February 1922

February 1, 1922 (Wednesday)

• Representatives of the five major world powers represented at the Conference on the Limitation of Armament and of four other nations voted to adopt eight treaties, including the Washington Naval Treaty, with a signing ceremony scheduled for February 6.
• Germany's 700,000 rail workers went on strike for one week before the labor dispute was settled.
• The British government announced that it would return the territory of Port Edward to China in eight years, as part of the agreements reached at the Washington Disarmament Conference.
• Walther Rathenau became the new German Foreign Minister.
• Born:
• *Renata Tebaldi, Italian opera soprano, and star at Milan's La Scala and New York's Metropolitan Opera; in Pesaro, Kingdom of Italy
• *Robert E. Bourdeau, American physicist, known for his studies of Earth's ionosphere in conjunction with the Explorer 8 satellite in 1960; in Turners Falls, Massachusetts, United States
• Died:
• *William Desmond Taylor, 49, Irish-born American film director and actor, was shot in the back at his home in the affluent Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles. His body was found the next day in his bungalow at the Alvarado Court Apartments, and initially declared to be a hemorrhage; the wound was not discovered until after the body was removed from his home. The murder was never solved, and the prime suspect, Taylor's former personal assistant Edward F. Sands, was never seen after Taylor's death.
• *Prince Yamagata Aritomo, 83, Japanese statesman, served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1889 to 1891 and from 1898 to 1900 and chief adviser to the Emperor from 1909 until his death

  February 2, 1922 (Thursday)

• The first complete printing of the controversial and groundbreaking modernist novel Ulysses, by Irish writer James Joyce, appeared in a bookshop window, printed by the French publisher Darantiere at the initiative of American bookseller and Paris resident Sylvia Beach. The February 2 date was timed for Joyce's 40th birthday.
• The Checker Cab Manufacturing Company was founded in Kalamazoo, Michigan by 28-year-old Russian immigrant Morris Markin through an acquisition by his own Markin Automobile Company of Commonwealth Motor Company. For the next 60 years, Markin's company was the supplier for the Checker Cab service and, beginning in 1929, the Yellow Cab Company, the two largest taxi services.
• The papal conclave, to elect a successor to the late Pope Benedict XV, began in Rome as 53 of the 60 Roman Catholic cardinals assembled at the Sistine Chapel.
• The Soviet newspaper Pravda published the results of a survey among its readers, who opposed the decision by Vladimir Lenin to attend an economic conference in Genoa in April. According to the poll, it was generally feared that Lenin was putting himself at risk for an assassination attempt.
• A methane explosion killed 24 coal miners employed by the H. C. Frick Coke Company near Brownsville, Pennsylvania.
• An officer of the Royal Irish Constabulary was killed in a clash between the RIC and the Irish Republican Army in Killarney as a wave of violence began in Ireland.
• The Jewish communist youth organization Komtsukunft was founded in Poland.
• Born:
• *Stoyanka Mutafova, Bulgarian actress whose career spanned 73 years; in Sofia, Kingdom of Bulgaria
• *Juan Marichal, Spanish-Canarian historian; in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands

  February 3, 1922 (Friday)

• The boundaries between the future republics of Israel, Syria and Lebanon were agreed upon by a French and British committee which recommended to their respective nations the areas for the League of Nations mandates for Mandatory Palestine and the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon. British Army Lt. Colonel S. F. Newcombe and French Army Lt. Colonel Paulet, co-chairs of the Border Commission.
• The second homicide trial of Fatty Arbuckle ended in a hung jury.
• The U.S. state of Alabama got its first licensed radio station, WGH in Montgomery.
• Born: Willi Reschke, German Luftwaffe flying ace with 27 aerial victories in World War II; in Mühlow, Brandenburg Province, Weimar Republic
• Died:
• *Christiaan de Wet, 67, Boer general, rebel leader and politician, served as President of the Orange Free State from 1902 to 1903
• *John Butler Yeats, 82, Irish artist

  February 4, 1922 (Saturday)

• A mob in British India killed 22 policemen by setting fire to the police station in the town of Chauri Chaura and then trapping the men inside. The mob attack came after the police had fired on a crowd of peaceful protesters, killing three civilians. The town, located in the United Provinces is now in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
• The Ford Motor Company announced its purchase of the financially-ailing Lincoln Motor Company in "the most dramatic receiver's sale in the history of Detroit", as the mass producer of affordable automobiles creates a luxury car division and ends federal bankruptcy court proceedings commenced by Lincoln Motor president Henry M. Leland. According to The New York Times, the eight million dollar acquisition was made at the insistence of Henry Ford's wife, Clara Bryant Ford because of her sympathy and friendship with Mr. and Mrs. Leland.
• At the Conference on the Limitation of Armament, Japan agreed to withdraw troops from Shandong, restore German interests in Qingdao and give the Jinan railway back to China.
• Biddle University, a private university in Charlotte, North Carolina for African American students, was officially renamed Johnson C. Smith University in honor of the late husband of the Biddle's largest benefactor, Jane Berry Smith.

  February 5, 1922 (Sunday)

• The first issue of Reader's Digest, dated February 1922, was published by husband-and-wife team DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace with the objective of presenting humor and "condensed" versions of longer publications.
• The first round of voting was held for the 15-member Landtag of Liechtenstein. In previous years, the ruling monarch, the Prince, was allowed to appoint three members and the other 12 were elected. The Christlich-Soziale Volkspartei won a majority before the runoff voting, and the ruling Progressive Citizens' Party won only one. After the runoff on February 16 for three undecided seats, the CSVP had an 11 to 4 lead, but Prime Minister and FBP leader Josef Ospelt continued as Prime Minister.
• Born: Lafran Pane, Indonesian professor and founder of the Muslim Students' Association; in Padangsidempuan, North Sumatra, Dutch East Indies
• Died: Frances Bowes-Lyon, 89, British noblewoman, grandmother of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, wife of King George VI

  February 6, 1922 (Monday)

• The papal conclave elected the Archbishop of Milan Achille Ratti as the new pope. He took the name Pius XI. At the close of voting the day before, Giovanni Tacci Porcelli had become the front runner after supporters of Rafael Merry del Val of Spain were deadlocked with supporters of Pietro Gasparri.
• The Conference on the Limitation of Armament between the world's major nations ended in Washington, D.C., with the signing of the Washington Naval Treaty and the Nine-Power Treaty on China.
• For the eighth time in less than a year, the cabinet of Portugal was reorganized, with António Maria da Silva becoming prime minister for the second time.
• In Soviet Russia, the Cheka was dissolved and replaced by the State Political Directorate.
• The World Figure Skating Championships ended in Stockholm. Gillis Grafström of Sweden won the men's competition, while Herma Szabo of Austria won the ladies' world title.
• Born:
• *Patrick Macnee, British film and TV actor known for the espionage show The Avengers; as Daniel Patrick Macnee, in Paddington, London, England
• *Haskell Wexler, American cinematographer, winner of two Academy Awards, including in 1966 for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; in Chicago, United States
• *Denis Norden, British comedy writer and television presenter; as Denis Moss Cohen, in Hackney, London, England
• Died: Chief John Smith, 96-100, Chippewa Native American who was thought to have been 137 years old but whom the Bureau of Indian Affairs concluded to have been no older than 100 based on his recollection of witnessing a spectacular meteor shower as a child in 1833

  February 7, 1922 (Tuesday)

• El Salvador and Honduras quit the short-lived Federation of Central America.
• Marie Curie was elected to France's Académie Nationale de Médecine, marking the first time that a woman had been elevated to membership into any of the French Academy of Sciences disciplines.
• King George V opened a new session of British Parliament. In his speech from the throne he welcomed the agreements reached in the Washington Naval Conference.
• An attempt by aviator Ray Parer and co-pilot Mark Parer to make the first airplane flight around the perimeter of Australia ended less than four months after it began, when the Parers' Farman F.E.2 airplane crashed on takeoff from Boulder, Western Australia.
• Born:
• *Chew Choo Soot, Malaysian founder of Budokan karate; in Alor Setar, Kedah Sultanate, British Malaya
• *Hattie Jacques, English comedienne and actress; as Josephine Edwina Jaques, in Sandgate, Kent, England
• Died: Sir Alfred Bird, 72, English food manufacturer who built up the Alfred Bird & Sons corporation that had been founded by his father; died from injuries sustained after being struck by a car

  February 8, 1922 (Wednesday)

• The Irish Republican Army kidnapped 42 prominent loyalists and Ulster Special Constabulary constables and held them hostage. On the orders of Free State Chairman Michael Collins, 26 of the men were released by February 15.
• The former U.S. Army transport ship SS Northern Pacific, recently sold to the Pacific Steamship Company for conversion to a liner, caught fire shortly after midnight while at sea near Cape May, New Jersey, as it was being towed from New York to Chester, Pennsylvania. Her crew of 70 was rescued by two freighters and the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Kickapoo, but four U.S. Shipping Board draftsmen on Northern Pacific were lost. The ship capsized and sank 15 hours after the fire had started.
• U.S. President Warren G. Harding acquired the first radio receiver to be installed in the White House.
• Born:
• *Noshir H. Antia, Indian plastic surgeon who pioneered reconstructive surgery and rehabilitation for persons afflicted with leprosy; in Hubli, Mysore princely state
• *Cliff Young, Australian potato farmer and ultramarathon runner who finished first overall to win the inaugural Sydney to Melbourne Ultramarathon in 1983 at the age of 61; as Albert Ernest Clifford Young, in Beech Forest, Victoria, Australia