The following events occurred in March 1927:
March 1, 1927 (Tuesday) An explosion at a coal mine in Cwm, Wales, killed 52 miners. U.S. President Calvin Coolidge and his family spent their final night in the White House, which was set for six months of repairs on the roof and the upper floor. The following day, the family took up residence at the Patterson Mansion on 15 Dupont Circle, owned by Mrs. Ellinor Schlesinger. President Coolidge continued to use the executive offices at the White House. At Montevideo, Juan Campisteguy was inaugurated to a four-year term as the 25th President of Uruguay, succeeding José Serrato. Born: Harry Belafonte, African-American singer (Day-O), in New York City (d. 2023) Robert Bork, American judge, rejected candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court, in Pittsburgh (d. 2012) Died: George Polley, 28, American daredevil who climbed skyscrapers from the outside under the billing "The Human Fly". Polley, who had risked death on numerous occasions, died in Richmond, Virginia, during an operation at Memorial Hospital for a brain tumor.
March 2, 1927 (Wednesday) Babe Ruth signed a new contract with the New York Yankees, calling for a then-record salary of $70,000 per year."'Bambino' Agrees To Sign Contact", Pittsburgh Press, March 2, 1927, p1 The next best paid Yankee player was Herb Pennock, at $17,500 Babe Ruth: A Biography (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006) p81 The discovery, by teenagers Frank Horton Jr. and Leonard Taylor, of high grade gold ore in Nevada, set off a modern-day gold rush that attracted thousands of prospectors to the area."Flivvers Lead in Gold Rush", Miami Daily News, March 5, 1927, p1 The town of Weepah, Nevada sprang up near Tonopah. Within three months, the rush was over, and the Weepah was almost totally deserted by August.Mary Ellen Glass and Al Glass, Touring Nevada: A Historic and Scenic Guide (University of Nevada Press, 1983), p205; GhostTowns.com
March 3, 1927 (Thursday) A violent cyclone struck the island of Madagascar, with winds at more than . An high storm surge washed over the city of Tamatave, killing almost 600 people, and numerous ships in the harbor were driven inland. Archaeologist George Andrew Reisner and a group of explorers opened the tomb of Queen Hetepheres I, the mother of the builder of the Great Pyramid, and found that the sarcophagus was empty. Born: Pierre Aubert, President of Switzerland (Swiss Federal Council) in 1983 and 1987, in La Chaux-de-Fonds (d. 2016) Died: J. G. Parry-Thomas, 42, British auto racer, at Pendine Sands, while trying to set a new automobile speed record. Malcolm Campbell had broken Parry-Thomas' world record of on February 4.
March 4, 1927 (Friday) In South Africa, near Potchefstroom, the government permitted a race for the staking of claims for diamond mining at the Grasfontein farm. With the firing of a gun as a signal, 25,000 "peggers" (prospectors) "ran nearly three miles over hummocky broken ground, then set to work feverishly to stake as much of the best territory as possible"."25,000 Diamond Diggers at Work", Miami Daily News, March 5, 1927, p1 Born: Dick Savitt, American tennis player, in Bayonne, New Jersey; Wimbledon and Australian Open champion, 1951(d. 2023) Died: Ira Remsen, 81, American chemist, who in 1879 discovered saccharin by accident
March 5, 1927 (Saturday)
"The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place", the final Sherlock Holmes short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was published for the first time in Liberty magazine in the United States. Notre Dame defeated Creighton University, 31 to 17, to finish the 1926-27 college basketball season with a record of 19 wins and one loss. The Helms Athletic Foundation later recognized Notre Dame as the mythical national champion in a 1941 poll. General Motors introduced the LaSalle, a smaller and more maneuverable luxury automobile.Motoera website
March 6, 1927 (Sunday) At Battersea, Bertrand Russell delivered his famous address, "Why I Am Not a Christian". San Francisco police shot and mortally wounded Celsten Eklund, a known anarchist, and wounded another man as they attempted to light the fuse to a large dynamite bomb in front of the Saint Peter and Paul Catholic Church. Born: William J. Bell, American TV producer, creator of The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful, in Chicago (d. 2005) Gordon Cooper, American astronaut on Mercury 9 (1963) and Gemini 5 (1965) (d. 2004) Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian author, in Aracataca; author of One Hundred Years of Solitude, Nobel Prize in Literature laureate, 1982 (d. 2014) Wes Montgomery, American jazz guitarist, in Indianapolis (d. 1968)
March 7, 1927 (Monday) At 6:28 pm local time, an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter magnitude scale struck on Japan's Tango Peninsula in the Kyoto Prefecture. The tremors and subsequent fires killed 3,020 people, and destroyed the cities of Toyooka and Kinosaki in the Hyōgo Prefecture."Japan's Dead and Injured in Quake May Total 5,000", Miami Daily News, March 8, 1927, p1; Yoshitaro Takenobu, ed., The Japan Year Book 1929 (1930) p33; USGS Historic Earthquakes In the case of Nixon v. Herndon, the United States Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a Texas law that barred African-American voters from participating in primary elections,"Supreme Court Upholds Right of Negro Vote", Miami Daily News, March 7, 1927, p1 rendering similar laws in other states void. The victory was short-lived, as Texas passed a new law that gave political parties the right to set their own rules for participation in a party primary election. Such laws were not held unconstitutional until the April 1, 1946 ruling in Primus v. King.Steven F. Lawson, Black ballots: voting rights in the South, 1944-1969 (Lexington Books, 1999) p28
March 8, 1927 (Tuesday) The first downhill skiing race in the United States took place at Mount Moosilauke in New Hampshire, and was won by Charles N. Proctor of Dartmouth College."Snapshots in Time", Skiing Heritage Journal June 2007 p16 Singer Jimmie Rodgers, celebrated later as "The Father of Country Music", recorded his first hit single, The Soldier's Sweetheart."Good-bye, Kenny Rogers, Hello, Wagoneers", by Nick Tosches, Texas Monthly October 1988 p118
March 9, 1927 (Wednesday) Signed on September 25, 1926, the 1926 Slavery Convention, officially the Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery, entered into force.Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat, Human rights worldwide: a reference handbook (ABC-CLIO, 2006) p124 A neutrality pact was signed between Latvia and the Soviet Union, but was not ratified. A subsequent, and weaker, non-aggression pact was finally signed on February 5, 1932. The Republic of Latvia was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940.Valdis O. Lumans, Latvia in World War II (Fordham University Press, 2006) p36 American balloonist Hawthorne C. Gray set an unofficial altitude record of 8,230 meters (27,000 feet) over Belleville, Illinois, but passed out in the thin air, regaining consciousness only after the balloon descended on its own. Gray would reach 12,945 meters on May 4, a record that would fail because he parachuted from the craft (at 3,830 m) landing. On November 4, he reached 12,192 meters but did not survive the trip. Adolf Hitler made his first public speech after the Bavarian government lifted a two-year ban against his participation in political events.Douglas G. Morris, Justice imperiled: the anti-Nazi lawyer Max Hirschberg in Weimar Germany (University of Michigan Press, 2005) p244
March 10, 1927 (Thursday) Zenith Radio Corporation became the first company to obtain a license from RCA to manufacture radios, followed on May 18 by the Crosley Radio Corporation.Gleason L. Archer, Big Business and Radio (1939, reprinted by READ Books, 2007) p17
March 11, 1927 (Friday) The first armored car robbery was committed by Paul Jaworski and the Flatheads Gang near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The gang set off explosions to disable two cars that were transporting cash for the payroll for the Terminal Coal Company, and escaped with more than $104,000.Fran Capo and Scott Bruce, It Happened in Pennsylvania (Globe Pequot, 2005) p82; "Bandits Dynamite Armored Pay Car and Take $104,250", New York Times, March 12, 1927, p1 In New York City, the Roxy Theater was opened by Samuel Roxy Rothafel. With 5,920 seats, it was the largest cinema built up to that time.Richard Alleman, New York: The Movie Lover's Guide (Random House, Inc., 2005) p133 PCJJ, the first shortwave radio station in Europe and the first dedicated shortwave radio station in the world officially went on air, broadcasting from the Netherlands. Born: Ron Todd, British trade union leader; President of TGWU 1985-92; in Walthamstow, London (d. 2005)
March 12, 1927 (Saturday) The Kreta Ayer Incident in Singapore turned much of the Chinese community in the British colony against the colonial administration. Demonstrators, observing the anniversary of the death of Sun Yat-sen, were fired upon by police after stopping in front of a precinct station at Kreta Ayer, and six people were killed.C.F. Yong and R.B. McKenna, The Kuomintang movement in British Malaya, 1912-1949 (Singapore University Press, 1990) p88 Outside the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, an assassination attempt was made against Soviet Politburo member Nikolai Bukharin. The Soviets claimed that the failed crime had been the work of British intelligence agents, and a group of "counterrevolutionaries" were executed on June 9, 1927. In 1938, Bukharin himself was accused of plotting against the government and was executed.Bruce A. Elleman, Moscow and the Emergence of Communist Power in China, 1925-30 (Taylor & Francis, 2009) p111 The adventure film The Beloved Rogue starring John Barrymore was released. Born: Emmett Leith, co-inventor of the hologram, in Ann Arbor (d. 2005)
March 13, 1927 (Sunday) The leadership of the Kuomintang voted to fire Chiang Kai-shek from most of his executive positions, except for commander of expeditionary forces. Generalissimo Chiang ignored the demotion and, after capturing Shanghai two weeks later, took absolute control over the Kuomintang. Born: Raúl Alfonsín, 49th President of Argentina (1983–89), in Chascomús, Buenos Aires (d. 2009) Robert Denning, American interior designer (d. 2005)
March 14, 1927 (Monday) Jigme Wangchuck was formally crowned as King of Bhutan, under the authority of the British protectorate.Awadhesh Coomar Sinha, Himalayan kingdom Bhutan: tradition, transition, and transformation (Indus Publishing, 2001) p77 Igor Stravinsky finished the score for the opera Oedipus Rex.David Ewen, Music for the Millions - the Encyclopedia of Musical Masterpieces (READ BOOKS, 2007) p561 Died: Jānis Čakste, 67, first President of Latvia and in office since 1922; he was succeeded by Gustavs Zemgals
March 15, 1927 (Tuesday) In Tokyo, the large Watanabe Bank failed a day after Finance Minister Naoharu Kataoka mistakenly said in a speech that the struggling bank had "at last collapsed" and depositors made a bank run, withdrawing their cash. Two other banks collapsed by the end of the week and by March 24, twelve banks had crashed and more would follow.Norio Tamaki, Japanese banking: a history, 1859-1959 (Cambridge University Press, 1995) pp 150-151 Born: Carl Smith, American country musician, in Maynardville, Tennessee (d. 2010)
March 16, 1927 (Wednesday) The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism was completed by George Bernard Shaw. Born: Vladimir Komarov, Soviet cosmonaut and first human to die during a space mission; in Orenburg (killed 1967 in re-entry of Soyuz 1) Daniel Patrick Moynihan, U.S. Senator (D-N.Y.), 1977–2001; in Tulsa, Oklahoma (d. 2003) Georges Séguy, leader of the France's CGT labour union; in Toulouse (d. 2016)
March 17, 1927 (Thursday)