1930
Arnold Bennett and Edward Knoblock's play in three acts Milestones broadcast.
Vernon Bartlett's The Way Of The World broadcast.
Basil Maine's A Day In A Film Studio broadcast.
Clifford W Collinson' Buried Treasures Of The World broadcast. A running commentary - by Captain Teddy Wakelam - on a rugby union match between England and The Rest broadcast live from Twickenham. Iain Cuthbertson born in Glasgow.
Don Bradman broke a first-class record by scoring four hundred and fifty two not out in an innings for New South Wales against Queensland.
Roy Evans born in Fishponds, Bristol.
The first episode of The Countrywoman's Day broadcast.
England - captained by Harold Gilligan - won the first of a four test series against New Zealand at Christchurch by eight wickets. This was New Zealand's first ever test. In a low scoring game, Kumar Shri Duleepsinhji top-scored for England in both innings. On his test debut Maurice Allom took four wickets in five deliveries in New Zealand's first innings including a hat-trick (Tom Lowry, Ken James and Ted Badcock). In all, Allom took eight wickets in the match. For the hosts, Matt Henderson took a wicket with his first ball in test cricket. Six England players made their Test debuts: (Gilligan, Allom, Tich Cornford, Stan Nichols, Maurice Turnbull and Stan Worthington). At the same time another England team, captained by The Honourable Freddie Calthorpe, was touring the West Indies, playing the first test series there. It remains the only occasion that one country has played in two different test matches on the same day. Françoise Prévost born in Paris.
Sturmführer Horst Wessel was shot by a Communist in a raid on his apartment. He would die of his injuries on 23 February and become a martyr of the Nazi movement.
England drew the first of a four test series against the West Indies at Bridgetown, Barbados. Cliff Roach and George Headley scored centuries for the hosts and Andy Sandham did likewise for the tourists for whom Grenville Stevens also took ten wickets. Bill Voce made his test debut.
Nathalie Kay Hedren born in New Ulm, Minnesota.
Edwin Eugene Aldrin born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. Henry Woolf born in Homerton, London.
Parliament passed the second reading of a bill sponsored by Ernest Thurtle decriminalising blasphemy and atheism.
Terence Bayler born in Whanganui, New Zealand.
The National Lecture featured JJ Thomson's Tendencies of Recent Investigations In The Field Of Physics. The second New Zealand/England test at Wellington was drawn. Stewie Dempster's one hundred and thirty six was the first test century by a New Zealander, Dempster and Jackie Mills sharing a two hundred and seventy six run opening partnership. Frank Woolley, who took nine wickets in the match, also passed three thousand test runs, becoming only the second Englishman and fourth player in test cricket to pass the mark. Stan Nichols top scored for England (an undefeated seventy eight).
John Francis Junkin born in Ealing.
A bomb was found at the British Museum, attributed to the activities of Indian nationalists.
Donald Herbert Houghton born in Paris. Ted Wilde's Loose Ankles - starring Loretta Young, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Louise Fazenda - premiered.
England won the second test against West Indies at Port of Spain, Trinidad, by one hundred and sixty seven runs. Match highlights included a double century for Patsy Hendren in England's second innings, a first test century for Les Ames, eleven wickets in the match for Bill Voce, six wickets for Learie Constantine and four for Ewart Astill.
Anne Ridler born in Tianjin, China.
Henry Soskin born in London.
The Vatican sent a note to bishops and clergy around the world instructing them to deny rites such as holy communion, baptism and confirmation to women 'dressed in immodest attire.'
Peter George Adamson born in Liverpool. John Cairney born in Glasgow.
The Mississippi Sheiks recorded the first version of Walter Vernon's 'Sittin' On Top Of The World'. The third New Zealand/England test at Auckland was drawn. Rain washed out the first two days making a result impossible (as a consequence, the series which had originally been scheduled for three matches was extended to four). In what play was possible, Duleepsinhji and Ted Bowley scored centuries.
Clyde Tombaugh of the Lowell Observatory made the first confirmed sighting of Pluto. Ho Chi Minh gave the speech 'Appeal Made on the Occasion of the Founding of the Indochinese Communist Party' calling for a people's Communist revolution.
Kenneth J Jones born in Liverpool.
Sir Edwin Lutyens resigned from the Royal Institute of British Architects after endorsing an unpopular government plan to build a bridge across the Thames at Charing Cross. Gerald Davis born in London.
Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies published. The - hastily arranged - fourth New Zealand/England test ended in a draw. England's five hundred and forty included one hundred and ninety six for Geoffrey Legge and half-centuries for Eddie Dawson, Duleepsinhji and Stan Nichols.
West Indies won the third test at Georgetown, Guyana by two hundred and eighty nine runs. Cliff Roach scored a double century in West Indies first innings, George Headley added a hundred in each innings. For England, Patsy Hendren also scored a century. Learie Constantine took nine wickets in the match. Leslie Townsend made his test debut.
Julian Dean Chavasse Orchard born in Wheatley, Oxfordshire. Shirley Cooklin born in Wallasey.
The majority of the BBC's existing local radio stations were regrouped into the National Programme and the Regional Programme.
Avril Maureen Anita Morris born in Hackney. James Anthony Church born in London.
Mahatma Gandhi began his 'march to the sea' in defiance of India's salt tax.
James Parrott's Brats - starring Laurel and Hardy - and Buster Keaton's Free & Easy premiered.
Terrence Stephen McQueen born in Beech Grove, Indiana.
The British government decided to abolish capital punishment for four crimes in the British army: misbehaviour before the enemy in such a manner as to show cowardice, leaving a guard, picket, patrol or post without orders, intentionally sounding a false alarm and leaving a post when acting as a sentinel. The death penalty for mutiny, treason and desertion was maintained.
The Ulster Minister for Home Affairs, Sir Dawson Bates, moved the second reading of the Criminal Law and Prevention of Crime (Amendment) Bill, which dealt the time limit for prosecutions for offences against female persons under age of sixteen years and the maintenance of discipline in the Borstal Institution in Northern Ireland. There was no power in The Province to cane borstal boys who merited such punishment by 'acts of gross insubordination and other grave offences,' he said, adding that it was 'a strange anomaly' caning could be administered in almost any school in Britain, whereas in Ireland borstal inmates, who in the early stages of their training were 'not always the best characters,' were not in a position to receive 'this salutary treatment.' Captain Chichester-Clark characterised anti-corporal punishment speeches as 'sickly sentimental slobbering sob-stuff.' He had assisted in the 'training' of thousands of boys and 'to a very few nothing but a little pain in the proper place made any appeal.' He, himself, had been caned he added and claimed it did him 'a great deal of good. If you spare the rod you will spoil the child. I would not send my own boys to a school which does not allow corporal punishment.' Wesley Ruggles' Honey - starring Nancy Carroll, Harry Green, Lillian Roth and Mitzi Green - premiered.
Rolf Harris born in Bassendean, Western Australia.
The Motion Picture Association of America agreed to abide by the new Motion Picture Production Code, more popularly known as the Hays Code, which laid out a set of 'moral guidelines' for the content of films.
Josef Von Sternberg's The Blue Angel - starring Marlene Dietrich - premiered at Ufa-Palast in Berlin.
Roderick Maude-Roxby born in London.
The second Academy Awards ceremony was held in the Hollywood Ambassador Hotel. Unlike in the inaugural year, the winners were not announced in advance. The ceremony was also broadcast live on the radio for the first time, via the Los Angeles station KNX. The Broadway Melody was named Outstanding Picture.
James W Horne's When The Wind Bowls - starring Norman Chancy, Jackie Cooper and Edgar Kennedy - premiered. England defeated Scotland five-two in the Home International championship at Wembley to win the competition for the first time, outright, since 1913. Vic Watson and debutant Ellis Rimmer of Sheffield Wednesday both scored twice with David Jack adding the fifth. Glasgow Rangers' James Fleming scored both of Scotland's goals. Rimmer's club colleague Alf Strange also made his debut (one of four Wednesday players in the England team), as did Middlesbrough's Maurice Webster and Derby County's Sam Crooks. There were fears of a full-scale riot before the start of the game, when thousands who were unable to gain admission attempted to storm the gates. Many ticket-holders were 'considerably inconvenienced by the occurrence' and did not get to their seats until after play had started. Despite being without for regulars, Wednesday reamined top of the First Division with a three-one win at Liverpool. Leicester City defeated Everton five-four, Dervy County won four-two at Birmingham and Manchester United had a two-one victory over Sunderland. Oldham Athletic (four-one winners over Cardiff City) went top of the Second Division after Blackpool lsot at home to Stoke City. The coroner's verdict on the death of the twenty-year-old West End chorus girl, Nita Foy, was returned as accidental. Whilst filming a musical, Spanish Eyes, at Twickenham Studios she had been invited to Donald Calthrop's dressing room for a drink, leaned over a radiator and her dress caught fire. She died in hospital on the following day. Although the inquest exonerated him, Calthrop's career never entirely recovered from the incident.
Andreas Siegfried Sachs born in Berlin.
Dorothy Tutin born in London.
American scientists predicted that man would land on the Moon by 2050. Clive Jack Montague Brooks born in Islington.
The fourth West Indies/England test at Kingston, Jamaica was drawn after nine days. England's first innings of eight hundred and forty nine was, at the time, a test record. It included three hundred and twenty five by Andy Sandham, one hundred and forty nine from Les Ames and half-centuries for George Gunn, Bob Wyatt, Patsy Hendren and Jack O'Connor. Set over eight hundred to win in the fourth innings, the hosts bated for two full days to each four hundred and eight for five (George Headley scoring a double century). Two days were then lost to the weather and the match was drawn on the ninth day by arrangement, as the boat bringing England home was due to leave. Wilfred Rhodes played his final test match - his first had been in 1899. At fifty two years, one hundred and sixty five days, he was the oldest man ever to play test cricket. England's team also included another fifty year old - Gunn - and four fortysomethings - Hendren, Freddie Calthorpe, Ewart Astill and Nigel Haig. Patricia Dainton born in Hamilton.
John Francis Dillon's Spring Is Here - starring Lawrence Gray, Bernice Claire, Louise Fazenda and Inez Courtney - premiered.
Twenty seven Indian independence demonstrators were sentenced for breaking the salt laws, including Mahatma Gandhi's son Devdas, who received three months imprisonment. Gandhi urged his followers to continue nonviolent forms of protest, saying that riots like the one in Calcutta over the arrest of Jawaharlal Nehru 'will harm our struggle.'
Good Friday's 6:30 News Bulletin on The Home Service was, infamously, replaced by ten minutes of light piano music as, according to the announcer, there had been 'no news' that day. Clive Selsby Revill born in Wellington.
All Quiet On The Western Front premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles. The Presbyterian General Assembly publicised the findings of a commission appointed to investigate marriage in America. One section of the study blamed rising divorce rates on 'cultural tendencies such as jazz' due to its 'primeval jungle tom-tom' which 'inspires contortions of dance unfitting to incipient rheumatics,' as well as stage plays and films in which adultery was 'the fashionable theme.' In a First Division match Leicester City and Arsenal drew six-all. Alec Bregonzi born in London.
The Chicago Crime Commission labelled twenty men as 'public enemies', popularising the use of that term. Al Capone was named 'Public Enemy Number One.' Other names on the list included Terry Druggan, Jack McGurn, Bugs Moran, Joseph Saltis and Jack Zuta.
Arsenal defeated Huddersfield Town two-nil in the FA Cup Final at Wembley.
Blackpool claimed their only championship to date on the final day of the Division Two season with a goalless draw at Nottingham Forest. Runners-up Chelsea could have won the title but the Londoners were defeated at Bury. Blackpool's Jimmy Hampson was the top scorer in England, with forty six goals in all competitions. The Wednesday had changed their name to Sheffield Wednesday before the season began and they won their second successive First Division title, ten points ahead of runners-up Derby County. Manchester City (beaten five-one by Wednesday on the final day of the season) finished third. Leeds United's goalless draw at Portsmouth saw the club debut of George Milburn at right-back (alongside his brother, Jack), the first of two hundred and sixty two games for Leeds and Chesterfield in a (war-interrupted) career that lasted until 1947.
A scandal broke in the art world when it was revealed that many paintings attributed to Jean-François Millet were actually forgeries created under the direction of Millet's own grandson.
Irene Joan Marion Sims born in Landon, Essex. The Grayson County Courthouse at Sherman, Texas was burned to the ground by an angry mob trying to get at George Hughes, an African-American farmhand accused of assaulting his employer's wife. The mob prevented firefighters from tackling the blaze by cutting their hoses. Hughes died in the fire and his badly-burned body was tied to a car to be dragged through the streets into the segregated business area, where shops, a hotel and homes used by black people, were looted and burned. The town was placed under martial law for the next two weeks, but only one of the ring-leaders went to prison for the sick catalogue of racially-motivated violence.
John Cromwell's The Texan - starring Gary Cooper and Fay Wray - premiered. England drew three-all with Germany in a friendly international in Berlin. Joe Bradford scored twice and David Jack added the third. Richard Hofmann of Dresdner SC scored a hat-trick for the hosts who included such legends as Willibald Kreß, Franz Schütz, Ludwig Leinberge and Josef Pöttinger in their line-up.
Unemployment in the UK reached 1.7 million. Sleepy John Estes recorded the first version of his song 'Milk Cow Blues'.
England and Austria shared a goalless draw in a friendly international in Vienna. The Norwegian President announced that Doctor Fridtjof Nansen would be awarded a state funeral after his sudden death on the previous day. In a full and eventful life, Nansen had been a prominent Arctic explorer, earned a doctorate in marine zoology, led developments in the field of oceanography, became a diplomat in the separation of Norway from the Swedish monarchy and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in repatriating prisoners of war and tackling the famine in Russia.
Sir Oswald Mosley resigned as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster due to disagreements with Ramsay MacDonald over the government's unemployment policy. Mosley was replaced by Clement Attlee.
An interview was published between British journalist George Slocombe and Mahatma Gandhi conducted in Yerwada Central Jail, Gandhi's first interview since his imprisonment. Gandhi clarified the conditions to be met before the civil disobedience campaign would be called off, said he was 'alarmed' by the reports of violence and expressed 'optimism' about the movement's future. 'In forty years of struggle I have been frequently been told that I was attempting the impossible, but invariably I have proved the contrary.'
Aviator Amy Johnson landed in Port Darwin in her plane, Jason and became the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia. The Carter Family's recording of 'Worried Man Blues' released.
The International Olympic Committee officially recommended Berlin as the host city for the 1936 Summer Olympics.
The Chrysler Building in New York opened to the public. It was the new tallest building in the world at the time, but it only held the title for a year before the Empire State Building was completed.
Son House recorded his first songs for Paramount Records in Grafton, Wisconsin. Performances includes, 'My Black Mama', 'Preachin' The Blues' and 'Clarksdale Moan'.
Clinton Eastwood born in San Francisco.
Edward Albert Arthur Woodward borh in Croydon.
Edward Albert Arthur Woodward born in Croydon.
Edward Harry Kelsey born in Petersfield, Hampshire. William Treacher born in London.
David Jeremy Wilkin born in Byfleet.
The first episode of Film Talk broadcast on The National Programme. Max Schmeling won the vacant World Heavyweight Championship at Yankee Stadium when he beat Jack Sharkey by disqualification in the fourth round.
Gary Watson born in Shropshire.
Scott Pembroke's The Medicine Man - starring Jack Benny, Betty Bronson and Eva Novak - premiered.
England won the first Ashes test at Trent Bridge by ninety three runs. Jack Hobbs top-scored in both of England's innings whilst Clarrie Grimmett took ten wickets in the match. Despite a century by Don Bradman in their second innings, Australia fell short of their target of four hundred and twenty nine.
Kenneth Parry born in Wigan.
The British team of Woolf Barnato and Glen Kidston won the Le Mans endurance race.
Henry Edwards' The Lash - starring Lyn Harding, John Mills, Joan Maude and Leslie Perrins - premiered.
Maxie Rosenbloom became the undisputed world Light Heavyweight champion with a controversial victory over Jimmy Slattery. The referee awarded his decision to Slattery after almost being knocked out by a wild swing from Rosenbloom, but he was overruled by two judges.
Jack Gold born in London.
Thomasine Heiner born in Cook County, Illinois.
Australia won the second Ashes test at Lord's by seven wickets. England scored four hundred and twenty five with Duleepsinhji scoring a century. Australia replied with seven hundred and twenty nine for six - including two hundred and fifty four from Don Bradman and a hundred by Bill Woodfull. Despite a century by Percy Chapman, Austalia's fourth innings target was just seventy two. Gubby Allen made his test debut (scoring a fifty). Janet Patricia Webster born in Liverpool.
John Wood born in Derbyshire.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died at his home in Crowborough. Before he died he made arrangements with his immediate family to contact them from the spirit world. Whether he ever did or not we just don't know. But, we can probably guess.
Andrew Bruce Boa born in Calgary, Alberta.
The inaugural football World Cup tournament began in Uruguay. None of the Home Countries took part - probably because all of the other teams were, you know, foreigners.
The BBC produced the world's first television play, The Man With The Flower In His Mouth by Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello. The production was broadcast live from a set at the Baird company's headquarters and starred Earle Grey, Gladys Young and Lionel Millard. It was directed by Val Gielgud and produced by Lance Sieveking. It was reportedly judged 'a success' by the eight people who saw it, including the Prime Minister.
The third Ashes test at Headingley was drawn. Don Bradman broken Andy Sandham's recently set record for the highest score in a test innings, three hundred and thirty four out of Australia's total of five hundred and sixty six. England replied with three hundred and ninety one (Wally Hammond scoring a century) and followed-on, but with only forty five minutes play possible on day three, a draw was inevitable.
Frances Pidgeon born in Epsom.
Labour MP John Beckett seized the ceremonial mace and tried to leave the chamber with it as a protest against Fenner Brockway being suspended for trying to force a debate about India. Beckett was intercepted and the mace was retrieved by the Serjeant-at-Arms. Bert Patenaude of the United States became the first player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup, during a game against Paraguay. This feat went unnoticed until 2006 when research by FIFA concluded that one of Patenaude's three goals had been wrongly credited to teammate Tom Florie.
Herbert Tsangtse Kwouk born in Warrington. Clive Selsby Revill born inm Wellington, New Zealand.
Sally Ann Howes born in St John's Wood.
John Jeremy Lloyd born in Danbury, Essex.
Petra Davies born in Eltham.
William James Marlowe born in London. Annabelle McCauley Allan Short born in Surrey.
Mary Barbara Jefford born in Pkymstock, Devon.
André Leducq won the Tour de France. Andrew McLuckie White born in Stranraer.
The rain-affected fourth Ashes test at Old Trafford was drawn. Only forty five minutes play was possible on the third and fourth days. Tom Goddard made his test debut.
Uruguay defeated Argentina four-two in the World Cup Final at Estadio Centenario in Montevideo. Jillian Mary Marguerite Siggins born in Kent. Alan Victor Curtis born in Coulsden, Surrey. Graeme Patrick David MacDonald born in London.
Alfred Hitchcock's Murder! was released.
Al Bowlly recorded 'On The Sunny Side Of The Street'.
Neil Alden Armstrong born in Wapakoneta, Ohio.
Terence Joseph Nation born in Cardiff.
The cartoon character Betty Boop made her first appearance in the Fleischer Studios film Dizzy Dishes. Jack Hobbs scored his fifty four thousand nine hundred and twenty first run in First Class cricket, beating the previous record held by WG Grace since 1904.
The Church of England approved birth control in an Encyclical Letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Letter called for strict control over the sale and advertising of contraceptives, however. Elizabeth Joan Winch born in Southwark.
The first British Empire Games opened in Hamilton, Ontario.
Edward James Hughes born in Mytholmroyd.
The Noël Coward play Private Lives opened at the King's Theatre, Edinburgh. Angus Wilson Lennie born in Glasgow.
Johnny Douglas played his six hundred and fifty first and final first class cricket match for the MCC against Wales at Lord's. In a career that began in 1901 he scored over twenty four thousand runs and took almost nineteen hundred wickets, mostly for Essex. He also played in twenty three tests for England between 1911 and 1925, captaining his country either side of the First Word War. Nicknamed Johnny Won't Hit Today (because of his initials) he was also a fine amateur boxer, wining gold in the 1908 Olympics at Middleweight. On 19 December he drowned when the Oberon, on which he and his father were travelling back to Britain after purchasing timber in Finland, was wrecked seven miles South of the Laeso Trindel Lightship, Denmark. It had collided with a sister-vessel, the Arcturus, in foggy weather when the two captains who were brothers were attempting to exchange Christmas greetings. In the same match Sydney Barnes also made his final first class appearance. In test cricket, Barnes played for England in twenty seven matches between 1901 and 1914, taking one hundred and eighty nine wickets at 16.43, one of the lowest test bowling averages ever achieved. In 1911–12, he helped England to win the Ashes when he took thirty four wickets in the series. In 1913–14, his final test series, he took a world record forty nine wickets against South Africa. Barnes was unusual in that, despite a very long career as a top-class player, he spent little time in first-class cricket, briefly representing Warwickshire (1894 to 1896) and Lancashire (1899 to 1903) and playing only one hundred and thirty three first class games. Instead, he preferred league and minor counties cricket for mostly professional reasons. He had two phases playing for his native Staffordshire in the Minor Counties Championship. He played exclusively for Saltaire Cricket Club in the Bradford League from 1915 to 1923.
Australia won the fifth test at The Oval, to take the series two-one and regain The Ashes. Don Bradman scored nine hundred and seventy four runs during the series at an average of 139.14, with four centuries, including two double hundreds and a triple. In a crucial partnership with Archie Jackson, Bradman battled through a difficult session when England fast bowler Harold Larwood bowled short on a pitch enlivened by the rain. A number of English players and commentators noted Bradman's discomfort in playing the short, rising delivery. This was to have immense significance in the next Ashes series. Bill Ponsford and Herbert Sutcliffe also scored centuries for the visitors and the hosts respectively Ian Peebles took six wickets in Australia's innings whilst Percy Hornibrook took seven in England's second innings.
Thomas Sean Connery born in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh.
The Marx Brothers comedy film Animal Crackers premiered at the Rialto Theatre in New York. Windsor Davies born in Canning Town.
With a one hundred and seventy four run victory over Essex at Blackpool, Lancashire regained the county championship to complete four titles in five seasons. Gloucestershire finished second and Yorkshire third, with defending champions Nottinghamshire fourth. Kumar Duleepsinhji (Sussex), Herbert Sutcliffe (Yorkshire), Andy Sandham (Surrey), Maurice Leyland (Yorkshire) and Dodger Whysall (Nottinghamshire) were the leading first class run scorers. Tich Freeman (Kent), Charlie Parker and Tom Goddard (both Gloucester), Dick Tyldesley (Lancashire) and Tommy Mitchell (Derbyshire) were the leading wicket-takers. Hedley Verity who made his debut for Yorkshire during the season topped the first class bowling averaged with sixty four wickets in twelve matches at 12.42.
Jack Newman played his five hundred and forty first and final first class cricket match for Hampshire against Somerset at Taunton. He took two thousand fifty four wickets, only two men - Glamorgan's Don Shepherd and Gloucester's George Dennett - in history took more first class wickets and never played a test. He completed the double of a thousand runs and a hundred wickets in a season five times between 1921 and 1928.
Charles Piff born in Coventry.
Having recently sold Scottish international Hughie Gallagher to Chelsea, the return of the diminutive centre forward to Newcastle with his new club saw a record crowd on sixty eight thousand three hundred and eighty six squeeze into St James' Park. Newcastle won the first division match one-nil with a goal by Jackie Cape.
Isabel Ruth Trouncer born in London. Brenda Kathleen Parsons born in Chelmsford.
A letter from New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt to Senator Robert Wagner was publicised in which Roosevelt came out in favour of repealing the Eighteenth Amendment, writing that it had led to corruption and hypocrisy and had flooded the country with untaxed and illicit liquor. Wilfred Rhodes played his one thousand one hundred and tenth and final first class cricket match for HD Leverson-Gower's XI against the Australian tourists at Scarborough (he had played his final game for Yorkshire against the MCC at the same ground a week earlier). In a career began in 1898, he scored thirty nine thousand nine hundred and sixty nine runs and took four thousand two hundred and four wickets. He holds the world records both for the most appearances made in first-class cricket and for the most wickets taken. He completed the double of one thousand runs and one hundred wickets in a season a record sixteen times. Rhodes played for Yorkshire and England into his fifties and in his final test was at fifty two years, the oldest player to appear in a test match. He played fifty eight test matches for England between 1899 and 1930, taking one hundred and twenty seven wickets and scored two thousand three hundred and twenty five runs, becoming the first Englishman to complete the double of one thousand runs and one hundred wickets in test matches.
The German federal erection was held. The Social Democrats remained the largest party in the Reichstag, but radical parties made some dramatic gains. The National Socialist Party surged from twelve seats to one hundred and seven, becoming the country's second largest party in the process. Communists also gained, increasing their seat count from fifty four to seventy seven.
The closure of ninety railway stations to passenger traffic was announced due to the economic depression and the rise of motor bus travel.
Albert Einstein told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that there was 'no reason for despair' over the Nazi Party's strong showing in Sunday's erections, because it was 'only a symptom, not necessarily of anti-Jewish hatred but of momentary resentment caused by economic misery and unemployment within the ranks of misguided German youth. I hope that the momentary fever and wave will rapidly fall.' Which, for a smart man, was a fantastically inaccurate prediction. Dorothy Bromiley Phelan born in Manchester.
Derek Robert Nimmo born in Liverpool.
'Pomp and Circumstance March Number Five in C' by Sir Edward Elgar was first performed in London.
Victoria Dawn Addams born in Felixstowe.
Colin George Blakely born in Bangor, Northern Ireland.
Angelo Muscat born in Malta.
Frank Tuttle's Her Wedding Night - starring Clara Bow, Ralph Forbes and Charles Ruggles - premiered.
George Bernard Shaw declined the offer of a peerage. Vera Frances Still born in Dagenham.
Raymond Edward Menmuir born in Perth, Western Australia.
Richard John Harris born in Limerick.
The British airship R101 crashed near Beauvais in France, killing forty eight.
The annual Labour Party Conference at Llandudno was the first to be chaired by a woman, the MP Susan Lawrence. Oswald Mosley unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the party to adopt the 'Mosley Memorandum.' Which really pissed him off by all accounts. Richard Benaud born in Penrith, New South Wales.
Harold Pinter born in Hackney.
Gangster Legs Diamond was shot five times by gunmen at the Monticello Hotel in New York, but survived. John Ford's Up The River - marking the film debuts of Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart - premiered.
The Passfield white paper outlining British policy in Palestine was issued, laying out a plan to give more self-government to both Jews and Arabs in Palestine. The paper angered Zionists who claimed it backtracked on the 1917 Balfour Declaration which had pledged a national home for the Jews. England defeated Ireland five-one in the Home International championship at Bramall Lane. Four of England's goals were scored by debutants, two by Sheffield Wednesday's Harry Burgess, with further strikes from Aston Villa's Eric Houghton and Blackpool's Jimmy Hampson, Sammy Crooks added the fifth. Alf Strange also missed a penalty. Another Wednesday player, Tommy Leach, also made his debut. Sheffield United's Jimmy Dunne replied for the visitors. Sir Charles Clegg presided over a meeting of the Council of the Football Association, at Lancaster Gate. A resolution banned the use of clocks to indicate the duration of play on football grounds and ordering their immediate removal. Captain Frank Burdett extremely murdered both of his nineteen-year-old wife, Trixie's parents, Thomas and Barbara Holloway at their home, Watsford Farm House, near Wimborne Minster in Dorset. His father-in-law had accused Burdett of abducting his daughter, though the summons was later withdrawn. After the killings, Burdett (known locally as 'The Mad Gunman') took his own life by turning the double-barrelled shotgun on himself.
The BBC Symphony Orchestra, under the directorship of Adrian Boult, gave its first concert for broadcast at the Queen's Hall. The programme consisted of pieces by Wagner, Brahms, Saint-Saëns and Ravel.
Michael Collins born in Rome.
His Imperial Majesty Ras Tafari Makonnen Woldemikael was crowned Emperor Haile Selassie in Ethiopia.
The third Academy Awards ceremony was held. All Quiet On The Western Front won the award for Outstanding Production. Baird television transmissions at the Hairdressing Fair of Fashion included the world's first television commercial, for the Eugène Method of permanent hair waving.
Donald Churchill born in Southall.
Over thirty people were injured in London when four elephants stampeded during the Lord Mayor's Show. A broadcast by the Prime Minister from The Guildhall following the Lord Mayor's Banquet included Ramsey MacDonald observing 'Christ, them elephants were a bit of a handful!' Probably.
The British Legion Festival Of Remembrance and In Memoriam, 'a special Armistice Day programme' broadcast.
The King's speech at the opening of The Indian Round Table Conference was broadcast. Girls & A Career Overseas - A Dialogue Between Two Headmistresses was broadcast under the auspices of the Oversea Settlement Department.
Shirley Crabtree born in Halifax. Michael Anthony Robbins born in Croydon. Josef Von Sternberg's Morocco - starring Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich - premiered.
James Graham Ballard born in the Shanghai International Settlement.
Danny Sewell born in Hoxton.
Bernard Arthur Gordon Horsfall born in Bishop's Stortford.
A hat, found on a beach in Cornwall, was identified as 'probably' belonging to a woman who had vanished days after the death of Alice Thomas, her neighbour. A week later, the inquest into Thomas' death determined that she had been poisoned with arsenic. The missing woman, Annie Everard, who had falsely claimed that she was a widow called Mrs Hearn, had sent an apparent suicide note to her friend's husband and secretly moved to Torquay under an assumed name. She was eventually discovered by police two months later and charged with murder. Despite the fact that the bodies of her aunt and sister were also found to contain traces of arsenic following an exhumation, Everard was found not guilty of involvement in the murders.
England thumped Wales four-nil in the Home International championship at Wrexham. Jimmy Hampson scored two, Joe Bradford and Gordon Hodgson added further goals. Welsh cpatain Fred Keenor had a penalty saved by Henry Hibbs. In the First Division, leaders Arsenal defeated Middlesbrough five-three (Jack Lambert scoring three, Cliff Bastin two). Blackburn Rovers has a five-three victory over Huddersfield Town, Sheffield Wednesday won five-two at Leicester City and Portsmouth thrashed Liverpool four-nil. Fifty five goals were scored across the elevenv First Division fixtures. Everton topped the Second Division, winning five-nil against Stoke City (Dixie Dean scoring three). In the Third Division (South) Coventry ity beat Newport County six-four.
Sir Arthur Eddington's Science & Religion broadcast.
Pretty Boy Floyd and an accomplice were sentenced to twelve to fifteen years in The Big House for robbing a bank in Sylvania, Ohio. Floyd almost escaped an hour before his sentencing by slipping out a side door of the county jail, but police managed to catch him.
Al Bowlly's duet with Ella Logan, 'Frankie & Johnny' was recorded.
The surrealist film L'Age d'Or directed by Luis Buñuel and co-written with Salvador Dalí premiered in Paris. James Parrott's Another Fine Mess - starring Laurel and Hardy - premiered.
Hamilron MacFadden's Are You There? - starring Beatrice Lillie, John Garrick and Olga Baclanova - premiered.
Natalie Wills born in London.
Jean-Luc Godard born in Paris.
Ronald Balfour Corbett born in Edinburgh.
Jimmie Rodgers' 'Pistol Packin' Papa'/'Those Gambler's Blues' released. 'There is too much maudlin sentimentality lavished on young ruffians like you,' said the Recorder, Sir Ernest Wild at the Old Bailey, when John Bussey, aged twenty one, a shop assistant and Frederick James Braithwaite, nineteen, a labourer, pleaded very guilty to robbing a messenger boy. Bussey, who had previously been sent to borstal, was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment and fifteen strokes of the birch. Braithwaite, who was 'given a good character,' was ordered to be kept in custody till the January Sessions. Christopher Jeremy Sandford born in London.
A fixture between Thames Association FC and Luton Town in the Third Division South produced the lowest attendance for a Football League game, four hundred and sixty nine at West Ham Greyhound Stadium. Thames won, one-nil. The club decided not to seek re-election after finishing bottom of the division in the 1931-32 season. Their place in the League was taken by Aldershot. The unwanted record of the League's lowest-ever crowd is sometimes attributed to Stockport County's Second Division game against Leicester City in May 1921, where just thirteen paying spectators were recorded. With County's Edgeley Park closed due to crowd trouble at a previous match, however, the fixture was played at Old Trafford and took place immediately after Manchester United played Derby County that afternoon. With many fans staying on after the earlier game, the actual attendance was comfortably into four figures. The lowest post-War attendance in the Football League was registered at Spotland, for Rochdale against Cambridge United in February 1974; due to the power shortages caused by strikes, the Third Division fixture was played on a Tuesday afternoon. The attendance is sometimes given as four hundred and fifty, but the official figure was five hundred and eighty eight.
Black Coffee, the first play written by Agatha Christie, premiered at the Embassy Theatre in London.
Ronald John Allen born in Reading.
The first episode of Victorian Prophets - featuring John Bailey - and The Reverend P Stacy Waddy's Missionary Talk broadcast.
Bethlehem, a nativity play by Bernard Walke, broadcast from The Parish Church of St Hilary's, Cornwall.
An Experimental Transmission For The Radio Research Board By The Fultograph Process and Mrs MA Hamilton's The Month In The North Country broadcast. Excerpts from Stanley Lupino's The Love Day were relayed from The Gaiety Theatre.
The Week In Westminster was presented by the Labour MP Lady Cynthia Mosley (Oswald's missus).
An Appeal On Behalf Of The Wireless For The Blind Fund by Winston Churchill broadcast, as was Dance Music featuring Billy Cotton & His Band from Ciro's Jazz Club.
Arsenal beat Manchester City three-one in the Football League Division One with goals from Bob John, Cliff Bastin and Joe Hulme. They would end the season winning their first championship. The first of five titles before the decade was out.
South Africa won the first of a five test series against England at Johannesburg by twenty eight runs. In a low scoring game, Bruce Mitchell's seventy two was the highest score on either side. For England, Wally Hammond top-scored in both innings.
A People's Service broadcast live from Liverpool Cathedral.
A Pickwick Party broadcast. An article by the Italian Futurist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti was published in the Gazzetta del Popolo, in which he called for the abolition of pasta in favour of Futurist meals. Marinetti - who was, obviously, not a nutter - explained that pasta was 'hard to digest' and made Italians 'sceptical, slow [and] pessimistic,' in addition to requiring heavy importation to Italy. Rice, on the other hand, would create 'lithe, agile peoples who will be victorious' in future wars and was already being homegrown 'in vast amounts.' The manifesto also called for the abolition of the knife and fork.
Plays & The Theatre by James Agate broadcast.
The New Year's Eve episode of Vaudeville featured Amos and Andy ('the famous American broadcast artists'), Alec McGill and Gwen Vaughan ('the cheerful chatterers') and Jack Payne and his BBC Dance Orchestra.
Arnold Bennett and Edward Knoblock's play in three acts Milestones broadcast.
Vernon Bartlett's The Way Of The World broadcast.
Basil Maine's A Day In A Film Studio broadcast.
Clifford W Collinson' Buried Treasures Of The World broadcast. A running commentary - by Captain Teddy Wakelam - on a rugby union match between England and The Rest broadcast live from Twickenham. Iain Cuthbertson born in Glasgow.
Roy Evans born in Fishponds, Bristol.
The first episode of The Countrywoman's Day broadcast.
England - captained by Harold Gilligan - won the first of a four test series against New Zealand at Christchurch by eight wickets. This was New Zealand's first ever test. In a low scoring game, Kumar Shri Duleepsinhji top-scored for England in both innings. On his test debut Maurice Allom took four wickets in five deliveries in New Zealand's first innings including a hat-trick (Tom Lowry, Ken James and Ted Badcock). In all, Allom took eight wickets in the match. For the hosts, Matt Henderson took a wicket with his first ball in test cricket. Six England players made their Test debuts: (Gilligan, Allom, Tich Cornford, Stan Nichols, Maurice Turnbull and Stan Worthington). At the same time another England team, captained by The Honourable Freddie Calthorpe, was touring the West Indies, playing the first test series there. It remains the only occasion that one country has played in two different test matches on the same day. Françoise Prévost born in Paris.
Sturmführer Horst Wessel was shot by a Communist in a raid on his apartment. He would die of his injuries on 23 February and become a martyr of the Nazi movement.
England drew the first of a four test series against the West Indies at Bridgetown, Barbados. Cliff Roach and George Headley scored centuries for the hosts and Andy Sandham did likewise for the tourists for whom Grenville Stevens also took ten wickets. Bill Voce made his test debut.
Nathalie Kay Hedren born in New Ulm, Minnesota.
Edwin Eugene Aldrin born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. Henry Woolf born in Homerton, London.
Parliament passed the second reading of a bill sponsored by Ernest Thurtle decriminalising blasphemy and atheism.
Terence Bayler born in Whanganui, New Zealand.
The National Lecture featured JJ Thomson's Tendencies of Recent Investigations In The Field Of Physics. The second New Zealand/England test at Wellington was drawn. Stewie Dempster's one hundred and thirty six was the first test century by a New Zealander, Dempster and Jackie Mills sharing a two hundred and seventy six run opening partnership. Frank Woolley, who took nine wickets in the match, also passed three thousand test runs, becoming only the second Englishman and fourth player in test cricket to pass the mark. Stan Nichols top scored for England (an undefeated seventy eight).
John Francis Junkin born in Ealing.
A bomb was found at the British Museum, attributed to the activities of Indian nationalists.
Donald Herbert Houghton born in Paris. Ted Wilde's Loose Ankles - starring Loretta Young, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Louise Fazenda - premiered.
England won the second test against West Indies at Port of Spain, Trinidad, by one hundred and sixty seven runs. Match highlights included a double century for Patsy Hendren in England's second innings, a first test century for Les Ames, eleven wickets in the match for Bill Voce, six wickets for Learie Constantine and four for Ewart Astill.
Anne Ridler born in Tianjin, China.
Henry Soskin born in London.
The Vatican sent a note to bishops and clergy around the world instructing them to deny rites such as holy communion, baptism and confirmation to women 'dressed in immodest attire.'
Peter George Adamson born in Liverpool. John Cairney born in Glasgow.
The Mississippi Sheiks recorded the first version of Walter Vernon's 'Sittin' On Top Of The World'. The third New Zealand/England test at Auckland was drawn. Rain washed out the first two days making a result impossible (as a consequence, the series which had originally been scheduled for three matches was extended to four). In what play was possible, Duleepsinhji and Ted Bowley scored centuries.
Clyde Tombaugh of the Lowell Observatory made the first confirmed sighting of Pluto. Ho Chi Minh gave the speech 'Appeal Made on the Occasion of the Founding of the Indochinese Communist Party' calling for a people's Communist revolution.
Kenneth J Jones born in Liverpool.
Sir Edwin Lutyens resigned from the Royal Institute of British Architects after endorsing an unpopular government plan to build a bridge across the Thames at Charing Cross. Gerald Davis born in London.
Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies published. The - hastily arranged - fourth New Zealand/England test ended in a draw. England's five hundred and forty included one hundred and ninety six for Geoffrey Legge and half-centuries for Eddie Dawson, Duleepsinhji and Stan Nichols.
West Indies won the third test at Georgetown, Guyana by two hundred and eighty nine runs. Cliff Roach scored a double century in West Indies first innings, George Headley added a hundred in each innings. For England, Patsy Hendren also scored a century. Learie Constantine took nine wickets in the match. Leslie Townsend made his test debut.
Julian Dean Chavasse Orchard born in Wheatley, Oxfordshire. Shirley Cooklin born in Wallasey.
The majority of the BBC's existing local radio stations were regrouped into the National Programme and the Regional Programme.
Mahatma Gandhi began his 'march to the sea' in defiance of India's salt tax.
James Parrott's Brats - starring Laurel and Hardy - and Buster Keaton's Free & Easy premiered.
Terrence Stephen McQueen born in Beech Grove, Indiana.
The British government decided to abolish capital punishment for four crimes in the British army: misbehaviour before the enemy in such a manner as to show cowardice, leaving a guard, picket, patrol or post without orders, intentionally sounding a false alarm and leaving a post when acting as a sentinel. The death penalty for mutiny, treason and desertion was maintained.
The Ulster Minister for Home Affairs, Sir Dawson Bates, moved the second reading of the Criminal Law and Prevention of Crime (Amendment) Bill, which dealt the time limit for prosecutions for offences against female persons under age of sixteen years and the maintenance of discipline in the Borstal Institution in Northern Ireland. There was no power in The Province to cane borstal boys who merited such punishment by 'acts of gross insubordination and other grave offences,' he said, adding that it was 'a strange anomaly' caning could be administered in almost any school in Britain, whereas in Ireland borstal inmates, who in the early stages of their training were 'not always the best characters,' were not in a position to receive 'this salutary treatment.' Captain Chichester-Clark characterised anti-corporal punishment speeches as 'sickly sentimental slobbering sob-stuff.' He had assisted in the 'training' of thousands of boys and 'to a very few nothing but a little pain in the proper place made any appeal.' He, himself, had been caned he added and claimed it did him 'a great deal of good. If you spare the rod you will spoil the child. I would not send my own boys to a school which does not allow corporal punishment.' Wesley Ruggles' Honey - starring Nancy Carroll, Harry Green, Lillian Roth and Mitzi Green - premiered.
Rolf Harris born in Bassendean, Western Australia.
The Motion Picture Association of America agreed to abide by the new Motion Picture Production Code, more popularly known as the Hays Code, which laid out a set of 'moral guidelines' for the content of films.
Josef Von Sternberg's The Blue Angel - starring Marlene Dietrich - premiered at Ufa-Palast in Berlin.
Roderick Maude-Roxby born in London.
The second Academy Awards ceremony was held in the Hollywood Ambassador Hotel. Unlike in the inaugural year, the winners were not announced in advance. The ceremony was also broadcast live on the radio for the first time, via the Los Angeles station KNX. The Broadway Melody was named Outstanding Picture.
James W Horne's When The Wind Bowls - starring Norman Chancy, Jackie Cooper and Edgar Kennedy - premiered. England defeated Scotland five-two in the Home International championship at Wembley to win the competition for the first time, outright, since 1913. Vic Watson and debutant Ellis Rimmer of Sheffield Wednesday both scored twice with David Jack adding the fifth. Glasgow Rangers' James Fleming scored both of Scotland's goals. Rimmer's club colleague Alf Strange also made his debut (one of four Wednesday players in the England team), as did Middlesbrough's Maurice Webster and Derby County's Sam Crooks. There were fears of a full-scale riot before the start of the game, when thousands who were unable to gain admission attempted to storm the gates. Many ticket-holders were 'considerably inconvenienced by the occurrence' and did not get to their seats until after play had started. Despite being without for regulars, Wednesday reamined top of the First Division with a three-one win at Liverpool. Leicester City defeated Everton five-four, Dervy County won four-two at Birmingham and Manchester United had a two-one victory over Sunderland. Oldham Athletic (four-one winners over Cardiff City) went top of the Second Division after Blackpool lsot at home to Stoke City. The coroner's verdict on the death of the twenty-year-old West End chorus girl, Nita Foy, was returned as accidental. Whilst filming a musical, Spanish Eyes, at Twickenham Studios she had been invited to Donald Calthrop's dressing room for a drink, leaned over a radiator and her dress caught fire. She died in hospital on the following day. Although the inquest exonerated him, Calthrop's career never entirely recovered from the incident.
Andreas Siegfried Sachs born in Berlin.
Dorothy Tutin born in London.
American scientists predicted that man would land on the Moon by 2050. Clive Jack Montague Brooks born in Islington.
The fourth West Indies/England test at Kingston, Jamaica was drawn after nine days. England's first innings of eight hundred and forty nine was, at the time, a test record. It included three hundred and twenty five by Andy Sandham, one hundred and forty nine from Les Ames and half-centuries for George Gunn, Bob Wyatt, Patsy Hendren and Jack O'Connor. Set over eight hundred to win in the fourth innings, the hosts bated for two full days to each four hundred and eight for five (George Headley scoring a double century). Two days were then lost to the weather and the match was drawn on the ninth day by arrangement, as the boat bringing England home was due to leave. Wilfred Rhodes played his final test match - his first had been in 1899. At fifty two years, one hundred and sixty five days, he was the oldest man ever to play test cricket. England's team also included another fifty year old - Gunn - and four fortysomethings - Hendren, Freddie Calthorpe, Ewart Astill and Nigel Haig. Patricia Dainton born in Hamilton.
John Francis Dillon's Spring Is Here - starring Lawrence Gray, Bernice Claire, Louise Fazenda and Inez Courtney - premiered.
Good Friday's 6:30 News Bulletin on The Home Service was, infamously, replaced by ten minutes of light piano music as, according to the announcer, there had been 'no news' that day. Clive Selsby Revill born in Wellington.
All Quiet On The Western Front premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles. The Presbyterian General Assembly publicised the findings of a commission appointed to investigate marriage in America. One section of the study blamed rising divorce rates on 'cultural tendencies such as jazz' due to its 'primeval jungle tom-tom' which 'inspires contortions of dance unfitting to incipient rheumatics,' as well as stage plays and films in which adultery was 'the fashionable theme.' In a First Division match Leicester City and Arsenal drew six-all. Alec Bregonzi born in London.
The Chicago Crime Commission labelled twenty men as 'public enemies', popularising the use of that term. Al Capone was named 'Public Enemy Number One.' Other names on the list included Terry Druggan, Jack McGurn, Bugs Moran, Joseph Saltis and Jack Zuta.
Arsenal defeated Huddersfield Town two-nil in the FA Cup Final at Wembley.
Blackpool claimed their only championship to date on the final day of the Division Two season with a goalless draw at Nottingham Forest. Runners-up Chelsea could have won the title but the Londoners were defeated at Bury. Blackpool's Jimmy Hampson was the top scorer in England, with forty six goals in all competitions. The Wednesday had changed their name to Sheffield Wednesday before the season began and they won their second successive First Division title, ten points ahead of runners-up Derby County. Manchester City (beaten five-one by Wednesday on the final day of the season) finished third. Leeds United's goalless draw at Portsmouth saw the club debut of George Milburn at right-back (alongside his brother, Jack), the first of two hundred and sixty two games for Leeds and Chesterfield in a (war-interrupted) career that lasted until 1947.
A scandal broke in the art world when it was revealed that many paintings attributed to Jean-François Millet were actually forgeries created under the direction of Millet's own grandson.
Irene Joan Marion Sims born in Landon, Essex. The Grayson County Courthouse at Sherman, Texas was burned to the ground by an angry mob trying to get at George Hughes, an African-American farmhand accused of assaulting his employer's wife. The mob prevented firefighters from tackling the blaze by cutting their hoses. Hughes died in the fire and his badly-burned body was tied to a car to be dragged through the streets into the segregated business area, where shops, a hotel and homes used by black people, were looted and burned. The town was placed under martial law for the next two weeks, but only one of the ring-leaders went to prison for the sick catalogue of racially-motivated violence.
John Cromwell's The Texan - starring Gary Cooper and Fay Wray - premiered. England drew three-all with Germany in a friendly international in Berlin. Joe Bradford scored twice and David Jack added the third. Richard Hofmann of Dresdner SC scored a hat-trick for the hosts who included such legends as Willibald Kreß, Franz Schütz, Ludwig Leinberge and Josef Pöttinger in their line-up.
Unemployment in the UK reached 1.7 million. Sleepy John Estes recorded the first version of his song 'Milk Cow Blues'.
England and Austria shared a goalless draw in a friendly international in Vienna. The Norwegian President announced that Doctor Fridtjof Nansen would be awarded a state funeral after his sudden death on the previous day. In a full and eventful life, Nansen had been a prominent Arctic explorer, earned a doctorate in marine zoology, led developments in the field of oceanography, became a diplomat in the separation of Norway from the Swedish monarchy and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in repatriating prisoners of war and tackling the famine in Russia.
Sir Oswald Mosley resigned as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster due to disagreements with Ramsay MacDonald over the government's unemployment policy. Mosley was replaced by Clement Attlee.
Aviator Amy Johnson landed in Port Darwin in her plane, Jason and became the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia. The Carter Family's recording of 'Worried Man Blues' released.
The International Olympic Committee officially recommended Berlin as the host city for the 1936 Summer Olympics.
The Chrysler Building in New York opened to the public. It was the new tallest building in the world at the time, but it only held the title for a year before the Empire State Building was completed.
Son House recorded his first songs for Paramount Records in Grafton, Wisconsin. Performances includes, 'My Black Mama', 'Preachin' The Blues' and 'Clarksdale Moan'.
Clinton Eastwood born in San Francisco.
Edward Albert Arthur Woodward borh in Croydon.
Edward Albert Arthur Woodward born in Croydon.
Edward Harry Kelsey born in Petersfield, Hampshire. William Treacher born in London.
David Jeremy Wilkin born in Byfleet.
The first episode of Film Talk broadcast on The National Programme. Max Schmeling won the vacant World Heavyweight Championship at Yankee Stadium when he beat Jack Sharkey by disqualification in the fourth round.
Gary Watson born in Shropshire.
Scott Pembroke's The Medicine Man - starring Jack Benny, Betty Bronson and Eva Novak - premiered.
England won the first Ashes test at Trent Bridge by ninety three runs. Jack Hobbs top-scored in both of England's innings whilst Clarrie Grimmett took ten wickets in the match. Despite a century by Don Bradman in their second innings, Australia fell short of their target of four hundred and twenty nine.
Kenneth Parry born in Wigan.
The British team of Woolf Barnato and Glen Kidston won the Le Mans endurance race.
Henry Edwards' The Lash - starring Lyn Harding, John Mills, Joan Maude and Leslie Perrins - premiered.
Maxie Rosenbloom became the undisputed world Light Heavyweight champion with a controversial victory over Jimmy Slattery. The referee awarded his decision to Slattery after almost being knocked out by a wild swing from Rosenbloom, but he was overruled by two judges.
Jack Gold born in London.
Thomasine Heiner born in Cook County, Illinois.
Australia won the second Ashes test at Lord's by seven wickets. England scored four hundred and twenty five with Duleepsinhji scoring a century. Australia replied with seven hundred and twenty nine for six - including two hundred and fifty four from Don Bradman and a hundred by Bill Woodfull. Despite a century by Percy Chapman, Austalia's fourth innings target was just seventy two. Gubby Allen made his test debut (scoring a fifty). Janet Patricia Webster born in Liverpool.
John Wood born in Derbyshire.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died at his home in Crowborough. Before he died he made arrangements with his immediate family to contact them from the spirit world. Whether he ever did or not we just don't know. But, we can probably guess.
Andrew Bruce Boa born in Calgary, Alberta.
The inaugural football World Cup tournament began in Uruguay. None of the Home Countries took part - probably because all of the other teams were, you know, foreigners.
The BBC produced the world's first television play, The Man With The Flower In His Mouth by Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello. The production was broadcast live from a set at the Baird company's headquarters and starred Earle Grey, Gladys Young and Lionel Millard. It was directed by Val Gielgud and produced by Lance Sieveking. It was reportedly judged 'a success' by the eight people who saw it, including the Prime Minister.
The third Ashes test at Headingley was drawn. Don Bradman broken Andy Sandham's recently set record for the highest score in a test innings, three hundred and thirty four out of Australia's total of five hundred and sixty six. England replied with three hundred and ninety one (Wally Hammond scoring a century) and followed-on, but with only forty five minutes play possible on day three, a draw was inevitable.
Frances Pidgeon born in Epsom.
Labour MP John Beckett seized the ceremonial mace and tried to leave the chamber with it as a protest against Fenner Brockway being suspended for trying to force a debate about India. Beckett was intercepted and the mace was retrieved by the Serjeant-at-Arms. Bert Patenaude of the United States became the first player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup, during a game against Paraguay. This feat went unnoticed until 2006 when research by FIFA concluded that one of Patenaude's three goals had been wrongly credited to teammate Tom Florie.
Herbert Tsangtse Kwouk born in Warrington. Clive Selsby Revill born inm Wellington, New Zealand.
Sally Ann Howes born in St John's Wood.
John Jeremy Lloyd born in Danbury, Essex.
Petra Davies born in Eltham.
William James Marlowe born in London. Annabelle McCauley Allan Short born in Surrey.
Mary Barbara Jefford born in Pkymstock, Devon.
André Leducq won the Tour de France. Andrew McLuckie White born in Stranraer.
The rain-affected fourth Ashes test at Old Trafford was drawn. Only forty five minutes play was possible on the third and fourth days. Tom Goddard made his test debut.
Uruguay defeated Argentina four-two in the World Cup Final at Estadio Centenario in Montevideo. Jillian Mary Marguerite Siggins born in Kent. Alan Victor Curtis born in Coulsden, Surrey. Graeme Patrick David MacDonald born in London.
Alfred Hitchcock's Murder! was released.
Al Bowlly recorded 'On The Sunny Side Of The Street'.
Neil Alden Armstrong born in Wapakoneta, Ohio.
Terence Joseph Nation born in Cardiff.
The Church of England approved birth control in an Encyclical Letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Letter called for strict control over the sale and advertising of contraceptives, however. Elizabeth Joan Winch born in Southwark.
The first British Empire Games opened in Hamilton, Ontario.
Edward James Hughes born in Mytholmroyd.
The Noël Coward play Private Lives opened at the King's Theatre, Edinburgh. Angus Wilson Lennie born in Glasgow.
Johnny Douglas played his six hundred and fifty first and final first class cricket match for the MCC against Wales at Lord's. In a career that began in 1901 he scored over twenty four thousand runs and took almost nineteen hundred wickets, mostly for Essex. He also played in twenty three tests for England between 1911 and 1925, captaining his country either side of the First Word War. Nicknamed Johnny Won't Hit Today (because of his initials) he was also a fine amateur boxer, wining gold in the 1908 Olympics at Middleweight. On 19 December he drowned when the Oberon, on which he and his father were travelling back to Britain after purchasing timber in Finland, was wrecked seven miles South of the Laeso Trindel Lightship, Denmark. It had collided with a sister-vessel, the Arcturus, in foggy weather when the two captains who were brothers were attempting to exchange Christmas greetings. In the same match Sydney Barnes also made his final first class appearance. In test cricket, Barnes played for England in twenty seven matches between 1901 and 1914, taking one hundred and eighty nine wickets at 16.43, one of the lowest test bowling averages ever achieved. In 1911–12, he helped England to win the Ashes when he took thirty four wickets in the series. In 1913–14, his final test series, he took a world record forty nine wickets against South Africa. Barnes was unusual in that, despite a very long career as a top-class player, he spent little time in first-class cricket, briefly representing Warwickshire (1894 to 1896) and Lancashire (1899 to 1903) and playing only one hundred and thirty three first class games. Instead, he preferred league and minor counties cricket for mostly professional reasons. He had two phases playing for his native Staffordshire in the Minor Counties Championship. He played exclusively for Saltaire Cricket Club in the Bradford League from 1915 to 1923.
Australia won the fifth test at The Oval, to take the series two-one and regain The Ashes. Don Bradman scored nine hundred and seventy four runs during the series at an average of 139.14, with four centuries, including two double hundreds and a triple. In a crucial partnership with Archie Jackson, Bradman battled through a difficult session when England fast bowler Harold Larwood bowled short on a pitch enlivened by the rain. A number of English players and commentators noted Bradman's discomfort in playing the short, rising delivery. This was to have immense significance in the next Ashes series. Bill Ponsford and Herbert Sutcliffe also scored centuries for the visitors and the hosts respectively Ian Peebles took six wickets in Australia's innings whilst Percy Hornibrook took seven in England's second innings.
Thomas Sean Connery born in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh.
With a one hundred and seventy four run victory over Essex at Blackpool, Lancashire regained the county championship to complete four titles in five seasons. Gloucestershire finished second and Yorkshire third, with defending champions Nottinghamshire fourth. Kumar Duleepsinhji (Sussex), Herbert Sutcliffe (Yorkshire), Andy Sandham (Surrey), Maurice Leyland (Yorkshire) and Dodger Whysall (Nottinghamshire) were the leading first class run scorers. Tich Freeman (Kent), Charlie Parker and Tom Goddard (both Gloucester), Dick Tyldesley (Lancashire) and Tommy Mitchell (Derbyshire) were the leading wicket-takers. Hedley Verity who made his debut for Yorkshire during the season topped the first class bowling averaged with sixty four wickets in twelve matches at 12.42.
Jack Newman played his five hundred and forty first and final first class cricket match for Hampshire against Somerset at Taunton. He took two thousand fifty four wickets, only two men - Glamorgan's Don Shepherd and Gloucester's George Dennett - in history took more first class wickets and never played a test. He completed the double of a thousand runs and a hundred wickets in a season five times between 1921 and 1928.
Charles Piff born in Coventry.
Having recently sold Scottish international Hughie Gallagher to Chelsea, the return of the diminutive centre forward to Newcastle with his new club saw a record crowd on sixty eight thousand three hundred and eighty six squeeze into St James' Park. Newcastle won the first division match one-nil with a goal by Jackie Cape.
Isabel Ruth Trouncer born in London. Brenda Kathleen Parsons born in Chelmsford.
A letter from New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt to Senator Robert Wagner was publicised in which Roosevelt came out in favour of repealing the Eighteenth Amendment, writing that it had led to corruption and hypocrisy and had flooded the country with untaxed and illicit liquor. Wilfred Rhodes played his one thousand one hundred and tenth and final first class cricket match for HD Leverson-Gower's XI against the Australian tourists at Scarborough (he had played his final game for Yorkshire against the MCC at the same ground a week earlier). In a career began in 1898, he scored thirty nine thousand nine hundred and sixty nine runs and took four thousand two hundred and four wickets. He holds the world records both for the most appearances made in first-class cricket and for the most wickets taken. He completed the double of one thousand runs and one hundred wickets in a season a record sixteen times. Rhodes played for Yorkshire and England into his fifties and in his final test was at fifty two years, the oldest player to appear in a test match. He played fifty eight test matches for England between 1899 and 1930, taking one hundred and twenty seven wickets and scored two thousand three hundred and twenty five runs, becoming the first Englishman to complete the double of one thousand runs and one hundred wickets in test matches.
The closure of ninety railway stations to passenger traffic was announced due to the economic depression and the rise of motor bus travel.
Albert Einstein told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that there was 'no reason for despair' over the Nazi Party's strong showing in Sunday's erections, because it was 'only a symptom, not necessarily of anti-Jewish hatred but of momentary resentment caused by economic misery and unemployment within the ranks of misguided German youth. I hope that the momentary fever and wave will rapidly fall.' Which, for a smart man, was a fantastically inaccurate prediction. Dorothy Bromiley Phelan born in Manchester.
Derek Robert Nimmo born in Liverpool.
'Pomp and Circumstance March Number Five in C' by Sir Edward Elgar was first performed in London.
Victoria Dawn Addams born in Felixstowe.
Colin George Blakely born in Bangor, Northern Ireland.
Angelo Muscat born in Malta.
Frank Tuttle's Her Wedding Night - starring Clara Bow, Ralph Forbes and Charles Ruggles - premiered.
George Bernard Shaw declined the offer of a peerage. Vera Frances Still born in Dagenham.
Raymond Edward Menmuir born in Perth, Western Australia.
Richard John Harris born in Limerick.
The British airship R101 crashed near Beauvais in France, killing forty eight.
The annual Labour Party Conference at Llandudno was the first to be chaired by a woman, the MP Susan Lawrence. Oswald Mosley unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the party to adopt the 'Mosley Memorandum.' Which really pissed him off by all accounts. Richard Benaud born in Penrith, New South Wales.
Harold Pinter born in Hackney.
Gangster Legs Diamond was shot five times by gunmen at the Monticello Hotel in New York, but survived. John Ford's Up The River - marking the film debuts of Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart - premiered.
The Passfield white paper outlining British policy in Palestine was issued, laying out a plan to give more self-government to both Jews and Arabs in Palestine. The paper angered Zionists who claimed it backtracked on the 1917 Balfour Declaration which had pledged a national home for the Jews. England defeated Ireland five-one in the Home International championship at Bramall Lane. Four of England's goals were scored by debutants, two by Sheffield Wednesday's Harry Burgess, with further strikes from Aston Villa's Eric Houghton and Blackpool's Jimmy Hampson, Sammy Crooks added the fifth. Alf Strange also missed a penalty. Another Wednesday player, Tommy Leach, also made his debut. Sheffield United's Jimmy Dunne replied for the visitors. Sir Charles Clegg presided over a meeting of the Council of the Football Association, at Lancaster Gate. A resolution banned the use of clocks to indicate the duration of play on football grounds and ordering their immediate removal. Captain Frank Burdett extremely murdered both of his nineteen-year-old wife, Trixie's parents, Thomas and Barbara Holloway at their home, Watsford Farm House, near Wimborne Minster in Dorset. His father-in-law had accused Burdett of abducting his daughter, though the summons was later withdrawn. After the killings, Burdett (known locally as 'The Mad Gunman') took his own life by turning the double-barrelled shotgun on himself.
The BBC Symphony Orchestra, under the directorship of Adrian Boult, gave its first concert for broadcast at the Queen's Hall. The programme consisted of pieces by Wagner, Brahms, Saint-Saëns and Ravel.
Michael Collins born in Rome.
His Imperial Majesty Ras Tafari Makonnen Woldemikael was crowned Emperor Haile Selassie in Ethiopia.
The third Academy Awards ceremony was held. All Quiet On The Western Front won the award for Outstanding Production. Baird television transmissions at the Hairdressing Fair of Fashion included the world's first television commercial, for the Eugène Method of permanent hair waving.
Donald Churchill born in Southall.
Over thirty people were injured in London when four elephants stampeded during the Lord Mayor's Show. A broadcast by the Prime Minister from The Guildhall following the Lord Mayor's Banquet included Ramsey MacDonald observing 'Christ, them elephants were a bit of a handful!' Probably.
The British Legion Festival Of Remembrance and In Memoriam, 'a special Armistice Day programme' broadcast.
The King's speech at the opening of The Indian Round Table Conference was broadcast. Girls & A Career Overseas - A Dialogue Between Two Headmistresses was broadcast under the auspices of the Oversea Settlement Department.
Shirley Crabtree born in Halifax. Michael Anthony Robbins born in Croydon. Josef Von Sternberg's Morocco - starring Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich - premiered.
James Graham Ballard born in the Shanghai International Settlement.
Danny Sewell born in Hoxton.
Bernard Arthur Gordon Horsfall born in Bishop's Stortford.
England thumped Wales four-nil in the Home International championship at Wrexham. Jimmy Hampson scored two, Joe Bradford and Gordon Hodgson added further goals. Welsh cpatain Fred Keenor had a penalty saved by Henry Hibbs. In the First Division, leaders Arsenal defeated Middlesbrough five-three (Jack Lambert scoring three, Cliff Bastin two). Blackburn Rovers has a five-three victory over Huddersfield Town, Sheffield Wednesday won five-two at Leicester City and Portsmouth thrashed Liverpool four-nil. Fifty five goals were scored across the elevenv First Division fixtures. Everton topped the Second Division, winning five-nil against Stoke City (Dixie Dean scoring three). In the Third Division (South) Coventry ity beat Newport County six-four.
Sir Arthur Eddington's Science & Religion broadcast.
Pretty Boy Floyd and an accomplice were sentenced to twelve to fifteen years in The Big House for robbing a bank in Sylvania, Ohio. Floyd almost escaped an hour before his sentencing by slipping out a side door of the county jail, but police managed to catch him.
Al Bowlly's duet with Ella Logan, 'Frankie & Johnny' was recorded.
The surrealist film L'Age d'Or directed by Luis Buñuel and co-written with Salvador Dalí premiered in Paris. James Parrott's Another Fine Mess - starring Laurel and Hardy - premiered.
Hamilron MacFadden's Are You There? - starring Beatrice Lillie, John Garrick and Olga Baclanova - premiered.
Natalie Wills born in London.
Jean-Luc Godard born in Paris.
Ronald Balfour Corbett born in Edinburgh.
Jimmie Rodgers' 'Pistol Packin' Papa'/'Those Gambler's Blues' released. 'There is too much maudlin sentimentality lavished on young ruffians like you,' said the Recorder, Sir Ernest Wild at the Old Bailey, when John Bussey, aged twenty one, a shop assistant and Frederick James Braithwaite, nineteen, a labourer, pleaded very guilty to robbing a messenger boy. Bussey, who had previously been sent to borstal, was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment and fifteen strokes of the birch. Braithwaite, who was 'given a good character,' was ordered to be kept in custody till the January Sessions. Christopher Jeremy Sandford born in London.
A fixture between Thames Association FC and Luton Town in the Third Division South produced the lowest attendance for a Football League game, four hundred and sixty nine at West Ham Greyhound Stadium. Thames won, one-nil. The club decided not to seek re-election after finishing bottom of the division in the 1931-32 season. Their place in the League was taken by Aldershot. The unwanted record of the League's lowest-ever crowd is sometimes attributed to Stockport County's Second Division game against Leicester City in May 1921, where just thirteen paying spectators were recorded. With County's Edgeley Park closed due to crowd trouble at a previous match, however, the fixture was played at Old Trafford and took place immediately after Manchester United played Derby County that afternoon. With many fans staying on after the earlier game, the actual attendance was comfortably into four figures. The lowest post-War attendance in the Football League was registered at Spotland, for Rochdale against Cambridge United in February 1974; due to the power shortages caused by strikes, the Third Division fixture was played on a Tuesday afternoon. The attendance is sometimes given as four hundred and fifty, but the official figure was five hundred and eighty eight.
Black Coffee, the first play written by Agatha Christie, premiered at the Embassy Theatre in London.
Ronald John Allen born in Reading.
The first episode of Victorian Prophets - featuring John Bailey - and The Reverend P Stacy Waddy's Missionary Talk broadcast.
Bethlehem, a nativity play by Bernard Walke, broadcast from The Parish Church of St Hilary's, Cornwall.
An Experimental Transmission For The Radio Research Board By The Fultograph Process and Mrs MA Hamilton's The Month In The North Country broadcast. Excerpts from Stanley Lupino's The Love Day were relayed from The Gaiety Theatre.
The Week In Westminster was presented by the Labour MP Lady Cynthia Mosley (Oswald's missus).
An Appeal On Behalf Of The Wireless For The Blind Fund by Winston Churchill broadcast, as was Dance Music featuring Billy Cotton & His Band from Ciro's Jazz Club.
Arsenal beat Manchester City three-one in the Football League Division One with goals from Bob John, Cliff Bastin and Joe Hulme. They would end the season winning their first championship. The first of five titles before the decade was out.
A People's Service broadcast live from Liverpool Cathedral.
A Pickwick Party broadcast. An article by the Italian Futurist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti was published in the Gazzetta del Popolo, in which he called for the abolition of pasta in favour of Futurist meals. Marinetti - who was, obviously, not a nutter - explained that pasta was 'hard to digest' and made Italians 'sceptical, slow [and] pessimistic,' in addition to requiring heavy importation to Italy. Rice, on the other hand, would create 'lithe, agile peoples who will be victorious' in future wars and was already being homegrown 'in vast amounts.' The manifesto also called for the abolition of the knife and fork.
Plays & The Theatre by James Agate broadcast.
The New Year's Eve episode of Vaudeville featured Amos and Andy ('the famous American broadcast artists'), Alec McGill and Gwen Vaughan ('the cheerful chatterers') and Jack Payne and his BBC Dance Orchestra.
