Events of 1919

January

• January 1
  • In Scotland, the HMS Iolaire sinks on the rocks; 206 die.
  • Edsel Ford succeeds his father as head of the Ford Motor Company.
  • Spartacist uprising: Socialist demonstrations in Berlin, Germany turn into an attempted communist revolution.
• January 6 – Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, dies in his sleep at the age of 60.
• January 7 – Estonian Freedom War: The Soviet Army meets resistance from Estonian forces.
• January 9 – Friedrich Ebert orders the Freikorps into action in Berlin.
• January 10–January 12 – The Freikorps attacks Spartacist 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
  • Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht are murdered following the Spartacist uprising.
  • The Boston Molasses Disaster: A wave of molasses released from an exploding storage tank sweeps through Boston, killing 21 and injuring 150.
  • Ignacy Jan Paderewski becomes Premier of Poland.
• January 16 – The 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, authorizing Prohibition, goes into effect in the United States.
• January 18
  • World War I: A peace conference opens in Versailles, France.
  • Bentley Motors is founded in England.
• January 21
  • The First Dáil Éireann meets in the Mansion House in Dublin.
  • An ambush of the police at Soloheadbeg marks the beginning of the Irish War of Independence.
• January 23 – The Uprising of Khotin breaks out in Khotyn, Ukraine.
• January 25 – The League of Nations is founded in Paris.
• January 31 – 1919 Battle of George Square: British police battle strikers in Glasgow, Scotland.
• Estonian Freedom War: The Red Army is expelled from the entire territory of Estonia.

February

• February 3 – Soviet troops occupy the Ukraine.
• February 6 – The Seattle General Strike begins. Over 65,000 workers strike.
• February 11 – Friedrich Ebert is elected President of Germany.
  • The Seattle General Strike ends when Federal troops are summmoned by the state of Washington's Attorney General.
• February 14 – The Polish-Soviet War begins.
• February 23 – The Fascist Party is formed in Italy by Benito Mussolini.
• February 25 – Oregon places a 1 cent per U.S. 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).
• February 28 – Amanullah Khan becomes King of Afghanistan.

March

• March 1 – The March 1st Movement against Japanese colonial rule in Korea is formed.
• March 2 – The first Communist International meets in Moscow.
• March 3 – The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the conviction of Charles Schenck.
• March 9 – The Egyptian Revolution of 1919 breaks out.
• March 15 – The American Legion forms in Paris.
• March 21 – The Hungarian Soviet Republic is established by Béla Kun.
• March 23 – In Milan, Italy, Benito Mussolini founds his Fascist political movement.
• March 31 – A general strike begins in the Ruhr.

April

• April 6–April 7 – The Bavarian Soviet Republic is founded.
• April 12 – Murderer Henri Désiré Landru is arrested.
• April 13 – Amritsar Massacre: British and Gurkha troops massacre 379 Sikhs in the Punjab in India.
• April 14 – The Emperor of Austria moves to exile in Switzerland.
• April 23 – The Constituent Assembly of Estonia convenes its first session.
• April 25
  • The Bauhaus architectural movement is founded in Weimar, Germany.
  • ANZAC day is celebrated for the first time in Australia.
  • Pancho Villa takes Parral in Mexico, and hangs the mayor and his two sons.
• April 30 – Several bombs are intercepted in the first wave of the 1919 United States anarchist bombings.

May

• May 1
  • A large left-wing demonstration in France leads to a violent confrontation with the police.
  • Riots break out in Cleveland, Ohio; 2 people are killed, 40 injured, and 116 arrested.
• May 3 – Weimar Republic troops and the Freikorps occupy Munich and crush the Bavarian Soviet Republic.
  • Amanullah Khan attacks British government in India.
• May 4 – The May Fourth Movement opposes foreign colonizers in China.
• May 5 – The League of Red Cross Societies is founded in Paris.
• May 9 – In Belgium, a new electoral law introduces universal manhood suffrage and gives the franchise to certain classes of women.
• May 15 – Winnipeg workers launch a general strike for better wages and working conditions.
• May 16
  • A U.S. Navy Curtiss aircraft (NC-4), commanded by Albert Cushing Read, departs Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.
  • The Hellenic Army lands at Smyrna carried by British ships.
• May 17 – The Committee of One Thousand forms to oppose the Winnipeg General Strike.
• May 19 – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk lands at Samsun on the Anatolian Black Sea coast, marking the start of the Turkish War of Independence. The anniversary of this event is also an official day of remembrance for Pontic Greeks.
• May 23 – The University of California opens its second campus in Los Angeles. Initially called Southern Branch of the University of California (SBUC), it is eventually renamed the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
• May 25 – Volcano Kelut erupts in Java, killing 16,000.
• May 29
  • Einstein's theory of general relativity is tested/confirmed by Arthur Eddington's observation of a total solar eclipse in Principe, and by Andrew Crommelin in Sobral, Ceará, Brazil.
  • The (Republic of Prekmurje) formally declares independence from Hungary.
• May 30 – By agreement with the United Kingdom, later confirmed by the League of Nations, Belgium is given the mandate over part of German East Africa (Ruanda and Urundi).

June

• June 2 – Several 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 6 – The Hungarian Red Army attacks the Prekmurian Republic.
• June 14 – John Alcock and Arthur Brown depart St. John's, Newfoundland, on the first nonstop transatlantic flight (they land at Clifden, County Galway, Ireland the next day). [6135]
• June 15 – Pancho Villa attacks Ciudad Juárez. When the bullets begin to fly to the U.S. side of the border, 2 units of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment cross the border and repulse Villa's forces.
• June 17 – British Police Sergeant Thomas Green is killed during the Epsom Riot by Canadian troops
• June 21
  • Winnipeg General Strike: Royal Canadian Mounted Police (North-West Mounted Police) fire a volley into a crowd of unemployed war veterans, killing 2.
  • Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttles the German fleet in Scapa Flow, Orkney; 9 Germans die.
  • The American Winged Foot Express catches fire over downtown Chicago; 2 passengers, 1 crewmember and 10 people on the ground are killed; only 2 people parachute to the ground safely.
• June 23 – Estonian Freedom War – Battle of Cēsis: The Estonian army wins in Northern Latvia against the German Landeswehr.
• June 28 – The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending World War I.

July

• July 2 – Syrian National Congress in Damascus. Arab nationalist announce independence.
• July 6 – The British dirigible R34 lands in New York, completing the first crossing of the Atlantic by an airship.
• July 7 – The U.S. Army sends an expedition across the continental U.S., starting in Washington, D.C., to assess the condition of the Interstate Highway System.
• July 19 – The Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was established at the decree of the chancellory for foreign affairs.
• July 31 – Policemen in London and Liverpool strike for recognition of the National Union of Police and Prison Officers; over 2,000 strikers are dismissed.

August

• August 1 Béla Kun's Soviet Republic collapses in Hungary.
• August 11
  • The first NFL team for Wisconsin (the Green Bay Packers) is founded by Curly Lambeau.
  • In Germany, the Weimar Constitution is passed into law.
• August 18 – The Bolshevik fleet at Kronstadt, near Petrograd, is destroyed by German aircraft and torpedo boats in a combined operation.
• August 19 – Afghanistan gains independence from the United Kingdom.
• August 16–August 26 – First Silesian Uprising: The Poles in Upper Silesia rise against the Germans.
• August 31 – The American Communist Party is established.

September

• September 6 – The U.S. Army expedition across America, which started July 7, ends in San Francisco.
• September 10 – The 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 12 – Police spy, Adolf Hitler, ordered to monitor the German Workers Party.
• September 22 – The Steel strike of 1919 begins across the United States.
• September 23 – The Belenenses sports club is founded in Portugal.
• September 27 – The last British troops leave Archangel, Russia and leave the fighting to the Russians.
• 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 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson suffers a massive stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed.
• October 9
  • Black Sox scandal: The Cincinnati Reds "win" the World Series.
  • The Boston Police Strike occurs.
• October 13 – The Convention relating to the Regulation of Aerial Navigation is signed.
• October 19 – Leeds United – English Football club formed after the demise of Leeds City
• October 28 – Prohibition begins: The United States Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto.

November

• November 10 – The first national convention of the American Legion is held in Minneapolis, Minnesota (until November 12).
• 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 (IWW).
• November 16 – After Entente pressure Romanian forces withdraw from Budapest and let Admiral Horthy to march in.
• November 19 – The confirmation is announced of Einstein's general relativity theory, tested by Arthur Eddington and Andrew Crommelin during a total solar eclipse on May 29, 1919 FirstScience.
• November 27
  • The Treaty of Neuilly is signed between the Allies and Bulgaria.
  • Kappa Kappa Psi, National Honorary Band Fraternity, is established at Oklahoma A&M College (now named Oklahoma State University) in Stillwater, OK.
• November 28 – The American-born Lady Astor is elected to the British House of Commons, becoming on December 1 the first female MP to take a seat.
• November 30 – Health officials declare that the global Spanish Flu pandemic has ended.

December

• December 5 – The 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 25 – Cliftonhill Stadium in Coatbridge opens (the home of the Albion Rovers F.C.) They lose the match 2–0 to St. Mirren.

Undated

• Earl W. Bascom, rodeo cowboy and artist, along with his father John W. Bascom at Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, designs and makes rodeo's first reverse-opening side-delivery bucking chute, now the world standard.
• Les Champs Magnetiques, the first automatic book, is written by Andre Breton and Philippe Soupault.
• XWA (now CINW), in Montreal, Quebec, becomes the first public radio station in North America to go on the air.
• 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.
• Female suffrage is enacted in Germany and Luxembourg.
• Marcel Tolkowsky's Diamond Design is published.
• The International Astronomical Union is founded in France.
• The World League Against Alcoholism is established by the Anti-Saloon League.
• The fictional character Ham Gravy debuts in Thimble Theatre Comics.
• US President Wilson promises eventual independence for Philippines, though subsequent Republican administrations see it as a distant goal.

Ongoing

• Åland crisis
• Ethnic cleansing in Turkey: The Armenian Genocide
• Assyrian Genocide (1914–1922)
• Greek Genocide (1914–1923).

Births

January–February

• January 1 – J. D. Salinger, American novelist (The Catcher in the Rye)
• January 5 – Hector Abhayavardhana, Sri Lankan political theorist
• January 13 – Robert Stack, American actor (The Untouchables) (d. 2003)
• January 14 – Andy Rooney, American journalist (60 Minutes)
  • Giulio Andreotti, Italian politician
• January 15 – George Cadle Price, first Prime Minister of Belize
• January 23
  • Hans Hass, Austrian zoologist
  • Ernie Kovacs, American comedian (d. 1962)
  • Bob Paisley, British football player and manager (d. 1996)
• January 24 – Leon Kirchner, American composer (d. 2009)
• January 25 – Edwin Newman, American journalist and writer (NBC Nightly News)
  • Eula Beal, American contralto (d. 2008)
• January 26 – Valentino Mazzola, Italian footballer (d. 1949)
• January 27 – Ross Bagdasarian, American musician and actor (Alvin and the Chipmunks) (d. 1972)
• January 31 – Jackie Robinson, African-American baseball player (d. 1972)
• February 5
  • Red Buttons, American actor (d. 2006)
  • Andreas Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1996)
• February 9 – Langdon Brown Gilkey, American Protestant ecumenical theologian (d. 2004)
• February 11
  • Eva Gabor, Hungarian actress (Green Acres) (d. 1995)
  • Eddie Robinson, American football coach (d. 2007)
• February 12 – Forrest Tucker, American actor (F Troop) (d. 1986)
• February 13 – Tennessee Ernie Ford, American musician (d. 1991)
• February 16 – Charlie Parlato, American musician (d. 2007)
• February 18 – Jack Palance, American actor (d. 2006)
• February 20
  • – Joe Krol, Canadian football player (d. 2008)
  • – James O'Meara, British Battle of Britain Spitfire Flying Ace (d. 1974)
• February 24 – Árpád Bogsch, Hungarian international civil servant (d. 2004)
• February 26
  • Rie Mastenbroek, Dutch swimmer (d. 2003)
  • Mason Adams, American character actor (d. 2005)

March–April

• March 2 – Jennifer Jones, American actress
• March 4 – Buck Baker, American racecar driver (d. 2002)
• March 7 – M. N. Nambiar, Indian film actor (d. 2008)
• March 15 – Lawrence Tierney, American actor (d. 2002)
• March 17 – Nat King Cole, African-American singer (Unforgettable) (d. 1965)
• March 24
  • – Lawrence Ferlinghetti, American author and publisher
  • – 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 1 – Joseph Murray, American surgeon, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• April 8 – Ian Smith, Prime Minister of Rhodesia (d. 2007)
• April 13 – Phil Tonken, American radio and television announcer (d. 2000)
• April 16 – Merce Cunningham, American dancer and choreographer (d. 2009)
• April 20 – Richard Hillary, British pilot and author (d. 1943)
• April 22 – Donald J. Cram, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2001)

May–June

• May 1
  • Dan O'Herlihy, Irish film actor (d. 2005)
  • Mohammed Karim Lamrani, Prime Minister of Morocco
• May 3
  • John Cullen Murphy, American comic strip artist (d. 2004)
  • Pete Seeger, American folk singer and musician
• May 4 – Dory Funk, American professional wrestler (d. 1973)
• May 7 – Eva Perón, wife of Argentine President Juan Peron (d. 1952)
• May 8 – Lex Barker, American actor (d. 1973)
• May 14 – Denis Cannan, British dramatist, playwright and scriptwriter
• May 16 – Liberace, American pianist (d. 1987)
• May 17 – Antonio Aguilar, Mexican singer and actor (d. 2007)
• May 17 – Ronald Verlin Cassill, American novelist, short story writer, editor, painter, and lithographer (d. 2002)
• May 18 – 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 11 – Richard Todd, Irish born stage & screen actor
• June 19 – Pauline Kael, American film critic (d. 2001)
• June 19 – Louis Jourdan, French Actor
• June 21 – Gérard Pelletier, Canadian journalist, politician, and diplomat (d. 1997)
• June 26 – Richard Neustadt, American political historian (d. 2003)
• June 30 – Ed Yost, American inventor (d. 2007)

July–August

• July 6 – Ernst Haefliger, Swiss tenor (d. 2007)
• July 7 – Jon Pertwee, British actor (d. 1996)
• July 8 – Walter Scheel, President of Germany
• July 15 – Iris Murdoch, Irish novelist (d. 1999)
• July 20 – Sir Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer, conqueror of Mount Everest (d. 2008)
• July 31 – Maurice Boitel, French painter (d. 2007)
• August 2 – Nehemiah Persoff, Israeli-American character actor
• August 8 – Dino De Laurentiis, Italian film producer
• August 9 – Joop den Uyl, Dutch politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1973 until 1977 (d. 1987)
• August 11 – Ginette Neveu, French violinist (d. 1949)
• August 13 – Rex Humbard, American television evangelist (d. 2007)
• August 15 – Benedict Kiely, Irish author and broadcaster (d. 2007)
• August 21 – Dalmiro Finol, Venezuelan baseball player (d. 1994)
• August 25 – George Wallace, Governor of Alabama (d. 1998)
• August 28 – Godfrey Hounsfield, English electrical engineer and inventor, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2004)
• August 31 – Amrita Preetam, Indian poetess and author (d. 2005)

September–October

• September 11 – Ota Sik, Czech economist and politician (d. 2004)
• September 21 – Fazlur Rahman, Pakistani Islamic scholar (d. 1988)
• September 24 – Rick Vallin, Russian-American actor (d. 1977)
• September 26 – Matilde Camus, Spanish poet and researcher
• 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 7 – Zelman Cowen, Governor-General of Australia
• October 9 – Jason Wingreen, American actor
• October 11 – Art Blakey, American jazz drummer (d. 1990)
• October 12 – Doris Miller, American sailor (d. 1943)
• October 16 – Kathleen Winsor, American writer (d. 2003)
• October 17 – Zhao Ziyang, prime minister of the People's Republic of China (d. 2005)
• October 18
  • Anita O'Day, American jazz singer (d. 2006)
  • Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada (d. 2000)
• October 22 – Doris Lessing, British writer
• October 23 – Manolis Andronikos, Greek archaeologist (d 1992)
• October 26
  • James E. Myers, American songwriter (d. 2001)
  • Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran (d. 1980)
  • Edward Brooke, Senator from Massachusetts

November–December

• November 3
  • Jesús Blasco, Spanish comic book author (d. 1995)
  • Spider Jorgensen, American baseball player and coach (d. 2003)
• November 5 – Myron Floren, American accordionist (The Lawrence Welk Show) (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 26 – Frederik Pohl, American science fiction writer
• November 28 – Keith Miller, Australian sportsman (d. 2004)
• December 4 – I. K. Gujral, Indian politician, Prime Minister of India (1997–98)
• December 6 – Paul de Man, Belgian-born literary critic (d. 1983)
• December 7 – Lis Løwert, Danish actress (d. 2009)
• December 8 – Mieczyslaw Weinberg, Polish composer (d. 1996)
• December 9 – William Lipscomb, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• December 21 – Ove Sprogøe, Danish actor (d. 2004)
• December 31 – Tommy Byrne, baseball player (d. 2007)

Deaths

January–June

• January 4 – Georg von Hertling, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1843)
• January 6
  • Max Heindel, Christian occultist, astrologer, and mystic (b. 1865)
  • --January 6-->Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States (b. 1858)
• January 7 – Henry Ware Eliot American industrialist and philanthropist (b. 1843)
• January 15
  • Karl Liebknecht, German communist politician (executed) (b. 1871)
  • Rosa Luxemburg, German communist politician (executed) (b. 1870)
• 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)
• March 2 – Melchora Aquino, Filipino revolutionary hero (b. 1812)
• April 4 – William Crookes, English chemist and physicist (b. 1832)
• April 8 – Franklin Winfield Woolworth, American businessman (born 1852)
• April 9 – Sidney Drew, American actor (born 1863)
• April 10 – Emiliano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary (b. 1879)
• April 15 – Jane Delano, American nurse and founder or the American Red Cross Nursing Service (b. 1862)
• May 3 – Eugen Levine, German revolutionary (b. 1883)
• May 4 – Milan Rastislav Štefánik, Slovak general, politician, and astronomer (b. 1880)
• May 6 – L. Frank Baum, American author, poet, playwright, actor and independent filmmaker (The Wizard of Oz) (b. 1856)
• May 14 – Henry John Heinz, American businessman (b. 1844)
• May 21 – Lamar Johnstone, American silent film actor & director (b. 1885)
• 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–December

• July 15 – Hermann Emil Fischer, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
• July 26 – Edward Poynter, British painter (b. 1836)
• August 1 – Oscar Hammerstein I, Polish-born theater impressario and composer (born 1847)
• August 9 – Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Italian composer (b. 1857)
• August 11 – Andrew Carnegie, Scottish-born businessman and philanthropist (b. 1835)
• August 21 – Laurie Doherty, British tennis champion (born 1875)
• September 27 – Adelina Patti, Italian opera singer (born 1843)
• 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 9 – Eduard Müller, Swiss Federal Councillor (b. 1848)
• November 15 – Alfred Werner, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1866)
• November 24 – William Stowell, American silent film actor & director, died in train wreck in Africa while scouting locations for Universal Pictures (b. 1885)
• December 2 – Henry C. Frick, American industrialist (born 1849)
• December 3 – Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French painter (b. 1841)
• December 19 – Martin Savage, IRA commander (b. 1898)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – Johannes Stark
• Chemistry – not awarded
• Physiology or Medicine – Jules Bordet
• Literature – Carl Friedrich Georg Spitteler
• Peace – Woodrow Wilson

See also

• 20th century.

Notes

1. "Calendar in year 1919 (Romania)" (Julian calendar, starting Tuesday), webpage: Julian-1919 (Romania used Julian in 1919, when Russia adopted Gregorian).
2. Eclipse that Changed the Universe – Einstein's Theory of Relativity
3. Chicago Public Library Archive
4. Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry official: result of overcoming obstacles by first Azerbaijani diplomats was international recognition in Versailles Today.az

External links

• Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World, 2002, Random House.
• Paula Phelan, 1919 Misfortune's End, 2007, ZAPmedia.