February 18, 1930: Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovers a ninth planet, PlutoFebruary 13, 1930: Charles Evans Hughes, who lost the 1916 U.S. presidential election to Woodrow Wilson, confirmed as new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to replace William Howard Taft, who lost the 1912 U.S. presidential election to Woodrow WilsonFebruary 21, 1930: Camille Chautemps becomes Prime Minister of France, government collapses 10 days later
The following events occurred in February 1930:
Saturday, February 1, 1930
The Soviet Union continued its crackdown on kulaks as it issued a decree forbidding kulak households to sell their property and leave their district before authorities got around to expropriating their assets.[1]
A bomb was found at the British Museum, and was attributed to Indian nationalists.[2]
A controversial plaque was unveiled in Sarajevo honoring Gavrilo Princip, the assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. The plaque was located at the site of the assassination and bore an inscription saying that Princip had initiated liberty there on June 28, 1914. The Yugoslav government disavowed any connection to the plaque and said it was a private memorial.[citation needed]
The Prussian Minister of the Interior, Albert Grzesinski, forbade members of subversive parties and organizations to hold leading positions in local government. The regulation was mainly aimed at Nazis and Communists.[8]
The American School of the Air, the first half-hour educational radio program, made its debut on the CBS Radio Network at 2:30 in the afternoon Eastern time, to be listened to on radios in school classrooms nationwide. [9] The program would run until 1948.
Wednesday, February 5, 1930
Pascual Ortiz, sworn in and wounded on same day
Pascual Ortiz Rubio became President of Mexico. Two hours after Ortiz took the oath of office, a gunman fired six shots at the presidential car, wounding him in the jaw. The assailant was quickly arrested.[10] Serving in a figurehead role for Plutarco Elias Calles, Ortiz would resign the presidency on September 4, 1932.
The Opium Commission of the League of Nations adopted a global resolution that only enough opium would be produced as was necessary for medicinal purposes.[15]
Born:Alejandro Rey, Argentine-born U.S. film and TV actor and television director, in Buenos Aires (died of lung cancer, 1987)[17]
Sunday, February 9, 1930
A riot broke out at Vincennes race track in Paris when an angry crowd stormed the track and began tearing it down, believing that certain races were being fixed.[18]
The Vatican sent a note to bishops and clergy around the world instructing them to deny rites such as holy communion, baptism and confirmation to women dressed in immodest attire.[24]
Died: Sir Thomas Mackenzie, 75, Scottish-born politician who served as Prime Minister of New Zealand from March 28 to July 10 in 1912. He later served as New Zealand's diplomatic representative, the High Commissioner, until 1920.[25]
Saturday, February 15, 1930
The Soviet newspapers Izvestia and Pravda declared that foreign attacks on the government for its suppression of churches were part of a concerted international movement against the USSR.[26]
André Tardieu resigned as Prime Minister of France after his government was defeated by six votes in the Chamber of Deputies. The defeat was over a minor bill involving the taxation of married women sharing a business with their husbands.[31]
Born:Ruth Rendell, English author, in South Woodford, Essex, as Ruth Barbara Grasemann (d. 2015)[32]
Tuesday, February 18, 1930
Pluto in 2015
Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered the ninth planet, Pluto.[33] In 2006, the International Astronomical Union would reclassify the definition of planets and declare that Earth was one of only eight, rather than nine, planets in our solar system.
Representatives of the United States, Britain, Norway, the Netherlands and Brazil signed a pact in Nanjing bringing foreign lawyers under the jurisdiction and control of the Chinese government.[34]
The bodies of explorer Carl Ben Eielson and his mechanic, Earl Borland, were recovered from the site of their plane crash in Siberia. The plane went down on November 9 while trying to reach the stranded ship Nanuk.[35]
Elm Farm Ollie became the first cow to fly in an airplane, as part of the International Air Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri.[36]
Richard Luttrell Pilkington Bethell, the 3rd Baron Westbury, committed suicide by jumping from the seventh story window of his apartment. Believers in the supernatural attributed his death to the curse of Tutankhamun, as his son was an Egyptologist who had participated in the excavation of Tut's tomb and mysteriously died in his sleep in November 1929.[41]
Born:Joan Metge, New Zealand social anthropologist, educator, lecturer and writer; in Auckland[42]
Saturday, February 22, 1930
Marking the fourteenth anniversary of the Battle of Verdun, a lighthouse was dedicated at the Douaumont Ossuary which would flash alternately a red and white light over the cemetery grounds.[43]
Born:Marni Nixon, American soprano and playback singer who dubbed the singing for other actresses in film; in Altadena, California (d. 2016)[44]
Horst Wessel, 22, German Nazi Party activist, 40 days after being shot on January 14, celebrated as a martyr by the Nazis.[46]
Monday, February 24, 1930
While lying in his hospital bed, Chicago gangster Frank McErlane was shot three times by rival gang members. McErlane, whose fractured right leg was in a cast while recovering from a previous shootout, returned fire and the two assailants fled.[47]
Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King said that he would immediately call a new federal election on the issue of the American tariff if the U.S. government boosted its tariff against Canada.[48]
The Camille Chautemps government fell on a confidence vote after less than a week in power. He had tried to form a left-wing coalition but the Socialist Party refused to support him when he vowed to continue the naval policy of the previous government at the London Conference instead of adopting a more conciliatory one.[50]
The British bill to abolish blasphemy as a crime was dropped.[2]
André Tardieu was asked by French President Gaston Doumergue to try to form a new government.[52]
Thursday, February 27, 1930
Prayers for former U.S. president William Howard Taft were broadcast across the nation as physicians frankly stated that he had been unconscious for most of the day and that there was no hope of recovery.[53]
^Jim Cox, This Day in Network Radio: A Daily Calendar of Births, Debuts, Cancellations and Other Events in Broadcasting History (McFarland & Company, 2008) p. 29 ISBN978-0-7864-3848-8
^Cornyn, John (February 6, 1930). "Rubio is Shot at Inaugural". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 1.
^Mather, O.A. (February 7, 1930). "Both England, U.S. Make Cut in Bank Rate". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 19.
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