1920 in the United States

1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday.yearbox_US
in?=
cp=19th century
c=20th century
cf=21st century

yp1=1917
yp2=1918
yp3=1919
year=1920
ya1=1921
ya2=1922
ya3=1923
dp3=1880s
dp2=1890s
dp1=1900s
d=1910s
dn1=1920s
dn2=1930s
dn3=1940s

Events

January

* January 3 - Babe Ruth is traded by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees for $125,000, the largest sum ever paid for a player at that time.
* January 9 - Thousands of onlookers watch as "The Human Fly" George Polley, climbs the New York Woolworth Building. He has reached the 30th floor when a policeman arrests him for climbing without a permit
* January 16 - Prohibition begins in the United States with the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution coming into effect.
* January 19 - The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.

February

* February 14 - The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago.

March

* March 1 - The United States Railroad Administration returns control of American railroads to its constituent railroad companies.
* March 19 - United States Congress refuses to ratify Versailles Treaty.

April-May

*May 2 - The first game of the Negro National League baseball is played in Indianapolis, Indiana.

June-July

* June 13 - The United States Postal Service rules that children may not be sent via parcel post
* July 29 - The United States Bureau of Reclamation begins construction of the Link River Dam as part of the Klamath Reclamation Project.

August-September

* August 20 - The first commercial radio station in the United States, 8MK (WWJ), begins operations in Detroit, Michigan.
* August 26 - 19th Amendment to US constitution is passed, guaranteeing women's suffrage.
* September 16 - The Wall Street bombing: a bomb in a horse wagon explodes in front of the J.P.Morgan building in New York City - 38 dead, 400 injured
* September 29 - First domestic radio sets come to stores in USA – Westinghouse radio costs $10.

October-November

* 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 - In the United States, KDKA AM of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (owned by Westinghouse) starts broadcasting as a commercial radio station. The first broadcast was the results of the U.S. presidential election, 1920.

December

* December 25 - Foundation of The Rosicrucian Fellowship's Spiritual Healing Temple "The Ecclesia" at Mount Ecclesia, Oceanside, California (United States).

Births

January

*January 6 - Early Wynn, baseball player (d. 1999)
*January 20 - DeForest Kelley, American actor (d. 1999)
*January 20 - John O'Connor, American Catholic cardinal
*January 30 - Delbert Mann, American television and film director

February

*February 11 - Billy Halop, American actor (d. 1976)
*February 12 - William Roscoe Estep, American Baptist historian (d. 2000)
*February 18 - Bill Cullen, American game show host (d. 1990)
*February 18 - Eddie Slovik, U.S. Army private (d. 1945)
*February 26 - Tony Randall, American actor (d. 2004)
*February 29 - Howard Nemerov, American poet (d. 1991)

March

*March 14 - Hank Ketcham, American cartoonist (d. 2001)
*March 15 - Lawrence Sanders, American novelist (d. 1998)
*March 15 - E. Donnall Thomas, American physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
*March 20 - Pamela Harriman, English-born U.S. Ambassador to France (d. 1997)

April

* April 2 - Jack Webb, American actor, director, and producer (d. 1982)
* April 5 - Arthur Hailey, American writer (d. 2004)
*April 6 - Edmond H. Fischer, Swiss-American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
* April 29 - Harold Shapero, American composer

May

*May 8 - Saul Bass, American graphic designer (d. 1996)
*May 11 - Denver Pyle, American actor (d. 1997)
*May 23 - Helen O'Connell, American singer (d. 1993)
*May 26 - Peggy Lee, American singer (d. 2002)
*May 28 - Gene Levitt, American television writer, producer, and director (d. 1999)
*May 30 - Franklin Schaffner, American film and television director (d. 1989)

June

*June 2 - Tex Schramm, American football executive (d. 2003)
*June 12 - Dave Berg, American cartoonist (d. 2002)
*June 12 - Jim Siedow, American actor (d. 2003)
*June 25 - Ozan Marsh, American pianist
*June 29 - Ray Harryhausen, American animator

July

*July 10 - Owen Chamberlain, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
*July 24 - Bella Abzug, American politician (d. 1998)

August

*August 3 - Hayden Carruth, American poet and literary critic
*August 8 - Jimmy Witherspoon, American singer (d. 1997)
*August 16 - Charles Bukowski, American writer (d. 1994)
*August 18 - Bob Kennedy, baseball player and manager (d. 2005)
*August 18 - Shelley Winters, American actress (d. 2006)
*August 22 - Ray Bradbury, American writer
*August 29 - Charlie Parker, American saxophonist and composer (d. 1955)

eptember

*September 14 - Lawrence Klein, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
*September 18 - Jack Warden, American actor (d. 2006)
*September 22 - William H. Riker, American political scientist (d. 1993)
*September 23 - Mickey Rooney, American film actor
*September 27 - Jayne Meadows, American actress

October

*October 1 - Walter Matthau, American actor (d. 2000)
*October 8 - Frank Herbert, American author (d. 1986)
*October 15 - Mario Puzo, American author (d. 1999)
*October 22 - Timothy Leary, American psychologist and author (d. 1996)

November

*November 30 - Virginia Mayo, American actress (d. 2005)

December

*December 6 - Dave Brubeck, American jazz pianist and composer
*December 21 - J. Roderick MacArthur American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1984
*December 30 - Jack Lord, American actor (d. 1998)

Deaths

*February 2 - Field E. Kindley, American World War I aviator (b. 1896)
*February 3 - Frank Brown, Governor of Maryland (b. 1846)
*February 15 - Joseph Burton Sumner, founder of Sumner, Mississippi (b. 1837)
*February 20 - Joseph J. Fern, Mayor of Honolulu (b. 1872)
*February 20 - Robert Peary, American Arctic explorer (b. 1856)
*February 27 - William Sherman Jennings, Governor of Florida (b. 1863)
*March 1 - John H. Bankhead, U.S. Senator from Alabama (b. 1842)
*March 1 - William A. Stone, Governor of Pennsylvania (b. 1846)
*March 4 - Roswell P. Bishop, U.S. Congressman from Michigan (b. 1843)
*March 26 - William Chester Minor, American surgeon (b. 1834)
*March 31 - Edwin Warfield, Governor of Maryland (b. 1848)
*April 8 - John Brashear, American astronomer (b. 1840)
*April 8 - Charles Tomlinson Griffes, American composer (b. 1884)
*April 21 - Maria L. Sanford, American educator (b. 1836)
*May 11 - William Dean Howells, American writer (b. 1837)
*May 16 - Levi P. Morton, Vice President of the United States (b. 1824)
*May 21 - Eleanor H. Porter, American novelist (b. 1868)
*June 5 - Julia A. Moore, American poet (b. 1847)
*June 18 - Jewett W. Adams, Governor of Nevada (b. 1835)
*July 2 - William Louis Marshall, American general and engineer (b. 1846)
*July 22 - William Kissam Vanderbilt, American heir (b. 1849)
*August 1 - Frank Hanly, Governor of Indiana (b. 1863)
*August 2 - Ormer Locklear, American pilot (b. 1891)
*August 17 - Ray Chapman, baseball player (b. 1891)
*August 26 - James Wilson, Scottish-born American politician (b. 1835)
*September 10 - Olive Thomas, American actress (b. 1894)
*October 2 - Winthrop M. Crane, Governor of Massachusetts and Senator (b. 1853)
*October 19 - John Reed, American journalist (b. 1887)
*November 30 - Eugene W. Chafin, American politician (b. 1852)
*December 14 - George Gipp, American football player (b. 1895)