Juárez would later be executed for the crime. Monday, November 14, 1927 Twenty-six people in Pittsburgh were killed and 465 injured in the explosion of a natural gas storage tank. Operated by the Equitable Gas Company, the five million cubic foot gasometer, located on Reedsdale Street and Sproat Alley on Pittsburgh's North Side, erupted at 8:45 in the morning. The blast collapsed an adjacent factory building onto the 140 employees of the Pittsburgh Clay Pot Company. The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party voted to expel both Trotsky and Zinoviev from membership, along with 81 of their associates. The resolution became effective on December 2, when the Fifteenth Congress of the CPSU purged 93 other Party members associated with the "Trotsky-Zinoviev faction". Born: McLean Stevenson, American TV actor best known as Colonel Blake in M*A*S*H; in Normal, Illinois (d. 1996) Tuesday, November 15, 1927 Show Boat, with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and P. G. Wodehouse, was given its first pre-Broadway tryout, at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. It would open on Broadway on December 27. Because the production ran too long, 90 minutes would be cut. Legend has it that the most famous number in Show Boat, the song "Ol' Man River", was almost removed. The most regular outbursting comet, 29P/Schwassmann–Wachmann, was discovered by astronomers Arno Wachmann and Arnold Schwassmann. Born: Wallace Rowling, Prime Minister of New Zealand 1974 to 1975; in Motueka (d. 1995) Wednesday, November 16, 1927 The , the second United States Navy aircraft carrier, was commissioned. After World War II, the decommissioned Saratoga would be among ships sunk in an atomic test on July 25, 1946. Died: Adolph Joffe, 44, Soviet diplomat, committed suicide four days after the expulsion of his ally, Leon Trotsky, from the Communist Party. Theodore "Tiger" Flowers, 32, former middleweight boxing champion, following minor surgery for a growth above his eye. Four days earlier, he had knocked out Leo Gates in four rounds in a bout in New York. Thursday, November 17, 1927 President Coolidge declared in a speech to the Union League of Philadelphia that America was "entering upon a new era of prosperity". Less than two years later, the stock market would crash. The Mexican Supreme Court voided enforcement of a 1925 law that had abrogated a 1923 agreement between the U.S. and Mexico that had allowed drilling for oil. Born: Fenella