1921

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Decades: 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s - 1920s - 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s

Years: 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 - 1921 - 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926

Events

January 2 - The first religious radio broadcast (KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
January 2 - DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park San Francisco opens.
January 20 - Republic of Turkey is declared
March 8 - Spanish Premier Eduardo Dato is assassinated while exiting the parliament building in Madrid.
March 13 - Mongolia declares its independence from China
March 18 - The second Peace of Riga between Poland and Soviet Union ending Polish-Soviet war. Despite the recent Polish successed, Soviets annex Ukraine and Belarus.
April 11 - The Emirate of Transjordan is created.
May 19 - The Emergency Quota Act passes the United States Congress establishing national quotas on immigrantion.
July 18 - The first BCG vaccination against tuberculosis
July 27 - Researchers at the University of Toronto led by biochemist Frederick Banting announce the discovery of the hormone insulin.
August - The United States formally ends World War I, declaring a peace with Germany
September 7 - In Atlantic City, New Jersey, the first Miss America Pageant is held.
November 11 - During an Armistice Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, the Tomb of the Unknowns is dedicated by US President Warren G. Harding.
December 6 - The Anglo-Irish Treaty establishing the Irish Free State is signed in London. See Ireland/History
December 29 - William Lyon Mackenzie King becomes Canada's tenth prime minister.

Change of US presidency from Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921) to Warren G. Harding (1921-1923)
Discovery of insulin at the University of Toronto by Frederick Banting, Charles Best, James Collip, and J.J.R. Macleod

The year in topics

1921 in film
February 20 - The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse film, starring Rudolph Valentino, premieres.
1921 in literature
1921 in music
1921 in science
1921 in sports

Births

January 5 - Friedrich Dürrenmatt, writer (+ 1990)
January 5 - Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg
January 6 - Louis Harris, pollster
January 19 - Patricia Highsmith, author (+ 1995)
January 20 - Bernt Engelmann, author († 1994)
January 27 - Donna Reed, actress (+ 1986)
January 31 - Carol Channing, actress
January 31 - Mario Lanza, singer, actor (+ 1959)
February 4 - Betty Friedan, feminist
February 11 - Eva Gabor, Hungarian actress.
February 11 - Lloyd Bentsen, American politician.
February 14 - Hugh Downs, game show host, journalist
February 24 - Abe Vigoda, actor
February 25 - Pierre Laporte, statesman, murdered by FLQ terrorists
March 8 - Cyd Charisse, actress, dancer
March 12 - Giovanni Agnelli, manager of Fiat
March 12 - Gordon MacRae, singer, actor (+ 1986)
March 20 - Rudolf Noelte, film director (+ 2002)
March 20 - Sister Rosetta Tharpe, singer (+ 1973)
March 25 - Simone Signoret, actress (+ 1985)
March 28 - Dirk Bogarde, actor (+ 1999)
April 15 - Georgi Beregovoi, cosmonaut
May 2 - Satyajit Ray, Indian filmmaker.
May 6 - Erich Fried, author (+ 1988)
May 9 - Sophie Scholl, resistance fighter with White Rose in Nazi Germany
May 11 - Hildegard Hamm-Brücher, politician
May 12 - Joseph Beuys, artist (+ 1986)
May 12 - Farley Mowat, writer, naturalist
May 19 - Karel van het Reve, Dutch writer (+ 1999)
May 20 - Wolfgang Borchert, lyricist, narrator and dramatist (+ 1947)
May 20 - Hal Newhouser, Baseball Hall of Famer (+ 1998)
May 21 - Andrei Sakharov, physicist, human rights activist, recipient of the Nobel Prize (+ 1989)
May 23 - James Blish, US science fiction author
May 28 - Heinz G. Konsalik, author (+ 1999)
June 10 - Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
June 26 - Violette Szabo, SOE agent, WW II heroine (+ 1945)
July 4 - Tibor Varga, violinist, conductor and pedagogue
July 17 - Hannah Szenes, WW II heroine executed by the Nazis (+ 1944)
October 13 - Yves Montand, French singer and actor
October 25 - King Michael of Romania
December 26 - Steve Allen, actor, composer, comedian, author

Deaths

February 8 - Peter Kropotkin, Russian anarchist
March 2 - King Nicholas of Montenegro
June 5 - Georges Feydeau, French playwright
October 25 - Bat Masterson, "Wild West" legend
December 16 - Camille Saint-Saens, composer

Nobel Prizes

Physics - Albert Einstein
Chemistry - Frederick Soddy
Medicine - not awarded
Literature - Anatole France
Peace - Karl Hjalmar Branting Christian Lous Lange