1920's Timeline

By T_R

  • 1920 Census

    For the first time, the 1920 census indicates a population in the United States over 100 million people. The 15% increase since the last census now showed a count of 106,021,537.
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    1920's Timeline

  • League of Nations

    The League of Nations is established with the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles, ending the hostilities of the first World War. Nine days later the United States Senate votes against joining the League.

  • The Right to Vote

    Women are given the right to vote when the 19th Amendment to the United States constitution grants universal women's suffrage.

  • The NFL

    The American Professional Football League is formed in 1920 with Jim Thorpe as its president and eleven teams.

  • Immigration

    A national quota system on the amount of incoming immigrants is established by the United States Congress in the Emergency Quota Act, curbing legal immigration.

  • Miss America

    The first Miss America pageant is held in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It is won by Margaret Gorman for the title of the Golden Mermaid trophy, later dubbed Miss America.

  • The Armaments Congress

    The Armaments Congress ends. It would lead to an agreement, the Five Power Disarmament Treaty, between the major world powers of the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Japan, and the United States, to limit naval construction, outlaw poison gas, restrict submarine attacks on merchant fleets and respect China's sovereignty.

  • The Yankee Stadium

    Construction begins on Yankee Stadium in New York City, often dubbed the House that Ruth Built.

  • The Phonofilm

    The first sound on film motion picture Phonofilm is show in the Rivoli Theatre in New York City by Lee de Forest.

  • President Warren G. Harding

    President Warren G. Harding dies in office after becoming ill following a trip to Alaska, and is succeeded by his Vice President, Calvin Coolidge. Coolidge would oppose the League of Nations, but approved of the World Court.

  • The Winter Olympics

    The first Winter Olympic Games are held in the French Alps in Chamonix, France with sixteen nations sending athletes to participate, including the United States, which won four medals. Norway, with four gold and eighteen medals total had the most in both categories. The Winter Olympic Games have been held since this year, except during World War II.

  • Congress and Immigration

    Congress reduces immigration to approximately 150,000 people a year limiting each nationality to 2 percent of the number of persons in the U.S. in 1890.

  • Calvin Coolodge

    Calvin Coolidge wins his first election as President, retaining the White House for the Republican Party over his Democratic foe, John W. Davis, and Progressive Party candidate Robert M. La Follette. The Electoral margin was 382 to 136.

  • First Female Govenor

    Nellie Tayloe Ross is inaugurated as the first woman governor of the United States in Wyoming. Miriam Ferguson is installed two weeks later as the second during a ceremony in Texas.

  • The Feuled Rocket

    Robert H. Goddard demonstrates the viability of the first liquid fueled rockets with his test in Auburn, Massachusetts. The rocket flew one hundred and eighty-four feet over 2.5 seconds.

  • The Air Commerce Act

    Air Commerce Act is passed, providing aid and assistance to the airline industry, plus federal oversight under the Department of Commerce for civil air safety.

  • China

    The civil war in China prompts one thousand United States marines to land in order to protect property of United States interests.
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    The Mississippi Flood

    The Great Mississippi Flood occurs, affecting over 700,000.

  • The Transatlantic Flight

    Charles Lindbergh leaves Roosevelt Field, New York on the first non-stop transatlantic flight in history. He would reach Paris thirty-three and one-half hours later in the Spirit of St. Louis, his aircraft. A ticker tape parade would be held in New York City after his return on June 13.

  • The Television

    First success in the invention of television occurs by American inventor Philo Taylor Farnsworth. The complete electronic television system would be patented three years later on August 26, 1930.

  • Mount Rushmoore

    Work on the gigantic sculpture at Mount Rushmore begins. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum would complete the task of chiseling the busts of four presidents; George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt, fourteen years later.

  • Mickey Mouse

    The first appearance of Mickey and Minnie Mouse on film occurs with the release of the animated short film, Plane Crazy.

  • Amelia Earhart

    Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly over the Atlantic Ocean.

  • President Hoover

    Herbert Hoover wins election as President of the United States with an Electoral College victory, 444 to 87 over Democratic candidate Alfred E. Smith, the Catholic governor of New York.

  • Martin Lurther King

    Future Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King is born in his grandfather's house in Atlanta, Georgia.

  • Valentine's Day

    In Chicago, Illinois, gangsters working for Al Capone kill seven rivals and citizens in the act known as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

  • The Stock Market Crash

    Postwar prosperity ends in the 1929 Stock Market crash. The plummeting stock prices led to losses between 1929 and 1931 of an estimated $50 billion and started the worst American depression in the nation's history.