1922 CE
The Irish Civil War erupts between pro- and anti-Treaty forces after the creation of the Irish Free State, plunging Ireland into a brutal struggle; the March on Rome brings Benito Mussolini and the National Fascist Party to power in the Kingdom of Italy, launching fascist rule; the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings by Howard Carter sparks worldwide fascination with ancient Egypt; the Burning of Smyrna devastates the city in the final phase of the Greco-Turkish War, causing massive destruction and a humanitarian crisis; the Washington Naval Treaty limits naval arms among leading powers to prevent another costly race; and the Treaty on the Creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics forms the Soviet Union, uniting multiple republics under one federal government.
Geopolitics & Diplomacy
- January 7 – Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes.source
- January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éireann, the day after Éamon de Valera resigns.source
- January 15 – Michael Collins becomes Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State.source
- February 6 – The Five Power Naval Disarmament Treaty is signed between the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, France and Italy. Japan returns some of its control over the Shandong Peninsula to China.source
- February 26 – Leser v. Garnett: The Supreme Court of the United States rebuffs a challenge to the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave women the right to vote on the same terms as men.source
- February 28 – The Unilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence by the United Kingdom ends its protectorate over Egypt, and grants the country nominal independence, reserving control of military and diplomatic matters.source
- March 15 – With Egypt having gained self-government from the United Kingdom, Fuad I becomes King of Egypt.source
- March 23 – Queensland, Australia, abolishes the Legislative Council (Upper House).source
- April 16 – The Treaty of Rapallo marks a rapprochement between the Weimar Republic and Bolshevik Russia.source
- June 9 – Åland's Regional Assembly convenes for its first plenary session in Mariehamn, Åland; the day will be celebrated as Self-Government Day of Åland.source
- June 26 – Louis Honoré Charles Antoine Grimaldi becomes Reigning Prince Louis II of Monaco.source
- June 28 – The Syrian Federation is constituted by arrêté of Henri Gouraud.source
- July 17 – The final signings of Treaty 11, an agreement between George V, King of Canada, and various Canadian First Nations, are conducted at Fort Liard.source
- July 20 – The German protectorate of Togoland is divided into the League of Nations mandates of French Togoland and British Togoland.source
- September 24 - The Latvia national football team and Estonia national football team played their first official international match.source
- October 25 – The 3rd Dáil enacts the Constitution of the Irish Free State.source
- October 27 – Southern Rhodesians reject union with South Africa in a referendum.source
- November 1 – The Ottoman Empire is abolished after 600 years, and its last sultan, Mehmed VI, abdicates, leaving for exile, initially in Malta, on November 17.source
- November 15 – In the 1922 United Kingdom general election forced by the Conservatives' withdrawal from the coalition government, the Conservative Party wins an overall majority. Labour for the first time becomes the main opposition party, winning more seats than the divided Liberals. A dining club of newly elected Conservative Members of Parliament evolves the following year into the 1922 Committee.source
- November 21 – Rebecca Felton of Georgia takes the oath of office, formally becoming the first woman United States Senator.source
- December 5 – The British Parliament enacts the Irish Free State Constitution Act, by which it legally sanctions the new Constitution of the Irish Free State.source
- December 6 – The Irish Free State officially comes into existence. George V becomes the Free State's monarch. Tim Healy is appointed first Governor-General of the Irish Free State, and W. T. Cosgrave becomes President of the Executive Council.source
- December 9 – Gabriel Narutowicz is elected the first president of Poland.source
- December 30 – Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the Transcaucasian Republic (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia) come together to form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.source
Conflict & Security
- January 26 – Italian forces occupy Misrata, Libya; the reconquest of Libya begins.source
- February 8 – In the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Cheka becomes the Gosudarstvennoye Politicheskoye Upravlenie (GPU), a section of the NKVD.source
- February 14 – Finnish Minister of the Interior Heikki Ritavuori is assassinated by Ernst Tandefelt.source
- February 15 – The inaugural session of the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ) is held in The Hague.source
- March 16 – The Rand Rebellion, which began as a strike by white South African mine workers on 28 December 1921 and became open rebellion against the state, is suppressed.source
- May 8 – In Moscow, eight priests, two laymen and one woman are sentenced to death for opposition to the Soviet government's confiscation of church property.source
- June 1 – Bolshevik forces defeat Basmachi troops, under Enver Pasha.source
- June 22 – Irish Republican Army agents assassinate British Army field marshal Sir Henry Wilson in London; the assassins are sentenced to death on July 18.source
- June 28 – The Irish Civil War and Battle of Dublin begin when the Irish National Army, using artillery loaned by the British, begins to bombard the anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army forces occupying the Four Courts in Dublin. Fighting in Dublin lasts until July 5.source
- August 22 – Irish Civil War: General Michael Collins is assassinated in West Cork.source
- August 23 – Morocco revolts against the Spanish.source
- August 26 – A Turkish large-scale attack opens against Greek forces in Afyon; Turkish victory is achieved on August 30.source
- August 28 – Japan agrees to withdraw its troops from Siberia.source
- September 9 – Turkish forces pursuing withdrawing Greek troops enter İzmir, effectively ending the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922).source
- September 24 (O. S. September 11) – 11 September 1922 Revolution in Greece.source
- October 11 – Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922 ends in Turkish victory.source
- October 28 – The Red Army occupies Vladivostok.source
- October 28 – In Italy, the March on Rome brings the National Fascist Party and Benito Mussolini to power. Italy begins a period of dictatorship that lasts until the end of the Second World War.source
- November 15 – 1922 Guayaquil general strike: During a 3-day strike action in the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador, police and military fire into a crowd, killing at least 300.source
- December 16 – Gabriel Narutowicz, sworn on December 11 as first president of the Second Polish Republic, is assassinated by a right-wing sympathizer in Warsaw.source
- During his first rebellion, Simko Shikak launched an attack on Mahabad in mid-May and July. In the ensuing fighting, Simko's forces captured Mahabad and killed a Persian commander.source
Exploration & Expansion
- November 4 – Discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun: in Egypt, English archaeologist Howard Carter and his men find the entrance to the pharaonic tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings.source
- Earl W. Bascom, rodeo cowboy and artist, designs and makes rodeo's first hornless bronc saddle at Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.source
Religion & Belief
- February 6 – Pope Pius XI (Achille Ratti) succeeds Pope Benedict XV, to become the 259th pope.source
- May 30 – In Washington, D.C., United States, the Lincoln Memorial is dedicated.source
- September 11 – The Mandate of Palestine is approved by the Council of the League of Nations.source
- November 19 – Abdülmecid II, Crown Prince of the Ottoman Empire, is elected Caliph.source
Economy & Finance
- April 10 – Genoa Conference: The representatives of 34 countries convene to speak in Genoa, Italy about monetary economics, in the wake of World War I.source
- July – Hyperinflation in Germany means that 563 marks are now needed to buy a single American dollar – more than double the 263 needed eight months before, dwarfing the mere 12 needed in April 1919, and even the 47 needed in December of that year.source
- Hyperinflation in Germany sees the value of the Papiermark against the dollar rise to 1,000.source
- October – 3,000 German marks are now needed to buy a single American dollar – triple the figure three months ago due to hyperinflation.source
- December – The year ends with hyperinflation showing no sign of slowing down in Germany, with 7,000 marks now needed to buy a single American dollar.source
- Wracked by rapid inflation and political assassinations, and motivated by hostility and arrogance as well, the Weimar Republic announces its inability to pay more, and proposes a moratorium on reparations for 3 years.source
Technology & Infrastructure
- February 8 – President of the United States Warren G. Harding introduces the first radio in the White House.source
- March 2 – An ice mass breaks the Oder Dam in Breslau.source
- March 2 – The British Civil Aviation Authority is established.source
- March 20 – The USS Langley is commissioned as the first United States Navy aircraft carrier.source
- March 22 – Radio station WLW in Cincinnati begins broadcasting.source
- April 1 – South African Railways takes control of all railway operations in South West Africa.source
- April 24 – The first portion of the Imperial Wireless Chain, a strategic international wireless telegraphy network created to link the British Empire, is opened, from the UK to Egypt.source
- June 14 – President of the United States Warren G. Harding makes his first speech on the radio.source
- September 13 – The Gdynia Seaport Construction Act is passed by the Polish Parliament.source
- October 18 – The British Broadcasting Company is formed.source
- November 1 – A broadcast receiving licence with a fee of ten shillings is introduced in the United Kingdom.source
- November 14 – The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) begins radio service in the United Kingdom, broadcasting from station 2LO in London.source
- November 26 – Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon become the first people to see inside KV62, the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, in over 3,000 years.source
- December 27 – Japanese aircraft carrier Hōshō becomes the first purpose-designed aircraft carrier to be commissioned.source
Science & Discovery
- February 14 – Baragoola, the last of the Binngarra class Manly ferries, is launched at Balmain, New South Wales.source
- March 4 – The silent horror film Nosferatu is premièred at the Berlin Zoological Garden in Germany.source
- April 12 – The United Kingdom's Prince of Wales arrives in Yokohama aboard HMS Renown and rides by train to Tokyo, starting a one-month visit to Japan.source
- September 17 – Dutch cyclist Piet Moeskops becomes world champion sprinter.source
Health & Medicine
Crime & Justice
- March 10 – Mahatma Gandhi is arrested in Bombay for sedition.source
- March 18 – In British India, Mahatma Gandhi is sentenced to six years in prison for sedition (he serves only two).source
- March 31 – Six die in the Hinterkaifeck murders north of Munich.source
- May 29 – British Liberal MP Horatio Bottomley is jailed for seven years for fraud.source
- June 24 – Weimar Republic foreign minister Walther Rathenau is assassinated; the murderers are captured on July 17.source
- The last hunted California grizzly bear is shot.source
- November 24 – Popular author and anti-Treaty Republican Erskine Childers is executed by firing squad in Dublin, after conviction by an Irish Free State military court for the unlawful possession of a gun, a weapon presented to him by Michael Collins in 1920 as a gift.source
- December 11 – The trial of Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters ends at the Old Bailey in London, for the murder of Thompson's husband; both are found guilty and sentenced to hang.source
- December 20 – Antigone by Jean Cocteau appears on stage in Paris, with settings by Pablo Picasso, music by Arthur Honegger and costumes by Coco Chanel.source
Disasters & Accidents
- April 7 – 1922 Picardie mid-air collision: The first midair collision between airliners occurs, between a Daimler Airway de Havilland DH.18 and a Grands Express Aériens Farman Goliath over Poix-de-Picardie, Amiens, France.source
- September 13–15 – The Great Fire of Smyrna destroys most of İzmir. Responsibility is disputed.source
Climate & Environment
Culture & Society
- February 10–17 – Modern Art Week in São Paulo marks the start of Modernism in Brazil.source
- March 13 – Edward, Prince of Wales, inaugurates the Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College in Dehradun, India, marking a capitulation of the Governor General and Secretary of State for India to growing pressure for Indianization of the officer cadre of the Indian Army.source
- April 13 – The State of Massachusetts opens all public offices to women.source
- May 18 – Sergei Diaghilev, Igor Stravinsky, Pablo Picasso, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Erik Satie and Clive Bell dine together at the Hotel Majestic in Paris, their only joint meeting.source
- May 19 – The All-Russian Young Pioneer Organisation is established.source
- June 1 – The first issue of the magazine Krestyanka is published in Russia.source
- June 11 – Robert J. Flaherty's Nanook of the North, the first commercially successful feature-length documentary film, is premiered in the U.S.source
- July 11 – The Hollywood Bowl open-air music venue opens.source
- September 3 – The Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, the world's third purpose-built motorsport race track, is officially opened at Monza in the Lombardy Region of Italy.source
- September 11 – The Sun News-Pictorial, a predecessor of the Melbourne, Australia, Herald Sun, is founded.source
- September 29 – Drums in the Night (Trommeln in der Nacht) becomes the first play by Bertolt Brecht to be staged, at the Munich Kammerspiele.source
- October 1 – G. I. Gurdjieff opens his Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man at Fontainebleau, France.source
- October 15 – T. S. Eliot establishes The Criterion magazine, containing the first publication of his poem The Waste Land. This first appears in the United States later this month in The Dial (dated November 1), and is first published complete with notes in book form, by Boni and Liveright in New York in December.source
- October 28 – Rose Bowl sports stadium officially opens in Pasadena, California.source
- November 12 – Sigma Gamma Rho (ΣΓΡ) Sorority, Incorporated is founded by seven educators in Indianapolis, Indiana. The group becomes an incorporated national collegiate sorority on December 30, 1929, when a charter is granted to the Alpha chapter at Butler University in Indianapolis.source
- L'Action sénégalaise weekly newspaper is founded in Senegal.source
Births
- January 9 – Har Gobind Khorana, Indian biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2011)source
- January 17 – Betty White, American actress, television personality and animal welfare activist (d. 2021)source
- March 11 – Abdul Razak Hussein, second Prime Minister of Malaysia (d. 1976)source
- April 13 – Julius Nyerere, 1st President of Tanzania (d. 1999)source
- July 2 – Pierre Cardin, Italian-born French fashion designer (d. 2020)source
- July 15 – Leon M. Lederman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2018)source
- July 19 – George McGovern, American politician, historian and author (d. 2012)source
- July 27 – Norman Lear, American television writer and producer (d. 2023)source
- August 24 – Howard Zinn, American social activist and historian (d. 2010)source
- September 1 – Yvonne De Carlo, Canadian-born American actress, dancer and singer (d. 2007)source
- September 2 – Arthur Ashkin, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2020)source
- October 1 – Yang Chen-Ning, Chinese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2025)source
- November 14 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Egyptian Secretary-General of the United Nations (d. 2016)source
- November 16 – José Saramago, Portuguese author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2010)source
Deaths
- January 10 – Ōkuma Shigenobu, 2-time Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1838)source
- January 22 – James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce, Irish-born politician, diplomat and historian (b. 1838)source
- February 1 – Yamagata Aritomo, Japanese field marshal, 3rd Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1838)source
- February 25 – Henri Désiré Landru, French serial killer (executed) (b. 1869)source
- April 14 – Cap Anson, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1852)source
- May 18 – Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, French physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1845)source
- June 22 – Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet, British field marshal and politician (b. 1864)source
- June 24 – Walther Rathenau, German statesman, Weimar Republic foreign minister (assassinated) (b. 1867)source
- August 4 – Enver Pasha, Ottoman military leader, Turkish revolutionary (b. 1881)source
- August 12 – Arthur Griffith, Irish republican, President of Dáil Éireann (b. 1872)source
- August 22 – Michael Collins, Irish republican, revolutionary, and Chairman of the Provisional Government (assassinated) (b. 1890)source
- November 7 – Sam Thompson, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1860)source
- November 24 – Erskine Childers, Irish novelist, nationalist (executed) (b. 1870)source
- December 16 – Gabriel Narutowicz, Polish professor and politician, 1st President of Poland (assassinated) (b. 1865)source