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Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico: vacant (until January 1), Benjamin F. Pankey (Republican) (starting January 1)
Lieutenant Governor of New York: Harry C. Walker (Democratic) (starting January 1)
Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Oliver Max Gardner (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota: Anton T. Kraabel (Republican) (until month and day unknown), Howard R. Wood (Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: Earl D. Bloom (Democratic) (until January 12), Clarence J. Brown Sr. (Republican) (starting January 12)
Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma: Martin E. Trapp (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Frank B. McClain (Republican) (until January 20), Edward E. Beidleman (Republican) (starting January 20)
Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota: William H. McMaster (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: W. R. Crabtree (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Andrew L. Todd Sr. (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
Lieutenant Governor of Texas: vacant (until January 21), Willard Arnold Johnson (Democratic) (starting January 21)
Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Roger W. Hulburd (Republican) (until January 9), Mason S. Stone (Republican) (starting January 9)
Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Benjamin Franklin Buchanan (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Washington: Louis Folwell Hart (Republican) (until February 13), vacant (starting February 13)
January 1 – Edsel Ford succeeds his father as head of the Ford Motor Company.
January 6 – Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, dies in his sleep at the age of 60.
January 15 – The Boston Molasses Disaster: A wave of molasses released from an exploding storage tank sweeps through Boston, killing 21 and injuring 150.
January 16 – The 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, authorizing Prohibition, goes into effect in the United States.
January 22 – The United States recognizes the independence of Poland.[1]
January 25 – The Hotel Pennsylvania opens in Manhattan.
February[]
February 6 – The Seattle General Strike begins. Over 65,000 workers strike.
February 11 – The Seattle General Strike ends when Federal troops are summoned by the state of Washington's Attorney General.
February 25 – Oregon places a 1 cent per U.S. gallon (.26¢/L) tax on gasoline, becoming the first U.S. state to levy a gasoline tax.
February 26 – An act of the United States Congress establishes most of the Grand Canyon as a United States National Park (see Grand Canyon National Park).
March[]
March 3 – The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the conviction of Charles Schenck.
April 13 – Eugene V. Debs enters prison at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia for speaking out against the draft during World War I.
April 15 – Boston Telephone Strike of 1919 begins. Ends successfully for the telephone operators and supporters on April 20.
April 30 – Several bombs are intercepted in the first wave of the 1919 United States anarchist bombings.
May[]
May 1 – Riots break out on International Labor Day in Cleveland, Ohio; 2 people are killed, 40 injured, and 116 arrested.
May 9 – The United States recognizes the independence of Finland.[2]
May 10 – Charleston riot in Charleston, South Carolina killing three black men; beginning of Red Summer.
May 16 – A U.S. NavyCurtiss aircraft (NC-4), commanded by Albert Cushing Read, departs Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.
May 23 – The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is established as the Southern Branch of the University of California, making it the second-oldest undergraduate campus of the ten-campus University of California system. The school's motto is Fiat lux, "Let there be light."
June[]
June 2 – Eight mail bombs are sent to prominent figures as part of the 1919 United States anarchist bombings.
June 4 – Women's rights: The United States Congress approves the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which would guarantee suffrage to women, and sends it to the U.S. states for ratification.
June 5 – Baltimore Mine Tunnel Disaster
June 15 – Pancho Villa attacks Ciudad Juárez. When the bullets begin to fly to the U.S. side of the border, two units of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment cross the border and repulse Villa's forces.
June 28 – The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending World War I.
June – The Algonquin Round Table group of writers, critics, actors and wits led by Alexander Woollcott first meets at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City.
July 1 – "Thirsty First": The Wartime Prohibition Act comes into effect.
July 6 – The British dirigible airshipR34 lands at Mineola, New York, completing the first transatlantic flight by airship.
July 7 – The First Transcontinental Motor Convoy: The U.S. Army sends an expedition across the continental U.S., starting in Washington, D.C., to determine how well troops could be moved from one side of the country to the other by motor vehicles.
July 21 – Wingfoot Air Express crash: The Goodyear dirigible airship Wingfoot Air Express catches fire over downtown Chicago and crashes into the Illinois Trust and Savings Building; 2 passengers, 1 crew member, and 10 people on the ground are killed; 2 people parachute to the ground safely.[3]
July 27 – The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 begins when a white man throws rocks at a group of 4 black teens on a raft.
August 11 – The first NFL team for Wisconsin (the Green Bay Packers) is founded by Curly Lambeau.
August 30 – After a three-way splintering of the Socialist Party of America, the leadership of the remaining 30,000 members of the Right Wing of the Socialist party continue their national convention in Chicago on August 30, 1919.
August 31 – In a three-way splintering of the Socialist Party of America, the leadership of the 10,000 native-born English speaking members of the Left Wing form the Communist Labor Party of America in Chicago on August 31, 1919.
September[]
September 1 – In a three-way splintering of the Socialist Party of America, the leadership of the 60,000 alien members of the Left Wing form the Communist Party of America at a separate convention in Chicago on September 1, 1919.
September 6 – The First Transcontinental Motor Convoy: The U.S. Army expedition across America, which started July 7, ends in San Francisco.
September 9 - The Boston Police Strike occurs.
September 10 – September 15: The Florida Keys Hurricane kills 600 in the Gulf of Mexico, Florida and Texas.
September 22 – The Steel strike of 1919 begins across the United States.
September 28 – Omaha Riot: A lynch mob besieges the police station and courthouse in Omaha, Nebraska, and lynches alleged rapist Will Brown.
October[]
October 1 – The Elaine Race Riot breaks out in Arkansas.
October 2 – President Woodrow Wilson suffers a massive stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed.
October 9 - Black Sox Scandal: The Chicago White Soxthrow the World Series.
October 28 – Prohibition begins: The United States Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto.
November[]
November 1 – The Coal Strike of 1919 begins in the United States by the United Mine Workers under John L. Lewis. Final agreement comes on December 10.
November 7 – The first Palmer Raid is conducted on the second anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Over 10,000 suspected communists and anarchists are arrested in 23 different U.S. cities.
November 9 – Felix the Cat appears in Feline Follies, making him the first cartoon character.
November 10 – The first national convention of the American Legion is held in Minneapolis, Minnesota (until November 12).
November 11 – The Centralia Massacre in Centralia, Washington results in the deaths of four members of the American Legion, and the lynching of a local leader of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
November 14 – Sigma Delta Pi, the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society (La Sociedad Nacional Honoraria Hispánica), was established at the University of California Berkeley in Berkeley, California.
November 19 – The Treaty of Versailles fails a critical ratification vote in the United States Senate. It will never be ratified by the US.
November 27 – Kappa Kappa Psi, National Honorary Band Fraternity, is established at Oklahoma A&M College (now named Oklahoma State University) in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
December[]
December 19 – The fictional character Ham Gravy makes his début in Thimble Theatre comics.
December 21 – The United States deports 249 people, including Emma Goldman to Russia, during the Red Scare.
December 26 – Babe Ruth is sold by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees for $125,000, the largest sum ever paid for a player at that time.[4][5][6] The deal was announced on January 6, 1920.[6]
Undated[]
Various strikes occur in the United States: Strike of US railroad workers; The Longshoreman's strike; The Great Steel Strike; and a general strike in Seattle, Washington.
US President Wilson promises eventual independence for Philippines, though subsequent Republican administrations see it as a distant goal.
July 31 – Robert M. Morgenthau, lawyer (died 2019)
August[]
August 13
Rex Humbard, television evangelist (died 2007)
George Shearing, Anglo-American jazz pianist (died 2011)
August 14 – Isaac C. Kidd Jr., American admiral (died 1999)
August 18 – Walter Joseph Hickel, 2nd and 8th Governor of Alaska (died 2010)
August 20
Walter Bernstein, screenwriter and producer (died 2021)
Thomas G. Morris, politician (died 2016)
August 22 – Larry Winn, American politician (died 2017)
August 25 – George Wallace, 45th Governor of Alabama (died 1998)
August 28 – Ben Agajanian, American football player (died 2018)
August 29 – Sono Osato, dancer and actress (died 2018)
September[]
September 4 – Howard Morris, actor (d. 2005)
September 5 – Tom Jordan, Major League Baseball player (died 2019)
September 6
Lee Archer, U.S. fighter pilot (died 2010)
September 9 – Barbara Fiske Calhoun, American WWII cartoonist and painter; co-founded Quarry Hill Creative Center in Rochester, Vermont, where she taught art and helped establish the ideals of the group. Born Isabelle Daniel Hall in Tucson, Arizona (Died 2014).
December 27 – Charles Sweeney, WWII pilot (died 2004)
December 31 – Recy Taylor, activist (died 2017)
Deaths[]
January 2 – Eliza Putnam Heaton, journalist and editor (born 1860)
January 6
Max Heindel, Danish-American astrologer and mystic (born 1865)
Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States from 1901 to 1909, 25th Vice President of the United States from March to September 1901 (born 1858)
January 7 – Henry Ware Eliot, industrialist and philanthropist (born 1843)
January 8 – Jim O'Rourke, baseball player and MLB Hall of Famer (born 1850)
January 14 – Shelley Hull, stage & film actor, husband of Josephine Hull, brother of Henry Hull (born 1884)
January 31 – Nat C. Goodwin, veteran stage star & silent film actor (born 1857; apoplexy)[8]
January 27 – French Ensor Chadwick, admiral (born 1844)
February 18 – Henry Ragas, jazz pianist (born 1891)
March 23 – Henry Blossom, lyricist (born 1866)
April 8 – Frank Winfield Woolworth, businessman (born 1852)