Events of 1919

January

January 1: Iolaire sinks.

• 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.

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).

• 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 .

• 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 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 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.