1921 in the United States

Incumbents

Federal Government">Federal government of the United States">Federal Government

• President: Woodrow Wilson , Warren G. Harding
• Vice President: Thomas R. Marshall , Calvin Coolidge
• Chief Justice: Edward Douglass White , William Howard Taft
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Frederick H. Gillett
• Senate Majority Leader: Henry Cabot Lodge
• Congress: 66th, 67th

  Governors

Lieutenant Governors

Events

January–March

• January 1 - In American football, the University of California defeats Ohio State 28–0 in the Rose Bowl.
• January 2 - The first religious radio broadcast is heard, over station KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• January 21 - The full-length silent comedy-drama film The Kid, written, produced, directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin, with Jackie Coogan, is released.
• March 4 - Warren G. Harding is sworn in as the 29th President of the United States.

  April–June

• April 20 - Ferenc Molnár's play Liliom is first produced on Broadway in English.
• May 19 - The Emergency Quota Act passes the U.S. Congress, establishing national quotas on immigration. Because this drastically limits immigration from Eastern Europe, Jews emigrating from there begin to prefer Palestine as a destination rather than the U.S.
• May 27 - First victim of the Osage Indian murders is discovered in Osage County, Oklahoma.
• May 31-June 1 - Tulsa Race Riot : Mobs of white residents attack black residents and businesses in Greenwood District, Tulsa, Oklahoma. The official death toll is 36, but later investigations suggest an actual figure between 100 and 300. 1,250 homes are destroyed and roughly 6,000 African Americans imprisoned in one of the worst incidents of mass racial violence in the United States.

  July–September

• July 2 - U.S. President Warren Harding signs a joint congressional resolution declaring an end to America's state of war with Germany, Austria and Hungary.
• July 11 - Former President of the United States William Howard Taft is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States, making him the only person ever to hold both positions.
• July 14 - A Massachusetts jury finds Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti guilty of first degree murder following a widely publicized trial.
• July 26 - U.S. President Warren G. Harding receives Princess Fatima of Afghanistan and Stanley Clifford Weyman.
• August - The United States formally ends World War I, declaring a peace with Germany.
• August 5 - The first radio baseball game is broadcast; Harold Arlin announces the Pirates-Phillies game from Forbes Field over Westinghouse KDKA, in Pittsburgh.
• August 11 - Franklin D. Roosevelt's paralytic illness strikes while he is vacationing on Campobello Island; he is diagnosed with polio.
• August 25–September 2 - An uprising of striking coal miners in West Virginia leads to the Battle of Blair Mountain.
• September 5 - Popular comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle attends a party at the St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco, during which actress Virginia Rappe is fatally injured; although he is eventually acquitted of rape and manslaughter, the scandal derails his career.
• September 7 - In Atlantic City, New Jersey, the first Miss America Pageant is held.
• September 8 - Sixteen-year-old Margaret Gorman wins the Atlantic City Pageant's Golden Mermaid trophy; pageant officials later dub her the first Miss America.
• September 13 - White Castle hamburger restaurant opens in Wichita, Kansas, the foundation of the world's first fast food chain.

  October–December

• October 8 - The first Sweetest Day is staged in Cleveland, Ohio.
• October 26 - The Chicago Theatre, the oldest surviving grand movie palace, opens.
• October 29 - 1921 Centre vs. Harvard football game: Centre College's football team, led by quarterback Bo McMillin, defeats Harvard University 6–0 to snap Harvard's five-year winning streak. For decades afterward, this is called "football's upset of the century."
• November 11 - During an Armistice Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, the Tomb of the Unknowns is dedicated by U.S. President Warren G. Harding.
• December 13 - In the Four Power Treaty on Insular Possessions, Japan, the United States, United Kingdom and France agree to recognize the status quo in the Pacific.

  Undated

• Simon Rodia begins construction of the Watts Towers in Los Angeles.
• The central tower is added to the De Young museum in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.
• Potawatomi Zoo established in South Bend, Indiana.
• The Tau Epsilon Chi Jewish high school sorority is founded in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

  Ongoing

• Lochner era
• U.S. occupation of Haiti
• Prohibition
• Depression of 1920–21
• Roaring Twenties

  Births

• January 3
• * John Russell, American actor
• * Cecil Souders, American football player
• January 9 - John Sperling, businessman, founded the University of Phoenix
• January 19 - Patricia Highsmith, crime fiction writer
• January 29
• * Anthony George, television actor
• * Geraldine Pittman Woods, African American science administrator and promoter of community service
• January 31
• * Carol Channing, actress
• * Mario Lanza, tenor, actor
• * Anthony Lazzaro, university administrator
• February 4 - Betty Friedan, feminist author
• February 8
• * Betsy Jochum, female baseball player
• * Lana Turner, actress
• February 11 - Lloyd Bentsen, U.S. Senator from Texas from 1971 to 1993
• February 12
• * Don Bollweg, baseball player
• * Betty Jaynes, actress and singer
• February 17 - Duane Gish, biochemist and academic
• March 1 - Richard Wilbur, poet laureate
• March 5 - Berkley Bedell, politician
• March 27 - Tom Bevill, U.S. Representative from Alabama from 1967 to 1997
• March 31 - Peggy Rea, television actress
• April 3
• *Robert Karvelas, actor
• * Jan Sterling, actress
• April 21 - John R. Huizenga, nuclear physicist
• April 23 - Judy Agnew, Second Lady of the United States as wife of Spiro Agnew
• May 1 - Boo Morcom, pole vaulter and jumper
• May 9
• * Daniel Berrigan, Jesuit priest, anti-war activist and poet
• * Mona Van Duyn, poet and academic
• June 7 - Dorothy Ruth, horse breeder and author
• June 9 - Forrest Bird, biomedical engineer
• June 13 - Nancy Warren, baseball pitcher
• June 15 - James Emanuel, African American poet and scholar
• June 17 - Tony Scott, jazz clarinetist
• June 19 - Howell Heflin, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1979 to 1997
• July 4
• * Madelon Mason, American model and pin-up girl
• * Philip Rose, actor, playwright and theatrical producer
• * Galen L. Stone, American diplomat
• July 6
• * Nancy Reagan, born Anne Frances Robbins, First Lady of the United States and film actress
• * F. Michael Rogers, general
• July 18 - John Glenn, first U.S. astronaut to orbit Earth and U.S. Senator from Ohio from 1974 to 1999
• July 22 - William V. Roth, Jr., U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1971 to 2001
• August 4 - Herb Ellis, jazz guitarist
• August 9
• * Ernest Angley, televangelist, author and station owner
• * J. James Exon, Governor of Nebraska, U.S. Senator
• * Patricia Marmont, actress, daughter of Percy Marmont
• August 10
• * Yuki Shimoda, actor
• * Jack B. Weinstein, federal judge
• August 13
• * Barney Liddell, musician
• * Jimmy McCracklin, pianist, singer-songwriter
• August 19 - Gene Roddenberry, television producer
• August 23 - Kenneth Arrow, economist, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1972
• August 26
• * Ben Bradlee, newspaperman
• * Naomi Parker, war worker, probable model for the "We Can Do It!" poster
• September 3 - Henry Bellmon, U.S. Senator from Oklahoma from 1969 to 1981
• September 19 - Morton Mandel, businessman
• September 22 - Robert I. Price, admiral
• September 27
• * John Malcolm Patterson, American politician
• * Bernard Waber, American children's author
• October 3 - John H. Cushman, military officer
• October 5 - Mahlon Hoagland, biochemist
• October 6
• * Joseph Lowery, African-American minister, activist
• * Alex Wizbicki, American football player
• October 7
• * Richard L. Duchossois, businessman
• * Tommy Farrell, supporting actor and comedian
• October 11 - Shaw McCutcheon, cartoonist
• October 19
• * John William Ditter, Jr., federal judge
• * George Nader, actor
• October 21 - Victor A. McKusick, "father of genetic medicine"
• November 3 - Charles Bronson, film actor
• November 6 - James Jones, novelist
• November 15
• * Jimmy Fitzmorris, politician and businessman
• * Alexander Jefferson, Air Force officer
• November 20
• November 20
• * Allen Dines, politician
• * Dan Frazer, actor
• November 22 - Rodney Dangerfield, born Jacob Rodney Cohen, comedian
• November 29 - Jackie Stallone, born Jacqueline Labofish, astrologer, dancer, wrestling promoter and mother of Sylvester Stallone
• December 3
• *Phyllis Curtin, soprano
• * Ruby M. Rouss, WAC and first female President of the Virgin Islands Legislature
• December 21 - Robert Lipshutz, lawyer and politician, 17th White House Counsel
• December 26 - Steve Allen, television host

  Deaths

• February 7 - John J. Gardner, member of the House of Representatives from New Jersey from 1893 to 1913
• March 8 - Thomas H. Paynter, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1907 to 1913
• March 29
• * Levi Ankeny, U.S. Senator from Washington from 1903 to 1909
• * John Burroughs, naturalist
• April 21 - Tom O'Brien, baseball player
• April 23 - John P. Young, managing editor of the San Francisco Chronicle
• May 19 - Edward Douglass White, 9th Chief Justice of the United States from 1910 to 1921, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1894 to 1910 and U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1891 to 1894
• May 26 - Donald Evans, poet, publisher, music critic and journalist
• June 12 - Murphy J. Foster, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1901 to 1913
• June 16 - William E. Mason, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1897 to 1903
• July 24 - C. I. Scofield, theologian
• September 9 - Virginia Rappe, model and silent film actress
• October 12 - Philander C. Knox, United States Attorney General from 1901 to 1904 and United States Secretary of State from 1909 to 1913
• October 25 - Bat Masterson, gunfighter
• December 12 - Henrietta Swan Leavitt, astronomer
• Nat Love, African American cowboy