October 1922


The following events occurred in October 1922:

October 1, 1922 (Sunday)

October 2, 1922 (Monday)

October 3, 1922 (Tuesday)

October 4, 1922 (Wednesday)

October 5, 1922 (Thursday)

October 6, 1922 (Friday)

  • At the direction of U.S. President Warren G. Harding, U.S. Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty ordered liquor off of all American ships throughout the world and prohibited foreign ships carrying liquor from entering American waters. The new regulations went into effect eight days later, on October 14. A Supreme Court decision in 1923 would allow American ships three miles outside of American waters to sell liquor.
  • Two U.S. Army pilots set a new record by staying in the air for almost one-and-a-half days, landing at Rockwell Field in California, near San Diego at 5:11 in the afternoon, 35 hours and 18 minutes after they had gone up from the same field before six in the morning the day before. During their time in the air, John A. Macready and Oakley G. Kelly spent the time circling San Diego in a Fokker T-2 monoplane and had enough fuel to stay aloft longer but chose to land before sunset. The previous record had been 26 hours.

October 7, 1922 (Saturday)

  • The United Kingdom and France agreed to Turkey's demand to be allowed to annex Eastern Thrace, formerly Greek territory that had been conquered by Turkey in the Greco-Turkish War, on condition that Greek troops in the area be allowed 30 days to withdraw while Allied troops occupied the region. The move came a day after Ismet Inonu issued a demand on behalf of Turkey to allow troops to occupy Eastern Thrace immediately.
  • Mrs. Rebecca Latimer Felton became the first woman to be appointed as a United States Senator, as Georgia Governor Thomas W. Hardwick presented the necessary papers to signify her appointment to replace the late Thomas E. Watson, who had died on September 26. In that there were no scheduled sessions remaining for the U.S. Senate, Governor Hardwick requested U.S. President Warren G. Harding to call a special session of Congress in order for Mrs. Felton, the 87-year-old widow of former Congressman William H. Felton, to take office. The session took place on November 21 and Mrs. Felton was sworn in for a single day. Walter F. George, who had defeated Hardwick in a special senatorial election on October 17, was sworn in the next day.
  • Antonín Švehla became Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia.
  • Died: Marie Lloyd, 52, English music hall singer

October 8, 1922 (Sunday)

  • The New York Giants defeated the New York Yankees 5 to 3, to win their second straight World Series, four games to none with one tie.
  • Miss Lillian Gatlin arrived in an airplane at 5:45 in the evening at Curtiss Field near Mineola, New York, becoming the first woman to cross the continental United States in an airplane, albeit as a passenger. The De Havilland 400 horsepower airplane was piloted by Elmer G. Leonhardt from San Francisco to New York City with nine stops in between, in order to support her unsuccessful campaign to have March 2 of every year to be a holiday to commemorate the death of U.S. flyers.

October 9, 1922 (Monday)

  • Nineteen-year-old Clifford Hayes was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the Hall-Mills case. He would be released a month later and his accuser charged with perjury.
  • The comic strip Fritzi Ritz, written and drawn by Larry Whittington, first appeared in newspapers as an offering of United Feature Syndicate. On May 14, 1925, the strip was taken over by Ernie Bushmiller, and on January 2, 1933, a new character, Fritzi's 8-year-old niece Nancy, was introduced, gradually becoming the focus of the daily strip, which was renamed for her. Fritzi Ritz continued as a Sunday comic until 1967.
  • Born:
  • *Major General Asaf Simhoni, Israeli Defense Forces commander in the successful Sinai War in 1956, but who died in an accident while on his way back from the victory parade; in Nahalal
  • *Fyvush Finkel, American actor, in Brooklyn, New York City
  • *Olga Guillot, Cuban singer, in Santiago de Cuba
  • *Alan R. White, Canadian-born British analytic philosopher; in Toronto

October 10, 1922 (Tuesday)

  • Great Britain and Iraq signed the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1922 to create "Irak" as an independent kingdom from former Ottoman Empire territory within the League of Nations Mandate for Mesopotamia. Iraq was allowed limited self-government while Britain controlled its foreign relations.
  • Members of the Irish Republican Army were condemned by bishops of the Roman Catholic Church of Ireland and an order was issued to deny the sacraments of the Church to rebels, and threatening to suspend priests who aided rebels. The decision came after the meeting of the bishops at St Patrick's College, Maynooth near Dublin. "It is most inconceivable how decent irish boys could degenerate so tragically and reconcile such methods of criminality with their duties to God and Ireland," the bishops stated in a pastoral letter to Ireland's Catholic churches.
  • The Karenni States were placed under the administration of the Federated Shan States, established in 1900 within the northeastern portion of the British Empire's colony of Burma to handle the various princely states as one geographical unit. The federation would be split into the Shan State and the Kayah State in 1948 with the founding of the independent Union of Burma.
  • In the U.S., the acquisition by Bethlehem Steel of the Lackawanna Steel Company was finalized and made Bethlehem the second-largest steel company in the world. U.S. Steel remained the largest company.
  • PWX began broadcasting in Havana as the first regular radio station in Cuba.
  • Born:
  • *Merv Pregulman, American football player, businessman and philanthropist, inductee to the College Football Hall of Fame; in Lansing, Michigan
  • *Wilhelmina Holladay, American art collector and co-founder of the National Museum of Women in the Arts; in Elmira, New York
  • Died:
  • *Arnold Ehret, 56, German-born U.S. nutritionist and alternative health medicine advocate of the "mucusless diet"; from a head injury sustained when he fell while walking
  • *Luisa Capetillo, 42, Puerto Rican labor organizer and women's rights advocate; from tuberculosis

October 11, 1922 (Wednesday)

  • The Armistice of Mudanya was signed after midnight between Turkey and the Allied powers to end the Greco-Turkish War, after an agreement was reached between the parties at 11:00 pm local time the day before in the town of Mudanya in Turkey. İsmet İnönü signed on behalf of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey while Lieutenant General Charles Harington Harington and French General Charles Antoine Charpy signed for Britain and France, respectively. Greece would agree to recognize Turkish claims to Smyrna and eastern Thrace and was given 15 days to withdraw west of the Maritsa River. A mass exodus began in Thrace, as Greeks and Armenians who feared living under the Turks fled westward. In return, Turkey agreed to abolish the Sultanate permanently and to exile 150 former Ottoman Empire officials.
  • Fascists invaded the offices of the Housing Commissioner in Rome and had all the women clerks dismissed and replaced with ex-service men. The Fascists sent a letter to Prime Minister Facta stating they had taken justice into their own hands.
  • Born:
  • *Thomas Hal Phillips, American novelist and screenwriter; in Alcorn County, Mississippi
  • *Nonda, Greek painter and sculptor; in Athens
  • Died: Anton Kolm, 57, Austrian film director

October 12, 1922 (Thursday)

October 13, 1922 (Friday)

October 14, 1922 (Saturday)

  • The government of Greece acceded to the terms of the October 11 Armistice of Mudanya, ceding Greece's territories east of the Maritsa River to Turkey, including Adrianople, Dardanella, Sarànta Ekklisiès and Rhaedestos.
  • The conspirators in the Walther Rathenau assassination who were still alive were given sentences of up to 15 years in prison. Ernst Werner Techow received the maximum penalty.
  • A group of terrorists of the U.S. Ku Klux Klan kidnapped Theodore Schierlman, the mayor of the small town of Liberty, Kansas from his office after he had publicly denounced the Klan, took him four miles out of town and beat him with a whip 30 times before warning him of a worse fate if he spoke out again. Kansas Governor Henry J. Allen ordered an investigation by the state attorney general and said "The responsibility rests on the shoulders of those who employ the disguise and preach the right of mobs to take the law in their hands."
  • Born: Eugene Goldwasser, American biochemist who developed the process to synthesize the hormone erythropoietin to produce red blood cells as a cure for anemia; in Brooklyn, New York

October 15, 1922 (Sunday)

October 16, 1922 (Monday)

October 17, 1922 (Tuesday)

  • U.S. Navy Lieutenant Virgil C. Griffin became the first pilot to make a takeoff from an American aircraft carrier, departing from the carrier USS Langley in a VE-7 "Bluebird" biplane and landing at an airfield. Eugene Ely had been the first to pilot an airplane off of a U.S. ship, departing from a "temporary platform" long, erected over the bow of the light cruiser USS Birmingham on November 14, 1910, before the first aircraft carriers had been built.
  • The first Los Angeles County Fair, one of the largest county fairs in the United States, began six days of operation, taking place in the county at Pomona, California.
  • All 29 crew of the Netherlands steamer Cornelis drowned when the ship and its lifeboats sank in a gale while grounded on rocks in the Gulf of Bothnia near Sweden. Reportedly, the captain refused offers of aid from persons on shore, and the ship was unreachable when the gale reached it.
  • The U.S. Army's largest airship, the dirigible C-2, exploded and was destroyed by fire as it was preparing for takeoff at Brooks Field near San Antonio, Texas. C-2, with hydrogen gas providing its buoyancy, had been on its way back from California to Virginia after making the first transcontinental flight across the U.S. in September. Seven of the eight crew on board were injured when they jumped from the hangar.
  • With no prospect of salvage, the ruined ocean liner SS City of Honolulu was deliberately sunk by the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Shawnee off of the California coast, five days after its passengers and crew were rescued from a fire at sea.
  • Born: Luiz Bonfá, Brazilian composer and guitarist; in Rio de Janeiro

October 18, 1922 (Wednesday)

October 19, 1922 (Thursday)

October 20, 1922 (Friday)

  • U.S. Army test pilot Harold R. Harris became the first pilot to make an emergency escape of a falling airplane by parachute, bailing out after his Loening airplane went out of control over Dayton, Ohio. He landed in the backyard of a house at 335 Troy Street. His plane crashed at 403 Valley Street, a few blocks away, without injuring bystanders. Passengers had parachuted from piloted airplanes in non-emergencies since 1911. The Caterpillar Club, created by two Dayton reporters to honor persons "who have successfully used a parachute to bail out of a disabled aircraft", admitted Harris as its first member.
  • Born:
  • *Franco Ventriglia, American opera singer; in Fairfield, Connecticut
  • *Gaositwe Chiepe, one of the most powerful women in the African nation of Botswana and its Foreign Minister from 1984 to 1994; in the Bechuanaland Protectorate
  • Died:
  • *Freeman Thorpe, 78, American portrait painter who was commissioned for portraits of five U.S. presidents and other famous Americans
  • *Count Stephan Burián von Rajecz, 71, Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister during World War I
  • *Carl Strehlow, 50, German-born Australian anthropologist and missionary; from dropsy.
  • *Adam "Stovepipe" Johnson, 88, American frontiersman and Confederate Army general, blinded during the Civil War

October 21, 1922 (Saturday)

October 22, 1922 (Sunday)

  • An arsonist killed 15 people by setting fire to a five-story apartment building in New York City early in the morning.
  • Italy's Minister of War, Marcello Soleri, concerned that the Fascists would attempt a takeover of the government, issued an order to all military commanders to be prepared to assume necessary powers for the defense of Rome and the maintenance of public order, but did not receive support from Prime Minister Facta.
  • In Berlin, German engineer Heinrich Schieferstein demonstrated "the tickless clock... one of the boons promised humanity" at a press conference, a noiseless timepiece operated with an oscillating motor.
  • Brazil won the South American Championship of football with a 3–0 win over Paraguay.
  • Born: John Chafee, Governor of Rhode Island, U.S. Secretary of the Navy and later U.S. Senator; in Providence, Rhode Island

October 23, 1922 (Monday)

October 24, 1922 (Tuesday)

  • Benito Mussolini made a speech to 60,000 of his Blackshirt followers at the annual Fascist Party convention in Naples declaring, "Either we are allowed to govern, or we will seize power by marching on Rome." The march began three days later and brought Mussolini to power by the end of the week.
  • Germany's Reichstag voted, 310 to 77, to postpone the 1924 presidential elections for one year, due to unrest in the nation, and to extend the term of President Friedrich Ebert further, to June 30, 1925, though Ebert would die before the completion of his term.
  • Former German chancellor Bernhard von Bülow gave his first interview in seven years, in which he said there was no chance for the monarchy to be restored in Germany because "The republican majority is stronger than the nationalists." Of the country's economic problems he said that they "may lead to local riots, but from all I know of the German people I can say that they are too fond of quiet and order to allow bolshevism to sway the country."
  • Born:
  • *Werner Buchholz, German-born American computer scientist who coined the term "byte" to describe the number of bits necessary to create a single character in a computer; in Detmold
  • *Ratilal Chandaria, Kenyan-born Indian philanthropist an industrialist who modernized the Gujarati language; in Nairobi
  • Died: George Cadbury, 83, British businessman and philanthropist

October 25, 1922 (Wednesday)

October 26, 1922 (Thursday)

October 27, 1922 (Friday)

October 28, 1922 (Saturday)

  • The first nationally broadcast football game was transmitted by KYW in Chicago and WEAF in New York City as the Princeton University Tigers and the University of Chicago Maroons, both unbeaten, played in Chicago. The Maroons had an 18 to 7 lead until the fourth quarter, and Princeton came back to win, 21 to 18.
  • King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy refused to grant the still-acting Prime Minister Luigi Facta's request to declare martial law, on the advice of his generals, who warned that the army might not obey orders to fire on the Fascists. Instead, the king invited Mussolini to come to Rome and discuss the political situation.
  • Antrim Castle in Northern Ireland, the home of Parliamentary Secretary Algernon Skeffington, 12th Viscount Massereene, caught fire while guests were being entertained and was a total loss. All but one of the guests was able to escape but a maid died in the blaze. The ruins would remain standing for almost 50 years before their demolition in 1970.
  • Born: Butch van Breda Kolff, American basketball player and coach, in Glen Ridge, New Jersey

October 29, 1922 (Sunday)

  • Benito Mussolini departed Milan for Rome on an overnight train upon receiving word that he would be asked to form a new government. The "Era Fascista" marked October 29 as day 1 of Anno I in the official calendar indtroduced in Anno V. The Fascist regime would last until Anno XX.
  • Elections were held in Switzerland for the 198-member National Council. The Free Democratic Party of Federal Chancellor Adolf von Steiger won a plurality of seats with 60.
  • The Greek Army completed its withdrawal from Eastern Thrace, conceding the territory as its loss to Turkey in the Greco-Turkish War.
  • Born: Neal Hefti, U.S. jazz trumpeter, composer, songwriter and arranger; in Hastings, Nebraska

October 30, 1922 (Monday)

  • Benito Mussolini arrived in Rome at 10:50 a.m., spoke with King Victor Emmanuel for an hour and then went to a hotel where he made a speech from the balcony, saying, "The Fascisti are completely victorious. I have come to Rome not only to give Italy a ministry but a true government. In a few hours you will have such a government. Long live King Victor Emmanuel! Long live victorious Italy! Long live the Fascisti!" By 3 p.m. the members of the coalition cabinet had been chosen, and at 7 p.m. Mussolini and his ministers were sworn in.
  • The Frank Lloyd-directed film Oliver Twist, starring Jackie Coogan and Lon Chaney, was released.
  • Died: Géza Gárdonyi, 59, Hungarian writer and journalist

October 31, 1922 (Tuesday)