On this page we will look back at life in the city during the war years. Here we will provide the visitor with the stories making the news, what was happening in sports and entertainment, city politics, the social scene and the prominent people at the time. We will also recount the events occurring in the war on that day. So, check back each day for new editions.
To share your family or neighborhood stories, please email PhillyWWIyears@gmail.com
TODAY IN PHILADELPHIA – SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 1915
The weather will bring fair bright skies today with the high reaching 88° and the low about 73°. The city released its weekly mortality report today showing 425 reported deaths this week. This is 45 less than reported last week. Unfortunately of those, 105 were children under the age of 2. Eighty-Three of those children died of enteritis, sometimes called “summer complaint”.
In national news, President Wilson has advised the organizers of the Exhibition to Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Emancipation of the Negro that he will not be able to attend. The exhibition is to be held from August 22 to September 16 at the Chicago Coliseum. Mr. Wilson explained that international affairs required him to remain in Washington D.C.
In entertainment, the free concerts tonight will feature The Philadelphia Band at City Hall Plaza performing selections by Victor Herbert which have been specially arranged for the Band by Maestro Herbert as well as other numbers. The Fairmount Park Band will be at the Belmont Mansion this evening performing selections by Strauss and Rossini.
On the sports scene at the Point Breeze Motordrome tonight 4 motorcycle races and one 30 mile bicycle race is on the schedule. The races begin at 8:30pm. In baseball, The Athletics lost their 7th in a row to the Yankees at the Polo Grounds this afternoon. Final score Yankees 9, A’s 5. At National League Park, the Phillies battered the Boston Braves 9 to 0 behind the bat of Fred Luderus (shown below) who slugged his 16th double, his 4th triple and 5th home run.
Fred Luderus
WAR NEWS
In Africa, French and British troops have invaded Kamerun a German colony in western equatorial Africa. The Allied troops have taken Garua (Garoua) and Ngaundere (Ngaoundere) in the northeastern section of the colony and have now taken Tingers (Tignere) in the west.
In the Dardanelles, British forces have attacked Turkish trenches on Gallipoli and have taken the slopes of Sari Bair and Ari Burnu. British reinforcements have also landed at Suvla Bay.
In Europe on the eastern front, 5 forts defending the fortress city of Kovno (Kaunas) in Lithuania are being brutally attacked by the army under Field Marshal von Hindenburg. Kovno stands between the German army and the ancient Lithuanian capital city of Vilna (Vilnius) and the Warsaw- Petrograd Railway. There are rumors that the main Russian army defending the city has already been withdrawn.
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