From the release of silent movies to sporting achievements, 1927 was a crucial year when looking back on the twenties. Making the headlines around the world, Charles Lindbergh became the first pilot to fly solo, nonstop and transatlantically, and Leon Trotsky was banished from the Soviet Communist Party, paving the way for Stalin to achieve power. Calvin Coolidge was the 30th President of the United States and the Menin Gate was dedicated in Ypres, Belgium to the fallen soldiers of the First World War.
This timeline takes you through some of the biggest events of the year that shocked and excited newspaper readers of the time. In our archive of 1927 newspapers, you can choose a date and explore a genuine, original newspaper from the year for yourself.
1927 Timeline
Turn the page to:
- January
- February
- March
- April
- May
- June
- July
- August
- September
- October
- November
- December
- Charles Lindbergh’s Historic Flight
- Babe Ruth Hits a Record 60 Home Runs in a Single Season
- Laurel and Hardy Emerge On-Screen
January
January 1: In West Java, a communist uprising takes place.
January 1: In Mexico, the Cristero War erupts, with Catholic rebels attacking the government. The government had placed strong restrictions on the Catholic church.
January 1: In Britain, the British Broadcasting Company becomes the British Broadcasting Corporation following its Royal Charter of incorporation. The corporation’s first Director-General is John Reith.
January 1: In Turkey, the Gregorian calendar is adopted, with December 18, 1926 of the Julian calendar being followed by January 1, 1927.
January 1: In Wichita, Kansas, American economist and Nobel laureate, Vernon L. Smith, is born.
January 2: In baseball, the release of Zack Wheat, a future Baseball Hall of Fame player, is announced by Brooklyn. Wheat had played 18 consecutive seasons with the Brooklyn Robins (now known as the Los Angeles Dodgers) and managed to hit .324 in his last season with the Philadelphia Athletics (now known as the Oakland Athletics).
January 5: Movietone is exhibited by Fox Studios, which is an optical sound-on-film way of recording motion pictures sound that guarantees sound and picture will be synchronized. The first ever film to use the Fox Studios Movietone system was Sunrise, released on September 23, 1927.
January 5: A 3-day public hearing is begun by Judge Landis due to charges that 4 baseball games played between Detroit and Chicago a decade earlier in 1917 had been thrown to the White Sox.
January 6: United States Marines return to Nicaragua.
January 7: A commercial, transatlantic telephone service is set up between New York and London.
January 7: In Hinkley, Illinois, the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team play their very first game.
January 9: In Moscow, the Soviet composer and pianist Dmitri Shostakovich’s Octet opus 11 premieres. Shostakovich is remembered as one of the major composers of the 20th century.
January 9: A fire breaks out at Laurier Palace in Montreal, Quebec, with 78 children losing their lives.
January 10: Metropolis, the silent futuristic film by Fritz Lang, is released in Germany.
January 11: In New York City, the Royale Theatre opens at 242 W 45th.
January 13: The United States and Mexico dispute their different oil interests.
January 15: In Tennessee, the Supreme Court overturns John T. Scopes’ guilty verdict for teaching evolution on a technicality. However, the law itself remains in force.
January 17: Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts in the United States, passes away from breast cancer at the age of 66.
January 19: In Britain, the government decides to send troops to China in order to protect anti-foreign riots spreading among foreign nationals in central China.
January 21: The opera Faust, taking place in Chicago, is the first national opera broadcast from a US opera house.
January 24: As a director, Alfred Hitchcock releases his first film The Pleasure Garden in England.
January 24: Nicaragua is invaded by U.S. Marines after an order was sent by President Calvin Coolidge, intervening in the Nicaraguan Civil War. The marines would remain in the country until 1933.
January 25: The play Saturday’s Children by Maxwell Anderson premieres in New York City.
January 28: The government of Oezonowitsj, the Serbian-Croatian-Slavic government, falls.
January 29: In Germany, the 4th government of Marx forms.
January 30: In Thuringia, Germany, the left wins the national election.
January 30: In Schattendorf, Austria, there are two fatalities when the Republikanischer Schutzbund and right-wing veterans clash.
January 31: In Germany, the international allied military command disbands.
January 31: In baseball, the National League rules that Rogers Hornsby, future Baseball Hall of Fame player, isn’t able to hold stock in the St. Louis Cardinals as well as play for the New York Giants (now the San Francisco Giants). On the same day, he earns $2,916 dividend.
January 31: In Monroe, Connecticut, American paranormal investigator involved in the Amityville haunting, Lorraine Warren, is born.
February
February 2: The musical Rio Rita, with lyrics by Joseph McCarthy and music by Harry Tierney, premieres in New York City.
February 2: In New York City, the Ziegfeld Theatre opens on 6th Ave & 54th St.
February 3: In Portugal, an uprising takes place against the regime of General Carmona.
February 4: In Spokane, Washington, the radio station KGA-AM begins transmissions.
February 5: The American silent film starring Al Boasberg and directed by Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton, The General, premieres in New York City.
February 7: In Portugal, the attempted military coup is put down successfully.
February 8: The Belgian-Swiss treaty is signed by the two nations.
February 10: President of the United States Calvin Coolidge asks for a second conference on disarmament.
February 10: American opera soprano Leontyne Price is born in Laurel, Mississippi.
February 11: Beatrix Loughran wins the United States female Figure Skating championship.
February 11: Nathaniel Niles with the United States male Figure Skating championship.
February 12: In Shanghai, the British expeditionary army lands due to government’s concerns about residents’ safety in the British settlement.
February 14: In Yugoslavia, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake results in the deaths of 50 people.
February 15: The silent film It, starring Clara Bow, is released in the United States. From the film, the concept of the “It girl” becomes popularized.
February 16: The romantic comedy play The Marquise, by Noël Coward, premieres in London.
February 16: Diplomatic relations between the United States and Turkey are restored.
February 17: In ice hockey, the New York Americans are defeated by the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-1, in the latter team’s first game since changing it from the St. Patricks.
February 18: In the United States, the first radio broadcast of Cities Service Concerts takes place. Cities Service Concerts was a series of musical broadcasts which were on air for three decades, featuring a variety of musicians and vocalists.
February 18: Diplomatic relations are opened between the United States and Canada.
February 19: In Shanghai, a general strike against the new British occupiers takes place. The British expeditionary army had only been in the city for a week.
February 20: Bahamian-American actor Sidney Poitier, the first black actor to win the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in Lillies in the Field in 1963, is born in Miami, Florida.
February 21: The opera by Franz Lehár, Der Zarewitsch, has its premiere.
February 21: In Beavais, France, Hubert de Givenchy, French fashion designer and creator of Givenchy in 1952, is born.
February 22: In Alphen on the Rhine, the ARC soccer team is established.
February 22: The house of mourning of Baruch Spinoza, a Dutch philosopher from the 17th century, officially opens as a museum in the Netherlands.
February 23: The Federal Radio Commission (FRC) is created by United States President Calvin Coolidge and begins to regulate radio frequency use.
February 24: The John Golden Theatre opens in New York City at 252 W 45th St.
March
March 1: The Bank of Italy, which is later known as Bank of America, becomes an American national bank.
March 4: In baseball, Babe Ruth signs a three-year $70,000 per season contract with the New York Yankees, making him the highest-paid player in the history of MLB.
March 4: In South Africa, trained athletes are hired by major companies during a diamond rush in order to stake claims.
March 5: In China, 1,000 U.S. marines land in order to protect American property.
March 6: Colombian novelist, short-story writer, journalist and screenwriter Gabriel García Márquez is born in Aracataca, Columbia.
March 7: In Tango, Japan, an earthquake strikes the area, reaching 8 on the Richter scale and killing around 2,925 people.
March 10: In Albania, the country receives threats from the Slovenes, the Croats and the Kingdom of Serbs, causing them to mobilize.
March 10: The ban on Adolf Hitler’s speeches is lifted in Bavaria.
March 11: In Pittsburgh, the Flatheads Gang commits the first armored car robbery.
March 11: The infamous Roxy Theatre in New York City is opened by Samuel Roxy Rothafel.
March 14: Juan T. Trippe established Pan American World Airways.
March 17: The United States government does not sign the League of Nations’ treaty on disarmament.
March 19: In Berlin, bloody battles erupt between the Nazis and communists.
March 19: American Hall of Fame baseball player and sportscaster Richie Ashburn, who played for the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets, is born in Tilden, Nebraska.
March 21: As British marines flee, Shanghai is conquered by the Guomindang Army.
March 24: The Nanking Accident occurs, in which six foreign people were killed in Nanking and the Kuomintang and Communist Party of China appear to be close to overrunning the foreign consulates. In response, U.S. Navy warships and the British Royal Navy fire shells and shots to disperse crowds.
March 26: The German film company UFA is purchased by Alfred Hugenberg.
March 26: The Gaumont-British Film Corporation is formed.
March 29: At Daytona Beach, Florida, the land speed record is broken by Henry Segrave while driving the Sunbeam 1000 hp.
March 31: American farm labor leader who led the United Farm Workers, Cesar Chavez, is born in Yuma, Arizona.
New York Yankees baseball slugger Babe Ruth in 1919
Image: Picryl
April
April 1: His Master’s Voice introduces the first automatic record changer.
April 1: In the United States, the Bureau of Prohibition is established.
April 3: Ohio is transferred to the Eastern time zone by Interstate Commerce Comm.
April 5: Swimmer and actor Johnny Weissmuller sets records in the 100 and 200 meter swimming freestyle.
April 5: In Britain, strikes are disallowed any support by the Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act of 1927.
April 7: TV is sent to New York City from Washington D.C. using phone lines. Bell Telephone Co. successfully sends an image of Secretary of Commerce at the time, Herbert Hoover, making the transmission the first successful demonstration of television long distance.
April 11: In Chile, the general Carlos Ibáñez names himself President.
April 12: Chiang Kai-shek, Chinese military and political leader, and leader of the Kuomintang, starts a counter revolution in Shanghai. Kuomintang troops kill many communist-supporting workers in the city, known as the Shanghai Massacre, and the event begins a civil war that lasts until 1949.
April 12: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is renamed to be the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to recognize that the Irish Free State is no longer part of the United Kingdom.
April 14: In Gothenburg, Sweden, the first Volvo car premieres.
April 17: The government of Wakarsoeki in Japan falls, and Baron Tanaka becomes the premier.
April 18: In China, an anti-government, the Kuomintang (Nationalist Chinese), is formed by Chiang Kai-shek in Nanking.
April 19: For her involvement in a New York stage play named Sex, actress Mae West is declared guilty of “obscenity and corrupting the morals of youth.” The resulting publicity launches her Hollywood career after she spends 10 days in prison and pays a fine of $500 (approximately $7,358 in today’s money).
April 21: Japan is hit by a banking crisis.
April 22: In what became known as the greatest natural disaster in the history of the United States, the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 hits 700,000 people.
April 23: In soccer, Cardiff City beats Arsenal 1-0 to win the FA Cup. As of 2021, this is the first and only time that a city outside of England has won the tournament.
April 25: Spain sends 20,000 soldiers to Morocco.
April 27: In Chile, the Carabineros de Chile is established (the Chilean national police force and gendarmery).
April 27: From Genoa, Italy to Fernando de Noronha, Brazil, João Ribeiro de Barros is the first non-European person to fly transatlantically.
May
May 1: Imperial Airways becomes the first British airliner company to serve cooked food onboard.
May 2: The International Economic Conference opens, attended by 52 countries including the Soviet Union.
May 2: Author Louis Bromfield wins a Pulitzer Prize for his novel Early Autumn, released in 1926.
May 2: The U.S. Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell takes place, with forced sterilizations of a variety of “unfit” by authorities of the states being permitted. These surgeries were practiced for eugenic reasons.
May 4: Over Scott Field, Illinois, the first balloon flight over 40,000 feet high takes place.
May 4: In Nicaragua, the country agrees to a presidential election supervised by the United States in 1928.
May 5: Dmitri Shostakovich’s First Symphony, the composer’s first major achievement in music, premieres in Berlin, Germany.
May 9: Melbourne is replaced by Canberra as the Australian capital city, and the Australian Parliament meets there for the first time.
May 10: Author Ernest Hemingway weds journalist Pauline Pfeiffer.
May 11: In soccer, England are defeated by Belgium 9-1.
May 11: Louis B. Mayer, the head of the MGM film studio, establishes the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
May 12: The office of the Soviet trade delegation in London is raided by British police officers.
May 13: On the Berlin Stock Exchange, ‘Black Friday’ takes place.
May 16: It is ruled that bootleggers must pay income tax by the U.S. Supreme Court
May 17: In baseball, the Boston Braves are defeated by the Chicago Cubs, 4-3, in 22 innings.
May 17: Major Harold Geiger, the United States Army aviation pioneer crashes his Airco DH.4 de Havilland plane at Olmsted Field, Pennsylvania, losing his life.
May 18: In Gros Ventre, Wyoming, Slide Lake collapses.
May 18: In Hollywood, California, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre opens.
May 18: In Boston, Massachusetts, the Ritz Hotel opens.
May 18: In Bath, Michigan, the Bath School Disaster occurs. The Bath Consolidated School is blown up by Andrew Kehoe, resulting in the deaths of 2 teachers and 38 school children.
May 20: In one of the most major events in 1927, aviator Charles Lindbergh takes off to complete his trip across the Atlantic from New York to Paris, flying the Spirit of St. Louis. This is the first solo, non-stop flight across the Atlantic, landing the following day on May 21.
May 20: In the Treaty of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia becomes independent of Great Britain. Britain officially recognizes the sovereignty of Ibn Saud by the treaty, over the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd, which would later become Saudi Arabia.
May 22: A deadly earthquake strikes Tsinghai, China, known as the Nan-Shan earthquake. It measures 8.3 on the Richter scale and kills more than 40,000 people.
May 22: In baseball, the Philadelphia Phillies are defeated by the LA Dodgers, 20-4.
May 24: Diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union are cut off due to revelations of the Soviet Union’s espionage and underground agitation.
May 25: It is announced by Henry Ford that he is bringing the production of his Model T Ford car to an end. The following day, the last, and the 15th million, Model T Ford is produced by Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company.
May 27: In the Chinese civil war, Japanese military intervention takes place.
May 27: In Czechoslovakia, Tomáš Masaryk becomes the President for a second time.
May 28: After 22 days, English cricket player Wally Hammond scores his 1000th cricket run of the season.
May 30: In baseball, pitcher Walter Johnson records his final, and 110th, shutout of his career. This is the most in the history of Major League Baseball.
Charles Lindbergh, the first pilot to successfully complete a solo, nonstop, transatlantic flight, stands next to his aircraft The Spirit of St. Louis.
Image: Flickr
June
June 1: The American woman acquitted for the murder of her parents, Lizzie Borden, passes away from pneumonia at the age of 66 just days before her sister.
June 4: In the first ever Ryder Cup tournament, Britain are defeated by the United States and Walter Hagen, American golfer, is the first captain.
June 4: Diplomatic relations between Yugoslavia and Albania and severed by Yugoslavia.
June 4: In the Wright-Bellanca WB-2 Columbia aircraft named Miss Columbia, Charles Albert Levine and Clarence Chamberlin take off from Roosevelt Field in New York and fly to Eisleben in Germany. Their flight takes place after Charles Lindbergh’s historic solo flight.
June 5: The 100-yard and 200-yard freestyle records are set by American swimmer and actor Johnny Weissmuller.
June 8: American comedian Jerry Stiller is born in Brooklyn, New York. He was also the father of comedian Ben Stiller, and the two starred in many films together, including the two Zoolander films.
June 9: American civil rights and women’s suffrage activist, Victoria Woodhull, passes away at the age of 88. Woodhull was also the 1872 presidential candidate, 48 years before women in the United States could vote following the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.
June 9: 20 people are executed by the Soviet Union for alleged espionage, following Pyotr Voykov’s assassination two days prior. Voykov was the Soviet ambassador to Poland and 19-year-old Boris Kowerda had shot him at Warsaw railway station. Kowerda was an exiled Russian citizen and shot Voykov in retaliation for the signing of the death warrants of Tsar Nicholas II and the Russian Imperial Family.
June 11: In baseball, slugger Babe Ruth hits his 19th and 20th home runs of the season in a New York Yankees win against the Cleveland Indians.
June 11: The first Distinguished Flying Cross is awarded to Charles Lindbergh for his flight across the Atlantic the previous month.
June 13: In France, the leader of the French monarchists, Léon Daudet, is arrested.
June 13: In New York City, a ticker tape parade is held down Fifth Avenue for aviator Charles Lindbergh.
June 17: In the United States Open Men’s Golf, Tommy Armour wins against Harry Cooper by just three strokes in their 18-hole playoff. This is Armour’s first win of his 3 big titles.
June 18: The world record for running 2000m is achieved by Paavo Nurmi with a time of 5:24:6.
June 18: Persebaya Surabaya, the Association football club, is founded in the Dutch East Indies.
June 23: In a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox, Lou Gehrig hits three home runs.
June 26: On Coney Island, the Cyclone roller coaster is opened.
June 28: Iberia, the Spanish airline, is established.
June 29: The first flight from the West Coast lands in Hawaii.
June 29: Canadian inventor and engineer Wallace Turnbull’s controllable pitch propeller is tested for the first time.
June 29: A total eclipse of the sun takes place over certain parts of Europe, including northern England, Wales and northern Sweden.
June 29: In the Fokker Trimotor airplane America, Richard E. Byrd, Bernt Balchen, George Noville and Bert Acosta take off from Roosevelt Field, New York to cross the Atlantic. Due to bad weather, the flight is ditched at the coast of France, with all men surviving the emergency landing.
June 30: The Manifesto Politico is issued by Augusto César Sandino, a Nicaraguan revolutionary. Sandino led a rebellion between the years 1927 and 1933 to oppose the United States’ occupation of Nicaragua.
July
July 1: As a United States federal agency, the Food, Drug, and Insecticide Administration (FDIA) is established.
July 2: In Palestine, the Jericho Earthquake results in the deaths of around 500 people.
July 4: In Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Indonesian revolutionary Sukarno along with some friends create the pro-Indonesian Independence Party, known as the PNI (Perserikatan Nasional Indonesia). Sukarno would later become the first President of Indonesia.
July 4: American playwright Neil Simon is born in the Bronx, New York City.
July 6: Actress Janet Leigh is born in Merced, California.
July 10: In Dublin, Ireland, the Vice-President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State and Minister for Justice, Kevin O’Higgins, is shot dead by anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army members while walking to Mass.
July 11: Palestine is hit by the largest ever recorded earthquake in this area, resulting in the deaths of around 300 people. The Jericho earthquake, as it becomes known by, hits Nablus severely, with casualties and damage also hitting Palestine and Transjordan, including Amman, Jordan, Salt and Lydda.
July 12: In baseball, slugger Babe Ruth makes it halfway to his 60-home-runs MLB record when he hits his 30th home run against the Cleveland Indians at Dunn Field.
July 15: In the British Open Men’s Golf, American golfer Bobby Jones holds onto his title after winning wire-to-wire and defeating Fred Robson and Aubrey Boomer by 6 shots.
July 15: In Vienna, Austria, a massacre breaks out, resulting in the deaths of 85 protesters by the police, who were mostly members of the Social Democratic Party of Austria. 5 policemen are reported dead and over 600 people are injured in what became known as the July Revolt of 1927.
July 16: A five-and-a-half year war against the occupation of Nicaragua by the United States is begun by Augusto César Sandino.
July 17: In the 21st Tour de France, the first of two consecutive titles are won by Luxembourg driver Nicolas Frantz.
July 18: In baseball, legendary player Ty Cobb reaches his 4000th hit in his MLB career.
July 24: In Ypres, Belgium, the Menin Gate war memorial is unveiled.
July 27: Baseball player Mel Ott, at the age of 18, hit his first home run of his league career. The ball remains inside the park.
July 29: In Bellevue hospital, New York, the very first iron lung is installed.
The Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium, was dedicated in 1927. The gate commemorates the soldiers with unknown graves who lost their lives in the First World War, as well as those who died in the Ypres Salient of the war.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
August
August 1: This day was the earliest day a film could be considered for the Academy Awards.
August 1: During the Nanchang Uprising, the Communist Chinese People’s Liberation Army is established.
August 2: It is announced by current President Calvin Coolidge that “I do not choose to run for president in 1928.”
August 2: The negative-feedback amplifier is invented by Harold Stephen Black, American electrical engineer.
August 7: James Horace Alderman, American rum smuggler, bootlegger, gangster and convicted murderer, kills two people. He was sentenced to death in 1928.
August 7: Between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York, the Peace Bridge opens.
August 10: In the United States, Mount Rushmore park is rededicated. It is promised by President Calvin Coolidge that national funding will support the proposed carving of the presidential figures in the park.
August 12: The film Wings opens, starring Clara Bow. The film is one of just two silent films to win an Oscar for Best Picture, winning the award in 1929.
August 16: In baseball, Tommy Thomas is teed off in the fifth inning by slugger Babe Ruth after Ruth hits his first home run out of Comiskey Park in Chicago. The game ends with the Yankees beating the Chicago White Sox 8-1.
August 21: In New York City, the fourth Pan-African Congress meets.
August 22: In baseball, slugger Babe Ruth smashes his 40th home run of his career in MLB, during the same season he hits his record of 60 home runs.
August 22: After three years of marriage, Charlie Chaplin gets a divorce from his second wife, actress Lita Grey. At the time, it was the highest divorce settlement at a total of $600,000 plus trusts for their children.
August 22: In Hyde Park, London, 200 people demonstrate in protest of the death sentences of Sacco and Vanzetti, Italian American anarchists. At the same time, other protests took place around the world.
August 23: In Boston, Massachusetts, and despite protests the previous day, Italian American anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti are executed in Charlestown State Prison for murder.
August 24: The Atlantic Provinces of Canada are hit by the 1927 Nova Scotia hurricane, which kills at least 56 people and causes extreme damage.
August 25: American tennis player Althea Gibson is born in Clarendon Country, South Carolina.
August 26: Leaving Brunswick, Georgia, Paul R. Redfern takes off in his Stinson Detroiter “Port of Brunswick” to embark on a solo, nonstop flight to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Redfern crashes later on and the crash site is never uncovered.
August 27: In St. Louis, Parks College opens, and is now the United States’ oldest school of aviation.
August 30: In the US National Championship Women’s Tennis, English player Betty Nuthall is defeated by American player Helen Wills Moody, achieving Moody her 4th out of a total 7 US singles titles. The game takes place in Forest Hills, New York.
September
September 4: On his cross-country tour, Charles Lindbergh visits Boise, Idaho.
September 5: In baseball, the New York Yankees are defeated by the Boston Red Sox, 12-11 in a game of 18 innings.
September 5: In Cape May, New Jersey, American economist and US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Vocker is born.
September 6: The musical Good News, by Buddy DeSylva and Lew Brown premieres in New York City.
September 7: In San Francisco, the first use of his electronic television is demonstrated by Philo Farnsworth.
September 7: In Brazil, the University of Minas Gerais is founded.
September 11: In baseball, the St. Louis Browns win their last meeting 6-2 following 21 consecutive defeats by the New York Yankees. During this game, Babe Ruth hits his 50th home run of his 60 home run season.
September 12: The musical My Maryland by Sigmund Romberg premieres in New York City.
September 14: Dancer Isadora Duncan passes away at the age of 50 after her scarf becomes entangled in the wheel of her car.
September 17: Aviator Charles Lindbergh visits San Francisco.
September 17: In the US National Championship Men’s Tennis, Bill Tilden is defeated by French player Rene Lacoste, successfully defending his title.
September 18: With 47 radio stations, the Columbia Broadcasting System officially goes on air, later becoming known as CBS.
September 22: In boxing, the infamous “long count” match takes place, in which Gene Tunney defeats Jack Dempsey after achieving a 10-round unanimous decision. The match takes place in Soldiers Field, Chicago and allows Tunney to hold onto his world heavyweight title.
September 22: In Norristown, Pennsylvania, American baseball Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda is born.
September 23: The film starring Janet Gaynor and George O’Brien, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, is released. The film goes on to win the Academy Award for Unique and Artistic Picture in 1927.
September 24: In baseball, the New York Yankees set the record of 106 victories.
September 24: In hockey, the NHL team Toronto St Patricks changes their name to the Maple Leafs.
September 25: All types of slavery are abolished when a treaty is signed by the League of Nations Slavery Commission. This comes 64 years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, bringing enslaved people in the United States to freedom.
September 26: In New York City, the St. James Theatre opens.
September 27: 79 people are killed and another 550 are injured when the East St. Louis tornado hits the city. The tornado is at least the 24th deadliest and 2nd costliest tornado in the United States.
September 29: In baseball, Babe Ruth hits grand slams in consecutive games, leading him to tie the MLB record.
September 29: A telephone service between the United States and Mexico is established.
September 30: In a baseball game against the Washington Senators at Yankee Stadium, Babe Ruth hit his 60th home run to smash his MLB record in one of the most impressive 1927 events.
Damage caused by the St. Louis tornado in 1927
Image: Wikimedia Commons
October
October 4: To create Mount Rushmore, Gutzon Borglum begins sculpting, and works on the sculpture until 1941.
October 6: Directed by Alan Crosland and starring Al Jolson, the film The Jazz Singer is released as the first movie to have a soundtrack. The film won an Honorary Academy Award in 1928.
October 8: In baseball, the 24th World Series takes place, with the New York Yankees sweeping the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Murderer’s Row team of the New York Yankees completes a four-game sweep to win the championship.
October 8: The short, silent film The Second Hundred Years is released, as the first film starring both Laurel and Hardy as a team. The director, Hal Roach, recognized how well they worked together on-screen, beginning their career as a comedy duo.
October 9: In Veracruz, a rebellion is crushed by the Mexican government.
October 11: In baseball, Lou Gehrig, the first baseman for the New York Yankees, is named the MVP of the American League. Despite hitting the MLB record of 60 home runs in a single season, Babe Ruth was not eligible for the award since he had won it previously.
October 12: Famous German strongman Hermann Görner raises 24 men weighing 4123 pounds on a plank, with the soles of his feet. Görner achieved feats of strength that has hardly been matched to this day.
October 14: British actor and previous James Bond, Roger Moore, is born in London.
October 18: American director and actor, George C. Scott, is born in Wise in Virginia. He would go on to star in Dr. Strangelove and Patton.
October 18: From Key West, Florida, the first Pan American Airways flight takes off and heads for Havana, Cuba.
October 16: German writer and playwright, Günter Grass is born in Danzig. Grass would go on to win the Nobel Prize Laureate of 1999.
October 23: By Nathan Strauss, the town Netanya, Israel, is founded.
October 25: Off Porto Seguro, Brazil, Principessa Mafalda, the Italian ocean liner, capsizes and kills around 314 people.
October 26: Creole Love Song is sung by Duke Ellington.
October 27: Meuse-Waal Canal in Nijmegen is opened by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands.
October 27: In Worthington, Ontario, a ground fault gives way and causes part of the town and the mine to collapse into a large chasm. A mine foreman had noticed abnormal rock shifts in the mine, meaning the town was evacuated the night before and no one was injured.
October 28: Yugoslav revolutionary and later President, Josip Broz (Tito) begins his jail sentence in Croatia, lasting 7 months.
November
November 1: The fifth government of Turkey is formed when İsmet İnönü establishes a new government.
November 3: In Somerset, Vermont, 22.3cm of rainfall is recorded, reaching a new state record. The rainfall causes the Great Vermont Flood of 1927, devastating the state and becoming known as the worst natural disaster in the history of the state.
November 3: The musical Connecticut Yankee, by Rodgers and Hart, has its premiere in New York City.
November 3: In Winooski River Valley, Vermont, a tropical storm hits the area, resulting in the deaths of 84 people.
November 4: In Washington D.C., Frank Heath arrives with Gypsy Queen, his horse, after completing a successful two-year trip to all 48 states in the United States (of the time) and traveling 11,356 miles.
November 5: In golf, Joe Turnesa is defeated by Walter Hagen, the defending champion who wins his fourth consecutive PGA title.
November 8: American singer Patti Page is born in Claremore, Oklahoma.
November 12: In football, Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish changes their jersey color from blue to green.
November 12: Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky is dismissed from the Soviet Communist Party, which paves the way for Joseph Stalin to achieve full power within the party.
November 12: For the first and only time, Mahatma Gandhi makes his journey to Ceylon.
November 12: In the United States, New Jersey is linked with New York City when the Holland Tunnel opens to traffic. The Holland Tunnel is the first vehicular tunnel under the Hudson River.
November 14: In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 26 people die when three Equitable Gas storage tanks explode, which also damages an estimated $4-5 million.
November 21: Six people lose their lives when the Columbine Mine massacre takes place. 500 angry, but unarmed, miners are striking when Colorado state police open fire on them.
November 22: In Sayner, Wisconsin, the first snowmobile patent is given to Carl Eliason.
November 22: The musical Funny Face, by George Gershwin, has its premiere in New York City.
November 22: In Belgium, Henri Jaspar’s government falls, but in the same day, is reformed.
November 29: American sportscaster Vin Scully is born in The Bronx, New York.
November 29: Theodore Geisel, known famously as Dr. Seuss, weds his first wife Helen Palmer, an author and editor, at the age of 23.
December
December 1: In Shanghai, the Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary and military leader Chiang Kai-shek marries Soong Mei-ling.
December 2: The first Model A Ford is sold for $325, equal to $4,782.71 today. The car follows on from 19 years of Ford Model T production and takes its place as the new automobile in the United States.
December 2: It announced to the Geological Society of China by Davidson Black, Paleoanthropologist, that the ancient human fossils discovered in Zhoukoudian, China are a new species, which Black named Sinanthropus pekinensis, but is now known as Homo erectus.
December 3: In Wall Lake, Iowa, American pop singer Andy Williams is born.
December 3: The first Laurel and Hardy film, Putting Pants on Philip, is released.
December 4: The 2nd symphony of Dmitri Shostakovich has its premiere in Moscow.
December 4: At the Cotton Club in Harlem, Duke Ellington opens.
December 4: In baseball, outfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates and future Hall of Fame player Paul Waner is awarded MVP for the National League.
December 5: In Cambridge, Massachusetts, Bhumibol Adulyadej, future King of Thailand and composer, is born.
December 10: During the Barn Dance radio broadcast in Nashville, Tennessee, the Grand Ole Opry is first named as such.
December 14: From Britain, Iraq gains its independence, but British troops remain in the country.
December 15: 12 year old Marion Parker is kidnapped in Los Angeles by William Edward Hickman, and later kills her. The murder is later known as the “most horrible crime of the 1920s,” and the recovery of her dismembered body on December 19 prompts the largest manhunt to date on the West Coast to track down her killer. Hickman would be arrested in Oregon on December 22.
December 17: S-4, the US submarine, collides and sinks off Provincetown, Massachusetts, killing all the 34 people on board despite many attempts to raise the submarine.
December 17: At Melbourne Cricket Ground, Bill Ponsford, Australian cricketer, breaks his own world record when he makes 437 runs for the highest first-class cricket score.
December 19: In football, the National Football League Championship takes place, with the New York Giants achieving their first past the post title win.
December 19: Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil, Thakur Roshan Singh and Ashfaqulla Khan, three members of the Indian independence revolutionary movement, are executed by the British Raj.
December 20: In Maribor, the Letalski center Maribor is established, and will later become the oldest surviving major flying club in the Balkans.
December 27: Show Boat, the production by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hemmerstein II based on the novel by Edna Derber, has its premiere in New York City. The play would go one to be the first great classic of musical theatre in the United States.
December 28: The play by Moss Hart and George Kaufman, Royal Family, premieres in New York City.
December 29: Near Krakatoa, the eruption of undersea volcanoes Perboewatan and Danan establishes the foundation of Anak Krakatau Island.
December 30: In Japan, the first subway in Orient is dedicated, with the route less than 2 miles long. The is the first commuter metro line and is named the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line.
Comedy duo Laurel and Hardy
Image: Flickr
Charles Lindbergh’s Historic Flight
On May 20, 1927, aviator Charles Lindbergh started his voyage into the history books when he took off from Roosevelt Field, New York. Lindbergh was embarking on the first transatlantic, solo, nonstop flight, successfully crossing the Atlantic Ocean and landing in Paris. The pilot landed in Paris less than 34 hours after taking off, despite many doubting that he would be able to make the full journey.
Lindbergh’s journey was crucial in changing public opinion about aviation and laid the groundwork for aviation development in the coming years. Despite studying engineering at college, Lindbergh always held a passion for air travel and was keen to become an aviator for the skill and adventure of flying. His attempt was financed by businessmen of St. Louis, which led to his aircraft being named the Spirit of St. Louis.
At the time, the press reported on Lindbergh’s flying attempt by referring to him as “the flying fool,” since his plane only had one engine and led many to believe this would stop him from reaching the other side of the ocean. He flew over Nova Scotia and Cape Cod, battling drowsiness, thick fog and sleet. He then flew over Ireland and England, heading for Paris as night began to fall.
His historic journey led to a tour in 49 states and President Calvin Coolidge gave Lindbergh the Medal of Honor. The pilot worked as an Aviation Consultant afterwards, continuing to serve the United States.
Babe Ruth Hits a Record 60 Home Runs in a Single Season
If you’re wondering what happened in 1927 to make American sports fans shout, September 30, 1927 saw New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth reach a new record in Major League Baseball, making the day one to remember. In a game against the Washington Senators in Yankee Stadium, New York, Babe Ruth smashed his 60th home run in one season, hitting a record that would be undefeated for the next 34 years.
Ruth just made the record in the last game of the season, when he launched a Tom Zachary pitch high into the bleachers of the right-field, taking a walk around the bases. The crowd roared, tore paper into confetti and threw their hats in the air. 1927 was a great year for baseball, particularly for the New York Yankees who bore their infamous lineup of power hitters, known as Murderer’s Row. The lineup included Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Tony Lazzerri and Bob Meusel.
Laurel and Hardy Emerge On-Screen
On October 8, 1927, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy would star in their first film together, beginning their career as a comedy duo. Laurel and Hardy are regarded as one of the best on-screen comedy partnerships in history, and they would go on to make over 100 comedy films together. From the early Classical Hollywood era in American film to the mid-1940s, Laurel and Hardy would make audiences cry with laughter at their slapstick scenes.
The director of the 1927 silent, short film The Second Hundred Years, Hal Roach, recognized the pair’s potential as a comedy team despite the two already having well-established and separate film careers. Hardy was the pompous bully who led along the childlike, clumsy figure of Laurel. Putting Pants on Philip was also released in 1927, and was the official first film starring them in their new comedy partnership roles. While the comedy duo began in the silent film era, they would continue to make films together into the full feature-length movie era of Hollywood.