February 19, 1937: Yekatit 12 massacre of more than 19,000 Ethiopians begins...... after assassination attempt against Italian Governor-General Graziani
The French aircraft manufacturer SNCASE (Société nationale des constructions aéronautiques du Sud-Est) was formed by the nationalization and merger of Lioré et Olivier, Potez, CAMS, Romano and SPCA.[3]
Tony Marino, 26, American bantamweight boxer, died two days after being knocked out in his bout against Carlos "Indian" Quintana in Brooklyn.[6] Marino's death, which came after he had been knocked to the canvas five times, led to the New York State Athletic Commission's emergency meeting and the passage of the innovative "three knockdown" rule to stop a fight.[7]
The Royal Navy battleship HMS Royal Oak (08), patrolling the Mediterranean Sea to protect Britain's colony at Gibraltar, came under aerial attack from three aircraft operated by the Second Spanish Republic. Two of the three bombs exploded within 550 metres (1,800 ft) of the ship but caused no damage.[9]
General Motors obtained an injunction against the strike of the United Auto Workers with an order signed by Judge Edward S. Black. The order was soon set aside when a UAW investigation found that Black owned over 3,000 shares of General Motors stock, and the UAW made plans to expand to the strike to another GM factory.
The engagement ceremony for Crown Prince Pujie of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo (consisting of northeastern China's Jilin, Heilongjiang, and Liaoning provinces) took place at the Manchukuo "embassy" in Tokyo.[10] The wedding of Japanese princess Hiro Saga to Pujie, brother of the Emperor Puyi, was scheduled for April 3.
Born:Tom Smothers, American comedian and one-half of the Smothers Brothers musical comedy team; in New York City (d. 2023)
The Battle of Málaga began as the Nationalist forces of Francisco Franco, supplemented by Fascists from Italy and Germany advanced on the city of Málaga and were met by 12,000 defenders fighting for the Second Spanish Republic. The rebel nationalists swept through the Republican defenses within five days.
The "three knockdown rule", now universal in boxing competitions, was created by the New York State Athletic Commission, requiring a referee to stop a boxing bout after one of the boxers had been knocked down three times in a single round.[11] Initially, the rule did not apply to fights for a championship, nor outside of the state of New York.
The first television broadcast of a British sporting event took place as the BBC showed bouts from an international boxing tournament between England and Ireland from Alexandra Palace.[13]
Willie Gallacher, the lone Communist Party of Great BritainM.P., caused an uproar in the House of Commons when he asserted that the Regency Bill under discussion was clearly "directed towards the occupant of the Throne at the present time" (referring to King George VI) because he was "suspect." Conservative Member Earl Winterton jumped to his feet and declared that not even a Member "who represents so small an amount of opinion in the country" as Gallacher "should be permitted to get away with the monstrous assertion which he has just made", and said it "could only have come from someone who approaches the subject with a distorted brain."[14][15]
German ambassador to Britain Joachim von Ribbentrop committed a social gaffe when he gave the Nazi salutetoGeorge VI, nearly knocking over the king who was stepping forward to shake Ribbentrop's hand.[16][17]
Born:
Magnar Solberg, Norwegian biathlete and Olympic gold medalist in the 20 km race in 1968 and 1972; in Soknedal[18]
editThe Court in early 1937; all five justices in the front row (Brandeis, Van Devanter, Chief Justice Hughes, McReynolds and Sutherland) and Justice Butler (2nd from left in back were 70 years old or older
The Judicial Procedures Reform Bill was recommended by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a surprise message to Congress, recommending a drastic revision of the Supreme Court. The plan would increase the number of judges from 9 to as many as 15, and provided that each time one of the justices reached the age of 70 and did not retire, another seat would be added to the Court.[19] Given that six of the nine Supreme Court justices were already at least 70 years old (Pierce Butler, 70; Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes and George Sutherland, both 74; James McReynolds, 75; Willis Van Devanter, 77; and Louis Brandeis, 80), the idea failed and was derided as "court packing" as an attempt by President Roosevelt to gain more control over the Court with his own appointees.
The Battle of Jarama began as the Spanish Nationalists and their allies crossed the Jarama River, the last line of defense on the eastern side of the Spanish capital of Madrid. The Nationalists moved toward controlling the road between Madrid and Valencia, Spain's port on the Mediterranean Sea. The battle lasted for three weeks.
Benito Mussolini's 20-year-old son Vittorio married Orsola Buvoli in Rome. About 1,000 people stood in the rain outside the church to view the comings and goings.[23]
Elihu Root, 91, U.S. Secretary of War from 1899 to 1904 during the Philippine War, later the U.S. Secretary of State from 1905 to 1909, 1912 Nobel Peace Prize laureate[26][27]
The first issue of Detective Comics, which would introduce Batman the following year and would give DC Comics its name, was put on newsstands by the National Allied Publications Company, owned by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, and had a cover date of March 1937.[33]
The Leningrad suburb of Detskoye Selo, formerly Tsarskoye Selo, was formally renamed Pushkin in ceremonies marking the 100th anniversary of the 1837 death of Russian poet, playwright and novelist Alexander Pushkin.
A German appeals court ruled that children who failed to live up to the mental and physical standards of Nazi education could be taken away from their families and placed in state-run homes.[34]
Died:Ali-Akbar Davar, 51, Iranian jurist who reformed Iran's judicial system, committed suicide with an overdose of opium, after being reprimanded by Reza Shah, the Iranian monarch.[35]
An issue of the British weekly news magazine Cavalcade was banned for running an article referring to rumors of the king having suffered an attack of epilepsy.[40]
Aviator Amelia Earhart announced she would attempt to circumnavigate the globe as close to the equator as possible.[41]
Charles Dumas, U.S. Olympic champion high jumper, 1956 gold medalist, who was the first person to clear 7.00 feet (2.13 m) in the high jump; in Tulsa, Oklahoma (d. 2004)[49]
Vittorio Emanuele di Sovia, the last Crown Prince of Italy and one-time pretender to the throne as the only son of King Umberto II; in Naples (d. 2024). But for the abolition of the Italian monarchy, he would have become King Victor Emmanuel IV in 1983.[50]
Charles Jackson, American serial killer who murdered at least seven women and one man around San Francisco between 1975 and 1982; in rural Louisiana (d. 2002)
Died:Christopher Caudwell (pen name for Christopher St John Sprigg), 29, British Marxist writer, was killed in the Spanish Civil War.[51]
A theater fire at the Manchu Wutai Playhouse in the city of Andong killed at least 658 people who were among 7,500 celebrating the Chinese New Year, which began on February 11.[52] The blaze, which started at 7:30 in the evening in the capital of the Andong ProvinceofManchukuo, the Japanese-occupied puppet state in northeastern China, was traced to "a carelessly placed candle behind a screen" and "spread with such speed" that "a balcony collapsed a few minutes after the fire had started, plunging screaming, fighting hundreds on top of the frenzied spectators on the lower floor.[53][54][55]
National Football League owners voted to approve the move,[56] announced in December by owner George Preston Marshall, of the Boston Redskins to Washington, D.C. where the team would become the Washington Redskins (now the Washington Commanders). The move had been announced by Marshall on December 16, shortly after the Redskins had lost the 1936 NFL championship game to the Green Bay Packers.[57]
The first installment of the newspaper comic strip Prince Valiant, written and drawn by Hal Foster, was printed as a Sunday comics feature in the Hearst newspapers. The fantasy adventure, set in the Middle Ages, has continued weekly as a continuous story.[62]
Born:Magic Sam (stage name for Samuel G. Maghett), African-American blues musician; in Grenada, Mississippi (d. 1969)
Finland's electoral college of 300 representatives met in Helsinki to select the President of Finland. With 151 votes needed for the majority win, former president Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg fell one vote short, with 150, while incumbent President Pehr Evind Svinhufvud was second with 94, and Prime Minister Kyösti Kallio had 56. On the second round, almost all of Ståhlberg's supporters deserted him and switched their allegiance to Kallio, who received 177 votes, compared to 104 for Svinhufvud and only 19 for Ståhlberg.[63]
In Australia, an underground explosion in a coal mine in Wonthaggi, Victoria, killed 13 men.[64]
Flooding killed 11 people around southern Los Angeles.[65]
American chemist Wallace Carothers of the DuPont company received U.S. patent No. 2,071,250 for "monocomponent artificial filaments or the like of synthetic polymers", marketed by DuPont as the first synthetic fabric, nylon.[67][68]
To celebrate the birth of Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples, grandson of King Victor Emanuel III and second in line for the throne, Prime Minister Benito Mussolini proclaimed a general amnesty cancelling or reducing prison sentences for many types of offences.[71]
Ten men working on construction of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco fell to their deaths when a section of scaffolding collapsed. The debris from the scaffold cut through a safety net beneath the bridge.[74] Only two workmen survived the fall.[75]
The Yekatit 12 massacre of more than 19,000 Ethiopians began in Addis Ababa shortly after General Rodolfo Graziani, the Governor-General of Italian East Africa was wounded in an assassination attempt by two Ethiopian nationalists, Abraha Deboch and Mogus Asgedom. Ten grenades were thrown onto a reviewing stand where Italian and Ethiopian officials were sitting during a parade. Graziani was rushed to a hospital immediately after 365 fragments from the grenade pierced his body. Italian Air Force General Aurelio Liotta and Archbishop Abuna Qerellos IV, leader of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Vice-Governor General Armando Petretti, were also wounded, along with 25 other people.[80]
In reprisal, the Italian colonial government murdered thousands of Ethiopians over the next three days. A detailed examination would conclude later that 19,200 people were killed. The massacre is referred to as "Yekatit 12" based on the date of February 19, 1937, being Yekatit 12, 1929 AM on the Ethiopian calendar.[80][81][82]
The last of the Ethiopian resistance was crushed on the same day at the Battle of Gogetti, where the last Arbegnoch fighters were encircled near Lake Shala and exterminated.[83]
Roger Penske, American race car driver and businessman, founder of the Penske Corporation that includes a truck leasing company and multiple auto dealerships, as well as owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway; in Shaker Heights, Ohio[87]
Barlow Carkeek, 58, Australian cricketer with 101 caps for the Australia national team, as well as playing Australian rules football for Essendon in the Victorian Football League, died after being struck by a car while crossing a street in East Brighton, Victoria.[89]
The first successful flying car, the Waterman Arrowbile, made its first flight.[91] Built by Waldo Waterman, the vehicle was an airplane with wings that could be removed so that it could be driven on the road.[92]
Nearly 40,000 Republican militia in Spain launched an attack on Oviedo.[93]
The Italian Army captured the leader of the Ethiopian resistance, Desta Damtew.[94] Damtew was executed three days later.
The government of the Second Spanish Republic dismissed General José Asensio Torrado after the fall of Málaga to the Nationalists.[95]
France closed its border with Spain to keep foreign fighters and weapons out of the Spanish Civil War.[96]
Ron Clarke, Australian athlete and distance runner who held the world records for the 5000m race (1965-1966) and the 10,000m (1963-1965), as well as for two, three, six and ten miles; in Melbourne (d. 2015)[98]
Bill Stall, American journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner, as well as press secretary for the Governor of California; in Philadelphia (d. 2008)[99]
Italian Premier Benito Mussolini decreed that any native chieftain or officer who opposed Italian colonial troops, even in territory as yet unoccupied, would be put to death.[101]
James P. Buchanan, 69, American politician, U.S. Representative for Texas since 1913, died shortly after being sworn in for his 13th term.[103]
Robert Hilliard, 32, Irish Olympic boxer, died after being wounded in action five days earlier while fighting in the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War.[104]
Britain's battleship HMS Royal Oak (08) came under attack for a second time during the Spanish Civil War and was accidentally struck by an anti-aircraft shell fired from the Republican side that was defending Valencia from an attack by Francisco Franco's Nationalists. Captain T. B. Drew and four other men on Royal Oak were injured.[106]
Italy protested to Britain for inviting Haile Selassie to send an envoy to the king's coronation ceremony.[16]
A portion of the dismembered body of the seventh known victim of the Cleveland Torso Murderer was found on Euclid Beach at 156th Street, after having been washed up from Lake Erie. As with several of the killer's prior victims, the body of "Jane Doe #1" had been mutilated, with head and limbs removed, with only the torso remaining.[107] Another portion of the torso would be found three months later, but the identity of the victim was indeterminable.[108]
Patrick Burns, 80, Canadian businessman and multimillionaire who was one of "The Big Four" who controlled the meatpacking industry in Canada, as well as a rancher who owned 2,800 square kilometres (1,100 sq mi) of cattle ranches in the Canadian province of Alberta[116]
The U.S. state of Kansas became the 28th, and last, state to ratify the proposed Child Labor Amendment, which would have been the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution had ratification been complete. Although 28 of the 48 states at the time were required to ratify, the proposed amendment fell 8 states short of the 3/4ths majority (36 of 48) required. The amendment which would have provided for the U.S. government to regulate child labor, would become a moot point the following year after the passage of the more comprehensive Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, upheld as constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1941.[117]
The John Steinbeck novella Of Mice and Men was released.[122] A review in the Chicago Daily Tribune said that the book was written "so simply, so movingly, so factually that only when its last page is finished does the reader realize what a remarkable feat John Steinbeck has performed."[123]
The play The Ascent of F6, by W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood, premiered at the Mercury Theatre in London. In the two-act drama, "F6" was a mountain that had yet to be climbed and which was on the border of a British colony and the fictional nation of "Ostnia", both of which were attempting to be the first to reach the mountain's summit. Auden dedicated the play to his brother John Bicknell Auden, who was working on a British plan to ascend K2, located on the border between British India and China, as well as the second-highest mountain on Earth.[124]
Polish mountaineers Stefan Osiecki and Witold Paryski became the first persons to ascend the 21,749 feet (6,629 m) mountain Nevado Tres Cruces Central, a dormant volcano located in the South American nation of Chile.[125]
On the same day, Polish made first persons to ascend the 22,615 feet (6,893 m) dormant volcano Ojos del Salado, the highest volcano on Earth and the highest mountain in Chile.[126]
Noureddine Diwa (Noureddine Ben Yahmed), Tunisian footballer with 23 caps for the Tunisia national team; in Tunis (d.2020)[129]
Died: General Géraud Réveilhac, 86, French Army officer relieved of command during World War One for the "Souain corporals affair", his order for the execution of four corporals randomly selected from 24 in 1915.
February 27, 1937 (Saturday)
editRykov and Bukharin being brought to trial after their arrest
Alexei Rykov and Nikolai Bukharin became the latest former Soviet Politburo members to be arrested as part of the Great Purge conducted by Communist Party General Secretary Joseph Stalin. The two men were taken into custody after being summoned to appear before the Party's Central Committee, and were charged with conspiring to overthrow the Soviet state. Rykov had been the Premier of the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1930, while Bukharin had been the General Secretary of Communist International from 1926 to 1929. Both had been full members of the Communist Party's Politburo until 1930. The two would both be executed a year later, on March 15, 1938, after being convicted of treason in the trial of 21 of the leaders of the Bolshevik Revolution.
The French government passed a new defense plan extending the Maginot Line.[82]
The Battle of Jarama ended after three weeks with the Army of the Second Republic having prevented the rebel Nationalists from seizing the road between Madrid and Valencia, but still controlling the west bank of the Jarama River. Both the Nationalists and the Republicans had sustained thousands of dead and wounded in the battle in the Spanish Civil War.[130]
Canada won the World Ice Hockey Championships, held in London, the day after handing Great Britain its only loss, 3 to 0, and finishing with a record of 3-0-0 in a 2 to 1 win in overtime over Switzerland in the four-team round robin finals.[131]
Spanish Foreign Minister Julio Álvarez del Vayo scolded the European democracies for『lamentable weakness ... in the face of the tactics of Fascist nations to make themselves masters of the continent.』Álvarez del Vayo declared that "the defense of Madrid is the defense of Paris and London tomorrow."[135]
John Grimshaw Wilkinson, 81, British botanist who "was visually impaired and was able to recognise individual plants by using his tongue to detect shape and texture."[136]
^Hartmann, Gérard (2005-01-05), Les réalisations de la SNCASE [SNCASE's achievements] (PDF) (in French), retrieved 15 July 2009, Alors qu'on ne sait pas très clairement si les sociétés nationales sont des « usines de production de guerre » sans indépendance et sans bureau d'études, la SNCASE est officiellement formée le 1er février 1937. ("While it is not very clear whether the national companies are "war production factories" without independence and without a design office, the SNCASE was officially formed on 1 February 1937.)
^Solak, Mustafa (2018-02-05). "Altı Ok Anayasa'ya nasıl eklendi?" [How were the Six Arrows added to the Constitution?]. Aydınlık (in Turkish). Archived from the original on 2018-06-08. Retrieved 2018-06-08.
^Alonso, Bruno (2006). La flota republicana y la Guerra Civil de España. Mexico (reprinted in Madrid): Ediciones Espuela de Plata. pp. 81–82. ISBN84-96133-75-3.
^"658 Chinese Die in Theatre Blaze In New Year Festivity at Antung— Manchukuoan Tragedy Precipitated by Candle Tipped In Dressing Room— Gallery Collapses in Overcrowded Playhouse as Occupants Fight for Exits". The Gazette (Montreal). AP. February 15, 1937. p. 1.
^"Theatre Fire In Manchukuo Kills 800 Celebrants". Victoria (BC) Daily Times. AP. February 15, 1937. p. 1.
^"THEATRE FIRE". Sydney Morning Herald. 16 February 1937. Retrieved 2024-01-02.
^Griffith, R. D. (2012). To the NFL: You Sure Started Somethin': A Historical Guide of All 32 NFL Teams and the Cities They've Played In. Dorrance Publishing. p. 226. ISBN978-1-4349-1681-5.
^"Marshall Shifts Redskins to D.C.". Richmond (VA) News-Leader. AP. December 17, 1936. p. 30.
^"10 Killed In Plunge Off Golden Gate Bridge As Crash Breaks Safety Net; Three Saved— Scaffold Collapses and Carries Victims 250 Feet to Sea, Tangled in Mesh". Oakland Tribune. February 17, 1937. p. 1.
^"Mary Astor of Films Marries Mexican Actor". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 19, 1937. p. 3.
^ abcAnthony, Mockler (2003). "Chapter 14: Yekatit 12". Haile Selassie's War. Signal Bks (3rd ed.). Oxford, United Kingdom of Great Britain: Signal Books Limited/Oxford University Press - OUP (University of Oxford). pp. 174–179. ISBN9781902669533 – via Google Books.
^James J. Kilpatrick, ed. (1961). The Constitution of the United States and Amendments Thereto. Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government. pp. 68–69.
^"Floating Mine Tears Hole in British Ship; 300 Passengers Safe". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 26, 1937. p. 11.
^"Literary Notes", Philadelphia Inquirer, February 20, 1937, p.13 ("John Steinbeck's short novel 'Of Mice and Men,' is one of the March selections of the Book-of-the-Month Club. Covici-Fride will release the trade edition on February 26.")
^"Books", by Fanny Butcher, Chicago Daily Tribune, February 27, 1937, p.11, quoted in The Essential Criticism of John Steinbeck's of Mice and Men, by Michael J. Meyer (Scarecrow Press, 2009) p.6
^Donald Mitchell, ed., Letters From a Life: The Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, Volume I, 1923–1939 (Faber and Faber (1991) p.487 ISBN057115221X
