1920

Events from the year **1920 in the United States**.

Governors
* Governor of Alabama: Thomas Kilby (Democratic)
* Governor of Arizona: Thomas Edward Campbell (Republican)
* Governor of Arkansas: Charles Hillman Brough (Democratic)
* Governor of California: William Stephens (Republican)
* Governor of Colorado: Oliver Henry Shoup (Republican)
* Governor of Connecticut: Marcus H. Holcomb (Republican)
* Governor of Delaware: John G. Townsend Jr. (Republican)
* Governor of Florida: Sidney Johnston Catts (Prohibition)
* Governor of Georgia: Hugh M. Dorsey (Democratic)
* Governor of Idaho: D. W. Davis (Republican)
* Governor of Illinois: Frank O. Lowden (Republican)
* Governor of Indiana: James P. Goodrich (Republican)
* Governor of Iowa: William L. Harding (Republican)
* Governor of Kansas: Henry Justin Allen (Republican)
* Governor of Kentucky: Edwin P. Morrow (Republican)
* Governor of Louisiana: Ruffin G. Pleasant (Democratic) (until May 11), John M. Parker (Democratic) (starting May 11)
* Governor of Maine: Carl E. Milliken (Republican)
* Governor of Maryland: Emerson C. Harrington (Democratic) (until January 14), Albert C. Ritchie (Democratic) (starting January 14)
* Governor of Massachusetts: Calvin Coolidge (Republican)
* Governor of Michigan: Albert Sleeper (Republican)
* Governor of Minnesota: J. A. A. Burnquist (Republican)
* Governor of Mississippi: Theodore G. Bilbo (Democratic) (until January 18), Lee M. Russell (Democratic) (starting January 18)
* Governor of Missouri: Frederick D. Gardner (Democratic)
* Governor of Montana: Sam V. Stewart (Democratic)
* Governor of Nebraska: Samuel R. McKelvie (Republican)
* Governor of Nevada: Emmet D. Boyle (Democratic)
* Governor of New Hampshire: John H. Bartlett (Republican)
* Governor of New Jersey:
	+ until January 13: William Nelson Runyon (Republican)
	+ January 13-January 20: Clarence E. Case (Republican)
	+ starting January 20: Edward I. Edwards (Democratic)
* Governor of New Mexico: Octaviano Ambrosio Larrazolo (Republican)
* Governor of New York: Al Smith (Democratic)
* Governor of North Carolina: Thomas Walter Bickett (Democratic)
* Governor of North Dakota: Lynn Frazier (Republican)
* Governor of Ohio: James M. Cox (Democratic)
* Governor of Oklahoma: James B. A. Robertson (Democratic)
* Governor of Oregon: Ben W. Olcott (Republican) (starting March 3)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: William Cameron Sproul (Republican)
* Governor of Rhode Island: R. Livingston Beeckman (Republican)
* Governor of South Carolina: Robert Archer Cooper (Democratic)
* Governor of South Dakota: Peter Norbeck (Republican)
* Governor of Tennessee: A. H. Roberts (Democratic)
* Governor of Texas: William P. Hobby (Democratic)
* Governor of Utah: Simon Bamberger (Democratic)
* Governor of Vermont: Percival W. Clement (Republican)
* Governor of Virginia: Westmoreland Davis (Democratic)
* Governor of Washington: Louis Folwell Hart (Republican)
* Governor of West Virginia: John J. Cornwell (Democratic)
* Governor of Wisconsin: Emanuel L. Philipp (Republican)
* Governor of Wyoming: Robert D. Carey (Republican)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of Alabama: Nathan Lee Miller (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of California: Clement Calhoun Young (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: George Stepham (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Clifford B. Wilson (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Delaware: vacant
* Lieutenant Governor of Idaho: Charles C. Moore (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: John G. Oglesby (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Edgar D. Bush (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Ernest Robert Moore (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: Charles Solomon Huffman (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: S. Thruston Ballard (political party unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Fernand Mouton (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Hewitt Bouanchaud (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Channing H. Cox (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Luren D. Dickinson (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: Thomas Frankson (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: Lee Maurice Russell (Democratic) (until January 18), Homer H. Casteel (Democratic) (starting January 18)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Wallace Crossley (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Montana: W. W. McDowell (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: Pelham A. Barrows (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Maurice J. Sullivan (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico: Benjamin F. Pankey (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: Harry C. Walker (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Oliver Max Gardner (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota: Howard R. Wood (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: Clarence J. Brown Sr. (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma: Martin E. Trapp (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Edward E. Beidleman (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Emery J. San Souci (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: J. T. Liles (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota: William H. McMaster (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: Andrew L. Todd Sr. (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Willard Arnold Johnson (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Mason S. Stone (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Benjamin Franklin Buchanan (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Washington: vacant
* Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Edward F. Dithmar (Republican)

## Events

### January

* January 2 – First Red Scare: The second of the Palmer Raids takes place with another 4,025 suspected communists and anarchists arrested and held without trial in several cities.
* January 5 – 1920 United States Census count begins. This becomes the first census to record a population exceeding 100 million, at 106,021,537. Because there are so many mixed-race persons and because so many Americans with some black ancestry appear white, the Census Bureau stops counting mixed-race peoples and the *one-drop rule* becomes the national legal standard.
* January 6 – Babe Ruth's December 26 trade to the New York Yankees is made public. (See 1919 in the United States.)
* January 7 – The New York State Assembly refuses to seat five duly elected Socialist assemblymen.
* January 9 – Thousands of onlookers watch as "The Human Fly" George Polley climbs New York City's Woolworth Building. He reaches the 30th floor when a policeman arrests him for climbing without a permit.
* January 13 – *The New York Times* ridicules the American rocket scientist Robert H. Goddard. (Decades later, on July 17, 1969 as the Apollo 11 crew head to the Moon, the newspaper will retract this editorial.)
* January 16 – Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated, is founded on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C.
* January 17 – Prohibition in the United States begins with the 18th Amendment to the Constitution coming into effect.
* January 19
	+ The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.
	+ The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is founded.
	+ Oahu sugar strike of 1920 begins.
* January 30 – A professional wrestling match in which Joe Stecher defeats Earl Caddock at New York City's Madison Square Garden is filmed by Pioneer Film Corporation for later viewing by cinema audiences; this is the oldest surviving movie of a pro wrestling match.

### February

* February 14 – The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago.

### March

* March 1 – The United States Railroad Administration returns control of American railroads to its constituent railroad companies.
* March 10 – The Baylor Business Men's Club changes its name to the Baylor University Chamber of Commerce.
* March 19 – United States Congress refuses to ratify the Treaty of Versailles.
* March 28 – The 1920 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak hits the Great Lakes region and Deep South states.

### April

* April 28 – Monongahela National Forest is established.

### May

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

### June

* June 11 – During the 1920 Republican National Convention in Chicago, party leaders gather in a "smoke-filled room" of The Blackstone Hotel to decide their presidential candidate.
* June 13 – The U.S. Post Office rules that children may not be sent via parcel post.
* June 14 – Cherokee National Forest is established.
* June 15 – 1920 Duluth lynchings: Three African Americans are sprung from jail and lynched by a white mob in Duluth, Minnesota.
* June 21 – The 4.9 ML  Inglewood earthquake shakes the Los Angeles Area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (*Severe*), causing more than $100,000 in damage.

### July

* July 1 – The Oahu sugar strike of 1920 ends.
* July 6 – Lynching of Irving and Herman Arthur in Paris, Texas.
* July 29 – The United States Bureau of Reclamation begins construction of the Link River Dam as part of the Klamath Reclamation Project.

### August

* August 1 – Denver streetcar strike of 1920 begins.
* August 6 – Denver streetcar strike of 1920 ends.
* August 20
	+ The first commercial radio station in the U.S., 8MK (WWJ), owned by the Detroit News, begins operations in Detroit, Michigan.
	+ The National Football League is founded as the American Professional Football Conference (renamed September 17 as 'Association').
* August 26 – 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed, guaranteeing women's suffrage.

### September

* September 16 – The Wall Street bombing: a bomb in a horse wagon explodes in front of the J. P. Morgan Building in New York City, 38 dead, 400 injured.
* September 29 – First domestic radio sets come to stores in the U.S. – Westinghouse radio costs $10.

### October - November

* November 2
	+ Republican U. S. Senator Warren G. Harding defeats Democratic Governor of Ohio James M. Cox in the U.S. presidential election, the first national U.S. election in which women have the right to vote.
	+ KDKA (AM) of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (owned by Westinghouse) starts broadcasting as a commercial radio station. The first broadcast is the results of the presidential election.
	+ Ocoee massacre occurs begins.
* November 3 – Ocoee massacre ends.

### December

* December 25 – Foundation of the Rosicrucian Fellowship's Spiritual Healing Temple "The Ecclesia" at Mount Ecclesia, Oceanside, California.

## Sport

* January 1 – Harvard Crimson win their First Rose Bowl by defeating the Oregon Webfoots 7 to 6 in the 1920 Rose Bowl.
* October 12 – Cleveland Indians win their first (and last until 1948) World Series by defeating the Brooklyn Robins 5 games to 2; the deciding game 7 is played at League Park in Cleveland.
* December 19 – Akron Pros are awarded the First American Professional Football Association Championship.

## Memoriam

* January 8 – Maud Powell, violinist (aged 52; Uniontown, PA, USA)
* January 14 – John Francis Dodge, automobile manufacturer (aged 55; New York City, NY, USA)
* January 16 – Reginald De Koven, composer, conductor and critic (aged 60; Chicago, IL, USA)
* February 2 – Field Eugene Kindley, World War I aviator (aged 23; San Antonio, TX, USA)
* February 3 – Frank Brown, 42nd Governor of Maryland from 1892 to 1896 (aged 73; Baltimore, MD, USA)
* February 15 – Joseph Burton Sumner, founder of Sumner, Mississippi (aged 82; Bentonville, AR, USA)
* February 20
	+ Joseph J. Fern, Mayor of Honolulu from 1909 to 1915 and from 1917 to 1920 (aged 47; Honolulu, HI Territory, USA)
	+ Robert Peary, Arctic explorer (aged 83; Washington, DC, USA)
* February 24 – Franklin Murphy, 31st Governor of New Jersey (aged 74; Palm Beach, FL, USA)
* February 27 – William Sherman Jennings, 18th Governor of Florida from 1901 to 1905 (aged 56; St. Augustine, FL, USA)
* March 1
	+ John H. Bankhead, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1907 to 1920 (aged 77; Washington, DC, USA)
	+ William A. Stone, 22nd Governor of Pennsylvania from 1899 to 1903 (aged 73; Pittsburgh, PA, USA)
* March 4 – Roswell P. Bishop, U.S. Representative from Michigan from 1895 to 1907 (aged 77; Pacific Grove, CA, USA)
* March 13 – Mary Devens, photographer (aged 62; Cambridge, MA, USA)
* March 14 – Henry W. Blair, U.S. Senator from New Hampshire from 1879 to 1891 (aged 85; Washington, DC, USA)
* March 26
	+ Samuel Colman, painter and designer (aged 88; New York City, NY, USA)
	+ William Chester Minor, surgeon (aged 85; Hartford, CT, USA)
* March 31 – Edwin Warfield, 45th Governor of Maryland from 1904 to 1908 (aged 71; Baltimore, MD, USA)
* April 3 – Mary Katharine Brandegee, botanist (aged 75; Berkeley, CA, USA)
* April 6 – Mary Evelyn Hitchcock, author and explorer (aged 71; Fall River, MA, USA)
* April 8
	+ John Brashear, American astronomer (aged 79; Pittsburgh, PA, USA)
	+ Charles Tomlinson Griffes, American composer (aged 35; New York City, NY, USA)
* April 12 – Walter Edwards, film director (aged 50; Honolulu, HI Territory, USA)
* April 21 – Maria Sanford, educator (aged 83; Washington, DC, USA)
* May 11 – William Dean Howells, novelist (aged 83; Manhattan, NY, USA)
* May 10 – John Wesley Hyatt, inventor (aged 82; Short Hills, NJ, USA)
* May 16 – Levi P. Morton, 22nd Vice President of the United States from 1889 to 1893 (aged 96; Rhinebeck, NY, USA)
* May 21
	+ Julia A. Moore, wife of Edward Moore (aged 67; Bay City, MI, USA)
	+ Eleanor H. Porter, novelist (aged 51; Cambridge, MA, USA)
* June 5 – Julia A. Moore, poet (aged 72; Manton, MI, USA)
* June 18 – Jewett W. Adams, 4th Governor of Nevada from 1883 to 1887 (aged 84; San Francisco, CA, USA)
* July 2 – William Louis Marshall, general and engineer (aged 74; Washington, DC, USA)
* July 6 – Andrew Traynor, soldier (aged 77; Omaha, NE, USA)
* July 8 – Henry Adams Thompson, prohibitionist and professor (aged 83; Dayton, OH, USA)
* July 17 – Charles E. Courtney, rower and coach (aged 70; Cayuga, NY, USA)
* July 22 – William Kissam Vanderbilt, heir (aged 70; Paris, France)
* August 1 – Frank Hanly, 26th Governor of Indiana from 1905 to 1909 (aged 57; Dennison, OH, USA)
* August 2 – Ormer Locklear, pilot (aged 28; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* August 6 – Edward Francis Searles, interior designer (aged 79; Methuen, MA, USA)
* August 9 – Melvin O. Adams, attorney and railroad executive (aged 69; Boston, MA, USA)
* August 10 – James O'Neill, actor (aged 72; New London, CT, USA)
* August 12 – Walter W. Winans, sculptor, painter, marksman and horse-breeder (aged 68; Essex, England, UK)
* August 17 – Ray Chapman, baseball player (aged 29; New York City, NY, USA)
* August 18 – Joseph Cabell Breckinridge Sr., Union Army officer of American Civil War (aged 78; Washington, DC, USA)
* August 26 – James Wilson, politician (aged 85; Traer, IA, USA)
* September 5 – Robert Harron, actor (aged 27; New York City, NY, USA)
* September 10 – Olive Thomas, silent film actress (aged 25; Paris, France)
* October 2 – Winthrop M. Crane, 40th Governor of Massachusetts from 1900 to 1903 and U.S. Senator from Massachusetts from 1904 to 1913 (aged 67; Dalton, MA, USA)
* October 17 – John Reed, journalist, in Moscow (aged 32; Moscow, Russian Soviet Republic (Now Russia))
* November 2 – Louise Imogen Guiney, poet and essayist (aged 59; Gloucestershire, England, UK)
* November 3 – Warren Terhune, United States Navy Commander and 13th Governor of American Samoa (aged 51; Utulei, AS, USA)
* November 25 – Madeline McDowell Breckinridge, women's suffrage campaigner (aged 48; Lexington, KY, USA)
* November 30 – Eugene W. Chafin, politician (aged 68; Long Beach, CA, USA)
* December 9 – Mollie McConnell, actress (aged 55; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* December 14 – George Gipp, American football player (aged 25; South Bend, IN, USA)
* December 18 – Casimiro Barela, politician, member of the Colorado Senate (aged 73; Barela, CO, USA)
* December 24 – Stephen Mosher Wood, politician (aged 88; Elmdale, KS, USA)