1922. Society (1)

Society

1922. The Permanent Court of International Justice opens February 15 at the Hague.

1922. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is formally constituted in March "to safeguard the honor and independence of the Irish Republic." The militant arm of the Sinn Fein political party that has stood for a free, undivided Ireland since the Easter Rising of 1916 will continue to employ terrorist tactics in a civil war within the Irish Free State (Eire) and in Ulster.

1922. A fascist dictatorship in Italy begins in late November as Victor Emmanuel III summons Benito Mussolini to form a ministry and grants him dictatorial powers so that he may restore order and bring about reforms.

1922. Britain places the burden of war debts on the United States. The Balfour note states that Britain would expect to recover from her European debtors only the amount which the United States expects from Britain.

1922. The Federal Reserve Board created in 1913 sets up a bank-wire system to eliminate physical transfer of securities from one city to another and thus avoid theft, loss, or destruction of negotiable Treasury Certificates. A Federal Reserve Bank taking in a certificate for delivery to another Federal Reserve Bank retires the certificate and instructs its sister bank by teletype to issue a new one.

1922. U.S. Army Air Corps Lieutenant James H. Doolittle makes the first coast-to-coast flight in a single day in September, flying 2,163 miles from Pablo Beach, Fla., to San Diego in 21 hours, 28 minutes' flying time.

1922. English archaeologist Charles Woolley discovers Ur on the Euphrates River in Iraq, finds Sumerian temple ruins dating to 2600 B.C., and gives historical reality to the ancient Mesopotamian civilization of Sumer of which there has been only legendary knowledge.

1922. Insulin gives diabetics a new lease on life.

1922. New York station WEAF (later WNBC) airs the first paid radio commercials, setting a pattern of private control of U.S. public airwaves.

1922. The BBC (British Broadcasting Corp.) is founded under the leadership of English engineer John Charles Reith, a six-foot-six misanthrope who will run BBC for the next 16 years and make it one of Britain's most revered institutions, supported by the public with license fees.