September 1920


September 1, 1920 (Wednesday)

  • The State of Great Lebanon was created by order of French Army General Henri Gourard, the High Commissioner for the League of Nations mandate for Syria and Lebanon. In making Lebanon a separate entity from Syria, France provided for a future nation for Maronite Christians, and partitioned the "Arab Kingdom of Syria" that had been proclaimed by Faysal al-Awwal to defuse the Arab nationalist movement. The territory of Grand Liban included the former Ottoman Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate, as well as the Beirut Vilayet, Tyre, Tripoli, the Beqaa Valley and Baalbek. "However," a historian would note later, "the new Grand Liban now encompassed areas that gave Maronite Lebanon a large Muslim population, providing the basis for the inter-communal conflicts that would repeatedly ravage the country in the future."
  • The U.S. government ended its six-month guarantee of U.S. railroad earnings, and the businesses resumed sole responsibility for the management of their earnings.
  • Born: Richard Farnsworth, American film actor and stuntman, known for his performances in The Straight Story and The Grey Fox; in Los Angeles

    September 2, 1920 (Thursday)

  • The Indian Army Act 1911 was amended by the United Kingdom to abolish corporal punishment for soldiers in the British Indian Army. Flogging had been abolished within the British Army almost 40 years earlier with the passage of the Army Discipline and Regulation Act 1881.

    September 3, 1920 (Friday)

  • Plans were announced for the merger of five of the largest U.S. chemical companies to create what would become the Allied Corporation. William H. Nichols, the chairman of the Board of General Chemical Company, announced that his corporation would combine with Barrett Company, National Analine and Chemical, Solvay Process Company and the Semet-Solvay Company, with proposals to go to the boards of directors of all five companies on September 9.
  • U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby hosted California Governor William Stephens to discuss that state's proposed "Anti-Japanese Land Referendum Bill" to bar citizens of Japanese descent to own land.
  • All 40 of the crew of the United States submarine S-5 were saved after the sub had been unable to surface from below the waters of Cape Henelopen off of the coast of Pennsylvania. S-5 had made a dive on August 31 and then become trapped. The Panama-registered liner General W. G. Goethals was able to secure grappling hooks to prevent the sub from sinking, and pumped air into the vessel through a hole cut in its stern.
  • Five days before its transcontinental air mail service was inaugurated, the United States Post Office Department lost its first two air mail employees, pilot Max Miller and mechanic Gustav Rierson, in the crash of their Junkers JL-6 near Morristown, New Jersey.
  • The silent film Way Down East, directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish, was released by United Artists, premiering in Kingston, New York. It went on to become the highest-grossing film of the year, with $4.5 million in rentals, equivalent to almost $73,000,000 more than a century later.
  • One of the first science fiction films in history, Algol, premiered in Berlin at Union Theater Kurfürstendamm. Directed by Germany's Hans Werckmeister, written by Hans Brennert and Freidel Köhne, with sets designed by Walter Reimann, Algol: Eine Tragödie der Macht was an 81-minute long silent film about an alien visitor to Earth from a planet in the Algol star system.
  • Born: Chabuca Granda, Peruvian singer and composer; as Maria Isabel Granda Larco, in Cotabambas

    September 4, 1920 (Saturday)

  • Construction began in the Vietnamese capital of Huế for the Khai Dinh Tomb, on orders of the 35-year old Emperor of Vietnam. The expensive mausoleum would be only partially complete upon the unpopular Emperor's death five years later, and would not be finished until 1931.
  • Morrison's Cafeteria, a chain of restaurants that pioneered fast cafeteria-style restaurant service for customers, opened its first location with a store at Mobile, Alabama. The chain would last until 1998, when its parent corporation was acquired by Piccadilly Cafeterias, and the remaining Morrison restaurants were rebranded with the Piccadilly name.

    September 5, 1920 (Sunday)

  • In the first voting taken in Mexico since the overthrow of President Carranza, General Alvaro Obregon was elected president. He was inaugurated on November 30, succeeding acting President Adolfo de la Huerta.
  • Eustachy Sapieha, the Foreign Minister of Poland, sent a telegram asking the Council of the League of Nations to arbitrate its border dispute with Lithuania.
  • A federal raid on six houses near Springfield, Illinois, yielded the arrest of 20 members of the Communist Party of America, including five men who confessed to a plot to wreck the lead train of the Illinois Central Railroad, the Diamond Special. Justice Department agents found machinery for the counterfeiting of silver dollars and half dollars, an arsenal of 25 pounds of dynamite, seven automatic pistols, six automatic machine guns, and $10,000 worth of merchandise that had been reported stolen from businesses in Springfield.
  • Romania became the 39th Member of the League of Nations, and the 26th party to approve the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.
  • Died: Robert Harron, 27, American silent film actor, best known for his appearances in D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance, died four days after accidentally shooting himself in his chest at his home.

    September 6, 1920 (Monday)

  • The first recorded use of an acid attack in India, where it would become a commonly used act of disfigurement directed at women, happened in the Bombay Presidency when India was still under British rule. Ali Mohammed Farag threw sulfuric acid in the face of Abdullah Mohammed Jabli.
  • Heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey knocked out challenger Billy Miske in the third round of a bout at Benton Harbor, Michigan. The fight marked the first time a bout was broadcast over the radio and the first time that Miske had been knocked out.

    September 7, 1920 (Tuesday)

  • An earthquake in Italy killed 171 people and injured 650, despite initial reports of a much higher death toll. The 6.5 magnitude tremor struck northern Tuscany at 7:56 in the morning local time. Three towns— Fivizzano, Villa Collemandina and Casola in Lunigiana— were destroyed. The death toll was relatively low because two foreshocks the day before had led many people to sleep outdoors. Most of those who were at work were farmers.
  • U.S. President Wilson was able to walk out of the White House, without assistance, for the first time since his stroke the previous October. While a crowd watched from Pennsylvania Avenue, Wilson kept balance with a cane and "walked briskly" to a waiting automobile, then stepped in."
  • British authorities released eight Irish political prisoners who had been arrested in Cork, sending them home from the military prison in Queenstown, but declined to set free any of the persons who were on a hunger strike, including Cork Mayor Terence MacSwiney.
  • A. F. Whyte, member of the British House of Commons, was appointed as the first President of the Indian Legislative Assembly, a 104-member advisory body that would take office in February. The selection of Whyte was made by Lord Chelmsford, the Viceroy of British India.
  • Born: Al Caiola, American guitarist and composer; in Jersey City, New Jersey

    September 8, 1920 (Wednesday)

  • Regular U.S. air mail service between the east and west coasts of the United States was inaugurated at 5:30 in the morning as a load of mail sent from New York City departed from the airfield in Maywood, New Jersey, bound for San Francisco, with stops at distribution centers in Chicago; Omaha, Nebraska; and Salt Lake City, Utah along the way. Under the schedule, "a letter leaving New York at daybreak for Omaha, Neb., will arrive the same day before sunset" and "Mail leaving New York Monday morning will arrive in San Francisco by 9 o'clock Wednesday morning." The U.S. Post Office started with a fleet of six Junkers JR-1B metal airplanes that had been modified to carry mail.

    September 9, 1920 (Thursday)

  • Poet Gabriele d'Annunzio declared Fiume to be independent as the Italian Regency of Carnaro.
  • The Lotta Svärd women's paramilitary auxiliary was founded in Finland.
  • Soviet Russia recognized the right of independence for Latvia, ratifying the treaty signed on August 11 to end the Latvian War of Independence, including Article III of the treaty which proclaimed that "Russia recognizes without objection the independence and sovereignty of the Latvian State and forever renounces all sovereign rights held by Russia in relation to the Latvian nation and land." Latvia's Parliament had ratified the treaty on September 2, and the ratification documents were exchanged on October 4.
  • Twenty-three employees of a German artillery depot were killed in the explosion of munitions at Fort Mariensiel, near Wilhelmshaven. The blast happened during the unloading of artillery shells from munitions sheds for transport into the depot's laboratories.
  • Died: Warren Delano IV, 68, American coal mine owner and uncle of vice-presidential candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt, was killed in a freak accident while riding his horse near Barrytown, New York.

    September 10, 1920 (Friday)

  • Fifty people in Peru were killed when two barges, both carrying dynamite, collided in Callao Bay.
  • The Communist Party of Turkey was founded in Anatolia.
  • Born:
  • *Fabio Taglioni, Italian motorcycle engineer; in Lugo di Romagna
  • *Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao, Indian-born American statistician and mathematician, 2002 winner of the U.S. National Medal of Science; in Hoovina Hadagali, Bombay province, British India
  • Died: Olive Thomas, 25, American silent film actress, died of kidney failure from the accidental ingestion of mercury bichloride five days earlier.