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 madeOutline
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.