1919
Appearance
Events
January
- January 1 - Iolaire sinking disaster
- January 1 - Edsel Ford succeeds his father as head of the Ford Motor Company
- January 5 - Spartacist uprising - Socialist demonstrations in Berlin turn into attempted communist revolution
- January 9 - Spartacus revolutionary council folds – Friedrich Ebert orders Freikorps into action
- January 10-12 - Freikorps attack Spartacus 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 - The Boston Molasses Disaster: Wave of molasses sweeps through Boston, killing 21 and injuring 150
- January 15 - Ignacy Jan Paderewski becomes Premier of Poland
- January 16 - The 18th Amendment, authorizing Prohibition, goes into effect in the United States
- January 18 - World War I: A peace conference opens in Versailles, France.
- January 18 - Bentley Motors is founded
- January 21 - the First Dáil Éireann meets in the Mansion House in Dublin. It is from this meeting that the Irish state dates its existence.
- January 25 - The League of Nations is founded
February-April
- February 1 - The first Miss America is crowned (New York City).
- February 3 – Soviet troops occupy Ukraine
- February 11 - Friedrich Ebert (SPD), is elected President of Germany.
- February 14 - Polish-Soviet War begins
- February 25 - Oregon places a 1 cent per gallon 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).
- March 1 - March 1st Movement against Japanese colonial rule in Korea.
- March 2 - The first Communist International meets in Moscow
- March 15 - The American Legion forms in Paris
- March 21 - The Chinese High School was established in Singapore by Mr. Tan Kah Kee
- March 23 - In Milan, Italy, Benito Mussolini founds his Fascist political movement.
- March 31 – General strike begins in the Ruhr
- April 6-7 – Communist People’s Republic of Munich founded
- April 13 - At the Amritsar Massacre, British and Gurkha troops massacre 379 Indians.
- April 14 – Emperor of Austria moves to exile in Switzerland
- April 25 – Bauhaus movement founded
- April 25 - ANZAC day is celebrated for the first time in Australia.
May-June
- May 1 – Large left-wing demonstration in France leads to a violent confrontation with the police
- May 1 - In Cleveland, police and army confront the May Day parade and drive into crowd – 2 dead, one hundred injured
- May 3 – People's Republic of Munich is crushed
- May 4 - May Fourth Movement opposes foreign colonizers in China
- May 15 - Winnipeg launches general strike for better wages and working conditions.
- May 16 - US Navy Naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read departs Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight
- May 17 - Committee of One Thousand forms to oppose Winnipeg General Strike
- May 25 – Volcano Kelut erupts in Java – 16.000 dead
- May 29 - Einstein's theory of general relativity confirmed by Arthur Eddington's observation of a total eclipse of the Sun.
- 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 14 - John Alcock and Arthur Brown depart St. John's, Newfoundland on the first nonstop transatlantic flight (they landed at Clifden, County Galway, Ireland the next day). [1]
- June 21 - Royal Canadian Mounted Police fire a volley into a crowd of unemployed war veterans, killing two, during Winnipeg General Strike.
- June 21 - Admiral Ludvig von Reuter scuttles the German fleet in Scapa Flow, Orkney. The nine sailors killed were the last casualties of the First World War.
- June 28 - The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending World War I with Germany.
July-November
- July 6 - The British dirigible R-34 lands in New York, completing the first crossing of the Atlantic by an airship.
- July 31 - Strike of policemen in London and Liverpool for recognition of the National Union of Police and Prison Officers. Over 2,000 strikers are dismissed.
- August 11 - In Germany, the Weimar Constitution is passed into law.
- August 19 - Afghanistan gains independence from the United Kingdom.
- 16 August-26 August - First Silesian Uprising, the Poles in Upper Silesia rise against the Germans
- August 31 - American Communist Party is established
- September 10 - Treaty of Saint-Germain is signed, ending World War I with Austria.
- September 27 - Last British troops leave Archangel, Russia and leave fighting to the Russians
- October 1 - Elaine Race Riot breaks out in Arkansas
- October 2 - US President Woodrow Wilson suffers a massive stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed.
- October 9 - Black Sox scandal: The Cincinnati Reds "win" the World Series.
- October 9 - Boston police strike
- October 13 - Convention relating to the Regulation of Aerial Navigation signed.
- October 28 - Prohibition begins: The United States Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto.
- November - At end of month health officials declare the global Spanish Flu Pandemic over
- November 10 - The first national convention of the American Legion is held in Minneapolis, Minnesota (convention ended on November 12).
- November 11 - The Centralia Massacre in Centralia, Washington results the deaths of four members of the American Legion and the lynching of a local leader of the IWW.
- November 27 - The Treaty of Neuilly is signed between Allies and Bulgaria.
- November 28 - The American-born Lady Astor is elected to the British House of Commons, becoming the first female MP to take a seat on December 1.
December
- December 12 – Gabriele D'Annunzio with his entourage marches into Fiume and convinces the Italian troops to join him
- December 30 - Lincoln's Inn, in London admits its first female bar student.
- The Paris Peace Conference
unknown dates
- The Åland Islands vote for a return to Swedish rule in a referendum.
- Les Champs Magnetiques, the first automatic book, is written by Andre Breton and Philippe Soupault.
- XWA (now CFCF), in Montreal, Quebec, is the first public radio station in North America to go on the air.
- Various strikes in USA: Strike of US railroad workers; Longshoreman’s strike; The Great Steel Strike; General strike in Seattle, Washington.
- First Palestine national congress meets in Jerusalem, rejects the Balfour Declaration and demands independence for Palestine
- Female suffrage in Germany and Luxemburg
- Henri Desire Landru captured
- Marcel Tolkowsky's Diamond Design is published.
Births
January-April
- January 1 - J. D. Salinger, novelist
- January 13 - Army Archerd, Hollywood journalist
- January 13 - Robert Stack, actor (d. 2003)
- January 14 - Andy Rooney, television journalist
- January 23 - Hans Haas, zoologist and underwater scientist
- January 23 - Ernie Kovacs, comedian (d. 1962)
- January 25 - Edwin Newman, journalist, writer
- January 26 - Valentino Mazzola, Italian footballer, captain of the Torino team killed in the Superga air disaster, father of Sandro Mazzola (d. 1949)
- January 27 - Ross Bagdasarian, musician, actor (d. 1972)
- January 31 - Jackie Robinson, baseball player (d. 1972)
- February 5 - Andreas Papandreou, Greek politician (d. 1996)
- February 5 - Red Buttons, actor
- February 11 - Gretchen Fraser, slalom skier.
- February 11 - Eddie Robinson, football coach.
- February 12 - Forrest Tucker, actor (d. 1986)
- February 13 - Tennessee Ernie Ford, musician (d. 1991)
- February 27 - Enrique A. Collantes Zafra is born.
- March 2 - Jennifer Jones, actress
- March 11 - Mercer Ellington, musician, composer (d. 1996)
- March 15 - Lawrence Tierney, actor (d. 2002)
- March 17 - Nat King Cole, singer (d. 1965)
- March 24 - Lawrence Ferlinghetti, author and publisher
- March 30 - McGeorge Bundy, National Security Advisor (d. 1996)
- April 8 - Ian Douglas Smith, leader of white-ruled Rhodesia 1965-1979
May-December
- May 1 - Dan O'Herlihy, Irish film actor (d. 2005)
- May 3 - Pete Seeger, singer and musician
- May 7 - Eva Peron, wife of Argentina's President Juan Peron (d. 1952)
- May 8 - Lex Barker, actor (d. 1973)
- May 16 - Liberace, pianist (d. 1987)
- May 16 - Gisela Uhlen, actress
- May 18 - Dame Margot Fonteyn, ballet dancer (d. 1991)
- May 20 - George Gobel, comedian (d. 1991)
- May 23 - Betty Garrett, actress, dancer
- June 4 - Robert Merrill, baritone (d. 2004)
- June 5 - Richard Scarry, children's author (d. 1994)
- June 21 - Gérard Pelletier, French journalist, politician and diplomat (d. 1997)
- June 26 - Richard Neustadt, political historian (d. 2003)
- July 6 - Ernst Haefliger, Swiss tenor
- July 7 - Jon Pertwee, actor (d. 1996)
- July 15 - Iris Murdoch, novelist (d. 1999)
- July 20 - Edmund Hillary, mountaineer
- August 11 - Ginette Neveu, French violinist (d. 1949)
- September 11 - Ota Sik, Czech economist and politician (d. 2004)
- September 21 - Fazlur Rahman, scholar (d. 1988)
- September 27 - James H. Wilkinson, mathematician (d. 1986)
- October 1 - member of the Romanian Academy, president of the Jewish Communities Federation of Romania
- October 11 - Art Blakey, jazz drummer (d. 1990)
- October 18 - Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Canadian prime minister (d. 2000)
- October 22 - Doris Lessing, British writer
- October 26 - Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran (d. 1980)
- November 10 - Mikhail Kalashnikov - inventor, designer of the Ak-47
- November 14 - Lisa Otto, German soprano
- November 18 - Andrée Borrel, WW II heroine executed by the Nazis (d. 1944)
- November - Keith Miller, Australian sportsman (d. 2004)
- December 31 - Tommy Byrne, Major League Baseball player
Deaths
- January 6 - Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States (b. 1858)
- January 6 - Max Heindel, Christian occultist, astrologer and mystic (b. 1865)
- January 15 - Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht
- January 18- His Royal Highness Prince John, son of George V and Queen Mary (b. 1905)
- February 17 - Wilfrid Laurier, seventh Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1841)
- April 4 - Sir William Crookes, English chemist and physicist (b. 1832)
- April 15 - Jane Delano, founder, American Red Cross Nursing Service (b. 1862)
- May 6 - L. Frank Baum, American writer (b. 1856)
- July 26 - Sir Edward Poynter, British painter (b. 1936)
- August 9 - Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Italian composer (b. 1857)
- October 7 - Alfred Deakin, second Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1856)
- October 18 - Viscount William Astor, American financier and statesman (b. 1848)
- December 3 - Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French painter (b. 1841)
Nobel Prizes
- Physics - Johannes Stark
- Chemistry - not awarded
- Medicine - Jules Bordet
- Literature - Carl Friedrich Georg Spitteler
- Peace - Thomas Woodrow Wilson