On June 30th 2015, Dennis Cross published the latest instalment to his Centennial Countdown blog. Here’s his email summary of the posting:
“I’ve posted the June 1915 installment of my Centennial Countdown blog. In June 1915, as the world observes the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo and the 700th anniversary of the Magna Carta, it confronts a war of unprecedented destruction and geographic scope. German submarine warfare threatens a rupture in relations with the United States. A second note pressing the American case brings about the resignation of Secretary of Stare William Jennings Bryan. His successor, Robert Lansing, is the son-in-law of a former secretary of state and the uncle of a future one, John Foster Dulles. Freed from the constraints of office, Bryan addresses a peace rally in Madison Square Garden. President Wilson’s friend and adviser Colonel House returns from an extended trip to Europe, and in his report to the president predicts war with Germany. Another British attack fails in Gallipoli. Great Britain is feeling the financial and personal pain of waging war; she gains, then loses, one of her first war heroes. The U.S.S. Arizona is launched in Brooklyn. “The Class the Stars Fell On” graduates from West Point; its members will lead the American Army in another world war. President Wilson honors the American flag, and is honored at a reunion of Confederate veterans. Two notorious murder cases, one in Georgia and one in New York, move closer to final resolution. The governor of Georgia commutes Leo Frank’s death sentence, but cannot protect either himself or Frank from angry mobs. In New York, only the governor now stands between Charles Becker and the electric chair, and he is convinced of Becker’s guilt. Becker’s lawyer, Martin Manton, faces a roller-coaster future: he will become a federal judge, be on the short list for the Supreme Court, serve as Chief Judge of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and wind up in jail for taking bribes.”
The blog can be read here.