January 1923

January 1, 1923 (Monday)

In the Rose Bowl football game, the USC Trojans beat the Penn State Nittany Lions 14-3.

The Rosewood Massacre began when racial violence erupted in Rosewood, Florida after a white woman accused a black man of assaulting her.

Born: Valentina Cortese, actress, in Milan, Italy; Vulo Radev, film director, in Lesidren, Bulgaria (d. 2001); Roméo Sabourin, World War II spy, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada (d. 1944)

Died: Willie Keeler, 50, American baseball player

January 2, 1923 (Tuesday)

An interallied conference began in Paris to address German war reparations. The British government submitted a plan with easier payments for Germany in the early years to help avoid another default until the country got back on its feet.

January 3, 1923 (Wednesday)

The private secretary for King George V issued a denial of reports that Edward, Prince of Wales was arranging to marry Princess Yolanda of Savoy.

Born: Hank Stram, American football coach, in Chicago (d. 2005)

Died: Jaroslav Hašek, 39, Czech writer (heart failure)

January 4, 1923 (Thursday)

The reparations conference in Paris broke up without success.

Born: Tito Rodríguez, singer and bandleader, in Santurce, Puerto Rico (d. 1973)

January 5, 1923 (Friday)

French airplanes were reported over unoccupied parts of Germany as rumors circulated that France was preparing to move troops into the Ruhr region.

The football club CD Oro, based in Guadalajara, Mexico, was founded.

Born: Sam Phillips, business executive and record producer, in Florence, Alabama (d. 2003)

January 6, 1923 (Saturday)

The U.S. Senate voted to recall American troops from the occupation of the Rhineland.

Born: Jacobo Timerman, Argentine writer, in Bar, Ukraine (d. 1999)

January 7, 1923 (Sunday)

The Rosewood Massacre ended when Rosewood, Florida ceased to exist, with all but two buildings were completely razed to the ground.

Born: Hugh Kenner, literary scholar and critic, in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada (d. 2003)

Died: Emil G. Hirsch, 71, Luxembourg-born American rabbi

January 8, 1923 (Monday)

The United Kingdom and the United States opened a conference in Washington, D.C. to settle British war debts to the U.S.

Born: Larry Storch, actor, in New York City; Johnny Wardle, cricketer, in Ardsley, South Yorkshire, England (d. 1985)

January 9, 1923 (Tuesday)

The U.S. federal board for vocational education released its findings that 1.7 million boys and girls drop out of school between fourth and eighth grade each year, usually drifting into low-paying jobs.

Died: Gustave Kahnt, 64, Luxembourg composer; Katherine Mansfield, 34, New Zealand-born short fiction writer; Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters both executed at 9am. in London for murder.

January 10, 1923 (Wednesday)

The Klaipėda Revolt began in the Klaipėda Region between East Prussia and Lithuania.

A buildup of French forces was reported around Essen.

January 11, 1923 (Thursday)

French and Belgian troops began the occupation of the Ruhr in response to Germany's default on its reparations payments.

Adolf Hitler addressed several mass meetings in Munich. "Our protest against France must turn to a frantic determination to square matters with the scoundrels in our own country who are responsible for the whole misery", he stated. "We must not say down with France, but down with our own traitors and criminals."

Born: Ernst Nolte, historian and philosopher, in Witten, Germany

Died: Constantine I of Greece, 54, former King of Greece

January 12, 1923 (Friday)

The Grand Council of Fascism was established in Italy.

The British press heavily criticized the French for their actions in the Ruhr. The Outlook wrote that Raymond Poincaré would be immortalized as "one of the most colossal of idiots, or alternatively the greatest of knaves", while The Spectator said that France was "going to commit the extremity of human folly." The Economist warned that France's actions might lead to another European war.

A spokesperson for the White House said the administration would make no formal reply to the German government's protest against the occupation of the Ruhr, explaining that the Americans had already done everything they could do unless they were looking for "more trouble" than they were prepared to undertake.

Born: Ira Hayes, U.S. Marine and flag raiser on Iwo Jima, in Sacaton, Arizona (d. 1955) Alice Miller (psychologist)

January 13, 1923 (Saturday)

The Reichstag voted 283-12 to approve a passive resistance movement in protest of the occupation of the Ruhr. The vote was preceded by a fiery speech from Chancellor Wilhelm Cuno, who said the occupation was in breach of the Treaty of Versailles.

Died: Alexandre Ribot, 80, former Prime Minister of France

January 14, 1923 (Sunday)

The Soviet Union made its first public statement about the Ruhr occupation, expressing "a voice of indignation and protest against the measures of the French government" and warning that "imperialistic France's attempt to go even beyond the shameful Versailles treaty" could lead to war.

Died: George H. Tichenor, 86, American physician

January 15, 1923 (Monday)

A German was shot dead in Bochum as the French tried to clear the streets of protestors in the Ruhr while threatening to occupy more cities if the Germans continued their refusal to cooperate with the operation of the coal mines in occupied regions.

Died: Zübeyde Hanım, 66, mother of Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

January 16, 1923 (Tuesday)

Industrialist Harry Ford Sinclair spent three hours testifying before a committee investigating the Teapot Dome oil lease.

Born: Anthony Hecht, poet, in New York City (d. 2004); Walther Wever, ace fighter pilot, in Munich, Germany (d. 1945)

January 17, 1923 (Wednesday)

The French seized coal and coke on tracks and at pit heads, but postponed seizure of the mines.

The autogyro, invented by the Spanish engineer Juan de la Cierva, was first documented to have flown, 600 feet at a steady altitude of 13 feet Cuatro Vientos Airport outside Madrid.

January 18, 1923 (Thursday)

The German mark dropped to 23,800 against the U.S. dollar. On January 1 it had been worth 9,000.

The French issued a proclamation banning public singing of German patriotic songs, displaying flags and emblems of old German colours, or displaying antisemitic tags in the Ruhr.

Died: Wallace Reid, 31, American film actor

January 19, 1923 (Friday)

Germany ordered all government employees to refuse to obey the French.

Miners in occupied Buer, Germany went on strike. All banking institutions in Düsseldorf closed, bringing commerce in the city to a halt.

Born: Jean Stapleton, actress, in Manhattan, New York (d. 2013)

January 20, 1923 (Saturday)

The French arrested 21 German mine operators and officials as all banks in Essen voluntarily closed.

Born: Slim Whitman, country musician, in Tampa, Florida (d. 2013)

January 21, 1923 (Sunday)

A general strike of miners, railway, postal and telegraph workers was called in the Ruhr.

A royal decree in Italy allowed for the minting of new coins with the king's face on one side and the fasces on the other.

January 22, 1923 (Monday)

The general strike in the Ruhr failed to materialize as only about 10,000 of the 600,000 workers in the Ruhr area refused to work.

The short comedy film The Balloonatic starring Buster Keaton was released.

Mexican steetcar operators went on strike.

Born: Diana Dill, actress, in Bermuda

January 23, 1923 (Tuesday)

The French cabinet decided to take measures to isolate the Ruhr from the rest of Germany.

Born: Cot Deal, baseball player and coach, in Arapaho, Oklahoma (d. 2013); Stephanie Kwolek, chemist, in New Kensington, Pennsylvania (d. 2014)

Died: Max Nordau, 73, Hungarian author, philosopher and Zionist leader

January 24, 1923 (Wednesday)

American troops withdrew from the Rhineland.

The French imposed a total of 207,000 francs worth of fines on Ruhr industrialists for failing to deliver reparations of coal. Rioting broke out in Mainz when the verdict was announced and a call for a general strike was renewed. 35,000 railway workers began striking at 8:00 p.m.

Rickard Sandler became the 20th Prime Minister of Sweden.

January 25, 1923 (Thursday)

French troops battled angry mobs in several cities in the Ruhr as the region's entire railway system was paralysed on the first full day of the strike.

Born: Arvid Carlsson, scientist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, in Uppsala, Sweden

January 26, 1923 (Friday)

General Jean Degoutte issued a proclamation warning Germans against causing any further trouble or else the French troops would fire without warning.

Born: Anne Jeffreys, actress and singer, in Goldsboro, North Carolina

January 27, 1923 (Saturday)

French soldiers in Duisburg and Ratingen were shot at by snipers while the railway strike expanded to Koblenz.

The Nazis opened their first party congress in Munich. 6,000 took part.

January 28, 1923 (Sunday)

100,000 French-speaking Belgians protested the use of Flemish at Ghent University.

The World Figure Skating Championships ended in Vienna. Fritz Kachler of Austria won the men's competition, and Herma Szabo of Austria won the ladies' competition.

Died: Alfred Holdship, 55, New Zealand cricketer

January 29, 1923 (Monday)

Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly Mustafa Kemal Pasha married Latife Uşşaki.

The Cecil B. DeMille-directed film The World's Applause, starring Bebe Daniels, was released.

Born: Paddy Chayefsky, writer, in the Bronx, New York (d. 1981); Martin Ragaway, screenwriter, in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1989)

January 30, 1923 (Tuesday)

The Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations was signed in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The German railway strike spread to Mainz.

Born: Walt Dropo, baseball player, in Moosup, Connecticut (d. 2010)

January 31, 1923 (Wednesday)

France ordered a coal blockade of Germany.

Born: Norman Mailer, writer and journalist, in Long Branch, New Jersey (d. 2007)

Died: Eligiusz Niewiadomski, 53, Polish painter (executed for assassinating Polish President Gabriel Narutowicz)