March 1921

March 1, 1921 (Tuesday)

• The Kronstadt rebellion began at the naval fortress at Kronstadt, located on the island of Kotlin in the Soviet Union outside of St. Petersburg.
• The results of the first census of the Japanese Empire showed 56,961,140 people in Japan, and 77,005,112 overall.
• At the London Reparations Conference, Dr. Simons made a counteroffer on behalf of Germany to pay reparations of 30 billion gold marks, based on 20 billion already paid against a revised debt of 50 billion. The Allied Premiers, who had demanded an additional 226 billion gold marks, rejected the proposal.
• Jules Rimet, the director of France's soccer football federation took office as the third president of FIFA, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association and would transform the governing body of the world's soccer football leagues during a 34-year administration lasting until 1954. During Rimet's regime, the World Cup would be created in 1930 to determine the soccer football champion of the world.
• Erle P. Halliburton received a patent for his process of controlling well drilling by the rapid injection of cement.
• Born: Richard Wilbur, American poet, United States Poet Laureate from 1987 to 1988, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner; in New York City, United States
• Died: Nicholas I of Montenegro, 79, first and only king of Montenegro from 1910 until the kingdom's union with Serbia in 1918

  March 2, 1921 (Wednesday)

• The Kronstadt rebellion saw the Kronstadt Fortress fall to the anti-Bolshevists in Petrograd.
• Abdullah, Prince of Mecca and the future King of Jordan, entered the Jordanian capital of Amman.
• The village of Colonie, New York, was incorporated in Albany County.
• Born:
• *Lykke Aresin, German physician and sexologist, in Bernburg, Saxony-Anhalt, German Reich
• *Kenji Misumi, Japanese film director; in Kyoto, Empire of Japan
• *Ernst Haas, Austrian-born American photojournalist; in Vienna, Austria
• Died: Matthew D. Mann, 75, American surgeon who had operated on U.S. president William McKinley after the president was shot on September 6, 1901

  March 3, 1921 (Thursday)

• Almost 900 people died in the sinking of the Singapore ship SS Hong Moh as it approached Swatow after departing Hong Kong with 1,135 passengers and a crew of 48. At 7:20 in the evening, it struck the White Rocks. Rescue did not take place until March 5, after the ship had broken in two, and only 268 people survived.
• Congress passed a joint resolution declaring that the wartime emergency declared during World War I was over and repealed most of the emergency legislation passed in the U.S. during World War I, including the Sedition Act of 1918. President Wilson, on his last full day in office, signed the repeal of almost all of the "war laws" except for the creation of the War Finance Corporation and the sale of Liberty Bonds, and a prohibition against trading with the enemy nations.
• The Allied Prime Ministers delivered an ultimatum to Germany to accept, by March 7, the Allied reparations demand of 226 billion marks over 42 years, or face Allied occupation of western German cities.
• On the last full day of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's term of office, the House of Representatives failed to get the two-thirds majority necessary to override the veto of the Fordney Emergency Tariff Bill, falling 11 votes short of the required number.
• Poland and Romania signed their Convention on Defensive Alliance, pledging for five years to come to each other's defense in the event of an invasion.
• The Danish Institute of Theoretical Physics opened at the University of Copenhagen under the direction of physicist Niels Bohr.
• Crown Prince Hirohito of Japan became the first member of Japanese royalty to depart the nation in more than 16 centuries. The Prince, future Emperor of Japan, boarded the battleship Katori at Yokohama on his voyage to Europe.
• The White House announced that outgoing U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby would form a private law practice upon leaving public service. The statement from the White House said, "The President made the announcement today that at the conclusion of his term of office he would resume the practice of law, forming a partnership with the Secretary of State, Bainbridge Colby. The firm will have offices in New York and Washington." Wilson had graduated from the University of Virginia College of Law in 1881 but had not practiced law in more than 35 years.
• Born: Jean Paolini, French civil servant, prefect of police of Paris; in Ghisonaccia
• Died: General Auguste Mercier, 87, former French Minister of War who prosecuted the Dreyfus affair and attempted to destroy exonerating evidence

  March 4, 1921 (Friday)

• Warren G. Harding was inaugurated as the 29th President of the United States. The incoming Senate convened in a special session and confirmed all of Harding's cabinet nominations the same day. Outgoing President Wilson rode in a car with Harding to the Capitol and had walked with the assistance of a cane into the building, but was overcome with fatigue and returned to his new residence of 2340 S Street N.W. before the inauguration ceremony began.
• Soviet Red Army troops entered the city of Sukhumi within the Georgian republic and aided Bolshevik sympathizers in setting up the Abkhazian Soviet Socialist Republic.
• Troops of the Army of Costa Rica crossed into Panama and occupied the border town of Guabito.
• Harding County, New Mexico was created from portions of Union County and Mora County and was named in honor of the new president of the United States on the day of his inauguration.
• The new U.S. Congress voted to approve the creation of the first Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to house the remains of a member of the U.S. military who could not be identified. A member of the U.S. Army, who had been buried as an unknown casualty in France during World War I, was reinterred in Arlington National Cemetery on November 11, 1921.
• Born:
• *Jane Fawcett, British codebreaker and historical preservationist; as Janet Caroline Hughes, in London, England
• *Ademilde Fonseca, Brazilian singer of choro music; in São Gonçalo do Amarante, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

  March 5, 1921 (Saturday)

• Danilo Petrović-Njegoš, the former Crown Prince of Montenegro, pretender to the throne and leader of the government-in-exile, renounced his claim to the throne in favor of his 12-year-old nephew, Mihail Petrović-Njegoš.
• All 43 crew on the Belgian cargo ship Madimba died after the vessel collided with another Belgian vessel, the Italier, and sank in the North Sea.

  March 6, 1921 (Sunday)

• Brigadier General H.R. Cumming of the British Army was ambushed and killed at West Cork in Ireland as he was on his way to preside over a court martial of IRA members. Cumming and his escort had just crossed from County Kerry into County Cork when the attack happened
• Germany responded to the Allied ultimatum by increasing its counteroffer of reparations to 90 billion gold marks over 30 years, and providing standardized housing materials for rebuilding damaged buildings in northern France.
• The Portuguese Communist Party was founded.
• The most popular film of the year in the U.S., The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, was released by Metro Pictures. Directed by Rex Ingram and starring Pomeroy Cannon, Rudolph Valentino and Beatrice Dominguez, the silent film ran for 2 hours and 14 minutes and grossed $4.5 million in domestic rentals.

  March 7, 1921 (Monday)

• Mayor George Clancy of Limerick, Ireland, and his predecessor Michael O'Callaghan, were shot at their homes while they were sleeping, in reprisal for the murder of General Cumming.
• Born: Ruth "Bazy" Tankersley, American newspaper publisher as owner of the Washington Journal-Herald; as Ruth McCormick, in Chicago, United States
• Died: Paul M. Potter, 67, American playwright

  March 8, 1921 (Tuesday)

• The assassination of Spain's Prime Minister Eduardo Dato led to Gabino Bugallal Araújo, a member of Dato's cabinet, serving as PM until Manuel Allendesalazar was appointed on March 13.
• At 7:00 in the morning, French Army and Belgian Army troops moved into the Ruhr Area in Germany to enforce reparations payments, taking up occupation in the cities of Düsseldorf, Duisburg and Ruhrort. No resistance was encountered as 10,000 French troops and 5,000 Belgian troops crossed the border, while the British Army sent two squadrons of cavalry to assist in the occupation of Düsseldorf. Notices, in German, were posted on all public buildings of a proclamation by France's General Jean Degoutte, with the statement that "This occupation constitutes in no fashion a measure of hostility toward the population. Under the reserve of strict observance of orders which the military authority will judge indispensable to promulgate there will be no interference with the economic life of the region."
• U.S. Secretary of War John W. Weeks announced that U.S. troops would continue to occupy the Rhineland in Germany, having been placed there during the Wilson administration.
• The 10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party opened in Moscow and lasted for nine days, ending on March 16.
• Born:
• *Georg-Peter Eder, German Luftwaffe fighting ace with 78 shootdowns in World War II; in Oberdachstetten, Bavaria, Weimar Republic
• *Alan Hale Jr., American film actor and TV comedian, best known for portraying the Skipper on the series Gilligan's Island; as Alan Hale MacKahan, in Los Angeles, United States
• *Svetislav Mandić, Yugoslavian and Serbian historian and author; in Mostar, Kingdom of Yugoslavia
• Died: Eduardo Dato, 64, Prime Minister of Spain; assassinated by three Catalonian terrorists who pulled up next to his car as he was being driven home following a session of parliament