Day by Day 1922

A day by day listing of worldwide and local events in the year 1922. (This is the Long Years Between - 1922 document, without the written scenes between main characters.)

1922

January

1st - Franklin D. Roosevelt appears to have made a full recovery from his bout with disease the preceding year, and continues to be actively involved in politics. National sympathy for his struggles does much to alleviate a flagging reputation.

- German-Jewish physicist Albert Einstein is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work explaining the photoelectric effect. He is not awarded for the theory of relativity, as it is considered somewhat controversial.

1st - 2nd - 5 people are shot dead by snipers in Belfast.

3rd - The trial of District Attorney Joseph C. Pelletier comes to its conclusion. He is found guilty of ten counts of accepting bribes, obstruction of justice, and blackmail, and removed from office. The court concludes that Pelletier had used the processes of law “as instruments of oppression in an attempt to wrest money from the blameless and the aged.” Disbarment and criminal proceedings are announced against him, as well as Nathaniel Tufts, Daniel Coakley, and William Corcoran.

7th - After a long and difficult debate, the Eireann Dail approves the Anglo-Irish Treaty by a vote of 64-57.

9th - Eamon de Valera resigns as President of the Irish Free State, to be replaced by Arthur Griffith.

11th - H. I. Brock, in the New Republic, writes about the “flapper” trend, describing how they’re rewriting the rules of social behavior, shocking their seniors nonchalantly, creating an America where you can find “women smoking in hotel dining rooms, bare female legs on the public benches...taking the lady’s arm instead of letting her take yours.” The old rules emphatically no longer apply to increasing numbers of young women.

- The second trial of Roscoe Arbuckle begins. The same evidence is presented, excepting that Zey Prevon, a witness for the Prosecution, testifies under cross-examination that District Attorney Brady had forced her to lie. Additionally, Counsel for the Defense McNab brings in details about Rappe’s past, including her alcoholism, noted sexual promiscuity, and multiple abortions, one of which she had undergone days prior to the party. The Prosecution’s case continues to collapse. Thinking an acquittal is all but guaranteed, the defense does not bring Arbuckle to the stand.

12th - In Belfast, loyalists throw five grenades at groups of Catholic civilians.

14th - Members of the Monaghan County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) are arrested while traveling through Northern Ireland. Travelling with them were IRA Volunteers, carrying plans to free IRA prisoners from Derry prison.

February

2nd - Famed Irish writer James Joyce publishes Ulysses, quickly considered his best work and the seminal Modernist book. It’s publication is hindered in most English-speaking countries by charges of obscenity, however, and it remains unavailable throughout most of the countries in whose language it was written. Joyce himself had left Ireland years ago, having declared “Ireland is the old sow that eats her farrow,” in his 1917 book A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and is now living as an Irish expatriot in Paris.

3rd - After 40 hours of deliberation, the jury for the second Arbuckle trial deadlocks with a 9-3 guilty verdict. Another mistrial is declared, and Arbuckle must go to trial yet again. The newspapers go nuts, stepping up their reports of alleged Hollywood orgies, murder, and sexual perversion. Hollywood itself, attempting to control the damage of the scandal, has banned Arbuckle’s films and effectively fired him from work. “Bambina” Maude Delmont, the woman who had originally accused Arbuckle of the rape and murder of Rappe, has long since been discredited as a criminal with a long record including racketeering, bigamy, fraud, and extortion, even having written a letter admitting to a plan to extort payment from Arbuckle (her reputation was so worthless even Brady didn’t bring her to court to testify.) Even so, she has started a tour of the country giving one-woman shows as “The woman who signed the murder charge against Arbuckle,” lecturing further on the evils of Hollywood. Most of the public remains convinced of his guilt, citing this recent mistrial as further evidence for it.

5th - DeWitt and Lila Wallace publish the first issue of ''Reader’s Digest, a compilation of favorite articles on various subjects from many monthly magazines. It quickly gains in popularity.

6th - Negotiations in the Arms Parley conclude, with all nations agreeing to the general pattern laid out by Secretary Hughes at the beginning of the Conference. An impressive precedent is set, in that the armaments built by a nation are now considered to be a matter of national concern and subject to international agreement. President Harding and Secretary Hughes are generally given credit for the success of the conference, and Harding’s popularity grows.

7th -8th - The IRA kidnaps 42 prominent loyalists and Ulster Special Constabulary (USC) constables in Northern Ireland, holding them as hostages for the Monaghan GAA team. This operation has been approved of by Michael Collins.

11th - IRA Volunteers stop a group of USC constables on a train in Clones, County Monaghan (a short distance into Free State territory). A gunfight begins in which one IRA officer and four USC are killed. The remaining USC constables are captured.

12th -15th - Violence erupts in Belfast in response to the Clones shootings. Approximately 39 people are killed, including six children who were killed when loyalists threw a grenade into their school yard, which attack also injured forty other children.

15th - Speaking before the Massachusetts House of Representatives, Martin Lomasney advocates a bill providing measures for the removal of Mayors from office in cases of extreme malfeasance, a measure which is currently unavailable to the Massachusetts legislature. He advocates strongly for it, declaring, “No king has the power of the Mayor of Boston. He is elected for four years and can do anything he pleases. The Finance Commission has found things rotten in Denmark, but those things have been forgotten. The enactment of this bill will deter any Mayor, no matter how large a nerve he has. It would never stop any honest Mayor from doing right. We are not passing this act for the present Mayor. It is for any that come hereafter.” Despite his reference to the Finance Commission, the body that investigated current Mayor Curley for financial misconduct during his first term, and the common feeling that Lomasney and the Mayor are political enemies, Lomasney insists the bill is not targeted towards Curley, saying it would only be of assistance “to the present Mayor in case some of his constituents desire him to do some wrong act.”

17th - Responding to Martin Lomasney’s comments concerning a pending bill providing measures for removing the Mayor of any city from office, John A. Sullivan, special counsel for Mayor Curley, argues that the Boston Finance Commission had already considered the question of removal of Mayors by the Governor, and had found it to be an unwise procedure. He further contends that Mayor Curley should be given the same opportunity Mayor Peters had been given, that the enactment of the bill would give the impression that all Mayors were corrupt, and that this bill was, in fact, a reflection on, and an unsupported defamation of, Mayor Curley. According to Sullivan, the bill is a message from the State House to Mayor Curley that he would be “taken care of” before finishing his term, and removed from office.

22nd - Michael Collins secretly authorizes the formation of a specially-paid unit of approximately 70 IRA Volunteers, called the Belfast City Guard, to protect districts from loyalist attack.

March

Violence continues to escalate in Belfast and surrounding environs, resulting in the deaths of scores of Irish, mostly civilians.

1st - F. Scott Fitzgerald’s second novel, The Beautiful and the Damned, is published. Largely believed to be based on his relationship to Zelda Fitzgerald, the novel sells well and increases his reputation as the authority on youth in the new decade.

4th - Having regained office for his second term, Mayor Curley initiates a variety of promised municipal improvements for Boston, especially its working poor. Construction resumes on the Strandway, the waterfront boulevard of South Boston, a project started during Curley’s first term but left to rot once Peters assumed the mayoralty. South Boston, an enclave of poor Irish, particularly benefits from Curley’s municipal programs, receiving new ambulances, a new bathhouse and a new municipal building, among a host of other measures.

- Famous black comedian Bert Williams, often described as the funniest man in the world, dies of overwork and pneumonia at the age of 47. He had collapsed a little over a week previously during a performance of his latest play Under the Bamboo Tree, which the audience believed was a comic bit. As he was helped to his dressing room, Williams quipped, “That’s a nice way to die. They was laughing when I made my last exit.” His death shocks Americans across the country, and thousands file past his casket to pay their respects.

6th - The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) is founded, with former Presbyterian deacon, chairman of the Republican Party, and Postmaster General Will H. Hays as President. The organization is created to “advise” filmmakers on how to produce films that are unlikely to be censored by the individual States in the United States, generally providing a set of guidelines and watching films, advocating cuts when it is felt necessary. The creation of the organization is largely understood as a public relations ploy to renovate the image of the movie industry in the wake of the Fatty Arbuckle scandal. The organization has varying degrees of success in either goal.

10th - Variety carries the front page headline: “Radio Sweeping Country: 1,000,000 Sets in Use.”

13th - The third trial of Fatty Arbuckle begins. Defense Attorney McNab tears into the prosecution’s case with a vengeance, bringing Arbuckle to the stand, including more details of Rappe’s lurid past, and severely criticizing District Attorney Brady for believing the ridiculous charges of Maude Delmont and badgering, bribing and threatening witnesses into testifying.

16th - In the Northern Ireland Parliament, politician Dawson Bates declares “we are at war” with the IRA.

-The bill providing measures for the removal of Massachusetts Mayors in cases of malfeasance, hotly debated by Lomasney and other lawmakers the month previous, finally comes to a vote, passing the House 124 to 77. It is killed in the Senate, however.

17th - Eamon de Valera embarks on a speaking tour throughout the Irish Free State, speaking against the Anglo-Irish treaty and prophesying civil war if it’s ratified by the people.

18th - In Belfast, the RIC and USC raid the IRA’s headquarters, seizing weapons and names of IRA members. The Provisional Government in Dublin condemns this action as a breach of the truce.

20th - IRA Volunteers cross into Northern Ireland and attack the USC barracks at Aughnacloy.

23rd - Members of the USC/RIC smash their way into the home of the Catholic McMahon family in Belfast, lining up Owen McMahon, 50, his five sons, aged 11 to 24, and 25 year old male boarder, Ed McKinney, against the living room wall. They shoot dead five of the family and McKinney, with 11 year old John McMahon surviving only because he dives behind the couch as they open fire and then runs for his life. He later identifies the killers as policemen. This violence was presumably in response to earlier violence elsewhere in the city. This is just one instance of a pattern of USC/RIC reprisal killings of Catholic civilians and families in response to IRA killings of soldiers and policemen, a literal pogrom against Catholic Irishman performed by masked police executing entire families in the night.

26th - In the Irish Free State, IRA leaders meet in an “Army Convention” and vote to repudiate the treaty. They also reject the authority of the Dail to accept the treaty or to govern their actions and set up a 16 man “Army Executive” to do the latter.

28th - IRA Volunteers seize RIC barracks in Northern Ireland after a three hour gun battle. 15 policemen are taken prisoner and held across the border.

30th - Prime Minister of Northern Ireland James Craig and Michael Collins sign an agreement to end armed conflict in Northern Ireland. “Unofficial” violence continues from both sides.

April

1st - Uniformed police execute 5 Catholic civilians on Arnon street in Belfast in response to the IRA killing of a constable.

2nd - In The New York Tribune, Zelda Fitzgerald reviews her husband’s recent novel, producing a tongue in cheek essay mostly about how clearly the lead female character is based on her, down to copied journal passages. She promotes this popular conception of herself as the “original flapper,” even telling readers to buy the book because “if enough people buy it...there is a platinum ring with a complete circlet” she’d been looking at.

12th - The jury deliberates in the third Arbuckle trial, returning in six minutes with a unanimous verdict of not guilty. Five of those minutes were spent writing a statement of apology, reading: “Acquittal is not enough for Roscoe Arbuckle. We feel that a great injustice has been done to him...there was not the slightest proof adduced to connect him in any way with the commission of a crime. He was manly throughout the case and told a straightforward story which we all believe. We wish him success and hope that the American people will take the judgment of fourteen men and women that Roscoe Arbuckle is entirely innocent and free from all blame.” Arbuckle is still forced to plead guilty to violating the Volstead Act, paying $500 in fines, and goes bankrupt due to legal fees. Many Americans are still convinced of his guilt.

14th - The Wall Street Journal prints a sensational story about a secret bribery scheme in the Harding administration involving oil company kickbacks to government officials to secure government leases and contracts, in particular naming Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall and Harry F. Sinclair of Mammoth Oil Corporation and Edward L. Doheny of Pan-American Petroleum and Transport Company as the parties involved.

-In Dublin, Liam Mellows and Rory O’Connor (prominent members of the IRA Army Executive) lead 200 Anti-Treaty IRA men into Four Courts and other public buildings in the city to try and provoke a response from the British troops still stationed there.

15th - Senator John Kendrick, D-Wyoming, introduces a resolution to begin a Senate investigation of the claims made by the ''Wall Street Journal the previous day, which resolution passes. Secretary Fall is immediately questioned whether or not he had given leases on government land, which accusation he denies.

18th - Will H. Hays and his MPPDA ban Roscoe Arbuckle from ever working in U.S. films again. He similarly bans all showings and bookings of Arbuckle films in the U.S., which ban is heeded by film exhibitors.

20th - Pro-Treaty Brigadier General Adamson is shot dead by Anti-Treaty Republican soldiers in Athlone in a dispute over who would occupy the barracks there. Slowly being emptied of their British soldiers, it’s up to debate over who occupies them after, leading to many Anti-Treaty IRA being able to entrench themselves in old RIC barracks left over after the war.

26th - 28th - After a local IRA officer in shot dead in a dispute over a car he wanted to commandeer, local IRA Volunteers kill 13 local Protestant loyalist civilians for revenge, in and around Dunmanway, County Cork.

29th - The Senate passes Resolution 282, providing for a special investigation into the oil lease agreements; Senator Thomas J. Walsh of Montana is appointed head of the Senate subcommittee charged with investigating the possible illegal leasing of the oil reserves by Secretary Fall. Oil industry executives raise a ruckus, sending in a letter of protest.

Over the course of April, Belfast sees the killings of approximately 30 people.

May

3rd - Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera announce a truce in the Dail to prevent a civil war in Ireland.

4th - Pro and Anti-Treaty IRA clash in Donegal.

10th - French psychologist Emile Coue’s book ''Self-Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion is published in America. A proponent of “optimistic autosuggestion,” Coue’s book is about how we can “heal” ourselves (sometimes even organically, he claims) through using positive mantras to effect a change in our subconscious, particularly his favorite mantra, “Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better,” to be said once in the morning and once at night, every day. He gains prodigious status in the U.S. and is treated reverentially by crowds when he visits the country. His “therapy” is highly popular, though very controversial in the actual psychological community. Regardless, Westerners across America and Europe love and embrace Coue’s theories.

17th - 19th - The IRA launch a series of attacks in Northern Ireland, attacking RIC barracks at Martinstown, Cushendall and Belfast. None were taken. Additionally, IRA units in Belfast begin targeting commercial buildings, destroying them.

20th - Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera sign a Pact agreeing that both the Pro-Treaty and Anti-Treaty wings of Sinn Fein would act as one party and contest jointly in the upcoming Parliamentary election.

22nd - William Twaddell, a unionist member of Northern Ireland’s Parliament and one of the leaders of the Ulster Imperial Guards, a violent Protestant paramilitary group, is assassinated by the IRA in Belfast’s city center. In response, the government introduces a policy of allowing arrest and internment without trial, immediately arresting around 350 IRA suspects. Violence between Catholics and Protestants escalates in the city.

25th - In Boston, disgraced former District Attorney Joseph C. Pelletier is disbarred, as are Nathaniel Tufts, William Corcoran, and Daniel Coakley. Nathaniel Tufts quietly leaves Massachusetts, and is reported to have moved to New York. William Corcoran retires into private life and private obscurity. Coakley and Pelletier continue to loudly proclaim their innocence, attributing the recent rulings to an “Anti-Catholic frame-up” and filing indictments against three members of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, which are immediately discarded. Criminal charges are filed against all four and begin to work their way through the system.

31st - Winston Churchill, Secretary of State for the Colonies and signatory of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, publicly opposes the Pact between Collins and de Valera.

Over the course of May, Belfast sees 75 killed.

June

5th - Metropolitan Magazine prints Zelda Fitzgerald’s article “Eulogy on the Flapper,” her definitive statement on what the flapper is and why. Simultaneously, Fitzgerald celebrates the mainstream position of the flapper and defends the new lifestyle, both as a means of self determination and expression (“she was conscious that the things she did were the things she had always wanted to do”) and as a beneficial phase young girls go through before returning to the nest (“the Flapper comes home, none the worse for wear, to marry, years later, and live happily ever afterwards.”) There are definitive echoes and contradictions in Zelda’s own life to her words here, particularly the Fitzgerald’s daughter, approaching a year old.

15th - The draft constitution of the Irish Free State is published, making it look like the Anti-Treaty Sinn Fein, having made the Pact, are no longer against the treaty, and treats their votes as nullified. The Pact between de Valera and Collins dissolves.

17th - Frank Aiken’s IRA unit attacks a series of Protestant owned farms in revenge for the killing of two local Catholics and the sexual assault of a Catholic woman. Six Protestant civilians are killed in the attacks.

18th - The Irish general election is held, in which the Pro-Treaty Sinn Fein wins a clear majority with 239,193 votes to the Anti-Treaty’s 133,864. Despite the results, de Valera and many Anti-Treaty IRA militants continue to oppose the treaty. Collins begins to organize the National Army and a new police force to govern Ireland.

22nd - British General Henry Hughes Wilson, previously military advisor to the Northern Irish government, is assassinated in London by IRA Volunteers Reginald Dunne and Joseph O’Sullivan, in reprisal for attacks on Catholics in Ulster. In response, Churchill urges Collins to attack the IRA occupying Four Courts, threatening to use British forces if Collins continues to sit on it.

27th - The Four Courts IRA kidnap General JJ O’Connell of the National Army. Collins delivers his final ultimatum to the IRA to surrender before they are attacked. They do not surrender.

28th - Borrowing cannon from the British, Michael Collins begins bombardment of the Four Courts to force the IRA to surrender, igniting the Battle of Dublin, the first battle of the Irish Civil War. Though there has been fighting between Anti- and Pro-Treaty forces previously, this marks the point of no return for either side.

Over the course of June, 30 people were killed in Belfast. Violence in Northern Ireland falls off dramatically as the civil war begins and attention is drawn elsewhere.

July

1st - Local violence brings national attention to a railroad strike occurring in Missouri and Northern Arkansas, first begun in February of 1921, in response to wage cuts, and dragged on until this point, depressing the local economy and dividing the citizenry. Particularly divisive is the growing presence of the Ku Klux Klan in local groups, advocating against the strike. The United States Railroad Labor Board, a governmental committee created by the Esch-Cummins Act to regulate wages and settle labor disputes between railroad companies and unions, authorizes the drop in hourly wages by the Missouri and Northern Arkansas Railroad, cutting 7 cents an hour. It further authorizes such a cut nationally. In response, a shop workers’ vote is taken deciding to expand the strike, vacating 400,000 positions throughout the country and crippling railroad work in the Eastern United States.

- Ending a hiatus prompted by the Great War, Boston’s GGA resumes publishing City Affairs, a monthly magazine for their members and advocating the causes of the organization. The new issue begins, “At the outset we want to re-state the purposes of our organization, for we have attained the enviable position of being bitterly and persistently misrepresented.” It continues with an attempted refutation of the common criticisms of the organization, claiming all of its members were “bona fide legal residents of Boston.” Their critics respond with proof of the residence of numerous GGA officials in the suburbs surrounding Boston, and therefore not actual residents of the city. The organization continues to serve as an excellent punching bag for ethnic politicians, particularly Mayor Curley.

4th - Sectarian violence continues throughout Ireland as Anti-Treaty IRA set fire to a Protestant orphanage near Clifden, County Galway, which housed 58 children. There had long been local resentment towards the orphanage due to the proselytizing of the Society for Irish Church Missions, which ran the orphanage. The children are rescued from the blaze and transferred to England.

5th - The Battle of Dublin ends, a decisive though destructive victory for the Irish Free State. Prominent IRA leader Cathal Brugha is killed in the fighting and Army Executive members Liam Mellows, Rory O’Connor, Joe McKelvey, and Dick Barrett are captured. The battle has resulted in great loss of life, the deaths of 65 and the wounding of 280 combatants, and well over 250 civilian deaths due to the use of heavy artillery in crowded city dwellings. Fighting erupts all over Southern Ireland.

8th - Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home ''by Emily Post is published. It is announced in advertisements featuring a picture of a couple facing each other in humiliation, the wife holding the knob of the door, just recently closed following the departure of their guests, struggling against her tears, and the husband biting his nails with shame, with a caption reading: “When Your Guests Are Gone - Are You Sorry You Ever Invited Them? Be Free From All Embarrassment! Let the Famous Book of Etiquette ''Tell You Exactly What to Do, Say, Write, or Wear on Every Occasion!” The Book of Etiquette is a massive bestseller, and both starts and crests a new wave dedicated to such manuals, topping the nonfiction lists for the next two years.

9th - A Negro strikebreaker is killed in Birmingham, Alabama, by workers striking there as part of the national railroad strike. His death is the first fatality of the strike-related violence spreading across the country.

10th - A striking worker is killed in Willard, Ohio, also connected with the national railroad strike. Pitched battles between strikers and strikebreakers occur in streets all over the country, often with deadly weapons and resulting in grievous injury and even killings, like in Willard.

15th - Another Negro strikebreaker is killed near Dallas, Texas. Two other strikebreakers are killed in Virginia, one near Portsmouth and the other at Harrisonburg.

19th - Free State forces take Limerick after a protracted 8 day battle, driving the IRA from the city. The battle costs 6 soldiers and 12 civilians, with another 87 wounded. The IRA lose 5 men.

20th - Irish National Army troops secure Waterford, again driving the IRA out. It’s clear the National Army, receiving significant amounts of arms and equipment from Britain and recruiting heavily, has a significant advantage, especially in conventional warfare.

26th - Two Negro strikebreakers employed by the Illinois Central Railroad are killed near Memphis, Tennessee.

27th - A striker is stabbed to death in Toledo, Ohio.

28th - The railroads have employed strikebreakers to fill ¾ of the vacated positions, resulting in further hostilities and violence between striking workers and the railroads. In addition, National Guard troops and Deputy U.S. Marshalls are actively clamping down on meetings and pickets in an attempt to combat the strikes, often resulting in violence. A settlement proposed by President Harding, which grants very little to the workers, is rejected by the railroad companies, further exacerbating the violence.

- A railroad watchman is killed in Kansas City. The strikers have begun to actively sabotage railroads, setting fire to trains, bombing bridges and dismantling or obstructing railroad tracks.

31st - Irish Free State General Sean Mac Eoin reports to Michael Collins, “In the Midlands Division, all posts and positions of military value are in our hands.”

August

2nd - 800 Free State soldiers land in County Kerry, securing significant territory and another victory for the National Army.

- A striker is killed, and two others wounded, in Arkansas.

4th - Illinois sees the deaths of two strikebreakers, one in Centralia and the other at Joliet.

5th - Republican forces are crippled in Dublin when Irish Free State intelligence officers discover a plot to isolate Dublin by destroying the bridges leading into it. Using information from the interrogation of a captured IRA soldier, 135 more IRA soldiers are captured, including their head officer, Pat Sweeney.

- A strikebreaker is killed in Atlanta, Georgia.

7th - The Chief Special Agent of the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railroad is killed in strike-related violence, and the local sheriff is wounded.

8th - The Berkshire express, a Boston and Albany Railroad locomotive, derails suddenly near Worcester, Massachusetts, whipping around about a half circle and toppling over, causing the next car to crash into it, further derailing it and the next two cars, leaving only the last car on the track. H. E. Russell, a fireman from Natick, Massachusetts, is hurled twenty feet and dies instantly. The engineman, Robert C. McDonald of Ashland, Massachusetts, is launched thirty-five feet, and fatally injured. Approximately 30 other passengers receive injuries of varying severity, at least 13 having been hospitalized. Subsequent investigations reveal the derailment was caused by an obstruction on the track, possibly sabotaged by striking railroad workers in the area.

10th - IRA Volunteers Reginald Dunne and Joseph O’Sullivan, the killers of H. H. Wilson, are hanged.

- Three strikers are killed in Cleveland, Ohio. Violence is escalating sharply across the country, resulting in numerous acts of mob warfare, such as tarring and feathering, committed by both strikers and strikebreakers, as well as the use of guns against the enemy, often shot into windows where they are congregated, either the strikebreakers working, or the strikers protesting.

11th - Two strikebreakers are killed in Hulbert, Oklahoma.

- Leaving Fermoy, the last major town still held by the IRA, Liam Lynch, the Republicans Chief of Staff, orders the IRA to abandon conventional warfare and instead organize into small units and conduct guerrilla warfare against the Free State forces. This marks a major shift in the civil war.

12th - Irish Free State President Arthur Griffith dies of a stroke, and is replaced by William T. Cosgrave.

17th - A strikebreaker is killed in Memphis, Tennessee.

19th - Following complaints from local newspaper the Italian News concerning the condition of parks in Boston’s North End, a lower class, predominantly Italian neighborhood, Mayor Curley personally inspects the parks, ordering the city’s Parks Department to remedy the problem.

21st - A Negro strikebreaker is killed in Samesett, Kentucky. His death marks the twentieth fatality as a result of the strike.

22nd - A group of Chicago BI agents and Michigan police officers, acting under the information of a secret mole in the American Communist Party, crash a secret national meeting of the same party, arresting 15 men, among them party leader Charles Ruthenberg, leading trade union Communist William Z. Foster, and rising party member Earl Bowder, charging them all with conspiracy to otherthrow the government of the United States by sabotage and violence. Only Ruthenberg is convicted of the charges. The arrests deal a death blow to the American Communist Party, though Hoover continues to warn of, and work against, a violent Communist revolution.

-Irish National Army Commander-in-Chief Michael Collins is killed in an ambush by the IRA near his childhood home in County Cork. He is replaced by Richard Mulcahy. Collins’ death precipitates a further descent into atrocities and reprisals.

-The Irish Free State forms the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), a police intelligence unit, from members of the National Army and the Irish Republican Police. Former members of Michael Collins’ Squad are also recruited. The CID acts effectively as a counter-insurgency corps and steps up the violence of the Irish Civil War.

26th - The CID abducts and executes IRA members Sean Cole, Alf Colley and Bernard Daly in retaliation for the killing of Michael Collins.

September

1st - Under pressure from U.S. Attorney Daugherty, federal judge James H. Wilkerson orders an injunction against striking, assembling, picketing, and other union activities. Immediately, Daugherty uses the BI to find and, in some cases, invent instances of railroad workers violating the injunction.

-Former governor of New York, Democrat Alfred E. Smith, receives scathing criticism from Republicans on his known but not acknowledged wet stance (and lifestyle) as he campaigns for the office once more. Smith responds by openly stating his opposition to the 18th Amendment, accusing Republicans of trying to appear wet to wet voters and dry to drys. His acknowledged anti-Prohibition stance reflects growing sentiment among New York voters and gives a significant boost to his campaign to reclaim the office of Governor of New York.

12th - Local IRA attack a lorry of Free State troops in Dublin. A grenade misses the lorry and explodes in an adjacent street, killing two civilians, one a 7 year old girl. The Free State soldiers chase the IRA through the streets and catch two of them, shooting both, presumably after they try to escape. One, Sean McEvoy, dies.

- Under Michael Kilroy, IRA soldiers take Ballina, County Mayo, in a surprise attack while the National Army troops stationed in the area attend a Mass service for a fallen comrade. The IRA capture 100 rifles, 20,000 rounds of ammunition, and loot approximately 25,000 pounds worth of goods from local shops. This last action is part of a wider pattern of looting by IRA soldiers during this time, the IRA themselves claiming this is mostly due to starvation on the part of their men. Free State reinforcements arrive and drive the IRA from the town.

14th - Republican activist Timothy Kenefick is abducted from his home in Cork city by Free State soldiers. He is summarily executed and his body dumped near Macroom.

- The bodies of Episcopalian Priest Edward Wheeler Hall and Eleanor Reinhardt Mills, a member of the church choir with whom Hall was conducting an affair, are found under a crabapple tree in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Both have been shot to death, the man shot once, the woman three times, and the bodies carefully arranged in a grisly fashion, laying next to each other, torn up love letters lying between them, and the priest’s calling card placed carefully at their feet. Mills’ throat has also been slit violently. Due a jurisdictional issue over what county the murders were committed in, curiosity-seekers are given ample time to trample and tamper with the murder scene. The Hall-Mills Murders garner astounding attention and news coverage nationwide, the first crime to be covered in such a fashion.

15th - The Lord Chief Justice of the Irish Free State declares that Ireland is in a state of war and Habeas Corpus no longer applies.

17th - After several days of fighting in and around Dublin, the CID Headquarters is stormed by IRA, with one CID officer killed. A firefight follows on Mount Street Bridge as the IRA make their getaway. Republican fighter Patrick Mannion is shot in the head by Free State troops as he lies wounded.

19th - President Harding vetoes the Adjusted Compensation Act, a law advocated by the American Legion that would give “bonuses” (a term the American Legion objected to, claiming, with much justification, that the word carried the implication of full payment plus a bonus, when full payment had not yet been given) to Great War veterans based on time and location served to help offset the effects of inflation, the country currently just leaving a post-war recession. The House overrides his veto 258-54, but the Senate fails to do so by 4 votes.

- Free State leader Sean Mac Eoin begins a sweep of County Sligo to clear it of all rebellious IRA forces. 6 IRA are killed (allegedly four of them after surrendering,) 1 National Army sergeant is killed, and 30 IRA are taken prisoner. The operation is largely successful, reducing IRA activity in the area to a minimum.

23rd - The IRA step up their offensive in Dublin, resulting in a steep rise in civilian casualties. On this day alone, 14 civilians are seriously wounded and one killed in separate attacks throughout the city.

24th - Free State soldiers evacuate their garrison at Newport, County Mayo, due to intense guerrilla activity in the area.

26th - John Kennedy, President of the Boston Central Labor Union, an umbrella group of unions throughout the city, is found dead in Brookline, in a structure owned by him but not his family home. He leaves behind three children, aged 17, 14 and 12. Long a political force in the city, Kennedy’s tenure over the BCLU has, however, seen its power slipping amongst union controversy throughout the country and municipal reforms locally. He appears to have been killed in an altercation with Bureau of Information agents investigating the recent strikes.

27th - The Dail passes the Public Safety Bill 48 to 18. The law sets up military courts which allow for the immediate execution of men captured bearing arms against the state and aiding and abetting attacks on state forces.

- Approximately 500 IRA led by Sean Hyde attack Killorglin, County Kerry, against a Free State garrison of 60 men from Clare. The IRA fail to take the city, and disperse after 24 hours of fighting upon the arrival of Free State reinforcements. They take fairly significant losses.

-Three railroad workers and union members are found dead outside Boston, each executed in a style typical of criminal involvement and left in a farmer’s field. All three are tied to the bombing in Worcester of a month before, having been in the area and receipts produced for the purchase of explosive chemicals in their name. The Boston BI announces the case concerning the union closed and issues a statement definitively tying John Kennedy, the former President of the BCLU, to the bombing. The city erupts in a storm of rage and politicians call for the punishment or outright abolishment of the union. Quietly, the strike is suspended in the face of the investigation and political and legal pressure, though businesses are wary to hire former strikers in light of this new scandal.

31st - Despite numerous sympathy strikes in protest, and the opposition of several of Harding’s own cabinet members, by the end of September the national railroad strike is broken, and Daugherty and Hoover have charged involved laborers and organizers with seventeen thousand crimes under the injunction, souring relations with the government, workers, and railroad companies badly. The local strike in Missouri and Northern Arkansas continues, however, barely surviving off support and funds from surrounding unions.

Following an aggressive advertising/educating approach, Mah Jong, a Chinese game, begins to gain popularity in America, catching on as a fad. Mostly played using simplified rules, the game is commonly called Oriental-sounding names like “Pung Chow” and “Game of Thousand Intelligences” and begins to take on a party theme, a typical “Mah Jong night” involving dressing up in Chinese clothes and playing in rooms decorated in a Chinese style. It is also played more casually by families across America, becoming a very popular past time, particularly while listening to the radio, which has also grown more and more common over the months, becoming a staple of many American homes.

October

1st - T. S. Elliot publishes The Waste Land, a long, highly symbolic poem commonly said to be addressing the fragmentation and alienation of modern life. Previously unknown, the work makes Elliot famous, touching a nerve among the society he criticizes. He also begins to branch out into literary criticism, partly to explain his own work.

3rd - The Irish Free State offers an amnesty to all Anti-Treaty fighters who surrender their arms and recognize the government.

4th - National Army troops mount a sweep to try and occupy the IRA stronghold in Ballyvourney but meet with heavy resistance and are driven back.

5th - Disgraced former District Attorney Joseph C. Pelletier raises eyebrows with his announcement that he’ll be running in this year’s District Attorney elections, despite his disbarment the year preceding. His opponent is Thomas C. O’Brien, the man who replaced Pelletier when he was removed from office last year, backed by the GGA and the Republican party. Local political commentators say that Pelletier, even with his criminal trial pending, has a very good chance of winning the election. In addition to Boston Republicans, Martin Lomasney has publicly announced his support for O’Brien, saying, “Pelletier would be unable to assume office even if elected” due to recent State legislation providing that, in order to be a District Attorney in Massachusetts, the elected must also be a member of the Bar, which legislation Lomasney supported and helped pass some months previous.

7th - Charlie Dalton, a National Army intelligence officer, captures three youths, named Hughes, Holihan, and Rogers, putting up Republican posters in Dublin. The next morning the youths are found shot dead in a ditch in the quarries near Clondalkin.

- Two civilian pro-Treaty supporters are shot dead in Cork city and dumped in a turnip field, tied together.

8th - Lewis Sinclair follows up the phenomenal success of Main Street with Babbitt, a novel refocusing his satirical eye from the idealization the American small town to the equally revered American mid-sized Industrial city, severely criticizing American middle class society, its vacuity and pressure to conform. Like Main Street, it’s an immediate and controversial bestseller.

9th - New Brunswick, New Jersey police issue a statement to the effect that Clifford Hayes is being charged with the Hall-Mills Murders of the previous month, charging that the murder was a case of mistaken identity. However, the case against Hayes quickly falls apart and he is released. Police continue to search for suspects.

10th - The Roman Catholic bishops of Ireland issue a formal statement, denouncing the Anti-Treaty campaign as “a system of murder and assassination of the National forces without any legitimate authority...the guerrilla warfare now being carried on by the Irregulars is without moral sanction and therefore the killing of National soldiers is murder before God, the seizing of public and private property is robbery, the breaking of roads, bridges and railways is criminal. All who in contravention of this teaching, participate in such crimes are guilty of grievous sins and may not be absolved in Confession nor admitted to the Holy Communion if they persist in such evil courses.” Many of these bishops had also publicly opposed the War for Irish Independence, as well.

- Commandant Peter Doyle, a senior Free State army officer, is shot dead on the grounds of St. Aidan’s Cathedral, Enniscorthy, Wexford, by the IRA. Five girls are injured in the attack, two seriously.

15th - The Irish Free State director of communications, Piaras Beaslai, sends directives to the press, instructing the following: Free State troops are to be referred to as the “National Army,” the “Irish Army,” or just “troops.” Anti-Treaty IRA are to be called “Irregulars” and are not to be referred to as “Republicans,” “IRA”, “forces”, or “troops”, nor are the ranks of their officers allowed to be given. No letters about the treatment of Anti-Treaty prisoners are to be published. The words “attacked, commandeered and arrested” as used to describe their actions are to be replaced by “fired at, seized and kidnapped.”

16th - Behavioral Psychology expert Dr. John B. Watson, the man behind the “little Albert” experiment, is hired by the New York advertising agency J. Walter Thompson, beginning a trend towards a marriage between advertising and psychology based on the notion that all human behavior can be predicted and/or manipulated based upon a correct understanding of psychological principles. Since the turn of the century, both psychology and advertising have become increasingly successful and sophisticated fields of study. This marriage signals a further growth of both, especially the latter, in time to the increasing consumerism of American culture.

20th - Irish National Army troops raid and capture a bomb making factory at Gardiner Street in Dublin.

22nd - 29th - Benito Mussolini leads the National Fascist Party of Italy on a March to Rome, stating, “Our program is simple: we want to rule Italy.” With extensive political and popular support, Mussolini effectively stages a bloodless coup and takes power on the 29th. Through political maneuvering and fascist intimidation, he amasses enormous power, looking more and more like a dictator.

23rd - In a radio address on police problems, New York City Police Commissioner Enright reports that, since prohibition, arrests for intoxication in the city have risen, continually and sharply, over the years 1920-22, and looked to be continuing to rise in this year. Other cities and states report similarly. Prohibition is looking more and more like a failure.

25th - At the request of the IRA Army Executive, Eamon de Valera sets up a Republican Cabinet, formed from Anti-Treaty members of Parliament to “be temporarily the Supreme Executive of the Republic and the State, until such time as the elected Parliament of the Republic can freely assemble, or the people being rid of external aggression are at liberty to decide freely how they are to be governed.” The Cabinet holds no real power, as the Anti-Treaty IRA hold no territory.

26th - Writing for Munsey’s Magazine, Elmer Davis writes concerning Prohibition, “The old days when father spent his evening at Cassidy’s bar with the rest of the boys are gone, and probably gone forever; Cassidy may still be in business at the old stand and father may still go down there of evenings, but since prohibition mother goes down with him.” Contrary to stopping drinking, it grows increasingly apparent that Prohibition seems mostly to have only increased the types of people drinking. Consumption of alcohol is growing into a fad, a kind of “innocent” rebelliousness Americans are increasingly eager to indulge in.

29th - Under the command of Michael Kilroy, an IRA column attacks and takes Clifden, County Galway over the course of a ten hour gun battle, capturing 80 Free State soldiers. They burn the barracks there and take the Free State rifles before retreating.

November

4th - Archaeologists in Egypt discover an as yet untouched ancient Egyptian tomb, soon identified as the tomb of the “boy king” Pharaoh Tutankhamun. It is remarkable as being, to date, the only completely preserved tomb of the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt to be discovered. An Egyptian fad sweeps through Western civilization, especially the United States.

- The Anti-Treaty IRA commander in Dublin, Ernie O’Malley, takes 20 bullets during a shoot out with Free State soldiers. He survives and is captured.

- Al Smith takes the Governorship of New York from Nathan Miller, largely owing to public anger directed at Miller over the Mullan-Gage law. Smith looks to repeal the unpopular law.

8th - The IRA in Dublin mount an attack on Wellington Barracks in the city. They open fire from across the Grand Canal with machine guns and rifles on National Army troops drilling on the parade square. In the ensuing firefight, one Free Soldier is killed and fourteen wounded, two IRA killed and six captured, as well as a machine gun, and two civilians are killed and many wounded in the crossfire. One IRA soldier, James Spain, is allegedly executed while unarmed after capture.

11th - Robert Erskine Childers, the IRA head of propaganda, is captured by Free State soldiers.

12th - In another small instance of the special attention Mayor Curley has been paying to Boston’s North End, the Italian News reports the personal donation from the mayor of $25 to the Home for Italian children, just one of numerous other charitable causes receiving money from the mayor.

17th - Four Anti-Treaty IRA are executed by firing squad in County Wicklow, inaugurating a Free State policy of executing IRA prisoners.

-Despite a packed field, numbering 18 candidates, Florence Luscomb, suffrage veteran and Boston League of Women Voters’ (BLWV) City Council delegate, announces her candidacy for a seat in the City Council.The Boston Globe, among other newspapers, gives her positive coverage as a contender who had “tossed her tasseled tan-o-shanter into the dusty arena” with “the promise of fight in her brown eyes.” Luscomb is not the only woman attempting to be the first to take a seat on the Council - Annie Molloy, president of the Boston Telephone Operator’s Union, with a long pedigree of suffrage and labor victories under her belt, is also running. She receives some attention, and Luscomb more, but both seem mostly covered for their novelty and are nearly drowned in the sea of candidates.

19th - In Dublin, three more IRA prisoners are executed. Free State troops also open fire on a Republican rally protesting against the mistreatment of prisoners. One civilian is killed and seven wounded.

21st - Florida, recently discovered by upper America as a fantastic vacation spot, receives a boost in real estate sales due to the audacious advertising of Miami Beach developer Carl G. Fisher, who purchases a huge lighted billboard in New York City’s Times Square proclaiming, “IT’S JUNE IN MIAMI!” As real estate speculators start looking into the state, money is made hand over fist by landowners as trading begins to rise.

23rd - Free State soldiers ambush Michael Kilroy in Carrowberg House in County Mayo. Four National Army soldiers are killed and more wounded in the ensuing firefight but Kilroy and several of his officers are captured. Simultaneously, Tony Lawlor leads Free State troops in a sweep through County Mayo and Connemara to kill or otherwise drive out the IRA entrenched there. These two events effectively end IRA activity in the area.

24th - Robert Erskine Childers, a former Treaty negotiator, is executed by the Free State, on the charge of carrying an illegal weapon, a pistol which was given him by Michael Collins.

30th - Liam Lynch, the Anti-Treaty IRA Commander, issues a general order in response to the state executions of captured IRA soldiers, ordering his forces to kill members of the government who authorized or otherwise played a part in the execution of the prisoners, including members of the Dail, and hostile judges and newspaper editors.

- H.G. Wells publishes his A Short History of the World, a condensed version of his massive 1919 work, ''The ''Outline of History. Meant to be read like a novel, Short History'' is for readers who are unable to dedicate the time and effort necessary to tackle Outline, which had been a massive success. ''Short History also contains what made Outline'' so controversial (and fashionable), a highly scientific view of history, which rejected any special treatment of either Western civilization or Christianity (going so far as to say that the crucifixion was a freakish incident on which a credulous population founded a religion). Both are highly praised in scientific and historical circles.

December

1st - Irish Free State soldiers capture the entire County Meath Anti-Treaty IRA column, consisting of 22 men under the command of Paddy Mullally.

- The Irish National Army mounts a major operation in Dublin, setting up checkpoints on all major roads and searching all incoming traffic and male civilians for arms in an attempt to stop the small attacks occurring daily all over the city. Three men so searched are detained for carrying arms. During the night, the nearby military barracks at Tallaght, County Dublin is attacked. Four Free State soldiers are wounded in the attack.

4th - 60 IRA soldiers attack a Free State convoy near Dunmanway in West Cork, killing one National Army sergeant. The National Army troops call for air support and an airplane bombs and machine guns the IRA until they disperse. Press reports say IRA suffered “many casualties.”

5th - Kenmare, County Kerry, is retaken by Irish Free State soldiers under the command of General Murphy.

6th - The Irish Free State is formally recognized as a self-governing dominion within the British Commonwealth of Nations by the British House of Commons.

7th - Pro-Treaty Dail member Sean Hales is assassinated by Anti-Treaty gunmen on Ormonde Quay, in retaliation for the execution of IRA prisoners. Another Dail member, Padraic O’Maille, is wounded in the attack.

8th - Liam Mellows, Rory O’Connor, Dick Barrett, and Joe McKelvey, the four IRA leaders captured by the Irish Free State during the Battle of Dublin in July, are executed in retaliation for the killing of Sean Hales. As the four men were captured before the law was passed allowing the execution of captured IRA, these executions are technically illegal.

10th - Anti-Treaty IRA members burn down the house of Dail member Sean McGarry. His seven year old son dies in the flames.

11th - In his annual Sunday-before-election meeting, Martin Lomasney excoriates Joseph Pelletier over the course of a withering hour and a half, declaring that the primary issue of this election “is whether or not we shall have an honest man - one of our peers - to conduct the great office of District Attorney of Suffolk County.” He counters Pelletier’s continued claims of defamation at the hands of a Brahmin conspiracy, noting that four of the five judges who tried Pelletier were Democrats, that “they would die before they would do a dishonorable act toward any American citizen.” He attacks Pelletier personally, a “man charged twenty-one times with extortion and blackmail and now he is a candidate to go back. He says now, ‘Why do they plaster me?’ and at his trial he sat in court and never opened his mouth.” Finally, Lomasney ends his speech, “Let it be said of this district, where the poor live, that they rose on this occasion and realized the structure of their government was at stake, went to the polls and voted for O’Brien!”

13th - Under the command of Tom Barry, 100 IRA take Carrick-on-Suir in a surprise attack, capturing 107 rifles, two Lewis light machine guns, and two armored cars. There is no attempt to hold the town.

14th - Tom Barry’s IRA accepts the surrender of Free State garrisons at Thomastown and Mullinavat in County Kilkenny. The Free State soldiers hand over their arms and a few join the IRA.

17th - The last British soldiers in the Irish Free State hand over the “Royal Barracks” in Dublin and leave Ireland.

19th - Seven IRA prisoners, all from County Kildare, are executed by the state.

20th - Anti-Treaty IRA assassinate Pro-Treaty politician Seamus Dwyer at his shop in Rathmines, Dublin.

- The MPPDA lifts its ban on Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, finally allowing him to return to film work and his films to be shown. However, Arbuckle is still unable to find work, and his previous films fade from the public consciousness, his name only being used to reference the most disgusting kind of sexual predator, and as an example of everything that’s wrong with Hollywood.

23rd - The Irish Free State releases 300 republican prisoners whom it no longer considers a threat to national security.

28th - Irish Free State soldiers abduct Republican Francis Lawlor in Dublin. His body is dumped at Orwell Road, Rathgar.