1921 in the United States

← 1920 1919 1918 1921 in the United States → 1922 1923 1924
Decades:	1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s
See also:	History of the United States (1918–1945) Timeline of United States history (1900–1929) List of years in the United States

Warren G. Harding inauguration, March 4, 1921. Harding at right in back seat; Woodrow Wilson at left.

Events from the year 1921 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal Government

• President: Woodrow Wilson (D-New Jersey) (until March 4), Warren G. Harding (R-Ohio) (starting March 4)
• Vice President: Thomas R. Marshall (D-Indiana) (until March 4), Calvin Coolidge (R-Massachusetts) (starting March 4)
• Chief Justice: Edward Douglass White (Louisiana) (until May 19), William Howard Taft (Ohio) (starting July 11)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Frederick H. Gillett (R-Massachusetts)
• Senate Majority Leader: Henry Cabot Lodge (R-Massachusetts)
• Congress: 66th (until March 4), 67th (starting March 4)

Governors and Lieutenant Governors

Governors Governor of Alabama: Thomas Kilby (Democratic) Governor of Arizona: Thomas Edward Campbell (Republican) Governor of Arkansas: Charles Hillman Brough (Democratic) (until January 11), Thomas Chipman McRae (Democratic) (starting January 11) Governor of California: William Stephens (Republican) Governor of Colorado: Oliver Henry Shoup (Republican) Governor of Connecticut: Marcus H. Holcomb (Republican) (until January 5), Everett J. Lake (Republican) (starting January 5) Governor of Delaware: John G. Townsend, Jr. (Republican) (until January 16), William D. Denney (Republican) (starting January 16) Governor of Florida: Sidney Johnston Catts (Prohibition) (until January 4), Cary A. Hardee (Democratic) (starting January 4) Governor of Georgia: Hugh M. Dorsey (Democratic) (until June 25), Thomas W. Hardwick (Democratic) (starting June 25) Governor of Idaho: D. W. Davis (Republican) Governor of Illinois: Frank O. Lowden (Republican) (until January 10), Len Small (Republican) (starting January 10) Governor of Indiana: James P. Goodrich (Republican) (until January 10), Warren T. McCray (Republican) (starting January 10) Governor of Iowa: William L. Harding (Republican) (until January 13), Nathan E. Kendall (Republican) (starting January 13) Governor of Kansas: Henry J. Allen (Republican) Governor of Kentucky: Edwin P. Morrow (Republican) Governor of Louisiana: John M. Parker (Democratic) Governor of Maine: until January 5: Carl E. Milliken (Republican) January 5-January 31: Frederic Hale Parkhurst (Republican) starting January 31: Percival Proctor Baxter (Republican) Governor of Maryland: Albert C. Ritchie (Democratic) Governor of Massachusetts: Calvin Coolidge (Republican) (until January 6), Channing H. Cox (Republican) (starting January 6) Governor of Michigan: Albert Sleeper (Republican) (until January 1), Alex Groesbeck (Republican) (starting January 1) Governor of Minnesota: J. A. A. Burnquist (Republican) (until January 5), J. A. O. Preus (Republican) (starting January 5) Governor of Mississippi: Lee M. Russell (Democratic) Governor of Missouri: Frederick D. Gardner (Democratic) (until January 10), Arthur M. Hyde (Republican) (starting January 10) Governor of Montana: Sam V. Stewart (Democratic) (until January 3), Joseph M. Dixon (Republican) (starting January 3) Governor of Nebraska: Samuel R. McKelvie (Republican) Governor of Nevada: Emmet D. Boyle (Democratic) Governor of New Hampshire: John H. Bartlett (Republican) (until January 6), Albert O. Brown (Republican) (starting January 6) Governor of Oregon: Ben W. Olcott (Republican) Governor of Pennsylvania: William Cameron Sproul (Republican) Governor of Rhode Island: R. Livingston Beeckman (Republican) (until January 4), Emery J. San Souci (Republican) (starting January 4) Governor of South Carolina: Robert Archer Cooper (Democratic) Governor of South Dakota: Peter Norbeck (Republican) (until January 4), William H. McMaster (Republican) (starting January 4) Governor of Tennessee: A. H. Roberts (Democratic) (until January 15), Alfred A. Taylor (Republican) (starting January 15) Governor of Texas: William P. Hobby (Democratic) (until January 18), Pat Morris Neff (Democratic) (starting January 18) Governor of Utah: Simon Bamberger (Democratic) (until January 3), Charles R. Mabey (Republican) (starting January 3) Governor of Vermont: Percival W. Clement (Republican) (until January 6), James Hartness (Republican) (starting January 6) Governor of Virginia: Westmoreland Davis (Democratic) Governor of Washington: Louis Folwell Hart (Republican) Governor of West Virginia: John J. Cornwell (Democratic) (until March 4), Ephraim F. Morgan (Republican) (starting March 4) Governor of Wisconsin: Emanuel L. Philipp (Republican) (until January 3), John J. Blaine (Republican) (starting January 3) Governor of Wyoming: Robert D. Carey (Republican) Lieutenant Governors Lieutenant Governor of Alabama: Nathan Lee Miller (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of California: Clement Calhoun Young (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: George Stepham (Republican) (until month and day unknown), Earl Cooley (Republican) (starting month and day unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Clifford B. Wilson (Republican) (until January 5), Charles A. Templeton (Republican) (starting January 5) Lieutenant Governor of Delaware: vacant (until January 18), J. Danforth Bush (Republican) (starting January 18) Lieutenant Governor of Idaho: Charles C. Moore (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: John G. Oglesby (Republican) (until January 10), Fred E. Sterling (Republican) (starting January 10) Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Edgar D. Bush (Republican) (until January 10), Emmett Forrest Branch (Republican) (starting January 10) Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Ernest Robert Moore (Republican) (until January 13), John Hammill (Republican) (starting January 13) Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: Charles S. Huffman (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: S. Thruston Ballard (political party unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Hewitt Bouanchaud (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Channing H. Cox (Republican) (until January 6), Alvan T. Fuller (Republican) (starting January 6) Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Luren D. Dickinson (Republican) (until January 1), Thomas Read (Republican) (starting January 1) Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: Thomas Frankson (Republican) (until January 4), Louis L. Collins (Republican) (starting January 4) Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: Homer H. Casteel (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Wallace Crossley (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Hiram Lloyd (Republican) (starting month and day unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Montana: W. W. McDowell (political party unknown) (until month and day unknown), Nelson Story Jr. (political party unknown) (starting month and day unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: Pelham A. Barrows (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Maurice J. Sullivan (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico: Benjamin F. Pankey (Republican) (until January 1), William H. Duckworth (Republican) (starting January 1) Lieutenant Governor of New York: Jeremiah Wood (Republican) (starting January 1) Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Oliver Max Gardner (Democratic) (until January 12), William B. Cooper (Democratic) (starting January 12) Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota: Howard R. Wood (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: Clarence J. Brown Sr. (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma: Martin E. Trapp (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Edward E. Beidleman (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Emery J. San Souci (Republican) (until January 4), Harold Gross (Republican) (starting January 4) Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: J. T. Liles (Democratic) (until January 18), Wilson Godfrey Harvey (Democratic) (starting January 18) Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota: William H. McMaster (Republican) (until January 4), Carl Gunderson (Republican) (starting January 4) Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: Andrew L. Todd, Sr. (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), William West Bond (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Willard Arnold Johnson (Democratic) (until January 18), Lynch Davidson (Democratic) (starting January 18) Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Mason S. Stone (Republican) (until January 6), Abram W. Foote (Republican) (starting January 6) Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Benjamin Franklin Buchanan (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Washington: vacant (until January 10), William J. Coyle (Republican) (starting January 10) Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Edward F. Dithmar (Republican) (until January 3), George F. Comings (Republican) (starting January 3)

Events

January–March

March 4: Warren G. Harding becomes President

Unknown Soldier from World War I being taken from the USS Olympia (C-6) at the Washington Navy Yard and transported to the US Capitol to lay in state. On November 11 the body is interred at Arlington National Cemetery.

• January 1 – In American football, the University of California defeats Ohio State 28–0 in the Rose Bowl.
• January 2 – The first religious radio broadcast is heard, over station KDKA (AM) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• January 21 – The full-length silent comedy-drama film The Kid, written, produced, directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin (in his Tramp character), with Jackie Coogan, is released.
• March 4 – Warren G. Harding is sworn in as the 29th President of the United States.

April–June

• April 20 – Ferenc Molnár's play Liliom is first produced on Broadway in English.
• May 19 – The Emergency Quota Act passes the U.S. Congress, establishing national quotas on immigration. Because this drastically limits immigration from Eastern Europe, Jews emigrating from there begin to prefer Palestine as a destination rather than the U.S.
• May 27 – First victim of the Osage Indian murders is discovered in Osage County, Oklahoma.
• May 31–June 1 – Tulsa Race Riot (Greenwood Massacre): Mobs of white residents attack black residents and businesses in Greenwood District, Tulsa, Oklahoma. The official death toll is 36, but later investigations suggest an actual figure between 100 and 300. 1,250 homes are destroyed and roughly 6,000 African Americans imprisoned in one of the worst incidents of mass racial violence in the United States.

July–September

• 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 11 – Former President of the United States William Howard Taft is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States, making him the only person ever to hold both positions.
• July 14 – A Massachusetts jury finds Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti guilty of first degree murder following a widely publicized trial.
• July 26 – U.S. President Warren G. Harding receives Princess Fatima of Afghanistan and Stanley Clifford Weyman.
• August – The United States formally ends World War I, declaring a peace with Germany.
• 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 – Franklin D. Roosevelt's paralytic illness strikes while he is vacationing on Campobello Island; he is diagnosed with polio.
  • James Coyle, a Catholic priest in Birmingham, Alabama is shot and killed by Klan member, E.R. Stephenson, after presiding over wedding of Stephenson's daughter, Ruth, and Pedro Gussman, a Puerto Rican working for her father.
• August 25–September 2 – An uprising of striking coal miners in West Virginia leads to the Battle of Blair Mountain.
• September 5 – Popular comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle attends a party at the St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco, during which actress Virginia Rappe is fatally injured; although he is eventually acquitted of rape and manslaughter, the scandal derails his career.
• 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 13 – White Castle hamburger restaurant opens in Wichita, Kansas, the foundation of the world's first fast food chain.

October–December

• October 8 – The first Sweetest Day is staged in Cleveland, Ohio.
• October 26 – The Chicago Theatre, the oldest surviving grand movie palace, opens.
• October 29 – 1921 Centre vs. Harvard football game: 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 11 – During an Armistice Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, the Tomb of the Unknowns is dedicated by U.S. President Warren G. Harding.
• 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.

Undated

• Simon Rodia begins construction of the Watts Towers in Los Angeles.
• The central tower is added to the De Young (museum) museum in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.
• Potawatomi Zoo established in South Bend, Indiana.
• The Tau Epsilon Chi Jewish high school sorority is founded in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Ongoing

• Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937)
• U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915–1934)
• Prohibition (1919–1933)
• Depression of 1920–21 (1920–1921)
• Roaring Twenties (1920–1929)

Births

• January 3
  • John Russell, American actor (d. 1991)
  • Cecil Souders, American football player
• January 9 – John Sperling, businessman, founded the University of Phoenix (d. 2014)
• January 19 – Patricia Highsmith, crime fiction writer (died 1995 in Switzerland)
• January 29
  • Anthony George, television actor (died 2005)
  • Geraldine Pittman Woods, African American science administrator and promoter of community service (died 1999)
• January 31
  • Carol Channing, actress (d. 2019)
  • Mario Lanza, tenor, actor (d. 1959)
  • Anthony Lazzaro, university administrator
• February 4 – Betty Friedan, feminist author (died 2006)
• February 8
  • Betsy Jochum, female baseball player
  • Lana Turner, actress (died 1995)
• February 11 – Lloyd Bentsen, U.S. Senator from Texas from 1971 to 1993 (died 2006)
• February 12
  • Don Bollweg, baseball player (died 1996)
  • Betty Jaynes, actress and singer (died 2018)
• February 17 – Duane Gish, biochemist and academic (died 2013)
• March 1 – Richard Wilbur, poet laureate (died 2017)
• March 5 – Berkley Bedell, politician (died 2019)
• March 27 – Tom Bevill, U.S. Representative from Alabama from 1967 to 1997 (died 2005)
• March 31 – Peggy Rea, television actress (died 2011)
• April 3
  • Robert Karvelas, actor (died 1991)
  • Jan Sterling, actress (died 2004)
• April 21 – John R. Huizenga, nuclear physicist (died 2014)
• April 23 – Judy Agnew, Second Lady of the United States as wife of Spiro Agnew (died 2012)
• May 1 – Boo Morcom, pole vaulter and jumper (died 2012)
• May 9
  • Daniel Berrigan, Jesuit priest, anti-war activist and poet (died 2016)
  • Mona Van Duyn, poet and academic (died 2004)
• June 7 – Dorothy Ruth, horse breeder and author (died 1989)
• June 9 – Forrest Bird, biomedical engineer (died 2015)
• June 13 – Nancy Warren, baseball pitcher (died 2001)
• June 15 – James Emanuel, African American poet and scholar (died 2013)
• June 17 – Tony Scott, jazz clarinetist (died 2007)
• June 19 – Howell Heflin, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1979 to 1997 (died 2005)
• July 4
  • Madelon Mason, American model and pin-up girl (died 2011)
  • Philip Rose, actor, playwright and theatrical producer (died 2011)
  • Galen L. Stone, American diplomat (died 2018)
• July 6
  • Nancy Reagan, born Anne Frances Robbins, First Lady of the United States and film actress (died 2016)
  • F. Michael Rogers, general (died 2014)
• July 18 – John Glenn, first U.S. astronaut to orbit Earth and U.S. Senator from Ohio from 1974 to 1999 (died 2016)
• July 22 – William V. Roth, Jr., U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1971 to 2001 (died 2003)
• August 4 – Herb Ellis, jazz guitarist (died 2010)
• August 9
  • Ernest Angley, televangelist, author and station owner
  • J. James Exon, Governor of Nebraska, U.S. Senator (died 2005)
  • Patricia Marmont, actress, daughter of Percy Marmont
• August 10
  • Yuki Shimoda, actor (died 1981)
  • Jack B. Weinstein, federal judge
• August 13
  • Barney Liddell, musician (died 2003)
  • Jimmy McCracklin, pianist, singer-songwriter (died 2012)
• August 19 – Gene Roddenberry, television producer (died 1991)
• August 23 – Kenneth Arrow, economist, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1972 (died 2017)
• August 26
  • Ben Bradlee, newspaperman (died 2014)
  • Naomi Parker, war worker, probable model for the "We Can Do It!" poster (died 2018)
• September 3 – Henry Bellmon, U.S. Senator from Oklahoma from 1969 to 1981 (died 2009)
• September 19 – Morton Mandel, businessman (died 2019)
• September 22 – Robert I. Price, admiral (died 2019)
• September 27
  • John Malcolm Patterson, American politician
  • Bernard Waber, American children's author (died 2013)
• October 3 – John H. Cushman, military officer (died 2017)
• October 5 – Mahlon Hoagland, biochemist (died 2009)
• October 6
  • Joseph Lowery, African-American minister, activist (died 2020)
  • Alex Wizbicki, American football player (died 2018)
• October 7
  • Richard L. Duchossois, businessman
  • Tommy Farrell, supporting actor and comedian (died 2004)
• October 11 – Shaw McCutcheon, cartoonist (died 2016)
• October 19
  • John William Ditter, Jr., federal judge (died 2019)
  • George Nader, actor (died 2002)
• October 21 – Victor A. McKusick, "father of genetic medicine" (died 2008)
• November 3 – Charles Bronson, film actor (died 2003)
• November 6 – James Jones, novelist (died 1977)
• November 15
  • Jimmy Fitzmorris, politician and businessman
  • Alexander Jefferson, Air Force officer
• November 20
• November 20
  • Allen Dines, politician
  • Dan Frazer, actor (died 2011)
• November 22 – Rodney Dangerfield, born Jacob Rodney Cohen, comedian (died 2004)
• November 29 – Jackie Stallone, born Jacqueline Labofish, astrologer, dancer, wrestling promoter and mother of Sylvester Stallone
• December 3
  • Phyllis Curtin, soprano (died 2016)
  • Ruby M. Rouss, WAC and first female President of the Virgin Islands Legislature (died 1988)
• December 21 – Robert Lipshutz, lawyer and politician, 17th White House Counsel (died 2010)
• December 26 – Steve Allen, television host (died 2000)

Deaths

• February 7 – John J. Gardner, member of the House of Representatives from New Jersey from 1893 to 1913 (born 1845)
• February 17 – Rosetta Luce Gilchrist, physician and author (born 1850)
• March 8 – Thomas H. Paynter, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1907 to 1913 (born 1851)
• March 29
  • Levi Ankeny, U.S. Senator from Washington from 1903 to 1909 (born 1844)
  • John Burroughs, naturalist (born 1837)
• April 21 – Tom O'Brien, baseball player (born 1860)
• April 23 – John P. Young, managing editor of the San Francisco Chronicle (b. 1849)
• May 19 – Edward Douglass White, 9th Chief Justice of the United States from 1910 to 1921, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1894 to 1910 and U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1891 to 1894 (born 1845)
• May 26 – Donald Evans, poet, publisher, music critic and journalist (born 1884)
• June 12 – Murphy J. Foster, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1901 to 1913 (born 1849)
• June 16 – William E. Mason, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1897 to 1903 (born 1850)
• July 24 – C. I. Scofield, theologian (born 1843)
• September 9 – Virginia Rappe, model and silent film actress (born 1895)
• October 12 – Philander C. Knox, United States Attorney General from 1901 to 1904 and United States Secretary of State from 1909 to 1913 (born 1853)
• October 25 – Bat Masterson, gunfighter (born 1853)
• December 12 – Henrietta Swan Leavitt, astronomer (born 1868)
• Nat Love, African American cowboy (born 1854)

See also

• List of American films of 1921
• Timeline of United States history (1900–1929)

External links

• Media related to 1921 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons