September 8, 1920. The start of Air Mail
On this day in 1920, the U.S. Post Office inaugurated Air Mail in the United STates with early morning flights taking off from New Jersey and San Francisco, ultimately bound for the other location, and with distribution stops and refueling stops along the way. Cheyenne was one of the cities on their flight path.
As the Cheyenne paper noted, unusually spelling it out, the reason for the numerous stops was that the Airco DH4 airplanes dedicated to the project didn't carry sufficient fuel not to make numerous stops. The DH4 was a British designed World War One bomber which the US had ordered in sufficient numbers to make the United States the largest customer for the aircraft. After the war they were placed into mail service, which they'd continue to perform up until 1932. Indeed, as late as that year the US seriously considered purchasing an updated variant.
On the same day an Italian crises continued as the Italian Regency of Carnaro, effectively declaring Fiume to be a city state, was proclaimed by Gabriele D'Annunzio, poet and wartime Italian army officer. The move sought to formalize the Italian control over the city of mixed ethnicity but went beyond that in the formation of a proto fascist state. It's independence would be more formalized the following year, but would be brief, as it followed a treaty with Italy that sought to incorporate it within the Kingdom of Italy. That effort lead to a brief war which Italy obviously won.
And this peaceful photograph was taken.
Y.M.C.A. Island & playground, Lynchburg Virginia.
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