March 1925

March 1, 1925 (Sunday)

• Elections were held in Luxembourg for the 47-seat parliament, Der Chamber. The conservative Rietspartei, led by Prime Minister Émile Reuter, lost four seats from its 26 seat majority. While the Rietspartei retained a plurality with 22, it refused to form a coalition with any party that had voted against the railway treaty with Belgium, prompting other parties to form a new government.
• The Republic of Austria adopted its new currency, the Austrian schilling, worth 10,000 of the former Austrian kronen. The new schilling would be the currency of Austria until the republic's annexation by Germany in 1938, then restored in 1945 after World War II, and be replaced by the Euro in 1999.
• The publisher Viking Press was founded in New York by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheimer, advertising manager for Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
• A military committee in France, led by Marshal Ferdinand Foch, concluded that Germany had committed gross violations of the disarmament provisions laid down in the Treaty of Versailles.
• The film The Mad Whirl, starring May McAvoy and Jack Mulhall, was released.
• The Club Cerro Corá soccer football team was founded in Paraguay.
• Born:
• *Lucine Amara, American opera soprano for the Metropolitan Opera in New York; in Hartford, Connecticut
• *Rudolf Leopold, Austrian physician and art collector whose set of 5,000 works of art was donated to the Austrian government to create the Leopold Museum; in Vienna
• *M. A. Sattar, Bangladesh entrepreneur and politician, founder of Sattar & Company Ltd.
• *Martín Chirino, Spanish sculptor; in Las Palmas, Canary Islands
• Died:
• *Adolf von Steiger, 65, Chancellor of Switzerland since 1919.
• *Thomas Bidgood, 66, English composer known for the military march "Sons of the Brave", committed suicide by gas poisoning at his home.
• *Homer Plessy, 66, American shoemaker who was the plaintiff in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, an 1896 U.S. Supreme Court precedent that racial segregation was legal provided that it met the concept of being "separate but equal".

  March 2, 1925 (Monday)

• What would become Delta Air Lines began as the world's first aerial crop dusting company with the founding of Huff Daland Dusters Inc., in Macon, Georgia. to combat the boll weevil infestation of cotton crops. The Huff-Daland Aero Corporation had constructed the first airplane that could incorporate a means of carrying and dispersing insecticide across farm fields. On December 3, 1928, a new group of investors would acquire the Huff-Daland assets and create Delta Air Service, with passenger service starting in 1930.
• Lauri Kristian Relander was inaugurated to a six-year term as the President of Finland, serving until 1931.
• Harlan F. Stone took his seat on the United States Supreme Court, replacing the retired Joseph McKenna.
• Born: P. K. Balakrishnan, Indian novelist; in Trivandrum, Bombay Province, British India
• Died: Luigj Gurakuqi, 46, formerly Albania's Minister of Economy and Finance, was shot to death in the Italian city of Bari, where he had been living since the Ahmet Zogu's return to power and inauguration as president. Gurakuqi had just finished dining with three friends at the Cavour Hotel. His assassin, Balto Stambolla, was an agent of Albania's Internal Affairs Ministry dispatched to carry out the killing.

  March 3, 1925 (Tuesday)

• İsmet İnönü formed a cabinet for the fourth time as Prime Minister of Turkey after the resignation of Fethi Okyar and Okyar's ministers. His first act on taking office as to invoke the "Law for the Maintenance of Order" in order to control the Kurdish rebellion, giving the government emergency powers to close organizations deemed to be subversive.
• The United Kingdom followed the example of other nations owed indemnities from the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, agreeing to use its share of several million dollars to support railway construction in China.
• The United States Congress authorized the Mount Rushmore Memorial Commission.
• Born:
• *Rino Luigi "Joe" Sentieri, Italian singer and film actor; in Genoa
• *Richard Battin, American computer scientist who oversaw the design of the compact Apollo Guidance Computer used on the Apollo programs lunar missions; in Atlantic City, New Jersey
• Died:
• *Moritz Moszkowski, 70, Polish composer and pianist, died of stomach cancer
• *Agustín de Iturbide y Green, 61, claimant to the Imperial House of Iturbide as the grandson of Agustín I, who briefly reigned as Emperor of Mexico for eight months in 1822 and 1823

  March 4, 1925 (Wednesday)

• The second inauguration of Calvin Coolidge took place in Washington, D.C. It was the first U.S. presidential inauguration to be nationally broadcast on radio.
• The Federal Probation Act was signed into law in the U.S., giving federal courts the option to sentence defendants to probation instead of a federal prison sentence following conviction of a crime, as well as creating a system of probation and parole officers.
• Born:
• *Paul Mauriat, French orchestra leader; in Marseille
• *Inezita Barroso, Brazilian singer, actress and TV host, known for sertanejo music performances; in São Paulo
• Died:
• *John Montgomery Ward, 65, American baseball pitcher, inductee to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, known for having the lowest ERA in major league baseball in 1878, and leader in strikeouts and games won in 1879, all in the National League
• *Moritz Moszkowski, 70, Polish composer;
• *James Ward, 82, English philosopher and psychologist;

  March 5, 1925 (Thursday)

• Frank B. Kellogg became United States Secretary of State.
• Charles Lindbergh was in a serious flight accident during his pilot training with the U.S. Army Air Service when his SE-5 collided in midair with that of another cadet. Lindbergh parachuted to safety and thus joined the Caterpillar Club.
• Born:
• *Jacques Vergès, Thailand-born French lawyer known for representing defendants in war crimes and terrorist trials, including Nazi officer Klaus Barbie, terrorist Carlos the Jackal, former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan, members of West Germany's Baader-Meinhof gang, and Algerian FLN militants; in Ubon Ratchathani, Kingdom of Siam
• *Van E. Chandler, U.S. Army Air Force pilot who became the youngest flying ace of World War II, downing his fifth airplane in combat by the age of 19; in Kemp, Texas
• Died: Clément Ader, 84, French Army captain and aviation pioneer

  March 6, 1925 (Friday)

• The Eupen-Malmedy region was transferred from Germany to Belgium, as per the Treaty of Versailles, including the cities of Malmedy, Eugen, Sankt Vith, Waimes, Bütgenbach and Kelmis.
• The periodical Pionerskaya Pravda was founded in Moscow.
• Miners went on strike in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.
• Born: Audrey Evans, British-born American pediatric oncologist known for her contributions in reducing the rate of deaths from neuroblastoma and for co-founding the original Ronald McDonald House; in York, Yorkshire, England
• Died: Jacques Raverat, 39, French painter, died of multiple sclerosis.

  March 7, 1925 (Saturday)

• The Social Democratic Party of Germany voted to nominate Otto Braun as their candidate for the March 29 presidential election.
• Born: Rene Gagnon, United States Marine known for and raising the U.S. flag following the American victory in the Battle of Iwo Jima; in Manchester, New Hampshire
• Died: Georgy Lvov, 63, the first Prime Minister of the Russian Republic from March 15 to July 20, 1917, after the February Revolution that abolished the monarchy and installed Lvov as the leader of a provisional government, died in exile in France.

  March 8, 1925 (Sunday)

• In Egypt, Alan Rowe, the deputy director of George Reisner's Harvard-Boston Expedition, became the first person in 4,500 years to open the chamber of the tomb of Hetepheres I, the mother of the Pharaoh Cheops and the Queen consort of the Pharaoh Sneferu.
• Dr. Herman N. Bundesen, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health announced in an article in the Department's weekly bulletin that the ongoing crossword puzzle fad caused no ill health effects from headaches or eye strain, as had previously been feared, and was beneficial to health in general. In a feature titled "Cross-Worditis", Bundesen noted humorously that "The savage little cross-word microbe may be largely explained by the fact that part of our lives and much energy must be put into amusement, to satisfy the play instinct within us. Therefore any play or game that has a mental 'kick' in it, is quickly accepted and eagerly pursued."
• Born: Dennis Lotis, South African-born British swing music and pop music singer; in Johannesburg
• Died: Saint Manuel Míguez González, 93, Spanish Roman Catholic priest and founder of the Calasanzian Institute. Míguez González would be canonized as a Roman Catholic saint more than 90 years later, on October 15, 2017.

  March 9, 1925 (Monday)

• "Pink's War" began as a seven-week bombardment campaign in British India conducted by RAF Wing Commander Richard Pink against the rebellious Mahsud tribesmen in South Waziristan in the North-West Frontier Province. The campaign halted on May 1 after Mahsud tribal leaders sought a peace agreement.
• The German state of Bavaria imposed a two-year ban against public speaking by Adolf Hitler, limiting him to addressing only private, closed meetings. The government was nervous at the large crowd of 3,000 Fascists that Hitler had drawn on February 27 at the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich in his first public speech since his release from prison.
• Born:
• *Ellen Hovde, American public television documentary producer and 2002 Primetime Emmy Award winner; in Meadville, Pennsylvania
• *Virginia Mathews, Osage American public television producer; in New York City.
• *Gil Askey, American musical director and jazz trumpeter; in Austin, Texas
• Died:
• *Willard Metcalf, 66, American landscape painter
• *Angela Pinto, 55, Portuguese theatre actress, died two years after suffering a stroke while on stage.
• *George Field, 47, American silent film actor known for The Prospector's Vengeance, died of tuberculosis.