The Parliament of Romania ratified the acceptance of Crown Prince Carol's renunciation of his right to the throne in the wake of his scandalous affair with Magda Lupescu, the Roman Catholic daughter of a Jewish pharmacist. His four-year-old son Michael became the new Crown Prince. Carol later reneged on the renunciation and reigned as King of Romania from 1930 to 1940.
A band of twenty Mexican rebels opened fire aboard the Guadalajara-Mexico City train, then looted and burned the train. An estimated twenty to fifty people were killed and about 300,000 pesos (about $150,000 US) worth of cash and bar silver were stolen.[9][10]
Mexican federal troops tracked down bandits responsible for the previous evening's train massacre to a ranch in Jalisco and engaged them in a shootout. Most of the rebels were killed in the fighting, and eight who were captured were immediately executed. All the stolen loot was recovered.[10][11]
The Whittemore Gang robbed Belgian diamond merchants Albert Goudris and Emanuel Veerman on West 48th Street in Manhattan, making off with $175,000 in gems.
Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll premiered their radio program Sam 'n' Henry, in which the two white performers portray two black characters from Harlem looking to strike it rich in the big city. It was a precursor to Gosden and Correll's more popular later program, Amos 'n' Andy.
The Pasteur Institute in Paris announced the discovery of an anti-tetanus serum.[5]
German Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann warned that the Locarno Pact was at risk of breaking down, as Germany accused the Allied powers of infringing on the limits on troops they were allowed to station in the Rhineland.[14]
Twenty-year-old Ayn Rand left Russia, departing from Leningrad by train. Her early life experiences in Communist Russia were a major influence on her philosophy.[16]
The Italianization of South Tyrol escalated as the government issued a decree requiring citizens of South Tyrol to Italianize any names and titles of nobility "which have been translated into other languages or deformed by foreign orthography or foreign endings." Failure to comply carried a fine of up to 1,000 lira.[17]
Lev Karakhan, the Soviet ambassador to China, sent a protest to the Chinese Foreign Ministry warning of "serious consequences" if a dispute over the two countries' joint management of the Chinese Eastern Railway was not resolved. Manchurian warlord Zhang Zuolin had been seizing parts of the railway line and arresting Soviet officials in retaliation for a decision that made Chinese troops pay half-fare instead of being allowed to ride for free.[18] The dispute was a precursor to the Sino Soviet Conflict of 1929.
Soviet Foreign Minister Georgy Chicherin sent a threatening note to the Manchurian government seeking "permission" for the Soviet army to enter Manchuria if the Chinese Eastern Railway's administration was not restored. Manchuria responded by agreeing to comply, ending the crisis.[18]
The Third International Radio Week began, featuring transatlantic tests of distance reception. Listeners in New York and Chicago reported successful reception of English and South American radio broadcasts.[22]
Scottish inventor John Logie Baird demonstrated a mechanical television system for members of the Royal Institution and a reporter from The Times at his London laboratory.
The U.S. Senate voted in favor of joining the World Court, but with several specific reservations.[13]
30 communists and 12 monarchists were wounded in street fighting in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin during demonstrations on the birthday of the former Kaiser, Wilhelm II. The fighting broke out as communists paraded an effigy of the ex-Kaiser hanged from a gallows. Riot police opened fire after attempts to separate the combatants were met with attacks from both sides.[24]
27 miners were killed in a gas explosion in Mossboro, Alabama; 26 escaped unhurt.[26]
The Allied occupation of the first zone of the Rhineland ended. At 15:00 hours the British, French and Belgians in the zone all hauled down their flags and withdrew their remaining troops in advance of much of the Rhineland's sovereignty being formally returned to Germany at the stroke of midnight.[27]
Died:Barbara La Marr, 29, American actress (complications from tuberculosis)
^Allen Jay (January 29, 1926). "Belgium Gives Mercier Hero's Final Homage". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 18.
^"53 Trapped in Alabama Coal Pit; Rescue 26". Chicago Daily Tribune. January 30, 1926. p. 1.
^"Cologne Cheers as British Haul Down Union Jack". Chicago Daily Tribune. January 31, 1926. p. 3.
^Falasca-Zamponi, Simonetta (1997). Fascist Spectacle: The Aesthetics of Power in Mussolini's Italy. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 61. ISBN0-520-22677-1.
