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1920
Calendar year From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar, the 1920th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 920th year of the 2nd millennium, the 20th year of the 20th century, and the 1st year of the 1920s decade. As of the start of 1920, the Gregorian calendar was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
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From top to bottom, left to right: The Prohibition era begins as the Eighteenth Amendment and Volstead Act ban alcohol across the United States, sparking speakeasies and organized crime; the League of Nations is established in Geneva, Switzerland to maintain global peace; the 1920 Summer Olympics are held in Antwerp, Belgium, introducing the Olympic flag and athlete's oath; the Battle of Warsaw turns the Polish–Soviet War in Poland’s favor, repelling the Red Army; the Red Army invasion of Armenia and Red Army invasion of Azerbaijan bring both nations into the Soviet Union; and the Wall Street bombing kills 38 and injures hundreds in New York City’s financial district.
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Events
January
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- January 1
- Polish–Soviet War: The Russian Red Army increases its troops along the Polish border from 4 divisions to 20.
- Kauniainen in Finland, completely surrounded by the city of Espoo, secedes from Espoo as its own market town.[1]
- January 7 – Russian Civil War: The forces of Russian White Admiral Alexander Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk; the Great Siberian Ice March ensues.
- January 10
- The Treaty of Versailles takes effect, officially ending World War I.[2]
- The League of Nations Covenant enters into force. On January 16, the organization holds its first council meeting, in Paris.
- January 11 – The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic is recognised de facto by European powers in Versailles.[3]
- January 13 – The New York Times ridicules American rocket scientist Robert H. Goddard,[4] which it will rescind following the launch of Apollo 11 in 1969.[5]
- January 16
- The Allies of World War I demand that the Netherlands extradite ex-German Emperor Wilhelm II who fled there in 1918.
- Zeta Phi Beta sorority, is founded on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C.
- January 17 – Prohibition in the United States begins, with the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution which bans the sale of alcohol in all States.
- January 19 – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is founded.[6]
- January 21 – The final session of the Paris Peace Conference is held, even though peace treaties with Hungary and Turkey remain to be concluded. The United States does not conclude its own treaty with Germany until August 25, 1921.
- January 22 – The Australian Country Party is officially formed.
- January 23 – The Netherlands refuses to extradite ex-German Emperor Wilhelm II; on May 15 he moves into Huis Doorn in the country where he remains permanently in exile until his death in 1941.
- January 28 – El Tercio de Extranjeros (the "Regiment of Foreigners"), later the Spanish Legion, is established by decree of King Alfonso XIII of Spain.
February
- February 1 – The South African Air Force (SAAF) is established, the second autonomous Air Force in the world, after the British Royal Air Force (RAF).[7]
- February 2
- Estonian War of Independence: The Tartu Peace Treaty is signed, ending the war and recognizing the independence of both the Republic of Estonia and the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic.
- France occupies the Memel Territory of East Prussia.
- Sayyid Muhammad, Khan of Khiva, abdicates.
- February 9 – The Svalbard Treaty, signed by members of the League of Nations in Paris, recognises the sovereignty of Norway over the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard (at this time called Spitzbergen), while giving the other signatories economic rights in the islands.[8]
- February 10 – General Józef Haller first performs Poland's Wedding to the Sea, a symbolic celebration of the restitution of Polish access to the Baltic Sea.
- February 12–24 – Conference of London: Leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Italy meet to discuss the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire.
- February 13 – Switzerland joins the League of Nations.[9]
- February 14 – The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago.
- February 17 – A woman named Anna Anderson tries to commit suicide in Berlin and is taken to a mental hospital where she claims she is Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia.
- February 20 – 1920 Gori earthquake: An earthquake hits Gori in the Democratic Republic of Georgia, killing 114.
- February 21 – The island province of Marinduque in the Philippines archipelago is founded.
- February 22 – In Emeryville, California, the first dog racing track to employ an imitation rabbit opens.
- February 24 – Adolf Hitler presents his National Socialist Program in Munich to the German Workers' Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei), which renames itself as the Nazi Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei).
March
- March 1
- Hungarian admiral and statesman Miklós Horthy becomes the Regent of Hungary.
- The United States Railroad Administration returns control of American railroads to its constituent railroad companies.
- March 7 – The Syrian National Congress proclaims Syria independent, with Faisal I of Iraq as king.
- March 10 – The world's first peaceful establishment of a social democratic government takes place in Sweden as Hjalmar Branting takes over as prime minister when Nils Edén leaves office.
- March 13–17 – Wolfgang Kapp and Walther von Lüttwitz's Kapp Putsch (an attempted coup in Germany) briefly ousts the Weimar Republic government from Berlin, but fails due to public resistance and a general strike.
- March 15 – The Ruhr Red Army, a communist army 50,000 men strong, is formed in Germany.
- March 15–16 – Constantinople is occupied by British Empire forces, acting for the Allied Powers against the Turkish National Movement. Retrospectively, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey regards this as the dissolution of the Ottoman regime in Istanbul.[10]
- March 18 – Greece begins using the Gregorian calendar.
- March 19 – The United States Senate refuses to ratify the Treaty of Versailles.
- March 23 – Admiral Miklós Horthy declares that Hungary is a monarchy, without anyone on the throne.
- March 25 – Irish War of Independence: British recruits to the Royal Irish Constabulary begin to arrive in Ireland. They become known from their improvised uniforms as the "Black and Tans".[11]
- March 26
- The German government asks France for permission to use its own troops against the rebellious Ruhr Red Army, in the French-occupied area.
- American fiction writer F. Scott Fitzgerald makes his name with publication of This Side of Paradise.
- March 28 – The 1920 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak hits the Great Lakes region and Deep South of the United States.
- March 29 – Sir William Robertson is promoted to Field Marshal, the first man to rise from private (enlisted 1877) to the highest rank in the British Army.[12]
April
- April 2 – The German army marches to the Ruhr to fight the Ruhr Red Army.
- April 3 – Failed assassination attempts on General Mannerheim, retired leader of the victorious White Guard in the Finnish Civil War, led by Aleksander Weckman by order of Eino Rahja, during a White Guard parade in Tampere, Finland.[13][14]
- April 4 – 1920 Palestine riots: Violence erupts between Arab and Jewish residents in Jerusalem; 9 are killed, 216 injured.
- April 6 – The short-lived Far Eastern Republic is declared in eastern Siberia.
- April 11 – Mexican Revolution: Álvaro Obregón flees from Mexico City (during a trial intended to ruin his reputation) to Guerrero, where he joins Fortunato Maycotte.
- April 19–26 – San Remo conference: Representatives of Italy, France, the United Kingdom, and Japan meet to determine the League of Nations mandates for administration of territories, following the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire.
- April 19 – Germany and Soviet Russia agree to the exchange of prisoners of war.
- April 20 – Mexican Revolution: Álvaro Obregón announces (in Chilpancingo) that he intends to fight against the rule of Venustiano Carranza.
- April 23 – The Grand National Assembly of Turkey is founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, in Ankara. It denounces the government of Sultan Mehmed VI and announces a temporary constitution.
- April 24 – Polish–Soviet War: Polish and anti-Soviet Ukrainian troops attack the Red Army in Soviet Ukraine.
- April 26 – The Khorezm People's Soviet Republic is officially created by Soviet Russia, as the successor to the Khanate of Khiva.
- April 28 – The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic is officially created.
May
- May 3 – A Bolshevik coup fails in the Democratic Republic of Georgia.
- May 7
- Polish–Soviet War: Polish troops occupy Kyiv. The government of the Ukrainian People's Republic returns to the city.
- Mexican Revolution: Venustiano Carranza leaves Mexico City in a large train.
- Treaty of Moscow (1920): Soviet Russia recognizes the independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia, only to invade the country six months later.
- May 10 – Agnès Souret is elected "The most beautiful woman in France", retrospectively considered the first Miss France.
- May 15 – Russian Revolution: Russian White soldier Maria Bochkareva is executed in Soviet Russia.
- May 16
- Canonization of Joan of Arc: Over 30,000 people attend the ceremony in Rome, including 140 descendants of Joan of Arc's family. Pope Benedict XV presides over the rite, for which the interior of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is richly decorated.
- A referendum in Switzerland favors joining the League of Nations.
- May 17
- May 19 – Mexican Revolution: Álvaro Obregón's troops enter Mexico City.
- May 20 – Mexican Revolution: Venustiano Carranza arrives in San Antonio Tlaxcalantongo; troops of Rodolfo Herrero attack him at night and shoot him.
- May 24 – Venustiano Carranza is buried in Mexico City; all of his mourning allies are arrested. Adolfo de la Huerta is elected provisional president.
- May 26 – Ganja revolt: Anti-Soviet opposition in the Azerbaijan SSR launches an abortive revolt in Ganja.
- May 27 – Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk becomes president of Czechoslovakia.
- May 29 – Floods at Louth, Lincolnshire in England kill 23.
June
- June 4 – Treaty of Trianon: Peace is restored between the Allied Powers and Hungary, which loses 72% of its territory.
- June 5 – Bolshevik cavalry breaks through Polish and Ukrainian lines south of Kyiv, precipitating eventual withdrawal.
- June 12 – Polish–Soviet War: The Red Army retakes Kyiv.
- June 13
- Essad Pasha Toptani, nominal ruler of Albania, is assassinated by Avni Rustemi in Paris.
- The United States Post Office Department rules that children may not be sent via parcel post.[16][17]
- June 15
- A new border treaty between Germany and Denmark gives northern Schleswig to Denmark.
- The Estonian Constituent Assembly adopts the first constitution of Estonia, which will come into effect on December 21 this year.
- Duluth lynchings: Three African American circus workers are sprung from jail, subjected to a kangaroo court and hanged by a white mob in Duluth, Minnesota, in the northern United States.
- Australian soprano Nellie Melba becomes history's first well-known performer to make a radio broadcast when she sings two arias as part of an experimental series of broadcasts from a studio at the Marconi Company's factory at Chelmsford in England.
- June 22 – Greek Summer Offensive: Greece attacks Turkish troops.
- June 28 – Sigma Tau Gamma is founded on campus at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg, Missouri
- June 29 – The Republic of China joins the League of Nations.
July
- July 1 – Germany declares its neutrality in the Polish–Soviet War.
- July 2 – Polish–Soviet War: The Red Army continues its offensive into Poland.
- July 7 – Arthur Meighen becomes Canada's ninth prime minister.
- July 11 – The East Prussian plebiscite determines that most of the territory in question will remain German.
- July 12 – Soviet–Lithuanian Peace Treaty: The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic recognizes independent Lithuania.
- July 19–August 7 – The Second Congress of the Communist International takes place in Saint Petersburg and Moscow; the Twenty-one Conditions are adopted.
- July 20 – The United Kingdom cedes its brief control of the key Black Sea port of Batum to the Democratic Republic of Georgia.
- July 21
- The Interallied Mission to Poland takes place.
- The Troubles in Ulster (1920–1922) begin with 8,000 Catholic and Socialist workers driven from shipyards and industrial sites in Belfast.[18]
- July 22 – Polish–Soviet War: Poland sues for peace with Soviet Russia (which refuses).
- July 24 – Battle of Maysalun: The French defeat the Syrian army, whose leader Yusuf al-'Azma is killed. French troops occupy Damascus and depose Faisal I of Syria as king.[19]
- July 26 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa takes over Sabina and contacts Mexican president de la Huerta to offer his conditional surrender, which he signs on July 28.
- July 29 – The United States Bureau of Reclamation begins construction of the Link River Dam, as part of the Klamath Reclamation Project.
- July 30–August 8 – The 1st World Scout Jamboree is held at Olympia, London.[20]
- July 31
- Irish-born Australian Catholic Archbishop Daniel Mannix is detained on board ship by British authorities off Queenstown and prevented from landing in Ireland or from speaking in the main Irish Catholic communities elsewhere in the United Kingdom.[21]
- France prohibits the sale or prescription of contraceptives.
- Representatives of British revolutionary socialist groups meet at the Cannon Street Hotel in London and agree to form the Communist Party of Great Britain.
August
- August 3 – Irish War of Independence: Catholics riot in Belfast, in protest at the continuing British Army presence.
- August 10 – Ottoman Sultan Mehmed VI's representatives sign the Treaty of Sèvres with the Allied Powers, confirming arrangements for the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire.
- August 11 – Bolshevik Russia recognizes independent Latvia.
- August 13–25 – Polish–Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw – The Red Army is defeated.
- August 13 – Irish War of Independence: The Restoration of Order in Ireland Act (passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom) receives Royal Assent, providing for Irish Republican Army activists to be tried by court-martial, rather than by jury in criminal courts.[11]
- August 14–September 12 – Main events of the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium (there have been ceremonies and outlying events since April). The Olympic symbols of five interlocking rings and the associated flag are first displayed at the games.
- August 19–25 – Second Silesian Uprising: The Poles in Upper Silesia rise up against the Germans.
- August 19 – Russian Civil War: Peasants in Tambov Governorate begin the Tambov Rebellion against the Bolshevik government of Soviet Russia.
- August 20 – The first commercial radio station in the United States, 8MK (WWJ), begins operations in Detroit. It is owned by the Detroit News, the first U.S. radio station owned by a newspaper.
- August 22 – The Salzburg Festival in Austria is inaugurated as a regular event.[22]
- August 26 – The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing women's suffrage.
- August 28–September 2 – Bukhara operation: The Russian Red Army and Young Bukharians overthrow the Emirate of Bukhara, leading to the establishment of the Bukharan People's Soviet Republic.
September
- September 5
- Mahatma Gandhi launches the Non-Cooperation Movement in India, with the goal of obtaining independence from British rule
- Presidential elections begin in Mexico.
- September 8 – Gabriele D'Annunzio proclaims the Italian Regency of Carnaro in the city of Fiume.
- September 9 – The Lotta Svärd women's paramilitary auxiliary is founded in Finland.[23]
- September 12 – The position of Patriarch of the Serbs is re-established as the authority over the Serbian Orthodox Church, almost 156 years to the day after it was abolished by the Ottoman Empire in 1766.[24]
- September 16
- Wall Street bombing: A bomb in a horse wagon (perhaps planted by Galleanisti) explodes in front of the J. P. Morgan Building in New York City, killing 38 and injuring 400.
- The Latvian Land Reform of 1920 is adopted by the Constitutional Assembly of Latvia.
- September 17 – The National Football League is established, as the American Professional Football Association.
- September 20 – The first soldier joins El Tercio de Extranjeros (the "Regiment of Foreigners", later the Spanish Legion). Under the command of José Millán Astray and Francisco Franco, its first duties are against Rif rebels in the Spanish protectorate in Morocco.
- September 21 – The Communist Party of Uruguay is founded.
- September 22 – The London Metropolitan Police forms the Flying Squad, a motorised mobile detective patrol unit.
- September 25 – The Treaty of Seeb is signed, ending the Muscat rebellion and granting the Imamate of Oman autonomy from the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman.
- September 27 – Polish–Soviet War: Soviet Russia sues for peace with Poland.
- September 29
- The first domestic radio sets come to stores in the United States; a Westinghouse radio costs $10.
- Adolf Hitler makes his first public appearance in Austria, with speeches in Vienna, Innsbruck and Salzburg.
October
- October – English writer Agatha Christie's first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, appears in the U.S., introducing her long-running Belgian detective character Hercule Poirot in the setting of an English country house. (The book is published in the U.K. in 1921.)
- October 3 – The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe horse race first runs in Paris.
- October 4 – The Mannerheim League for Child Welfare, a Finnish non-governmental organization, is founded on the initiative of Sophie Mannerheim.[25]
- October 9 – Polish–Lithuanian War: Polish troops take Vilnius.
- October 10 – Carinthian Plebiscite: A large part of Carinthia Province votes to become part of Austria, rather than Yugoslavia.
- October 14 – A peace treaty between the Soviet and the Finnish governments is concluded at Tartu.
- October 16 – Polish–Soviet War: After the Polish army captures Tarnopol, Dubno, Minsk and Dryssa, the ceasefire is enforced.
- October 18 – Thousands of unemployed demonstrate in London; 50 are injured.
- October 26 – Álvaro Obregón is announced as the elected president of Mexico.
- October 27
- The League of Nations moves its headquarters to Geneva, Switzerland.
- Baron Louis De Geer the Younger becomes the new prime minister of Sweden.
- October 30 – The Communist Party of Australia is founded in Sydney.
- October 31 – Dr. Frederick Banting of Ontario first records his insight on how to isolate insulin for the treatment of diabetes; the first successful human trial of insulin will occur 15 months later.
November
- November 2
- 1920 United States presidential election: Republican U.S. senator Warren G. Harding defeats Democratic governor of Ohio James M. Cox and Socialist Eugene V. Debs, in the first national U.S. election in which women have the right to vote.
- In the United States, KDKA AM of Pittsburgh (owned by Westinghouse) starts broadcasting as a commercial radio station. The first broadcast is the results of the presidential election.
- Meiji Shrine, one of many landmark spots in Tokyo, is officially built in Japan.[26]
- November 11 – In London, The Cenotaph is unveiled and The Unknown Warrior is buried in Westminster Abbey; while in Paris the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is consecrated beneath the Arc de Triomphe.
- November 12 – Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes sign the Treaty of Rapallo, determining national borders.
- November 13 – The White Army's last units and civilian refugees are evacuated from the Crimea onboard 126 ships, "Wrangel's fleet" (the remnants of the Imperial Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet), to Turkey, Tunisia and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, accompanied by wide-scale civilian massacres. The total number of evacuees amounts to approximately 150,000 people, of which 20% are civilians.
- November 14 – The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra holds its first concert, in Alberta.
- November 15 – In Geneva, the first assembly of the League of Nations is held.
- November 16 – Queensland and Northern Territory Aviation Services (Qantas) is founded by Hudson Fysh and Paul McGinness.
- November 17 – The council of the League of Nations accepts the constitution for the Free City of Danzig.
- November 20 – Prince Arthur of Connaught is appointed the 3rd Governor-General of South Africa.
- November 21 – Irish War of Independence: Bloody Sunday – The Irish Republican Army (IRA), on the instructions of Michael Collins, shoot dead the "Cairo gang", 14 British undercover agents in Dublin, most in their homes. Later this day in retaliation, the Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary open fire on a crowd at a Gaelic Athletic Association football match in Croke Park, resulting in 14 deaths with 60 wounded.[11][27] Three men are shot this night in Dublin Castle "while trying to escape".
- November 28
- Irish War of Independence: Kilmichael Ambush – The flying column of the 3rd Cork Brigade of the Irish Republican Army, led by Tom Barry, ambushes two lorries carrying men of the Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary at Kilmichael, County Cork, killing 17 (with 3 of its own men also dying), which leads to official reprisals.[11]
- FIDAC (French: Fédération Interalliée des Anciens Combattants, English: The Interallied Federation of War Veterans Organisations) is established in Paris at the initiative of veterans from World War I, predominantly pacifists, joined by associations of veterans from France, the United Kingdom, United States, Belgium, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Italy and Serbia.[28]
December
- December
- The so-called Spanish flu pandemic ends with an estimated total of between seventeen and fifty million dead since 1918. It would be the last global pandemic until the 2009 swine flu pandemic almost 90 years later.
- The first edition of the Poems of the English war poet Wilfred Owen, killed in action in 1918, appears in London, introduced by his friend Siegfried Sassoon. Only five of Owen's verses having been published in his lifetime, the collection introduces his work to many readers. It includes the 1917 poems "Anthem for Doomed Youth" and "Dulce et Decorum est", two of the best-known poetic condemnations of war.[29]
- December 1 – The Mexican Revolution effectively ends with a new regime coming to power.[30]
- December 3 – Following more than a month of the Turkish–Armenian War, the Turkish-dictated Treaty of Alexandropol is concluded.
- December 7 – The first draft of the Mandate for Palestine is submitted to the League of Nations.
- December 5 – A referendum in Greece is favorable to the reinstatement of the monarchy.
- December 10 – Irish War of Independence: Martial law is declared in Counties Cork, Kerry, Limerick and Tipperary by the British authorities.[11]
- December 11 – Burning of Cork in Ireland: British forces set fire to some 5 acres (20,000 m2) of the centre of Cork, including the City Hall, in reprisal attacks, after a British auxiliary is killed in a guerilla ambush.
- December 13 – Confectionery company Haribo is founded in Bonn, Germany.
- December 15–22 – The Brussels Conference establishes a timetable for German war reparations, intended to extend for over 42 years.
- December 16
- An 8.2 Richter scale Haiyuan earthquake causes a landslide in Gansu Province, China, killing 273,000.
- Finland joins the League of Nations.
- December 17 – South Africa is granted a League of Nations Class C mandate over South West Africa.
- December 22 – The 8th Congress of Soviets of the Russian SFSR adopts the GOELRO plan, the major scheme for the economic development of the country.
- December 23
- The United Kingdom and France ratify the border between French-held Syria and British-held Palestine.
- The Government of Ireland Act 1920, passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, receives Royal Assent from George V, providing for the partition of Ireland into Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland, with separate parliaments, granting a measure of home rule.[11][27]
- December 25 – The Rosicrucian Fellowship's spiritual healing temple The Ecclesia is dedicated at Mount Ecclesia, Oceanside, California.
Date unknown
- Hydrocodone, a narcotic analgesic closely related to codeine, is first synthesized in Germany, by Carl Mannich and Helene Löwenheim.
- Approximate date – The HIV/AIDS pandemic almost certainly originates in Léopoldville, modern-day Kinshasa, the capital of the Belgian Congo.[31]
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