only on condition that a Ministry official sit next to the announcer to prevent any inappropriate statements. Radio broadcasting had begun on March 22, 1925. Born: (according to some sources) Fidel Castro, Cuban dictator from 1959 onward, in Birán (d. 2016). Although the official birthdate for Castro is August 13, 1926, several of his siblings in exile stated that their father lied about the year in order for him to enroll earlier in school. Died: James Oliver Curwood, 49, America novelist and conservationist. Curwood had been bitten by an insect while on a fishing trip in Florida, and died of blood poisoning on his return to his home in Owosso, Michigan Sunday, August 14, 1927 The first tournament for the Mitropacup opened with eight teams drawn from the top finishers and the cup winners of the national soccer football leagues of Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Sparta Praha would defeat Rapid Wien in the two game final to win the first cup. Herbert Lord, the Director of the U.S. Bureau of the Budget (now the OMB), announced that there was a surplus of more than two billion dollars in the federal budget. He gave the precise figure of $2,392,909,074.38 for the amount saved. Astronomer C.T. Elvey announced from the Yerkes Observatory in Chicago that the Sun could explode any minute, and added, "If the sun should explode, we would know of it in eight minutes and we would have 138 hours more to live. At that time the burning gases would reach the earth and we would be annihilated." Monday, August 15, 1927 In East Milton, Massachusetts, the home of Lewis McHardy, who had been one of the jurors who had convicted Sacco and Vanzetti of murder, was destroyed by a bomb that went off at 3:30 in the morning. McHardy, his wife and three children survived with only cuts and bruises. After the two men were put to death, the homes of their executioner and of trial judge Webster Thayer were bombed on May 17, 1928, and September 27, 1932, respectively. Rollo Gallagher of Salt Lake City, Utah, was fatally burned when he fell into a hot spring near Firehole Lake in Lower Geyser Basin at Yellowstone National Park. Although advised to go to a nearby hospital, Gallagher chose to drive back to Salt Lake City and died after he arrived there. Born: Patrick Galvin, Irish poet, in Cork