[metsgeek]

NOTEWORTHY EVENTS - 1920

* italicized events actually happened

• January 7 - Russian Civil War: Forces under Russian Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak surrender to the C.C.P. in the port of Odessa, Ukraine. Kolchak is taken as a prisoner of war.
• January 9 - Thousands of onlookers watch as "The Human Fly" George Polley, climbs the New York Woolworth Building. He has reached the 30th floor when a policeman arrests him for climbing without a permit.
• January 14 - Admiral Kolchak and eight of his officers are returned to Russia in exchange for thirty Bolsheviks held by Russian forces.
• January 22 - Upon returning to Irkutsk, Admiral Kolchak and his officers are arrested on the orders of Premier-General Kornilov. They are charged with treason and aiding and abetting the enemy, despite a lack of any evidence.
• February 6 - Following a cursory "investigation", Admiral Kolchak anfd the others are executed by firing squad in the early morning and the bodies were disposed of in a local river, the Ushakovka.
  
  The "traitor" Kolchak before his untimely demise
  
  
• February 14 - The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago, Illinois.
• February 24 - Dietrich Eckart presents his National Socialist program in Munich to a rally with more than 2,000 attendees. Rudolf von Sebottendorf, founder of the Thule Society, actively campaigns for his platform in the Society's antisemitic publication, Völkischer Beobachter
  March 26 - The Black and Tans special constables arrive in Ireland
• March 31 - The Government of Ireland Act 1920 is presented in British Parliament. Its main purpose is to partition Ireland, creating the separate territory of Northern Ireland.
• May 16 - In Rome, Pope Pius X canonizes Joan of Arc as a saint
• June 8-12 - Democratic National Convention: After 23 ballots, Patrick J. Kennedy, Governor of Massachusetts and John Nance Garner, Congressman from Texas are chosen as the party's candidates for the election in November.
• June 13 - The United States Postal Service rules that children may not be sent via parcel post
• June 15 - Senator Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi changes his party affiliation and accepts the Prohibition Party presidential nomination.
• July 7 - Bohemian Revolt: Nationalist Wolfgang Kapp and General Walther von Lüttwitz, supported by the majority of the Bohemian Freikorps, organize an uprising against President Gustav Noske in Pilsen, Bohemia. Noske was notorious for brutally putting down the Spartacist uprisings throughout Bohemia in early 1919. He had permitted and even encouraged the organization and employment of the right-wing, ultra-nationalist Freikorps. Ironically, his excessive brutality led to the revolt by the very forces he helped to create.
  
  Wolfgang Kapp, General Walther von Lüttwitz & Gustav Noske
  
  
• July 27 - Gustav Noske is captured at the Church of St. Bartholomew in Pilsen, where he had fled when his personal guard surrendered to Freikorps forces.
• July 29 - Kapp becomes Prime Minister of Bohemia
• July 31 - The Communist Party of Great Britain is founded in London.
• August 2 - British Parliament passes a bill to restore order in Ireland, suspending jury trials.
• August 3 - Catholics riot in Belfast.
• September 10 - A grand jury is convened in Chicago to investigate baseball's "Dark Horses" scandal.
• September 16 - The Wall Street Bombing: At noon, a horse-drawn wagon passed by lunchtime crowds on Wall Street, in New York City. The wagon then stopped in front of the headquarters of the J.P. Morgan Inc. bank at 23 Wall Street, on the Financial District's busiest corner. Inside, 100 pounds (45 kg) of dynamite with 500 pounds (230 kg) of fragmented steel exploded, perhaps by remote control, sending the shrapnel tearing through crowds. An automobile was hurled into the air, and glass was shattered for blocks. Shortly before the bomb went off a warning note was placed in a mailbox at the corner of Cedar Street and Broadway. The warning read: Remember we will not tolerate any longer. Free the political prisoners or it will be sure death for all of you. American Anarchists Fighters. 39 are killed and 400 are injured. Wall Street reopened the next day, with evidence of the bombing covered by cloths. The public was jittery: headlines warned that other buildings might be bombed, and that bridges on the West Coast would also be targeted by terrorists.
  
  The aftermath of the terrorist attack
  
  
• September 17 - President Lodge issues a statement condemning the perpetrators of the heinous Wall Street attack, vowing that they would be caught and prosecuted to the extent of the law.
• September 17 - The American Professional Football Association forms in Canton, Ohio
• October 1 - Dietrich Eckart and members of the Thule Society travel to Pilsen, Bohemia to meet with Prime Minister Kapp. Though he does not share their interest in the occult, Kapp is quite enthusiastic about much of their anti-republican and anti-Semitic propaganda.
  
  Symbol of the occult Thule Society
  
  
• November 2 - Patrick J. Kennedy defeats incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge in the U.S. presidential election, the first presidential election since the women were granted the right to vote
• November 21 - Bloody Sunday: British forces open fire on spectators and players during a football match in Dublin's Croke Park, following the assassinations of 12 British agents
• December 16 - An earthquake measuring 8.6 on the Richter Scale causes landslides in Gansu Province, China - 180,000 are killed in the devastation.