Top News Stories from 1919

World Events

• Versailles Treaty, incorporating Woodrow Wilson's draft Covenant of League of Nations, signed by Allies and Germany; rejected by U.S. Senate.
• 18th Amendment (Prohibition) adopted. Background: Amendments to the Constitution of the United States
• Mahatma Gandhi initiates Satyagraha campaigns, beginning his nonviolent resistance movement against British rule in India.

U.S. Events

• About three-quarters of the Boston police force goes on strike (Sept. 9). Massachusetts Governor (John) Calvin Coolidge acts quickly to dismiss the strikers, saying that no one has the right to strike against the public safety.
• Race riots erupt in 26 U.S. cities during the course of the year, including Washington, D.C., and Chicago in July.
• The 18th amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting the sale of alcholic beverages anywhere in the U.S., is ratified (Jan. 16).

Economics

Sports

World Series

Stanley Cup

Wimbledon

Kentucky Derby Champion

NCAA Football Champions

Entertainment

Events

• After moving from its southern rural roots, jazz establishes Chicago as its capital. The city will become home to such jazz greats as trumpeter Louis Armstrong and pianist Jelly Roll Morton.
• Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith, Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary Pickford establish United Artists in an attempt to control their own work.

Science

• Dial telephones are introduced by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company.
• Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity is confirmed when the Royal Astronomical Society sees the predicted effect during a solar eclipse.

Previous Year | Next Year

or enter a year:

Enter a year:

Year by Year: 1900-2014