December 1920

December 1, 1920 (Wednesday)

• General Alvaro Obregón was sworn into office as the new President of Mexico, bringing a close to the Mexican Revolution. Obregón, who had lost part of his right arm in battle, took the oath by raising his left hand, despite complaints by his critics. "It was the answer to placards posted around the city," Los Angeles reporter Robert Armstrong wrote, "saying that the new President could not comply with the Constitution which requires the right hand to be lifted during the ceremony." A historian would later write, "he put in place not only educational and labour reform but anticlerical policies, which were, ultimately, and in the most literal sense, fatal for him."
• William C. Durant, co-founder and president of General Motors, resigned under pressure from creditors and the GM board of directors.
• Born:
• *Le Duc Anh, Vietnamese politician, fourth President of Vietnam from 1992 to 1997; in Phú Lộc District, French Indochina
• *Yevgeniya Zhigulenko, Soviet Air Force bomber pilot, awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for 968 missions over Germany during World War II, later a film director; in Krasnodar, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union

  December 2, 1920 (Thursday)

• A pro-Russian government took control of the independent Democratic Republic of Armenia after Prime Minister Simon Vratsian resigned and turned over control to the Armenian Communist Party and First Secretary Georg Alikhanian. Sarkis Kassian was made the President. The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic remained nominally independent until becoming part of the Soviet Union on March 12, 1922.
• Britain, France and Italy, the victors in World War I, sent a diplomatic note to the government of Greece, warning the Greek government that the allies opposed the return of King Constantine to the throne.
• Born:
• *Wilhelm Crinius, German Luftwaffe fighter ace, credited with 114 victories in 400 combat missions; in the village of Hohenhausen in Kalletal
• *Veronica Maclean, British food writer, known for Lady Maclean's Cook Book and subsequent cookery books in the "Lady Maclean" series; in London

  December 3, 1920 (Friday)

• Armenia agreed to cede a majority of its territory back to Turkey as its representatives signed the Treaty of Alexandropol following Armenia's defeat in November's Turkish–Armenian War. Armenia agreed to renounce the Treaty of Sèvres of August 10, which had created the new republic from the territory of the Russian and Ottoman Empires.
• The Prime Ministers of the Allied Nations informed the Greek government that all financial aid would be withdrawn if King Constantine was returned to the throne. The Allied Supreme Council had forced Constantine's abdication in 1917 because of his interference with the Allied war effort.
• Born: Eduardo Francisco Pironio, Argentinian Roman Catholic Cardinal, designated a Servant of God following his death as the first step in an ongoing cause for canonization; in Nueve de Julio
• Died: Leon Chechemian, 72, leader of the Armenian Catholic Church; died in exile in Great Britain

  December 4, 1920 (Saturday)

• Argentina became the first nation to withdraw its membership in the League of Nations, after resistance to four of its proposals. "Argentina's neutral position in World War I led to its isolation within the League of Nations," a historian notes, and the South American nation's delegate, Honorio Pueyrredón, had been instructed to lobby the League to change its policy of distinguishing between belligerents and allies when deciding on membership and participation.
• The first major confrontation between prohibition agents of the U.S. Bureau of Internal Revenue and illegal manufacturers of "moonshine" took place in an isolated area in Bell County and Knox County, Kentucky, near their border with Claiborne County, Tennessee. Fourteen agents and two U.S. Marshals fought a gun battle with an estimated 40 moonshiners, with over 1,000 shots fired during an attempt to serve arrest warrants. Ultimately, nine of the suspects surrendered, an undetermined number were wounded, and the others fled further into the wilderness.
• The new American Professional Football Association, now the National Football League, played in New York City for the first time, with a game at the Polo Grounds, "featuring in their line-ups some of the past stars of intercollegiate football", including Canton's Jim Thorpe. The Buffalo All-Americans defeated the Canton Bulldogs, 7 to 3, before a crowd of 12,000 people. In the third quarter, shortly after Thorpe kicked a field goal for Canton, Buffalo's Swede Youngstrom returned a blocked punt for a touchdown and Bodie Weldon kicked the point after.

  December 5, 1920 (Sunday)

• Voters in a plebiscite in Greece overwhelmingly favored the return of King Constantine to the throne, with 999,954 votes out of 1,012,337 cast. Only 10,383 voted against Constantine; there were no other candidates for the throne and only half of the eligible voters participated.
• Born: Cao Tianqin, Chinese biochemist, discovered the structure of the myosin proteins responsible for the function of the muscle; in Beijing, Republic of China
• Died:
• *Benjamin Holt, 71, American inventor, patented the first workable tractor vehicle that used a continuous track to spread the weight of its wheels, founder of the Caterpillar Tractor Company
• *Boris Batursky, 41, Russian trade union organizer; died of typhus two days after his release from a Soviet prison

  December 6, 1920 (Monday)

• The unusual saga of the "Sicilian Sleeping Beauty", one of the most well-preserved mummies of the 20th Century, began with the death from the Spanish influenza of Rosalia Lombardo, one week before her second birthday. Rosalia's parents asked the renowned embalmer Alfredo Salafia to preserve their child's body for placement in the Catacombe dei Cappuccini, in Palermo on the Italian island of Sicily. For almost a century, thousands of visitors have seen her well-preserved remains inside of a glass-topped coffin, because of Salafia's use of a combination of glycerin, formalin, zinc sulfate, zinc chloride, alcohol and salicylic acid. Because of an optical illusion caused by the child's partially open eyelids and sunlight that filters into the windows, Rosalia's eyes appear to open and close during the day.
• The Clothing Manufacturers' Association broke all relations with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.
• Born:
• *Dave Brubeck, American cool jazz pianist; in Concord, California
• *George Porter, British chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate in 1967; in Stainforth, South Yorkshire

  December 7, 1920 (Tuesday)

• The Draft Mandates for Mesopotamia and Palestine were submitted by Arthur Balfour, the UK's Lord President of the Council and the former British Foreign Secretary, to the League of Nations. The League's Secretary General, Sir Eric Drummond, received the mandates, providing for the administration of the former Ottoman Empire territories that would become Iraq, Israel and Jordan. The Mandate for Mesopotamia and the Mandate for Palestine had been governed by separate British High Commissioners since earlier in the year.
• U.S. President Woodrow Wilson delivered his last State of the Union address. Because of his illness, he sent it as a written communication rather than speaking before both houses of the U.S. Congress. The speech was read aloud, in the separate house chambers, by the respective clerks. William Tyler Page read the text to the U.S. House of Representatives and George A. Sanderson did the same before the U.S. Senate. Wilson had been the first modern U.S. president to deliver the annual message in a speech to Congress, setting a precedent that has been in place for most, but not all years since then.
• Died: José Sebastião de Almeida Neto, 79, Portuguese cleric and exiled Patriarch of Lisbon

  December 8, 1920 (Wednesday)

• Max Goldstein, a Romanian terrorist, placed a bomb in the Romanian Senate chamber that killed three people, Justice Minister Dimitrie Greceanu, Senator Spirea Gheorghiu and Bishop Demetriu Radu.
• Died: John Botha, 41, South African rugby union player; killed by a lightning bolt while outside his home at Standerton

  December 9, 1920 (Thursday)

• Michael Hainisch was sworn into office as the first President of Austria, serving two four-year terms.
• The California Alien Land Law of 1920, an amendment to the Webb-Heney Act of 1913, went into effect after being approved by California voters in a November 2 referendum. The amendment to the law, ostensibly prohibiting "aliens ineligible for citizenship" from leasing agricultural property in California, was primarily directed at immigrants from Japan, but affected other Asian immigrants who were ineligible for U.S. citizenship because of quotas.
• Born:
• *Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, Italian politician and statesman, Prime Minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994, President of Italy from 1999 to 2006; in Livorno, Kingdom of Italy
• *Sigmund Eisner, American medieval literature scholar who specialized in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer; in Red Bank, New Jersey
• *Cyril Domb, British-Israeli theoretical physicist; in London

  December 10, 1920 (Friday)

• U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in establishing the League of Nations. Because of illness, President Wilson was unable to travel to Christiana to accept the award and his message was read aloud by the U.S. Minister to Norway, Albert G. Schmedeman.
• Under the authority of the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act 1920, U.K. Prime Minister David Lloyd George announced martial law in the counties of Cork, Limerick, Tipperary and Kerry, with power for the British Army to arrest people and put them on trial under court-martial. Lloyd George pledged also to work with all Sinn Féin members of the House of Commons except for those charged with serious crimes by British Army authorities.
• Born: Stanko Todorov, Bulgarian politician, Prime Minister of Bulgaria from 1971 to 1981, Bulgaria's acting president in July 1990; in Klenovik, Pernik Province, Kingdom of Bulgaria
• Died: Horace Dodge, 52, American automobile manufacturer, co-founded the Dodge Brothers Motor Company in 1900, now a division of Fiat Chrysler