Directory

1921 CE

The Tulsa race massacre destroys the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, killing hundreds and razing thousands of homes and businesses; the Russian famine of 1921–1922 kills an estimated five million in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, prompting limited international aid; the Red Army invasion of Georgia brings the Democratic Republic of Georgia under Soviet control; the Anglo-Irish Treaty ends the Irish War of Independence, creating the Irish Free State as a self-governing dominion; the Rif War begins as Berber tribes led by Abd el-Krim resist Spanish colonial rule in northern Morocco; and the Kronstadt rebellion sees Soviet sailors and workers rise against Bolshevik rule before being crushed by the Red Army.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • February 19 – The French Third Republic and Second Polish Republic form a defensive alliance.source
  • March 9 – Cilicia Peace Treaty is signed between the French Third Republic and the Turkish National Movement in an attempt to end the Franco-Turkish War.source
  • March 12 – The İstiklâl Marşı (Independence March), the Turkish national anthem, is officially adopted.source
  • March 16 – Treaty of Moscow establishes friendly relations between the Government of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic.source
  • March 18 – The second Peace of Riga ends the Polish–Soviet War. A permanent border is established between the Polish and Soviet states.source
  • March 20 – Upper Silesia votes for re-annexation to Germany.source
  • March 31 – Abkhazia becomes the Socialist Soviet Republic of Abkhazia.source
  • April 11 – The Emirate of Transjordan is created under British Mandate, with Abdullah I as emir.source
  • May 6 – The German-Soviet Provisional Agreement is signed: Germany recognises the Soviet government in the RSFSR.source
  • May 22 – In the first golf international between the two countries, the United States beats the United Kingdom 9 rounds to 3.source
  • May 24 – 1921 Irish elections: In the first Northern Ireland general election for the new Parliament of Northern Ireland, Ulster Unionists win 40 out of 52 seats. The dominant-party system here will last for fifty years.source
  • June 10 – Paris declaration: Representatives of the three states of Transcaucasia and the North Caucasus (the Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian Socialist Soviet Republics) proclaim their independence, establishing a customs union and military alliance, not internationally recognized.source
  • June 27 – The first signings of Treaty 11, an agreement between George V, King of Canada, and various Canadian First Nations, are conducted at Fort Providence.source
  • June 28 – The Constitutional Assembly of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes passes the Vidovdan Constitution, despite a boycott of the vote by the communists, and Croat and Slovene parties.source
  • July 2 – U.S. President Warren Harding signs a joint congressional resolution, declaring an end to America's state of war with Germany, Austria and Hungary.source
  • July 4 – A new conservative government is formed in Italy by Ivanoe Bonomi.source
  • July 11 – The Irish War of Independence ends under the terms of the truce (signed on 9 July) which becomes effective at noon between the British Army and the Irish Republican Army.source
  • July 17 – The Republic of Mirdita is proclaimed near the Albanian-Serbian border, with Yugoslav support.source
  • October 5 – Constitution of Liechtenstein granted by Johann II, Prince of Liechtenstein, making the country a constitutional monarchy.source
  • October 11 – The Irish Treaty Conference opens in London.source
  • October 13 – The Treaty of Kars is signed between the Government of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and the Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian Socialist Soviet Republics in Transcaucasia, establishing common boundaries.source
  • October 20 – Treaty of Ankara signed between the French Third Republic and the Government of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, ending the Franco-Turkish War.source
  • December 6 – The Anglo-Irish Treaty establishing the Irish Free State, an independent nation incorporating 26 of Ireland's 32 counties, is signed in London.source
  • December 6 – Agnes Macphail becomes the first woman to be elected to the Canadian Parliament.source

Conflict & Security

  • February 12 – Red Army invasion of Georgia: The Democratic Republic of Georgia is invaded by forces of Bolshevist Russia.source
  • February 21 – 1921 Persian coup d'état: Rezā Khan and Zia'eddin Tabatabaee stage a coup d'état in Qajar dynasty Iran.source
  • February 25 – Red Army invasion of Georgia: The Red Army enters the Georgian capital Tbilisi and occupies the country, installing a new government and proclaiming the Georgian Soviet Republic.source
  • February 28 – The Kronstadt rebellion is initiated by sailors of the Soviet Navy's Baltic Fleet.source
  • March 5 – Irish War of Independence: Clonbanin ambush: A force of about 100 Irish Republican Army members attacks a British Army convoy of 40 soldiers, killing several, including Brigadier General Cumming.source
  • March 8 – Spanish Premier Eduardo Dato e Iradier is assassinated while exiting the parliament building in Madrid.source
  • March 13 – Occupation of Mongolia: The Russian White Army captures Mongolia from China; Roman von Ungern-Sternberg declares himself ruler.source
  • March 17 – The Red Army crushes the Kronstadt rebellion, and a number of sailors flee to Finland.source
  • March 21 – Irish War of Independence: Headford Ambush – The Irish Republican Army kills at least 9 British Army troops.source
  • May 1–7 – Jaffa riots: Riots at Jaffa, Mandatory Palestine result in 47 Jewish and 48 Arab deaths.source
  • May 2–July 5 – Third Silesian Uprising: Poles in Upper Silesia rise against the Germans.source
  • May 25 – Irish War of Independence: The Irish Republican Army occupies and burns The Custom House in Dublin, the centre of local government in Ireland. Five IRA men are killed, and over 80 are captured by the British Army which surrounds the building.source
  • May 31–June 1 – Tulsa Race Massacre (Greenwood Massacre): Mobs of white residents attack black residents and businesses in Greenwood District, Tulsa, Oklahoma. The official death toll is 36, but later investigations suggest an actual figure between 100 and 300. 1,250 homes are destroyed and roughly 6,000 African Americans imprisoned in one of the worst incidents of mass racial violence in the United States.source
  • June 22–July 12 – The Third Congress of the Communist International takes place.source
  • July 21 – Rif War: Battle of Annual – Spanish troops are dealt a crushing defeat at the hands of Abd el-Krim in Morocco.source
  • July 26 – U.S. President Warren G. Harding receives Princess Fatima of Afghanistan who is escorted by imposter Stanley Clifford Weyman.source
  • August 25 – The Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest labor uprising in United States history and the country's largest peacetime armed uprising, begins in Logan County, West Virginia as part of the Coal Wars, continuing until September 2.source
  • August 26 – Following the assassination of former Finance Minister Matthias Erzberger by right-wing terrorists, the German government declares martial law.source
  • September 1 – Poplar Rates Rebellion: Nine members of the borough council of Poplar, London, are arrested.source
  • October 3 – Simko, the leader of the Shikak tribe, kills the Iranian commander Colonel Mohammad Taqi Pessian by beheading him in the Battle of Jafarabad, which is the first incident of his rebellion.source
  • October 7 – During his first rebellion, Simko Shikak launches an attack on the Savujbulak district of Mahabad. With a force of approximately 3,900, he attacks the gendarmes, killing 400 of them and looting the local population.source
  • October 24 – In the continuing Rif War, the Spanish Army defeats rifkabyl rebels in Morocco.source
  • November 4 – After a speech by Adolf Hitler in the Hofbräuhaus in Munich (Germany), members of the Sturmabteilung ("brownshirts") physically assault his opposition.source
  • November 11 – During an Armistice Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, the Tomb of the Unknowns is dedicated by Warren G. Harding, President of the United States.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • June 15 – Compagnie Générale Transatlantique's liner makes her maiden voyage from Le Havre to New York.source

Religion & Belief

  • February 21 – Conference of London of 1921–1922 convenes in an attempt to resolve problems arising from the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.source
  • August 16 – The Times newspaper in London begins a series of articles, written by its Constantinople correspondent Philip Graves, exposing The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a forgery.source

Economy & Finance

  • March 21 – The New Economic Policy starts in Soviet Russia.source
  • April 15 – "Black Friday" in Britain: transport union members of the 'Triple Alliance' refuse to support national strike action by coal miners.source
  • May 5 – London Schedule of Payments sets out the World War I reparations payable by the German Weimar Republic and other countries considered successors to the Central Powers – 132 billion gold marks ($33 billion), in annual installments of 2.5 billion.source
  • November – Hyperinflation is rampant in Germany, where 263 marks are now needed to buy a single American dollar, more than 20 times greater than the 12 marks needed in April 1919.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • June 15 – 29-year-old African American Bessie Coleman obtains her pilot's licence in France and becomes the first black woman to have a pilot's licence.source
  • July 21 – Edward Harper, the "father of broadcasting" in Ceylon, arrives in Colombo to take up his post as Chief Engineer of the Ceylon Telegraph Department.source
  • August 5 – The first radio baseball game is broadcast: Harold Arlin announces the Pirates-Phillies game from Forbes Field over Westinghouse KDKA in Pittsburgh.source
  • Construction of the Link River Dam, a part of the Klamath Project in Oregon, is completed.source

Science & Discovery

  • January 25 – Italian battleship Leonardo da Vinci is righted in Taranto Harbour.source
  • May 5 – Chanel No. 5 perfume launched by Coco Chanel.source
  • July 27 – Researchers at the University of Toronto, led by biochemist Frederick Banting, announce the discovery of the hormone insulin.source

Health & Medicine

  • March 1 – The Australia national cricket team, led by Warwick Armstrong, becomes the first to complete a whitewash of the touring England team in The Ashes, something that will not be repeated for 86 years.source
  • March 17 – Marie Stopes opens the first birth control clinic in the British Empire in London, UK.source
  • May 5 – Only 13 paying spectators attend the football match between Leicester City and Stockport County F.C. in England, the lowest attendance in The Football League's history.source
  • July 1 – The first BCG vaccination against tuberculosis is given, in Paris, France; the recipient is a newborn child.source
  • August 11 – The temperature reaches 39 degrees Celsius in Breslau; the heat wave continues elsewhere in Europe as well.source
  • August 11 – Franklin D. Roosevelt's paralytic illness strikes while he is vacationing; on August 25 he is diagnosed with polio and aged 39 becomes permanently disabled.source
  • November 23 – In the United States, the Sheppard–Towner Act is signed by President Harding, providing federal funding for maternity and child care.source

Crime & Justice

  • January 17 – The first recorded public performance of the illusion of "sawing a woman in half" is given by English stage magician P. T. Selbit at the Finsbury Park Empire variety theatre in London.source
  • June 3 – The death penalty is abolished in Sweden.source
  • July 14 – A Massachusetts jury finds Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti guilty of first degree murder following a widely publicized trial whose verdict will spark protests around the world.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • January 2 – The Spanish liner Santa Isabel breaks in two and sinks off Villa Garcia, Mexico, with the loss of 244 of the 300 people on board.source
  • January 20 – British K-class submarine HMS K5 sinks in the English Channel; all 57 on board are lost.source
  • March 31 – The British government formally returns the coal mines from wartime control to their private owners, who demand wage cuts; in response, the Miners' Federation of Great Britain calls on its partner trade unions in the Triple Alliance to join it in strike action, leading in turn to the government declaring a state of emergency for the first time under the Emergency Powers Act 1920. On April 1, a lockout of striking coal miners begins.source
  • June 28 – The coal strike in the United Kingdom ends with the Miners' Federation of Great Britain obliged to accept pay cuts.source
  • July 9 – Bloody Sunday (1921) occurs in Belfast, Northern Ireland with 20 killings, at least 100 wounded and 200 homes destroyed.source
  • August 24 – R38-class airship ZR-2 explodes on her fourth test flight near Kingston upon Hull, England, killing 44 of the 49 Anglo-American crew on board.source
  • September 21 – The Oppau explosion occurs at BASF's nitrate factory in Oppau, Germany; over 500 are killed.source

Climate & Environment

  • May 14–15 – The major May 1921 geomagnetic storm occurs.source
  • Spring – Russian famine of 1921–22 begins; roughly 5,000,000 die.source

Culture & Society

  • January 16 – The Marxist Left in Slovakia and the Transcarpathian Ukraine holds its founding congress in Ľubochňa.source
  • January 21 – The full-length silent comedy drama film The Kid, written, produced, directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin (in his Tramp character), with Jackie Coogan, is released in the United States.source
  • February 20 – The Young Communist League of Czechoslovakia is founded.source
  • February 23 – The moderately conservative public official Oscar von Sydow takes over the Swedish premiership from Baron Louis De Geer the Younger.source
  • February 27 – A Socialist congress at Vienna ends with the International Working Union of Socialist Parties founded.source
  • March 1 – The city of Kiryū, located in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, is founded.source
  • March 24 – The 1921 Women's Olympiad (the first international women's sports event) begins in Monte Carlo.source
  • March – The Group Settlement Scheme in Western Australia begins.source
  • April 20 – Ferenc Molnár's play Liliom is first produced in English on Broadway. The play would later be adapted as the musical Carousel.source
  • May 26 – A general strike begins in Norway, begun by 120,000 workers led by Ole O. Lian.source
  • June 21 – The International Hydrographic Bureau (IHB) is established as an agency of the League of Nations; it continues in this form until April 19, 1946.source
  • July 23 – 1st National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party opens in Shanghai.source
  • August 23 – King Faisal I of Iraq is crowned in Baghdad.source
  • September 8 – Margaret Gorman, 16, wins the Golden Mermaid trophy at a beauty pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey; officials later dub her the first Miss America.source
  • September 13 – White Castle hamburger restaurant opens in Wichita, Kansas, foundation of the world's first fast food chain.source
  • September 28 – Sauerländer Heimatbund is founded in Meschede, Germany.source
  • October 5 – The World Series baseball game in North America is first broadcast on the radio, by Newark, New Jersey, station WJZ, Pittsburgh station KDKA, and a group of other commercial and amateur stations throughout the eastern United States.source
  • October 8 – The first Sweetest Day is staged in Cleveland, Ohio.source
  • October 10 – Teaching at the University of Szeged begins, in the Kingdom of Hungary.source
  • October 21 – George Melford's wildly successful silent film The Sheik, which will propel its leading actor Rudolph Valentino to international stardom, premieres in Los Angeles.source
  • Centre College's American football team, led by quarterback Bo McMillin, defeats Harvard University 6–0, to break Harvard's five-year winning streak. For decades afterward, this is called "football's upset of the century".source
  • November 9 – The National Fascist Party (Partito Nazionale Fascista or PNF) is founded in Italy.source
  • December 23 – Visva-Bharati College is founded by Rabindranath Tagore in Santiniketan, Bengal Presidency, British India.source
  • Luxury goods brand Gucci is founded in Florence, Italy.source

Births

  • January 1 – Isma'il Raji al-Faruqi, Palestinian-American Islamic scholar (d. 1986)source
  • January 17 – Asghar Khan, Pakistani politician, first native Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Air Force, the world's youngest Air Vice Marshal at 36 and Air Marshal at 37 years old (d. 2018)source
  • May 21 – Andrei Sakharov, Soviet physicist, human rights activist, and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1989)source
  • May 25 – Jack Steinberger, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2020)source
  • June 7 – Bernard Lown, American medical innovator, Nobel Peace Prize recipient (d. 2021)source
  • July 6 – Nancy Reagan, American actress, First Lady of the United States (d. 2016)source
  • July 19 – Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, American physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2011)source
  • August 10 – Ion Negoițescu, Romanian literary historian, critic, poet, novelist and memoirist (d. 1993)source
  • August 15 – Tom M. Rice, American soldier and paratrooper that fought in WWII (d. 2022)source
  • August 19 – Gene Roddenberry, American television producer (Star Trek) (d. 1991)source
  • August 23 – Kenneth Arrow, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2017)source
  • September 25 – Robert Muldoon, 31st Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1992)source
  • November 27 – Alexander Dubček, Slovak politician, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (d. 1992)source
  • December 26 – John Severin, American humorous, war and western cartoonist (Mad Comics, Cracked) (d. 2012)source

Deaths

  • January 1 – Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, 5th Chancellor of Germany (b. 1856)source
  • February 8 – Peter Kropotkin, Russian anarchist (b. 1842)source
  • March 15 – Talaat Pasha, Ottoman Turkish ruler, initiator of the Armenian Genocide (b. 1874) (assassinated)source
  • April 11 – Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, last German Empress, wife of Kaiser Wilhelm II (b. 1858)source
  • May 19 – Edward Douglass White, 9th Chief Justice of the United States (b. 1845)source
  • May 25 – Émile Combes, French statesman, 69th Prime Minister of France (b. 1835)source
  • June 29 – Lady Randolph Churchill, mother of Winston Churchill (b. 1854)source
  • August 26 – Matthias Erzberger, German politician (assassinated; b. 1875)source
  • September 11 – Prince Louis of Battenberg, British naval officer, German prince (b. 1854)source
  • October 28 – William Speirs Bruce, British marine biologist and antarctic explorer (b. 1867)source
  • November 4 – Hara Takashi, Japanese politician, 10th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1856) (assassinated)source
  • November 7 – Peter Conover Hains, major general in the United States Army, and veteran of the American Civil War, Spanish–American War, and First World War (b. 1840)source
  • November 14 – Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil, daughter of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil (b. 1846)source
  • December 16 – Camille Saint-Saëns, French composer (b. 1835)source