The following events occurred in December 1921:
December 1, 1921 (Thursday) The United States government implemented regulations for the right to broadcast wireless radio signals commercially, requiring a license from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Navigation, for all transmitters and setting aside two specific frequencies on the amplitude modulation (AM) portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Initially, stations broadcasting news reports were allowed the 485 meter wavelength (equivalent to 620 kHz) and those broadcasting entertainment were allowed 360 meters (roughly 830 kHz). For the first time, a manned airship was flown filled with non-flammable helium rather than hydrogen, as the United States Navy flew the C-7, a C-class blimp from Hampton Roads, Virginia to Washington, D.C. and back. C-7 was powered by two engines and had a gondola hanging from it that was large enough to carry a crew of four people. British Prime Minister David Lloyd George announced, for the first time in negotiations, that dominion status within the British Commonwealth would be offered to Ireland, similar to that existing at the time in Canada, as an alternative to independence. In addition, the six counties of Ulster Province would remain as Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom, and a boundary commission would be created to arrange a permanent definition of the boundary between north and south. Riots broke out in Vienna as a result of price increases. Shops were looted and foreign hotel guests were robbed. Nicaragua ended martial law in its northwestern provinces after receiving a shipment of weapons and munitions from the U.S.
The short (24 minutes) silent comedy film The Lucky Dog, starring Stan Laurel, was released by the Amalgamated Producing Company. Wearing a full mustache, another comedian, Oliver Hardy, had a role in the film as an armed robber confronting Laurel.
December 2, 1921 (Friday) Under the terms of the Treaty of Kars, Soviet territory in the western Armenian SSR was ceded back to Turkey, including Mount Ararat of Biblical fame, as the former Kars Oblast came under Turkish control as the Kars Province and the Ardahan Province. Born: Carlo Furno, Italian Roman Catholic Cardinal; in Bairo, Piedmont (died 2015)
December 3, 1921 (Saturday) For the first time, the championship of Canadian football, the Grey Cup was played between the best team in Western Canada and the best in Eastern Canada. The Toronto Argonauts defeated the visiting Edmonton Eskimos (who were unrelated to the CFL team of the same name that is now the Edmonton Elks), winning 23 to 0 at Varsity Stadium.
December 4, 1921 (Sunday) The Irish nationalist delegates rejected the British settlement offer of Dominion status, in that it continued to require an oath of allegiance to the British crown for all government members, and continued the partition of the island of Ireland. A delegation representing the "Far Eastern Republic" arrived in Washington, D.C., in hopes of obtaining American help in driving Japanese troops from Siberia and seeking diplomatic recognition.
The value of Germany's currency, referred to retrospectively as the "paper" Mark (Papiermark), dropped sharply on announcements that the cost of living had increased by 22% during the month of November, and that prices were almost 60 percent higher than they had been at the beginning of the year. In a game that decided the second championship of the NFL, the Chicago Staleys (now the Chicago Bears) beat the previously undefeated Buffalo All-Americans, 10 to 7. Buffalo had ended its scheduled games with a 9-0-2 record and its owner had agreed to the December 4 game in the belief that it was a post-season exhibition, while the Commissioner of the American Professional Football Association, which would adopt the name National Football League in 1922, ruled that Chicago was the league champion after both teams finished with records of 9 wins and 1 loss. Born: Deanna Durbin (Edna Mae Durban), Canadian singer; in Winnipeg (d. 2013)