April 1923


The following events occurred in April 1923:

April 1, 1923 (Sunday)

  • The romantic comedy film Safety Last!, starring Harold Lloyd and Mildred Davis, premiered at the Strand Theatre in New York City. This film features one of the most famous scenes of the silent movie era: Lloyd clutching the hands of a large clock while dangling from the outside of a skyscraper. A reviewer for The New York Times wrote, "Harold Lloyd's latest effort is filled with laughs and gasps... Although laughter follows quickly on the heels of each thrill, the thrill lasts long enough for a man to feel that dizzy feeling when looking down from a height of twelve stories."
  • Great Britain began the numbering of the nation's highways and published a list of those for which signs would be placed.
  • France reduced the length of compulsory military service from two years to 18 months.
  • Four directors of the Krupp works were arrested by French authorities and charged with inciting their workers in the altercation of the previous day.
  • A woman at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City broke the existing record for longest marathon dance, stopping at 9:57 in the evening after having danced continuously for 27 consecutive hours. Alma Stappenback Cummings, 32, of San Antonio, Texas, went through six different partners, each of whom quit from exhaustion. After breaking Victor Hindmarch's record of 25 hours set in March, Ms. Cummings went two hours more before quitting, and won the prize by the sponsors. The record would be surpassed two weeks later.
  • Died: Prince Naruhisa Kitashirakawa of Japan, 35; killed in an auto accident while in France, as he drove through the Paris suburb of Perriers-la-Campagne

April 2, 1923 (Monday)

  • Paterson F.C. of Paterson, New Jersey won the U.S Football Association title, emblematic of the American national soccer football championship. The victory came, not on the field, but "at the office of Thomas Cahill, secretary of the U. S. F. A., 126 Nassau Street" in New York City the day after Paterson and the defending champions, St. Louis Scullin Steel F.C. had played to a 2 to 2 draw in the [1922–23 National Challenge Cup|National 1922–23 Northern Rugby Football League season|Challenge Cup Final]. "Late in the afternoon," The New York Times noted, "the announcement was made that the Scullins, champions for 1922, forfeited their right to the championship and yielded the title to the Paterson football club," following deliberations in person and by telegram between four members of a committee of officials. The day before, Paterson had overcome a 0 to 2 deficit with two goals in the final 25 minutes, the tying score coming in the 84th minute of play, "six minutes from full-time", when John "Rabbit" Hemingsley got the ball past St. Louis goalkeeper Harry "Dutch" Oellerman. After two extra periods, the game had been called because of darkness and a replay ordered for April 8 in Harrison. With four stars of St. Louis being professional baseball players as well, and three other players injured, Manager A. J. Brady announced that the team would surrender its title.
  • The day after the arrest by the French Army of four directors of Germany's Krupp arms factory, 50,000 employees threatened to go on strike if the men were not released.
  • Born:
  • *Alice Haylett, American professional baseball pitcher for the Grand Rapids Chicks in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, 1948 league leader in earned run average leader and wins ; in Coldwater, Michigan, United States
  • *Gloria Henry, American actress, best known for her role as Alice Mitchel in the sitcom Dennis the Menace; as Gloria Eileen McEniry, in New Orleans, United States
  • *Yolanda Marculescu, Romanian opera soprano and diva of the Romanian National Opera; as Iolanda Mărculescu, in Bucharest, Kingdom of Romania
  • *G. Spencer-Brown, English polymath; as George Spencer-Brown, in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England
  • Died: Osman Agca, 39-40, Turkish politician and former adviser to Turkish leader Kemal Ataturk; killed along with 12 of his followers during an attempt to arrest him for the March 27 murder of parliamentary deputy Ali Chukri Bey

April 3, 1923 (Tuesday)

April 4, 1923 (Wednesday)

April 5, 1923 (Thursday)

April 6, 1923 (Friday)

April 7, 1923 (Saturday)

  • Nine Irish Republicans were reported killed when government troops surrounded a house where they were meeting in Glencar, County Kerry.
  • Land mines blew up a bridge in Dublin; two bridges over the River Fane were also blown up.
  • The Soviet Union issued a statement distancing itself from the William Z. Foster affair, saying it took "no responsibility" for the actions of American communists because "the Russian government does not direct the affairs, plans or theories of the international communist contingent."
  • Born: Mumtaz Begum, Indian character actress in Bollywood films; in Bombay, British India

April 8, 1923 (Sunday)

April 9, 1923 (Monday)

April 10, 1923 (Tuesday)

  • General Liam Lynch, the Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army, was fatally wounded in an ambush by the Irish Free State Army at the Knockmealdown Mountains in County Tipperary, a pivotal moment that would bring an end to the Irish Civil War. Lynch and six IRA officials had learned that a unit of the National Army had discovered the location of his headquarters, and fled to prevent important papers from falling into the hands of the Free State. As the seven IRA members were avoiding the first unit, they ran into another Free State Army of 50 members approaching from the opposite direction. Lynch was struck by a rifle shot and ordered his men, including his aides Frank Aiken and Moss Twomey, to leave him behind and to get the documents to the rest of the IRA leadership. When the Free State party arrived to arrest him, Lynch was dying and asked to see a priest and a doctor. Wounded early in the morning, Lynch died at 8:45 in the evening.
  • The Conservative government of British Prime Minister Bonar Law was defeated on a snap vote in the House of Commons, taken with many members absent following a dull debate on civil service estimates. With 283 present in the 615-member body, a Labour Party motion of confidence in the Law government was made; 138 members voted in favor of Law, and 145 against. Labour members gleefully called on the government to resign, but few took the vote seriously.
  • The government of Turkey approved a concession to give the U.S. exclusive rights to develop oil fields and railway lines, after negotiations by a syndicate led by retired U.S. Navy Admiral Colby Mitchell Chester. Because of an estimate that the concession would require $300 million U.S. dollars to develop the concession, the U.S. Senate declined to ratify the treaty and Turkey rescinded the offer.
  • The first ban on marathon dancing was issued in Sunderland, England when the mayor invoked an existing local regulation. The magistrate called the fad "an idiotic idea, verging on lunacy."
  • Born:
  • *Sir David Rose, Governor-General of Guyana from 1966 until his death in an accident in 1969; in Mahaica, British Guiana
  • *Major General Sergey Kramarenko, Soviet Air Force flying ace in World War II and the Korean War; in Kalinovka, Ukrainian SSR
  • Died: Stuyvesant Fish, 71, American railway entrepreneur and president of the Illinois Central Railroad

April 11, 1923 (Wednesday)

April 12, 1923 (Thursday)

April 13, 1923 (Friday)

April 14, 1923 (Saturday)

April 15, 1923 (Sunday)

  • Nihon Shōgakkō fire: 10 Japanese-American children were killed in a racially motivated arson attack on a Japanese Buddhist mission boarding school in Sacramento, California, by an itinerant Mexican-American serial arsonist.
  • The "Phonofilm", Lee de Forest's revolutionary sound-on-film technique, was introduced to the public with three short movies at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City. While many of the spectators expected "that Mr. de Forest's invention showing a film synchronized with voices would also be the object of their attention", what was shown was people dancing to music. Although "the time of the music with the dancing was perfect", a reporter for The New York Times noted, "the music itself was not keenly interesting inasmuch as it sounded just about the same as that from the average phonograph record." The first picture was The Gavotte, which "showed a man and woman dancing to old-time music", and "while one could hear the instruments being played for the dancers, one could not hear the slightest sound of a footfall." The second feature, "The Serenade" showed four musicians playing wind, percussion and string instruments, and the final one was "an Egyptian dancer, the tones from the phonofilm keeping perfect time with the graceful movements of the dancing girl on the screen." The Phonofilm demonstration was followed by the feature attraction for the moviegoers, Bella Donna, starring Pola Negri.
  • The government of the Republic of Turkey issued the "Law of Abandoned Properties", authorizing the transfer to the government of any properties whose owners were not present, regardless of the reason, by a court-appointed person given power of attorney to sign on the absent owner's behalf.
  • Insulin first became widely available for diabetes patients in North America.
  • Several popular drama films of the year were released on the same day, with Enemies of Women, starring Lionel Barrymore and Alma Rubens; The West~Bound Limited with Ralph Lewis, Claire McDowell, Johnny Harron, and Ella Hall; and The Trail of the Lonesome Pine.
  • Born: Anthony F. C. Wallace, Canadian-born American anthropologist who postulated the theory of the revitalization movement describing cultural change; in Toronto

April 16, 1923 (Monday)

  • The Armenian State Committee of Cinema was founded by decree of the Soviet Union's State Committee for Cinematography, Goskino, to finance the filming and distribution of Armenian language films. Its studio, Armenfilm, would produce its first film, the documentary Soviet Armenia, the following year, followed by its first dramatic work, Namus.
  • Eleven housing officials in Moscow were condemned to death for taking bribes.
  • The government of British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin presented its budget for the year. Revenues were higher than forecast so taxes on income and beer sales were cut.

April 17, 1923 (Tuesday)

  • Irish troops captured Dan Breen and a number of other Irish Republicans without resistance at the Glen of Aherlow.
  • The record for the a dance marathon was broken for the fourth time in a week. On April 14, six couples in Baltimore went for 53 hours before being stopped by police. The next day, Magdalene Williams was the winner of a marathon in Houston after 65 hours and 30 minutes Two days later, Madeline Gottschick danced for 65 hours and 54 minutes in Cleveland, ending at 8:54 a.m. Meanwhile, an unusual traveling dance marathon, conducted in a truck that traveled through New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, moving each time that police arrived to enforce state law, ended with Vera Sheppard dancing for an even 69 hours. Records had been reported since March 6 with the first marathon in Sunderland in England.
  • Voters in a referendum approved the incorporation of the new city of Riverdale, New Jersey.
  • Born: Muhammad Atta-ullah Faizani, Afghan Islamic scholar and political activist; in Herat
  • Died: William John Murphy, 83, American real estate magnate known for creating the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona in 1891, initially as a haven for persons opposed to the sale of alcohol.

April 18, 1923 (Wednesday)

April 19, 1923 (Thursday)

  • King Fouad I of Egypt promulgated the nation's first constitution, providing for a bicameral national parliament made up of a 214-member Chamber of Deputies and a Senate, along with a Prime Minister and cabinet of ministers who were accountable to the parliament and the King.
  • Five people were killed and at least 40 wounded in fighting in the German city of Mülheim, where a mob had blockaded the Rathaus, Mulheim's city hall. By the time the siege was ended the next day, nine people were dead, 70 injured, and 40 rebels had been arrested.
  • Clarence H. DeMar won his second consecutive Boston Marathon, and his third overall.

April 20, 1923 (Friday)

April 21, 1923 (Saturday)

  • Italy celebrated the Founding of Rome as a holiday for the first time as 50,000 Fascists in black shirts marched in military formation through the streets of Rome "winding their way through the streets past the Roman Forum, the Colisseum, the Baths of Caracalla and through the Triumphal Arch of Titus" to reach a large open field. According to tradition, the city of Rome had been founded in 753 BC and the 2,676th anniversary was made by decree to be the official labor day holiday. Benito Mussolini had May Day festivities replaced with this holiday instead, suppressing International Workers' Day.

April 22, 1923 (Sunday)

April 23, 1923 (Monday)

April 24, 1923 (Tuesday)

  • Thirty-one of the 237 people on the Portuguese steamer Mossamedes died when the ship capsized off the shore of Cabo Frio in South-West Africa
  • *Georgy Morozov, Soviet-Russian World War II hero; in Upryamovo
  • *Freddy Bienstock, Swiss-born American music publishing executive who solicited material for use by Elvis Presley

April 25, 1923 (Wednesday)

April 26, 1923 (Thursday)

April 27, 1923 (Friday)

April 28, 1923 (Saturday)

  • Wembley Stadium hosted its first event, the FA Cup Final. Bolton Wanderers beat West Ham United, 2 to 0, in front of a 126,047 paying customers, though estimates place the actual number at around 200,000 as approximately 75,000 fans scaled the venue's inadequate barriers and gained free admission. Reportedly, more than 1,000 people were injured in as the crowd spilled over onto the playing area. The game was almost canceled, but officials feared that doing so would cause a riot and so a police contingent led by PC George Scorey slowly coaxed the crowd off the pitch before the match could start.
  • The German ocean liner SS Deutschland was launched.
  • Leeds defeated Hull F.C. 28-3 to win the Challenge Cup of rugby at Belle Vue, Wakefield.
  • Born: Bill Hutchison, Australian rules football star and one of the first enshrined legends in the Hall of Fame; in Kensington, Victoria
  • Died:
  • *Knute Nelson, 80, U.S. Senator from Minnesota since 1895, and previously a U.S. Congressman and the state's Governor, died as he was taking a train shortly back to his home in Alexandria, Minnesota, shortly after departing from Baltimore.
  • *Daniel J. Riordan, 52, U.S. Representative for New York since 1906

April 29, 1923 (Sunday)

April 30, 1923 (Monday)