1920
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 Africa 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
EdŽn 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 Bolshevist Russia agree to the exchange of
prisoners of war
* April 23 - National council in Turkey denounces the government of
sultan Mehmed VI and announces a temporary constitution
* April 24 - Russian-Polish War: Polish troops attack Russia
* May 7 - Russian-Polish War: Polish troops occupy Kiev
* May 16 - Referendum in Switzerland is favorable to joining League of
Nations
* May 16 - In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc as a saint
* 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 - Russian-Polish War: 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 - Russian-Polish War: Red Army invades Poland
* July 10 - Arthur Meighen becomes Canada's ninth prime minister.
* July 12 - Bolshevist Russia recognizes independent Lithuania
* July 13 - London County Council bars foreigners from council jobs
* July 22 - Russian-Polish War: Poland sues for peace with Bolshevist
Russia
* July 25 - Telecommunications: first transatlantic two-way radio
broadcast.
* August 2 - British parliament passes bill to restore order in Ireland,
suspending jury trials
* August 3 - Catholics riot in Belfast
* August 10 - Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI's representatives signed the
Treaty of Sevres.
* August 11 - Bolshevik Russia recognizes independent Estonia and Latvia.
* August 13 - August 21 - Russian-Polish War: The Red Army is defeated at
the gates of Warsav
* August 15 - Town Hall of Templemore, Ireland, is burned down during the
riots
* August 18 - 19th Amendment to US constitution is passed, guaranteeing
women's suffrage.
* August 20 - The first commercial radio station, 8MK (WWJ), begins
operations in Detroit, Michigan.
* 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 the 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-Sternberg conquers Urga and declares himself as a
ruler of Mongolia
* Kurd rebellion in Turkey begins
* Johnny Torrio invites Al Capone to Chicago from New York
Art, Culture & Fashion
* 1920 in music
o Gustav Holst - Planets
o Mamie Smith - has hit record with "The Crazy Blues"
* 1920 in sports
o Summer Olympic Games in Antwerp Belgium
o January 3 - Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sells Babe Ruth to
the New York Yankees for $125,000 and a $350,000 loan. This was
the prelude to an extraordinary Major League season during which
the Bambino would hit 54 home runs, Cleveland shortshop Ray
Chapman would be killed by a pitch from Carl Mays and Eddie
Cicotte and Shoeless Joe Jackson would confess to their roles in
the Black Sox scandal.
o February 13 - The National Negro Baseball League is formed.
o September 17- The American Professional Football Association, the
forerunner to the National Football League is formed in Canton,
Ohio.
o August 16 - Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit in his
head and fatally wounded with a fastball from Carl Mays of the New
York Yankees. Chapman will die early the next day, becoming the
only person to ever die from a major league baseball game (as of
2003).
Births
* January 2 - Isaac Asimov, author
* January 6 - Early Wynn, Baseball Hall of Famer
* January 6 - Sun Myung Moon, evangelist
* January 19 - Javier PŽrez de CuŽllar, United Nations Secretary General
* January 20 - Federico Fellini, italian film director (d. 1993)
* January 20 - DeForest Kelly, actor (d. 1999)
* January 20 - John O'Connor, Cardinal of New York City (d. 2000)
* January 23 - Ray Abrams, tenor saxophonist
* January 23 - Gottfried Bšhm, architect
* January 27 - Frankie Albert, American football star (d. 2002)
* January 30 - Delbert Mann, director
* January 31 - Paul Warnke, diplomat (d. 2001)
* February 7 - An Wang, computer pioneer (d. 1990)
* February 8 - Lana Turner, actress (d. 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 (d. 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) (d. 2001)
* March 15 - Lawrence Sanders, novelist (d. 1998)
* March 16 - Leo McKern, actor (d. 2002)
* March 17 - Mujibur Rahman, Prime Minister of Bangladesh (d. 1975)
* April 1 - Toshir™ Mifune, actor (d. 1997)
* April 2 - Jack Webb, actor, director, producer (d. 1982)
* April 7 - Ravi Shankar, musician
* April 11 - Peter O'Donnell, creator of Modesty Blaise.
* April 29 - Harold Shapero, composer
* May 6 - Ross Hunter, producer (d. 1996)
* May 9 - Richard Adams, author
* May 18 - Karol Wojtyla, future pope John Paul II
* May 23 - Helen O'Connell, singer
* May 26 - Peggy Lee, singer (d. 2002)
* May 30 - Franklin Schaffner, film director (d. 1989)
* June 12 - Dave Berg, cartoonist for Mad Magazine
* August 16 - Charles Bukowski, American writer
* August 22 - Ray Bradbury, American science fiction writer
* September 10 - Fabio Taglioni, automotive engineer
* September 22 - William H. Riker, political scientist
* October 1 - Walter Matthau, American actor (d. 2000)
* October 1 - Charles Daudelin, Canadian sculptor (d. 2001)
* 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 15 - Joseph Burton Sumner, founder and first mayor of Sumner,
Mississippi, USA.
* February 20 - Robert Peary, explorer
* May 30 - George Ernest Morrison, Australian adventurer, journalist
* June 14 - Max Weber father of the science of sociology
* August 1 - Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Indian political activist
* October 20 - Max Bruch, composer
* October 24 - The Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, nŽe Grand
Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, only daughter of Emperor
Alexander II of Russia
Nobel Prizes
* Physics - Charles Edouard Guillaume
* Chemistry - Walther Nernst
* Medicine - Schack August Steenberg Krogh
* Literature - Knut Hamsun
* Peace - LŽon Victor Auguste Bourgeois
