Directory

1920 CE

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.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 16 – The Allies of World War I demand that the Netherlands extradite ex-German Emperor Wilhelm II who fled there in 1918.source
  • 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.source
  • January 28 – El Tercio de Extranjeros (the "Regiment of Foreigners"), later the Spanish Legion, is established by decree of King Alfonso XIII of Spain.source
  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • 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).source
  • 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.source
  • March 23 – Admiral Miklós Horthy declares that Hungary is a monarchy, without anyone on the throne.source
  • April 26 – The Khorezm People's Soviet Republic is officially created by Soviet Russia, as the successor to the Khanate of Khiva.source
  • June 4 – Treaty of Trianon: Peace is restored between the Allied Powers and Hungary, which loses 72% of its territory.source
  • June 15 – The Estonian Constituent Assembly adopts the first constitution of Estonia, which will come into effect on December 21 this year.source
  • July 1 – Germany declares its neutrality in the Polish–Soviet War.source
  • July 12 – Soviet–Lithuanian Peace Treaty: The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic recognizes independent Lithuania.source
  • July 20 – The United Kingdom cedes its brief control of the key Black Sea port of Batum to the Democratic Republic of Georgia.source
  • July 31 – Representatives of British revolutionary socialist groups meet at the Cannon Street Hotel in London and agree to form the Communist Party of Great Britain.source
  • 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.source
  • August 26 – The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing women's suffrage.source
  • September 8 – Gabriele D'Annunzio proclaims the Italian Regency of Carnaro in the city of Fiume.source
  • 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.source
  • November 28 – 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.source
  • December 7 – The first draft of the Mandate for Palestine is submitted to the League of Nations.source
  • December 10 – Irish War of Independence: Martial law is declared in Counties Cork, Kerry, Limerick and Tipperary by the British authorities.source
  • December 17 – South Africa is granted a League of Nations Class C mandate over South West Africa.source
  • December 23 – 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.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 1 – Polish–Soviet War: The Russian Red Army increases its troops along the Polish border from 4 divisions to 20.source
  • January 7 – Russian Civil War: The forces of Russian White Admiral Alexander Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk; the Great Siberian Ice March ensues.source
  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • 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".source
  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • April 24 – Polish–Soviet War: Polish and anti-Soviet Ukrainian troops attack the Red Army in Soviet Ukraine.source
  • May 7 – Polish–Soviet War: Polish troops occupy Kyiv. The government of the Ukrainian People's Republic returns to the city.source
  • May 26 – Ganja revolt: Anti-Soviet opposition in the Azerbaijan SSR launches an abortive revolt in Ganja.source
  • June 12 – Polish–Soviet War: The Red Army retakes Kyiv.source
  • July 2 – Polish–Soviet War: The Red Army continues its offensive into Poland.source
  • July 19–August 7 – The Second Congress of the Communist International takes place in Saint Petersburg and Moscow; the Twenty-one Conditions are adopted.source
  • July 22 – Polish–Soviet War: Poland sues for peace with Soviet Russia (which refuses).source
  • 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.source
  • August 3 – Irish War of Independence: Catholics riot in Belfast, in protest at the continuing British Army presence.source
  • 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.source
  • August 13–25 – Polish–Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw – The Red Army is defeated.source
  • August 19–25 – Second Silesian Uprising: The Poles in Upper Silesia rise up against the Germans.source
  • August 19 – Russian Civil War: Peasants in Tambov Governorate begin the Tambov Rebellion against the Bolshevik government of Soviet Russia.source
  • 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.source
  • September 27 – Polish–Soviet War: Soviet Russia sues for peace with Poland.source
  • October 16 – Polish–Soviet War: After the Polish army captures Tarnopol, Dubno, Minsk and Dryssa, the ceasefire is enforced.source
  • 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. Three men are shot this night in Dublin Castle "while trying to escape".source

Religion & Belief

  • February 12–24 – Conference of London: Leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Italy meet to discuss the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire.source
  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • November 2 – Meiji Shrine, one of many landmark spots in Tokyo, is officially built in Japan.source
  • 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.source
  • November 17 – The council of the League of Nations accepts the constitution for the Free City of Danzig.source
  • December 15–22 – The Brussels Conference establishes a timetable for German war reparations, intended to extend for over 42 years.source
  • December 25 – The Rosicrucian Fellowship's spiritual healing temple The Ecclesia is dedicated at Mount Ecclesia, Oceanside, California.source
  • 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.source

Economy & Finance

  • January 1 – Kauniainen in Finland, completely surrounded by the city of Espoo, secedes from Espoo as its own market town.source
  • November 16 – Queensland and Northern Territory Aviation Services (Qantas) is founded by Hudson Fysh and Paul McGinness.source
  • December 13 – Confectionery company Haribo is founded in Bonn, Germany.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • 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).source
  • March 1 – The United States Railroad Administration returns control of American railroads to its constituent railroad companies.source
  • May 17 – The first flight of Dutch air company KLM, from Amsterdam to London, takes place.source
  • June 15 – 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.source
  • July 29 – The United States Bureau of Reclamation begins construction of the Link River Dam, as part of the Klamath Reclamation Project.source
  • 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.source
  • September 29 – The first domestic radio sets come to stores in the United States; a Westinghouse radio costs $10.source
  • November 2 – 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.source

Science & Discovery

  • January 13 – The New York Times ridicules American rocket scientist Robert H. Goddard, which it will rescind following the launch of Apollo 11 in 1969.source
  • March 18 – Greece begins using the Gregorian calendar.source
  • March 26 – American fiction writer F. Scott Fitzgerald makes his name with publication of This Side of Paradise.source
  • May 7 – Mexican Revolution: Venustiano Carranza leaves Mexico City in a large train.source

Health & Medicine

  • January 17 – Prohibition in the United States begins, with the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution which bans the sale of alcohol in all states.source
  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • March 28 – The 1920 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak hits the Great Lakes region and Deep South of the United States.source
  • June 13 – The United States Post Office Department rules that children may not be sent via parcel post.source
  • July 21 – The Troubles in Ulster (1920–1922) begin with 8,000 Catholic and Socialist workers driven from shipyards and industrial sites in Belfast.source
  • July 31 – France prohibits the sale or prescription of contraceptives.source
  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • Hydrocodone, a narcotic analgesic closely related to codeine, is first synthesized in Germany, by Carl Mannich and Helene Löwenheim.source
  • Approximate date – The HIV/AIDS pandemic almost certainly originates in Léopoldville, modern-day Kinshasa, the capital of the Belgian Congo.source

Crime & Justice

  • May 15 – Russian Revolution: Russian White soldier Maria Bochkareva is executed in Soviet Russia.source
  • May 24 – Venustiano Carranza is buried in Mexico City; all of his mourning allies are arrested. Adolfo de la Huerta is elected provisional president.source
  • June 15 – 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.source
  • September 22 – The London Metropolitan Police forms the Flying Squad, a motorised mobile detective patrol unit.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • December 11 – Burning of Cork in Ireland: British forces set fire to some 5 acre m2 of the centre of Cork, including the City Hall, in reprisal attacks, after a British auxiliary is killed in a guerilla ambush.source

Climate & Environment

  • February 20 – 1920 Gori earthquake: An earthquake hits Gori in the Democratic Republic of Georgia, killing 114.source
  • April 4 – 1920 Palestine riots: Violence erupts between Arab and Jewish residents in Jerusalem; 9 are killed, 216 injured.source
  • May 29 – Floods at Louth, Lincolnshire in England kill 23.source
  • December 16 – An 8.2 Richter scale Haiyuan earthquake causes a landslide in Gansu Province, China, killing 273,000.source

Culture & Society

  • January 16 – Zeta Phi Beta sorority, is founded on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C.source
  • January 19 – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is founded.source
  • 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.source
  • February 14 – The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago.source
  • February 22 – In Emeryville, California, the first dog racing track to employ an imitation rabbit opens.source
  • March 1 – Hungarian admiral and statesman Miklós Horthy becomes the Regent of Hungary.source
  • 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.source
  • May 10 – Agnès Souret is elected "The most beautiful woman in France", retrospectively considered the first Miss France.source
  • June 28 – Sigma Tau Gamma is founded on campus at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg, Missourisource
  • July 30–August 8 – The 1st World Scout Jamboree is held at Olympia, London.source
  • 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.source
  • August 22 – The Salzburg Festival in Austria is inaugurated as a regular event.source
  • September 5 – Mahatma Gandhi launches the non-cooperation movement in India, with the goal of obtaining independence from British rulesource
  • September 9 – The Lotta Svärd women's paramilitary auxiliary is founded in Finland.source
  • September 17 – The National Football League is established, as the American Professional Football Association.source
  • September 21 – The Communist Party of Uruguay is founded.source
  • October 3 – The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe horse race first runs in Paris.source
  • October 4 – The Mannerheim League for Child Welfare, a Finnish non-governmental organization, is founded on the initiative of Sophie Mannerheim.source
  • October 27 – The League of Nations moves its headquarters to Geneva, Switzerland.source
  • October 30 – The Communist Party of Australia is founded in Sydney.source
  • 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.)source
  • November 14 – The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra holds its first concert, in Alberta.source
  • November 20 – Prince Arthur of Connaught is appointed the 3rd Governor-General of South Africa.source

Births

  • March 11 – Nicolaas Bloembergen, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2017)source
  • March 17 – Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, founder, 2-time president and second prime minister of Bangladesh (d. 1975)source
  • April 6 – Edmond H. Fischer, Swiss American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2021)source
  • April 15 – Richard von Weizsäcker, German politician, President of Germany (1984–1994) (d. 2015)source
  • April 20 – John Paul Stevens, American judge, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (d. 2019)source
  • April 30 – Captain Sir Tom Moore, English army officer and fundraiser (d. 2021)source
  • June 11 – King Mahendra of Nepal (d. 1972)source
  • June 17 – François Jacob, French biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2013)source
  • June 28 – Clarissa Eden, wife of British prime minister Anthony Eden (d. 2021)source
  • September 23 – Mickey Rooney, American actor, dancer and entertainer (d. 2014)source
  • October 22 – Timothy Leary, American psychologist, author and proponent of LSD (d. 1996)source
  • November 14 – Mary Greyeyes, first First Nations woman to join the Canadian Armed Forces (d. 2011)source
  • November 21 – S. M. Ahsan, Pakistani Vice Admiral, Naval Commander, and recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross for his role in World War II (d. 1989)source
  • December 13 – George P. Shultz, American economist, politician and 60th United States secretary of state (d. 2021)source

Deaths

  • January 3 – Zygmunt Janiszewski, Polish mathematician; Spanish flu (b. 1888)source
  • January 6 – Heinrich Lammasch, Austrian statesman, last minister-president of Austria (as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) in 1918 (b. 1853)source
  • January 7 – Sir Edmund Barton, 1st prime minister of Australia (b. 1849)source
  • January 14 – John Francis Dodge, American automobile manufacturer; Spanish flu (b. 1864)source
  • January 24 – Amedeo Modigliani, Italian painter, sculptor; tuberculosis (b. 1884)source
  • February 7 – Viktor Pepelyayev, Russian politician; executed (b. 1874)source
  • February 7 – Alexander Kolchak, Russian naval commander; executed (b. 1874)source
  • February 11 – Gaby Deslys, French dancer, actress and spy; Spanish flu (b. 1881)source
  • April 8 – Charles Tomlinson Griffes, American composer (b. 1884), Spanish flusource
  • May 16 – Levi P. Morton, 22nd Vice President of the United States (b. 1824)source
  • June 14 – Max Weber, German political economist (b. 1864); Spanish flusource
  • August 31 – Wilhelm Wundt, German physiologist, psychologist (b. 1832)source
  • November 1 – Kevin Barry, Irish republican paramilitary; executed (b. 1902)source
  • Unknown date – Nikolai Pavlovich Bobyr, Russian general; executed (b. 1854)source