December 1927

December 1, 1927 (Thursday)

• Chinese actress Soong Mei-ling married General Chiang Kai-shek, and became known as Madame Chiang Kai-shek. After General Chiang became China's leader the following year, she was the First Lady for the next 48 years, until her husband's death in 1975. An Episcopal Christian wedding was conducted, in English, at Miss Soong's home, followed by a Chinese civil ceremony at the Majestic Hotel in Shanghai. Miss Soong's sister was the widow of China's first President, Sun Yat-sen.

  December 2, 1927 (Friday)

• Following 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveiled the Model A as its new automobile.
• France's Chamber of Deputies rejected a proposal to abolish the death penalty, by a margin of 376–145. France would finally abolish the death penalty on October 9, 1981.
• Marcus Garvey was deported from the United States, placed on the SS Saramacca at New Orleans and returned to his native Jamaica.

  December 3, 1927 (Saturday)

• The first film of the Laurel and Hardy series of Hal Roach comedies was released. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy had appeared in the same films as early as 1918, but had not become a star team until October. The first "official" Laurel & Hardy film was a two-reel silent, Putting Pants on Philip.
• The mystery film London After Midnight starring Lon Chaney was released. Today it is one of the most famous lost films.
• Born: Andy Williams, American singer, as Howard Andrew Williams in Wall Lake, Iowa

  December 4, 1927 (Sunday)

• Duke Ellington and his orchestra opened at the Cotton Club in Harlem. Ellington proved so popular that he was featured at the Cotton Club for five years. In 1929, the CBS Radio Network began broadcasting a live show from the club, taking the 28-year-old jazz musician on his way to worldwide fame.

  December 5, 1927 (Monday)

• The Illini of the University of Illinois were awarded the Rissler Cup after finishing first in the Dickinson System ratings for college football teams, under a formula devised by a University of Illinois economics professor, Frank G. Dickenson. The Illini had a 7–0–1 record; second place was held by the University of Pittsburgh Panthers. For the nation's only bowl game, the Rose Bowl, Pitt was selected to play Stanford University, whose teams were known at that time as the "Indians".
• Born:
• *Bhumibol Adulyadej, who reigned as Rama IX, King of Thailand from 1946 to 2016, in Cambridge, Massachusetts
• *W.D. Amaradeva, Sri Lankan singer and composer, in Moratuwa
• *Oscar Miguez, Uruguayan footballer who helped that nation win the 1950 World Cup

  December 6, 1927 (Tuesday)

• On the day that they were scheduled to testify at a murder trial in Williamson, West Virginia, six witnesses were killed when the lodging they were staying in caught fire. Flames blocked both stairways leading from the upper floor, and all of the victims were found in a room where they had fled to escape the smoke.
• Colonel Juan Aberle and Major Alfaro Noguera attempted to stage a coup in El Salvador. They took control of the central police barracks in San Salvador, but the badly planned putsch was quickly suppressed.
• Born: Patsy Takemoto Mink, who in 1964 became the first female Asian-American to be elected to Congress; in Paia, Hawaii

  December 7, 1927 (Wednesday)

• The 250 foot long Canadian freighter SS Kamloops, with a crew of 22, sank in Lake Superior during a winter storm. Bodies of some victims were recovered in the spring, but the ship would remain missing for almost 50 years until August 21, 1977, its discovery by two scuba divers near Isle Royale.
• Born: Helen Watts, Welsh contralto, in Milford Haven

  December 8, 1927 (Thursday)

• The Brookings Institution, one of the earliest political and economic research institutes, was created by the merger of three organizations that had been created by philanthropist Robert S. Brookings: the Institute for Government Research, the Institute of Economics, and the Robert Brookings Graduate School.
• Born:
• *Vladimir Shatalov, Soviet cosmonaut on Soyuz 4, Soyuz 8 and Soyuz 10; in Petropavlosk, Kazakh SSR
• *Niklas Luhmann, German social theorist, in Lüneburg
• *Parkash Singh Badal, Indian politician who was Chief Minister of Punjab on four occasions between 1970 and 2017; in Abul Khurana, Punjab Province, British India

  December 9, 1927 (Friday)

• The Washington Herald, owned by William Randolph Hearst, published a front-page story alleging that Mexico's President Plutarco Calles had proposed bribing four United States Senators to advance Mexico's interests. Days later, Hearst provided documentation revealing the names of the four Senators: William Borah, J. Thomas Heflin, Robert M. La Follette, Jr. and George W. Norris , who all denied any payment from Mexico, while the Mexican government questioned the authenticity of the documents possessed by the Herald.
• Born: Pierre Henry, French electronic music composer, in Paris
• Died: Dr. Paul Jeserich, 73, celebrated as "The German Sherlock Holmes" because of his skills as a forensic detective.

  December 10, 1927 (Saturday)

• The WSM Barn Dance, the popular NBC Radio Network show, announced its change of name and would create a brand that is now part of its show that is still running a century after its 1925 premiere. That weekend's broadcast happened minutes after the presentation of the Grand Opera on NBC's Music Appreciation Hour, and before introducing the first act at the WSM studio in Nashville, WSM director George D. Hay told audiences that "For the past hour, we have been listening to music largely from grand opera, but from now on, we will present 'The Grand Ole Opry'."
• The U.S. House of Representatives voted to confer the Medal of Honor upon Colonel Charles Lindbergh.

  December 11, 1927 (Sunday)

• At 4:00 am, the Chinese city of Canton was seized in an uprising of 20,000 Communists, who announced that the formation of the "Canton Soviet". The Red Guards and their sympathizers seized control of police stations and the city prison, murdering police and guards, seizing control of the arsenal, and releasing prisoners. The Nationalist Army retook the city two days later, and carried out an even bloodier retaliation. At least 2,000 members of the Red Guards, whose dyed scarves had left a red stain on their collars, were arrested and summarily executed, while another 4,000 civilians were murdered in the five-day-long "White Terror" carried out by the Nationalist Troops.

  December 12, 1927 (Monday)

• Oklahoma's Governor Henry S. Johnston, threatened with impeachment by the state legislature, called out the Oklahoma National Guard to prevent members of the state House of Representatives from meeting at the capitol building. The next day, house members met at the Huckins Hotel in Oklahoma City hotel and voted to impeach Governor Johnston, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred P. Branson, and State Board of Agriculture chairman Henry B. Cordell. An injunction was issued against the Senators to prevent them from attempting to conduct an impeachment trial. On December 28, the guardsmen barred members of the state Senate from meeting at the capitol building.
• The National Builders Bank, located in Chicago, opened the first branch that would operate 24/7, with shifts to "render twenty-four hour service 365 days a year".
• Tommy Loughran defeated world light heavyweight boxing champion Jimmy Slattery in a 15-round decision at New York's Madison Square Garden.
• Born: Robert Noyce, co-inventor of the microchip and co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel; in Burlington, Iowa

  December 13, 1927 (Tuesday)

• Charles Lindbergh made a daring non-stop flight from Washington DC, bound for Mexico City. He landed more than 24 hours later after going through bad weather. Reputedly, after getting lost, he flew in low enough to spot the word "Caballeros" at one railroad station and could not find it on his map, before learning later that it was the word for "Gentlemen" on a men's bathroom.
• Born: James Wright, American poet, in Martins Ferry, Ohio

  December 14, 1927 (Wednesday)

• The United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Iraq signed a Treaty of Alliance and Amity.
• The aircraft carrier USS Lexington, recently converted from a battle cruiser, was commissioned. The ship would be damaged beyond repair in 1942 during the Battle of the Coral Sea.
• The British House of Lords approved the Archbishop of Canterbury's request for approval of a revision to the Book of Common Prayer, 241–88.

  December 15, 1927 (Thursday)

• Marion Parker, 12, was kidnapped from Mount Vernon Junior High School in Los Angeles. Her dismembered body was dumped from the kidnapper's car two days later, after her father paid a $1,500 ransom. Following the largest manhunt to that time on the West Coast, her killer, William Edward Hickman, was arrested on December 22 at the town of Echo, Oregon. He would be hanged on October 19, 1928.
• The British House of Commons rejected the proposed revision of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, by a vote of 247–205.
• In fiction, Anthony "Buck" Rogers, of the American Radioactive Gas Corporation, was entombed by a rockfall in an abandoned coal mine in Pennsylvania. Kept in a state of suspended animation by the radioactive gas, he would be revived 492 years later, in the year 2419 and go on to further adventures. Buck Rogers was introduced in Philip Francis Nowlan's science fiction novella, Armageddon 2419 A.D. in the August 1928 issue of Amazing Stories.

  December 16, 1927 (Friday)

• Pope Pius XI instructed his Cardinal Secretary of State, Pietro Gasparri, to cease further discussions with the Soviet Union, based on the increase there of religious persecution. Relations would be reopened by Nikita Khrushchev in November 1961.
• General Edwin B. Winans, superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, announced that the annual Army-Navy game of college football would not be played in future seasons, after contract negotiations with the U.S. Naval Academy fell through. The popular game was renewed in 1930.
• Died: Benjamin Purnell, 66, founder and self-styled "King" of the House of David colony at Benton Harbor, Michigan.