July 1923

July 1, 1923 (Sunday)

• The Chinese Immigration Act went into effect in Canada to bar Chinese immigrants from coming to the Dominion of Canada, with only a few exceptions for foreign students and diplomats, wealthy merchants and those who qualified for admission under "special circumstance". The Act would remain the law in Canada for more than 24 years until its repeal on May 14, 1947.
• The Belgian airline Sabena, founded on May 23, inaugurated commercial service with a flight from Brussels to London with a stopover in Ostend.
• France passed a naval budget providing for the construction of four new submarines.
• Born:
• *Brijmohan Lall Munjal, Indian entrepreneur and founder of the Hero Motors Company; in Kamalia, Punjab Province, British India
• *Constance Ford, American actress, known for her role in Another World; as Cornelia Marie Ford, in the Bronx, New York City, United States

  July 2, 1923 (Monday)

• Pope Pius XI sent a letter to the papal nuncio in Berlin appealing to Germany to make every effort to make its payment obligations and cease its resistance campaign which removed the possibility of coming to an agreement.
• A railway accident in Romania killed 63 people at the station in Vinty-Leanca, between Ploiești and Buzău when a mail train was diverted onto a platform where a passenger train had stopped.
• The Allied delegates at the Conference of Lausanne made their final offer to Turkey to settle the matter of reparations.
• Exactly one month before his death, U.S. President Warren G. Harding "realized a boyhood ambition" by being allowed to drive a railway locomotive. Harding "took a lesson from the engineer in regard to the functions of the various buttons which are used in turning power off and on, giving signals and otherwise operating the engine" and drove the 10-car presidential train on a steep downgrade through the Bitterroot Mountains in Montana. After arriving in Spokane, Washington later in the day, Harding spoke out against "ultra-conservationists". Noting that "another century will give us a population of 300,000,000", Harding said, "There was a time when the public domain was thought of as a treasure house of potential wealth to be locked up against the day when we should need it... As a matter of fact, that would prevent it from being ready when needed." In the same speech, however, he said that he would urge Congress upon his return to Washington to add to Yellowstone National Park after having visited for two days.
• What would become the first "perfect copy" of the printed Gutenberg Bible in the United States was purchased at an auction in London by an agent for the Rosenbach Company of New York and Philadelphia, a dealer in rare books, for the amount of £9,000, $43,350 in the dollar to pound exchange rate at the time and equivalent to $750,000 a century later.
• An unauthorized dockworkers' strike began in England protesting the reduction of wages by a shilling a day.
• Henry Segrave of the United Kingdom won the French Grand Prix.
• Born: Wisława Szymborska, Polish writer, 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate; as Maria Wisława Anna Szymborska, in Prowent, Poland

  July 3, 1923 (Tuesday)

• President Harding visited the small town of Meacham, Oregon to speak at a celebration commemorating the 80th anniversary of the 1843 founding of the Oregon Trail. While it does not appear to have been part of his prepared speech a reporter wrote that Meacham was "the capital of the United States all day long," although even if the remark had been made, Harding, the reporters and most of his audience would have been aware that the U.S. president has no authority to move the national seat of government from Washington. Nevertheless, a historic marker at Meacham includes the statement that "On July 3, 1923, reporters noted that on July 3, 1923, Meacham was the capitol of the U.S. when President Harding stopped and participated in the exercises commemorating the eightieth anniversary of the covered wagon migration of 1843."
• Four German civilians were shot by Belgian soldiers after violating a curfew that had been imposed in the Ruhr occupation zone. The curfew, and the "shoot on sight" order had been put into effect immediately after eight Belgian soldiers had been killed in the June 30 bombing of the Duisburg-Hochfeld Railway Bridge, and took place in Buer, from Gelsenkirchen.
• Born: Bankole Timothy, Sierra Leonean journalist and author; as Emmanuel Bankole Timothy, in Freetown, Sierra Leone

  July 4, 1923 (Wednesday)

• Champion Jack Dempsey and challenger Tommy Gibbons fought in a boxing bout staged in the small town of Shelby, Montana, in front of a crowd of less than 20,000 people, most of whom did not buy a ticket. Dempsey defeated Gibbons by decision to retain the World Heavyweight Championship, but the bout is mostly remembered as a debacle for the promoters who lost a fortune staging it in the remote oil town hoping to attract investors. The $116,000 lost by promoters would be equivalent to more than two million dollars a century later. Figures the next day showed that only 7,202 people paid to see the bout, but that the rentals of motion pictures would drop the deficit to $70,000.
• A massive Ku Klux Klan rally, the largest in the organization's history, was held in Kokomo, Indiana. Attendance estimates ran as high as 200,000.
• Stunt pilot B. H. DeLay was killed at the age of 31, along with a passenger, business owner R. I. Short, while performing in an airshow at Ocean Park in Venice, California. The wings of his airplane, the Wasp, collapsed as he was flying a loop-the-loop and the craft plunged downward. A subsequent investigation of the wreckage showed that the nuts and bolts for the wings had been tampered with in an act of sabotage although no person was ever charged with a crime.
• Born: Bernard Loomis, American toy developer and marketing coordinator who built up the Mattel, Kenner and Hasbro companies and conceived the idea of cartoon shows based on toys; in the Bronx, New York City, United States

  July 5, 1923 (Thursday)

• Martial law was ended in the Kingdom of Egypt for the first time in almost nine years, with the release of 250 political prisoners who had been sentenced by British military courts during and after the outbreak of World War One.
• Ethel Barrymore was granted a divorce from Russell G. Colt in Providence, Rhode Island court on grounds of nonsupport. Neither principal was present, but testimony taken by deposition for the court was entered in which Barrymore said that Colt had struck her on numerous occasions.
• U.S. President Warren G. Harding and his entourage left Tacoma, Washington on the U.S. Navy transport USS Henderson headed for Alaska.

  July 6, 1923 (Friday)

• The Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union, commonly abbreviated to Sovnarkom was formed by the All-Union Central Executive Committee as the equivalent of the cabinet of ministers in the newly created Soviet Union, with Communist Party General Secretary Vladimir Lenin as the first Chairman. Lenin had five deputy chairmen and 10 people's commissars to assist in governing.
• A railway accident killed 17 passengers and injured 28 in New Zealand near the town of Ongarue on the North Island. The express train had departed Auckland for Wellington the night before and derailed upon encountering debris from a landslide.
• Suzanne Lenglen of France defeated Kitty McKane of Britain to win the women's championship at Wimbledon.
• Born:
• * Wojciech Jaruzelski, Polish military general and politician who served as First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party from 1981 to 1989, holding the government offices of Prime Minister of Poland 1981 to 1985, head of state as Chairman of the Polish Council of State from 1985 to 1989, and President of Poland 1989 to 1990; in Kurów, Poland
• *Madame Claude, French brothel manager who catered to prominent government officials and businessmen; as Fernande Grudet, in Angers, France

  July 7, 1923 (Saturday)

• A spokesman for the White House announced that President Harding's tour of the United States had been extended by two days. The telegram from Walter Brown said "Impossible to omit Santa Catalina trip without greatly disappointing Mrs. Harding. Have therefore arranged for President to sail from San Diego Aug. 6", after which the president's ship would travel down the coast of Mexico and Central America, passing through the Panama Canal and taking him back around the Gulf Coast and Atlantic Coast to return home.
• Bill Johnston defeated Frank Hunter to win the men's championship at Wimbledon. Both finalists at Britain's premier tennis tournament were American.
• American baseball pitcher Francis "Lefty" O'Doul, later enshrined in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame as an organizer, entered a game for the Boston Red Sox as a reliever and, in a single inning, gave up 13 runs to the host Cleveland Indians before being pulled back out. Cleveland went on to win the game, 27 to 3, having scored in every inning to set an American League record.
• The kingdoms of Romania and Yugoslavia signed a mutual defense treaty at Bucharest.
• The French Chamber of Deputies ratified the Washington Naval Treaty.

  July 8, 1923 (Sunday)

• President Warren G. Harding arrived at Metlakatla, Alaska on the ship USS Henderson, becoming the first president to visit the future U.S. state.
• In Czechoslovakia, woman deputy Betta Kerpiskova introduced a bill that would make bigamy mandatory, as it required all men to take two wives as a means of replenishing the population lost in the years of the war. Wives of the deputies shouted down the bill from the gallery, and one speaker said Czechoslovakia would face ridicule around the world if the law was passed. The session was adjourned after a shouting match.
• The bodies of Takeo Arishima and his wife were found in the Japanese novelist's villa. They both committed suicide by hanging but were not found for a month.
• Born: Harrison Dillard, American track and field athlete, Olympic gold medalist in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics; as William Harrison Dillard, in Cleveland, United States
• Died: Augustine Tuillerie, 89, French children's book author