May 1923

The following events occurred in May 1923:

May 1, 1923 (Tuesday)

• Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum opened.
• Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was arrested by French authorities over the March 31 incident at the Krupp factory.^[1]
• A meeting of about 500 people at the Pillar of Fire International church in Bound Brook, New Jersey turned into a massive brawl when some attendees resented certain statements made by speakers lauding the Ku Klux Klan. An angry mob trapped about 400 church members on the second floor throwing stones at the building until police restored order in the early hours of the next morning.^[2]
• Born: Fernando Cabrita, football player and manager, in Lagos, Portugal (d. 2014); Joseph Heller, novelist (Catch-22), in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1999)

May 2, 1923 (Wednesday)

• A jury in St. Joseph, Michigan found Charles E. Ruthenberg guilty of criminal syndicalism by advocating the violent overthrow of the government.^[3]
• The British Broadcasting Company opened new wireless studios at Savoy Hill. Heavy wall sacking and floor felt had been installed to reduce noise interference.^[1]
• Born: Patrick Hillery, 6th President of Ireland, in Spanish Point, County Clare, Ireland (d. 2008)

May 3, 1923 (Thursday)

• American army pilots Oakley G. Kelly and John A. Macready made the first non-stop transcontinental flight when they flew from Mitchel Field in New York to Rockwell Field near San Diego in 26 hours, 50 minutes and 38.6 seconds.^[4][5]
• Born: Ralph Hall, politician, in Fate, Texas
• Died: Ernst Hartwig, 72, German astronomer

May 4, 1923 (Friday)

• New York State repealed its Prohibition law, leaving enforcement to federal authorities. The state law was more strict than the federal law and gave civic police broad powers to enforce it.^[6]
• The Canadian House of Commons passed the Chinese Immigration Act, commonly known as the Chinese Exclusion Act, forbidding Chinese to enter Canada unless they were diplomats, children born in Canada, merchants, or university students.^[7]
• Born: Assi Rahbani, musician and political activist, in Antelias, Lebanon (d. 1986); Eric Sykes, writer, actor and director, in Oldham, England (d. 2012)

May 5, 1923 (Saturday)

• Broadcasting in Singapore began when Radio Singapura was established.
• Hull Kingston Rovers defeated Huddersfield 15-5 to win the Northern Rugby Football League championship.^[8]
• Born: Richard Wollheim, British philosopher (d. 2003)

May 6, 1923 (Sunday)

• In China, 150 passengers on the Tianjin–Pukou Railway line were taken hostage by bandits.^[1]
• Red Star Olympique defeated FC Sète 4-2 in the Coupe de France Final.
• Born: Josep Seguer, football player and manager, in Parets del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain (d. 2014); Harry Watson, ice hockey player, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada (d. 2002)

May 7, 1923 (Monday)

• Two Americans and an Englishman were shot when the Chinese train bandits put hostages in the front lines as troops tried to attack the bandits.^[9]
• Lucy Aldrich, daughter of U.S. Senator Nelson W. Aldrich and sister-in-law of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., was released by the bandits.^[10][11]
• Estonian parliamentary elections produced a very fragmented parliament with the Farmers' Assemblies winning the most seats.
• Born: Anne Baxter, actress, in Michigan City, Indiana (d. 1985)

May 8, 1923 (Tuesday)

• A French court martial sentenced Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach to fifteen years hard labour.^[12]
• Jack Hobbs completed his hundredth century in first-class cricket.^[1]
• Liseberg, an amusement park in Gothenburg, Sweden, opens.

May 9, 1923 (Wednesday)

• The Chinese government agreed to pay the ransom demanded by the train bandits.^[13]
• Irish President W. T. Cosgrave said that negotiations between the government and the Irish Republican Army had broken down because the Republicans had refused to surrender their arms.^[14]
• The Bertolt Brecht play In the Jungle of Cities premiered at the Residenz Theatre in Munich.^[15]

May 10, 1923 (Thursday)

• Vatslav Vorovsky, the Soviet delegate to the Conference of Lausanne, was assassinated in the restaurant of the Cecil Hotel. Vorovsky's two associates were both wounded when they resisted. The assassin, a Swiss officer named Maurice Alexandre Conradi, handed the gun to a waiter, asked him to call the police and waited until authorities arrived to arrest him.^[16]
• Born: Heydar Aliyev, 3rd President of Azerbaijan, in Nakhichevan ASSR (d. 2003)
• Died: Vatslav Vorovsky, 51, Russian revolutionary, literary critic and diplomat (assassinated)

May 11, 1923 (Friday)

• The St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies set a new major league baseball record for total home runs in a game when they combined to hit ten during a 20-14 Phillies victory at Baker Bowl.^[17][18] The record stood until 1966.^[19]
• Born: Louise Arnold, baseball player, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island (d. 2010)

May 12, 1923 (Saturday)

• Nearly 63,000 packed Yankee Stadium in New York to watch the first boxing card in the venue's history; ex-heavyweight champion Jess Willard knocked out Floyd Johnson in the eleventh round.^[20]

May 13, 1923 (Sunday)

• Athletic Bilbao defeated CD Europa 1-0 in the Copa del Rey Final.
• Mother's Day became an official holiday in Germany.^[21]
• Died: Charlotte Garrigue, 72, former First Lady of Czechoslovakia

May 14, 1923 (Monday)

• Benito Mussolini made a speech at the international women's suffrage congress in Rome in which he expressed support for the suffragists' cause. "Regarding the attitude of the government, I feel authorized in stating that the fascist government pledges itself to grant a vote to several classes of women, beginning with a local vote and then a national vote", Mussolini said.^[22]
• Died: Charles de Freycinet, 94, four-time Prime Minister of France

May 15, 1923 (Tuesday)

• Football coach Charles Brickley was indicted on charges of illegal stock negotiations.^[23]
• Amelia Earhart was the 16th woman to be given a pilot's license by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.^[24]
• Born: Doris Dowling, actress, in Detroit, Michigan (d. 2004); John Lanchbery, composer and conductor, in London, England (d. 2003)

May 16, 1923 (Wednesday)

• The Chinese bandits tossed three hostages to their deaths over a precipice as a warning to speed up the ransom payment.^[25]
• British Communist MP John Turner Walton Newbold was suspended from the House of Commons after he protested to Speaker of the House Edward FitzRoy, "You allowed charges to be made against me all the evening without giving me a chance to reply." Fitzroy said that was "not a Parliamentary expression" and asked Newbold to leave. After a commotion a vote was taken and Newbold was suspended by a count of 300 to 88.^[26][27]
• It was reported from Paris that British Prime Minister Bonar Law was seriously ill.^[28]
• Born: Merton Miller, enonomist and Nobel Prize laureate, in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 2000)

May 17, 1923 (Thursday)

• Romania's Unknown Soldier was buried with full military honors in Carol Park in Bucharest.
• Died: Duke Paul Frederick of Mecklenburg, 70

May 18, 1923 (Friday)

• A performance of Bertolt Brecht's play In the Jungle of Cities at the Residenz Theatre in Munich was disrupted by Nazis who threw gas bombs into the auditorium. The play was resumed but the production was soon withdrawn.^[29]
• Czech Radio was established.
• Born: Hugh Shearer, 3rd Prime Minister of Jamaica, in Martha Brae, Jamaica (d. 2004)

May 19, 1923 (Saturday)

• Zev won the Kentucky Derby.
• About 1,000 advocates of women's suffrage marched through the streets of Rome. Benito Mussolini reviewed the parade and reiterated his pledge to give the vote to certain classes of Italian women by the end of the year.^[30]
• Bonar Law returned to London as his retirement due to health reasons was rumored to be imminent; the choice for next British Prime Minister was generally expected to be Lord Curzon.^[31]

May 20, 1923 (Sunday)

• British Prime Minister Bonar Law resigned due to a throat condition.^[32]
• Mestalla Stadium opened in Valencia, Spain.
• Born: Edith Fellows, actress, in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 2011); Steve Krantz, film producer and writer, in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2007)

May 21, 1923 (Monday)

• The Frederick Lonsdale comedic play Aren't We All? premiered on Broadway.
• The Turkey national football team became the twenty-sixth member of FIFA.^[33]
• The football club Octavio Espinoza was founfrf in Ica, Peru.
• Born: Armand Borel, mathematician, in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland (d. 2003); Dorothy Hewett, writer, in Perth, Australia (d. 2002); Ara Parseghian, American football player, in Akron, Ohio; Evelyn Ward, actress, in West Orange, New Jersey (d. 2012)
• Died: Hans Goldschmidt, 62, German chemist

May 22, 1923 (Tuesday)

• Stanley Baldwin was named the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. It was not entirely clear why Lord Curzon was passed over, but it was believed to be partly because of his membership of the House of Lords at a time when labour's growing power called for someone with a commoner's background.^[34][35]

May 23, 1923 (Wednesday)

• The Belgian airline Sabena was founded.^[1]
• Born: Kalidas Shrestha, artist, in Kathmandu, Nepal
• Born: NANDAMURI TARAKA RAMA RAO, artist, in ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA

May 24, 1923 (Thursday)

• Éamon de Valera ordered the Irregulars to lay down their arms; the Irish Civil War was over.^[1]
• The month-long San Pedro Maritime Strike ended.

May 25, 1923 (Friday)

• An 5.7 magnitude earthquake struck Torbat-e Heydarieh in Iran, killing 2,200.^[36]
• Communists ransacked the city of Essen as strikes spread throughout the Ruhr region.^[37]

May 26, 1923 (Saturday)

• Thousands of workers in the Ruhr joined a "hunger strike" while seven more died in rioting.^[38]
• British authorities in Palestine issued a declaration granting the rights of autonomous administration upon the Emirate of Transjordan.^[39]
• William Randolph Hearst said he would back Henry Ford if he ran for President of the United States, but said Ford would have to run as an independent candidate because "the political machinery of both the national parties is in the hands of the old line reactionaries."^[40] The statement was something of a bombshell to the Democratic Party since they traditionally expected the support of Hearst's newspapers during election campaigns.^[41]
• Born: James Arness, actor, in Minneapolis, Minnesota (d. 2011); Roy Dotrice, actor, in Guernsey, Channel Islands

May 27, 1923 (Sunday)

• André Lagache and René Léonard of France won the first Le Mans Grand Prix of Endurance auto race.
• Born: Henry Kissinger, German-born American diplomat and political scientist, in Fürth

May 28, 1923 (Monday)

• Santa Rita oil well in Reagan County, Texas produced its first gusher on land owned by the struggling University of Texas, providing it with a major source of income that would make it among the wealthiest in the United States.^[42][43]
• Born: György Ligeti, composer, in Transylvania, Romania (d. 2006); N. T. Rama Rao, actor, filmmaker and politician, in Nimmakuru, British India (d. 1996)

May 29, 1923 (Tuesday)

• Strikes in the Ruhr spread to unoccupied parts of Germany.^[44]
• Died: Albert Deullin, 32, French World War I flying ace (flying accident testing new airplane prototype); Adolf Oberländer, 78, German caricaturist

May 30, 1923 (Wednesday)

• 500,000 striking miners in the Ruhr agreed to return to work after the government offered a 50% wage increase.^[45]
• Tommy Milton won the Indianapolis 500.
• Died: Camille Chevillard, 63, French composer and conductor; Jess Smith, 52, Assistant to Attorney General of the United States (suicide)

May 31, 1923 (Thursday)

• Pipe Sping in Arizona was made a National Monument.
• Petrograd Opera House was badly damaged by a fire; many died trying to escape.^[1]
• Born: Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, in Monaco (d. 2005)

References