Timeline 1918-1919
Return to home
1918 Jan 1, The
first gasoline pipeline began operation with 40 miles of three inch
pipe from Salt Creek to Casper, Wyoming.
(HN, 1/1/01)
1918 Jan 2, Bolsheviks talked
about resuming war unless the Germans quit Russian soil.
(HN, 1/2/99)
1918 Jan 3, Maxene Andrews, was
born. She was a singer [w/sisters LaVerne and Patti]: group: The
Andrews Sisters: Why Talk About Love?, A Simple Melody, Bei Mir Bist Du
Schön, Rum and Coca Cola; solo: I Suppose; on Broadway with Patti:
Over Here.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1918 Jan 6, Germany acknowledged
Finland’s independence.
(HN, 1/6/99)
1918 Jan 6, George Cantor
(b.1845), Russian-born German mathematician, died. He is best known as
the creator of modern set theory and work with mathematical infinities.
(http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Georg_Cantor)
1918 Jan 7, The Germans moved
75,000 troops from the East Front to the Western Front.
(HN, 1/7/99)
1918 Jan 8, President Woodrow
Wilson addressed a hastily convened joint session of Congress, publicly
stating the Fourteen Points--his idealistic plan for a world forever
free from conflict. Most of Wilson's Fourteen Points addressed specific
European territorial concerns, but he also called for fair and generous
treatment of Germany, absolute freedom of the seas, national boundaries
determined on the basis of language, and the establishment of a general
assembly of nations. When World War I ended in November 1918, Wilson
personally attended the peace negotiations, believing that with his
guidance, "peace without victory" was possible and a new world order
was at hand. What he had not counted on was the bitterness and cynicism
of his allies, who had lost much. As the negotiations progressed, more
and more of the Fourteen Points were sacrificed to vengeance and a grab
for land. The German magazine Simplicissimus remarked on Wilson's
betrayal of his principles in June 1919 with God asking, "Woodrow
Wilson, where are your 14 Points?" Wilson responds, "Don't get excited,
Lord, we didn't keep your Ten Commandments either!"
(AP, 1/8/98)(HNPD, 1/7/99)
1918 Jan 8,
Mississippi became the first state to ratify the proposed 18th
amendment to the US Constitution, which established Prohibition.
(AP, 1/8/08)
1918 Jan 10, The US House of
Representatives passed women's suffrage. The 19th Amendment for women's
suffrage was also known as the Anthony Amendment in honor of Susan B.
Anthony.
(HN, 1/10/99)(SFC, 10/11/99, p.E12)
1918 Jan 15, Gamal Abdel Nasser,
President of Egypt (1954-1971), was born.
(MC, 1/15/02)
1918 Jan 24, Oral Roberts,
Televangelist, founder Oral Roberts University, was born.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1918 Jan 25, Austria and Germany
rejected U.S. peace proposals.
(HN, 1/25/99)
1918 Jan 26, Nicolae Ceausescu,
Romanian president (1967-90), was born.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1918 Jan 27, "Tarzan of the Apes,"
1st Tarzan film, premiered at Broadway Theater. Elmo Lincoln, renamed
from Otto Elmo Linkenhelter by D.W. Griffiths, was the first Tarzan in
the film "Tarzan of the Apes."
(SDUT, 6/6/97, p.E2)(MC, 1/27/02)
1918 Jan 27, Communists attempted
to seize power in Finland.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1918 Jan 28, Lieutenant Colonel
John McCrae (b.1872), Canadian MD and author of the poem Flanders Field
(1915), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCrae)
1918 Jan 28, Leon Trotsky became
leader of the Russian Communists.
(MC, 1/28/02)
1918 Jan 29, John Forsythe, actor
(Bachelor Father, Charlie's Angels, Dynasty), was born in NJ.
(MC, 1/29/02)
1918 Jan 29, The Supreme Allied
Council met at Versailles.
(HN, 1/29/99)
1918 Jan 31, Russia joined the
rest of the world and adopted the Gregorian calendar. The next day
became February 14, 1918.
(www.ortelius.de/kalender/greg_en.php)
1918 Feb 2, John L. Sullivan (59),
American former heavyweight boxing champ, died.
(AH, 2/06, p.34)
1918 Feb 3, Joey Bishop,
[Gottlieb], talk show host (Joey Bishop Show), was born in the Bronx.
(MC, 2/3/02)
1918 Feb 3, The $4.25 million,
12,000 foot Twin Peaks tunnel for the SF Muni Railway opened with Mayor
James Rolph at the helm of the first streetcar to go through to West
Portal. Access to the west of the mountain spawned the 1st residential
parks including West Portal Park, St. Francis Wood, Balboa Terrace, and
Forest Hill.
(SFEC, 4/25/99, Z1 p.4)(SFCM, 3/3/02, p.40)(SFC,
2/4/09, p.B7)
1918 Feb 5, The Soviets proclaimed
the separation of church and state.
(HN, 2/5/99)
1918 Feb 6, Britain granted
women 30 and over the right to vote.
(MC, 2/6/02)
1918 Feb 6, Gustav Klimt (b.1862),
Austrian Symbolist artist, died. He helped found the Vienna
Secessionist art movement (1897) and was chosen as its 1st president.
(WSJ, 7/11/01,
p.A15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Klimt)
1918 Feb
8, The World War I first edition of The Stars and Stripes, the weekly
newspaper of the American Expeditionary Forces, was published in Paris,
France. It was produced weekly by an all-military staff to serve the
doughboys under General of the Armies John J. "Black Jack" Pershing.
Some of its staff went on to journalistic fame, including Pvt. Harold
Ross, who later became the founder and editor of The New Yorker
magazine, and sports writer Lt. Grantland Rice. The first paper called
The Stars and Stripes was a product of the Civil War, put out by four
Union soldiers in 1861. Using the facilities of a captured newspaper
plant in Bloomfield, Missouri, they ran off a one-page paper that made
just one appearance.
(http://ww2.pstripes.osd.mil/aboutnew.html)
1918 Feb 9, Army chaplain school
organized at Ft. Monroe, Va.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1918 Feb 12, Dominic DiMaggio,
baseball outfielder (Boston Red Sox), was born.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1918 Feb 14, Sigmund Romberg's
musical "Sinbad," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1918 Feb 14, Warsaw demonstrators
protested the transfer of Polish territory to the Ukraine.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1918 Feb 15, The 1st WW I US army
troopship was torpedoed & sunk off Ireland by Germany.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1918 Feb 15, Estonia, Latvia &
Lithuania adopted the Gregorian calendar.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1918 Feb 16, The Council of
Lithuania declared the independence of the State of Lithuania. The
council also declared that the foundations of the state would be
determined by a Constituent Assembly to be elected by the inhabitants
on the basis of universal, equal and secret suffrage. Independence
lasted until World War II. It again declared independence in 1990.
(DrEE, 10/5/96, p.5)(LHC, 2/16/03)(AP, 2/16/07)
1918 Feb 20, The Soviet Red Army
seized Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine.
(HN, 2/20/98)
1918 Feb 22, Germany claimed the
Baltic states, Finland and Ukraine from Russia.
(MC, 2/22/02)
1918 Feb 24, Estonia declared
independence from Russia.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1918 Feb 26, Theodore [Hamilton]
Sturgeon, US sci-fi author (Starshine, A Way Home, Hugo, Caviar), was
born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1918 Feb 26, Stands at the Hong
Kong Jockey Club collapsed and burned, killing 604.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1918 Feb, Montana’s Legislature
passed a sedition law which led to the conviction 79 citizens under
Gov. Sam Stewart. In 2005 Clemens Work authored “Darkness Before Dawn:
Sedition and Free Speech in the American West.” In 2006 Gov. Brian
Schweitzer posthumously pardoned 75 men and 3 women. One man was
pardoned shortly after the war.
(SFC, 5/3/06, p.A3)
1918 Mar 3, Arthur Kornberg, Nobel
Prize-winning biochemist (1959), was born.
(HN, 3/3/01)(SC, 3/3/02)
1918 Mar 3, Germany and
Austria forced Soviet Russia to sign the Peace of Brest, which called
for the establishment of 5 independent countries: Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which ended
Russian participation in World War I, was annulled by the November 1918
armistice. The treaty deprived the Soviets of White Russia.
(AP, 3/3/98)(HN, 3/3/99)(LHC, 3/1/03)
1918 Mar 3, Richard Göring's
"Seeschlacht" premiered in Berlin.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1918 Mar 4, Terek Autonomous
Republic was established in RSFSR (until 1921).
(SC, 3/4/02)
1918 Mar 5, The Soviets moved the
capital of Russia from Petrograd to Moscow.
(HN, 3/5/98)
1918 Mar 6, US naval boat
"Cyclops" disappeared in "Bermuda Triangle."
(MC, 3/6/02)
1918 Mar 7, Pres. Wilson
authorized US Army's Distinguished Service Medal.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1918 Mar 7, Finland signed an
alliance treaty with Germany.
(HN, 3/7/98)
1918 Mar 9, Frank Morrison
Spillane (d.2006), mystery writer [Mickey Spillane], was born in
Brooklyn. His Mike Hammer crime novels later sold over 200 million
copies. His books included “Kiss Me Deadly” and “The Erection Set.”
(HN, 3/9/01)(SFC, 6/21/01, p.D5)(SFC, 7/18/06, p.B5)
1918 Mar 9, Russian Bolshevik
Party became the Communist Party.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1918 Mar 10, Günther Rall,
German Luftwaffe ace in World War II, was born.
(HN, 3/10/99)
1918 Mar 12, Vladimir I. Lenin
published his reasons for moving the capital from St. Petersburg to
Moscow.
(WSJ, 9/20/04, p.A20)
1918 Mar 13, Women were scheduled
to march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York due to a shortage
of men.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1918 Mar 14, An all-Russian
Congress of Soviets ratified a peace treaty with the Central Powers.
(HN, 3/14/98)
1918 Mar 15, Richard Ellmann, US
literary scholar, writer (Oscar Wilde), was born.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1918 Mar 19, US Congress
authorized time zones and approved Daylight Saving Time.
(AP, 3/19/97)(HN, 3/19/98)(SSFC, 3/27/05, Par p.15)
1918 Mar 20, The Bolsheviks asked
for American aid to rebuild their army.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1918 Mar 21, Howard Cosell,
sportscaster (Monday Night Football), was born in Winston-Salem, NC.
(MC, 3/21/02)
1918 Mar 21, During World War I,
Germany launched the Somme 'Michael' Offensive in France, hoping to
break through the Allied line before American reinforcements could
arrive. It is better remembered as the First Battle of the Somme.
(WUD, 1994, p.1356)(AP, 3/21/97)(HN, 3/21/99)
1918 Mar 22, Ukrainian mobs
massacred the Jews of Seredino Buda.
(www.ukraine-observer.com/articles/205/612)
1918 Mar 23, Alick Wickham dove
200' into Australia's Yarra River.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1918 Mar 23,
Crépy-en-Laonnoise: German artillery shelled Paris France and
256 were killed. The Paris bombs were named "Thick Bertha's Dike"
(nickname for the widow Krupp).
(SS, 3/23/02)
1918 Mar 23, Germany became the
1st country to recognize the independence of Lithuania. This was based
on the Lithuanian legislative act of Dec 11, 1917.
(LHC, 3/23/03)
1918 Mar 25, Belarus declared
independence.
(LHC, 3/25/03)
1918 Mar 25, Claude Debussy (55),
French composer, died in Paris. In 1962 Edward Lockspeiser authored
“Debussy,” a look at how the composer shaped the work of Symbolist
writers.
(AP, 3/25/97)(WSJ, 3/1/08, p.W8)
1918 Mar 26, On the Western Front
during World War I the Germans took the French towns Noyon, Roye and
Lihons.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1918 Mar 26, Col. Raynal Bolling
(b.1877), architect of American air power in WWI and resident of
Greenwich, Connecticut, was shot dead by a German patrol in France.
(WSJ, 4/12/08,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raynal_Bolling)
1918 Mar 29, Pearl Bailey
(d.1990), singer and actress, was born. "There is a way to look at the
past. Don’t hide from it. It will not catch you if you don’t repeat
it." "A man without ambition is dead. A man with ambition but no love
is dead. A man with ambition and love for his blessings here on earth
is ever so alive."
(AP, 6/24/97)(AP, 6/12/98)(HN,
3/29/01)
1918 Mar 31, Daylight Savings Time
went into effect throughout the U.S. for the first time.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1918 Mar, A flu epidemic began at
Fort Riley, Kansas, where 48 men died. It was carried by recruits to
Europe where it mutated and returned with a vengeance. [see May, 1918]
The Spanish flu was later found to have been caused by a genetic fusion
of pig and human viruses. In 1997 Dr. Johan Hultin recovered tissue in
Brevig Mission, Alaska, with frozen virus and submitted it for gene
sequencing. In 2004 John M. Barry authored "The Great Influenza: The
Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History."
(WSJ, 2/9/98, p.A16)(HNPD, 7/21/98)(SFC, 2/26/01,
p.A9)(WSJ, 9/7/01, p.A1)(SFCM, 2/17/02, p.8)(SSFC, 2/29/04, p.M1)
1918 Mar-Jul 1919, The art
collection of Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas, more than 500 paintings and
5,000 prints, was auctioned off in Paris.
(WSJ, 10/21/97, p.A20)
1918 Apr 1, In England the Royal
Flying Corps was replaced by the Royal Air Force.
(AP, 4/1/98)(HN, 4/1/98)(OTD)
1918 Apr 1, Isaac Rosenberg
(b.1890), British WWI war poet, died near Arras, France, during
Ludendorff’s big spring offensive. In 2008 Jean Moorcroft Wilson
authored “Isaac Rosenberg: The Making of a Great War Poet.”
(WSJ, 4/3/09, p.W6)
1918 Apr 3, Sixten Ehrling,
conductor (Royal Opera of Stockholm), was born in Malmo, Sweden.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1918 Apr 4, Battle of Somme
[France], an offensive by the British against the German Army ended.
(HN, 4/4/99)
1918 Apr 8, The US First Aero
Squadron was assigned to the Western Front for the first time on
observation duty.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1918 Apr 13, Electrical fire
killed 38 mental patients at Oklahoma State Hospital.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1918 Apr 15, Clemenceau published
secret French-Austrian documents.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1918 Apr 17, William Holden, Ill,
actor (Stalag 17, Bridge Over River Kwai, SOB), was born.
(MC, 4/17/02)
1918 Apr 18, Clifton Keith
Hillegass, founder of the study guides known as Cliff's Notes, was born.
(HN, 4/18/01)
1918 Apr 21, Baron Manfred von
Richthofen (25), the cousin of Frieda Lawrence and the highest-scoring
German ace of World War I with 80 victories, was killed in a dogfight
over France's Somme Valley over Amiens. As he pursued a Canadian pilot
with jammed guns, von Richthofen, flying a red Fokker triplane, broke
one of his own flying rules by following his prey too long, too far and
too low. Two miles behind Allied lines, Richthofen was mortally wounded
when he was fired upon simultaneously by another Canadian pilot and
Australian ground troops. The following day, the Red Baron was buried
by his enemies with full military honors. He was replaced with Hermann
Goering.
(WSJ, 5/15/95, p. A-16)(AP, 4/21/97)(HNPD, 4/21/99)
1918 Apr 22, Robert Wadlow Alton,
world’s tallest man (8’11.1"), was born.
(HN, 4/22/98)
1918 Apr 22, British naval forces
attempted to sink block-ships in the German U-boat bases at the Battle
of Zeeburgge.
(HN, 4/22/99)
1918 Apr 25, Ella Fitzgerald
(d.1996), jazz singer, was born. She became known as the ‘First Lady of
Song.’ [see Apr 25, 1917]
(SFC, 6/16/96, p.A1)(SFC, 4/26/97, p.A5)
1918 Apr 25, Astrid Varnay,
soprano (Met Opera 1941-56), was born in Stockholm, Sweden.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1918 Apr 28, Gavrilo Princip (22),
Bosnian murderer of arch duke Ferdinand, died in prison of tuberculosis.
(http://concise.britannica.com)(AP, 4/28/07)
1918 Apr 29, America's WWI Ace of
Aces, Eddie Rickenbacker, scored his first victory with the help of
Captain James Norman Hall. He eventually racked up 26 victories before
the end of the war.
(HN, 4/29/99)
1918 May 1, Jack Paar (d.2004),
later late-night TV talk show host, was born in Canton, Ohio.
(www.museum.tv/archives/etv/P/htmlP/paarjack/paarjack.htm)
1918 May 9, Mike Wallace,
newscaster (Biography, 60 Minutes), was born in Brookline, Mass.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1918 May 9, Orville Freeman,
(Gov-D-Minn.), Sec of Agriculture (1961-69), was born in Minneapolis.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1918 May 10, The HMS Vindictive
was sunk to block the entrance of Ostend Harbor.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1918 May 11, Richard Feynman
(d.1988), theoretical physicist was born. His classic lectures were
published in 1995 in the book "Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics
Explained by its most Brilliant Teacher" by Addison -Wesley in 1995. In
1996 Feynman’s "Lost Lecture" was written by David L. and Judith R.
Goodstein. Feynman won a Nobel Prize in 1965.
(WSJ, 11/6/95, p. A-20)(HN, 5/11/02)(MC, 5/11/02)
1918 May 13, The first US airmail
stamps, featuring a picture of an airplane, were introduced. On some of
the initial stamps the airplane was printed upside down; the "inverted
Jenny," as it came to be called, became a collector's item. One sheet
of 100 stamps got by inspectors.
(SSFC, 11/12/06, p.A2)(AP, 5/13/08)
1918 May 14, Sunday baseball
became legal in Wash, DC.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1918 May 15, Joseph Wiseman, actor
(Dr No, Viva Zapata, Les Miserables), was born in Montreal.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1918 May 15, The U.S. Post Office
and the U.S. Army began regularly scheduled airmail service between
Washington and New York through Philadelphia. Lieutenant George L.
Boyle, an inexperienced young army pilot, was chosen to make the first
flight from Washington. Even with a route map stitched to his breeches,
Boyle lost his way and flew south rather than north. The second leg of
the Washington--Philadelphia--New York flight, however, took off and
arrived in New York on schedule--without the Washington mail. The
distance of the route was 218 miles, and one round trip per day was
made six days a week. Army Air Service pilots flew the route until
August 10, 1918, when the Post Office Department took over the entire
operation with its own planes and pilots.
(AP, 5/15/97)(HNPD, 6/15/99)(HNQ, 4/24/01)
1918 May 15, Pfc. Henry Johnson
and Pfc. Needham Roberts received the Croix de Guerre for their
services in World War I. They were the first Americans to win France's
highest military medal.
(HN, 5/15/99)
1918 May 17, Birgit Nilsson,
operatic soprano (Isolde, Turandot, Elektra, Salome), was born in
Karup, Sweden.
(MC, 5/17/02)
1918 May 17, British authorities
arrested Irish leader Eamon de Valera and other Sinn Fein leaders on
suspicion of conspiring with the Germans.
(ON, 9/04, p.5)
1918 May 18, A TNT explosion in
chemical factory in Oakdale, PA, killed 200.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1918 May 18, The Netherlands
Indian Volksraad was installed in Batavia.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1918 May 18, Toivo Kuula (34),
composer, died.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1918 May 19, Florence Chadwick,
the 1st to swim English Channel both ways, was born.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1918 May 20, The 1st electrically
propelled warship (New Mexico).
(MC, 5/20/02)
1918 May 24, Coleman A. Young,
civil rights leader (Mayor-D-Detroit), was born.
(MC, 5/24/02)
1918 May 25, Claude Akins Nelson,
actor (BJ & Bear, Movin' On, Lobo), was born in GA.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1918 May 27, Henry Adams (b.1838),
US historian, journalist and novelist, died. His books included “The
Education of Henry Adams” (1907) and ”Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres”
(1918).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Brooks_Adams)(WSJ, 9/1/07, p.P9)
1918 May 28, Herb Shriner, radio
humorist, was born.
(HN, 5/28/01)
1918 May 28, Tatars declared
Azerbaijan, in Russian Caucasus, independent.
(HN, 5/28/98)
1918 May 28, The Battle of
Cantigny began during World War I as American troops captured the
French town from the Germans; the Americans were able to resist German
counterattacks in the days that followed.
(AP, 5/28/08)
1918 May 29, Herb Shriner,
humorist, TV host (Herb Shriner Show), was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1918 May 29, Isabel Dean, actress
(5 Days one Summer, Virgin Island, Ransom), was born in England.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1918 May, In the worst global
epidemic of the century, influenza (an acute, contagious respiratory
viral infection) had been spreading around the world since May. Before
it ended in 1919 it would kill 20 million people--about twice as many
as World War I. [see Mar, 1918]
(HN, 10/31/98)
1918 May, The German army staged a
surprise offensive and rolled into the Marne Valley through the center
of the French 6th Army. The Germans were held at bay by some 9,000 US
Marines of the 5th and 6th Regiments of the 4th Brigade.
(SFC, 6/6/97, p.A26)
1918 Jun 3, The US Supreme Court
ruled child labor laws unconstitutional.
(MC, 6/3/02)
1918 Jun 3, The Finnish Parliament
ratified its treaty with Germany.
(HN, 6/3/98)
1918 Jun 4, French and American
troops halted Germany’s offensive at Chateau-Thierry, France.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1918 Jun 6, In France the US
Marines counter-attacked the Germans and pushed them back to the woods
at Bois de Belleau. U.S. Marines entered combat at the Battle of
Belleau Wood. 1st US victory of WW I.
(SFC, 6/6/97, p.A26)(HN, 6/6/01)(MC, 6/6/02)
1918 Jun 8, Robert Preston, actor
(The Music Man), was born.
(HN, 6/8/01)
1918 Jun 11, Nelson Mandela,
president of South Africa, anti-apartheid leader, was born. Prior to
becoming president he served 18 of 27 years in jail on Robben Island.
[see Jul 18]
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A20)(SFC, 9/5/96, p.A10)(HN, 6/11/98)
1918 Jun 12, First airplane
bombing raid by an American unit occurred on World War I’s Western
Front in France.
(HN, 6/12/98)
1918 Jun 18, Allied forces on the
Western Front began their largest counter-attack against the spent
German army.
(HN, 6/18/98)
1918 Jun 26, After a brief
respite, the Germans began firing their huge 420 mm howitzer "Big
Bertha" at Paris. During World War I, Germany’s 98-ton howitzer used to
shell Verdun and Liege-Big Bertha-was named after the wife of munitions
maker Gustav Krupp. Bertha Krupp was actually the heir to the Krupp
family fortune when she married Prussian diplomat Gustav von Bohlen und
Halbach, who changed his name to Krupp and took over the family firm,
which was the world’s largest manufacturer of munitions. Gustav Krupp
went on to support Adolph Hitler and help finance the Nazis.
(HN, 6/26/98)(HNQ, 8/28/98)
1918 Jun 27, Two German pilots
were saved by parachutes for the first time.
(HN, 6/27/98)
1918 Jun 28, The US Marines took
the Bois de Belleau.
(SFC, 6/6/97, p.A26)
1918 Jun, Bethlehem Steel director
Charles Schwab was featured on the cover of the 1st issue of the
Bethlehem Star, an employee newsletter.
(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.F2)
1918 Jul 2, Robert Sarnoff was
born. He later became president of the National Broadcasting Company
(NBC) and converted the network to the first all-color television
station.
(HN, 7/2/99)
1918 Jul 3, The Migratory Bird
Treaty Act, the oldest US environmental conservation law, prohibited
killing or harassing birds migrating across international borders.
(SFC, 4/9/99, p.A5)(SFC, 10/23/02,
p.A4)(www.fws.gov/laws/lawsdigest/migtrea.html)
1918 Jul 4, Ann Landers and
Abigail Van Buren, twin sisters who became famous columnists, were born
in Sioux City, Iowa, as Esther P. (Landers) and Pauline E. (Abbie)
Friedman. Their "advice" columns are syndicated in more than 1,000
newspapers. Esther Friedman died in 2002 at age 83.
(IB, 12/7/98)(SSFC, 6/23/02, p.A10)
1918 Jul 4, Altar dedicated at
full-scale replica of Stonehenge at Maryhill, Wa.
(Maggio, 98)
1918 Jul 4, A record 17 war
vessels were launched the Bay Area. The steamer "Defiance" was
sponsored by Mrs. Charles Schwab.
(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W5)
1918 Jul 4, Taufa’ahau Tupou IV,
king of Tonga (1965-2006), was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taufa'ahau_Tupou_IV)(WSJ, 9/11/06, p.A1)
1918 Jul 8, Ernest Hemingway
(1899-1961), Nobel Prize winning writer, was wounded in Italy while
working as an ambulance driver for the American Red Cross. He was later
awarded the Italian Silver Medal of Military Valor. Hemingway enlisted
in a Red Cross ambulance unit in 1917 during World War I. He was
commissioned a second lieutenant and served on the Italian front. After
WWI he reported from the battlefields of the Spanish Civil War for
American newspapers. His book "Farewell to Arms" was based on his
experiences in WWI.
(HNQ, 7/28/99)(HN, 7/8/01)
1918 Jul 9, The US Distinguished
Service Cross was established by an Act of Congress.
(AP, 7/9/08)
1918 Jul 9, 101 people were killed
as an inbound local train collided with an outbound express in
Nashville, Tenn.
(AP, 7/9/97)
1918 Jul 11, Enrico Caruso joined
the war effort and recorded "Over There", the patriotic song written by
George M. Cohan.
(MC, 7/11/02)
1918 Jul 12, A Japanese battleship
exploded in the Bay of Tokayama and some 500 people were killed.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1918 Jul 14, Ingmar Bergman,
Swedish film director (The Seventh Seal, Fanny and Alexander), was born
in Uppsala, Sweden.
(HN, 7/14/01)(MC, 7/14/02)
1918 Jul 14, Arthur Laurents,
writer and librettist, was born.
(HN, 7/14/01)
1918 Jul 15, The Second Battle of
the Marne began during World War I.
(AP, 7/15/97)
1918 Jul 17, Russian Tsar,
Nicholas II, was executed at Ekaterinburg by the Bolsheviks under
orders from Lenin. His wife, son, 4 daughters, and 4 servants were also
executed. The family mass grave was discovered by a former KGB agent in
1979 in the Urals and only 9 bodies were found. The bodies were dug up
in 1991. A 1997 documentary film by Victoria Lewis, "Mystery of the
Last Tsar," told the story. The Czar, his wife, three children and four
servants were executed by a 12-man firing squad in the Ipatiev House in
Yekaterinburg. A reburial of the family was scheduled in St. Petersburg
for Jul 17, 1998.
(SFC, 4/5/97, p.E3)(SFC, 2/28/98, p.A8)(SFC,
7/15/98, p.A9)(AP, 7/17/07)
1918 Jul 17, Grand Duchess
Elizabeth Feodorovna (b.1864) was murdered at a mine the village of
Siniachikha. The Cheka beat Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich Romanov,
Princes Ioann Konstantinovich, Konstantin Konstantinovich, Igor
Konstantinovich, Vladimir Pavlovich Paley, Feodor Remez (Grand Duke
Sergei's secretary), and Varvara Yakovleva, a sister from the Grand
Duchess's convent, before throwing their victims into a pit,
Elizabeth being the first. Hand grenades were then hurled down the
shaft, but only one victim, Feodor Remez, died as a result of the
grenades. Finally a large quantity of brushwood was shoved into the
opening and set alight.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Elisabeth_of_Hesse_and_by_Rhine_%281864%E2%80%931918%29)
1918 Jul 18, Nelson Mandela, first
black president of South Africa, was born in Qunu, S. Africa. [see Jun
11]
(HN, 7/18/98)(MC, 7/18/02)
1918 Jul 18, During World War I,
American and French forces launched a counteroffensive against the
Germans during the Second Battle of the Marne.
(AP, 7/18/08)
1918 Jul 19, German armies
retreated across the Marne River in France.
(MC, 7/19/02)
1918 Jul 21, The residents and
coastguardsmen of Orleans, Massachusetts, were amazed to see the German
U-boat, U-156, firing at an American tug and four barges just off shore.
(HNQ, 2/1/02)
1918 Jul 22, Florine Stettheimer
painted "Heat," wherein she captured the relations between mothers and
daughters with deft satire. The date is on the birthday cake in the
painting.
(WSJ, 7/18/95, p.A-12)
1918 Jul 25, Annette Adams of
Calif. was sworn in as the 1st US woman district attorney.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1918 Jul 25, A race riot in
Chester, Pennsylvania, left 3 blacks and 2 whites dead.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1918 Jul 26, Britain’s top war
ace, Edward Mannock, was shot down by ground fire on the Western Front.
(HN, 7/26/98)
1918 Jul 29, Edwin Greene
O'Connor, author (The Last Hurrah), was born.
(HN, 7/29/01)
1918 Jul 29, Mary Lee Settle,
novelist, was born.
(HN, 7/29/01)
1918 Jul 30, Poet Joyce Kilmer
(b.1886), a sergeant in the 165th U.S. Infantry Regiment, was killed
during the Second Battle of the Marne in World War I. Kilmer is perhaps
best remembered for his poem "Trees."
(AP,
7/30/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Kilmer)
1918 Jul, The US War Dept.
assigned some 9,000 soldiers from California and the Philippines for
duty in Siberia.
(Ind, 5/4/02, 5A)
1918 Aug 2, A British force landed
in Archangel, Russia, to support White Russian opposition to the
Bolsheviks.
(HN, 8/2/98)
1918 Aug 3, James MacGregor Burns,
political writer (The Lion & the Fox), was born.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1918 Aug 6, The 2nd battle of the
Marne ended.
(MC, 8/6/02)
1918 Aug 11, The British attacked
with 450 tanks at the Battle of Amiens as the Allies pushed Germany
back.
(MC, 8/11/02)(PC, 1992, p.728)
1918 Aug 14, Some 5,000 soldiers
left Camp Fremont in Menlo Park, Ca., for duty in Vladivostok, Siberia,
under Maj. Gen. William W. Graves.
(Ind, 5/4/02, 5A)
1918 Aug 15, Russia severed
diplomatic ties with US.
(MC, 8/15/02)
1918 Aug 16, US troops overthrew
Archangel (Russia).
(MC, 8/16/02)
1918 Aug 17, Mort Marshall, actor
(Cully-Dumplings), was born in NYC.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1918 Aug 18, Elsa Morante, Italian
writer and author of "History: A Novel," was born.
(HN, 8/18/00)
1918 Aug 19, "Yip! Yip! Yaphank,"
a musical revue by Irving Berlin featuring Army recruits from Camp
Upton in Yaphank, N.Y., opened on Broadway.
(AP, 8/19/08)
1918 Aug 20, Britain opened its
offensive on the Western front during World War I.
(AP, 8/20/97)
1918 Aug 22, Britain’s battle
cruiser HMS Hood was launched. It was sunk in 1941 by the German
battleship Bismarck.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Hood_(51))
1918 Aug 25, Leonard Bernstein,
conductor and composer who initiated the television series "Young
People's Concerts," was born in Lawrence, MA.
(WUD, 1994, p.141)(HN, 8/25/98)(MC, 8/25/02)
1918 Aug 27, It was reported that
German master spy Edward Michael Zacho was captured in SF.
(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W5)
1918 Aug 30, Ted Williams
(d.2002), Hall of Fame outfielder for the Boston Red Sox, the last man
to hit .400 in a season, was born.
(HN, 8/30/98)(SFC, 7/6/02, p.A1)
1918 Aug 30, Lenin, the new leader
of Soviet Russia, was shot & wounded after a speech.
(MC, 8/30/01)
1918 Aug 31, Alan Jay Lerner,
playwright and lyricist, was born. His work included "Brigadoon" and
"Camelot."
(HN, 8/31/00)
1918 Aug, Lenin gave a command to
suppress a peasant revolt in Penza with orders to hang no fewer than
one hundred known kulaks.
(WSJ, 10/23/96, p.A19)
1918 Sep 1, US troops landed in
Vladivostok, Siberia, and stayed until 1920. [see Sep 2]
(MC, 9/1/02)
1918 Sep 2, Laurindo Almeida,
composer and guitarist, was born.
(MC, 9/2/01)
1918 Sep 2, Martha Mitchell, wife
of Attorney General John Mitchell, was born.
(MC, 9/2/01)
1918 Sep 2, Some 9,000 soldiers
from California and the Philippines began arriving at Vladivostok under
Gen. William S. Graves. His orders said to stay out of trouble.
(Ind, 5/4/02, 5A)
1918 Sep 3, The United States
recognized the nation of Czechoslovakia.
(HN, 9/3/98)
1918 Sep 3, Five soldiers were
hanged for alleged participation in the Houston riot of 1917.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1918 Sep 3, Allies forced Germans
back across Hindenburg Line.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1918 Sep 4, Paul Harvey,
conservative radio commentator, was born in Tulsa, Okla.
(HN, 9/4/98)(SFC, 12/27/99, p.E3)
1918 Sep 6, The German Army began
a general retreat across the Aisne, with British troops in pursuit.
(HN, 9/6/98)
1918 Sep 7, Chaim Herzog (d.1997),
Israeli president, was born.
(MC, 9/7/01)
1918 Sep 11, The Boston Red sox
beat Chicago 4-2 to win the World Series in the 6th game.
(www.1918redsox.com/augsep.htm)
1918 Sep 11, US troops landed in
Russia to fight the Bolsheviks.
(MC, 9/11/01)
1918 Sep 12, During World War I,
U.S. forces led by Gen. John J. Pershing launched an attack on the
German-occupied St. Mihiel salient north of Verdun, France.
(AP, 9/12/97)
1918 Sep 12, Lt. Frank Luke Jr.
destroyed a German balloon. Over the next 6 days he destroyed 9 more
and earned the name "the Arizona Balloon Buster."
(AH, 6/02, p.18)
1918 Sep 12, British troops retook
Havincourt, Moeuvres, and Trescault along the Western Front.
(HN, 9/12/98)
1918 Sep 13, U.S. and French
forces took St. Mihiel, France, in America’s first action as a standing
army.
(HN, 9/13/98)
1918 Sep 17, Chaim Herzog
(d.1997), president (Israel, 1983-93), was born in Belfast.
(www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Government/Memorial/Presidents/Hertsog.htm)
1918 Sep 18, Nelson Mandela, later
pres. of South Africa, was born. [see Jun 11, Jul 18]
(MC, 9/18/01)
1918 Sep 19, American troops of
the Allied North Russia Expeditionary Force received their baptism of
fire near the town of Seltso against Soviet forces.
(HN, 9/19/99)
1918 Sep 19, Liza Nina Mary
Frederica Lehmann, composer, died at 56.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1918 Sep 22, Henryk Szeryng,
violinist (Brahms Concerto), was born in Zelazowa Wola, Poland.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1918 Sep 22, General Allenby led
the British army against the Turks, taking Haifa and Nazareth,
Palestine.
(HN, 9/22/98)
1918 Sep 25, John Ireland, Irish
and US archbishop of St Paul, died at 80.
(MC, 9/25/01)
1918 Sep 25, Brazil declared war
on Austria.
(HN, 9/25/98)
1918 Sep 26, The Meuse-Argonne
offensive against the Germans began during World War I.
(AP, 9/26/08)
1918 Sep 26, German Ace Ernst Udet
shot down two Allied planes, bringing his total for the war up to 62.
(HN, 9/26/00)
1918 Sep 27, President Woodrow
Wilson opened his fourth Liberty Loan campaign to support men and
machines for World War I.
(HN, 9/27/98)
1918 Sep 27, Arab forces attacked
and seized Deraa (Jordan).
(ON, 10/05, p.8)
1918 Sep 29, Allied forces scored
a decisive breakthrough of the Hindenburg Line during World War I.
(AP, 9/29/97)
1918 Sep 29, Lt. Frank Luke Jr.
against orders destroyed 3 German balloons and downed 2 pursuing
fighters in a final flight of vengeance for the loss of his wingman Lt.
Joseph Wehner. Luke received a posthumous medal of honor.
(AH, 6/02, p.18)
1918 Sep 30, Bulgaria pulled out
of World War I.
(HN, 9/30/98)
1918 Sep, Pres. Woodrow Wilson
ordered all US breweries to shut down on December 1 in order to save
grain for the war effort.
(WSJ, 10/28/06, p.P13)
1918 Oct 1, Damascus (Syria) fell
to Arab forces as Turkish Ottoman officials surrendered the city.
(ON, 10/05, p.9)(AP, 10/1/08)
1918 Oct 5, The Univ. of Michigan
played a home football game against Case Institute of Technology and
won 33-0. A number of fans in the stands were infected with influenza
and passed it on to fellow spectators. The first two local deaths
occurred on Oct 11. The local epidemic was declared over on Nov 4 with
117 deaths in Ann Arbor.
(LSA, Fall/06, p.58)
1918 Oct 6, US ship Otranto sank
between Scotland and Ireland. 425 people died.
(MC, 10/6/01)
1918 Oct 7, C. Hubert H. Parry,
English musicologist and composer (Jerusalem), died at 70.
(MC, 10/7/01)
1918 Oct 8, Sgt. Alvin C. York
almost single-handedly killed 25 German soldiers and captured 132 in
the Argonne Forest in France. Corporal Alvin C. York's platoon was
advancing toward the Decauville railway when they were hit with
machine-gun fire from all sides. The doughboys captured one gun, but
the noise drew the fire of the remaining German emplacements, killing
six and seriously wounding three Americans. As the most senior of the
remaining doughboys, York went out alone to engage the enemy with just
his rifle and service revolver, picking off the machine-gunners one by
one. When the fighting was over, York had single-handedly eliminated 35
machine guns, killed more than 20 Germans and taken 132 members of a
Prussian Guards regiment as prisoners. A modest man, York shrugged off
his heroic actions, saying, "It's over; let's forget it."
(AP, 10/8/97)(HNPD, 12/13/98)
1918 Oct 9, E Howard Hunt,
involved in Watergate break-in, was born in Hamburg, NY.
(MC, 10/9/01)
1918 Oct 10, While President
Woodrow Wilson was attempting to establish "peace without victory" with
Germany, the German UB-123 torpedoed RMS Leinster, a civilian mail and
passenger ferry, off the coast of Ireland. Leinster was usually
escorted by a Royal Air Force airship as a precaution, but on October
10, 1918, the ferry set out alone. Leinster was sunk; 564 passengers
and crewmen perished, many of them American and Allied troops. After
Leinster, the Germans lost their chance for an easy peace.
(HNPD, 10/10/99)
1918 Oct 11, Jerome Robbins
(Rabinowitz), choreographer, was born. He won an Oscar for "West Side
Story."
(HN, 10/11/00)(MC, 10/11/01)
1918 Oct 11, Archibald M. Willard
(b.1836), American artist, died in Ohio. His paintings included “Spirit
of ’76” (1876).
(www.nationalsojourners.org/heroes.html)
1918 Oct 12, The 1st use of iron
lung was at Boston's Children Hospital.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1918 Oct 12, The Cloquet Fire
erupted in Minnesota, claiming some 450 lives.
(AP, 10/12/08)
1918 Oct 14, In France the
American 32nd division was sent to engage German troops on the Dame
Marie, while the 5th and 42nd Divisions under Gen. Douglas MacArthur
swept in pincer movements to occupy Cote de Chatillon. The objectives
were taken in 3 days of tough fighting. In 2008 Robert H. Ferrell
authored “The Question of MacArthur’s Reputation: Cote de Chatillon,
October 14-16, 1918.”
(WSJ, 11/24/08, p.A17)
1918 Oct 13-15, A forest fire
killed some 1,000 people in Minnesota and Wisconsin. [see Oct 12]
(WSJ, 9/13/01, p.B11)
1918 Oct 14, The Czechoslovak
National Council in Paris organized a provisional government of
Czechoslovakia with T.G. Masaryk as president.
(PC, 1992 ed, p.728)
1918 Oct 16, Felix Arndt,
composer, died at 29.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1918 Oct 17, Rita Hayworth,
American actress, was born.
(HN, 10/17/98)
1918 Oct 17, Anton Dilger
(B.1884), an American saboteur educated as a surgeon in Germany, died
of Spanish flu in Spain. [see 1916] In 2007 Robert Koenig authored “The
Fourth Horseman: One Man’s Mission to Wage the Great War in America.”
(SSFC, 1/14/07, p.M2)
1918 Oct 17, Yugoslavia proclaimed
itself a republic.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1918 Oct 18, Czechs seized Prague,
renounced Hapsburg's rule and declared independence from the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. Masaryk proclaimed the foundation of
Czechoslovakia from Pittsburgh, Pa.
(HN, 10/18/98)(http://tinyurl.com/856hg)
1918 Oct 18, Russian 10th Army
drove out White armies of Tsaritsyn (Stalingrad).
(MC, 10/18/01)
1918 Oct 20, Germany aimed at an
armistice and agreed to further concessions.
(MC, 10/20/01)
1918 Oct 22, The cities of
Baltimore and Washington run out of coffins during the "Spanish
Influenza" epidemic.
(HN, 10/22/00)
1918 Oct 23, President Wilson felt
satisfied that the Germans were accepting his armistice terms and
agreed to transmit their request for an armistice to the Allies. The
Germans had agreed to suspend submarine warfare, cease inhumane
practices such as the use of poison gas, and withdraw troops back into
Germany.
(HN, 10/23/98)
1918 Oct 24, Alexander Charles
Lecocq, composer, died at 86.
(MC, 10/24/01)
1918 Oct 25, The Canadian
steamship Princess Sophia hit a reef off the coast of Alaska;
some 350 people perished.
(AP, 10/25/08)
1918 Oct 26, Cecil H. Chubb
donated the property of Stonehenge to the English state.
(HT, 3/97,
p.22)(www.this-is-amesbury.co.uk/stonehenge.html)
1918 Oct 26, Germany’s supreme
commander, General Erich Ludendorff, resigned, protesting the terms to
which the German Government had agreed in negotiating the armistice.
This set the stage for his later support for Hitler and the Nazis, who
claimed that Germany did not lose the war on the battlefield but were
"stabbed in the back" by politicians.
(HN, 10/26/98)
1918 Oct 28, The Czechoslovak
National Congress in Prague proclaimed the independence of
Czechoslovakia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovakia:_1918_-_1938)
1918 Oct 29-1918 Oct 31, The
Kingdom of Greater Serbia was proclaimed at Sarajevo in Bosnia bringing
that state into what was later called Yugoslavia. [see Dec 1]
(BWH, 1988)
1918 Oct 30, Ted Williams, hitter
(Red Sox, AL MVP '46, '49; Trip Crown '42,'47), was born.
(MC, 10/30/01)
1918 Oct 30, The Italians captured
Vittorio Veneto and rout the Austro-Hungarian army.
(HN, 10/30/98)
1918 Oct 30, The Slovak National
Council acceded to the Nov 28 Prague proclamation for the creation of
Czechoslovakian state. Slovaks joined the Czechs to form
Czechoslovakia. During World War II, Slovakia existed as puppet state
of Nazi-run Germany.
(www.slovakia.org/history6.htm)(AP, 9/21/02)
1918 Oct 30, Turkey signed an
armistice with the Allies, agreeing to end hostilities at noon October
31.
(HN, 10/30/98)
1918 Oct 31, In the worst global
epidemic of the century, influenza (an acute, contagious respiratory
viral infection) had been spreading around the world since May. Before
it ended in 1919 20 million people were killed worldwide, about twice
as many as World War I, with about 500-600,000 of them in the US.
October was the deadliest month and some 195,000 died. It was estimated
that 20-40 million people died worldwide. In 1998 the TV show "The
American Experience" documented the tragedy: "Influenza 1918." Dr.
Alfred Crosby wrote "America’s Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of
1918." [see 1917, 1918-1919]
(MT, Fall. ‘97, p.11)(SFC, 2/9/98, p.E1)(WSJ,
2/9/98, p.A16)(HN, 10/31/99)
1918 Oct 31, Egon Schiele (28),
Viennese artist, died in the flu epidemic. He produced some 3,000
drawings and 300 paintings in about 12 years.
(SFC, 10/13/97, p.E3)(MC, 10/31/01)
1918 Oct 31, Stephen Tisza,
Hungarian PM (-1917), was assassinated by soldiers.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1918 Oct-Nov, Some 2,021 people in
SF died of the flu. San Franciscans wore protective face masks during
the [Spanish] flu epidemic of this year. Researchers in 1997 attempted
to isolate the virus from victims buried in the Arctic and Alaska.
(SFC, 12/24/96, p.E3)(NPR, 9/29/97)(SFEC, 12/26/99,
p.W5)
1918 Nov 1, During a
wildcat strike a replacement motorman, behind schedule, was speeding a
Brighton Beach bound train down what is today the Franklin Avenue
shuttle. The train derailed on a curve and hit a tunnel wall on the
approach to the Prospect Park Station. 102 died in a NYC BMT subway
derailment at Malbone Street, Brooklyn.
(www.bmt-lines.com/history.html)
1918 Nov 1, Yugoslav battleship
Viribus Unitis was sunk by Italians.
(MC, 11/1/01)
1918 Nov 3, Russell Long (d.2003),
U.S. senator from Louisiana, was born.
(HN, 11/3/98)(SFC, 5/10/03, p.A13)
1918 Nov 3, The Austro-Hungarian
Empire dissolved.
(MC, 11/3/01)
1918 Nov 3, There was a mutiny of
the German fleet at Kiel. This was the first act leading to German's
capitulation in World War I. [see Nov 4]
(HN, 11/3/99)
1918 Nov 3, Poland proclaimed
independence from Russia after WW I. [see Nov 11]
(MC, 11/3/01)
1918 Nov 4, Art Carney (d.2003),
actor (Ed Norton-Honeymooners), was born in Mount Vernon, NY.
(EntW, 12/03, p.96)
1918 Nov 4, Austria signed an
armistice with Allies.
(HN, 11/4/98)
1918 Nov 4, Kiel, Germany, fell
into the hands of revolutionary sailors. [see Nov 3]
(MC, 11/4/01)
1918 Nov 5, George Sheehan,
cardiologist, was born. He became well known for his book "Running and
Being."
(HN, 11/5/00)
1918 Nov 7, Billy Graham,
evangelist, was born in Charlotte, N.C. He later led the Evangelical
Christians, a group that numbered 35% of all Americans.
(SFEC, 10/20/96, Par, p.4)(SFEC, 9/21/97, Z1 p.3)
1918 Nov 7, Goddard demonstrated
tube-launched solid propellant rockets.
(MC, 11/7/01)
1918 Nov 7, During World War I, an
erroneous report that an armistice had been signed set off celebrations
across the country. The armistice was signed on Nov 11.
(AP, 11/7/08)
1918 Nov 7, The Yugoslav
National Conference at Geneva decided on the union of Croatia and
Slovenia with Serbia and Montenegro. [see Dec 1]
(BWH, 1988)
1918 Nov 9, Florence Chadwick,
swimmer (Hall of Fame 1970), was born in San Diego, Calif.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1918 Nov 9, Spiro Agnew (d.Sep 17,
1996) was born. He later became governor of Maryland and 39th
vice-president of the US under Nixon (1968-1973) until convicted of tax
evasion.
(SFC, 9/18/96, p.A7)(HN, 11/9/98)
1918 Nov 9, Choi Hong Hi (d.2002),
one of the founders of the South Korean Army (1946), was born in North
Korea. He developed the tae kwon do (to kick with the foot, to strike
with the fist, art) martial arts style in the 1940s and named it in
1955.
(SFC, 7/2/02, p.A17)
1918 Nov 9, Germany was proclaimed
a republic. Kaiser Wilhelm II announced that he would abdicate. He then
fled to the Netherlands.
(AP, 11/9/97)(HN, 11/9/98)
1918 Nov 9, Guillaume Apollinaire
(38), [Kostrowitsky], French poet (Alcools), died.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1918 Nov 10, Retired German Kaiser
Wilhelm II fled to the Netherlands.
(MC, 11/10/01)
1918 Nov 11, At ten minutes past
five in the morning, German and Allied negotiators placed the final
signatures on the armistice that would end World War I six hours later.
After the signing, French General Ferdinand Foch sent all Allied
commanders the following message: "Hostilities will cease on the entire
[Western] front November 11 at 11:00 a.m." Even as the hour approached
9 of 16 commanders of US divisions on the Western Front ordered a final
assault that left an additional 11,000 casualties. Although the Allies
had not invaded Germany and there was no clear military victory, the
Germans were forced to sign the armistice because of insurmountable
problems. German troops, pushed past their limits of endurance by five
years of fighting, faced a fresh stream of well-equipped American
soldiers. Germany's allies, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and
Bulgaria, had already ceased fighting and mutinies increased as German
soldiers and sailors refused to carry out suicidal missions. Food
shortages, both at home and at the front, had reached crisis levels.
The costs of the First World War were astronomical with 7.5 million
dead and more than 35 million total casualties. The US Armistice Day
holiday was changed to Veteran’s Day after the Korean War. It was
celebrated as “Veteran’s Day” for the first time in the US in Emporia,
Kansas, on November 11, 1953. In 2004 Joseph E. Persico authored
“Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918,
World War I and Its Violent Climax.”
(SFC, 11/9/96, p.A16)(SFC,11/8/97, p.A11)(HNPD,
11/11/98)(SFC, 12/28/04, p.D1)
1918 Nov 11, The Second Polish
Republic declared its independence.
(SFC, 11/13/96, p.C2)(AP, 11/11/08)
1918 Nov 12, Emperor Karl of
Austria-Hungary, husband of Zita, relinquished participation in the
Austrian state and then fled to Switzerland. Austria became a republic.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_I_of_Austria)(Hem., Dec. '95, p.69)
1918 Nov 14, The Grand Duchy of
Baden ceased to exist and became a republic. The provisional government
declared the establishment of the freie Volksrepublik Baden (Free
Peoples' Republic of Baden), and set 5 January 1919 as the date for new
elections. In 1933 it went under Nazi rule.
(Econ, 4/18/09,
p.16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Baden)
1918 Nov 17, Influenza deaths
reported in the U.S. far exceeded World War I casualties.
(HN, 11/17/98)
1918 Nov 17, German troops
evacuated Brussels.
(HN, 11/17/98)
1918 Nov 21, The last German
troops left Alsace-Lorraine, France.
(HN, 11/21/98)
1918 Nov 21, Two German ammunition
trains exploded in Hamont, Belgium and 1,750 died.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1918 Nov 21, Polish soldiers
organized a pogrom against Jews of Galicia, Poland.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1918 Nov 22, Polish forces
attacked the Jewish community of Lemberg (Lvov).
(MC, 11/22/01)
1918 Nov 24, Frank O. King
premiered his comic strip "Gasoline Alley" in the Chicago Tribune. He
aged his characters over time.
(SFC, 7/8/98, Z1 p.3)(WSJ, 6/20/01,
p.A1)(www.toonopedia.com/gasalley.htm)
1918 Nov 24, Another proclamation
took place of the United Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
[see Dec 1]
(BWH, 1988)
1918 Nov 25, Chile and Peru
severed relations.
(HN, 11/25/98)
1918 Nov 26, Montenegro deposed
its king who opposed union and voted to join the new Kingdom of Serbs,
Croats and Slovenes. [see Dec 1]
(BWH, 1988)
1918 Nov 28, Kaiser Wilhelm of
Prussia and Germany, abdicated.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1918 Nov 29, Madeleine L'Engle,
writer, was born. Her work included "A Wrinkle in Time."
(HN, 11/29/00)
1918 Nov, US Navy airpower
increased to 2,107 airplanes, 20 airships, 215 balloons and 39,871 men.
[see April, 1917]
(SFEC, 2/16/97, BR p.9)
1918 Dec 1, US breweries shut down
due to a September directive from Pres. Wilson.
(WSJ, 10/28/06, p.P13)
1918 Dec 1, An American army of
occupation entered Germany.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1918 Dec 1, Danish parliament
passed an act to grant Iceland independence.
(HFA, ‘96, p.20)(MC, 12/1/01)
1918 Dec 1, The Kingdom of
Serbs, Croats and Slovenes [later in 1929 to be called Yugoslavia] was
proclaimed by Alexander Karadjordjevic, the son of King Peter of
Serbia. It included the previously independent kingdoms of Serbia and
Macedonia, the Hungarian-controlled regions of Croatia and Slovenia,
the Austrian province of Dalmatia, Carniola and parts of Styria,
Carinthia and Istria. King Alexander I renamed the Balkan state called
the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes to Yugoslavia in 1929.
(AP, 10/3/97)(HNQ,
3/26/99)(http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/map/yugoslavia/1900/)
1918 Dec 2, Armenia proclaimed
independence from Turkey. An independent Republic of Armenia was
established in Russian Armenia under Dashnak administration.
(HN, 12/2/98)(Compuserve Online Enc. / Armenia)
1918 Dec 3, The Allied Conference
ended in London; Germany was required to pay to full limits for the
war.
(HN, 12/3/02)
1918 Dec 4, President Wilson set
sail for France to attend the Versailles Peace Conference. He was the
1st chief executive to travel outside US while in office.
(AP, 12/4/97)
1918 Dec 4, France cancelled trade
treaties in order to compete in postwar economic battle.
(HN, 12/4/98)
1918 Dec 6, Harold Horace Hopkins,
inventor (Endoscope), was born.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1918 Dec 7, Spartacists called for
a German revolution.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1918 Dec 8, Gerard Souzay,
baritone (Le Nozze di Figaro), was born in Angers, France.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1918 Dec 9, Kirk Douglas, American
actor best known for his role in "Spartacus," was born as Issur
Danielovitch Demsky.
(HN, 12/9/98)(SFEC, 7/16/00, DB p.48)
1918 Dec 9, French troops occupied
Mainz.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1918 Dec 10, U.S. troops were
called to guard Berlin as a coup was feared.
(HN, 12/10/98)
1918 Dec 11, Alexander
Solzhenitsyn (d.2008), Russian writer, was born. He won the 1970 Nobel
Peace Prize and is famous for “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”
(1962) and "The Gulag Archipelago" (1973). Daniel J. Mahoney later
authored "Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: The Ascent From Ideology."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Solzhenitsyn)(WSJ, 10/11/01,
p.A20)
1918 Dec 13, President Wilson
arrived in France, becoming the first chief executive to visit Europe
while in office.
(AP, 12/13/97)
1918 Dec 13, US army of occupation
crossed the Rhine and entered Germany.
(MC, 12/13/01)
1918 Dec 14, Sidonio Pais, prince
of Portugal, was murdered.
(MC, 12/14/01)
1918 Dec 19, Robert Ripley began
his "Believe It or Not" column in the NY Globe.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1918 Dec 20, Eugene O'Neill's
"Moon of the Caribees" premiered in NYC.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1918 Dec 21, Donald Regan, White
House staffer and US Secretary of Treasury (1981-85), was born.
(MC, 12/21/01)
1918 Dec 21, Kurt Waldheim, 4th
Secretary General of the United Nations, was born.
(HN, 12/21/98)
1918 Dec 22, The last of the food
restrictions, that had been enforced because of the shortages during
World War I, were lifted.
(HN, 12/22/98)
1918 Dec 23, Helmut Schmidt,
Chancellor of Germany, was born.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1918 Dec 23, Jose Greco, flamenco
dancer (Holiday for Lovers), was born in Italy.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1918 Dec 25, Anwar Sadat (d.1981),
president of Egypt, was born. "There can be hope only for a society
which acts as one big family, and not as many separate ones."
(AP, 5/9/98)(HN, 12/25/98)
1918 Dec 25, Revolt erupted in
Berlin.
(HN, 12/25/98)
1918 Dec 30, John E. Hoover
decided to be called J. Edgar Hoover.
(MC, 12/30/01)
1918 Dec 31, Kid Gleason replaced
Pants Rowland as White Sox manager.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1918 Dec, Albanian leaders met at
Durrës to discuss Albania's interests at the Paris Peace
Conference. When World War I ended the Italian armies occupied most of
Albania, and Serbian, Greek and French armies occupied the remainder.
Italian and Yugoslav powers began a struggle for dominance over
Albanians.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1918 Elie Nadleman painted "Tango."
(WSJ, 4/9/98, p.A21)
1918 Constantin Brancusi made his
gleaming bronze sculpture "La Muse."
(SFC, 10/4/97, p.E1)(WSJ, 11/13/98, p.W16)
1918 In England Duncan Grant
painted a portrait of his lifetime companion Vanessa Bell. They both
figured in the complex love affairs of the Bloomsbury Group. The
painting is now in the London National Gallery.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T8)
1918 Modigliani painted "Woman in
a Plaid Dress." It sold for $5.3 mil in 1998. he also painted a
portrait of his mistress Jeanne Hebuterne.
(WSJ, 5/21/98, p.A15)(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.W14)
1918 Georgia O'Keefe painted
"Three Women."
(SFEC, 2/20/99, BR p.8)
1918 Picasso (1881-1973), French
painter, married Olga Khokhlova, one of Diaghilev’s Russian dancers,
whom he met in Rome.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.99)
1918 Egon Schiele made his crayon
sketch: "Edith Schiele on Her Deathbed."
(WSJ, 11/19/97, p.A20)
1918 Chaim Soutine painted his
youthful "Self-Portrait."
(WSJ, 5/14/98, p.A20)
1918 Willa Cather (d.1947)
authored her novel "My Antonia."
(SFC, 3/29/04, p.E1)
1918 Lytton Strachey (1880-1932)
published "Eminent Victorians," a scandalous collection of sketches
that revolutionized English biography.
(SFEC, 8/22/99, BR p.4)(WUD, 1994, p.1403)
1918 The "Origin and Evolution of
Life" by Henry Fairfield Osborn was published.
(NH, 5/96, p.5456)
1918 Dr. Paul Popenoe co-authored
"Applied Eugenics."
(SSFC, 11/9/03, p.D1)
1918 Will Strunk privately
published "The Elements of Style" for his students at Cornell.
Revisions were later overseen by his student E.B. White.
(WSJ, 7/30/99, p.W15)
1918 The Book "The Higher Learning
in America: A Memorandum of the Conduct of Universities by
Businessmen," by Thorstein Veblen, a former teacher at Stanford, was
published. The subtitle had initially read "A Study in Total
Depravity." Veblen was let go from Stanford in 1909 ostensibly for his
philandering.
(SFEM, 1/30/00, p.15)
1918 Jesse Lynch Williams,
journalist, wrote his play "Why Marry," which won the first Pulitzer
Prize for drama.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.E3)
1918 Giocomo Puccini composed his
opera "Gianni Schicchi."
(WUD, 1994, p.596)
1918 Eric Satie composed "Socrate."
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.E1)
1918 Irwing Caesar (1895-1996)
wrote the song "Swanee" with George Gershwin. It later became a big
seller when Al Jolson used it as his signature song.
(SFC, 12/18/96, p.C6)
1918 Gilda Gray inspired a dance
craze after she performed "The Shimmy" to W.C. Handy's Saint Louis
Blues in a Broadway show.
(ON, 1/03, p.9)
1918 "Stars and Stripes," a weekly
for men in the military, was founded.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.E3)
1918 The Dunellen Hall manor house
in Greenwich, Conn., was built. The Jacobean style brick mansion was
sold to real estate magnate Harry Helmsley for $11 million in the 1980s.
(WSJ, 4/21/09, p.A6)
1918 The Mount Diablo High Gear
Race was run to the summit of Mt. Diablo in northern California.
(SFC, 8/24/96, p.E1)
1918 The Boston Red Sox won the
Baseball World Series.
(Hem., 4/97, p.103)
1918 Fritz Haber (1868-1934),
German chemist, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for extracting ammonia
from nitrogen in 1909. The Haber-Bosch process was beneficial for food
production and explosives. Haber also helped develop poison gas during
WW I.
(WSJ, 12/8/00, p.W11)(SSFC, 8/7/05, p.C6)
1918 Pres. Wilson pushed through
Congress the Sedition Act of 1918. It was the most extreme antispeech
legislation in American history.
(WSJ, 10/29/04, p.W10)
1918 The US government
nationalized the Wells Fargo franchise into a government agency known
as the American Railway Express Agency. The government took control of
everything except the bank, which began rebuilding with a focus on
commercial markets.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A10)
1918 The US Labor Dept. launched
an "Own Your Home Campaign."
(WSJ, 4/29/04, p.A2)
1918 The US Navy began recruiting
women, the "Yeomanettes," to work as clerks, drafters and recruiters in
an attempt to free men for overseas duty.
(SFC, 8/16/00, p.B2)
1918 Alfred E. Smith (1873-1944)
was 1st elected governor of New York.
(TMC, 1994, p.1944)(WUD, 1994 p.1345)(WSJ, 3/6/00,
p.A20)
1918 Charley Chapin (1858-1930),
city editor for the Pulitzer's NYC Evening World, faced financial ruin
after living beyond his means. He contemplated murder-suicide and
killed his wife, but lost his nerve and turned himself in. He was sent
to Sing Sing prison where he cultivated roses. In 1920 he wrote
an autobiography.
(WSJ, 3/904, p.D8)
1918 The game "Consult El Caro"
was 1st built. A metal ball fell into a recessed hole containing
answers to questions.
(SFC, 9/10/02, p.A15)
1918 Sailor Jack and his dog Bingo
first appeared on Cracker Jack boxes.
(AH, 10/04, p.71)
1918 The Fel-Pro Company was
founded to supply gaskets for Henry Ford’s Model T. In 1998 the company
was to be acquired by Federal-Mogul for $720 million in cash and stock.
(SFC, 1/12/98, p.A19)
1918 GM bought Chevrolet.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1918 Walter Jacobs opened a rental
business in Chicago that grew to become Hertz. In 1923 he sold his
business to John Hertz. GM owned Hertz from 1826 to 1953. Ford acquired
Hertz in 1985 and in 2005 announced plans to sell it to a consortium of
3 private equity firms in a deal valued at $15 billion.
(Econ, 9/17/05, p.60)
1918 The Sears, Roebuck and Co.,
catalog offered a 5-pound Home Motor for US$8.75, the equivalent of
about $85 in 1996.
(Wired, 10/96, p.98)
1918 In Texas C.N. Williamson and
E.E. Dickies established the U.S. Overall Co. It was later renamed
Williamson-Dickie and then came to be known as Dickies.
(SSFC, 8/20/06, p.M4)
1918 The Warner brothers built a
film studio on Sunset Blvd. in LA, Ca.
(WSJ, 6/2/06, p.A1)
1918 The first electric waffle was
introduced in the US by Landers, Frary & Clark.
(SFC, 7/22/98, Z1 p.2)
1918 Edwin Howard Armstrong
(1890-1954), engineer and inventor, developed the superheterodyne
circuit, basic to radio receivers. He is known as the "Father of FM" or
frequency modulation. In 1939 Armstrong perfected his system of
static-free radio, which was widely adopted in the U.S. and Europe. His
super-regenerative circuit, devised in 1920, was used in 2-way police
and aircraft radio systems.
(HN, 5/12/99)
1918 The 1st pogo stick was
invented. In 1947 metal replaced the original wood sticks. Extreme
sticks used for stunts were brought out in 2001.
(WSJ, 8/10/01, p.B1)
1918 The National Washboard Co.
received US patent 1283148 and design patent 52236 for their wood frame
and glass rubbing surface. By the 1960s the company was out of business.
(SFC, 10/18/06, p.G3)
1918 The Bailey Radium
Laboratories, Inc., of East Orange, New Jersey, began manufacturing
Radithor. It was advertised as "A Cure for the Living Dead" as well as
"Perpetual Sunshine." It consisted of triple distilled water containing
at a minimum 1 microcurie (37 kBq) each of the radium 226 and 228
isotopes. The FTC issued a cease and desist order against the
manufacture in 1931.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radithor)(AH, 10/07,
p.37)
1918 The influenza epidemic killed
11,000 people in Philadelphia.
(LSA, Fall/06, p.58)
1918 People in San Francisco wore
protective face masks during the [Spanish] flu epidemic of this
year. Researchers in 1997 attempted to isolate the virus from victims
buried in the Arctic.
(SFC, 12/24/96, p.E3)(NPR, 9/29/97)
1918 The California-based Save the
Redwoods League began collecting donations for the purchase of redwood
land. In 1960 the 33-mile Avenue of the Giants, a 52,000-acre area of
river and redwoods, was dedicated following efforts by the Save the
Redwoods League.
(www.savetheredwoods.org/league/anniversary.shtml)(SFCM, 7/18/04, p.29)
1918 Vienna became the capital of
the Republic of Austria.
(StuAus, April ‘95, p.14)
1918 In Austria the first
democratic elections were held.
(SFC, 10/25/96, p.A16)
1918 Arthur Ransome (1884-1967),
British agent and writer, wrote a propaganda pamphlet titled: “On
Behalf of Russia: An Open Letter to America.” In 2009 Roland Chambers
authored “The Last Englishman: The Double Life of Arthur Ransome.”
(Econ, 8/29/09,
p.73)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Ransome)
1918 In Canada Vancouver workers
staged a general strike after a union organizer was killed under
mysterious circumstances by a posse seeking draft dodgers outside the
mining town of Cumberland.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R27)
1918 Gustaf Mannerheim led a
Finnish victory over much larger Bolshevik and Finnish Red Guard forces.
(DrEE, 10/26/96, p.4)
1918 In France the Meuse-Argonne
offensive action was made. A portion of the U.S. 77th Division in World
War I was encircled by the Germans during the 1918 Meuse-Argonne
offensive of World War I and called the "lost battalion.". The unit
managed to hold off its attackers until relief finally arrived.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.A17)
1918 The Gellert Pool was
constructed at the Gellert Hotel on the Buda side of Budapest, Hungary.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.T1,4)(Sm, 3/06, p.76)
1918 Italy gained Trieste from the
Hapsburg Empire.
(www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Rotunda/2209/Trieste.html)
1918 Japan’s first parliamentary
cabinet was formed.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)
1918 Some 1,000 pilot whales
became stranded on the Chatham Islands in the biggest recorded mass
stranding on the New Zealand coast.
(AP, 11/10/06)
1918 Kosovo became part of the
newly created Yugoslavia and was dominated by a Serbian monarchy until
WW II.
(SFC, 3/3/98, p.A8)
1918 An attempt to establish a
Moldovan Soviet failed and Romanian troops occupied the province.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A18)
1918 In Russia Lenin established
the Collegium on Affairs of Museums and Protection of Monuments of Art
and Antiquity.
(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.33)
1918 In Russia Jacob Ivanovich
Moiseeff of Minsk headed the Trans-Siberian Railway. His daughter Nadya
Jacobova Moiseeva was born in 1918 and escaped to Shanghai after the
Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931.
(SFC, 12/2/97, p.A22)
1918 Nikolay Bukharin, member of
the central committee of the Bolshevik Party and editor of Pravda, led
the "Left Communists" in opposition to V.I. Lenin's signing the
Brest-Litovsk treaty with Germany and withdrawing Russia from World War
I. Bukharin-a major Marxist theoretician and economist-and the Left
Communists proposed to transform the war into a general European
revolution.
(HNQ, 8/31/99)
1918 Idel-Ural (Volga-Ural), a
1917 union of Finno-Ugric people in the middle of Russia, was crushed
by the Bolsheviks. Its foreign minister Sadri Maqsudi Arsal was
welcomed in Finland and then Estonia.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.73)
1918 Lawrence of Arabia blew up
the Hijaz railway line in Saudi Arabia.
(Econ, 4/25/09, p.70)
1918 The Swiss Fatherland
Association, an anti-Semitic and anti-immigration, group was founded.
(SFC, 6/10/98, p.A10)
1918 Arab Prince Feisal took
control of Syria.
(ON, 10/05, p.9)
1918-1919 Herbert Hoover directed the American Relief
Administration under Pres. Wilson.
(AH, 12/02, p.20)
1918-1919 The Influenza Pandemic killed between 20
and 40 million people worldwide. It has been cited as one of the most
devastating epidemics in history, its toll surpassing the number of
people killed in WWI and the Black Death Plague outbreak of 1347 to
1351. More than 28% of Americans were infected with influenza and
600,000 died, suffocating as their lungs filled with fluid. As the
numbers of patients soared, medical personnel and facilities were
overwhelmed and emergency tent hospitals, such as the one seen above,
were established in many cities. At the height of the epidemic, the
death rate was so high that a nationwide shortage of gravediggers and
caskets resulted. While the terrifying epidemic continued into 1919,
the number of deaths began to decline in November 1918, as the number
of susceptible people dwindled.
(HNPD, 7/21/98)
1918-1921 The war of attrition continues in Russia.
The Belarussians or White Russians, joined by many
émigrés, almost destroy the Communist Revolution but fail.
(V.D.-H.K.p.291)
1918-1922 Mehmed VI succeeded Mehmed V in the Ottoman
House of Osman.
(Ot, 1993, xvii)
1918-1938 Events leading up to WW II:
http://ac.acusd.edu/History/WW2Timeline/1918-38.html
1918-1993 Sascha Brastoff designed ceramics, plastics
and decorative accessories and enamels on copper in West Los Angeles
from 1953-1973. His firm was called Sascha Brastoff of California, Inc.
(SFC, 4/7/99, Z1 p.7)
World War timeline 1919:
http://history.acusd.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/start.html
1919 Jan 1, J.D. Salinger,
American novelist, was born in NYC. In 1951 Jerome David Salinger
published "The Catcher in the Rye," which became a bible for American
teenagers.
(SFC, 1/29/10, p.A1)
1919 Jan 1-1919 Dec 31, In 2007
this period was covered in Ann Hagedorn’s book: “Savage Peace: Hope and
Fear in America, 1919.”
(WSJ, 4/27/07, p.P9)
1919 Jan 2, There was an
anti-British uprising in Ireland.
(MC, 1/2/02)
1919 Jan 5, In Boston an explosion
opened a tank of molasses and the cylindrical sides toppled outward
knocking down 10 nearby buildings. 2 million gallons of molasses oozed
onto the streets and killed 21 people. Another 50 were injured. [see
1872]
(SFC, 12/5/98, p.E4)
1919 Jan 5, British ships shelled
the Bolshevik headquarters in Riga.
(HN, 1/5/99)
1919 Jan 5, The National Socialist
Party (Nazi) formed.
(MC, 1/5/02)
1919 Jan 6, The 26th president of
the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, died in Oyster Bay, N.Y., at age
60. "Put out the light" were his last words. In 1920 his autobiography
was published by Scribner. In 1997 H.W. Brands published the biography:
"T.R.: The Last Romantic." Around 1954 Carleton Putnam (d.1998),
dropped his position as chairman of Delta Airlines and wrote the
biography: "Theodore Roosevelt", that covered the first 28 years of
Roosevelt’s life. Theodore Roosevelt coined the term "Good to the last
drop," used by Maxwell House Coffee. The original Maxwell House hotel
was in Nashville, Tenn. In 1980 Edmund Morris authored the Pulitzer
Prize winning Vol 1: "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt." In 1997 "T.R.
The Last Romantic" by H.W. Brands was published. In 2001 Edmund Morris
authored Vol 2: "Theodore Rex." In 2004 the Library of America
published “Theodore Roosevelt: Letters and Speeches; The rough Riders,
an Autobiography.”
(WSJ, 12/18/97, p.A20)(AP, 1/6/98)(SFC, 3/17/98,
p.A20)(SFC, 6/27/98, p.E4)(WSJ, 9/27/99, p.A32)(ON, 12/99, p.12)(WSJ,
11/20/01, p.A16)(SFC, 10/21/04, p.E1)
1919 Jan 13, Jackie Robinson,
baseball star, was born. He broke the apartheid ban in 1947.
(SFEC, 10/4/98, p.B14)
1919 Jan 13, Robert Stack, actor
best know for his role as Elliot Ness in the TV series "The
Untouchables," was born.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1919 Jan 13, California voted to
ratify the Prohibition amendment.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1919 Jan 14, Andy Rooney, American
humorist, author and television personality, was born. He appeared on
the TV program "60 Minutes."
(HN, 1/14/99)
1919 Jan 15, 2 million gallons of
molasses flooded Boston, Ma., drowning 21. [see Jan 5]
(MC, 1/15/02)
1919 Jan 15, Karl Liebknecht (47),
Marxist revolutionary, was murdered.
(MC, 1/15/02)
1919 Jan 15, Rosa Luxemburg
(b.1870), Marxist revolutionary, was murdered.
(MC, 1/15/02)
1919 Jan 15, Peasants in Central
Russia rose against the Bolsheviks.
(HN, 1/15/99)
1919 Jan 16, Nebraska, Wyoming and
Missouri became the 36th, 37th and 38th states to ratify Prohibition,
which went into effect a year later. Prohibition became law in the US
with the passage of the Volstead Act on Oct 28, which enforced and
defined the 18th Amendment. It was passed over President Wilson's veto
with the necessary two-thirds majority of state ratification.
(WSJ, 8/22/96, p.A14)(AP, 1/16/98)
1919 Jan 17, Pianist and statesman
Ignace Jan Paderewski became the first premier of the newly created
republic of Poland.
(AP, 1/17/07)
1919 Jan 18, The World War I Peace
Congress, held to negotiate peace treaties ending World War I, opened
in Versailles, France.
(AP, 1/18/08)
1919 Jan 19, John H. Johnson
(d.2005), editor and publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines, was born
Arkansas.
(HN, 1/19/99)(SFC, 8/8/05, p.B4)
1919 Jan 21, The German Krupp
plant began producing guns under the U.S. armistice terms.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1919 Jan 23, Ernie Kovacs, U.S.
comedian, was born. His "The Ernie Kovacs Show" introduced viewers to
his off-beat sense of humor.
(HN, 1/23/99)
1919 Jan 24, In Russia Grand
Prince Pavel Alexandrovich, a son of Czar Alexander II, and grand
princes Nikolai Mikhailovich, Georgy Mikhailovitch and Dmitry
Konstantinovich, nephews of the czar, were executed at the Peter and
Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg. They were posthumously rehabilitated
in 1999 by the Russian office of the prosecutor general.
(SFC, 6/10/99, p.C3)
1919 Jan 25, The League of Nations
plan was adopted by the Allies.
(HN, 1/25/99)
1919 Jan 27, Endre Ady (b.1877),
Hungarian lyric poet, died.
(Sm, 3/06, p.79)(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ady.htm)
1919 Jan 31, Jackie Robinson,
first black major league baseball player, was born.
(HN, 1/31/99)
1919 Feb 1, Andrea King (d.2003),
Hollywood film star, was born in Paris, France, as Georgette Andre
Barry.
(SFC, 5/9/03, p.A22)
1919 Feb 1, "There she is..." The
first Miss America was crowned on this day, not in Atlantic City, but
in New York City. Edith Hyde was not, the judges found, a Miss. She was
a Mrs. Mrs. Tod Robbins—the mother of two children.
(440 Int'l, 2/1/1999)
1919 Feb 3, Eamon de Valera, Sinn
Fein leader, and 2 other men escaped from England’s Lincoln Jail and
made their way home to Ireland.
(ON, 9/04, p.7)
1919 Feb 3, League of Nations held
its 1st meeting in Paris.
(MC, 2/3/02)
1919 Feb 4, City of Bremen's
Soviet Republic was overthrown.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1919 Feb 5, Aaron Chwatt (d.2006)
was born in NYC. He later established himself as a Borscht Circuit
comic and became known as Red Buttons, comic film and TV star.
(SFC, 7/14/06, p.B9)
1919 Feb 6, The 1st day of 5-day
Seattle general strike, the first general strike in America, took
effect. During this period Washington was a center for the Industrial
Workers of the World, also known as the "Wobblies." Their agitation led
to the Centralia massacre and the Everett massacre.
(WSJ, 12/3/99, p.A14)(MC, 2/6/02)
1919 Feb 8, Lithuanian and German
military forces forced the Bolsheviks from Kedainiai.
(LHC, 2/8/03)
1919 Feb
11, Eva Gabor (d.1995), actress, was born in Budapest, Hungary.
(http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001247/)
1919 Feb 13, Tennessee Ernie Ford,
country and gospel singer, was born.
(HN, 2/13/01)
1919 Feb 14, The United Parcel
Service was incorporated in Oakland, CA.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1919 Feb 15, The American Legion
was organized in Paris.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1919 Feb 16, Sir Mark Sykes
(b.1879), best known for the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement dividing up the
Middle East in anticipation of the fall of the Ottoman Empire, died of
Spanish flu in Paris. In 2008 an Oxford team took tissue samples before
reburying his body in its grave in East Yorkshire. They hoped to find
clues that might help fight a future global influenza outbreak.
(AP,
9/17/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Sykes)
1919 Feb 17, Germany signed an
armistice giving up territory in Poland.
(HN, 2/17/98)
1919 Feb 18, Jack Palance
(d.2006), later film and TV star, was born as Volodymir Ivanovich
Palahniuk in Latimer Mines, Pa.
(SFC, 11/11/06, p.B6)
1919 Feb 19, The First Pan African
Congress met in Paris, France.
(HN, 2/19/99)
1919 Feb 23, Fascist Party was
formed in Italy by Benito Mussolini. [see Mar 23]
(MC, 2/23/02)
1919 Feb 25, Oregon introduced the
first state tax on gasoline at one cent per gallon, to be used for road
construction.
(HN, 2/25/98)(AP, 2/25/98)
1919 Feb 26, Congress established
Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.
(SFEM, 10/12/97, p.17)(AP, 2/26/98)
1919 Feb 26, Acadia National Park
was established as Lafayette National Park in Maine.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1919 Feb 27, 1st public
performance of Gustav Holst's "Planets."
(MC, 2/27/02)
1919 Feb 27, The
Bolsheviks took Lithuania and joined it with Belarus as a single Soviet
republic. Litbel lasted until June 25.
(LHC, 2/27/03)
1919 Mar 1, Lawrence Ferlinghetti,
US beat poet (Coney Island of the Mind), was born. [see Mar 24]
(SC, 3/1/02)
1919 Mar 1, The Korean coalition
proclaimed their independence from Japan.
(HN, 3/1/98)
1919 Mar 2, The 1st congress of
Communist Int’l. opened at the Kremlin.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1919 Mar 3, The US Supreme Court
ruled that falsely shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theater is not
protected by the first amendment. "Shouting fire in a crowded theater"
is a misquote that refers to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.'s opinion in
the US Supreme Court case Schenck v. United States and that is used to
express the limits upon which free speech may be expressed under the
terms of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
(Econ, 10/13/07,
p.67)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shouting_fire_in_a_crowded_theater)
1919 Mar 3, Boeing flew the first
U.S. international airmail from Vancouver, British Columbia to Seattle,
Wash.
(HN, 3/3/99)
1919 Mar 3, Communist Party in
Germany announced a general strike.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1919 Mar 4, Czech Legions shot and
killed some 50 German demonstrators, including women and children, in
Sudetenland.
(http://tinyurl.com/856hg)
1919 Mar 8, Reports from Paris
indicated that 6,000 American men had married French women in the past
year.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1919 Mar 11, A general strike in
Germany was crushed.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1919 Mar 14, Max Shulman, novelist
(Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Tender Trap), was born.
(MC, 3/14/02)
1919 Mar 14, In France Emile
Cottin was condemned to death for the attempt on the life of
Clemenceau.
(HN, 3/14/98)
1919 Mar 15-17, The American
Legion was founded in Paris by members of the American Expeditionary
Force.
(AP, 3/15/97)(www.legion.org/)
1919 Mar 17, Nat "King" Cole,
American jazz pianist and singer, was born. He is famous for
"Unforgettable" and "Mona Lisa."
(HN, 3/17/99)
1919 Mar 19, A typhoid epidemic
raged in Petrograd, Russia, killing 200 daily.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1919 Mar 22, The first
international airline service was inaugurated on a weekly schedule
between Paris and Brussels.
(AP, 3/22/99)
1919 Mar 23, Benito Mussolini
founded his Fascist political movement in Milan, Italy. [see Feb 23]
(AP, 3/23/97)
1919 Mar 23, Bashkir ASSR (Bashkir
Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic) in the RSFSR (Russian Socialist
Federal Soviet Republic) was constituted.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1919 Mar 23, Moscow's
Politburo-Central Committee formed.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1919 Mar 24, Lawrence
Ferlinghetti, 'beat' poet, was born. [see Mar 1]
(HN, 3/24/01)
1919 Mar 25, Jeanne Cagney,
actress (Lion is in the Streets, Quicksand), was born.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1919 Mar 25, The Paris Peace
Commission adopted a plan to protect nations from the influx of foreign
labor.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1919 Mar 30, Gandhi announced
resistance against Rowlatt Act.
(MC, 3/30/02)
1919 Apr 1, Joseph E. Murray,
transplant physician, was born.
(HN, 4/1/01)
1919 Apr 2, Ian Hunter,
impresario, was born.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1919 Apr 3, Austria expelled all
Habsburgs.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1919 Apr 4, Antony Tudor,
choreographer (Metropolitan Opera 1957), was born in England.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1919 Apr 4, Antanas Smetona began
serving as the 1st president of Lithuania.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antanas_Smetona)
1919 Apr 5, Eamon de Valera became
Taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland (Dail Eireann).
(HN, 5/5/97)(MC, 4/5/02)
1919 Apr 5, Polish Army executed
35 young Jews.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1919 Apr 8, [Douglas] Ian Smith,
premier of Rhodesia, was born. He was Premier of the British Colony of
Southern Rhodesia (13 Apr 1964 - 11 Nov 1965) and Prime Minister of the
Republic of Rhodesia (11 Nov 1965 - 1 Jun 1979). He was Premier of the
British Colony of Southern Rhodesia (13 Apr 1964 - 11 Nov 1965) and
Prime Minister of the Republic of Rhodesia (11 Nov 1965 - 1 Jun 1979).
(MC, 4/8/02)(Internet)
1919 Apr 10, Emiliano Zapata
(b.c1877), a leader of Mexico's indigenous people during the Mexican
Revolution, was assassinated by a government emissary who had come to
his southern stronghold in the state of Morelos for peace negotiations.
His native language was Nahuatl of the Aztecs.
(SFC, 4/13/96, p.A-10)(MC, 4/10/02)
1919 Apr 12, Maurice Girodias,
French publisher, was born.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1919 Apr 13, Madalyn Murray
O'Hair, American atheist (opposed prayer in school), was born.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1919 Apr 13, In the Amritsar
Massacre British forces under the command of General Reginald Dyer
killed hundreds of Indian nationalists in the thickly crowded plaza at
Jallianwala Bagh.
(HN, 4/13/98)(EWH, 4th ed., p.1101)
1919 Apr 15, Charles Steale shot
his oil-well filled photo: "Pictorial Map of Burkburnett, Texas."
(SFC, 9/26/96, p.E1)
1919 Apr 15, Jane Arminda Delano
(b.1862), founder of the American Red Cross Nursing Service, died in
France while on a Red Cross mission and was buried there. She was
posthumously awarded the US Distinguished Service Medal, the 1st female
recipient. In 1920 She was brought back to the U.S. and re-interred in
Arlington National Cemetery.
(www.arlingtoncemetery.net/jadelano.htm)
1919 Apr 16, Merce Cunningham,
American dancer and choreographer, was born.
(HN, 4/16/01)
1919 Apr 20, Polish Army captured
Vilno (Vilnius), Lithuania from Soviet Army.
(HN, 4/20/98)
1919 Apr 28, The first jump with
an Army Air Corp (rip-cord type) parachute was made by Les Irvin.
(HN, 4/28/98)(MC, 4/28/02)
1919 Apr 30, US postal workers
discovered 30 booby-trap bombs in the national mail system, targeting
several members of congress and other public figures. Investigators
later implicated a network of anarchists and radicals who were rounded
up and deported.
(SFC, 5/1/09, p.B2)
1919 May 1, Dan O'Herlihy, actor
(Fail Safe, Last Starfighter, Robocop), was born in Ireland.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1919 May 1, In Indonesia Mount
Kelud erupted. A powerful explosion that could be heard hundreds of
miles away destroyed dozens of villages and killed at least 5,160 when
a boiling crater lake broke through the crater wall killing people in
104 small villages.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A14)(AP, 11/3/07)
1919 May 1, In Mexico Pancho Villa
married Soledad Seanez Holguin. This was recognized by the state in
1946 after proof showed the pair had both a civil and a church wedding.
(SFC, 7/13/96, p. A19)
1919 May 2, The first U.S. air
passenger service started.
(HN, 5/2/98)
1919 May 3, Betty Compden,
lyricist, was born.
(HN, 5/3/01)
1919 May 3, Pete Seeger,
folksinger and songwriter (Weavers, Goodnight Irene, Guantanamera), was
born in NYC.
(HN, 5/3/01)(MC, 5/3/02)
1919 May 13, Atlantic City, NJ,
became the site of the 1st municipal airport in the US.
(SSFC, 12/14/03, p.D2)
1919 May 4, Some 3,000 young
scholars from 13 colleges and universities rallied at Tiananmen Square
to protest the loss of Shandong province to the Japanese under the
Versailles Treaty at the Paris Peace Conference. German concessions in
China were bequeathed to Japan. Among the protestors were people who
helped form the Communist Party.
(SFC, 6/25/98, p.A8)(WSJ, 5/17/99, p.A21)(Econ,
5/3/08, p.13)
1919 May 5, George London,
bass-baritone (The Flying Dutchman, Wotan, Scarpia. Rigoletto), was
born in Montreal, Canada.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1919 May 6, Paris Peace Conference
disposed of German colonies; German East Africa was assigned to Britain
& France, German SW Africa to South Africa.
(MC, 5/6/02)
1919 May 6, Frank Lyman Baum (62),
author (Wizard of Oz), died.
(MC, 5/6/02)
1919 May 7, Eva (Evita) Peron,
first lady of Argentina, was born. She helped her husband, Juan,
achieve office.
(HN, 5/7/99)
1919 May 8, The first
transatlantic flight took-off by a US Navy seaplane.
(HN, 5/8/98)
1919 May 9, Arthur English,
comedian, actor (Malachi's Cove), was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1919 May 9, James Reese Europe
(b.1881), jazz band leader and founder of the NYC Clef Club, died after
he was stabbed during the intermission of a performance at Mechanic’s
Hall in Boston. Europe led the Clef Club Symphony Orchestra before WW I
and during the war led a US Army band in the all-black 369th Infantry
Regiment, which was attached to the French Army. In 1995 Reid Badger
authored “A Life in Ragtime,” a biography of Europe.
(WSJ, 11/10/05,
p.D7)(www.jass.com/Others/europe.html)
1919 May 14, The first
transatlantic flight by a U.S. Navy seaplane began at Chatham Naval Air
Station in Mass. [see May 27]
(WSJ, 9/10/99, p.W6)
1919 May 16, Liberace (d.1987),
pianist, was born in a Milwaukee suburb as Wladziu Valentino Liberace.
At 17 he debuted with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He later averaged
an income of $5 million for over 35 years.
(SSFM, 4/29/01, p.22)
1919 May 18, Margot Fonteyn
(d.1991), ballet dancer, was born in Surrey, England, as Peggy Hookham.
(HN, 5/18/01)
1919 May 19, Mustafa Kemal arrived
in Samsun, Anatolia, to start the National Struggle.
http://www.osmanli700.gen.tr/english/sultans.html
1919 May 20, Volcano Kelut on Java
erupted killing 550. [see May 1]
(MC, 5/20/02)
1919 May 25, Gino Negri, composer,
was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1919 May 25, Madame C.J. Walker
(b.1867 as Sarah Breedlove), black, wealthy cosmetics manufacturer,
died at age 51. In 2003 Beverly Lowry authored "Her Dream of Dreams:
The Rise and Triumph of Madame C.J. Walker."
(WSJ, 4/22/03, D7)(SSFC, 10/24/04, Par p.4)
1919 May 26, Jay Silverheels,
actor, was born. He played Tonto in The Lone Ranger TV series
(HN, 5/26/01)
1919 May 27, The first
transatlantic flight was completed by a U.S. Navy seaplane. U.S. Navy
Curtiss flying boat NC-4, piloted by Lt. Cmdr. Albert C. Read, arrived
safely in Lisbon, Portugal, to become the first aircraft to complete a
transatlantic flight. Three aircraft, designated NC-1, NC-3 and
NC-4--called "Nancy" boats--had taken off from New York's Rockaway
Naval Air Station [Chatham Naval Air Station in Mass.] for Lisbon on
May 8, with intermediate stops planned for Newfoundland and the Azores.
Only NC-4 completed the 3,925-mile transatlantic flight. Heavy rain and
fog forced NC-1 down at sea, where it sank on May 17. NC-3, came down
in rough seas and taxied 200 miles into the harbor at Horta in the
Azores.
(HN, 5/27/98)(HNPD, 5/27/99)
1919 May 27, Charles Strite
patented a pop-up toaster. [see May 29)
(MC, 5/27/02)
1919 May 28, May Swenson, poet,
was born.
(HN, 5/28/01)
1919 May 28, Armenia declared it's
Independence. [see Dec 2, 1918]
(MC, 5/28/02)
1919 May 29, A solar eclipse
occurred that was photographed by two British expeditions, one in
Africa and the other in Sobral, Brazil. Arthur Eddington, British
astronomer, confirmed Einstein’s prediction of the deflection of light
from Principe, a Portuguese island off the Atlantic coast of Africa. In
1980 Harry Colling and Trevor Pinch published "The Golem," an account
of the expedition. The play “Rose Tattoo” by Tennessee (Thomas Lanier)
Williams was originally titled “The Eclipse of May 29, 1919.”
(SFC, 10/12/96,
p.E3)(www.bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~suchii/Edd.on1919.html)
1919 May 29, Charles Strite
patented a pop-up toaster. [see May 27]
(SC, 5/29/02)
1919 Jun 2, There were coordinated
bombings in Washington, DC, and 6 other cities. Militant followers of
anarchist Luigi Galleani were blamed.
(WSJ, 8/18/07,
p.P8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1919_United_States_anarchist_bombings)
1919 Jun 4, The U.S. Senate passed
the Women’s Suffrage bill.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1919 Jun 4, US marines invaded
Costa Rica.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1919 Jun 5, Richard Scarry,
Children's author and illustrator, was born.
(HN, 6/5/01)
1919 Jun 6, Finland declared war
on Bolsheviks.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1919 Jun 11, Richard Todd, actor
(Dorian Gray, Assassin Yangtze Incident), was born in Ireland.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1919 Jun 11, Sir Barton won the
Belmont Stakes, becoming horse racing’s first Triple Crown winner.
(AP, 6/11/97)
1919 Jun 11, Eamon de Valera, Sinn
Fein leader, arrived in NYC where he lived until 1921 raising funds for
the nationalist cause in Ireland.
(ON, 9/04, p.7)
1919 Jun
14, The US Congress passed the 19th amendment granting suffrage to
American women.
(www.usconstitution.net/constamnotes.html#Am19)
1919 Jun 14, Pilot John William
Alcock (1892-1919) and navigator Arthur Witten Brown (1886-1948) took
off from St. John’s, Newfoundland, for Clifden, Ireland, on the first
nonstop transatlantic flight. The flight lasted 16 hours and 28 minutes
and carried the first transatlantic airmail. They won a 10 thousand
pound prize, first offered by the Daily Mail in 1913.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Whitten_Brown)(ON, 4/09, p.1)
1919 Jun 17, The "Barney Google"
cartoon strip by Billy DeBeck premiered. In 1924 he introduced a horse
named spark Plug to the strip.
(SFC, 9/7/05, p.G7)(www.toonopedia.com/google.htm)
1919 Jun 19, Pauline Kael,
American movie critic, was born. She wrote I lost it at the Movies.
(DTnet, 6/19/97)(AP, 6/19/99)
1919 Jun 19, Mustafa Kemal founded
the Turkish National Congress at Angora (later Ankara) and denounced
the Treaty of Versailles.
(HN, 6/19/98)
1919 Jun 20, Treaty of Versailles:
Germany ended the incorporation of Austria. [see Jun 28]
(MC, 6/20/02)
1919 Jun 21, German sailors under
Admiral von Reuter scuttled 72 warships at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys
even though Germany had surrendered. It was the greatest act of
self-destruction in modern military history.
(HN, 6/21/98)(Camelot, 6/21/99)(MC, 6/21/02)
1919 Jun 26, The New York Daily
News, America's first tabloid, was first published.
(AP, 6/26/99)(SFC, 12/27/99, p.E3)
1919 Jun 28, Harry S. Truman
married Elizabeth Virginia Wallace in Independence, Mo.
(AP, 6/28/97)
1919 Jun 28, The Treaty of
Versailles was signed in France, ending (WW I) World War I. The first
world war began in 1914 and ended on this date. Germany signed the
Treaty of Versailles under protest. Books by participants included
"Peacemaking" by Harold Nicolson; "The Economic Consequences of the
Peace" by John Maynard Keynes; and "The Truth About the Peace Treaties"
by David Lloyd George. In 2000 Richard Holmes authored "The Western
Front." Nearly 1 million British died and nearly 2 million each for
France, Germany, Russia and Turkey. In 2002 Margaret MacMillan authored
"Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World."
(HFA, ‘96, p.32)(AP, 6/28/97)(HN, 6/28/98)(WSJ,
8/16/00, p.A20)(SSFC, 12/15/02, p.M3)
1919 The Versailles conference
gave Norway sovereignty over the island of Svalbard, but allowed other
countries to establish settlements there.
(Econ, 10/2/04, p.52)
1919 Jun 30, Susan Hayward,
actress, was born.
(HN, 6/30/01)
1919 Jul 2, Johnny Bradford, actor
(Ransom Sherman Show), was born in Long Branch, NJ.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1919 Jul 4, Jack Dempsey, the
"Manassa Mauler", defeated Jess Willard by a knockout in Toledo, Ohio,
after three rounds to become the World's Heavyweight Boxing Champion.
(IB, Internet, 12/7/98)
1919 Jul 4, Max Wolf discovered
asteroid #914 Palisana.
(Maggio, 98)
1919 Jul 4, The ADGB (Allgemeine
Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund) party was formed.
(Maggio, 98)
1919 Jul 7, William Moses
Kunstler, defense attorney (Chicago 8), was born.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1919 Jul 7, The U.S. Army’s First
Transcontinental Motor Train left Washington, D.C., bound for San
Francisco. The 62-day journey crossed 3,250 miles. In 2002 Peter Davies
authored "American Road," an account of the trip.
(HN, 3/7/01)(WSJ, 7/19/02, p.W9)
1919 Jul 8, President Wilson
received a tumultuous welcome in New York City after his return from
the Versailles Peace Conference in France.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1919 Jul 10, President Wilson
personally delivered the Treaty of Versailles to the Senate and urged
its ratification.
(AP, 7/10/97)
1919 Jul 15, Iris Murdoch
(d.1999), philosopher-novelist, was born in Dublin. She wrote 28 novels
and in 1998 published "Existentialists and Mystics," a collection of
writings from 1950 to the 1980s. Herein she tried to "recover the moral
dimension of art."
(WSJ, 2/17/98,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_Murdoch)(SFC, 2/9/99, p.A20)
1919 Jul 20, Sir Edmund Hillary,
the first man reach the summit of Mount Everest, was born in New
Zealand.
(HN, 7/20/98)
1919 Jul 21, A dirigible crashed
through a bank skylight killing 13 in Chicago.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1919 Jul 21, The British House of
Lords ratified the Versailles Treaty.
(HN, 7/21/98)
1919 Jul 21, Anthony Fokker
established an airplane factory at Hamburg and Amsterdam.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1919 Jul 24, A race riot in
Washington, DC, left 6 killed and 100 wounded.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1919 Jul 24, LaVerne Noyes
(b.1849), American inventor, died. His inventions included the
akromotor, a device that converted wind to electricity, and a
dictionary holder.
(http://eos.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl/excat/donors2.html#d)
1919 Jul 26, James Lovelock,
British biologist and inventor, was born. He developed the Gaia
hypothesis. According to this idea the earth is influenced by life to
sustain life, and the planet is a the core of a single, unified, living
system. "The earth is a living organism, and I’ll stick by that," he
says.
(V.D.-H.K.p.388)
1919 Jul 27, In a Chicago race
riot 15 whites and 23 blacks were killed with 500 injured.
(MC, 7/27/02)
1919 Jul 30, Federal troops were
called out to put down Chicago race riots.
(HN, 7/30/98)
1919 Jul 31, Curt Gowdy (d.2006),
later leading sports announcer, was born in Green River, Wyo.
(SFC, 2/21/06, p.B5)
1919 Jul 31, Primo Levi, Italian
writer and scientist (Survival in Auschwitz), was born.
(HN, 7/31/01)
1919 Jul 31, Germany's Weimar
Constitution was adopted by the republic's National Assembly. The
Weimar Republic became Germany’s 1st democratic government.
(AP, 7/31/97)(SFC, 8/3/99, p.A8)(SSFC, 8/1/04, p.D10)
1919 Aug 1, In Hungary Bela Kun's
government fell in the face of invasions from both the Czechs,
Romanians and a French-sponsored counter-revolutionary force, led by
Admiral Miklos Horthy de Nagybanya, which succeeded in establishing
Horthy in government for many years.
(www.firstworldwar.com/bio/kun.htm)
1919 Aug 8, Dino De Laurentiis,
producer (King Kong), was born in Torre Annunziata, Italy.
(MC, 8/8/02)
1919 Aug 9, Ruggiero Leoncavallo
(62), Italian composer (Pagliacci), died.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1919 Aug 10, Ukrainian National
Army massacred 25 Jews in Podolia, Ukraine.
(MC, 8/10/02)
1919 Aug 11, The Green Bay Packers
football was club founded.
(MC, 8/11/02)
1919 Aug 11, Andrew Carnegie
(b.1835), industrialist, philanthropist, and founder of Carnegie Steel,
died. Carnegie became a philanthropist in later life, giving away more
than $350 million and building 2,509 public libraries. His value in
1999 dollars totaled $100 billion.” The man who dies rich dies
disgraced,” was the motto of Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie‘s last years
were spent giving away as much money as possible in an effort to shed
his image as one of the era‘s leading “robber barons.” Among other
bequests to good causes, he established the Carnegie Institute of
Technology and hundreds of Carnegie Free Public Libraries across the
U.S. In 2005 Les Standiford authored “Meet You In Hell,” an account of
the rivalry between Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick. In 2006 David Nasaw
authored “Andrew Carnegie.”
(SFEC, 5/23/99, Par p.7)(HNQ, 4/21/00)(WSJ, 7/29/05,
p.W8)(SSFC, 10/22/06, p.M3)
1919 Aug 11, Germany's Weimar
Constitution was signed by President Friedrich Ebert.
(AP, 8/11/07)
1919 Aug 12, Peter Ambrose Cyprian
Luke, playwright, was born.
(MC, 8/12/02)
1919 Aug 12, Michael Kidd [Milton
Greenwald], choreographer (7 Brides for 7 Bros), was born.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1919 Aug 13, Rex Humbard,
televangelist, was born.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1919 Aug 18, Anti-Cigarette League
of America formed in Chicago, Illinois.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1919 Aug 19, Malcolm Forbes
(d.1990), publisher of Forbes magazine, was born in Brooklyn, NY. "I
don't waste too much time philosophizing about wealth, I just recommend
it to everyone."
(HN, 8/19/98)(Internet)
1919 Aug 19, Afghanistan declared
independence from UK.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1919 Aug 23, The "Gasoline Alley"
cartoon strip premiered in Chicago Tribune.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1919 Aug 25, George C. Wallace,
governor of Alabama and presidential candidate who led the fight to
keep segregation in the South, was born in Clio, Ala.
(HN, 8/25/98)(MC, 8/25/02)
1919 Aug 25, The 1st scheduled
passenger service by airplane between Paris and London.
(MC, 8/25/02)
1919 Aug 28, Godfrey Hounsfield,
British inventor of the EMI-scanner, was born.
(RTH, 8/28/99)
1919 Aug 31, John Reed formed the
Communist Labor Party in Chicago, with the motto, "Workers of the world
unite!"
(HN, 8/31/98)(YN, 8/31/99)(MC, 8/31/01)
1919 Aug 31, The Ukrainian
(Petlyura) Army recaptured Kiev. Petlyura's Ukrainian Army killed 35
members of a Jewish defense group.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1919 Aug, The British regime
banned Ireland’s Sinn Fein.
(www.thehistorynet.com/mh/blmanagainstempire/)
1919 Sep 2, Marge Champion, dancer
(Marge & Gower Champion Show), was born in LA, California.
(MC, 9/2/01)
1919 Sep 6, Pier Pander (b.1864),
Dutch sculptor, died.
(http://home.wxs.nl/~bekke412/pier.html)
1919 Sep 9, Most of Boston's
1,500-member police force went on strike. The city’s police
commissioner fired the strikers and Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933), who
was running for governor, came out in support of the firings.
(AP, 9/9/99)(AH, 6/07,
p.67)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Coolidge)
1919 Sep 10, Robert B. Leighton
(d.3/9/97), physicist, was born in Detroit.
(SFC, 3/15/97, p.A19)
1919 Sep 11, US marines invaded
Honduras (again).
(MC, 9/11/01)
1919 Sep 12, Adolf Hitler joined
the German Worker's Party. In 2004 Robert O. Paxton authored "The
Anatomy of Fascism," on the rise and fall of Hitler and Mussolini.
(HN, 9/12/98)(SSFC, 4/4/04, p.M3)
1919 Sep 16, The American Legion
was formally chartered by an act of Congress.
(AP, 9/16/07)
1919 Sep 17, The US saluted Gen.
John J. Pershing and soldiers returning from WWI in a parade up
Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington DC.
(AH, 10/04, p.14)
1919 Sep 19, Blanche Thebom,
mezzo-soprano (Amneris-Aida), was born in Monessen, Penn.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1919 Sep 22, President Woodrow
Wilson abandoned his national tour to support the League of Nations
when he suffered a case of nervous exhaustion.
(HN, 9/22/98)
1919 Sep 22, Steel workers at
Gary, Ind., went on strike to force US Steel to recognize their union.
The walkout ended in 110 days without success.
(PCh, 1992, p.734)(MC, 9/22/01)
1919 Sep 25, Pres. Wilson
collapsed in Pueblo, Colorado. An ailing President Woodrow Wilson was
faced with the possibility that the Senate might not ratify the
Versailles Treaty ending World War I without substantial changes.
Wilson embarked on a grueling railroad tour of America to sway public
opinion in favor of his version of the Treaty, delivering 40 speeches
in less than a week. He warned America that without the Treaty, "there
will be another world war" within a single generation. He was rushed
back to a White House sickroom but there suffered a stroke on October
2. For the five weeks Wilson’s life was in danger, his doctor and Mrs.
Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, shown here in a posed photograph taken after
the crisis had passed, kept the president isolated, but did not declare
him unfit to perform his presidential duties. By November 1, Wilson
once again governed the country, although he was left partially
paralyzed, weak and demoralized. In March 1920, the Senate finally
rejected the Treaty of Versailles.
(AP, 9/25/97)(HNPD, 9/25/98)
1919 Sep 27, British troops
withdrew from Archangel.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1919 Sep 27, Adelina [Adela JM]
Patti, Italian soprano (Lucio), died at 76.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1919 Sep, The British regime
banned the Irish Parliament (Dail Eireann).
(www.thehistorynet.com/mh/blmanagainstempire/)
1919 Oct 1, In baseball’s World
Series the Chicago White Sox faced the Cincinnati Reds in a best of 9
games. The White Sox intentionally threw the series to satisfy gamblers
in what became known as the Black Sox Scandal. 8 players were banned
from baseball for life. In 1963 Eliot Asinof described the events in
his book “Eight men Out.” The 1988 baseball film "Eight Men Out" was
directed by John Sayles.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, BR p.8)(SFC, 7/14/96, DB p.33)(AH,
10/04, p.14)
1919 Oct 1, Black sharecroppers
gathered at Elaine, Arkansas, to secure a more equitable price for
their products. When a white deputy sheriff and a railroad detective,
arrived at the church, a fight broke out between them and the guards in
which the railroad detective was killed and the deputy sheriff was
wounded. This led to 3 days of fighting and the killing of 5 white men
and close to 200 black men, women and children. The Arkansas state
court later sentenced 12 sharecroppers to death and a 5-year legal
battle ensued. In 2008 Robert Whitaker authored “”On the Laps of Gods:
The Red Summer of 1919 and the Struggle for Justice That Remade a
Nation.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Race_Riot)(SSFC, 7/27/08, Books
p.1)
1919 Oct 2, President Wilson
suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed and Vice-President
Thomas R. Marshall was urged to assume the presidency but he refused.
It was Marshall who had earlier said: "What this country needs is a
really good five-cent cigar." The quote was attributed to Marshall in
1920 by the SFEM..
(DFP, 7/28/96, p.J1)(SFEM, 12/15/96, p.15)(AP,
10/2/97)
1919 Oct 3, The Serbian, Croatian
& Slavic (Yugoslavia) parliament agreed on an 8 hr work day.
(MC, 10/3/01)
1919 Oct 4, Rene Marques, Puerto
Rican playwright and short story writer, was born.
(HN, 10/4/00)
1919 Oct 7, Fritz Kreisler's and
F. Jacobi's "Apple Blossoms," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 10/7/01)
1919 Oct 8, The U.S. Senate and
House of Representatives passed the Volstead Prohibition Enforcement
Bill. It was named for Representative Andrew Volstead of Minnesota and
enforced the ban on the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages.
This rang in the era of prohibition.
(HN, 10/8/98)(MC, 10/8/01)
1919 Oct 9, The Cincinnati Reds
won the World Series, defeating the Chicago White Sox 10-5 at Comiskey
Park. The victory turned hollow amid charges eight of the White Sox had
thrown the Series in what became known as the "Black Sox" scandal.
(AP, 10/9/08)
1919 Oct 11, Art Blakey, jazz
drummer, was born.
(HN, 10/11/00)
1919 Oct 11, The 1st
transcontinental air race ended.
(MC, 10/11/01)
1919 Oct 11, KLM Royal Dutch
Airlines made its debut and served a pre-packaged dinner, believed to
be the 1st in-flight meal, on a flight between London and Paris.
(SSFC, 12/14/03, p.D2)(WSJ, 5/31/08, p.A12)
1919 Oct 16, Kathleen Winsor,
writer, was born. Her work includes "Forever Amber."
(HN, 10/16/00)
1919 Oct 17, The Radio Corporation
of America (RCA) was chartered.
(AP, 10/17/08)
1919 Oct 18, Pierre Elliott
Trudeau, (L) 15th Canadian PM (1968-79, 1980-84), was born.
(MC, 10/18/01)
1919 Oct 18, Madrid opened a
subway system.
(HN, 10/18/98)
1919 Oct 19, The US Distinguished
Service Medal was awarded to a woman for the 1st time.
(MC, 10/19/01)
1919 Oct 22, Doris Lessing,
novelist, was born. Her work included "Children of Violence" and "The
Golden Notebook." Carole Klein (d.2001 at 67) later authored "Doris
Lessing: A Biography."
(HN, 10/22/00)(SFC, 7/5/01, p.D2)
1919 Oct 23, Sigmund Romberg's
musical "Passing Show," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1919 Oct 26, Elgar's Cello
Concerto premiered in Queen's Hall London.
(MC, 10/26/01)
1919 Oct 26, President Wilson's
veto of Prohibition Enforcement Bill was overridden.
(MC, 10/26/01)
1919 Oct 26, Mohammed Riza
Pahlevi, the Shah of Iran (1941-79). He was overthrown in 1979 and died
in the United States, was born.
(HN, 10/26/98)(MC, 10/26/01)
1919 Oct 27, The Axeman of New
Orleans claimed last victim.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1919 Oct 28, Congress passed the
National Prohibition Act, or Volstead Act, over President Wilson’s
veto. It was named after its promoter, Congressman Andrew J. Volstead,
and provided enforcement guidelines for the Prohibition Amendment which
had been ratified January 29.
(AP, 10/28/97)(HN, 10/28/98)
1919 Nov 7, US police raided
offices of Union of Russian Workers.
(MC, 11/7/01)
1919 Nov 10, The American Legion
held its first national convention, in Minneapolis.
(AP, 11/10/97)
1919 Nov 10, Moise Tshombe was
born. He became Pres. of Katanga and then premier of the Congo (Zaire).
(MC, 11/10/01)
1919 Nov 11, The first 2-minutes’
silence was observed in Britain to commemorate those who died in the
Great War.
(HN, 11/11/98)
1919 Nov 14, Red Army captured
Omsk, Siberia.
(MC, 11/14/01)
1919 Nov 15, The US Senate 1st
invoked cloture to end a filibuster over the Versailles Treaty.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1919 Nov 17, Hershy Kay, composer
and arranger, was born Philadelphia, Penn.
(MC, 11/17/01)
1919 Nov 18, H. Tierney's and J.
McCarthy's musical "Irene," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1919 Nov 19, The US Senate
rejected the Treaty of Versailles by a vote of 55 in favor to 39
against, short of the two-thirds majority needed for ratification.
(AP, 11/19/97)
1919 Nov 19, Gillo Pontecorvo
(d.2006) was born in Pisa, Italy. He one of 10 children of a wealthy
Jewish industrialist and grew up to become a prominent film maker.
(SFC, 10/14/06, p.B5)
1919 Nov 22, A Labor conference
committee in the U.S. urged an eight hour work day and a 48-hour week.
(HN, 11/22/98)
1919 Nov 27, Bulgaria signed peace
treaty with Allies at Neuilly, France, fixing war reparations and
recognizing Yugoslavian independence.
(HN, 11/27/98)
1919 Nov 28, American-born Lady
Astor was elected the first female member of the British Parliament.
(DTnet, 11/28/97)(HN, 11/28/98)
1919 Nov 30, Women cast votes for
the first time in French legislative elections.
(HN, 11/30/98)
1919 Nov, Attorney Gen'l. A.
Mitchell Palmer ordered anti-Communist raids supported by his assistant
J. Edgar Hoover. The Palmer raids led to the arrest of over 450 members
of the Union of Russian Workers. [see Jan. 1920]
(SSFC, 1/11/04, p.M6)
1919 Nov, A group of officers of
the American Brigade, 112th United Stated Infantry, left the United
States and arrived in Kaunas on December 31. They had had to sail from
Quebec because of a steamship strike in New York. They visited
Lithuanian Minister Count A. Tyszkiewicz in London, where they first
heard of the Lithuanian victory at Šiauliai over Bermondt.
Approximately 10,000 enlisted men were ready to go to Lithuania. The US
government would not allow direct transportation so arrangements were
made for them to be taken to Canada as laborers. From there they were
to sail to Riga. The expedition was financed by the Lithuanians, with
some assurance that there would be unpublicized indirect support from
the US government.
(www.arlingtoncemetery.net/sjharris.htm)
1919 Dec 1, AA Milne's "Mr. Pim
Passes By," premiered in Manchester.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1919 Dec 1, Lady Astor was sworn
in as the first female member of the British Parliament.
(AP, 12/1/00)
1919 Dec 2, Henry Clay Frick
(b.1849), coal and steel magnate, died in NYC. He partnered with Andrew
Carnegie and built of the largest coke & steel operation of the
time. In 1998 Martha Frick and Symington Sanger authored “Henry Clay
Frick.” In 2005 Les Standiford authored “Meet You In Hell,” an account
of the rivalry between Frick and Andrew Carnegie.
(www.netstate.com/states/peop/people/pa_hcf.htm)(WSJ, 7/29/05,
p.W8)(WSJ, 8/4/07, p.P9)
1919 Dec 3, Pierre A. Renoir (78),
French painter and sculptor, died.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1919 Dec 8-31, The first round
trip transcontinental flight was made from NYC to SF and back.
(SFEC, 4/25/99, Z1 p.4)
1919 Dec 10, Captain Ross Smith
became the first person to fly 11,500 miles from England to Australia.
(HN, 12/10/98)
1919 Dec 18, Horatio William
Parker (56), composer, died.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1919 Dec 18, British pilot John
William Alcock (b.1892), enroute to a Pris air show, was killed while
making a forced landing in fog near Rouen. He and navigator Arthur
Witten Brown (1886-1948) had recently completed the world’s first
nonstop transatlantic flight [see June 14].
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Whitten_Brown)(ON, 4/09, p.1)
1919 Dec 19, The Thimble Theatre
cartoon strip, by Elzie Segar (1894-1938) of Chesater, Ill., made its
debut in the New York Journal and featured the characters Olive Oyl,
Castor Oyl, and Ham Gravy, who were the comic's leads for about a
decade. Segar added Popeye in 1929.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.C._Segar)
1919 Dec 19, American
Meteorological Society was founded.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1919 Dec 20, US House of
Representatives restricted immigration.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1919 Dec 21, J. Edgar Hoover
gallantly deported anarchist, feminist Emma Goldman to Russia for
agitating against forced conscription in the US.
(WSJ, 12/11/95, p.A-1)(MC, 12/21/01)
1919 Dec 23, The 1st hospital ship
built to move wounded naval personnel was launched.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1919 Dec 23, Alice H. Parker
patented a gas heating furnace.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1919 Dec 23, Britain instituted a
new constitution for India.
(HN, 12/23/98)
1919 Ahmed Ben Bella, Algerian
statesman, was born. He served as premier from 1962-1965.
(WUD, 1994 p.137)
1919 Iris Murdoch,
philosopher-novelist, was born in Dublin. She wrote some 26 novels and
in 1998 published "Existentialists and Mystics," a collection of
writings from 1950 to the 1980s. Herein she tries to "recover the moral
dimension of art."
(WSJ, 2/17/98, p.A20)
1919 Gaston Lachaise (1882-1935),
Franco-American sculptor, created his work "Dancing Nude."
(SFC, 2/2/02, p.D1)
c1919 Childe Hassam, American
impressionist, painted "California."
(WSJ, 6/2/00, p.W4)
1919 Otto Dix created his work
"Ich bin das A und das O."
(SFEC, 5/23/99, BR p.7)
1919 Amedeo Modigliani painted
another portrait of his mistress Jeanne Hebuterne. She was believed to
be pregnant in this portrait.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.W14)
1919 Sherwood Anderson published
his linked short story collection "Winesburg, Ohio.
(SFEC, 8/15/99, BR p.1)
1919 Albert Beveridge wrote a
biography of former chief justice John Marshall.
(WSJ, 12/10/96, p.A20)
1919 Christine Frederick authored
“Household Engineering: Scientific Management in the Home,” in which
she borrowed the principle of efficiency on the factory floor and
applied it to domestic tasks in the American kitchen.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.126)
1919 Hermann Hesse published his
first real literary success, "Demian," The novel about a young,
troubled adolescent’s conflict to achieve self-awareness, was
symbolized by the duality between his dream character Demian and his
real-life counterpart, Sinclair.
(iUniv. 7/2/00)
1919 Somerset Maugham (d.1965),
author “The Moon and Sixpence,” a novel whose main character is based
on Paul Gauguin.
(Econ, 3/6/04, p.75)
1919 John Reed and Bertram Wolfe
(d.1977 at 81) wrote a manifesto that resulted in the formation of the
American Communist Party.
(SFC, 1/17/00, p.C2)
1919 George Bernard Shaw wrote his
play "Heartbreak House."
(SFEC, 9/8/96, DB p.7)
1919 W.B. Yeats wrote his poem
"The Second Coming."
(SFEC, 10/31/99, BR p.7)
1919 P.G. Wodehouse wrote his
novel "Damsel in Distress." It was dramatized in 1928 and scored for
film by George and Ira Gershwin in 1937.
(WSJ, 7/29/98, p.A13)
1919 Movie audiences were
introduced to Felix the Cat. Otto Messmer created Felix for an
animation studio owned by Pat Sullivan, who licensed the character. A.
Schoenhut & Co. of Philadelphia (f.1872) began marketing Felix toys
in the 1920s.
(SFC, 8/31/05, p.G3)
1919 "La Lucille" by George
Gershwin, was his first Broadway play. Gershwin’s song "Swanee" was
performed by Al Jolson and Jolson’s recording in 1920 was a megahit.
(SFC, 3/9/98, p.C2)(SFEC, 8/16/98, DB p.37)(WSJ,
10/5/98, p.A21)
c1919 George Gershwin composed "O
Land of Mine" for chorus and orchestra.
(WSJ, 10/5/98, p.A21)
1919 Richard Strauss composed his
opera "Die Frau Ohne Schatten" (The Woman Without a Shadow).
(WSJ, 12/26/01, p.A8)
1919 Louis Armstrong joined the
Fate Marable band on a riverboat. His finest recordings include "West
End Blues" and "Potato Head Blues."
(WSJ, 1/3/95, p. 8)(WSJ, 6/03/97, p.A20)
1919 Albert Einstein divorced
Mileva Maric and married his cousin and mistress Elsa Einstein
Lowenthal.
(SFC, 11/26/96, p.A7)
1919 Edgar Allen 1862-1937), Ohio
businessman, founded the National Society for Crippled Children. In
1934 the organization launched its first Easter Seal fundraising
campaign. In 1952 it incorporated the lily flower as its symbol. In
1967 the organization adopted Easter Seals as ifs formal name.
(www.extramile.us/honorees/allen.cfm)
1919 James Henry Breasted
(1865-1935), archeologist, founded the Oriental Institute as part of
the Univ. of Chicago. The collection was opened to the public in 1931.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriental_Institute,_Chicago)(WSJ, 9/9/99,
p.A25)(AM, 7/05, p.56)
1919 Draugas , a Lithuanian
newspaper, began daily publication. It was published by the
congregation of Lithuanian Marion fathers in Chicago.
(Dr, 7/96, V1#1, p.3)
1919 Musso & Frank’s
Restaurant opened and is now Hollywood’s oldest surviving eatery.
(Hem., Nov. ‘95, p.76)
1919 The Hoover Institute on War,
Revolution and Peace was founded at Stanford to track the growth of
Soviet-style communism.
(SFC, 11/27/01, p.A20)
1919 In San Francisco the Tosca
Café opened on Columbus Avenue in North Beach.
(SFC, 11/19/09, p.A1)
1919 James Henry Breasted founded
the Oriental Institute of the Univ. of Chicago.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.74)
1919 The Huntington Library,
founded by H.E. Huntington, a nephew of Southern Pacific co-founder
Collis P. Huntington, was donated to the public.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.D1)
1919 Cornelius Vander Starr
(1892-1968) founded "American Asiatic Underwriters" (later known as
AIG). AIG left China in early 1949, as Mao Zedong led the advance of
the Communist People's Liberation Army on Shanghai. Starr moved the
company headquarters to NYC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Vander_Starr)
1919 Carl Linder won the Boston
Marathon. He was rejected for military service due to flat feet.
(SFEC, 7/9/00, Z1 p.2)
1919 US Pres. Woodrow Wilson won
the Nobel Peace Prize.
(AP, 10/9/09)
1919 The League of Nations was
proposed by Woodrow Wilson.
(V.D.-H.K.p.318)
1919 The Paris Peace Conference
upheld the sovereignty of Albania with the efforts of Amer. Pres.
Woodrow Wilson.
(Compuserve Online, Grolier’s Amer. Acad. Enc./
Albania)
1919 The US Congress renamed Sieur
de Monts National Monument to Lafayette National Park.
(SFC, 7/21/96, p.T6)
1919 The first Hawaiian statehood
bill was introduced. Congressional reluctance to Hawaii’s admission was
based on concern about admitting a noncontiguous state, fears of
excessive Communist influence among unionized workers and Southern
concerns about the admission of pro-civil rights congressmen. Hawaii’s
popularly elected territorial legislature first petitioned to become a
state in 1903.
(HNQ, 2/23/02)
1919 In Dodge v. Ford the Michigan
Supreme Court held that Henry Ford owed a duty to the shareholders of
the Ford Motor Company to operate his business for profitable purposes
as opposed to charitable purposes.
(WSJ, 1/14/08,
p.R2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Company)
1919 Henry Ford sued the Chicago
Tribune for libel after the newspaper called him an "ignorant"
anarchist. Ford won the suit and was awarded 6 cents. He soon began
amassing material of historical value.
(WSJ, 11/21/03, p.A7)
1918 Highland Park seceded from
Detroit, Mi. The village of Highland Park was incorporated as a city to
protect its tax base, including its successful Ford plant, from
Detroit's expanding boundaries.
(Econ, 12/19/09,
p.55)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Park,_Michigan)
1919 Texas Rep. Jose T. Canales
pushed through legislation to reform the Texas Rangers following
reports that the Rangers had killed some 5,000 Hispanics over the
previous 5 years.
(SFC, 4/12/04, p.E8)
1919 The U.S.S. Texas was sunk at
Pocomoke Sound just south of Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay by
well-placed Navy bombs.
(NG, Sept. 1939, J. Maloney p.365)
1919 Charles Ponzi of Boston
hatched a scheme that defrauded thousands of investors in a
postal-coupon scam in the 1920s. He bilked investors in a scheme of
high return similar to the "520% Miller" con of 1899. He was convicted
and spent 13 years in prison and was deported to Italy in 1934.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)(WSJ, 7/23/99, p.A14)(WSJ,
7/10/02, p.A8)(SSFC, 7/14/02, p.G2)
1919 A.P. Giannini of SF formed
the East National Bank in NYC.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.B1)
1919 Atlanta banker Ernest
Woodruff took Coca Cola public.
(SFC, 4/3/00, p.E1)
c1919 American Spirits
Manufacturing Co. in order to cope with prohibition, became US Food
Products Corp.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-45)
1919 Chalk’s Ocean Airways was
founded to fly tourists and fisherman from Florida to the Bahamas.
(SFC, 12/20/05, p.A4)
1919 Pierre DuPont gave the
presidency of the company over to his brother Irenee so as to assume
the leadership over GM which they controlled from stock purchases with
war profits.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R46)
1919 General Motors established
General Motors Acceptance Corp. (GMAC) to handle loans for its sales.
In 2006 Cerberus Capital Management moved to acquire a 51% controlling
stake.
(WSJ, 4/4/06, p.A1)
1919 General Electric joined with
other technology businesses and formed the Radio Corp. of America,
which took over the assets of Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. of America.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-45)
1919 Henry Ford bought out all
nonfamily stockholders. Edsel B. Ford became president of the company.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1919 Halliburton Corp. was founded
and focused primarily on business-to-business relationships. In 2003 it
had some 100,000 employees.
(WSJ, 10/17/03, p.A10)
1919 Reynolds Aluminum started out
as the US Foil Co. to furnish tinfoil for wrapping cigarette packs.
(SFEC, 4/5/98, Z1 p.8)
1919 United Artists was founded as
a film distributor and later a financial backer by silent film stars
Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Charlie Chaplin and director D.W.
Griffith. Pickford and Fairbanks were married for a time. Her life is
documented in the 1997 book: "Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood"
by Eileen Whitfield.
(SFC, 7/11/97, p.E2)(SFC,11/26/97, Z1 p.E6)
1919 The 1st rotary-dial
telephones were installed in Norfolk, Va.
(SFC, 7/23/04, p.C1)
1919 Air pioneers flew in the
Great London to Australia Air Derby of this year. Six planes competed
with 14 contestants. Four died in crashes, two were arrested in
Yugoslavia for spying, and two others were forced down in Iraq and had
to fend off local tribesmen with hand grenades.
(NG, 5/95, p.10)
1919 The first west-bound
transatlantic flight was made by a British airship.
(Hem., 1/96, p.108)
1919 Ernest Rutherford announced
that he had succeeded in breaking up the nucleus of a nitrogen atom by
bombarding it with high-energy alpha particles from a radioactive
source.
(SCTS, p.122)
1919 Joseph Larmor (1857-1942),
Irish mathematician, proposed that the Earth’s magnetic field was
generated spontaneously by the swirling of molten metal inside the
planet.
(Econ, 2/3/07, p.81)
1919 The Winnetka Plan was a
widely-imitated approach to elementary education developed in Winnetka,
Illinois. The curriculum, which emphasized individualized learning, was
divided into two sections: common essentials and creative activities.
In the common essentials section, the pupil was able to advance upon
mastering the material. In the creative section, which included music,
art, and physical activities, pupils could learn as much or as little
as they wanted.
(HNQ, 12/7/00)
1919 US Sen. Peter Norbeck founded
the 73,000 acre Custer State Park, 20 miles south of Keystone, South
Dakota.
(SSFC, 8/4/02, p.C11)
1919 Arthur Eddington, a British
astronomer, mounted an expedition to Sobral, Brazil, to watch an
eclipse and gather data to verify Einstein's theory of relativity.
Though his results were ambiguous he claimed triumph. In 1980 Harry
Colling and Trevor Pinch published "The Golem," an account of the
expedition.
(WSJ, 8/11/99, p.A18)
1919 Frank Woolworth, founder of
the 5&10 cent retail chain, died. His chain was renamed in 1998 to
Venator Corp., a name that means sportsman in Latin.
(SFC,10/20/97, p.B2)(SFC, 4/3/98, p.E1)
1919 The first museum in
Afghanistan was instituted at Baghe Bala.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1919 Afghanistan was recognized as
a sovereign nation.
(WSJ, 10/1/01, p.A1)
1919 The Emir of Afghanistan
declared jihad against Britain’s forces in the North-West Frontier
Province. In response Britain shipped a single Handley Page biplane
bomber to Karachi. It flew over Kabul and dropped four 20-pound bombs.
The emir sued for peace shortly thereafter.
(Econ, 8/26/06, p.20)
1919 In Afghanistan Habibullah was
assassinated, and succeeded by his son Amanullah (The reform King).
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1919 "Economic Development of the
Argentine Republic in the Past 50 Years" was published by Banco
Tornquist.
(WSJ, 2/28/97, p.A15)
1919 Austria enacted laws that
barred the Habsburgs from public office and resulted in the
confiscation of their property.
(WSJ, 12/8/97, p.A13)
1919 Austria was obliged to pay
reparations to countries ravaged by WW I fighting.
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.97)
1919 Bahraini merchants opened the
region’s first modern school on the island state.
(NG, 5/88, p.663)
1919 The Belgian government
collected about 330 US tons of German shells and buried them near
Poelkapelle under a layer of concrete. Cleaning of the site began in
2006.
(WSJ, 5/24/06, p.A12)
1919 General Electric Corp.
entered the emerging market of Brazil.
(Econ, 11/14/09, SR p.9)
1919 Britain gave power over
libraries to its counties.
(Econ, 5/1/04, p.59)
1919 In China Shougang Group steel
mill was founded on the outskirts of Beijing. It was nationalized after
the communist takeover in 1949. In 2008 the main plant was closed in an
effort to improve air quality for the Olympics.
(Econ, 3/15/08, SR p.6)
1919 The borders of Czechoslovakia
were set up by the Versailles Treaty and incorporated 3 million
Germans. Most of the Germans lived along the Czech-German border known
as the Sudetenland.
(SFC,1/22/97, p.A8)
1919 The Ditmar Urbach pottery
factory was founded in Czechoslovakia with the merger of Urbach
Brothers and Rudolph Ditmar’s Heirs.
(SFC, 2/14/07, p.G3)
1919 Walter Gropius co-founded the
Bauhaus in Germany. Two existing schools in Weimar were combined into a
single institution. The new school, "the house of building," also
combined two important trends in art education: artistic training and
arts and crafts. Henry van de Velde was one of the founders. Gropius
served as the founding director until 1927.
(V.D.-H.K.p.363)(SFC, 9/2/98, Z1 p.6)(Econ,
11/14/09, p.104)
1919 Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925)
opened his 1st private school for the workers at the Waldorf-Astoria
cigarette factory in Germany.
(SFC, 10/29/00, p.A7)
1919 Gdansk was separated from the
Deutsches Reich as a free state with a high commissioner of the League
of Nations.
(NG, 5.1988, Mem Forum)
1919 At the end of WW I the German
High Seas Fleet was interred at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys. During
armistice discussions the German commander gave orders to scuttle the
ships.
(SFEM, 10/10/99, p.49)
1919 In Greece the hotel Capsis
Bristol was built in Thessaloniki.
(WSJ, 9/26/08, p.A20)
1919 In Hong Kong Hueng Chin,
father of filmmaker Charles Hueng, founded the Sun Yee On triad, a
secret criminal society.
(SFC, 2/18/98, p.A7)
1919 Gillette Co. opened a sales
office in Calcutta, India. Razor blades were sold from a plant in
London.
(WSJ, 3/13/97, p.A1)
1919 Japan’s Mitsubishi Bank was
founded. In 1996 it joined with the Bank of Tokyo and in 2005 became
part of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.
(WSJ, 9/23/08, p.C1)
c1919 Jose Clemente Orozco, David
Alfaro Siqueiros (d.1974) and Diego Rivera, Mexican painters in Paris,
decided that the revolution must be expressed in a public art that all
could understand.
(SFEC, 11/8/98, p.T5)
1919 Bennett Young, leader of the
1863 Confederate raid on St. Albans, Vermont, died in Louisville
following a law career.
(ON, 11/99, p.12)
1919 This year marked the birth of
Palestinian - Arab nationalism. The events are documented in the 1996
book "Jerusalem in the 20th Century by Martin Gilbert."
(WSJ, 10/14/96, p.A14)
1919 In France at the Folies
Bergere women performed totally nude on stage for the first time in the
modern Western World.
(SFEC, 1/10/99, Z1 p.8)
1919 In Russia the Bolsheviks
began repressions and millions of Cossacks died. Their institutions
were destroyed and many fled the country.
(SFC,10/28/97, p.A8)
1919 Lenin created the Comintern
to supervise the int'l. revolutionary movement.
(WSJ, 6/6/03, p.W9)
1919 Serbs attacked Albanian
cities; Albanians adopted guerilla warfare. Albania was denied official
representation at the Paris Peace Conference; British, French and Greek
negotiators decided to divide Albania among Greece, Italy and
Yugoslavia. This decision was vetoed by American president Wilson.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1919 The Swiss-based Nestle
company exhausted its local supply of milk and began opening factories
in Australia, England, Germany and Norway.
(Econ, 10/31/09, p.81)
1919 In central Uganda Semei
Kakungule, chief of the Abayudaya, converted to Judaism after the
British broke a promise to give him a kingdom. By 1961 membership
reached 3,000. In 1972 Idi Amin banned Judaism. Membership in 2004 was
about 600.
(Econ, 1/24/04, p.43)
1919 Jimmy Winkfield (1882-1974),
former US Kentucky Derby winner, helped lead 262 horses from the Odessa
(Ukraine) race track to Warsaw, Poland, in a 3-month journey in front
of the advancing Red Army.
(SSFC, 5/7/06,
p.P8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Winkfield)
1919 The Dalat Palace was built in
Dalat, Vietnam. Restoration of the hotel began in 1991 under Larry
Hillblom (d.1995), co-founder of DHL, an express-delivery company.
(WSJ, 1/3/06, p.A14)
1919-1920 Hanna Hoch (1889-1978), photomontage artist
of the Berlin Dada movement made her work "Cut With the Kitchen Knife
Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Epoch of Germany."
(SFC, 3/25/97, p.E3)
1919-1920 Charles Ponzi of Boston bilked investors in
a scheme of high return similar to the "520% Miller" con of 1899.
(WSJ, 7/23/99, p.A14)
1919-1921 The 3rd Anglo-Afghan war began. The British
were defeated, and Afghanistan gained full control of her foreign
affairs.
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A14)
1919-1922 The Greco-Turkish war. After the war ethnic
Greeks were forced to leave Turkey and ethnic Turks were forced to
leave Greece.
(SFEM, 3/12/00, p.28)
1919-1933 This is the period of the Weimar Republic,
Germany’s 1st democratic government. In 2007 Eric D. Weitz authored
“Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy.”
(Econ, 9/22/07, p.100)
1919-1939 Vincent Cronin writes a description of
Paris, France, in 1995 that cover this period in his book: Paris: City
of Light, 1919-1939. The book concentrates on the artists, thinkers,
writers and politicians of this time and place. [see 1900-1914]
(WSJ, 11/21/95, p.A-12)
1919-1965 Nat King Cole, popular singer, began his
career as a pianist in a jazz combo. He established int’l. fame as a
singer of ballads. His biography was made into a TV feature shown in
1998.
(SFC, 2/2/98, p.D7)
1919-1980 Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, later shah of Iran.
(V.D.-H.K.p.311)
1919-1990 Malcolm Forbes, American publisher: "When
in doubt, duck."
(AP, 5/5/97)
1919-1990 Laurence J. Peter, Canadian-born educator
and author of "The Peter Principle" Thought for Today: "A pessimist is
a man who looks both ways when he’s crossing a one-way street."
(AP, 8/11/97)
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