falls, will be rushed so that the bridges will be completed early next spring.

The entire section of the road in question has been graded and it is planned to have it ready for operation in the fall of next year. The contractors on the sections from Pembroke to North Bay and from North Bay to the C. N. R. line now in operation from Fort William westward are making good headway with their work. Early in 1915, perhaps before then, the whole line from east to west will be ready for traffic.

The length of the C. N. R. route to Pembroke from Ottawa is 86 miles, 36 shorter than the C. P. R. and 22 shorter than the Grand Trunk.

[graintrainbrain]

CNR 1158, a 4-6-0 steam locomotive built in 1913 for the Canadian Northern Railway, sits on display at the Western Development Museum in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. Photo by Daryl Mitchell, 07/31/2016

[rabbitcruiser]

Dawson Creek, BC (No. 3)

Upon entering the war, the United States decided to build a transportation corridor to connect the US mainland to Alaska. In 1942, thousands of US Army personnel, engineers, and contractors poured into the city – the terminal of rail transport – to construct the Alaska Highway. The highway was completed in less than a year; even after the workers involved in its construction departed, population and economic growth continued. In February 1943, a major fire and explosion in a livery barn, packed with road-building supplies including dynamite, caused serious damage to the center of town; five people were killed and 150 injured. Dawson Creek became a RCAF station during WWII, in September 1944. The station disbanded in March 1946.

By 1951, Dawson Creek had more than 3,500 residents. In 1952, the John Hart Highway linked the town to the rest of the British Columbia Interior and Lower Mainland through the Rocky Mountains; a new southbound route, known locally as Tupper Highway, made the town a crossroads with neighbouring Alberta. The next year, western Canada's largest propane gas plant was built and federal government offices were established in town. In 1958, the extension of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway to the Peace from Prince George was completed, and the village was re-incorporated as a city. Between 1951 and 1961, the population of Dawson Creek more than tripled. The RCAF center reemerged on October 1, 1956 and was declared functional in 1958. It was disbanded a final time in March 1964.

Growth slowed in the 1960s, with the population reaching its all-time high in 1966, but area population increased. In the 1970s, the provincial government moved its regional offices from Pouce Coupe to the city, Northern Lights College opened a Dawson Creek campus, and the Dawson Creek Mall was constructed. Several modern grain elevators were built, and the town's five wooden grain elevators, nicknamed "Elevator Row", were taken out of service. Only one of the historic elevators remains, converted to an art gallery. Since the 1970s, with the nearby town of Fort St. John attracting much of the area's industrial development and Grande Prairie becoming a commercial hub, the town's population and economy have not significantly increased.

Since 1992, the city has undergone several boundary expansions. One expansion incorporated undeveloped land in the southeast for an industrial park and a Louisiana-Pacific Canada veneer factory. The city extended sewer and water lines to the location; however, the area was not developed and with the factory only half-built, L-P Canada abandoned its plans. A business making manufactured homes bought the factory and completed its development in 2005. Another expansion incorporated the existing oriented strand board factory in the northwest corner of the city, while further incorporations have included undeveloped land to the south and north.

Source: Wikipedia

[ginandoldlace]

A lovely picture of the two sister ships together, the SS Royal George and her sister ship, the SS Royal Edward, in the background at Avonmouth in 1913. They where owed by Canadian Northern Steamship Company (subsidiary of the Canadian Northern Railway

[stephensmithuk]

The Hound of the Baskervilles: Three Broken Threads

Hat tip to @myemuisemo for another excellent post that covers much of what I was planning together:

Data protection was not really a thing back in 1889. However, paper hotel registers would be something filled in by the front desk staff, not the guest. They would contain details of extra charges incurred as well, all stuff generally done by computer, but you can still buy paper copies today. Particularly for the Indian market, where less than half the population have Internet access. These registers are generally mandatory and in some countries, the data will still be passed to the police when it concerns newly arrived foreigners. That's why they ask for your passport.

Newcastle upon Tyne, the one people generally talk about as opposed to Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, was at the centre of a major coal mining area in North-East England, the Durham and Northumberland coalfields being in close proximity. The industry was still employing children - boys as young as 12 could work in mines - and was still a pretty dangerous, not to mention unhealthy industry.

The British economy was heavily reliant on coal, especially the newly built electric power stations. While the railways had a big coal trade for internal transport for domestic purposes, boats also played a big role, either going via canal or down the East Coast of Great Britain to the London Docks. This route would become vulnerable to German attack in the World Wars, particularly in the second war from fast torpedo boats known to the British as "E-boats"; the East Coast convoys are a lesser-known part of the naval war, with Patrick Troughton having served with Coastal Force Command.

The Mayor of Gloucester, like most civic mayors in England, is the chair of the council, elected to a one-year term by their fellow councillors. The current holder is Conservative councillor Lorraine Campbell. It's a mostly ceremonial role involving going to various events while wearing a red cloak and a big hat:

Gloucester's Deputy Mayor is called the Sheriff of Gloucester. There is still a Sheriff of Nottingham, by the way.

The Anglophone Canadian accent was historically noticeably different to an American one and of course had its own varieties. They've gotten closer over the decades, especially due to television.

Sir Henry would have limited luggage space on the ship over, so three pairs of boots would be reasonable. He'd have to ship over anything else at further cost, so it could be cheaper to buy new in London.

Deliveries of telegrams that weren't in the immediate area of the office cost extra. Bradshaw's Guide for Tourists in Great Britain and Ireland would state the nearest telegraph office for a town, as the 1866 edition demonstrates:

Sir Charles' estate was worth around £80m in today's money, but that would not even get him onto The Sunday Times Rich List, which starts at £350m (Sir Lewis Hamilton, i.e. the F1 driver). It tops out with Gopichand Hinduja and his family at an estimated £37.2 billion, whose conglomerate is many focussed on India, but also are the biggest shareholders in US chemical company Quaker Houghton.

Westmoreland was a historical county in Northern England; it was absorbed into Cumbria in 1974, but its area became part of the Westmoreland and Furness unitary authority in 2023.

"Entailed" means that Sir Charles has stipulated in a legal document that the Baskerville estate would have to pass to Sir Henry's heir intact. This was a feudal era practice that has now been abolished in most jurisdictions, with limited remaining use in England and Wales. Simply put Sir Henry is not allowed to sell the house or the land, even part of it. He can do what he likes with the cash and probably the chattels, the movable property like the candlesticks and the toasting forks.

This page covers it in relation to the works of Jane Austen with relevant spoilers:

Borough is another name for the area of Southwark. It got a Tube station in 1890, when the City and South London Railway opened, now the Bank branch of the Northern line. It also is famous for Borough Market, then a wholesale food market under cover of buildings from the 1850s. Today it is a retail market for specialty food; kind of like a farmers' market.

In 1888, the 10:30 from Paddington would get to Exeter at 15:35, a journey of five hours. @myemuisemo provides route maps. I would add at this point, GWR services to SW England went via Bristol, adding a lot of time to the journey, while the LSWR route from Waterloo was a lot more direct. Wags dubbed the former "the Great Way Round". The construction of two cut-off lines allowed the GWR to go via Westbury and Castle Cary.

I will cover the modern day condition of the route in my Chapter 6 post.

The GWR still had some broad-gauge track at 2,140 mm(7 ft 1⁄4 in) left that Brunel had favoured, but this would be finally eliminated in 1892.

Finally, Holmes is referencing the sport of fencing when he learns the cabbie has been given his name. The foil is the lightest of the three swords used in competitive fencing, such as the Olympics.

In an age before electronic fencing equipment, point scoring relied on the eyesight of the umpire... and the honesty of the competitions.

I was in my fencing club at university. I can't say I was that great. I preferred the epee, which doesn't have the priority rules...

[dougdimmadodo]

Fireweed (Chamaenerion angustifolium)

Family: Evening Primrose Family (Onagraceae)

IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern

Growing rapidly and reproducing very frequently, Fireweed thrives in areas that have been recently cleared of other plants due to forest fires or other disruptive events, earning it its name. Widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere, it is a textbook example of a pioneer species (the first species of plants, or other non-motile organisms, to spread onto land that has been cleared of its previous occupants) ; unable to compete with taller, more “aggressive” species of plants that will have taken over older habitats, its seeds remain dormant in soil for years at a time, while adult plants may remain in small numbers in clearing or frequently-disturbed forest edges, or may be entirely absent. When a fire occurs the seeds respond to the heat and begin to germinate, allowing young individuals to emerge after the fire has subsided and most potential competitors have been eliminated. After sprouting, young Fireweed can reach considerable heights (potentially growing to be up to 2.5 meters/8ft tall, although in areas with limited resources they may never exceed 0.5 meters/1.6ft) and, upon reaching maturity, will develop numerous 5-petaled pink flowers each year that, once pollinated, develop into long strings of tiny seeds covered with cottony parachute-like structures that allow them to be carried away from their parent on the wind, settling in new ground where they may later germinate. Members of this species can live for several years, but as slower-growing but taller and more competitive plants gradually return to a cleared area Fireweed populations will gradually decrease as their access to sunlight and soil nutrients is reduced. As such, once an area has “healed” from the disturbance that cleared it, adult Fireweeds become rare once again, but the seeds they produced when more abundant remain dormant in the soil until another disturbance provides them with an opportunity to grow. In human-influenced habitats faced with near-constant disturbance (such as railways or roadsides,) it is possible for adult Fireweeds to remain abundant permanently, and the ease at which members of this species adapt to urban environments, combined with its impressive hardiness, has led to it becoming somewhat prominent in folklore, featuring on the flag of the Canadian territory of Yukon, being referenced in the works of Rudyard Kipling and J.R.R Tolkien, and earning the name “Bombweed” in the UK after large numbers of Fireweeds were observed growing in the ruins of bombed-out buildings leveled during World War II. Ecologically, various species of deer, bears and hawk-moths are known to feed on the leaves, flowers, nectar and seeds of this species.

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Image Source: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/564969-Chamaenerion-angustifolium

[historia-vitae-magistras]

You may have already made a post about this so sorry if so, but what are your headcanons regarding how Matt and Katya met? And how they kept touch over the years?

Love your content btw!!

Thank you! And actually, somehow, no one has asked me that on any of the blogs! I had to think and coalesce some thoughts. This got long so I am going to split it into two parts but their meeting!

The Trans-Canada railway was completed in the 1880s and finally opened up what was called the ‘last best west.’ Between the Canadian Rockies in the far west and the western edge of the woodlands that define eastern Canada in Manitoba, the prairies stretch out in what looks to a child of the eastern woodlands like a vast treeless void. Grasslands and steppes are incredibly ecologically important, but I am ethnically a clinker-built canoe lover, and they scare the shit out of me. Judging by settlement patterns, most French Canadians agreed. As the American West closed, some Americans were willing to join Canadians and take land ripped from indigenous peoples too. Alberta was a result. Concerned about American settlement, in 1896, the Dominion of Canada’s federal government coordinated with the foreign office of the British Empire to look for more settlers. At the same time, in what was then the Austro-Hungarian empire, Galicia was likely the poorest place in continental Europe, with the only other comparable example being famine-era Ireland. The other Ukrainian-speaking areas of the Austro-Hungarian empire (75-80 of that territory was held by the Russian Empire) weren’t much better off. Each government found a solution in the other. Britain, representing Anglo-dominated Canada, and the Austrians shook hands, and the flow began. The US saw the largest share of Eastern European immigration in this period, but the majority who sailed to Canada were Ukrainians. And even before immigration, the region's international ties were based on Canadian financial interests. So, what does this mean for Katya and Matt?

The scene I imagine is that while the powerful wheel and deal, two products of empire crossed paths. One of these meetings may have taken place during a summer folk festival. Girls wove wreaths of flowers into their hair and floated others down the river. Songs were sung, vodka and wine flowed, and dancers joined hands. While the Austrians and the British bargained, a young man not so far removed from his peasant roots and his own saint’s day celebrated with fire and river wandered into the edge of a valley clearing at the end of the longest day of the northern year. As a maple or spruce was decorated, the sun sank, and the last light of day fell like fire light onto a Carpathian river valley. Bonfires were lit. Against a world on fire, a child of the woodlands looked upon the silhouette of his future, crowned with birchwood silver woven into her braids. Katya sensed him, a being like herself from across the world and turned. She looked at him a long moment, with eyes belonging to a world since passed set in the face that would one day be the image that sprang into Matthew’s mind when he needed to summon a memory of home that would not cleave him in two. She bid him to approach and, with one gesture, changed their fates.

Later, he would find out she spoke the court French of his earliest years, but this night, there is only Katya’s outstretched hand and burning blue eyes reflecting fire and Matt’s fingers lacing into hers to spin in the dance of all the other young men and women. There is no discussion of soil and wheat, nor opportunity and affection. There is only alcohol, laughter, music, fire and spinning, his mouth full of her language, unknown but already familiar. There is only a lightening of her eyes as she enjoys herself, her head flung back in laughter as he chokes on pear horilka stronger and sweeter than any whiskey he’s ever made. Her wreath topples out of her hair, and she bursts into laughter as he snatches it up and runs, calling over his shoulder, and she hikes up her skirts and follows, hand outstretched, only to grasp onto him and run, stride long and confident as they leap together to make it over the bonfire.

Still, together, hands clasped, his right her and left and left touching the laurel wreath, the last symbol she indulges from her Varangian roots. Eye contact, a significance, a weight that will one day balance the heaviness of history. She will press his heart into the shape of hers with that weight. He will give it back in every way he can, the ballast of whatever love she’ll let him give. But for now, in the last light of day, there is only a young man and a young woman hand in hand, circling a fire under a night sky. Here, they are under a star-streaked Milky Way that gives way to a mead moon rising over the mountains. Someday, save them; that moon will be the only witness to this night when mortality leaves alive only a man, a woman, and their most human memory.

[guerrerense]

RDCs at Dawson Creek por Joe McMillan Por Flickr: In 1987, the West Coast Railfans Association (WCRA), a Canadian group, sponsored a RDC tour of the entire BCR. For about $600, we would be treated to seven solid days of train riding, lodging, meals, etc. Steve and I, plus some of our friends, couldn't get our checks mailed in fast enough. What a bargain!! We were to tour the main line from North Vancouver to Fort Nelson, a distance of 979.4 miles, plus all the branches, except the Dease Lake Extension beyond St. James, which was closed by then. (As noted earlier, Steve and I had already done the line west of St. James.) We left North Van on September 13, 1987, and returned on September 19th. We spent each night in a town along the way. The town usually had a banquet for us and put on an after-dinner show. We were assigned three BCR RDCs for our trip and they stayed with us the entire time. Our three cars were coupled to BCR Train 2 at Lillooet on the last day, so we had five RDCs that day. On September 15, we traveled the 61.1-mile Dawson Creek Subdivision from Chetwynd to Dawson Creek, B.C., The cars are spotted next to the Northern Alberta Railway station shortly before our departure back to Chetwynd. We tied up that night at Fort St. John–––photo by Joe McMillan with Steve Patterson and a bunch of other friends.

[charlesandmartine]

An epilogue

Canada was great and in many ways not how we expected it to be. For one thing, the weather was good, warm, sunny and dry. We were able to join in the celebrations of Canada Day in shorts beside the lake in the heat. Constitution Act of 1867 signed off by Queen Victoria created Canada, formally joining several colonies into a single, unified, semi-independent Dominion of Canada. Essentially, Canada became a self-governing dominion within the British Empire on the 1st July 156 years ago. And to some extent, Canada as an entity was something we found odd. Why did it never join the USA (some say Alberta would like to become the 51st State of the USA), why did the US buy Alaska above Canada in 1867, incidentally the same year Canada was created, and why do half the people still speak French despite the French being licked by the British in the Battle of Quebec in 1759? Well I don't think anyone knows. It's odd thinking of a French speaker as Canadian and not, well, French. The second largest country in the world and the longest border with another country in the world. Shoreline on 3 oceans and just 40 million or so population. The Rockies were like a massive version of the Lake District and Norwegian Fjords superimposed onto the Alps. Alaska reminded me very much of Norway. Equally stunning in its own way with tiny communities happily coexisting in their geographically imposed isolation with whales and fish as company but invaded regularly by vast armies of cruise ship guests many times in number greater than their own population. Canadians were lovely, pleasant, polite people; we called them nice Americans. They seemed very like the English in being almost apologetic of their country and sometimes it seemed not realising just how good it is. It is easy to overlook though the reality that this lovely place, basking in 30° heat will soon be shivering in temperatures as low as -30° in those dark winter days. I couldn't live in that. We covered a lot of road miles seeing the foothills gradually convert to rocky mountains and then seeing them from a different perspective from the massive picture windows of the brilliant Rock Mountaineer railway. We have seen a shed load of Bald Eagles, Ospreys, Whales, Elk, Ground Hogs, Chipmunks and just two Bears. We have discovered that British Columbia produces a very fine SB and it was a great delight to sit on the terrace of a small independent winery drinking some of its output. Who'd have thought that Canada could have rainforest, huge fruit growing communities and a dry, arid desert. Apart from the hiatus caused in the first week by a rampant Cockerel on steroids and the forest fire which caused a radical change in itinerary, we have had a great time. We most likely will not return to the Rockies, but we are intrigued by what we might see were we to peer over the top of the mountains and looked east at Québec (pronounced keybeck by locals) and beyond to the coast at Nova Scotia.

In the meantime, greeting us in our mailbox on our return was the Lonely Planet guide to Northern Territories. There's something to think about.

[bunnyjoyce-blog]

Maps of the (known) railroad companies of American StEx characters — imagine the headcanons you can come up with, just from knowing where they likely would have traveled.

Greaseball — Union Pacific

Wrench & Volta — from the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (blue lines) which was merged with Burlington Northern (green) in 1995 into the BNSF

Rockies — Rock Island (1965 map)

Joule — concept art of Broadway costume shows she’s from Frisco

Red Caboose — Multiple

Central Railroad of New Jersey (Statue of Liberty decal)

Pennsylvania Railroad — should be noted that Pearl is from the PRR in some productions

Penn Central

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad (1950)

Chessie System

Northern Pacific Railroad

Great Northern Railway

Canadian Pacific Railway

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"Two Years For Operator." Toronto Star. June 10, 1912. Page 7. --- Winnipeg. June 10. - J. B. Fuller, Canadian Northern operator at Woodman, found drunk on his job, was given two years in the penitentiary.

[Fuller was from Minnesota, 26, a telegraph operator and station agent for the railway, and an inebriate. He was convict #1728, uniform number #58, at Manitoba Penitentiary. He was deported in December 1912 back to the States.]

[graintrainbrain]

The life of a locomotive. This GMD-1 unit has worn a few faces since it was first built in the late 50s:

1) In as-delivered Northern Alberta Railways livery, leading the last passenger train from Dawson Creek to Dunvegan Station in Edmonton, 1974.

2) Working behind CN 1069 on the Coronado Subdivision near Redwater, Alberta, renumbered 1079 and wearing a fresh coat of CN red and black following CN’s acquisition of NAR, 1985.

3) Looking rough and ready to retire in Edmonton in 2013, around twenty-five years after a significant rebuild and another renumbering, this time to 1179.

4) Sitting on display at the Alberta Railway Museum in 2018, after a cosmetic restoration including a the return of number 302 and the name "Chief Moostoos", which the locomotive was given for NAR’s 50th anniversary in 1979.

[rabbitcruiser]

Dawson Creek, BC (No. 2)

Dawson Creek is named after the watercourse of the same name, itself named after George Mercer Dawson who led a surveying team through the area in August 1879; a member of the team labelled the creek with Dawson's name. The community that formed by the creek was one of many farming communities established by European-Canadian settlers moving west through the Peace River Country. When the Canadian government began issuing homestead grants to settlers under the Dominion Lands Act in 1912, the pace of migration increased. With the opening of a few stores and hotels in 1919 and the incorporation of the Dawson Creek Co-operative Union on May 28, 1921, Dawson Creek became a dominant business centre in the area. After much speculation by land owners and investors, the Northern Alberta Railways built its western terminus 3 km (2 mi) from Dawson Creek. The golden spike was driven on December 29, 1930, and the first passenger train arrived on January 15, 1931. The arrival of the railway and the construction of grain elevators attracted more settlers and business to the settlement. The need to provide services for the rapidly growing community led Dawson Creek to incorporate as a village in May 1936. A small wave of refugees from the Sudetenland settled in the area in 1939 as World War II was beginning. The community exceeded 500 people in 1941.

Source: Wikipedia

[spotsupstuff]

that ask about the soldiers fighting hours after the danish surrender reminded me of ww1

the armistice was signed at 5:45 am, it only went into effect at 11 am

here is a segment from wikipedia

"Many artillery units continued to fire on German targets to avoid having to haul away their spare ammunition. The Allies also wished to ensure that, should fighting restart, they would be in the most favourable position. Consequently, there were 10,944 casualties, of whom 2,738 men died, on the last day of the war.

An example of the determination of the Allies to maintain pressure until the last minute, but also to adhere strictly to the Armistice terms, was Battery 4 of the US Navy's long-range 14-inch railway guns firing its last shot at 10:57:30 a.m. from the Verdun area, timed to land far behind the German front line just before the scheduled Armistice.

Augustin Trébuchon was the last Frenchman to die when he was shot on his way to tell fellow soldiers, who were attempting an assault across the Meuse river, that hot soup would be served after the ceasefire. He was killed at 10:45 a.m.

Marcel Toussaint Terfve was the last Belgian soldier to die as he was mortally wounded from German machine gun fire and died from his lung wound at 10:45 a.m.

Earlier, the last British soldier to die, George Edwin Ellison of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers, was killed that morning at around 9:30 a.m. while scouting on the outskirts of Mons, Belgium.

The final Canadian, and Commonwealth, soldier to die, Private George Lawrence Price, was shot and killed by a sniper while part of a force advancing into the Belgian town of Ville-sur-Haine just two minutes before the armistice to the north of Mons at 10:58 a.m.

Henry Gunther, an American, is generally recognized as the last soldier killed in action in World War I. He was killed 60 seconds before the armistice came into force while charging astonished German troops who were aware the Armistice was nearly upon them. He had been despondent over his recent reduction in rank and was apparently trying to redeem his reputation.

News of the armistice only reached Germany's African forces, still fighting in Northern Rhodesia (today's Zambia), about two weeks later. The German and British commanders then had to agree on the protocols for their own armistice ceremony.

After the war, there was a deep shame that so many soldiers died on the final day of the war, especially in the hours after the treaty had been signed but had not yet taken effect. In the United States, Congress opened an investigation to find out why and if blame should be placed on the leaders of the American Expeditionary Forces, including John Pershing. In France, many graves of French soldiers who died on 11 November were backdated to 10 November"

that was interesting to read, because i don't know much about both ww1 at large (curse of being always overshadowed by the second) and... the question of how does it end at all is always present when it comes to things like this. it's all so terrifying and despairing

[collinthenychudson]

Following it's life after the Iron Horse Rambles, Reading 2102 would still take part in numerous excursions. Of these which was a doubleheader with Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad (Ex Grand Trunk Western) 4070, an S3A class 2-8-2 USRA Light Mikado built by ALCO in December 1918. Unfortunately, the trip was ill-fated as the 4070 threw an eccentric rod on the Horseshoe Curve stalling busy rail traffic resulting in Conrail to ban steam operations for several years. Today, 2102 now operates on the Reading and Northern Railroad while 4070 is still currently under restoration at the Midwest Railway Preservation Society. Models and Route by: K&L Trainz, Canadian Pacific Locomotive Works, Jointed Rail, Auran, and Download Station

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 9.8 (1860-1960)

1860 – The steamship PS Lady Elgin sinks on Lake Michigan, with the loss of around 300 lives. 1862 – Millennium of Russia monument is unveiled in Novgorod. 1863 – American Civil War: In the Second Battle of Sabine Pass, a small Confederate force thwarts a Union invasion of Texas. 1883 – The Northern Pacific Railway (reporting mark NP) was completed in a ceremony at Gold Creek, Montana. Former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final "golden spike" in an event attended by rail and political luminaries. 1888 – Isaac Peral's submarine is first tested. 1888 – The Great Herding (Spanish: El Gran Arreo) begins with thousands of sheep being herded from the Argentine outpost of Fortín Conesa to Santa Cruz near the Strait of Magellan. 1888 – In London, the body of Jack the Ripper's second murder victim, Annie Chapman, is found. 1888 – In England, the first six Football League matches are played. 1892 – The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited. 1898 – Seven hundred Greek civilians, 17 British guards and the British Consul of Crete are killed by a Turkish mob. 1900 – Galveston hurricane: A powerful hurricane hits Galveston, Texas killing about 8,000 people. 1905 – The 7.2 Mw  Calabria earthquake shakes southern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 557 and 2,500 people. 1914 – World War I: Private Thomas Highgate becomes the first British soldier to be executed for desertion during the war. 1916 – In a bid to prove that women were capable of serving as military dispatch riders, Augusta and Adeline Van Buren arrive in Los Angeles, completing a 60-day, 5,500 mile cross-country trip on motorcycles. 1921 – Margaret Gorman, a 16-year-old, wins the Atlantic City Pageant's Golden Mermaid trophy; pageant officials later dubbed her the first Miss America. 1923 – Honda Point disaster: Nine US Navy destroyers run aground off the California coast. Seven are lost, and twenty-three sailors killed. 1925 – Rif War: Spanish forces including troops from the Foreign Legion under Colonel Francisco Franco landing at Al Hoceima, Morocco. 1926 – Germany is admitted to the League of Nations. 1933 – Ghazi bin Faisal became King of Iraq. 1934 – Off the New Jersey coast, a fire aboard the passenger liner SS Morro Castle kills 137 people. 1935 – US Senator from Louisiana Huey Long is fatally shot in the Louisiana State Capitol building. 1941 – World War II: German forces begin the Siege of Leningrad. 1943 – World War II: The Armistice of Cassibile is proclaimed by radio. OB Süd immediately implements plans to disarm the Italian forces. 1944 – World War II: London is hit by a V-2 rocket for the first time. 1945 – The division of Korea begins when United States troops arrive to partition the southern part of Korea in response to Soviet troops occupying the northern part of the peninsula a month earlier. 1946 – A referendum abolishes the monarchy in Bulgaria. 1952 – The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation makes its first televised broadcast on the second escape of the Boyd Gang. 1954 – The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) is established.