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Charles Hawtrey was born on 21 September 1858 in Eton, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for A Message from Mars (1913), The Private Secretary (1935) and Honeymoon for Three (1915). He was married to Katherine Elsie Emma Petre and Madeline 'Mae' Harriet. He died on 30 July 1923 in Marylebone, London, England, UK.

The son of writer-theater producer-director-actor Hal Reid, Wallace was on stage by the age of four in the act with his parents. He spent most of his early years, not on the stage, but in private schools where he excelled in music and athletics. In 1910, his father went to the Chicago studio of "Selig Polyscope Company" and Wallace decided that he wanted to be a cameraman. However, with his athletic good looks, he was often put in front of the camera instead of behind - a situation that he disliked. His first film before the camera was The Phoenix (1910), where he played the role of the young reporter. Wallace preferred to be a cameraman, a writer, a director - anything but an actor. He took his fathers play "The Confession" to Vitagraph where he wanted to write and direct the film. Wallace ended up also acting in it. Starting with bit parts in various films, Wallace was eventually cast as the leading man to Florence Turner in numerous films. Wallace next moved on to "Reliance" where he acted, but also wrote screenplays. His next big move was to Hollywood, where he was hired by Universal director Otis Turner, as assistant director, second cameraman, gopher and scenario writer. It was what he was looking for, but he ended up back in front of the camera. At 20, Reid was an unknown assistant director. In 1913, Wallace married Dorothy Davenport, one of the stars that he both directed and starred with. Although only 17, Dorothy had spent a number of years on the stage before heading to the silver screen. The roles that Wallace played were getting bigger and bigger, but after appearing in over 100 films, he took a salary cut and a small part to work with D.W. Griffith on his milestone film The Birth of a Nation (1915). It was after this film that Jesse L. Lasky signed Wallace to a contract with "Famous Players" and he became a big star, but his dreams of directing and writing ended. An alcoholic for years, this situation worsened. His first film for "Famous Players" was The Chorus Lady (1915). Wallace went on to star in a series of pictures in which he represented all that was best of the ideal American. He had parts in over 60 more pictures including Intolerance (1916) and The Squaw Man's Son (1917). But it was the daredevil auto movies that he was most popular at. Flashing cars, dangerous roads and sometimes a race with a speeding locomotive thrilled and scared the public. His auto pictures included The Roaring Road (1919), Excuse My Dust (1920) and Double Speed (1920). When the U.S. entered World War I, Wallace was 25, six foot one and a crack shot. Even though he wanted to enlist, pressure was exerted on him not to. He was the rock on which "Famous Players" was built and his loss would have materially effect the company. He had a newborn son and was the sole support for his wife, his son, his mother, her mother, his father and also had to consider his status as a matinée idol.

He did volunteer his time to selling Liberty bonds and often opened his house to veterans. His films were financial successes, but in his personal life, he spent money like water. Wallace was a star who was worked continuously by the studio but disaster struck on a film site in Oregon. While making the film The Valley of the Giants (1919), Wallace was involved in a train crash and his injuries prevented him from finishing the film. Unwilling to stop the film, the studio sent the company doctor up to Oregon with a supply of morphine so that he would continue working and not feel the pain of his injury. After the picture was finished, he was needed to begin another so the studio kept supplying Wallace with morphine and he became hooked. Coupled with the alcohol, Wallace never had a chance and by 1922, he started entering a succession of hospitals and sanitariums as his health faded. Making his last film for the studio, Thirty Days (1922), Wallace was barely able to stand, let alone act. He died at the sanitarium, in Dorothy's arms, on the 18th day of January 1923 at the age of only 31. Wallace was the third major Paramount personality to be involved in scandal in 1922.

This celebrated star of the French stage had a sporadic love-hate affair with early cinema. After her film debut in Hamlet, Duel Scene with Laertes (1900) she declared she detested the medium; yet she consented to appear in another film, La Tosca (1909). Upon seeing the results, she reportedly recoiled in horror, demanding that the negative be destroyed. Her next film appearance, in the Film d'Art production of La dame aux camélias (1912), was a critical and popular success, helping give cinema artistic dignity. The following year she made Les amours de la reine Élisabeth (1912) in Britain. The receipts from this film's distribution in the US provided Adolph Zukor with the funds to found Paramount. Bernhardt, at 69, was offered a fortune to make films with other companies, but stayed with Film d'Art, appearing in Adrienne Lecouvreur (1913). She appeared in two more pictures after losing a leg in 1915, Jeanne Doré (1915) and Mothers of France (1917), both produced as WWI morale boosters. In 1923, when she was 79, her hotel room was turned into a studio so that she could appear in the film La voyante (1924). But her failing health halted production and she died before the film was completed. She was portrayed on the screen by Glenda Jackson in The Incredible Sarah (1976).

Stunning silent screen actress Martha Mansfield was a musical comedy star in New York City by the time she entered films in 1916 for Max Linder. Before long she advanced to second leads in features, including the role of Millicent Carew in the John Barrymore starrer Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), which to this day remains her best known. The promising beauty was signed by Fox Studios in 1923 and began work on a new picture The Warrens of Virginia (1924). Nearing the completion of the film, Martha had just finished a scene and was returning to her automobile when her dress caught fire from a carelessly strewn match. Engulfed in flames, co-star Wilfred Lytell managed to throw his coat around her and extinguish the fire, but it was too late. She died the next day of severe burns at age 24.

Francisco "Pancho" Villa was born Doroteo Arango to rural peasant parents in San Juan del Rio, Mexico, on June 5, 1878. He later took several aliases, the most popular and well-known being "Pancho Villa". Raised in poverty in Durango, he turned to cattle rustling and robbery as a young man. The turning point in his life, however, was the day his sister was attacked and raped by Mexican army troops. Villa wanted revenge against the whole world and soon turned from being simply a bandit leader into a full-fledged revolutionary with the aim of overthrowing Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz. To that end Villa became an ally of another revolutionary, the urbane and educated Francisco I. Madero, and although the two were about as opposite from one another as it was possible to be, Villa soon became a diehard supporter of the diminutive Madero, whom he affectionately called "the little man". Madero appointed Villa a colonel in the revolutionary army. On May 11, 1911, Villa led a daring raid against the federal stronghold of Juarez, soundly defeating the government forces and securing Madero's position as the new president. After Diaz was driven from power and Madero installed as president, Villa went home. His stay there was not to be very long, however. Two years later Madero was overthrown and executed by renegade Gen. Victoriano Huerta. Enraged, Villa re-formed his army, now called the Army of the North, and became an important member of a coalition of anti-Huerta forces, among whom were such legendary Mexican figures as Emiliano Zapata and Venustiano Carranza.

Villa's mounted troops, called "Villistas", were highly mobile and seasoned by years of fighting against the Diaz regime. They inflicted a decisive defeat on Huerta's army in northern Mexico at the Battle of Zacatecas on June 23, 1913, then began a campaign to drive Huerta's forces south to their stronghold of Mexico City. By December, in conjunction with the armies of Carranza and Zapata, Villa captured Mexico City, forcing Huerta to flee and placing control of the government in the hands of the three rebel leaders. However, the following spring Villa was forced out of the triumvirate when he lost a power struggle with Carranza. In the ensuing conflict his troops were badly defeated by Carranza's army and Villa was forced to withdraw to his headquarters in Durango. There he resumed his life as a bandit, raiding isolated American border towns and mining camps as well as Mexican villages.

On March 9, 1916, troops under Villa's command raided the town of Columbus, New Mexico, looted it, burned down much of it and caused the deaths of more than a dozen residents, although about 30 of their own men were killed by American soldiers and civilians defending the town (supposedly Villa was angered by the U.S. authorities allowing elements of Carranza's army, which was pursuing him, to cross through American territory as a shortcut in an attempt to get ahead of Villa and ambush him, and the raid was in retaliation for that). The U.S. government sent an expeditionary force into Mexico under Gen. John J. Pershing to capture Villa. However, Villa's maneuverability and superior knowledge of the terrain enabled him to elude the pursuing American troops, and Pershing's forces withdrew from the area the following year.

In 1920 the Carranza government struck a deal with Villa in which he agreed to halt his raids in exchange for settling down on a ranch in Canutillo and being appointed a general in the Mexican army. However, on June 20, 1923, Villa was ambushed and murdered in Parral by followers of Álvaro Obregón, a former army general, who feared that Villa would oppose their leader's candidacy for president in the upcoming elections. Immediately following his death the name of Pancho Villa was eliminated from all history books, children's books and all monuments in Mexico. It wasn't until 1975 (more than a half-century after his death) that both the Mexican and American governments felt safe enough to exhume his body, and when they did, they discovered that someone had stolen his head. After a large parade was held in his honor in Mexico, Pancho Villa's body was sent to the cemetery where many Mexican revolutionary heroes were buried, and he was finally given the proper burial he deserved.

Betzy Kofoed was born on 14 October 1855 in Kristiansand, Norway. She was an actress, known for Kærlighedens Firkløver (1915), Telefondamen (1917) and For Lykke og Ære (1915). She was married to Carl Emil Petersen and Jens Koefoed. She died on 23 January 1923 in Skive, Denmark.

Joe Roberts was born on 2 February 1871 in Albany, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Our Hospitality (1923), The Primitive Lover (1922) and Three Ages (1923). He was married to Lillian Stuart Feld Roberts and Nina Mildred Straw Shannon. He died on 28 October 1923 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Frank Hayes was born on 17 May 1871 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Vanity Fair (1923), A Hoosier Romance (1918) and After His Own Heart (1919). He was married to Lottie Harriet Ward Christensen Kemp (maiden name: Ward). He died on 28 December 1923 in Hollywood, California, USA.

After a distinguished career of more than 30 years on stage, Charles Kent entered the film industry in its earliest stages--his debut, as far as is known, was in 1908 in Macbeth (1908)). He was not only an actor but a director, and guided many upper-echelon films for Vitagraph, often starring in them. He was one of the first directors to use close-ups creatively, for which he was savaged by contemporary critics. He retired from directing in 1913, but continued acting until shortly before his death.

Guido Herzfeld was born on 22 November 1870 in Prague, Kingdom of Bohemia, Austrian Empire. He was an actor, known for Irrende Seelen (1921), Crown of Thorns (1923) and Theophrastus Paracelsus (1916). He died on 16 November 1923 in Berlin, Germany.

Anna Townsend was born on 5 January 1845 in Utica, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Grandma's Boy (1922), Daddy (1923) and A Marked Man (1917). She died on 11 September 1923 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. After his death, a number of scandals were exposed, including Teapot Dome, as well as an extramarital affair with Nan Britton, which diminished his reputation.

Frank Goodenough Bayly was born in 1873 in England, UK. Frank Goodenough was a director, known for One Summer's Day (1917) and The Lifeguardsman (1916). Frank Goodenough was married to Katie Johnson. Frank Goodenough died on 28 November 1923 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, UK.

Sidney Mason was born on 26 September 1886 in Paterson, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for Orphan Sally (1922), The Good-Bad Wife (1920) and The Seven Sisters (1915). He was married to Marie Mason (née Van). He died on 1 March 1923 in New York City, New York, USA.

Evelyn Nelson was born Dorris Evelyn Nelson on November 13, 1899 in Chloride, Arizona. Her father was a miner and cattle owner. When she was a child her family moved to Los Angeles, California. She started her career at Bull's Eye films and appeared in the 1920 comedy Don't Park Here. Evelyn was signed by Vitagraph and costarred with Oliver Hardy in the comedies The Backyard and The Decorator. Then she was chosen to be Jack Hoxie's leading lady in the 1921 film Cyclone Bliss. She would make a series of westerns with Jack including The Crow's Nest, The Desert Bridegroom, and Two-Fisted Jefferson. Her older sister Pauline Nelson became an actress too. After her father died Evelyn moved into a modest apartment with her mother. She began a passionate affair with married actor Wallace Reid.

He ended the relationship because he was fearful it would ruin his career. Tragically in January of 1923 Wallace died of a drug overdose. Evelyn was devastated by his death. In June of 1923 she finished filming Desert Rider. She was physically and emotionally exhausted. On June 16, 1923 she committed suicide by turning on the gas in her apartment. She was only twenty-three years old. Evelyn left two suicide notes for her family. The first note said that she was "tired" and that she wanted "rest more than anything in the world". The other note said "I am just about gone and will soon be with my friend Wally." She was buried in an unmarked grave at Rosedale cemetery in Los Angeles.

George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert 5th Earl of Carnarvon was born on 26 June 1866 in London, England, UK. He was married to Almina Wombwell. He died on 5 April 1923 in Cairo, Egypt.

Raymond Radiguet was born on 18 June 1903 in Saint-Maur, Val-de-Marne, France. He was a writer, known for The Devil in the Flesh, Devil in the Flesh (1947) and Devil in the Flesh (1977). He died on 9 December 1923 in Paris, France.

Czech author Jaroslav Hasek was born in 1883 in Prague, Bohemia (now Czech Republic), which at the time was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father was an alcoholic schoolteacher who was constantly moving the family in search of better paying jobs, and died when Jaroslav was 13. The youngster apprenticed himself to a druggist at 15, but decided that wasn't for him and eventually attended business school. He briefly worked as a bank clerk before taking up a career as a freelance writer and journalist.

In 1907 he became involved in the anarchist movement, which brought him to the attention of the Austrian secret police, resulting in his being arrested and imprisoned several times for his political activities. That same year he met a young woman named Jarmila Mayerova, and the two decided to get married. However, her parents did not approve of him--especially his politics--and would not sanction their marriage. Hasek resolved to distance himself from his political activities and concentrate on his writing in order to win her parents' approval, but when he was arrested for vandalizing an Austrian flag, her parents moved her from Prague far out into the country, hoping that the distance would eventually break up the couple. It didn't work, though, and the two were married in 1910. Unfortunately, it didn't work out and she moved back with her parents in less than a year.

In 1914, on the outbreak of World War I, Hasek was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army and sent to the Russian front. He was captured by the Russians in 1915 and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp, where he contracted typhus, but he eventually recovered. At the camp he was recruited into an outfit called The Czech Legion, a unit put together by the Russians consisting of Czech POWs who agreed to fight the Austrians. At the end of the war he left the Czech Legion but joined the Red Army, mainly as a recruiter and propagandist. In 1920 he remarried, although he was still technically married to Jarmila.

In 1920 he returned to Prague, but his health had severely deteriorated and he was grossly overweight. He began working on a book of his that had originally been published in 1912, called "The Good Soldier Schweik and Other Strange Stories", about the adventures of a good-natured but not particularly bright soldier named Schweik who looked on his army time as basically a lark. He now began to rewrite and add new chapters to the book, giving it a somewhat darker tone due to his own wartime experiences, but his health kept getting worse and he wound up dictating the new chapters to an assistant because he could not actually perform the physical task of writing. He died of heart failure in the Czech village of Lipnice on Jan. 23, 1923. His final work, now called "The Good Soldier Schweik", has become a classic in European literature, and has been successfully adapted on stage and in film many times.

Minnie Devereaux was born in 1869 in Oklahoma. She was an actress, known for The Coward (1915), Mickey (1918) and Food for Scandal (1920). She died on 5 June 1923 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Born in San Francisco's Castro District, Allen Holubar was the first of five children of Constantin Josef Holubar and Margaret Allen C. Holubar, who immigrated from Bohemia in 1875 and married Margaret, a Scots woman, in San Francisco (Allen was born at 44 Caselli Ave. in a house that still stands). Despite parental pressures to be a machinist, Allen worked his way up from sweeping floors to acting, starting at the Alcazar & Alhambra Theatres in San Francisco. He was evidently a prominent dramatic actor, known widely across the US from 1908-1912. However, in the words of a San Francisco newspaper at the time, "He forsook legitimate drama for the moving picture screen" in 1913. After starring in several landmark films, he began directing and was one of Carl Laemmle's first directors at Universal Pictures. Later, after having differences with Laemmle, he founded his own production company, Allen Holubar Pictures, in 1917.

As an up-and-coming producer, he was famous for being the first to coordinate a movie shoot (Hurricane's Gal (1922)) using radio. In the words of a local paper, "Mr. Holubar has successfully performed the unprecedented task of using the wireless waves to direct the movements of an airship, a destroyer and a schooner, maneuvering all of these within his camera's range as he supervised these activities from a hydroplane far above."

He died of postoperative complications from gallstone surgery at the height of his career in 1923. His wife, the former actress Dorothy Phillips, did not act again until the mid-'60s, when she played an old woman in Cat Ballou (1965), starring Lee Marvin and Jane Fonda.

Siegmund Lubin was born on 20 April 1851 in Breslau, Silesia, Germany [now Wroclaw, Dolnoslaskie, Poland]. He was a producer and director, known for Uncle Tom's Cabin (1903), Passion Play (1900) and Thrilling Detective Story (1906). He was married to Annie Abrams. He died on 10 September 1923 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA.

Frederick Treves was a famous pioneer in abdominal surgery. Today he is mostly remembered as the physician to the Elephant Man. On May 4, 1901, Treves was knighted by King Edward VII on whom he had performed an appendicectomy.

Adolph Lestina was born on 26 February 1861 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Girl Who Stayed at Home (1919), The Burglar's Dilemma (1912) and A Wreath of Orange Blossoms (1911). He was married to Mary Elizabeth (Bessie) Rice (aka Bessie Lea Lestina, actress). He died on 23 August 1923 in New Rochelle, New York, USA.

Marjorie Seaman was born on 21 June 1900 in Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for Free Air (1922). She was married to Ralph Graves. She died on 9 March 1923 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

F.A. Turner was born on 12 October 1858 in New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917), Restitution (1918) and Terror Island (1920). He died on 13 February 1923.