1920 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: Frederick H. Gillett
• Senate Majority Leader: Henry Cabot Lodge
• Congress: 66th

  Governors

Lieutenant Governors

Events

January

• January 2 – First Red Scare: The second of the Palmer Raids takes place with another 4,025 suspected communists and anarchists arrested and held without trial in several cities.
• January 5 – 1920 United States Census count begins. This becomes the first census to record a population exceeding 100 million, at 106,021,537. Because there are so many mixed-race persons and because so many Americans with some black ancestry appear white, the Census Bureau stops counting mixed-race peoples and the one-drop rule becomes the national legal standard.
• January 6 – Babe Ruth's December 26 trade to the New York Yankees is made public.
• January 7 – The New York State Assembly refuses to seat five duly elected Socialist assemblymen.
• January 9 – Thousands of onlookers watch as "The Human Fly" George Polley climbs New York City's Woolworth Building. He reaches the 30th floor when a policeman arrests him for climbing without a permit.
• January 13 – The New York Times ridicules the American rocket scientist Robert H. Goddard.
• January 16 – Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated, is founded on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C.
• January 17 – 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.
• * The American Civil Liberties Union is founded.
• * Oahu sugar strike of 1920 begins.
• January 30 – A professional wrestling match in which Joe Stecher defeats Earl Caddock at New York City's Madison Square Garden is filmed by Pioneer Film Corporation for later viewing by cinema audiences; this is the oldest surviving movie of a pro wrestling match.

  February

• February 14 – The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago.

  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.
• March 19 – United States Congress refuses to ratify the Treaty of Versailles.
• March 28 – The 1920 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak hits the Great Lakes region and Deep South states.

  April

• April 28 – Monongahela National Forest is established.

  May

• May 2 – The first game of the Negro National League baseball is played in Indianapolis, Indiana.

  June

• June 11 – During the 1920 Republican National Convention in Chicago, party leaders gather in a "smoke-filled room" of The Blackstone Hotel to decide their presidential candidate.
• June 13 – The U.S. Post Office rules that children may not be sent via parcel post.
• June 14 – Cherokee National Forest is established.
• June 15 – 1920 Duluth lynchings: Three African Americans are sprung from jail and lynched by a white mob in Duluth, Minnesota.
• June 21 – The 4.9 Inglewood earthquake shakes the Los Angeles Area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII, causing more than $100,000 in damage.

  July

• July 1 – The Oahu sugar strike of 1920 ends.
• July 29 – The United States Bureau of Reclamation begins construction of the Link River Dam as part of the Klamath Reclamation Project.

  August

• August 1–6 – Denver streetcar strike of 1920
• August 20
• * The first commercial radio station in the U.S., 8MK, owned by the Detroit News, begins operations in Detroit, Michigan.
• * The National Football League is founded as the American Professional Football Conference.
• August 26 – Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed, guaranteeing women's suffrage.

  September

• 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 29 – First domestic radio sets come to stores in the U.S. – Westinghouse radio costs $10.

  October–November

• November 2
• *Republican U. S. Senator Warren G. Harding defeats Democratic Governor of Ohio James M. Cox in the U.S. presidential election, the first national U.S. election in which women have the right to vote.
• *KDKA of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania starts broadcasting as a commercial radio station. The first broadcast is the results of the presidential election.
• November 2–3 – Ocoee massacre occurs.

  December

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

  Undated

• Black Cross Nurses founded.
• Van Wyck Brooks publishes The Ordeal of Mark Twain, arguing that Twain's genius was twisted by the conditions and culture of late 19th-century America. This begins a reassessment of Twain, who has been seen hitherto mainly as a humorous entertainer, and his contemporaries.

  Ongoing

• Progressive Era
• Lochner era
• U.S. occupation of Haiti
• First Red Scare
• Prohibition
• Depression of 1920–21
• Roaring Twenties

  Sport

• January 1 – Harvard Crimson win their First Rose Bowl by defeating the Oregon Webfoots 7 to 6 in the 1920 Rose Bowl.
• October 12 – Cleveland Indians win their first World Series by defeating the Brooklyn Robins 5 games to 2; the deciding game 7 is played at League Park in Cleveland.
• December 19 – Akron Pros are awarded the First American Professional Football Association Championship.

  Births

January

• January 4 – Cris Alexander, actor, singer, dancer, designer and photographer
• January 6 – Early Wynn, baseball player
• January 8
• *Richard Benedict, actor and director
• *Gordon Kahl, tax protester and cop-killer
• January 15 – John O'Connor, Catholic cardinal
• January 20
• *DeForest Kelley, screen actor
• *Lewis Wilson, actor
• January 30 – Delbert Mann, television and film director

  February

• February 3
• *Henry Heimlich, thoracic surgeon
• *George Armitage Miller, psychologist
• February 8 – George W. George, theater, Broadway and film producer
• February 11 – Billy Halop, actor
• February 12 – William Roscoe Estep, Baptist historian
• February 18
• *Bill Cullen, game show host
• *Eddie Slovik, U.S. Army private
• February 20 – Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington, socialite
• February 26 – Tony Randall, actor
• February 29 – Howard Nemerov, poet

  March

• March 14 – Hank Ketcham, cartoonist
• March 15
• *Lawrence Sanders, novelist
• *E. Donnall Thomas, physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• March 20 – Pamela Harriman, English-born U.S. Ambassador to France

  April

• April 1 – Harry Lewis, actor and businessman
• April 2 – Jack Webb, television actor, director and producer
• April 5 – Arthur Hailey, writer
• April 6 – Edmond H. Fischer, Swiss American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• April 29 – Harold Shapero, composer

  May

• May 7 - James B. Pearson, U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1962 to 1978
• May 8
• *Saul Bass, graphic designer
• *Sloan Wilson, author and poet
• May 10 - Jeff Cooper, soldier and journalist
• May 11
• *Gene Hermanski, baseball player
• *Denver Pyle, actor
• May 23 - Helen O'Connell, singer
• May 26 - Peggy Lee, singer
• May 28 - Gene Levitt, television writer, producer and director
• May 30 - Franklin Schaffner, film and television director

  June

• June 2 – Tex Schramm, American football executive
• June 11
• *Irving Howe, literary and social critic
• *Robert Hutton, actor
• June 12
• *Dave Berg, cartoonist
• *Jim Siedow, actor
• *William Woodward, Jr., banker and racehorse owner
• June 22
• * Paul Frees, voice actor
• * Jack Karwales, American football player
• * Walt Masterson, baseball pitcher
• * Lester Wunderman, executive
• June 25 – Ozan Marsh, pianist
• June 29 – Ray Harryhausen, animator

  July

• July 4
• *Norm Drucker, basketball player and referee
• *Leona Helmsley, born Lena Rosenthal, businesswoman and tax evader
• July 9 – Robert H. B. Baldwin, banker and Under Secretary of the Navy
• July 10 – Owen Chamberlain, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• July 11 – Yul Brynner, Russian-born actor
• July 15 – Theresa Kobuszewski, underhand baseball pitcher
• July 16
• *Henry Williams Hise, Marine Corps Brigadier General
• *Larry Jansen, baseball pitcher, coach
• *Phillip Pine, screen actor
• *Ulysses S. Washington, American college football player, coach
• July 19 – Robert Mann, violinist
• July 24 – Bella Abzug, politician

  August

• August 6 – Ella Raines, screen actress
• August 8 – Jimmy Witherspoon, singer
• August 10
• *Ann Harnett, baseball player
• *Red Holzman, basketball coach
• August 13 – Neville Brand, actor and combat soldier
• August 16 – Charles Bukowski, writer
• August 18
• *Bob Kennedy, baseball player and manager
• *Shelley Winters, actress
• August 22 – Ray Bradbury, science-fiction writer
• August 29 – Charlie Parker, saxophonist and composer

  September

• September 1 – Richard Farnsworth, actor, stuntman
• September 6 – Lawrence LeShan, psychologist
• September 7 – Al Caiola, guitarist and composer
• September 13 – Alan Sagner, politician and public servant
• September 14
• *Don Johnson, American football player
• *Lawrence Klein, economist, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1980
• September 15 – Dave Garcia, baseball coach, manager
• September 17 – Marjorie Holt, politician
• September 18 – Jack Warden, actor
• September 22 – William H. Riker, political scientist
• September 23 – Mickey Rooney, film actor
• September 24
• *Richard Bong, fighter ace
• *Harber H. Hall, politician
• September 27 – William Conrad, actor
• September 30 – Milton P. Rice, politician

  October

• October 1 – Walter Matthau, film actor
• October 8 – Frank Herbert, science-fiction writer
• October 15 – Mario Puzo, novelist
• October 17 – Montgomery Clift, film actor
• October 20 – Janet Jagan, President of Guyana from 1997 to 1999
• October 22 – Timothy Leary, psychologist and author
• October 25 – Guy M. Townsend, American Air Force brigadier general and test pilot

  November

• November 5
• * John H. Land, politician, long-serving mayor of Apopka, Florida
• *Douglass North, economist, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1993
• November 8
• *Esther Rolle, African-American television actress
• *Wally Westlake, baseball player
• November 13
• *Jack Elam, screen Western actor
• *Edward Hughes, Catholic bishop
• *Georg Olden, African-American graphic designer
• November 19 – Gene Tierney, actress
• November 21
• *Ralph Meeker, actor
• *Stan Musial, baseball player
• November 29 – Bob Wolff, sportscaster
• November 30 – Virginia Mayo, film actress

  December

• December 6 – Dave Brubeck, jazz pianist and composer
• December 14
• *Frank T. Cary, businessman
• *Clark Terry, swing and bebop trumpeter and composer
• December 15
• *Bernice Falk Haydu, aviatrix
• *Eddie Robinson, baseball player
• December 19
• *Little Jimmy Dickens, country music singer-songwriter
• *David Susskind, producer and talk show host
• December 21
• *Iris Cummings, Olympic swimmer and aviatrix
• *Adele Goldstine, mathematician
• *Harold Lang, dancer and actor
• *J. Roderick MacArthur, businessman and philanthropist
• December 30 – Jack Lord, actor
• December 31 – Rex Allen, screen actor, singer and songwriter, "the Arizona Cowboy"

  Deaths

• January 8 – Maud Powell, violinist
• January 16 – Reginald De Koven, composer, conductor and critic
• January 14 – John Francis Dodge, automobile manufacturer
• February 2 – Field Eugene Kindley, World War I aviator
• February 3 – Frank Brown, 42nd Governor of Maryland from 1892 to 1896
• February 15 – Joseph Burton Sumner, founder of Sumner, Mississippi
• February 20
• *Joseph J. Fern, Mayor of Honolulu from 1909 to 1915 and from 1917 to 1920
• *Robert Peary, Arctic explorer
• February 27 – William Sherman Jennings, 18th Governor of Florida from 1901 to 1905
• March 1
• *John H. Bankhead, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1907 to 1920
• *William A. Stone, 22nd Governor of Pennsylvania from 1899 to 1903
• March 4 – Roswell P. Bishop, U.S. Representative from Michigan from 1895 to 1907
• March 13 – Mary Devens, photographer
• March 14 – Henry W. Blair, U.S. Senator from New Hampshire from 1879 to 1891
• March 26
• *Samuel Colman, painter and designer
• *William Chester Minor, surgeon
• March 31 – Edwin Warfield, 45th Governor of Maryland from 1904 to 1908
• April 3 – Mary Katharine Brandegee, botanist
• April 6 – Mary Evelyn Hitchcock, author and explorer
• April 8
• *John Brashear, American astronomer
• *Charles Griffes, American composer
• April 12 – Walter Edwards, film director
• April 21 – Maria L. Sanford, educator
• May 11 – William Dean Howells, novelist
• May 10 – John Wesley Hyatt, inventor
• May 16 – Levi P. Morton, 22nd Vice President of the United States from 1889 to 1893
• May 21 – Eleanor H. Porter, novelist
• June 5 – Julia A. Moore, poet
• June 18 – Jewett W. Adams, 4th Governor of Nevada from 1883 to 1887
• July 2 – William Louis Marshall, general and engineer
• July 6 – Andrew Traynor, soldier
• July 17 – Charles E. Courtney, rower and coach
• July 22 – William Kissam Vanderbilt, heir
• August 1 – Frank Hanly, 26th Governor of Indiana from 1905 to 1909
• August 2 – Ormer Locklear, pilot
• August 6 – Edward Francis Searles, interior designer
• August 9 – Melvin O. Adams, attorney and railroad executive
• August 10 – James O'Neill, actor
• August 12 – Walter W. Winans, sculptor, painter, marksman and horse-breeder
• August 17 – Ray Chapman, baseball player
• August 26 – James Wilson, politician
• September 5 – Robert Harron, actor
• September 10 – Olive Thomas, silent film actress
• October 2 – Winthrop M. Crane, 40th Governor of Massachusetts from 1900 to 1903 and U.S. Senator from Massachusetts from 1904 to 1913
• October 17 – John Reed, journalist, in Moscow
• November 2 – Louise Imogen Guiney, poet and essayist
• November 3 – Warren Terhune, United States Navy Commander and 13th Governor of American Samoa
• November 25 – Madeline McDowell Breckinridge, women's suffrage campaigner
• November 30 – Eugene W. Chafin, politician
• December 14 – George Gipp, American football player
• December 18 – Casimiro Barela, politician, member of the Colorado Senate
• December 24 – Stephen Mosher Wood, politician