November 1926

November 1, 1926 (Monday)

• The John Colton play The Shanghai Gesture opened on Broadway.
• Land on Broadway and Wall Street in New York City was sold at a record $7 per sq inch.

  November 2, 1926 (Tuesday)

• The United States midterm elections were held. The Democratic Party picked up nine seats in the House of Representatives and six in the Senate, but the Republican Party maintained their majorities in both.
• French pediatrician Gaston Variot warned young women not to dance the Charleston, because its "sudden wrenching movements" were "likely to produce internal conditions inimical to the proper conditions of childbirth."
• Died: Bill Bailey, 38, American baseball player

  November 3, 1926 (Wednesday)

• The Barnes-Hecker Mine Disaster occurred in Ishpeming, Michigan, the worst industrial tragedy in Michigan's history. 51 men died when an explosion in the mine filled the tunnels with water from a nearby swamp.
• Born: Valdas Adamkus, President of Lithuania 1998 to 2003, and 2005 to 2009; in Kaunas
• Died: Annie Oakley, 66, American sharpshooter

  November 4, 1926 (Thursday)

• Prince Leopold of Belgium and Princess Astrid of Sweden were married in Stockholm. Mayor Carl Lindhagen presided.
• George W. English resigned as a United States federal judge before his impeachment trial proceedings could begin.

  November 5, 1926 (Friday)

• Talks reopened in Britain between the government and the Miners' Federation to end the coal miners' lockout as it dragged into its seventh month.

  November 6, 1926 (Saturday)

• A new, far-reaching police law was enacted in Italy giving the government extensive powers of confinement and extending its power to dissolve political and cultural organizations. A new deportation law allowed for persons to be restricted to certain localities within Italy for light offenses or exiled to penal colonies for more serious ones. Benito Mussolini also reclaimed the Italian Minister of the Interior position for himself, and Italo Balbo was appointed undersecretary for the Air Ministry.
• Born: Frank Carson, Northern Irish comedian; in Belfast

  November 7, 1926 (Sunday)

• Greece held a legislative election; the Liberal Union emerged as the largest party in Parliament.
• In Poland, Marshal Józef Piłsudski decreed a press gag law. The law forbade publishing news that could cause a public demonstration, news or rumors that ridiculed or criticized government officials and judges, and matter considered by government officials to be derogatory. Government officials were empowered to impose fines or jail sentences without a court hearing.
• Born: Joan Sutherland, Australian singer, in Sydney
• Died: Tom Forman, 33, American actor and director

  November 8, 1926 (Monday)

• The George Gershwin musical Oh, Kay! opened on Broadway.
• Died: James Keteltas Hackett, 57, American actor and manager

  November 9, 1926 (Tuesday)

• All opposition members of the Italian parliament lost their seats as a new law deprived them of parliamentary immunity and Socialists were punished for staging the Aventine Secession. Antonio Gramsci of the dissolved Communist Party of Italy was arrested in Rome and imprisoned in the Regina Coeli.

  November 10, 1926 (Wednesday)

• Princeton University severed athletic relations with Harvard. A formal letter from Princeton explained, "We have been forced to the conviction that it is at present impossible to expect in athletic competition with Harvard that spirit of cordial good will between the undergraduate bodies of the two universities which should characterize college sports."

  November 11, 1926 (Thursday)

• The United States Numbered Highway System, including U.S. Route 66, was established.
• U.S. President Calvin Coolidge dedicated the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri.
• The Nicaraguan Congress elected Adolfo Díaz as president.

  November 12, 1926 (Friday)

• Miners' leaders and the British government reached an agreement on the ending of the coal miners' dispute. The miners essentially gave in to the owners' demands, including that the workday be increased from seven hours to eight. Some 300,000 miners had already returned to work by this time through localized settlements.
• In Harrisburg, Illinois, the Shelton Brothers Gang used a Curtiss JN-4 biplane to try to bomb rival gangster Charles Birger's hideout, "Shady Rest", from the air. The bombing raid only succeeded in blowing up the cock fighting pit.
• Died: Joseph G. Cannon, 90, United States politician, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives 1903 to 1911

  November 13, 1926 (Saturday)

• A short story appeared in the New Zealand newspaper The Christchurch Sun about a nanny's day out, titled "Mary Poppins and the Match Man". The author, P. L. Travers, would later write a series of children's books about the Mary Poppins character that would be adapted into a musical film by Walt Disney in 1964.
• The former Crown Prince Wilhelm and his son were attacked by an angry mob at the Friedrichstraße when they got out of a car flying the Hohenzollern flag. Police intervened and held up traffic until they could ride away again.
• Mario de Bernardi of Italy won the Schneider Trophy in Hampton Roads, Virginia.

  November 14, 1926 (Sunday)

• Adolfo Díaz became President of Nicaragua for the second time.

  November 15, 1926 (Monday)

• The National Broadcasting Company launched its NBC Radio Network at 8:00 in the evening with an inaugural broadcast on 22 U.S. radio stations.
• The Balfour Declaration, the United Kingdom's endorsement of the creation of a Jewish nation in the British mandate of Palestine, was unanimously approved at the Imperial Conference.

  November 16, 1926 (Tuesday)

• Native American Taffy Abel broke the National Hockey League color barrier with the New York Rangers.
• Marshal Józef Piłsudski threatened to dissolve the Polish parliament if radicals did not stop their attacks on the press gag law.

  November 17, 1926 (Wednesday)

• Mario de Bernardi achieved a speed of 258.874 miles per hour in his Macchi M.39, a new seaplane record.
• Died: George Sterling, 66, American poet

  November 18, 1926 (Thursday)

• It was revealed that the Irish writer and playwright George Bernard Shaw had refused the £7,000 in prize money awarded to him a year ago for his Nobel Prize in Literature, and the Swedish Academy had been begging him to take it ever since. Tired of the standoff, Shaw declared, "I can forgive Alfred Nobel for having invented dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize!"
• Born: Roy Sievers, U.S. baseball player, 1957 AL home run and RBI leader; in St. Louis

  November 19, 1926 (Friday)

• The Paramount Theatre opened in New York City.
• Born: Jeane Kirkpatrick, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, 1981 to 1985; in Duncan, Oklahoma

  November 20, 1926 (Saturday)

• The Balfour Declaration was announced to the public at the Imperial Conference in London. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Newfoundland would become self-governing dominions.
• The Irish Free State declared a national state of emergency due to Republican Army raids around the country.
• Born: John Gardner, British mystery and spy novelist known for 14 James Bond continuation novels ; in Seaton Delaval, Northumberland

  November 21, 1926 (Sunday)

• Chiang Kai-shek told the Associated Press that the revolution in China would not end until the unequal treaties with foreign powers were all abolished.
• The film The Great Gatsby, based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel of the same name, was released.

  November 22, 1926 (Monday)

• Italian trade unionist Captain Giuseppe Giulietti, loyal to the Fascists but out of favour for his brand of syndicalism, was arrested in Genoa for purported embezzlement.
• Born: Lew Burdette, U.S. baseball player who was 1957 World Series MVP, 1956 ERA leader in the NL and the 1959 NL wins leader; in Nitro, West Virginia

  November 23, 1926 (Tuesday)

• The war film What Price Glory? was released.
• Born:
• *Sathya Sai Baba, Indian guru; in Puttaparthi, Madras Province, British India
• *R. L. Burnside, American blues musician; in Harmontown, Mississippi

  November 24, 1926 (Wednesday)

• Queen Marie of Romania ended her visit to the United States and Canada, departing from New York aboard the SS Berengaria.
• Born: Tsung-Dao Lee, Chinese-born U.S. physicist and 1957 Nobel Prize laureate; in Shanghai
• Died: Leonid Krasin, 56, Russian politician and diplomat

  November 25, 1926 (Thursday)

• Benito Mussolini created a special Court for political crimes and reintroduced the death penalty to Italy for attempts on the life of the royal family or Head of State, acts of espionage and incitement of civil war.
• Italian political prisoner Antonio Gramsci was sent to the prison island of Ustica.
• Born: Poul Anderson, American science fiction author; in Bristol, Pennsylvania

  November 26, 1926 (Friday)

• King Ferdinand of Romania was reported to be gravely ill, sparking fears that a civil war might break out if he were to die as the heir to the throne, Michael, was five years old and Queen Marie was still on an ocean liner in the Atlantic.
• Italy put its anti-striking law to use for the first time, fining eighty-one clothing workers in Gallarate 100 lira each for stopping work.
• Boston mayor Malcolm E. Nichols married the twin sister of his late first wife.
• Died: John Moses Browning, 71, American firearms designer, creator of the M1911 pistol

  November 27, 1926 (Saturday)

• The Treaty of Tirana was signed between Italy and Albania, establishing a de facto Italian protectorate over Albania.
• King Ferdinand of Romania was officially reported to have been doing better, dispelling rumors within the country that he was dead.
• The Sherlock Holmes short story "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was published for the first time in Liberty magazine in the United States.
• The Army–Navy Game at Soldier Field in Chicago ended in a 21–21 tie.
• The restoration of Colonial Williamsburg began in Williamsburg, Virginia.