On the site I used to frequent (and will still so long as anyone is on there) I ran a thread in which I posted what happened 100, 200, 300 etc years ago that day. Some days there was nothing to say, most were pretty obscure events, but not without interest, so I propose to continue it here if that's OK.

19 March 1922 - Gen. Max Freiherr von Hausen died. 100 years ago today.
German General from Saxony who commanded the Third Army in the opening weeks of World War I. 
He served in the Saxon Army for nearly 40 years before being appointed Minister of War in the Kingdom of Saxony in 1902. 
At the outbreak of war in August 1914 he led the German Third Army into southern Belgium as part of the Battle of the Frontiers entering Dinant, Charleroi and briefly Reims in France. However he was forced to retreat at the Battle of the Marne and removed from command, illness being cited. He held no further field command. 
He died in Dresden aged 75.   

20 March 1922 - The USS Langley commissioned. 100 years ago today.
The US Navy's first aircraft carrier. 
Launched in 1912 as the collier USS Jupiter she served throughout World War I until 1920 when she was decommissioned as a collier prior to conversion to an aircraft carrier. Work took place at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Virginia enlarging the ship to 13,900 tons, a capacity for 36 aircraft and an increased complement of 468 men. 
The Langley spent two years in the Atlantic mainly flight testing until she was redeployed to the Pacific in 1924. Her career as an aircraft carrier ended in 1936 when she was converted for a second time, this time to a seaplane tender. 
At the outbreak of war with Japan in 1941 the Langley was in the Philippines and was redeployed to the Dutch East Indies to hold off the Japanese advance. In February 1942 she was attacked by Japanese aircraft and badly damaged, after the crew abandoned ship she was sunk by US Navy destroyers to prevent her from falling into enemy hands.

And also:

 1815 .......Napoleon Bonaparte returns to Paris in triumph

1918 .........Massive German attack at the Somme

1974 ..........Princess Anne shot at in kidnap attempt

but let us be honest , is it important and who is actually interested what happened in the past?


Dirk

Me, that's why I'm here.

Mark,

And there is absolutely nothing wrong with you having an interest in history or in other words what happened in the past.

But I wonder if history is often not a complete accurate and comprehensive account of facts , but only what the dominant or orthodox view of the time has recorded for posterity.

But Mark let me mention here that this forum needs people like you to keep this forum going.
This forum lost a long standing member last year who on a very regular basis opened topics of interest and the forum is missing his input.
 Maybe you are the one who is able to replace the one we lost.

Dirk

To be fair to MarkUK, if one looks back through the earlier pages of this thread (which has been going on and off for several years) many of the events mentioned here as anniversaries, while perhaps not always greatly significant in themselves, have sometimes prompted further interesting discussions.

Everyone can look up major events for every day of the year, but lesser known figures and seemingly unimportant events can spark off debate too.
I have a "fetish" for dates, I like to know exactly when an event/birth/death etc took place.

22 March 1322 - Thomas, Earl of Lancaster executed. 700 years ago today.
In 1321, despairing at King Edward II's ineptitude in the war with Scotland and his dependence on a clique of low-born favourites, his cousin Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, openly rebelled. He raised an army in the north of England and held a counter-Parliament at Doncaster in a direct challenge to the King. 
Edward marched north and the two armies met at the bridge over the river Trent at Burton, Staffordshire. Outnumbered Lancaster choose flight over fight and headed north pursued by the King's army. 
The King's man in the north Andrew Harcla marched out to meet Lancaster blocking his passage over the river Ure in Yorkshire at Boroughbridge. On 16 March with the King approaching from behind Lancaster had no choice but to fight. He split his force with half under the Earl of Hereford attempting to fight its way across the bridge while he sought a ford a short distance away. Both attacks failed, Lord Hereford was killed and Lancaster surrendered to the King the next day to be carried away a prisoner to Pontefract Castle. 
After a brief trial he was convicted of treason and beheaded on 22 March at the castle.

MarkUK wrote:

20 March 1922 - The USS Langley commissioned. 100 years ago today.
The US Navy's first aircraft carrier. 
Launched in 1912 as the collier USS Jupiter she served throughout World War I until 1920 when she was decommissioned as a collier prior to conversion to an aircraft carrier. Work took place at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Virginia enlarging the ship to 13,900 tons, a capacity for 36 aircraft and an increased complement of 468 men. 
The Langley spent two years in the Atlantic mainly flight testing until she was redeployed to the Pacific in 1924. Her career as an aircraft carrier ended in 1936 when she was converted for a second time, this time to a seaplane tender. 
At the outbreak of war with Japan in 1941 the Langley was in the Philippines and was redeployed to the Dutch East Indies to hold off the Japanese advance. In February 1942 she was attacked by Japanese aircraft and badly damaged, after the crew abandoned ship she was sunk by US Navy destroyers to prevent her from falling into enemy hands.

She was nicknamed "The Covered Wagon".
She shared that nickname with HMS Furious.

MarkUK wrote:

Everyone can look up major events for every day of the year, but lesser known figures and seemingly unimportant events can spark off debate too.
I have a "fetish" for dates, I like to know exactly when an event/birth/death etc took place.

Mark ,

  Have you ever visited this website:
   
Livius.org

An interesting site for those who like history.

Dirk

23 March 1922 - HMS H42 sank. 100 years ago today.
Royal Navy submarine launched in 1918. In March 1922 she was on exercise in the Mediterranean off Gibraltar practising torpedo attacks when she surfaced directly in the path of the destroyer HMS Versatile. Unable to reverse or turn away in time the Versatile collided with H42 almost cutting her in two. She sank immediately. All 26 on board died.

Until 1752 today was New Year's Day in the UK. Most of Europe changed to 1 January in the 16th century, but UK clung on to the old ways. Having said that 1 January had been in common usage for years before, but it was not officially adopted until 1752.
The discrepancy can lead to much confusion over dates. A good example is the birth of the local hero from my home town Admiral Sir John Jervis, Earl of St Vincent. Most history books give his date of birth as 9 January 1735, some however give the year 1734 which, if you look at his baptism record in the parish register, says 20 January (born 9 January) 1734 which was, back then, still the correct year as 1734 ran from 25 March to the following 24 March. 
Some give 9 January 1734/5 which is perhaps the best way to do it so we know exactly when an event took place. Very confusing.

MarkUK wrote:

Until 1752 today was New Year's Day in the UK. Most of Europe changed to 1 January in the 16th century, but UK clung on to the old ways. Having said that 1 January had been in common usage for years before, but it was not officially adopted until 1752.

Scotland had adopted New Year's Day as the 1st of January in 1600.

As you say, 1st January was in common usage well before 1752, as illustrated by this extract from Pepy's Diary for 31st December 1661:

I sat down to end my journell for this year, and my condition at this time, by God's blessing, is thus: my health (only upon catching cold, which brings great pain in my back . .


Pepys 31st December 1661

The adoption of the Gregorian Calendar in 1582 was obviously the sensible thing to do, but being a Catholic innovation the Protestant countries resisted for years. Most saw sense and changed over by 1700 but GB held out for 170 years defying all logic.
Russia and other Eastern Orthodox countries held out until the 20th century. Hence we have the curious situation of the Russian February Revolution taking place in March (by our calendar) and the October Revolution in November. 
Most curious of all was the mess they made of it in Sweden, they ended up trying to get in line with a 30 day February in 1712.

MarkUK wrote:

Russia and other Eastern Orthodox countries held out until the 20th century. Hence we have the curious situation of the Russian February Revolution taking place in March (by our calendar) and the October Revolution in November. 

A difference which had a serious effect on the Austerlitz campaign.

D G Chandler The Campaigns of Napoleon


"A second error was the inexcusable failure of the Austrian staff to to make proper allowance for the ten days' difference between their calendar and that of the Russians"

Kutusov's army had been promised by the Tsar to reach Bavaria by the 20th October. The Tsar's promised date was in Julian Calendar ie 30th October in Gregorian terms. 
Mack's Austrians capitulated at Ulm on the 20th October, with the Russian Army still over 100 miles away.

Austerlitz itself was fought on the 2nd December 1805/ 11 Frimaire Year 14 of the French Republican Calendar.

Napoleon abolished the FRC and moved back to the Gregorian on the 1st January 1806, so Austerlitz was one of the last major events to take place during the Republican calendars' time. Though it did make a brief reappearance during the Paris Commune.

Ah but it gets even worse. I've come across reports of battles where a ship was captured or even sunk in the morning only to be fiercely engaged in the afternoon. Civil, naval log, and astronomical days were different.
From "The Mariner's Mirror"
The nautical day ran ahead of civil time, thus in 1798 a log entry for 6 o’clock in the afternoon of 2 August would be considered to be 1 August by civil/modern reckoning.
By contrast the astronomical day was the opposite, and the Astronomical 1 August began at noon 1 August (civil time), and ran from 0h to 24h ending at noon on 2 August (civil time). This was the time used in the Nautical Almanac (first published in 1767) and clearly that employed for Astro-Navigation, though not for the ship’s log.
To confuse the issue further, private journals (such as Cook’s) tended to be in civil time.
An Admiralty order of 11 October 1805 changed log reckoning to the civil system, running from midnight to midnight. However, although this preceded Trafalgar, it came out too late to reach Nelson’s fleet, and that battle was still fought under the old system.

MarkUK wrote:

The adoption of the Gregorian Calendar in 1582 was obviously the sensible thing to do, but being a Catholic innovation the Protestant countries resisted for years. Most saw sense and changed over by 1700 but GB held out for 170 years defying all logic.
Russia and other Eastern Orthodox countries held out until the 20th century. Hence we have the curious situation of the Russian February Revolution taking place in March (by our calendar) and the October Revolution in November. 
Most curious of all was the mess they made of it in Sweden, they ended up trying to get in line with a 30 day February in 1712.

Of course, judicious use of the Julian calendar's reckoning allows the period between New Year and Auld New Year (12th Jan, or Oidhche Challain) to be celebrated in parts of Scotland.

No point, then, in sobering up before Burns Night on the 25th.

28 March 1922 - Two failed assassinations thousands of miles apart. 100 years ago today.
Firstly two Koreans fired at the former Japanese Army Minister Gen. Tanaka Giichi as he disembarked at the port of Shanghai, China. They missed and killed an American woman standing nearby.

In Berlin an exiled Monarchist Sergei Taboritsky fired at the former Russian Foreign Minister Pavel Milyukov as he was giving a speech to fellow exiled Russians. Taboritsky missed and was tackled by Vladimir Nabokov (father of the future novelist of the same name) who was attending in his capacity as editor of a Russian émigré newspaper. Nabokov was killed by a bullet through the heart.

The warship that was used to take him into exile down the Danube was the "Insect" class Large China Gunboat HMS Glowworm. The "China" bit was an attempt to conceal the fact that these vessels were specifically designed for  service on the Danube (and didn't mean they were ceramic either) though many did finish up there, after service as anti-airship patrol vessels in the North Sea, and on the Dvina during the intervention where they supported the White forces. The Small China Gunboats were used, as intended, on the Tigris and Euphrates during the Great war

The Glowworm took them down the Danube to the Black Sea port of Galatz where they boarded HMS Cardiff for the voyage out to Madeira.

Emperor Karl I (also known as Charles I) might have been deposed in the immediate aftermath of WW1 but he never formally abdicated and so when he died in 1922 his son Otto von Habsburg was considered by himself, his family and Austro-Hungarian legitimists to be the rightful Emperor of Austria, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, of Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia and Lodomeria, and King of Jerusalem. Looking back from the 21st century this all seems rather distant and quaintly 'Ruritanian', however it should be remembered that Otto only died in 2011 having been active in European politics as a proponent of pan-European integration since the 1930s.


Otto von Habsburg in 2006.

But here's the much younger Crown Prince Otto - in shorts, straw hat and long flowing locks - along with his parents King Karl I of Austria and Queen Zita of Bourbon-Parma, during a visit to an artillery regiment in Lower Austria on 18 August 1917 (at the beginning he's the 2nd one out of the car after his sister Princess Adelheid). Despite the modern jaunty music, 'Der Zauber der Montur' march by Karl Michael Ziehrer (1843-1922), by this date the war wasn't going particularly well for Austria-Hungary.



And here's Otto's funeral in St Stephen's cathedral in Vienna on 16 July 2011, after which he was entombed in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna with his heart buried in Pannonhalma abbey in Hungary.



The anthem being played has the same melody as the current German national anthem, the Deutschlandlied, but is actually the Austrian imperial hymn, the Kaiserhymne, ("Gott erhalte, Gott beschütze unsern Kaiser, unser Land") which was originally composed by Joseph Haydn for the Austrian Emperor Francis II, based on an old folk song.

Tune was listed in my choir days as "Austria" in Hymns Ancient & modern. Tune for "Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken"

Among the great "what ifs" in history are what if Franz Josef had died in 1913 would Austria have gone to war a year later, assuming that Franz Ferdinand, who would have been Emperor then, would not have been in Sarajevo in June 1914? He is thought to have been more sympathetic to the Slavs and may have instituted a reform programme aimed at closer relations with Serbia? Or was Austria determined to deal with the Serbs whatever? Too many imponderables I know.

Or what if Friedrich III of Germany had lived into his 70s instead of dying aged 56 in 1888, would Germany have evolved into a more democratic, less belligerent  state?

Talking about Franz Josef, here he is along with others of the Imperial family (I love the emperor's hat, and though I have a lampshade rather like it, it's nowhere near as 'bouffante').

The occasions depicted are firstly (up to 0:32) an Imperial visit to St. Pölten (NE Austria) on 21 June 1910; followed by the wedding of Karl and Zita on 21 October 1911 at Schwarzau castle in Austria (the happy couple appear at 0:55); and finally (starting at 1:40) it is the coronation of Karl (as King Charles IV of Hungary) in Budapest on 30 December 1916, following the death of Franz Josef 21 November 1916.

At the time of the wedding the heir presumptive was Archduke Franz Ferdinand (who appears at 1:04). The lady labelled as Countess Sophia Choteck (at 1:15) is in fact Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony, Karl's mother (his father Archduke Otto of Austria had died in 1906). I think the the real Sophia Choteck, Duchess of Hohenberg, the wife of Franz Ferdinand (and destined to die with him at Sarajevo on 28 June 1914) is the lady who appears briefly at 1:25 standing behind her husband's left shoulder, but I'm really not sure. And any suggestions for the identities of the other guests, anyone?

Meles meles

In your message today (?) above you write that Otto von Habsburg was buried at the Imperial Crypt in Vienna.

What I thought this implied was, at the Stephansdom, which in fact is mentioned here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Stephen%27s_Cathedral,_Vienna#Notable_people,_events_and_burials

Whereas the German text https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaisergruft mentions the Cappuchin Crypt at another adress in Vienna.


Which seems to be substantiated here

 


Ending at the Capuchine Crypt



My mis-understanding here may be founded in the variations of the texts in the English and the German/Austrian wiki editions, though the two Youtube clips seem to substantiate the Austrian version.

I must add that as I'm not intimate with the geography of Vienna, these churches may be so close to each other, or the Kapuzinergruft in fact be part of the Stephansdom just with an entrance from another road.

They are two separate places: the funeral service was held at St Stephen's cathedral, the Stephansdom, after which he was interred in the Imperial crypt beneath the church of the Capuchin monastery, the Kapuzinerkirche, which is located on the Neuer Markt closer to the Hofburg Palace. I'm not familiar with Vienna either but Mappy.com informs me they are only about 400m from each other. Nevertheless that's still quite far to physically carry the coffin (probably lead-lined as it's going into a crypt rather than be buried) on six shoulders as seems to have been done and especially tiring if they maintained that slow stiff-legged march, the so-called "Ehrenschritt" (Honour-march). Strong lads those Austrians.

Fascinating film from all those years ago, Franz Ferdinand comes across as a genial soul, quite different from the general image we have of him, and to think it was all swept away so soon after.

MarkUK wrote:

Franz Ferdinand comes across as a genial soul, quite different from the general image we have of him ...

Yes indeed and surprising though it may seem, this photo is also apparently him, taken in Spring 1896 while having a bit of fun on a holiday in Egypt.

He is rapidly becoming my favourite historical figure.

8 April 1922 - General Erich von Falkenhayn died. 100 years ago today.
Senior German military figure in World War I.
Minister for War 1913-15 and Chief of Staff from September 1914 until removed following the failure to take Verdun in 1916. Thereafter he served on the Roumanian Front with great success until he was transferred to assist the Turks in Palestine and Mesopotamia, but here he had little success. He ended the war in relative obscurity on the Lithuanian Front. 

Lt.Cdr Gerard Roope. Captain of the destroyer HMS Glowworm.
Note - not the same Glowworm mentioned upthread.
https://www.tracesofwar.com/thewarillustrated/213/now-it-can-be-told-last-glorious-fight-of-the-glowworm.asp

Unfortunately for the Genoa conference it was largely sidelined, at least in its attempt to bring Germany and Soviet Russia back into the fold, when six days later Germany and Russia signed the Treaty of Rapallo by which both renounced all territorial and financial claims against each other and opened friendly diplomatic relations.

With Russia and Germany now largely out of the main picture the Genoa conference lapsed into irrelevance. The major powers could not agree on the package of financial aid to Russia and the issue of reducing German reparations went nowhere. Ideas being floated for softening Germany's economic terms had led to the toppling of the government of the French Prime Minister, Aristide Briand, just before the conference of Genoa opened, leaving his successor, Raymond Poincaré, with little option other than to stick to his guns (almost literally so when he threatened to invade Germany unilaterally if Berlin defaulted on its next round of payments). So while several proposals were aired including an international loan to finance German payments, with the money from the loan going directly to France, it was never approved. In the end Germany was expelled, France and Belgium withdrew from the Conference, and the final draft communiqué to Russia was signed only by Britain and half a dozen smaller nations, leaving out all the key world powers other than Britain itself. Russia in turn rejected this final document.

Not until the 1945 conference of San Francisco in the aftermath of WW2 (which led to 49 nations signing the Treaty of San Francisco in 1951) would such a large, rambling international assembly be convened. The conference of Genoa had opened with much generalized optimism, but there was too little detailed preparation and too many disparate issues all muddled up with one another for it to actually achieve anything much at all.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/I1Z6mtHlTBi4MGxidKjs0Q

A replica of the original Vimy repeated the trip 75 years later.

It's the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic today. Wherever you are in the UK you'll live near the home of someone on board the ill-fated liner. 
Staffordshire of course was the birthplace of Captain Smith, but for me and LadyinRetirement we're closer to the home of three passengers - Tyrell Cavendish, his American wife Julia and her maid Ellen Barber. They lived at Little Onn Hall in the village of Church Eaton and were travelling first class to visit Mrs Cavendish's parents in the USA. 
As with many from first class the two ladies survived, being taken off in boat 6, but Mr Cavendish stayed on board and died. His body was recovered from the sea weeks later and cremated in the USA, his ashes were returned to England. Mrs Cavendish and Miss Barber both died within a few months of one another in 1963. 
Tyrell Cavendish was distantly related to the Dukes of Devonshire.

As many of you here will know I'm interested in the history of food, historic cuisine and old recipes, and accordingly I'm a great fan of the 'Tasting History' youtubes produced by Max Miller. For anyone similarly interested he's just completed an excellent series of twice-a-week Titanic-themed posts over the past three weeks or so. They started with this one in third class,



... passed through the experience of the second class,



... and not forgetting the crew,



... to finally arrive in first class with this,



... albeit with lots of history, food and fascinating anecdotes along the way.

Unfortunately for the Genoa conference it was largely sidelined, at least in its attempt to bring Germany and Soviet Russia back into the fold, when six days later Germany and Russia signed the Treaty of Rapallo by which both renounced all territorial and financial claims against each other and opened friendly diplomatic relations

I can do no better than to reprint Meles' piece from six days ago about the Treaty of Rapallo, 100 years ago today. 
It must have been quite a blow to GB and France to see Germany and Russia, both of whom I'm sure they wanted to push around a bit, signing a separate treaty with one another leaving out the two Powers who were supposedly calling the shots. 
It indicated to the world that Germany and Russia were no longer going to be treated as pariahs and would endeavour to shape their own futures.

27 April 1822 - Ulysses S Grant born. 200 years ago today.
Any Americans here? Grant, a successful and highly regarded military commander, was talked into standing for President in 1868. He is often cited as one of the USA's worst Presidents. Yet beyond a couple of scandals, which were common in those days, I can't see much he did wrong. His reputation certainly fell after he left office due to his naivete in falling for a conman. 
Was he really that bad?

I should have mentioned on 25th April we have a public holiday in NZ/Aotearoa to commemorate the failed landing at Gallipoli and the soldiers and airmen and navy people who died fighting in all wars now. Mainly the 1st and 2nd World Wars and the Vietnam War. I was very surprised when we were in England and visiting some war museum to see no mention of Vietnam and when I asked about that even more surprised to learn the British hadn't taken part. I remember as a young woman marching against our involvement.

Yes, one war we stayed out of.

I'm looking for someone with knowledge of the political system in Third Republic France, Meles it seems it must be you!
Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of the death of former French President Paul Deschanel. He assumed office in February 1920, but within months suffered a mental breakdown and resigned in September entering an asylum. He lost all his political offices at the time, but less than four months later he had recovered sufficiently to be elected to the Senate as member for his home Department of Eure-et-Loire serving until his death 15 months later.
My question is how did he re-enter politics? There weren't any elections in January 1921, so how did he end up being elected on home territory? A by-election? A very convenient vacancy at the right time in the right place.

I'm chuffed that you have such faith in my ability (somewhat misguided, if I may say so) however I cannot claim any great knowledge here as the following info I simply obtained from the wikifrance article on him (which is very much longer and more comprehensive than the entry for him in English).

Paul Deschanel stood as a candidate for the Eure-et-Loir region in the 1921 Senatorial elections (wiki) held on 9 January 1921 as a constitutional requirement following Alexandre Millerand's election (23 September 1920) as President, which was of course a result of Deschanel's own resignation as President (21 September 1920) on grounds of ill-health. I'm not exactly sure about the Third Republic's Constitution but I think that, in the event of a President resigning in office it was the Senate that elected a new President from amongst the candidates offered by the lower house (the Assemblée nationale) all of which, given the dates, was concluded, despite the obvious urgency, after a couple of days of political 'horse-trading', after which they, the Senate, then all had to submit their own positions to (re)election by the populace as a whole. (NB - I really am no authority about any of this constitutional stuff). However in the 1921 Senate elections, all 315 seats were indeed contested.

Again from wikifrance:
He [Deschanel] made his first public appearance in front of electors on 31 December 1920, only ten days before the election. He was then elected senator in the first round of voting, with 50.3% of the votes cast. Like Raymond Poincaré just before him, he thus made his return to politics by entering the upper house; indeed, it was then inconceivable for a former head of state who did not wish to retire to regain a mandate in the Chamber of Deputies, which was perceived as the place of daily politics, with less courteous confrontations than in the Senate.

Upon entering the Senate, Paul Deschanel received a warm welcome from his peers. In January 1922, he became chairman of the Senate's Foreign Affairs Committee, following the appointment of Raymond Poincaré, who had held this position since his departure from the presidency of the Republic, as President of the Council.

Is that of any help?

Very much so. So there were elections in January 1921 and the voters felt that Deschanel had recovered sufficiently to resume his political career. The details of his illness are quite distressing, good to learn that faith in him was restored.

Meles meles wrote:

...  the Senate ... had to submit their own positions to (re)election by the populace as a whole.  

That however needs some correction/clarification:

Senators are currently (2022) elected by indirect universal suffrage, that is by representatives of the whole population via an electoral college formed of the so-called Grands électeurs comprised of MPs (députés de l'Assemblée Nationale - the lower house of Parliament), regional councillors, city mayors and other elected representatives, but not by a general election. This was also so in the Third Republic. Originally by the laws of 1875 which created the Third Republic, the Senate was to be composed of 300 members, of which 225 were elected by the departments and colonies, but 75 were elected by the National Assembly to serve for life. However by 1921 all the "irremovable" life senators had passed away and so all senatorial positions were subject to election by departmental representatives, while meanwhile the Senate had also been expanded to 315 members. Nevertheless it should be noted that the January 1921 Senatorial elections - by which Deschanel re-entered politics - were not a general election but were very much restricted in franchise, to the agreed electoral college.

Most history books tell us that it was on this day in 1926 that two Americans Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett became the first to fly to the North Pole. They did so in a Fokker VII flying 1535 miles in just under 16 hours.
However doubt was expressed at the time and later investigations revealed that they had almost certainly faked the flight log and in fact never reached the Pole, they turned back dozens of miles short. If that is the case then the true pioneers were the 16 crew of the Italo-Norwegian expedition who flew over the Arctic Ocean via the Pole a few days after the Americans in the airship Norge on 13 May 1926. To them must go the credit.

Intended to post this on Tuesday. Interesting version of this iconic number, whose Anglo-French composer was born 17th May 1866 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sxtlHzkhzw