February 1926

February 1, 1926 (Monday)

• The Kirghiz Autonomous Socialist Republic, a forerunner of what is now the Kyrgyz Republic, was created for the Kyrgyz people in the USSR, initially as a unit within the Russian SFSR within the Soviet Union. In 1936, it would be elevated to the status of Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic, one of 15 SSRs at the time of the breakup of the Soviet Union.
• The John Colton play The Shanghai Gesture opened on Broadway.
• Died: Anna Kriebel Vanzo, 64, Norwegian operatic soprano

  February 2, 1926 (Tuesday)

• A play, adapted from F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby, premiered at the Ambassador Theater on Broadway. Produced by William A. Brady from a script written by Owen Davis, and directed by George Cukor, the first theater Gatsby production starred James Rennie as the title character and Florence Eldridge as Daisy.
• Representatives of the governments of Britain and France signed a treaty of friendship on behalf of the British Mandate for Palestine and the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon.
• In Germany, four members of the illegal Black Reichswehr paramilitary organization were sentenced to death for politically motivated murders. State authorities had the court proceedings carried out under a veil of secrecy to "insure the safety of the state."
• Baseball's National League held a banquet at the Hotel Astor in New York to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
• Born:
• *Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, 20th President of France from 1974 to 1981; in Koblenz, Germany, where his father was stationed during the occupation of the Rhineland
• *Nydia Ecury, Aruban translator dedicated to preserving the Papiamento dialect, a Portuguese-based creole language spoken on the former Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao; in Rancho, Aruba
• Died:'
• *Vladimir Sukhomlinov, 77, the former Minister of War for the Russian Empire from 1909 to 1915, was found frozen to death on a park bench in Berlin, where he had gone into exile after the Russian Revolution of 1917.
• *William Wood, 68, American textile mill owner, committed suicide by shooting himself near Daytona Beach, Florida, after asking his chauffeur and his valet to take him to "a lonely spot above Flagler Beach."

  February 3, 1926 (Wednesday)

• By a decree of the Czechoslovakia's Prime Minister Thomas Masaryk, issued in accordance with the nation's Minorities Act, the Czech language became the government's official language, and all public officials and judges— not only those who used the Slovak language, but those in regions where German or Hungarian were the most common languages— were required to pass a test showing their fluency in Czech. "As a consequence," a historian would later note, "the civil service was depleted of German and Magyar officials, and dismissals did not spare even the most menial occupation. The replacements were Czech and, rarely, Slovak."
• An explosion killed 20 coal miners at the Pittsburgh Terminal Coal Company's No. 15 mine in Horning, Pennsylvania.
• Spanish Army Colonel and future dictator of Spain Francisco Franco was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General at the age of 33, becoming the youngest general in Europe
• Born:
• *Hans-Jochen Vogel, German politician who was Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany from 1987 to 1991 during the period of Germany's reunification; in Göttingen, Free State of Prussia
• *Glen Tetley, American ballet choreographer; in Cleveland
• *Robert McGinnis, American illustrator known for designing cinema posters for major films, and covers for paperback books; in Cincinnati
• Died: T. W. Ward, 72, founder of Britain's Thos W Ward Ltd. scrap metal company

  February 4, 1926 (Thursday)

• A $250 million, five-year plan to upgrade the United States Naval Air Force was submitted to the House Committee on Naval Affairs. The plan called to nearly double the number of Navy planes from 638 to 1,248 by the end of 1931.
• Born: Dave Sands, Australian boxer who was the Australian heavyweight champion at the time of his death, and is one of the few people inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame despite never having held a world title; in Kempsey, New South Wales
• Died: Mehmed Atıf Hoca, 51, Turkish Islamic philosopher and teacher, was hanged for violating Turkey's Hat Law.

  February 5, 1926 (Friday)

• Terrorists attacked a train that was traveling the railway from Moscow to Riga, with an ultimate destination of Berlin, specifically targeting a group of Soviet Foreign Ministry employees. After the train crossed the border out of the Soviet Union and into the Republic of Latvia, two armed men stopped the train between Ikšķile and Koknese to attack Soviet couriers L. F. Pecherskiy, Theodor Nette and his partner, with the apparent goal of stealing a diplomatic pouch. Two men, Antonijs Gabrilovich and Bronisławs Gabrilovich invaded the train compartment while carrying guns. Nette shot and wounded one gunman before being shot in the head, and Mahmastal, though wounded, stayed behind to guard the pouch while Pecherskiy escaped. The date of Nette's death is still observed on February 5 in Ikšķile by employees of the Russian Embassy in Latvia as part of the "All-Russian Day of Remembrance of Diplomatic Couriers Who Died in the Line of Duty".
• A crowd of 10,000 people packed the streets of Los Angeles to watch the funeral procession of actress Barbara La Marr, who had died on January 30 at the age of 29. Numerous injuries were reported as onlookers, mostly women, rushed forward to get a view of the silver coffin.
• Born:
• *Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, American publisher of The New York Times from 1963 to 1992 and chairman of its board of directors from 1973 to 1997; in Southampton, New York
• *Seiichi Miyake, Japanese engineer and inventor known for his invention of tactile paving, textured surfaces for roadsides, stairs and railway platforms to aid people with a visual impairment; in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture.
• Died: Carl Hau, German lawyer and convicted murderer who published two books about his 1907 crime after his parole in 1924, shot himself in the head while awaiting an appeal of his conviction for violating his probation.

  February 6, 1926 (Saturday)

• An unknown party raided the grave of Pancho Villa and stole the Mexican revolutionary leader's skull. The fate of the skull is a mystery and the source of multiple legends, with one holding that it is in the Skull and Bones Crypt at Yale University.
• Italy's Premier Benito Mussolini made a defiant speech to his cabinet on the issue of the Italianization of South Tyrol. Responding to protests from Germany about the oppression of Tyrolean Germans, Mussolini vowed that the policy would "not change by a centimeter" and declared, "We will make this territory Italian because it is Italian geographically and historically." He warned, "If the Germans attempt a boycott, we will answer with boycotts squared. If Germany takes reprisals, we will answer with reprisals cubed."
• In an intersectional match between two of the best college basketball teams in the 1925–26 NCAA men's basketball season, unbeaten Syracuse University hosted the once-beaten Michigan Wolverines, 36 to 33. Syracuse, which finished the season with 15 wins and 1 loss, would retroactively be declared the season's national champion by the Helms Foundation, a finding recognized by the NCAA record.
• Born: Alice Putnam Willetts, American field hockey and lacrosse player and coach, player on the U.S. national women's field hockey team from 1946 to 1955, and one of the first inductees to the USA Field Hockey Hall of Fame; in Ridley, Pennsylvania
• Died: Carrie Clark Ward, 64, American stage and silent film actress

  February 7, 1926 (Sunday)

• The Italian army seized Jaghbub, the Libyan desert oasis village and home of the Senussi Movement. The column of 2,000 troops met with no resistance.
• African-American historian Carter G. Woodson initiated "Negro History Week", the precursor of Black History Month.
• At the World Speed Skating Championship held in Canada on Lily Lake in New Brunswick, Charles Gorman broke the world record for the 220 and 440 yard events.
• Born:
• *Konstantin Feoktistov, Russian cosmonaut who orbited the Earth on flew on the Voskhod 1 mission in 1964; in Voronezh, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
• *John Frank Davidson, British chemical engineer known as "the founding father of fluidization in chemical engineering".; in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyneside

  February 8, 1926 (Monday)

• Seán O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars opened at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and upset members of the audience sufficiently to lead to angry protests inside the theatre and riots outside.
• Torrent, the first American film to star Greta Garbo, premiered at the Capitol Theatre in New York City, ahead of a general release on February 21.
• The British—Irish border agreement, defining the border between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as from Lough Foyle in the north-west of Ireland to Carlingford Lough became recognized official in international law upon its filing with the League of Nations.
• In Stockholm, Sweden, Herma Szabo of Austria won the Ladies Competition of the World Figure Skating Championships for the fifth consecutive year.
• Born:
• *Tony Street, Australian politician and Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1980 to 1983 during the Fraser government; in Melbourne
• *Neal Cassady, American writer; in Salt Lake City, Utah
• *Francis McWilliams, Scotland-born British politician and Lord Mayor of London from 1992 to 1993; in Portobello, near Edinburgh
• *Elizabeth Hoffman, American character actress best known for her regular role on the NBC TV series Sisters from 1991 to 1997; in Corvallis, Oregon
• Died: William Bateson, 64, English geneticist