February 14, 1896: Theodor Herzl Publishes "Der Judenstaat"

February 14, 1896: Theodor Herzl publishes his pamphlet Der Judenstaat, meaning The Jewish State, in Leipzig, Germany.

Born on May 2, 1860 in Pest, in the Austrian Empire -- now the east bank of the Danube River in Budapest, Hungary -- Herzl had a brief legal career in the Austrian capital of Vienna. He became the Paris correspondent for the Viennese newspaper Neue Freie Press (The New Free Press). Confronted with anti-Semitic events in Vienna, he reached the conclusion that anti-Jewish sentiment would make Jewish assimilation impossible, and that the only solution for Jews was the establishment of a Jewish state.

The term "Zionism" had been coined by Austrian journalist Nathan Birnbaum in 1890, to mean the struggle for a secure homeland for the Jewish people. Ironically, later in life, Birnbaum became an Orthodox Jew, and a fervent anti-Zionist. It would be Herzl who popularized the term.

In Der Judenstaat, Herzl elaborated his visions of a Jewish homeland. He envisioned the founding of a future independent Jewish state at some point during the coming 20th Century, thinking it the best way to avoid anti-Semitism in Europe. He encouraged Jews to purchase land in the land then known as Palestine, the historic homeland of the Jews, then controlled by the Ottoman Empire. His ideas attracted international attention, and rapidly established him as a major figure in the Jewish world.

The book was published while the Dreyfus Affair was ongoing in France. So Herzl was being direct when he wrote:

The Jewish question persists wherever Jews live in appreciable numbers. Wherever it does not exist, it is brought in together with Jewish immigrants. We are naturally drawn into those places where we are not persecuted, and our appearance there gives rise to persecution. This is the case, and will inevitably be so, everywhere, even in highly civilised countries -- see, for instance, France -- so long as the Jewish question is not solved on the political level.

He concluded the book as follows:

Therefore I believe that a wondrous generation of Jews will spring into existence. The Maccabeans will rise again.

Let me repeat once more my opening words: The Jews who wish for a State will have it.

We shall live at last as free men on our own soil, and die peacefully in our own homes.

The world will be freed by our liberty, enriched by our wealth, magnified by our greatness.

And whatever we attempt there to accomplish for our own welfare, will react powerfully and beneficially for the good of humanity.

Herzl planned to deliver his pamphlet as a speech to the Rothschild family, well-known throughout the world as bankers and among world's the best-known Jews, then based in Boulogne, France. But, though himself a Zionist, Baron Edmond de Rothschild rejected Herzl's plan, feeling that it threatened Jews in the Diaspora. He also thought it would put his own settlements in Palestine at risk.

In 1897, Herzl convened the First Zionist Congress at the Stadtcasino in Basel, Switzerland, and was elected president of the Zionist Organization. He began a series of diplomatic initiatives to build support for a Jewish state, appealing unsuccessfully to German Kaiser Wilhelm II and Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II.

He sought out seemingly friendly ears in the South American nation of Argentina and the African nation of Uganda -- which will sound ironic to people familiar with the former's welcome of Nazi war criminals after World War II and the latter's dictatorship of Idi Amin and his alliance with the Palestine Liberation Organization. Neither country was willing to listen.

On January 26, 1904, Herzl visited Rome, and met with Pope Pius X. The Pope received Herzl with respect, but declined to help. Herzl was soon diagnosed with a heart ailment, and died on July 3, only 44 years old. In Reichenau an der Rax, Austria. He was buried in Vienna.

Further Zionist attempts to negotiate with the Ottoman authorities failed, but with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I, and the subsequent creation of Mandatory Palestine under the control of Britain, the Zionists gained success: Britain issued the Balfour Declaration that supported the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

In 1948, the British Mandate of Palestine ran out, and the State of Israel was declared. Ever since, "Zionism" has meant the protection of what that country already had, and the repatriation of formerly Jewish lands nearby, which was satisfied with the Six-Day War of 1967. In 1949, Herzl's remains were taken to Israel, and reinterred on a location renamed Mount Herzl.

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February 14, 1896 was a Friday. Baseball and football were out of season, and basketball barely existed. But there was 1 notable hockey game played: The Winnipeg Victorias beat the Montreal Victorias, 2-0 at the Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal, and won the Stanley Cup.

January 23, 1902: Winnipeg Win the Stanley Cup

January 23, 1902: Winnipeg win the Stanley Cup. Stop laughing: It happened a long time ago, but it did happen. In fact, this was the 3rd time.

This was the era when the Cup was still a challenge trophy: You challenged the holder to a game, or a series, agreed upon the format before playing, and, if you won, you received the Cup. In 1896, the Winnipeg Victorias won the title of the Manitoba Hockey Association, and became the 1st non-Montreal team to win the Stanley Cup.

Their lineup: Goalkeeper George Merritt, point Rod Flett, cover-point Fred Higginbotham (we would call both of those "points" "defensemen" today), and forwards Jack Armytage (who had organized the 1st hockey club in Winnipeg, and was essentially also the head coach and general manager of this team), Dan Bain, Attie Howard and Colin "Tote" Campbell. They beat the Cup holders, the Montreal Victorias, 2-0. The Montreal Victorias took the title back at the end of the calendar year.

The Victorias won the Cup again in 1901, defeating the Montreal Shamrocks in a 2-game-total-goals series, 4-3 and 2-1. In 1902, they faced the Champions of the Ontario Hockey Association, the Toronto Wellingtons, in a best-2-out-of-3 series at the Winnipeg Auditorium. The Victorias won both games by a score of 5-3, both at the Winnipeg Auditorium.

Winnipeg Auditorium

Rod Flett still played point, with his brother Magnus Flett as counter-point. Art Brown was in goal. By this point, there was a position of "rover," who alternated between offense and defense, making for 7 men on a side, hence the Ottawa Senators were originally known as the Silver Seven. Burke Wood was the Victorias' rover. And forward positions had become better defined: The Victorias had Fred Scanlan at left wing, Fred Cadham at center, and Tony Gingras at right wing.

Scanlan and 1896 Victoria player Bain would be elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Two months later, the Montreal Hockey Club took the Cup from the Victorias.

Fred Scanlan

As professionalism took over, the Victorias stayed amateur, and won the Allan Cup in 1911 and 1912. But in the days before air travel, when a train going from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast could take as long as a week, Winnipeg was simply too far from Montreal and Toronto to be a viable city for the National Hockey League when it was founded in 1917.

The Memorial Cup, the championship of Canadian junior hockey, was won by the Winnipeg Junior Falcons in 1921; the University of Manitoba in 1923; the Winnipeg Monarchs in 1935 and 1937; the Winnipeg Rangers in 1941, 1943 and 1946; the Winnipeg Braves in 1959.

The Winnipeg Jets were founded with the World Hockey Association in 1972. They won the league title in 1976, 1978 and 1979, and lost in the Finals in 1973 and 1977. They were among the 4 WHA teams admitted to the NHL in 1979, but went only 2-11 in Playoff rounds before being moved in 1996. They are now known as the Arizona Coyotes. In 2011, the Atlanta Thrashers moved, becoming the new Winnipeg Jets. Through the 2020-21 season, their best performance has been in 2018, reaching the Western Conference Finals, coming within 7 games of the Stanley Cup, which is 5 games closer than the previous Jets ever got.

Of all the cities whose teams have won the Stanley Cup, Winnipeg has gone longer without winning it than any other team: Since 1902. Vancouver has been waiting since 1915, Ottawa since 1927, and Toronto since 1967.

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January 23, 1902 was a Thursday. No other major sport was then in season in North America. So there were no other scores on this historic day.

January 22, 1901: Queen Victoria Dies

One of the last photos of Queen Victoria.

Her son, King Edward VII, is on the right.

His son, King George V, is on the left.

And his son, King Edward VIII, is the boy in the sailor suit.

January 22, 1901: Victoria, By the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen, Defender of the Faith, Empress of India, head of state for about one-quarter of all the people then living on planet Earth, does the unthinkable.

She dies.

She passes away at the age of 81, at Osborne House, her country estate on the Isle of Wight, 88 miles southwest of London. The last of a series of strokes brought her life to a close, 63 years after she took the throne, longer than any English or British monarch ever had, breaking the record of her grandfather, King George III, who lasted just under 60 years. Three entire generations of her subjects had known no other monarch of Britain except her.

She was born on May 24, 1819, the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, a son of King George III. Her uncle, King George IV, died without legitimate children. So did his brother, King William IV. And Edward died before either George or William. So Victoria became Queen when she was only 18, on William's death on June 20, 1837.

At the time, through the mental incapacity of George III, and the dissipation and profligacy of George IV and William IV, the British monarchy was at its lowest point since Oliver Cromwell chopped off the head of Charles I in 1649.

The Industrial Revolution was in its early stages. Railroads were a new thing. Photography was in its infancy. There were no telephones, no telegraphs, no railroads, no automobiles, no air vehicles except hot-air balloons, no recorded sound, no recorded images. Victoria had more in common with Alfred the Great, who unified England 1,000 years before her reign, than she did with Prince Charles, born 48 years after her death.

She married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, ending the House of Hanover. They produced 9 children:

* Victoria, who married Crown Prince Friedrich of Germany, who became Kaiser Friedrich III, and they were the parents of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

* Albert Edward, who became King Edward VII of Britain. He married Alexandra, daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark. Their son became King George V of Britain, and their daughter Maud married King Haakon VII of Norway.

* Alice, who married Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse (in Germany). Their daughter, Alexandra, married Czar Nicholas II of Russia.

* Alfred, who became the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (in Germany). His daughter, Marie, married King Ferdinand I of Romania.

* Helena, who married Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein (in Germany).

* Louise, who married John Campbell, the 9th Duke of Argyll (in Scotland).

* Arthur, who inherited his grandfather's titles of Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (Connaught is in Ireland, and Strathearn is in Scotland), and served as Governor-General of Canada. His daughter, Margaret, is an ancestor of the monarchs of Sweden and Denmark.

* Leopold, who became the Duke of Albany (in Scotland). And:

* Beatrice, who married Prince Henry of Battenberg (in Germany). Their daughter, Victoria Eugenie, married King Alfonso XIII of Spain.

And so, Victoria was "The Grandmother of Europe." Her son Albert Edward, or "Bertie," thus became "The Uncle of Europe." And Christian IX of Denmark became "The Father-in-Law of Europe."

Bertie was 59 years old when he finally became King, and, most of that time, because he was a disobedient child and then a compulsive womanizer, frequently cheating on Alexandra, Victoria never fully trusted him. As he put it, "I don't mind praying to an Eternal Father, but I seem to have been afflicted with an eternal mother."

Victoria lived long enough to be wildly cheered at her Golden Jubilee (50th Anniversary) in 1887 and her Diamond Jubilee (60th Anniversary) in 1897; to have her voice recorded in 1888; and to be filmed at a garden party at Buckingham Palace in 1898, and on a state visit to Dublin, Ireland in 1900.

But in her last years, she was beset by rheumatism, which combined with her passion for comfort food to make walking impossible; and she was nearly blind due to cataracts. Later in 1900, she began to suffer strokes. Her last diary entry was written from Osbourne House on Sunday, January 13, 1901, and referred to her daughters Helen, or "Lenchen," and Beatrice. It reads:

Had a fair night, but was a little wakeful. Got up earlier & had some milk. — Lenchen came & read some papers. — Out before 1, in the garden chair, Lenchen & Beatrice going with me. — Rested a little, had some food, & took a short drive with Lenchen & Beatrice. — Rested when I came in & at 5.30, went down to the Drawing room, where a short service was held, by Mr Clement Smith, who performed it so well, & it was a great comfort to me. — Rested again afterwards, then did some signing & dictated to Lenchen.

Nine days later, on January 22, at 6:30 PM, she died of another stroke at Osborne House. Bertie and Kaiser Wilhelm, her eldest grandson, were in the room. She was laid to rest in the Royal Mausoleum, on the grounds of Windsor Castle in Berkshire, about 25 miles west of Central London. She and her husband, Prince Albert, are the Mausoleum's only occupants.

Victoria was played by Blanche Forsythe in Sixty Years a Queen in 1913, Jenny Jugo in Victoria in Dover in 1936, Anna Neagle in Victoria the Great in 1937 and Sixty Glorious Years in 1938, Renée Asherson in Happy and Glorious in 1952, Romy Schneider in a remake of Victoria in Dover in 1954, Julie Harris in Hallmark Hall of Fame's Victoria Regina in 1961, Lola Brooks in The Young Victoria in 1963, Annette Crosbie in Edward the Seventh in 1975, Lurene Tuttle on an episode of Voyagers! in 1983, Judi Dench in Mrs. Brown in 1997 and its sequel Victoria & Abdul in 2017, Victoria Hamilton in Victoria & Albert in 2001, Emily Blunt in The Young Victoria in 2009, Amanda Root in The Black Prince in 2017, and Jenna Coleman in Victoria in 2019.

Her son, Edward VII, reigned until he died in 1910. His son, George V, reigned until he died in 1936. His son, Edward VIII, abdicated the throne later that year, in favor of his brother, George VI. He reigned until he died in 1952. His daughter became Queen Elizabeth II, and she broke all longevity records for English and British monarchs, celebrating a Platinum Jubilee (70th Anniversary) in 2022.

UPDATE: Elizabeth died later that year, and her son became King Charles III.

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January 22, 1901 was a Tuesday. Baseball and football were out of season. Basketball barely existed. Hockey was in season, but I can find no record of games being played on this date. But a week later, on January 29 and 31, the Winnipeg Victorias played a two-games-total-goals series for the Stanley Cup against the Montreal Shamrocks, the Cup holders. Both games were played at the Westmount Arena, then just past the western city limit of Montreal but now within the city. The Victorias won both, 4-3 and 2-1.

The Victorias would win the Cup again in 1902. No Winnipeg-based team, or even Manitoba-based team, has won the Stanley Cup since, although the Winnipeg Jets won the World Hockey Association title in 1976, '78 and '79.

But that was the off-season for baseball, and, for all intents and purposes, professional football, basketball and hockey did not yet exist, so there were no scores on that historic day.

January 15, 1902: The Founding of 4-H

January 15, 1902: A.B. Graham founds "The Tomato Club," a youth agricultural program in Clark County, west-central Ohio. This is considered the birth of 4-H clubs.

Later that year, in Douglas County, west-central Minnesota, T.A. Erickson started an agricultural after-school club. Eventually, this club, Graham's Tomato Club, and others would be joined under the 4-H banner.

Jessie Field Shambaugh developed the familiar 4-leaf clover logo. By 1912, the name "4-H Club" had been adopted nationwide. In 1918, Otis H. Hall wrote The 4-H Pledge, spelling out what the 4 H's officially stand for:

I pledge my head to clearer thinking,
my heart to greater loyalty,
my hands to larger service,
and my health to better living,
for my club, my community, my country, and my world.

The words "and my world" were officially added only in 1973.

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January 15, 1902 was a Wednesday. Saud bin Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman bin Faisal bin Turki bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Saud, King of Saudi Arabia from 1953 to 1964, was born on this day.

There were no scores on this historic day: Baseball and football were out of season, and basketball existed only on an amateur level. On January 23, the Winnipeg Victorias won the Stanley Cup, defeating the Toronto Wellingtons in two games of what was meant to be a best-two-out-of-three series.

January 8, 1902: The Park Avenue Rail Tunnel Crash

January 8, 1902: A southbound steam train, approaching Grand Central Depot in Manhattan, overruns signals in the smoky Park Avenue Tunnel, and collides with another southbound train, killing 15 people and injuring more than 30 others. At the time, it was the worst transit disaster in New York City history.

The Tunnel opened in 1875, to connect Grand Central with the New York Central Railroad and its branches as it spread out north of Manhattan Island, including what would eventually become the Hudson Line, the Harlem Line, and the New Haven Line of Metro-North Commuter Railroad.

This crash directly resulted in the construction of the modern-day Grand Central Terminal, and the development of Park Avenue as a residential destination and a metaphor for wealth. A week after the crash, New York Central president William H. Newman announced that all of the railroad's suburban lines to Grand Central would be electrified, and the approach to the station would be put underground.

The New York state legislature subsequently passed a law to ban all steam trains in Manhattan beginning on July 1, 1908. By December 1902, as part of an agreement with the city, New York Central agreed to put the approach to Grand Central Station from 46th to 59th Streets in an open cut under Park Avenue, and to upgrade the tracks to accommodate electric trains. Overpasses would be built across the open cut at most of the cross-streets.

Following Newman's pledge to electrify New York Central rail lines, plans to electrify the Park Avenue line and replace the then-overcrowded Grand Central Depot were announced. In March 1903, William J. Wilgus, the railroad's chief engineer -- a designer, not a train operator -- presented a more-detailed proposal to the New York Central board, describing a modern railroad terminal with separate levels for commuter and intercity railroads, among other things.

Wilgus' plan was approved, and subsequently Grand Central Depot was demolished in phases, and replaced with the Beaux Arts-style Grand Central Terminal in 1913. As part of the project, the rail yard and the approach from 59th Street were placed underground and electrified. Electric locomotives were placed in regular passenger service in January 1907. In October, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad also began running electric trains in.

With the elimination of the noise and pollution from steam locomotives, this once-undesirable section of Park Avenue, from 42nd Street to the emergence of the line above ground at 97th Street, and the land freed by the covering-over of the rail yard became prime New York City real estate.

The area became one of the city's most attractive residential areas as mansions and high-class apartments were constructed along Park Avenue, including the 2nd Waldorf-Astoria Hotel between 49th and 50th, replacing the one that had been demolished to make way for the Empire State Building; and 1049 Park Avenue between 86th and 87th, which became famous as the site of the TV show The Odd Couple.

"Park Avenue" -- and, also, "the Upper East Side," which was essentially created by all of this -- became a metaphor for wealth, not just in America, but worldwide. In a 1944 Tom and Jerry cartoon, Million Dollar Cat, Tom inherits $1 million from an eccentric aunt, on the condition that he not harm another living creature, "even a mouse." He moves into the penthouse of 1 Park Avenue -- in real life, between 32nd and 33rd, with Park Avenue South extending to 14th Street and Union Square -- while Jerry, to test him, moves to "1/2 Park Avenue."

On a 1956 episode of The Honeymooners, sewer worker Ed Norton (played by Art Carney) claims he always catches a cold while working in a sewer under Park Avenue, because, "They're air-conditioned."

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January 8, 1902 was a Wednesday. There were no scores on this day: Baseball and football were out of season, and basketball barely existed. On January 23, the Winnipeg Victorias won the Stanley Cup, defeating the Toronto Wellingtons in two games of what was meant to be a best-two-out-of-three series.