(work in progress, lot of research)

Don’t worry, some of the nasty junk has to be purged. I got to thinking, you know, a LOT of stuff happened in 1910 to 1914 behind the scenes that is now starting to rear its ugly filthy treasonous head.

Let’s take a top-level view of some of the major events and get a sort of gestalt view of the times from TOW:

1910

September 1st – The Vatican introduces a compulsory oath against modernism, to be taken by all priests upon ordination.

November 22 – U.S. Senator Aldrich and A.P. Andrews (Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Department), along with many of the country’s leading financiers, who together represent about 1/6 of the world’s wealth, are witnessed leaving Hoboken, New Jersey on a train together. They later arrive at the Jekyll Island Club to discuss monetary policy and the banking system, an event which some say is the impetus for the creation of the Federal Reserve.

1911

June 15 – IBM is incorporated as the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR) in New York.

1912

April 15 – RMS Titanic sinks at 2:20 am, taking with her the lives of more than 1,500 people. (Many prominent industrialists and other notables were on this ship, jj astor)

June 5 – U.S. Marines land in Cuba.

September 25 – The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is founded in New York City, New York.

October 30 – Vice President James S. Sherman dies in office just days prior to the 1912 presidential election. (“The ensuing campaign saw Taft in a stiff three-way battle with Democrat Woodrow Wilson and former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, the latter candidate having previously been in a nasty feud with Sherman over control of the New York Republican Party.

Sherman died in Utica a few days prior to the election. The Republican National Committee named Columbia University President Nicholas M. Butler to replace Sherman and receive any electoral votes for him. However, the Republicans only carried two states for a total of eight electoral votes, so this did not matter. “)

November 5 – U.S. presidential election, 1912: Democratic challenger Woodrow Wilson wins a landslide victory over Republican incumbent William Howard Taft. Taft’s base is undercut by Progressive Party candidate (and former Republican) Theodore Roosevelt, who finishes second, ahead of Taft.

1913

February 3 – The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect income taxes.

March 4 – Woodrow Wilson succeeds William Howard Taft as the 28th President of the United States.

May 14 – New York Governor William Sulzer approves the charter for the Rockefeller Foundation, which begins operations with a $100,000,000 donation from John D. Rockefeller.

June 15 – Bud Bagsak Massacre: U.S. troops under General John ‘Black Jack’ Pershing kill at least 2,000 civilians in Bud Bagsak, the Philippines.

October 3 – The United States Revenue Act of 1913 re-imposes the federal income tax and lowers basic tariff rates from 40% to 25%.

December 23 – The Federal Reserve is created by the Federal Reserve Act.

1914

February 13 – Copyright: In New York City the ASCAP (for American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) is established to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members.

April 21 – 3,000 U.S. Marines land in Vera Cruz, Mexico.

June 1 – Woodrow Wilson’s envoy Edward Mandell House meets with Kaiser Wilhelm II.

August 4 – German troops invade neutral Belgium at 8:02 AM (local time). Britain declares war on Germany for this violation of Belgian neutrality. This move effectively means a declaration of war by the whole British Commonwealth and Empire against Germany. The United States declares neutrality.

November 16 – A year after being created by passage of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States officially opens for business.

December 17 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signs the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act (initially introduced by Francis Burton Harrison).