May 1927

Month of 1927


title: "May 1927" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["may-1927", "may-by-year", "months-in-the-1920s"] description: "Month of 1927" topic_path: "general/may-1927" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1927" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Month of 1927 ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Cal_banquet.jpg" caption="May 21, 1927: Charles Lindbergh becomes first man to fly non-stop from New York to Paris"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Bath_School_Disaster-east.jpg" caption="May 18, 1927: Murderer kills 38 schoolchildren, six adults in Michigan school bombing"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Carte_postale-Oiseau_blanc-1927.jpg" caption="May 9, 1927: Nungusser and Coli disappear while attempting trans-Atlantic flight"] ::

The following events occurred in May 1927:

May 1, 1927 (Sunday)

May 2, 1927 (Monday)

May 3, 1927 (Tuesday)

  • Dr. Quirino Majorana, Italian physicist, announced in Rome that he had invented a system for "wireless transmission of speech by means of ultra-violet rays", which had been tested over a distance of 10 mi.
  • In the largest seizure in the U.S. up to that time of illegal drugs, the British trawler Gabriella was seized in New York Harbor with 2,000 drums of alcohol, valued at $1,200,000. The ship's captain had been free on bond after being arrested the year before for smuggling of 1,200 cases of whiskey.
  • Aviator Ferdinand Scholtz set a record for longest time aloft in a glider, keeping the unpowered airplane up for 14 hours and 8 minutes.
  • Born: Mell Lazarus, American comic strip artist who created Miss Peach and Momma; in Brooklyn (d. 2016)
  • Died: Ernest Ball, 47, American singer and songwriter

May 4, 1927 (Wednesday)

May 5, 1927 (Thursday)

May 6, 1927 (Friday)

  • The first radio broadcasts in Turkey began, from a station in Istanbul. Television would be introduced on January 31, 1968.
  • Dr. Richard Meissner, a German chemist, claimed that he had developed an insulin substitute, which he called "horment", from the islands of Langerhans, which could be taken in tablet form, and which would cure diabetes.
  • The romantic drama film 7th Heaven starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell received its world premiere.
  • Born: Mary Ellen Avery, American physician who discovered the cause of respiratory distress syndrome and contributed to its treatment and cure; in Camden, New Jersey (d. 2011)
  • Died: Ansis Kaupēns, 31, Latvian serial killer suspected of murdering 19 people, was executed by hanging.

May 7, 1927 (Saturday)

May 8, 1927 (Sunday)

  • Captain Charles Nungesser and his navigator, Captain François Coli, departed from Paris at 5:18 am (11:18 pm Saturday in New York) in L'Oiseau Blanc (The White Bird), a Levasseur biplane, in an attempt to make the first nonstop airplane flight from Paris to New York. Expected to reach New York the next day, the plane never arrived, and was last seen approaching Cape Race, Newfoundland, at 10:00 am on Monday, with 1,000 mi left of flying. The two men were never seen again.
  • Died: Col. A.E. Humphreys, Denver multimillionaire, accidentally shot himself while packing guns and fishing tackle for a hunting trip.

May 9, 1927 (Monday)

May 10, 1927 (Tuesday)

  • Sending a pistol by United States mail became illegal as a new law took effect.
  • The popular hymn Shall We Gather at the River? was recorded for the first time, by the Dixie Sacred Singers.
  • Born: Nayantara Sahgal, Indian female novelist

May 11, 1927 (Wednesday)

  • Charles Lindbergh landed in St. Louis, 14 hours after taking off from San Diego the afternoon before. Lindbergh was "the only entrant in the Raymond Orteig $25,000 flight [contest] who plans to make the transatlantic flight alone", and was nicknamed "The Foolish Flyer" as a result.
  • Born:
  • Died: Juan Gris, 40, Spanish sculptor and painter, from uremia and kidney failure

May 12, 1927 (Thursday)

  • Under the direction of Scotland Yard, London police raided Arcost, Ltd., the office of the Soviet trade delegation. At 4:00 pm, telephone lines were cut and the building was sealed, with the 600 employees detained during a search. Evidence of Russian espionage was found and a break of diplomatic relations followed.

May 13, 1927 (Friday)

  • The equity market in Germany suffered a severe price drop after Reichsbank President Hjalmar Schacht had attempted to stop price speculation. Prices continued to decline following the "Black Friday".
  • King George V issued a royal proclamation dropping the term "United Kingdom" from his title, referring to himself instead as "Georgius V, Dei Gratia Magnae Britanniae, Hiberniae et terrarum transmarinarum quae in ditione iunt Britannica Rex, Fidei Defensor, Indiae Imperator" ("George V, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland, and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India").
  • FC Dynamo Kiev, a well-known association football club in Ukraine (former part of the Soviet Union), was founded.
  • Born:

May 14, 1927 (Saturday)

May 15, 1927 (Sunday)

  • The civil war in Nicaragua came to an end, with President Adolfo Díaz requesting U.S. President Calvin Coolidge to supervise elections that would be "free, fair, and impartial and not open to fraud or intimidation". With U.S. envoy Henry L. Stimson as the intermediary, Díaz and rebel leader José María Moncada had agreed to terms at Tipitapa, with Díaz to arrange elections following Moncada's troops completing disarmament. The voting took place in October 1928, with Moncada winning the presidency.

May 16, 1927 (Monday)

  • Admiral Richard E. Byrd, one of several aviators planning to fly from New York to Paris, told reporters that he would fly no earlier than the middle of the following week, after alerting his elderly mother in a phone conversation.
  • A fireball was witnessed by thousands of spectators in Missouri and Kansas, streaking across the sky shortly before midnight and then exploding near the General Hospital on the south side of Kansas City, Missouri.
  • Died: Sam Bernard, 64, English vaudeville comedian

May 17, 1927 (Tuesday)

May 18, 1927 (Wednesday)

  • Thirty-eight schoolchildren and six adults were killed by dynamite charges placed underneath the local school in Bath Township, Michigan. Andrew Kehoe, who had been treasurer of the township school board, had planted the bombs under the north wing, which housed 110 pupils and instructors, and the south wing, with 150 more. On the morning of the last day of classes, Kehoe set a two-minute timer and drove away, and at 9:43 a.m., the explosives under the north wing detonated. A short circuit in one of the wires prevented the destruction of the south wing. Kehoe, who had murdered his wife earlier and blew up his house and farm, killed himself and three other people half an hour later, detonating a car bomb while sitting in his Ford truck. With 41 deaths, the bombings remain the deadliest act of mass murder at a school in U.S. history.

May 19, 1927 (Thursday)

  • At the German city of Kassel, nine people were killed and 11 seriously injured after a 9-year-old boy released the emergency brake of a crowded streetcar. "9 Lives Taken by Boy's Prank", Miami Daily News, May 19, 1927, p1
  • Died: Maurice Mouvet, 38, American dancer who attained fame in North America and Europe as "Maurice"

May 20, 1927 (Friday)

  • Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field on New York's Long Island at 7:52 a.m. in his airplane, the Spirit of St. Louis, bound for Paris. With the plane carrying a 5,150 lb load, he barely cleared a string of telegraph wires. Lindbergh told a police chief, "When I enter that cockpit, it's like going into the death chamber. When I get to Paris, it will be like getting a pardon from the governor."
  • The independence of the Kingdom of Nejd and Hejaz, with the Sultan Ibn Saud as monarch, was recognized by the United Kingdom in the Treaty of Jeddah signed by representatives of the kings of both nations. On September 23, 1932, the nation would be renamed Saudi Arabia by King Ibn Saud.
  • J. Willard Marriott started his first business, a 9-stool A&W root beer franchise located at 3128 14th Street, NW in Washington, D.C. Marriott would eventually found the worldwide Marriott Hotel chain.
  • The Boeing 40A, first passenger airliner built by the Boeing company, was flown for the first time.
  • Born: Bud Grant, American and Canadian professional football coach; in Superior, Wisconsin (d. 2023)
  • Died: Eduard Bruckner, 64, German geographer and glaciologist

May 21, 1927 (Saturday)

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Charles_Lindbergh_and_the_Spirit_of_Saint_Louis_(Crisco_restoration,_with_wings).jpg" caption="Charles Lindbergh and the ''Spirit of St. Louis''"] ::

  • Charles Lindbergh became the first man to complete a non-stop trans-Atlantic airplane flight, from New York to Paris. He landed his monoplane, the Spirit of St. Louis, at Le Bourget airfield near Paris at 10:21 p.m. local time (5:21 pm in New York), 33 hours and 29 minutes after taking off from New York. Lindbergh won the $25,000 Orteig Prize and a lifetime of fame and fortune.

May 22, 1927 (Sunday)

May 23, 1927 (Monday)

May 24, 1927 (Tuesday)

May 25, 1927 (Wednesday)

  • U.S. Army Lieutenant James H. Doolittle became the first person to perform an "outside loop", a feat that aviators had been attempting since 1912, with at least two getting killed in the attempt. Doolittle, who would later become more famous as Lt. Gen. Jimmy Doolittle for a daring raid on Tokyo, climbed to 8,000 ft over Dayton, Ohio, then turned the nose of his plane downward, being upside down at 6,000 ft, before flying back upward to his original altitude and completing the circle.
  • Born: Robert Ludlum, American novelist who wrote The Bourne Identity and its sequels; in New York City (d. 2001)
  • Died: St. Cristobal Magallanes, 57, and St. Agustin Caloca, 29, were both shot by a firing squad at Colotlán, Jalisco state. Both would be canonized as Roman Catholic saints on May 21, 2000.

May 26, 1927 (Thursday)

  • U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon announced that he had approved a change in the size of United States currency to save printing costs. The bills would be 1 inches shorter and inches narrower, with the first new bills to appear in the spring of 1928. In addition, consistent images were selected for the one-dollar bill (George Washington) and the two-dollar bill (Thomas Jefferson). Mellon commented that, "in time, each denomination will be immediately recognized from the picture it bears".
  • Al Jolson was signed to play the lead in The Jazz Singer, the first talkie, after George Jessel (who originated the role in the 1925 Broadway play of the same name) backed out over artistic differences in the screenplay adaptation, and after being denied a salary bonus after the movie's last-minute change from a silent to a talkie. Principal photography was scheduled to begin in July.

May 27, 1927 (Friday)

May 28, 1927 (Saturday)

  • The sport of greyhound racing was introduced to Australia, with spectators there seeing for the first time the "mechanical rabbit" that raced ahead of the fleet canines.

May 29, 1927 (Sunday)

May 30, 1927 (Monday)

May 31, 1927 (Tuesday)

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Ford_Model_T_-_Serial_No._15,000,000,_Built_May_1927.jpg" caption="Model T-15007033"] ::

  • The 15,007,033rd and last Ford Model T, after a 19-year run that began in 1908. Henry Ford had announced the week before that production would halt at the end of the month, that 24 plants would close and 10,000 employees would be laid off. Ford car dealers across the United States all received a telegram on May 26, the day the 15,000,000th Model T was driven by Ford out of the factory in Highland Park, Michigan, that the factories were being retooled to make way for the new Model A, which would be introduced in December. The Model T would hold the record for the most popular model of car in history until February 17, 1972, when the 15,007,034th Volkswagen Beetle was produced.
  • Died: Francis Grierson, 79, American novelist and pianist, died while giving a concert for friends.

References

References

  1. (May 2, 1927). "British Will Test Motorized Forces". [[Montreal Gazette]].
  2. Ogorkiewicz, Richard M.. (1970). "Armoured forces: a history of armoured forces and their vehicles". Arco.
  3. Stanley Powell Davies, ''Social Control of the Mentally Deficient'' (Thomas Y. Crowell, 1930) p112
  4. "Beef Grades and Standards-- Past and Present", by John C. Pierce, in ''Beef for Tomorrow'' (National Research Council, 1960) p48
  5. (May 4, 1927). "Speech Carried on Ultra-Violet Ray". Gazette.
  6. (May 4, 1927). "Captain and Crew of Trawler Held". Montreal Gazette.
  7. (May 16, 1927). "Nonstop Record for Glider Established". [[Milwaukee Sentinel]].
  8. (8 January 2023). "Mell Lazarus". [[Lambiek]].
  9. Roy, Christopher. (December 1, 2023). "BALL, ERNEST R.". [[Case Western Reserve University]].
  10. (May 5, 1927). "20 Years' Drive Alters Spelling Of Dozen Words". [[Miami Daily News]].
  11. (2008). "Fundamentals of Aerospace Medicine". [[Lippincott Williams & Wilkins]].
  12. Rausch, Andrew J.. (2004). "Turning Points in Film History". [[Citadel Press]].
  13. Hayward, Anthony. (27 July 1994). "Obituary: Terry Scott". [[The Independent]].
  14. (July 12, 1928). "Bottle Holds Last Message; Mystery of Fate of Saint Roman Believed Solved". [[Tampa Bay Times.
  15. Suzzoni, Jean-Pierre. (May 2017). "L'exploit méconnu de l'aviateur Pierre de Saint-Roman".
  16. Felder, Deborah G.. (2009). "The 100 Most Influential Women of All Time". [[Rosen Publishing Group]].
  17. Marlin, Randal. (2002). "Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion". [[Broadview Press]].
  18. (June 2010}}{{Dead link). "Historical Background of Radio and Television Broadcasting in Turkey". Office of the Prime Minister (Turkey), Directorate General of Press and Information.
  19. (May 7, 1927). "Claims Discovery of Diabetes Cure". Montreal Gazette.
  20. Solomon, Aubrey. "7th Heaven".
  21. "Ansis Kaupēns (1895-1927)".
  22. [http://www.sanfranciscoairportguide.com/ SanFranciscoAirportGuide.com]; Mel Scott, ''The San Francisco Bay Area: a metropolis in perspective'' (University of California Press, 1986) pp219-220
  23. (May 8, 1927). "PARIS FLIERS HOP OFF TO NEW YORK". Miami Daily News.
  24. (May 9, 1927). "OCEAN FLIERS NOT YET IN SIGHT".
  25. "Two Hemispheres Join in Hunt for Aviators", May 10, 1927, ''Miami News'' p1; "Hopes That Two Missing Fliers Survive Shrink", May 11, 1927, ''Miami News'' p1; "Giant Dirigible May Go North to Hunt Fliers", ''Miami News'', May 13, 1927, p2; ''Miami News'', "Hopes for Airmen's Safety Slip Away", May 15, 1927, p2
  26. Hamilton, Sue. (2007). "Air & Sea Mysteries". ABDO.
  27. (May 9, 1927). "Philanthropist Dies of Wound". Miami Daily News.
  28. Carroll, Brian. (2004). "Australia's Prime Ministers: From Barton to Howard". Rosenberg Publishing.
  29. (December 11, 1936). "England's New King Practical, Serious-Minded and Conservative". [[The Day (New London).
  30. (May 10, 1927). "TORNADO LEAVES TRAIL OF DEATH". Miami Daily News.
  31. Jones, Ann. (1996). "Women who kill". [[Beacon Press]].
  32. (2024). "Manfred Eigen – Facts". Nobel Prize Outreach AB.
  33. (May 9, 1927). "Pistol Mailing Stops Tuesday". Miami Daily News.
  34. Erbsen, Wayne. (2002). "Old Time Gospel Songbook". [[Mel Bay Publications]].
  35. "1,550-mile Hop From San Diego Made by Flier", ''Miami Daily News'', May 11, 1927, p1
  36. Nigel West and Oleg Tsarev, ''The Crown Jewels: The British Secrets at the Heart of the KGB Archives'' (Yale University Press, 1999) p29; "London Raids Soviet Office", ''Milwaukee Sentinel'', May 13, 1927, p1; "Reds Betrayed by Raided Files", May 15, 1927, p1
  37. Balderston, Theo. (2002). "Economics and Politics in the Weimar Republic". [[Cambridge University Press]].
  38. Scholefield, Guy. (1950). "New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1949". Govt. Printer.
  39. (R.E. Owen, 1950) p16
  40. Satow, Sir Ernest Mason. (1979). "Satow's Guide to Diplomatic Practice". [[Longman]].
  41. (May 15, 1927). "Bleachers Fall in Philadelphia Baseball Game". Miami Daily News.
  42. Westcott, Rich. (1996). "Philadelphia's old ballparks". [[Temple University Press]].
  43. (2004). "The 100-year Secret: Britain's Hidden WWII Massacre". [[Globe Pequot]].
  44. Henry L. Stimson, ''American Policy in Nicaragua'' (Charles S. Scribner's Sons, 1927, reprinted by Markus Wiener Publishers, 1991) p208 : ''The Lasting Legacy''
  45. "Byrd Won't Start Across Atlantic for While Yet", ''Spokane Daily Chronicle'', May 16, 1927, p1
  46. "Sputtering 'Ball of Fire' From Sky Shocks Kansas City", ''Miami Daily News'', May 17, 1927, p1
  47. "AMERICANS PLAN OCEAN DASH", ''Miami Daily News'', May 11, 1927, p1; "Row Menaces Bellanca Hop Over Atlantic", May 17, 1927, p1; "Bertaud Out of Race, Levin Announces", May 19, 1927, p1
  48. (May 17, 1927). "TOWN DESTROYED AS LEVEE BREAKS". Miami Daily News.
  49. "SCORE, AT LEAST, KILLED BY BLAST", ''Miami Daily News'', May 18, 1927, p1; "Whole Village in Gloom over Madman's Act", ''Miami Daily News'', May 19, 1927, p2H. Thomas Milhorn, ''Crime: Computer Viruses to Twin Towers'' (Universal-Publishers, 2004) p180
  50. (May 20, 1927). "LINDBERGH SIGHTED AT NOVA SCOTIA, BOUND FOR PARIS, WITH WEATHER FINE". Miami Daily News.
  51. (1977). "Independence documents of the world". Brill Archive.
  52. [http://www.marriott.com/corporateinfo/culture/heritageJWillardMarriott.mi?WT_Ref=mi_left Marriott.com]
  53. Yenne, Bill. (2005). "The Story of the Boeing Company". [[Zenith Imprint]].
  54. (May 22, 1927). "LINDBERGH HERO OF WILD PARIS". Miami Daily News.
  55. [https://web.archive.org/web/20170814054843/https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/results?eq_0=3315&t=101650&s=13&d=22,26,13,12&nd=display National Geophysical Data Center], ngdc.noaa.gov
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  57. [http://eleccion.atspace.com/presidente1927.htm eleccion.atspace.com]
  58. (2024). "George A. Olah – Facts". Nobel Prize Outreach AB.
  59. Serguei A. Blagov, ''Caodaism: Vietnamese Traditionalism and Its Leap Into Modernity'' (Nova Publishers, 2001) p86
  60. Wilk Gavin, ''Transatlantic Defiance: The Militant Irish Republican Movement in America, 1923-45'' (Oxford University Press, 2014) p59
  61. (May 24, 1927). "BALDWIN URGES BREAK WITH SOVIET RUSSIA". Miami Daily News.
  62. (May 27, 1927). "Baldwin Denies Break With Russia Means War". Miami Daily News.
  63. (May 26, 1927). "U.S. Army Flier is First to Do 'Outside Loop'". Miami Daily News.
  64. (May 26, 1927). "U.S. Will Cut Size of Money". Milwaukee Journal.
  65. Bradley, Edwin M. (2004). "The First Hollywood Musicals: A Critical Filmography of 171 Features, 1927 Through 1932". [[McFarland & Company.
  66. (May 28, 1927). "Red Staff Must Leave England Within 10 Days- Britain Ends 6-Year Experiment in Soviet Relations". Montreal Gazette.
  67. Wray Vamplew, ''The Oxford Companion to Australian Sport'' (Oxford University Press, 1992) p164
  68. Simon Martin, ''Football and Fascism: The National Game under Mussolini'' (Berg Publishers, 2004) p132
  69. (2003). "The Ultimate Book of Sports Lists". [[Black Dog Publishing]].
  70. (February 1993). "Unassisted Triple Play Among Rarest Feats in Baseball".
  71. (May 31, 1927). "Former Purdue Student Wins Speedway Classic". Miami Daily News.
  72. Rudi Volti, ''Cars and Culture: The Life Story of a Technology'' (JHU Press, 2006) p49; Peter Winnewisser,''The Legendary Model A Ford: The Ultimate History of One of America's Great Automobiles'' (Krause Publications, 2006)
  73. "Volkswagen overtake Model T record", ''Glasgow Herald'', February 17, 1972, p2
  74. "Francis Grierson, Author, Dies in Poverty at 79", ''Brooklyn Daily Eagle'', June 2, 1927, p1

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