August 1919

[August 1], 1919 (Friday)

• The Hungarian Soviet Republic under the administration of Béla Kun collapsed after Romania invaded the country.
• The former Province of Posen of the German Empire was reformed as a voivodeship under Poland.
• The British government passed the Police Act to discourage police from joining unions that could take strike action, in light of a series of police strikes over the last two years. It eventually led to the formation of the Police Federation of England and Wales as the representative body of police forces in the United Kingdom.
• Street car workers in Los Angeles began to strike against Pacific Electric.
• United States Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer appointed a young J. Edgar Hoover, then 24, to head the new General Intelligence Division of the Justice Department's Bureau of Investigation to specifically target radical groups in what became known as the Palmer Raids.
• The Weimar Republic established its official press department Rheinische Volkspflege under the Reich Central Office for Domestic Propaganda in Berlin. It was abolished in 1933 when the Nazi Party officially look power in Germany.
• Wharton Brook State Park was established in Wallingford, Connecticut.
• Several football and sports clubs were established in the following cities Lindau in Lindau, Germany, Voorwaarts in Paramaribo, Suriname, Hødd in Ulsteinvik, Norway, and Cibalia in Vinkovci, Croatia.
• Born:
• * Dave Creedon, Irish Gaelic football player, goalkeeper for the Glen Rovers, St. Nicholas and the Nemo Rangers from 1938 to 1955; in Blackpool, Cork, Ireland
• * Ed Bruneteau, Canadian hockey player, right wing for the Detroit Red Wings from 1937 to 1954; in Saint Boniface, Manitoba, Canada
• * Colin McCahon, New Zealand artist, best known for introducing modernism to New Zealand; in Timaru, New Zealand
• * James Hill, British film director, known for films including Born Free and the children's television series Worzel Gummidge; in Eldwick, England
• * Stanley Middleton, British writer, author of Holiday; in Bulwell, England
• Died: Oscar Hammerstein I, 73, Polish-American composer, architect of Times Square in New York City, known his comic operas Santa Maria and Naughty Marietta, grandfather of Oscar Hammerstein II

  [August 2], 1919 (Saturday)

• The First Hungarian Republic was briefly re-established under the leadership of Gyula Peidl.
• Both Montana and Nebraska ratified the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave women the right to vote.
• A Caproni commercial plane crashed near Verona and killed all 14 passengers and crew on board, making it the first civil aviation disaster in Italy.
• Sports club Pfullendorf was established in Pfullendorf, Germany, where it became best known for its football program.
• Born: Carlo Savina, Italian composer and conductor, best known for his film scores for The Godfather, Amarcord, and The Bear; in Turin, Kingdom of Italy
• Died: Otto Kissenberth, 26, German air force officer, commander of Jagdstaffel 23 for the Luftstreitkräfte in World War I; killed in a mountaineering accident

  [August 3], 1919 (Sunday)

• Four Royal Air Force Fairey seaplanes attacked three Bolshevik steamboats on Lake Onega, Russia during the British campaign against the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War, causing their crews to panic and allow Royal Navy submarines to capture them easily.
• The weekly newspaper World Freedom released its last issue in Budapest after 22 years of publication.

• Red Summer – A race riot in Chicago formally ended. After a week of violence, it was reported 38 people died, and another 537 were injured, with two-thirds of them being African American. African-American Patrolman John W. Simpson was the only policeman killed in the riot. Fires caused by the violence left about 1,000 residents, mostly African Americans, homeless.
• Football club América defeated Latino del Valle 3–0 to win the second Copa Centenario Batalla de Boyacá championship final in Cali, Colombia.
• Died: Samuel W. Fordyce, 79, American rail executive, president of the St. Louis, Arkansas and Texas Railway, St. Louis Southwestern Railway, and Kansas City Southern Railway from 1886 to 1900

  [August 4], 1919 (Monday)

• The Erzurum Congress held by the Turkish National Movement in Erzurum, Turkey concluded with much of the groundwork laid out towards an independent Turkey. This included the completion of the National Pact that would be released by the General Assembly of the Ottoman Empire the following year to pave the way to independence.
• The Musée Rodin opened in the Parisian mansion Hôtel Biron to preserve and showcase the works of French sculptor Auguste Rodin.
• Born: Michel Déon, French writer, author of Les Poneys sauvages, Un taxi mauve and The Foundling Boy, recipient of the Legion of Honour; as Édouard Michel, in Paris, France
• Died: Dave Gregory, 74, Australian cricketer, batsman for the New South Wales cricket team from 1866 to 1883, and the Australia national cricket team from 1877 to 1879

  [August 5], 1919 (Tuesday)

• Born:
• * Seweryn Chajtman, Polish engineer, developed the Alternative Theory of Organization and Management ; in Warsaw, Republic of Poland
• * Rosalind Hicks, British literary guardian and the only child of mystery author Agatha Christie; in Torquay, England
• Died: Herbert Ward, 56, British explorer, member of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, recipient of the Croix de Guerre and Legion of Honour

  [August 6], 1919 (Wednesday)

• István Friedrich led a right-wing counterrevolution against the Gyula Peidl government in Hungary with the backing of the Royal Romanian Army.
• Antal Lehár arrives to Szombathely from Austria, takes command of counter-revolutionary forces in Western Hungary
• A street car workers strike against Pacific Electric in Los Angeles ended after five days of clashes between strikers and city police.
• Born:
• * Pauline Betz, American tennis player, five-time Grand Slam champion; in Dayton, Ohio, United States
• * Leon Culberson, American baseball player, outfielder for the Boston Red Sox and Washington Senators from 1943 to 1948; as Delbert Leon Culberson, in Halls, Georgia, United States
• Died: Ada Langworthy Collier, 75, American poet, best known for the narrative poem ''Lilith, The Legend of the First Woman''

  [August 7], 1919 (Thursday)

• Archduke Joseph August of Austria declared himself regent of Hungary following a conservative overthrow of the left-central government the previous day.
• An American patrol of 40 men exchanged fire with a Red Army unit of 30 men at the village of Novo Litovoskaya, Siberia, Russia, killing or capturing all of the Red Army soldiers.
• The Actors' Equity Association went on strike over working conditions and pay at a majority of the theatrical companies in New York City, resulting in 12 playhouses closing on the first night and issuing $25,000 in ticket refunds.
• William Lyon Mackenzie King became the new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada after winning 52% of the final vote at the Liberal leadership convention in Ottawa, succeeding the late Wilfrid Laurier, who died in February.
• French pilot Charles Godefroy flew his Nieuport fighter under the arches of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the first time this has been accomplished. The stunt was unauthorized, but as it was a protest against pilots having had to parade on foot through the Champs-Élysées during the World War I victory celebration on Bastille Day, as well as in remembrance to fellow pilot Jean Navarre who died while practicing the same protest stunt. French authorities let Godefroy off with a warning.
• Captain Ernest Charles Hoy made the first aircraft crossing of the Rocky Mountains in Canada, flying from Vancouver to Calgary in a Curtis airplane in 16 hours and 42 minutes. Hoy made 1,400 kilometers with a total flight time of 12 hours 24 minutes.

  [August 8], 1919 (Friday)

• The armistice signed between the United Kingdom and Afghanistan in Rawalpindi, British India ended the Third Anglo-Afghan War.
• Born:
• * Dino De Laurentiis, Italian film producer, known for his collaborations with filmmakers Carlo Ponti and Federico Fellini, and producing popular Hollywood films such as Serpico, Death Wish, Conan the Barbarian, and Hannibal; as Agostino De Laurentiis, in Torre Annunziata, Kingdom of Italy
• * Samuel Pearson Goddard Jr., American politician, 12th Governor of Arizona; in Clayton, Missouri, United States
• * Hau Pei-tsun, Chinese state leader, 13th Premier of the Republic of China; in Yancheng, Republic of China

  [August 9], 1919 (Saturday)

• The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists concluded their Bible Conference with the decision not to publicly disclose the transcripts of the conference, especially their conclusions on Seventh-day Adventist Church co-founder Ellen G. White and her writings. Details of the conference would not be disclosed to the public until 1975.
• The popular vigilante hero Zorro, created by American pulp writer Johnston McCulley, debuted in the serialized novel The Curse of Capistrano published in the pulp magazine All-Story Weekly from August 9 to September 6. McCulley meant to write a standalone story of the character, but the box office success of the 1920 film adaption The Mark of Zorro, starring Douglas Fairbanks as the masked vigilante hero, convinced McCulley to write more stories and make the character an icon in popular culture.
• Pelham Park and City Island Railway, a street rail service in The Bronx, New York City, ceased operations.
• The football club América was established in Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil.
• Born:
• * Joop den Uyl, Dutch state leader, 45th Prime Minister of the Netherlands; as Johannes Marten den Uijl, in Hilversum, Netherlands
• * Tony Lovell, British air force officer, commander of the No. 1435 and No. 145 Squadrons during World War II, recipient of the Distinguished Service Order and Distinguished Flying Cross from both the United Kingdom and the United States; in British Ceylon
• * Leona Woods, American physicist, member of the research team to build the world's first nuclear reactor and later became involved in the Manhattan Project; in La Grange, Illinois, United States
• * Ralph Houk, American baseball player and coach, catcher for the New York Yankees from 1947 to 1954, and manager from 1961 to 1973, six-time World Series champion; in Lawrence, Kansas, United States
• * Fred Sanford, American baseball player, pitcher for the St. Louis Browns from 1943 to 1951; as John Frederick Sanford, in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States
• Died:
• * Ernst Haeckel, 85, German biologist, promoter of the recapitulation theory, author of Art Forms in Nature
• * Ruggero Leoncavallo, 62, Italian composer, known for his operas including Pagliacci and Mattinata
• * Ralph Albert Blakelock, 71, American painter, member of the Tonalism movement