Death stalks the ancient Chinese city of Wuchang as 10,000 civilians reportedly perish during a brutal five-week siege by the 'Red' Cantonese army. The 1,000-year-old city across from Hankow has become a 'sealed tomb of dead and dying,' with streets strewn with corpses and residents slowly starving to death. In desperate evacuation attempts, 50 women were trampled to death in frantic rushes to reach refugee boats crossing the Yangtse River. Only 40,000 of the city's 250,000 residents have been evacuated before the Cantonese forces plan to begin bombardment on October 10. Closer to home, the World Series drama continues as the St. Louis Cardinals, down 3-2 to the Yankees, speed eastward with grim determination for tomorrow's crucial sixth game at Yankee Stadium. The Cards are pinning their hopes on veteran pitcher Alexander, who previously shut down Babe Ruth and the Yankees with just four hits. Meanwhile, Uncle Sam has a New Year's 'gift' for bootleggers: a new alcohol denaturing formula that will make illegal hooch taste like 'hot, burnt crankcase drainings from an automobile engine.'

These stories capture America's complex relationship with the wider world in 1926. While Americans eagerly followed baseball heroics and the government's cat-and-mouse game with Prohibition violators, China was convulsing in civil war that would reshape the nation for decades. The siege of Wuchang was part of the broader Chinese Civil War between various warlord factions and the emerging Nationalist forces. Domestically, the new denaturing formula represents the government's escalating war against bootleggers during the height of Prohibition. The confidence of federal officials that they'd finally created an undrinkable alcohol mixture shows how the 'Noble Experiment' had become an arms race between government chemists and criminal entrepreneurs.

• The government's new anti-bootleg alcohol formula is officially called 'Formula No. 5, Modified,' but contains 4 percent wood alcohol and smells like car engine oil
• French navy experiments found that 90 percent of coal tar can be transformed into a fuel superior to gasoline that won't catch fire outside a motor
• The World Series is being called the 'richest financial melon ever cut' with each winning player set to earn 2,000-odd dollars more than the losers
• 500 coffins were shipped to besieged Wuchang specifically to bury refugees who were trampled or drowned trying to escape
• American military officials are making a dangerous 200-mile overland journey to negotiate the release of 51 foreign missionaries trapped for six months in Sianfu

• The Cardinals' veteran pitcher Alexander mentioned here is Grover Cleveland Alexander, who would famously strike out Tony Lazzeri in Game 7 while allegedly hungover—one of baseball's most legendary moments
• That 'crankcase highball' formula the government created? Bootleggers would eventually figure out how to redistill even this nasty mixture, proving that Prohibition's chemistry war was far from over
• The siege of Wuchang was part of China's Northern Expedition, led by Chiang Kai-shek, which would eventually unify much of China under Nationalist control before the Japanese invasion
• Babe Ruth's batting slump mentioned in the sports coverage came after he'd hit a record-breaking performance the day before—the Babe's volatile 1926 season included both his lowest batting average since 1918 and helping the Yankees win the World Series
• The French navy's coal tar fuel discovery anticipated modern synthetic fuels—Germany would use similar coal-to-liquid technology extensively during World War II when oil supplies were cut off