September 1928

September 1, 1928 (Saturday)

Ahmet Zogu was crowned King Zog as Albania changed from a republic to a monarchy.

The partly talking aviation-themed film The Air Circus premiered at the Gaiety Theatre in New York City.

Died: Patrick Joseph James Keane, 56, American Catholic bishop

September 2, 1928 (Sunday)

King Zog carried out his first official acts, freeing 2,000 prisoners and granting one month's worth of bonus salary to all civil servants. Italy became the first country to recognize the new regime.

Born: Mel Stuart, film director and producer, in New York City (d. 2012)

September 3, 1928 (Monday)

Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered penicillin when he returned to his lab after a summer holiday to find that the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria that had once been in a Petri dish had apparently been killed off by a Penicillium mould.

Born: Gaston Thorn, politician, in Luxembourg (d. 2007)

September 4, 1928 (Tuesday)

The cornerstone to a new addition to the Deutsches Museum in Munich was laid during a ceremony attended by President Paul von Hindenburg.

Born: Dick York, actor, in Fort Wayne, Indiana (d. 1992)

Died: Fred Bretonnel, 23, French boxer (suicide)

September 5, 1928 (Wednesday)

Kostaq Kota became the new Prime Minister of Albania.

Germany submitted new proposals to France hoping to end the occupation of the Rhineland.

A Mexican general said that the army would choose the provisional President of Mexico owing to the assassination of president-elect Álvaro Obregón.

Born: Damayanti Joshi, dancer, in Bombay, British India (d. 2004); Albert Mangelsdorff, jazz trombonist, in Frankfurt, Germany (d. 2005)

September 6, 1928 (Thursday)

The National Lutheran Editors' Association passed a resolution declaring that "the peculiar allegiance that a faithful Catholic owes toward a foreign sovereign may clash with the best interests of the country", referring to the Roman Catholicism of presidential candidate Al Smith.

The talking horror film The Terror was released.

Born: Robert M. Pirsig, writer and philosopher, in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Yevgeny Svetlanov, conductor, composer and pianist, in Moscow, Soviet Union (d. 2002); Sid Watkins, neurosurgeon, in Liverpool, England (d. 2012)

September 7, 1928 (Friday)

Opera singer Frances Alda publicly disclosed that she was filing for divorce from manager Giulio Gatti-Casazza after 18 years of marriage.

Mobster Antonio Lombardo was shot dead in broad daylight on a busy Chicago street corner. The assassins ran into the crowd and escaped. One of Lombardo's bodyguards was also shot.

The Order of the Red Banner of Labour was established in the Soviet Union.

The Sophie Treadwell play Machinal premiered at the Plymouth Theatre on Broadway.

Born: Donald Henderson, physician and epidemiologist, in Lakewood, Ohio; Al McGuire, basketball coach, in New York City (d. 2001)

Died: Antonio Lombardo, 35 or 36, American mobster (shot)

September 8, 1928 (Saturday)

The engagement of actress Joan Crawford and actor Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was announced.

September 9, 1928 (Sunday)

6 convicts were killed in an attempted jailbreak from Louisiana State Penitentiary. Two inmates escaped.

One of Antonio Lombardo's bodyguards, Joe Ferraro, died of bullet wounds sustained in the Lombardo assassination of two days previous. He refused to tell anyone anything he might have known about who was behind the shooting and why.

Born: Sol LeWitt, artist, in Hartford, Connecticut (d. 2007)

Died: Urban Shocker, 38, American baseball player (heart failure)

September 10, 1928 (Monday)

The Republican Party swept gubernatorial and senate elections in Maine, a good omen of national victory for the G.O.P. in November.

Clarence Chamberlin inaugurated daily seaplane passenger service between City Pier A in New York City and Hoover Field in Washington, D.C. The passenger fare was $40 one-way or $60 for a round trip.

The oil industry of Argentina was nationalized.

September 11, 1928 (Tuesday)

WGY of Schenectady, New York transmitted the first live play ever broadcast on television. The only viewers were journalists watching the program on a 3-inch x 3-inch screen three miles away. The small screen size and low resolution meant that only the faces of the actors were shown.

Ty Cobb of the Philadelphia Athletics played in the final game of his major league career. Pinch-hitting in the ninth inning against the New York Yankees, he popped out to shortstop Mark Koenig.

Born: William X. Kienzle, priest turned crime novelist, in Detroit, Michigan (d. 2001)

September 12, 1928 (Wednesday)

The Philip Dunning play Night Hostess premiered on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre.

Guadeloupe was hit by a devastating hurricane that would come to be known as the Okeechobee hurricane.

Born: M. V. Rajasekharan, politician in Maralawadi, Bangalore, British India

September 13, 1928 (Thursday)

8 were killed by a tornado in northeastern Nebraska.

The Okeechobee hurricane killed at least 312 and left tens of thousands homeless in Puerto Rico.

Born: Robert Indiana, pop artist, in New Castle, Indiana

Died: Italo Svevo, 66, Italian writer and businessman

September 14, 1928 (Friday)

A tornado in Rockford, Illinois killed about 14 people.

France and Germany agreed to the creation of a European commission that would fix a final reparations figure as well as the method and rate of payment.

September 15, 1928 (Saturday)

The Okeechobee hurricane hit the Bahamas.

Al Capone accidentally shot himself with his own pistol when getting into a car after a game of golf in Burnham, Illinois.

Born: Cannonball Adderley, jazz saxophonist, in Tampa, Florida (d. 1975)

September 16, 1928 (Sunday)

The Okeechobee hurricane made landfall in southern Florida between Jupiter and Fort Lauderdale.

The silent drama film The Docks of New York, starring George Bancroft and Betty Compson, was released.

Died: Theodore Andrea Cook, 61, British art critic and writer

September 17, 1928 (Monday)

The area around Lake Okeechobee, Florida was devastated by the hurricane.

Died: Bokusui Wakayama, 43, Japanese author

September 18, 1928 (Tuesday)

Spanish aeronautical engineer Juan de la Cierva flew across the English Channel in his newest autogyro invention.

Died: John Lambton, 3rd Earl of Durham, 73, British peer

September 19, 1928 (Wednesday)

The partly talking Al Jolson film The Singing Fool premiered at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City.

Construction began on the Chrysler Building in New York City.

The Grand Council of Fascism became the supreme body of the state in Italy.

Born: Adam West, actor, in Walla Walla, Washington

September 20, 1928 (Thursday)

Al Smith made an important campaign speech in Oklahoma City denouncing intolerance and addressing the issue of his religion directly. Smith said that he owed it to the country to discuss "frankly and openly" the "attempt of Senator Owen and the forces behind him to inject bigotry, hatred, intolerance and un-American sectarian division" into the campaign. Smith called it "sad" that "in view of countless billions of dollars we have poured into the cause of public education, to see some American citizens proclaiming themselves hundred percent American and then in the very document in which they make that proclamation suggesting that I be defeated for the presidency because of my religious belief." Smith also called the Ku Klux Klan "totally ignorant of the history and traditions of this country and its institutions."

Born: Donald Hall, poet, writer, editor and critic, in Hamden, Connecticut; Ruth Richard, baseball player, in Argus, Pennsylvania

September 21, 1928 (Friday)

General elections were concluded in Sweden; the Swedish Social Democratic Party led by Per Albin Hansson remained the largest party.

U.S. President Calvin Coolidge made the Brave Little State of Vermont speech.

Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler were secretly married in Port Chester, New York.

The Fox Theatre opened in Detroit, Michigan.

September 22, 1928 (Saturday)

Tax liens were levied against the property of Ralph Capone for failing to pay tax on all of his income.

The Buster Keaton silent comedy film The Cameraman was released.

The sound film Beggars of Life was released.

Born: James Lawson, activist and professor, in Uniontown, Pennsylvania

September 23, 1928 (Sunday)

About 300 perished in a theater fire in Madrid, Spain.

The Greek and Italian governments signed a treaty of friendship.

September 24, 1928 (Monday)

The French denied a report in the Soviet newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda claiming that France had made secret pacts with Britain.

The chairman of the Palm Beach County Red Cross estimated the Florida death toll in the Okeechobee hurricane to be between 2,000 and 2,500.

September 25, 1928 (Tuesday)

Emilio Portes Gil was named the next President of Mexico in a joint session of both the Senate and Chamber of Deputies.

Died: Karl Schneider, 23, Australian cricketer (leukemia)

September 26, 1928 (Wednesday)

The government of Swedish Prime Minister Carl Gustaf Ekman resigned after key members lost seats in the recent election, most notably Foreign Minister Eliel Löfgren.

Chinese pirates hijacked a British steamship in the Gulf of Tonkin and ransacked the cargo cases as well as the luggage of 1,400 passengers, making off with $40,000 U.S. in loot.

The General Act for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes was concluded in Geneva.

An editorial in The Daily Telegraph criticized British diplomacy, saying secrecy in its recent naval pact dealings with France had aroused international suspicion.

September 27, 1928 (Thursday)

The United States publicly acknowledged that it had granted full diplomatic recognition to the Kuomintang as the government of China.

The mayor of Flint, Michigan, William H. McKeighan, was arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit voting fraud.

Eleanor Roosevelt, the chair of the Women's Advisory Committee of the Democratic National Committee, officially denied a rumor that Al Smith had appeared at a Boy Scout camp with the smell of alcohol on his breath.

Died: Elias Molee, 83, American journalist, philologist and linguist

September 28, 1928 (Friday)

U.S. President Coolidge rejected the Anglo-French naval limitation plan, saying it would place the American navy at a "manifest disadvantage".

The New York Yankees clinched the American League pennant with an 11–6 win over the Detroit Tigers at Navin Field.

André Routis won the World Featherweight Title of boxing with a 15-round decision over Tony Canzoneri at Madison Square Garden.

Born: Koko Taylor, blues singer, in Shelby County, Tennessee (d. 2009)

Died: Con Conrad, 47, American songwriter and producer

September 29, 1928 (Saturday)

The St. Louis Cardinals clinched the National League pennant when the New York Giants were eliminated by losing 6-2 to the Chicago Cubs at the Polo Grounds.

Died: Arnold Kent, 29, Italian-born American actor (car accident); Ernst Steinitz, 57, German mathematician

September 30, 1928 (Sunday)

1 was killed and about 200 injured in a street fight between communists and republicans in Hamburg, Germany.

Born: Elie Wiesel, Romanian-born Jewish-American professor and political activist, in Sighet (d. 2016)