Historical Events in 1927

Gregory Conquers Julius Caesar

Jan 1 Turkey adopts the Gregorian calendar: December 18, 1926 (Julian), is immediately followed by January 1, 1927 (Gregorian).

Pope Gregory XIII with the calendar that was to make his name

Jan 5 Fox Studios exhibits Movietone

Baseball History

Jan 5 MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis begins 3-day public hearing on charges that 4 games played between Chicago & Detroit in 1917 had been thrown to White Sox

Jan 6 US marines return to Nicaragua
Jan 7 Commercial transatlantic telephone service inaugurated between New York & London
Jan 7 Harlem Globetrotters play their 1st game in Hinckley, Illinois

Music History

Jan 9 Dmitri Shostakovich' Octet opus 11 premieres in Moscow

Jan 9 Fire in Laurier Palace cinema in Montreal, 78 children died
Jan 10 Fritz Lang's silent film "Metropolis" premieres in Berlin

Film & TV History

Jan 11 Louis B. Mayer head of film studio MGM announces creation of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Jan 11 Royale Theater (Golden, CBS Radio Playhouse) opens at 242 W 45th NYC
Jan 13 US & Mexico battle over oil interests
Jan 14 Toronto Maple Leafs 1st hat trick (Hap Day) vs NY Rangers

Scopes Not Guilty for Teaching Evolution

Jan 15 Tennessee Supreme Court overturns (on a technicality) John T. Scopes' guilty verdict for teaching evolution, but the law itself remains in force

Jan 19 British government decides to send troops to China
Jan 21 1st national opera broadcast from a US opera house (Faust, Chicago)

Theater Premiere

Jan 26 Maxwell Anderson's play "Saturday's Children" premieres in New York City

Australian Men's Tennis Open

Jan 27 Australian Championships Men's Tennis: Gerald Patterson wins his only home title; beats countryman John Hawkes 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 18-16, 6-3

Jan 27 Australian Championships Women's Tennis, Melbourne: Esna Boyd wins title after 5 consecutive runner-up finishes; beats Sylvia Lance Harper 5-7, 6-1, 6-2
Jan 28 Serbian-Croatian-Slavic government of Oezonowitsj falls
Jan 29 4th German government of Marx forms
Jan 30 Left wins national election in Thuringen
Jan 31 Internationall allied military command in Germany disbands

Baseball History

Jan 31 NL rules future Baseball Hall of Fame infielder Rogers Hornsby can't hold stock in the St. Louis Cardinals and play for the NY Giants; earns $2,916 dividend on same day

Feb 2 Harry Tierney/Joseph McCarthy's "Rio Rita" premieres in NYC
Feb 2 Ziegfeld Theater (Loew's Ziegfeld) opens at 6th Ave & 54th St NYC
Feb 3 Uprising against regime of general Carmona in Portugal
Feb 4 KGA-AM in Spokane WA begins radio transmissions

Film Premiere

Feb 5 "The General", American silent film starring Buster Keaton and Marion Mack, co-directed by Keaton and Clyde Bruckman, premieres in New York City

Feb 8 Belgian-Swiss treaty signed

Conference of Interest

Feb 10 US President Calvin Coolidge asks for 2nd disarmament conference

Feb 11 US Female Figure Skating championship won by Beatrix Loughran

Sports History

Feb 11 US Men's Figure Skating championship won by Nathaniel Niles

Feb 12 British expeditionary army lands in Shanghai
Feb 13 Uprising against Portuguese regime of Gen Carmona defeated

Film Release

Feb 15 Silent film "It" is released in the US starring Clara Bow

Music History

Feb 16 Noël Coward's stage comedy "The Marquise", starring Marie Tempest, opens at the Criterion Theatre, London; runs for 129 performances

Feb 16 US restores diplomatic relations with Turkey
Feb 17 Deems Taylor's opera "The King's Henchman", with libretto by Edna St. Vincent Millay, premieres at the Metropolitan Opera, NYC
Feb 17 Toronto Maple Leafs beat the New York Americans, 4-1 in the team's first game since changing name from "St. Patricks"
Feb 18 1st US radio broadcast of "Cities Service Concerts"
Feb 18 US & Canada open diplomatic relations
Feb 19 General strike against British occupiers in Shanghai
Feb 21 Franz Lehár's opera "Der Zarewitsch" premieres
Feb 22 ARC soccer team forms in Alphen on the Rhine
Feb 22 Baruch Spinosa's house of mourning opened as a museum
Feb 23 US President Calvin Coolidge creates Federal Radio Commission (FRC)
Feb 24 John Golden Theater (Theatre Masque) opens at 252 W 45th St NYC
Feb 25 Gdańsk and Polish accord concerning traffic through Polish corridor

Event of Interest

Mar 1 Bank of Italy (later Bank of America) becomes an American National Bank

Contract of Interest

Mar 4 Babe Ruth becomes the highest-paid player in MLB history when he signs 3-year, $70,000 per season contract with the New York Yankees

Mar 5 1,000 US marines land in China to protect American property
Mar 7 Earthquake measuring 8 on Richter scale strikes Tango, Japan
Mar 8 Pan American Airlines incorporates
Mar 10 Albania mobilizes due to threats from the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

Event of Interest

Mar 10 Bavaria lifts ban on Adolf Hitler's speeches

Mar 11 1st armored commercial car hold-up in US, Pittsburgh
Mar 11 1st golden gloves tournament
Mar 11 Samuel Roxy Rothafel opens famous Roxy Theater (NYC)
Mar 17 US government doesn't sign League of Nations disarmament treaty
Mar 19 Bloody battles between communists & Nazis in Berlin
Mar 21 Guomindang Army conquers Shanghai as British marines flee
Mar 22 Federico Garcia Lorca's first play "El Maleficio" (The Butterfly's Evil Spell) premieres in Madrid

Sports History

Mar 24 Cuban chess champion José Raúl Capablanca wins 33-day Grand Chess Tournament

Mar 24 Dutch 1st Chamber condemns Belgian and Netherlands Wielingen Treaty
Mar 25 86th Grand National: 8/1 favourite Sprig wins; ridden by jockey Ted Leader, trained by his father Tom Leader
Mar 26 Alfred Hugenberg purchases German film company UFA
Mar 26 Gaumont-British Film Corporation forms
Mar 28 Majestic Theater opens at 245 W 44th St NYC
Mar 29 Henry Segrave races his Sunbeam to a record 203.79 mph at Daytona
Apr 1 1st automatic record changer introduced by His Master's Voice
Apr 3 Interstate Commerce Comm transfers Ohio to Eastern time zone

World Record

Apr 5 Johnny Weissmuller sets world records in both the 100m and 200m free style swimming events

Film & TV History

Apr 7 First long distance television transmission: An image of Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover sent from Washington, D.C. to NYC by AT&T

Apr 11 Chilean general Carlos Ibáñez names himself president

Event of Interest

Apr 12 Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek begins counter revolution in Shanghai

Apr 13 Stanley Cup Final, Ottawa Auditorium, Ottawa, ON: Ottawa Senators beat Boston Bruins, 3-1 for a 2-0-2 series win
Apr 14 The first Volvo car premieres in Gothenburg, Sweden
Apr 15 Switzerland & USSR agree to diplomatic relations
Apr 15 Yankees slugger Babe Ruth hits #1 of MLB record season 60 HRs; tees off on A's Howard Ehmke in 1st inning of New York's 6-3 win over Philadelphia
Apr 17 Japan's Wakarsoeki government falls, Baron Tanaka becomes premier

Boston Marathon

Apr 18 31st Boston Marathon won by Clarence DeMar in 2:40:22.2; his 5th victory in the event

Apr 18 Chiang Kai-shek forms anti-government in China
Apr 19 "Vagabond King" opens in London

Millions Come Up to See Mae West

Apr 19 Actress Mae West found guilty of “obscenity and corrupting the morals of youth” in a New York stage play entitled "Sex". She is sentenced to 10 days in prison and fined $500, the resulting publicity launches her Hollywood career.

Apr 22 Roger Sessions' 1st Symphony in E premieres with Serge Koussevitzky conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Apr 25 Spain routes 20,000 soldiers to Morocco (uprising Rifkabylen)
Apr 27 Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmery) created
Apr 29 Construction of Spirit of St Louis (the monoplane which Charles Lindburgh was to fly across the Atlantic) is completed
Apr 30 Princess Juliana gets seat in Dutch Council of State
May 1 1st British airliner to serve cooked meals (Imperial Airways)
May 2 International Economic Conference (52 countries including USSR) opens
May 2 Pulitzer prize awarded to Louis Bromfield (Early Autumn)
May 2 U.S. Supreme Court's "Buck v. Bell", permits forced sterilizations of various "unfits" by states' authorities where such surgeries are practiced for eugenic reasons
May 4 1st balloon flight over 40,000 feet (Scott Field, Illinois)
May 4 Nicaragua agrees to a US supervised presidential election in 1928
May 5 Dmitri Shostakovich's 1st Symphony premieres in Berlin
May 7 Angelos Sikelianos organizes the first Delphic Festival in Delphi to celebrate the ancient Greek Delphic ideal.
May 7 SF Municipal Airport (Mills Field) dedicated
May 9 52nd Preakness: Whitey Abel aboard Bostonian wins in 2:01.6
May 9 Canberra replaces Melbourne as the capital of Australia, and the Australian Parliament convenes there for the first time.
May 11 Belgium beats England 9-1 in soccer
May 11 Louis B Mayer forms Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
May 13 "Black Friday" on Berlin Stock Exchange
May 13 VVOG soccer team forms in Harderwijk
May 14 "Ain't She Sweet?" hits #1 on the singles chart by Ben Bernie
May 14 53rd Kentucky Derby: HOF jockey Linus McAtee aboard Whiskery defeats Osmand by a nose in the stretch in 2:06
May 14 Cap Arcona is launched at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg
May 14 The University of Chicago's local collegiate organization, Phi Sigma, becomes incorporated under Illinois law as Eta Sigma Phi, the National Honorary Classical Fraternity
May 16 NY Yankee Bob Meusel steals 2nd, 3rd & home
May 16 US Supreme Court ruled bootleggers must pay income tax
May 17 Chicago Cubs beat Boston Braves, 4-3, in 22 innings
May 17 U.S. Army aviation pioneer Major Harold Geiger dies in the crash of his Airco DH.4 de Havilland plane at Olmstead Field, Pennsylvania
May 18 "Slide Lake" in Gros Ventre, Wyoming, collapses
May 18 Bath School Disaster, Bath MI. Andrew Kehoe blows up Bath Consolidated School killing 38 children, 2 teachers.
May 18 Grauman's Chinese Theater opens in Hollywood, California
May 18 Ritz Hotel opens in Boston, Massachusetts

Event of Interest

May 20 At 7:40 AM, Charles Lindbergh takes off from New York to cross the Atlantic for Paris, aboard Spirit of St Louis in the 1st solo nonstop transatlantic flight

Treaty of Interest

May 20 Treaty of Jeddah is signed between the United Kingdom and Ibn Saud recognizing the independence of the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd, the forerunner of Saudi Arabia

May 21 Aviator Charles Lindbergh, in the Spirit of St Louis, lands in Paris after the first solo air crossing of Atlantic
May 22 8.3 Nan-Shan earthquake strikes Tsinghai, China, over 40,900 killed
May 22 Dodgers beat Phillies, 20-4

Model T

May 25 Henry Ford announces that he is ending production of the Model T Ford

Event of Interest

May 26 Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company produce the last (and 15th million) Model T Ford / Tin Lizzie

May 27 Japanese military intervention in Chinese civil war

Election of Interest

May 27 Tomáš Masaryk re-elected President of Czechoslovakia for a second time

Father of Czechoslovakia Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk

May 28 Hammond scores his 1,000th cricket run of the season after 22 days
May 30 Indianapolis 500: First-time starter George Souders wins by 8 laps, largest margin since 1913; first driver to win full-500 mile race with no help from relief driver or riding mechanic

Sports History

May 30 Walter Johnson records 110th and final shutout of his Baseball HOF career, the most in MLB history; Washington Senators score 3-0 win over Boston Red Sox

May 31 Tiger 1st baseman Johnny Neun makes an unassisted triple play
Jun 1 Peace Bridge between US and Canada opens

Ryder Cup

Jun 4 1st Ryder Cup Golf, Worcester CC: US beats Great Britain, 9½-2½; Walter Hagen first American captain; Ted Ray first GB skipper

Jun 5 32nd Women's French Championships: Kornelia Bouman beats Irene Peacock (6-2, 6-4)

French Open Men's Tennis

Jun 5 French Championships Men's Tennis: Hometown favourite Rene Lacoste wins 2nd of 3 French titles; beats Bill Tilden 6-4, 4-6, 5-7, 6-3, 11-9

Jun 5 Johnny Weissmuller sets 100-yard & 200-yard free-style swim record

Belmont Stakes

Jun 11 59th Belmont: Earl Sande riding Chance Shot wins in 2:32.6

Jun 11 Charles Lindbergh is awarded the 1st Distinguished Flying Cross
Jun 11 Future Baseball Hall of Fame slugger Babe Ruth hits 19th & 20th homers of MLB season record 60 HRs in New York's 6-4 win over Cleveland Indians at Yankees Stadium
Jun 11 Noël Coward's stage comedy "The Marquise", starring Marie Tempest, closes at the Criterion Theatre, London, after 129 performances
Jun 13 Ticker-tape parade welcomes Charles A Lindbergh to NYC
Jun 17 US Open Men's Golf, Oakmont CC: American-based Scotsman Tommy Armour defeats Harry Cooper by 3 strokes in an 18-hole playoff to win the first of his 3 major titles

Baseball Record

Jun 23 New York future Baseball Hall of Fame first baseman Lou Gehrig hits 3 HRs in Yankees' 11-4 victory over Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park

Jun 25 WVO soccer team forms in Oosterhout
Jun 26 Comet 7P/Pons-Winnecke approaches within 0.0394 AUs of Earth
Jun 26 The Cyclone roller coaster opens on Coney Island
Jun 29 1st flight from West Coast arrives in Hawaii
Jun 29 First test of Wallace Turnbull's controllable pitch propeller
Jun 30 Nicaraguan revolutionary Augusto César Sandino issues his Manifesto Politico
Jun 30 US Assay Office in Deadwood, South Dakota closes
Jul 2 Jericho Earthquake in Palestine kills about 500

Wimbledon Men's Tennis

Jul 2 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: In an all-French final Henri Cochet wins first of 2 Wimbledon singles crowns; beats Jean Borotra 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5

Wimbledon Women's Tennis

Jul 2 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Helen Wills Moody beats Spaniard Lilí Álvarez 6-2, 6-4 for her first of 8 Wimbledon titles

Jul 4 First flight of the Lockheed Vega, a pilot plus four-passenger monoplane; its 225 HP engine allowed cruising speed of 120 MPH

Event of Interest

Jul 4 Sukarno and friends form the pro-Indonesian independence party, the PNI (Perserikatan Nasional Indonesia) in Batavia, Dutch East Indies

Jul 9 William T Francis named US minister to Liberia
Jul 12 Yankees slugger Babe Ruth half way to his MLB record of 60 home runs; smacks #30 of Joe Shaute in 9th inning in New York's 7-0 win over Cleveland Indians at Dunn Field
Jul 14 1st commercial airplane flight in Hawaii

British Golf Open

Jul 15 British Open Men's Golf, St. Andrews: American Bobby Jones retains title; wins wire-to-wire by 6 shots from Fred Robson & Aubrey Boomer

Jul 15 Massacre in Vienna: 89 protesters are killed by the Austrian police
Jul 16 Augusto César Sandino begins 5½ year war against US occupation of Nicaragua
Jul 17 21st Tour de France: Nicolas Frantz of Luxembourg claims first of 2 consecutive titles by 1h 48' 21" from Belgian Maurice De Waele

Sports History

Jul 18 Ty Cobb's 4,000th MLB career hit

Jul 24 The Menin Gate war memorial is unveiled at Ypres

Baseball Record

Jul 27 Mel Ott, 18, hits his 1st league home run (inside the park)

Jul 29 1st iron lung installed (Bellevue hospital, NY)
Jul 29 Phil Mead scores his 100th 100, Hampshire v Northants
Aug 1 Earliest date for a film to be considered for the Academy Awards

Music History

Aug 1 Influential country music group the Carter family make their first recording with producer Ralph Peer in Bristol, Tennessee

Aug 5 Phillies outfielder Cy Williams hits for cycle in just 4 at bats in 9-7 win v Pirates
Aug 7 Peace Bridge between US and Canada dedicated
Aug 7 US rum smuggler Horace Alderman kills 3
Aug 12 "Wings", one of only two silent films - the other being The Artist in 2011 - to win an Oscar for best picture, opens starring Clara Bow (Outstanding Picture 1929)
Aug 16 Yankees slugger Babe Ruth tees off Tommy Thomas in the 5th inning to hit first HR hit out of Comiskey Park, Chicago; New York beats White Sox, 8-1
Aug 19 Metropolitan Sergius proclaims the declaration of loyalty of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Soviet state
Aug 21 4th Pan-African Congress meets (NYC)
Aug 22 Yankees slugger Babe Ruth hits 40th home run during his MLB record 60 HR season in New York's 9-4 loss to Cleveland Indians at Dunn Field
Aug 27 Parks College, America's oldest aviation school, opens
Aug 30 US National Championship Women's Tennis, Forest Hills, NY: Helen Wills Moody beats England's Betty Nuthall Shoemaker 6-1, 6-4 for her 4th of 7 US singles titles
Sep 4 Charles Lindbergh visits Boise, Idaho, on his cross-country tour
Sep 6 Buddy DeSylva & Lew Brown's musical "Good News" premieres in NYC
Sep 7 Philo Farnsworth demonstrates the first use of his electronic television in San Francisco
Sep 7 University of Minas Gerais founded in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, by Governor Antônio Carlos

Sports History

Sep 9 Tony Lazzeri Day at Yankee Stadium

Sports History

Sep 10 International Lawn Tennis Challenge, Philadelphia, PA: Henri Cochet beats Bill Johnson 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 to clinch a 3-2 win for France and break 7 title US win streak

Sep 11 After losing 21 in a row to NY, the Browns win their last meeting, 6-2
Sep 11 Yankees slugger Babe Ruth hits 50th home run during his MLB record 60 HR season in New York's 6-2 loss to St. Louis Browns at Yankee Stadium
Sep 12 Sigmund Romberg's musical "My Maryland," premieres in NYC
Sep 13 NY Yankees clinch AL pennant after 5-3 win over Cleveland Indians at Yankee Stadium; Babe Ruth hits HR #52 en route to MLB record 60
Sep 17 Charles Lindbergh visits San Francisco
Sep 17 US National Championship Men's Tennis, Forest Hills NY: Frenchman Rene Lacoste successfully defends title; beats Bill Tilden 11-9, 6-3, 11-9
Sep 18 The Columbia Broadcasting System goes on the air. with 18 stations (and WOR as NYC affiliate)

Boxing Title Fight

Sep 22 "The long count" - in a famous boxing rematch, Gene Tunney beats Jack Dempsey by 10-round unanimous decision at Soldiers Field, Chicago to retain world heavyweight title; crowd 104,943; gate $2,858,660

Sep 22 Yanks Earle Coombs hits 3 triples

Film Release

Sep 23 "Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans", directed by F. W. Murnau, starring George O'Brien and Janet Gaynor, is released (Academy Awards Unique and Artistic Picture 1927)

Sep 24 New York Yankees set a record of 106 victories
Sep 24 NHL's Toronto St Patricks become Maple Leafs
Sep 26 St James Theater (Erlanger) opens at 246 W 44th St, NYC