May 1920

May 1, 1920 (Saturday)

• A game between the Boston Braves and the Brooklyn Robins lasted 26 innings, setting a major league record that still stands. The score was tied, 1 to 1, after nine innings and then continued for 17 scoreless innings, before being called for darkness. On May 8, 1984, a 7 to 6 win by the Chicago White Sox over the Milwaukee Brewers went 25 innings.
• International Labor Day celebrations in Paris degenerated into riots and a nationwide railway strike began across France. In most locations around the world, the May Day observances were peaceful
• The U.S. Department of War announced that it had discharged 180,581 U.S. Army reserve soldiers since the November 11, 1918, armistice, and that 2,490 others had resigned.
• Born: Louis Siminovitch, Canadian molecular biologist and pioneer in human genetics; in Montreal
• Died: Princess Margaret of Connaught, 38, English princess who was married to Gustav, Crown Prince of Sweden, died of sepsis following a mastoidectomy.

  May 2, 1920 (Sunday)

• Canada consolidated nine steel, coal, shipbuilding and transportation companies into one entity, British Empire Steel Corporation, larger than any British steel concern and second only to United States Steel. The merger included Dominion Steel Corporation, Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company, Canadian Steamship Lines, Maritime Rail Company, Canada Foundries and Forgings, and four shipbuilding companies The company later sold its assets to the Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation.
• The first game of baseball's Negro National League was played, at Washington Park in Indianapolis, Indiana. A crowd of 6,000 watched the Indianapolis ABCs defeat the Chicago American Giants, 4 to 2, in the first game, and 11 to 4 in the second.
• Born: Preben Neergaard, Danish director; in Farum

  May 3, 1920 (Monday)

• Noël Coward's first play to be produced, I'll Leave It to You, was given its opening performance, at the Gaiety Theatre in Manchester; although it was a success in Manchester, the play flopped when it was transferred to London, where it ran for only 37 performances after opening on July 21 at the New Theatre.
• A Bolshevik coup failed to topple the government of the Democratic Republic of Georgia.
• French dock workers and coal miners went on a nationwide strike, two days after the railroad strike began.
• Textile workers across Massachusetts went out on strike, with 15,000 weavers leaving from 37 mills.

  May 4, 1920 (Tuesday)

• King Ferdinand I of Romania issued a decree creating "National Hero Day," establishing the practice of a government-supported cult of personality in the Eastern European nation.
• The town of Connelly Springs, North Carolina, was incorporated.

  May 5, 1920 (Wednesday)

• Nicola "Mike" Sacco and Bartolomeo "Bert" Vanzetti were arrested in Brockton, Massachusetts, for the April 15 murder in Boston of a payroll clerk and his guard. On April 18, a car seen fleeing the scene of the murder had been dropped off at the Elm Square Garage in West Bridgewater by four men. Police waited for more than two weeks for someone to pick up the car on May 5, the four men came to get the car, then departed after the garage keeper tried to stall them. Two fled on motorcycles, and the other two climbed on to a streetcar that was traveling toward Brockton. Two Brockton officers then stopped the trolley and arrested Sacco and Vanzetti, who matched the description given of the visitors to the garage. Both suspects were carrying pistols, and were detained without bail on concealed weapons charges. Sacco and Vanzetti would spend the rest of their lives in prison until their executions in 1927.
• The Allied Powers gave Hungary until May 16 to agree to a separate peace treaty.
• Born: Jon Naar, British-born American photographer; in London

  May 6, 1920 (Thursday)

• Mike O'Dowd, the world middleweight boxing champion, lost his title to a relatively-unknown challenger, Johnny Wilson, in a 12-round decision in Boston. "The defeat of O'Dowd was a big surprise," a wire service reporter wrote, "for Wilson has been boxing no better than second rate boxers in New England cities." Wilson, who had been in only three professional bouts before meeting O'Dowd, would hold the world title for more than three years.
• Born: Sir Kamisese Mara, Fijian politician, first Prime Minister of Fiji from 1970 to 1987, second President of Fiji from 1993 to 2000; in Lomaloma, island of Vanua Balavu
• Died: Leonida Bissolati, 63, Italian socialist activist and member of the Chamber of Deputies, died of pneumonia while recovering from surgery.

  May 7, 1920 (Friday)

• Troops from Poland and Ukraine retook Kiev from Russia, and the government of the Ukrainian People's Republic returned to the city. The Soviets retook Kiev on June 12 and soon annexed Ukraine into the Soviet Union.
• Soviet Russia recognized the independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia in the signing of the Treaty of Moscow. Russian troops would invade the country only six months later.
• Mexican President Venustiano Carranza and most of the members of his government left Mexico City by train, but were captured two days later near Acapulco. Before departing with Carranza, General Francisco Murguía ordered the execution of rebel officers who were being held in the penitentiary at Santiago Tlatelolco.
• Cortland Smith, chief of the American Press Association, testified before a U.S. Senate committee that unless a paper shortage was addressed by the government, half of U.S. newspapers would be required to suspend publication.
• At Mineola, New York, the first intercollegiate airplane races took place, as Yale University's team won the sporting competition.
• Morecambe Football Club, now a team in EFL League Two, was founded during a meeting at the West View Hotel on the promenade of the coastal resort of Morecambe in Lancashire. The team is nicknamed "The Shrimps" as an homage to the shrimping industry on Morecambe Bay.
• Born: Rendra Karno, Indonesian film actor; as Raden Soekarno, in Kutoarjo, Dutch East Indies
• Died: Hugh Thomson, 59, Irish book illustrator; died of heart disease

  May 8, 1920 (Saturday)

• With President Carranza gone, Álvaro Obregón and his troops entered Mexico City, where he would become the new president. In a dispatch the same day to the revolution's leader, Sonoran Governor Adolfo de la Huerta, Obregon reported that the first forces to enter the capital had been those of General Sidronio Méndez the day before.
• The 1920 Kentucky Derby took place with 17 thoroughbred horses, the most up to that time, but without the famous Man o'War, who would win the other two jewels of the American triple crown of horse racing, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes. Paul Jones finished first and Upset— the only horse to beat Man o'War in a race— was second.
• Born:
• *Saul Bass, American graphic artist and filmmaker; in The Bronx, New York
• *Tom of Finland, Finnish gay pornographer; as Touko Valio Laaksonen, in Kaarina
• Died: Johan Reinhold Sahlberg, 74, Finnish entomologist

  May 9, 1920 (Sunday)

• The train carrying former Mexican president Venustiano Carranza was captured by revolutionary forces at Apizaco in the state of Tlaxcala, but Carranza had departed. Mexico's revolutionary leader, General Álvaro Obregón, pledged that Carranza's life would be spared.
• Julio Acosta García was inaugurated as the 24th President of Costa Rica.
• C.A. de Paris defeated Le Havre AC, 2 to 1 at the Stade Bergeyre, in front of a crowd of 7,000 on two consecutive goals by Henri Bard to win the Coupe de France, the championship of the Fédération Française de Football.
• Born: Mitsuko Mori, Japanese stage actress; as Mitsu Murakami, in Kyoto
• Died: John H. Vincent, 88, American Methodist bishop, co-founder of the Chautauqua Assembly

  May 10, 1920 (Monday)

• Elections were held in Japan for the 464 seats in the nation's House of Representatives.
• Mexico's revolutionary government announced that it was in control of all but three of the nation's 28 states. The only states that had remained loyal to the government of former President Carranza were Campeche, Chiapas and Yucatán.
• In what is now called the "Miss France" beauty competition, Agnès Souret was elected "The most beautiful woman in France".
• Bolsheviks in Armenia briefly seized control of the capital at Alexandropol to proclaim a Soviet republic to be annexed by the Soviet Union. The attempt was suppressed by the Armenian army by the end of the week. In September, the Turkish-Armenian War would pave the way for what the May Uprising had sought to accomplish. After the signing of the Treaty of Alexandropol on December 3, the new government would create the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic that would be a constituent part of the Soviet Union until 1991.
• H. H. Asquith's proposed amendment to the Irish Home Rule bill, which would have created a separate Parliament for Ireland, failed in the United Kingdom House of Commons by a margin of 55 to 259.
• Born: Richard Adams, English novelist, author of Watership Down; in Wash Common, West Berkshire
• Died: John Wesley Hyatt, 82, American inventor, created the first plastic compounds, including the celluloid used for the first motion pictures

  May 11, 1920 (Tuesday)

• The town of Jackson, Wyoming— now a popular ski resort commonly referred to by the name of the valley, Jackson Hole—- became the first American municipality to elect a government composed entirely of women, as a slate of five female candidates was favored by a 2-to-1 majority over five male candidates. Grace Miller was elected Mayor, and Mae Deloney, Genevieve Van Fleck, Faustina Haight and Rose Crabtree were elected to the city council.
• The French government of Premier Millerand moved to dissolve the General Federation of Labor.
• Poland and Ukraine recaptured Odessa from the Soviets.
• The proposed treaty created at the San Remo conference was presented to Ottoman Empire officials at Paris.
• The U.S. Senate approved an alternative to the Knox peace resolution in order to eliminate any reference to the Treaty of Versailles.
• Born: Denver Pyle, American actor and director; in Bethune, Colorado
• Died:
• *James "Big Jim" Colosimo, 42, Italian-born, American gangster in the Chicago underworld; shot and killed in an ambush by his lieutenant
• *W. D. Howells, 83, American novelist and playwright; died of influenza