Well, at least I didn't miss this one.
This day was Thanksgiving Day in 1922.
Unlike the entry for 1942, I can't give any personal recollections for my parents, or speculations on what they did, as they weren't born yet.
President Harding had earlier made a proclamation in advance of and in recognition of the day.
THANKSGIVING - 1922
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - A PROCLAMATION
In the beginnings of our country the custom was established by the devout fathers of observing
annually a day of Thanksgiving for the bounties and protection which Divine Providence had
extended throughout the year. It has come to be perhaps the most characteristic of our national
observances, and as the season approaches for its annual recurrence, it is fitting formally to direct
attention to this ancient institution of our people and to call upon them again to unite in its
appropriate celebration.
The year which now approaches its end has been marked, in the experience of our nation, by a
complexity of trials and of triumphs, of difficulties and of achievements, which we must regard as
our inevitable portion in such an epoch as that through which all mankind is moving. As we survey
the experience of the passing twelve-month we shall find that our estate presents very much to
justify a nationwide and most sincere testimony of gratitude for the bounty which has been
bestowed upon us. Though we have lived in the shadow of the hard consequences of great
conflict, our country has been at peace and has been able to contribute toward the maintenance
and perpetuation of peace in the world. We have seen the race of mankind make gratifying
progress on the way to permanent peace, toward order and restored confidence in its high destiny.
For the Divine guidance which has enabled us, in growing fraternity with other peoples, to attain so
much of progress; for the bounteous yield which has come to us from the resources of our soil and
our industry, we owe our tribute of gratitude, and with it our acknowledgment of the duty and
obligation to our own people and to the unfortunate, the suffering, the distracted of other lands. Let
us in all humility acknowledge how great is our debt to the Providence which has generously dealt
with us, and give devout assurance of unselfish purpose to play a helpful and ennobling part in
human advancement. It is much to be desired that in rendering homage for the blessings which
have come to us, we should earnestly testify our continued and increasing aim to make our own
great fortune a means of helping and serving, as best we can, the cause of all humanity.
Now, therefore, I, Warren G. Harding, President of the United States of America, do designate
Thursday, the thirtieth day of November, as a day of Thanksgiving, supplication and devotion. I
recommend that the people gather at their family altars and in their houses of worship to render
thanks to God for the bounties they have enjoyed and to petition that these may be continued in
the year before us.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be
affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this second day of November, in the year of our Lord, one
thousand nine hundred and twenty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America
the one hundred and forty-seventh.
Liam Lynch, the Chief of Staff for the Irish Republican Army, issued orders to the IRA authorizing the assassination of Irish Free State officials in retaliation for the execution of those caught with handguns contrary to an Irish emergency law earlier in the week. The order further provided:
All members of the Provisional 'Parliament' who were present and voted for the Murder Bill will be shot at sight. Houses of members... who are known to support Murder Bill will be destroyed. Free State army officers who approve of Murder Bill will be shot at sight; also all ex-British army officers and men who joined the Free State army since 6 December 1921.
Lynch was shot by Free State troops himself on December 6, 1923.
On the same day, oddly enough, the British announced the withdrawal of its remaining troops from Ireland, starting on December 12 and to be completed by January 5. The UK also closed its post offices in China, something that had been operating for fifty years.
A riot over rationing in Mexico resulted in the deaths of seventeen people in clashes with police in Mexico City.
Aisin-Gioro Puyi (溥儀) age 17, the former Emperor of China, and future Emperor of collaborationist Manchucko, married Gobulo Wanrong (郭布羅·婉容), age 16, in an elaborate ceremony in the Forbidden City.
Wanrong.
In spite of the termination of the monarchy, some of its traditions were still strong, and Puyi had been ordered to marry by the Dowager Empress. Wanrong was chosen from a collection of photographs he was given and was in fact his second choice after being informed that his first choice was suitable only to be a concubine. A marriage to the first choice, Erdet Wenxiu 額爾德特·文繡, was performed later that night in an example of hopeless oddity.
Wenxiu.
The Chinese royal family was quite frankly extraordinarily weird in many ways by this time, and its maintenance after its fall preserved its oddities. The marriages may not have been consummated, but if they were they were certainly not happy in numerous ways. Puyi himself noted that they were strained as the two women were effectively slaves, rather than real spouses. There is some fairly serious speculation that Puyi was homosexual, in spite of having at least one other concubine.
Wanrong smoking a cigarette in the 1930s.
Wanrong lived a miserable life in spite of being the claimant to the title of Empress. As Empress of Manchuko she entered into affairs and became pregnant by a court chauffeur. The baby was murdered after birth. She would have divorced Puyi, but the Japanese precluded it. She was taken prisoner towards the end of the Second World War by the Red Chinese. She died in their captivity at age 39 in June, 1945.
Not too surprisingly, Wenxiu was also unhappy in her role as a second class wife and had a troubled relationship with Wanrong and Piyu. She divorced him in 1931 and latter married Major Liu Zhendong in 1947. He later became a car dealership and then the two of them lived in poverty following the Red Chinese victory in the Chinese Civil War. She died in 1953.
Yuling.
As if this isn't odd enough, and in spite of the questions this raises, Puyi would take two more consorts over time, Tatara Yuling 他他拉·玉齡 and Li Yuqin. Puyi grew to be very fond of Yuling, who died undergoing medical treatment in 1942 at age 22. There are some suspicions regarding her death as her physician was Japanese and she was known to harbor negative thoughts about the Japanese. Puyi kept a picture of her with him until his death. Yuling was half Korean.
Yuquin married Puyi in 1943 and was with Empress Wanrong when she attempted to flee at teh endo fthe Second World War. She was released from capitivy in 1946 and became a textile factory employee and a library employee. She sought a divorce from Puyi in 1955 but oddly was ordered to reconcile with him by the Red Chinese government. They none the less divorced in 1958 and she latter married technician Huang Yugeng (黃毓庚). She died in 2001 in Changchun.
Puyi lived until 1967, dying in Red China. The Soviets saved his life by refusing to extradite him to the Republic of China, which viewed him as a traitor.
50,000 gathered to hear Hitler speak in Munich.
