1927 in the United States

← 1926 1925 1924 1927 in the United States → 1928 1929 1930
Decades:	1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s
See also:	History of the United States (1918–1945) Timeline of United States history (1900–1929) List of years in the United States

Events from the year 1927 in the United States.

Incumbents

• President: Calvin Coolidge (Republican)
• Vice President: Charles G. Dawes (Republican)
• Chief Justice: William Howard Taft
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Nicholas Longworth (R-Ohio)
• Senate Majority Leader: Charles Curtis (R-Kansas)
• Congress: 69th (until March 4), 70th (starting March 4)
• Governor of Alabama: William W. Brandon (Democratic) (until January 17), Bibb Graves (Democratic) (starting January 17)
• Governor of Arizona: George W. P. Hunt (Democratic)
• Governor of Arkansas: Tom Jefferson Terral (Democratic) (until January 11) John Ellis Martineau (Democratic) (starting January 11)
• Governor of California: Friend Richardson (Republican) (until January 4), Clement C. Young (Republican) (starting January 4)
• Governor of Colorado: Clarence Morley (Republican) (until January 11), Billy Adams (Democratic) (starting January 11)
• Governor of Connecticut: John H. Trumbull (Republican)
• Governor of Delaware: Robert P. Robinson (Republican)
• Governor of Florida: John W. Martin (Democratic)
• Governor of Georgia: Clifford Walker (Democratic) (until June 25), Lamartine G. Hardman (Democratic) (starting June 25)
• Governor of Idaho: Charles C. Moore (Republican) (until January 3), H. C. Baldridge (Republican) (starting January 3)
• Governor of Illinois: Len Small (Republican)
• Governor of Indiana: Edward L. Jackson (Republican)
• Governor of Iowa: John Hammill (Republican)
• Governor of Kansas: Ben S. Paulen (Republican)
• Governor of Kentucky: William J. Fields (Democratic) (until December 13), Flem D. Sampson (Republican) (starting December 13)
• Governor of Louisiana: Oramel Hinckley Simpson (Democratic)
• Governor of Maine: Owen Brewster (Republican)
• Governor of Maryland: Albert C. Ritchie (Democratic)
• Governor of Massachusetts: Alvan T. Fuller (Republican)
• Governor of Michigan: Alex Groesbeck (Republican) (until January 1), Fred Green (Republican) (starting January 1)
• Governor of Minnesota: Theodore Christianson (Republican)
• Governor of Mississippi: Henry L. Whitfield (Democratic) (until March 18), Dennis Murphree (Democratic) (starting March 18)
• Governor of Missouri: Samuel Aaron Baker (Republican)
• Governor of Montana: John E. Erickson (Democratic)
• Governor of Nebraska: Adam McMullen (Republican)
• Governor of Nevada: James G. Scrugham (Democratic) (until January 3), Fred B. Balzar (Republican) (starting January 3)
• Governor of New Hampshire: John Gilbert Winant (Republican) (until January 6), Huntley N. Spaulding (Republican) (starting January 6)
• Governor of New Jersey: A. Harry Moore (Democratic)
• Governor of New Mexico: Arthur T. Hannett (Democratic) (until January 1), Richard C. Dillon (Republican) (starting January 1)
• Governor of New York: Al Smith (Democratic)
• Governor of North Carolina: Angus Wilton McLean (Democratic)
• Governor of North Dakota: Arthur G. Sorlie (Republican)
• Governor of Ohio: A. Victor Donahey (Democratic)
• Governor of Oklahoma: Martin E. Trapp (Democratic) (until January 10), Henry S. Johnston (Democratic) (starting January 10)
• Governor of Oregon: Walter M. Pierce (Democratic) (until January 10), I. L. Patterson (Republican) (starting January 10)
• Governor of Pennsylvania: Gifford Pinchot (Republican) (until January 18), John Stuchell Fisher (Republican) (starting January 18)
• Governor of Rhode Island: Aram J. Pothier (Republican)
• Governor of South Carolina: Thomas Gordon McLeod (Democratic) (until January 18), John Gardiner Richards, Jr. (Democratic) (starting January 18)
• Governor of South Dakota: Carl Gunderson (Republican) (until January 4), William J. Bulow (Democratic) (starting January 4)
• Governor of Tennessee: Austin Peay (Democratic) (until October 3), Henry Hollis Horton (Democratic) (starting October 3)
• Governor of Texas: Miriam A. Ferguson (Democratic) (until January 17), Dan Moody (Democratic) (starting January 17)
• Governor of Utah: George Dern (Democratic)
• Governor of Vermont: Franklin S. Billings (Republican) (until January 6), John E. Weeks (Republican) (starting January 6)
• Governor of Virginia: Harry F. Byrd (Democratic)
• Governor of Washington: Roland H. Hartley (Republican)
• Governor of West Virginia: Howard M. Gore (Republican)
• Governor of Wisconsin: John J. Blaine (Republican) (until January 3), Fred R. Zimmerman (Republican) (starting January 3)
• Governor of Wyoming: Nellie Tayloe Ross (Democratic) (until January 3), Frank C. Emerson (Republican) (starting January 3)

Events

January–March

• January 7 – The first transatlantic telephone call is made from New York City to London.
• February 23 – The U.S. Federal Radio Commission (later renamed the Federal Communications Commission) begins to regulate the use of radio frequencies.
• March 11 – In New York City, the Roxy Theater is opened by Samuel Roxy Rothafel.
• March 11 – The first armoured car robbery is committed by the Flatheads Gang near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

April–June

May 20–21: Charles Lindbergh flies from New York to Paris.

• 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.
• May 11 – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the "Academy" in "Academy Awards," is founded.
• May 14 – In the U.S., the University of Chicago's local collegiate organization, Phi Sigma, becomes incorporated under the laws of the State of Illinois as Eta Sigma Phi, the National Honorary Classical Fraternity.
• May 17 – Army aviation pioneer Major Harold Geiger dies in the crash of his Airco DH.4 de Havilland plane, at Olmsted Field, Pennsylvania.
• May 18 – Bath School disaster: Bombings result in 45 deaths, mostly children, in Bath Township, Michigan.
• May 20–21 – Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo non-stop trans-Atlantic flight, from New York to Paris in the single-seat, single-engine monoplane Spirit of St. Louis.
• 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 13 – A ticker-tape parade is held for aviator Charles Lindbergh down 5th Avenue in New York City.

July–September

• August 2 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge announces, "I do not choose to run for President in 1928."
• August 7 – The Peace Bridge opens between Fort Erie, Ontario, and Buffalo, New York.
• 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 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–December

October 6: The Jazz Singer.

• 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 8 – Murderer's Row: The New York Yankees complete a 4-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series.
• October 28 – Pan American Airways' first flight takes off from Key West, bound for Havana.
• 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 – 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.
• December 2 – Following 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Model A as its new automobile.
• 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.

Undated

• The Voluntary Committee of Lawyers is founded to bring about the repeal of Prohibition of alcohol in United States.

Ongoing

Menu, Ye Bull Pen Inn, Los Angeles, 1927

• Lochner era (c. 1897 – c. 1937)
• U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915–1934)
• Prohibition (1919–1933)
• Roaring Twenties (1920–1929)

Births

• January 13 – Brock Adams, United States Senator from Washington from 1987 to 1993. (d. 2004)
• January 17 – Harlan Mathews, United States Senator from Tennessee from 1993 till 1994
• January 24 – Paula Hawkins, United States Senator from Florida from 1981 till 1987 (d. 2009)
• February 18 – John Warner, United States Senator from Virginia from 1979 till 2009
• March 7 – James Broderick, actor (d. 1982)
• March 11 – August Paulsen, Danish-American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1871)
• June 8 – Jerry Stiller, actor, husband of actress Anne Meara and father of actor Ben and of actress Amy Stiller
• June 19 – John Glenn Beall, Jr., United States Senator from Maryland from 1971 till 1977 (d. 2009)
• July 7 – Alan Dixon, United States Senator from Illinois from 1981 till 1993
• August 7 – Carl Switzer, American actor (d. 1959)
• August 19 – Jim Broyhill, United States Senator in 1986
• October 20 – Joyce Brothers, a popular psychologist (d. 2013)
• November 8 – Patti Page, singer (d. 2013)

Deaths

• January 26 – Lyman J. Gage, financier and Presidential Cabinet Officer (b. 1836)
• February 7 – Walter Guion, United States Senator from Louisiana in 1918 (b. 1849)
• February 25 – David Baird, Ireland-born United States Senator from New Jersey from 1918 to 1919 (b. 1839)
• June 15 – William Joseph Deboe, United States Senator from Kentucky from 1897 till 1903 (b. 1849)
• August 15 – B. B. Comer, United States Senator from Alabama from 1907 till 1911 (b. 1848)

External links

• Media related to 1927 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons