1920 in the United States

1920 in the United States
Decades:	1900s 1910s – 1920s – 1930s 1940s
Years:	1917 1918 1919 – 1920 – 1921 1922 1923
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48 stars (1912 – 1959)
Timeline of United States history History of the United States (1918–1945)

Events from the year 1920 in the United States.

Incumbents

• President: Woodrow Wilson (Democratic)
• Vice President: Thomas R. Marshall (Democratic)
• Chief Justice: Edward Douglass White
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Frederick H. Gillett (R-Massachusetts)
• Congress: 66th

Events

January

January 16: Prohibition in the United States begins.

• January 2 – The second of the Palmer Raids takes place with another 4,000 suspected communists and anarchists arrested and held without trial. These raids take place in several U.S. cities.
• January 6 – Babe Ruth's December 26 trade to the New York Yankees is made public. (See 1919 in the United States.)
• January 9 – Thousands of onlookers watch as "The Human Fly" George Polley, climbs the New York Woolworth Building. He reached the 30th floor when a policeman arrested him for climbing without a permit
• January 13 – The New York Times ridicules the American rocket scientist Robert H. Goddard. The newspaper printed a correction to this editorial on July 17, 1969 while the Apollo crew rocketed to the Moon.
• January 16 – Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated, is founded on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C.
• January 16 – Prohibition in the United States begins with the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution coming into effect.
• January 19 – The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.
• January 30 – The oldest surviving pro wrestling match on film happens, with Joe Stecher defeating Earl Caddock.

February

• February 14 – The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago.
• February 22 – In Emeryville, California, the first dog racing track to employ an imitation rabbit opens.

March

• March 1 – The United States Railroad Administration returns control of American railroads to its constituent railroad companies.
• March 10 – The Baylor Business Men's Club changes its name to the Baylor University Chamber of Commerce. It has operated under this name since the change.
• March 19 – United States Congress refuses to ratify Treaty of Versailles.
• March 28 – The 1920 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak hits the Great Lakes region and Deep South states.

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 17 – The National Football League is founded.
• 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 presidential election.

December

• December 25 – Foundation of the Rosicrucian Fellowship's Spiritual Healing Temple "The Ecclesia" at Mount Ecclesia, Oceanside, California.

Undated

• Because there are so many mixed-race persons and because so many Americans with some black ancestry appear white, the United States Census stops counting mixed-race peoples and the one-drop rule becomes the national legal standard.

Ongoing

• Progressive Era (1890s–1920s)
• Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937)
• U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915–1934)
• First Red Scare (1917–1920)
• Prohibition (1919–1933)
• Depression of 1920–21 (1920–1921)
• Roaring Twenties (1920–1929)

Births

January

• January 6 – Early Wynn, baseball player (died 1999)
• January 15 – John O'Connor, American Catholic cardinal
• January 20 – DeForest Kelley, American actor (died 1999)
• January 30 – Delbert Mann, American television and film director

February

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

March

• March 14 – Hank Ketcham, American cartoonist (died 2001)
• March 15 – Lawrence Sanders, American novelist (died 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 (died 1997)

April

• April 2 – Jack Webb, American actor, director, and producer (died 1982)
• April 5 – Arthur Hailey, American writer (died 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 (died 1996)
• May 11 – Denver Pyle, American actor (died 1997)
• May 23 – Helen O'Connell, American singer (died 1993)
• May 26 – Peggy Lee, American singer (died 2002)
• May 28 – Gene Levitt, American television writer, producer, and director (died 1999)
• May 30 – Franklin Schaffner, American film and television director (died 1989)

June

• June 2 – Tex Schramm, American football executive (died 2003)
• June 12 – Dave Berg, American cartoonist (died 2002)
• June 12 – Jim Siedow, American actor (died 2003)
• June 25 – Ozan Marsh, American pianist
• June 29 – Ray Harryhausen, American animator

July

• July 10 – Owen Chamberlain, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• July 11 – Yul Brynner, Russian-born actor (died 1985)
• July 24 – Bella Abzug, American politician (died 1998)

August

• August 8 – Jimmy Witherspoon, American singer (died 1997)
• August 16 – Charles Bukowski, American writer (died 1994)
• August 18 – Bob Kennedy, baseball player and manager (died 2005)
• August 18 – Shelley Winters, American actress (died 2006)
• August 22 – Ray Bradbury, American writer
• August 29 – Charlie Parker, American saxophonist and composer (died 1955)

September

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

October

• October 1 – Walter Matthau, American actor (died 2000)
• October 8 – Frank Herbert, American author (died 1986)
• October 15 – Mario Puzo, American author of Science fiction (died 1999)
• Octpber 20 – Janet Jagan, President of Guyana (1997–1999), abdominal aortic aneurysm (died 2009)
• October 22 – Timothy Leary, American psychologist and author (died 1996)
• October 25 – Guy M. Townsend, American Air Force brigadier general and test pilot (died 2011)

November

• November 30 – Virginia Mayo, American actress (died 2005)

December

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

Deaths

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

External links

• Media related to 1920 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons