February 1923

February 1, 1923 (Thursday)

Mexican troops stormed the headquarters of streetcar operators that continued to hold out on strike after the majority of them had returned to work. A shootout ensued in which 14 of the strikers were reportedly killed.

Inflation worsened in Germany as the mark dropped to 220,000 against a British pound.

Died: Ernst Troeltsch, 58, German theologian

February 2, 1923 (Friday)

Striking railway workers in the Ruhr began returning to their jobs as German resistance to the French occupation faltered due to the coal blockade.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Aleksandar Stamboliyski survived an assassination attempt carried out by the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization.

The German drama film Nora premiered in Berlin.

Born: James Dickey, poet and novelist, in Atlanta (d. 1997); Red Schoendienst, baseball player, coach and manager, in Germantown, Illinois; Liz Smith, gossip columnist, in Fort Worth, Texas; Clem Windsor, rugby player, in Brisbane, Australia (d. 2007)

February 3, 1923 (Saturday)

A magnitude 8.3 to 8.5 earthquake struck the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Soviet Union, generating a twenty-five foot tsunami that raced across the Pacific Ocean.

Born: Edith Barney, baseball player, in Bridgeport, Connecticut (d. 2010)

Died: Kuroki Tamemoto, 79, Japanese general

February 4, 1923 (Sunday)

The Conference of Lausanne broke off in failure.

French troops expanded their occupation of Germany to include the key railway centers of Offenburg and Appenweier.

Born: Conrad Bain, actor, in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada (d. 2013)

February 5, 1923 (Monday)

The Canadian province of Quebec held a general election. The Liberal Party led by Louis-Alexandre Taschereau was re-elected.

Died: Count Erich Kielmansegg, 75, Austrian statesman

February 6, 1923 (Tuesday)

At the opening of an air conference in London, Director of Civil Aviation Sefton Brancker predicted that within five years, an airplane would be able to travel from London to New York in just twelve hours.

February 7, 1923 (Wednesday)

Italy ratified the Washington Naval Treaty.

The musical play Wildflower, with book and lyrics by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II and music by Herbert Stothart and Vincent Youmans, opened at the Casino Theatre on Broadway.

Born: George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood, in London (d. 2011)

February 8, 1923 (Thursday)

A mine train at Dawson, New Mexico jumped its track and slammed into the supporting timbers near the mine's mouth, touching off an explosion. 123 miners were killed, some of them the sons of men who were killed in a 1913 mine disaster at the same site.

A gas explosion in a mine near Cumberland, British Columbia killed 33.

Norman Albert called the first live broadcast of an ice hockey game, the third period of an Ontario Hockey League Intermediate playoff game on the Toronto station CFCA.

February 9, 1923 (Friday)

25 schools in Berlin were closed on account of a coal shortage.

The entire German town of Recklinghausen went on strike against French occupation.

Billy Hughes resigned as Prime Minister of Australia when he was unable to form a coalition government. He was replaced by Stanley Bruce.

The Russian airline Aeroflot was founded.

Born: Brendan Behan, writer, in Dublin, Ireland (d. 1964)

February 10, 1923 (Saturday)

Harold Lloyd married his Hollywood co-star Mildred Davis.

The Owen Davis play Icebound premiered at New York's Sam H. Harris Theater.

Born: Allie Sherman, American football player, in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2015); Cesare Siepi, opera singer, in Milan (d. 2010)

Died: Wilhelm Röntgen, 77, German physicist and Nobel Prize laureate

February 11, 1923 (Sunday)

France and Belgium announced they would bar all exports from the Ruhr region to unoccupied Germany starting at midnight.

February 12, 1923 (Monday)

The majority Social Democratic Party of Germany opposed a special law that would give the German government special powers in dealing with the Ruhr region.

The drama film Jazzmania was released.

Born: Franco Zeffirelli, film and opera director, in Florence, Italy

Died: Robert Tigerstedt, 69, Finnish-born Swedish scientist and physiologist

February 13, 1923 (Tuesday)

France fined the town of Recklinghausen 100 million marks for its disobedience. Gelsenkirchen also went on strike in response.

The Belgians occupied Emmerich am Rhein and Wesel, cutting the Ruhr off from the Netherlands.

Italy's Fascist council passed a resolution stating that no member of the Fascist Party could also be a Freemason, and anyone who was a member of both had to resign from one organization or the other.

The New York Renaissance all-black basketball team was established.

Born: Yfrah Neaman, violinist, in Sidon, Lebanon (d. 2003); Chuck Yeager, brigadier general and test pilot, in Myra, West Virginia

February 14, 1923 (Wednesday)

Gelsenkirchen refused to pay a 100 million mark fine levied as an indemnity for the wounding of a French officer in a clash with German police, so the French arrested several of the town's top bankers.

February 15, 1923 (Thursday)

Charles R. Forbes voluntarily resigned from the U.S. Veterans' Bureau amid suspicions that he was selling surplus supplies at absurdly low prices to private contractors in exchange for kickbacks.

Born: Jim Ostendarp, American football player and coach, in Baltimore, Maryland (d. 2005)

February 16, 1923 (Friday)

In Luxor, Howard Carter and his archaeological team opened the inner chamber of Tutankhamun's tomb and found the pharaoh's sarcophagus.

Born: Bela Palfi, footballer, in Bečkerek, Kingdom of Serbs, Croates and Slovenes (d. 1995)

February 17, 1923 (Saturday)

Gelsenkirchen police barricaded themselves in their barracks to prevent being disarmed by the French.

Born: Jun Fukuda, Japanese filmmaker

February 18, 1923 (Sunday)

27 were killed when the Paris-Strasbourg express hit a freight train.

The original mark for marathon dancing was set in Sunderland, England when a couple danced for seven hours straight.

The film Stormswept was released.

February 19, 1923 (Monday)

The U.S. Supreme Court decided United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind and Moore v. Dempsey.

The film The Gentleman from America, starring Hoot Gibson, was released.

February 20, 1923 (Tuesday)

Retired baseball star Christy Mathewson became the new president of the Boston Braves.

Born: Forbes Burnham, President of Guyana, in Georgetown, Guyana (d. 1985)

February 21, 1923 (Wednesday)

The Revenue Commissioners government agency was created in Ireland.

Born: Wilbur R. Ingalls, Jr., architect, in Portland, Maine (d. 1997)

February 22, 1923 (Thursday)

Prince George, Duke of Kent had both of his small toes amputated to cure a painful hammer toe condition.

Born: Norman Smith, musician, record producer and engineer, in Edmonton, London, England (d. 2008)

February 23, 1923 (Friday)

Gene Tunney beat Harry Greb in a close match at Madison Square Garden to retake the American Light Heavyweight Championship of boxing.

The King Vidor-directed drama film The Woman of Bronze was released.

The Free State Bottleneck was abolished.

Born: Mary Francis Shura, novelist, in Pratt, Kansas (d. 1991)

Died: Théophile Delcassé, 71, French statesman

February 24, 1923 (Saturday)

U.S. President Warren G. Harding sent a special message to the Senate calling on the body to give him the authority to have the United States join the World Court.

Born: David Soyer, cellist, in Philadelphia (d. 2010)

February 25, 1923 (Sunday)

French troops occupied Kaub, Lorch and Königswinter.

Born: Nathan Glazer, sociologist, in New York City

February 26, 1923 (Monday)

The Charlie Chaplin film The Pilgrim was released.

Died: George Clement Perkins, 83, American senator and Governor of California

February 27, 1923 (Tuesday)

Britain's first dance music radio programme was broadcast when Marius B. Winter and his band played for over an hour with a news bulletin as an interlude.

Born: Dexter Gordon, jazz saxophonist, in Los Angeles (d. 1990); Chuck Wayne, jazz guitarist, in New York City (d. 1997)

February 28, 1923 (Wednesday)

The French had all the police in Bochum and Herne transported away from their towns.

Born: Jean Carson, actress, in Charleston, West Virginia (d. 2005); Charles Durning, actor, in Highland Falls, New York (d. 2012)