On the evening of April 3rd, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson, who was in Paris for the Versailles Treaty negotiations, became suddenly and dangerously ill. At first his doctor thought that he’d been poisoned. Wilson had a high fever and bad cough for five days, during which time the same doctor told the outside world that Wilson had a bad cold. When Wilson returned to the conference he was visibly weakened, seemingly exhausted. As time passed at least two lingering after- effects manifested themselves: first, an apparent neurological disorder as Wilson became paranoid in petty ways, suspecting the French of spying on him, and second, likely due to debility, when he returned to the conference he caved in on all of his 14 points then still in contention excepting number XIV (a League of Nations), which Clemenceau and Lloyd George disdained to give him. Read more about this by clicking here.
Kansas WW1
Commemorating the First World War Centennial in Kansas
Pershing’s Paths of Glory
This is a new feature-length documentary film about Gen. John J. Pershing produced by The Pacific Film Foundation and the National Society of Pershing Rifles. For more information click here.
In November 2020, original cast members of Prospect Theater Company’s original musical, THE HELLO GIRLS, gathered at Symphony Space in NYC (with rigorous safety protocols in place) for a one day film shoot. At the end, we captured this behind-the-scenes video of a new song written to reflect on the experience of soldiers coming home from WWI… and the experience of 2020.
A blog posting of the 1914 Christmas Truce from the Ohio History Connection:
Conferences scheduled for January of that are of particular interest to WW1 devotees:
Monday, January 18th 12 PM CST ‘Winnie The Pooh Day’. Remember that WTP was a real bear, the mascot of a Manitoba battalion.
Wednesday, January 20th 7PM CST ‘The Women in WW1’.
Preparations have begun for the observance of this historic event on November 11th, 2021. Read more about this by clicking here.
There’s nothing that feeds the holiday spirit like WWI programming on C-SPAN 3 . . . As usual, all times are Central, and we can’t be responsible for schedule changes. Errors on our part are possible and highly resented.
–How World War I Affected the U.S. Airs at 10:02 p.m. on Wednesday, December 16th (that’s tonight!) Repeats at 3:10 a.m. Thursday, December 17th.
A little bit of WWI-era programming is coming up on C-SPAN 3 this weekend. As usual, all times are Central, and we’re not responsible for schedule changes.
–1918 Flu Pandemic. Airs at 8:28 p.m. on Thursday, December 10th, then again at 12;57 a.m. and 8:40 a.m. on Friday, December11th.
For those wishing to see “All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914,” please check your local PBS listings. The Theatre Latte Da production from the Twin Cities is scheduled to be streamed on pbs.org beginning December 15th.
Somewhat disappointing for those of us close to Kansas City and the National World War I Museum and Memorial, local PBS stations have given us only one opportunity a piece to see this presentation, and not under the best scheduling. In Topeka it will air on December 22nd on KTWU-Enhance (11.3) at 11 p.m. CT. On Kansas City PBS-2 it will air on December 27th at 2:00 p.m. CT.
Michael Neiberg on How Armistice Day became Veteran’s Day
Since 1954 the U.S. has observed every November 11th as Veteran’s Day, while in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand the day remains known as Remembrance Day. Why did Americans make this change? Read Dr. Neiberg’s article by clicking here.
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