October 1920

October 1, 1920 (Friday)

• The 1920 Chilean presidential election was finally settled when the South American nation's Supreme Court ruled, 5 to 2, that Arturo Allesandri had been elected over Luis Barros Borgono by 177 electoral votes to 176. On October 4, a joint session of the National Congress proclaimed the election.
• Charles Ponzi was indicted on 86 counts of mail fraud.
• For the first time in decades, New York City residents were not required to change their dwellings for "Moving Day," and more than 90 percent of families elected to stay at their homes. On October 1, 1919, an estimated 75,000 New York families moved from one apartment to another as their leases expired; in 1920 it was only 5,000.
• Born:
• *Walter Matthau, American actor, Oscar Award and Tony Award winner; as Walter Matthow, in New York City
• *Charles Daudelin, Canadian sculptor; in Granby, Quebec

  October 2, 1920 (Saturday)

• King Alexander of Greece was injured by a monkey while walking through the grounds of the Tatoi Palace and developed a fatal infection as a result. The King was walking with his dog, Fritz, when a Barbary macaque came through and the two animals fought. While trying to rescue his dog, King Alexander suffered a deep bite from a second macaque. The wound became infected, and Alexander died of sepsis on October 25. Noting the disaster that followed when Alexander's death brought former King Constantine back to the throne, and the new government's disastrous war with Turkey, Winston Churchill would later write, "It is perhaps no exaggeration to remark that a quarter of a million persons died of this monkey's bite."
• Lord Curzon, the British Foreign Secretary, sent a warning to Soviet Foreign Minister Georgy Chicherin that Soviet submarines were seen in the Baltic Sea, and that the Royal Navy would attack Russian subs on sight.
• King Alfonso of Spain dissolved the Cortes, Spain's parliament, at the request of Prime Minister Dato because Dato's government did not have a majority.
• With two games left to play in the season, the Cleveland Indians clinched the American League pennant with a 10-1 win over the Detroit Tigers, guaranteeing that they would finish at least one game ahead of the Chicago White Sox, who had recently lost several of their star players to the Black Sox Scandal.
• The last tripleheader in major league baseball, with teams playing three nine-inning games on the same day, took place in Pittsburgh, as the Reds defeated the Pirates 13-4 and 7-3 in the first two games, and the Pirates won 6-0 in the final meeting of the day. With the victory, the Reds captured third place in the National League pennant race. The Friday game between the teams had been rained out, and, since the game would determine third place in the NL, the owners agreed to play it on the same day as Saturday's scheduled doubleheader, starting at noon rather than 2 o'clock.
• Born: Tun Tin, Burmese politician, Prime Minister of Burma; in Myitkyina, Burma Province, British Raj
• Died:
• *Max Bruch, 82, German romantic classical composer
• *William Young, 73, American author and playwright, best known for the adaptation of Ben-Hur
• *Winthrop M. Crane, 67, American politician, 40th governor of Massachusetts from 1900 to 1903, U.S. Senator for Massachusetts from 1904 to 1913

  October 3, 1920 (Sunday)

• The first games between NFL teams were played in the National Football League, called at the time the American Professional Football Association, between league members. At Dayton, Ohio, the Dayton Triangles hosted the Columbus Pan Handles at 2:30 in the afternoon. The Triangles won, 14 to 0, with Lou Partlow rushing for the first touchdown after halftime. In Rock Island, Illinois, the Rock Island Independents defeated the Muncie Flyers of Indiana, 45 to 0. Pudge Wyman made the first score within three minutes after kickoff by returning a blocked punt.
• The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, now the premier thoroughbred horse race in France, was inaugurated at Longchamp Racecourse at Paris, to be run annually on the first Sunday in October. Comrade, ridden by Frank Bullock, won the prize of 150,000 francs for the, a length ahead of King's Cross, and Plerus showing at third.
• Diego Manuel Chamorro, the uncle of the incumbent President of Nicaragua, Emiliano Chamorro Vargas, was elected president in balloting tainted by fraud. He succeeded his nephew on January 1.

  October 4, 1920 (Monday)

• A fire broke out on the world's biggest ocean liner, the German steamer SS Bismarck, severely damaging it while it was still under construction at the Hamburg shipyard. The ship had been launched in 1914 for the Hamburg America Line, but its completion was delayed by the First World War. Under the Treaty of Versailles, it was required to be turned over to British control as part of Germany's war reparations, and would be commissioned in 1922 as RMS Majestic.
• The Mannerheim League for Child Welfare, a Finnish non-governmental organization, was founded on the initiative of Sophie Mannerheim.
• Born: Charles Burrell, called "the Jackie Robinson of Classical Music;" for being the first African American to become a member of a major symphony orchestra, in Toledo, Ohio

  October 5, 1920 (Tuesday)

• At Riga in Latvia, Soviet Russia signed an armistice with Poland, with both sides agreeing to a ceasefire in the Polish–Soviet War to take effect on March 7.
• A mob of 50 men in Macclenny, Florida, went to the Baker County Jail, overpowered the county sheriff, and then removed three African American men who had been arrested on charges of complicity in the October 3 killing of a white farmer, John Harvey. Rayfield Gibbons, Ben Givens, and Fulton Smith were taken to the outskirts of town, tied to trees and shot to death. Another black man not accused in the murder, Sam Duncan, was shot to death later in the day. Two white men suspected of participating in the lynching, Frank Conner and Frank Darley, were killed execution style near MacClenny on October 20. The county sheriff said in a statement that the two white men "were killed by unidentified white men seeking revenge for White's murder." The person believed by police to be White's killer, Jim Givens, was never brought to trial, although arrests were made of African American men in Fruitdale, Alabama and in Marianna, Florida on suspicion that Givens had been located.
• The American University in Cairo opened in Egypt with 142 students enrolling in its College of Arts and Sciences, Classes were equivalent to the last two years of high school and the first two years of University.
• The American Ship and Commerce Corporation bought a controlling interest in the Hamburg-American cruise ship line.
• Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company took out an option for $335,000 for the commercial rights for Edwin Howard Armstrong's patents on the regenerative circuit and superheterodyne receiver, with an additional $200,000 to be paid if Armstrong prevailed in the regenerative patent dispute. Westinghouse exercised this option on November 4, 1920.
• Austria's Federal Constitutional Law, the Bundes-Verfassungsgesetz, was promulgated, declaring Austria to be a federal republic and creating a bicameral legislature, the Bundesversammlung which would elect the President to a four-year term. The upper house and the lower house both had proportional representation.
• Born:
• *Jake Gaudaur, Canadian football player, Commissioner of the Canadian Football League from 1968 to 1984; in Orillia, Ontario
• *Vincent DeRosa, American jazz musician and French horn player; in Kansas City, Missouri
• Died:
• *William Heinemann, 57, English publisher, founder of the Heinemann Publishing Group
• *C. N. Williamson, 61, British novelist, best known for his books and stories written in collaboration with his wife Alice Muriel Williamson

  October 6, 1920 (Wednesday)

• The feasibility of flying an airplane at any time of day — and of a virtually fireproof aircraft— was demonstrated with the landing, at midnight, of an airplane equipped with powerful arc lamps bright enough for the pilot to illuminate a landing site while making an approach to an airport. Because arc lighting was a fire hazard, the test also demonstrated that an aircraft could make a safe approach even while the metal was ablaze. The "fireproof" airplane touched down at Roosevelt Field at Mineola, New York, on Long Island for what the Associated Press described as "one of the most important developments in aviation since the Armistice" of two years earlier. Since the invention of the airplane in 1903, flying after dusk had been too dangerous to attempt. The invention of Parker B. Bradley, the "Bradley Day Light" would later be superseded by illumination less susceptible to causing a fire.
• On the same day, the U.S. Navy made its first public demonstration of the new magnetized Ambrose Channel pilot cable navigational aid, guiding the destroyer USS Semmes solely by instruments through the Ambrose Channel of the Narrows of New York Harbor. and introducing the first technology that would allow ships to sail into New York during heavy fog rather than to wait outside for the fog to clear. Although the invention raised the possibility of wireless cables to guide automobiles and other vehicles, the cable would be superseded only a few years later by wireless radio beacons.
• For the first time in eight years, a passenger train from Mexico was allowed to cross into the United States, as President-elect Álvaro Obregón traveled from Ciudad Juárez to El Paso, Texas, for a visit. After being greeted by the city mayor, General Obregon and his staff were driven to the Hotel Paso del Norte.
• Born: Pietro Consagra, Italian abstract sculptor, co-founder of the Forma group of Italian artists; in Mazara del Vallo