1920

Published on Monday, June 23rd 2008. Edited by Tab Mapsetwig, Beijing, China.

Centuries: 19th century – 20th century – 21st century

Decades: 1890s  1900s  1910s  – 1920s –  1930s  1940s  1950s

Years: 1917 1918 1919 – 1920 – 1921 1922 1923

Year 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display 1920) of the Gregorian calendar.

Events of 1920

January

• 1 January – Babe Ruth is traded by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees for $125,000, the largest sum ever paid for a player at that time.
• 7 January – Forces of Russian White admiral Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk. The Great Siberian Ice March ensues.

• 9 January

• Thousands of onlookers watch as “The Human Fly” George Polley, climbs the New York Woolworth Building. He has reached the 30th floor when a policeman arrests him for climbing without a permit

• 16 January

• Prohibition begins in the United States with the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution coming into effect.

• The World War I Allies demand that the Netherlands extradite the German Kaiser Wilhelm II, who has fled there.

• Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated, was founded on the campus of Howard University in Washington D.C.

• 19 January – The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.

• 22 January – The Australian Country Party is officially formed, led by Nelson Pollard.
• 23 January – The Netherlands refuses to extradite the German Kaiser.
• 28 January – The Spanish legion is founded and stationed in North Africa to fight rebels in Morocco.
• 28 January – Turkey gives up the Ottoman Empire and all non-Turkish areas.
• 30 January – Oldest surviving pro wrestling match on film happened on this day with Joe Stecher defeating Earl Caddock

February

Image:RCMP officer Expo 67.jpg

1 February: RCM Police formed.

• 1 February – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police begin operations.

• 2 February

• Estonian Freedom War: Tartu Peace Treaty is signed, ending the war and recognizing Estonian independence.

• France occupies Memel.

• Sayyid Muhammad, Khan of Khiva abdicates.

• 7 February – Admiral Kolchak and Viktor Pepelyayev are executed by firing squad near Irkutsk.

• 9 February – League of Nations gives Spitsbergen to Norway.
• 10 February – Jozef Haller de Hallenburg performs the symbolic wedding of Poland to the sea, celebrating restitution of Polish access to open sea.
• 14 February – The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago.
• 17 February -A woman named Anna Anderson tries to commit suicide in Berlin and is taken to mental hospital, where she claims she is Anastasia.
• 21 February – The island province of Marinduque in the Philippine archipelago was being founded.
• 22 February – In Emeryville, California, the first dog racing track to employ an imitation rabbit opens.
• 24 February – Adolf Hitler presents his National Socialist program in Munich.

March

• March – World’s first peaceful establishment of a social democratic government takes place in Sweden. Hjalmar Branting takes over when Nils Edén resigns.

• 1 March

• Hungarian Admiral and statesman Miklós Horthy becomes the Regent of Hungary

• The United States Railroad Administration returns control of American railroads to its constituent railroad companies.

• 10 March – The Baylor Business Men’s Club changes its name to the Baylor University Chamber of Commerce. It has operated under this name since the change.

• 13 March-17 March – Wolfgang Kapp fails in his coup attempt in Germany due to public resistance and a general strike.
• 15 March – Red Army of Ruhr, communist army 60.000 men strong, formed
• 19 March – US Congress refuses to ratify Versailles Treaty.
• 23 March – Admiral Horthy declares that Hungary is a monarchy without anyone on the throne.

• 26 March

• German government asks France for permission to use its own troops against rebellious Ruhr Red Army in the French-occupied area.

• Irish War of Independence: The Black and Tans special constables arrive in Ireland.

• 28 March – The Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1920 hits the Great Lakes region and Deep South states.

• 29 March – Sir William Robertson, who enlisted in 1877, becomes a field marshal in the British Army, the first man to rise to this rank from private
• 31 March – Government of Ireland Act 1920 is presented in British parliament.

April

• 2 April – German army marches to Ruhr to fight Red Ruhr Army.
• 4 April – Jerusalem pogrom of April, 1920 . Violence between Arabic and Jewish resident in Jerusalem . governor declares the state of siege
• 6 April – The short-lived Far Eastern Republic declared in eastern Siberia
• 11 April – Mexican Revolution – Álvaro Obregón flees from Mexico City during a trial intended to ruin his reputation – he flees to Guerrero where he joins Fortunato Maycotte
• 19 April – Germany and Bolshevist Russia agree to the exchange of prisoners of war.
• 20 April – Álvaro Obregón announces in Chilpancingo that he intends to fight against the rule of Venustiano Carranza
• 23 April – National council in Turkey denounces the government of sultan Mehmed VI and announces a temporary constitution.
• 24 April – Polish-Soviet War: Polish and Anti-Soviet Ukrainian troops attack the Red Army in Soviet Ukraine.
• 26 April – the Khorezm People’s Soviet Republic is officially created by Bolshevist Russia as the successor to the Khanate of Khiva.

May

• 2 May – The first game of the Negro National League baseball is played in Indianapolis, Indiana.

• 7 May

• Polish-Soviet War: Polish troops occupy Kyiv. The government of Ukrainian People’s Republic returns to the city.

• Venustiano Carranza leaves Mexico City in a large train.

• Treaty of Moscow (1920): Soviet Russia recognizes independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia only to invade the country six months later.

• 19 May – Álvaro Obregón’s troops enter Mexico City

• 15 May – Maria Bochkareva executed in Soviet Russia

• 16 May –

• Joan of Arc is canonised. Over 30,000 people attended the ceremony in Rome, including 140 descendants of Joan of Arc’s family. Pope Benedict XV presided over the rite, for which the interior of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome was richly decorated.

• Referendum in Switzerland is favorable to joining League of Nations.

• 17 May

• French and Belgian troops leave the cities they have occupied in Germany.

• First flight of KLM, Dutch air company, from Amsterdam to London.

• 20 May – Venustiano Carranza arrives in San Antonio Tlaxcalantongo. Troops of Rodolfo Herrera attack him at night and shoot him

• 24 May – Venustiano Carranza is buried in Mexico City – all of his mourning allies are arrested. Adolfo de la Huerta is elected provisional president
• 27 May – Tomáš Masaryk becomes president of Czechoslovakia.
• 29 May – Great Horncastle flood. 20 people killed.

June

• 4 June – Treaty of Trianon, Treaty of Peace between the Allied Powers and Hungary.
• 12 June – Polish-Soviet War: Red Army retakes Kyiv.
• 13 June – The United States Post Office Department rules that children may not be sent via parcel post
• 15 June – New border treaty between Germany and Denmark gives northern Schleswig to Denmark.
• 22 June – Greece attacks Turkish troops.

July

• 1 July – Germany declares its neutrality in the war between Poland and Soviet Russia
• 2 July – Polish-Soviet War: Red Army continues offensive into Poland.
• 10 July – Arthur Meighen becomes Canada’s ninth prime minister.
• 12 July – Bolshevist Russia recognizes independent Lithuania.
• 13 July – London County Council bars foreigners from council jobs.
• 19 July – 7 August – The Second Congress of the Communist International took place in Saint Petersburg and Moscow. The notorious Twenty-one Conditions were adopted.
• 20 July – The United Kingdom cedes its brief control of the key Black Sea port of Batum to the Democratic Republic of Georgia.
• 22 July – Polish-Soviet War: Poland sues for peace with Bolshevist Russia.
• 23 July – The French defeat the Syrian army in the Battle of Maysalun.
• 24 July – French troops occupy Damascus and depose Faisal I of Syria as king of Syria.
• 26 July – Pancho Villa takes over Sabina and contacts de la Huerta to offer his conditional surrender. He signs his surrender in 28 July.
• 29 July – The United States Bureau of Reclamation begins construction of the Link River Dam as part of the Klamath Reclamation Project.
• 31 July – France prohibits the sale or prescription of contraceptives.

August

• 2 August – Irish War of Independence: British parliament passes bill to restore order in Ireland, suspending jury trials.
• 3 August – Irish War of Independence: Catholics riot in Belfast.
• 10 August – Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI’s representatives sign the Treaty of Sèvres.
• 11 August – Bolshevik Russia recognizes independent Estonia and Latvia.
• 13 August – 25 August – Polish-Soviet War: The Red Army is defeated in the Battle of Warsaw.
• 15 August – Irish War of Independence: Town Hall of Templemore, Ireland, is burned down during the riots.
• 18 August – Amendment 19 allowed women the right to vote under constitutional protection.
• 19 August-25 August – Second Silesian Uprising, the Poles in Upper Silesia rise against the Germans
• 20 August – The first commercial radio station in the United States, 8MK (WWJ), begins operations in Detroit, Michigan.
• 26 August – 19th Amendment to US constitution is passed, guaranteeing women’s suffrage.

September

• 4 September – El Tercio de Extranjeros, the “Regiment of Foreigners” (modern-day Spanish Legion) inaugurated in Spain
• 5 September – Presidential elections begin in Mexico
• 8 September – Gabriele D'Annunzio proclaims the Italian Regency of Carnaro in the city of Fiume.
• 16 September – The Wall Street bombing: a hi cordell bomb in a horse wagon explodes in front of the J.P.Morgan building in New York City – 38 dead, 400 injured
• 20 September – The first soldier joins the Spanish Legion.
• 22 September – Flying Squad formed in London Metropolitan Police.

• 29 September

• First domestic radio sets come to stores in USA – Westinghouse radio costs $10.

• Adolf Hitler makes first public political speech, in Austria.

October

• 9 October – Polish troops take Vilnius
• 10 October – In the Carinthian Plebiscite a large part of Carinthia Province votes to become part of Austria rather than of the Yugoslavia.
• 12 October – Polish-Soviet War After Polish army captures Tarnopol, Dubno, Minsk, and Dryssa, the ceasefire is enforced.
• 18 October – Thousands of unemployed demonstrate in London ? 50 injured
• 26 October – Álvaro Obregón is announced elected president of Mexico
• 27 October – League of Nations moves its headquarters to Geneva, Switzerland

November

• 2 November

• Warren G. Harding defeats James M. Cox and Eugene V. Debs in the U.S. presidential election, the first national U.S. election in which women have the right to vote.

• In the United States, KDKA AM of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (owned by Westinghouse) starts broadcasting as a commercial radio station. The first broadcast was the results of the U.S. presidential election, 1920.

• 11 November – Unknown Soldier buried in Westminster Abbey.

• 15 November – In Geneva, the first assembly of the League of Nations is held.
• 16 November – Queensland and Northern Territory Aviation Services (Qantas) is founded by Hudson Fysh and Paul McGinniss.
• 17 November – The council of the League of Nations accepts the constitution for the Free City of Danzig.
• 21 November – Bloody Sunday – British forces open fire on spectators and players during a football match in Dublin’s Croke Park, killing 14 Irish civilians. This followed the assassinations of 12 British agents by the IRA in an earlier attack elsewhere.
• 28 November – The Third Cork Brigade Flying Column under Tom Barry successfully ambush two lorries of British soldiers at Kilmichael, County Cork, in the Kilmichael Ambush
• Edmonton Symphony Orchestra’s first concert in the world along with martha Washington.

December

• 5 December – Referendum in Greece is favorable to reinstatement of monarchy.
• 11 December – Martial law in Ireland.

• 16 December

• Finland joins the League of Nations.

• 8.6 Richter scale Haiyuan earthquake causes landslide in Gansu Province, China – 180.000 dead.

• 15 December – 22 December – The Brussels conference establishes a timetable for German war reparations intended to extend for over 42 years.

• 22 December – The 8th Congress of Soviets of the Russian SFSR adopts GOELRO plan, the major plan of the economical development of the country.
• 23 December – United Kingdom and France ratify the border between French-held Syria and British-held Palestine.
• 25 December – Foundation of The Rosicrucian Fellowship’s Spiritual Healing Temple “The Ecclesia” at Mount Ecclesia, Oceanside, California (United States).

Ongoing

• Ethnic cleansing in Turkey:

• Assyrian Genocide (1914–1922)

• Pontic Greek Genocide (1916–1923).

• Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)

• Irish War of Independence

Births

1920 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar 1920 MCMXX

Ab urbe condita 2673

Armenian calendar 1369 ԹՎ ՌՅԿԹ

Bahá'í calendar 76 – 77

Berber calendar 2870

Buddhist calendar 2464

Burmese calendar 1282

Byzantine calendar 7428 – 7429

Chinese calendar 己未年十一月十一日 (4556/4616-11-11)

— to —

庚申年十一月廿二日 (4557/4617-11-22)

Coptic calendar 1636 – 1637

Ethiopian calendar 1912 – 1913

Hebrew calendar 5680 – 5681

Hindu calendars

 - Vikram Samvat 1975 – 1976

 - Shaka Samvat 1842 – 1843

 - Kali Yuga 5021 – 5022

Holocene calendar 11920

Iranian calendar 1298 – 1299

Islamic calendar 1338 – 1339

Japanese calendar Taishō 9 (大正9年)

Korean calendar 4253

Thai solar calendar 2463

January-February

• 1 January – Virgilio Savona, Italian singer and songwriter (Quartetto Cetra)
• 2 January – Isaac Asimov, Russian-born author (d. 1992), Anne-Sofie Østvedt, Norweigan resistance leader
• 3 January – Renato Carosone, Italian musician and singer (d. 2001)
• 5 January – Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Italian pianist (d. 1995)

• 6 January

• Sun Myung Moon, Korean evangelist

• John Maynard Smith, English biologist (d. 2004)

• Early Wynn, baseball player (d. 1999)

• 9 January – Hakim Mohammed Said, Pakistani scholar and philanthropist (d. 1998)

• 12 January – Bill Reid, Canadian artist (d. 1998)
• 19 January – Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Peruvian United Nations Secretary General

• 20 January

• Federico Fellini, Italian film director (d. 1993)

• DeForest Kelley, American actor (d. 1999)

• John O'Connor, American Catholic cardinal (d. 2000)

• 23 January – Gottfried Böhm, German architect

• 27 January – Helmut Zacharias, German violinist (d. 2002)
• 30 January – Delbert Mann, American television and film director
• 2 February – Heikki Suolahti, Finnish composer (d. 1936)
• 7 February – An Wang, Chinese-born computer pioneer (d. 1990)

• 11 February

• Farouk I, King of Egypt (d. 1965)

• Billy Halop, American actor (d. 1976)

• 12 February – William Roscoe Estep, American Baptist historian (d. 2000)

• 13 February – Seneka Bibile, Sri Lankan pharmacologist (d. 1977)
• 17 February – Ivo Caprino, Norwegian film director (d. 2001)
• 18 February – Bill Cullen, American game show host (d. 1990)
• 18 February – Eddie Slovik, U.S. Army private (d. 1945)

• 26 February

• Tony Randall, American actor (d. 2004)

• Lucjan Wolanowski, Polish journalist, writer, and traveler (d. 2006)

• 29 February – Howard Nemerov, American poet (d. 1991)

March-April

• 3 March

• James Doohan, Canadian-born actor (d. 2005)

• Ronald Searle, British cartoonist

• 4 March

• Jean Lecanuet, French politician (d. 1993)

• Alan MacNaughtan, Scottish actor (d. 2002)

• 10 March

• Alfred Peet, Dutch-American entrepreneur and the founder of Peet’s Coffee & Tea (d. 2007)

• Boris Vian, French writer, poet, singer, and musician (d. 1959)

• 11 March – Nicolaas Bloembergen, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

• 14 March – Hank Ketcham, American cartoonist (d. 2001)

• 15 March

• Lawrence Sanders, American novelist (d. 1998)

• E. Donnall Thomas, American physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

• 16 March – Leo McKern, Australian actor (d. 2002)

• 19 March – Kjell Aukrust, Norwegian poet and artist (d. 2002)
• 20 March – Pamela Harriman, English-born U.S. ambassador to France (d. 1997)
• 22 March – Werner Klemperer, German actor (d. 2000)
• 23 March – Tetsuharu Kawakami, Japanese baseball player and coach
• 24 March – Corbin Harney, an elder and spiritual leader of the Newe (Western Shoshone) people (d. 2007)

• 25 March

• Patrick Troughton, British actor (d. 1987)

• Arthur Wint, Jamaican runner (d. 1992)

• 27 March – Robin Jacques, English illustrator (d. 1995)

• 31 March – Deborah_Cavendish,_Duchess_of_Devonshire, English Dowager Duchess
• 1 April – Toshirô Mifune, Japanese actor (d. 1997)
• 2 April – Jack Webb, American actor, director, and producer (d. 1982)
• 5 April – Arthur Hailey, American writer (d. 2004)
• 6 April – Edmond H. Fischer, Swiss-American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• 7 April – Ravi Shankar, Indian sitar player
• 8 April – Carmen McRae, American jazz singer (d. 1994)
• 11 April – Peter O'Donnell, British author and writer of comic strips
• 13 April – Liam Cosgrave, fifth Taoiseach of Ireland
• 15 April – Thomas Stephen Szasz, Hungarian-born psychiatrist and writer
• 21 April – Edmund Adamkiewicz, German footballer (d. 1991)
• 27 April – Guido Cantelli, Italian conductor (d. 1956)
• 29 April – Harold Shapero, American composer

May-June

• 2 May

• Jean-Marie Auberson, Swiss conductor (d. 2004)

• Otto Buchsbaum, Austrian-born writer and ecological activist (d. 2000)

• 6 May – Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, first Prime Minister of Fiji and President of Fiji (d. 2004)

• 8 May – Saul Bass, American graphic designer (d. 1996)
• 9 May – Richard Adams, English author
• 11 May – Denver Pyle, American actor (d. 1997)
• 13 May – Gareth Morris, British flautist (d. 2007)

• 18 May

• Pope John Paul II (d. 2005)

• Lucia Mannucci, Italian singer (Quartetto Cetra)

• 23 May – Helen O'Connell, American singer (d. 1993)

• 26 May – Peggy Lee, American singer (d. 2002)
• 28 May – Gene Levitt, American television writer, producer, and director (d. 1999)
• 29 May – John Harsanyi, Hungarian-born economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2000)
• 30 May – Franklin Schaffner, American film and television director (d. 1989)
• 2 June – Tex Schramm, American football executive (d. 2003)

• 12 June

• Dave Berg, American cartoonist (d. 2002)

• Jim Siedow, American actor (d. 2003)

• 16 June – José López Portillo, President of Mexico (d. 2004)

• 17 June

• Jacob H. Gilbert, American politician (d. 1981)

• François Jacob, French biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

• 25 June – Ozan Marsh, American pianist

• 29 June – Ray Harryhausen, American animator

July-August

• 4 July – Leona Helmsley, Hotel operator, Realestate investor (d. 2007)
• 10 July – Owen Chamberlain, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 11 July – Yul Brynner, Russian-born actor (d. 1985)

• 13 July

• Bill Towers, English footballer (d. 2000)

• Don Ralke, American music arranger (d. 2000)

• 17 July – Juan Antonio Samaranch, Spanish International Olympic Committee president

• 21 July – Isaac Stern, Ukrainian-born violinist (d. 2001)
• 24 July – Bella Abzug, American politician (d. 1998)
• 25 July – Rosalind Franklin, British crystallographer (d. 1958)
• 1 August – Sammy Lee, Korean American diver
• 2 August – Reginald Hugh Hickling, British lawyer, colonial civil servant, law academic and author (d. 2007)
• 3 August – Hayden Carruth, American poet and literary critic

• 8 August

• Leo Chiosso, Italian poet (d. 2006)

• Jimmy Witherspoon, American singer (d. 1997)

• 9 August – Milton G. Henschel, a member of the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses and 5th President of Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (d. 2003)

• 20 August – Red Holzman, American basketball coach (d. 1998)
• 16 August – Charles Bukowski, American writer (d. 1994)
• 17 August – Maureen O'Hara, Irish actress

• 18 August

• Bob Kennedy, baseball player and manager (d. 2005)

• Shelley Winters, American actress (d. 2006)

• 21 August – Christopher Robin Milne, English author and bookseller (d. 1996)

• 22 August – Ray Bradbury, American writer
• 26 August – Mauri Favén, Finnish painter (d. 2006)
• 29 August – Charlie Parker, American saxophonist and composer (d. 1955)

September-October

• 9 September – Aldo Parisot, Brazilian/American cellist
• 10 September – Fabio Taglioni, Italian motorcycle engineer (d. 2001)

• 14 September

• Mario Benedetti, Uruguayan writer

• Lawrence Klein, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate

• 16 September – Brittany Ellis/ voted greatest girl in Canada

• 18 September – Jack Warden, American actor (d. 2006)
• 22 September – William H. Riker, American political scientist (d. 1993)
• 23 September – Mickey Rooney, American film actor
• 24 September – Dick Bong, American fighter ace
• 27 September – Jayne Meadows, American actress
• 29 September – Peter D. Mitchell, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1992)

• 1 October

• Charles Daudelin, Canadian sculptor (d. 2001)

• Walter Matthau, American actor (d. 2000)

• 6 October – Pietro Consagra, Italian sculptor (d. 2005)

• Helen Andelin, American author

• 8 October – Frank Herbert, American author (d. 1986)

• 9 October – Jens Bjørneboe, Norwegian author (d. 1976)
• 13 October – Laraine Day, American actress (d. 2007)
• 15 October – Mario Puzo, American author (d. 1999)
• 19 October – Pandurang Shastri Athavale, Founder Swadhyay Movement (d. 2003)
• 22 October – Timothy Leary, American psychologist and author (d. 1996)
• 29 October – Baruj Benacerraf, Venezuelan-born immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• 30 October – Norman Bird, British character actor (d. 2005)

• 31 October

• Joseph Gelineau – French composer.

• Fritz Walter, German footballer (d. 2002)

November-December

• 2 November – Ann Rutherford, Canadian actress
• 22 November – Anne Crawford, British actress (d. 1956)
• 25 November – Ricardo Montalban, Mexican actor
• 29 November – Yegor Ligachev, Soviet politician
• 30 November – Virginia Mayo, American actress (d. 2005)

• 6 December

• Dave Brubeck, American jazz pianist and composer

• George Porter, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2002)

• 9 December – Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, President of the Italian Republic

• 21 December – J. Roderick MacArthur American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1984)
• 24 December – Evgeniya Rudneva, Soviet World War II heroine (d. 1944)
• 30 December – Jack Lord, American actor (d. 1998)
• 31 December – Rex Allen, American actor, singer, songwriter (d. 1999)

• date unknown

• Patrick Campbell Rodger, Scottish Anglican bishop (d. 2002)

• Tommy J. Smith, Australian trainer (d. 1998)
• Amos Yarkoni, Israeli soldier (d. 1991)

Deaths

January – March

• 2 January – Paul Adam, French writer (b. 1862)
• 3 January – Zygmunt Janiszewski, Polish mathematician (b. 1888)
• 4 January – Benito Pérez Galdós, Spanish novelist (b. 1843)
• 6 January – Hieronymus Georg Zeuthen, Danish mathematician (b. 1839)
• 7 January – Edmund Barton, Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1849)
• 18 January – Giovanni Capurro, Italian poet (b. 1825)

• 24 January

• William Percy French, Irish songwriter and entertainer (b. 1854)

• Amedeo Modigliani, Italian painter and sculptor (tuberculosis) (b. 1884)

• William Plunket, 5th Baron Plunket, British diplomat and administrator (b. 1864)

• 26 January – Jeanne Hébuterne, French artist, model, and common-law wife of Amedeo Modigliani (suicide) (b. 1898)

• 2 February – Field E. Kindley, American World War I aviator (b. 1896)
• 3 February – Frank Brown, Governor of Maryland (b. 1846)
• 6 February – Augustus F. Goodridge, Canadian merchant and politician (b. 1839)
• 7 February – Aleksandr Kolchak, Russian naval commander (b. 1874)
• 15 February – Joseph Burton Sumner, founder of Sumner, Mississippi (b. 1837)

• 20 February

• Joseph J. Fern, Mayor of Honolulu (b. 1872)

• Robert Peary, American Arctic explorer (b. 1856)

• 27 February – William Sherman Jennings, Governor of Florida (b. 1863)

• 1 March

• John H. Bankhead, U.S. Senator from Alabama (b. 1842)

• William A. Stone, Governor of Pennsylvania (b. 1846)

• Joseph Trumpeldor, Russian Zionist (b. 1880)

• 3 March – Theodor Philipsen, Danish painter (b. 1840)

• 4 March – Roswell P. Bishop, U.S. Congressman from Michigan (b. 1843)
• 11 March – Julio Garavito Armero, Colombian astronomer (b. 1865)
• 13 March – Charles Lapworth, English geologist (b. 1842)

• 26 March

• William Chester Minor, American surgeon (b. 1834)

• Mary Augusta Ward, Tasmanian novelist (b. 1851)

• 31 March

• Paul Bachmann, German mathematician (b. 1837)

• Edwin Warfield, Governor of Maryland (b. 1848)

April – June

• 8 April

• John Brasheer, American astronomer (b. 1840)

• Charles Tomlinson Griffes, American composer (b. 1884)

• 9 April – Moritz Cantor, German historian of mathematics (b. 1829)

• 21 April – Maria L. Sanford, American educator (b. 1836)
• 26 April – Srinivasa Ramanujan, Indian mathematician (b. 1887)
• 1 May – Princess Margaret of Connaught, Crown Princess of Sweden (b. 1882)

• 11 May

• James Colosimo, Italian-born gangster (b. 1877)

• William Dean Howells, American writer (b. 1837)

• 16 May – Levi P. Morton, Vice President of the United States (b. 1824)

• 21 May

• Venustiano Carranza, President of Mexico (b. 1859)

• Eleanor H. Porter, American novelist (b. 1868)

• 23 May – Svetozar Borojevic, Austro-Hungarian field marshal (b. 1856)

• 30 May – George Ernest Morrison, Australian adventurer (b. 1862)

• 5 June

• Rhoda Broughton, Welsh writer (b. 1840)

• Julia A. Moore, American poet (b. 1847)

• 6 June – James Dunsmuir, Canadian politician (b. 1851)

• 13 June – Essad Pasha, Prime Minister of Albania (b. 1863)

• 14 June

• Gabrielle Réjane, French actress (b. 1856)

• Max Weber, German political economist (b. 1864)

• 18 June

• Jewett W. Adams, Governor of Nevada (b. 1835)

• John Macoun, Irish born naturalist (b. 1831)

• 20 June

• Marie Adolphe Carnot, French chemist, mining engineer, and politician (b. 1839)

• John Grigg, New Zealand astronomer (b. 1838)

• 27 June – Adolphe Basile Routhier, Canadian poet (b. 1839)

July – September

• 1 July – Delfim Moreira, President of Brazil (b. 1868)
• 2 July – William Louis Marshall, American general and engineer (b. 1846)
• 10 July – John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher, British admiral (b. 1841)
• 11 July – Empress Eugénie of France (b. 1826)
• 14 July – Albert Keller, German painter (b. 1844)
• 22 July – William Kissam Vanderbilt, American heir (b. 1849)

• 1 August

• Frank Hanly, Governor of Indiana (b. 1863)

• Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Indian nationalist (b. 1856)

• 2 August – Ormer Locklear, American pilot (b. 1891)

• 9 August – Samuel Griffith, Australian politician and judge (b. 1845)
• 10 August – Adam Politzer, Austrian otologist (b. 1835)
• 12 August – Hermann Struve, Russian-born astronomer (b. 1854)

• 16 August

• Henry Daglish, Premier of Australia (b. 1866)

• Joseph Norman Lockyer, English astronomer (b. 1836)

• 17 August – Ray Chapman, baseball player (b. 1891)

• 22 August – Anders Zorn, Swedish painter (b. 1860)
• 26 August – James Wilson, Scottish-born American politician (b. 1835)
• 31 August – Wilhelm Wundt, German physiologist and psychologist (b. 1832)
• 7 September – Simon-Napoléon Parent, Premier of Quebec (b. 1855)
• 10 September – Olive Thomas, American actress (b. 1894)
• 18 September – Robert Beaven, Canadian politician (b. 1836)
• 24 September – Peter Carl Fabergé, Russian jeweler (b. 1846)
• 25 September – Jacob Schiff, German-born banker and philanthropist (b. 1847)
• 30 September – William Wilfred Sullivan, Canadian journalist, politician, and jurist (b. 1843)

October – December

• 2 October – Winthrop M. Crane, Governor of Massachusetts and Senator (b. 1853)
• 10 October – Hudson Stuck, English mountaineer (b. 1865)
• 19 October – John Reed, American journalist (b. 1887)
• 20 October – Max Bruch, German composer (b. 1838)
• 21 November- Michael Hogan (sportsman) Was shot during a Gaelic football match by the British army who also killed 14 Irish supporters .
• 24 October – Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia (b. 1853)

• 1 November – Kevin Barry, Irish republican (hanged) (b. 1902)
• 4 November – Ludwig Struve, Russian astronomer (b. 1858)
• 13 November – Luc-Olivier Merson, French painter and illustrator (b. 1846)
• 22 November – Manuel Pérez y Curis, Uruguayan poet (b. 1884)
• 23 November – George Callaghan, British admiral (b. 1852)
• 25 November – Madeline McDowell Breckinridge, a leader of the women’s suffrage movement and one of Kentucky’s leading Progressive reformers. (b. 1872)
• 25 November – Gaston Chevrolet, Swiss-born race car driver and manufacturer (b. 1892)
• 30 November – Eugene W. Chafin, American politician (b. 1852)
• 3 December – William de Wiveleslie Abney, English astronomer and photographer (b. 1843)
• 11 December – Olive Schreiner, South African writer (b. 1855)
• 12 December – Edward Gawler Prior, Canadian mining engineer and politician (b. 1854)
• 14 December – George Gipp, American football player (b. 1895)
• date unknown – Reginald John Farrer, English botanist (b. 1880)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – Charles Edouard Guillaume
• Chemistry – Walther Nernst
• Medicine – Schack August Steenberg Krogh
• Literature – Knut Hamsun
• Peace – Léon Victor Auguste Bourgeois

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1920”