A law that banned plastic guns that were undetectable in metal detectors was set to expire by the end of the year unless the US Congress passed it again. The US House passed it on November 3rd and the US Senate passed it on December 10th. The law requires all plastic guns to have at least one metal part that cannot be removed in the firing mechanism. Gun control advocates were hoping to expand the law.

The first really successful Technicolor motion picture film was released. The movie, shown at the Rialto Theatre in New York City, was The Toll of the Sea, derived from Madame Butterfly but shifted to China. It was filmed using the early two-color System 2. The Technicolor camera [left] recorded the red and blue-green images simultaneously through a single lens using a beam splitter and color filters to record the images stacked one on top of the other. System 1 had used additive colour with filters on two projected images. System 2 used two dyed matrix prints cemented back to back to form a the final release print. The process was developed by Dr. Herbert T. Kalmus, who founded Technicolor Motion Picture Corp. in 1915.