1921

World Events

January 31_^st
— A massive uprising of Siberian peasants in the Tyumen Region revolt against the Bolsheviks; disorder continues for over a year¹²

February 21^_st
— Rezā Shāh stages a coup d’état in Iran, ultimately replacing Ahmad Shah Qajar as the Shah of Iran.¹
February 28^_th
— Soviet sailors in Kronstadt draft the Petropavlovsk resolution, comprising of a list of demands which become the basis for the subsequent Kronstadt Rebellion¹²

March 4^_th
— Warren G. Harding is inaugurated as the 29^_th President of the United States.¹
March 17^_th
— Marie Stopes opens the first birth control clinic in Britain.¹
March 18^_th
— Poland, Soviet Russia and the Soviet Ukraine sign the Treaty of Riga, ending the Polish-Soviet War.¹

April 11^_th
— The territory designated by the British Mandate in Palestine is divided along the river Jordan, establishing the Emirate of Transjordan to the east.¹

 

May 1^_st
— Riots erupt in Jaffa between Jewish immigrants and Palestinians, leaving 95 dead and 219 injured.¹
May 3^_rd
— The Government of Ireland Act 1920, passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, becomes law; Northern Ireland is established.¹²
May 31^_st
— The Tulsa Race Riots begin in Tulsa, Oklahoma between white and black communities. Within a day, 35 square blocks are destroyed and over 1,200 houses burned, leaving an estimated 300 dead and nearly 10,000 homeless.¹²³º

July 1^_st
— The Communist Party of China is founded.¹
July 2^_nd
— President Harding signs a congressional resolution ending America's formal state of war against Germany, Austria and Hungary.¹
July 11^_th
— The Irish War of Independence ends, as Irish and British forces agree to a truce.¹
July 14^_th
— Anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are found guilty of first degree murder.¹
July 18^_th
— The first BCG vaccination against Tuberculosis is administered to human patients.¹
July 22^_nd — The Spanish Army of Africa suffers a major defeat against Rif combatants during the Battle of Annual; some 12,000 Spanish troops are killed.¹
July 27^_th — Canadian researchers at the University of Toronto, led by Frederick Banting and Charles Best, announce the discovery of insulin.¹
July 29^_th — Adolf Hitler is made the Führer of the Nazi Party.¹

August 5^_th
— Radio is used to broadcast coverage of a baseball game for the first time (the Pittsburgh Pirates beating the Philadelphia Phillies 8-5).¹
August 23^_rd
— Faisal I is crowned King of Iraq.¹
August 26^_th
— German politician Matthias Erzberger is assassinated by extreme nationalists for his role in signing the armistice that ended World War I.¹

September 7^_th
— The first Miss America Pagent is held.¹
September 17^_th
— The Shackleton-Rowett Expedition sets out for Antarctica.¹
September 21^_st
— An explosion at a BASF plant devastates the town of Oppau, Germany, destroying most of its buildings, killing an estimated 500 people, and injuring over 2000 others.¹

October 19^_th
— The Prime Minister of Portugal António Granjo is assassinated.¹

November 4^_th
— The Prime Minister of Japan Hara Takashi is assassinated.¹
November 9^th
— Benito Mussolini establishes the National Fascist Party in Italy.¹²
November 11^_th
— The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is dedicated at Arlington National Cemetary in Virginia.¹
November 22^_nd
— The Treaty of Rawalpindi is amended, concluding negotiations between the United Kingdom and Afghanistan following the Third Anglo-Afghan War, and acknowledging the latter country’s independence.¹

December 6^_th
— The Irish Free State is established by the Anglo-Irish Treaty.¹² Agnes Macphail becomes the first woman elected to the Canadian Parliament.¹
December 29^_th
— William Lyon Mackenzie King is appointed the 10^_th Prime Minister of Canada.¹

Ongoing
— Assyrian Genocide (1913-1922)¹
— Greek Genocide (1914-1923)¹
— Armenian Genocide (1915-1923)¹
— The Turkish War of Independence (1918-1923)¹
— The Irish War of Independence (1919-1921)¹
— The Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)¹
— The Rif War (1919-1926)¹
— The North China Famine (1920-1921)¹
— The Russian Famine of 1921¹

Innovations

— The German AVUS, precursor to the Autobahn, opens¹
— After years of outdoor trading, the American Stock Exchange building is established on Greenwich Street, in Lower Manhattan¹
— The character Betty Crocker is created by the Washburn Crosby Company¹
— The Bloody Mary is said by some to have been invented by Pete Petiot of Harry's New York Bar in Paris¹
— Max Braun opens an engineering shop, founding the company Braun¹
— The first children's carseats debut¹
— The first upward-lifting garage door is invented by the Overhead Door Company¹
— Guccio Gucci founds Gucci and begins selling leather travel bags¹
— C.A. Dawson-Scott founds International PEN, an association of poets, playwrights, editors, essayist and novelists¹
— Land O'Lakes is founded¹
— The National Honor Society is founded by the National Association of Secondary School Principals¹
— Master Lock is founded¹
— Professor Walter Cady of Wesleyan University builds the first crystal-controlled oscillator¹
— The first Pep Boys auto parts supply store is opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania¹
— The phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words” is coined by an advertiser in the trade journal Printer’s Ink¹
— Quick Quaker Oats are first introduced¹
— Theodore and Milton Deutschmann open the first RadioShack in downtown Boston, Massachusetts¹
— Hermann Rorschach publishes his book Psychodiagnostik, which serves as the foundation for the Rorschach test¹
— The first See's Candies kitchen is opened in Los Angeles, California¹
— The first White Castle restaurant is opened in Wichita, Kansas¹
— Wonder Bread is introduced by the Taggart Baking Co.¹

Art

— Max Beckmann, The Dream¹
— Lovis Corinth, Death and the Artist¹
— Stuart Davis, Lucky Strike¹
— Charles Demuth, Incense of a New Church¹
— Charles Demuth, Modern Conveniences¹
— Max Ernst, Celebes¹
— Fernand Léger, The Three Women¹
— James Edward Harvey Macdonald, The Solemn Land¹
— Piet Mondrian, Composition with Red, Blue, Black, Yellow, and Gray¹
— Piet Mondrian, Diagonal Composition¹
— Pablo Picasso, Nude Seated on a Rock¹
— Pablo Picasso, Three Musicians¹
— Pablo Picasso, Three Women at the Spring¹
— Man Ray, Gift¹
— Paul Signac, Port of La Rochelle¹
— Mario Sironi, Urban Landscape¹
— Chaim Soutine, Landscape at Céret¹
— Stanley Spencer, Christ's Entry into Jerusalem¹
— Georges Vantongerloo, Construction of Volume Relations¹

Literature

— Sherwood Anderson, The Triumph of the Egg¹
— Aldous Huxley, Crome Yellow¹
— H.P. Lovecraft, The Nameless City¹
— Luigi Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author¹
— Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time, vol. 4: Sodom and Gomorrah¹
— William Carlos Williams, Sour Grapes¹
— Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus¹
— W.B. Yeats, Michael Robartes and the Dancer¹

Nobel Prize Winners¹

Physics
— Albert Einstein, for "his many contributions to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect."¹
Chemistry
— Frederick Soddy, for his research on radioactive decay and his formation of the theory of isotopes.
Medicine
— No award given.
Literature
— Anatole France
Peace
— Hjalmar Branting, Christian Lange

Pulitzer Prize Winners¹

Reporting
— Louis Seibold of New York World, "for an interview with President Wilson."
Editorial Writing
— No award given.
Public Service
— The Boston Post, "for its exposure of the operations of Charles Ponzi by a series of articles which finally led to his arrest."

---

Novel
— The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Drama
— Miss Lulu Bett by Zona Gale
History
— The Victory at Sea by William Sowden Sims in collaboration with Burton J. Hendrick
Biography or Autobiography
— The Americanization of Edward Bok by Edward Bok

Births

January 5_^th
— Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg (1964-2000)¹
January 9_^th
— Lister Sinclair, Canadian broadcaster¹
January 19_^th
— Patricia Highsmith, author of The Talented Mr. Ripley¹
January 27_^th
— Donna Reed, co-starred in It's a Wonderful Life¹
January 31_^st
— Carol Channing, American actress & singer¹

February 1_^st
— Peter Sallis, British actor¹
February 4_^th
— Betty Friedan, writer & feminist activist¹
February 14_^th
— Hugh Downs, American broadcaster¹
February 16_^th
— Hua Guofeng, 2_^nd Chairman of the Communist Party of China (1976-1981)¹
February 24_^th
— Abe Vigoda, American actor ¹
February 25_^th
— Pierre Laporte, Canadian politician kidnapped and murdered by the FLQ¹

March 1_^st
— Richard Wilbur, 2_^nd U.S. Poet Laureate¹
March 11_^th
— Frank Harary, American mathematician¹
March 12_^th
— Giovanni Agnelli, chairman of Fiat (1966-2003)¹
March 13_^th
— Al Jaffee, American cartoonist¹
March 17_^th
— Meir Amit, head of the Mossad (1963-1968)¹
March 24_^th
— Vasily Smyslov, chess grandmaster¹
March 25_^th
— Simone Signoret, first French citizen to win an Academy Award¹

April 9_^th
— Yitzhak Navon, 5_^th President of Israel (1978-1982)¹
April 14_^th
— Thomas Schelling, awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Economics¹
April 16_^th
— Peter Ustinov, English actor and writer¹

May 2_^nd
— Satyajit Ray, Indian filmmaker¹
May 3_^rd
— Sugar Ray Robinson, American boxer¹
May 5_^th
— Arthur Leonard Schawlow, awarded the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics for his part in the development of the laser¹
May 6_^th
— Erich Fried, Austrian poet¹
May 9_^th
— Sophie Scholl, German activist executed for high treason by the Nazi party¹
— Mona Van Duyn, 6_^th U.S. Poet Laureate¹
May 12_^th
— Joseph Beuys, German artist¹
— Farley Mowat, author of Never Cry Wolf¹
May 16_^th
— Harry Carey, jr., American actor¹
May 18_^th
— Anthony Epstein, co-discoverer of the Epstein-Barr virus¹
May 21_^st
— Andrei Sakharov, Russian scientist¹
May 23_^rd
— Humphrey Lyttelton, English musician¹
May 25_^th
— Jack Steinberger, awarded the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics for his part in discovering the muon neutrino¹

June 7_^th
— Bernard Lown, inventor of the defibrillator¹
June 8_^th
— Alexis Smith, Canadian actress¹
— Suharto, 2nd President of Indonesia (1967-1998)¹
June 10_^th
— Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth II¹
June 21_^st
— Jane Russell, American actress¹
June 25_^th
— Celia Franca, founder of the National Ballet of Canada¹
June 26_^th
— Violette Szabo, English spy¹
June 28_^th
— P. V. Narasimha Rao, 10_^th Prime Minister of the Republic of India (1991-1996)¹

July 4_^th
— Gérard Debreu, awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Economics¹
July 6_^th
— Nancy Reagan, wife of U.S. President Ronald Reagan¹
July 10_^th
— Harvey Ball, American artist¹
— Jake LaMotta, boxer known as the Raging Bull¹
— Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of the Special Olympics¹
July 14_^th
— Geoffrey Wilkinson, awarded 1973 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work with organometallic compounds¹
July 15_^th
— Robert Bruce Merrifield, awarded the 1984 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the invention of solid phase peptide synthesis¹
July 17_^th
— Hannah Szenes, considered a national heroine of Israel for her efforts to save deportees to Auschwitz¹
July 18_^th
— Aaron T. Beck, father of cognitive therapy¹
— John Glenn, first American to orbit Earth ¹
July 19_^th
— Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, awarded the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the development of the radioimmunoassay technique¹
July 26_^th
— Jean Shepherd, author and narrator of A Christmas Story¹

August 4_^th
— Maurice Richard, hockey player known as the Rocket¹
August 11_^th
— Alex Haley, author of Roots and The Autobiography of Malcolm X¹
August 19_^th
— Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek¹
August 23_^rd
— Kenneth Arrow, awarded the 1972 Nobel Prize in Economics¹
August 26_^th
— Shimshon Amitsur, Israeli mathematician¹
August 28_^th
— Lidia Gueiler Tejada, first female President of Bolivia¹

September 5_^th
— Jack Valenti, president of the MPAA (1966-2004)¹
September 12_^th
— Stanisław Lem, author of Solaris¹
September 15_^th
— Norma MacMillan, voice of Casper the Friendly Ghost¹
September 24_^th
— Jim McKay, host of The Wide World of Sports (1961-1998)¹
September 25_^th
— Robert Muldoon, 31_^st Prime Minister of New Zealand (1975-1984)¹
September 30_^th
— Deborah Kerr, star of The King and I¹

October 17_^th
— Maria Gorokhovskaya, Ukranian gymnist¹
October 21_^st
— Victor A. McKusick, father of clinical medical genetics¹
October 25_^th
— Michael of Romania, King of the Romanians (1927-1930, 1940-1947)¹

November 3_^rd
— Charles Bronson, American actor¹
November 5_^th
— Fawzia Shirin, Queen of Iran (1941-1948)¹
November 6_^th
— James Jones, author of The Thin Red Line¹
November 8_^th
— Gene Saks, American director¹
November 20_^th
— Jim Garrison, district attorney investigating the J.F.K. assassination¹
November 22_^nd
— Rodney Dangerfield, American comedian & actor¹
November 27_^th
— Alexander Dubček, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (1968-1969)¹

December 4_^th
— Deanna Durbin, Canadian actress¹
December 26_^th
— Steve Allen, host of The Tonight Show (1964-1957)¹

Deaths

January 1^_st
— Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, Chancellor of the German Empire (1909 to 1917)¹

February 8^_th
— Peter Kropotkin, Russian anarchist¹

March 29^_th
— John Burroughs, American naturalist¹

April 6^_th
— Maximilian Berlitz, founder of the Berlitz Language Schools¹

May 5^_th
— Alfred Hermann Fried, awarded the 1911 Nobel Peace Prize¹
May 19^_th
— Edward Douglass White, Jr., 9^_th Chief Justice of the United States (1910-1921)¹

August 2_^nd
— Enrico Caruso, Italian tenor¹
August 16_^th
— Peter I, King of Serbia (1903-1918)¹
August 26_^th
— Matthias Erzberger, German signatory of the Armistice that ended World War I¹

September 9^_th
— Virginia Rappe, American actress¹
September 11^_th
— Subramania Bharati, Indian poet ¹
September 27^_th
— Engelbert Humperdinck, German composer¹

October 18_^th
— Ludwig III, King of Bavaria (1913-1918)¹
October 19_^th
— António Granjo, 77_^th Prime Minister of Portugal (1920)¹
October 25_^th
— Bat Masterson, gunfighter & lawman¹

November 4_^th
— Hara Takashi, 19_^th Prime Minister of Japan (1918-1921)¹
November 11_^th
— Jennie Kidd Trout, first female Canadian doctor¹
November 14_^th
— Isabel, Empress of Brazil (1891-1921)¹
November 28_^th
— `Abdu'l-Bahá, head of the Bahá'í Faith (1892-1921)¹

December 16_^th
— Camille Saint-Saëns, French composer¹
December 21_^st
— P.B.S. Pinchback, first black U.S. governor ¹

Notes

_{The amount of misinformation I encountered while researching this write-up was obscene, particularly regarding specific dates. I've tried to compensate for this as best I can, but, even so, if anyone comes across any factual errors, send me a message. If you have any ideas or suggestions about things to add, I would like to hear them as well.}

_{This write-up originally began as a contribution for the Everything Quest: Node the Ages, though I'm afraid I've long since missed the deadline. I'd also like to mention that my grandfather was born on April 23^rd , 1921.}

<< 1920 || 1922 >>