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100 Years Ago: Historical Events From June Of 1923
JUNE 100

The month of June has been home to many historical events over the years. Here’s a look at some that helped to shape the world in June 1923.

The Polo Grounds in New York City hosts a boxing match between Frenchman Eugène Criqui and Johnny Kilbane on June 2. Among those in attendance to see Criqui knock out Kilbane in the sixth round was New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth, who arrived after a game at Yankee Stadium earlier in the day.

On June 4, 16 men begin what becomes a 2,000-mile voyage in a single lifeboat after they are forced to abandon the British cargo ship Trevessa as it begins to founder in the Indian Ocean.

The Soviet Army defeats what is left of the White Army near Okhotsk on June 6, ending what proves to be the last major battle of the Russian Civil War.

On June 8, a bill is passed in the British House of Commons granting women the right to divorce their husbands on the grounds of infidelity without having to prove cruelty or desertion.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Aleksandar Stamboliyski is toppled in a bloodless coup orchestrated by a private organization of reserve officers on June 9. Though Stamboliyski survived the coup long enough to flee to his home village of Slavovitsa, he is ultimately killed on June 14 by members of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, a group that had attempted to assassinate him four months earlier.

Legendary actor Lon Chaney gets the girl in “The Shock,” an American silent film released on June 10. Though Chaney often played characters who did not get the girl, “The Shock” ends with Chaney’s character, gangster Wilse Dilling, beginning a new life with Gertrude, whose freedom is assured thanks to a timely earthquake.

On June 12, magician Horace Goldin is granted a patent for the popular illusion of sawing a woman in half.

Lou Gehrig makes his debut for the New York Yankees on June 15. Gehrig replaces first baseman Wally Pipp in the ninth inning, though this was not the most notable time Gehrig replaced Pipp. That would occur nearly two years later on June 2, 1925, when Gehrig started at first base and took over for the slumping Pipp. Though the moment Gehrig replaced Pipp in the starting lineup is often remembered as the start of Gehrig’s consecutive games streak that would ultimately last nearly 14 years, the streak actually began a day earlier when the man eventually nicknamed “The Iron Horse” pinch hit for Pee-Wee Wanninger in the eighth inning.

Scores of people cross the border from Northern Ireland into the neighboring Irish Free State on June 17 as a ban on Sunday alcohol sales goes into effect in the former locale.

The popular newspaper comic strip “Moon Mullins” debuts on June 19. The strip ran until June 2, 1991.

United States President Warren G. Harding departs Washington, D.C., on June 20 to begin a cross-country speaking tour. President Harding would never return to the nation’s capital, dying unexpectedly on August 2.

Turkey hosts the first general elections in the nation’s history on June 28.