1925: MONTH BY MONTH

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM BALLADEER’S BLOG! To mark the day here’s a timeline of American events from a century ago.

JANUARY

1st – The Rose Bowl Game, first played in 1902, pitted the undefeated UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME FIGHTING IRISH against the undefeated STANFORD UNIVERSITY INDIANS (later the Cardinal, as in the color). The Fighting Irish, under iconic Head Coach Knute Rockne, defeated the Indians 27-10. 

        Also the 1st – The UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY GOLDEN BEARS hosted a New Year’s Day Bowl of their own, taking on the UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA QUAKERS. The Golden Bears won 14-0.

        Also the 1st – A detachment of U.S. Marines arrived at the Christian-founded Nanking University (established 1888, see above pic) in China to protect Americans there from recent unrest and looting. 

        Also the 1st – American astronomer Edwin Hubble, whom the Hubble Telescope was named for, announced confirmation of the existence of galaxies outside the Milky Way. 

        Also the 1st – The H.P. Lovecraft horror story The Festival was published in Weird Tales Vol. 5 #1.

3rd – In college basketball, the PRINCETON UNIVERSITY TIGERS visited the OHIO STATE BUCKEYES and defeated them 39-34. The incredibly low score reflected the Pre-Shot Clock Era, when keeping the ball away from the other team without necessarily shooting was as much a part of a game plan as scoring baskets.

5th – Nellie Tayloe Ross was inaugurated as the Governor of Wyoming, the very first woman elected a state governor in U.S. history.

6th – John Z. DeLorean was born in Detroit, MI. DeLorean was later famous for his vehicle venture, legal scandals and for a DeLorean auto being used in the Back to the Future movies.

10th – The Supreme Court of Kansas made a ruling barring the Democrat hate group the Ku Klux Klan from operating in that state. 

12th – Outside a restaurant in Chicago, rival gangsters used Tommy Guns in a drive-by shooting of Al Capone’s car, mistakenly thinking he was inside. Capone was still in the restaurant and only his driver was wounded. This incident prompted Capone to upgrade to Tommy Guns for his own gang.

16th – Blues singer and musician Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter) was pardoned by outgoing Texas Governor Pat Morris Neff after having served 7 years of a sentence for killing a relative in a fight over a woman. 

17th – Miriam A. “Ma” Ferguson was inaugurated as the governor of Texas.

18th – Gerald Chapman, America’s very first criminal to be designated Public Enemy Number One, was arrested in Muncie, IN in possession of burglar’s tools, a pint of nitroglycerin, $5,000 cash, $3,000 in bonds and $500 in jewelry. He had become known as the Gentleman Bandit and Gentleman Gerald. 

19th – Seattle Police Lieutenant Roy Olmstead and 89 other defendants were indicted for smuggling alcohol across the border from Canada to the U.S. Olmstead was convicted in 1926.   

22nd – Dr. Curtis Welch sent out a radio-telegram from Nome, AK warning the rest of AK about a diphtheria outbreak and requesting antitoxin units from Washington D.C..

24th – In Chicago, gangsters Bugs Moran and Hymie Weiss ambushed and shot rival gangster Johnny Torrio multiple times, but Torrio wound up surviving. 

26th – The requested 300,00 units of antitoxin for diphtheria arrived in Anchorage, AK.   

27th – The 1925 Serum Run to Nome began, as 20 mushers (among them Wild Bill Shannon and Leonard “Sepp” Seppala) and roughly 150 sled dogs transported the diphtheria antitoxin to Nome over the next several days. The canines Togo and Balto were the two most famous dogsled leaders of the undertaking and are still celebrated, especially in Iditarod lore.

28th – Judge Harlan Fiske Stone became the first nominee to the United States Supreme Court to be questioned by the Senate before the vote to confirm or deny his appointment. Stone was approved on February 5th. He served as an Associate Justice and later Chief Justice.

FEBRUARY

2nd – Sears, Roebuck & Company moved beyond just catalogue sales by opening their very first department store at 8:30AM in Chicago.

          Also the 2nd – An expedition led by American Archeologist George Andrew Reisner uncovered the tomb of Egyptian Queen Hetepheres I, mother of Cheops.

6th – The End of the World stubbornly refused to occur, ruining the predictions of Margaret W. Rowan and Robert Reidt.

7th – In San Diego, CA Heavyweight Boxing Champion Jack Dempsey and silent film star Estelle Taylor married. Taylor, Dempsey’s second wife, had starred in several movies, including The Ten Commandments (1923) and the 1922 remake of Theda Bara’s 1915 hit A Fool There Was. Later in the year, the newlyweds would co-star in a remake of the Douglas Fairbanks film Manhattan Madness.

8th – The milestone American silent film The Lost World debuted at the Astor Theatre prior to wider release. Special effects pioneer Willis O’Brien provided the stop-motion animation of the dinosaurs in this movie, a process repeated in the original King Kong (1933).

15th – Animator Walt Disney’s silent cartoon Alice Solves the Puzzle debuted. It marked the very first appearance of Disney’s villainous character “Pete” who was at first drawn as a bear but later depicted as a hulking cat figure. Pete appears in Disney cartoons to this day.

18th – The Mayflower Hotel opened in Washington D.C.

22nd – Gary Cooper, future star, appeared in his first film, the silent western The Trail Rider, as a stunt rider.

23rd – The movie Lady of the Night debuted, starring Norma Shearer in a dual role.

25th – U.S. Senator Medill McCormick killed himself in his suite at Washington’s Hamilton Hotel. The fact that it was a suicide was covered up at the time. 

MARCH

1st – The publishing company Viking Press was established in New York.

         Also on the 1st – The silent movie The Mad Whirl, a look at the wild night life and partying of the ongoing Jazz Age, was released. The Hays Code limiting adult themes in movies did not come along until a few years later.

        Also on the 1st – Homer Plessy, the plaintiff in the U.S. Supreme Court decision Plessy vs Ferguson in 1896, passed away at age 66.

3rd – Congress authorized the Mount Rushmore Memorial Commission.

4th – Calvin Coolidge, who had completed the unfinished presidential term of Warren G. Harding, was inaugurated as president in his own right on this date. It was the very first inauguration to be broadcast on the radio. (It was on March 4th because the U.S. did not switch to January inaugurations until 1933.)

5th – Charles Lindbergh, during his pilot training in the U.S. Army Air Service, was in an accident in which his SE-5 collided in mid-air with that of a fellow Cadet. Lindbergh bailed out with a parachute and landed safely. 

11th – An often-ridiculed low point in Vice Presidential history occurred. President Coolidge’s nominee for Attorney General, Charles B. Warren, was ultimately rejected by the Senate. The vote was tied at 40-40, meaning Coolidge’s Vice President Charles G. Dawes COULD have cast the deciding vote to confirm the appointment, but he failed to show up in time.

        Because Dawes was a descendant of THE William Dawes, the man famous as “the other rider” on the night of the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere from the Revolutionary War, the V.P. was ridiculed in verse. The satirical Midday Ride of Charles Dawes recounted the real-life tableau of Dawes waking from a nap at the Willard Hotel and rushing to the Senate in a cab only to arrive too late.   

15th – The Tom Mix silent western Riders of the Purple Sage, based on the Zane Grey novel, was released.

16th – The Lon Chaney film The Monster, in which he played mad scientist Dr. Ziska, was released.

18th – The Tri-State Tornado, the deadliest in American history, hit Illinois, Indiana and Missouri killing at least 751 people.

19th – Serial killer Martha Wise confessed to poisoning 17 members of her own family with arsenic.

        Also the 19th – Sweet Georgia Brown was first recorded.

20th – Clifton R. Wharton became the first African American to be admitted to the U.S. Foreign Service.         

        Also the 20th – Paramount Pictures released Grass: A Nation’s Battle for Life, a silent documentary film about the Bakhtiari Tribe in Persia (now Iran). 

APRIL

1st – Frank Heath and his horse Gypsy Queen left Washington DC to begin their 2-year journey to visit all the states and territories of the Continental U.S.

2nd – Bank robber “Handsome Harry” Pierpont was arrested in Detroit. Convicted, he would meet John Dillinger in prison and in 1933 the pair would escape from prison and form a new gang to begin the most infamous period of Dillinger’s career.

8th – Future Admiral John D. Price was among the airmen who made the first planned night landing on a U.S. aircraft carrier. It happened on the USS Langley, anchored off North Island, CA.   

10th – F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby was published.

        Also the 10th – Denver’s Democrat Mayor Benjamin F. Stapleton, a member of the Party’s hate group the Ku Klux Klan, ordered raids that arrested 200 bootleggers, prostitutes and gamblers in the city.

13th – This day saw the release of the silent movie The Wizard of Oz, starring Dorothy Dwan as Dorothy Gale, Oliver Hardy (future partner of Stan Laurel) as the Tin Woodman and Larry Semon (on whom I could swear Pee Wee Herman modeled his signature “look”) as the Scarecrow.

18th – The San Francisco Chinese Hospital was opened, boasting the nation’s only medical staff fluent in multiple Chinese dialects.

26th – Edna Ferber won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel So Big.

MAY

5th – In Tennessee, teacher John Scopes was charged with teaching evolution.

7th – Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Glenn Wright turned an unassisted Triple Play against the St. Louis Cardinals.

8th – African American Tom Lee rescued 32 people from the M.E Norman, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers vessel, when it capsized and sank in the Mississippi River. Tom Lee Park in Memphis is named after him.

11th – May King Van Rensselaer, female historian vital to establishing the Museum of the City of New York, passed away at age 76.

15th – Editorials in Japanese newspapers bashed American plans to strengthen the Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The editorials claimed it suggested fears of Japanese aggression or plans of American aggression toward Japan.

26th – Chicago gangster “Bloody Angelo” Genna was killed by rivals when they shot him several times during a high-speed chase which caused Genna’s vehicle to crash.

30th – Los Angeles police announced the arrest of 3 conspirators in a plot to kidnap and hold for ransom silent film stars Mary Pickford, Buster Keaton and Pola Negri.

JUNE

6th – American auto brand Chrysler was established.

13th – Chicago gangster Mike Genna was killed by police after he had rained gunfire on members of the North Side Gang behind Angelo Genna’s murder in May.

15th – The silent Douglas Fairbanks swashbuckler film Don Q, Son of Zorro was released with Doug using split screen effects to play both Don Q and his father Zorro, the role he created for the screen back in 1920’s The Mark of Zorro.

19th – Bank robber Everett Bridgewater, an accomplice of Harry Pierpont who had escaped arrest when Pierpont was nabbed, was collared in Indianapolis, IN and proceeded to confess to a long list of crimes.

21st – In one of history’s best moments of Karmic Justice, a baseball team from the Democrat hate group the Ku Klux Klan LOST to an all-black team – the Wichita Monrovians – by a score of 10-8. Why haven’t there been multiple movies about this event?! Or at least annual reenactments in honor of the victory?

23rd – The Gros Ventre Landslide occurred in Wyoming. 

26th – The Gold Rush, one of Charlie Chaplin’s most well-known silent comedies, was released.

28th – Brigadier General George A. Dodd passed away at the age of 72. He had served in the military from 1872-1916. Dodd saw action in the Black Hills War, Geronimo’s War, the Spanish-American War and the Mexican Expedition against Pancho Villa.

29th – An earthquake in Santa Barbara, CA killed 13 and caused 8 million dollars’ worth of damage (equal to over 144 million dollars in 2025). 

JULY

1st – The H.P. Lovecraft horror story The Unnamable was published in Weird Tales Vol. 6 #1.

2nd – Professional boxer Harry Greb, “the Pittsburgh Windmill”, successfully defended his World Middleweight title against Mickey Walker at the Polo Grounds in New York.

4th – Belmont Park opened in San Diego, CA.

5th – The silent comedy Isn’t Life Terrible? starring Charley Chase, Fay Wray and Oliver Hardy debuted.

10th – The Scopes Trial began in Tennessee with jury selection.

13th – Walt Disney married Lillian Bounds.

21st – The Scopes Trial ended with Scopes being found guilty and fined $100. 

26th – William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democrat candidate for the presidency, passed away at age 65, just 5 days after the end of the infamous Scopes Trial.

27th – Chicago Tribune correspondent George Seldes was ordered to leave Italy because of the critical tone of his dispatches regarding fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. 

AUGUST

1st – The Clara Bow silent movie Parisian Love was released.

2nd – The silent comedy Sally of the Sawdust, starring W.C. Fields and directed by D.W. Griffith, debuted.

5th – U.S. Marines were withdrawn from Nicaragua following a 13-year occupation following the nation’s civil war in 1912. U.S. forces would be back in Nicaragua the following year after renewed violence.

6th – The Dallas Hilton, the first hotel under the Hilton name, opened in Dallas. Paris Hilton, descendant of those Hiltons, opened much later and has never closed. Y’know? 

8th – Roughly 40,000 members of the Democrat hate group the Ku Klux Klan marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC.

16th – Lon Chaney’s original silent version of the horror movie The Unholy Three was released. Sadly, it is one of the many silent films that have not survived. 

19th – A boiler exploded on the steamship Mackinac in Narragansett Bay, killing 42 people.

26th – The silent romantic comedy The Merry Widow, with future stars Joan Crawford and Clark Gable in small roles, debuted. 

27th – Automotive News began publication.

29th – Baseball legend Babe Ruth was fined and suspended by the New York Yankees for failing to show up for batting practice.

30th – American mountaineer Norman Clyde achieved the First Descent of Mt. Aggasiz in California.

SEPTEMBER

1st – The H.P. Lovecraft horror story The Temple was published in Weird Tales Vol. 6 #3.

3rd – The dirigible USS Shenandoah broke up in a storm over Ohio, killing 14 crewmen. 

6th – This date saw the release of the silent comedy Pretty Ladies, starring Zasu Pitts. It was a cinematic tribute to/ recreation of the famous Ziegfield Follies. 

13th – The American company Western Union established direct unbroken contact from San Francisco to London. 

19th – The U.S. State Department under Secretary Frank Kellogg warned American citizens who were serving as fighter pilots for the French in the Rif War in Morocco that they could be subject to prosecution since the U.S. was not a participant in the conflict.

20th – The Harold Lloyd silent college comedy The Freshman was released.

25th – The United States Submarine S-51 sank off Rhode Island after a collision with a merchant ship. Only 3 of the sub’s 38 crew members survived.

27th – The silent World War One drama The Dark Angel debuted, starring Ronald Colman and Vilma Banky.

        Also the 27th – Tod Browning’s silent movie The Mystic was released.

30th – The spectacular daylight robbery of $750,000 in jewelry occurred at the Plaza Hotel suite of Woolworth heiress Jessie Woolworth Donahue.

OCTOBER

6th – Xavier University of Louisiana, America’s only Catholic historically black college, was founded in New Orleans. 

12th – At the request of Panamanian President Rodolfo Chiari, 600 U.S. troops entered Panama to put down a renter’s strike.

13th – Private investigators recovered the stolen jewelry of Jessie Woolworth Donahue. No statement was ever released about the circumstances.

15th – In Game 7 of the World Series, the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Washington Senators 9-7 to take their 2nd World Series title.

18th – The silent Mary Pickford movie Little Annie Rooney was released.

21st – Marv Goodwin, 34-year-old pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds, was the first professional athlete to die in a plane crash.

28th – The court-martial of Colonel Billy Mitchell began in Washington DC. Among those sitting in judgement was 45-year-old Douglas MacArthur. Mitchell was being court-martialed over his outspoken criticism of America’s failure to keep up with other nations in terms of air forces.

NOVEMBER

1st – The silent Buster Keaton comedy Go West was released.

        Also the 1st – The H.P. Lovecraft horror story In the Vault was published in Tryout Vol. 10 #6. 

2nd – The operetta Princess Flavia, based on The Prisoner of Zenda, debuted on Broadway.

5th – The Big Parade, the landmark silent film about World War One, was released.

8th – This milestone year for American cinema continued with the debut of Rudolph Valentino’s movie The Eagle, set during the reign of Catherine the Great.

9th – The landmark films kept coming with Body and Soul, the silent film debut of African American actor Paul Robeson, who played a dual role as good and bad men in this largely black cast tale of a prison escape, speakeasies, confidence games and romance. 

12th – Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five recorded their first songs together for Okeh Records.

25th – The silent Lon Chaney classic The Phantom of the Opera was released.

27th – American architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s wife Miriam filed for divorce.

28th – The 1-hour Grand Ole Opry radio show was first broadcast on WSM in Nashville.

30th – Rudolph Valentino’s silent romantic drama Cobra was released.

DECEMBER

3rd – The George Gershwin composition Concerto in F premiered at Carnegie Hall.

8th – The Marx Brothers’ stage comedy The Cocoanuts – movie version released in 1929 – opened on Broadway.

10th – In the National Football League, the Chicago Cardinals vs Milwaukee Badgers Scandal occurred. It turned out the Badgers, who had lost to Chicago 59-0, consisted of high school players who couldn’t possibly win against professionals.

12th – The world’s first motel, the Milestone Mo-Tel, opened in San Luis Obispo, CA.

16th – The silent werewolf movie Wolf Blood was released. Contrary to some claims online this was not the first werewolf film. Other silent versions came in 1913 and 1914 and I’ve reviewed them previously.

20th – William S. Hart’s silent western Tumbleweeds debuted. The movie dealt with the Oklahoma Land Rush in the late 1880s with a few scenes being paid homage to decades later in the Tom Cruise-Nicole Kidman film Far and Away.

26th – While on a visit to New York City, Al Capone and his boys whacked gangster Richard “Pegleg” Lonergan and two of his men at a Brooklyn Speakeasy.

30th – The major silent movie version of Ben Hur was released, closing out this titanic year of the Silent Film Era.