1920 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1920 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

*Monarch - George V of the United Kingdom
*Prime Minister - David Lloyd George, coalition

Events

* 10 January - The steamer "Treveal" is wrecked in the English Channel. 35 people lose their lives.
* 11 February - The Council of the League of Nations meets for the first time in London.
* 17 February - The Metropolitan Police are told that their horses will be replaced by cars.
* 23 February - War Secretary Winston Churchill announces that conscripts will be replaced by a volunteer army of 220,000 men.
* 10 March - The Ulster Unionist Council accepts the Government's plan for a Northern Ireland Parliament.
* 17 March - Queen Alexandra unveils a monument to Nurse Edith Cavell in London.
* 27 March - Troytown wins the Grand National.
* 31 March - Parliament passes the Government of Ireland Act, but Unionist leader Sir Edward Carson opposes the division of Ireland, seeing it as a betrayal of southern and western unionists.
* 20 April–12 September - Great Britain and Ireland compete at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp and win 15 gold, 15 silver and 13 bronze medals.
* 24 April - Aston Villa beat Huddersfield Town 1-0 in the first FA Cup Final since 1915.
* 10 May - Forty Irish republican prisoners on hunger strike at Wormwood Scrubs are released.
* 17 May - Sinn Féin supporters and Unionists engage in pitched street battles in Derry.
* 18 May - Women lecturers are given equal status to their male colleagues at Oxford University.
* 21 May - The Government proposes a car tax of £1 per horsepower (13 p/kW).
* 30 May - At least twenty people drown in serious floods in Lincolnshire.
* 9 June - King George V opens the Imperial War Museum at the Crystal Palace.
* 20 June - Five die in severe rioting in Ulster.
* 24 June - Troops are sent to reinforce the Derry garrison.
* 5 July - A new airmail service starts from London to Amsterdam.
* 13 July - London County Council bans foreigners from almost all council jobs.
* 16 July - The Great War is officially declared over with Austria.
* 23 July - Fourteen die and one hundred are injured in fierce rioting in Belfast.
* 24 July - Mr F Courtney wins an air race at an average speed of 153.5 mph.
* 31 July - The Communist Party of Great Britain is founded in London.
* 1 August - The first Congress of the Communist Party of Great Britain opens.
* 2 August - The Government introduces a new bill to "restore order" in Ireland which allows for suspension of jury trials.
* 3 August - There are Catholic riots in Belfast in protest at the continuing British military presence.
* 9 August - The Labour Party says it will call for a general strike if the United Kingdom declares war on Russia.
* 18 August - The first night bus services are introduced in London.
* 29 August - Eleven die and forty are injured in street battles in Belfast.
* 22 September - The Metropolitan Police forms the Flying Squad.
* 7 October - The first one hundred women are admitted to study for full degrees at Oxford University.
* 10 October - It is announced that compulsory hand signals are to be introduced for all drivers.
* 16 October - Miners go on strike.
* 20 October - Suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst is charged with sedition after calling upon workers to loot the London Docks.
* 25 October
** The Emergency Powers Bill to counter the miners' strike has its second reading in the House of Commons.
** Terence MacSwiney, jailed Lord Mayor of Cork, dies in Brixton Prison after a 78-day hunger strike.
* 28 October - Sylvia Pankhurst is jailed for six months.
* 3 November - The miners' strike ends after only a small majority vote to continue.
* 8 November - Rupert Bear first appears in a cartoon strip in the "Daily Express".cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-141-02715-0|year=2006]
* 10 November - The body of The Unknown Warrior arrives from France for burial in Westminster Abbey.
* 11 November - King George V unveils the Cenotaph; The Unknown Warrior is buried.
* 21 November - Bloody Sunday: Irish Republicans kill 14 British agents in Dublin; later that day 13 spectators and one player at a gaelic football match at Croke Park in Dublin are shot by the paramilitary Auxiliary Division.cite book|last=Williams|first=Hywel|title=Cassell's Chronology of World History|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|year=2005|isbn=0-304-35730-8|pages=488–490]
* 5 December - The Scots vote against prohibition.
* 23 December
** Parliament passes the Government of Ireland Act 1920 partitioning Ireland into Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland.
** Jewish leaders in London launch a £25 million appeal for Palestine.

Undated

* Arthur Eddington's observation of a total eclipse of the Sun seems to confirm the "bending of light" in Einstein's theory of Special Relativity.

Publications

* John Galsworthy's novels "In Chancery" and "Awakening", part of "The Forsyte Saga".

Births

* 3 January - Hugh McCartney, former Labour Party MP (died 2006)
* 9 January - Clive Dunn, actor
* 25 March - Paul Scott, novelist, playwright and poet (died 1978)
* 9 May - Richard Adams, author
* 25 March - Patrick Troughton, actor (died 1987)
* 3 August - P. D. James, writer of crime fiction
* 21 August - Christopher Robin Milne, author and bookseller (died 1996)
* 11 November - Roy Jenkins, politician (died 2003)

Deaths

* 5 June - Rhoda Broughton, novelist (born 1840)
* 10 July - Jackie Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher, admiral (born 1841)

References

ee also