Historical Events in 1920

Events 1 - 200 of 299

• Jan 1 The Belorussian Communist Organisation is founded as a separate party.
• Jan 2 Responding to global fear of communism caused by the Russian Revolution, US Attorney General Palmer authorizes raids across the country on unionists and socialists

• Jan 4 Amsterdam actors decide to strike for retirement benefits
• Jan 7 Five duly elected Socialist assemblymen are denied by the New York State Assembly
• Jan 10 Inauguration of the League of Nations held in Paris
• Jan 10 Montreal's Newsy Lalonde scores 6 goals as Canadiens beat Toronto St. Patricks, 14-7 at Mount Royal Arena, Montreal; combined 21 goals an NHL record
• Jan 10 Silver reaches record $1.37 an ounce
• Jan 11 French passenger ship Afrique sinks near La Rochelle; 553 die
• Jan 12 Annual drafting of baseball players from minor leagues to be done in inverse order of the final standings, agreed to
• Jan 13 NY Times editorial (falsely) reports rockets can never fly
• Jan 16 First assembly of the League of Nations is held in Paris
• Jan 16 Georgia declares independence
• Jan 16 Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated is founded at Howard University
• Jan 17 First day of prohibition of alcohol comes into effect in the US as a result of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution
• Jan 17 Paul Deschanel elected President of France
• Jan 20 Dutch 2nd Chamber passes school laws

• Jan 20 Russian Imperial Navy Admiral Alexander Kolchak, leader of anti-communist "White Movement" surrenders to Bolshevik troops
• Jan 20 The American Civil Liberties Union is founded

• Jan 26 Amedeo Modigliani's fiancé Jeanne Hébuterne jumps out of a window a day after the artist's funeral killing herself and her unborn child
• Jan 26 American Henry Leland's military engine manufacturing company, the Lincoln Motor Company reorganizes as an automobile manufacturer; he sells the struggling company to the Ford Motor Company in 1922yer

• Jan 31 1st daily Ukrainian language US newspaper, "Ukraïns'ki Shchodenni Visti "(Ukrainian Daily News), begins publishing in New York City; publication initially sponsored by the Ukrainian Section of the Communist Party
• Jan 31 Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity incorporates at Howard University

• Feb 1 1st commercial armored car introduced (St Paul, Minn)
• Feb 1 Royal Canadian Mounted Police forms as Royal Northwest Mounted Police merge with Dominion Police
• Feb 2 Estonia declares its Independence from Russia (Dorpat Peace)
• Feb 2 France occupies (German) Memel territory
• Feb 2 Tarto/Dorpat peace treaty: USSR recognizes Estonian independence
• Feb 4 1st flight from London to South Africa departs (takes 1½ months)
• Feb 6 Saarland administrated by League of Nations
• Feb 7 Russian Imperial Navy Admiral Kolchak, leader of anti-communist "White Movement" executed by Bolshevik firing squad in Irkutsk, Russian SFSR
• Feb 8 Bolshevik troops capture Odessa, bringing an end to foreign involvement in the resistance against Bolshevik rule
• Feb 8 Swiss men vote against women's suffrage
• Feb 9 International treaty recognizes Norwegian sovereignty over Svalbard
• Feb 9 Joint Rules Com bans foreign substances & alterations to baseballs
• Feb 10 Baseball outlaws all pitches involving tampering with ball
• Feb 10 Jozef Haller de Hallenburg performs symbolic wedding of Poland to the sea, celebrating restitution of Polish access to open sea
• Feb 12 -Apr 26] 14,000 Rotterdam/Amsterdam harbor workers strike
• Feb 12 NL votes 6-2 for a single baseball commissioner, AL votes 6-2 to keep group commission
• Feb 13 Baseball Hall of Famer “Rube” Foster and 7 other team owners create the first Negro National League (NNL) at a meeting in a Kansas City YMCA
• Feb 13 League of Nations recognizes perpetual neutrality of Switzerland, allowing Switzerland to rejoin the League
• Feb 14 League of Women Voters forms in Chicago
• Feb 19 Netherlands joins League of Nations
• Feb 22 1st artificial rabbit used at a dog race track (Emeryville, California)

• Feb 24 Peace treaty gives Estonia independence
• Feb 26 German silent horror film classic "The Cabinet of Dr Caligari" starring Werner Krauss is released
• Feb 28 Austria adopts a new constitution and becomes a kingdom again

• Feb 29 Trying to maintain independence from Germany and the USSR, Czechoslovakia adopts a constitution
• Mar 1 Buriat ASSR, in RSFSR, constituted
• Mar 1 Miklós Horthy is elected Regent of Hungary, which had adopted a constitution on 28 February

• Mar 3 Montreal Canadiens scores NHL record 16 goals beating Quebec Bulldogs
• Mar 4 Last day of Julian civil calendar in Greece
• Mar 8 Denmark & Cuba join the League of Nations
• Mar 10 Home Rule Act passed by the British Parliament, dividing Ireland into two parts; it is rejected by the southern counties, where the Ango-Irish war continues for a year
• Mar 10 NHL's Quebec Bulldog Joe Malone scores 6 goals vs Ottawa Senators
• Mar 11 Syria proclaims Emir Feisal king after the country has fought off French domination
• Mar 13 After the German government is forced to cut its army to 10,000 men, military groups plot an unsuccessful coup - a revolt ended by a general strike
• Mar 16 1 Acre Park also known as Baby Park in the Bronx renamed Melrose Park

• Mar 20 1st flight from London to South Africa lands (took 1½ months)
• Mar 23 Perserikatan Communist of India (PKI) political party forms
• Mar 24 1st US coast guard air station established (Morehead City, NC)
• Mar 25 Greek Independence Day
• Mar 27 Hermann Muller becomes German chancellor (SPD)
• Mar 28 Anton Denkin's White Russian troops defeated by Bolsheviks and Soviets at Novorossijsk on the Black Sea (The British aid Denkin in his escape)
• Mar 28 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1920 affects the Great Lakes region and Deep South states

• Mar 31 British parliament accepts Irish Home Rule law
• Apr 1 Stanley Cup Final, Mutual Street Arena, Toronto, ON: Jack Darragh scores a hat-trick as Ottawa Senators (NHL) beat Seattle Metropolitans (PCHA), 6-1 for a 3-2 series win
• Apr 1 The (Anglican) Church in Wales disestablished
• Apr 4 Arabs attack Jews in Jerusalem
• Apr 6 To force German evacuation of the Ruhr area, the French occupy Frankfurt, Darmstadt, and Hanau
• Apr 13 1st woman US Civil Service Commissioner, Helen Hamilton appointed
• Apr 15 New Canadian small cent coin is released
• Apr 15 Sacco & Vanzetti Trial: paymaster shot and killed along with his guard
• Apr 20 Big Show ends 2 year run on NBC radio
• Apr 20 Phillies manager Gravvy Cravath puts himself in as pinch hitter, his 3- run homer beats NY Giants 3-0
• Apr 20 Tornadoes kill 219 in Alabama & Mississippi
• Apr 21 John Galsworthy's "Skin Game" premieres in London

• Apr 24 British Mandate over Palestine goes into effect (lasts 28 years)
• Apr 24 Polish troops attack Ukraine
• Apr 25 Magda Julin of Sweden beats teammate Svea Norén for the gold medal in women's singles figure skating at the Antwerp Olympics

• Apr 26 Harlow Shapley and Heber D. Curtis hold the "Great Debate" on the nature of nebulae, galaxies and size of the universe at US National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.
• Apr 26 Husband and wife team Ludowika & Walter Jakobsson representing Finland, win the pairs skating gold medal at the Antwerp Olympics; Ludowika is the only German-born athlete at the Games
• Apr 26 Ice hockey makes its Olympic debut at the Antwerp Games with center Frank Fredrickson scoring 7 goals in Canada's 12-1 drubbing of Sweden in the gold medal match
• Apr 27 Pogrom leader Petljoera declares Ukraine Independence
• Apr 27 Sweden takes the figure skating double at the Antwerp Olympics when Gillis Grafström wins his first of 3 consecutive men's gold medals; Magda Julin earlier wins the women's singles event
• Apr 28 Azerbaijan SSR joins USSR (1st time)
• Apr 29 Duke Kahanamoku wins his 2nd gold medal of the day in the winning American 4 x 200m freestyle relay team with Perry McGillivray, Pua Kealoha and Norman Ross in world record 10:04.4
• Apr 30 The British Government ends military conscription
• May 1 Belgium-Luxembourg toll tunnel opens
• May 1 Legendary slugger Babe Ruth records his first HR for the New York Yankees in 6-0 win over his former club, the Boston Red Sox
• May 1 Longest MLB game by innings - Brooklyn Robins tie the Boston Braves, 1-1, in 26 innings
• May 1 Roermond Football Club (1936 KNVB Cup) is established in Netherlands
• May 2 1st game of National Negro Baseball League played in Indianapolis
• May 5 German-Latvian peace treaty signed
• May 5 Italian migrant anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti charged with murder of a paymaster at a US shoe factory in Massachusetts, both are later executed
• May 5 Polish troops occupy Kiev

• May 7 USSR recognizes Georgia's independence
• May 14 Giants inform Yankees that the lease allowing them to play in the Polo Grounds will not be renewed at end of 1920 season

• May 15 Soccer team ADO '20 forms in Heemskerk

• May 16 Spanish matador Joselito (José Gómez Ortega) is fatally gored in his last bullfight, by "Bailador" the bull, in Talavera de la Reina, Spain
• May 17 1st De Havilland double-decker flight (London) lands in Schiphol
• May 17 1st flight by Dutch airlines KLM (Koninklijke-Luchtvaart-Maatschappij)
• May 17 First London-Amsterdam airline service, a joint venture between British Aerial Transport and KLM
• May 20 Mexican President Venustiano Carranza, under attack by American petroleum companies, faces an armed rebellion by right-wing Sonoro triumvirate after nationalizing subsoil rights
• May 20 Policemen raid the Cubs' bleachers & arrest 24 fans for gambling
• May 21 Mexican President Venustiano Carranza is executed by army generals after fleeing an armed rebellion in Mexico
• May 23 Pope Benedictus XV publishes encyclical Pacem Dei
• May 27 Tatar ASSR forms in Russian SFSR
• Jun 1 Adolfo de la Huerta becomes President of Mexico
• Jun 1 Dutch soccer club RKSV forms in Volendam; merges with FC Volendam in 1977

• Jun 4 Peace of Trianon between Allies & Hungary

• Jun 5 Philadelphia Athletics's VP Thomas Shibe denies charges that baseballs are livelier
• Jun 6 Baron Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel opens White Russian offensive against red Army
• Jun 8 Reds' Edd Roush falls asleep in center during long infield argument Heinie Groh goes to wake him, but umpire ejects Roush for delay of game

• Jun 12 Farmer Labor Party organized (Chicago)

• Jun 15 African American circus workers, Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie are taken from jail and lynched by a white mob of thousands in Duluth, Minnesota
• Jun 15 De Zweef soccer team forms in Nijverdal
• Jun 17 Dutch 2nd Chamber accept Anti-revolution law
• Jun 20 Yanks win protest of 1-0 White Sox win & game is replayed
• Jun 24 Chuvash Autonomous Region forms in RSFSR
• Jun 25 League of Nations places Internationall Court of Justice in Hague
• Jul 1 Sir Herbert Samuel takes over as high commissioner over Palestine, where Arab resistance to the British mandate continues
• Jul 1 St Louis Cardinals become tenants of their AL rival St Louis Browns, as they abandon Robison Field midway through the MLB season and return to Sportsman's Park
• Jul 1 Washington Senators pitching legend Walter Johnson no-hits Boston Red Sox 1-0 at Fenway Park, the only no-hitter of his illustrious career
• Jul 3 Java Technical School, Bandung, opens
• Jul 3 Royal Air Force holds an air display at Hendon, England
• Jul 4 The provisional government of Siberia's Maritime Province agrees to hand over parts of the strategic oil- and coal-rich Sakhalin Islands to Japan
• Jul 6 New York Yankees score MLB record 14 runs in 5th inning of a 17-0 rout of Washington Senators

• Jul 11 East and West Prussia vote in a plebiscite to become part of Germany, though a slice of West Prussia will be handed to Poland to provide a 'Polish Corridor'
• Jul 12 Lithuania and USSR sign peace treaty, Lithuania becomes independent republic
• Jul 15 Ruth ties his record of 29 HRs in a season
• Jul 16 Gen Amos Fries appointed 1st US army chemical warfare chief
• Jul 19 Babe Ruth hits his 30th home run of the 1920 baseball season, breaking his own single-season record. He would attain 54 throughout the season, before breaking that record the next year.
• Jul 20 Dutch soccer club Sportclub Heerenveen is formed; initially known as Athleta; KNVB Cup Champions 2008–09
• Jul 21 Irish Nationalist and Loyalists engage in street fighting over the issue of Irish independence from Britain, though Loyalist are reinforced by 1500 British Auxiliaries and 5800 British troops
• Jul 23 British East Africa renamed Kenya and becomes a British crown colony
• Jul 27 Radio compass used for 1st time for aircraft navigation
• Jul 27 Resolute beats Shamrock IV (England) in 14th running of America's Cup
• Jul 29 1st successful transcontinental US airmail flight from New York to San Francisco
• Jul 29 Construction of the Link River Dam begins as part of the Klamath Reclamation Project, Oregon
• Jul 29 Mexican rebel Pancho Villa surrenders

• Aug 8 Tigers beat Yanks 1-0 in shortest AL game, 73 minutes
• Aug 9 Bulgarian & allied Peace of Neuilly-sur-Seine goes into effect
• Aug 10 Allies recognize Poland, Czechoslovakia & Romania
• Aug 10 Mamie Smith and her Jazz Hounds record “Crazy Blues” for Okeh Records, first significant Blues hit by African American artist
• Aug 10 Treaty of Sèvres (Allies & Turkey)
• Aug 10 Turkish government renounces its claim to Israel, recognizes British mandate
• Aug 11 1st peace of Riga-Soviet Union recognizes Independence of Latvia
• Aug 12 Battle of Warsaw between Poland and Russia begins
• Aug 13 Flag designed by Marcus Garvey consisting of three horizontal stripes of red, black and green is adopted as the pan-African flag
• Aug 14 Little Entente formed by Czechoslovakia & Yugoslavia
• Aug 14 VII Summer Olympic Games open in Antwerp, Belgium; first time Olympic Oath voiced, doves released to symbolise peace, and Olympic Flag flown

• Aug 16 Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman is hit in head by NY Yankees pitcher Carl Mays; he dies the next day in only MLB game related fatality
• Aug 17 New York Yankees cancel game with Cleveland Indians in memory of Ray Chapman who dies after being hit by a pitch the previous day
• Aug 18 1st class cricket debut of Walter Hammond

• Aug 20 1st US commercial radio station, 8MK (WWJ), Detroit begins daily broadcasting
• Aug 20 Allen Woodring wins Oympic 200 m dash wearing borrowed shoes

• Aug 20 Israel publishes its first medical journal "Ha-Refuah"
• Aug 23 American swimmer Warren Kealoha wins first of 2 consecutive Olympic gold medals in the 100m backstroke, beating teammate Ray Kegeris at the Antwerp Games
• Aug 23 Mary Roberts Rinehart & Avery Roberts play "The Bat" based on Reinhart's novel "The Circular Staircase"premieres on Broadway in New York
• Aug 24 With British approval, Greece is encouraged to take offensive action against Turkish nationalists in Asia Minor
• Aug 25 American swimmer Norman Ross wins his first of 3 gold medals at the Antwerp Olympics in dominating men's 1,500m freestyle; also wins 400m freestyle and 4 x 200m freestyle relay

• Aug 25 Russia suffers a final decisive defeat in the Battle of Warsaw against Poland
• Aug 25 Swedish divers sweep the medals in the men's plain high diving event at the Antwerp Olympics; Arvid Wallman wins gold ahead of teammates Nils Skoglund & John Jansson
• Aug 26 Surrey cricket all-rounder Percy Fender scores 100 in 35 minutes [113no] in a county match vs Northamptonshire at the County Ground, Northampton
• Aug 27 American diver Louis Kuehn leads a US medal sweep in the men's 3m springboard event at the Antwerp Olympics; teammates Clarence Pinkston & Louis Balbach take the minor medals
• Aug 28 American swimmer Norman Ross wins his 2nd of 3 gold medals at the Antwerp Olympics; beats teammate Ludwig Langer in the men's 400m freestyle; also wins 1,500m and 4 x 200m freestyle relay
• Aug 28 Ethelda Bleibtrey leads an American medal sweep of the Antwerp Olympic women's 300m freestyle with a world record swim of 4:34.0
• Aug 29 An American sweep of the medals in the men's 100m freestyle at the Antwerp Olympics; Duke Kahanamoku sets world record 1:00.4 in defending his 1912 gold medal
• Aug 29 An American sweep of the medals in the women's 3m springboard diving event at the Antwerp Olympics; Aileen Riggin wins gold ahead of teammates Helen Wainwright & Thelma Payne
• Aug 29 Ethelda Bleibtrey wins her 3rd gold medal of the Antwerp Olympics; teams with Irene Guest, Frances Schroth & Margaret Woodbridge in American 4 x 100m freestyle relay team; world record 5:11.6
• Aug 29 Swedish swimmer Håkan Malmrot completes the breaststroke double at the Antwerp Olympics beating teammate Thor Henning in the 200m; also beats Henning for gold in the 400m
• Aug 31 Belgium starts paying old age pensions
• Aug 31 Detroit radio station 8MK (now WWJ, 950AM) is 1st to broadcast a news program on the air

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