December 1929

December 1, 1929 (Sunday)

Seven were killed in a coal mine explosion in West Frankfort, Illinois.

December 2, 1929 (Monday)

U.S. President Herbert Hoover called on the Soviet Union and China to end armed hostilities and resolve the Chinese Eastern Railway dispute by peaceful means. Simultaneously, Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson asked all the other signatories of the Kellogg–Briand Pact to join the United States in urging the two warring countries to refrain from further fighting.

December 3, 1929 (Tuesday)

President Hoover delivered his first State of the Union message to Congress. It was presented in the form of a written message rather than a speech. The message asserted that "during the past year the Nation has continued to grow in strength" and that the country's problems were "problems of growth and of progress." Of the economic situation, Hoover stated that he had "instituted systematic, voluntary methods of cooperation with the business institutions and with State and municipal authorities to make certain that fundamental businesses of the country shall continue as usual, that wages and therefore consuming power shall not be reduced, and that a special effort shall be made to expand construction work in order to assist in equalizing other deficits in employment ... I am convinced that through these measures we have reestablished confidence."

December 4, 1929 (Wednesday)

David Lloyd George said in the House of Commons that war was inevitable without disarmament. "The League of Nations has been going on for ten years", he said. "There have been meetings and elonquent speeches delivered in favour of peace, disarmament and arbitration, but the League of Nations is in danger of failure from being run by flapdoodlers."

The House of Lords voted 43 to 21 against resuming diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.

December 5, 1929 (Thursday)

King Victor Emmanuel III and Queen Elena visited Vatican City to meet with the pope, the first time the sovereign of unified Italy had ever entered the Vatican. Thousands watched the royal motorcade procession through Rome.

The Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic was established.

The American League for Physical Culture, the first American nudist organization, was formed in New York City.

December 6, 1929 (Friday)

Nanjing came under martial law as 30,000 rebel forces marched on the city during the Civil War.

Women received the right to vote in Turkey.

December 7, 1929 (Saturday)

Aga Khan III was married in Aix-les-Bains, France to a former candy store clerk and dressmaker in a simple ceremony with no guests.

December 8, 1929 (Sunday)

The Nazi Party received 11.3% of the vote in local elections in Thuringia, a marked improvement over the 2.6 percent the party received in the national elections in May 1928.

Died: José Vicente Concha, 62, Colombian politician

December 9, 1929 (Monday)

Jay Pierrepont Moffat, the U.S. chargé d'affaires in Geneva, signed the protocol of adherence to the World Court. The action was not permanent until the U.S. Senate approved.

Born: Bob Hawke, 23rd Prime Minister of Australia, in Bordertown, South Australia

Died: E. T. Kingsley, 72 or 73, Canadian socialist

December 10, 1929 (Tuesday)

The 1929 Nobel Prizes were awarded. The recipients were Louis de Broglie of France for Physics, Arthur Harden of the United Kingdom and Hans von Euler-Chelpin of Sweden (Chemistry), Christiaan Eijkman and Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins of the United Kingdom (Physiology or Medicine), Thomas Mann of Germany (Literature) and Frank Billings Kellogg of the United States (Peace).

Pavlos Kountouriotis resigned as President of Greece due to health reasons.

17 were killed and 60 injured in a train accident near Namur, Belgium.

11 people died when a fire broke out at Pathé studio in New York on the set of the two-reel musical revue film The Black and White Revue after a hot lamp set a velvet curtain ablaze. The studio had no sprinklers and the tragedy led to stricter enforcement of New York's fire regulations.

Died: Harry Crosby, 31, American publisher and poet (apparent suicide by gunshot)

December 11, 1929 (Wednesday)

A prison riot broke out at Auburn Prison in upstate New York. 8 convicts and the head keeper were killed.

The Reichstag adopted a bill requiring shops to close on Christmas Eve at 5 p.m.

December 12, 1929 (Thursday)

The last British troops occupying the Rhineland were evacuated from Wiesbaden.

The trial of 26 women in the Angel Makers of Nagyrév case opened in Szolnok, Hungary. The defendants were tried in batches with the final trial ending in the summer of 1930. Ultimately, eight were sentenced to death.

December 13, 1929 (Friday)

A House public buildings committee approved a $9.74 million plan to erect a building for the Supreme Court. Ever since the Capitol building was constructed, the Supreme Court had been housed there.

Born: Christopher Plummer, Canadian actor, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

December 14, 1929 (Saturday)

The Greek parliament elected Alexandros Zaimis as the new President of Greece.

50 communist youths were arrested for staging an anti-administration protest in front of the White House without a permit, but they were released almost immediately in compliance with a request from President Hoover. White House Press Secretary George E. Akerson issued a statement saying that the president did "not believe that any such discourtesy in any way endangers the republic and that a night in jail is only doing them a favor of cheap martyrdom."

Died: Henry B. Jackson, 74, British admiral

December 15, 1929 (Sunday)

Pope Pius XI beatified 136 English martyrs who were hanged during the English Reformation.

Born: Ray Herbert, baseball player, in Detroit, Michigan

December 16, 1929 (Monday)

1 was killed and 45 injured in the Rothbury Riot occurred in Rothbury, Australia when police fired into a crowd of locked-out miners.

Pope Pius XI created six new cardinals. Among them was Apostolic Nuncio to Germany Eugenio Pacelli, who would later become Pope Pius XII.

President Hoover signed a $160 million income tax reduction bill into law.

The British airship R100 carried out its first flight.

Born: Nicholas Courtney, English actor, in Cairo, Egypt (d. 2011)

December 17, 1929 (Tuesday)

An explosion at the Old Town coal mine in McAlester, Oklahoma killed 61.

The Turkish and Soviet governments signed a new treaty of alliance.

Born: William Safire, journalist and writer, in New York City (d. 2009)

December 18, 1929 (Wednesday)

The cruise ship RMS Fort Victoria was hit by the ocean liner SS Algonquin during a dense fog in the Ambrose Channel. All on board the Fort Victoria were rescued before the ship sank.

December 19, 1929 (Thursday)

The Austrian government limited freedom of the press by penalizing offenses against the military.

4 police officers were wounded and 2 protestors were reportedly killed in rioting by unemployed Berliners.

December 20, 1929 (Friday)

With no advance public announcement, Pope Pius XI left the Vatican, entered Italian territory and celebrated mass at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran. It was the first time since the unification of Italy in 1870 that a pope had left the Vatican and entered foreign territory.

Died: Émile Loubet, 90, 8th President of France

December 21, 1929 (Saturday)

The occasion of Joseph Stalin's fiftieth birthday marked a major development of the state-orchestrated cult of personality around him. An enormous press campaign showered hyperbolic acclaim on the "glorious leader", and that day's issue of Pravda was exclusively devoted to him.

The Indian National Congress opened a conference in Lahore.

Parliamentary elections were held in Egypt. The Wafd Party won a majority of seats.

The musical film Pointed Heels, starring William Powell and Helen Kane, was released.

December 22, 1929 (Sunday)

The German referendum refuting the country's war debts failed as expected. Even though over 90% of voters approved the measure, only about 13.5% of the eligible voting population voted at all, and the referendum needed a turnout of at least 50% in order to pass.

The musical film Devil-May-Care, starring Ramon Novarro, premiered at the Astor Theatre in New York City.

December 23, 1929 (Monday)

The Sino-Soviet conflict ended with the signing of a protocol restoring the status quo on the Chinese Eastern Railway.

At a railway station in Delhi, the Viceroy of India Lord Irwin survived an attempt on his life when a bomb was thrown through the window of a train he was riding in. An attendant was hurt but Lord Irwin escaped injury.

An investigative committee in India submitted a report to the British government urging full Dominion status for India.

The film Sally, based on the Broadway stage musical of the same name, premiered at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City.

Born: Chet Baker, jazz musician, in Yale, Oklahoma (d. 1988)

December 24, 1929 (Tuesday)

Three shots were fired at Argentine President Hipólito Yrigoyen as he left his home on the way to his office, but only his bodyguard was wounded. The assailant, a native Italian thought to be possibly an anarchist, was wounded when police guards returned fire. Efforts were made to save the shooter so he could be brought to trial but he died of his wounds.

The West Wing of the White House was seriously damaged in an evening fire. President Hoover left a Christmas Eve reception for children in order to direct efforts to retrieve important documents, but not all records could be saved. It was the most serious fire at the White House since it was burned by the British in 1814.

The Ohio Supreme Court declined to review the James H. Snook murder case, so his execution was scheduled for January 31.

December 25, 1929 (Wednesday)

The government of Saxony granted amnesty to 179 political prisoners as a Christmas gift.

The musical film Hit the Deck premiered in Los Angeles.

December 26, 1929 (Thursday)

Pope Pius XI received royalty and nobility from the Houses of Savoy and Aosta as a gesture of goodwill marking the restoration of friendly relations between the Italian royal court and the Vatican since the Lateran Treaty.

Died: Albert Giraud, 69, Belgian poet

December 27, 1929 (Friday)

The British Foreign Office publicized a note from a Soviet ambassador promising that the USSR would refrain from communist agitation in British Dominions.

December 28, 1929 (Saturday)

Black Saturday occurred in Samoa when 9 demonstrators were killed by New Zealand mandate government police.

Acting United States Secretary of the Treasury Ogden L. Mills announced that an accord had been reached with Germany on a payment agreement separate from the Young Plan, covering military occupation costs and mixed claims awards.

Born: Terry Sawchuck, ice hockey player, in Winnipeg, Manitoba (d. 1970)

December 29, 1929 (Sunday)

The executive committee of the Indian National Congress called for complete independence for India.

In the Nazi newspaper Der Angriff, Joseph Goebbels published a controversial article titled "Hindenburg, are you still alive?", accompanied by a cartoon depicting President Paul von Hindenburg as a Teutonic god sitting on a throne supported by a stereotypical Jewish figure, watching pitilessly as generations of Germans marched into slavery. Hindenburg sued Goebbels for libel over the article.

The Archbishop of Canterbury made a radio broadcast from Canterbury Cathedral heard around the world calling on all British citizens to do their part for the country in 1930. "For more than a century we have taken for granted the industrial and commercial leadership of this country", he said. "Let the experience of the passing year suffice to show that this leadership is seriously threatened. Our great industries in coal, iron, steel and cotton textiles are anxious and ill at ease. Competitors have arisen to supplant us in markets in which we thought our positions assured. More than 1 million of our people are unemployed, and the future is clouded with uncertainty." The Archbishop said that the only possible remedy was not through a political solution, but by "each citizen realizing and fulfilling his own personal responsibility."

Born: Susie Garrett, actress, in Detroit, Michigan (d. 2002); Peter May, cricketer, in Reading, Berkshire, England (d. 1994)

Died: Wilhelm Maybach, 83, German automobile designer

December 30, 1929 (Monday)

The Cole Porter musical revue Wake Up and Dream premiered at the Selwyn Theatre on Broadway.

December 31, 1929 (Tuesday)

69 children perished in a movie theatre fire in Paisley, Scotland. None of the deaths were from the fire itself, which was quickly put out – they were all due to suffocation, choking from the noxious fumes of the burning celluloid or trampling in the rush to get out.

Mahatma Gandhi made a speech before the Indian National Congress in support of a resolution calling for Indian independence. The resolution was passed unanimously.

United States Secretary of Commerce Robert P. Lamont issued a statement predicting that 1930 would mark "a continuance of prosperity and progress." Secretary of the Treasuary Andrew W. Mellon likewise issued an optimistic statement: "During the winter months there may be some slackness or unemployment, but hardly more than is usual at this season each year. I have every confidence that there will be a revival of activity in the spring and that during the coming year the country will make steady progress."

Born: Mies Bouwman, television presenter, in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Died: Charles Phelps Taft, 86, American lawyer, politician, and brother of William Howard Taft