November 1922

November 1, 1922 (Wednesday)

Abolition of the Ottoman sultanate: Sultan Mehmed VI abdicated the Turkish throne, ending the Ottoman Empire that had lasted over 600 years.

Mickey Walker won the World Welterweight Title of boxing with a unanimous decision over Jack Britton at Madison Square Garden.

Died: Lima Barreto, 41, Brazilian novelist and journalist

November 2, 1922 (Thursday)

Economic experts opened a conference in Berlin discussing the financial crisis in Germany.

November 3, 1922 (Friday)

The German mark fell to another record low of 6,156 to a U.S. dollar.

Ratifications of the Concordat of 1922 were exchanged at the Vatican.

The Walt Disney-directed animated short film Puss in Boots was released.

Born: Townsend Cromwell, oceanographer, in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1958)

November 4, 1922 (Saturday)

British archaeologist Howard Carter and his workmen discovered the entrance to King Tut's tomb in Egypt.

Alabama vs. Penn football game: The Alabama Crimson Tide defeated the Penn Quakers 9-7, a major upset and one of the most important wins in Alabama football history.

November 5, 1922 (Sunday)

Deposed German kaiser Wilhelm II married Hermine Reuss of Greiz at Doorn Castle in the Netherlands.

Parliamentary elections were held in Poland; the Christian Union of National Unity emerged as the largest bloc in the Sejm.

The horror film The Headless Horseman starring Will Rogers was released.

Born: Sydney Kentridge, lawyer, in Johannesburg, South Africa

Born: Yitzchok Scheiner, rabbi, in the United States

November 6, 1922 (Monday)

79 workers were killed in a mine explosion in Spangler, Pennsylvania.

Born: Vivian Kellogg, baseball player, in Jackson, Michigan (d. 2013)

November 7, 1922 (Tuesday)

Democrats made big gains in the United States midterm elections.

Died: Sam Thompson, 62, American baseball player

November 8, 1922 (Wednesday)

The economic experts of the Berlin conference submitted a detailed report to the German government advising that Germany declare a two-year moratorium on reparations payments to avoid economic collapse.

Born: Christiaan Barnard, cardiac surgeon, in Beaufort West, South Africa (d. 2001)

November 9, 1922 (Thursday)

The French Chamber of Deputies unanimously approved Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré's policy that France should not have to pay its war debts until it collected reparations due from Germany in turn.

Scotland Yard police commissioner William Horwood was mysteriously poisoned when he ate a box of Walnut Whip chocolates thinking they were a birthday gift from his daughter. The crime was eventually traced to a mentally ill man.

Born: Raymond Devos, humorist, in Mouscron, Belgium (d. 2006); Dorothy Dandridge, actress, singer and dancer, in Cleveland, Ohio (d. 1965)

November 10, 1922 (Friday)

Robert Erskine Childers was captured by Free State forces.

November 11, 1922 (Saturday)

The Vallenar earthquake struck Chile, killing an estimated 1,400 people.

Born: Kurt Vonnegut, writer, in Indianapolis, Indiana (d. 2007)

November 12, 1922 (Sunday)

Italy formally annexed Libya.

The romantic drama film The Young Rajah starring Rudolph Valentino was released.

November 13, 1922 (Monday)

Benito Mussolini asked King Victor Emmanuel III for special powers enabling him to push through fiscal and civil service reforms wuthout requiring full parliamentary approval. The king granted him these powers through December 31, 1923.

The U.S. Supreme Court decided Ozawa v. United States.

The F. W. Murnau-directed German Expressionist film Phantom premiered at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin.

November 14, 1922 (Tuesday)

German Chancellor Joseph Wirth and his cabinet resigned when the socialist parties refused to allow industrialists into the coalition ministry to address the financial crisis.

Kyösti Kallio became Prime Minister of Finland.

Jānis Čakste became 1st President of Latvia.

Born: Boutros Boutros-Ghali, politician and diplomat, in Cairo, Egypt (d. 2016); Veronica Lake, actress, in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1973)

Died: Godfrey Chevalier, 33, American naval aviator (died of injuries sustained in air crash)

November 15, 1922 (Wednesday)

The United Kingdom general election was held. The new Prime Minister Bonar Law won a mandate, leading the Conservatives to an overall majority. The Labour Party made big gains over the divided Liberals.

Arthur Bernardes became President of Brazil.

Born: David Sidney Feingold, biochemist, in Chelsea, Massachusetts

November 16, 1922 (Thursday)

Mussolini made his first speech as Prime Minister to the Italian Chamber of Deputies, flaunting his power and intimidating his political opponents by saying, "I could have had a tremendous complete victory, but I did not want it. I have imposed on myself certain limitations ... I could have made this grey, toneless Chamber a bivouac for my troops. I could have barred up parliament and formed an exclusively Fascist government. I could have done; but at least for the moment, I did not wish to."

Wilhelm Cuno accepted President Ebert's invitation to form the next German government.

Born: Sidney Mintz, anthropologist, in Dover, New Jersey; José Saramago, writer and Nobel laureate, in Azinhaga, Portugal (d. 2010); Hoàng Minh Chính, politician and dissident, in Nam Định, Vietnam (d. 2008)

November 17, 1922 (Friday)

Mehmed VI boarded the British warship HMS Malaya and went into exile. He insisted he was not abdicating but was merely leaving Turkey for his safety.

Born: Stanley Cohen, biochemist and Nobel laureate, in Brooklyn, New York

November 18, 1922 (Saturday)

Former French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau arrived in the United States for a lecture tour on foreign policy and maintaining peace. Upon his arrival in New York he immediately reived a telegram from Woodrow Wilson that read, "Allow me to bid you welcome to America where you will find none but friends."

Died: Marcel Proust, 51, French novelist and critic

November 19, 1922 (Sunday)

Soviet Russia annexed the Far Eastern Republic because its main purpose as a buffer state had been rendered obsolete by the Japanese withdrawal from Siberia.

Unemployed hunger marchers demonstrated in Trafalgar Square in London.

Born: Yuri Knorozov, linguist and epigrapher, in Kharkiv, Ukrainian SSR (d. 1999)

November 20, 1922 (Monday)

The Conference of Lausanne opened in Switzerland, looking to conclude a peace treaty in Asia Minor.

Died: Maria Fortunata Viti, 95, Italian Benedictine nun

November 21, 1922 (Tuesday)

Britain's Labour Party elected Ramsay MacDonald as its new leader.

Eighty-seven-year-old Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia became the first woman to ever serve in the U.S. Senate, although she only served for 24 hours and the appointment was largely symbolic. Felton had enough time to make a speech to her fellow senators, saying, "When the women of the country come in and sit with you, though there may be but a very few in the next few years, I pledge to you that you will get ability, you will get integrity of purpose, you will get patriotism, and you will get unstinted usefulness."

At the Conference of Lausanne, Benito Mussolini angered Raymond Poincaré and Lord Curzon by saying that Italy would support the Turkish demand that Russia participate fully in the conference.

The New York Times published its very first article about Adolf Hitler. The article explained Hitler's appeal to Germans, including his vicious anti-Semitism, but reported that "several reliable, well-informed sources confirmed the idea that Hitler's anti-Semitism was not so genuine or violent as it sounded, and that he was merely using anti-Semetic propaganda as bait to catch masses of followers."

November 22, 1922 (Wednesday)

Wilhelm Cuno became Chancellor of Germany.

A mine explosion in Dolomite, Alabama killed 90 people.

November 23, 1922 (Thursday)

President Harding nominated Pierce Butler to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Born: Võ Văn Kiệt, politician and statesman, in Cochinchina, Vietnam (d. 2008)

Died: Eduard Seler, 72, German anthropologist

November 24, 1922 (Friday)

Abdülmecid II was installed in Constantinople as Caliph of Islam with a simple ceremony.

Died: Robert Erskine Childers, 52, Irish nationalist author (executed by firing squad)

November 25, 1922 (Saturday)

The bill giving Mussolini's government full power for a year was passed, 275-90.

Born: Shelagh Fraser, actress, in Purley, London, England (d. 2000)

November 26, 1922 (Sunday)

The Howard Carter expedition in Luxor entered the tomb of Tutankhamun.

The Technicolor drama film The Toll of the Sea premiered at the Rialto Theatre in New York City.

The comedy film Dr. Jack starring Harold Lloyd was released.

Born: Charles M. Schulz, cartoonist, in Minneapolis, Minnesota (d. 2000)

November 27, 1922 (Monday)

The U.S. Supreme Court decided Liberty Oil Co. v. Condon National Bank.

Died: Demetrio Castillo Duany, 66, Cuban revolutionary, soldier and politician

November 28, 1922 (Tuesday)

All former cabinet officers and army officials convicted of high treason in the Trial of the Six were executed. The British government broke with Greece over the executions.

The musical stage comedy The Bunch and Judy starring Fred Astaire opened at the Globe Theatre on Broadway.

Died: Dimitrios Gounaris, 55, Prime Minister of Greece (executed); Georgios Hatzianestis, 58, Greek general (executed); Petros Protopapadakis, 67 or 68, Prime Minister of Greece (executed); Nikolaos Stratos, 49 or 50, Prime Minister of Greece (executed)

November 29, 1922 (Wednesday)

The comic strip Smitty first appeared.

Born: Minnie Miñoso, baseball player, in Perico, Cuba (d. 2015)

November 30, 1922 (Thursday)

17 were killed in battles between police and protestors in Mexico City as an agry mob tried stormed city hall and started a fire in anger over water rationing.

50,000 heard Adolf Hitler speak at a Nazi Party rally in Munich.

Died: René Cresté, 40, French actor and director (tuberculosis)