May 1923

May 1, 1923 (Tuesday)

• Construction of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum at Exposition Park was completed at a cost of less than $955,000 and less than 17 months after the groundbreaking. Though the structure was built, it would not be used to host events until July 2, when the Monroe Doctrine Centennial Fair was to take place. R. H. Burnside, producer of the Monroe Centennial festivities, inspected the Coliseum on May 3. Tours of the Coliseum began as early as May 10, when Exposition Park hosted the Pasadena Horticultural Society.
• Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was arrested by French authorities in Essen on charges from a March 31 shooting incident at the Krupp factory, and put in jail in Werden.
• A meeting of about 500 people at the Pillar of Fire International church in Bound Brook, New Jersey turned into a massive brawl when some attendees resented certain statements made by speakers lauding the Ku Klux Klan. An angry mob trapped about 400 church members on the second floor throwing stones at the building until police restored order in the early hours of the next morning.
• Born:
• *Joseph Heller, American novelist known for the bestselling 1961 novel Catch-22 and the introduction of the word Catch-22 into the English language as a synonym for a no-win situation; in Brooklyn, New York, United States
• *Fernando Cabrita, Portuguese soccer football forward and manager; in Lagos, Portugal

  May 2, 1923 (Wednesday)

• A jury in St. Joseph, Michigan found Charles E. Ruthenberg guilty of criminal syndicalism by advocating the violent overthrow of the government.
• Everett Scott of the New York Yankees became the first baseball player in history to appear in 1,000 consecutive major league baseball games.
• The British Broadcasting Company opened its new wireless radio studios at Savoy Hill. Heavy wall sacking and floor felt had been installed to reduce noise interference.
• Flooding from a high spring freshet caused extensive damage throughout parts of Maine and New Brunswick.
• Born: Patrick Hillery, President of Ireland from 1976 to 1990; in Spanish Point, County Clare
• Died: Emilio Picariello, 47, and Florence Lassandro, 22, Italian-born Canadian bootleggers, were hanged at 5:00 and 5:15 in the morning at the provincial prison in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, after being convicted of the September 21 murder of an Alberta Provincial Police constable.

  May 3, 1923 (Thursday)

• American army pilots Oakley G. Kelly and John A. Macready completed the first non-stop transcontinental flight across the U.S. when they landed their T-2 airplane at Rockwell Field near San Diego after taking off from Roosevelt Field at Hempstead, New York at 1:37 in the afternoon, Eastern Time 26 hours, 50 minutes and 38.6 seconds earlier. The T-2 landed at Rockwell at 12:26:56 p.m. Pacific time.
• The Pan-American Treaty, officially the "Treaty to Avoid or Prevent Conflicts between the American States", was signed in Santiago, capital of Chile, by representatives of 16 nations in the Western Hemisphere.
• Archbishop Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia and leader of the Russian Orthodox Church since 1917, was expelled from the church and branded a traitor by the Communist-dominated All-Russian Church Council. A bulletin from the Council stated, "Inasmuch as the Soviet Government is the only one in the whole world fighting capitalism, which is one of the seven deadly sins, therefore its struggle is a sacred struggle. The Council condemns the counterrevolutionary acts of Tikhon and his adherents, lifts the ban of excommunication he laid on the Soviet Government, and brands him as a traitor to the Church and to Russia. It hereby formally abolishes the office of Patriarch forever and establishes an annual Church Council as the supreme directive body in Church affairs."
• Born: Ralph Hall, U.S. Representative for Texas, 1981 to 2015 and Chair of the House Science Committee; in Fate, Texas
• Died: Ernst Hartwig, 72, German astronomer who discovered the first supernova identified on Earth as being from another galaxy

  May 4, 1923 (Friday)

• The legislature of the U.S. state of New York voted to repeal its Prohibition law, leaving enforcement to federal authorities. New York governor Alfred E. Smith was expected to sign the bill into law. The New York law had been more strict than the federal law and had given civic police broad powers of enforcement.
• The House of Commons of Canada passed the Chinese Immigration Act, commonly known as the Chinese Exclusion Act, forbidding Chinese to enter Canada unless they were diplomats, children born in Canada, merchants, or university students.
• Born:
• *Elwyn Jones, Welsh TV producer known for co-creating the BBC series Z-Cars, as well as its spinoffs Softly, Softly and Barlow at Large; in Cwmaman, Glamorgan
• *Guy Warren, Ghana-born American musician credited with the invention of the "Afro-jazz" genre; in Accra
• *Eric Sykes, English writer, comedian and director; in Oldham, Lancashire
• *Benjamin Britt, African-American painter; in Winfall, North Carolina
• *Assi Rahbani, Lebanese musician and political activist; in Antelias, Lebanon
• Died: John W. Rainey, 42, U.S. representative for Illinois since 1918, died of pneumonia.

  May 5, 1923 (Saturday)

• Broadcasting in Singapore began when Radio Singapura was established.
• Hull Kingston Rovers defeated Huddersfield, 15 to 5, to win the Northern Rugby Football League championship in England.
• Born:
• *Tim Moriarty, American sportswriter inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a journalist; in Southbridge, Massachusetts
• *Richard Wollheim, British philosopher and President of the British Society of Aesthetics from 1992 until his death; in London

  May 6, 1923 (Sunday)

• In China, more than 300 passengers on the Tianjin–Pukou Railway line's Blue Express luxury train were taken hostage by bandits when the train passed through Lincheng in the Shandong Province while traveling from Shanghai to Beijing.
• The first World Congress of Jewish Women, organized by Anitta Müller-Cohen, opened at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna for a six-day session with 200 delegates from 20 nations.
• The head-on collision of two trains at the village of Arcos de Canasí in Cuba killed 25 people in a fiery crash and injured 50 others. The trains, both operated by the Hershey Railway line, after a westbound train from Matanzas to Havana failed to pull to a siding to allow the eastbound train from Havana to come through.
• The United Kingdom's first fascist party, the right-wing British Fascisti, was founded by a former member of the Women's Volunteer Reserve, Rotha Lintorn-Orman.
• Red Star Olympique defeated FC Sète 4-2 in the Coupe de France Final, the championship tournament of French soccer football.
• The championship of Mexico's national soccer football league, the Primera Fuerza, was won on the last day of the regular season when unbeaten Germania F.V. was scheduled against second place Asturias F.C.. Germania led, 1-0, at halftime but Asturias tied the game and Octavio Rimada scored for the 2 to 1 win.
• The sport of bullfighting came to Italy for the first time as Spanish organizers put on an event for 30,000 spectators at the national stadium in Rome to watch as "Six imported Spanish matadors successively encounter as many bulls."
• Born:
• *Harry Watson, Canadian ice hockey left wing with 14 seasons in the NHL, inductee in the Hockey Hall of Fame; in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
• *Sid Yudain, American journalist who founded the political journal Roll Call in 1955; in New Canaan, Connecticut
• *Princess Galyani Vadhana of Thailand, English-born older sister of two future Kings of Thailand, Ananda Mahidol and King Bhumibol Adulyadej ; in London

  May 7, 1923 (Monday)

• A message from Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands was the first broadcast from The Hague of what was, at the time, the world's most powerful radio station, designed to be received in the Dutch East Indies away.
• The Kingdom of Bulgaria revealed to its subjects that it had signed the Treaty of Niš with Yugoslavia on March 23.
• Two Americans and an Englishman were shot when Chinese train bandits put hostages in the front lines as troops attacked. Lucy Aldrich, daughter of U.S. senator Nelson W. Aldrich and sister-in-law of John D. Rockefeller Jr., was released by the bandits.
• Estonian parliamentary elections produced a very fragmented parliament with the Farmers' Assemblies winning the most seats.
• Born:
• *Anne Baxter, American stage, film and television actress, winner of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Razor's Edge; in Michigan City, Indiana
• *J. Mack Robinson, U.S. businessman and philanthropist; in Atlanta
• Died: Sadie Martinot, 61, American opera soprano and stage actress

  May 8, 1923 (Tuesday)

• A French court martial sentenced Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach to fifteen years hard labour.
• Jack Hobbs, playing for Surrey against Somerset, completed his hundredth century in first-class cricket. He was only the third player to accomplish the "century of centuries". Hobbs scored 116 runs in a 216 to 168 win at Bath.
• In the U.S. state of Florida, Collier County, Florida was formed from the southern portion of Lee County, which was split into three counties. Everglades City was the initial seat of government for the county, which was named for land developer Barron Collier.
• Liseberg, an amusement park in Gothenburg, Sweden, opened.
• Born: Jack Laird, American screenwriter and director; in Monrovia, California

  May 9, 1923 (Wednesday)

• The ignition of an oil well gusher by a spark killed 15 employees of the J. K. Hughes Development Company who were working at the McKie No. 1 oil well in Navarro County, Texas near the town of Kerens.
• Testimony revealing the brutal treatment of convict labor at the Knabb Turpentine Company camps in North Florida was given to a state investigative committee by social worker Thelma Franklin of the town of Glen St. Mary. Mrs. Franklin described witnessing the murder of two African American women by a man called Warden Thompson. One of the victims, a black laborer named Mary Sheffield, had been scheduled to appear before the committee as a witness.
• The Chinese government agreed to pay the ransom demanded by the train bandits.
• Irish President W. T. Cosgrave said that negotiations between the government and the Irish Republican Army had broken down because the Republicans had refused to surrender their arms.
• The Bertolt Brecht play In the Jungle of Cities premiered at the Residenz Theatre in Munich.
• Born: André Parat, French custom automobile maker in partnership with Bernard Pichon in the Pichon-Parat company
• Died:
• *John Fuller, 72, popular New Zealand singer and theater manager
• *Lieutenant General Constantin Cristescu, 57, Chief of Staff of the Romanian Army