Charles Fort: A Fortean Chronology, 1927.

New York Herald Tribune, Aug. 12, 1927 - Fred Koett and his wife compelled to move from their home, near Ellenwood, Kansas. For months the house had been bewitched - pictures turned to the wall - other objects moving about - their pet dog stabbed with a pitch fork, by an invisible. New York Herald Tribune, Sept. 12, 1927 - Frank Decker's barn, near Fredon, N.J. destroyed by fire. For five years there had been unnacountable noises, opening and shutting doors, and pictures on walls swinging back and forth.

Wild Talents by Charles Fort

January

  • January 1: The Cristero War erupts in Mexico when pro-Church rebels attack the government, which had banned the Catholic faith.
  • January 7: The first transatlantic telephone call is made from New York City to London.
  • January 9: A military rebellion is crushed in Lisbon.
  • January 15: Teddy Wakelam gives the first sports commentary on BBC Radio.
  • January 19: Britain sends troops to China.


February

  • Werner Heisenberg formulates his famous uncertainty principle while employed as a lecturer at Neils Bohr's Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Copenhagen.
  • February 12: The first British troops land in Shanghai.
  • February 14: An earthquake in Yugoslavia kills 700.
  • February 19: A general strike in Shanghai protests the presence of British troops.
  • February 23: The U.S. Federal Radio Commission (later renamed the Federal Communications Commission) begins to regulate the use of radio frequencies.


March

  • March 4: A diamond rush in South Africa includes trained athletes that have been hired by major companies to stake claims.
  • March 7: A Richter Scale 7.6 magnitude earthquake kills at least 2,925 at Toyooka and Mineyama area, western Honshu, Japan.
  • March 11: The first armoured car robbery is committed by the Flatheads Gang near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
  • March 13: Fritz Lang's culturally influential Metropolis (film) debuts in Germany.


April

  • April 7: Bell Telephone Co. transmits an image of Commerce Secretary Hoover which becomes the first successful long distance demonstration of television.
  • April 9: The automobile of Alexander Nemko plunged into the serpentine as he and Pearl Devon were motering through Hyde Park. "The steering gear apparently failed", was Nemko's attempt to explain the accident. (Books891)
  • April 11: A taxi cab plunges into the Thames, at Walton. The passenger swan to the shore but the driver was lost, his body was dredged for but not found. (Books892)
  • April 12: Kuomintang troops kill number of communist-supporting workers in Shanghai. The incident is called the April 12 Incident, or Shanghai Massacre. The 1st United Front between the Nationalists and Communist ends, and the Civil War lasting until 1949 begins.
  • April 18: The Kuomintang sets up a government in Nanking, China.
  • April 21: A banking crisis hits Japan.
  • April 22-May 5: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 affects 700,000 people in the greatest national disaster in U.S. history at that time.
  • April 29: At the Soho Grinding Works, it was found that grinding wheels had been chipped and that belting had been stripped from the pulleys. nails had been driven, point upwards, into chairs upon ehich the grinders sat. In the building next doort Chickens had been mutilated: combs cut off, legs broken and their wounds smeared with white paint. (Books892)


May

  • Philo Farnsworth transmits first experimental electronic television pictures.
  • May 3: Driving near Tunbridge Wells the automobile of William Farrance veered violently to the left, Farrance corrected the movement only to have the vehicle swerve once again, plunging through a hedge and overturning. His passenger Beatrice Villes was killed in the crash. (Books892)
  • May 9: The Australian Parliament first convenes in Canberra.
  • May 11: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the "Academy" in "Academy Awards," is founded.
  • May 13: George V proclaims the change of his title from King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to King of Great Britain and Ireland.
  • May 18: Bath School disaster: Bombings result in 45 deaths, mostly children, in Bath Township, Michigan.
  • May 20: Saudi Arabia becomes independent of the United Kingdom (Treaty of Jedda).
  • May 20-21: Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo non-stop trans-Atlantic flight, from New York to Paris.
  • May 22: An 8.6 magnitude earthquake in Xining, China kills 200,000.
  • May 23: Nearly 600 members of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Institute of Radio Engineers view the first live demonstration of television at the Bell Telephone Building in New York.


June

  • June 4: Yugoslavia severs diplomatic relations with Albania.
  • June 7: Peter Voikov, Soviet ambassador to Warsaw, is assassinated.
  • June 9: The Soviet Union executes 20 British for alleged espionage.
  • June 13: A ticker-tape parade is held for aviator Charles Lindbergh down 5th Avenue in New York City.


July

  • July 10: Kevin O'Higgins, vice president of the Irish Free State, is assassinated in Dublin.
  • July 11: An earthquake strikes Palestine, killing around 300. The effects are especially severe in Nablus, but damage and fatalities are also reported in many areas of Palestine and Trans-Jordan such as Amman, Salt and Lydda.
  • July 15: 85 protesters and 5 policemen are dead after left-wing protesters and the Austrian police clash in Vienna. More than 600 people are injured.
  • July 24: The Menin Gate war memorial is unveiled at Ypres, Belgium.


August

  • August 1: The Communist Chinese People's Liberation Army is formed during the Nanchang Uprising.
  • August 7: The Peace Bridge opens between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York.
  • August 22: In Hyde Park, London, 200 people demonstrate against the sentence of Italian immigrant anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti. They are executed the following day.
  • August 24-25: A hurricane hits the Atlantic shore of Canada, causing massive damage and at least 56 deaths.
  • August 26: Paul R. Redfern leaves Brunswick, Georgia, flying his Stinson Detroiter "Port of Brunswick" to attempt a solo non-stop flight to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He later crashes in the Venezuela jungle (the crash site is never located).


September

  • September 14: An underwater earthquake in Japan kills over 100 people.
  • September 18: The Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System (later known as CBS) is formed and goes on the air with 47 radio stations.
  • September 27: 79 are killed and 550 are injured in the East St. Louis Tornado, the 2nd costliest and at least 24th deadliest tornado in U.S. history.


October

  • October 6: The Jazz Singer movie opens in the United States and becomes a huge success, marking the end of the silent film era.
  • October 9: The Mexican government crushes a rebellion in Vera Cruz.
  • October 27: The Italian steamer ship Principessa Mafalda capsizes off Porto Seguro, Brazil; at least 314 are killed.
  • October 27: Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands opens the Meuse-Waal Canal in Nijmegen.


November

  • November 3-4: Floods devastating Vermont incur the "worst natural disaster in the state's history".
  • November 4: Frank Heath and his horse Gypsy Queen return to Washington, D.C., having completed a 2-year journey of 11,356 miles to all 48 states.
  • November 10: Unexplained explosions occur in Canton, Ohio.
  • November 12: Mahatma Gandhi makes his first and last visit to Ceylon.
  • November 12: Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin with undisputed control of the Soviet Union.
  • November 12: The Holland Tunnel opens to traffic as the first Hudson River vehicular tunnel linking New Jersey to New York City.
  • November 14: The Pittsburgh Gasometer Explosion: Three Equitable Gas storage tanks in the North Side of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania explode, killing 26 people and causing damage estimated between contemporary totals of $4 million and $5 million.
  • November 24: A total solar eclipse occurs over Northern England and Wales.


December

  • December 2: Following 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Model A as its new automobile.
  • December 12: 1,600 people are hospitalized in London after hurting themselves on the icy streets.
  • December 15: Marion Parker, 12, is kidnapped in Los Angeles. Her dismembered body is found on December 19, prompting the largest manhunt to date on the West Coast for her killer, William Edward Hickman, who is arrested on December 22 in Oregon.
  • December 17: The U.S. submarine S-4 is accidentally rammed and sunk by the United States Coast Guard destroyer John Paulding off Provincetown, Massachusetts, killing everyone aboard after several unsuccessful attempts to raise the sub.
  • December 27: Kern and Hammerstein's musical play Show Boat, based on Edna Ferber's novel, opens on Broadway and goes on to become the first great classic of the American musical theatre.
  • December 30: The first Japanese metro line, the Ginza Line in Tokyo, opens.