- January 15
- In Germany, Marxist revolutionaries Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht are murdered. [1] [37]
- Pianist and statesman Ignace Paderewski becomes first premier of Poland. [1]
- Semana Tragica (Tragic Week): Bloodbath in Buenos Aires, Argentina. [1]
- January 16
- The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, prohibiting the "manufacture, sale, or transportation" of alcohol, is ratified by required three-quarters of the states. [1] [129]
- January 18
- In Paris, France, negotiations begin that would officially mark the end of the First World War. [1] [129]
- January 19
- "Tidal wave" of 2 million gallons of molasses 15 metres high by 25 metres wide drowns 21 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. [1]
- January 21
- Serbs declare martial law in Bánát, Hungary. [1146.715]
- Sinn Fein proclaims parliament of Free Ireland. [1]
- January 25
- Founding of League of Nations at Paris Peace Conference. [1]
vvv advertisement vvv
^^^ advertisement ^^^
- February 2
- Monarchist riot in Portugal. [1]
- February 3
- Socialist conference convenes in Berne, Switzerland. [1]
- February 4
- City of Bremen's Soviet Republic overthrown. [1]
- February 5
- Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith launch United Artists film studio in the USA. [5]
- February 11
- Friedrich Ebert (SPD) is elected President of Germany. [1]
- February 19
- Pan-African Congress is organized by W E B Du Bois (Paris, France). [1]
- February 20
- French premier Georges Clemenceau injured during assassination attempt. [1]
- February 21
- German National Meeting accepts Anschluss, incorporation of Austria. [1]
- Habib Ullah Chan, emir of Afghanistan (1901-19), is murdered at age 46. [1]
- Karl von Hohenzollern, Prince of Belgium, dies. [1]
- Kurt Eisner, socialist premier of Bayern, Germany is murdered at age 51. [1]
- Revolutionary strike in Barcelona, Spain. [1]
- February 26
- Acadia National Park is established as Lafayette National Park in Maine, USA. [1]
- The Grand Canyon in Arizona is established by Congress as a national park in the United States. [1] [5] [129]
- King Amanullah is crowned in Afghanistan; he proclaims the country's complete freedom from Britain. [992.98]
- March 1
- Demonstrations begin for Korean independence from Japan. [1]
- March 2
- First congress of Communist International opens at the Kremlin, Russia. [1]
- March 3
- First international air mail service from USA: Seattle, Washington to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. [1]
- Communist Party in Germany announces a general strike. [1]
- March 11
- General strike in Germany is crushed. [1]
- March 12
- Austrian National Meeting affirms Anschluss (incorporate into Germany). [1]
- French forces occupy eastern Bánát, Hungary. [1146.715]
- March 15
- American Legion forms (in Paris, France). [1]
- March 17
- Dutch steel workers strike for 8-hour work day and minimum wages. [1]
- March 20
- Allies deman Hungarian troops withdraw to line marked by cities Arad, Nagyvárad, and Szatmár Németi. [1146.712]
- March 21
- Hungarian President Károlyi resigns. [1146.713]
- March 23
- Bashkir ASSR, in Russian SFSR, is constituted. [1]
- Benito Mussolini forms Fascist movement in Milan, Italy. [1]
- Moscow's Politburo/Central Committee forms. [1]
- March 30
- Belgian Army occupies Düsseldorf, Germany. [1]
- Mahatma Gandhi announces resistance against Rowlatt Act. [1]
- March 31
- French Marshal Ferdinand Foch says to leaders of Great Britain and the USA that without the Rhine frontier in French possession, the Versailles settlement would be no more than "the armistice for twenty years". [10]
- April 3
- Austria expels all Habsburgers. [1]
- April 5
- Eamon de Valera becomes president of Dail Eireann. [1]
- Polish Army executes 35 young Jews. [1]
- April 10
- Emiliano Zapata, Mexican leader, murdered at age 39. [1]
- April 12
- British Parliament passes a 48-hour work week with minimum wages. [1]
- April 13
- British General Reginald E.H. Dyer orders 50 riflemen to fire on assembly of 10,000 protesting Indian nationalists at Jalianwala Bagh in City of Amritsar in Pubjab, northwest India, without warning (but under previous order for no assembly), continued firing for 10 minutes, 1650 rounds, resulting in 379 killed, 1200+ wounded. [1] [695]
- April
- German Vice-Chancellor, Mathias Erzberger writes in letter "We illl undertake the restoration of Russia, and in possession of such support will be ready, within ten or fifteen years, to bring France, without any difficulty, into our power. The march towards Paris will be easier than in 1914. The last step but one towards the world dominion will then be reached. The continent is ours." [919.47]
- April 19
- French assembly decides on 8-hour work day. [1]
- Leslie Irvin of US makes first parachute jump and free fall. [1]
- April 20
- Polish Army captures Vilno, Lithuania from Soviet Army. [1]
- April 22
- Protocols for an alliance among France, Great Britain, and the USA are agreed on: Great Britain and USA make guarantees to France in the event of German aggression. The Rhineland is to be under Allied occupation for fifteen years. The document is signed by US President Woodrow Wilson and British Prime Minister David Lloyd George. [10]
- April 26
- Württemberg joins the German Republic. [1138.901]
- April 28
- First jump with Army Air Corp (rip-cord type) parachute (Les Irvin). [1]
- May 1
- Mount Kelud (Indonesia) erupts, boiling crater lake which breaks through crater wall killing 5,000 people in 104 small villages. [1]
- May 3
- Afghanistan Emir Amanoellah begins war against Great Britain. [1]
- May 4
- Protests in China against the humiliation of China by the Versailles Treaty which gave German territories in China to Japan. [148.13]
- May 6
- Paris Peace Conference disposes of German colonies; German East Africa is assigned to Britain and France, German Southwest Africa to South Africa. [1]
- May 8
- First transatlantic flight take-off by a navy seaplane. [1]
- May 10
- Race riot in Charleston, South Carolina, USA; two blacks killed. [1]
- May 14
- Pope Benedictus XV publishes encyclical In hac tanta. [1]
- May 16
- The US Navy aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first trans-Atlantic flight. [5]
- May 20
- Volcano Keluit on Java erupts, killing 550. [1]
- May 27
- The US Navy NC-4 aircraft arrives in Lisbon, Portugal, after completing the first trans-Atlantic flight (11 days). [1] [5] [385.ix]
- May 28
- Armenia declares its independence. [1]
- May 29
- Charles Strite patents pop-up toaster. [1]
- Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity is tested (and later confirmed) by Arthur Eddington's observation of a total solar eclipse in Principe and by Andrew Crommelin in Sobral, Brazil. [1] [5]
- May 31
- First wedding held in an aircraft (over Houston, Texas). [1]
- US Navy Curtiss NC-4 aircraft commanded by AC Read completes first crossing of Atlantic (15 days), landing at Plymouth, England. [1] [385.x]
- June 4
- US marines invade Costa Rica. [1]
- June 14
- John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown in Vickers-Vimy biplane depart Saint John's, Newfoundland, commencing attempt at non-stop transatlantic flight. [1] [1166.254]
- June 15
- Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown and Captain John Alcock complete the first trans-Atlantic non-stop flight, landing in Ireland. They win the Daily Mail prize of 10,000 pounds sterling. [1] [385.vii] [1166.254]
- June 21
- Germans scuttle their own naval fleet. [1]
- June 25
- First advanced monoplane airliner flight (Junkers F13). [1]
- June 28
- In Versailles, France, the peace Treaty of Versailles is signed, formally ending the Great War (World War I), five years to the day after the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand. [10] [129]
- In Versailles, France, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George and French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau sign the Treaty of Guarantee. The treaty calls for Great Britain and the USA to come to France's immediate aid if Germany makes an unprovoked assault on the country. (The treaty is not ratified by the American senate, so does not come into force.) [10]
- (month unknown)
- The Cumberland Falls cubrite meteorite falls in Kentucky, USA. [523.104]
- July 6
- The British dirigible R34 land in New York, completing the first crossing of the Atlantic by an airship (108 hours). [1] [5]
- July 13
- The British airship R34 lands in Norfolk, England after 182 hours of flight, completing the first airship return journey across the Atlantic. [5]
- July 18
- French forces occupy Temesvár, Hungary. [1146.715]
- July 21
- Dirigible crashes through bank skylight killing 13 (Chicago, Illinois). [1]
- July 24
- Race riot in Washington DC (6 killed, 100 wounded). [1]
- July 27
- Chicago, Illinois, race riot (15 whites and 23 blacks killed, 500 injured). [1]
- August 1
- The Hungarian Soviet Republic ends. [1146.713]
- August 4
- Romanians occupy Budapest. [1146.713]
- August 6
- First air flight over a major body of water in Australia (by Harry Butler). [1]
- August 8
- Treaty of Rawalpindi, British recognize Afghanistan's independence. [1]
- August 10
- Ukranian National Army massacres 25 Jews in Podolia, Ukraine. [1]
- August 12
- French forces in Bánát, Hungary turn over control to Romania. [1146.715]
- August 25
- First scheduled passenger service by airplane (Paris, France to London, England). [1]
- August 31
- Petlyura's Ukranian Army kills 35 members of a Jewish defense group. [1]
- September 11
- US marines invade Honduras. [1]
- September 18
- The Netherlands gives women the right to vote. [5]
- Hurricane tides 16 feet above normal drown 280 along Gulf Coast. [1]
- October 1
- World Series #16 begins as a best of 9 affair, Chicago White Sox intentionally throw this series to satisfy gamblers (The Black Sox Scandal). [1]
- October 7
- First London-Amsterdam airline service begins (British Aerial Transport). [1]
- November 12
- Ross and Smith start a one month flight from London to Australia. [1]
- November 16
- Hungarian National army under Miklos Horthy enters Budapest. [1146.714]
- December 1
- US-born Lady Nancy Astor sworn-in as member of British Parliament, representing Plymouth Sutten. Astor is the first woman to take a seat in the House of Commons. [1] [1458.10]
- December 11
- The citizens of Enterprise, Alabama erect a monument to the boll weevil, the pest that devastated their fields but forced residents to end their dependence on cotton and to pursue mixed farming and manufacturing. [1] [5]
- December 13
- Ross and Smith land in Australia from a flight from London. [1]
- December 15
- Fiume (Rijeka) declares its independence. [1]
- December 17
- Austria parliament approves 8-hour work day. [1]
- December 18
- Sir John Alcock, British pilot (first non-stop over Atlantic), dies in crash in northern France at age 27. [1] [385.xv]
- December 20
- Canadian National Railways is established (North America's longest, 50,000 km). [1]
- December 22
- US deports 250 alien radicals, including anarchist Emma Goldman, to Russia. [1]
- December 23
- First hospital ship built to move wounded naval personnel is launched. [1]
- Alice H Parker patents gas heating furnace. [1]
|