July 1921


The following events occurred in July 1921:

July 1, 1921 (Friday)

  • The Chinese Communist Party was founded.
  • The silent crime docudrama Yan Ruisheng became the first full-length feature film made in China to be released. Although commercially successful it was banned within 2 years and believed lost.
  • Mexico's increased tariff on the export of petroleum products went into effect. In response, oil production came to a halt and employees of oil refineries and drilling sites were laid off from work.
  • British troops arrived in Upper Silesia to support French forces in occupying the region, to maintain order in the wake of the Upper Silesia plebiscite.
  • Britain's striking miners voted to approve a settlement proposed by the British government. The Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons] then voted a subsidy of ten million pounds sterling to the mining industry to cover the pay increase.
  • The U.S.-registered EDC Design 1023 cargo ship Mopang was sunk by a mine at the entrance to Burgas Bay in the Black Sea.
  • Born: Seretse Khama, Motswana politician, the first President of Botswana; in Serowe, Bechuanaland

July 2, 1921 (Saturday)

July 3, 1921 (Sunday)

July 4, 1921 (Monday)

July 5, 1921 (Tuesday)

  • American inventor Miller Reese Hutchison, the former chief engineer to Thomas Edison, demonstrated his new noiseless and smokeless weapon in a press conference at the Woolworth Building, capable of firing a projectile at speeds of up to five miles per second, equivalent to. Hutchison claimed that a larger version of the cannon could be adapted to fire a shell weighing five tons — — a distance of up to.
  • South Africa's Prime Minister Jan Smuts conferred with Republicans and Unionists meeting at Dublin and suggested a proposal to remove barriers to a meeting in London.

July 6, 1921 (Wednesday)

July 7, 1921 (Thursday)

July 8, 1921 (Friday)

July 9, 1921 (Saturday)

July 10, 1921 (Sunday)

July 11, 1921 (Monday)

July 12, 1921 (Tuesday)

  • Beginning at 3:00 in the afternoon local time, the first radio broadcast in Sweden was made, transmitted from the city of Boden with a signal that could be heard in Stockholm.
  • The Spanish passenger ship Manuel L. Villaverde struck rocks off the coast of Colonial Nigeria, broke in two and sank. All those on board were rescued.
  • U.S. baseball player Babe Ruth tied and then broke the record for career home runs in the same game, surpassing Roger Connor's record of 136. Ruth would continue to break his own record, finishing his career with 714 homers, a mark that would stand until being broken by Hank Aaron in. Despite Ruth's effort, the New York Yankees still lost to the host St. Louis Browns, 6 to 4.
  • Died: Harry Hawker, 32, Australian test pilot and aircraft designer, was killed in the crash of his Nieuport Nighthawk airplane shortly after takeoff from the Hendon Aerodrome near London

July 13, 1921 (Wednesday)

July 14, 1921 (Thursday)

July 15, 1921 (Friday)

  • In the Greco-Turkish War, Greek forces reoccupied Afyonkarahisar, in present-day Turkey.
  • After being rammed by the British ship Harmodius, the U.S. schooner E. Marie Brown sank in the Atlantic Ocean east of Fire Island, New York, with the loss of four crew members.
  • The ex-German torpedo boat, allocated to the United States under the Treaty of Versailles, was sunk as a target off Cape Henry by the U.S. battleship. Shortly before, SMS S-132 had been sunk by the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Herbert and the dreadnought USS Delaware.

July 16, 1921 (Saturday)

July 17, 1921 (Sunday)

  • The unrecognized Republic of Mirdita was proclaimed in northern Albania by Marka Gjoni.
  • Cantonese troops, under the command of former Republic of [China (1912–1949)|Republic of China] President Sun Yat-sen, who had proclaimed the "Extraordinary Government of China", reported victory in a war in the provinces of Guangxi and Guangdong.
  • Japan announced its terms for recognition of the newly proclaimed Far Eastern Republic within the borders of the Soviet Union, including indemnities for the families of Japanese citizens who had been killed in Siberia, along with the outlawing of communism.
  • Died: Winthrop E. Stone, 59, American professor of chemistry and President of Purdue University, made the first successful ascent of the Eon Mountain in the Canadian Rockies, but fell to his death as he made his way back down the peak

July 18, 1921 (Monday)

July 19, 1921 (Tuesday)

July 20, 1921 (Wednesday)

  • France informed the United Kingdom that it would decline the British request for an immediate conference on the Silesian boundary between Germany and Poland. Instead, France intended to send more troops to the area. France reversed its decision six days later.
  • The Governor and the Lieutenant Governor of Illinois, Len Small and Fred E. Sterling, were both indicted by a grand jury on charges of embezzling public funds and conspiracy to defraud the state. Both had served as the Illinois State Treasurer in the past.
  • A group of 15 pilots of the U.S. Army, Navy and Marines carried out final aerial bombardment of a retired German warship, choosing the largest of the ships surrendered to the U.S. as part of German reparations, the dreadnought SMS Ostfriesland. U.S. Secretary of War John W. Weeks and U.S. Secretary of Navy Edwin Denby watched the demonstration along with U.S. Army General John J. Pershing and other prominent U.S. officials in attendance. To the embarrassment of the planners, only 13 of the 52 bombs struck the Ostfriesland, and only four of those actually exploded, without sinking the German warship. The U.S. Army carried out a second attack the next day, as two bombs sank Ostfriesland off of the American coast.
  • The British cabinet voted to approve Prime Minister David Lloyd George's peace proposal to the Irish Republicans, which included Dominion status and self-government for Ireland in all domestic matters, while reserving defense and foreign relations to the United Kingdom.
  • Born: Ted Schroeder, American tennis player who won the finals at the U.S. Open in 1942 and at Wimbledon in 1949; as Frederick Rudolph Schroeder, in Newark, New Jersey

July 21, 1921 (Thursday)

  • The Eskimo Pie was launched as a packaged chocolate and ice cream dessert when Christian Nelson of Onawa, Iowa, was able to persuade candy manufacturer Russell Stover to invest in what Nelson initially called "the I-Scream-Bar."
  • After meeting with King George V, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George presented a peace proposal to Irish Republican Éamon de Valera, offering recognition of self-governing Dominion of Ireland in return for Irish permission for Britain to maintain a military and naval presence.
  • As the Russian Civil War continued, the Soviet ship Sawa was shelled and sunk by the Soviet submarine Trotsky in the Black Sea while trying to defect to the Whites. The vessel and most of her crew were killed. Four men were rescued and imprisoned.
  • Died: Milorad Drašković, 48, Serbian politician and Minister of Internal Affairs for Yugoslavia, the kingdom's police agency, was assassinated by a member of the Yugoslavian Communist Party. The killing, coupled with the June 29 attempt on the life of Prince Alexander, prompted the passage of the Law Concerning the Protection of Security and Order in the State eleven days later on August 1

July 22, 1921 (Friday)

July 23, 1921 (Saturday)

July 24, 1921 (Sunday)

July 25, 1921 (Monday)

July 26, 1921 (Tuesday)

July 27, 1921 (Wednesday)

July 28, 1921 (Thursday)

July 29, 1921 (Friday)

July 30, 1921 (Saturday)

July 31, 1921 (Sunday)