1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar).

Events

January

• January 1 — Iolaire sinking disaster
• January 1 — Edsel Ford succeeds his father as head of the Ford Motor Company
• January 5 — Spartacist uprising — Socialist demonstrations in Berlin turn into attempted communist revolution
• January 9 — Spartacus revolutionary council folds – Friedrich Ebert orders Freikorps into action
• January 10-January 12 — Freikorps attack Spartacus supporters around Berlin
• January 11 — Romania annexes Transylvania.
• January 13 — Worker's councils in Berlin end the general strike — Spartacus week is over
• January 15 — Murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht in the aftermath of Spartacus uprising
• January 15 — The Boston Molasses Disaster: Wave of molasses sweeps through Boston, killing 21 and injuring 150
• January 15 — Ignacy Jan Paderewski becomes Premier of Poland
• January 16 — The 18th Amendment, authorizing Prohibition, goes into effect in the United States
• January 18 — World War I: A peace conference opens in Versailles, France.
• January 18 — Bentley Motors is founded
• January 21 — the First Dáil Éireann meets in the Mansion House in Dublin. It is from this meeting that the Irish state dates its existence.
• January 23 — The Uprising of Khotin breaks out in Romania.
• January 25 — The League of Nations is founded

February-April

• February 1 — The first Miss America is crowned (New York City).
• February 3 — Soviet troops occupy Ukraine
• February 11 — Friedrich Ebert (SPD), is elected President of Germany.
• February 14 — Polish-Soviet War begins
• February 25 — Oregon places a 1 cent per US gallon (26 ¢/L) tax on gasoline, becoming the first U.S. state to levy a gasoline tax.
• February 26 — An act of the United States Congress establishes most of the Grand Canyon as a United States National Park (see Grand Canyon National Park).
• March 1 — March 1st Movement against Japanese colonial rule in Korea.
• March 2 — The first Communist International meets in Moscow
• March 15 — The American Legion forms in Paris
• March 21 — The Chinese High School was established in Singapore by Mr. Tan Kah Kee
• March 21 - Hungarian Soviet Republic established by Bela Kun.
• March 23 — In Milan, Italy, Benito Mussolini founds his Fascist political movement.
• March 31 — General strike begins in the Ruhr
• April 6-April 7 — Communist People's Republic of Munich founded
• April 13 — At the Amritsar Massacre, British and Gurkha troops massacre 379 Indians.
• April 14 — Emperor of Austria moves to exile in Switzerland
• April 23 — Constituent Assembly of Estonia convenes to its first session
• April 25 — Bauhaus movement founded
• April 25 — ANZAC day is celebrated for the first time in Australia.
• April 25 — Pancho Villa takes Parral in Mexico — hangs mayor and his two sons

May-June

• May 1 — Large left-wing demonstration in France leads to a violent confrontation with the police
• May 1 — Weimar Republic troops and Freikorps take over Munich and crush the Soviet Republic of Bavaria
• May 1 — The May Day Riots of 1919 break out in Cleveland, Ohio – two people killed, forty injured, and one hundred and sixteen arrested
• May 3 — People's Republic of Munich is crushed
• May 4 — May Fourth Movement opposes foreign colonizers in China
• May 15 — Winnipeg launches general strike for better wages and working conditions.
• May 16 — US Navy Naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read departs Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight
• May 16- Greek Army invades Izmir
• May 17 — Committee of One Thousand forms to oppose Winnipeg General Strike
• May 19 - Mustafa Kemal Atatürk lands on Samsun on the Turkish Black Sea Coast to start the Turkish War of Independence.
• May 23 — The University of California opens its second campus in Los Angeles. Initially called Southern Branch of the University of California (SBUC), it is eventually renamed the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
• May 25 — Volcano Kelut erupts in Java – 16.000 dead
• May 29 — Einstein's theory of general relativity confirmed by Arthur Eddington's observation of a total eclipse of the Sun.
• June 4 — Women's rights: The United States Congress approves the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which would guarantee suffrage to women, and sends it to the U.S. states for ratification.
• June 14 — John Alcock and Arthur Brown depart St. John's, Newfoundland on the first nonstop transatlantic flight (they landed at Clifden, County Galway, Ireland the next day). ^*
• June 15 — Pancho Villa attacks Ciudad Juarez. When the bullets begin to fly to the US side of the border, 2 units of the US 7th Cavalry regiment cross the border and repulse Villa's forces
• June 21 — Royal Canadian Mounted Police fire a volley into a crowd of unemployed war veterans, killing two, during Winnipeg General Strike.
• June 21 — Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttles the German fleet in Scapa Flow, Orkney. Nine Germans died.
• June 28 — The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending World War I.

July-November

• July 6 — The British dirigible R34 lands in New York, completing the first crossing of the Atlantic by an airship.
• July 31 — Strike of policemen in London and Liverpool for recognition of the National Union of Police and Prison Officers. Over 2,000 strikers are dismissed.
• August 11 — In Germany, the Weimar Constitution is passed into law.
• August 18 — Destruction of Bolshevik fleet at Kronstadt near Petrograd by British aircraft and torpedo boats in combined operation.
• August 19 — Afghanistan gains independence from the United Kingdom.
• 16 August-26 August — First Silesian Uprising, the Poles in Upper Silesia rise against the Germans
• August 31 — American Communist Party is established
• September 10 — Treaty of Saint-Germain is signed, ending World War I with Austria.
• September 10-September 15: The Florida Keys Hurricane kills 600 in the Gulf of Mexico, Florida and Texas.
• September 23 — Belenenses is founded.
• September 27 — Last British troops leave Archangel, Russia and leave fighting to the Russians
• September 28 — Omaha Riot — lynch mob besieges the police station and courthouse in Omaha, Nebraska and lynch alleged black rapist Will Brown
• October 1 — Elaine Race Riot breaks out in Arkansas
• October 2 — US President Woodrow Wilson suffers a massive stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed.
• October 9 — Black Sox scandal: The Cincinnati Reds "win" the World Series.
• October 9 — Boston police strike
• October 13 — Convention relating to the Regulation of Aerial Navigation signed.
• October 28 — Prohibition begins: The United States Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto.
• November — At end of month health officials declare the global Spanish Flu Pandemic over
• November 10 — The first national convention of the American Legion is held in Minneapolis, Minnesota (convention ended on November 12).
• November 11 — The Centralia Massacre in Centralia, Washington results the deaths of four members of the American Legion and the lynching of a local leader of the IWW.
• November 16 — Admiral Horthy conquers Budapest from Bela Kuns Soviet Republic
• November 27 — The Treaty of Neuilly is signed between Allies and Bulgaria.
• November 28 — The American-born Lady Astor is elected to the British House of Commons, becoming the first female MP to take a seat on December 1.

December

• December 5 — Turkish ministry of war releases Greeks, Armenians and Jews from military service
• December 12 — Gabriele D'Annunzio with his entourage marches into Fiume and convinces the Italian troops to join him
• December 14 - Alabama celebrates the first centenary of its statehood.
• December 25 - The opening of Cliftonhill stadium in Coatbridge the home of Albion Rovers F.C. The match saw them lose 2 - 0 to St. Mirren.
• December 30 — Lincoln's Inn, in London admits its first female bar student.

Unknown dates

• The Åland Islands vote for a return to Swedish rule in a referendum.
• Les Champs Magnetiques, the first automatic book, is written by Andre Breton and Philippe Soupault.
• XWA (now CFCF), in Montreal, Quebec, is the first public radio station in North America to go on the air.
• Various strikes in USA: Strike of US railroad workers; Longshoreman's strike; The Great Steel Strike; General strike in Seattle, Washington.
• Female suffrage in Germany and Luxembourg
• Henri Desire Landru captured
• Marcel Tolkowsky's Diamond Design is published.
• The International Astronomical Union is founded.
• World League Against Alcoholism established by Anti-Saloon League.

Births

• Langdon Brown Gilkey — American Christian Protestant Ecumenical theologian (d. 2004)

January-April

• January 1 — J. D. Salinger, American novelist
• January 5 — Hector Abhayavardhana, Sri Lankan Trotskyist theoretician
• January 13 — Robert Stack, American actor (d. 2003)
• January 14 — Andy Rooney, American journalist
• January 23 — Hans Hass, Austrian zoologist
• January 23 — Ernie Kovacs, American comedian (d. 1962)
• January 25 — Edwin Newman, American journalist and writer
• January 26 — Valentino Mazzola, Italian footballer (d. 1949)
• January 27 — Ross Bagdasarian, American musician and actor (d. 1972)
• January 31 — Jackie Robinson, baseball player (d. 1972)
• February 5 — Red Buttons, American actor (d. 2006)
• February 5 — Andreas Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1996)
• February 11 — Eva Gabor, Hungarian actress (d. 1995)
• February 11 — Eddie Robinson, American football coach
• February 12 — Forrest Tucker, American actor (d. 1986)
• February 13 — Tennessee Ernie Ford, American musician (d. 1991)
• February 24 — Árpád Bogsch, Hungarian turned American international civil servant (d. 2004)
• February 26 — Rie Mastenbroek, Dutch swimmer (d. 2003)
• March 2 — Jennifer Jones, American actress
• March 15 — Lawrence Tierney, American actor (d. 2002)
• March 17 — Nat King Cole, American singer (d. 1965)
• March 24 — Lawrence Ferlinghetti, American author and publisher
• March 24 — Robert Heilbroner, American economist (d. 2005)
• March 29 — Eileen Heckart, American actress (d. 2001)
• March 30 — McGeorge Bundy, U.S. National Security Advisor (d. 1996)
• April 1 — Joseph Murray, American surgeon, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• April 8 — Ian Douglas Smith, Prime Minister of Rhodesia
• April 19 — Merce Cunningham, American dancer and choreographer
• April 22 — Donald J. Cram, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2001)

May-August

• May 1 — Dan O'Herlihy, Irish film actor (d. 2005)
• May 3 — John Cullen Murphy, American comic strip artist (d. 2004)
• May 3 — Pete Seeger, American singer and musician
• May 7 — Eva Peron, wife of Argentine President Juan Peron (d. 1952)
• May 8 — Lex Barker, American actor (d. 1973)
• May 16 — Liberace, American pianist (d. 1987)
• May 18 — Dame Margot Fonteyn, English ballet dancer (d. 1991)
• May 20 — George Gobel, American comedian (d. 1991)
• May 23 — Betty Garrett, American actress and dancer
• June 4 — Robert Merrill, American baritone (d. 2004)
• June 5 — Richard Scarry, American children's author (d. 1994)
• June 19 — Pauline Kael, American film critic (d. 2001)
• June 21 — Gérard Pelletier, French journalist, politician, and diplomat (d. 1997)
• June 26 — Richard Neustadt, American political historian (d. 2003)
• July 6 — Ernst Haefliger, Swiss tenor
• July 7 — Jon Pertwee, British actor (d. 1996)
• July 15 — Iris Murdoch, Irish novelist (d. 1999)
• July 20 — Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer
• July 31 — Maurice Boitel, French painter
• August 11 — Ginette Neveu, French violinist (d. 1949)
• August 25 — George Wallace, racist politician (d. 1998)
• August 28 — Godfrey Hounsfield, English electrical engineer and inventor, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2004)

September-December

• September 11 — Ota Sik, Czech economist and politician (d. 2004)
• September 21 — Fazlur Rahman, Pakistani Islamic scholar (d. 1988)
• September 27 — James H. Wilkinson, English mathematician (d. 1986)
• October 3 — James M. Buchanan, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• October 5 — Donald Pleasence, English actor (d. 1995)
• October 11 — Art Blakey, American jazz drummer (d. 1990)
• October 12 — Doris Miller, U.S. Navy cook (d. 1943)
• October 16 — Kathleen Winsor, American writer (d. 2003)
• October 18 — Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada (d. 2000)
• October 18 — Anita O'Day, American jazz singer
• October 22 — Doris Lessing, British writer
• October 26 — James E. Myers, American songwriter (d. 2001)
• October 26 — Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran (d. 1980)
• November 3 — Jesús Blasco, Spanish comic book author (d. 1995)
• November 5 — Myron Floren, American accordionist (d. 2005)
• November 10 — Mikhail Kalashnikov, Russian firearms inventor
• November 14 — Lisa Otto, German soprano
• November 15 — Roy Burden, Canadian World War II pilot (d. 2005)
• November 18 — Andrée Borrel, French World War II heroine (d. 1944)
• November 28 — Keith Miller, Australian sportsman (d. 2004)
• December 6 — Paul de Man, Belgian-born literary critic (d. 1983)
• December 8 — Mieczyslaw Weinberg, Polish composer (d. 1996)
• December 9 — William Lipscomb, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• December 31 — Tommy Byrne, baseball player

Deaths

• January 4 - Georg von Hertling, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1843)
• January 6 - Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States (b. 1858)
• January 6 - Max Heindel, Christian occultist, astrologer, and mystic (b. 1865)
• January 7 - Henry Ware Eliot American industrialist and philantropist (b. 1843)
• January 15 - Karl Liebknecht, German politician (executed) (b. 1871)
• January 15 - Rosa Luxemburg, German politician (executed)
• January 18 - Prince John of the United Kingdom (b. 1905)
• January 27 - Endre Ady, Hungarian poet (b. 1877)
• February 17 - Wilfrid Laurier, seventh Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1841)
• April 4 - Sir William Crookes, English chemist and physicist (b. 1832)
• April 10 - Emiliano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary (b. 1879)
• April 15 - Jane Delano, American nurse and founder or the American Red Cross Nursing Service (b. 1862)
• May 3 - Eugen Levine, Communist revolutionary, leader of the short lived Bavarian Soviet Republic (b. 1883)
• May 4 - Milan Rastislav Štefánik, Slovak general, politician, and astronomer (b. 1880)
• May 6 - L. Frank Baum, American writer (b. 1856)
• May 14 - Henry John Heinz, American businessman (b. 1844)
• June 29 - José Gregorio Hernández, Venezuelan medician and saint (b. 1864)
• June 30 - John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1842)
• July 15 - Hermann Emil Fischer, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
• July 26 - Sir Edward Poynter, British painter (b. 1836)
• August 9 - Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Italian composer (b. 1857)
• August 11 - Andrew Carnegie, Scottish-born businessman and philanthropist (b. 1835)
• October 7 - Alfred Deakin, second Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1856)
• October 13 - Karl Adolph Gjellerup, Danish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1857)
• October 18 - Viscount William Astor, American financier and statesman (b. 1848)
• November 15 - Alfred Werner, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1866)
• December 3 - Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French painter (b. 1841)

Nobel prizes

• Physics — Johannes Stark
• Chemistry — not awarded
• Physiology or Medicine — Jules Bordet
• Literature — Carl Friedrich Georg Spitteler

1919

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