1920

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

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

Years: 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 - 1920 - 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925

Events

January 7 - Forces of Russian White general Kolcak surrender in Krasnojarsk
January 9 - Britain announces it will build 100.000 homes for war veterans
January 10 - League of Nations holds its first meeting and ratifies the Treaty of Versailles ending World War I.
January 15 - Prohibition goes into effect
January 16 - Prohibition begins in USA. Many liquor-loving Americans move to France.
January 16 - Allies demand that Netherlands extradite German Kaiser who has fled there
January 19 - The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations
January 23 - Netherlands refuses to extradite Kaiser
January 28 - Spanish legion is founded and stationed in North America to fight rebels in Morocco
January 28 - Turkey gives up Ottoman empire and non-turkish areas.
February 1 - The Royal Canadian Mounted Police begin operations.
February 2 - Estonia declares its independence from Russia
February 2 - France occupies Memel
February 9 - League of Nations gives Spitzbergen to Norway
February 17 - Woman named Anna Anderson tries to commit suicide in Berlin and is taken to mental hospital, where she claims she is Anastasia
February 14 - The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago, Illinois.
February 22 - In Emeryville, California, the first dog race track to employ an imitation rabbit opens.
February 24 - Adolf Hitler presents his national socialist program in Munich
March -– World’s first peaceful establishment of a social democratic government takes place in Sweden. Hjalmar Branting takes over when Nils Edén resigns.
March 13-March 17 - Wolfgang Kapp fails in his coup attempt in Germany due to public resistance and a general strike
March 19 - US Congress refuses to ratify Versailles Treaty
March 23 - Admiral Horthy declares that Hungary is a monarchy without anyone on the throne
March 26 - German government asks France for permission to use its own troops against rebellious Ruhr Red Army in the French-occupied area
March 31 - Government of Ireland Act presented in British parliament
April 2 - German army marches to Ruhr to fight Ruhr Red Army
April 4 - Riots between Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem.
April 6 - French troops occupy Frankfurt
April 19 - Germany and Soviet Russia agree to the exchange of prisoners of war
April 23 - National council in Turkey denounces the government of sultan Mohamed VI and announces a temporary constitution
April 24 - Polish troops attack Russia
May 7 - Polish troops take Kiev
May 16 - Referendum in Switzerland is favorable to joining League of Nations
May 17 - French and Belgian troops leave the cities they have occupied in Germany
May 17 - First flight of KLM, Dutch air company, from Amsterdam to London.
May 27 - Thomas Masaryk becomes president of Czechoslovakia
May 30 - Jeanne d'Arc is canonized.
June 4 - Hungary loses 71% of its territory and 63% of its population in Treaty of Trianon.
June 12 - Red Army retakes Kiev
June 15 - New border treaty between Germany and Denmark gives northern Schleswig to Denmark
June 22 - Greece attack Turkish troops
July 2 - Soviet Russia attacks Poland
July 10 - Arthur Meighen becomes Canada's ninth prime minister.
July 12 - Soviet Russia recognizes independent Lithuania
July 13 - London County Council bars foreigners from council jobs
July 22 - Poland sues for peace with Soviet Russia
August 2 - British parliament passes bill to restore order in Ireland, suspending jury trials
August 3 - Catholics riot in Belfast
August 11 - Soviet Russia recognizes independent Estonia and Latvia.
August 13 - August 21 - Red Army is defeated at the gates of Warsav
August 15 - Town Hall of Templemore, Ireland, is burned down during the riots
August 18 - Women gain the right to vote in the United States.
September 8 - Gabriele D’Annunzio declares Fiumen free state
September 16 - Bomb in Wall Street kills 35, hundreds wounded
September 22 - Flying Squad formed in London Metropolitan Police
September 29 - First domestic radio sets come to stores in USA – Westinghouse radio costs $10
September 29 - Adolf Hitler’s first public political speech in Austria
November 2 - Warren G. Harding defeats James M. Cox in the U.S. presidential election, the first national U.S. election in which women have the right to vote
November 2 - Westinghouse company begins its radio program in Pittsburg, USA
November 11 - Unknown Soldier buried in Westminster Abbey
November 17 - Council of League of Nations accepts the constitution of Danzig free state
November 21 - IRA bomb kills 14 policemen in Ireland.
December 5 - Referendum in Greece is favorable to reinstatement of monarchy
December 11 - Martial Law in Ireland
December 16 - Finland joins League of Nations
December 16 - Earthquake causes landslide in Gansu province, China - 180.000 dead
December 23 - United Kingdom and France ratify the border between French-held Syria and British-held Palestine.
France prohibits selling of contraceptives
Roman von Ungern-Stenberg conquers Urga and declares himself as a ruler of Mongolia
Kurd rebellion in Turkeybegins
Johnny Torrio invites Al Capone to Chicago from New York

Art, Culture & Fashion

1920 in film
1920 in leterature
- This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Mountain Interval by Robert Frost
- Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
- The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
- The Frontier in American History by Frederick Jackson Turner
- Agatha Christie – Mysterious Affair of Styles, first Hercule Poirot mystery
1920 in music
- Gustav Holst - Planets
- Mamie Smith - has hit record with "The Crazy Blues"
1920 in sports
- Summer Olympic Games in Antwerp Belgium
- January 3 - Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sells Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for $125,000 and a $350,000 loan. The loan was to finance Frazee's Broadway production of the musical No, No, Nanette.
- February 13 - The National Negro Baseball League is formed.

Births

January 2 - Isaac Asimov, author
January 2 - Federico Fellini, italian film director
January 6 - Early Wynn, Baseball Hall of Famer
January 6 - Sun Myung Moon, evangelist
January 19 - Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, United Nations Secretary General
January 20 - Federico Fellini, film director († 1993)
January 20 - DeForest Kelly, actor († 1999)
January 20 - John O'Connor, Cardinal of New York City († 2000)
January 23 - Ray Abrams, tenor saxophonist
January 23 - Gottfried Böhm, architect
January 27 - Frankie Albert, American football star (+ 2002)
January 30 - Delbert Mann, director
January 31 - Paul Warnke, diplomat (+ 2001)
February 7 - An Wang, computer pioneer (+ 1990)
February 8 - Lana Turner, actress (+ 1995)
February 11 - Billy Halop, actor.
February 11 - Daniel Francis Galouye, American science fiction author.
February 11 - Farouk I, last King of Egypt (1936-1952).
February 11 - Paul Peter Piech, artist.
February 18 - Jack Palance, actor
February 18 - Bill Cullen, game show host (+ 1990)
February 26 - Tony Randall, actor
February 29 - Howard Nemerov, American, winner of the Pulitzer Prize
March 3 - Roland Searle, illustrator
March 3 - James Doohan, actor
March 14 - Hank Ketcham, cartoonist (Dennis the Menace) (+ 2001)
March 15 - Lawrence Sanders, novelist (+ 1998)
April 11 - Peter O’Donnell, creator of Modesty Blaise.
May 18 - Karol Wojtyla, future pope John Paul II
June 12 - Dave Berg, cartoonist for Mad Magazine
August 16 – Charles Bukowski, US writer
August 22 – Ray Bradbury, US science fiction writer
September 10 - Fabio Taglioni, automotive engineer
September 22 - William H. Riker, political scientist
October 15 - Mario Puzo, author of The Godfather
October 31 - Fritz Walter, football player

Deaths

January 7 –Kolcak, Russian White general; executed
January 24 - Amedeo Modigliani, painter, sculptor
February 20 - Robert Peary, explorer
June 14 - Max Weber father of the science of sociology
January 24 - Amedeo Modigliani, painter, sculptor
October 20 - Max Bruch, composer
Balganghadar Tilak

Nobel Prizes