Regular U.S airmail commenced with a fully established Transcontinental Airway System at New York City; Bellefonte, Pennsylvania; Cleveland and Bryan, Ohio; Chicago; Iowa City; Omaha and North Platte, Nebraska; Cheyenne, Rawlins and Rock Springs, Wyoming; Salt Lake City; Elko and Reno; and San Francisco.
President Coolidge held a press conference:
Japan held a national day of protest over the new US immigration act.
Last edition:
Well, it was the "Night Mail" edition. You'd get it Saturday morning.
The Yankees evened up the game count, with Babe Ruth hitting two home runs in the game.
The DeAutremon Brothers attempted to rob their employer's train, the Southern Pacific Railroad No. 13, as it passed through a tunnel in the Siskiyou Mountains in the Pacific Northwest. The robbery was a failure, but they murdered four railroad men while making their escape.
They successfully evaded authorities for a period of years, but were ultimately all captured and sentenced to lengthy prison sentences. Hugh DeAutremon was captured in 1927 when a soldier who had been stationed in the Philippines recognized him as a serving soldier in his former unit, under an assumed name. Ray and Roy were captured in Ohio that following June.
All were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison, which is somewhat surprising for the era, given the murders. Hugh was paroled in 1958 and died of stomach cancer nearly immediately thereafter. Roy was diagnosed with schizophrenia and given a lobotomy, which rendered him unable to care for himself, and he was a resident of the Oregon State Hospital until 1983 when he died. Ray was paroled in in 1984 and expressed horror for their crime upon his release.
The investigation was notable for the use of a forensic chemist, who identified the suspects based on the residue in a pair of overalls left at the scene.
The SS City of Everett sank in the Gulf of Mexico on a molasses run. All 26 hands on board were lost.
Eight children who were passengers on a horse-drawn school bus were killed near Rootstown Ohio when the wagon was hit by a train. This is mentioned in the newspaper above.
Calvin Coolidge addressed a group of Postmasters.
Having already effectively ceased combat operations, as they'd already lost the war, Éamon de Valera announced that the Irish Republican Army was prepared to agree to a ceasefire.
On the same day, Cumann na nGaedheal ("Society of the Gaels) a political party of pro treaty former members of Sinn Féin was formed. It would merge into Finn Gael in 1933.
For residents of Casper, familiar with the Country Club, the origins of it were in evidence in this day in 1923.
Quite an assortment of other news as well.
And not just in Casper, but all around, it would seem.
The horse jumping over car photograph, probably last popular as horse jumping over Jeep during World War Two, was in vogue.
Jack Prestage on Tipperary in this case.
President Harding, whom we now know should probably have been in a clinic, visited the Tri State Clinic.
Meet The Press, the longest running television program in the United States, premiered in that format. It had previously premiered on radio as American Mercury Presents: Meet the Press on October 5, 1945.
While I very much favor This Week over Meet the Press, it occurs to me that somewhat ironically, as I listed to the audio podcast variant, I listed to it closer to the radio version.
The first guess for the then 30-minute Thursday night program was James Farley, the Postmaster General and DNC Committee chairman. The initial moderator was Martha Roundtree, reprising her role from the radio variant, and the only woman moderator of the show to date. Roundtree hosted the program until 1953.
She died in 1999 in Washington D.C., nearly blind since the 1980s, due to the harsh effects of primitive television lighting.
As noted, I do listen to it, but I'm not a fan of the current moderator, Chuck Todd. Indeed, I was hoping for a second female moderator in the form of Kasi Hunt.
On the same day, Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov told a Moscow audience that the means of making an atomic weapons were no longer secret. American intelligence took that to mean that the Soviet Union knew how to build a bomb, but didn't necessarily have one. The Soviets, who had penetrated the American government fairly successfully, suspected that the US was working on such a weapon by 1942 and started their own project accordingly. Nonetheless, they had not developed a bomb by this point themselves, but were only two years away from doing so.
Canada invited Newfoundland to join the Canadian Dominion.
A rather odd illustration graced the cover of Judge.
On the same day, Dr. Hubert Work was sworn in as Postmaster General, replacing William Hayes who went to work in the motion picture industry as its moral conscience.
Hayes was there for the event.
The US airship C-7 flew from Hampton Roads, Virginia to Washington D.C. filled with helium, rather than explosive hydrogen, making it the first airship to use that gas.
The United Kingdom announced that it intended to offer dominion status to Ireland, but that it intended to retain Ulster. Talks between Irish Republicans and the British had become dangerously stalled, with there being predictions of a resumption of fighting between the two forces.
The US was looking to introduce a new silver dollar design for 1922.
All things Italian remained in vogue at the time.
The United States Postal Service came into existence and replaced the cabinet level United States Post Office Department.
On the same day, the United States withdrew 6,000 troops from Vietnam as part of an ongoing troop drawdown, bringing the total U.S. commitment to 236,000, about half of what hit had been in 1969.
President Nixon signed legislation that banned cigarette advertising on radio and television. The ban would not go into effect for the rest of the year. Cigarette advertising had been a major feature of television advertising up to that time, with the theme of the Magnificent Seven effectively used by Marlboro on its cowboy themed television advertisements. Somewhere, I have an old record that dates back to that put out by Marlboro.
The banning of the advertisements was a major event.
The United Kingdom ended restrictions on gold ownership The gold standard was fully on its way out globally at the time, although the British had been off of the gold standard directly since 1931. The Bretton Woods Agreement, however, had put the nations entering it onto an international gold standard system. That system was rapidly collapsing in 1971.
Canada introduced its postal code in a test run in Ottawa. The U.S. Zip code had been in effect since 1963.
We always reform or ridicule, not the customs of the remote past, but the new customs of the day before yesterday, which are just beginning to grow old. This is true of furniture and parents.
G.K. Chesterton, Chicago Tribune, February 23, 1921.
The United States Postal Service completed a pioneering air mail run in which Jack Knight, taking off on the prior day from San Francisco, landed at Cheyenne, Wyoming, and then took off and flew through the night to Chicago. Ernest M. Allison ten took over and lasted at 4:50 p.m. at Roosevelt Field at Long Island, New York.
The flight demonstrated that air mail was feasible.
While successful, it was also conducted under extreme odds, involving arctic conditions and nighttime fires to light the way. Knight was justifiably regarded as a hero during his lifetime.
Quebec established a Commission des liqeurs to control the quality and sales of alcohol. Quebec, with its strong French traditions, was the only Canadian province to reject any sort of prohibition.
In its original form, the Commission lasted until 1961. It has evolved into the latter Société des alcools du Québec which interestingly operates on a model similar to that of the State of Utah's, with the state being the sole distributer of alcohol.
In Washington D. C. a collection of stately dignified women was photographed, probably being members of the women's party that was meeting in the city at the time.
On the same day, the Red Army invaded Armenia.
Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church at the point of its reunification, Dimitrije Pavlović
On this date in 1920, the Serbian Orthodox Church was reunified after a long period of separation due to its members being in various empires. The aftermath of World War One changed that situation. The church is the second oldest Slavic Orthodox Church, second only in that status to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The church today has over 8,000,000 members, mostly in Serbia, and is one of the Eastern Orthodox Churches in communion with Constantinople.
Residents of Cheyenne were disappointed by the failure of the mail plane to arrive, which was front page news. The headline seemed to blame the failure on an errant pilot, but it was engine trouble in Utah that caused the delay.
Movie goers on this date were apparently up for a massive serving of turgid.
The Restless Sex follows the story of a young adventurous woman who is in love with her step brother, whom she grew up with, and whom she's been in love with since her youth, until he travels afar, and she's pursued by another.
Plot spoiler.
The step brother wins.
Hmmmm. . . .
Movie goes who may have been pondering the "ick" quality of Restless also had the option of seeing Homespun Folks, also released on this date.
In that one a young lawyer makes good by getting the position of district attorney only to be accused of murder.
