1919
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1919 was a Common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar).
Events
January
- January 1 - Iolaire sinking disaster
- January 1 - Edsel Ford succeeds his father as head of the Ford Motor Company
- January 5 - Spartacist uprising - Socialist demonstrations in Berlin turn into attempted communist revolution
- January 9 - Spartacus revolutionary council folds – Friedrich Ebert orders Freikorps into action
- January 10-January 12 - Freikorps attack Spartacus supporters around Berlin
- January 11 - Romania annexes Transylvania.
- January 13 - Worker’s councils in Berlin end the General strike - Spartacus week is over
- January 15 - Murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht in the aftermath of Spartacus uprising
- January 15 - The Boston Molasses Disaster: Wave of Molasses sweeps through Boston, killing 21 and injuring 150
- January 15 - Ignacy Jan Paderewski becomes Premier of Poland
- January 16 - The 18th Amendment, authorizing Prohibition, goes into effect in the United States
- January 18 - World War I: A peace conference opens in Versailles, France.
- January 18 - Bentley Motors is founded
- January 21 - the First Dáil Éireann meets in the Mansion House in Dublin. It is from this meeting that the Irish state dates its existence.
- January 25 - The League of Nations is founded
February-April
- February 1 - The first Miss America is crowned (New York City).
- February 3 - Soviet troops occupy Ukraine
- February 11 - Friedrich Ebert (SPD), is elected President of Germany.
- February 14 - Polish-Soviet War begins
- February 25 - Oregon places a 1 cent per US gallon (26 ˘/L) tax on Gasoline, becoming the first U.S. state to levy a gasoline tax.
- February 26 - An act of the United States Congress establishes most of the Grand Canyon as a United States National Park (see Grand Canyon National Park).
- March 1 - March 1st Movement against Japanese colonial rule in Korea.
- March 2 - The first Communist International meets in Moscow
- March 15 - The American Legion forms in Paris
- March 21 - The Chinese High School was established in Singapore by Mr. Tan Kah Kee
- March 23 - In Milan, Italy, Benito Mussolini founds his Fascist political movement.
- March 31 - General strike begins in the Ruhr
- April 6-April 7 - Communist People’s Republic of Munich founded
- April 13 - At the Amritsar massacre, British and Gurkha troops Massacre 379 Indians.
- April 14 - Emperor of Austria moves to exile in Switzerland
- April 25 - Bauhaus movement founded
- April 25 - ANZAC Day is celebrated for the first time in Australia.
- April 25 - Pancho Villa takes Parral in Mexico - hangs mayor and his two sons
May-June
- May 1 - Large left-wing demonstration in France leads to a violent confrontation with the police
- May 1 - Weimar Republic troops and Freikorps take over Munich and crush the Soviet Republic of Bavaria
- May 1 - The May Day Riots break out in Cleveland, Ohio – two people killed, forty injured, and one hundred and sixteen arrested
- May 3 - People's Republic of Munich is crushed
- May 4 - May Fourth Movement opposes foreign colonizers in China
- May 15 - Winnipeg launches general strike for better wages and working conditions.
- May 16 - US Navy Naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read departs Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first TransAtlantic flight
- May 17 - Committee of One Thousand forms to oppose Winnipeg General Strike
- May 25 - Volcano Kelut erupts in Java – 16.000 dead
- May 29 - Einstein's theory of General relativity confirmed by Arthur Eddington's observation of a total eclipse of the Sun.
- June 4 - Women's rights: The United States Congress approves the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which would guarantee Suffrage to women, and sends it to the U.S. states for ratification.
- June 14 - John Alcock and Arthur Brown depart St. John's, Newfoundland on the first nonstop transatlantic flight (they landed at Clifden, County Galway, Ireland the next day).
- June 15 - Pancho Villa attacks Ciudad Juarez. When the bullets begin to fly to the US side of the border, 2 units of the US 7th Cavalry regiment cross the border and repulse Villa's forces
- June 21 - Royal Canadian Mounted Police fire a volley into a crowd of unemployed war veterans, killing two, during Winnipeg General Strike.
- June 21 - Admiral Ludvig von Reuter scuttles the German fleet in Scapa Flow, Orkney. The nine sailors killed were the last casualties of the First World War.
- June 28 - The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending World War I with Germany.
July-November
- July 6 - The British dirigible R-34 lands in New York, completing the first crossing of the Atlantic by an airship.
- July 31 - Strike of policemen in London and Liverpool for recognition of the National Union of Police and Prison Officers. Over 2,000 strikers are dismissed.
- August 11 - In Germany, the Weimar constitution is passed into Law.
- August 19 - Afghanistan gains independence from the United Kingdom.
- 16 August-26 August - First Silesian Uprising, the Poles in Upper Silesia rise against the Germans
- August 31 - American Communist Party is established
- September 10 - Treaty of Saint-Germain is signed, ending World War I with Austria.
- September 10-September 15: The Florida Keys Hurricane kills 600 in the Gulf of Mexico, Florida and Texas.
- September 23 - Belenenses is founded.
- September 27 - Last British troops leave Archangel, Russia and leave fighting to the Russians
- September 28 - Omaha Riot - lynch mob besieges the police station and courthouse in Omaha, Nebraska and lynch alleged black rapist Will Brown
- October 1 - Elaine Race Riot breaks out in Arkansas
- October 2 - US President Woodrow Wilson suffers a massive stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed.
- October 9 - Black Sox scandal: The Cincinnati Reds "win" the World Series.
- October 9 - Boston police strike
- October 13 - Convention relating to the Regulation of Aerial Navigation signed.
- October 28 - Prohibition begins: The United States Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto.
- November - At end of month health officials declare the global Spanish flu Pandemic over
- November 10 - The first national convention of the American Legion is held in Minneapolis, Minnesota (convention ended on November 12).
- November 11 - The Centralia massacre in Centralia, Washington results the deaths of four members of the American Legion and the lynching of a local leader of the IWW.
- November 16 - Admiral Horthy conquers Budapest from Bela Kuns Soviet Republic
- November 27 - The Treaty of Neuilly is signed between Allies and Bulgaria.
- November 28 - The American-born Lady Astor is elected to the British House of Commons, becoming the first female MP to take a seat on December 1.
December
- December 5 - Turkish ministry of war releases Greeks, Armenians and Jews from Military service
- December 12 - Gabriele D'Annunzio with his entourage marches into Fiume and convinces the Italian troops to join him
- December 30 - Lincoln's Inn, in London admits its first female bar student.
- The Paris Peace Conference
Unknown dates
- The Ĺland Islands vote for a return to Swedish rule in a referendum.
- Les Champs Magnetiques, the first automatic book, is written by Andre Breton and Philippe Soupault.
- XWA (now CFCF), in Montreal, Quebec, is the first public Radio station in North America to go on the air.
- Various strikes in USA: Strike of US railroad workers; Longshoreman’s strike; The Great Steel Strike; General strike in Seattle, Washington.
- Female suffrage in Germany and Luxembourg
- Henri Desire Landru captured
- Marcel Tolkowsky's Diamond Design is published.
- The International Astronomical Union is founded.
Births
January-April
- January 1 - J. D. Salinger, American novelist
- January 13 - Robert Stack, American actor (d. 2003)
- January 14 - Andy Rooney, American journalist
- January 23 - Hans Hass, Austrian zoologist
- January 23 - Ernie Kovacs, American comedian (d. 1962)
- January 25 - Edwin Newman, American journalist and writer
- January 26 - Valentino Mazzola, Italian footballer (d. 1949)
- January 27 - Ross Bagdasarian, American musician and actor (d. 1972)
- January 31 - Jackie Robinson, baseball player (d. 1972)
- February 5 - Red Buttons, American actor
- February 5 - Andreas Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1996)
- February 11 - Eva Gabor, Hungarian actress (d. 1995)
- February 11 - Eddie Robinson, American football coach
- February 12 - Forrest Tucker, American actor (d. 1986)
- February 13 - Tennessee Ernie Ford, American musician (d. 1991)
- February 26 - Rie Mastenbroek, Dutch swimmer (d. 2003)
- March 2 - Jennifer Jones, American actress
- March 15 - Lawrence Tierney, American actor (d. 2002)
- March 17 - Nat King Cole, American singer (d. 1965)
- March 24 - Lawrence Ferlinghetti, American author and publisher
- March 24 - Robert Heilbroner, American economist (d. 2005)
- March 29 - Eileen Heckart, American actress (d. 2001)
- March 30 - McGeorge Bundy, U.S. National Security Advisor (d. 1996)
- April 8 - Ian Douglas Smith, Prime Minister of Rhodesia
- April 19 - Merce Cunningham, American dancer and choreographer
- April 22 - Donald J. Cram, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2001)
May-August
- May 1 - Dan O'Herlihy, Irish film actor (d. 2005)
- May 3 - John Cullen Murphy, American comic strip artist (d. 2004)
- May 3 - Pete Seeger, American singer and musician
- May 7 - Eva Peron, wife of Argentine President Juan Peron (d. 1952)
- May 8 - Lex Barker, American actor (d. 1973)
- May 16 - Liberace, American pianist (d. 1987)
- May 18 - Dame Margot Fonteyn, English ballet dancer (d. 1991)
- May 20 - George Gobel, American comedian (d. 1991)
- May 23 - Betty Garrett, American actress and dancer
- June 4 - Robert Merrill, American baritone (d. 2004)
- June 5 - Richard Scarry, American children's author (d. 1994)
- June 19 - Pauline Kael, American film critic (d. 2001)
- June 21 - Gérard Pelletier, French journalist, politician, and diplomat (d. 1997)
- June 26 - Richard Neustadt, American political historian (d. 2003)
- July 6 - Ernst Haefliger, Swiss tenor
- July 7 - Jon Pertwee, British actor (d. 1996)
- July 15 - Iris Murdoch, Irish novelist (d. 1999)
- July 20 - Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer
- August 11 - Ginette Neveu, French violinist (d. 1949)
- August 28 - Godfrey Hounsfield, English electrical engineer and inventor, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2004)
September-December
- September 11 - Ota Sik, Czech economist and politician (d. 2004)
- September 21 - Fazlur Rahman, Pakistani Islamic scholar (d. 1988)
- September 27 - James H. Wilkinson, English mathematician (d. 1986)
- October 3 - James M. Buchanan, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- October 5 - Donald Pleasence, English actor (d. 1995)
- October 11 - Art Blakey, American jazz drummer (d. 1990)
- October 12 - Doris Miller, U.S. Navy cook (d. 1943)
- October 16 - Kathleen Winsor, American writer (d. 2003)
- October 18 - Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada (d. 2000)
- October 22 - Doris Lessing, British writer
- October 26 - James E. Myers, American songwriter (d. 2001)
- October 26 - Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran (d. 1980)
- November 3 - Jesús Blasco, Spanish comic book author (d. 1995)
- November 5 - Myron Floren, American accordionist (d. 2005)
- November 10 - Mikhail Kalashnikov, Russian firearms inventor
- November 14 - Lisa Otto, German soprano
- November 15 - Roy Burden, Canadian World War II pilot (d. 2005)
- November 18 - Andrée Borrel, French World War II heroine (d. 1944)
- November 28 - Keith Miller, Australian sportsman (d. 2004)
- December 8 - Moisei Vainberg, Polish composer (d. 1996)
- December 9 - William Lipscomb, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- December 31 - Tommy Byrne, baseball player
Deaths
- January 6 - Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1858)
- January 6 - Max Heindel, Christian occultist, astrologer, and mystic (b. 1865)
- January 15 - Karl Liebknecht, German politician (executed) (b. 1871)
- January 15 - Rosa Luxemburg, German politician (executed)
- January 18 - Prince John of the United Kingdom (b. 1905)
- January 27 - Endre Ady, Hungarian poet (b. 1877)
- February 17 - Wilfrid Laurier, seventh Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1841)
- April 4 - Sir William Crookes, English chemist and physicist (b. 1832)
- April 15 - Jane Delano, American nurse and founder or the American Red Cross Nursing Service (b. 1862)
- May 6 - L. Frank Baum, American writer (b. 1856)
- May 14 - Henry John Heinz, American businessman (b. 1844)
- June 29 - José Gregorio Hernández, Venezuelan medician and saint (b. 1864)
- June 30 - John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1842)
- July 15 - Hermann Emil Fischer, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
- July 26 - Sir Edward Poynter, British painter (b. 1936)
- August 9 - Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Italian composer (b. 1857)
- August 11 - Andrew Carnegie, Scottish-born businessman and philanthropist (b. 1835)
- October 7 - Alfred Deakin, second Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1856)
- October 13 - Karl Adolph Gjellerup, Danish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1857)
- October 18 - Viscount William Astor, American financier and statesman (b. 1848)
- November 15 - Alfred Werner, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1866)
- December 3 - Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French painter (b. 1841)
Nobel Prizes
- Physics - Johannes Stark
- Chemistry - not awarded
- Medicine - Jules Bordet
- Literature - Carl Friedrich Georg Spitteler