1926 Jan 3, Joan Walsh Anglund author, was born: Bedtime Book,
Crocus in the Snow; illustrator of children's books.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1926 Jan 3, George Martin record producer, arranger, keyboard
player, was born: group: The Beatles; AIR Studios; inducted into the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame [3-15-99].
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1926 Jan 12, U.S. coal talks broke down, leaving both sides bitter
as the strike dragged on into its fifth month.
(HN, 1/12/99)
1926 Feb 15, Contract air mail service began in the US.
(440 Int'l., 2/15/99)
1926 Jan 29, Violette Neatley Anderson became the first African-American
woman admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.
(HN, 1/29/99)
1926 Jan, In a letter to then Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover,
the senior Guggenheim announced the establishment of the Daniel Guggenheim
Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1926 Feb 6, Mussolini warned Germany to stop agitation in Tyrol.
(HN, 2/6/99)
1926 Feb 7, Negro History Week, originated by Carter G. Woodson,
was observed for the first time. The 2nd week in February was declared
Negro History Week. Woodson established Negro History week on Feb 19. It
later developed into Black History Month. In 1999 the African American
Timeline was created for BHM at wanonline.com/blackhistory/1999/tl/html.
(USAT, 2/14/97, p.15A)(HN, 2/7/99)(SFC, 2/1/00, p.E1)
1926 Feb 11, The Mexican government nationalized all church property.
Plutarco Elias Calles, founder of the modern Mexican political system,
tried to suppress the Church. This fomented the Cristiada, 3 years of rebellion
and outright war.
(WSJ, 8/13/97, p.A12)(HN, 2/11/97)
1926 Feb 19, Dr. Lane of Princeton estimated the earth's age at
one billion years.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1926 Feb 22, Pope Pius rejected Mussolini's offer of aid to the
Vatican.
(HN, 2/22/98)
1926 Feb 23, President Calvin Coolidge opposed a large air force,
believing it would be a menace to world peace.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1926 Feb 25, Poland demanded a permanent seat on the League Council.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1926 Feb 28, Svetlana Stalin, daughter of Josef Stalin, was born.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1926 Mar 7, The first successful trans-Atlantic radio-telephone
conversation took place, between New York City and London.
(AP, 3/7/98)
1926 Mar 11, Ralph David Abernathy, civil rights leader, was born.
(HN, 3/11/98)
1926 Mar 24, Dario Fo, Italian playwright, was born in Leggiuno
Sangiano on the banks of Lake Maggiore. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature
in 1997.
(SFC, 10/10/97, p.A15)
1926 Mar 26, U.S. oil companies bought 190,000 tons of kerosene
from Russia for $3.2 million.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1926 Mar 26, Pioneer physicist and engineer Dr. Robert H. Goddard
launched the first successful liquid-fuel rocket in Auburn, Massachusetts.
Goddard's rocket, launched from a homemade pipe frame, rose 41 feet and
in a 2.5-second flight reached a speed of about 60 miles per hour, proving
the practicality of liquid-propelled rocketry.
(HNPD, 3/14/99)
1926 Apr 9, Hugh Hefner, publisher of Playboy Magazine, was born.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A21)(HN, 4/9/98)
1926 Apr 21, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor II, queen of England,
was born.
(HN, 4/21/98)
1926 Apr 23, Virgil I (Gus) Grissom, was born. He was the Mercury
and Gemini astronaut who was killed in a fire while preparing fo the first
Apollo flight.
(HN, 4/23/99)
1926 Apr 25, In Iran (Persia), Reza Kahn was crowned Shah and
chose the name "Pehlevi".
(HN, 4/25/98)
1926 Apr 28, Harper Lee, American novelist, was born. His book,
"To Kill a Mockingbird" won a Pulitzer.
(HN, 4/28/99)
1926 May 3, U.S. marines landed in Nicaragua and remained
until 1933.
(HN, 5/3/98)
1926 May 9, Americans Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett made the
first flight over the North Pole. [see 1888-1957, Byrd] Two teams of aviators
competed to be the first to fly over the North Pole. American Navy Lt.
Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd and pilot Floyd Bennett claimed victory when they
circled the North Pole. On May 11, in spite of his disappointment, Norwegian
explorer Roald Amundsen launched the dirigible Norge on its planned flight,
not merely over the pole, but all the way across the Arctic to Alaska.
As depicted in a painting by aviation artist Don Connolly, Byrd and Bennett
in Josephine Ford briefly accompanied Norge in a gesture of goodwill. Amundsen
reached Alaska on May 14, but even today experts suspect that faulty navigation
caused Byrd to miss the North Pole. Later archivists determined that Byrd
was probably 150 miles short of the pole. His tri-motor Fokker monoplane
named Josephine Ford probably came within 2.25 degrees of the pole.
(HFA, '96, p.30)(TMC, 1994, p.1926)(SFC, 5/9/96, p.A-13)(HN,
5/9/98)(HNPD, 5/13/99)
1926 May 12, The Airship Norge was the first vessel to fly over
the North Pole.
(SC, Internet, 5/12/97)(HN, 5/12/98)
1926 May 18, Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson vanished while
visiting a beach in Venice, Calif.; she reappeared a month later, claiming
to have been kidnapped.
(AP, 5/18/97)
1926 May 25, Miles Davis, American jazz trumpeter, was born. He
is considered the prophet of the "cool" school. His albums included The
Birth of Cool and Miles Ahead.
(HN, 5/25/99)
1926 Jun 1, Ignacy Mocicki was elected president of Poland.
(DT Internet 6/1/97)
1926 Jun 1, Actress Marilyn Monroe (d.Aug 5, 1962) was born in
Los Angeles. "I don't mind living in a man's world as long as I can be
a woman in it."
(AP, 6/1/97)(DT Internet 6/1/97)(AP, 8/5/99)
1926 Jun 1, Andy Griffith, actor, was born within one hour of
Marilyn Monroe.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.E4)
1926 Jun 3, Allen Ginsberg (d.1997), poet, was born in Newark,
New Jersey.
(SFC, 4/16/97, p.E3)
1926 Jun 12, Brazil quit the League of Nations in protest over
plans to admit Germany.
(HN, 6/12/98)
1926 Jun 17, Spain threatened to quit the League of Nations if
Germany was allowed to join.
(HN, 6/17/98)
1926 Jun 26, A memorial to the first U.S. troops in France was
unveiled at St. Nazaire.
(HN, 6/26/98)
1926 Jun 28, Mel Brooks, comedian, actor, and director, was born.
His films included "The Producers" and "Blazing Saddles."
(HN, 6/28/99)
1926 Jun 29, Fascists in Rome added an hour to the work day in
an economic efficiency measure.
(HN, 6/29/98)
1926 Jul 2, Medgar Evers, American civil rights leader in Mississippi,
was born. He was murdered in front of his house by Byron DeLa Beckwith.
(HN, 7/2/99)
1926 Jul 2, The U.S. Army Air Corps was created by Congress.
(AP, 7/2/97)(HN, 7/2/98)
1926 Jul 4, NSDAP-party forms in Weimar.
(Maggio, 98)
1926 Jul 14, Frank Figgins found a spearpoint embedded into the
matrix of rock containing 10,000 year-old bones of ancient bison in eastern
New Mexico. The site had been initially found by cowboy George McJunkin
in 1908. The finding established the existence of what came to be called
the Folsom culture.
(NH, 2/97, p.20)
1926 Jul 31, In California Highway 140, the "All-Year Highway,
to Yosemite opened.
(SFEM, 10/12/97, p.39)
1926 Aug 3, Tony Bennett was born.
(HFA, '96, p.36)
1926 Aug 6, American Olympic gold medallist Gertrude "Trudy" Ederle
became the first woman to swim the English Channel in August 1926. Before
setting out from Cap Griz-Nez, France, at 7:09 a.m., Ederle coated her
body with layers of lard and petroleum jelly to insulate her from the cold
waters. On that day, the sea was so rough that steamship crossings had
been cancelled, but Ederle swam on in spite of being buffeted by waves
and plagued by seasickness. She reached Dover at 9:40 p.m., August 6, after
swimming the Channel in 14 hours and 39 minutes. This time broke the existing
world record of 21 hours and 45 minutes set by British Navy Captain Matthew
Webb in 1875.
(AP, 8/6/97)(HNQ, 7/31/98)(HNPD, 8/30/98)
1926 Aug 6, Warner Bros. premiered its "Vitaphone" sound-on-disc
movie system in New York.
(AP, 8/6/97)
1926 Aug 7, The United States declared non-intervention in the
Spanish Civil War.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1926 Aug 13, Fidel Castro, Cuban revolutionary leader, president,
was born.
(SFC, 5/26/96, Par p.9)(USAT, 8/29/97, p.8A)(HN, 8/13/98)
1926 Aug 23, The death of silent film actor Rudolph Valentino
caused a worldwide frenzy among his fans. Valentino, who appeared in only
14 major films during his brief seven-year movie career, was idolized by
countless women as the "Great Lover" of the 1920s. Born in 1895 in Castellaneta,
Italy, Rodolfo di Valentina D'Antonguolla came to America in 1913 and worked
as a gardener, dishwasher and vaudeville dancer until he moved to Hollywood
and obtained his first important film role in 1921. In films like 1921's
The Sheik, Valentino mesmerized female fans with his sex appeal and exotic
good looks. In New York for the 1926 premiere of Son of the Sheik, the
31-year-old Valentino became ill on August 15 and died of peritonitis on
August 23. Valentino's death caused worldwide hysteria, with several women
reportedly committing suicide and riots breaking out in New York as thousands
of fans tried to view the body.
(AP, 8/23/97)(HN, 8/23/98)(HNPD, 8/29/98)
1926 Sep 9, The National Broadcasting Co., NBC, was created by
the Radio Corporation of America, which had originated as Marconi Wireless.
(AP, 9/9/97)(SFC, 8/2/99, p.B3)
1926 Sep 23, Gene Tunney, an ex-marine, defeated Jack Dempsey
for the World Heavyweight Boxing championship. Tunney defeated Dempsey
again in a 1927 rematch and retired undefeated in 1928.
(Smith., 5/95, p.12)(SFC, 10/19/99, p.A22)
1926 Oct 18, Chuck Berry, rock 'n' roll star, famous for Johnny
B. Goode, was born.
(HN, 10/18/98)
1926 Oct 31, Magician Harry Houdini died in Detroit of gangrene
and peritonitis resulting from a ruptured appendix.
(AP, 10/31/97)
1926 Nov 2, Air Commerce Act was passed providing federal aid
for airlines and airports.
(HN, 11/2/98)
1926 Nov 7, Joan Sutherland, operatic singer, was born.
(HN, 11/7/98)
1926 Nov 15, The National Broadcasting Co. debuted with a radio
network of 24 stations.
(AP, 11/15/97)
1926 Nov 19, Trotsky and Zinoviev were expelled from Politburo
in the USSR.
(HN, 11/19/98)
1926 Nov 21, In Lithuania nationalistic students organized an
illegal march to protest the liberal government's soft policy on communists
and other perceived provocateurs.
(DrEE, 10/12/96, p.3)
1926 Dec 3, British reports claimed that German soldiers were
being trained in the USSR.
(HN, 12/3/98)
1926 Dec 11, Willie "Big Mama" Thorton, blues singer, was born.
(HN, 12/11/98)
1926 Dec17, The military right-wing opposition executed a coup
d'etat in Lithuania and a dictatorship was established under Antanas Smetona,
who remained president until the country was annexed by the USSR in 1940.
(Compuserve, Online Encyclopedia)(DrEE, 10/5/96, p.5)
1926 Dec 25, Hirohito became emperor of Japan, succeeding his
father, Emperor Yoshihito (Hirohito was formally enthroned almost two years
later). This marked the beginning of the Showa Period (1926-1989).
(AP, 12/25/97)(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 216)
1926 Dec 29, Germany and Italy signed an arbitration treaty.
(HN, 12/29/98)
1926 Poet Frank O'Hara (d.1966) was born in Baltimore. In 1998
David Lehman published "The Last Avant-Garde: The Making of the New York
School of Poets."
(WSJ, 9/18/98, p.W8)
1926 Joan Sutherland, future opera star, was born in Sidney, Australia.
She retired in 1990 and in 1998 published her autobiography.
(WSJ, 3/25/98, p.A20)
1926 Fidel Castro, leader of Cuba, was born.
(SFEC, 10/13/96, p.A18)
1926 Guy Pene du Bois painted "Opera Box."
(WSJ, 4/9/98, p.A21)
1926 Otto Dix painted the portrait "The Journalist Sylvia von
Hardin."
(WSJ, 2/3/00, p.A24)
1926 Alberto Giacometti began his sculpture "Spoon Woman" -finished
in 1927.
(SFEM, 11/24/96, p.62)
1926 Arshile Gorky began painting "The Artist and His Mother."
The painting took ten years and was based on a photograph taken in Armenia
in 1912, not long before his mother died of starvation.
(WSJ, 4/9/98, p.A21)
1926 Charles Demuth (1883-1935), American painter and illustrator,
made a watercolor still life.
(WUD, 1994, p.385)(SFEM, 6/29/97, p.4)
1926 Sargent Johnson (1888-1967), African-American artist in SF,
made his copper piece "Mask of a Girl."
(SFEC, 4/12/98, DB p.43)
1926 Matisse painted "Odalisque." He produced more than 50 harem nudes between 1919 and 1929, a period where he spent winters by the seaside in Nice. (WSJ, 12/11/97, p.A21)
1926 Georgia O'Keeffe painted "Abstraction."
(WSJ, 4/9/98, p.A21)
1926 The first "Dictionary of American Biography" was published
under the auspices of American Council of Learned Societies. Only the dead
were eligible for inclusion and revisions were published periodically.
A new effort was proposed in 1986 and appeared in 1999 as the new "American
National Biography."
(WSJ, 5/5/99, p.A20)
1926 Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington wrote "The Internal Constitution
of the Stars."
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.69)
1926 H.W. Fowler wrote his "Dictionary of Modern English Usage."
(WSJ, 12/2/96, p.A16)
1926 Arthur Schnitzler of Austria authored his novel "Traumovelle."
English versions were called "Dream Story" or "Rhapsody." It was the basis
for the 1999 Kubrick film "Eyes Wide Shut."
(SFC, 7/24/99, p.B1)
1926 Konstantin Stanislavsky of the Moscow Art Theater authored
"An Actor Prepares," which codified his famous "Method" for actors.
(SFC, 12/28/99, p.C4)
1926 Vladimir Vernadsky, Russian geochemist, published his book:
"The Biosphere." He picks up the term from Swiss geologist Eduard Suess,
who coined the term in the 19th century in a monograph about the Alps.
(NOHY, Weiner, 3/90, p.3,243)
1926 Hemingway published "The Sun Also Rises."
(TMC, 1994, p.1926)
1926 "Winnie the Pooh" by A.A. Milne was published. The geography
was based on real places in 14,000 acres of Ashdown Forest, in the northwest
corner of East Sussex, England.
(Hem., 8/96, p.107)
1926 Virginia Woolf, writer, and Roger Fry, art critic, assembled
the book "Victorian Photographs of Famous Men and Fair Women," which featured
the work of photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.
(SFEM, 9/19/99, p.84)
1926 The play "Chicago" was written. It was made into a film in
1942 and a musical in 1975.
(WSJ, 11/15/96, p.A14)
1926 Eva Le Gallienne (1899-1996) founded the Le Gallienne Civic
Repertory Theatre in Greenwich Village and staged "The Master Builder"
in the first season.
(SFC, 10/16/96, E5)
1926 Eugene O'Neill wrote his play "The Great God Brown." It was
about a failed artist soured by life and trapped in marriage.
(WSJ, 9/3/98, p.A16)
1926 Bela Bartok composed a Piano Sonata.
(SFEC, 10/13/96, BR p.4)
1926 Berg's "Wozzeck" was premiered at the Berlin State Opera.
(SFC, 10/19/96, A22)
1926 Alban Berg composed his six-part "Lyric Suite." It was later
deciphered as a love letter to his mistress written in musical code.
(WSJ, 6/16/98, p.A17)
1926 Leos Janacek (1854- 1928) composed his opera "Makropulos."
(WSJ, 1/3/96, p.A-7)
1926 Walter Gropius built the Bauhaus is Dessau, Germany. It became
a monument to the Int'l. style.
(SFC, 7/14/99, p.7)
1926 The Benbow Inn opened in Benbow, Ca. It was built by architect
Albert Farr, famous for his Wolf House, the Jack London home in Glen Ellen.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, p.T6)
1926 The Yiddish Folk Theater was built by L.N. Jaffe in New York's
Lower East Side.
(NH, 11/96, p.22)
1926 The Los Angeles Central Library was constructed.
(Hem., Nov. '95, p.77)
1926 The town of Hana on Maui Island, Hawaii, was linked by road
to the rest of Maui.
(SFEC, 9/8/96, p.T8)
1926 Ira Gershwin married Leonore Strunsky.
(SFC, 12/4/96, p.E3)
1926 Monroe Boston Strause, the Pie King, made the first chiffon
pie.
(SFC,1/22/97, zz-1 p.2)
1926 The American Eugenics Society was founded and supported the
position that US upper classes were justified in their positions of wealth
and power because of their genetic superiority.
(V.D.-H.K.p.399)
1926 The Book of the Month Club was founded.
(SFEC, 7/12/98, Par p.13)
1926 Carter G. Woodson launched Negro History Week.
(Civilization, July-Aug, 1995, p. 37)
1926 Sinclair Lewis refused to accept the Pulitzer Prize for fiction
he was awarded for the novel "Arrowsmith," saying that awards made writers
"safe, polite, obedient and sterile."
(HNQ, 5/18/98)
1926 Samuel Ryder of Lancashire (d.1935), England, came up with
the idea of biannual golf matches between the English and Americans. He
made a lot of money selling penny-a-pack seeds. The Ryder Cup of golf is
named after him.
(SFC, 9/26/98, p.E4)
1926 Abe Saperstein created the Harlem Globetrotters, an all-black
player basketball entertainment team.
(SFC, 1/2/98, p.E3)
1926 The Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology was awarded to
Drs. George R. Minot, William P. Murphy and George H. Whipple in 1934 for
curing pernicious anemia with liver extract in 1926.
(Smith., May. 1995, p.14)
1926 Calvin Coolidge gave a speech that included the oft quoted
phrase: "The business of America is business." The speech actually starts
out: "After all, the chief business of the American people is business...
[and goes on to end with] Of course, the accumulation of wealth cannot
be justified as the chief end of existence... So long as wealth is made
the means and not the end, we need not greatly fear it."
(WSJ, 4/3/96, p.A23)
1926 The US sent marines to Nicaragua to control a rebellion and
stayed for seven years.
(TMC, 1994, p.1926)
1926 The US Railway Labor Act was passed to protect vital transportation
services against labor actions.
(SFEC, 2/16/97, p.A1)
1926 A federal law was passed that prohibited the commercial sale
of bass gamefish.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, Z1 p.2)
1926 The Florida land bubble burst following a severe hurricane.
One Miami Beach business lot had reportedly surged in value from $800 to
$150,000.
(WSJ, 2/1/00, p.B1)
1926 In Chicago the Hawthorne Arms Hotel, headquarters for Al
Capone, was machine-gunned by rival mobsters.
(SFC, 5/1/98, p.A13)
1926 Walter P. Chrysler renamed Maxwell Chalmers to the Chrysler
Corp.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1926 Frederic J. Fisher (1878-1941) and his brother Charles (1880-1963),
founders of the Fisher Body Co., sold their operations to GM.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1926 Ford implemented a 5-day work week.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1926 GM opened a plant in Osaka, Japan.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1926 The Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A S. Roadster by Fleetwood was
commissioned by Rudolph Valentino.
(SFC, 7/21/96, p.D4)
1926 McKesson & Robbins was purchased by Girard & Co.,
a NY drug company run by Frank Donald Coster, for $1 million.
(WSJ, 6/30/99, p.B1)
1926 The Quaker Oats Co. bought the R.T. Davis Milling Co. along
with the Aunt Jemima recipes and trademarks.
(SFC,10/22/97, Z1 p.7)
1926 RCA organized the National Broadcasting Co.
(WSJ, 11/4/99, p.B6)
1926 The Steel Products Co. was renamed Thompson Products, Inc.,
in honor of Charles E. Thompson.
(F, 10/7/96, p.68)
1926 Tinsley Laboratories, a precision optics firm, was founded.
In 1997 the company was acquired by Silicon Valley Group.
(WSJ, 11/28/97, p.A8)
1926 Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories was founded. [see Wyeth 1860]
(SFC, 1/21/98, p.B2)
1926 AT&T Bell Labs scientists invented sound motion pictures.
(WSJ, 9/22/95, p.A-7)
1926 The first pop-up toaster was invented.
(SFEC, 6/20/99, Z1 p.8)
1926 Werner Heisenberg, German scientist, formulated his uncertainty
principle. This is that the more accurately you try to measure the position
of a particle, the less accurately you can measure its speed, and vice
versa. This soon led Heisenberg along with Erwin Schrodinger and Paul Dirac
to reformulate mechanics into a new theory called quantum mechanics. The
new field of quantum mechanics described matter on the scale of subatomic
particles.
(BHT, Hawking, p.55)(NH, 5/96, p.72)
1926 Erwin Schrodinger, Austrian physicist, generalized the original
de Broglie idea and wrote down the wave-mechanical equation. He proved
that the proper vibration frequencies of the electron waves surrounding
the proton in a hydrogen atom coincide exactly with the energy levels as
calculated on the basis of Bohr's theory, which, in turn, coincided with
the results of observation.
(SCTS, p.61)
1926 Karl Prindle (d.1998 at 95) helped develop a moisture-proof
version of cellophane while working for De Pont. He later invented the
zip tape strip for opening anything sealed with cellophane.
(SFC, 10/23/98, p.D7)
1926 Erik Rotheim of Norway invented the aerosol can.
(SFEC, 1/17/99, Z1 p.1)
1926 Catharine Morris Cox, American psychologist, led a study
to estimate the IQs of eminent people who live between 1450-1850. Her results
were published in the "Genetic Studies of Genius."
(SFEC, 10/31/99, Par p.6)
1926 F. Blom and O. La Farge first described the great Olmec ceremonial
center of La Venta in the state of Tabasco, Mexico.
(RFH-MDHP, p.241)
1926 Mary Cassatt (b.1845), artist, died in Paris.
(WSJ, 11/5/98, p.A20)
1926 Rudolph Valentino died.
(TMC, 1994, p.1926)
1926 Albania and Italy signed the First Treaty of Tirana,
which guaranteed Zogu's political position and Albania's boundaries.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1926 The Bahamanian government transferred designation of Columbus'
landfall to Watling Island and renamed it San Salvador.
(NH, 10/96, p.23)
1926 A general strike was crushed by British authorities.
(SFC, 11/29/99, p.A26)
1926 In Britain Agatha Christie, mystery writer, disappeared from
her native Devon. Scotland Yard undertook a massive search and found her
registered at the Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate. She had checked in as Nancy
Neel, the name of her husband's mistress, and was thought to be suffering
from hysterical amnesia.
(SFEC,10/26/97, p.T5)
1926 In Britain 4 chemical companies merged to form Imperial Chemical
Industries (ICI).
(Hem., 1/97, p.27)
1926 Arthur Meighen changed to the Conservative Party, and again
served Canada as its 9th Prime Minister.
(CFA, '96, p.81)
1926 Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalists tried to consolidate
power in China.
(TMC, 1994, p.1926)
1926 In Italy the primitive sleigh technique was used to haul
Mussolini's celebrated Monolith, from Carrara to the seaport for transport
to Rome.
(SFEC,10/19/97, p.T5)
1926 In Mexico the evangelical church "Light of the World" was
founded by the father of Samuel Joaquin Flores.
(SFC, 2/19/98, p.A8,10)
1926 In Peru the Museo Arqueologico Rafael Larco Herrera was founded
in Lima by archeologist Rafael Larco Hoyle and named after his father.
(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.16)
1926-1930 W.L. Mackenzie King, Liberal Party, again serves as the 10th
Prime Minister of Canada.
(CFA, '96, p.81)
1926-1935 Mark Sullivan wrote "Our Times," a six volume history of the
century's first quarter. The book was edited down to one volume by Dan
Rather and associates in 1995 and released by Scribner's as "Our Times:
America at the Birth of the 20th Century."
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-16)
1926-1940 Three million divorces were legalized in the US.
(SFEM, 6/28/98, p.40)
1926-1982 Cynthia Propper Seton, American writer: "In America, to look
a couple of years younger than you actually are is not only an achievement
for which you are to be congratulated, it is patriotic."
(AP, 6/17/99)
1927 Jan 7, Commercial transatlantic telephone service was inaugurated
between New York and London.
(AP, 1/7/98)
1927 Jan 12, U.S. Secretary of State Kellogg claimed that Mexican
rebel Plutarco Calles was aiding the communist plot in Nicaragua.
(HN, 1/12/99)
1927 Jan 13, A woman took a seat on the NY Stock Exchange breaking
the all-male tradition.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1927 Jan 15, The Dumbarton Bridge opened in San Francisco carrying
the first auto traffic across the bay.
(HN, 1/15/99)
1927 Jan 24, British expeditionary force of 12,000 was sent to
China to protect concessions at Shanghai.
(HN, 1/24/99)
1927 Feb 2, Stan Getz, jazz saxophonist, was born in Philadelphia.
(SFC, 12/28/99, p.C4)
1927 Feb 3, President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill creating the
Federal Radio Commission to regulate the airwaves.
(HN, 2/3/99)
1927 Feb 20, Sidney Poitier, American actor, was born. He became
the first African American to win an Oscar for his role in "Lilies in the
Field."
(HN, 2/20/99)
1927 Feb 18, The U.S. and Canada established diplomatic relations
independently of Great Britain.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1927 Feb 21, Erma Bombeck, was born. She became an American syndicated
columnist whose column "At Wit's End" humorously dealt with life as a wife
and mother.
(HN, 2/21/99)
1927 Feb 23, President Coolidge signed a bill creating the Federal
Radio Commission, forerunner of the Federal Communications Commission.
Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover established the Federal Radio Commission
to prevent interference among radio signals by allocating broadcast spectrum.
(WSJ, 11/3/97, p.A20)(AP, 2/23/98)
1927 Mar 2, Babe Ruth (24) signed a 3-year contract with the New
York Yankees for a guarantee of $70,000 a year, thus becoming baseball's
highest paid player.
(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)(SFC, 10/13/99, p.E7)
1927 Mar 7, A Texas law that banned Negroes from voting was ruled
unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
(HN, 3/7/98)
1927 Mar 10, Prussia lifted its Nazi ban, Hitler was allowed to
speak in public.
(HN, 3/10/98)
1927 Mar 12, Yehudi Menuhin (11) made his Carnegie Hall debut
playing the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the New York Symphony led by
Fritz Busch.
(SFC, 3/13/99, p.A9)
1927 Mar 23, Captain Hawthorne Gray set a new balloon record soaring
to 28,510 feet.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1927 Mar 24, Chinese Communists seized Nanking and broke with
Chiang Kai-shek over the Nationalist goals.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1927 Mar 31, Cesar Chavez (d.1993), California union leader of
agricultural workers, was born.
(SFEC,10/19/97, p.C3)(SFC, 3/29/00, p.A3)
1927
Apr 1, The first automatic record changer was introduced by His Master's
Voice.
(OTD)
1927 Apr 7, Philo Farnsworth demonstrated a working prototype
of a TV. AT&T Bell Labs scientists invented long-distance TV transmission.
An audience in New York saw an image of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover
in the first successful long-distance demonstration of television. His
first tele-electronic image was transmitted on a glass slide in his SF
lab at 202 Green St.
(SFEC, 8/18/96, BR p.3)(WSJ, 9/22/95, p.A-7)(AP, 4/7/97)(SFEC,
3/8/98, p.W30)
1927 Apr 12, The British Cabinet came out in favor of women voting
rights.
(HN, 4/12/98)
1927 Apr 19, In China, Hankow communists declared war on Chaing
Kai-shek.
(HN, 4/19/97)
1927 Apr 27, Coretta Scott King, civil rights activist, wife of
Martin Luther King, Jr., was born.
(HN, 4/27/98)
1927 Apr 29, Construction of the Spirit of St Louis was completed.
B.F. Mahoney was the 'mystery man' behind the Ryan company that built Lindbergh's
Spirit of St. Louis.
(HN, 4/29/98)
1927 May 1, Harry Belefonte, calypso singer, actor, was born.
(HN, 5/1/98)
1927 May 1, Adolf Hitler held the first Nazi meeting in Berlin.
(HN, 5/1/98)
1927 May 4, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was
founded.
(AP, 5/4/97)
1927 May 4, The first balloon flight over 40,000 feet was made.
(HN, 5/4/98)
1927 May 19, Charles Augustus Lindbergh (Lucky Lindy), a US aviator
born in 1902, began the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight. He picked
up his plane, The Spirit of St. Louis, in San Diego and flew it to New
York using railroad maps that he picked up in a drugstore for 50 cents
each. The plane was powered by an air-cooled Whirlwind engine built by
Ryan Airlines. Charles Fayette Taylor (1895-1996) worked on the engine
design team. Taylor later authored "The Internal Combustion Engine in Theory
and Practice."
(TMC, 1994, p.1927)(WUD, 1994, p.832)(SFC, 6/23/96, Z1 p.2)(SFC,
6/30/96, p.B6)
1927 May 20, On Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field
in Long Island, N.Y., aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on his historic solo
flight to France. B.F. Mahoney was the 'mystery man' behind the Ryan company
that built Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis.
(AP, 5/20/97)(HN, 5/20/98)
1927 May 21, Charles Lindbergh (Lucky Lindy) landed in Le Bourget
Field in Paris after a 33-hour nonstop, first solo flight from Roosevelt
Field on New York's Long Island.
(F, 10/7/96, p.68)(AP, 5/21/97)(SFC, 10/20/99, p.C10)
1927 cMay 22, Harlem dancer Shorty Snowden, during a dance marathon,
named his dance step the Lindy Hop following the headlines "Lindy Hops
the Atlantic."
(WSJ, 5/7/99, p.W15)
1927 Jun 13, Charles Lindbergh received the first American Distinguished
Flying Cross President from Pres. Calvin Coolidge and was treated to a
ticker tape parade in New York City to celebrate his successful crossing
of the Atlantic completed May 21, 1927.
(AP, 6/13/97)(HN, 6/13/98)
1927 Jun 14, President Porfirio Diaz of Nicaragua signed a treaty
with the U.S. allowing American intervention in his country.
(HN, 6/14/98)
1927 Jun 21, Carl Stokes, the first black mayor of Cleveland,
Ohio, was born.
(HN, 6/21/98)
1927 Jun 23, Bob Fosse, choreographer and director, was born.
He won Tonies for "Pippin" and "Damn Yankees," and an Oscar for "Cabaret."
(HN, 6/23/99)
1927 Jun 27, Bob Keeshan, American television actor, was born.
He is best known as "Captain Kangaroo," the longest running children's
show, and Clarabelle on the "Howdy Doody Show."
(HN, 6/27/99)
1927 Jun 27, The U.S. Marines adopted the English bulldog as
their mascot.
(HN, 6/27/98)
1927 Jun, Clarence Birdseye, after years of experimentation, received
a patent for packing fish, meat or vegetables into waxed cardboard containers,
then flash-freezing them under pressure--reducing freezing time from 18
hours to 90 minutes. He was working in the Arctic as a U.S. government
naturalist when he observed that ice, wind and extreme cold froze just-caught
fish so quickly that, when cooked and eaten, the taste and texture was
scarcely different from fresh fish. Birdseye realized the secret was to
freeze foods quickly so that ice crystals could not form and damage the
food's cell structure., Birdseye
(HNPD, 12/9/98)
1927 Jul 4, Neil Simon, American playwright, who wrote "The Odd
Couple," was born.
(HN, 7/4/98)
1927 Jul 6, Bill Haley, rock 'n' roll pioneer, singer of "Rock
Around the Clock," was born.
(HN, 7/6/98)
1927 Jul 7, Christopher Stone became the first British 'disc jockey'
when he played records for the BBC.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1927 Jul 10, David Dinkins, first African-American mayor of New
York City, was born.
(HN, 7/10/98)
1927 Jul 14, The Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite Valley opened. It
was designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood of Los Angeles.
(SFEM, 10/12/97, p.39)
1927 Jul 18, Ty Cobb hit safely for the 4,000th time in his career.
(AP, 7/18/97)
1927 Aug 3, Members of the West Virginia Univ. Botanical Expedition on a trip to Peters Mountain in Virginia, found wildflowers that were related to the Kankakee mallow, and named it the Peters Mountain mallow. [see 1872]
1927 Aug 6, Andy Warhol, American pop artist, was born.
(HN, 8/6/98)
1927 Aug 6, A Massachusetts high court heard the final plea from
Sacco and Vanzetti, two Italians convicted of murder.
(HN, 8/6/98)
1927 Aug 7, Edwin Edwards, governor of Louisiana, was born.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1927 Aug 23, Italian-born anarchist immigrants Nicola Sacco (right)
and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, convicted of murder in 1921, were executed in
Boston in spite of worldwide protests. On April 15, 1920, a paymaster and
his guard at a shoe factory in Braintree, Massachusetts, were killed in
a robbery. In the national climate of suspicion of anarchists, communists
and foreigners in general, Sacco and Vanzetti, two admitted radicals, were
arrested for the crime and convicted on flimsy circumstantial evidence
in a trial presided over by the openly prejudiced Judge Webster Thayer.
For six years, the two gained support as they attempted to obtain a new
trial, but their request was denied even after a convicted killer confessed
to the 1920 murders. In April 1927, Judge Thayer sentenced Sacco and Vanzetti
to die in the electric chair. In 1977 Sacco and Vanzetti were vindicated
when Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis established a memorial in the
victims' honor.
(HFA, '96, p.36)(TMC, 1994, p.1927)(AP, 8/23/97)(HNPD, 8/23/98)(HN,
8/23/98)
1927 Aug 25, Althea Gibson, first African-American to play tennis
at the U.S. Open and Wimbledon, was born.
(HN, 8/25/98)
1927 Aug, In Bristol, Tennessee, the Carter Family (A.P., wife
Sara, and cousin Maybelle) from the mountains of Virginia and Jimmy Rogers
(1898-1933) from Mississippi began recording the country style "hillbilly"
music for Victor Records.
(Hem., 4/97, p.68)
1927 Sep 3, Hugh Sidey, news correspondent and author of John
F. Kennedy, President, was born.
(HN, 9/3/98)
1927 Sep 7, American television pioneer Philo T. Farnsworth, 21,
succeeded in transmitting an image through purely electronic means by using
a device called an image dissector. When Philo T. Farnsworth was 13, he
envisioned a contraption that would receive an image transmitted from a
remote location-the television. Farnsworth submitted a patent in January
1927, when he was 19, and began building and testing his invention that
summer. He used an "image dissector" (the first television camera tube)
to convert the image into a current, and an "image oscillite" (picture
tube) to receive it. On this day his tests bore fruit. When the simple
image of a straight line was placed between the image dissector and a carbon
arc lamp, it showed up clearly on the receiver in another room. The New
York World's Fair showcased the television in April 1939, and soon afterward,
the first televisions went on sale to the public.
(AP, 9/7/97)(HNPD, 9/7/98)
1927 Sep 14, Modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan died in Nice,
France, when her scarf became entangled in a wheel of her sports car. A
1968 film with Vanessa Redgrave portrayed her life.
(AP, 9/14/97)(WSJ, 2/20/98, p.A16)
1927 Sep 18, The Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System (later
CBS) made its debut with a basic network of 16 radio stations.
(AP, 9/18/97)
1927 Sep 22, Tommy Lasorda, manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers
baseball team from 1975 to 1996, was born.
(HN, 9/22/98)
1927 Sep 22, Gene Tunney successfully defended his heavyweight
boxing title against Jack Dempsey in the famous "long-count" fight in Chicago.
(AP, 9/22/97)
1927 Sep 30, Babe Ruth hit his 60th homerun of the season off
Tom Zachary in Yankee Stadium, New York City, and broke his own major-league
record.
(AP, 9/30/97)(HN, 9/30/98)
1927 Oct 6, The era of talking pictures arrived with the
opening of "The Jazz Singer," starring Al Jolson singing and dancing in
black-face. The movie featured both silent and sound-synchronized scenes.
When The Jazz Singer, a musical about a Jewish cantor's son who longs to
sing on Broadway, premiered in New York, silent movies became history and
the sound era began. The Jazz Singer is popularly believed to be the first
talking picture, but technically, 1926's Don Juan, with its use of a music
track recorded on phonograph records synchronized to the film, predated
the landmark musical. Originally, Warner Brothers Studio planned to record
only the songs on disks while telling the story in silent sequences. Star
Al Jolson, however, ad-libbed dialogue in two scenes and opened the talking-picture
age with the prophetic words, "Wait a minute! Wait a minute! You ain't
heard nothin' yet!" By 1930, silent movies were a thing of the past.
(AP, 10/6/97)(HNPD, 10/6/98)(HN, 10/6/98)
1927 Oct 18, George Campbell Scott (d.1999), later Hollywood actor,
was born in Wise, Va. He grew up in Detroit and graduated from Redford
High School.
(SFC, 9/24/99, p.D2)
1927 Oct 27, Ruby Dee, actress and civil rights activist who starred
in the Broadway hit "South Pacific" and the movie "A Raisin in the Sun,"
was born.
(HN, 10/27/98)
1927 Oct 27, Fox Movie-tone news, the first sound news film,
was released.
(HN, 10/27/98)
1927 Oct 28, Pan Am Airways launched the first scheduled international
flight. Pan Am was founded this year as a mail carrier to Havana by Juan
Terry Trippe. In 2000 Barnaby Conrad III authored "Pan Am : An Aviation
Legend."
(HN, 10/28/98)(SFEM, 2/13/00, p.30)
1927 Oct 29, Russian archaeologist Peter Kozloff uncovered the
tomb of Genghis Khan in the Gobi Desert. Subotai was one of Genghis Khan's
ablest lieutenants--and went on to distinguish himself after the khan's
death.
(HN, 10/29/98)
1927 Nov 12, New York's Holland Tunnel officially opened. [see
Nov 13]
(HN, 11/12/98)
1927 Nov 12, Canada was admitted to the League of Nations.
(HN, 11/12/98)
1927 Nov 12, Josef Stalin became the undisputed ruler of the
Soviet Union as Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party.
(AP, 11/12/97)
1927 Nov 13, The Holland Tunnel opened to the public, linking
New York City and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River. [see Nov 12]
(TMC, 1994, p.1927)(AP, 11/13/97)
1927 Nov 21, Police turned machine guns on striking Colorado mine
workers, killing five and wounding 20.
(HN, 11/21/98)
1927 Nov 24, In California troops battled 1,200 inmates after
Folsom prisoners revolted. On Thanksgiving Day there was a prison break
at Folsom. One prisoner was shot in the ensuing uprising and five others
were later hung.
(SFEC, 1/26/97, p.B4)(HN, 11/24/98)
1927 Nov, On Thanksgiving Day there was a prison break at California's
Folsom Prison. One prisoner was shot in the ensuing uprising and five others
were later hung.
(SFEC, 1/26/97, p.B4)
1927 Nov, The US received 58 Japanese dolls sent by the Japanese
government in exchange for 12,739 blue-eyed dolls sent by American children
to the children of Japan.
(SFC, 7/24/97, p.A17)
1927 Dec 2, Ford Motor Co. unveiled its "Model A" automobile,
the successor to its "Model T." The Ford Rouge plant employed 70,000 men.
A vehicle was assembled in 3 1/2 days and the price for a Model T dropped
to $290 per vehicle, down 65% from its original price. The Model A was
introduced with a revolutionary teaser campaign. Production for the Model
T was shut down for almost 6 months to retool for the Model A and compete
with GM.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(AP, 12/2/97)(WSJ, 11/5/99, p.A1)
1927 Dec 11, Nearly 400 world leaders signed a letter to President
Calvin Coolidge asking the U.S. to join the World Court.
(HN, 12/11/98)
1927 Dec 12, Communists forces seized Canton, China.
(HN, 12/12/98)
1927 Dec 17, U.S. Secretary of State Kellogg suggested a worldwide
pact renouncing war.
(HN, 12/17/98)
1927 Dec 25, Mexican congress opened land to foreign investors,
reversing the 1917 ban enacted to preserve the domestic economy.
(HN, 12/25/98)
1927 Dec 27, The musical play "Show Boat," with music by Jerome
Kern and libretto by Oscar Hammerstein the Second, opened at the Ziegfeld
Theater in New York. It was based on a novel by Edna Ferber that spanned
life on the Mississippi River from 1884-1927. The songs included "Ol' Man
River."
(WSJ, 2/27/97, p.A15)(SFC, 5/15/97, p.E4)(AP, 12/27/97)(SFC,
1/10/98, p.E1)
1927 Dec, The Yosemite annual Christmas pageant at the Ahwahnee
Hotel was begun by a Stanford Univ. administrator and Ansel Adams. The
pageant was set in England at Bracebridge Hall at the time of King George
III and based on characters created by Washington Irving.
(SFC,10/18/97, p.A19)
1927 Dec, An audition in Berlin led to the formation of the "Comedian
Harmonists." They rocketed to fame as concert performers. Their act was
banned in 1935 by the government because 3 of the performers were Jews.
In 1997 a film based the group's history was directed by Joseph Vilsmaiar.
(WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A20)
1927 Poet John Ashbury was born in Rochester, N.Y. In 1998 David
Lehman published "The Last Avant-Garde: The Making of the New York School
of Poets."
(WSJ, 9/18/98, p.W8)
1927 George Bellows painted the boxing scene "Dempsey and Firpo."
(WSJ, 4/9/98, p.A21)
1927 Stuart Davis painted "Egg Beater No. 1."
(WSJ, 4/9/98, p.A21)
1927 Elsie Driggs created her painting "Pittsburgh."
(WSJ, 4/9/98, p.A21)
1927 George Grosz drew his picture "Circe," a depiction of a deformed
nude woman kissing a man whose face looks like a pig's.
(WSJ, 3/9/99, p.A20)
1927 Georgia O'Keeffe painted "Red Poppy."
(SFEC, 8/10/97, p.T5)
1927 DuBose Heyward and his wife Dorothy based a play called "Porgy"
on his novel "Porgy."
(MT, Fall. '97, p.12)
1927 Herbert Asbury wrote "The Gangs of New York." The book established
the Five Points district as the mythic slum.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.46)(SFC, 7/29/98, p.A19)
1927 Ernest Hemingway published his novel "Fiesta."
(SFC, 8/5/98, p.E3)
1927 D.H. Lawrence wrote his story "The Man Who Died," in which
Jesus becomes a lover of a priestess of Isis.
(WSJ, 10/14/98, p.A20)
1927 V.L. Parrington wrote "Main Currents in American Thought."
It is considered one of the most important history books of the 30s.
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-16)
1927 Margaret Sanger wrote "What Every Boy and Girl Should Know."
(WSJ, 3/12/97, p.A16)
1927 Upton Sinclair published his novel "Oil," based on the development
of oil in southern California.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.7)
1927 Thornton Wilder wrote "The Bridge of San Luis Rey." It was
set in Peru in the early 1700s when a rope bridge broke that sent 5 people
to their death.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, BR p.8)
1927 The "History of Colorado" was published by Linderman and
Co.
(HIR, 9/11/97, p.5A)
1927 Tamara Geva, ballet dancer, actress and former wife of George
Balanchine, introduced his choreography to NY by dancing 2 solos with the
"Chauve-Souris" touring revue.
(SFC,12/13/97, p.A23)
1927 Dock Boggs, singer and banjo player, released his "Country
Blues" swamp music album. It included the song "Old Rub Alcohol Blues."
(SFEM, 3/22/98, p.8)
1927 The Duke Ellington Band recorded "Creole Love Song" and "Black
and Tan Fantasie" on its first Viktor record.
(SFEC, 4/25/99, p.C5)
1927 "Stardust" by Hoagy Carmichael was first waxed on the Gennett
label in Richmond, Ind.
(SFEC, 7/25/99, BR p.5)
1927 The Biltmore Four Seasons Hotel in Santa Barbara, Ca., was
built.
(SFEC, 5/4/97, p.T7)
1927 The Pacific Boraz Co. opened the Furnace Creek Inn in Death
Valley as a luxury resort in Death Valley.
(SFEC, 1/3/99, p.T5)
1927 In California the Carquinez Bridge was built over the Bay
Area Sacramento River.
(SFC,12/26/97, p.A1)
1927 In Louisville, Ky., the main building of the Speed Museum
was constructed. The Speed Museum was founded by Hattie Bishop Speed as
a memorial to her husband John Breckinridge Speed.
(WSJ, 12/18/97, p.A20)
1927 Le Corbusier proposed a functional design for the new League
of Nations center in Geneva. The jury of traditional architects was shocked
and disqualified the design on the grounds that it was not rendered in
India Ink, as specified.
(V.D.-H.K.p.364)
1927 Marion Sims Wyeth designed the Mar-a-Lago house for the E.F.
Huttons in Palm Beach Fla. He helped establish the Palm Beach Mediterranean
style. Mrs. Hutton was better known as the cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather
Post.
(WSJ, 10/25/96, p.B10)
1927 The Pasadena City Hall was constructed to reflect the grace
and style of the church of Santa Maria della Salute in Venice, Italy.
(Hem., Dec. '95, p.100)
1927 Ben and Tawny MacMillan's General Store in Elk, California,
was built.
(SFC, 9/1/96, T3)
1927 The fundamentalist Christian Bob Jones University in Cleveland,
Tenn., was founded by Bob Jones.
(SFC,11/13/97, p.A28)
1927 The Ringling Brothers Circus and Barnum and Bailey began
to set up winter quarters in Sarasota, Fla.
(WSJ, 4/1/99, p.A20)
1927 E.E. Perkins, a Nebraska merchant of home remedies, invented
Kool-Aid. [see 1914,1953]
(WSJ, 7/17/96, p.A1)(SFC, 4/9/96, z1 p.5)
1927 A.H. Compton won the Nobel Prize in physics.
(SFC, 6/30/99, p.C2)
1927 Babe Ruth hit his 60th home run.
(SFEC, 9/8/96, Par p.8)
1927 The first living person to be honored on a U.S. postal stamp
was pioneering pilot Charles Lindbergh. The 10-cent stamp, issued in 1927,
showed Lindbergh's airplane, the Spirit of St. Louis, in which he had made
his historic flight from New York to Paris.
(HNQ, 11/14/98)
1927 The State Bar of California was founded as an independent
and nonpartisan organization by the state Legislature.
(SFC, 6/6/96, p.A23)(SFC, 6/26/96, p.A14)
1927 The California Legislature authorized the state attorney
general to act on behalf of Indians to sue the federal government for losses.
It took 16 years to reach a settlement.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.5)
1927 In New Jersey Ruth Snyder was tried and executed [1928] for
the murder of her husband. She was the first woman to die in the electric
chair. Her story was the basis for a 1928 play, "Machinal," by Sophie Treadwell.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, DB p.33)
1927 In the US financier J.P. Morgan created the American Depository
Receipt, (ADR), for purchasing stock in foreign countries.
(WSJ, 6/27/96, p.R8)
1927 California's laws prohibiting branch banking changed and
A.P. Giannini consolidated his banking properties into the Bank of America
of California.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.B4)
1927 The mid-peninsula property along the broad valley of the
West Union Creek near Hwy. 280 south of San Francisco was purchased by
an official of the Spring Valley Water Company. The estate residence was
designed by architect Gardner Daily. A decade later the property is purchased
by the Herman and Mary Elena Phleger. The estate is officially dedicated
as part of the Golden Gate national Park in April, 1995.
(Park, Spring/95)
1927 GM created the first automotive design staff under Harley
J. Earl.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1927 Dorothy Gerber invented commercial baby food when she tired
of straining baby food at home and asked her cannery owner husband to try
it at the plant. The Gerber baby logo came in 1928. Daniel F. Gerber strained
peas for his sick daughter and sold them by mail from Fremont, Mich.
(WSJ, 12/4/96, p.A1)(SFEC, 3/30/97, Z1. p.2)
1927 Central Leather Co. underwent a restructure and changed its
name back to US Leather.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p.R45)
1927 The Porcelier Manufacturing Co. worked in East Liverpool,
Ohio and South Greenberg, Pa. until 1954. It made vitrified china teapots,
bowls, cups, sugars, creamers and small electrical appliances. The items
are now collectibles.
(SFC, 9/4/96, z1 p.5)
1927 Proctor and Gambel acquired Lava Soap with its "secret ingredient"
pumice. In 1996 it was sold to Block Drug Co.
(SFC, 5/25/96, p.D1)
1927 Time magazine, founded by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden, began
its Man or Woman of the Year feature and the first figure this year was
Charles Lindbergh.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, Par p.2)(SFEM, 6/21/98, p.9)(WSJ, 1/11/00, p.B1)
1927 Werner Heisenberg formulated the Uncertainty Principle: It
is impossible to measure simultaneously both the precise momentum and position
of a subatomic particle.
(NG, May 1985, J. Boslough, p. 642)
1927 Lemaitre proposed his theory of an expanding universe begun
in the explosion of a primeval atom, at Mt. Wilson observatory in California.
(V.D.-H.K.p.334)
1927 J.D. Figgins presented his paper announcing proof (gathered
in 1926) that man was present in the New World at a time when animals of
now extinct species were living: The First Clear Evidence of Ancient Man
in North America.
RFH-MDHP, 1969, p.132)
1927 The was a major flood along the Mississippi. In 1997 the
book "Rising Tide" by John M. Barry described the catastrophe. It was also
the subject of the Randy Newman song "Louisiana 1927."
(WSJ, 2/6/97, p.A12)(SFEC, 4/6/97, Par. p.9)
1927 Pez candy originated in Austria as a breath mint for cigarette
smokers. The name came from "pfefferminz," the word for peppermint in German.
(SFEC, 4/5/98, p.C11)
1927 In China Mao Tse-tung led a peasant uprising in Hunan Province.
(TMC, 1994, p.1927)
1927 The French launched a major military campaign in Syria to
suppress a revolt by the Druze, which began in 1925 under the leadership
of Sultan al-Atrash. A large French force sent against them was defeated
and the revolt spread into the Druze portions of Lebanon. When the insurgents
gained a foothold in Damascus, the French bombarded the city.
(HNQ, 5/25/99)
1927 In Japan Goto Shu'ichi wrote "Japanese Archaeology."
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.35)
1927 Chio Uno (1898-1996) scandalized Japanese society by cutting
her hair short. In 1935 she wrote "Confessions of Love" based on the many
love affairs of painter Seiji Togo. She also wrote "Ohan" and in 1936 founded
Style, Japan's first fashion magazine. She was awarded a title by the emperor
and named a "person of cultural merit" in 1990.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A21)
1927 The monastery of Saint Serafim Sarofsky in the village of
Deveyevo, Russia, was liquidated. The 266 year old complex was used to
store lumber and vegetables until 1991 when it was returned to the church.
(SFC, 5/18/96, p.A-11)
1927 Josef Stalin purged much of the Tatar intelligentsia in the
Crimea.
(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A8)
1927-1949 The films of this period were covered in the 1998 book: "You
Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet: The American Talking Film, History and Memory,"
by Andrew Sarris.
(SFC, 4/8/98, p.E3)
1927-1957 The Mille Miglia automobile race was run in Italy.
(SFC, 4/28/98, p.A13)
1927-1959 Carlton Morse created the radio show "One Man's Family." It
was set in Sea Cliff in San Francisco.
(SFEC, 12/27/98, BR p.3)
1927-1989 R.D. Laing, Scottish psychiatrist: "We live in a moment of
history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present
only when it is disappearing."
(AP, 1/31/99)