Today in the Sobel Timeline: January 6

On January 6, 1916, North American Governor-General Albert Merriman announced that the North Americans who had taken part in the Chapultepec Incident had done so "without the knowledge of this government and certainly without its sanction. Measures will be taken at once to ensure that further incidents involving C.N.A. citizens in Chapultepec and other parts of the United States of Mexico will be prevented. Sobel notes that Merriman's words were carefully calculated to be firm, yet vague. Over the next two weeks, the passports of 10,970 North Americans in the U.S.M. were revoked.

On January 6, 1921, over 10,000 Mexican slaves petitioned President Emiliano Calles to be allowed to remain enslaved. Sobel states that while some of the names were forged, and others were acting under compulsion, a majority of the petitioners felt that under the circumstances, slavery would be preferable to freedom.

On January 6, 1968, former Minister for Home Affairs Grover Speigal gave a speech at the Liberal Party convention denouncing Governor-General Carter Monaghan's policy of disbanding the National Financial Administration. "Should this happen," said Speigal, "the nation will be the province of giant firms, and the freedom of enterprise will be gone, with the others to follow soon after."

Speigal's speech was reported in the next day's issue of the New York Herald.