February 1927

February 1, 1927 (Tuesday)

• In its third year of conferring B.A. degrees, the "Southern Branch of the University of California" formally changed to its present name to the University of California at Los Angeles, more commonly referred to as UCLA.
• The first seaside resort hotel in Hawaii, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel opened for business. Now called the "Pink Palace", the hotel originally owned of land in Honolulu at Waikiki.
• On the same day, the first and only luxury hotel in Death Valley National Park— originally called The Furnace Creek Inn, and later the Oasis at Death Valley— opened in the California desert.
• Born: Galway Kinnell, American poet; in Providence, Rhode Island
• Died: Sir George Higginson, 100, British general and Crimean War hero

  February 2, 1927 (Wednesday)

• After ax murderer George J. Hassell gave directions, police in Whittier, California unearthed the bodies of his wife and three children. Hassell on death row in Texas for the murder there of a second wife and eight other children, earned a postponement of his February 27 execution date.
• The Ziegfeld Theatre opened on Broadway with the production Rio Rita. The building was razed in 1967
• Born: Stan Getz, American jazz saxophonist; in Philadelphia

  February 3, 1927 (Thursday)

• A revolt against the government of Portugal broke out at Porto. After six days of fighting, and at least 120 deaths, the rebels surrendered after it appeared that Porto would be destroyed by heavy artillery. More than 600 conspirators and participants were exiled to Portugal's colonies in the Azores and Cape Verde.
• The 4th Regiment of the United States Marines, with 1,200 men, was dispatched from San Diego to protect Americans in Shanghai. After arriving on the transport USS Chaumont on February 27, the unit continued its presence in Shanghai until 1941.
• The Brazilian airline VARIG began operations.
• William Phillips was named as the first U.S. Minister to Canada, and Frederick A. Sterling was named as the first United States Ambassador to Ireland. Prior to 1927, diplomatic relations with Canada and the Irish Free State had been conducted directly with the United Kingdom.
• Born:
• *Val Doonican, Irish singer and TV personality; in Waterford
• *Blas Ople, Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 2002 until his death in 2003; in Hagonoy

  February 4, 1927 (Friday)

• Malcolm Campbell of England broke the world's record for the fastest speed in an automobile, driving at nearly per hour on the Pendine Sands in Wales. Driving the Napier-Campbell Blue Bird, Campbell averaged 174.883 mph.
• U.S. Senator Matthew M. Neely introduced a bill in the Senate to provide a $5,000,000 reward to the discoverer of a cure for cancer. Neely would die of cancer on January 18, 1958, after his own 15-month battle with the disease.
• Flying in an airplane approximately above Columbus Circle in New York City, baritone John Charles Thomas sang operatic arias to an audience in the first public test of what he called the "Voice of the Sky", a secret sound-reproducing and amplifying device which makes possible direct vocal communication between aircraft and any one on the ground.

  February 5, 1927 (Saturday)

• The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, described as "a non-profit organisation training surgeons and maintaining surgical standards in Australia and New Zealand", was founded.
• The United States Tennis Association dropped its 1926 national champion, Vincent Richards, from its rankings after Richards became the most famous player to that time to turn professional. Bill Tilden, at that time still an amateur, replaced Richards at #1 in the rankings.

  February 6, 1927 (Sunday)

• In Nicaragua, a force of 1,500 rebels captured the city of Chinandega and burned the city, at one time the national capital. Government troops retook the town after a battle of five days. Reportedly, 300 people were killed and 500 were wounded. At the request of President Adolfo Díaz, the United States sent troops to Chinandega.

  February 7, 1927 (Monday)

• The first revision of the Book of Common Prayer since 1662 was introduced at 3:00 pm at Westminster Abbey. The Archbishop of Canterbury received the proposed revisions for a new prayer book for the Church of England, "the outcome of sixty years of study and effort designed to make the church services richer and more elastic". The new book quickly became a bestseller for Anglicans and Episcopalians worldwide, but failed to receive the required approval. The House of Commons twice voted against a bill to accept the new text, a resolution that would still have required the approval of the House of Lords and royal assent by the King in his capacity as Supreme Governor of the Church of England.
• Born:
• *Vladimir Kuts, Ukrainian Soviet distance runner, 1956 Olympic gold for the 5,000 meter race
• *Juliette Gréco, French singer and film actress; in Montpellier, Hérault département

  February 8, 1927 (Tuesday)

• In what the American press described as "the most pretentious funeral in the history of the Orient", the Emperor Taishō, known in the West as Yoshihito, was buried after being mourned by his 80,000,000 subjects in Japan, who thought of him as a deity.

  February 9, 1927 (Wednesday)

• By a 59–30 vote, the United States Senate rejected American participation in the Permanent Court of International Justice of the League of Nations, more popularly known as the "World Court".
• The strongest gun control legislation in the United States, to that time, was signed by U.S. President Calvin Coolidge. Taking effect on May 10, the Miller Act prohibited the sending of revolvers, pistols and other small arms through the mail. The ban was easily evaded by using private shipping companies.

  February 10, 1927 (Thursday)

• President Coolidge addressed a joint session of the United States Congress and announced that he would invite the world's major powers to meet in Geneva to discuss further reductions of their navies. In 1922, the Washington Naval Treaty had been signed by the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Japan. As one historian noted, "The hastily conceived meeting, which expected to parallel the success of the 1921-22 naval conference, turned out to be a fiasco."
• The first contingent of American troops in China arrived as 300 U.S. Marines arrived at Shanghai to protect U.S. citizens there.
• Jonny spielt auf, Ernst Krenek's opera about an African-American jazz musician, premiered in Leipzig and became a hit in Germany.
• Born: Leontyne Price, African-American operatic soprano and prima donna; in Laurel, Mississippi
• Died: Frank S. Ryan, 46, American con man who at one time was known as the "prince of clairvoyants" until his nationwide ring was broken in 1914

  February 11, 1927 (Friday)

• Billy Gaffney, a 4-year-old boy, was kidnapped while playing near his apartment building at 99 Fifteenth Street in Brooklyn, and was never found. More than eight years later, convicted child murderer Albert Fish confessed to abducting and killing Gaffney.
• The city of Homewood, Alabama, near Birmingham, was created by the merger of the towns of Rosedale, Edgewood and Grove Park.

  February 12, 1927 (Saturday)

• The first contingent of British troops landed in Shanghai to begin protection of British citizens. Within a week, 21 warships from the U.S., Britain, Japan, France and Italy had anchored at the Huangpu River.

  February 13, 1927 (Sunday)

• Three months before Charles Lindbergh's nonstop flight across the North Atlantic, two Italian army officers, Lt. Col. Francesco de Pinedo and Lt. Col. Carlo del Prete, began the longest airplane tour to that time. Taking off from Sesto Calende in a Savoia-Marchetti S.55, de Pinedo and del Prete made fifty stops over four months in Europe, Africa, and North and South America, traveling with 193 hours flying time.
• A series of twenty earthquake tremors in one hour in Bosnia killed about 100 people in an area along the Neretva River. While the death toll was initially believed to be 700 or more, the areas hit were sparsely populated and the loss of life was less than expected.
• Died: Brooks Adams, 78, American economic historian

  February 14, 1927 (Monday)

• In a 24-hour period, a winter storm dumped 2.30 meters of snow on Japan's Mount Ibuki to set a new record for largest snowfall. It is also the record for the highest total snow depth by 11.82 meters.
• Conn Smythe purchased the Toronto St. Patricks hockey team, preventing it from being moved to Philadelphia, and renamed it the Toronto Maple Leafs, after the Maple Leaf Regiment which fought for Canada in World War One. As the St. Pats, the team had lost 1 to 0, on the 13th, to the Ottawa Senators, and was in last place in its division at 8-18-4. With a new name, the Maple Leafs played their first game on the 15th in Windsor, Ontario, and lost to the Detroit Cougars, 5 to 1.
• Boxer Jimmy Delaney defeated future light heavyweight boxing champion Maxie Rosenbloom in a bout in Cincinnati, but splintered a bone in his left elbow in the process. After a loss the next week to Benny Ross, Delaney sought medical treatment, but would die of blood poisoning from an infection on March 4.
• English suspense film director Alfred Hitchcock began his practice of making a cameo appearance in movies he directing, starting with the release of his first thriller, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog.
• William Vanderbilt, an explosives expert, committed suicide in Peabody, Massachusetts, by exploding himself. Vanderbilt, 70, wandered into the woods near his home to an isolated location with multiple sticks of dynamite, then detonated his homemade bomb. The blast was powerful enough that residents thought that they were experiencing an earthquake
• William Gemmell, a wealthy county commissioner in Montana, jumped to his death from his room on the 5th floor of the Silver Bow Hotel in Butte, Montana when he was unable to escape from a fire.
• Born: Lois Maxwell, Canadian film actress who portrayed "Miss Moneypenny" in 14 James Bond films; in Kitchener, Ontario;