December 6, 1921: United Kingdom signs treaty recognizing independence of "Irish Free State"December 1, 1921: U.S. Navy airshipC-7 demonstrates successful flight with helium rather than flammable hydrogenDecember 25, 1921: Sedition sentences, of Socialist Eugene V. Debs and 23 others, commuted by President Harding for release from prisonDecember 9, 1921: All 43 crew of U.S. Navy submarineS-48 rescued after sinking
TheUnited States government implemented regulations for the right to broadcast wireless radio signals commercially, requiring a license from theU.S. Department of Commerce,Bureau of Navigation, for all transmitters and setting aside two specific frequencies on theamplitude modulation (AM) portion of theelectromagnetic spectrum. Initially, stations broadcasting news reports were allowed the 485 meter wavelength (equivalent to 620 kHz) and those broadcasting entertainment were allowed 360 meters (roughly 830 kHz).[1][page needed]
British Prime MinisterDavid Lloyd George announced, for the first time in negotiations, that dominion status within theBritish Commonwealth would be offered toIreland, similar to that existing at the time inCanada, as an alternative to independence.[4] In addition, the six counties ofUlster Province would remain asNorthern Ireland within theUnited Kingdom, and a boundary commission would be created to arrange a permanent definition of the boundary between north and south.
Riots broke out inVienna as a result of price increases. Shops were looted and foreign hotel guests were robbed.[5]
Nicaragua endedmartial law in its northwestern provinces after receiving a shipment of weapons and munitions from the U.S.[4]
The short (24 minutes) silent comedy filmThe Lucky Dog, starringStan Laurel, was released by the Amalgamated Producing Company. Wearing a full mustache, another comedian,Oliver Hardy, had a role in the film as an armed robber confronting Laurel.[citation needed]
TheIrish nationalist delegates rejected the British settlement offer ofDominion status, in that it continued to require an oath of allegiance to the British crown for all government members, and continued the partition of the island ofIreland.[4]
A delegation representing the "Far Eastern Republic" arrived inWashington, D.C., in hopes of obtaining American help in driving Japanese troops fromSiberia and seeking diplomatic recognition.[4]
10,000 Mark note, worth $52 in January 1922, $3.15 in January 1923[10]
The value of Germany's currency, referred to retrospectively as the"paper" Mark (Papiermark), dropped sharply on announcements that the cost of living had increased by 22% during the month of November, and that prices were almost 60 percent higher than they had been at the beginning of the year.[4]
Irish revolutionary leaderMichael Collins metUK prime ministerDavid Lloyd George at10 Downing Street to discuss the remaining "points of difference" between the two sides, and came to an agreement that retained the division ofIreland, but accepted dominion status for the predominantlyRoman Catholic southern provinces and eliminated the requirement of an oath of allegiance.[13]
TheFootball Association, governing body of association football inEngland, banned women from playing at FA-affiliatedpitches, the only ones with spectator facilities, saying that "the game of football was quite unsuitable for females."[14]
More than 20 people were killed in a train wreck nearPhiladelphia at Woodmont.[4]
The67th United States Congress, elected more than a year earlier in 1920, convened its first regular session. The first order of business was the 1922-1923 U.S. budget sent over by U.S. presidentWarren G. Harding, showing a deficit of $167,571,977.[4]
TheU.S. Supreme Court ruled that picketing during labor strikes was a lawful exercise of theFirst Amendment right of free speech, but that it could be subject to an injunction if obstruction or intimidation were used.[4]
Inelections for the Canadian House of Commons, theLiberal Party ofW. L. Mackenzie King won an overwhelming majority of the 225 seats over the rulingConservative Party, led by Prime MinisterArthur Meighen. Although Meighen's Conservatives had had a 153 to 82 lead in the House before the election, they lost 104 seats, with Meighen himself and 11 members of his cabinet losing their bids for re-election as MPs. After the voting, the Liberals had 118 seats, the new Progressives had 58 and the Conservatives had only 59. In the voting,Agnes Macphail of the Progressives became the first woman to be elected to theCanadian Parliament.[16]
U.S.President Harding addressed a joint session ofCongress to present hisState of the Union address in person rather than sending it over to be read out loud. Harding advocated early refunding of foreign debts, increased regulation of non-taxable securities, providing relief for cooperative agriculture associations, a flexible tariff, and other reforms, and a hope that humanitarian aid could be increased to relieve the famine inSoviet Russia.[4]
The firstpenalty shot in the history ofice hockey was taken in one of the first games of thePacific Coast Hockey Association, which had recently adopted the rule. The shot missed and it would be six more days before a goal was scored on a penalty shot.[18]
A violent riot, involving an estimated 360,000 people, broke out in the U.S. city ofChicago when police attempted to make arrests during picketing by striking meatpackers. Nine people were shot, one fatally, and violence spread toOmaha, Nebraska andSouth St. Paul, Minnesota.[4]
AU.S. Senate subcommittee investigating capital punishment in theU.S. Army announced that only 11 of the servicemen given the death sentence duringWorld War I had actually been executed.[4]
Irish republican leaderÉamon de Valera declared that, after discussions with his cabinet, he and two ministers were opposed to ratification of the Anglo-Irish peace treaty, but referred the matter to the Irish parliament,Dáil Éireann, for further discussion. De Valera asked the Irish people to continue orderly conduct during the debate.Arthur Griffith, one of theIrish republicans who had signed the treaty as a delegate, declared that he was strongly in favor of ratification.[4]
All 43 crew were rescued from theU.S. Navy submarineS-48 after it sank in waters 80 feet (24 m) deep inLong Island Sound, during the sub's first sea trial after departing fromNew York.[4] A civilian mechanic fromBridgeport, Connecticut, Peter F. Dunne, conceived a plan to raise the bow of the ship above the surface, where the crew was able to escape through a torpedo tube.[4]
The last Irish republican political prisoners were released from theBallykinlar prison inNorthern Ireland, a little more than three weeks after the shooting ofTadhg Barry.[4]
Anti-Christian pamphleteerJohn William Gott became the last person inEngland to be publicly prosecuted and imprisoned forblasphemous libel.[22] Gott, who had several prior jail sentences for blasphemy, had published a satire of the Christian religion in a pamphlet, including the statement thatJesus Christ had enteredJerusalem "like a circus clown on the back of two donkeys" and was sentenced to nine months imprisonment at hard labor. Shortly after his release in August, he died on November 4, 1922, at the age of 56.
Negotiations betweenChina andJapan broke down when Japan announced that it would not cede theTsingtao toTsinan railroad to Chinese control, regardless of compensation.[4]
Died:Sir Arthur Pearson, 55, British newspapermagnate and publisher who founded theDaily Express, a London afternoon tabloid, in 1900; accidentally died after falling in his bathtub, striking his head, and drowning (b.1866)[23]
TheUnited States andJapan reached an agreement regarding the island ofYap and other South Pacific islands under mandate, with Japanese sovereignty recognized in return for the U.S. having equal rights with Japan on access to undersea cables and wireless service, as well as a guarantee that American missionaries and educators would be protected.[4]
AsGermany's economic crisis worsened, theGerman Federal Council increased the rates for all communication (postal, telephone, telegraph) and railway transportation to a new level that was 20 times as much as it had been beforeWorld War I.[4]
AtAllahabad inIndia, the visit of thePrince of Wales was welcomed by a small crowd of British residents, while almost all native Indians boycotted the ceremonies.[4]
In the town ofFranklin, Kansas, a group of 2,000 immigrants, mostly women whose husbands were striking miners, formed a mob and attacked non-union labor that had come to replace the strikers, using red pepper and throwing rocks. TheKansas National Guard was sent in to restore order.[4]
Britain extended the India Sedition Act to its territory inBurma, where the Prince of Wales was scheduled to visit.[4]
John A. Elston, 47, a member of theU.S. House of Representatives from California since 1915, committedsuicide at the age of 47 by drowning himself in thePotomac River. Elston, who represented the area around theSan Francisco Bay, left a suicide note in his coat, found at the bank of the river near theWashington Monument. He wrote "I am in a chain of circumstances that spell ruin, although my offense was innocently made in the beginning. I hope all the facts will come out. Staying means embarrassment to my district and to a worthy people, clean and generous." Earlier in the day, Elston had failed to answer roll call in the House and detectives looked for him, taking him to get medical attention. Hours later, he disappeared again and his body was found two days later.[30][31]
The U.S.Railroad Labor Board ruled that "time-and-a-half" overtime pay would not be required except when a worker had been on the job for more than ten hours on a shift, but restricted railroads to scheduling workers for no more than an eight-hour shift, with allowance for overruns.[4]
Japan agreed to accept the "5:5:3 ratio" on total tonnage of ships in theImperial Japanese Navy, with Japan to have 3/5ths as many warships in its fleet as theUnited States Navy and theRoyal Navy of theUnited Kingdom. U.S. Secretary of StateCharles Evans Hughes had proposed the limitation on November 12, based on the total amount of coastline (including colonial possessions) that each nation had to defend. Numerically, the United Kingdom would have 20 warships totaling 582,050 tons; the United States would have 18 warships combining for 525,850 tons; and Japan would have 10 warships at 313,300 tons.[4]
The Allied Reparation Commission announced that it had been delivered forfeited German ships that the Commission valued as being worth 756 million goldmarks based on the worth of the German mark at the end ofWorld War I.[4]
Germany informed the Allied Reparation Commission that, because of the worsening economic crisis, Germany would be unable to pay the installments due in January and February 1922.[4]
The British cargo shipStevenstone leftBlyth, Northumberland, forHelsingør,Denmark, and was never seen again. It was presumed to have foundered with the loss of all hands.[35]
U.S.President Harding eliminated the fringe benefit of free rent and utilities for all U.S. civilian employees working in thePanama Canal Zone, and directed that the government workers would be responsible for their own expenses.[34]
Peru rejected the Chilean proposal for a plebiscite to determine the status of the Tacna-Arica region, and made a counter-proposal that the matter be submitted for arbitration by a neutral party.[34]
Austria andCzechoslovakia adjourned their international conference over border disputes and agreed to submit further controversies to international arbitration.[34]
Poland's football team played its first international match, losing 1 to 0 toHungary in a match inBudapest.[43]
SirGeorge Fuller took office as the new Premier of the Australian state ofNew South Wales, seven days after PremierJames Dooley lost a vote of confidence in the state legislature. Only seven hours after Fuller had formed a government and became the head of government as premier, he lost another vote of confidence in the legislature and was not seated. On December 27, Dooley was appointed premier again after forming a new government.[45]
TheU.S. Senate voted to pass theRussian Famine Relief Act and approved the appropriation of $20,000,000 ($300 million in 2021) for that purpose, pursuant to the request ofPresident Harding and following the approval by theHouse on December 17, subject to the condition that all purchases of food be made in the U.S. and shipped to theSoviet Union in American vessels.[34]
Chinese warlordZhang Zuolin, the Governor ofManchuria, reorganized his government appointingYan Huiqing as Foreign Minister, and new ministers for finance and for communications.[34]
Colombia ratified the treaty with theUnited States recognizing the independence ofPanama, a former Colombian province that had been declared a separate nation after the intervention of the U.S. in 1903.[34]
The first radio station inFrance,Radio Tour Eiffel, began broadcasting from a studio near theEiffel Tower, where the transmitter was installed. The inaugural broadcast, of 30 minutes, consisted of an engineer with the message, "Allô, allô, ici poste militaire de la Tour Eiffel" ("Hello, hello, this is the military post of the Eiffel Tower.") Regular transmissions would begin on February 6.[51]
TheKingdom of Italy signed its first trade agreement with theSoviet Union, a prelude to full diplomatic recognition with the Communist government in 1924. One historian[who?] noted that the pact "signified thede facto recognition of the Soviet government by its Italian counterpart."[53]
Saad Zaghloul, the formerPrime Minister of Egypt, was deported by British authorities toCeylon (now Sri Lanka), roughly 3,500 miles (5,600 km) away. Sent with Zaghloul were five of his political allies, after the British government concluded that the original plan for exile on the island ofMalta was insufficient.[34]
Stinson and Bertaud
A new record for airplane endurance was set byEdward Stinson andLloyd W. Bertaud, who flew over 24 hours in a Larsen metal monoplane around Long Island after taking off fromMineola, New York. They finally landed after 26 hours, 19 minutes and 35 seconds.[34]
In what would become known as the “Gun Alley Murder” inMelbourne inAustralia, a 12-year-old schoolgirl was raped and murdered after having last been seen near the Australian Wine Saloon, owned byColin Campbell Ross.[61] Ross was charged and convicted based on the testimony of two witnesses and circumstantial evidence, and would be hanged on April 24. More than 80 years later, DNA analysis of a key piece of evidence and doubts about the reliability of the witness would lead to a posthumous pardon by the Governor of the state ofVictoria on May 27, 2008, the only pardon up to that time for a person executed in Australia.[62][page needed]
The British cargo shipSSAdderstone, with 19 crew aboard, departed from theRiver Tyne, on a two-day voyage to the German port ofHamburg and never arrived. TheAdderstone apparently foundered and sank in theNorth Sea and no trace of the vessel was found.[63][64]
At theWashington Disarmament Conference, the U.S. and Japan reached an agreement on the use of telegraph cables on the South Pacific island ofYap, with the U.S. having exclusive use and responsibility for the cable toGuam, Japan to have the cable toShanghai viaOkinawa, and the Netherlands controlling the cable toManado in theDutch East Indies (nowIndonesia).[34]
^Crippen, Ken."Who Really Won In 1921?".History of Pro Football In Western New York. Archived fromthe original on 29 September 2007 – via Wayback Machine.
^Tharoor, Shashi (2003).Nehru: The Invention of India. Arcade Publishing. pp. 41–42.
^Boileau, Ron; Wolf, Philip (2000). "The Pacific Coast Hockey Association".Total Hockey: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Hockey League. Total Sports. pp. 51–54.
^"Early-Day Editor Is Summoned".Los Angeles Times. December 8, 1921. p. I-1.
^Lidgett, Albert (1970).Petroleum Times. Petroleum Times. p. 23.
^"Imperial and Foreign News Items".The Times. No. 42909. London. 21 December 1921. col. G, p. 11.
^Hevesi, Robert (November 10, 2010). "Robert Lipshutz, Carter Aide, Dies at 88".The New York Times.
^Woo, Elaine (July 4, 2012). "Judith Wallerstein Dies at 90; Psychologist Was Described by Time Magazine as the 'godmother of the Backlash against Divorce'".Los Angeles Times.
^Cameron, Trewhella (1994).Jan Smuts: An Illustrated Biography. Human & Rousseau. p. 90.
^"GUN ALLEY MURDER".The Daily Telegraph. Vol. XLII, no. 3. Tasmania, Australia. 4 January 1922. p. 5. Retrieved30 July 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
^Morgan, Kevin (2012). "Gun Alley: Murder, Lies and Failure of Justice". Hardie Grant Books.
^"The Missing S.S. Adderstone— Local Men Amongst the Crew".The Evening Chronicle. January 13, 1922. p. 8.
^"Feared Loss of Tyne Steamer".Leicester Mail. January 14, 1922. p. 1.
^États africains d'expression française et République malgache, Paris, Éditions Julliard, 1964, p. 73 (French)
^"Baron Rosen Dies After Auto Injury; Ex-Russian Ambassador, 74, Whose Shin Bone Was Broken, Succumbs to Pneumonia— Struck Down on Dec. 14".The New York Times. January 1, 1922. p. 18.
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