Events 1 - 200 of 250
- Jan 2 1st religious service radio broadcast in US, KDKA-Pittsburgh
- Jan 2 DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park opens
- Jan 3 "Svoboda", Ukrainian language newspaper based in Jersey City, New Jersey, expands to daily publication (reverts to weekly in 1998)
- Jan 3 Turkey makes peace with Armenia
Diff'rent
Jan 4 Eugene O'Neill's play "Diff'rent" premieres in NYC
- Jan 6 The Iraqi Army is formed
Venizelos' Fourth Term
Jan 16 Eleftherios Venizelos becomes Prime Minister of Greece (4th time)
- Jan 18 William Archer's play "Green Goddess" premieres in NYC
- Jan 19 Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras & El Salvador sign Pact of Union
- Jan 20 British submarine HMS K5 (which was unusually equipped with steam turbines) sinks with 57 crew during exercises in the Bay of Biscay
- Jan 20 Dagestan ASSR forms in RSFSR
- Jan 20 Mountain Autonomous Republic established in RSFSR
- Jan 20 Republic of Turkey declared out of remnants of the Ottoman Empire
Agatha Christie's First Novel
Jan 21 British crime writer Agatha Christie publishes her first novel "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" introducing the character Hercule Poirot
Italian Communist Party
Jan 21 Italian Communist Party founded at Livorno by Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci
- Jan 24 Paris Conference on reparations is held
Theater Premiere
Jan 25 Karel Čapek's play "R.U.R." premieres in Prague, introduces the word "robot"
- Jan 26 Toronto NHL center Corb Denneny scores 6 goals to lead St. Patricks to a 10-3 win over Hamilton Tigers in Toronto
- Jan 29 Great Olympic Blowdown: Hurricane force winds hit US Pacific Northwest states of Washington and Oregon [1]
- Jan 30 French rapist-murderer Henri-Desire Landru sentenced to death
- Feb 5 Yankees purchase 20 acres in Bronx for Yankee Stadium
"The Kid"
Feb 6 Charlie Chaplin releases his first full-length feature - "The Kid", a silent film starring Charlie Chaplin & 6-year old Jackie Coogan
Churchill Appointed Minister of Colonies
Feb 12 Winston Churchill becomes British Minister of Colonies
Music History
Feb 17 Arthur Honegger's chamber piece "Pastorale D'ete" premieres
- Feb 18 British troops occupy Dublin
- Feb 20 Riza Khan Pahlevi seizes control of Iran
- Feb 21 Constituent Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Georgia adopts the country's first constitution
- Feb 21 The London Conference on the Near East begins: the issue is the Allies' 1920 Treaty of Sevres, which had given part of Turkish Asia Minor to Greece
- Feb 23 1st US transcontinental air mail flight arrives in NYC from San Francisco
- Feb 24 1st transcontinental flight in 24 hrs flying time arrives in Florida
- Feb 25 Tbilisi, capital of the Democratic Republic of Georgia, occupied by Bolshevist Russia
- Feb 25 The Living Buddha, Hutuktu, is crowned King of Mongolia as the country declares independence from China
- Feb 26 The USSR signs treaties respecting the integrity of Persia and of Afghanistan
- Feb 27 The Fascists incite a riot in Florence, Italy
- Feb 27 The International Working Union of Socialist Parties is founded in Vienna
- Mar 1 Rwanda ceded to Great Britain
- Mar 1 Sailors revolt in Kronstadt, Russia
- Mar 1 Spin bowler Arthur Mailey takes 5 for 119 (record 36 wickets for series) to lead Australia to a 9 wicket 5th Test win over England in Sydney; first ever, 5-0 Ashes cricket series win for Australia
- Mar 3 The Asiatic Inquiry Commission, established by the South African Government, proposes a system of voluntary repatriation and segregation of Indians and prohibits Indians from buying agricultural land in a specified area along the coast
- Mar 4 Hot Springs National Park created in Arkansas
Warren G. Harding
Mar 4 Warren G. Harding is inaugurated as the 29th President of the United States
- Mar 5 The Durban Land Alienation Ordinance passes, enabling the Durban City Council to exclude Indians from ownership or occupation of property in white areas, South Africa
- Mar 5 The US warns Costa Rica and Panama to settle disputes peacefully
- Mar 6 Police in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, issue an edict requiring Women to wear skirts at least 4 inches below the knee
- Mar 6 The Natal Indian Congress is resuscitated and reorganised at a meeting in Durban, with Ismail Gora as President
- Mar 8 Spanish Premier Eduardo Dato Iradier is assassinated while exiting the parliament building in Madrid.
Cairo Conference
Mar 12 Cairo Conference begins, British meeting to determine Middle Eastern policies, Gertrude Bell and T. E. Lawrence attend
- Mar 13 Mongolia (formerly Outer Mongolia) declares independence from China
- Mar 16 Britain signs a trade agreement with the USSR and sends a trade mission to Moscow: this goes against the US, who in the same month refused to sign a trade agreement
- Mar 17 Dr Marie Stopes opens Britain's 1st birth control clinic in London
Albert Anastasia Convicted
Mar 17 NY gangster Albert Anastasia is convicted of murdering longshoreman George Turino
- Mar 17 Sailors revolt in Kronstadt (thousands die)
- Mar 17 The Second Republic of Poland adopts the March Constitution
Lenin's Economic Policy
Mar 17 Vladimir Lenin proclaims the New Economic Policy to help the country recover from Russian Civil War
- Mar 18 2nd Peace of Riga, Poland enlarged
- Mar 18 Steamer "Hong Koh" runs aground off Swatow China killing 1,000
- Mar 19 Italian Fascists shoot from the Parenzana train at a group of children in Strunjan (Slovenia): two children are killed, two mangled and three wounded
- Mar 20 Upper Silesia votes for amalgamation with Germany in a plebiscite that is 63% in favor
- Mar 21 Walter Kerr Theater (Ritz, CBS, NBC, ABC) opens at 223 W 48th St NYC
- Mar 23 Germany announces it will be unable to meet its Great War reparation payments
- Mar 31 British coal miners goes on strike
Theory of Relativity
Apr 2 Albert Einstein lectures in New York City on his new "Theory of Relativity"
- Apr 4 Stanley Cup Final, Denman Arena, Vancouver, BC: Ottawa Senators (NHL) beat Vancouver Millionaires (PCHA), 2-1 for a 3-2 series victory
Sun Yat-sen President
Apr 7 Revolutionary leader, Sun Yat-sen is elected President of China at Canton, though China remains divided into north and south and subject to rivalries of warlords
- Apr 11 Iowa imposes 1st state cigarette tax
- Apr 11 KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania broadcasts 1st radio sporting event, a boxing match between lightweights Johnny Ray and Johnny Dundee
- Apr 11 The Emirate of Transjordan created
- Apr 11 Turkestan ASSR forms in Russian SFSR
- Apr 13 Foundation of the Spanish Communist Workers' Party.
- Apr 14 Prince Henry opens Rotterdam-Amsterdam-Bremen-Hamburg air route
- Apr 15 Black Friday in Britain: leaders of transport and rail unions announce a decision not to call for strike action in support of the miners; despite widespread feeling decision a breach of solidarity and a betrayal of the miners
- Apr 16 Liberal Freedom League forms in The Hague, Netherlands
- Apr 18 Junior Achievement incorporated in Colorado Spring
- Apr 18 Philip James Barry's "Punch for Judy" premieres in NYC
- Apr 19 Funeral of last German Emperoress, Augusta Victoria
- Apr 23 Charles Paddock runs world record 100m (10.4 secs)
- Apr 24 1st municipal elections for men & women in Belgium
- Apr 24 Under Allies supervision, a plebiscite in the Tyrol favors merging with Germany; unhappy with the outcome, Allies give the area to Italy
- Apr 27 Hadjememaar, [Corn de Gelder] elected in Amsterdam
Capablanca World Chess Champion
Apr 28 Cuban José Raúl Capablanca becomes the world's third chess champion defeating German champion Emanuel Lasker in Havana
- Apr 30 1st American Professional Football Association Championship (1920): undefeated Akron Pros awarded inaugural title
- Apr 30 American Professional Football Association reorganizes in Akron, Ohio
On Dante
Apr 30 Pope Benedict XV encyclical "On Dante"
- May 1 Drusian sultan Pasja al-Atrasj elected governor of Suwayda
- May 2 Start of 3rd anti-German revolt in Upper Silesia
- May 3 Northern Ireland is created under the UK Government of Ireland Act partitioning off six north eastern counties with a Protestant majority
- May 3 West Virginia imposes 1st state sales tax
- May 5 1st ranger for Cleveland Metroparks hired
- May 5 Miniature newspaper published (Brighton Gazette 10 x 13 cm)
Chanel No. 5 Released
May 5 Perfume Chanel No. 5 released by fashion designer Coco Chanel
- May 6 Teams from the National Association Football League and the Southern New England Soccer League merge to form the American Soccer League (ASL); collapses 1933
- May 8 Sweden abolishes capital punishment
- May 10 Luigi Pirandello's "Sei Personaggi in Cerca d'Autore" premieres
- May 11 Tel Aviv is 1st all Jewish municipality
- May 11 The Allied Supreme Council warns Germany to pay reparations or the entire Ruhr Valley will be occupied; Germany agrees
- May 12 National Hospital Day 1st observed in the United States
- May 14 Florence Allen is 1st woman judge to sentence a man to death in Ohio
- May 15 British Legion formed to care for ex-servicemen
- May 17 Belgian and Luxembourg sign customs union
- May 17 US President Warren G. Harding opens (via telephone) the 1st Valencia Orange Show in Anaheim, California
- May 19 US Congress sharply curbs immigration, setting a national quota system
- May 21 Oldest radio station west of Mississippi River licensed in Greeley Co.
- May 24 1st parliament for Northern Ireland elected
- May 24 Bulhoek Massacre: police commissioner Colonel Theodore Truter leads 6 squadrons and artillery detachment against Israelite religious sect collected at annual gathering on land of leader Enoch Mgijima at Ntabalanga; 190 killed
- May 30 Lord Dunsany's "If" premieres in London
- May 30 Memorial to Capt. Eddie Grant, killed in WW I, unveiled at Polo Grounds, NYC
- May 30 Salzburg, Austria, votes to join Germany
- May 31 A large-scale race riot breaks out in Tulsa, Oklahoma, later described as the worst incident of racial violence in American history; around 150-300 African Americans killed [1] [2]
- May 31 Boston Red Sox 1st baseman John "Stuffy" McInnis begins an errorless string of 1,700 chances
- Jun 3 A sudden cloudburst kills 120 near Pikes Peak, Colorado
- Jun 6 Detroit Stars' Bill Gatewood pitches the 1st no-hitter in Negro League history, defeating the Cuban Stars 4-0
1st African-American Female Pilot
Jun 15 Bessie Coleman earns her pilot license in France becoming the 1st African-American woman and Native American to hold one
- Jun 19 Census held in Great Britain
- Jun 19 Turks and Christians of Palestine sign a friendship treaty against Jews
- Jun 20 11.5" (29.2 cm) of rainfall, Circle, Montana (state record)
- Jun 20 At the Imperial Conference in London, V.S. Srinivasa Sastri puts forward a case for the granting of full citizenship rights to Indians in South Africa and other British colonies
- Jun 21 The UK, the Dominions, and India, become the British Commonwealth of Nations
10,000m World Record
Jun 22 Paavo Nurmi runs world record 10,000m (30:40.2)
Dempsey KOs Carpentier
Jul 2 In boxing's first million dollar gate ($1.7m), world heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey KOs Frenchman Georges Carpentier in round 4 of his 3rd title defense; crowd 91,000 at Boyle's Thirty Acres, Jersey City
- Jul 2 Warren G. Harding signs a joint congressional resolution declaring the official end of war with Germany
- Jul 11 Mongolia gains independence from China (National Day)
- Jul 12 Cleveland Indians (9) & New York Yankees (7) combine for an AL record 16 doubles
- Jul 14 Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti convicted of killing their shoe company's paymaster and sentenced to death, in Dedham Massachusetts
Greco-Turkish War
Jul 16 Encouraged by the British, King Constantine of Greece launches a drive to take Asia Minor from nationalists under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
1st Woman Presides Over the House
Jul 20 Congresswoman Alice Mary Robertson becomes the first woman to preside over the floor of US House of Representatives
- Jul 21 MLB Cleveland Indians (9) and New York Yankees (7) combine to hit a record 16 doubles in 17-8 home team win at Dunn Field, Cleveland, Ohio
- Jul 21 To prove his contention that air power is superior to sea power, US Colonel William Mitchell demonstrates how bombs from planes can sink a captured German battleship
- Jul 23 American long jumper Edward Gourdin sets new world record of 7.69m (25 ft 2+3⁄4 in) at Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Jul 23 Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao and others found the Chinese Communist Party in Shanghai, with guidance from the Soviet backed Communist International (Comintern) and Dutch communist Henk Sneevliet. Chen Duxiu is elected its leader.
- Jul 27 2nd government of Ruijs de Beerenbrouck forms
Discovery of Insulin
Jul 27 Frederick Banting and Charles Best isolate insulin at the University of Toronto
Hitler National Socialists Workers Leader
Jul 29 Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party
- Jul 29 New rules of language assumed (equal rights Flemings/Walen Belgium)
- Jul 30 The Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) forms; the party changed its name to the South African Communist Party (SACP) in 1953, after it had been forced underground
- Aug 2 After 3 hours deliberation a Chicago jury acquits 8 Chicago White Sox accused in Black Sox scandal; next day they are banned from organised baseball for life
- Aug 3 1st aerial crop dusting in Troy, Ohio, to kill caterpillars
- Aug 3 MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Landis hands out life bans to 8 Chicago White Sox players accused in Black Sox scandal despite their acquittal by a Chicago jury
- Aug 5 KDKA Pittsburgh presents first radio broadcast of MLB; Pirates beat Phillies, 8-0; Harold Arlin first play-by-play broadcaster
- Aug 5 Treaty of Berlin: US and Germany sign separate peace treaty
- Aug 6 Clason Point, Bronx to College Point, Queens muni ferry system begins
Moeskops Wins 1st Sprint Championship
Aug 7 Dutch cyclist Piet Moeskops wins the 1st of 4 straight, and 5 total world sprint championships when he beats defending champion Bob Spears of Australia in Copenhagen
FDR Struck Down with Illness
Aug 10 FDR stricken with a paralytic illness at summer home on Canadian island of Campobello. At the time it was thought to be polio, but could possibly have been Guillain–Barré syndrome
Dulcy
Aug 13 Simon Kaufman & Marc Connelly's comedic play "Dulcy" premieres in NYC
Rise of J. Edgar Hoover
Aug 22 J. Edgar Hoover appointed Assistant Director of the Bureau of Investigation
- Aug 23 Austria and the US formally end war; the US does the same with Germany on the 25th, and Hungary on the 29th
- Aug 23 British declare a truce with Irish Nationalists Sinn Féin
- Aug 24 Battle of Sakaray Valley begins between Turkey & Greece
- Aug 24 British airship R-38 crashes in River Humber, 44 die
- Aug 25 The first skirmishes of the Battle of Blair Mountain, a civil uprising in Logan County, West Virginia
- Aug 25 US signs peace treaty with Germany
- Aug 25 Yankee pitcher Harry Harper hits 3 batters in an inning tying record
- Aug 27 J E Clair of Acme Packing Co of Green Bay granted an NFL franchise
- Aug 28 2nd Pan-African Congress meets (London, Brussels & Paris)
- Aug 28 Babe Ruth starts streak of an extra-base hit in 9 straight games
Nederlander Theatre
Sep 1 Nederlander Theatre opens at 208 W 41 St NYC, designed by William Neil Smith for theatrical impresario Walter C. Jordan, originally named the National Theatre, it was also known as the Billy Rose (1959-78), and the Trafalgar (1978-80)
- Sep 3 KPB, Communist Party of Belgium forms
Baseball Record
Sep 5 Walter Johnson sets MLB strikeout mark at 2,287
- Sep 9 Guatemala, Honduras and San Salvador agree to Central American Union
- Sep 11 Nahalal, the first moshav in Israel, is settled
- Sep 15 Pope Benedict XV publishes encyclical Alcohol Paraclitus
- Sep 15 WBZ-AM in Boston MA begins radio transmissions
- Sep 21 A storage silo at a BASF fertiliser producing plant explodes in Oppau, Germany, 500—600 killed
- Sep 21 Pope Benedictus XV donates 1 million lire to feed Russians
The Music Box Opens
Sep 22 Music Box Theater opens at 239 W 45th Street, NYC; Built by theatrical producer Sam H. Harris for Irving Berlin's musical revue "The Music Box", written specifically for the venue
- Sep 22 The League of Nations accepts membership of independent Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
- Sep 26 Yankee Ruth hits HRs 57 & 58 to beat Indians 8-7
- Sep 27 American swimmer Johnny Weismuller sets his first 2 world records in the 100m and 150yd freestyle events the A.A.U. Nationals meet in Brighton Beach, NY
- Sep 27 MLB NY Yankees beat Cleveland Indians 21-7 at Polo Grounds, NYC
- Sep 29 Pirates drop doubleheader to Cards to allow idle Giants to clinch NL
- Oct 1 WJZ, Newark NJ begins broadcasting
- Oct 2 Chicago White Sox backstop Ray Schalk becomes the first and only MLB catcher to make a putout at all bases; White Sox beat Indians 7-4
- Oct 2 New York Yankees outfielder Babe Ruth hits then record 59th HR in 7-6 win over former club Boston Red Sox at Polo Grounds, NYC
- Oct 4 League of Nations refuses to assist starving Russians
- Oct 4 Riccardo Zanella becomes first elected President of Free State of Fiume
- Oct 5 Present constitution of Liechtenstein comes into effect
- Oct 6 Century Theater opens at 7th Ave & 59th St NYC (demolished 1962)
- Oct 6 International PEN, a worldwide association of writers is founded in London
- Oct 10 NFL Decatur Staleys become Chicago Staleys, win 14-10
- Oct 16 Jim Conzelman takes over as coach of Rock Island Independents from Frank Coughlin-only mid-game coaching change in NFL history
- Oct 17 Belgium's public library law goes into force
- Oct 18 Biding its time, Soviet Russia agrees to independence for the Crimea
Authors
Dictators
Explorers
Outlaws
Queens
Spies