Joe Worley

Oklahoma — born dry and still dry after 51 years of statehood — finally popped the cork the sixth time Sooners had voted on the repeal of prohibition. After taking office as governor, J. Howard Edmondson appointed Muskogee County Attorney Joe Cannon as state safety commissioner to clamp down on the sale of liquor. More than 700,000 voters, a record, turned out and repealed the issue by a 3-1 vote. As expected, Tulsa County provided the largest margin for the wet victory 86,600 to 23,700.

After 17 hours of debate, the House approved a resolution declaring war against Germany, throwing America into World War I. The resolution had been approved 90-6 earlier by the Senate, and President Woodrow Wilson was prepared to sign it as soon as he received the resolution from Vice President Thomas Marshall. Approval by the House came at 3 a.m. with a vote of 373 to 50 after a debate that revealed an unexpected strength in the minority opposing the resolution.

Tulsa police found Monica Decator stabbed and beaten to death in a burning house on East Second Street. Her murderer apparently had physically abused Oz, Decator’s 2½-year-old son, and shoved him under the vacant house. Oz received “severe permanent injuries and brain damage,” and after a 59-day hospital stay he went to live with a relative in Louisiana. Decator’s boyfriend, Shelton Jackson, was convicted twice of first-degree murder.