1921

Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1921 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Table of Contents

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Events of 1921

January

* January 1 - In American football, the University of California defeated Ohio State 28-1 in the Rose Bowl.
* January 2
** The club Cruzeiro Esporte Clube from Belo Horizonte is founded as Palestra Italia in Brazil
** The first religious radio broadcast is heard over station (KDKA AM in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania).
** The Spanish liner "Santa Isabel" sinks off Villa Garcia; 244 die.
* DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park San Francisco opens.
* January 20 - The Royal Navy K-boat "K5" sinks in the English Channel with all 56 hands on board.
* January 21
** The Italian Communist Party is founded in Livorno.
** Suffrage for women is obtained in Sweden.

February

* February 6 - The Democratic Republic of Georgia is occupied by Bolshevist Russia during the Red Army invasion of Georgia.
* February 27 - The International Working Union of Socialist Parties is formed in Vienna.
* February 28 - Russian sailors rebel in Kronstadt.

March

* March 1 - The city Kiryu, located in Gunma, Japan, is founded.
* March 4 - Warren G. Harding is inaugurated as the 29th President of the United States.
* March 6 - The Portuguese Communist Party is founded.
* March 8
** Spanish Premier Eduardo Dato Iradier is assassinated while exiting the parliament building in Madrid.
** Allied forces occupy Düsseldorf, Rurhort and Duisburg.
* March 13 - The Russian White Army captures Mongolia from China. Roman Ungern von Sternberg declares himself ruler.
* March 17
** The Red Army crushes the Kronstadt rebellion, and a number of sailors flee to Finland.
** Marie Stopes opens the first birth control clinic in London, England.
** The Second Republic of Poland adopts the March Constitution.
* March 18 - The second Peace of Riga ends the Polish-Soviet war. The permanent border is established between the Polish and Soviet states.
* March 23 - A plebiscite in Silesia votes for re-annexation to Germany.

April

* April 11 - The Emirate of Transjordan is created, with Abdullah I as emir.
* April 14 - In Britain, labour unions for mining, railway and transportation workers call for a strike; the government threatens to call in the army.
* April 16 - The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia is founded.
* April 20 - Ferenc Molnár's play "Liliom" is first produced on Broadway in English. A flop in its native Hungary when first presented there in 1909, the American production is critically acclaimed and becomes a modern classic, filmed more than once, and eclipsed only when Rodgers and Hammerstein adapt it in 1945 into a hit musical, "Carousel", which becomes a stage classic in its own right.
* April 24 - A referendum in Tyrol supports joining to Germany.

May

* May 1-May 7 - Riots in Palestine of May, 1921.
* May 2-July 5 - Third Silesian Uprising: The Poles in Upper Silesia rise against the Germans.
* May 5 - Only 13 spectators attend the soccer match between Leicester City and Stockport County, the lowest attendance in The Football League's history.
* May 6 - General strike begins in Norway.
* May 8 - Death penalty abolished in Sweden.
* May 14 - May 17 - Violent anti-European riots occur in Cairo and Alexandria.
* May 19 - The Emergency Quota Act passes the U.S. Congress, establishing national quotas on immigration.
* May 24 - Elections are held for the first time for the new Northern Ireland Parliament.
* May 31 - Tulsa Race Riot: The official death toll is 39, but recent investigations suggest the actual toll may be much higher.

July

* July 1
** The Communist Party of China is officially founded.
** A coal strike ends in England.
* 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.
* July 4 - A new conservative government is formed in Italy by Ivanoe Bonomi.
* July 11
** The Irish War of Independence comes to an end when a truce is signed between the British Government and Irish forces.
** The Red Army captures Mongolia from the White Army and establishes the Mongolian People's Republic.
* July 14 - A Massachusetts jury finds Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti guilty of first degree murder following a widely-publicized trial.
* July 17 - Republic of Mirdita is proclaimed near Albanian-Serbian border with Yugoslav support.
* July 18 - The first BCG vaccination against tuberculosis is given.
* July 21 - Rif War: Spanish troops are dealt a crushing defeat at the Battle of Annual against Abd el-Krim.
* July 22 - The Irish Truce is declared in Britain.
* July 26 - US President Warren G. Harding receives Princess Fatima of Afghanistan and Stanley Clifford Weyman.
* July 27 - Researchers at the University of Toronto led by biochemist Frederick Banting announce the discovery of the hormone insulin.
* July 29 - Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of the Nazi Party.

August

* August - The United States formally ends World War I, declaring a peace with Germany.
* August 2 - Famous opera singer Enrico Caruso dies.
* August 5 - The first radio baseball game is broadcast; Harold Arlin announces the Pirates-Phillies game from Forbes Field over Westinghouse KDKA, in Pittsburgh.
* August 11 - 39 degrees Celsius in Breslau - heat wave continues elsewhere in Europe as well.
* August 23 - King Faisal is crowned in Baghdad.
* August 24 - Airship ZR 2 explodes during a test flight near Hull, England; 41 are dead.
* August 26
* Rising prices cause major riots in Munich.
* The assassination of German politician Matthias Erzberger causes the government to declare martial law.

eptember

* September 1 - Poplar Strike in London: Nine members of the Poplar borough council are arrested.
* September 7 - In Atlantic City, New Jersey, the first Miss America Pageant is held.
* September 8 - Sixteen-year-old Margaret Gorman wins the Atlantic City Pageant's Golden Mermaid trophy; pageant officials later dub her the first Miss America.
* September 12 - Lotta Svärd is founded in Finland.
* September 21 - The Oppau explosion occurs at BASF's nitrate factory in Oppau, Germany; 500—600 dead.

October

* October 8 - The first Sweetest Day is staged in Cleveland, Ohio.
* October 10 - Teaching at the University of Szeged starts in Hungary.
* October 19 - A massacre in Lisbon claims the lives of Portuguese Prime Minister António Granjo and other politicians.
* October 21 - A peace conference between Ireland and the United Kingdom begins in London.
* October 24 - The Spanish Army defeats the rifkabyls.
* October 29
* Construction of the Link River Dam, a part of the Klamath Reclamation Project, is completed.
* Centre College's football team, led by quarterback Bo McMillin, defeats Harvard University 6-0 to snap Harvard's five-year winning streak. For decades afterward, this is called "football's upset of the century."

November-December

* November 9
** Riots in Reykjavík injure most of the small police force.
** Albert Einstein awarded Nobel Prize in Physics for his work with the photoelectric effect
* November 11 - During an Armistice Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, the Tomb of the Unknowns is dedicated by U.S. President Warren G. Harding.
* November 14 - The Spanish Communist Party is founded.
* November 7 - The Partito Nazionale Fascista (PNF), National Fascist Party, comes into existence in Italy.
* December 1 - Rising prices cause riots in Vienna.
* 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. See Ireland/History.
* Agnes Macphail becomes the first woman to be elected to the Canadian Parliament.
* December 13 - In the Four Power Treaty on Insular Possessions, Japan, the United States, United Kingdom, and France agree to recognize the status quo in the Pacific.
* December 23 - Visva-Bharati University is inaugurated.
* December 29 - William Lyon Mackenzie King becomes Canada's tenth prime minister.

Undated

* Abkhazia becomes an autonomous republic within the Soviet Union.
* Beginning of regular radio broadcasting service in Italy.
* Edward Harper, the 'father of broadcasting' in Ceylon, arrives in Colombo to take up his post as Chief Engineer of the Ceylon Telegraph Department.
* Invention of the vibraphone in its original form.
* Tau Epsilon Chi (TEX) Jewish High School Sorority is founded in Atlantic City, NJ.
*Sauerländer Heimatbund founded in Meschede

Ongoing

* Ethnic cleansing in Turkey:
* Assyrian Genocide (1914–1922)
* Pontic Greek Genocide (1916–1923).

Births

January-February

*January 5
**Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss writer (d. 1990)
**Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg
*January 9
**William 'Billy Batts' Devino (d. 1970)
**Lister Sinclair, Canadian broadcaster and playwright (d. 2006)
*January 10 - Rodger Ward, American race car driver (d. 2004)
*January 14 - Murray Bookchin, American libertarian socialist (d. 2006)
*January 19 - Patricia Highsmith, American author (d. 1995)
*January 27 - Donna Reed, American actress (d. 1986)
*January 31
**Carol Channing, American actress
**Mario Lanza, American tenor and actor (d. 1959)
*February 4
**Betty Friedan, American feminist (d. 2006)
**K. R. Narayanan, President of India (d. 2005)
*February 5 - John Pritchard, English conductor (d. 1989)
*February 7 - Nexhmije Hoxha, the widow of Enver Hoxha
*February 11 - Lloyd Bentsen, American politician (d. 2006)
*February 14 - Hugh Downs, American game show host and journalist
*February 16 - Vera-Ellen, American actress and dancer (d. 1981)
*February 20 - Buddy Rogers, American professional wrestler (d. 1992)
*February 22 - Wayne Booth, American literary critic (d. 2005)
*February 24 - Abe Vigoda, American actor
*February 25 - Pierre Laporte, Canadian statesman (assassinated) (d. 1970)
*February 26 - Betty Hutton, American actress (d. 2007)
*February 28 - Pierre Clostermann, French World War II pilot (d. 2006)

March-April

*March 1
**Jack Clayton, British film director (d. 1995)
**Terence Cardinal Cooke, American Catholic archbishop (d. 1983)
**Richard Wilbur, American poet
*March 2 - Robert Simpson, English composer (d. 1997)
*March 3 - Paul Guimard, French writer (d. 2004)
*March 4
**Halim El-Dabh, Egyptian-born U.S. composer, performer, ethnomusicologist and educator
**Joan Greenwood, British actress and director (d. 1987)
**Wilson Harris, Guyanese writer
*March 5 - Elmer Valo, Czech Major League Baseball player (d. 1998)
*March 8 - Alan Hale, Jr., American actor (d. 1990)
*March 11 - Frank Harary, American mathematician (d. 2005)
*March 12
**Gianni Agnelli, Italian auto executive (d. 2003)
**Gordon MacRae, American singer and actor (d. 1986)
*March 13
**Al Jaffee, American cartoonist
**Cyril Poole, English cricketer (d. 1996)
*March 20 - Sister Rosetta Tharpe, American singer (d. 1973)
*March 21 - Arthur Grumiaux, Belgian violinist (d. 1986)
*March 25 - Simone Signoret, French actress (d. 1985)
*March 28 - Dirk Bogarde, English actor (d. 1999)
*April 1 - Beau Jack, American boxer (d. 2000)
*April 8 - Franco Corelli, Italian opera singer (d. 2003)
*April 10 - Sheb Wooley, American actor and singer (d. 2003)
*April 14 - Thomas Schelling, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
*April 15 - Georgi Beregovoi, Soviet cosmonaut (d. 1995)
*April 16 - Peter Ustinov, English actor and director (d. 2004)
*April 23
*April 21 - Vivian Dandridge, Actress
** Warren Spahn, baseball player (d. 2003)
** Janet Blair, American actress (d. 2007)
*April 25 - Karel Appel, Dutch painter (d. 2006)

May-June

*May 2 - Satyajit Ray, Indian filmmaker (d. 1992)
*May 5 - Arthur Leonard Schawlow, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
*May 6 - Erich Fried, Austrian author (d. 1988)
*May 9
**Sophie Scholl, resistance fighter in Nazi Germany (d. 1943)
**Mona Van Duyn, American poet (d. 2004)
*May 11 - Hildegard Hamm-Brücher, German politician
*May 12
**Joseph Beuys, German artist (d. 1986)
**Farley Mowat, Canadian writer and naturalist
*May 16 - Harry Carey, Jr., American actor
*May 17 - Dennis Brain, English French horn player (d. 1957)
*May 18 - Sir Michael Epstein, British medical researcher
*May 19 - Karel van het Reve, Dutch writer (d. 1999)
*May 20
**Wolfgang Borchert, German writer (d. 1947)
**Hal Newhouser, baseball player (d. 1998)
*May 21
**Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, Indian philosopher author of socio-economical theory "Progressive Utilization Theory" (d. 1990)
**Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist and activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (declined) (d. 1989)
*May 23
**James Blish, American science fiction author (d. 1975)
**Humphrey Lyttelton, British jazz musician and radio personality (d. 2008)
*May 25
**Jack Steinberger, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
**James C. Quayle, American newspaper publisher (d. 2000)
*May 26 - Stan Mortensen, English footballer (d. 1991)
*May 28 - Heinz G. Konsalik, German author (d. 1999)
*June 1 - Nelson Riddle, American bandleader (d. 1985)
*June 3 - Forbes Carlile, Australian athlete
*June 8 - Alexis Smith, Canadian actress (d. 1993)
*June 10 - Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
*June 12 - Christopher Derrick, British writer (d. 2007)
*June 15 - Errol Garner, American jazz musician (d. 1977)
*June 21- Jane Russell , American actress
*June 22 - Ralph K. Hofer, American fighter pilot (d. 1942)
*June 25 - Celia Franca, Canadian ballet dancer (d. 2007)
*June 26 - Violette Szabo, French World War II heroine (d. 1945)
*June 28 - P. V. Narasimha Rao, Prime Minister of India (d. 2004)

July-August

*July 4
**Gerard Debreu, French economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)
**Tibor Varga, Hungarian violinist and conductor (d. 2003)
*July 6 - Nancy Davis Reagan, wife of U.S President Ronald Reagan
*July 10
**Harvey Ball, American designer (d. 2001)
**Eunice Kennedy Shriver, member of the Kennedy family
*July 11 - Ilse Werner, German actress (d. 2005)
*July 13 - Friedrich Peter, Austrian poltitician (d. 2005)
*July 14
**Leon Garfield, English children's author (d. 1996)
**Geoffrey Wilkinson, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)
*July 15 - Robert Bruce Merrifield, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2006)
*July 17
**František Zvarík, Slovakian actor (d. 2008)
**Hannah Szenes, Hungarian World War II heroine (d. 1944)
*July 18
**John Glenn, American astronaut
**Aaron T. Beck, American psychiatrist
*July 19 - Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, American physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
*July 22 - William Roth, U.S. Senator (d. 2003)
*July 30 - Grant Johannesen, American concert pianist (d. 2005)
*August 3 - Richard Adler, American Broadway composer
*August 4 - Maurice Richard, Canadian hockey player (d. 2000)
*August 8 - John Herbert Chapman, Canadian physicist (d. 1979)
*August 9 - J. James Exon Governor of Nebraska and U.S. Senator (d. 2005)
*August 13 - Barney Liddell, American musician, "The Lawrence Welk Show" (d. 2003)
*August 18 - Zdzislaw Zygulski, Jr., Polish art historian
*August 19 - Gene Roddenberry, American television producer (d. 1991)
*August 23 - Kenneth Arrow, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
*August 25
**Monty Hall, Canadian actor and game show host
**Brian Moore, Northern Irish-born writer (d. 1999)
*August 27 - Georg Alexander, Duke of Mecklenburg, head of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (d. 1996)

eptember-October

* September 3 - Thurston Dart, English harpsichordist and conductor (d. 1971)
* September 8 - Harry Secombe, Welsh entertainer (d. 2001)
* September 12 - Stanislaw Lem, Polish science fiction writer (d. 2006)
* September 13 - Sergey Nepobedimiy, Soviet rocket weaponry designer
* September 14 - Dario Vittori, Argentine actor (d. 2001)
* September 15 - Norma Macmillan, voice actress (d. 2001)
* September 24 - Jim McKay, American sportscaster (d. 2008)
* September 30 - Deborah Kerr, Scottish actress (d. 2007)
* October 2 - Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 2000)
* October 5 - Bill Willis, American football player
* October 7 - Tommy Farrell, American supporting actor and comedian (d. 2004)
* October 8 - Abraham Sarmiento, Filipino Supreme Court jurist
* October 13 - Yves Montand, French singer and actor (d. 1991)
* October 17 - Maria Gorokhovskaya, Soviet gymnast (d. 2001)
* October 18 - Jesse Helms, U.S. Senator from North Carolina
* October 19 - Gunnar Nordahl, Swedish footballer (d. 1995)
* October 21 - Malcolm Arnold, music composer (d. 2006)
* October 22 - Georges Brassens, French singer-songwriter (d. 1981)
* October 25 - King Michael of Romania
* October 26 - Frances Scott Fitzgerald, Daughter of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre. (d. 1986)

November-December

* November 3 - Charles Bronson, American actor (d. 2003)
* November 5 - Princess Fawzia of Egypt
* November 6 - James Jones, American writer (d. 1977)
* November 11 - Ron Greenwood, English football manager (d. 2006)
* November 14 - Brian Keith, American actor (d. 1997)
* November 17 - Albert Bertelsen, Danish artist
* November 22 - Rodney Dangerfield, American actor and comedian (d. 2004)
* November 23 - Fred Buscaglione, Italian singer and actor (d. 1960)
* November 27 - Alexander Dubcek, Slovak politician and First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (d. 1992)
* November 29 - Jackie Stallone, American astrologer and mother of Sylvester Stallone
* December 3 - Phyllis Curtin, American soprano
* December 6 - Otto Graham, American football player (d. 2003)
* December 26 - Blaže Koneski, Macedonian poet and linguist
* December 26 - Steve Allen, American actor, composer, comedian, and author (d. 2000)

Deaths

January - June

*January 1 - Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1856)
*February 8
**Peter Kropotkin, Russian anarchist (b. 1842)
**George Formby (Senior), English entertainer (b. 1876)
*February 26 - Carl Menger, Austrian economist (b. 1840)
*February 27 - Schofield Haigh, English cricketer (b. 1871)
*March 1 - King Nicholas I of Montenegro (b. 1841)
*April 17 - Manuel Dimech, Maltese philosopher and social reformer (b. 1860)
*April 21 - Tom O'Brien, 19th century major league baseball player (b. 1860)
*April 27 - Arthur Mold, English cricketer (b. 1863)
*May 5 - Alfred Hermann Fried, Austrian writer and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1864)
*May 19 - Edward Douglass White, 9th Chief Justice of the United States (b. 1845)
*June 5 - Georges Feydeau, French playwright (b. 1862)
*June 28 - Gjorche Petrov, Macedonian and Bulgarian revolutionary
*June 29 - Otto Seeck, German classical historian (b. 1850)

July - December

*August 2 - Enrico Caruso, Italian tenor (b. 1873)
*August 19 - Georges Darien, French writer (b. 1862)
*September 2 - Henry Austin Dobson, English poet (b. 1840)
*September 7 - Alfred William Rich, English watercolour painter (b. 1856)
*September 11 - Subramanya Bharathy, Tamil poet (b. 1882)
*September 27 - Engelbert Humperdinck, German composer (b. 1854)
*October 25 - Bat Masterson, American gunfighter (b. 1853)
*November 4 - Hara Takashi, 19th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1856)
*November 14 - Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil, daughter of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil (b. 1846)
*November 20 - Christina Nilsson, Swedish operatic soprano (b. 1843)
*November 27 - Douglas Colin Cameron, Canadian politician (b. 1854)
*November 28 - `Abdu'l-Bahá, Persian religious leader (b. 1844)
*December 10 - George Ashlin, Irish architect (b. 1837)
*December 16 - Camille Saint-Saëns, French composer (b. 1835)
*December 31 - Boies Penrose, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania (b. 1860)

Nobel prizes

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

Notes

External references

* [http://pwnhc.ca/timeline/1900/Airplane_1921.html 1921 Aviation Comes North- NWT Historical Timeline- A Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre Online Exhibit]