November 1922


The following events occurred in November 1922:

November 1, 1922 (Wednesday)

November 2, 1922 (Thursday)

November 3, 1922 (Friday)

November 4, 1922 (Saturday)

  • British archaeologist Howard Carter and his workmen discovered the entrance to the Tomb of Tutankhamun near Al-Uqsur in southern Egypt. Carter would later write that his team had cleared the remains of workmen's huts that had been "used probably by the labourers in the tomb of Rameses" on November 3 and that "Hardly had I arrived on the work next morning than the usual silence, due to the stoppage of the work, made me realize that something extraordinary had happened, and I was greeted with the announcement that a step cut in the rock had been discovered underneath the very first hut to be attacked. This seemed to be good to be true... we were actually in the entrance of a steep cut in the rock, some thirteen feet below the entrance to the tomb of Rameses VI..." Carter sent a telegram to the expedition's sponsor, Lord Carnarvon, that said "At last have made wonderful discovery in Valley; a magnificent tomb with seals intact; re-covered same for your arrival; congratulations."
  • Ahmet Tevfik Pasha, the last Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, resigned after the Grand National Assembly of Turkey abolished the post along with the sultanate.
  • Former Turkish Interior Minister Ali Kemal was kidnapped from the barber shop of the luxurious Tokatlıyan Hotel in Istanbul on orders of General Nureddin Pasha, the military governor of Izmir.
  • The Alabama Crimson Tide defeated the previously unbeaten Penn Quakers, 9 to 7, a major upset and one of the most important wins in Alabama college football history.
  • Died: John William Gott, 56, British secularist and the last person to be convicted of blasphemy under British law, died less than three months after his release from prison.

November 5, 1922 (Sunday)

November 6, 1922 (Monday)

  • A coal mine explosion killed 79 workers at the Reilly No. 1 Mine in Spangler, Pennsylvania.
  • Born: Vivian Kellogg, American baseball player with 747 games in the AAGPBL, primarily for the Fort Wayne Daisies; in Jackson, Michigan
  • Died: Ali Kemal, 53, Turkish journalist and former Ottoman Minister of the Interior, kidnapped two days earlier, was lynched two days after while being transported to the gallows for execution. According to a reporter at the scene, "an angry mob of women pounced on him, attacking him with knives, stones, clubs, tearing at his clothing and slashing his body and head with cutlasses. After a few minutes of excruciating torture the victim expired."

November 7, 1922 (Tuesday)

November 8, 1922 (Wednesday)

  • Economic experts of the Berlin conference submitted a detailed report to the German government advising that Germany declare a two-year moratorium on reparations payments to avoid economic collapse.
  • Born: Christiaan Barnard, South African cardiac surgeon who performed the first successful heart transplant; in Beaufort West
  • Died: General Juan Carrasco, former Mexican Federal Army general who was leading a revolution to overthrow the government of President Álvaro Obregón, was killed in a battle with the Federales, along with seven of his men, near Guamuchil in Sinaloa state.

November 9, 1922 (Thursday)

  • The French Chamber of Deputies unanimously approved Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré's policy that France should not have to pay its war debts until it collected reparations due from Germany in turn.
  • Scotland Yard police commissioner William Horwood became ill after being poisoned when he ate a box of Walnut Whip chocolates thinking they were a birthday gift from his daughter. London's newspaper, the Daily Mail would leak a key clue kept secret by police in order to prevent false leads, revealing on November 11 that arsenic in the box of chocolates was the cause of the poisoning. The crime was eventually traced to Walter Tatam, a mentally ill man.
  • Born:
  • *Raymond Devos, Belgian humorist; in Mouscron
  • *Dorothy Dandridge, American actress, singer and dancer, in Cleveland, Ohio
  • Died: Lieutenant General Viktor Pokrovsky, 33, one of the surviving leaders of the White Army during the Russian Civil War, was killed by police while in exile in the Bulgarian city of Kyustendil. Pokrovsky reportedly resisted arrest by local law enforcement conducting a murder investigation.

November 10, 1922 (Friday)

  • Irish Republican Army official Erskine Childers was captured by Irish Free State forces as part of the nationwide roundup of IRA members. Childers was tried, convicted, and executed by firing squad two weeks later.
  • U.S. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon ordered the release of all 20 foreign vessels that had been seized at sea more than three miles from the coast of the United States, reversing a policy that had started on September 13 with the capture by the U.S. Coast Guard of the British schooner M. M. Gardner.
  • As part of the peace settlement of the Turkish victory in the Greco-Turkish War, the formerly Greek city of Sarànta Ekklisiès was turned over to Turkey. Initially renamed "Kırk Kilise" by the Turks, it received the designation of Kırklareli in 1924.

November 11, 1922 (Saturday)

  • An 8.5 magnitude earthquake struck Chile near the town of Vallenar at 04:32 UTC, killing at least 1,000 people, 500 within the town, and was followed 15 minutes later by a tsunami that killed hundreds more at the coastal town of Caldera.
  • The Oehmichen No.2, the first reliable flying helicopter capable of carrying a person, was given its first test flight by its inventor, French engineer Étienne Oehmichen, who built a machine using eight small vertically mounted rotors which rotated in the opposite direction from the large lifting rotors in order to maintain stability.
  • The Unknown Soldier of Belgium was interred in a mausoleum at the base of the Congress Column in Brussels on the third anniversary of the end of World War I.
  • In one of the biggest games of the 1922 [college football season], the two unbeaten and untied teams of the Ivy League, both 6-0-0, faced off at Harvard Stadium in Boston. The Princeton Tigers defeated the Harvard Crimson football team|Harvard Crimson], 10 to 3, marking their first victory over Harvard in 16 years. The Tigers finished at 8-0-0 the following week, having defeated Harvard, the 1922 [Chicago Maroons football team|University of Chicago], and Yale. Other unbeaten teams that would retroactively be declared contenders for the fictional national college football championship were Cornell University, Drake University, and the California Golden Bears.
  • Baseball star Babe Ruth and Jacob Ruppert, owner of the New York Yankees signed and initialed an addendum to his existing contract in which Ruth pledged to be more careful in his personal life in return for a waiver of fines of $9,100 assessed against him by the club. Ruth initialed a statement that "I'll promise to go easier on drinking and to get to bed earlier, but not for you, fifty thousand dollars, or two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars will I give up women. They're too much fun."
  • Born: Kurt Vonnegut, U.S. science fiction writer; in Indianapolis, Indiana

November 12, 1922 (Sunday)

  • The first public demonstration of radiation therapy with x-rays as a means of killing cancer cells was staged at the Crocker Cancer Research Center at Columbia University. "The new X-ray apparatus, built by the General Electric Company," The New York Times wrote, "is so powerful that no one is admitted to the room with it while it is producing rays," and ran on 200,000 electrical volts of current. The Times noted that "this machine can be used with great effectiveness in killing cancer cells in the internal organs. But it will kill other cells, too, and until the technic of its use is developed, there is danger that it will kill the patient as well as the disease, so that for the present at least it will not be used on human beings."
  • Regularly scheduled air service was inaugurated in Japan with a flight by a private carrier, Nippon Koku Yuso Kenkyujo or Japan Air Transport Institute began flying passengers over Osaka Bay between the airfields of Sakai and Tokushima on Shikoku island.
  • Sigma Gamma Rho sorority was founded at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana.

November 13, 1922 (Monday)

November 14, 1922 (Tuesday)

November 15, 1922 (Wednesday)

November 16, 1922 (Thursday)

November 17, 1922 (Friday)

  • The Irish Free State Army carried out its first executions under the Public Safety Bill, as four Irish Republican Army members, arrested for carrying weapons in violation of the law, were court-martialed and then shot by a firing squad at the Portobello Barracks. The men, sentenced to death rather than a fine or imprisonment for "unauthorized possession of revolvers," were identified as James Fisher, Peter Cassidy, Richard Tuohy and John Gaffney. Irish Minister of Defence Richard Mulcahy said that he had approved the executions and, after a protest by opposition member that "I prophesy there will be the greatest revulsion of feeling against the government and the army," Mulchahy said to applause, "People have to be shot. It was necessary to shock the country into a realization of the grave thing it is to take human life. These men were found in the streets carrying loaded revolvers ready to take the lives of other men. That's the simple case we have to put before the country.". He added "And we may do it again tomorrow. It is time for us to strike. There seems to be no alternative." In response to the executions, the IRA's Chief of Staff would issue an order directing the shooting of any government or military official associated with the Public Safety Bill.
  • The last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed VI, departed the Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul, boarded the British warship and went into exile. He insisted he was not abdicating but was merely leaving Turkey for his safety.
  • In Italy, Prime Minister Benito Mussolini and his government won a vote of confidence, 306 to 116.
  • The Swedish Ice Hockey Association, the governing body of all levels of ice hockey in Sweden, was founded.
  • Born:
  • *Stanley Cohen, U.S. biochemist and Nobel laureate; in Brooklyn, New York
  • *David S. Dodge, Lebanese-born American educator and president of the American University of Beirut who was kidnapped in 1982 and held hostage for a year; in Beirut

November 18, 1922 (Saturday)

  • Republican U.S. Senator Truman H. Newberry, facing expulsion from Congress because of the irregularities in his election and an incoming Senate that was mostly unfavorable to him, resigned from office, effective immediately. Newberry's vacant seat would be filled 11 days later by the appointment of Detroit Mayor James J. Couzens, a Republican, by the Governor of Michigan.
  • Former French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau arrived in the United States for a lecture tour on foreign policy and maintaining peace. Upon his arrival in New York he immediately received a telegram from Woodrow Wilson that read, "Allow me to bid you welcome to America where you will find none but friends."
  • The 60-member Supreme Council of Russian Monarchists concluded its five-day closed door session in Paris and elected Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich, former Commander in Chief of the Imperial Russian Army during World War I, as the successor to Tsar Nicholas II in the event that Russia were to overthrow the Soviet government and restore the monarchy. Grand Duke Nicholas was a cousin of the Tsar Alexander III, the father of the last Tsar.
  • The formerly Greek city of Makrá Géphura, located near Adrianople on the west side of the Bosporous Strait, was returned to Turkish control by the Allies after Adrianople was renamed as Edirne. Makrá Géphura reverted to its Turkish name of Uzunköprü. Both the Greek and Turkish language names referred to the "Long Bridge", at in length, the longest stone bridge in the world at the time.
  • Died: Marcel Proust, 51, French novelist and critic known for Remembrance of Things Past, died of a pulmonary abscess and pneumonia.

November 19, 1922 (Sunday)

  • Abdulmejid II, formerly the Crown Prince of the Ottoman Empire, was elected by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey at Ankara as the new Caliph of the Muslim people, receiving 148 of the 168 votes cast. Abdulmejid would serve for only two years before the abolition of the office in 1924.
  • The Kingdom of Bulgaria held a referendum on whether to amend existing law in order to prosecute former Bulgarian officials for war crimes. Voters approved the resolution by a margin of nearly 3-to-1.
  • Unemployed hunger marchers demonstrated in Trafalgar Square in London.
  • In the last matchup of the 1922 season between the two National Football League teams that remained unbeaten, the Canton Bulldogs season|Canton Bulldogs] were hosted by the Chicago Cardinals season|Chicago Cardinals] at Comiskey Park and won, 7 to 0, on a 35-yard pass from Lou Smyth to Norb Sacksteder. The Bulldogs' 20 to 3 win on the rematch a week later in Canton took the two game series, and the two wins proved to be the difference between Canton's first place finish and the Cardinals third place position at season's end..
  • More than 90 persons on the Mexican passenger ship Topolobampo died when the vessel capsized in the Gulf of California off of the coast of the state of Baja California. Only 34 of the 125 people on board were rescued.
  • Born: Yuri Knorozov, Ukrainian linguist and epigrapher who deciphered the hieroglyphic writing system used by the Maya civilization in Mexico; in Kharkiv, Ukrainian SSR
  • Died: Frank Bacon, 58, American stage actor and playwright.

November 20, 1922 (Monday)

November 21, 1922 (Tuesday)

  • The Conference of Lausanne opened in Switzerland, under the chairmanship of Lord Curzon, in order to form the terms for a peace treaty in Asia Minor to determine the border between Turkey and Greece. The Treaty of Lausanne would be signed on July 24, 1923. On the first day, Benito Mussolini angered Curzon and France's Raymond Poincaré by saying that Italy would support the Turkish demand that Russia participate fully in the conference.
  • Future Republic of Ireland Prime Minister Éamon de Valera narrowly escaped arrest by the Irish Free State Army, and possible execution, when soldiers raided the wrong house because of an incorrect number in the address. De Valera had been at the Dublin house of Count Plunkett, but a half-hour passed before the mistake in the house number was discovered.
  • The first legislative elections in British Burma took place for 80 of the 103 seats in the Legislative Council of Burma, with 21 other seats to be appointed by the British governor.
  • Eighty-seven-year-old Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia became the first woman to ever serve in the U.S. Senate, although she only served for 24 hours and the appointment was largely symbolic. Felton had enough time to make a speech to her fellow senators, saying, "When the women of the country come in and sit with you, though there may be but a very few in the next few years, I pledge to you that you will get ability, you will get integrity of purpose, you will get patriotism, and you will get unstinted usefulness."
  • Britain's Labour Party elected Ramsay MacDonald as its new leader.
  • The New York Times published its very first article about Adolf Hitler. The article explained Hitler's appeal to Germans, including his vicious anti-Semitism, but reported that "several reliable, well-informed sources confirmed the idea that Hitler's anti-Semitism was not so genuine or violent as it sounded, and that he was merely using anti-Semitic propaganda as bait to catch masses of followers."

November 22, 1922 (Wednesday)

November 23, 1922 (Thursday)

November 24, 1922 (Friday)

November 25, 1922 (Saturday)

  • The bill giving Benito Mussolini's government dictatorial power for a year was passed, 275 to 90. The Italian Chamber of Deputies approved granting full power to Mussolini and the cabinet of ministers in financial matters, to expire on December 31, 1923.
  • Born: Shelagh Fraser, English actress; in Purley, London

November 26, 1922 (Sunday)

November 27, 1922 (Monday)

November 28, 1922 (Tuesday)

November 29, 1922 (Wednesday)

November 30, 1922 (Thursday)

  • Liam Lynch, the Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army, issued the "orders of frightfulness", general orders to IRA members authorizing the assassination of officials of the Irish Free State government as a retaliation for the Free State's execution of captured IRA members. Seán Hales, a Teachta Dála became the first person killed under Lynch's order, seven days later. Lynch's order, titled "Enemy Murder Bill", declared that "All members of the Provisional 'Parliament' who were present and voted for the Murder Bill will be shot at sight. Houses of members... who are known to support Murder Bill will be destroyed. Free State army officers who approve of Murder Bill will be shot at sight; also all ex-British army officers and men who joined the Free State army since 6 December 1921." Lynch's order would last for five months until his shooting by Free State troops on April 10, 1923.
  • The British Ministry of Defence announced that it would withdraw all of its remaining troops from the Irish Free State beginning on December 12 and finishing by January 5, 1923.
  • Abdel Khalek Sarwat Pasha resigned as Prime Minister of Egypt and was succeeded by Mohamed Tawfik Naseem Pasha.
  • The United Kingdom closed its network of post offices in China that had been in place for more than 50 years. The offices, located in Amoy, Canton, Chefoo, Foochow, Hankow, Kiungchow, Ningpo, Shanghai, Swatow, and Tientsin had the authority to issue their own postage stamps and shipped mail to Hong Kong for forwarding.
  • At least 17 people were killed in battles between police and protesters in Mexico City as an angry mob tried to storm city hall and started a fire in anger over water rationing.
  • Hsuan Tung, the 17-year old former Emperor of China, married 16-year old Gobulo Wanrong in an elaborate ceremony in the Forbidden City section of Beijing, held by the government despite the abolition of the monarchy.
  • A crowd of 50,000 heard Adolf Hitler speak at a Nazi Party rally in Munich.
  • Born: John Raymond Smythies, British neuroscientist, in Nainital, United Provinces, British India
  • Died:
  • *James R. Mann, 66, U.S. Representative for Illinois since 1897, best known for authorship of the White-Slave Traffic Act of 1910, better-known as the "Mann Act", making the transportation of a woman across state lines for immoral purposes punishable as a federal crime.
  • *René Cresté, 40, French actor and director, died of tuberculosis
  • *Samuel Marx, 55, American politician who had won the November 7 election to represent the 19th Congressional District for New York, died of heart failure 23 days after his victory.
  • *George Auger, 40, Welsh-born performer with the Barnum and Bailey Circus who was billed as "The Cardiff Giant" and claimed to be 8 feet, 4 inches tall, died of indigestion at the home of friends in New York City. Auger, who probably stood no taller than 7'5", died just before he was to become a movie actor as a key figure in Harold Lloyd's comedy Why Worry?.