1919 in the United States

1919 in the United States
Years:	1916 1917 1918 – 1919 – 1920 1921 1922
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48 stars (1912–59)
Timeline of United States history History of the United States (1918–45)

Events from the year 1919 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal Government

• President: Woodrow Wilson (D-New Jersey)
• Vice President: Thomas R. Marshall (D-Indiana)
• Chief Justice: Edward Douglass White (originally now residing in from of the U.S. state of Louisiana)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Champ Clark (D-Missouri) (until March 4), Frederick H. Gillett (R-Massachusetts) (starting May 19)
• Congress: 65th (until March 4), 66th (starting March 4)

Governors and Lieutenant Governors
Governors 2 Lieutenant Governors 2

Events

January

• January 1 – Edsel Ford succeeds his father as head of the Ford Motor Company.
• January 6 – Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, dies in his sleep at the age of 60.
• January 15 – The Boston Molasses Disaster: A wave of molasses released from an exploding storage tank sweeps through Boston, killing 21 and injuring 150.
• January 16 – The 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, authorizing Prohibition, goes into effect in the United States.
• January 25 – The Hotel Pennsylvania, is built in Manhattan, and becomes the world's most popular hotel.

February

• February 6 – The Seattle General Strike begins. Over 65,000 workers strike.
• February 11 – The Seattle General Strike ends when Federal troops are summoned by the state of Washington's Attorney General.
• 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).

March

• March 3 – The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the conviction of Charles Schenck.
• March 5 – A. Mitchell Palmer becomes Attorney General of the United States through recess appointment.
• March 15 – The American Legion forms in Paris.

April

• April 13 – Eugene V. Debs enters prison at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia for speaking out against the draft during World War I.
• April 15 – Boston Telephone Strike of 1919 begins. Ends successfully for the telephone operators and supporters on April 20.
• April 30 – Several bombs are intercepted in the first wave of the 1919 United States anarchist bombings.

May

• May 1 – Riots break out in Cleveland, Ohio; 2 people are killed, 40 injured, and 116 arrested.
• May 1 – Race riot in Charleston, South Carolina kills three black men; beginning of Red Summer.
• May 16 – A U.S. Navy Curtiss aircraft (NC-4), commanded by Albert Cushing Read, departs Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.

June

• June 2 – Eight 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 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 28 – The Treaty of Versailles is signed and ends WWI
• June – The Algonquin Round Table group of writers, critics, actors and wits led by Alexander Woollcott first meets at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City.

July

July 7–September 6: The First Transcontinental Motor Convoy

• July 1 – "Thirsty First": The Wartime Prohibition Act comes into effect.
• July 6 – The British dirigible airship R34 lands at Mineola, New York, completing the first transatlantic flight by airship.
• July 7 – The First Transcontinental Motor Convoy: The U.S. Army sends an expedition across the continental U.S., starting in Washington, D.C., to determine how well troops could be moved from one side of the country to the other by motor vehicles.
• July 21 – Wingfoot Air Express crash: The Goodyear dirigible airship Wingfoot Air Express catches fire over downtown Chicago and crashes into the Illinois Trust and Savings Building; 2 passengers, 1 crewmember, and 10 people on the ground are killed; 2 people parachute to the ground safely.
• July 27 – The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 begins when a white man throws rocks at a group of 4 black teens on a raft.

August

• August 11 – The first NFL team for Wisconsin (the Green Bay Packers) is founded by Curly Lambeau.
• August 30 – After a three-way splintering of the Socialist Party of America, the leadership of the remaining 30,000 members of the Right Wing of the Socialist party continue their national convention in Chicago on August 30, 1919.
• August 31 – In a three-way splintering of the Socialist Party of America, the leadership of the 10,000 native-born English speaking members of the Left Wing form the Communist Labor Party of America in Chicago on August 31, 1919.

September

• September 1 – In a three-way splintering of the Socialist Party of America, the leadership of the 60,000 alien members of the Left Wing form the Communist Party of America at a separate convention in Chicago on September 1, 1919.
• September 6 – The First Transcontinental Motor Convoy: The U.S. Army expedition across America, which started July 7, ends in San Francisco.
• September 10 – September 15: The Florida Keys Hurricane kills 600 in the Gulf of Mexico, Florida and Texas.
• September 22 – The Steel strike of 1919 begins across the United States.
• 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 – President of the U.S. Woodrow Wilson suffers a massive stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed.
• October 9
  • Black Sox Scandal: The Chicago White Sox throw the World Series.
  • The Boston Police Strike occurs.
• October 16 – Ripley's Believe It or Not! first appears as a cartoon under this title in The New York Globe.
• October 28 – Prohibition begins: The United States Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto.

November

• November 7 – The first Palmer Raid is conducted on the second anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Over 10,000 suspected communists and anarchists are arrested in twenty-three different U.S. cities.
• November 9 – Felix the Cat appears in Feline Follies, making the first cartoon character.
• 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 14 – Sigma Delta Pi, the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society (La Sociedad Nacional Honoraria Hispánica), was established at the University of California Berkeley in Berkeley, California.
• November 19 – The Treaty of Versailles fails a critical ratification vote in the United States Senate. It will never be ratified by the US.
• November 27 – Kappa Kappa Psi, National Honorary Band Fraternity, is established at Oklahoma A&M College (now named Oklahoma State University) in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

December

• December 21 – United States deports 249 people, including Emma Goldman to Russia, during the Red Scare.
• December 26 – Babe Ruth is sold by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees for $125,000, the largest sum ever paid for a player at that time. The deal was announced on January 6, 1920.

Undated

• 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.
• US President Wilson promises eventual independence for Philippines, though subsequent Republican administrations see it as a distant goal.
• The World League Against Alcoholism is established by the Anti-Saloon League.

Ongoing

• Progressive Era (1890s–1920s)
• Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937)
• U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915–1934)
• First Red Scare (1917–1920)
• Prohibition (1919–1933)

Births

• January 10 – Amzie Strickland, actress (died 2006)
• January 13 – Robert Stack, actor (The Untouchables) (died 2003)
• January 14 – Andy Rooney, journalist (60 Minutes) (died 2011)
• January 25
  • Edwin Newman, journalist and writer (NBC Nightly News) (died 2010)
  • Eula Beal, contralto (died 2008)
• January 27 – Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., actor, pianist, singer, songwriter, record producer and creator of Alvin and the Chipmunks (died 1972)
• February 9 – Langdon Brown Gilkey, Protestant ecumenical theologian (died 2004)
• February 12 – Forrest Tucker, actor (F Troop) (died 1986)
• February 13 – Tennessee Ernie Ford, musician (died 1991)
• February 16 – Charlie Parlato, musician (died 2007)
• February 18 – Jack Palance, actor (died 2006)
• February 26 – Mason Adams, character actor (died 2005)
• March 2 – Jennifer Jones, actress (died 2009)
• March 4 – Buck Baker, racecar driver (died 2002)
• March 14 – Max Shulman, comedic writer (died 1988)
• March 15 – Lawrence Tierney, actor (died 2002)
• March 17 – Nat King Cole, African-American singer (Unforgettable) (died 1965)
• March 24
  • Lawrence Ferlinghetti, author and publisher
  • Robert Heilbroner, economist (d. 2005)
• March 28 – Dewey F. Bartlett, United States Senator from Oklahoma from 1967 to 1971 (died 1979)
• March 29 – Eileen Heckart, actress (died 2001)
• March 30 – McGeorge Bundy, U.S. National Security Advisor (died 1996)
• April 13
  • Howard Keel, singer, dancer and actor (Dallas) (died 2004)
  • Phil Tonken, radio and television announcer (died 2000)
• April 16 – Merce Cunningham, dancer and choreographer (died 2009)
• April 22 – Donald J. Cram, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2001)
• May 3
  • John Cullen Murphy, comic strip artist (died 2004)
  • Pete Seeger, folk singer and musician (died 2014)
• May 4 – Dory Funk, professional wrestler (died 1973)
• May 8 – Lex Barker, actor (died 1973)
• May 10 – Daniel Bell, sociologist (died 2011)
• May 16 – Liberace, pianist (died 1987)
• May 17 – Ronald Verlin Cassill, novelist, short story writer, editor, painter, and lithographer (died 2002)
• May 31 – Vance Hartke, United States Senator from Indiana from 1959 to 1977 (died 2003)
• June 14 – Gene Barry, actor (died 2009)
• June 15 – Charles Kaman, aeronautical engineer (died 2011)
• June 19 – Pauline Kael, film critic (died 2001)
• June 26 – Richard Neustadt, political historian (died 2003)
• June 30 – Ed Yost, inventor (died 2007)
• July 19 – Dallas McKennon, voice actor (died 2009)
• July 26 – Virginia Gilmore, actress (died 1986)
• August 13
  • Rex Humbard, television evangelist (died 2007)
  • George Shearing, Anglo-American jazz pianist (died 2011)
• August 14 – Isaac C. Kidd, Jr., American admiral (died 1999)
• August 25 – George Wallace, 45th Governor of Alabama (d. 1998)
• September 4 – Howard Morris, actor (d. 2005)
• September 27
  • Jayne Meadows, actress
  • Charles H. Percy, United States Senator from Illinois from 1967 till 1985. (died 2011)
• October 3 – James M. Buchanan, economist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2013)
• October 11 – Art Blakey, jazz drummer (died 1990)
• October 12
  • Doris Miller, sailor (died 1943)
  • Mary Ainslee, film actress (died 1991)
• October 16 – Kathleen Winsor, writer (died 2003)
• October 18 – Anita O'Day, jazz singer (died 2006)
• October 26
  • Edward Brooke, United States Senator from Massachusetts from 1967 till 1979 (died 2015)
  • James E. Myers, songwriter (died 2001)
• November 3 – Spider Jorgensen, baseball player and coach (died 2003)
• November 4 – Martin Balsam, actor (died 1996)
• November 5 – Myron Floren, accordionist (The Lawrence Welk Show) (died 2005)
• November 10 – Michael Strank, U.S. Marine flag raiser on Iwo Jima (died 1945)
• November 15
  • Carol Bruce, singer and actress (died 2007)
  • Joseph Wapner, lieutenant and judge
• November 26 – Frederik Pohl, science fiction writer (died 2013)
• December 9 – William Lipscomb, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2011)
• December 14 – Margie Stewart, model and actress (died 2012)

Deaths

• January 6 – Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States from 1901 till 1909 (born 1858)
• January 7 – Henry Ware Eliot industrialist and philanthropist (born 1843)
• January 8 – Jim O'Rourke, baseball player and MLB Hall of Famer (born 1850)
• January 14 – Shelley Hull, stage & film actor, husband of Josephine Hull, brother of Henry Hull (born 1884)
• January 31 – Nat C. Goodwin, veteran stage star & silent film actor (born 1857; apoplexy)
• January 27 – French Ensor Chadwick, admiral (born 1844)
• February 18 – Henry Ragas, jazz pianist (b. 1891)
• March 23 – Henry Blossom, lyricist (born 1866)
• April 8 – Frank Winfield Woolworth, businessman (born 1852)
• April 9
  • Sidney Drew, actor (born 1863)
  • James Reese Europe, jazz musician and composer, band leader (born 1881) (stabbed in fight)
• April 15 – Jane Delano, nurse and founder or the American Red Cross Nursing Service (born 1862)
• May 6 – L. Frank Baum, author, poet, playwright, actor and independent filmmaker (The Wizard of Oz) (b. 1856)
• May 14 – Henry John Heinz, businessman (born 1844)
• May 12 – D. M. Canright, Seventh-day Adventist minister and author, later one of the church's severest critics
• May 13 – Helen Hyde. etcher and engraver (born 1868)
• May 21 – Lamar Johnstone, silent film actor & director (born 1885)
• July 8 – John Fox, Jr., journalist, novelist, and short story writer, 56 (pneumonia)
• August 1 – Oscar Hammerstein I, musical theatre impresario (b. 1847)
• August 9 – Ralph Albert Blakelock, American painter (born 1847)
• October 30 – Ella Wheeler Wilcox, author and poet (born 1850)
• November 23 – Henry Gantt, project engineer (born 1861)
• November 24 – William Stowell, silent film actor and director (born 1885)
• December 2 – Henry C. Frick, industrialist (born 1849)

External links

• Media related to at Wikimedia Commons