A devastating earthquake has struck Armenia, killing or burying alive more than 300 people in and around Leninakan (formerly Alexandropol). Half the town was destroyed, with thousands injured and 25 American relief workers in the danger zone. American nurses heroically evacuated 9,000 Armenian orphans from collapsing buildings in the darkness, maintaining extraordinary discipline as they rushed barely clothed children to safety. Meanwhile, Cuba is reeling from Wednesday's hurricane that left 600 dead and 10,000 injured across the island, with bodies still floating in Havana Bay and the American Red Cross sending $25,000 in emergency aid. In lighter news, young Mildred M. Smith of Bethesda has won The Evening Star's contest to name the National Zoo's new giraffe "Hi-Boy" — beating out nearly 500 entries with her clever poem. Queen Marie of Romania continues her energetic American tour despite a bad cold, dazzling Brooklyn crowds in a cloth of gold coat while reviewing the 106th Infantry.

This front page captures America in 1926 as a emerging global humanitarian power, responding to disasters from Armenia to Cuba with organized relief efforts and professional aid organizations. The Near East Relief's work with Armenian orphans reflects America's growing international engagement following World War I, while the Cuba hurricane response shows the nation's expanding influence in the Caribbean. The royal visit coverage and zoo naming contest reveal the era's fascination with celebrity culture and public spectacle — hallmarks of the prosperous 1920s when Americans had leisure time for such diversions. Even amid global tragedies, the paper balances serious news with charming local stories, reflecting the optimistic spirit of the Roaring Twenties.

• The Near East Relief organization had a staggering $137,000 deficit partly due to Greek warehouse fires in Piraeus 15 months earlier, with American insurance companies delaying $300,000 in claims payments for over a year
• Leninakan was home to 'the largest orphanage in the world' caring for 15,000 orphans — imagine the logistics of such an operation in 1926
• More than 200 bodies were believed floating in Havana Bay or drifting out to sea from the hurricane, with only 28 recovered so far from the harbor
• The giraffe naming contest drew entries suggesting 'Shankypal,' 'Billy Boy,' and 'Tulo' among the nearly 500 submissions from local children
• On the Isle of Pines, 17 Americans died in the Cuban hurricane, with the island's phone company manager writing optimistically about reconstruction plans despite most crops and homes being destroyed

• That Armenian earthquake struck Leninakan at the foot of Mount Ararat — the legendary resting place of Noah's Ark — and panicked residents initially thought the biblical mountain was erupting
• The Near East Relief organization mentioned here was the precursor to today's Near East Foundation, making it one of America's oldest international development agencies still operating
• Queen Marie of Romania's 1926 American tour was actually a diplomatic mission to secure U.S. loans — she was essentially the world's most glamorous fundraiser, using royal celebrity to solve her country's post-war financial crisis
• The USS Trenton, which suffered the deadly gun explosion during target practice, was one of the Navy's newest cruisers, commissioned just three years earlier as part of America's post-WWI naval modernization
• Ex-Kaiser Wilhelm II's rumored plan to return to Germany in July 1927 never happened — he would remain in Dutch exile until his death in 1941, making him history's longest-serving former emperor in exile