Top News Stories from 1919
World Events
World Statistics
Population: 4.378 billion
population by decade Nobel Peace Prize: Woodrow Wilson (US)
More World Statistics... - Versailles Treaty, incorporating Woodrow Wilson's draft Covenant of League of Nations, signed by Allies and Germany; rejected by U.S. Senate.
- 18th Amendment (Prohibition) adopted. Background: Amendments to the Constitution of the United States
- Mahatma Gandhi initiates Satyagraha campaigns, beginning his nonviolent resistance movement against British rule in India.
U.S. Events
U.S. Statistics
President: Woodrow Wilson
Vice President: Thomas R. Marshall
Population: 104,514,000
More U.S. Statistics... - About three-quarters of the Boston police force goes on strike (Sept. 9). Massachusetts Governor (John) Calvin Coolidge acts quickly to dismiss the strikers, saying that no one has the right to strike against the public safety.
- Race riots erupt in 26 U.S. cities during the course of the year, including Washington, D.C., and Chicago in July.
- The 18th amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting the sale of alcholic beverages anywhere in the U.S., is ratified (Jan. 16).
Economics
Federal spending: $18.49 billion
Consumer Price Index: $17.3
Unemployment: 1.4%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.03 ($0.02 as of 7/1/19)
Sports
World Series
Cincinnati d. Chicago White Sox (5-3)Stanley Cup
No Decision (due to influenza epidemic)Wimbledon
Women: Suzanne Lenglen d. D. Chambers (10-8 4-6 9-7)Men: Gerald Patterson d. N. Brookes (6-3 7-5 6-2)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Sir BartonNCAA Football Champions
Harvard (CFRA-tie, HF) (9-0-1) Illinois (CFRA-tie) (6-1-0) & Notre Dame (NCF) (9-0-0)Entertainment
Entertainment Awards
Nobel Prize for Literature: Carl Spitteler (Switzerland)
More Entertainment Awards... Events
- After moving from its southern rural roots, jazz establishes Chicago as its capital. The city will become home to such jazz greats as trumpeter Louis Armstrong and pianist Jelly Roll Morton.
- Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith, Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary Pickford establish United Artists in an attempt to control their own work.
Science
Nobel Prizes in Science
Chemistry: None awarded
Physics: Johannes Stark (Germany), discovery of Doppler effect in Canal rays and decomposition of spectrum lines by electric fields
Physiology or Medicine: Jules Bordet (Belgium), for discoveries in connection with immunity
Physiology or Medicine: The Magnificent Ambersons, Booth Tarkington
More Nobel Prizes in 1998... - Dial telephones are introduced by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company.
- Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity is confirmed when the Royal Astronomical Society sees the predicted effect during a solar eclipse.
