The following events occurred in December 1926:
December 1, 1926 (Wednesday) The "National Pacification Army" was established by the Kuomintang in China, from 60,000 National Revolutionary Army troops who had arrived in Anhui province on November 24, 1926. Zhang Zuolin was named as the NPA's commander-in-chief, with Zhang Zongchang and Sun Chuanfang as his deputies. With Nicaragua being occupied by a U.S. Navy force, Juan Bautista Sacasa, leader of the Liberal rebels, declared himself to be the Constitutional President of Nicaragua in a statement from his headquarters at Puerto Cabezas, and former Interior Minister José María Moncada began offensive against the Conservative government.Baylen, Joseph O. "Sandino: Patriot or Bandit?" The Hispanic American Historical Review 31, no. 3 (1951): 394-419 At the time, Adolfo Díaz had been operating as President of Nicaragua at the national capital, Managua. Díaz then requested an additional military intervention from U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, which would begin on January 24, 1927.Musicant, Ivan (1990). In elections in the Canadian province of Ontario for the 112 seats of the provincial Legislative Assembly, voters overwhelmingly voted for 80 candidates who had run on a pledge of allowing government-regulated liquor sales, making Ontario the fourth province (after Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan) to opt for a repeal of prohibition. The new 17th Legislative Assembly convened on February 2, 1927, and voted to strike down the Ontario Temperance Act in the province after a decade of enforcement. This left the Maritime provinces (Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) as the only region in Canada to have Prohibition laws. In Korea, at the time under the control of the Empire of Japan as the Chōsen protectorate, Japanese Imperial Ordiance No. 17 was implemented, mandating that Korean royal family and nobles (including the King Yi Un, the Crown Prince and the Prince Royal) would be commissioned as military officers in the Imperial Army or Imperial Navy. Charlie Chaplin was left by his second wife, Lita Grey, after two years of marriage. They officially divorced in August 1927. Finland's national radio station Yle began daily scheduled broadcasting with programs Monday through Saturday from noon to 1:00 pm and 6:00 to 10:00 pm, and an extra hour on Sunday evenings (12-1 and 5:00 pm to 10). Programming was in Finnish on most days, with two evenings of programming in Swedish. Born: Mother Antonia Brenner, American-born Mexican Roman Catholic nun known as "The Prison Angel" for her ministry to prisoners, and her voluntary residence at, the maximum security La Mesa Prison in Tijuana; as Mary Clarke in Los Angeles (d.2013) James Greene (stage name for James Thomas Nolan), American character actor and co-star of the TV series The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd; in Lawrence, Massachusetts (d.2018) Allyn Ann McLerie, Canadian actress, singer and dancer; in Grand-Mère, Quebec (d. 2018)Allyn Ann McLerie, Actress in 'Where's Charley?' and 'They Shoot Horses, Don't They?' Dies at 91, Hollywood Reporter Robert Symonds, American stage, TV and film actor; in Bristow, Oklahoma (d. 2007)
December 2, 1926 (Thursday) Voting was held in Denmark for all 149 seats of the Folketing, the kingdom's unicameral national legislature. The Socialdemokratiet party of Prime Minister Thorvald Stauning, which had a 55 to 44 lead over the Venstre party of Thomas Madsen-Mygdal retained a plurality but Madsen-Mygdal would be called upon by the King to form a new government. Europe's largest department store chain, the Tietz-Gruppe (now KaDeWe) was formed as the Hermann Tietz OHG company purchased the Kaufhaus des Westens and A. Jandorf & Co. stores of Adolf Jandorf. When the Nazi government confiscated the assets of the Jewish Tietz family in 1933, the chain was renamed Hertie, and after World War II, relaunched as KaDeWe, the abbreviation for Kaufhaus Des Westens. At a conference in Tianjin, the northern warlords of China formed an alliance to fight the Kuomintang. Zhang Zuolin was elected commander of the army to be known as the Ankuochun. British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin ended the martial law that had been in effect since the general strike. Born: Miloš Macourek, Czech book author and screenwriter; in Kromeriz, Czechoslovakia (d.2002) Hobie Billingsley, American diver and coach, known for coaching the U.S. Olympic diving team in 1968, 1972 and 1976, and the Indiana University team 1959–1989, with six NCAA championships; in Erie, Pennsylvania (d.2022) Died: Henry Simon, 52, French industrialist and politician who served as France's Minister of the Colonies from 1917 to 1920
December 3, 1926 (Friday) British mystery writer Agatha Christie disappeared from her home in Shere, Surrey. Her car was found abandoned several miles away with her clothes and identification strewn about inside, but there were no signs of foul play.
Mickey Walker won boxing's World Middleweight Title, defeating Tiger Flowers on points in a 10-round bout at the Chicago Coliseum. One of the most reported upon trials, that of persons accused of committing a double homicide on September 14, 1922, in the Hall–Mills murder case, ended with the acquittal of the wife and the brothers-in-law of the victim Edward Wheeler Hall. Born: Robert M. Hayes, American computer scientist and librarian noted for developing systems for the storage and retrieval of information, co-author of Information Storage and Retrieval (1963); in New York City (d.2022) Died: Charles Edward Ringling, 63, one of the Ringling brothers circus owners
December 4, 1926 (Saturday) The Frankford Yellow Jackets, based in Philadelphia and holding a record of 12-1-1 (12 wins, 1 loss and 1 tie) and at second place in league standings, effectively won the championship of the 22-team National Football League against the unbeaten (11-0-2) first place Chicago Bears before a crowd of 10,000 at Philadelphia's Shibe Park, winning 7 to 6. Trailing 6 to 0 in the fourth quarter, Frankford scored on Hust Stockton's pass to Tex Homan for a touchdown, after which Homan kicked the extra point to put Frankford ahead in the standings (13-1 to 11-1)."Frankford Tops Bears in Thrilling Fray; Stockton Passes 45 Yards to Homan, Scores Touchdown", by Gordon Mackay, The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 5, 1926, p.S-1 Neither team lost again in 1926; Frankford would finish at 14-1-2 and Chicago at 12-1-3 for the title. The 14th Grey Cup, championship of Canadian football was played before a crowd of 8,276 fans at Varsity Stadium in Toronto, as the Ottawa Senators defeated the Toronto Varsity Blues, 10 to 7."Ottawa Avalanche Hits Varsity Blues in Battle for the Football Title— Senators Smash Through For Second Consecutive Canadian Championship On Gridiron Sheathed In Ice Before 8,000", The Ottawa Journal, December 6, 1926, p.17 The right-wing political party Camp of Great Poland (Obóz Wielkiej Polski) was founded in Poznań by former Foreign Minister Roman Dmowski in opposition to the dictatorship of Jozef Pilsudski. San Francisco's luxury lodging, the Mark Hopkins Hotel, was formally opened. It would begin its 100th year in 2026."Mark Hopkins, Rich in Splendor, Opens Today— Room of Dons Gala Scene As Beauty Is Revealed", San Francisco Call and Post, December 4, 1926, p.13 Queen Marie of Romania arrived back in Bucharest after two months away. King Ferdinand was well enough to greet her at the train station. Died: Ivana Kobilca, 64, Slovenian painter
December 5, 1926 (Sunday) Presidential elections were held in Guatemala as interim president Lázaro Chacón González was overwhelmingly approved by voters to be inaugurated, with almost 89% of the vote in a rigged election against General Jorge Ubico, who would become Guatemala's president from 1931 to 1944.Dieter Nohlen, Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I (Nomos Publishing, 2005) p337 Paul J. Dosal (1993) Doing Business with the Dictators: a political history of United Fruit in Guatemala, 1899–1944 (Wilmington DE: Scholarly Resources, 2005) p.64 Near Farwell, Texas, George Jefferson Hassell murdered his wife by striking her multiple times with a ballpeen hammer, then killed seven of his eight stepchildren (ranging in age from one to 15) by various means, including strangulation, slitting throats with a straight razor, and shooting. Hassel buried all the bodies in a root cellar, then waited four days for his eldest son to return from an out-of-state job, then shot him in the head. After his arrest, he admitted that confessed the nine people, and then confessed to killing his previous wife and her three children, for 13 murders in all. Hassell would be executed in the electric chair at Huntsville on February 10, 1928. The Sergei Eisenstein film Battleship Potemkin played in the United States for the first time, in New York City only, at the Biltmore Theatre. Born: Alex F. T. W. Rosenberg, German-born U.S. mathematician known for the Hochschild–Kostant–Rosenberg theorem; in Berlin (d.2007). Died: Claude Monet, 86, French Impressionist painter
December 6, 1926 (Monday) Benito Mussolini decreed a bachelor tax in Italy, effective January 1, on all unmarried men. The tax was progressive by income and sought to encourage marriage and to increase the Italy's birth rate. What is now the Republic of Belarus gained additional territory, including the cities of Gomel and Rechytsa, when the Soviet Union ordered the transfer of of the Russian SFSR to the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. The 43rd Council Session of the League of Nations began in Geneva. The primary matter of discussion was the Military Inter-Allied Commission of Control, which Germany was negotiating to have abandoned. In Italy, the province of Frosinone with a capital at the city of the same name was created by royal decree from portions of the provinces of Caserta and of Rome.
December 7, 1926 (Tuesday)
Ashfaqulla Khan, an Indian revolutionary of the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA), was arrested in Delhi after 16-month search by British authorities for the perpetrators of the Kakori train robbery which included the killing of a train passenger on August 9, 1925. The Delhi Police had been alerted to his presence by one of Ashfaqulla Khan's friends. Convicted of armed robbery and manslaughter, Ashfaqulla Khan, the last of the Kakori bandits to be arrested, would be hanged one year later on December 19, 1927. U.S. President Calvin Coolidge delivered his fourth State of the Union address to Congress and to the press. As noted by a report at the time, "The message was brought to Congress by a White House messenger and read in each house by the reading clerks, the President departing for the second time from the custom of presenting his messages personally. Senators and Representatives had copies, so they paid little attention to the droning voices of the clerks, although the crowded galleries listened interestedly.""Coolidge Message Assailed; Independents and Democrats Join in Disapproval", The Washington Daily News, December 7, 1926, p.1 Coolidge wrote that "In reporting to the Congress the state of the Union, I find it impossible to characterize it other than one of general peace and prosperity" and spoke on Prohibition of alcohol sales and urged the enforcement of "the law of the land," saying, "Some people do not like the amendment, some do not like other parts of the Constitution, some do not like any of it. Those who entertain such sentiments have a perfect right to seek through legal methods for a change. But for any of our inhabitants to observe such parts of the Constitution as they like, while disregarding others, is a doctrine that would break down all protection of life and property and destroy the American system of ordered liberty." Carmi Thompson, leader of a commission to survey the condition of the Philippines, recommended the postponement of independence.