1921

align="center" colspan=2 | Years:
1918 1919 1920 - 1921 - 1922 1923 1924

align="center" colspan=2 | Decades:
1890s 1900s 1910s - 1920s - 1930s 1940s 1950s

align="center" | Centuries:
19th century - 20th century - 21st century

1921 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar).

Events

January 2 - The first religious radio broadcast (KDKA AM in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
January 2 - Spanish liner Santa Isabel sinks off Villa Garcia - 244 dead
January 2 - DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park San Francisco opens.
January 20 - Republic of Turkey is declared
January 20 - Royal Navy K-boat K5 sinks in the English Channel with all 56 hands
February 25 - The Democratic Republic of Georgia is occupied by Bolshevist Russia.
February 28 - Russian sailors rebel in Kronstadt - On March 17 the Red Army crushes the rebellion and number of sailors flee to Finland
March 1 - the city Kiryu, located in Gunma, Japan, is founded.
March 8 - Spanish Premier Eduardo Dato Iradier is assassinated while exiting the parliament building in Madrid.
March 13 - Mongolia declares its independence from China
March 17 - Marie Stopes opens the first Birth Control Clinic in London, England. The Second Republic of Poland adopts the March Constitution.
March 18 - The second Peace of Riga between Poland and Soviet Union ending Polish-Soviet war. Despite the recent Polish successes, Soviets annex Ukraine and Belarus.
April 11 - The Emirate of Transjordan is created, with Abdullah I as emir.
April 14 - In Britain, labour unions for mining, railway and transportation workers call for a strike - government threatens to call in the army
April 24 - Referendum in Tyrol supports joining to Germany
May 1-7 - Riots in Palestine of May, 1921
2 May-5 July - Third Silesian Uprising, the Poles in Upper Silesia rise against the Germans
May 5 - Only 13 spectators attend the soccer match between Leicester City and Stockport County, the lowest attendance in Football League history.
May 6 - General strike begins in Norway
May 8 - Death penalty abolished in Sweden
May 14 - 17 - Violent anti-European riots in Cairo and Alexandria
May 19 - The Emergency Quota Act passes the U.S. Congress establishing national quotas on immigration.
May 24 - Elections are held for the first time for the new Northern Ireland Parliament.
June 1 - Tulsa Race Riot of 1921: A race riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma kills 85 people.
June 26 - In Britain, rain ends 100 days of drought
July 1 - Coal strike ends in England
July 11 - The Irish War of Independence comes to an end when a truce is signed between the British Government and the Irish forces.
July 18 - The first BCG vaccination against tuberculosis
July 22 - Irish Truce declared in Britain
July 26 - US President Warren G. Harding receives Princess Fatima of Afghanistan - and Stanley Clifford Weyman...
July 27 - Researchers at the University of Toronto led by biochemist Frederick Banting announce the discovery of the hormone insulin.
August - The United States formally ends World War I, declaring a peace with Germany
August 5 - First radio broadcast of baseball game; Harold Arlin announced Pirates-Phillies game from Forbes Field over Westinghouse KDKA Pittsburgh
August 11 - 35 degree Celsius in Breslau - heat wave continues elsewhere in Europe as well
August 23 - Feisal I becomes the king of Egypt
August 24 - Airship ZR 2 explodes during a test flight near Hull, England - 41 dead
August 26 - Rising prices cause riots in Munich
August 29 - Assassination of German politician Matthias Erzberger causes the government to declare martial law
September 1 - Poplar Strike in London - 9 members of Poplar borough council are arrested
September 7 - In Atlantic City, New Jersey, the first Miss America Pageant is held.
September 12 - Lotta Svrd founded in Finland
September 21 - explosion of BASF's nitrate factory in Oppau, Germany - 535-561 deadhttp://yarchive.net/explosives/oppau_blast.html http://www.corporate.basf.com/en/ueberuns/profil/geschichte/1923.htm http://www.hochschulstellenmarkt.de/info/c/ch/chemiekatastrophe.html http://www.freilassung.de/div/texte/spreng/oppau.htm]VO/exinvolontaireVO.htm
October 10 - Teaching at the University of Szeged started in Hungary
October 21 - Peace conference between Irish and United Kingdom begins in London
October 24 - Spanish army defeats rifkabyls
November 9 - Riots in Reykjavk - most of the small police force is injured
November 11 - During an Armistice Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, the Tomb of the Unknowns is dedicated by US President Warren G. Harding.
December 1 - Rising prices cause riots in Vienna
December 16 - The Anglo-Irish Treaty establishing the Irish Free State is signed in London. See Ireland/History
December 29 - William Lyon Mackenzie King becomes Canada's tenth prime minister.

Agnes Macphail becomes the first woman to enter Canadian parliament
Change of US presidency from Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921) to Warren G. Harding (1921-1923)
Invention of the vibraphone.
Abkhazia becomes an autonomous republic within the Soviet Union.

Births

January

January 5 - Friedrich Drrenmatt, writer (d. 1990)
January 5 - Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg
January 6 - Louis Harris, pollster
January 10 - Rodger Ward, auto racer, two-time Indianapolis 500 winner (d. 2004)
January 19 - Patricia Highsmith, author (d. 1995)
January 20 - Bernt Engelmann, author (d. 1994)
January 27 - Donna Reed, actress (d. 1986)
January 31 - Carol Channing, actress
January 31 - Mario Lanza, singer, actor (d. 1959)

February

February 4 - Betty Friedan, feminist
February 5 - John Pritchard, English conductor (d. 1989)
February 11 - Eva Gabor, Hungarian actress (d. 1996)
February 11 - Lloyd Bentsen, American politician.
February 14 - Hugh Downs, game show host, journalist
February 25 - Pierre Laporte, statesman, murdered by FLQ terrorists (d. 1970)

March

March 1 - Jack Clayton, film director
March 1 - Richard Wilbur, American poet
March 1 - Terence Cardinal Cooke, tenth bishop (seventh archbishop) of the Roman Catholic diocese of New York († 1983)
March 3 - Paul Guimard, French writer (d. 2004)
March 5 - Elmer Valo, Major League Baseball player (d. 1998)
March 8 - Cyd Charisse, actress, dancer
March 12 - Giovanni Agnelli, manager of Fiat (d. 2003)
March 12 - Gordon MacRae, singer, actor (d. 1986)
March 13 - Al Jaffee, American cartoonist
March 20 - Rudolf Noelte, film director (d. 2002)
March 20 - Sister Rosetta Tharpe, singer (d. 1973)
March 21 - Arthur Grumiaux, Belgian violinist (d. 1986)
March 25 - Simone Signoret, actress (d. 1985)
March 28 - Dirk Bogarde, actor (d. 1999)

April

April 1 - Beau Jack, American boxer (d. 2000)
April 8 - Franco Corelli, Italian tenor (d. 2003)
April 15 - Georgi Beregovoi, cosmonaut (d. 1995)
April 23 - Warren Spahn, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 2003)

May

May 2 - Satyajit Ray, Indian filmmaker (d. 1992)
May 6 - Erich Fried, author (d. 1988)
May 9 - Sophie Scholl, resistance fighter with White Rose in Nazi Germany (d. 1943)
May 11 - Hildegard Hamm-Brcher, politician
May 12 - Joseph Beuys, artist (d. 1986)
May 12 - Farley Mowat, writer, naturalist
May 17 - Dennis Brain, English French horn player (d. 1957)
May 19 - Karel van het Reve, Dutch writer (d. 1999)
May 20 - Wolfgang Borchert, lyricist, narrator and dramatist (d. 1947)
May 20 - Hal Newhouser, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1998)
May 21 - Andrei Sakharov, physicist, human rights activist, recipient of the Nobel Prize (d. 1989)
May 23 - James Blish, US science fiction author (d. 1975)
May 26 - Stan Mortensen, footballer, hat-trick hero of the 1953 FA Cup Final
May 28 - Heinz G. Konsalik, author (d. 1999)

June

June 1 - Nelson Riddle, bandleader (d. 1985)
June 8 - Alexis Smith, Canadian actress (d. 1993)
June 10 - Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
June 26 - Violette Szabo, SOE agent, WW II heroine (d. 1945)
June 28 - P. V. Narasimha Rao, Prime Minister of the Republic of India 1991 - 1996

July

July 4 - Tibor Varga, violinist, conductor and pedagogue
July 17 - Hannah Szenes, WW II heroine executed by the Nazis (d. 1944)
July 30 - Grant Johannesen, American concert pianist (d. 2005)
July 30 - William Chester Owens, WW II plane captain of USN Ace Capt. David McCampbell