Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1921 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Table of Contents

Events of 1921

January

• January 1 - In American football, the University of California defeated Ohio State 28-1 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.
• DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park San Francisco opens.
• 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 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 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, Rurhort and Duisburg.
• March 13 - The Russian White Army captures Mongolia from China. Roman Ungern von Sternberg declares himself ruler.
• 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. The permanent border is established between the Polish and Soviet states.
• March 23 - A plebiscite in Silesia votes for re-annexation to Germany.

April

• 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. A flop in its native Hungary when first presented there in 1909, the American production is critically acclaimed and becomes a modern classic, filmed more than once, and eclipsed only when Rodgers and Hammerstein adapt it in 1945 into a hit musical, Carousel, which becomes a stage classic in its own right.
• April 24 - A referendum in Tyrol supports joining to Germany.

May

• May 1-May 7 - Riots in Palestine of May, 1921.
• May 2-July 5 - Third Silesian Uprising: The Poles in Upper Silesia rise against the Germans.
• 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 - General strike begins in Norway.
• May 8 - Death penalty abolished in Sweden.
• May 14 - May 17 - Violent anti-European riots occur in Cairo and Alexandria.
• 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 - Republic of Mirdita is proclaimed near Albanian-Serbian border with Yugoslav support.
• July 18 - The first BCG vaccination against tuberculosis is given.
• July 21 - Rif War: Spanish troops are dealt a crushing defeat at the Battle of Annual against Abd el-Krim.
• July 22 - The Irish Truce is declared in Britain.
• July 26 - US 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 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 2 - Famous opera singer Enrico Caruso dies.
• 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 - 39 degrees Celsius in Breslau - heat wave continues elsewhere in Europe as well.
• August 23 - King Faisal is crowned in Baghdad.
• August 24 - Airship ZR 2 explodes during a test flight near Hull, England; 41 are dead.
• 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 - Lotta Svärd is founded in Finland.
• September 21 - The Oppau explosion occurs at BASF's nitrate factory in Oppau, Germany; 500—600 dead.

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-December

• November 9 - Riots in Reykjavík injure most of the small police force.
• November 9 - Albert Einstein awarded 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 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.
• December 29 - William Lyon Mackenzie King becomes Canada's tenth prime minister.

Undated

• Abkhazia becomes an autonomous republic within the Soviet Union.
• Beginning of regular radio broadcasting service 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.
• Invention of the vibraphone in its original form.
• Tau Epsilon Chi (TEX) Jewish High School Sorority is founded in Atlantic City, NJ.
• Sauerländer Heimatbund founded in Meschede

Ongoing

• Ethnic cleansing in Turkey:
• Assyrian Genocide (1914–1922)
• Pontic Greek Genocide (1916–1923).

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 27 - Donna Reed, American actress (d. 1986)
• January 31
  • Carol Channing, American actress
  • Mario Lanza, American tenor and actor (d. 1959)
• 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, the widow of Enver Hoxha
• February 11 - Lloyd Bentsen, American politician (d. 2006)
• February 14 - Hugh Downs, American game show host and journalist
• 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
• February 25 - Pierre Laporte, Canadian statesman (assassinated) (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)
• 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 (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
  • Cyril Poole, English cricketer (d. 1996)
• 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 (d. 2003)
• 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, Actress

• • Warren Spahn, 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 socio-economical theory "Progressive Utilization Theory" (d. 1990)
  • Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist and 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 (d. 1921)
• 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
• 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
  • Hannah Szenes, Hungarian World War II heroine (d. 1944)
• July 18
  • John Glenn, American astronaut
  • 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 (d. 1991)
• August 23 - Kenneth Arrow, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• August 25
  • Monty Hall, Canadian actor and game show host
  • Brian Moore, Northern Irish-born writer (d. 1999)
• August 27 - Georg Alexander, Duke of Mecklenburg, head of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (d. 1996)

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, Argentinean actor (d. 2001)
• September 15 - Norma Macmillan, voice actress (d. 2001)
• September 24 - Jim McKay, American sportscaster (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
• October 19 - Gunnar Nordahl, Swedish footballer (d. 1995)
• October 21 - Malcolm Arnold, 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 11 - Ron Greenwood, English football manager (d. 2006)
• November 14 - Brian Keith, American actor (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
• 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 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)
• April 17 - Manuel Dimech, Maltese philosopher and social reformer (b. 1860)
• April 21 - Tom O'Brien, 19th century 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)
• June 5 - Georges Feydeau, French playwright (b. 1862)
• 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 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 11 - Subramanya Bharathy, Tamil poet (b. 1882)
• September 27 - Engelbert Humperdinck, German composer (b. 1854)
• October 25 - Bat Masterson, American gunfighter (b. 1853)
• November 4 - Hara Takashi, 19th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1856)
• November 20 - Christina Nilsson, Swedish operatic soprano (b. 1843)
• 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

Notes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

1921

External references

• 1921 Aviation Comes North- NWT Historical Timeline- A Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre Online Exhibit