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 Svärd founded in Finland
• September 21 - explosion of BASF's nitrate factory in Oppau, Germany - 535-561 dead[1][2][3][4]]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 Reykjavík - 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 Dürrenmatt, Swiss writer (d. 1990)
• January 5 - Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg
• January 6 - Louis Harris , American pollster
• January 10 - Rodger Ward, race car driver (d. 2004)
• January 19 - Patricia Highsmith, author (d. 1995)
• January 20 - Bernt Engelmann , author (d. 1994)
• January 27 - Donna Reed, American actress (d. 1986)
• January 31 - Carol Channing, American actress
• January 31 - Mario Lanza, American tenor (d. 1959)

February

• February 4 - Betty Friedan, American 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, American game show host and journalist
• February 25 - Pierre Laporte, statesman (assassinated) (d. 1970)

March

• March 1 - Jack Clayton, film director
• March 1 - Richard Wilbur, American poet
• March 1 - Terence Cardinal Cooke, seventh archbishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of New York (d. 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, Italian manager of Fiat (d. 2003)
• March 12 - Gordon MacRae, American singer and 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, French actress (d. 1985)
• March 28 - Dirk Bogarde, American actor (d. 1999)

April

• April 1 - Beau Jack, American boxer (d. 2000)
• April 8 - Franco Corelli, Italian tenor (d. 2003)
• April 15 - Georgi Beregovoi, astronaut|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 in Nazi Germany (d. 1943)
• May 11 - Hildegard Hamm-Brücher , German 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, German writer (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, American science fiction author (d. 1975)
• May 26 - Stan Mortensen, footballer
• 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 14 - Leon Garfield, children's author (d. 1996)
• 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

August

• August 8 - John Herbert Chapman, Canadian physicist who directed the launch of the first Canadian satalite, Alouette 1.
• August 19 - Gene Roddenberry, TV Producer, Creator of Star Trek. (d.1991)
• August 25 - Monty Hall, actor and game show host.

September

• September 3, Thurston Dart, English harpsichordist and conductor (d. 1971)
• September 12, Stanislaw Lem, Polish science fiction writer

October

• October 2 - Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 200)
• October 5 - Bill Willis, American football player
• October 13 - Yves Montand, French singer and actor (d. 1991)
• October 18 - Jesse Helms, U.S. Senator from North Carolina
• October 19 - Gunnar Nordahl, Swedish footballer (d. 1995)
• October 25 - King Michael of Romania

November

• November 5 - Princess Fawzia of Egypt
• November 11 - Ron Greenwood, England national football team manager
• November 22 - Rodney Dangerfield, American actor and comedian (d. 2004)
• November 23 - Fred Buscaglione, Italian singer and actor
• November 24 - Yoshiko Uchida , Japanese-American writer

December

• December 3 - Phyllis Curtin, American soprano
• December 26 - Steve Allen, actor, composer, comedian, author (d. 2000)

Deaths

• February 8 - Peter Kropotkin, Russian anarchist (b. 1842)
• February 26 - Carl Menger, Austrian economist (b. 1840)
• March 2 - King Nicholas I of Montenegro (b. 1841)
• April 27 - Arthur Mold, English cricketer (b. 1863)
• June 5 - Georges Feydeau, French playwright (b. 1862)
• August 2 - Enrico Caruso, Italian tenor (b. 1873)
• September 2 - Henry Austin Dobson, English poet (b. 1840)
• September 11 - Subramanya Bharathy, Tamil poet (b. 1882)
• October 25 - Bat Masterson, American gunfighter
• December 16 - Camille Saint-Saëns, French composer (b. 1835)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Albert Einstein
• Chemistry - Frederick Soddy
• Medicine - not awarded
• Literature - Anatole France
• Peace - Karl Hjalmar Branting Christian Lous Lange