September 14, 1927: Isadora Duncan killed in freak accidentSeptember 7, 1927: Philo Farnsworth demonstrates first electronic televisionSeptember 30, 1927: Babe Ruth hits 60th home runFarnsworth's "image dissector" tube
The following events occurred in September 1927:
Thursday, September 1, 1927
National Air Transport, a predecessor of United Airlines, began the first air express delivery service, flying from Chicago to New York with "newsreels, machinery parts, adverttising copy, trade journals, candy and Paris garters", Hadley Field near New Brunswick, NJ, to Chicago[1]
Augusto César Sandino, Nicaraguan rebel leader, assembled his soldiers outside his remote fortress at El Chipote, and gathered villagers from the surrounding area to present the new charter for his Army for the Defense of National Sovereignty. Hundreds of people signed a statement of commitment to the Sandinista manifesto. Many who were illiterate signed with their thumbprints.[4]
Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees hit the 400th home run of his career, becoming the first player to do so.[5]
In Youngstown, Ohio, 43-year-old Tony De Capua came home from work, picked up a .32-calibersemi-automatic pistol, and went on a shooting spree, killing his wife, his four daughters and his two grandchildren at his home at 443 Marion Avenue, then killed a neighbor. DeCapua shot and wounded his daughter-in-law, a passerby, and a city policeman, who returned fire and then overpowered the killer.[6] DeCapua was later ruled incompetent to stand trial and sent to the Ohio Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Lima.[7]
Hale Woodruff departed from New York for two years of study in France. After his return, he became one of the foremost African-American painters.[8]
Universal Studios introduced the first completely animated Walt Disney film short, with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit appearing in Trolley Troubles. Oswald was later superseded by the more popular Mickey Mouse.[9]
Bob Hope, 24, made his first appearance on Broadway, in The Sidewalks of New York, as a chorus boy, cast with his vaudeville partner George Byrne.[10]
U.S. Army Major General George O. Squier was granted U.S. Patent No. 1,641,608 for his invention of "wired radio", a forerunner of Muzak and cable television that sent clear radio signals to home subscribers without the interference that plagued wireless radio broadcasts. Squier had applied for his patent on June 24, 1922, shortly after it had been publicized in the American press.[14]
Wednesday, September 7, 1927
At his laboratory at 202 Green Street in San Francisco, Philo T. Farnsworth demonstrated the first completely electronic television system. Although mechanical television, using a rotating disk, had been created earlier by John Logie Baird, the hardware limited the picture to 10 frames per second and a 30 line image. Farnsworth's system used his invention of an image dissector, a scanning electronic tube, to convert an image into electromagnetic waves that were then transmitted from one room of his lab to a receiver in another, where the image was displayed.[15] The first transmission was of a white line against a dark background. As the pane with line was moved in front of the scanner, the image on the screen moved as well. In a brief telegram to his fellow investors, George Everson wrote "The damned thing works!".[16]
Attempting a transatlantic crossing, the airplane Old Glory sent an S.O.S. before crashing into the ocean with aviators Lloyd W. Bertaud, James D. Hill and Philip Payne on board. The liner Transylvania picked up the signal and a search of the general area began.[18] The wreckage of the Old Glory was found on September 12, 600 miles northeast of Newfoundland, but the three fliers were never located.[19]
Japanese troops began their withdrawal from China's Shandong province, more than three months after troops began the occupation of Jinan.[21]
Sir Thomas Lipton retired as Chairman of Lipton's, Ltd., the tea company that he had founded[22]
Friday, September 9, 1927
The original Sandinista
Indiana Governor Edward L. Jackson and Indianapolis Mayor John L. Duvall, both members of the Ku Klux Klan were indicted, along with Indiana Klan leader George V. Coffin, Klan counsel Robert I. Marsh and several other members. Governor Jackson and the others were accused of conspiracy to commit a felony and attempting to bribe, arising out of the alleged intimidation of former Governor Warren T. McCray, who had recently completed a term in a federal penitentiary.[23]
The last federal delivery of air mail took place, as the Postmaster General completed transition of the service from government-owned airplanes to private contractors.[24]
Nicaraguan rebels, after regrouping under the command of Augusto Sandino, ambushed a group of U.S. Marines who were marching near the U.S. base at Las Flores.[4]
Dr. Morris Fishbein, editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association and Secretary of the AMA, spoke out against recent American obsession with losing weight, saying that the "diet craze" had been "the menace of an anemic nation". Dr. Fishbein proclaimed that "If the false gospel of unscientific dieting continued to prevail for a few generations, the United States would become a nation of undersized weaklings and anemics, lacking in both physical and mental force."[26]
Sunday, September 11, 1927
U.S. President Coolidge ended his three-month vacation, returning to Washington, D.C., after having been in South Dakota since June 15. The Coolidge family moved back into the newly remodeled White House for the first time since March 2.[27]
U.S. Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg warned the League of Nations that the United States would not abide by any ruling of the World Court over ownership of the Canal Zone. "American sovereignty over the Panama Canal is complete," said Kellogg. Panama, a member of the League, had asked that the question of American ownership of the Zone be decided by that body.[28]
Born:Pham Xuan An, South Vietnamese reporter for TIME Magazine who transmitted hundreds of classified documents to North Vietnam from 1952 to 1975; in Bien Hoa (d. 2006)
Tuesday, September 13, 1927
Triggered by an undersea earthquake, a ten foot high tsunami killed over a thousand people in the coastal town of Nakamura, and 270 on the island of Kōjima. On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, the quake sent waves that killed hundreds of people in Salina Cruz and Manzanilio. The tremors and waves in Japan coincided with a typhoon that had killed hundreds of people in the Kumamoto Prefecture and the Nagasaki Prefecture.[29]
Heinrich Himmler issued SS Order Number One, setting out the culture for the elite Nazi unit, the Schutzstaffel. Drawn from the Sturmabteilung (SA) (literally storm division), the 200 member SS group was given its own distinctive uniform, and paraded for a full inspection between Party meetings. The SS members also reported to Himmler on any indiscretions by other members of the SA.[30]
In Nice, France, American celebrity Isadora Duncan was killed in a freak accident while being chauffeured in a car that she intended to purchase. The dancer was in a car on the Promenade Des Anglais, wearing a long scarf around her neck. As Benoit Falchetto began driving down the street, the cloth became entangled in one of the wheels, strangling Duncan, breaking her neck, and then hurling her out of the car. She was 50 years old.[34]
The town of Tustin, California, narrowly approved incorporation as a city by a vote of 138 to 100. By 2011, the city had a population of more than 75,000.[36]
William S. Brock and Edward F. Schlee abandoned their quest to become the first persons to fly an airplane around the world. The pair had set off from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, on August 27 in the Pride of Detroit, and had gone halfway around the globe, landing in Japan at Omura, where their journey was halted by stormy weather. After friends and family convinced them that they risked death if they attempted to fly across the Pacific Ocean to Midway Island, Schlee and Brock made their final journey from Omura to Kasumigaura, then traveled back to the United States on a ship.[38]
The complementarity principle of quantum physics was introduced by Niels Bohr at the International Congress of Physics in the Italian city of Como, where Bohr delivered his paper The Quantum Postulate and the Recent Development of Atomic Theory.[39]
Born:
Peter Falk, American actor best known for portraying the detective Lieutenant Colombo in the TV series Columbo (d. 2011)
Seven people were killed and five injured in what was, at the time, the deadliest airplane crash in history [40] The death toll would be exceeded on December 3, 1928, by the crash, of a Brazilian plane, that would kill fourteen people.[41] The Fokker F.VII operated by Reynolds' Airways had been taking eleven passengers up for a brief sightseeing excursion from Hadley Field near South Plainfield, New Jersey, when the engine stalled at 500 feet and the plane crashed into an orchard.[42]
Theodore S. Weiss, Hungarian-born lawyer who became a U.S. citizen at age 26, and served as a U.S. Congressman for New York from 1977 until his death in 1992. (d. 1992)
Steve Ross, CEO of Time-Warner from 1989 to 1992; as Steven Rechnitz in Brooklyn (d. 1992)
Sunday, September 18, 1927
The Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System (later known as CBS) was formed and went on the air with a network of 16 radio stations in 11 U.S. states.[43] Going on the air at 2:00 pm from Newark with music from the Howard Barlow Orchestra, it was the third national network, after NBC's Red Network and Blue Network. At 3:00, Donald Voorhees conducted dance music, and at 8:00 pm, Deems Taylor conducted the Metropolitan Opera presentation of The King's Henchman.[44] In addition to the 16 network stations, the program was syndicated to another 58.[45] Initially, CPBS programming was limited to 8-10 pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and 2-4 pm and 7-10 pm on Sundays.[46]
The Tannenberg Memorial was unveiled at a ceremony at the site of the German victory over Russia during World War One in the Battle of Tannenberg, near the town of Hohenstein in East Prussia. Germany's President Paul von Hindenburg told his audience that Germany had not been the aggressor during the First World War, saying "With pure hearts we came to the defense of the Fatherland!" [47]
Monday, September 19, 1927
The Trial of Mary Dugan began a successful run on Broadway of 437 performances, at the National Theatre, with Ann Harding in the title role and in 1928 in London. The play was made into a 1929 film starring Norma Shearer, and remade in 1941.
The U.S. Marine garrison at Telpaneca, near the Rio Coco, was the victim of a lightning attack by Sandinista forces. One Marine was killed in the fighting, and another died of his wounds later.[4][48]
Born:Harold Brown, American physicist who served as U.S. Secretary of Defense from 1977 to 1981; in New York City (d. 2019)
Born:Edwin Ardener, British anthropologist and historian (d. 1987)
Thursday, September 22, 1927
Tunney
Tunney v. Dempsey and "The Long Count": Former heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey sought to regain the title that he had lost in 1926 to Gene Tunney. The rematch took place at Chicago's Soldier Field before a crowd of 104,943 people, while another ninety million people listened to Graham McNamee's radio broadcast. Shortly after 10:00 pm Chicago time, the fight began; fifty seconds into the seventh round, Dempsey briefly knocked Tunney unconscious with six consecutive punches and was within ten seconds of regaining his crown. Dempsey made the mistake of not immediately following an order by referee Dave Barry to "Go to the farthest corner" away from Tunney, and Barry had to walk the challenger to the proper spot. Timekeeper Paul Beeler had already reached five when Barry raced over and restarted the count at one. Tunney regained consciousness as Beeler counted, and stood to his feet by the count of nine, after having been face down for 14, and possibly 18 seconds. Tunney returned to action, finished the ten round fight, and won by unanimous decisions of the judges. The gate set a record of $2,658,660 in sales, and Dempsey and Tunney split a prize of $1,540,445.[51]
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, the first feature film to include a recorded soundtrack, premiered at the Times Square Theatre in New York City. The film was directed by F. W. Murnau, and used the Movietone sound system for synchronized music and sound effects. Preceding the first "talkie" (The Jazz Singer), by two weeks, Sunrise did not include recorded dialogue and still used silent film intertitles.[52] The film was preceded by a Fox Movietone newsreel "in which the figurantes were heard as well as seen",[53] including a "message of friendship" from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, followed by "scenes of life in the Italian Army".[54]
The Assembly of the League of Nations unanimously adopted the Declaration on Aggression, resolving that aggressive war was an international crime punishable by League sanctions.[57]
Sunday, September 25, 1927
Richards
Vinnie Richards became the first professional American tennis champion by defeating Howard Kinsey in the finals of the new U.S. Pro Tennis Championships. Richards and Kinsey were teammates and won the men's doubles title of the 1926 U.S. National Championship before turning professional at the end of the year. Richards beat Kinsey 11–9, 6-4 and 6–3 to win the Longue View trophy and the $1,000 prize [58] (equivalent to more than $14,000 in 2018) [59]
The process of electric borehole logging, used to gather and make logs of data from wells as they were being drilled, was first used. The process, later very common in the industry, was performed at the Pechelbronn oil field in Alsace, France, by Marcel and Conrad Schlumberger[60]
All of the low lands (der Unterland) in the tiny principality of Liechtenstein were flooded when the Rhine River overflowed its banks at Schaan, ruining most of the nation's farmers. Volunteers from around Europe helped in what was described later as "one of the first international relief operations in peacetime".[61]
Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Comintern, as his power continued to decline. He would be expelled from the Soviet Communist Party the following month.[64]
I.G. Farben of Germany and Standard Oil of New Jersey entered a 25-year agreement providing the American oil company with access to German technology on crude oil hydrogenation.[65]
The discovery of a rich gold vein was made in the Gran Cordillera on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, by prospectors of the Benquet Consolidated Mining Company. By 1933, there were nearly 18,000 mining companies in the area, and by 1939, the Philippines was one of the world's leading gold producers.[66]
Steve Stavro, Canadian sports businessman, soccer league founder, and one-time owner of the NHL Toronto Maple Leafs and the NBA Toronto Raptors; as Manoli Stavroff Sholdas in Macedonia (d. 2006)
Babe Ruth tied his record of 59 home runs hit in 1921, hitting his 58th and 59th in the Yankees' 15–0 win over the visiting Washington Senators, and their pitcher, Horace Lisenbee.[68]
Thursday, September 29, 1927
Seventy-nine people were killed and 550 were injured when a tornado struck the western part of St. Louis, Missouri. The twister struck at 1:00 in the afternoon, tearing through buildings, including St. Louis Central High School, where five students were killed and 16 injured.[69]
Born:Jean Baker Miller, pioneering American feminist, psychiatrist, and social activist; author of Toward a New Psychology of Women, in New York City (d. 2006)
Babe Ruth broke his own record for most home runs in a season (59) by hitting his 60th home run, a record that would stand until 1961. The run came in the 8th inning of the penultimate game of the season. Pitcher Tom Zachary had thrown one ball and one strike, when Ruth hit the ball into the bleachers and gave the New York Yankees a 4–2 win over the Washington Senators[70]
Born:
Adhemar Ferreira da Silva, Brazilian athlete, twice holder of world record for the triple jump in the 1950s, Olympic gold medalist in 1952 and 1956 (d. 2001)
W. S. Merwin, American poet, in New York City (d. 2019)
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^Dickson A. Mungazi, The Last Defenders of the Laager: Ian D. Smith and F.W. de Klerk (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998) p62
^"Blast Kills 11", Miami Daily News, September 2, 1927, p3
^ abcDaniel Castro, Revolution and Revolutionaries: Guerrilla Movements in Latin America(Rowman & Littlefield, 1999) p50
^"When Players Hit Their 400th Home Run", Baseball Digest (April 2004) p17
^"Seven Killed as Foreigner Runs Amuck in Youngstown", Pittsburgh Press, September 3, 1927, p1
^"Murderer of 8 Insane", Pittsburgh Press, September 22, 1927, p1
^Denise Jordan, Harlem Renaissance Artists (Heinemann-Raintree Library, 2002) pp51-52; Theresa A. Leininger-Miller, New Negro Artists in Paris: African American Painters and Sculptors in the City of Light, 1922-1934 (Rutgers University Press, 2001)
^Timothy S. Susanin, Diane Disney Miller, Walt Before Mickey: Disney's Early Years, 1919-1928 (University Press of Mississippi, 2011) p28
^Donald W. McCaffrey, The Road to Comedy: The Films of Bob Hope (Greenwood Publishing, 2005) p4
^"Marcus Loew, Film Magnate, Dies in Sleep", Milwaukee Sentinel, September 6, 1927, p1
^"WAYNE B. WHEELER DEAD!", Milwaukee Sentinel, September 6, 1927, p1
^"280 Koreans Die as Ferry Sinks", Miami Daily News, September 8, 1927, p1
^"'Wired Wireless' Ends Air Babel", by Harry B. Hunt, Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) dispatch in Lexington Leader, April 2, 1922, p. 5
^David R. Goff, et al., Fiber Optic Video Transmission: The Complete Guide (Focal Press, 2003) p14
^Leslie Alan Horvitz, Eureka!: Scientific Breakthroughs that Changed the World (John Wiley and Sons, 2002) p104
^"SEARCH FOR 'OLD GLORY' FAILS", Miami Daily News, September 7, 1927, p1
^"OLD GLORY WRECK FOUND; NO TRACE OF 3 AVIATORS", Milwaukee Sentinel, September 13, 1927, p1
^Donald M. Pattillo, A History in the Making: 80 Turbulent Years in the American General Aviation Industry (McGraw-Hill Professional, 1998) p12; Cessna HistoryArchived 2011-08-30 at the Wayback Machine
^Michael Brecher and Jonathan Wilkenfeld, A Study of Crisis (University of Michigan Press, 1997) p152
^"Lipton Retires As Active Chief Of Tea Company", Milwaukee Sentinel, September 9, 1927, p1
^"Gov. Jackson Indicted by Graft Jury", Milwaukee Sentinel, September 10, 1927, p1; "Indiana Klan Disrobed by Indictments", Milwaukee Sentinel, September 11, 1927, p1
^Donald M. Pattillo, Pushing the Envelope: The American Aircraft Industry (University of Michigan Press, 2001) p60
^"Germany Pledges Aid to Movement for Peace", Miami Daily News, September 10, 1927, p3
^"Coolidge Home from Vacation in Black Hills", Milwaukee Sentinel, September 12, 1927, p1
^"Nations Told to Keep Hands off in Panama", Milwaukee Sentinel, September 13, 1927, p2
^"Wind, Water Bring Death to Thousands; Earthquakes Under Pacific Take Toll in Mexico and Japan", Milwaukee Sentinel, September 14, 1927, p1
^Anthony Read, The Devil's Disciples: Hitler's Inner Circle (W. W. Norton & Company, 2004) p168
^Steinberg, Steve; Spatz, Lyle (2015). The Colonel and Hug: The Partnership that Transformed the New York Yankees. University of Nebraska Press. p. 260. ISBN9780803284159.
^Will Friedwald, A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers (Random House Digital, Inc., 2010) p25
^Lawton, Anna M. (1992). The Red Screen: Politics, Society, Art in Soviet Cinema. Routledge. pp. 57, 65.
^"Isadora Duncan Killed by Auto— Shawl Caught On Car Hurls Her to Death— Dancer's Neck Broken when Body Hits Running Board". Milwaukee Sentinel. September 15, 1927. p. 1.
^Peter W. Goodman, Morton Gould: American Salute (Hal Leonard Corporation, 2000) p86
^"Columbia Chain in Debut Today; Sixteen Stations Will Radiate Gala Inaugural Program —- American Opera "The King's Henchman" on the Air Tonight", New York Times, September 19, 1927
^"Von Hindenburg Speech Derides German 'Guilt'", Miami News, September 19, 1927, p1; Eric D. Weitz, Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy (Princeton University Press, 2007) p120
^"Clash in Nicaragua", Montreal Gazette, September 21, 1927, p12
^"19 Children Asleep Die in Mission Fire", Milwaukee Sentinel, September 22, 1927, p1
^James Minahan, Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002) p377
^Bruce J. Evensen, When Dempsey fought Tunney: Heroes, Hokum, and Storytelling in the Jazz Age (University of Tennessee Press, 1996); "TUNNEY WINS DECISION", Milwaukee Sentinel, September 23, 1927, p1
^Daniel Eagan, America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry (Continuum International Publishing, 2010) pp131-133;
^"The Screen", New York Times, September 24, 1927, p15
^"Mussolini Movietones Message to America", Lewiston (ME) Evening Journal, September 17, 1927, pA-4
^Sabine Hake, Topographies of Class: Modern Architecture and Mass Society in Weimar Berlin (University of Michigan Press, 2008) p242
^"German Envoy to U.S. Killed", Pittsburgh Press, September 23, 1927, p1
^Mauro Politi and Giuseppe Nesi, The International Criminal Court and the Crime of Aggression (Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2004) p244; "League Assembly Votes Outlawing of Aggressive War", New York Times, September 25, 1927, p1
^"Vinnie Richards Wins First Pro Singles Title", Oakland Tribune, September 26, 1927, p12
^Winfried Zimmerle, H. Zimmerle, Petroleum Sedimentology (Springer, 1995) p72
^David Beattie, Liechtenstein: A Modern History (I.B.Tauris, 2004) p73-74
^Alan Redfern, Law and Practice of International Commercial Arbitration (Sweet & Maxwell, 2004) p68
^Finn Seyersted, Common Law of International Organizations (BRILL, 2008) p258
^"Trotsky", by Vladimir Iu. Cherniaev, in Critical Companion to the Russian Revolution, 1914-1921 (Indiana University Press, 1997) p192
^John E. Lesch, The German Chemical Industry in the Twentieth Century (Springer, 2000) p186
^Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization: Yearbook 1997 (Kluwer Law International, 1996) p64
^Michael Aaron Rockland, The George Washington Bridge: Poetry in Steel (Rutgers University Press, 2008) p56
^"BABE RUTH HITS TWO HOMERS TO TIE 1921 MARK", St. Petersburg (FL) Times, September 30, 1927, p9
^"SPEED RELIEF WORK IN ST. LOUIS AS TORNADO DEATH TOLL MOUNTS", Pittsburgh Press, September 30, 1927, p1
^Stuart Miller, The 100 Greatest Days in New York Sports (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006); "BABE RUTH GETS HIS 60TH HOMERUN", Saskatoon Phoenix, October 1, 1927, p15
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