an appropriate law to make pederasty answerable as a crime. In many ways this will clean up society, will rid it of nonconformists." Stalin then decreed the new law. Died: George Jackson Churchward, 76, Chief Mechanical Engineer of Britain's Great Western Railway Friedrich von Ingenohl, 76, commander of the High Seas Fleet of the German Imperial Navy during World War One Herbert Thacker Herr, 57, American mechanical engineer and inventor December 20, 1933 (Wednesday) Romania held elections for its Chamber of Deputies. The official results had been arranged in advance by Premier Ion Duca of the Partidul Naţional Liberal, "who proceeded to assign himself 50.99 percent of the votes and 300 of the 387 seats". The first American ambassador to the Soviet Union, William C. Bullitt, was welcomed to Moscow with a banquet conducted at the Kremlin and attended by the Soviet leadership. Bullitt would later report that General Secretary Joseph Stalin kissed him on the mouth, and that Bullitt returned with a kiss on the cheek. Years later, Bullitt would be bitter about the experience and the feeling of having been betrayed by the Soviets. Born: Jean Carnahan, U.S. Senator for Missouri 2001–2002 after being elected to succeed her husband, Mel Carnahan; in Washington D.C. December 21, 1933 (Thursday) Newfoundland, at the time independent of Canada was returned to direct rule from the United Kingdom with the royal assent of the Newfoundland Act 1933, with the dominion's self-governing status being surrendered in return for its debts being assumed by the United Kingdom. Died: Sir Henry Dickens, 85, British barrister and son of author Charles Dickens; after being struck by a motorcycle Tod Sloan, 59, American jockey December 22, 1933 (Friday) Son of Kong, the sequel to the March hit film, premiered nationwide. The film Alice in Wonderland, based on the famous Alice novels by Lewis Carroll, was released with Charlotte Henry in the title role. Stars featured in the film included W. C. Fields, Edna May Oliver, Cary Grant and Gary Cooper. Born: Abel Pacheco, President of Costa Rica, 2002–06, in San José Jim Barnes, American Choctaw Indian writer, in Summerfield, Oklahoma; December 23, 1933 (Saturday) Two hundred people were killed when an express train collided with a slower moving train near Paris, on a rail line between Lagny-sur-Marne and Pomponne. The Paris to Strasbourg express train, moving at 65 miles an hour, crashed into the wooden coaches of