The following events occurred in June 1926:
June 1, 1926 (Tuesday) After General Józef Piłsudski declined to accept the position of President of Poland following his coup d'état, the nation's parliament, the Sejm, elected Ignacy Mościcki to the largely ceremonial position. The Hudson River Day Line ship PS Washington Irving, which had transported passengers between New York City and Albany, New York since 1913, sank after being struck by another ship in the North River during a fog. Three passengers (out of almost 300 people on board) drowned but the remainder were rescued before the vessel sank while being towed to Jersey City, New Jersey, but the accident halted construction of the underwater Holland Tunnel. The wreckage of the Washington Irving would not be cleared until eight months later on February 13, 1927.
Born: Marilyn Monroe, American film actress and model; as Norma Jeane Mortenson, in Los Angeles (d. 1962) Andy Griffith, American television actor and singer best known for The Andy Griffith Show and for Matlock; in Mount Airy, North Carolina (d. 2012) Albert Starr, American cardiovascular surgeon and co-inventor of the Starr-Edwards heart valve; in New York City (d. 2024)A.M.Matthews, The development of the Starr-Edwards heart valve, Tex Heart Inst J. 1998; 25(4): 282–293 Richard S. Schweiker, American politician who served in the U.S. Congress for 20 years as a Representative and then as a Senator, and later as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services; in Norristown, Pennsylvania (d. 2015)
June 2, 1926 (Wednesday) Sweden's Prime Minister, Rickard Sandler, resigned along with his entire cabinet after both chambers of the Riksdag voted in favor of reductions in the budget for unemployment relief."Swedish Cabinet Quits— King Commissions Head of Prohibition Party to Form New Ministry", The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 3, 1926, p.6 Jonas Staugaitis was elected head of the Seimas in Lithuania.
June 3, 1926 (Thursday) The best-selling British book The Diary of a Young Lady of Fashion in the Year 1764–1765 by Cleone Knox, which had been billed as an 18th-century diary discovered and published for the first time in 1925, was exposed as a hoax. Magdalen King-Hall, the young daughter of Admiral Sir George Fowler King-Hall, was revealed to be the real author. Born: Allen Ginsberg, American poet associated with the Beat Generation; in Newark, New Jersey (d. 1997) Roscoe Bartlett, American congressman for Maryland from 1993 to 2013; in Moorland, Kentucky (still living in 2026)
June 4, 1926 (Friday)
Ignacy Mościcki became President of the Republic of Poland. He would serve until 1939, fleeing Poland when Germany and the Soviet Union invaded to start World War II. The U.S. Congress passed a resolution requesting that President Calvin Coolidge issue a proclamation calling for the annual observance of Armistice Day with "appropriate ceremonies." Although twenty-seven U.S. states had already established November 11 as a legal holiday, Veterans Day would not become a legal Federal holiday until 1938. Born: Konstantin Kotsev, Turkish-born Bulgarian film actor; in Istanbul (d. 2007)Konstantin Kotsev biography at www.cinefish.bg Died: Fred Spofforth, 72, Australian cricket team player and inductee to the ICC Hall of Fame, known for being the first bowler to take 50 Test wickets and the first to take a Test hat-trickChristopher Morris, 'Spofforth, Frederick Robert (1853–1926)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. 6, MUP, 1976, pp 170–171 U.S. Army Major General Charles F. Humphrey, 81, Medal of Honor recipient and U.S. Army officer
June 5, 1926 (Saturday) Representatives of the United Kingdom, the British Mandate for Iraq, and Turkey signed the Frontier Treaty of 1926, an agreement on the border between Turkey and Iraq to resolve the Mosul question. The parties agreed that the Mosul Province (now the Nineveh Governorate) would belong to Iraq, that 10 percent of the royalties due to Iraq's government would be shared with Turkey for at least four years and as many as 25 (unless the remaining 21 years were sold to the United Kingdom for the agreed optional price of £500,000), and that all sides would accept the boundary line for the Iraq–Turkey border adopted on October 29, 1924. In China, the Kuomintang government named General Chiang Kai-shek as the commander-in-chief of China's National Revolutionary Army that would launch the Northern Expedition against the Beiyang Army that controlled Beijing in an effort to reunite the Republic of China. A fire at San Francisco's Ewing Field stadium, started accidentally by a spectator who dropped a lit cigarette burned down the wooden structure and then spread to adjacent buildings."100 BLAZES RAGE AT ONCE IN S.F.— Ewing Field Swept; Wind Hurls Torches Onto Homes— Every Fire Apparatus in City Takes Battle Front; Scores Are Made Homeless", San Francisco Chronicle, June 6, 1926, p.1 At least 40 buildings and houses were destroyed or damaged as wind gusts spread burning embers over Saint Rose Street, Masonic Avenue, Broderick Street, O'Farrel Street, Sutter Street, Post Street and Scott Street"Two Score of Buildings Set Afire by Brands Carried Through Air by High Wind", San Francisco Chronicle, June 6, 1926, p.1$307,500 LOSS, SCORES OF BUILDINGS AFIRE, 14 HURT IN WORST PERIL SINCE '06— Big Region Menaced When Ewing Field Razes Homes", San Francisco Chronicle, June 6, 1926, p.1 The fire broke out during a game between two industrial teams, Union Oil Company at Anglo California Trust."I. A. A. Nines in Contest Today", San Francisco Chronicle, June 5, 1926, p.H3 Born: Peter G. Peterson, American financier who served as the Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1985 to 2007, and U.S. Secretary of Commerce from 1972 to 1973, as well as having been the CEO of Bell & Howell, Lehman Brothers, and the Blackstone Group; as Peter Petropoulos in Kearney, Nebraska (d. 2018) Morio Obata, Japanese mathematician known for the Lichnerowicz–Obata theorem; in Busan, Japanese-occupied Korea (d. 2006)
June 6, 1926 (Sunday) In Australia, the Forrest River massacre of the indigenous Australians began as a police patrol, led by James St Jack and Denis Regan, arrived at Wodgil in the state of Western Australia, then kidnapped and murdered four men and three women. The four men were taken to Gotegotemerrie and killed, while the women were slain at Mowerie. The bodies of all seven were burned by the vigilantes, who were carrying out a punitive expedition for the May 23 killing of a white Australian, Frederick Hay. The silent comedy film Ella Cinders, based on a popular comic strip of the same name and starring Colleen Moore in the title role (based on the story of Cinderella), and Lloyd Hughes as "Waite Lifter" as the leading man, was released in the United States by First National Pictures. In 2013, the film would be selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Spielvereinigung Greuther Fürth e. V. of Fürth won the championship tournament of soccer football in Germany, defeating Hertha BSC of Berlin, 4 to 1, before a crowd of 40,000 at Frankfurt. C.S. Marítimo of Funchal, on Portugal's Madeira Island, defeated C.F. Os Belenenses of Lisbon, 2 to 0, to win the Campeonato de Portugal, the championship tournament of soccer football of the Portuguese Football Federation. Born: Klaus Tennstedt, German conductor; in Merseburg (d. 1998) Erdal İnönü, Turkish politician who briefly served as Acting Prime Minister for six weeks in 1993; as the son of Prime Minister İsmet İnönü, in Ankara (d. 2007) Biography from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Patricia Peterson, American journalist who served as the fashion editor of The New York Times from 1957 to 1977; in Chicago (d. 2025)
June 7, 1926 (Monday)
Kazys Grinius was elected President of Lithuania by the Baltic republic's parliament, the Seimas. Grinius received 50 of the 79 votes cast, while another 25 cards were left blank and three other candidates received one or two votes.Alfonsas Eidintas, Kazys Grinius: ministras-pirmininkas ir prezidentas (Kazys Grinius: Minister-Prime Minister and President) (Vilnius:Mintis, 1993) p.83 ISBN 9785417005787. Carl Gustaf Ekman formed a government as the new Prime Minister of Sweden, succeeding Rickard Sandler, whose government had resigned after receiving a vote of no confidence. Adly Yakan Pasha became the Prime Minister of Egypt, succeeding Ahmed Zeiwar Pasha, after being asked by King Fuad I to form a new government. The League of Nations opened its fortieth council session in Geneva. Brazil boycotted the session in protest of its being denied a seat on the permanent council. Born: Andrey Gaponov-Grekhov, Soviet Russian physicist; in Moscow (d. 2022)Гапонов-Грехов, Андрей Викторович ("Gaponov-Grekhov, Andrei Viktorovich")
June 8, 1926 (Tuesday) Babe Ruth hit one of the longest home runs of his career at Navin Field in Detroit, over the right field stands and into the street a block away. Sportswriters at the game reported that the ball carried over 600 feet, although whether it actually did or not cannot be proven. Born: John Diebold, American businessman who specialized in the use of application of information technology to corporate business, and founder of the Diebold Group; in Weehawken, New Jersey (d. 2005)"John Diebold, 79, a Visionary of the Computer Age, Dies", by Jennifer Bayot, The New York Times, December 27, 2005 Died: Emily Hobhouse, 66, British welfare campaigner known for exposing the conditions at British internment camps in South Africa during the Second Boer War Saint Mariam Thresia Chiramel, 50, Roman Catholic nun who would be canonized in 2019, died from complications of diabetes and an infected injury to her leg. Jurgis Dobkevičius, 26, Lithuanian aircraft designer and pilot who created the sports plane Dobi-I, the surveillance craft Dobi-II and the fighter Dobi-III, was killed on the second test flight of the Dobi-III.
June 9, 1926 (Wednesday) Amanullah Khan Barakzai, the emir of the British protectorate of Afghanistan, declared the independence of the Asian emirate and founded the Kingdom of Afghanistan, with himself as the first monarch. Born: Max Raab, American film producer and fashion marketer; in Philadelphia (d. 2008) Dr. André Hellegers, Dutch-born American gynecologist and advocate on bioethics, founder of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics; in Venlo (died from a heart attack, 1979) Died: Sanford B. Dole, 82, Hawaiian-born American businessman who led the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1894, declared a republic, and served as the first President of Hawaii (1894–1898), then later as its first territorial governor (1900–1903) Wilford H. Smith, 62, African-American lawyer who became the first black attorney to win a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, with a victory in Carter v. Texas (177 U.S. 442 (1900)"Wilford H. Smith, Noted Lawyer, Dead", The New York Age, June 12, 1926, p.1
June 10, 1926 (Thursday) The "June Tenth Movement" began in Korea, at the time a colony of the Japanese Empire, to coincide with the elaborate funeral of the last Korean Emperor, Sunjong, who had died on April 26. During the funeral procession, students shouted for independence and handed out fliers to observers. Japanese police arrested 210 student protesters in Seoul, and 1,000 others in other Korean cities. All but 53 of the people rounded up were released without being tried or sentenced.