1937 George VI el primer latón de 12 caras tres peniques tono y brillo sin circular

EUR 6,92 ¡Cómpralo ya!, EUR 12,64 Envío, 30-Día Devoluciones, Garantía al cliente de eBay
Vendedor: dealerschoice73 ✉️ (219) 100%, Ubicación del artículo: Dorset, GB, Realiza envíos a: WORLDWIDE, Número de artículo: 116078227616 1937 George VI el primer latón de 12 caras tres peniques tono y brillo sin circular. 1937 George VI Threepence Uncirculated Here is a stunning example of the first year issue of the novel 12-sided brass threepence or threepenny bit, as they were affectionately called. Although the coin is now 86 years old it is uncirculated.

A lovely looking example with attractive toning and mint lustre as shown. This coin is 21.9mm in diameter and weighs 6.85g.

Grab a bargain at less than a fiver with free postage !!!!

It would make an excellent collectable keepsake souvenir for a 1930s collection.

The British threepence piece, usually simply known as a threepence, thruppence, or thruppenny bit, was a denomination of sterling coinage worth 1⁄80 of one pound or 1⁄4 of one shilling. It was used in the United Kingdom, and earlier in Great Britain and England. Similar denominations were later used throughout the British Empire and Commonwealth countries, notably in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

The sum of three pence was pronounced variously THRUUP-ənss THREP-ənss or THRUP-ənss, reflecting different pronunciations in the various regions of the United Kingdom. The coin was often referred to in conversation as a THRUUP-nee, THREP-nee or THRUP-nee bit. Before Decimal Day in 1971, sterling used the Carolingian monetary system, under which the largest unit was a pound divided into 20 shillings, each of 12 pence. The threepence coin was withdrawn in 1971 due to decimalisation and replaced by the decimal new penny, with 2.4d being worth 1p.

The three pence coin – expressed in writing as "3d" – first appeared in England during the fine silver coinage of King Edward VI (1547–53), when it formed part of a set of new denominations. Although it was an easy denomination to work with in the context of the old sterling coinage system, being a quarter of a shilling, initially it was not popular with the public who preferred the groat (four pence). Hence the coin was not minted in the following two reigns – if one controversially counts Jane or incorrectly treats coins in the sole name of Mary as being a separate "reign" from those which also show and name her husband Philip.

Edward VI threepences were struck at the London and York mints. The obverse shows a front-facing bust of the king, with a rose to the left and the value numeral III to the right, surrounded by the legend EDWARD VI D G ANG FRA Z HIB REX. The reverse shows a long cross over the royal shield, surrounded by the legend (London mint) POSUI DEUM ADIUTOREM MEUM (I have made God my helper), or (York mint) CIVITAS EBORACI (City of York).

Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) produced threepences during her third coinage (1561–1577). Most 1561 issues are 21 mm in diameter, while later ones are 19 mm in diameter. These coins are identifiable from other denominations by the rose behind the queen's head on the obverse, and the date on the reverse. The obverse shows a left-facing crowned bust of the queen with a rose behind her, surrounded by the legend ELIZABETH D G ANG FR ET HIB REGINA, while the reverse shows shield over a long cross, dated 1561, surrounded by the legend POSUI DEU ADIUTOREM MEU. Dates used for the smaller coins were 1561–77. Threepences of the fourth coinage (1578–1582) are identical except for having a slightly lower silver content. There was also a fairly rare milled coinage threepence, produced between 1561 and 1564 with similar designs and inscriptions to the hammered coinage threepences.

The threepence denomination fell out of use again during the reign of King James I, while during King Charles I's reign (1625–49) it was not produced at the London Tower mint, but was produced (sometimes in some quantity) at various provincial mints. The denomination is identified by the numeral III appearing behind the king's head.

By far the most common Charles I threepences were produced at the Aberystwyth mint between 1638 and 1642. They feature a left-facing crowned bust of the king with plumes in front of his face and the numeral III behind him, with the legend CAROLUS DG MA B FR ET H REX (or a combination of M(A) B F(R) ET H(I)(B) depending on the engraver), with the reverse showing the royal arms on a large oval shield with plumes above the shield, and the legend CHRISTO AUSPICE REGNO – I reign under the auspices of Christ. Plumes were the identifying symbol of the Aberystwyth mint, but the Bristol and Oxford mints often used dies from the Aberystwyth mint so plumes often appear on their output too. Milled coins were produced at the York mint between 1638 and 1649, which look similar to the Aberystwyth product but without the plumes – the obverse features a left-facing crowned bust of the king with the numeral III behind him, with the legend CAROLUS D G MAG BR FR ET HI REX, with the reverse showing the royal arms on a shield over a cross, with EBOR over the shield and the legend CHRISTO AUSPICE REGNO.

Coins were produced at the Oxford mint between 1644 and 1646, using the Aberystwyth dies for the obverse, while the reverse of the 1644 coin shows the Declaration of Oxford in three lines: RELI PRO LEG ANG LIB PAR. 1644 OX – The religion of the Protestants, the laws of England, the liberty of Parliament. 1644 Oxford, while around the outside of the coin is the legend EXURGAT DEUS DISSIPENTUR INIMICI – Let God arise and His enemies be scattered. This coin also appears dated 1646. A further type produced at Oxford had on the obverse the king's bust with the denomination behind him, and the letter "R" (for Rawlins, the maker of the die) below the king's shoulder and the legend CAROLUS D G M BR F ET H REX and the Aberystwyth reverse.

The mint at Bristol produced rare threepences in 1644 and 1645. In 1644 the Aberystwyth obverse was used to produce a coin with the reverse showing the Declaration of Oxford: REL PRO LEG AN LIB PA 1644 – The religion of the Protestants, the laws of England, the liberty of Parliament 1644, while around the outside of the coin is the legend EXURGAT DEUS DISSIPENTUR INIMICI – Let God arise and His enemies be scattered. This was repeated in 1645, but with a plumelet instead of a plume in front of the king's face.

In 1644 the Exeter mint produced a fairly scarce threepence. It features a left-facing crowned bust of the king with the numeral III behind him, with the legend CAROLUS D G MA BR F ET H RE, with the reverse showing the royal arms on a shield with the date 1644 above the shield, and the legend CHRISTO AUSPICE REGNO.

No threepences were produced by the Commonwealth of England.

A quantity of (370,000) silver threepences were struck dated 1945, although these were all melted with the metal used in other mint products. However, it is believed a handful escaped, with one example selling for £62,000 at auction in 2020.

The final hammered coinage threepences were produced at the start of the reign of King Charles II. In style they are very reminiscent of his father's issues, the obverse featuring the bust of the king, with the numeral III and the legend CAROLUS II D G MAG BRI F ET H REX, with the reverse showing the royal arms on a shield over a cross, and the legend CHRISTO AUSPICE REGNO.

The milled silver threepences of Charles II form two types. There is the undated issue which looks very like the earlier hammered coinage, with a crowned left-facing bust of the king with the denomination indicated by III behind his head, and the inscription CAROLVS II D G M B F & H REX, with the reverse showing a shield encircling the arms of England, Scotland, Ireland and France with the legend CHRISTO AUSPICE REGNO. This was followed by the dated issue, issued each year from 1670 to 1684, where the obverse features a right-facing uncrowned bust of the king and the inscription CAROLVS II DEI GRATIA, with the reverse showing three crowned interlinked "C"s (indicating the value) and the inscription MAG BR FRA ET HIB REX date. All milled silver threepences were 17 millimetres in diameter and weighed 1.5 grams – dimensions which were unchanged until near the end of the reign of George III.

A similar threepence was produced for King James II, dated 1685 to 1688, the obverse showing a left-facing bust of the king and the inscription IACOBVS II DEI GRATIA, with the reverse showing three crowned "I"s (indicating the value) and the inscription MAG BR FRA ET HIB REX date.

For the joint reign of King William III and Queen Mary II, threepences were produced in all years from 1689 to 1694. For the first two years a somewhat caricatured portrait of the monarchs was used, replaced by a rather more staid portrait in 1691, with the inscription GVLIELMVS ET MARIA D G, while the reverse shows a crowned Arabic number "3" and the inscription MAG BR FR ET HIB REX ET REGINA date. For the sole reign of William III, the design remained very similar, with the inscriptions changed to GVLIELMVS III DEI GRA and MAG BR FR ET HIB REX date.

In the reign of Queen Anne (1702–1714), the same basic design was used, with threepences produced in 1703–10 and 1713. The obverse shows a left-facing bust of the Queen, with the inscription ANNA DEI GRATIA while the reverse shows the crowned "3" and MAG BR FR ET HIB REG date (1703–05, 1707), MAG BR FRA ET HIB REG (1706), or MAG BRI FR ET HIB REG (1708–13).

The design continued in the reign of King George I, when threepences were produced in 1717, 1721, 1723, and 1727. The obverse shows a right-facing bust of the King, with the inscription GEORGIVS DEI GRATIA while the reverse shows the crowned "3" and MAG BRI FR ET HIB REX date.

Unusually, the same young portrait of King George II was used on the threepence throughout his reign (1727–60), despite an older portrait being used on other denominations from 1743. Threepences were produced in 1729, 1731, 1732, 1735, 1737, 1739, 1740, 1743, 1746, and 1760. The obverse shows a left-facing bust of the King, with the inscription GEORGIVS II DEI GRATIA while the reverse shows the crowned "3" and MAG BRI FR ET HIB REX date.

While the silver threepence was minted as a currency coin until nearly the middle of the 20th century, it is clear that the purpose of the coin changed during the reign of King George III (1760–1820). In the first two years of minting, 1762 and 1763, the coin was obviously produced for general circulation as examples are generally found well worn; on the other hand, coins from the late issue (1817–20) are usually found in very fine condition, indicating that they were probably issued as Maundy money. Over the length of the reign there were several different designs of obverse and reverse in use. Threepences were issued in 1762–63, 1765–66, 1770, 1772, 1780, 1784, 1786, 1792, 1795, 1800, 1817, 1818, and 1820. From 1817 the dimensions of the coin were reduced to a weight of 1.4 grams (defined as1⁄22 troy ounce) and diameter of 16 millimetres, following the Great Recoinage of 1816. The inscription on the obverse reads GEORGIVS III DEI GRATIA up to 1800, and GEORGIUS III DEI GRATIA date from 1817. The reverse inscription reads MAG BRI FR ET HIB REX date up to 1800 and BRITANNIARUM REX FID DEF date from 1817.

By the start of the reign of King George IV (1820–30) the coin was being struck primarily as a Maundy coin, although some coins were produced for use in the colonies. See Maundy money for full details of these issues. Threepences were struck in all years from 1822 to 1830, though the king's head is smaller on the 1822 issue, apparently because the correct punch broke and the one from the twopence was used instead. The obverse inscription reads GEORGIUS IIII D G BRITANNIAR REX F D, while the reverse shows a new-style crowned "3" and date, all within a wreath.

In King William IV's reign (1830–37), maundy coins were produced in 1831–37, and identical circulation coins were produced for the colonies, identifiable only through not having a prooflike surface. The obverse inscription reads GULIELMUS IIII D G BRITANNIAR REX F D, while the reverse shows the new-style crowned "3" and date, all within a wreath.

During the reign of Queen Victoria, threepences were produced both for Maundy use and for normal circulation in all years between 1838 and 1901 except 1847, 1848, and 1852 (perhaps because of the proposal for a decimal currency at the time (see florin); the 3d at 1⁄80 pound would not have fitted within a decimal system). Currency silver threepences from 1838 to 1926 were of identical design and cannot usually be distinguished except in the best conditions when the higher striking standard of the Maundy coins stands out; when the currency was decimalised in 1971, all silver threepences from 1870 onwards were revalued at three new pence, not just the Maundy coins. Threepences were produced both with the "young head" (1838–87) and with the "Jubilee head" (1887–93), inscribed VICTORIA D G BRITANNIAR REGINA F D, while those produced with the "old head" (1893–1901) are inscribed VICTORIA DEI GRA BRITT REGINA FID DEF IND IMP.

The currency threepence was issued for each of the nine years of the reign of King Edward VII from 1902. The reverse design remained the same, while the obverse showed the right-facing effigy of the king, with the inscription EDWARDVS VII D G BRITT OMN REX F D IND IMP.

The reign of King George V (1910–1936) features several changes to the threepence denomination. As with all British silver coins, the silver content was reduced from sterling (0.925) silver to 50% silver, 40% copper, 10% nickel in 1920, 50% silver, 50% copper in 1922, and 50% silver, 40% copper, 5% nickel, 5% zinc in 1927, while the design of the reverse of the circulating threepence (but not the maundy threepence) was completely changed in 1927 to three oak sprigs with three acorns and a "G" in the centre, and the inscription THREE PENCE date. The inscription on the obverse throughout the reign was GEORGIVS V D G BRITT OMN REX F D IND IMP.

The threepences of King Edward VIII were all patterns awaiting royal approval at the time of the abdication in December 1936. The silver threepence had another completely new reverse – three interlinked rings of Saint Edmund, with the inscription FID DEF IND IMP 1937 THREE PENCE, while the obverse shows a left-facing effigy of the king with the inscription EDWARDVS VIII D G BR OMN REX and a very small silver engravement.

By the end of George V's reign the threepence had become unpopular in England because of its small size (George Orwell comments on this in Keep the Aspidistra Flying), but it remained popular in Scotland. It was consequently decided to introduce a more substantial threepenny coin which would have a more convenient weight/value ratio than the silver coinage. The silver threepence continued to be minted, as there may have been some uncertainty about how well the new coin would be accepted. The reign of Edward VIII saw the planned introduction of a new, larger, nickel-brass (79% copper, 20% zinc, 1% nickel) twelve-sided threepence coin. This coin weighed 6.6 grams (0.23 oz) and the diameter was 21 millimetres (0.83 in) across the sides and 22 millimetres (0.87 in) across the corners. The obverse shows a left-facing effigy of the king (not right as would have been the convention to alternate the direction) with the inscription EDWARDVS VIII D G BR OMN REX F D IND IMP, and the reverse shows a three-headed thrift plant with the inscription THREE PENCE 1937. A total of just 12 of these coins were struck for experimental purposes and sent to a slot machine manufacturing company for testing. The whereabouts of six of those 12 are known. However, the other six are still out there somewhere and, as such, they are extremely rare today. An example was put up for auction in 2013, expecting £30,000. There are two types of Edward VIII brass threepences. The first type has the date broken by a thrift plant design and the second has the date below.

During the reign of King George VI, circulation silver threepences were produced only in 1937–45 (and almost all the 1945 examples were subsequently melted down). The obverse shows a left-facing effigy of the king with the inscription GEORGIVS VI D G BR OMN REX, while the reverse has an elegant design of a shield of St George lying on a Tudor rose, dividing the date, with the inscription FID DEF IND IMP THREE PENCE. The nickel-brass threepence took over the bulk of the production of the denomination, being produced in all years between 1937 and 1952 except 1947. Apart from the king's head and name, and the weight being increased to 6.8 grams (0.24 oz), the coin was identical to that prepared for Edward VIII. Coins dated 1946 and 1949 were minted in far fewer numbers than the rest, and as nickel-brass wears very quickly; higher grade specimens of these coins are expensive to buy now (both over £500 for uncirculated examples). The scarce dates are 1948, 1950 and 1951 and these are now selling for £60–£80 in mint state.

The physical dimensions of the brass threepence remained the same in the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. The effigy of the queen produced by Mary Gillick was used, with the inscription ELIZABETH II DEI GRA BRITT OMN REGINA F D used in 1953, and ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA F D used in all other years. The reverse shows a Tudor portcullis with chains and a coronet, with the inscription THREE PENCE date. This coin was produced in all years from 1953 to 1967, and in 1970 (in proof sets only).

Following decimalisation, the brass threepence ceased to be legal tender after 31 August 1971.

A three pence coin was also used in the pre-decimalisation currencies of Commonwealth of Nations countries such as Fiji, Australia, and New Zealand. It was called a tickey in South Africa and Southern Rhodesia.

No. 1 Croydon was known for many years as the "threepenny bit building" for its resemblance to a stack of threepenny coins. After the coins were phased out (beginning in 1970) the building eventually gained a new nickname, the "50p building".

The silver threepenny bit became known as a 'joey'. However, the original 'joey' was the groat (or fourpence). The groat was re-introduced in 1836 during the reign of William IV at the suggestion of Joseph Hume (1777-1855).Popularly known as the 'joey', named after Hume's christian name, it was introduced to ease transactions on the London buses, the fare being four pence or one groat. As the last groats were struck in 1888 the nickname passed to the silver threepences struck after that date until 1941 (the last year of production for British use). The silver threepence continued to be struck for three further years from 1942 to 1944 inclusive although for colonial use only as the 12-sided brass threepences were being struck in large numbers.

In March 2014, the Royal Mint announced that a new design of one pound coin would be introduced in 2017, reprising the twelve-sided shape. The new coin was designed to be more difficult to counterfeit.

In October 2019, it was announced that 120,000 silver threepences dated to 1935 and earlier were to be sold to the general public, as part of a move to encourage people to pick up coin collecting and numismatics. The London Mint Office oversaw the sale of the coins, which all date from George V's reign and were valued at a total of approximately £1m, although a more realistic valuation would be in the region of £60,000.

Coins of England

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Commemorative              

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See also              

Sterling (currency) Sterling banknotes List of British banknotes and coins List of British currencies Jubilee coinage Old Head coinage Scottish coinage Coins of Ireland List of people on coins of the United Kingdom

Categories: History of British coinage Pre-decimalisation coins of the United Kingdom Coins of Great Britain

1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar, the 1922nd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 922nd year of the 2nd millennium, the 22nd year of the 20th century, and the 3rd year of the 1920s decade. As of the start of 1922, the Gregorian calendar was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

January 7 – Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes.

January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éireann, the day after Éamon de Valera resigns.

January 11 – The first successful insulin treatment of diabetes is made, by Frederick Banting in Toronto.

January 15 – Michael Collins becomes Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State.

January 26 – Italian forces occupy Misrata, Libya; the reconquest of Libya begins.

February 6

Pope Pius XI (Achille Ratti) succeeds Pope Benedict XV, to become the 259th pope.

The Five Power Naval Disarmament Treaty is signed between the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, France and Italy. Japan returns some of its control over the Shandong Peninsula to China.

February 8

President of the United States Warren G. Harding introduces the first radio in the White House.

In the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Cheka becomes the Gosudarstvennoye Politicheskoye Upravlenie (GPU), a section of the NKVD.

February 10–17 – Modern Art Week in São Paulo marks the start of Modernism in Brazil.

February 14

Finnish Minister of the Interior Heikki Ritavuori is assassinated by Ernst Tandefelt.

Baragoola, the last of the Binngarra class Manly ferries, is launched at Balmain, New South Wales.

February 15 – The inaugural session of the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ) is held in The Hague.

February 26 – Leser v. Garnett: The Supreme Court of the United States rebuffs a challenge to the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave women the right to vote on the same terms as men.

February 28 – The Unilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence by the United Kingdom ends its protectorate over Egypt, and grants the country nominal independence, reserving control of military and diplomatic matters.

March 2

An ice mass breaks the Oder Dam in Breslau.

The British Civil Aviation Authority is established.

March 4 – The silent horror film Nosferatu is premièred at the Berlin Zoological Garden in Germany.

March 10 – Mahatma Gandhi is arrested in Bombay for sedition.

March 13 – Edward, Prince of Wales, inaugurates the Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College in Dehradun, India, marking a capitulation of the Governor General and Secretary of State for India to growing pressure for Indianization of the officer cadre of the Indian Army.

March 15 – With Egypt having gained self-government from the United Kingdom, Fuad I becomes King of Egypt.

March 16 – The Rand Rebellion, which began as a strike by white South African mine workers on 28 December 1921 and became open rebellion against the state, is suppressed.

March 18 – In British India, Mahatma Gandhi is sentenced to six years in prison for sedition (he serves only two).

March 20 – The USS Langley is commissioned as the first United States Navy aircraft carrier.

March 22 – Radio station WLW in Cincinnati begins broadcasting.

March 23 – Queensland, Australia, abolishes the Legislative Council (Upper House).

March 26 – The German Social Democratic Party is founded in Poland.

March 31 – Six die in the Hinterkaifeck murders north of Munich.

April 1 – South African Railways takes control of all railway operations in South West Africa.

April 3 – Joseph Stalin is appointed General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party.

April 7 - 1922 Picardie mid-air collision: The first midair collision between airliners occurs, between a Daimler Airway de Havilland DH.18 and a Grands Express Aériens Farman Goliath over Poix-de-Picardie, Amiens, France.

April 10 – Genoa Conference: The representatives of 34 countries convene to speak in Genoa, Italy about monetary economics, in the wake of World War I.

April 12 – The United Kingdom's Prince of Wales arrives in Yokohama aboard HMS Renown and rides by train to Tokyo, starting a one-month visit to Japan.

April 13 – The State of Massachusetts opens all public offices to women.

April 16 – The Treaty of Rapallo marks a rapprochement between the Weimar Republic and Bolshevik Russia.

April 24 – The first portion of the Imperial Wireless Chain, a strategic international wireless telegraphy network created to link the British Empire, is opened, from the UK to Egypt.

May 8 – In Moscow, eight priests, two laymen and one woman are sentenced to death for opposition to the Soviet government's confiscation of church property.

May 18 – Sergei Diaghilev, Igor Stravinsky, Pablo Picasso, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Erik Satie and Clive Bell dine together at the Hotel Majestic in Paris, their only joint meeting.

May 19 – The All-Russian Young Pioneer Organisation is established.

May 29 – British Liberal MP Horatio Bottomley is jailed for seven years for fraud.

May 30 – In Washington, D.C., United States, the Lincoln Memorial is dedicated.

June 1 - Bolshevik forces defeat Basmachi troops, under Enver Pasha.

June 1 - The first issue of the magazine "Krestyanka" (krestyanka.ru) was published in Russia.

June 9 – Åland's Regional Assembly convenes for its first plenary session in Mariehamn, Åland; the day will be celebrated as Self-Government Day of Åland.

June 11 – Robert J. Flaherty's Nanook of the North, the first commercially successful feature-length documentary film, is premiered in the U.S.

June 14 – President of the United States Warren G. Harding makes his first speech on the radio.

June 22 – Irish Republican Army agents assassinate British Army field marshal Sir Henry Wilson in London; the assassins are sentenced to death on July 18.

June 24 – Weimar Republic foreign minister Walther Rathenau is assassinated; the murderers are captured on July 17.

June 26 – Louis Honoré Charles Antoine Grimaldi becomes Reigning Prince Louis II of Monaco.

June 28

The Irish Civil War and Battle of Dublin begin when the Irish National Army, using artillery loaned by the British, begins to bombard the anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army forces occupying the Four Courts in Dublin. Fighting in Dublin lasts until July 5.

The Syrian Federation is constituted by arrêté of Henri Gouraud.

June 29 – Subhi Barakat becomes president of the Syrian Federation.

July 11 – The Hollywood Bowl open-air music venue opens.

July 17 – The final signings of Treaty 11, an agreement between George V, King of Canada, and various Canadian First Nations, are conducted at Fort Liard.

July 20 – The German protectorate of Togoland is divided into the League of Nations mandates of French Togoland and British Togoland.

July 27 – The Cherkess (Adyghe) Autonomous Oblast is established within the Russian SFSR.

July – Hyperinflation in Germany means that 563 marks are now needed to buy a single American dollar – more than double the 263 needed eight months before, dwarfing the mere 12 needed in April 1919, and even the 47 needed in December of that year.

August 2 – The 1922 Swatow typhoon hits Shantou, China, killing more than 5,000 people.

August 22 – Irish Civil War: General Michael Collins is assassinated in West Cork.

August 23

Morocco revolts against the Spanish.[citation needed]

A Turkish large-scale attack opens against Greek forces in Afyon; Turkish victory is achieved on August 27.

August 28 – Japan agrees to withdraw its troops from Siberia.

August

Hyperinflation in Germany sees the value of the Papiermark against the dollar rise to 1,000.

The last hunted California grizzly bear is shot.

September 3 – The Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, the world's third purpose-built motorsport race track, is officially opened at Monza in the Lombardy Region of Italy.

September 9 – Turkish forces pursuing withdrawing Greek troops enter İzmir, effectively ending the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922).

September 11

The Sun News-Pictorial, a predecessor of the Melbourne, Australia, Herald Sun, is founded.

The Mandate of Palestine is approved by the Council of the League of Nations.

September 13 – The Gdynia Seaport Construction Act is passed by the Polish Parliament.

September 13–15 – The Great Fire of Smyrna destroys most of İzmir. Responsibility is disputed.

September 17 – Dutch cyclist Piet Moeskops becomes world champion sprinter.

September 18 – The Kingdom of Hungary joins the League of Nations.

September 24 (O. S. September 11) – 11 September 1922 Revolution in Greece.

September 29 – Drums in the Night (Trommeln in der Nacht) becomes the first play by Bertolt Brecht to be staged, at the Munich Kammerspiele.

October 1 – G. I. Gurdjieff opens his Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man at Fontainebleau, France.

October 3 – Rebecca Latimer Felton becomes the first female U.S. senator when Georgia's governor gives her a temporary appointment pending an election to replace Senator Thomas Watson, who has died suddenly.

October 11 — Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922 ends in Turkish victory.

October 15 – T. S. Eliot establishes The Criterion magazine, containing the first publication of his poem The Waste Land. This first appears in the United States later this month in The Dial (dated November 1), and is first published complete with notes in book form, by Boni and Liveright in New York in December.

October 18 – The British Broadcasting Company is formed.

October 25 – The Third Dáil enacts the Constitution of the Irish Free State.

October 27 – Southern Rhodesians reject union with South Africa in a referendum.

October 28

In Italy, the March on Rome brings the National Fascist Party and Benito Mussolini to power. Italy begins a period of dictatorship that lasts until the end of the Second World War.

The Red Army occupies Vladivostok.

Rose Bowl sports stadium officially opens in Pasadena, California.[23][24]

October 31 – Benito Mussolini, 39, becomes the youngest ever Prime Minister of Italy.

October

3,000 German marks are now needed to buy a single American dollar – triple the figure three months ago due to hyperinflation.

November 1

The Ottoman Empire is abolished after 600 years, and its last sultan, Mehmed VI, abdicates, leaves for exile in Italy on November 17.

A broadcast receiving licence with a fee of ten shillings is introduced in the United Kingdom.

November 4 – In Egypt, English archaeologist Howard Carter and his men discover the entrance to Pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

November 12 – Sigma Gamma Rho (ΣΓΡ) Sorority, Incorporated is founded by seven educators in Indianapolis, Indiana. The group becomes an incorporated national collegiate sorority on December 30, 1929, when a charter is granted to the Alpha Chapter at Butler University in Indianapolis.

November 14 – The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) begins radio service in the United Kingdom, broadcasting from station 2LO in London.

November 15

In the 1922 United Kingdom general election forced by the Conservatives' withdrawal from the coalition government, the Conservative Party wins an overall majority. Labour for the first time becomes the main opposition party, winning more seats than the divided Liberals. A dining club of newly elected Conservative Members of Parliament evolves the following year into the 1922 Committee.

1922 Guayaquil general strike: During a 3-day strike action in the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador, police and military fire into a crowd, killing at least 300.

November 19 – Abdülmecid II, Crown Prince of the Ottoman Empire, is elected Caliph.

November 21 – Rebecca Felton of Georgia takes the oath of office, formally becoming the first woman United States Senator.

November 24 – Popular author and anti-Treaty Republican Erskine Childers is executed by firing squad in Dublin, after conviction by an Irish Free State military court for the unlawful possession of a gun, a weapon presented to him by Michael Collins in 1920 as a gift.

 

Howard Carter in King Tutankhamun's tomb

November 26 – Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon become the first people to see inside KV62, the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, in over 3,000 years.

December 5 – The British Parliament enacts the Irish Free State Constitution Act, by which it legally sanctions the new Constitution of the Irish Free State.

December 6 – The Irish Free State officially comes into existence. George V becomes the Free State's monarch. Tim Healy is appointed first Governor-General of the Irish Free State, and W. T. Cosgrave becomes President of the Executive Council.

December 9 – Gabriel Narutowicz is elected the first president of Poland.

December 11 – The trial of Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters ends at the Old Bailey in London, for the murder of Thompson's husband; both are found guilty and sentenced to hang.

December 16 – Gabriel Narutowicz, sworn on December 11 as first president of the Second Polish Republic, is assassinated by a right-wing sympathizer in Warsaw.

December 20 – Antigone by Jean Cocteau appears on stage in Paris, with settings by Pablo Picasso, music by Arthur Honegger and costumes by Coco Chanel.

December 27 – Japanese aircraft carrier Hōshō becomes the first purpose-designed aircraft carrier to be commissioned.

December 30 – Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the Transcaucasian Republic (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia) come together to form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

December – The year ends with hyperinflation showing no sign of slowing down in Germany, with 7,000 marks now needed to buy a single American dollar

Wracked by rapid inflation and political assassinations, and motivated by hostility and arrogance as well, the Weimar Republic announces its inability to pay more, and proposes a moratorium on reparations for 3 years.

Kurd Istigdul Djemijetin, the Kurdish Independence Committee, is founded.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union is established.

Earl W. Bascom, rodeo cowboy and artist, designs and makes rodeo's first hornless bronc saddle at Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.

Vegemite is invented by Australian entrepreneur Fred Walker.

The Barbary lion becomes extinct in the wild, with the last killed in Morocco, in the area of the Zelan and Beni Mguild Forests.

The Amur tiger becomes extinct in South Korea.

Births

January 1

Fritz Hollings, American politician (d. 2019)

José de Jesús Sahagún de la Parra, Mexican Roman Catholic bishop

January 2

Blaga Dimitrova, Bulgarian poet and politician (d. 2003)

María Fux, Argentine dancer and choreographer (d. 2023)

January 4 – Karl-Erik Nilsson, Swedish wrestler (d. 2017)

January 8 – Jan Nieuwenhuys, Dutch painter (d. 1986)

January 9

Har Gobind Khorana, Indian biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2011)

Ahmed Sékou Touré, Guinean politician, President of Guinea (1958–1984) (d. 1984)

January 12 – Tadeusz Żychiewicz, Polish journalist, art historian and publicist (d. 1994)

January 13 – Albert Lamorisse, French film director (d. 1970)

January 14 – Guy Stern, German literary scholar

January 16 – Ernesto Bonino, Italian singer (d. 2008)

January 17

Luis Echeverría, 50th President of Mexico (d. 2022)

Nicholas Katzenbach, United States Attorney General (d. 2012)

Betty White, American actress, television personality and animal welfare activist (d. 2021)

January 18 – Agathe Poschmann, German actress

January 19 – Miguel Muñoz Mozún, former Spanish football midfielder and manager (d. 1990)

January 20

Ray Anthony, American trumpet player, composer, bandleader and actor[33]

Bhisadej Rajani, Thai prince (d. 2022)

January 21 – Paul Scofield, English actor (d. 2008)

January 22

Leonel Brizola, Brazilian politician (d. 2004)

Bill Waterhouse, Australian bookmaker, businessman and barrister (d. 2019)

January 26 – Ellen Vogel, Dutch film and television actress (d. 2015)

January 28 – Robert W. Holley, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1993)

January 29 – Gerda Steinhoff, German Nazi war criminal (d. 1946)

January 31 – Joanne Dru, American actress (d. 1996)

February 1 – Renata Tebaldi, Italian soprano (d. 2004)

February 2

Robert Chef d'Hôtel, French athlete (d. 2019)

Juan Marichal, Spanish-Canarian historian, literary critic and essayist (d. 2010)

Stoyanka Mutafova, Bulgarian actress (d. 2019)

Induratana Paribatra, Thai royal

February 6

Patrick Macnee, British actor (d. 2015)

Denis Norden, British television, radio scriptwriter and personality (d. 2018)

Haskell Wexler, American cinematographer (d. 2015)

February 7

Hattie Jacques, English actress (d. 1980)

Antonio Nardini, Italian historian and author (d. 2020)

February 8

Yuri Averbakh, Russian chess player and author (d. 2022)

Audrey Meadows, American actress (d. 1996)

February 9

Kathryn Grayson, American actress (d. 2010)[35]

Jim Laker, British cricketer (d. 1986)

February 10 – Árpád Göncz, President of Hungary (d. 2015)

February 12 – Hussein Onn, third Prime Minister of Malaysia (d. 1990)

February 13 – Gordon Tullock, American economist (d. 2014)

February 15

John B. Anderson, American Congressman, presidential candidate (d. 2017)

Poul Thomsen, Danish actor (d. 1988)

February 16 – Frédéric Rossif, French film, television director (d. 1990)

February 18

Helen Gurley Brown, American editor and publisher (d. 2012)

Eric Gairy, 1st Prime Minister of Grenada (d. 1997)

February 22

Esperanza Magaz, Cuban-born Venezuelan actress (d. 2013)

Mohd Hamdan Abdullah, Malaysian politician (d. 1977)

February 24 – Richard Hamilton, British painter (d. 2011)

February 26

William Baumol, American economist (d. 2017)

Margaret Leighton, British actress (d. 1976)

Paatje Phefferkorn, Dutch martial artist (d. 2021)

Karl Aage Præst, Danish football player (d. 2011)

March 1 – Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1995)

March 2 – Hilarion Capucci, Syrian Catholic bishop (d. 2017)

March 3 – Nándor Hidegkuti, Hungarian footballer (d. 2002)

March 4 – Dina Pathak, Gujarati actress (d. 2002)

March 5 – Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italian film director (d. 1975)

March 8

Ralph H. Baer, German-born American inventor (d. 2014)

Cyd Charisse, American actress, dancer (d. 2008)

Yevgeny Matveyev, Soviet and Russian actor and film director (d. 2003)

Mizuki Shigeru, Japanese author (d. 2015)

March 9 – Flemming Valdemar, Count of Rosenborg (d. 2002)

March 11 – Abdul Razak Hussein, second Prime Minister of Malaysia (d. 1976)

March 12 – Jack Kerouac, American author (d. 1969)

March 14 – China Zorrilla, Uruguayan actress, director and producer (d. 2014)

March 15 – Karl-Otto Apel, German philosopher (d. 2017)

March 16 – Harding Lemay, American television scriptwriter, playwright (d. 2018)

March 18

Egon Bahr, German politician (d. 2015)

Karl Kordesch, Austrian-American inventor (d. 2011)

March 19 – Hiroo Onoda, Japanese officer, WWII holdout (d. 2014)

March 20 – Carl Reiner, American film director, producer, actor, and comedian (d. 2020)

March 21 – Russ Meyer, American film director, producer (d. 2004)

March 24 – Miguel Gustavo, Brazilian journalist and songwriter (d. 1972)

March 28

Felice Chiusano, Italian singer (Quartetto Cetra) (d. 1990)

Joey Maxim, American boxer (d. 2001)

Prince Heinrich of Bavaria (d. 1958)

March 31 – Richard Kiley, American actor and singer (d. 1999)

April 1 – Saad el-Shazly, Egyptian military commander (d. 2011)

April 3 – Doris Day, American actress and singer (d. 2019)

April 4

Dionísio Azevedo, Brazilian television, theatre, and film actor, director, and writer (d. 1994)

Elmer Bernstein, American composer (d. 2004)

April 5

Tom Finney, English footballer (d. 2014)

Gale Storm, American singer, actress (d. 2009)

April 7 – Dircinha Batista, Brazilian actress and singer (d. 1999)

April 8 – Carmen McRae, American jazz singer (d. 1994)

April 13 – Julius Nyerere, 1st President of Tanzania (d. 1999)

April 14 – Ali Akbar Khan, Indian musician (d. 2009)

April 15 – Michael Ansara, Syrian-born American actor (d. 2013)

April 16

Kingsley Amis, English novelist (d. 1995)

Leo Tindemans, 43rd Prime Minister of Belgium (d. 2014)

April 18

Barbara Hale, American actress (d. 2017)[51]

Paulo Nogueira Neto, Brazilian environmentalist (d. 2019)

April 19 – Erich Hartmann, German World War II fighter pilot, highest-scoring ace in world history (d. 1993)

April 21 – Alistair MacLean, Scottish writer (d. 1987)

April 22

Charles Mingus, African-American musician (d. 1979)

Richard Diebenkorn, American painter (d. 1993)

April 24

Susanna Agnelli, Italian politician (d. 2009)

Matti Lehtinen, Finnish opera singer (d. 2022)

April 26

Keith McKenzie, Australian rules footballer, coach (d. 2018)

Jeanne Sauvé, Canadian journalist and politician, Governor General of Canada (d. 1993)

Margaret Scott, South African ballerina, choreographer (d. 2019)

April 27

Martin Gray, Polish writer (d. 2016)

Jack Klugman, American actor (d. 2012)

April 29 – Toots Thielemans, Belgian jazz musician (d. 2016)

May 1 – Vitaly Popkov, Russian fighter ace (d. 2010)

May 2 – Roscoe Lee Browne, African-American actor (d. 2007)

May 4 – Eugenie Clark, American marine biologist (d. 2015)[54]

May 6 – Anna Elizabeth Botha, first wife of South African State President P. W. Botha (d. 1997)

May 7

Rolands Kalniņš, Latvian film director (d. 2022)

Darren McGavin, American actor (d. 2006)

May 8 – Yusof Rawa, Malaysian politician (d. 2000)

May 11 – Ameurfina Melencio-Herrera, Filipino Supreme Court jurist (d. 2020)

May 13

Otl Aicher, German graphic artist (d. 1991)

Bea Arthur, American actress, comedian (d. 2009)

May 14 – Franjo Tuđman, first President of Croatia (d. 1999)

May 15 – Jakucho Setouchi, Japanese writer and Buddhist nun (d. 2021)

May 18 – Gerda Boyesen, Norwegian-born body psychotherapist (d. 2005)

May 22 – Quinn Martin, American television producer (d. 1987)

May 25 – Enrico Berlinguer, Italian politician (d. 1984)

May 27

Otto Carius, German tank commander (d. 2015)

Sir Christopher Lee, English actor (d. 2015)

May 28 – Pompeyo Márquez, Venezuelan politician (d. 2017)

May 29

Reginald Rodrigues, Indian field hockey player (d. 1995)

Iannis Xenakis, Greek composer (d. 2001)

May 31 – Denholm Elliott, English actor (d. 1992)

June 1 – Bibi Ferreira, Brazilian actress (d. 2019)

June 3 – Alain Resnais, French film director (d. 2014)

June 5 – Sheila Sim, English actress (d. 2016)

June 9 – Hein Eersel, Surinamese linguist and cultural researcher (d. 2022)

June 10 – Judy Garland, American singer, actress (d. 1969)

June 11 – Tibor Baranski, Hungarian-American educator (d. 2019)

June 12 – Margherita Hack, Italian astrophysicist (d. 2013)

June 14 – Kevin Roche, Irish-American architect (d. 2019)

June 18 – Claude Helffer, French pianist (d. 2004)

June 19 – Aage Bohr, Danish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2009)

June 19 – Ahmad Yani, Indonesian general (d. 1965)

June 22 – Mona Lisa, Filipino actress (d. 2019)

June 23 – Wu Yingyin, Chinese singer (d. 2009)

June 24 – Tata Giacobetti, Italian singer, lyricist (d. 1988)

June 25 – Sita bint Fahd Al Damir, Saudi princess (d. 2012)

June 26 – Eleanor Parker, American actress (d. 2013)

June 29 – Vasko Popa, Yugoslavian poet (d. 1991)

July 1 – Mordechai Bibi, Israeli politician (d. 2023)

July 2

Pierre Cardin, Italian-born French fashion designer (d. 2020)

Paula Valenska, Czech actress (d. 1994)

July 3

Guillaume Cornelis van Beverloo (Corneille), Dutch painter (d. 2010)

Viggo Rivad, Danish photographer (d. 2016)

Howie Schultz, American baseball and basketball player (d. 2009)

July 5 – Doris Margaret Anderson, Canadian nutritionist and senator (d. 2022)

July 7

Francis Jeanson, French philosopher (d. 2009)

P. Gopinathan Nair, Indian social worker (d. 2022)

July 10

Petar Kovachev, Bulgarian cross country skier

Jake LaMotta, American boxer (d. 2017)

Herb McKenley, Jamaican Olympic sprinter (d. 2007)

July 13

Helmy Afify Abd El-Bar, Egyptian military commander (d. 2011)

Anker Jørgensen, Danish politician (d. 2016)

July 14 – Käbi Laretei, Estonian and Swedish concert pianist (d. 2014)

July 15

Ghulam Nabi Firaq, Kashmiri poet, writer and educationist (d. 2016)

B. Rajam Iyer, South Indian Carnatic singer (d. 2009)

Leon M. Lederman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2018)

Dottie Frazier, American scuba diver (d. 2022)

July 16 – Anatoli Levitin, Soviet Russian painter, art educator (d. 2018)

July 17 – Tetsurō Tamba, Japanese actor (d. 2006)

July 18

Thomas Kuhn, American philosopher of science (d. 1996)

Hedy Stenuf, Austrian figure skater (d. 2010)

July 19

George McGovern, American politician, historian and author (d. 2012)

Tuanku Jaafar ibni Almarhum Tuanku Abdul Rahman, King of Malaysia (d. 2008)

July 20 – Wolfgang Klausewitz, German zoologist, ichthyologist, marine biologist and biohistorian (d. 2018)

July 21

Kay Starr, American jazz and pop singer (d. 2016)

Mollie Sugden, English comedy actress (d. 2009)

July 25 – John B. Goodenough, German-American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2023)

July 26

Blake Edwards, American film director (d. 2010)

Jason Robards, American actor (d. 2000)

July 27

Adolfo Celi, Italian actor and director (d. 1986)

Norman Lear, American television writer and producer

July 28 – Hans Frauenfelder, Swiss-born American physicist and biophysicist (d. 2022)

August 2 – Tupua Leupena, Tuvaluan politician (d. 1996)

August 3 – Su Bai, Chinese archaeologist (d. 2018)

August 4 – Janez Stanovnik, Slovenian economist and politician (d. 2020)

August 8

Rory Calhoun, American actor (d. 1999)

Alberto Granado, Cuban writer and scientist (d. 2011)

August 9 – Philip Larkin, English poet (d. 1985)

August 11 – Sara Luzita, Spanish actress and dancer

August 12

Wu Nansheng, Chinese politician (d. 2018)

Miloš Jakeš, Czech politician (d. 2020)

August 14 – Leslie Marr, English artist and racing driver (d. 2021)

August 15

Lukas Foss, German-born composer (d. 2009)

Mehnga Singh, Indian high jumper

August 22 – Micheline Presle, French actress

August 23

Tônia Carrero, Brazilian actress (d. 2018)

Inge Deutschkron, German-Israeli journalist and author (d. 2022)

Roland Dumas, French lawyer and politician

August 24

René Lévesque, 23rd Premier of Quebec (d. 1987)

Jules Wieme, member of De La Salle Brothers who developed agriculture in northern Rwanda (d. 2015)

Howard Zinn, American social activist and historian (d. 2010)

August 25

Gloria Dea, American actress, dancer, and magician (d. 2023)

Ivry Gitlis, Israeli violinist (d. 2020)

August 27 – Sōsuke Uno, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1998)

August 31 – André Baudry, French magazine editor (d. 2018)

September 1

Yvonne De Carlo, Canadian-born American actress, dancer and singer (d. 2007)

Vittorio Gassman, Italian actor, director (d. 2000)

September 2 – Arthur Ashkin, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2020)

September 6 – Adriano Moreira, Portuguese politician, Minister of the Overseas Provinces, President of the CDS – People's Party (d. 2022)

September 7

David Croft, British writer, producer and actor (d. 2011)

Necdet Calp, Turkish civil servant, politician (d. 1998)

September 8 – Sid Caesar, American actor, comedian (d. 2014)

September 9

Hans Georg Dehmelt, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2017)

Manolis Glezos, Greek Resistance fighter (d. 2020)

Warwick Kerr, Brazilian geneticist (d. 2018)

September 15

Jackie Cooper, American actor, director (d. 2011)

Gaetano Cozzi, Italian historian (d. 2001)

September 16

Guy Hamilton, French-English director, screenwriter (d. 2016)

Janis Paige, American actress

September 17 – Agostinho Neto, 1st President of Angola (d. 1979)

September 19

Emil Zátopek, Czechoslovakian athlete (d. 2000)

Dana Zátopková, Czech Olympic javelin thrower (d. 2020)

September 21 – Lee Hee-ho, First Lady of South Korea (d. 2019)

September 24 – Asit Sen, Indian Bengali film director (d. 2001)

September 25

Hammer DeRoburt, first President of Nauru (d. 1992)

Roger Etchegaray, French cardinal (d. 2019)

September 28 – Jules Sedney, Prime Minister of Suriname (d. 2020)

September 29

Noémi Ban, Hungarian-American lecturer, public speaker and Holocaust survivor (d. 2019)

Karl-Heinz Köpcke, German television presenter, news speaker (d. 1991)

Lizabeth Scott, American actress (d. 2015)

October 1 – Yang Chen-Ning, Chinese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

October 3 – Raffaele La Capria, Italian novelist and screenwriter (d. 2022)

October 4 – Gianna Beretta Molla, Italian Roman Catholic pediatrician, saint (d. 1962)

October 5 – José Froilán González, Argentine racing driver (Formula 1) (d. 2013)

October 11 – Wolfgang Zuckermann, German-American harpsichord maker and sustainability activist (d. 2018)

October 14 – Yumeji Tsukioka, Japanese actress (d. 2017)

October 15 – Luigi Giussani, Italian Catholic priest (d. 2005)

October 17 – Angel Wagenstein, Bulgarian screenwriter and author (d. 2023)

October 23 – Coleen Gray, American actress (d. 2015)

October 27

Poul Bundgaard, Danish actor, singer (d. 1998)

Ruby Dee, American actress, poet, activist, journalist and second wife of Ossie Davis (d. 2014)[72]

Carlos Andrés Pérez, 55th President of Venezuela (d. 2010)

Michel Galabru, French actor (d. 2016)

October 28 – Gershon Kingsley, German-American composer (d. 2019)

October 30 – Iancu Țucărman, Romanian Holocaust survivor (d. 2021)

October 31

Barbara Bel Geddes, American actress, children's book author (d. 2005)

András Hegedüs, 45th Prime Minister of Hungary (d. 1999)

Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia (d. 2012)

November 5 – María Isabel Rodríguez, Salvadorian physician, academic and government official

November 8 – Christiaan Barnard, South African cardiac surgeon, heart transplant pioneer (d. 2001)

November 9

Dorothy Dandridge, African-American actress (d. 1965)

Raymond Devos, French humorist (d. 2006)

November 11

George Blake, né Behar, Dutch-born British double agent (d. 2020)

Abdullahi Issa, Somalian politician, 1st Prime Minister of Somalia (d. 1988)

Kurt Vonnegut, American novelist (d. 2007)

November 12

Ichiro Abe, Japanese judoka (d. 2022)

Kim Hunter, American actress (d. 2002)

November 13 – Oskar Werner, Austrian actor (d. 1984)

November 14

Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Egyptian Secretary-General of the United Nations (d. 2016)

Veronica Lake, American actress (d. 1973)

November 16 – José Saramago, Portuguese author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2010)

November 17 – Stanley Cohen, American physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2020)

November 18 – Luis Somoza Debayle, 26th President of Nicaragua (d. 1967)

November 19 – Yuri Knorozov, Russian linguist, epigrapher (d. 1999)

November 22 – Aksel Jacobsen Bogdanoff, Norwegian communist (d. 1971)

November 23 – Võ Văn Kiệt, Vietnamese politician, statesman (d. 2008)

November 24 – Stanford R. Ovshinsky, American inventor and scientist (d. 2012)

November 26 – Charles M. Schulz, American cartoonist (d. 2000)

November 27 – Nicholas Magallanes, Mexican-American principal dancer, charter member of the New York City Ballet (d. 1977)

December 1 – Charles Gérard, French actor (d. 2019)

December 4 – Gérard Philipe, French actor (d. 1959)

December 8

Lucian Freud, German born painter (d. 2011)

Gerhard Löwenthal, German journalist (d. 2002)

December 9 – Redd Foxx, African-American comedian and actor (d. 1991)

December 10 – Edith Ballantyne, Czech-born Canadian peace activist

December 11

Frank Blaichman, Polish author (d. 2018)

Dilip Kumar, Indian actor (d. 2021)

Maila Nurmi, Finnish-American actress, television personality (d. 2008)

December 12 – Christian Dotremont, Belgian painter, writer (d. 1979)

December 14

Nikolay Basov, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2001)

Antonio Larreta, Uruguayan theatre actor, critic and writer (d. 2015)

December 18 – Carlos Altamirano, Chilean lawyer and socialist politician (d. 2019)

December 21

Itubwa Amram, Nauruan pastor and politician (d. 1989)

Paul Winchell, American actor (d. 2005)

December 22 – Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Hohenberg, Princess of Luxembourg (d. 2011)

December 24

Ava Gardner, American actress (d. 1990)

Jonas Mekas, Lithuanian-American filmmaker and poet (d. 2019)

December 28

Stan Lee, American comics creator (d. 2018)

Ramapada Chowdhury, Indian novelist and writer (d. 2018)

December 29 – William Gaddis, American writer (d. 1998)

December 30

Boes Boestami, Indonesian actor (d. 1970)

Magín Díaz, Colombian musician and composer (d. 2017)

Deaths

January 1 – István Kühár, Prekmurje Slovene writer, politician (b. 1887)

January 5 – Sir Ernest Shackleton, British explorer (b. 1874)

January 10

Ōkuma Shigenobu, 2-time Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1838)

Frank Tudor, Australian politician (b. 1866)

January 15 – John Kirk, British explorer (b. 1832)

January 22

Pope Benedict XV (b. 1854)

Fredrik Bajer, Danish politician, pacifist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient (b. 1837)

James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce, Irish-born politician, diplomat and historian (b. 1838)

William Christie, British astronomer (b. 1845)

January 23 – Arthur Nikisch, Hungarian conductor (b. 1855)

January 27

Nellie Bly, American undercover journalist (b. 1864)

Giovanni Verga, Italian writer (b. 1840)

January 31 – Heinrich Reinhardt, Austrian composer (b. 1865)

February 1

Yamagata Aritomo, Japanese field marshal, 3rd Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1838)

William Desmond Taylor, Irish-born film director (b. 1872)

February 3

Christiaan de Wet, Boer general, rebel leader, and politician (b. 1854)

John Butler Yeats, Northern Irish artist (b. 1839)

February 4 – Henry Jones, British philosopher (b. 1852)

February 8 – Kabayama Sukenori, Japanese samurai, general and statesman (b. 1837)

February 14 – Heikki Ritavuori, Finnish Minister of Interior (b. 1880)

February 16 – Newton Knight, American farmer, soldier and Southern Unionist in Mississippi and Civil War guerrilla (b. 1829)

February 23 – John Joseph Jolly Kyle, Argentine chemist (b. 1838).

February 25 – Henri Désiré Landru, French serial killer (executed) (b. 1869)

March 1 – Pichichi, Spanish footballer (b. 1892)

March 4 – Bert Williams, American entertainer (b. 1874)

March 10 – Harry Kellar, American magician (b. 1849)

March 19 – Max von Hausen, German general (b. 1846)

March 21 – C. V. Raman Pillai, Indian novelist and playwright (b. 1858)

March 31 – Andreas Gruber (b. 1859), Cäzila Gruber (b. 1850), Viktoria Gabriel (b. 1887), Cäzila Gabriel (b. 1915), Josef Gruber (b. 1920) and Maria Baumgartner (b. 1878). The Hinterkaifeck murders

April 1 – Emperor Charles I of Austria (b. 1887)

April 2 – Hermann Rorschach, Swiss psychiatrist (b. 1884)

April 8 – Erich von Falkenhayn, German general (b. 1861)

April 9

Hans Fruhstorfer, German lepidopterist (b. 1866)

Patrick Manson, Scottish physician (b. 1844)

April 14 – Cap Anson, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1852)

April 28 – Paul Deschanel, President of France (b. 1855)

May 4 – Viktor Kingissepp, Estonian Communist politician (b. 1888; executed)

May 7 – Max Wagenknecht, German composer (b. 1857)

May 12 – John Martin Poyer, United States Navy Commander, 12th Governor of American Samoa (b. 1861)

May 15 – Leslie Ward, English portrait artist, caricaturist (b. 1851)

May 16 – Rudolf Montecuccoli, Austro-Hungarian admiral (b. 1843)

May 18 – Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, French physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1845)

May 19 – Son Byong-hi, Korean activist (b. 1861)

May 21 – Michael Mayr, Austrian politician, 2nd Chancellor of Austria (b. 1864)

May 26 – Ernest Solvay, Belgian chemist, philanthropist and entrepreneur (b. 1838)

June 4 – W. H. R. Rivers, English doctor (b. 1864)

June 6

Lillian Russell, American singer, actress (b. 1861)

Richard A. Ballinger, American politician (b. 1858)

June 18

Jacobus Kapteyn, Dutch astronomer (b. 1851)

Belgrave Ninnis, British explorer (b. 1837)

June 20 – Vittorio Monti, Italian composer (b. 1868)

June 21 – Take Ionescu, 29th Prime Minister of Romania (b. 1858)

June 22 – Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet, British field marshal and politician (b. 1864)

June 23 - Wu Tingfang, Chinese Premier of the Republic of China (b. 1842)

June 24 – Walter Rathenau, German statesman, Weimar Republic foreign minister (assassinated) (b. 1867)

June 26 – Prince Albert I of Monaco (b. 1848)

June 27 – Prince Higashifushimi Yorihito of Japan (b. 1867)

June 28 – Velimir Khlebnikov, Russian poet, playwright (b. 1885)

July 4 – Lothar von Richthofen, German World War I flying ace (flying accident) (b. 1894)

July 6 – Mary Theresa Ledóchowska, Polish-born missionary sister (b. 1863)

July 8 – Muhammad V an-Nasir, Bey of Tunis (b. 1855)

July 17 – Heinrich Rubens, German physicist (b. 1865)

July 20 – Andrey Markov, Russian mathematician (b. 1856)

July 22 – Jōkichi Takamine, Japanese chemist (b. 1854)

July 25 – Paul Maistre, French general (b. 1858)

July 28

Jules Guesde, French Socialist journalist and politician (b. 1845)

Édouard Harlé, French engineer and prehistorian (b. 1850)

July 31 – Mary Noailles Murfree, American novelist (b. 1850)

August 2

Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish-born inventor (b. 1847)

Harry Boland, Irish republican (b. 1887)

August 3 – Ture Malmgren, Swedish journalist, politician (b. 1851)

August 4

Nikolai Nebogatov, Russian admiral (b. 1849)

Enver Pasha, Ottoman military leader, Turkish revolutionary (b. 1881)

August 5 – Tommy McCarthy, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1863)

August 12 – Arthur Griffith, Irish republican, President of Dáil Éireann (b. 1872)

August 13 – Saint Benjamin of Petrograd (b. 1873)

August 14 – Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe, British newspaper magnate (b. 1865)

August 19 – Felip Pedrell, Spanish composer (b. 1841)

August 22

Sir Thomas Brock, British sculptor (b. 1847)

Michael Collins, Irish republican, revolutionary, and Chairman of the Provisional Government (assassinated) (b. 1890)

August 23 – Gheorghe Bengescu, Romanian diplomat and man of letters (b. 1844)

August 25 – Ioannis Svoronos, Greek numismatist (b. 1863)

August 29 – Georges Sorel, French philosopher, theorist of revolutionary syndicalism (b. 1847)

September 1 – Princess Helena, Duchess of Albany, British royal (b. 1861)

September 4 – James Young, Scottish footballer (motorcycle accident) (b. 1882)

September 5 – Sarah Winchester, American builder of the Winchester Mystery House (b. 1837)

September 7 – William Stewart Halsted, American surgeon (b. 1852)

September 10

Saint Chrysostomos of Smyrna (b. 1867)

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, British poet (b. 1840)

September 25 – Carlo Caneva, Italian general (b. 1845)

September 26

Sir Charles Wade, Australian politician, Premier of New South Wales (b. 1863)

Thomas E. Watson, American politician, senator (b. 1856)

October 7 – Marie Lloyd, British singer (b. 1870)

October 11 – Prince August Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (b. 1867)

October 22 – Lyman Abbott, American theologian (b. 1835)

October 25 – Oscar Hertwig, German zoologist (b. 1849)

October 30 – Géza Gárdonyi, Hungarian author (b. 1863)

November 1 – Lima Barreto, Brazilian writer (b. 1881)

November 7 – Sam Thompson, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1860)

November 15 – Dimitrios Gounaris, 94th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1867)

November 18 – Marcel Proust, French author (b. 1871)

November 23 – Eduard Seler, Prussian scholar, Mesoamericanist (b. 1849)

November 24

Erskine Childers, Irish novelist, nationalist (executed) (b. 1870)

Sidney Sonnino, 19th Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1847)

November 27 – Demetrio Castillo Duany, Cuban revolutionary, soldier, and politician (b. 1856)

December 8 – Mary Marcy, American socialist (b. 1877)

December 12 – John Wanamaker, American businessman (b. 1838)

December 13 – Hannes Hafstein, 1st Prime Minister of Iceland (b. 1861)

December 14 – Henry Pierrepoint, British executioner (b. 1878)

December 16 – Gabriel Narutowicz, Polish professor and politician, 1st President of Poland (assassinated) (b. 1865)

December 17 – David Lindsay, Australian explorer (b. 1856)

Sufi Azizur Rahman, Bengali Muslim theologian and teacher (b. 1862)

Sergei Sheydeman, Russian general (b. 1857)

Nobel Prizes

Physics – Niels Henrik David Bohr

Chemistry – Francis William Aston

Physiology or Medicine – Archibald Vivian Hill, Otto Fritz Meyerhof

Literature – Jacinto Benavente

Peace – Fridtjof Nansen

George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was concurrently the last Emperor of India until August 1947, when the British Raj was dissolved.

The future George VI was born in the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria; he was named Albert at birth after his great-grandfather Albert, Prince Consort, and was known as "Bertie" to his family and close friends. His father ascended the throne as King George V in 1910. As the second son of the king, Albert was not expected to inherit the throne. He spent his early life in the shadow of his elder brother, Prince Edward, the heir apparent. Albert attended naval college as a teenager and served in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force during the First World War. In 1920, he was made Duke of York. He married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923, and they had two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret. In the mid-1920s, he engaged speech therapist Lionel Logue to treat his stammer, which he learned to manage to some degree. His elder brother ascended the throne as Edward VIII after their father died in 1936, but Edward abdicated later that year to marry the twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson; Albert thereby became the third monarch of the House of Windsor, taking the regnal name George VI.

In September 1939, the British Empire and most Commonwealth countries—but not Ireland—declared war on Nazi Germany. War with the Kingdom of Italy and the Empire of Japan followed in 1940 and 1941, respectively. George VI was seen as sharing the hardships of the common people and his popularity soared. Buckingham Palace was bombed during the Blitz while the King and Queen were there, and his younger brother the Duke of Kent was killed on active service. George became known as a symbol of British determination to win the war. Britain and its allies were victorious in 1945, but the British Empire declined. Ireland had largely broken away, followed by the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947. George relinquished the title of Emperor of India in June 1948 and instead adopted the new title of Head of the Commonwealth. He was beset by smoking-related health problems in the later years of his reign and died of a coronary thrombosis in 1952. He was succeeded by his elder daughter, Elizabeth II.

The future George VI was born at York Cottage, on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria. His father was Prince George, Duke of York (later King George V), the second and eldest surviving son of the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra). His mother, the Duchess of York (later Queen Mary), was the eldest child and only daughter of Francis, Duke of Teck, and Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck. His birthday, 14 December 1895, was the 34th anniversary of the death of his great-grandfather Albert, Prince Consort. Uncertain of how the Prince Consort's widow, Queen Victoria, would take the news of the birth, the Prince of Wales wrote to the Duke of York that the Queen had been "rather distressed". Two days later, he wrote again: "I really think it would gratify her if you yourself proposed the name Albert to her."

The Queen was mollified by the proposal to name the new baby Albert, and wrote to the Duchess of York: "I am all impatience to see the new one, born on such a sad day but rather more dear to me, especially as he will be called by that dear name which is a byword for all that is great and good." Consequently, he was baptised "Albert Frederick Arthur George" at St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham on 17 February 1896. Formally he was His Highness Prince Albert of York; within the family he was known informally as "Bertie". The Duchess of Teck did not like the first name her grandson had been given, and she wrote prophetically that she hoped the last name "may supplant the less favoured one". Albert was fourth in line to the throne at birth, after his grandfather, father and elder brother, Edward.

Albert was ill often and was described as "easily frightened and somewhat prone to tears". His parents were generally removed from their children's day-to-day upbringing, as was the norm in aristocratic families of that era. He had a stammer that lasted for many years. Although naturally left-handed, he was forced to write with his right hand, as was common practice at the time. He had chronic stomach problems as well as knock knees, for which he was forced to wear painful corrective splints.

Queen Victoria died on 22 January 1901, and the Prince of Wales succeeded her as King Edward VII. Prince Albert moved up to third in line to the throne, after his father and elder brother.

Military career and education

Beginning in 1909, Albert attended the Royal Naval College, Osborne, as a naval cadet. In 1911 he came bottom of the class in the final examination, but despite this he progressed to the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. When his grandfather, Edward VII, died in 1910, his father became King George V. Edward became Prince of Wales, with Albert second in line to the throne.

Albert spent the first six months of 1913 on the training ship HMS Cumberland in the West Indies and on the east coast of Canada. He was rated as a midshipman aboard HMS Collingwood on 15 September 1913. He spent three months in the Mediterranean, but never overcame his seasickness. Three weeks after the outbreak of World War I he was medically evacuated from the ship to Aberdeen, where his appendix was removed by Sir John Marnoch. He was mentioned in despatches for his actions as a turret officer aboard Collingwood in the Battle of Jutland (31 May – 1 June 1916), the great naval battle of the war. He did not see further combat, largely because of ill health caused by a duodenal ulcer, for which he had an operation in November 1917.

In February 1918 Albert was appointed Officer in Charge of Boys at the Royal Naval Air Service's training establishment at Cranwell. With the establishment of the Royal Air Force Albert transferred from the Royal Navy to the Royal Air Force. He served as Officer Commanding Number 4 Squadron of the Boys' Wing at Cranwell until August 1918, before reporting to the RAF's Cadet School at St Leonards-on-Sea. He completed a fortnight's training and took command of a squadron on the Cadet Wing. He was the first member of the British royal family to be certified as a fully qualified pilot.

Albert wanted to serve on the Continent while the war was still in progress and welcomed a posting to General Trenchard's staff in France. On 23 October, he flew across the Channel to Autigny. For the closing weeks of the war, he served on the staff of the RAF's Independent Air Force at its headquarters in Nancy, France. Following the disbanding of the Independent Air Force in November 1918, he remained on the Continent for two months as an RAF staff officer until posted back to Britain. He accompanied Belgian King Albert I on his triumphal re-entry into Brussels on 22 November. Prince Albert qualified as an RAF pilot on 31 July 1919 and was promoted to squadron leader the following day.

In October 1919, Albert went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied history, economics and civics for a year, with the historian R. V. Laurence as his "official mentor". On 4 June 1920 his father created him Duke of York, Earl of Inverness and Baron Killarney. He began to take on more royal duties. He represented his father, and toured coal mines, factories, and railyards. Through such visits he acquired the nickname of the "Industrial Prince". His stammer, and his embarrassment over it, together with a tendency to shyness, caused him to appear less confident in public than his older brother, Edward. However, he was physically active and enjoyed playing tennis. He played at Wimbledon in the Men's Doubles with Louis Greig in 1926, losing in the first round. He developed an interest in working conditions, and was president of the Industrial Welfare Society. His series of annual summer camps for boys between 1921 and 1939 brought together boys from different social backgrounds.

Marriage

In a time when royalty were expected to marry fellow royalty, it was unusual that Albert had a great deal of freedom in choosing a prospective wife. An infatuation with the already-married Australian socialite Lady Loughborough came to an end in April 1920 when the King, with the promise of the dukedom of York, persuaded Albert to stop seeing her. That year, he met for the first time since childhood Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the youngest daughter of Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. He became determined to marry her. Elizabeth rejected his proposal twice, in 1921 and 1922, reportedly because she was reluctant to make the sacrifices necessary to become a member of the royal family. In the words of her mother Cecilia Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne, Albert would be "made or marred" by his choice of wife. After a protracted courtship, Elizabeth agreed to marry him.

Albert and Elizabeth were married on 26 April 1923 in Westminster Abbey. Albert's marriage to someone not of royal birth was considered a modernising gesture. The newly formed British Broadcasting Company wished to record and broadcast the event on radio, but the Abbey Chapter vetoed the idea (although the Dean, Herbert Edward Ryle, was in favour).

From December 1924 to April 1925, the Duke and Duchess toured Kenya, Uganda, and the Sudan, travelling via the Suez Canal and Aden. During the trip, they both went big-game hunting.

Because of his stammer, Albert dreaded public speaking. After his closing speech at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley on 31 October 1925, one which was an ordeal for both him and his listeners, he began to see Lionel Logue, an Australian-born speech therapist. The Duke and Logue practised breathing exercises, and the Duchess rehearsed with him patiently. Subsequently, he was able to speak with less hesitation. With his delivery improved, the Duke opened the new Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, during a tour of the empire with the Duchess in 1927. Their journey by sea to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji took them via Jamaica, where Albert played doubles tennis partnered with a black man, Bertrand Clark, which was unusual at the time and taken locally as a display of equality between races.

The Duke and Duchess had two children: Elizabeth (called "Lilibet" by the family) who was born in 1926, and Margaret who was born in 1930. The close and loving family lived at 145 Piccadilly, rather than one of the royal palaces. In 1931, the Canadian prime minister, R. B. Bennett, considered the Duke for Governor General of Canada—a proposal that King George V rejected on the advice of the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, J. H. Thomas.

Reluctant king

King George V had severe reservations about Prince Edward, saying "After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself in twelve months" and "I pray God that my eldest son will never marry and that nothing will come between Bertie and Lilibet and the throne." On 20 January 1936, George V died and Edward ascended the throne as King Edward VIII. In the Vigil of the Princes, Prince Albert and his three brothers (the new king, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, and Prince George, Duke of Kent) took a shift standing guard over their father's body as it lay in state, in a closed casket, in Westminster Hall.

As Edward was unmarried and had no children, Albert was the heir presumptive to the throne. Less than a year later, on 11 December 1936, Edward abdicated in order to marry Wallis Simpson, who was divorced from her first husband and divorcing her second. Edward had been advised by British prime minister Stanley Baldwin that he could not remain king and marry a divorced woman with two living ex-husbands. He abdicated and Albert, though he had been reluctant to accept the throne, became king. The day before the abdication, Albert went to London to see his mother, Queen Mary. He wrote in his diary, "When I told her what had happened, I broke down and sobbed like a child."

On the day of Edward's abdication, the Oireachtas, the parliament of the Irish Free State, removed all direct mention of the monarch from the Irish constitution. The next day, it passed the External Relations Act, which gave the monarch limited authority (strictly on the advice of the government) to appoint diplomatic representatives for Ireland and to be involved in the making of foreign treaties. The two acts made the Irish Free State a republic in essence without removing its links to the Commonwealth.

Across Britain, gossip spread that Albert was physically and psychologically incapable of being king. No evidence has been found to support the contemporaneous rumour that the government considered bypassing him, his children and his brother Henry, in favour of their younger brother George, Duke of Kent. This seems to have been suggested on the grounds that George was at that time the only brother with a son.

Early reign

Albert assumed the regnal name "George VI" to emphasise continuity with his father and restore confidence in the monarchy. The beginning of George VI's reign was taken up by questions surrounding his predecessor and brother, whose titles, style and position were uncertain. He had been introduced as "His Royal Highness Prince Edward" for the abdication broadcast, but George VI felt that by abdicating and renouncing the succession, Edward had lost the right to bear royal titles, including "Royal Highness". In settling the issue, George's first act as king was to confer upon his brother the title "Duke of Windsor" with the style "Royal Highness", but the letters patent creating the dukedom prevented any wife or children from bearing royal styles. George VI was forced to buy from Edward the royal residences of Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House, as these were private properties and did not pass to him automatically. Three days after his accession, on his 41st birthday, he invested his wife, the new queen consort, with the Order of the Garter.

George VI's coronation at Westminster Abbey took place on 12 May 1937, the date previously intended for Edward's coronation. In a break with tradition, his mother Queen Mary attended the ceremony in a show of support for her son. There was no Durbar held in Delhi for George VI, as had occurred for his father, as the cost would have been a burden to the Government of India. Rising Indian nationalism made the welcome that the royal party would have received likely to be muted at best, and a prolonged absence from Britain would have been undesirable in the tense period before the Second World War. Two overseas tours were undertaken, to France and to North America, both of which promised greater strategic advantages in the event of war.

The growing likelihood of war in Europe dominated the early reign of George VI. The King was constitutionally bound to support Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler. When the King and Queen greeted Chamberlain on his return from negotiating the Munich Agreement in 1938, they invited him to appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with them. This public association of the monarchy with a politician was exceptional, as balcony appearances were traditionally restricted to the royal family. While broadly popular among the general public, Chamberlain's policy towards Hitler was the subject of some opposition in the House of Commons, which led historian John Grigg to describe the King's behaviour in associating himself so prominently with a politician as "the most unconstitutional act by a British sovereign in the present century".

In May and June 1939, the King and Queen toured Canada and the United States; it was the first visit of a reigning British monarch to North America, although he had been to Canada prior to his accession. From Ottawa, they were accompanied by the Canadian prime minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King, to present themselves in North America as King and Queen of Canada. Both Governor General of Canada Lord Tweedsmuir and Mackenzie King hoped that the King's presence in Canada would demonstrate the principles of the Statute of Westminster 1931, which gave full sovereignty to the British Dominions. On 19 May, George VI personally accepted and approved the Letter of Credence of the new U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Daniel Calhoun Roper; gave Royal Assent to nine parliamentary bills; and ratified two international treaties with the Great Seal of Canada. The official royal tour historian, Gustave Lanctot, wrote "the Statute of Westminster had assumed full reality" and George gave a speech emphasising "the free and equal association of the nations of the Commonwealth".

The trip was intended to soften the strong isolationist tendencies among the North American public with regard to the developing tensions in Europe. Although the aim of the tour was mainly political, to shore up Atlantic support for the United Kingdom in any future war, the King and Queen were enthusiastically received by the public. The fear that George would be compared unfavourably to his predecessor was dispelled. They visited the 1939 New York World's Fair and stayed with President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House and at his private estate at Hyde Park, New York. A strong bond of friendship was forged between the King and Queen and the President during the tour, which had major significance in the relations between the United States and the United Kingdom through the ensuing war years.

Second World War

Following the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, the United Kingdom and the self-governing Dominions other than Ireland declared war on Nazi Germany. George VI and his wife resolved to stay in London, despite German bombing raids. They officially stayed in Buckingham Palace throughout the war, although they usually spent nights at Windsor Castle. The first night of the Blitz on London, on 7 September 1940, killed about one thousand civilians, mostly in the East End. On 13 September, the King and Queen narrowly avoided death when two German bombs exploded in a courtyard at Buckingham Palace while they were there. In defiance, the Queen declared: "I am glad we have been bombed. It makes me feel we can look the East End in the face." The royal family were portrayed as sharing the same dangers and deprivations as the rest of the country. They were subject to British rationing restrictions, and U.S. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt remarked on the rationed food served and the limited bathwater that was permitted during a stay at the unheated and boarded-up Palace. In August 1942, the King's brother, the Duke of Kent, was killed on active service.

In 1940, Winston Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain as prime minister, though personally George would have preferred to appoint Lord Halifax. After the King's initial dismay over Churchill's appointment of Lord Beaverbrook to the Cabinet, he and Churchill developed "the closest personal relationship in modern British history between a monarch and a Prime Minister". Every Tuesday for four and a half years from September 1940, the two men met privately for lunch to discuss the war in secret and with frankness. The King related much of what the two discussed in his diary, which is the only extant first-hand account of these conversations.

Throughout the war, the King and Queen provided morale-boosting visits throughout the United Kingdom, visiting bomb sites, munitions factories, and troops. The King visited military forces abroad in France in December 1939, North Africa and Malta in June 1943, Normandy in June 1944, southern Italy in July 1944, and the Low Countries in October 1944. Their high public profile and apparently indefatigable determination secured their place as symbols of national resistance. At a social function in 1944, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Field Marshal Alan Brooke, revealed that every time he met Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, he thought Montgomery was after his job. The King replied: "You should worry, when I meet him, I always think he's after mine!"

In 1945, crowds shouted "We want the King!" in front of Buckingham Palace during the Victory in Europe Day celebrations. In an echo of Chamberlain's appearance, the King invited Churchill to appear with the royal family on the balcony to public acclaim. In January 1946, George addressed the United Nations at its first assembly, which was held in London, and reaffirmed "our faith in the equal rights of men and women and of nations great and small".

Empire to Commonwealth

George VI's reign saw the acceleration of the dissolution of the British Empire. The Statute of Westminster 1931 had already acknowledged the evolution of the Dominions into separate sovereign states. The process of transformation from an empire to a voluntary association of independent states, known as the Commonwealth, gathered pace after the Second World War. During the ministry of Clement Attlee, British India became the two independent Dominions of India and Pakistan in August 1947. George relinquished the title of Emperor of India, and became King of India and King of Pakistan instead. In late April 1949, the Commonwealth leaders issued the London Declaration, which laid the foundation of the modern Commonwealth and recognised the King as Head of the Commonwealth. In January 1950, he ceased to be King of India when it became a republic, and remained King of Pakistan until his death. Other countries left the Commonwealth, such as Burma in January 1948, Palestine (divided between Israel and the Arab states) in May 1948 and the Republic of Ireland in 1949.

In 1947, the King and his family toured southern Africa. The prime minister of the Union of South Africa, Jan Smuts, was facing an election and hoped to make political capital out of the visit. George was appalled, however, when instructed by the South African government to shake hands only with whites, and referred to his South African bodyguards as "the Gestapo". Despite the tour, Smuts lost the election the following year, and the new government instituted a strict policy of racial segregation.

Illness and death

The stress of the war had taken its toll on the King's health, made worse by his heavy smoking and subsequent development of lung cancer among other ailments, including arteriosclerosis and Buerger's disease. A planned tour of Australia and New Zealand was postponed after the King suffered an arterial blockage in his right leg, which threatened the loss of the leg and was treated with a right lumbar sympathectomy in March 1949. His elder daughter Elizabeth, the heir presumptive, took on more royal duties as her father's health deteriorated. The delayed tour was re-organised, with Elizabeth and her husband, Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, taking the place of the King and Queen.

The King was well enough to open the Festival of Britain in May 1951, but on 4 June it was announced that he would need immediate and complete rest for the next four weeks, despite the arrival of Haakon VII of Norway the following afternoon for an official visit. On 23 September 1951, he underwent a surgical operation where his entire left lung was removed by Clement Price Thomas after a malignant tumour was found. In October 1951, Elizabeth and Philip went on a month-long tour of Canada; the trip had been delayed for a week due to the King's illness. At the State Opening of Parliament in November, the King's speech from the throne was read for him by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Simonds. His Christmas broadcast of 1951 was recorded in sections, and then edited together.

On 31 January 1952, despite advice from those close to him, the King went to London Airport to see Elizabeth and Philip off on their tour to Australia via Kenya. It was his last public appearance. Six days later, at 07:30 GMT on the morning of 6 February, he was found dead in bed at Sandringham House in Norfolk. He had died in the night from a coronary thrombosis at the age of 56. His daughter flew back to Britain from Kenya as Queen Elizabeth II.

From 9 February for two days George VI's coffin rested in St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham, before lying in state at Westminster Hall from 11 February. His funeral took place at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on the 15th. He was interred initially in the Royal Vault until he was transferred to the King George VI Memorial Chapel inside St George's on 26 March 1969. In 2002, fifty years after his death, the remains of his widow, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and the ashes of his younger daughter Princess Margaret, who both died that year, were interred in the chapel alongside him.

Legacy

In the words of Labour Member of Parliament (MP) George Hardie, the abdication crisis of 1936 did "more for republicanism than fifty years of propaganda". George VI wrote to his brother Edward that in the aftermath of the abdication he had reluctantly assumed "a rocking throne" and tried "to make it steady again". He became king at a point when public faith in the monarchy was at a low ebb. During his reign, his people endured the hardships of war, and imperial power was eroded. However, as a dutiful family man and by showing personal courage, he succeeded in restoring the popularity of the monarchy.

The George Cross and the George Medal were founded at the King's suggestion during the Second World War to recognise acts of exceptional civilian bravery. He bestowed the George Cross on the entire "island fortress of Malta" in 1943. He was posthumously awarded the Ordre de la Libération by the French government in 1960, one of only two people (the other being Churchill in 1958) to be awarded the medal after 1946.

Colin Firth won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as George VI in The King's Speech, a 2010 film that won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Honours and arms

As Duke of York, Albert bore the royal arms of the United Kingdom differenced with a label of three points argent, the centre point bearing an anchor azure—a difference earlier awarded to his father, George V, when he was Duke of York, and then later awarded to his grandson Prince Andrew, Duke of York. As king, he bore the royal arms undifferenced.

  • Condition: Uncirculated with attractive mild toning and much mint lustre. Some very minor cabinet marks on obverse.
  • Denomination: Threepence
  • Year of Issue: 1937
  • Era: George VI (1936-1952)
  • Fineness: Uncirculated
  • Country/Region of Manufacture: United Kingdom
  • Country of Origin: Great Britain

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