The following events occurred in July 1927:
July 1, 1927 (Friday) The first coast-to-coast radio network hookup in Canada was made for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Dominion.Mary Vipond, Listening In: The First Decade of Canadian Broadcasting, 1922–1932 (McGill-Queen's Press, 1992) p70 The airplane America, along with Commander Richard E. Byrd and its crew, Bert Acosta, George O. Noville and Bert Balchen, crashed into the sea as they attempted to duplicate Charles Lindbergh's flight from New York to Paris. Fortunately, the aviators were within 200 meters of the beach at Ver-sur-Mer when their plane ran out of fuel at 5:45 am, and they survived the ordeal."BYRD CRASHES; SAFE!", Milwaukee Sentinel, July 1, 1927, p1; "How They Beat That Night of Terror – By Fearless Bert Acosta", Milwaukee Sentinel, July 2, 1927, p. 1 Born: Chandra Shekhar Singh, Prime Minister of India in 1990 and 1991; in Ibrahimpatti, United Provinces of British India (d. 2007) Winfield Dunn, American politician, Governor of Tennessee from 1971 to 1975; in Meridian, Mississippi (d. 2024)
July 2, 1927 (Saturday) Jane Eads, reporter for the Chicago Herald and Examiner became the first airline passenger, completing a flight from Chicago to San Francisco, on a Boeing Air Transport Model 40 that was used to transport mail."Girl First Air Line Passenger", Milwaukee Sentinel, July 2, 1927, p. 2; "Girl Flying to Pacific Writes Story While on Wing – She's First Passenger on Mail Plane Route", Milwaukee Sentinel, July 3, 1927, p. 2 The airline would later become United Airlines. Henri Cochet won the Wimbledon finals over fellow Frenchman Jean Borotra after losing the first two sets, 4–6 and 4–6, then won the next two 6–3, 6–4, and took the match 7–5. The day before, Cochet had made the finals by defeating Bill Tilden in the same come from behind fashion, losing the first 2 sets and winning the other three. Helen Wills became the first American player in 20 years to win the women's singles, beating Spanish champion Lili de Alvarez in straight sets, 6–2, 6–4."Helen Wills, Cochet Grasp Tennis Crowns", Milwaukee Sentinel, July 3, 1927, p. 3-1 Lord Norman, Governor of the Bank of England and Hjalmar Schacht of the German Reichsbank met at Long Island with U.S. Undersecretary of the Treasury Ogden L. Mills to make plans to boost the American and world economies.Jim Powell, FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression (Random House, Inc., 2004) p. 27 Niels Bohr began working on his description of space-time in quantum and wave mechanicsJagdish Mehra and Helmut Rechenberg, The Historical Development of Quantum Theory (Springer, 2000) p190 The Western film The Last Outlaw starring Gary Cooper was released.
July 3, 1927 (Sunday)
Satchel Paige made his pro baseball debut in the Negro leagues, pitching for the Birmingham Black Barons in a game at Detroit. After twenty-one years, Paige would, at 42, become the oldest rookie in Major League Baseball, joining the Cleveland Indians in 1948 after the integration of baseball. At 59, he would make his final appearance, pitching for the Kansas City A's.Satchel Paige, as told to David Lipman, Maybe I'll Pitch Forever (University of Nebraska Press, 1993) Born: Ken Russell, British film director known for Women in Love and Altered States; in Southampton, Hampshire (d. 2011) Salome Thorkelsdottir, Icelandic politician and the first woman (from 1991 to 1995) to have served as the Speaker of the House in that nation's parliament, the Althing; in Reykjavík (alive in 2026)
July 4, 1927 (Monday) Sukarno (born Kusno Sosrodihardjo) founded the Perserikatan Nasional Indonesia, seeking independence of the Dutch East Indies colony from the Netherlands. In 1945, he would become the first President of Indonesia.R. B. Cribb and Audrey Kahin, Historical Dictionary of Indonesia (Scarecrow Press, 2004) p. 324 The Lockheed Vega, first airplane manufactured by the Lockheed Corporation, made its inaugural flight, with Eddie Belande taking the plane up from Mines Field in Los Angeles.Birch Matthews, Race with the Wind: How Air Racing Advanced Aviation (Zenith Imprint, 2001) p. 50 Joseph Goebbels published the first issue of the Nazi newspaper, Der Angriff, which promoted Goebbels' views until its last issue in April 1945.Russel Lemmons, Goebbels and Der Angriff (University Press of Kentucky, 1994) p. 31 Born: Neil Simon, American playwright; in the Bronx, New York (d. 2018) Gina Lollobrigida, Italian and American film actress; in Subiaco (d. 2023)
July 5, 1927 (Tuesday) The Verein fur Raumschiffahrt (VfR, or Association for Space Travel) was founded at the Goldenes Zepter tavern in Breslau, Germany, (now Wrocław, Poland) by various German rocket scientists including Hermann Oberth, Walter Hohmann and Johannes Winkler,Brian Harvey, Europe's Space Programme: To Ariane and beyond (Springer, 2003) p. 4 Northwest Airlines began passenger service when businessman Byron Webster bought a ticket to fly from Minneapolis to Chicago. The plane took more than 12 hours to complete its journey, after stops in the Wisconsin cities of LaCrosse, Madison and Milwaukee, and Webster arrived in Chicago the next morning at 2:30. Northwest would become one of the largest airlines in the United States, before being merged into Delta Air Lines in 2010.Geoff Jones, Northwest Airlines:: The First Eighty Years (Arcadia Publishing, 2005) p. 10 The S.S. Presidente Saavedra, the only ship of the Bolivian Naval Force, sank in the harbor outside of Buenos Aires, Argentina."Whole Bolivia Navy Sunk! It's One Ship", Milwaukee Sentinel, July 6, 1927, p. 1 Inventor Stanley S. Jenkins applied for the patent for the process that he used to create the corn dog and other deep-fried foods that could be carried on a stick. Under the title "Combined Dipping, Cooking, and Article Holding Apparatus",U.S. Patent No. 1,706,491 Jenkins wrote in his application that his invention was for "an apparatus in which a new and novel edible food product may be deep fried... consisting of an article of food impaled on a stick and coated with batter," and added that "I have discovered that articles of food such, for instance, as wieners, boiled ham, hard boiled eggs, cheese, sliced peaches, pineapples, bananas and like fruit, and cherries, dates, figs, strawberries, etc., when impaled on sticks and dipped in a batter... the resultant food product on a stick for a handle is a clean, wholesome and tasty refreshment." U.S. Patent No. 1,706,491 was granted on March 26, 1929. Born: Thomas J. Fleming, American historian and novelist; in Jersey City, New Jersey (d. 2017) Died: Albrecht Kossel, 73, German physician and 1910 Nobel Prize laureate for his determination of the chemical composition of nucleic acids
July 6, 1927 (Wednesday) The Church of England's governing assembly voted 517–133 in favor of the proposed revision of the Book of Common Prayer."New Prayer Book Wins Assembly Vote", Milwaukee Sentinel, July 2, 1927, p1 The song "My Blue Heaven" was recorded for the first time, by Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra, and became one of the year's top-selling records.Peter J. Levinson, Tommy Dorsey: Livin' in a Great Big Way, (Da Capo Press, 2005) p. 28 Born: Janet Leigh (stage name for Jeanette Helen Morrison), American film actress known for Psycho and The Fog; in Merced, California (d. 2004) Pat Paulsen, American comedian and perennial presidential candidate; in South Bend, Washington (d. 1997) Alan Freeman, Australian-born British disc jockey who was the long time host of Pick of the Pops; in Melbourne (d. 2006) Dolores Claman, Canadian composer who created the popular theme song for CBC's Hockey Night In Canada; in Vancouver (d. 2021)
July 7, 1927 (Thursday) Portuguese neurosurgeon Egas Moniz first presented his discovery of cerebral angiography arterial encephalography in a paper presented at the Societe de Neurologie in Paris. Moniz had discovered a safe method of detecting brain tumors by injecting contrast into the cervical carotid artery.G. Benndorf, Dural Cavernous Sinus Fistulas: Diagnosis and Endovascular Therapy (Springer, 2009) p. 109 In his weekly magazine, The Dearborn Independent, auto manufacturer Henry Ford published an apology, widely reprinted, for his anti-Semitic views. The missive was part of a settlement of a libel lawsuit brought by Aaron Sapiro.Gerald Leinwand, 1927: High Tide of the Twenties (Basic Books, 2002) p. 214; "RACES: Apology to Jews", TIME Magazine, July 18, 1927 Under pressure from the victorious Allies of World War I, Germany's Reichstag voted 390–44 to pass a law prohibiting the import or export of war materials.Richard J. Shuster, German Disarmament after World War I: The Diplomacy of International Arms Inspection, 1920–1931 (Routledge, 2006) p. 173; "War Materials Export Banned", Miami News, July 8, 1927, p. 10 Born: Doc Severinsen (stage name for Carl Hilding Severinsen), American bandleader and jazz trumpeter who led the NBC Orchestra for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show; in Arlington, Oregon Martin Ransohoff, American film and television producer who founded the Filmways production company; in New Orleans (d. 2017) Died: Gösta Mittag-Leffler, 81, Swedish mathematician known for Mittag-Leffler's theorem
July 8, 1927 (Friday) Charles Lindbergh inaugurated the Transcontinental Air Transport airline with the first passenger flight from New York to Los Angeles. The trip would take 48 hours.Heather Lehr Wagner, Famous Flyers: Charles Lindbergh (Infobase Publishing, 2002) pp. 58–59
Ban Johnson, founder of the American League and its president since 1901, was forced to resign by the owners of the eight teams.Eric M. Leifer, Making the Majors: The Transformation of Team Sports in America (Harvard University Press, 1998) p. 90; "Ban Johnson Resigns Post As Loop Head; Founder Of League To Leave Position Before Nov. 1", Milwaukee Sentinel, July 9, 1927, p. 2-1 Died: Max Hoffmann, 58, German general who led the attack on Russia in World War I
July 9, 1927 (Saturday) Torrential rains in Germany swelled the Elbe River and led to flash floods that killed hundreds in Saxony. In the village of Berggießhübel, 93 people drowned when a 7-foot-high wave swept through the town. At least 200 people were reported to have died."200 LIVES LOST IN SAXONY FLOOD", Border Cities Star (Windsor, ON), July 11, 1927, p. 1 The Federal Trade Commission outlawed the practice of "block booking" by film distributors, issuing a cease and desist order to Paramount Pictures. Until the FTC order, Paramount required cinemas to rent films as part of a block of movies, usually with the arrangement that a popular film had to be accepted along with several less attractive releases.Philip E. Meza, Coming Attractions?: Hollywood, High Tech, and the Future of Entertainment (Stanford University Press, 2007) p. 57; "BUSINESS: Cinemalefactors", TIME Magazine, July 18, 1927 Born: Ed Ames (stage name for Edmund Dantes Urick), American singer for the Ames Brothers and white actor known for portraying American Indian characters, most notably on the Daniel Boone television show; in Malden, Massachusetts(d 2023) Red Kelly (Leonard Patrick Kelly), Canadian NHL star and Hockey Hall of Fame inductee (d. 2019) Died: John Drew, Jr., 73, American stage actor Gregory Kelly, 36, American stage actor and husband of actress Ruth Gordon, who outlived him by 58 years.
July 10, 1927 (Sunday)