Major Events
- Jan 16 First assembly of the League of Nations is held in Paris
- Jan 17 First day of prohibition of alcohol comes into effect in the US as a result of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution
- Mar 10 Home Rule Act passed by the British Parliament, dividing Ireland into two parts; it is rejected by the southern counties, where the Ango-Irish war continues for a year
- Mar 19 US Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles for the second time, refusing to ratify the League of Nations' covenant and maintains a policy of isolation
- Mar 31 British parliament accepts Irish Home Rule law
- Apr 25 San Remo conference establishes three League of Nations mandates: a French mandate for Syria, and British mandates for Mesopotamia and Palestine with effect to the terms of the Balfour Declaration
- Apr 26 Harlow Shapley and Heber D. Curtis hold "great debate" on the nature of nebulae, galaxies and size of the universe at US National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.
- May 16 French heroine Joan of Arc is canonized as a saint by Pope Benedict XV
- Aug 18 State Representative Harry T. Burn (24) casts deciding vote in Tennessee's and thus America's ratification of the 19th Amendment to the constitution allowing women's suffrage, after reading a letter from his mother
- Nov 14 The Russian Bolshevik army occupies Sebastopol, ending anti-communist attempts to regain the government of Russia
- Dec 13 League of Nations establishes the International Court of Justice in The Hague
- Dec 16 8.5 earthquake rocks the Gansu province in China, killing an estimated 200,000
- Dec 23 Government of Ireland Act / Home Rule Act passed partitioning Ireland
- More 1920 Events
1920 in Sport
- Feb 13 Baseball Hall of Famer “Rube” Foster and 7 other team owners create the first Negro National League (NNL) at a meeting in a Kansas City YMCA
- Aug 20 American Professional Football Association forms; Jim Thorpe installed as president; later to become the National Football League (NFL)
- Sep 22 Chicago grand jury convenes to investigate charges that 8 White Sox players conspired to fix the 1919 World Series
Did You Know?
Francis G. Pease's interferometer at Mount Wilson Observatory is the first to measure the diameter of a star - the Betelgeuse
Isaac Asimov
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
John Paul II
Rosalind Franklin
Stan Musial
George P. Shultz
Federico Fellini
Toshiro Mifune
Yul Brynner
Maureen O'Hara
Shelley Winters
Gene Tierney
Ravi Shankar
Peggy Lee
Mike Douglas
Charlie "Bird" ParkerMore People Born in 1920
Fun Fact About 1920
"The Mark of Zorro" directed by Fred Niblo and starring Douglas Fairbanks is shown in New York - 1st American superhero film
Edmund Barton
Robert Peary
John Wesley Hyatt
Max Weber
Abraham KuyperMore 1920 Deaths
Articles About 1920
Prohibition and The Rise of Al Capone
Prohibition began in America on this day. The 13-year ban on alcohol led to resentment, gangsterism, bribery, murder and widespread flouting of the law.January 16
Canonization of Joan of Arc
Interior of a packed St. Peter's Basilica in Rome as Joan of Arc is canonized by the PopeMay 16
President Falls From Grace
Paul Deschanel had the makings of a fine President of France – until a series of bizarre incidents culminated in him falling out the window of a moving train.May 23
No Babies Please!
Children "mailed" by their parents because it was cheaper to mail them - if a child came in under the 50 pound parcel weight limit, than other ways to travelJune 13
Wall Street Bombing
Aftermath of the attack on Wall Street, September 16, 1920September 16
Famous Weddings in 1920
- Mar 28 Actor Douglas Fairbanks (36) marries actress Mary Pickford (28)
- Apr 3 Novelist and short story writer F. Scott Fitzgerald (23) weds novelist Zelda Sayre (19) at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York
- Apr 6 Physicist Erwin Schrödinger (32) weds Annemarie Bertel
Famous Divorces in 1920
- Mar 2 Actress Mary Pickford (27) divorces actor Owen Moore (33) after 9 years of marriage
More 1920 Weddings
Claude Monet
David Lloyd George
Vladimir Lenin
Woodrow Wilson