February 1928

The following events occurred in February 1928:

February 1, 1928 (Wednesday)

• The final significant discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb was made in the "annex": the canopic jars containing the pharaoh's organs.^[1]
• Boxing promoter Tex Rickard said that Jack Dempsey was retiring from the ring.^[2]
• Born: Tom Lantos, Hungarian-born American politician, in Budapest (d. 2008); Stuart Whitman, actor, in San Francisco
• Died: Hughie Jennings, 58, American baseball player and manager

February 2, 1928 (Thursday)

• The Great Fall River fire broke out in Fall River, Massachusetts, destroying much of the town.
• Charles Lindbergh flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico and landed to a 20-gun salute.^[3]

February 3, 1928 (Friday)

• The Simon Commission arrived in Bombay to study constitutional reform in British India. The delegation was immediately met with a hartal and protestors holding black flags and banners reading "Simon Go Back".^[4]
• Born: Frankie Vaughan, singer, in Liverpool, England (d. 1999)

February 4, 1928 (Saturday)

• Charles Lindbergh flew to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on his twenty-sixth birthday where he was given the key to the city before attending a reception by President Horacio Vásquez.^[5]
• Communists in Berlin stormed a movie theatre showing the American war film The Big Parade where they tore up the screen and tried to burn the film.^[6]
• The silent film The Garden of Eden starring Corinne Griffith was released.
• Born: Kim Yong-nam, North Korean politician, in Central District, Heijo
• Died: Hendrik Lorentz, 74, Dutch physicist and Nobel Prize laureate

February 5, 1928 (Sunday)

• 200 were injured and 125 arrested in Berlin during fighting between communists and 2,500 Stahlhelm.^[7]
• Fascist Italy opened the Accademia della Farnesina, a school for sport and political education.
• Born: Andrew Greeley, Roman Catholic priest and writer, in Oak Park, Illinois (d. 2013); Don Hoak, baseball player, in Roulette Township, Pennsylvania (d. 1969); Gene Lees, Canadian music critic and journalist (d. 2010)

February 6, 1928 (Monday)

• Prominent Americans and Frenchmen held a celebration in Paris commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Franco-American Treaty of Alliance of 1778.^[8]
• Actress Mae Clark married the dancer and comedian Lew Brice in Chicago.^[9]
• A mysterious woman claiming to be Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia came to the United States.^[1]
• Charles Lindbergh flew to Port-au-Prince, Haiti and was greeted by President Louis Borno.^[10]

February 7, 1928 (Tuesday)

• King George V opened a new session of British Parliament.^[11]
• The Pan American Institute of Geography and History was created in Havana.
• Born: Al Smith, baseball player, in Kirkwood, Missouri (d. 2002)

February 8, 1928 (Wednesday)

• Charles Lindbergh flew to Cuba and was received at the presidential palace by Gerardo Machado.^[12]
• British inventor John Logie Baird broadcast a transatlantic television signal from London to Hartsdale, New York.^[13]

February 9, 1928 (Thursday)

• A jury in Los Angeles found William Edward Hickman sane and therefore guilty of the murder of 12-year-old Marion Parker.^[14]
• Born: Frank Frazetta, fantasy and science fiction artist, in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2010); Rinus Michels, footballer, in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 2005); Roger Mudd, broadcast journalist, in Washington, D.C.; Erv Palica, baseball player, in Lomita, California (d. 1982)

February 10, 1928 (Friday)

• A fire broke out in the Hollinger Gold Mine in Timmins, Ontario, Canada. Many miners escaped but 39 perished.^[15][16]

February 11, 1928 (Saturday)

• The II Olympic Winter Games opened in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
• The Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Giants swapped their star pitchers; the Pirates got Burleigh Grimes in exchange for Vic Aldridge.^[17]

February 12, 1928 (Sunday)

• French playwright Pierre Veber challenged the author Maurice Rostand to a pistol duel after Rostand wrote a negative review of Veber's latest play, En Bordée. Rostand declined the challenge, explaining that duels must be fought at dawn and he never got up before noon.^[18]

February 13, 1928 (Monday)

• A powder explosion in a mine in Wilder, Tennessee killed 4 men.^[19]
• Charles Lindbergh landed in St. Louis, ending his two-month, 15-nation goodwill tour.^[20]

February 14, 1928 (Tuesday)

• The Interborough Rapid Transit Company clashed with city and state authorities in New York over the proposed raising of the subway fare from 5 cents to 7 cents.^[21]
• The John Ford-directed silent drama film Four Sons premiered at the Gaiety Theatre in New York City.^[22]
• Died: Ernesto Schiaparelli, 71, Italian Egyptologist

February 15, 1928 (Wednesday)

• The New York Supreme Court denied the Interborough Rapid Transit Company an injunction to restrain the American Federation of Labor and the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees from attempting to orgazine employees of the company.^[23]
• Died: H. H. Asquith, 75, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1908–1916

February 16, 1928 (Thursday)

• Indiana Governor Edward L. Jackson was found not guilty of trying to bribe Warren T. McCray, the governor at the time, in 1923. The judge took the case away from the jury, explaining that the state had failed to prove that the bribery had been concealed, in the legal meaning of that term.^[24]
• Canadian Minister of Finance James Robb presented the government's budget for the next year, projecting a surplus of over $45.8 million. The income tax, cut 10 percent last year, was cut an additional 10 percent, and the sales tax was cut from 4 percent to 3 percent.^[25]
• Born: Willi Dreesen, Swiss painter and sculptor, in Essen-Werden, Germany (d. 2013); Porfi Jiménez, Dominican-born Venezuelan musician (d. 2010)
• Died: Eddie Foy, Sr., 71, American stage entertainer; Reggie Morris, 41, American film actor, director and screenwriter (heart attack)

February 17, 1928 (Friday)

• The Senate of Virginia passed a bill making lynching a state offense.^[26]
• Died: Ōtsuki Fumihiko, 80, Japanese lexicographer, linguist and historian

February 18, 1928 (Saturday)

• A light plane crashed in downtown Macon, Georgia. Both pilots were killed when one of the bombs they were tossing out of the plane as part of a carnival exhibition caught in the wings and exploded, causing the plane to plummet 7,000 feet. A third person was killed and two injured as the plane crashed into the street.^[27]
• The King Vidor-directed silent film The Crowd premiered at the Capitol Theatre in New York City.^[22]
• When the cornerstone of the demolished Eastland County Courthouse was opened in Eastland, Texas, among the memorabilia found in the time capsule was alleged to be a horned lizard hibernating inside for 31 years. Whether the story was true or not, the animal became a celebrity known as Ol' Rip the Horned Toad.^[28]
• Born: John Ostrom, paleontologist, in New York City (d. 2005); Tom Johnson, ice hockey player and executive, in Baldur, Manitoba (d. 2007)

February 19, 1928 (Sunday)

• The II Olympic Winter Games closed. Norway led the final medal count with 6 gold medals and 15 total.
• It was announced that the tooth of Nebraska Man was positively identified as belonging to an extinct wild pig.^[29]
• The Paraguayan Communist Party was founded.

February 20, 1928 (Monday)

• Japan held a general election, the first since the General Election Law was passed. The ruling Seiyūkai Party edged out the Minsei Party by a single seat.
• The sixth Pan-American Conference ended.
• The U.S. Supreme Court decided Miller v. Schoene.
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published a 19-page essay, "A Word of Warning", recommending that Christianity be abandoned and replaced by a new religion based on spiritualism.^[30]
• Born: Roy Face, baseball player, in Stephentown, New York

February 21, 1928 (Tuesday)

• Industrialist Harry Ford Sinclair and three associates were found guilty of criminal contempt of court for jury shadowing in the Teapot Dome scandal trial. Sinclair was sentenced to six months in prison.^[31]
• The United States Department of War announced that tank development in the past several years had made it a far more effective weapon than it was a decade earlier. "The tank of the World War was formerly regarded as an auxiliary of the infantryman", the department said. "Today it has undergone a complete transformation and while it will still, in certain circumstances, continue its role in aiding the doughboy, the future will find it utilized as the nucleus of the army's mechanized units."^[32]
• Born: Larry Pennell, American motion picture and television actor, born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania (d. 2013)

February 22, 1928 (Wednesday)

• The Emir of Afghanistan Amānullāh Khān and his wife Soraya Tarzi rode in a royal procession through Berlin. Former Crown Prince Wilhelm attempted to join the procession uninvited but the crowd rushed his car and blocked it.^[33]
• Born: Bruce Forsyth, television presenter and entertainer, in Edmonton, London, England

February 23, 1928 (Thursday)

• The film actress Mary Astor and the director Kenneth Hawks were married.^[34]
• Hungary scrapped the mysterious shipment of machine guns intercepted on the border with Austria some weeks ago and sold them as junk.^[35]
• Born: Ralph Earnhardt, NASCAR driver, in Kannapolis, North Carolina (d. 1973); Vasily Lazarev, cosmonaut, in Poroshino, Altai Krai, USSR (d. 1990)
• Died: MacCallum Grant, 82, Canadian businessman and 12th Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia

February 24, 1928 (Friday)

• Hungarian Prime Minister István Bethlen's statement to the League of Nations that Hungary "would not find it possible" to comply with the demand to halt the sale of the machine guns angered League officials.^[35]
• Born: Bubba Phillips, baseball player, in West Point, Mississippi (d. 1993)

February 25, 1928 (Saturday)

• Benito Mussolini recalled the Italian enovy to Austria after some Austrian government officials criticized Mussolini's Italianization of South Tyrol policy.^[36]
• Born: Kim Slavin, painter, in Leningrad, USSR (d. 1991)

February 26, 1928 (Sunday)

• Willy Böckl of Austria won the men's competition of the World Figure Skating Championships in Berlin, Germany.
• The silent comedy film A Girl in Every Port starring Victor McLaglen was released.
• Born: Fats Domino, pianist and singer-songwriter, in New Orleans, Louisiana; Anatoly Filipchenko, cosmonaut, in Davydovka, USSR; Ariel Sharon, 11th Prime Minister of Israel, in Kfar Malal, British Palestine (d. 2014)

February 27, 1928 (Monday)

• The controversial British war film Dawn was discussed on the floor of the House of Commons. Foreign Affairs Secretary Austen Chamberlain had not viewed the film and did not plan to, but objected to a scene depicting Edith Cavell's execution which had reportedly been embellished for dramatic effect. "I believe that account of the execution to be wholly apocryphal, and I hold it is an outrage on a noble woman's memory to turn into melodrama, for the purposes of commercial gain, so heroic a story", Chamberlain said, though he did not propose to censor the film as had been suggested.^[37]

February 28, 1928 (Tuesday)

• U.S. Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg sent a note to the French government stating that the United States desired to abolish the institution of war.^[38]
• Died: Armando Diaz, 66, Italian general; Karl Max, Prince Lichnowsky, 67, German diplomat

February 29, 1928 (Wednesday)

• A French court refused to grant American lawyer and politician Bainbridge Colby a divorce, declaring itself "incompetent" to do so because both parties involved were foreigners and Mrs. Colby was not present. The ruling was thought to put an end to Americans coming to France for easy divorces in the country's "divorce mills".^[39]
• Born: Tempest Storm, burlesque performer, in Eastman, Georgia
• Died: Adolphe Appia, 65, Swiss architect and stage set designer

References