1919 in the United States

Incumbents

Federal Government">Federal government of the United States">Federal Government

• President: Woodrow Wilson
• Vice President: Thomas R. Marshall
• Chief Justice: Edward Douglass White
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Champ Clark , Frederick H. Gillett
• Congress: 65th, 66th

  Governors

Lieutenant Governors

Events

January

• January 1 – Edsel Ford succeeds his father as head of the Ford Motor Company.
• January 6 - Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, dies in his sleep at the age of 60.
• January 15 – The Boston Molasses Disaster: A wave of molasses released from an exploding storage tank sweeps through Boston, killing 21 and injuring 150.
• January 16 - The 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, authorizing Prohibition, goes into effect in the United States.
• January 22 - The United States recognizes the independence of Poland.
• January 25 - The Hotel Pennsylvania, is built in Manhattan, and becomes the world's most popular hotel.

  February

• February 6 - The Seattle General Strike begins. Over 65,000 workers strike.
• February 11 – The Seattle General Strike ends when Federal troops are summoned by the state of Washington's Attorney General.
• February 25 - Oregon places a 1 cent per U.S. gallon 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.

  March

• March 3 - The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the conviction of Charles Schenck.
• March 5 - A. Mitchell Palmer becomes Attorney General of the United States through recess appointment.
• March 15 - The American Legion forms in Paris.

  April

• April 13 - Eugene V. Debs enters prison at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia for speaking out against the draft during World War I.
• April 15 - Boston Telephone Strike of 1919 begins. Ends successfully for the telephone operators and supporters on April 20.
• April 30 - Several bombs are intercepted in the first wave of the 1919 United States anarchist bombings.

  May

• May 1 - Riots break out on International Labor Day in Cleveland, Ohio; 2 people are killed, 40 injured, and 116 arrested.
• May 1 - Race riot in Charleston, South Carolina kills three black men; beginning of Red Summer.
• May 9 - The United States recognizes the independence of Finland.
• May 16 - A U.S. Navy Curtiss aircraft, commanded by Albert Cushing Read, departs Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.
• May 23 - The University of California, Los Angeles is established as the Southern Branch of the University of California, making it the second-oldest undergraduate campus of the ten-campus University of California system. The school's motto is Fiat lux, "Let there be light."

  June

• June 2 - Eight mail bombs are sent to prominent figures as part of the 1919 United States anarchist bombings.
• 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 5 – Baltimore Mine Tunnel Disaster
• June 15 - Pancho Villa attacks Ciudad Juárez. When the bullets begin to fly to the U.S. side of the border, two units of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment cross the border and repulse Villa's forces.
• June 28 - The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending World War I.
• June - The Algonquin Round Table group of writers, critics, actors and wits led by Alexander Woollcott first meets at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City.

  July

• July 1 - "Thirsty First": The Wartime Prohibition Act comes into effect.
• July 6 - The British dirigible airship R34 lands at Mineola, New York, completing the first transatlantic flight by airship.
• July 7 - The First Transcontinental Motor Convoy: The U.S. Army sends an expedition across the continental U.S., starting in Washington, D.C., to determine how well troops could be moved from one side of the country to the other by motor vehicles.
• July 18 – 1919 Kimball mining disaster
• July 21 - Wingfoot Air Express crash: The Goodyear dirigible airship Wingfoot Air Express catches fire over downtown Chicago and crashes into the Illinois Trust and Savings Building; 2 passengers, 1 crew member, and 10 people on the ground are killed; 2 people parachute to the ground safely.
• July 27 - The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 begins when a white man throws rocks at a group of 4 black teens on a raft.

  August

• August 1–6 – 1919 Streetcar Strike of Los Angeles occurs.
• August 11 – The first NFL team for Wisconsin is founded by Curly Lambeau.
• August 30 - After a three-way splintering of the Socialist Party of America, the leadership of the remaining 30,000 members of the Right Wing of the Socialist party continue their national convention in Chicago on August 30, 1919.
• August 31 - In a three-way splintering of the Socialist Party of America, the leadership of the 10,000 native-born English speaking members of the Left Wing form the Communist Labor Party of America in Chicago on August 31, 1919.

  September

• September 1 - In a three-way splintering of the Socialist Party of America, the leadership of the 60,000 alien members of the Left Wing form the Communist Party of America at a separate convention in Chicago on September 1, 1919.
• September 6 - The First Transcontinental Motor Convoy: The U.S. Army expedition across America, which started July 7, ends in San Francisco.
• September 10 - September 15: The Florida Keys Hurricane kills 600 in the Gulf of Mexico, Florida and Texas.
• September 22 - The Steel strike of 1919 begins across the United States.
• September 28 - Omaha Riot: A lynch mob besieges the police station and courthouse in Omaha, Nebraska, and lynches alleged rapist Will Brown.

  October

• October 1 - The Elaine Race Riot breaks out in Arkansas.
• October 2 - President of the U.S. Woodrow Wilson suffers a massive stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed.
• October 9
• *Black Sox Scandal: The Chicago White Sox throw the World Series.
• *The Boston Police Strike occurs.
• October 16 - Ripley's Believe It or Not! first appears as a cartoon under this title in The New York Globe.
• October 28 - Prohibition begins: The United States Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto.

  November

• November 1 - The Coal Strike of 1919 begins in the United States by the United Mine Workers under John L. Lewis. Final agreement comes on December 10.
• November 7 - The first Palmer Raid is conducted on the second anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Over 10,000 suspected communists and anarchists are arrested in 23 different U.S. cities.
• November 9 - Felix the Cat appears in Feline Follies, making the first cartoon character.
• November 10 - The first national convention of the American Legion is held in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• November 11 - The Centralia Massacre in Centralia, Washington results in the deaths of four members of the American Legion, and the lynching of a local leader of the Industrial Workers of the World.
• November 14 – Sigma Delta Pi, the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society, was established at the University of California Berkeley in Berkeley, California.
• November 19 - The Treaty of Versailles fails a critical ratification vote in the United States Senate. It will never be ratified by the US.
• November 27 - Kappa Kappa Psi, National Honorary Band Fraternity, is established at Oklahoma A&M College in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

  December

• December 21 - The United States deports 249 people, including Emma Goldman to Russia, during the Red Scare.
• December 26 - Babe Ruth is sold by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees for $125,000, the largest sum ever paid for a player at that time. The deal was announced on January 6, 1920.

  Undated

• Various strikes occur in the United States: Strike of US railroad workers; The Longshoreman's strike; The Great Steel Strike; and a general strike in Seattle, Washington.
• US President Wilson promises eventual independence for Philippines, though subsequent Republican administrations see it as a distant goal.
• The World League Against Alcoholism is established by the Anti-Saloon League.

  Ongoing

• Progressive Era
• Lochner era
• U.S. occupation of Haiti
• First Red Scare
• Prohibition

  Births

January

• January 1 – J. D. Salinger, author notable for the novel Catcher in the Rye
• January 2 – Charles Willeford, writer
• January 3
• *Zara Cisco Brough, Nipmuc Chief
• *Dorothy Morrison, actress
• January 4 – Lester L. Wolff, politician
• January 7 – Steve Belichick, American football player, coach and scout
• January 10 – Amzie Strickland, actress
• January 13 – Robert Stack, actor
• January 14 – Andy Rooney, journalist
• January 23 – Ernie Kovacs, American comedian
• January 24 – Leon Kirchner, American composer
• January 25
• * Edwin Newman, journalist and writer
• * Eula Beal, contralto
• January 27 – Ross Bagdasarian Sr., actor, pianist, singer, songwriter, record producer and creator of Alvin and the Chipmunks
• January 28 – Gabby Gabreski, American fighter ace
• January 30
• * John C. Elliott, politician and 39th Governor of American Samoa
• * Fred Korematsu, Japanese-American civil rights activist
• January 31 – Jackie Robinson, African-American baseball player

  February

• February 9, Protestant ecumenical theologian
• *Robert Martin, fighter pilot
• February 12 - Forrest Tucker, actor
• February 15 - Norman Garbo, author and lecturer
• February 13
• *Tennessee Ernie Ford, musician
• * Eddie Robinson, football coach
• February 16 - Charlie Parlato, musician
• February 18 - Jack Palance, actor
• February 19 - William Gianelli, politician
• February 21 - Malcolm E. Beard, politician
• February 25 - Monte Irvin, African-American baseball player
• February 26 - Mason Adams, actor

  March

• March 2 - Jennifer Jones, actress
• March 4 - Buck Baker, racecar driver
• March 5 - Myron H. Bright, United States federal judge
• March 13 - Jack P. Lewis, Biblical scholar
• March 14 - Max Shulman, comedic writer
• March 15 - Lawrence Tierney, actor
• March 17 - Nat King Cole, African-American singer
• March 24
• * Lawrence Ferlinghetti, author and publisher
• * Robert Heilbroner, economist
• March 26 - Strother Martin, actor
• March 28 - Dewey F. Bartlett, U.S. Senator from Oklahoma from 1967 to 1971
• March 29 - Eileen Heckart, actress
• March 30 - McGeorge Bundy, U.S. National Security Advisor

  April

• April 1 - Joseph Murray, transplant surgeon, Nobel Prize laureate
• April 3 - Ervin Drake, songwriter
• April 4 - Charles O. Porter, politician
• April 6 - Caren Marsh Doll, actress and dancer
• April 13
• * Howard Keel, singer, dancer and actor
• * Madalyn Murray O'Hair, née Mays, atheist activist
• * Phil Tonken, radio and television announcer
• April 16
• *Merce Cunningham, dancer and choreographer
• * Edward Simons Fulmer, American Army Air Forces officer
• April 18 - Samuel L. Myers Sr., economist
• April 22 - Donald J. Cram, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• April 27 - Victor Wouk, scientist

  May

• May 1 - Lewis Hill, broadcaster, co-founder of Pacifica Radio
• May 3
• *John Cullen Murphy, comic strip artist
• *Pete Seeger, folk singer and musician
• May 4 - Dory Funk, professional wrestler
• May 8 - Lex Barker, actor
• May 10 - Daniel Bell, sociologist
• May 16 - Liberace, pianist
• May 17 - Ronald Verlin Cassill, novelist, short story writer, editor, painter, and lithographer
• May 20 - George Gobel, comedian
• May 31 - Vance Hartke, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1959 to 1977

  June

• June 6 - Doris Merrick, actress and model
• June 7 - George Glamack, basketball player
• June 9 - Jimmy Newberry, baseball player
• June 11 - Helen Tobias-Duesberg, Estonian-American pianist and composer
• June 14 - Gene Barry, actor
• June 15 - Charles Kaman, aeronautical engineer
• June 19 - Pauline Kael, film critic
• June 22 - Clifton McNeely, basketball player and coach
• June 23 - R. C. Pitts, basketball player
• June 24
• *Al Molinaro, actor
• *Jack Naylor, inventor
• June 26
• *George Athan Billias, historian
• *Richard Neustadt, political historian
• June 28 - Joseph P. Lordi, government official
• June 30 - Ed Yost, inventor

  July

• July 1 - Gerald E. Miller, vice admiral
• July 7
• *William Kunstler, lawyer and civil rights activist
• *Earl Mazo, journalist, author, and government official
• July 10 - Harry Zeller, professional basketball player
• July 13
• *Joe Gill, magazine writer and comic book scripter
• *William F. Quinn, politician
• July 14
• * Cleveland Clark, Negro league baseball player
• * Marion F. Kirby, ace in the United States Army Air Forces
• * Hal Lahar, American football player and coach
• * Eugene Allen, waiter and butler
• July 15
• *Mike Karmazin, American football guard
• *Everett P. Pope, United States Marine
• July 17 - Milt Smith, American football player and business operator
• July 19 - Dallas McKennon, voice actor
• July 22 - Allie Paine, college basketball standout
• July 26 - Virginia Gilmore, actress
• July 31 - Robert M. Morgenthau, lawyer

  August

• August 13
• * Rex Humbard, television evangelist
• * George Shearing, Anglo-American jazz pianist
• August 14 - Isaac C. Kidd Jr., American admiral
• August 18 - Walter Joseph Hickel, 2nd and 8th Governor of Alaska
• August 20
• * Walter Bernstein, screenwriter and producer
• * Thomas G. Morris, politician
• August 22 - Larry Winn, American politician
• August 25 - George Wallace, 45th Governor of Alabama
• August 28 - Ben Agajanian, American football player
• August 29 - Sono Osato, dancer and actress

  September

• September 4 - Howard Morris, actor
• September 5 - Tom Jordan, Major League Baseball player
• September 6
• * Lee Archer, U.S. fighter pilot
• September 9 - Barbara Fiske Calhoun, American WWII cartoonist and painter; co-founded Quarry Hill Creative Center in Rochester, Vermont, where she taught art and helped establish the ideals of the group. Born Isabelle Daniel Hall in Tucson, Arizona.
• *John Mitchum, actor
• September 24
• * Rick Vallin, Russian-American actor
• * Jack Costanzo, percussionist
• * Dayton Allen, comedian and voice actor
• September 27
• *Jayne Meadows, actress
• *Charles H. Percy, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1967 to 1985

  October

• October 3 - James M. Buchanan, economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• October 11 - Art Blakey, jazz drummer
• October 12
• * Mary Ainslee, film actress
• * Doris Miller, sailor
• October 13 - Jackie Ronne, born Edith Maslin, Antarctic explorer
• October 14 - Edward L. Feightner, U.S. navy officer
• October 16 - Kathleen Winsor, writer
• October 17 - Charles Y. Glock, sociologist
• October 18 - Anita O'Day, jazz singer
• October 21 - Donald West VanArtsdalen, federal judge
• October 25 - Norman A. Erbe, 35th Governor of Iowa
• October 26
• *Edward Brooke, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts from 1967 to 1979
• *James E. Myers, songwriter
• *Jacob Pressman, rabbi, co-founder of American Jewish University
• October 27 - Jeremiah Stamler, cardiologist
• October 30 - Takuma Tanada, Japanese-American biologist

  November

• November 2 - Bill Mills, Major League Baseball player
• November 3
• *Bert Freed, American character actor and voice-over actor
• *Spider Jorgensen, baseball player and coach
• November 4 - Martin Balsam, actor
• November 5 - Myron Floren, accordionist
• November 10 - Michael Strank, U.S. Marine flag raiser on Iwo Jima
• November 15
• *Carol Bruce, singer and actress
• *Joseph Wapner, lieutenant and judge
• November 26 - Frederik Pohl, science fiction writer
• November 19 - Ken Buehler, basketball player

  December

• December 1 - Charles Steen, geologist and businessman
• December 7 - Charles McGee, member of the Tuskegee Airmen, served as a USAF officer until 1973
• December 8 - Lorraine H. Morton, politician
• December 9
• * Bert J. Harris Jr., politician
• *William Lipscomb, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• December 14 - Margie Stewart, model and actress
• December 21
• * Larry Eisenberg, writer
• * Tommy Byrne, baseball player
• * Doug Young, voice actor

  Deaths

• January 6
• *Max Heindel, Danish-American astrologer and mystic
• *Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States from 1901 to 1909, 25th Vice President of the United States from March to September 1901
• January 7 - Henry Ware Eliot, industrialist and philanthropist
• January 8 - Jim O'Rourke, baseball player and MLB Hall of Famer
• January 14 - Shelley Hull, stage & film actor, husband of Josephine Hull, brother of Henry Hull
• January 31 - Nat C. Goodwin, veteran stage star & silent film actor
• January 27 - French Ensor Chadwick, admiral
• February 18 - Henry Ragas, jazz pianist
• March 23 - Henry Blossom, lyricist
• April 8 - Frank Winfield Woolworth, businessman
• April 9
• *Sidney Drew, actor
• *James Reese Europe, jazz musician and composer, band leader
• April 15 - Jane Delano, nurse and founder or the American Red Cross Nursing Service
• May 6 - L. Frank Baum, author, poet, playwright, actor and independent filmmaker
• May 14 - Henry John Heinz, businessman
• May 12 - D. M. Canright, Seventh-day Adventist minister and author, later one of the church's severest critics
• May 13 - Helen Hyde, etcher and engraver
• May 21 - Lamar Johnstone, silent film actor and director
• May 25 - Madam C. J. Walker, African American entrepreneur and philanthropist
• July 8 - John Fox Jr., journalist, novelist and short story writer
• August 1 - Oscar Hammerstein I, musical theatre impresario
• August 9 - Ralph Albert Blakelock, American painter
• August 11 - Andrew Carnegie, Scottish-American industrialist
• October 30 - Ella Wheeler Wilcox, author and poet
• November 23 - Henry Gantt, project engineer
• November 24 - William Stowell, silent film actor and director
• December 2 - Henry C. Frick, industrialist
• December 7 - J. Thompson Baker, politician from New Jersey