The following events occurred in December 1925:
December 1, 1925 (Tuesday) The Locarno Treaties were formally signed in London, intended to secure the post-war continental European territorial settlement. European delegates also agreed that troops engaging in the Occupation of the Rhineland would be greatly reduced on January 31, 1926. Voting for President was held in Bolivia after the May 2 results had been annulled. Hernando Siles Reyes was elected President, winning 97% of the vote against token opposition from Daniel Salamanca by, who officially received only 1,937 of the 72,549 votes cast. After Siles had completed his term, Salamanca would win the 1931 election.Carlos D. Mesa Gisbert Presidentes de Bolivia: entre urnas y fusiles (el poder ejecutivo, los ministros de estado), 2d. Ed. (La Paz: Editorial Gisbert, 1990) p. 303. The Farmer-Labour Party was founded in Japan and dissolved two hours later upon orders from the government which claimed they had a secret communist agenda. The Stanley Baldwin government survived a vote of censure condemning a recent wave of arrests of communists on offences under the Incitement to Mutiny Act 1797 as a violation of free speech rights. France negotiated separate treaties with Poland and Czechoslovakia pledging mutual assistance in the event of an attack by Germany on any of the signatories. Born: Martin Rodbell, American biochemist and 1994 Nobel Prize recipient for his discovery of G-proteins and their role in signal transduction in cells with Alfred G. Gilman; in Baltimore, United States (d. 1998) Lou Filippo, American professional boxer, judge and actor known for portraying a fight referee in seven films, including the first five in the Rocky film franchise; in Los Angeles, United States (d. 2009) Ichirō Hariu, Japanese art critic; in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Empire of Japan (present-day Japan) (d. 2010) Died: Ray Cariens, 25, American racing driver; died two days after being injured at the 11th and final scheduled race for the 1925 AAA Championship Car season (b. 1899)
December 2, 1925 (Wednesday) The German chemical company IG Farben was founded by a merger of six chemical companies (Agfa, BASF, Bayer, Griesheim-Elektron, Hoechst, and Weiler-ter-Meer) following an agreement reached on November 21. The first contract for oil drilling in the Kingdom of Bahrain was signed by Britain's Eastern and General Syndicate and the Sheik of Bahrain for an exclusive concession to develop, explore and drill for oil in an area of 100,000 acres . The first National Hockey League game to ever take place in Pittsburgh was played at the Duquesne Garden as the hometown Pittsburgh Pirates lost to their fellow expansion team the New York Americans, 2 to 1, in overtime. Tod Morgan won the World Junior Lightweight boxing championship at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles with a TKO in the 10th round over Mike Ballerino, who had held the title since April 1. Born: Mike Colalillo, U.S. Army soldier and Medal of Honor recipient for heroism in battle during World War II; in Hibbing, Minnesota, United States (d. 2011) Julie Harris, American actress; in Grosse Point, Michigan, United States (d. 2013) Bette Swenson Orsini, American investigative reporter for the St. Petersburg Times and 1980 Pulitzer Prize winner for her series about the Church of Scientology; in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States (d. 2011)
December 3, 1925 (Thursday) The Northern Irish Border Agreement was signed by representatives of Northern Ireland (Sir James Craig), the Irish Free State (W. T. Cosgrave) and Great Britain (Stanley Baldwin), and delineating the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. Though the initial recommendations of the Irish Boundary Commission would have made transfers of land between the two states in Ireland, with of the Republic's County Donegal being transferred to Northern Ireland and in and around the Northern Irish city of Derry being ceded to the Republic, the final boundary remained unchanged. A Romanian Army court-martial convicted 84 participants in the 1924 Tatarbunary Uprising, nearly all of them Moldavians rather than Romanians, of attempting to overthrow the government, and meted out sentences ranging from 1 to 3 years in prison for most conspirators, 23 prisoners from 5 to 10 years, two to 15 years and the uprising leader, Iustin Batishcev to life imprisonment. Spain's Prime Minister Miguel Primo de Rivera, who had overthrown the government of Spain in 1923 in a military coup d'état, made the first step toward transition to a civilian government. The George Gershwin composition "Concerto in F" was performed for the first time, premiering at Carnegie Hall with Walter Damrosch conducting and Gershwin at piano. Died: John McAlery, 77, Irish association football pioneer known for the first organized match in Ireland in 1878 and the first semi-professional team in 1879, and co-founder of the Irish Football Association in 1880 (b. 1848)
December 4, 1925 (Friday) The Central Casting Corporation was established in Hollywood, California by Will H. Hays and the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America to regulate the casting of extras in films. Tipped off by an alert bank teller, the Banco de Portugal discovered the fraud and counterfeiting of the Portuguese escudo masterminded by the wealthy entrepreneur Artur Virgílio Alves Reis. The Armenian Orphan Rug was formally gifted to U.S. President Calvin Coolidge in recognition of U.S. humanitarian assistance following the Armenian genocide. The Italian Chamber of Deputies passed a law allowing the government to regulate rates of industrial production based on the needs of the country. Born: Lino Lacedelli, Italian mountaineer; in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Kingdom of Italy (present-day Italy) (d. 2009)
December 5, 1925 (Saturday) The 13th Grey Cup of Canadian football was played before 6,900 fans at the Lansdowne Park at Ottawa. The Ottawa Senators beat the Winnipeg Tammany Tigers, 24 to 1. The historic city of Medina, formerly part of the Kingdom of Hejaz, capitulated to the forces of the Sultan Ibn Saud of Nejd without resistance. The portrait of Saint Teresa of Ávila, painted by Peter Paul Rubens in 1614, was found in Berlin after being missing for more than 200 years. A German art historian, Dr. Ludwig Burchard, discovered the lost painting in Belgium and its authenticity was confirmed by Professor Wilhelm von Bode. The sensationalized Kip Rhinelander divorce trial ended with the jury ruling in Mrs. Rhinelander's favour. Born: Keith Reemtsma, American transplant surgeon known for performing the first successful cross-species kidney transplantation where he transplanted a kidney from a chimpanzee into a human in 1964; in Madera, California, United States (d. 2000) Nurnaningsih, Indonesian film actress and model; as Raden Nganten Nurnaningsih, in Surabaya, Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia) (d. 2004) Edmundo Arias, Colombian musician and songwriter of tropical music hits; in Tuluá, Colombia (d. 1993) Sidney Michaelson, English-born Scottish computer scientist and Biblical scholar; in London, England (d. 1991) Died: Władysław Reymont, 58, Polish writer and Nobel Prize in Literature laureate for his four-volume novel The Peasants (b. 1867)
December 6, 1925 (Sunday) The Milner-Schialoja Agreement between the United Kingdom and Italy redrew the border between Egypt and Italian Libya, transferring Jaghbub to Italian control. Voting was held in Costa Rica for 21 of the 43 seats of the unicameral Constitutional Congress. The Partido Republicano, led by President Ricardo Jiménez Oreamuno, won 15 of the contested seats for 26 overall in the Congress, and the Partido Agricola won four, a total of 8 overall. The Reformist Party won 2, for 6 overall. Voting was held among eligible members of the Jewish community in British Mandate for Palestine for the Asefat HaNivharim, an Assembly of Representatives that was the predecessor to the Knesset of modern Israel, with candidates from 25 parties vying for the 221 available seats. The Ahdut HaAvoda Party, led by future Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, won 54 seats (down from 70), and the Hapoel Hatzair party of Yosef Sprinzak won 30 seats (down from 41). In what was billed by the U.S. press as the championship of the National Football League, the Pottsville Maroons visited the Chicago Cardinals in a game at Comiskey Park before 6,000 fans. As the Chicago Sunday Tribune described the meeting, "A victory for either team carries the national title, for the Cardinals have swept over all opposition in the western half of the league, while the Pottsville eleven holds the eastern crown." The meeting was further described as "a post-season contest to decide the championship," although the paper added that "the Cardinals could claim the title without meeting Pottsville" based on their regular season schedules. Going into the game, the Cardinals had a record of 10-1-1 (ten wins, one loss, one tie) and the Maroons were 9–2–0. The Pottsville Maroons won the game, 21 to 7, but soon made a mistake that cost them the chance of being crowned the NFL champion. Born: Andy Robustelli, American professional football player and NFL defensive end, inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971; as Andrew Robustelli, in Stamford, Connecticut, United States (d. 2011) Shigeko Higashikuni, member of Japanese royalty and the eldest daughter of Crown Prince Hirohito; as Shigeko, Princess Teru, at Akasaka Palace, Tokyo, Empire of Japan (present-day Japan) (d. 1961)
December 7, 1925 (Monday) Republican U.S. Congressman Nicholas Longworth of Ohio was elected as the new Speaker of the United States House of Representatives to replace the retired Frederick H. Gillett of Massachusetts, who had served since 1919. In a vote along party lines, Longworth defeated Democrat Finis J. Garrett of Tennessee, 229 to 173. A group of 13 Republicans voted for a rival candidate Henry Allen Cooper of Wisconsin, while five others cast no vote at all. Italian-born U.S. boxer Rocky Kansas (ring name for Rocco Tazzo) defeated Jimmy Goodrich in the second round to win the world lightweight boxing championship. Goodrich had held the title for less than five months before losing to Kansas on a technical knockout in a bout at Broadway Auditorium. What is now the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Broadway in New York City opened on 47th Street in Manhattan as the Biltmore Theatre. Born: J. David Singer, American political scientist known for developing the Correlates of War project starting in 1964; in New York City, United States (d. 2009) Lucille Kailer, American opera soprano; in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, United States (d. 2011)
December 8, 1925 (Tuesday) U.S. President Calvin Coolidge transmitted his third State of the Union address to be read aloud to the Congress, stating that "in the fundamentals of government and business the results demonstrate that we are going in the right direction. The country does not appear to require radical departures from the policies already adopted so much as it needs a further extension of these policies and the improvement of details." In Alexandria, Cyril IX Moghabghab was installed as the leader of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church as the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, and Alexandria and Jerusalem, succeeding Demetrius I Qadi, who had died in October. Cyril IX would lead the Church until his death in 1947. The comedic stage musical The Cocoanuts, written by George S. Kaufman and Irving Berlin for the Marx Brothers, opened on Broadway.at the Lyric Theatre. Born: Sammy Davis Jr., African American singer, actor, dancer, and comedian; as Samuel Davis Jr., in Harlem, New York City, United States (d. 1990) Book is only available to patrons with print disabilities. Arnaldo Forlani, Italian politician, served as the Prime Minister of Italy from for eight months in 1980 and 1981; in Pesaro, Kingdom of Italy (present-day Italy) (d. 2023)