Events of 1921

January

• January 1 – In American football, the University of California defeats Ohio State 28–0 in the Rose Bowl.

• January 2

• *The club Cruzeiro Esporte Clube from Belo Horizonte is founded as Palestra Italia in Brazil.

• *The first religious radio broadcast is heard over station (KDKA AM in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania).

• *The Spanish liner Santa Isabel sinks off Villa Garcia; 244 die.

• The DeYoung Museum opens in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.

• January 20 – The Royal Navy K-boat K5 sinks in the English Channel with all 56 hands on board.

• January 21

• *The Italian Communist Party is founded in Livorno.

• *Suffrage for women is obtained in Sweden.

February

• February 6 – The Democratic Republic of Georgia is occupied by Bolshevist Russia during the Red Army invasion of Georgia.

• February 25 – The Red Army entered Georgian capital Tbilisi and installed a Moscow-directed communist government.

• February 27 – The International Working Union of Socialist Parties is formed in Vienna.

• February 28 – Russian sailors rebel in Kronstadt

March

• March 1 – The city Kiryu, located in Gunma, Japan, is founded.

• March 4 – Warren G. Harding is inaugurated as the 29th President of the United States.

• March 5 – Clonbanin Ambush: Irish Republican Army kills Brigadier-General Cumming.

• March 6 – The Portuguese Communist Party is founded.

• March 8

• *Spanish Premier Eduardo Dato Iradier is assassinated while exiting the parliament building in Madrid.

• *Allied forces occupy Düsseldorf, Ruhrort and Duisburg.

• March 12 – The İstiklâl Marşı (Independence March) the Turkish National Anthem, officially adopted.

• March 13 – The Russian White Army captures Mongolia from China. Roman Ungern von Sternberg declares himself ruler.

• March 14 – Armenian Soghomon Tehlirian assassinates Mehmed Talaat, former Interior Minister of Turkey, in Charlottenburg, Berlin.

• March 17

• *The Red Army crushes the Kronstadt rebellion, and a number of sailors flee to Finland.

• *Marie Stopes opens the first birth control clinic in London, England.

• *The Second Republic of Poland adopts the March Constitution.

• March 18 – The second Peace of Riga ends the Polish-Soviet War. A permanent border is established between the Polish and Soviet states.

• March 21 – New Economic Policy starts in the Soviet Russia.

• *Headford Ambush: Irish Republican Army kills at least nine British troops.

• March 23 – A plebiscite in Silesia votes for re-annexation to Germany.

April

• April – The Allies of World War I reparations commission announce that Germany has to pay 132 billion gold marks ($33 billion) in annual installments of 2.5 billion gold marks.

• April 11 – The Emirate of Transjordan is created, with Abdullah I as emir.

• April 14 – In Britain, labour unions for mining, railway and transportation workers call for a strike; the government threatens to call in the army.

• April 16 – The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia is founded.

• April 20 – Ferenc Molnár's play Liliom is first produced on Broadway in English.

May

• May 1–May 7 – The riots at Jaffa (Mandatory Palestine) result in 47 Jewish and 48 Arab deaths.

• May 2–July 5 – Third Silesian Uprising: The Poles in Upper Silesia rise against the Germans.

• May 3 – The province of Northern Ireland is created under the United Kingdom

• May 5 – Only 13 spectators attend the soccer match between Leicester City and Stockport County, the lowest attendance in The Football League's history.

• May 6 – A general strike begins in Norway.

• May 8 – The death penalty is abolished in Sweden.

• May 14 – May 17 – Violent anti-European riots occur in Cairo and Alexandria.

• May 14 – May 15 – Major geomagnetic storm.

• May 19 – The Emergency Quota Act passes the U.S. Congress, establishing national quotas on immigration.

• May 24 – Elections are held for the first time for the new Northern Ireland Parliament.

• May 31 – Tulsa Race Riot: The official death toll is 39, but recent investigations suggest the actual toll may be much higher.

July

• July 1

• * The Communist Party of China is officially founded.

• * A coal strike ends in England.

• July 2 – U.S. President Warren Harding signs a joint congressional resolution declaring an end to America's state of war with Germany, Austria and Hungary.

• July 4 – A new conservative government is formed in Italy by Ivanoe Bonomi.

• July 11

• * The Irish War of Independence comes to an end when a truce is signed between the British Government and Irish forces.

• * The Red Army captures Mongolia from the White Army and establishes the Mongolian People's Republic.

• July 14 – A Massachusetts jury finds Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti guilty of first degree murder following a widely publicized trial.

• July 17 – The Republic of Mirdita is proclaimed near the Albanian-Serbian border with Yugoslav support.

• July 18 – The first BCG vaccination against tuberculosis is given.

• July 21 – Rif War – Battle of Annual: Spanish troops are dealt a crushing defeat at the hands of Abd el-Krim.

• July 22 – The Irish Truce is declared in Britain.

• July 26 – U.S. President Warren G. Harding receives Princess Fatima of Afghanistan and Stanley Clifford Weyman.

• July 27 – Researchers at the University of Toronto led by biochemist Frederick Banting announce the discovery of the hormone insulin.

• July 28 – The Constitutional Assembly of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes passes the Vidovdan Constitution, despite a boycott of the vote by the communists, and Croat and Slovene parties.

• July 29 – Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of the Nazi Party.

August

• August – The United States formally ends World War I, declaring a peace with Germany.

• August 5 – The first radio baseball game is broadcast; Harold Arlin announces the Pirates-Phillies game from Forbes Field over Westinghouse KDKA, in Pittsburgh.

• August 11 – The temperature reaches 39 degrees Celsius in Breslau; the heat wave continues elsewhere in Europe as well.

• August 23 – King Faisal I of Iraq is crowned in Baghdad.

• August 24 – Airship ZR 2 explodes during a test flight near Hull, England; 41 are killed.

• August 26

• Rising prices cause major riots in Munich.

• The assassination of German politician Matthias Erzberger causes the government to declare martial law.

September

• September 1 – Poplar Strike in London: Nine members of the Poplar borough council are arrested.

• September 7 – In Atlantic City, New Jersey, the first Miss America Pageant is held.

• September 8 – Sixteen-year-old Margaret Gorman wins the Atlantic City Pageant's Golden Mermaid trophy; pageant officials later dub her the first Miss America.

• September 12 – The Lotta Svärd women's paramilitary auxiliary is founded in Finland.

• September 21 – The Oppau explosion occurs at BASF's nitrate factory in Oppau, Germany; 500—600 are killed.

October

• October 8 – The first Sweetest Day is staged in Cleveland, Ohio.

• October 10 – Teaching at the University of Szeged starts in Hungary.

• October 19 – A massacre in Lisbon claims the lives of Portuguese Prime Minister António Granjo and other politicians.

• October 21 – A peace conference between Ireland and the United Kingdom begins in London.

• October 24 – The Spanish Army defeats the rifkabyls.

• October 29

• Construction of the Link River Dam, a part of the Klamath Reclamation Project, is completed.

• Centre College's football team, led by quarterback Bo McMillin, defeats Harvard University 6–0 to snap Harvard's five-year winning streak. For decades afterward, this is called "football's upset of the century."

November

• November 9

• *Riots in Reykjavík injure most of the small police force.

• *Albert Einstein is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work with the photoelectric effect.

• November 11 – During an Armistice Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, the Tomb of the Unknowns is dedicated by U.S. President Warren G. Harding.

• November 14 – The Spanish Communist Party is founded.

• November 7 – The Partito Nazionale Fascista (PNF), National Fascist Party, comes into existence in Italy.

December

• December 1 – Rising prices cause riots in Vienna.

• December 6 – The Anglo-Irish Treaty establishing the Irish Free State, an independent nation incorporating 26 of Ireland's 32 counties, is signed in London. See Ireland/History.

• Agnes Macphail becomes the first woman to be elected to the Canadian Parliament.

• December 13 – In the Four Power Treaty on Insular Possessions, Japan, the United States, United Kingdom, and France agree to recognize the status quo in the Pacific.

• December 23 – Visva-Bharati University is inaugurated in India.

• December 29 – William Lyon Mackenzie King becomes Canada's tenth prime minister.

Undated

• Abkhazia becomes an autonomous republic within the Soviet Union.

• Regular radio broadcasting services begin in Italy.

• Edward Harper, the 'father of broadcasting' in Ceylon, arrives in Colombo to take up his post as Chief Engineer of the Ceylon Telegraph Department.

• The vibraphone in its original form is invented.

• The Tau Epsilon Chi (TEX) Jewish High School Sorority is founded in Atlantic City, NJ.

• The Sauerländer Heimatbund is founded in Meschede, Germany.

• Jewish immigration to Palestine grows rapidly. Before Jews preferred the USA but the USA drastically limited immigration from Eastern Europe.

• E.W. Scripps founds Science Service, later renamed Society for Science & the Public, with the goal of keeping the public informed of scientific achievements.

• Weimar Republic makes its first payment of reparations.

Ongoing

• Ethnic cleansing in Turkey:

• Armenian Genocide (1915–1923)

• Assyrian Genocide (1914–1922)

• Greek genocide (1914–1923)

Births

January–February

• January 5

• *Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss writer (d. 1990)

• *Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg

• January 9

• *William 'Billy Batts' Devino (d. 1970)

• *Lister Sinclair, Canadian broadcaster and playwright (d. 2006)

• January 10 – Rodger Ward, American race car driver (d. 2004)

• January 14 – Murray Bookchin, American libertarian socialist (d. 2006)

• January 19 – Patricia Highsmith, American author (d. 1995)

• January 21 – Howard Unruh, American spree killer (d. 2009)

• January 27 – Donna Reed, American actress (d. 1986)

• January 31

• *Carol Channing, American actress

• *Mario Lanza, American tenor and actor (d. 1959)

• February 1 Peter Sallis, English actor

• February 4

• *Betty Friedan, American feminist (d. 2006)

• *K. R. Narayanan, President of India (d. 2005)

• February 5 – John Pritchard, English conductor (d. 1989)

• February 7 – Nexhmije Hoxha, widow of Enver Hoxha

• February 11 – Lloyd Bentsen, American politician (d. 2006)

• February 14 – Hugh Downs, American game show host and journalist (20-20)

• February 16 – Vera-Ellen, American actress and dancer (d. 1981)

• February 20 – Buddy Rogers, American professional wrestler (d. 1992)

• February 22 – Wayne Booth, American literary critic (d. 2005)

• February 24 – Abe Vigoda, American actor (Fish)

• February 25 – Pierre Laporte, Canadian statesman (d. 1970)

• February 26 – Betty Hutton, American actress (d. 2007)

• February 28 – Pierre Clostermann, French World War II pilot (d. 2006)

March–April

• March 1

• *Jack Clayton, British film director (d. 1995)

• *Terence Cardinal Cooke, American Catholic archbishop (d. 1983)

• *Richard Wilbur, American poet

• March 2 – Robert Simpson, English composer (d. 1997)

• March 3 – Paul Guimard, French writer (d. 2004)

• *Diana Barrymore, actress (d. 1960)

• March 4

• *Halim El-Dabh, Egyptian-born U.S. composer, performer, ethnomusicologist and educator

• *Joan Greenwood, British actress and director (d. 1987)

• *Wilson Harris, Guyanese writer

• March 5 – Elmer Valo, Czech Major League Baseball player (d. 1998)

• March 8 – Alan Hale, Jr., American actor (Gilligan's Island) (d. 1990)

• March 11 – Frank Harary, American mathematician (d. 2005)

• March 12

• *Gianni Agnelli, Italian auto executive (d. 2003)

• *Gordon MacRae, American singer and actor (d. 1986)

• March 13

• *Al Jaffee, American cartoonist (MAD Magazine)

• *Cyril Poole, English cricketer (d. 1996)

• March 14 – Lis Hartel, Danish equestrian athlete (d. 2009)

• March 17 – Meir Amit, Israeli politician and general (d. 2009)

• March 20 – Sister Rosetta Tharpe, American singer (d. 1973)

• March 21 – Arthur Grumiaux, Belgian violinist (d. 1986)

• March 25 – Simone Signoret, French actress (d. 1985)

• March 28 – Dirk Bogarde, English actor (d. 1999)

• April 1 – Beau Jack, American boxer (d. 2000)

• April 8 – Franco Corelli, Italian opera singer (d. 2003)

• April 10

• *Sheb Wooley, American actor and singer (Flying Purple People Eater) (d. 2003)

• *Chuck Connors, American actor, basketball and baseball player (The Rifleman) (d. 1992)

• April 14 – Thomas Schelling, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate

• April 15 – Georgi Beregovoi, Soviet cosmonaut (d. 1995)

• April 16 – Peter Ustinov, English actor and director (d. 2004)

• April 23

• April 21 – Vivian Dandridge, African-American actress (d. 1991)

• *Warren Spahn, American baseball player (d. 2003)

• *Janet Blair, American actress (d. 2007)

• April 25 – Karel Appel, Dutch painter (d. 2006)

May–June

• May 2 – Satyajit Ray, Indian filmmaker (d. 1992)

• May 5 – Arthur Leonard Schawlow, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)

• May 6 – Erich Fried, Austrian author (d. 1988)

• May 9

• *Sophie Scholl, resistance fighter in Nazi Germany (d. 1943)

• *Mona Van Duyn, American poet (d. 2004)

• May 11 – Hildegard Hamm-Brücher, German politician

• May 12

• *Joseph Beuys, German artist (d. 1986)

• *Farley Mowat, Canadian writer and naturalist

• May 16 – Harry Carey, Jr., American actor

• May 17 – Dennis Brain, English French horn player (d. 1957)

• May 18 – Sir Michael Epstein, British medical researcher

• May 19 – Karel van het Reve, Dutch writer (d. 1999)

• May 20

• *Wolfgang Borchert, German writer (d. 1947)

• *Hal Newhouser, baseball player (d. 1998)

• May 21

• *Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, Indian philosopher, author of the socio-economic "Progressive Utilization Theory" (d. 1990)

• *Andrei Sakharov, Soviet physicist and human rights activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (declined) (d. 1989)

• May 23

• *James Blish, American science fiction author (d. 1975)

• *Humphrey Lyttelton, British jazz musician and radio personality (d. 2008)

• May 25

• *Jack Steinberger, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

• *James C. Quayle, American newspaper publisher (d. 2000)

• May 26 – Stan Mortensen, English footballer (d. 1991)

• May 28 – Heinz G. Konsalik, German author (d. 1999)

• June 1 – Nelson Riddle, American bandleader (d. 1985)

• June 3 – Forbes Carlile, Australian athlete

• June 8 – Alexis Smith, Canadian actress (d. 1993)

• June 10 – Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

• June 12 – Christopher Derrick, British writer (d. 2007)

• June 15 – Errol Garner, American jazz musician (d. 1977)

• June 21- Jane Russell , American actress

• June 22 – Ralph K. Hofer, American fighter pilot (d. 1942)

• June 25 – Celia Franca, Canadian ballet dancer (d. 2007)

• June 26 – Violette Szabo, French World War II heroine (d. 1945)

• June 28 – P. V. Narasimha Rao, Prime Minister of India (d. 2004)

July–August

• July 4

• *Gerard Debreu, French economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)

• *Tibor Varga, Hungarian violinist and conductor (d. 2003)

• July 6 – Nancy Davis Reagan, wife of U.S President Ronald Reagan

• July 10

• *Harvey Ball, American designer (d. 2001)

• *Eunice Kennedy Shriver, member of the Kennedy family (d. 2009)

• July 11 – Ilse Werner, German actress (d. 2005)

• July 13 – Friedrich Peter, Austrian poltitician (d. 2005)

• July 14

• *Leon Garfield, English children's author (d. 1996)

• *Geoffrey Wilkinson, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)

• July 15 – Robert Bruce Merrifield, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2006)

• July 17

• *František Zvarík, Slovakian actor (d. 2008)

• *Hannah Szenes, Hungarian World War II heroine (d. 1944)

• July 18

• *John Glenn, American astronaut and former U.S. Senator

• *Aaron T. Beck, American psychiatrist

• July 19 – Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, American physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

• July 22 – William Roth, U.S. Senator (d. 2003)

• July 30 – Grant Johannesen, American concert pianist (d. 2005)

• August 3 – Richard Adler, American Broadway composer

• August 4 – Maurice Richard, Canadian hockey player (d. 2000)

• August 8 – John Herbert Chapman, Canadian physicist (d. 1979)

• August 9 – J. James Exon, Governor of Nebraska and U.S. Senator (d. 2005)

• August 13 – Barney Liddell, American musician (The Lawrence Welk Show) (d. 2003)

• August 18 – Zdzislaw Zygulski, Jr., Polish art historian

• August 19 – Gene Roddenberry, American television producer (Star Trek) (d. 1991)

• August 23 – Kenneth Arrow, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate

• August 25

• *Monty Hall, Canadian actor and game show host (Let's Make A Deal)

• *Brian Moore, Northern Irish-born writer (d. 1999)

• August 27 – Georg Alexander, Duke of Mecklenburg, head of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (d. 1996)

• August 28 – Lidia Gueiler Tejada, President of Bolivia

September–October

• September 3 – Thurston Dart, English harpsichordist and conductor (d. 1971)

• September 8 – Harry Secombe, Welsh entertainer (d. 2001)

• September 12 – Stanislaw Lem, Polish science fiction writer (d. 2006)

• September 13 – Sergey Nepobedimiy, Soviet rocket weaponry designer

• September 14 – Dario Vittori, Argentine actor (d. 2001)

• September 15 – Norma Macmillan, voice actress (d. 2001)

• September 24 – Jim McKay, American sportscaster (ABC's Wide World of Sports) (d. 2008)

• September 30 – Deborah Kerr, Scottish actress (d. 2007)

• October 2 – Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 2000)

• October 5 – Bill Willis, American football player

• October 7 – Tommy Farrell, American supporting actor and comedian (d. 2004)

• October 8 – Abraham Sarmiento, Filipino Supreme Court jurist

• October 13 – Yves Montand, French singer and actor (d. 1991)

• October 17 – Maria Gorokhovskaya, Soviet gymnast (d. 2001)

• October 18 – Jesse Helms, U.S. Senator from North Carolina (d. 2008)

• October 19 – Gunnar Nordahl, Swedish footballer (d. 1995)

• October 21 – Malcolm Arnold, British music composer (d. 2006)

• October 22 – Georges Brassens, French singer-songwriter (d. 1981)

• October 25 – King Michael of Romania

• October 26 – Frances Scott Fitzgerald, daughter of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre (d. 1986)

November–December

• November 3 – Charles Bronson, American actor (d. 2003)

• November 5 – Princess Fawzia of Egypt

• November 6 – James Jones, American writer (d. 1977)

• November 8 – Gene Saks, American actor and film director

• November 11 – Ron Greenwood, English football manager (d. 2006)

• November 14 – Brian Keith, American actor (Family Affair) (d. 1997)

• November 17 – Albert Bertelsen, Danish artist

• November 22 – Rodney Dangerfield, American actor and comedian (d. 2004)

• November 23 – Fred Buscaglione, Italian singer and actor (d. 1960)

• November 27 – Alexander Dubcek, Slovak politician and First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (d. 1992)

• November 29 – Jackie Stallone, American astrologer and mother of Sylvester Stallone

• December 3 – Phyllis Curtin, American soprano

• December 6 – Otto Graham, American football player (d. 2003)

• December 26 – Blaže Koneski, Macedonian poet and linguist (d. 1993)

• December 26 – Steve Allen, American actor, composer, comedian, and author (d. 2000)

Deaths

January–June

• January 1 – Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1856)

• February 2 – Antonio Jacobsen, maritime artist (b. 1850)

• February 8

• *Peter Kropotkin, Russian anarchist (b. 1842)

• *George Formby (Senior), English entertainer (b. 1876)

• February 26 – Carl Menger, Austrian economist (b. 1840)

• February 27 – Schofield Haigh, English cricketer (b. 1871)

• March 1 – King Nicholas I of Montenegro (b. 1841)

• March 29 – John Burroughs, American naturalist and essayist (b. 1837)

• April 11 – Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein, Last German Empress, wife of Wilhelm II (b. 1858)

• April 17 – Manuel Dimech, Maltese philosopher and social reformer (b. 1860)

• April 21 – Tom O'Brien, American major league baseball player (b. 1860)

• April 27 – Arthur Mold, English cricketer (b. 1863)

• May 5 – Alfred Hermann Fried, Austrian writer and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1864)

• May 19 – Edward Douglass White, 9th Chief Justice of the United States (b. 1845)

• May 19 – Michael Llewelyn-Davies, one of the 'Lost Boys' for the Peter Pan book (b. 1900)

• June 5 – Georges Feydeau, French playwright (b. 1862)

• June 9 – Lady Randolph Churchill, Mother of Winston Churchill (b. 1854)

• June 28 – Gjorche Petrov, Macedonian and Bulgarian revolutionary

• June 29 – Otto Seeck, German classical historian (b. 1850)

July–December

• August 2 – Enrico Caruso, Italian tenor (b. 1873)

• August 7 – Aleksandr Blok, Russian poet (b. 1880)

• August 16 – Peter I of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, King of Yugoslavia (b. 1844)

• August 19 – Georges Darien, French writer (b. 1862)

• September 2 – Henry Austin Dobson, English poet (b. 1840)

• September 7 – Alfred William Rich, English watercolour painter (b. 1856)

• September 9 – Virginia Rappe, American model and actress (b. 1895)

• September 11 – Subramanya Bharathy, Tamil poet (b. 1882)

• September 27 – Engelbert Humperdinck, German composer (b. 1854)

• October 12 – Philander C. Knox, American politician (b. 1853)

• October 18 – Ludwig III of Bavaria, last king of Bavaria (b. 1845)

• October 25 – Bat Masterson, American gunfighter (b. 1853)

• November 4 – Hara Takashi, 19th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1856)

• November 14 – Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil, daughter of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil (b. 1846)

• November 20 – Christina Nilsson, Swedish operatic soprano (b. 1843)

• November 27 – Douglas Colin Cameron, Canadian politician (b. 1854)

• November 28 – `Abdu'l-Bahá, Persian religious leader (b. 1844)

• December 10 – George Ashlin, Irish architect (b. 1837)

• December 16 – Camille Saint-Saëns, French composer (b. 1835)

• December 31 – Boies Penrose, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania (b. 1860)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – Albert Einstein

• Chemistry – Frederick Soddy

• Medicine – not awarded

• Literature – Anatole France

• Peace – Karl Hjalmar Branting, Christian Lous Lange