Century Film Project

We’re half a month in already, and most of my Century News for the month falls in the first half of June! Let’s see how things were going in the world a hundred years ago. Looking at headlines from back then can put today’s “crises” into perspective.

German trench during the Battle of Messines

World War I:

A French infantry regiment seizes Missy-aux-Bois on June 1 and declares an anti-war military government. Other French army troops soon apprehend them.

Conscription begins in the United States on June 5.

The Battle of Messines opens June 7 with the British Army detonating 19 ammonal mines under the German lines, killing 10,000 in the deadliest deliberate non-nuclear man-made explosion in history.

The first major German bombing raid on London by fixed-wing aircraft leaves 162 dead and 432 injured on June 13.

Herbert Bayard Swope, first Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.

Culture:

The first Pulitzer Prizes are awarded on June 4: Laura E. Richards, Maud Howe Elliott and Florence Hall receive the first Pulitzer for a biography (for Julia Ward Howe). Jean Jules Jusserand receives the first Pulitzer for history for his work With Americans of Past and Present Days. Herbert Bayard Swope receives the first Pulitzer for journalism for his work for the New York World.

Disasters:

A fire at the Granite Mountain and Speculator ore mine outside Butte, Montana kills at least 168 workers on June 8.

Constantine I

Politics:

King Constantine I of Greece abdicates for the first time on June 11, being succeeded by his son Alexander. He will return briefly in 1920-1922.

Legislation:

The United States enacts the Espionage Act on June 15. Although intended to prevent sabotage during wartime, the act will be used during the post-war “Red Scare” to justify persecution of radicals and labor organizers.

Film:

June 9, filming completed on British movie “The Labour Leader” starring Fred Groves (release date unknown).

On June 25, “A Kentucky Cinderella” starring Ruth Clifford is released.

Also on June 25, “The Rough House” with Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle and Buster Keaton is released.

Births:

Leo Gorcey (actor, in numerous “Dead End Kids,” “East Side Kids,” and “Bowery Boys” pictures), born June 3

Dean Martin (singer and actor, in “Oceans 11” and earlier “Scared Stiff” with partner, Jerry Lewis), born June 7.

Lena Horne (singer, appeared in all-black cast films “Cabin in the Sky” and “Stormy Weather”), June 30.

Susan Hayward (actress, in “I Want to Live” and “I Married a Witch”), June 30.