July 1920

July 1, 1920 (Thursday)

• Sir Robert Borden announced that he was resigning after nine years of service as prime minister of Canada, because of poor health. Borden made his announcement at a meeting in Ottawa of his Unionist Party colleagues.
• The former German town of Walk was divided by an arbitration commission between Estonia and Latvia.
• Born:
• *George I. Fujimoto, American chemist who discovered the Fujimoto–Belleau reaction; in Seattle
• *Aziz Sedky, Prime minister of Egypt from 1972 to 1973, developer of Egypt's industrialization during the rule of President Nasser; in Cairo
• Died: Delfim Moreira, 51, Brazilian politician, President of Brazil from 1918 to 1919

  July 2, 1920 (Friday)

• Delegate voting for the presidential nomination began at the 1920 Democratic National Convention at San Francisco. With a two-thirds majority necessary for a nomination, former Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo, had 266 votes on the first ballot, followed by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer with 256, Ohio Governor James M. Cox with 134 and New York Governor Al Smith with 109. The other votes were split among 19 other candidates. The convention adjourned for the day after the second roll call, with McAdoo still in first place.
• Sir Herbert Samuel arrived in Jaffa to begin his duties as the first British High Commissioner for Palestine, placed under mandate by the Allied Powers.
• The Soviet Army and Ukrainian Bolsheviks captured the former Austro-Hungarian town of Lemberg, occupied at the time by Poland, driving out Polish and Ukrainian forces. For decades, it was part of the Ukrainian SSR as Lvov, and is now the Ukrainian city of Lviv.
• Died: General William L. Marshall, 74, Chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1908 to 1910

  July 3, 1920 (Saturday)

• Germany's Chancellor Constantin Fehrenbach and his new coalition government received a vote of confidence in the Reichstag by a margin of 313 to 64.
• Meeting at Brussels, the Allied Conference agreed upon a division of the reparation payments that would be expected from Germany, with the initial 8 percent being allocated to Belgium; 52% to France, 22% to the United Kingdom, 5 1/2 % to Serbia and 4% apiece to Italy, Japan and Portugal. The reparation was reportedly going to be based on a principal of 6,000,000,000 British pounds sterling, along with interest, payable in installments of £150,000,000 per year for the first five years, and £250,000,000 from 1926 onward.
• Sixteen more roll calls were taken in the Democratic National Convention. On the seventh ballot, Governor Cox gained 100 votes to surpass Attorney General Palmer, and, on the twelfth ballot, Cox passed Secretary McAdoo to become the front runner. Cox had 458 when the day adjourned after the eighteenth ballot, still short of the necessary 729½ votes, and McAdoo had 330½.
• A bolt of lightning led to 18 deaths and over 100 injuries in the wreck of three streetcars near Pittston, Pennsylvania. Most of those killed were sports fans returning to Scranton from the annual Caledonian Club games against Pittston. At 7:30 in the evening, the lightning struck and knocked down a telegraph pole adjacent to the Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railroad line, just as the lead streetcar was approaching. Moments later, the second streetcar crashed into the back of the first one, and then "a third car telescoped the second car."
• Born: Lennart Bladh, Swedish politician, member of the Riskdag from 1974 to 1985; in Kristianstad
• Died: William C. Gorgas, 65, Surgeon General of the United States Army during World War I

  July 4, 1920 (Sunday)

• A researcher at the DuPont chemical laboratories, effected a chemical reaction "which led to the development of a nitrocellulose lacquer eventually called Duco." Because the lacquer base could carry more color pigment in suspension, the color of automobiles was no longer limited to black and, in 1923, GM's Oakland Motor Car Company would introduce the dark blue 1924 Oakland Tourer. While cars had been custom painted in other colors in the past, the Duco Finish permitted the mass production of cars in other colors. The Duco Finish was described by the DuPont company as "a pyroxylin material made from chemically treated cotton, pigments and solvents" that "will practically revolutionize the enameling business" because it dried at room temperature in a few minutes, as well as being "tough, durable, adhesive, pleasing to the eye and touch."
• Born:
• *Anthony Barber, British politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1970 to 1974; in Kingston upon Hull
• *Leona Helmsley, American real estate financier, owner of the Helmsley Hotels chain; as Lena Rosenthal, in Marbletown, New York

  July 5, 1920 (Monday)

• After 43 ballots for a presidential nominee, the U.S. Democratic Party nominated Ohio Governor James M. Cox. In the 30th round of voting, Secretary McAdoo had taken a 403½ to 400½ lead over Governor Cox, and maintained the lead until the 39th round, when the votes shifted to 468½ to 440 in Cox's favor. As midnight arrived, voting was in progress on a motion to adjourn.
• Laura Clay, one of the Kentucky delegates to the Democratic National Convention, became the first American woman to receive a vote for a presidential nomination for a major U.S. political party. On the 33rd ballot, Augustus O. Stanley, the chairman of the Kentucky delegation, cast one of the state's 26 votes for Mrs. Clay.
• The Spa Conference between the Supreme War Council and the German Reich, opened in the town of Spa in Belgium.
• Died:
• *Max Klinger, 63, German painter and sculptor
• *Israel Friedlander, 43, Polish-born American rabbi and Zionist leader; murdered, along with Rabbi Bernard Cantor, while on a relief mission in Ukraine

  July 6, 1920 (Tuesday)

• The Democratic Convention finally had a nominee for President of the United States at 1:39 in the morning in San Francisco, as Ohio Governor James M. Cox was picked by delegates on the 44th ballot, with 699½ votes cast. "t was apparent that before the ballot was completed he would obtain more than 729 votes, the two-thirds majority required to nominate," The New York Times noted, and the Vice Chairman of the Democratic National Committee then "interrupted the voting and moved to have the nomination made unanimous." The 42nd balloting began at 12:26 in the morning.
• King Christian X of Denmark ratified the treaty with Germany, returning the northern part of the former German Duchy of Schleswig to Danish control as the province of Slesvig.
• A mob in Paris, Texas, forced its way into the jail at the Lamar County courthouse and seized two African American brothers, Irving Arthur and Herman Arthur, who had been arrested on suspicion of the July 2 murder of their landlord and his son. The group then took the Arthur brothers to the county fairgrounds and burned the men at the stake.
• With the help of an army of 100,000 Cossacks, General Pyotr Wrangel's White Russian Army announced that it had surrounded and captured 18 regiments of the Red Army Cavalry, taking 20,000 prisoners and driving the Bolsheviks from Novorossiysk, Taganrog and Ekaterinodar.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Assistant U.S. Secretary of the Navy, was nominated by the Democratic Party for Vice President of the United States. Roosevelt, the selection of Democratic nominee James M. Cox, was approved by acclamation without a roll call vote.
• Died: Andrew Traynor, 77, American Union soldier, Medal of Honor recipient

  July 7, 1920 (Wednesday)

• Arthur Meighen agreed to become the ninth Prime Minister of Canada. At the age of 44, he was the youngest person to serve as head of the Canadian government. Robert Borden, the outgoing premier had recommended to the Governor-General, the Duke of Devonshire, that Meighen would be the ideal successor. The formal transfer of power took place on Saturday, July 10.
• The government of Mexico reported a ceasefire agreement with Pancho Villa as terms of surrender were being discussed, to last until July 14. Villa's demands were that the 1917 Mexican constitution be abolished and that the 1857 constitution be restored, that General Plutarco Elias Calles be dismissed as Minister of War, and that civilian elections be held.
• The U.S. Department of State announced the lifting of a ban on American trade with the Soviet Union, but said that diplomatic relations would not be established.
• Born:
• *William T. Coleman, American attorney and judge who served as U.S. Secretary of Transportation from 1975 to 1977, and the second African American to serve on a U.S. presidential cabinet; in Philadelphia
• *Frank "Sandy" Tatum, American attorney who served as president of the United States Golf Association from 1978 to 1980

  July 8, 1920 (Thursday)

• In the city of Spa in Belgium, the Allied powers gave a 24-hour ultimatum to Germany for a reduction of the German Army from 200,000 to 150,000 by the end of October, and to 100,000 by the end of January, 1921. Speaking for the Allies, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George said that if the German government failed to sign an acceptance of the disarmament plan by 12:00 noon on July 9, the Allied Powers were prepared to send troops across the Rhine river to occupy Germany.
• The Louisiana state legislature adjourned at midnight without taking up the question of the women's suffrage amendment. The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution would take effect the following month. Almost 50 years later, Louisiana's legislature would finally ratify the amendment.

  July 9, 1920 (Friday)

• At the Spa Conference in Belgium on terms of Germany's post-war obligations, representatives of Germany agreed to the reduction of the republic's army.

  July 10, 1920 (Saturday)

• The Canadian province of New Brunswick became the first to consider whether to stay with the nationwide prohibition that had been enacted in 1918. New Brunswick voters opted overwhelmingly in favor of keeping the prohibition against liquor, and a second proposal to allow the sale of beer and light wine failed, with only 23,713 for and 38,375 against.
• The Ford Motor Company announced its purchase of the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railroad and of 400,000 acres of forest land for use in its automobiles. The next week, Ford purchased his own coal mines, the Banner Fork Coal Company, in Harlan County, Kentucky.
• Glinda of Oz, the 14th and last of L. Frank Baum's book series, was published 14 months after Baum's death.
• Beijing was placed under martial law as Zhang Zuolin traveled to Tianjin to negotiate peace.
• Born: Owen Chamberlain, American physicist and 1959 Nobel Prize laureate for his discovery of the antiproton with Emilio Segrè; in San Francisco
• Died: Lord Fisher, 79, British Admiral of the Fleet in the Royal Navy's First Sea Lord during World War I, died of cancer