Friday, March 17, 2023

Saturday, March 17, 1923. St. Patrick's Day

Threats of the IRA notwithstanding, Irish boxer Mike McTigue fought and defeated world champion Light Heavyweight Louis Mbarick, the Battling Siki.


A bomb was in fact detonated, wounding two children, but the fight carried on anyhow.

McTigue was Irish by birth but had immigrated to the United States at age 21.  After a long boxing career he retired to successfully run a saloon, although in later years he declined into ill health and poverty.  He died at age 73 in 1966, a fairly old age for somebody with this early career.

Dobrolet, the predecessor to the world's most dangerous airline Aeroflot, was formed by the Soviet merger of private airlines.

U.S. Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty announced that Warren G. Harding was going to run for reelection, unless ill health precluded it.  An announcement through the Attroney General would be regarded as odd now, and was regarded as odd then.

Harding in fact was plagued with health problems, not to mention personal problems, that would take his life later that year.

The local paper ran a tribute to the Irish, something that probably didn't hurt circulation given the large Irish community that then existed.

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