1923

1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Events of 1923

• January 1 –
  • Grouping Act: All British railway companies are grouped into 4 larger companies.
  • Rosewood Massacre Begins
• January 7 – Rosewood Massacre Ends
• January 10 – Lithuania seizes and annexes Memel.
• January 11 – Despite strong British protests, troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area to force Germany to pay its reparation payments.
• January 17 – Juan de la Cierva invents the autogyro, a rotary-winged aircraft with an unpowered rotor.
• January 18 – Elon College's campus is destroyed by a fire.
• February 8 – Billy Hughes resigns as Prime Minister of Australia, after the Country Party refuses to govern in coalition with him as the leader of the Nationalist Party. Hughes is succeeded by his Treasurer, Stanley Bruce.
• February 23 – Albert Einstein visits Barcelona, Spain, at the invitation of scientist Esteban Terradas i Illa.

March–April

• March – Antigone by Jean Cocteau appears on a Paris stage (settings by Pablo Picasso, music by Arthur Honegger, and costumes by Gabrielle Chanel). Antonin Artaud plays the part of Tiresias.
• March 1
  • The USS Connecticut is decommissioned.
  • Greece adopts the Gregorian calendar.
• March 2 – Time Magazine hits newsstands for the first time.
• March 9 – Vladimir Lenin suffers his third stroke, which renders him bedridden and unable to speak; consequently he retires his position as Chairman of the Soviet government.
• March 28 – Regia Aeronautica, the air force of Fascist Italy, is founded.
• April 6 – The first Prefects Board in Southeast Asia is formed in Victoria Institution, Malaysia.
• April 12 – The Kandersteg International Scout Centre comes into existence.
• April 18 – Yankee Stadium (1923) opens its doors in the Bronx, NY
• April 26 – Prince Albert marries Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in Westminster Abbey.
• April 29 – The Gdynia seaport is inaugurated.

May–June

• May 9 – Southeastern Michigan receives a record 6 inches of snow after temperatures plummeted from 62 to 34 degrees between 1 and 6 pm on the previous day.
• May 23 – Belgium's SABENA Airlines is created.
• May 24 – The Irish Civil War ends.
• May 27 – The Ku Klux Klan defies a law requiring publication of its members.
• June 9 – A military coup in Bulgaria ousts prime minister Aleksandar Stamboliyski (he is killed June 14).
• June 13 – China President Li abandons his residence because a warlord has commanded forces to surround the mansion and cut off its water and electric supplies, in order to force him to abandon his post.
• June 16 – The storming of Ayan in Siberia concludes the Yakut Revolt and the Russian Civil War.
• June 18 – Mount Etna erupts in Italy, making 60,000 homeless.
• June 25 – Rapid Bucureşti is formed on the initiative of the Griviţa railroad workers (first named CFR Bucureşti).

July–August

• July 10 – Large hailstones kill 23 in Rostow, Soviet Union.
• July 19 – July 20 – Pancho Villa is assassinated at Hidalgo del Parral, Chihuahua.
• July 24 – The Treaty of Lausanne, settling the boundaries of modern Turkey, is signed in Switzerland by Greece, Bulgaria and other countries that fought in the First World War.
• August 2 – Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the United States, (1921 – 1923) dies in office and is succeeded by Calvin Coolidge (1923–1929).
• August 13 – The first major seagoing ship arrives at Gdynia, the newly constructed Polish seaport.
• August 13 – Gustav Stresemann is named Chancellor of Germany and founds a coalition government for the Weimar Republic.
• August 30 – Hurricane season began, with a tropical storm northeast of Turks and Caicos.

September–October

• September 1 – The Great Kantō earthquake devastates Tokyo and Yokohama, killing an estimated 142,807 people, but according to a Japanese construction research center report in 2005, 105,000 are confirmed dead.
• September 4 – In Lakehurst, New Jersey, the first American airship, the USS Shenandoah, takes to the sky for the first time.
• September 6 – The Italian navy occupies Corfu in retaliation for the murder of an Italian officer. The League of Nations protests and they leave on September 29.
• September 7 – International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC) created.
• September 8 – Honda Point Disaster: Seven U.S. Navy destroyers run aground off the California coast.
• September 9 – Turkish head of state Atatürk founds the CHP.

• September 10 – Ireland joins the League of Nations.
• September 13 – Military coup in Spain: Miguel Primo de Rivera takes over, setting up a dictatorship. Trade unions are banned for 10 years.
• September 17 – A major fire in Berkeley, California erupts, consuming some 640 structures, including 584 homes in the densely built neighborhoods north of the campus of the University of California.
• September 18 – September 26 – Newspaper printers strike in New York.
• September 24 – Second hurricane of the season, a major hurricane north of Hispaniola.
• September 26 – In Bayern, Gustav Ritter von Kahr declares independence from Berlin.

• October 13 – Ankara replaces Istanbul as the capital of Turkey.
• October 13 – The third hurricane of the season, the first recorded example of a storm crossing from the Eastern Pacific basin into the Atlantic basin, occurred in Oaxaca.
• October 14 – Fourth tropical storm of the year, formed just north of Panama.
• October 15 – Fifth tropical storm of the year, formed north of the Leeward Islands.
• October 16 – The sixth tropical storm developed in the Gulf of Mexico. It was a rare occurrence, it consisted of four active tropical storms simultaneously.
• October 16 – Roy and Walt Disney Founded The Walt Disney Company.
• October 26 – In Persia, Reza Khan became Ahmad Shah Qajar's prime minister.
• October 29 – Turkey becomes a republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Kemal Atatürk is elected as the president.
• October 30– İsmet İnönü is appointed as the first prime minister of Turkey.

November–December

• November 1 – The Finnish flag carrier Finnair airline is started in Aero Oy.
• November 8 – Beer Hall Putsch: In Munich, Adolf Hitler leads the Nazis in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government; police and troops crush the attempt the next day.
• November 12 – Her Highness Princess Maud of Fife marries Captain Charles Alexander Carnegie in Wellington Barracks, London.
• November 15 – The hyperinflation in Germany reaches its height. One United States dollar is worth 4,200,000,000,000,000 Papiermark (4.2 quadrillion). Gustav Stresemann abolishes the old currency (see inflation in the Weimar Republic).
• November 23 – Gustav Stresemann's coalition government collapses in Germany.
• December 12 – In Italy, the Po River dam bursts, killing 600.
• December 20 – BEGGARS Fraternity (the first social fraternity at a Jesuit college in the United States) is founded by 9 men, who secured permission to do so from the Pope.
• December 27 – The crown prince of Japan survives an assassination attempt in Tokyo.

Undated

• At the International Police Conference in Vienna, the International Criminal Police (Interpol) is set up.
• The Hoda Cha'arawi Association (formerly The Egyptian Feminist Union) is established in Egypt.
• Police strike in Australia.
• The American Law Institute is established.
• The Moderation League of New York becomes part of the movement for the repeal of prohibition in the United States.
• Rainbow Trout is introduced into the upper Firehole River in Yellowstone National Park
• Vladimir Zworykin files the first patent for colour television.
• Struggling for a foothold in southern China, Sun Yatsen decides to ally his Nationalist party or Guomindang (Kuomintang) with the Communist Third International and Chinese Communist Party.
• The Disney Studios began.

Ongoing

• Greek genocide (1914–1923)
• Third Rif War (1920–1926)
• United States occupation of Haiti (1915–1934)

Births

January–February

• January 1
  • Vulo Radev, Bulgarian film director (d. 2001)
  • Roméo Sabourin, Canadian World War II spy (d. 1944)
• January 5 – Sam Phillips, American record producer (d. 2003)
• January 6 – Jacobo Timerman, Argentine writer (d. 1999)
• January 7 – Hugh Kenner, Canadian literary critic (d. 2003)
• January 8 – Johnny Wardle, English cricketer (d. 1985)
  • Larry Storch, American actor
• January 11 – Ernst Nolte, German historian.
• January 16 – Anthony Hecht, American poet (d. 2004)
• January 19 – Jean Stapleton, American actress (All In The Family)
• January 23
  • Cot Deal, American major league baseball player and coach
  • Stephanie Kwolek, inventor of Kevlar fibers
• January 25 – Arvid Carlsson, Swedish scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• January 26 – Anne Jeffreys, American actress
• January 29 – Paddy Chayefsky, American writer (d. 1981)
• January 31 – Norman Mailer, American writer and journalist (d. 2007)

• February 2
  • James Dickey, American poet and author (Deliverance) (d. 1997)
  • Liz Smith, American gossip columnist
• February 7 – George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood and first grandchild of King George V
• February 9 – Brendan Behan, Irish author (d. 1964)
• February 10 – Cesare Siepi, Italian opera singer
• February 12 – Franco Zeffirelli, Italian film and opera director
• February 13 – Yfrah Neaman, Lebanese-born violinist (d. 2003)
• February 13 – Chuck Yeager, American test pilot and NASA official
• February 20 – Forbes Burnham, President of Guyana (d. 1985)
• February 24 – David Soyer, American cellist
• February 27 – Dexter Gordon, American jazz saxophone player (d. 1990)
• February 28 – Charles Durning, American actor

March–April

• March 4 – Sir Patrick Moore, British astronomer and broadcaster
• March 6 – Ed McMahon, American television personality (The Tonight Show) (d. 2009)
• March 7 – Mahlon Clark, American musician (d. 2007)
• March 8 – Louk Hulsman, Dutch criminologist (d. 2009)
• March 9 – Walter Kohn, Austrian-born physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• March 10 – Val Logsdon Fitch, American nuclear physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• March 12 – Wally Schirra, American astronaut (d. 2007)
• March 12 – Hjalmar Andersen, Norweigian speed-skater
• March 14 – Diane Arbus, American photographer (d. 1971)
• March 21 – Shri Mataji Nirmala Srivastava, Indian founder of Sahaja Yoga
• March 22 – Marcel Marceau, world renowned French mime (d. 2007)
• March 24 – Murray Hamilton, American actor (d. 1986)
• March 25 – Wim van Est, Dutch cyclist (d. 2003)
• March 26 – Bob Elliott, American comedian
• March 27 – Louis Simpson, Jamaican-born poet
• March 28 – Thad Jones, American jazz musician (d. 1986)
• March 30 – Milton Acorn, Canadian writer (d. 1986)

• April 2 – G. Spencer-Brown, British mathematician
• April 2 – Alice Haylett, professional baseball player (d. 2004)
• April 4 – Peter Vaughan, English actor
• April 6 – Ramon Valdes, Mexican comedian (d. 1988)
• April 8
  • George Fisher, American political cartoonist (d. 2003)
  • Edward Mulhare, Irish actor (The Ghost and Mrs. Muir) (d. 1997)
• April 13 – Don Adams, American actor and comedian (Get Smart) (d. 2005)
• April 20 – Mother Angelica, American founder of the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN)
• April 22
  • Bettie Page, American model (d. 2008)
  • Aaron Spelling, American television producer and writer (d. 2006)
• April 23 – Dolph Briscoe, Governor of Texas
• April 25 – Albert King, American musician (d. 1992)
• April 30
  • Al Lewis, American actor (The Munsters) (d. 2006)
  • Francis Tucker, South African Rally Driver (d. 2008)

May–June

• May 1 – Joseph Heller, American novelist (Catch-22) (d. 1999)
• May 2 – Patrick Hillery, President of Ireland (d. 2008)
• May 3 – Ralph Hall, American politician
• May 4 – Assi Rahbani, Lebanese composer, musician, conductor, poet and author (d. 1986)
  • Eric Sykes, English actor
• May 5 – Richard Wollheim, British philosopher (d. 2003)
• May 7 – Anne Baxter, American actress (d. 1985)
• May 10 – Heydar Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan from June 1993 to October 2003 (d. 2003)
• May 15 – John Lanchbery, English composer (d. 2003)
• May 16 – Merton Miller, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2000)
• May 18 – Hugh Shearer, Prime Minister of Jamaica (d. 2004)
• May 21
  • Armand Borel, Swiss mathematician (d. 2003)
  • Dorothy Hewett, Australian writer (d. 2002)
  • Ara Parseghian, American football coach
• May 23 – Kalidas Shrestha, Nepalese artist
• May 26 – James Arness, American actor
  • Roy Dotrice, British actor
• May 27 – Henry Kissinger, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• May 28
  • György Ligeti, Hungarian composer (d. 2006)
  • NTR, Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao, Indian (Telugu) film actor (d. 1996)
• May 31 – Rainier III, Prince of Monaco (d. 2005)

• June 4 – Elizabeth Jolley, Australian writer (d. 2007)
• June 10 – Robert Maxwell, Slovakian-born media entrepreneur (d. 1991)
• June 15 – Johnny Most, American basketball radio announcer (d. 1993)
• June 20 – Bjørn Watt-Boolsen, Danish actor (d. 1998)
• June 24 – Jack Carter, American comedian
• June 27 – Gus Zernial, American baseball player and sports commentator
• June 28 – Daniil Khrabrovitsky, Soviet film director (d. 1980)

July–August

• July 2 – Wislawa Szymborska, Polish writer, Nobel Prize laureate
• July 4 – Rudolf Friedrich, Swiss Federal Councilor
• July 8 – Harrison Dillard, American athlete
• July 18 – Jerome H. Lemelson, American inventor (d. 1997)
• July 20 – Stanisław Albinowski, Polish economist and journalist (d. 2005)
• July 21 – Rudolph A. Marcus, Canadian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• July 22
  • Bob Dole, American politician and Presidential candidate
  • Mukesh, Indian singer (d. 1976)
  • The Fabulous Moolah, American professional wrestler (d. 2007)
• July 23
  • Witto Aloma, Cuban Major League Baseball player (d. 1997)
  • Norma Zimmer, American singer (The Lawrence Welk Show)
  • Estelle Getty, American actress (The Golden Girls) (d. 2008)
• July 28 – H.S.S. Lawrence, Indian educator
• July 29 – Jim Marshall, founder of Marshall Amplification

• August 3 – Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria, Pope of Coptic Christianity
• August 5 – Devan Nair, third President of Singapore (d. 2005)
• August 16 – Millôr Fernandes, Brazilian cartoonist and playwright
• August 20 – Jim Reeves, American country singer (d. 1964)
• August 21
  • Shimon Peres, Prime Minister of Israel, President of Israel, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
  • Larry Grayson, British comedian and game show host (d. 1995)
• August 24 – Arthur Jensen, American educational psychologist
• August 26 – Wolfgang Sawallisch, German conductor and pianist
• August 29 – Marmaduke Hussey, Baron Hussey of North Bradley, chairman of the BBC (d. 2006)
  • Richard Attenborough, English actor

September–October

• September 1
  • Rocky Marciano, American boxer (d. 1969)
  • Kenneth Roy Thomson, 2nd Baron Thomson of Fleet, Canadian businessman and art collector (d. 2006)
• September 3 – Mort Walker, American cartoonist (Beetle Bailey)
• September 6 – King Peter II of Yugoslavia (d. 1970)
• September 7 – Madeleine Dring, British composer and actress (d. 1977)
• September 9 – Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, American virologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2008)
• September 16 – Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore
• September 17 – Hank Williams, American country musician (d. 1953)
• September 18 – Queen Anne of Romania
• September 20 – Geraldine Clinton Little, Irish-born poet (d. 1997)
• September 22 – Dannie Abse, Welsh poet
• September 26 – Dev Anand, Indian actor

• October 3 – Edward Oliver LeBlanc, Dominican politician (d. 2004)
• October 4 – Charlton Heston, American actor (The Ten Commandments) (d. 2008)
• October 5
  • Albert Guðmundsson, Icelandic professional football player and politician (d. 1994)
  • Glynis Johns, British actress
• October 10 – Murray Walker, British motor racing commenator
• October 13 – Faas Wilkes, Dutch football (soccer) player (d. 2006)
• October 15 – Italo Calvino, Italian writer (d. 1985)
• October 17 – Charles McClendon, Hall of Fame college football coach (d. 2001)
• October 23
  • Frank Sutton, American actor (d. 1974)
  • Sir Robin Day, British political broadcaster (d. 2000)
• October 24 – Denise Levertov, British-born American poet (d. 1997)

November–December

• November 1
  • Victoria de los Angeles, Catalan soprano (d. 2005)
  • Gordon R. Dickson, Canadian author (d. 2001)
• November 3 – Tomás Ó Fiaich, Northern Irish cardinal (d. 1990)
• November 5 – Kay Lionikas, Greek-American female professional baseball player (d. 1978)
• November 8 – Jack Kilby, American electrical engineer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (d. 2005)
• November 18 – Alan Shepard, first American astronaut (d. 1998)
• November 20 – Nadine Gordimer, South African writer, Nobel Prize laureate
• November 22 – Arthur Hiller, Canadian film director
• November 23 – Billy Haughton, American harness driver and trainer (d. 1986)
• November 25 – Mauno Koivisto, President of Finland
• November 26 – Pat Phoenix, British actress (d. 1986)

• December 2 – Maria Callas, Greek soprano (d. 1977)
• December 5 – Eleanor Dapkus, American female professional baseball player
• December 12 – Bob Barker, American game show host (The Price Is Right)
• December 13
  • Philip Warren Anderson, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
  • Larry Doby, baseball player (d. 2003)
  • Antoni Tàpies, Catalan painter
• December 14
  • Gerard Reve, Dutch writer (d. 2006)
  • Sully Boyar, American actor (d. 2001)
• December 15 – Freeman Dyson, English-born physicist
• December 17 – Jaroslav Pelikan, American historian (d. 2006)
• December 23 – James Stockdale, U.S. Navy admiral and vice presidential candidate (d. 2005)
• December 24 – George Patton IV, American general (d. 2004)
• December 25 – Sonia Olschanezky, World War II heroine (d. 1944)
• date unknown – Geoffrey Hattersley-Smith, English/Canadian geologist and glaciologist

Deaths

• Dorila Antommarchi, Poet

• January 3 – Jaroslav Hasek, Czech writer (b. 1883)
• January 9
  • Katherine Mansfield, British novelist (b. 1888)
  • Edith Thompson, British murderer (hanged) (b. 1893)
• January 11 – Constantine I of Greece, King of Greece (b. 1868)
• January 18 – Wallace Reid, American actor (b. 1891)
• January 23 – Max Nordau, Hungarian author, philosopher, and Zionist leader (b. 1849)
• January 31 – Eligiusz Niewiadomski, Polish artist, political activist and assassin (executed) (b. 1869)
• February 3 – Kuroki Tamemoto, Japanese military leader (b. 1844)
• February 10 – Wilhelm Röntgen, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1845)
• February 23 – Théophile Delcassé, French statesman (b. 1852)
• March 8 – Johannes Diderik van der Waals, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1837)
• March 26 – Sarah Bernhardt, French actress (b. 1844)
• March 27 – Sir James Dewar, Scottish chemist (b. 1842)
• March 28 – Michel-Joseph Maunoury, French general (b. 1847)
• April 4 – John Venn, British mathematician (b. 1834)
• April 5 – George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, English financier of Egyptian excavations (b. 1866)
• April 23 – Princess Louise of Prussia, Grand Duchess of Baden (b. 1838)
• June 9 – Princess Helena of the United Kingdom, third daughter of Queen Victoria (b. 1846)
• June 10 – Pierre Loti, French writer and naval officer (b. 1850)
• June 24 – Edith Södergran, Finnish author (b. 1892)

July–December===

• July 10 – Albert Chevalier, English music hall comedian (b. 1861)
• July 23 – Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary (b. 1878)
• August 2 – Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the United States (b. 1865)
• August 24 – Kato Tomosaburo, 21st Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1861)
• September 9 – Hermes Rodrigues da Fonseca, 8th President of Brazil (b. 1855)
• October 30 – Andrew Bonar Law, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1858)
• November 9 (among those killed in Munich Beer Hall Putsch):
  • Oskar Körner, businessman (b. 1875)
  • Karl Laforce, student (b. 1904)
  • Ludwig Maximilian Erwin von Scheubner-Richter, diplomat and revolutionary (b. 1884)
• November 14 – Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover (b. 1845)
• November 30 – Martha Mansfield, American actress (b. 1899)
• December 12 – Raymond Radiguet, French author (b. 1903)
• December 13 – Théophile Steinlen, Swiss painter (b. 1859)
• December 27 – Gustave Eiffel, French engineer and architect (Eiffel tower) (b. 1832)
• date unknown – Carl L. Boeckmann, Norwegian-American artist (b. 1867)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – Robert Andrews Millikan
• Chemistry – Fritz Pregl
• Physiology or Medicine – Frederick Grant Banting, John James Richard Macleod
• Literature – William Butler Yeats
• Peace – Not awarded

Notes