June 15, 1921: Bessie Coleman becomes first licensed black female pilotJune 1, 1921: Greenwood, the African-American business and residential section of Tulsa, is burned down by white rioters; at least 21 black and nine white residents killed in riotingJune 5, 1921: Laura Bromwell becomes first female stunt pilot to be killed in a crash
The Greenwood massacre in the black section of Tulsa, Oklahoma was brought under control after 21 African-Americans and nine Whites had been killed, and the city had been placed under martial law.[1] Initial reports listed at least 55 black and 30 white deaths[2][3]
The 1921 Canadian Census was taken and showed a total population of 8,788,483. It showed a 22 percent increase in the number of Canadians since 1911, with the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan having grown by more than 50 percent.[4]
Eight members of a patrol of the Royal Irish Constabulary reserves were killed by the Irish Republican Army in the Carrowkennedy ambush near Westport, County Mayo as the RIC's two trucks and an auto were stopped in a rural area.[8][9] The car had broken down while on its way back to Westport and was being towed by one of the trucks. After realizing that they were outnumbered, the 16 surviving RIC men surrendered to the IRA, which disarmed them and then released them.
At least 127 people were drowned and large sections of the U.S. city of Pueblo, Colorado were heavily damaged by the bursting of several dams after heavy rains flooded the Arkansas River and the Fountain River. The business section of Pueblo was covered by waters at least 5 feet (1.5 m) deep and as high as 18 feet (5.5 m) in low-lying areas. The initial death estimate was 500 people.[19]
Menshevik forces captured Omsk in Siberia from the Soviet Bolsheviks, while Japan prepared to transport other anti-Bolshevik forces to reinforce the Menshevik capture of Vladivostok.[20]
British Prime Minister David Lloyd George presented an offer to striking British miners for settlement, and set a deadline of June 18 for them to accept it.[5]
At the Leipzig War Crimes Trials, a German court acquitted Karl Neumann, the U-boat commander who had torpedoed and sunk the British hospital ship HMHS Dover Castle, accepting his defense that he was just following orders. As commander of SMUC-67, Neumann ordered the sinking of Dover Castle on May 26, 1917, although 302 of the 314 crew were rescued and there were no hospital patients on the ship at the time.[21]
The Allied Reparations Commission awarded to the United States 600,000 tons of confiscated German ships.[5]
A treaty was signed between Czechoslovakia and Romania, to combat possible Hungarian revisionism within the so-called "Little Entente".[23]
In New York City an ordinance was passed to encourage the construction of new residences to accommodate 13,000 additional families by exempting them from city taxes for ten years if built in 1921 and 1922.[5]
Laura Bromwell, 24, U.S. stunt pilot, killed after she lost control of her plane at the top of a loop over Long Island, New York, and crashed from an altitude of 1,000 feet.[25][26]
The British government halted a five-month campaign of "reprisal burning" of the homes of Irish Republicans[28] after the strategy had literally backfired. Tom Barry and his 3rd Cork Brigade had responded to the burning of Sinn Fein members' homes by burning down the much larger homes of Unionists, and as one observer would later note, "the huge homes of rich, politically influential Loyalists were worth far more than an Irish cottage."[29] Years later, Barry would say of the British, "they had gone down in the mire to destroy us and down after them we had to go."[29]
Congolese religious leader Simon Kimbangu and his followers were arrested at Thysville (now Mbanza-Ngungu) by Belgian colonial authorities on the orders of administrator Léon Morel, but Kimbangu was able to escape and would remain a fugitive for three more months.[30]
Died:
Dr. Heinrich Albers-Schönberg, 56, German physician and radiologist who had been the first to identify osteopetrosis, the increasing density and hardening of bone (in contrast to osteoporosis, the decreasing density and increased brittleness of bone). The inherited illness is also called Albers-Schonberg disease or "marble bone disease". The physician died of "cardiac failure consequent upon pneumonia".[31]
The Parliament of Northern Ireland began operations in Belfast, with 40 of the 52 seats filled by the swearing in of Unionists. The remaining 12 seats remained empty as the Sinn Fein and the Irish nationalists who had won office refused to take the oath of loyalty to the crown.[33]
Allied troops in the disputed Upper Silesia region created a temporary buffer zone between the properties divided between Germany and Poland, with British troops and French troops enforcing the division.[5]
U.S. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes informed Mexican President Obregon that the U.S. would not give diplomatic recognition until Mexico bound itself to the discharge of primary international obligations.[34]
U.S. President Warren G. Harding welcomed Panama's Foreign Minister, Marcisco Garay, to the White House to hear Panama's protests against the U.S. arbitrated settlement of the Panama and Costa Rica boundary[5]
An assistance pact was signed between Romania and Yugoslavia.[35]
U.S. Army Air Service test pilot Harold R. Harris became the first pilot to fly a pressurized aircraft, when he successfully took a Dayton-Wright USD-9A aloft with an experimental pressurized cockpit.[39]
The Highland Park Mosque, "the first building in the United States constructed by Muslims to use as a mosque consistent with the architectural traditions of that faith", was opened in the Detroit suburb of Highland Park, Michigan, at 242 Victor Street. It operated until 1926, when it was sold to the city of Highland Park by its builder, real estate developer and Syrian immigrant Mohammed Karob.[40]
President Alvaro Obregon of Mexico decreed a 25% increase on the export tax for Mexican petroleum, effective July 1.[41]
Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees, the highest-paid major league baseball player in the world, was placed in jail by a New York traffic court magistrate after being convicted of speeding and fined $100 after having driven 26 miles per hour (42 km/h) on a city highway.[42] Placed in a cell at 11:30 in the morning, "The Home Run King" served five and a half hours and was released at 4:00 in the afternoon, forty minutes before he was scheduled to bat for the Yankees at the Polo Grounds.
Died: Roderick Maclean, 66, Scottish individual who had been in an insane asylum for almost 40 years after his March 2, 1882, attempt to shoot Queen Victoria.[44]
The British Government issued a White Paper publishing the text of a letter and text purporting to be a proposal for a treaty between Irish Republicans and the government of the Soviet Union.[45] According to the release from the office of UK Prime Minister David Lloyd George, a June 15, 1920 letter was written by Dermot O'HegartytoDesmond FitzGerald. The letter, said to have been captured in Dublin by British Army intelligence, attached a memorandum written by Patrick McCartan, stating that McCartan was working with American attorney John T. Ryan to negotiate with the Soviets.
Minister Drago
Died:
Luis María Drago, 62, former Foreign Minister of Argentina and lawyer who had authored the Drago Doctrine in a diplomatic note in 1902 to U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. During the Venezuelan crisis of 1902–1903, a blockade of Venezuela by European nations to collect debts owed, Drago proposed an addition to the Monroe Doctrine, that no foreign power should use force to collect a debt owed by a nation in the Western Hemisphere. As a result, the Roosevelt Corollary of 1904 asserted that foreign powers would be required to ask U.S. aid in resolving the debt rather than using military force.[46]
Frederick W. Galbraith, 47, National Commander of the American Legion, was killed in an auto accident in Indianapolis when the car in which he was riding went over an embankment and overturned.[47]
Louis de Rougemont (pen name for Henri Louis Grin), 73, Swiss hoaxster who had claimed in an 1898 series of news articles that he had lived among cannibals in Australia for 30 years.[48]
Twenty-two of the 30 crew of the Greek cargo ship Bouboulina died after the vessel struck a mine and sank in the Gulf of Smyrna off Uzunada, Turkey.[50][51]
Tristan Tzara's Le Cœur à gaz (The Gas Heart) was performed for the first time, during a Dada art exhibition at the Galerie Montaigne in Paris, France.[52] It was later dubbed "the greatest three-act hoax of the century".[53]
D. H. Lawrence's controversial novel, Women in Love, was published in the UK for the first time. W. Charles Pilley, an early reviewer, wrote: "I do not claim to be a literary critic, but I know dirt when I smell it, and here was dirt in heaps—festering, putrid heaps which smell to high Heaven."[54]
King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy opened the new session of the Italian parliament, and welcomed representatives from new territories that had been annexed in the 1920 peace settlement.[56]
The collision of two trains in Spain near Villaverde killed at least 14 people when the southbound express passenger train from Madrid struck a northbound freight train from Toledo.[57]
The Duchy of Luxembourg accepted protection by Belgium, after having been protected by Germany prior to the World War. Luxembourg consolidated its railways, abolished customs requirements, and adopted the Belgian franc as its currency.[5]
Completing its China famine relief program, the American Red Cross transferred ownership of 400 miles (640 km) of paved roads to the Chinese government. The transfer took place at Yucheng-Sang in the Shantung province.[5]
InBritish Columbia, the legal sale of alcohol resumed after having been prohibited during Canada's participation in the World War. The provincial government sold permits, for 50 cents apiece, allowing the purchase of two quarts of liquor or twelve quarts of beer, and citizens were permitted to buy no more than 10 permits per year.[5]
Georgiana Simpson became the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D., getting her doctorate in German literature for her dissertation Herder's Conception of "Das Volk" at the University of Chicago.[69] The next day, Sadie Tanner Mossell became the second black woman to receive a doctorate, a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania for The Standard of Living Among One Hundred Negro Migrant Families in Philadelphia[70]
The SSParis, the biggest ocean liner of its time, began its maiden voyage, from Le Havre in France to New York City in the United States.[72]
Bessie Coleman became the first black person to earn an international aviation license, and the first black woman to earn any type of aviation pilot's license, when she was certified by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) of France. At the time, women of any race were not admitted into any certified U.S. schools that gave flying instruction.[73]
The U.S. Department of State announced that it would pursue negotiations with Japan to make final settlement of any points of dispute between the nations in the Pacific Ocean.[74]
U.S. federal agents raided the ship East Side while it was docked in New York Harbor, and found boxes of machine guns that were being sent to Ireland.[74]
Members of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain refused to accept the government's proposed settlement of their strike, by a margin of 432,511 against and only 183,827 for.[75]
The British House of Commons debated the Imperial Conference to be held in London, with the ministers of British Dominions present in a special gallery.[78]
InMoultrie, Georgia, a lynch mob burned an African-American murder convict at the stake immediately after he had been found guilty of the murder of a 12-year-old white girl.[80] John Henry Williams had been sentenced to a July 8 hanging by the court in Colquitt County, Georgia, and was seized as he was being escorted out of the courtroom, then taken by the mob to the scene of the crime. According to a reporter at the scene, "Williams calmly smoked a cigarette as the match was applied to the fuel around him and he made but little outcry as the flames slowly burned him to death."
The decennial census of Great Britain was taken, although Ireland was not enumerated because of the ongoing civil war. The total population of Great Britain was 42,919,700 including 37,886,699 in England and Wales, and 4,882,497 in Scotland.[84]
The U.S. Navy and U.S. Army made a joint demonstration of American air power by dropping 12 bombs from an altitude of 1,100 feet (340 m) and sank the former German submarine U-117 within 16 minutes. The operation took place 75 miles (121 km) off of the coast of Norfolk, Virginia from Hampton Roads Naval Station, and was the first of several tests scheduled for the destruction of "former German vessels of every distinctive type". Three U.S. Navy F-5-L airplanes carried out the first wave of attacks that sank the U-117 and participation of the Army planes proved unnecessary.[89]
In the match for the International Polo CupatHurlingham in England, the U.S. team defeated the British team, 10 to 6, bringing the Cup back to the United States.[97]
The U.S. Senate passed the Army Appropriation bill and sent it to President Warren G. Harding, mandating the reduction of U.S. Army enlisted men by more than one-third from 220,000 to 150,000 by October 1.[74] President Harding signed the bill into law on June 30.[74]
U.S. longshoremen's strike, which had started on May 1, ended after 53 days.[74]
Two women died immediately, and a third was fatally poisoned, hours after a dinner party the night before in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Miss Ella Woodward, a maid at the home of Joseph D. Wentling died first, followed by Mrs. Wentling, despite the efforts of specialists called in from New York City and Pittsburgh.[101] Mrs. J. Covode Reed, a guest at the Wentling party, died two days later.[102] The deaths were all traced to botulism contamination in a single bottle of olives from a Pittsburgh farm.[103]
The Harvard Glee Club arrived in Paris and was received at the Hotel de Ville at the start of a European tour.[104]
Born: Rehman (Said Rehman Khan), Indian film actor; in Lahore, British India (now Pakistan); (d. 1984)
The Council of the League of Nations formally awarded AlandtoFinland on condition that the islands not be used for military purposes and that Finland would protect Swedish citizens of the Alands.[105]
Marie Curie completed her visit to the United States and departed for France, after having been presented with a $100,000 sample of radium by U.S. President Harding.[74]
The British Open golf tournament was won by Scottish-born U.S. citizen Jock Hutchison, the first American to ever win the event.[109] Hutchison had been born in St Andrews, near the site of The Open.[110]
Oil was discovered in the Los Angeles metropolitan area when drilling at the Alamitos oil well reached a depth of 3,114 feet (949 m) near Signal Hill, California.[114] The site is now at the corner of Temple Avenue and Hill Street in Signal Hill.
Eleven people died in a single night near Mayfield, Kentucky in a murder-suicide carried out by a 35-year old farmer, Ernest Lawrence, against his own family and that of his sister-in-law.[115] Investigators concluded that Lawrence shot or beat to death most of the victims— four adults and six children— then set fire to the house and shot himself.[116] The bodies were so completely burned that all of the remains were placed in the same grave and in a single casket for interment.
The Upper Silesian dispute between Germany and Poland was resolved by an agreement signed by General Charles Henniker-Major of Britain, and General Alberto de Marinis of Italy for the Allies defending Poland, and General Karl Höfer of Germany, where each side agreed to evacuate their armed forces from each other's nations.[117]
The coal strike in the United Kingdom ended as the Miners' Federation of Great Britain dropped objections to accepting a cut in wages.[129] The new agreement was designed to expire on September 30, 1922 if either labour or the government gave three months notice of intent to terminate. Formal approval was made by union members on July 1.[74]
The German paramilitary group Einwohnerwehr (Citizens' Defense) was disbanded by the German government on the demands of the Allied Council.[132]
Greek forces evacuated IzmitinTurkey, leaving it to be retaken by Turkish Nationalists to travel to Istanbul.[74]
Died:Jennie Spencer-Churchill, née Jerome, 67, U.S.-born British socialite and mother of Winston Churchill, of complications resulting from a fall[133] On June 10, her right foot had been amputated two weeks after she had suffered a comminuted fracture of her ankle in a fall down the front stairs of a home.[134]
Sweden's death penalty was abolished as legislation passed by the Riksdag on May 7 took effect.[137]
The North Melbourne Football Club, an Australian rules football team, disbanded in an attempt to obtain entry to the Victorian Football League. The attempt was foiled by a legal challenge.[138] The club subsequently merged with the Essendon Association Club.
^"Tulsa in Remorse to Rebuild Homes; Dead Now Put at 30", The New York Times, June 3, 1921, p. 1
^"85 Whites and Negroes Die in Tulsa Riots as 3,000 Armed Men Battle in Streets; 30 Blocks Burned, Military Rule in City", The New York Times, June 2, 1921, p. 1
^"Military Control Is Ended at Tulsa", The New York Times, June 4, 1921, p. 1
^"Floods Sweep Over Eastern Colorado, 500 Dead in Pueblo; Part of City Engulfed as Cloudburst Swells Streams; Houses Are Toppled Over and Fire Adds to Horror", The New York Times, June 5, 1921, p. 1
^"Anti-Bolsheviki Have Taken Omsk", The New York Times, June 6, 1921, p. 12
^"Free Man Who Sank Hospital Ship— Leipsic Judges Acquitt Neumann on the Ground That He Acted Under Orders" , The New York Times, June 5, 1921, p. 1
^"Ludwig Knorr. zum Gedächtnis (1859-1921)". Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft. 60 (1): A1–A34. 1921. doi:10.1002/cber.19270600155.
^"Albers-Schönberg, Heinrich E.", in The Man Behind the Syndrome, by Peter Beighton and Greta Beighton (Springer, 2012)
^"Jas. A. Bradley Dies; Founder of Asbury", The New York Times, June 7, 1921, p. 17
^"Ulster Parliament Has First Meeting", The New York Times, June 8, 1921, p. 1
^"Hughes Requires Mexico 'Bind Itself' to Respect Rights; Recognition Implied in Treaty of Trade and Amity Offered to Obregon", The New York Times, June 8, 1921, p. 1
^Diana G. Cornelisse, Splendid Vision, Unswerving Purpose: Developing Air Power for the United States Air Force During the First Century of Powered Flight, (U.S. Air Force Publications, 2002) pp. 128–129
^"Obregon Advances Export Tax on Oil; Increase of 25 Per Cent. Is Attacked by American Producers as Confiscatory", The New York Times, June 9, 1921, p. 1
^"'Babe' Ruth Plays After Day in Jail", The New York Times, June 9, 1921, p. 1
^"Man Who Shot at Victoria In 1882 Is Dead in Asylum", The New York Times, June 10, 1921, p. 1
^"British Say Irish Asked 50,000 Rifles for Soviet Treaty— Wanted Bolshevists to Slay Briton for Every Sinn Feiner Executed", Associated Press report in Philadelphia Inquirer, June 10, 1921, p. 1
^"Argentine Author of Drago Doctrine Dies; Made Addition to U.S. South American Policy; Denied Right to Collect Private Debt by Foreign Troops", Boston Globe, June 10, 1921, p. 5
^"Col. F. W. Galbraith Dies in Auto Crash", The New York Times, June 10, 1921, p. 4
^"Author of Old Hoax Dies; Louis de Rougemont's Story of Life Among Cannibals Recalled", The New York Times, June 11, 1921, p. 3
^"Coinage of Dollars Is Resumed by Mint; Treasury Is Replacing 279,000,000 Coins Sold to British During Silver Famine in War", The New York Times, June 20, 1921, p. 2
^“Judy Holliday”, biography, Turner Classic Movies (TCM), Turner Broadcasting System, a subsidiary of Time Warner, Inc., New York, N.Y. Retrieved March 3, 2018.
^"Hutchison Captures British Golf Title; Chicago Player Becomes First American to Win Coveted Open Championship", The New York Times, June 26, 1921, p.VII-1
^"Lloyd George Asks De Valera to Come to London Meeting", The New York Times, June 26, 1921, p. 1
^"De Valera to Agree to Parley in London, But on Conditions", The New York Times, June 27, 1921, p. 1
^"Gompers Elected Federation Head for 40th Time", The New York Times, June 26, 1921, p. 1
^Pennington, Reina, ed. (2003). Amazons to Fighter Pilots - A Biographical Dictionary of Military Women (Volume One). Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. p. 167. ISBN0-313-32707-6.
^Ward, Alan J. (1994). The Irish Constitutional Tradition: Responsible Government and Modern Ireland 1782–1922. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University Press of America. pp. 103–110. ISBN0-8132-0793-2.
^Ivar Seth and Stig Jägerskiöld, Överheten och svärdet: ödsstraffdebatten i Sverige 1809-1974 (The Government and the Sword: The death penalty debate in Sweden 1809-1974)(Institut för Rättshistorisk Forskning, 1984).
^"North Melbourne ground". The Argus. Melbourne, VIC. 12 August 1921. p. 6.
