What Happened in May 1921

Historical Events

Chanel No. 5 Released

May 5 Perfume Chanel No. 5 released by fashion designer Coco Chanel

May 6 Teams from the National Association Football League and the Southern New England Soccer League merge to form the American Soccer League (ASL); collapses 1933
May 7 47th Kentucky Derby: Charles Thompson on Behave Yourself wins 2:04.2
May 8 Sweden abolishes capital punishment
May 10 Luigi Pirandello's "Sei Personaggi in Cerca d'Autore" premieres
May 11 Tel Aviv is 1st all Jewish municipality
May 11 The Allied Supreme Council warns Germany to pay reparations or the entire Ruhr Valley will be occupied; Germany agrees
May 12 National Hospital Day 1st observed in the United States
May 14 Florence Allen is 1st woman judge to sentence a man to death in Ohio
May 15 British Legion formed to care for ex-servicemen

Italian General Election

May 15 Italian General Election: National Bloc, including Mussolini's fascists 35 seats, win most seats but not a majority

May 16 46th Preakness: F Coltiletti aboard Broomspun wins in 1:54.2
May 17 Belgian and Luxembourg sign customs union

Valencia Orange Show

May 17 US President Warren G. Harding opens (via telephone) the 1st Valencia Orange Show in Anaheim, California

May 19 Congress sharply curbs immigration, setting a national quota system
May 21 Oldest radio station west of Mississippi River licensed in Greeley Co.
May 23 Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake's musical revue "Shuffle Along", the 1st hit Broadway show with an all-Black cast opens at Cort 63rd Street Theatre, NYC; runs for 504 performances [1]
May 24 1st parliament for Northern Ireland elected
May 24 Bulhoek Massacre: police commissioner Colonel Theodore Truter leads 6 squadrons and artillery detachment against Israelite religious sect collected at annual gathering on land of leader Enoch Mgijima at Ntabalanga; 190 killed
May 30 Indianapolis 500: Tommy Milton accompanied by riding mechanic Harry Franck wins the first of two 500 victories after Ralph DePalma had led for 109 laps
May 30 Lord Dunsany's "If" premieres in London
May 30 Memorial to Capt. Eddie Grant, killed in WW I, unveiled at Polo Grounds, NYC
May 30 Salzburg, Austria, votes to join Germany
May 31 A large-scale race riot breaks out in Tulsa, Oklahoma, later described as the worst incident of racial violence in American history; around 150-300 African Americans killed [1] [2]
May 31 Boston Red Sox 1st baseman John "Stuffy" McInnis begins an errorless string of 1,700 chances

Events in 1921

Famous Birthdays

May 2 Satyajit Ray, Indian director (Goddess, Adversary), born in Calcutta, India (d. 1992)
May 3 Joe Ames, American singer and actor (The Ames Brothers Show), born in Malden, Massachusetts (d. 2007)

Sugar Ray Robinson (1921-1989)

May 3 American boxer (world welterweight champion 1946-51; middleweight champion 1951-52, 55, 58), born in Ailey, Georgia

May 3 Vasco Gonçalves, Portuguese army officer and 103rd Prime Minister of Portugal (1974-75), born in Lisbon, Portugal (d. 2005)
May 4 Edo Murtić, Croatian painter, born in Velika Pisanica, Bjelovar, Croatia (d. 2005)
May 4 John van Kesteren, Dutch tenor (Komische Oper, West-Berlin), born in The Hague, Netherlands (d. 2008)
May 4 Virginia "Patsy" Garrett, American singer (Fred Waring's Pleasure Time), and actress (Nanny & the Professor), born in Atlantic City, New Jersey (d. 2015)

Arthur Leonard Schawlow (1921-1999)

May 5 American physicist who shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics for his pioneering work with lasers, born in Mount Vernon, New York

May 5 Eric Tweedale, Australian rugby union prop (10 caps; NSW RFU, Parramatta RFC), born in Rochdale, England (d. 2023)
May 5 Sonja Oosterman, Dutch pop singer and lyricist (De Marketentsters en De Musketiers), born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 2008)
May 6 Alan Dewitt, American actor (It's About Time), born in Canton, Ohio (d. 1976)
May 6 Elizabeth Sellars, Scottish actress ("Chalk Garden"; "A Voyage Round My Father"), born in Glasgow, Scotland (d. 2019) [1]
May 6 Erich Fried, Austrian-British writer, born in Vienna (d. 1988)
May 6 Freddy Randall, English jazz trumpeter, born in London (d. 1999)
May 6 Robert Fell, British 1st paid Chief Executive of the London Stock Exchange
May 7 Gale Robbins [Betty Gale Murphy], American singer and actress (Fuller Brush Girl; Mr Hex), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 1980)
May 7 Sam B. Williams, American engineer and inventor of small fan-jet engine that made long-range cruise missiles feasible, born in Seattle, Washington (d. 2009) [1]
May 8 Graham Leonard, Bishop of London, most senior Anglican to convert to Catholicism since the reformation (d. 2010)
May 9 Daniel Berrigan, American Jesuit priest and peace activist (Vietnam War), born in Virginia, Minnesota (d. 2016)
May 9 Mona Van Duyn, American poet (d. 2004)
May 9 Sophie Scholl, German anti-Nazi political activist, active in the non-violent resistance group, the White Rose (Die Weisse Rose), born in Forchtenberg, Germany (d. 1943)
May 11 Hildegard Hamm-Brücher, German politician, born in Essen, Germany (d. 2016)
May 11 Ian Percival, British politician (C) and Solicitor General (d. 1998)
May 12 (Otis W.) "Joe" Maphis, American session and country music guitarist ("Dim Lights"), born in Suffolk, Virginia (d. 1986)
May 12 Edvard Mirzoyan, Armenian composer, born in Gori, Georgia (d. 2012)
May 12 Farley Mowat, Canadian writer and naturalist, born in Belleville, Ontario, (d. 2014)
May 12 Giovanni Benelli, Italian archbishop of Florence and Papal candidate, born in Vernio, Italy (d. 1982)
May 12 Henry Mackie, designer of the Belfast Calorimeter (d. 1994)
May 12 Joseph Beuys, German avant-garde painter (Fluxus, movement), born in Krefeld, Germany (d. 1986)
May 13 Sid Vincent, British trade union leader (d. 1992)
May 14 Arve Opsahl, Norwegian actor and stand-up comedian (Mot i brøstet, Olsen-banden), born in Oslo, Norway (d. 2007)
May 16 Harry Carey Jr, American actor (Back to the Future Part III, Gremlins), born in Saugus, California (d. 2012)
May 17 Bob Merrill, American composer and lyricist (People, Mambo Italiano), born in Atlantic City, New Jersey (d. 1998)
May 17 Dennis Brain, British classical horn player (Serenade), born in London, England (d. 1957)
May 18 Anthony Epstein, English pathologist and virologist (co-discover of the Epstein–Barr virus), born in London, England (d. 2024) [1]
May 18 Witold Silewicz, Polish-Austrian classical double bassist (Tonkünstler Orchestra), arranger, and composer, born in Rajsko, Poland (d. 2007)
May 19 Daniel Gélin, French actor (Obsession, The Man Who Knew Too Much), born in Angers, Maine-et-Loire (d. 2002)
May 19 Karel van het Reve, Dutch writer, translator, and Russian literature historian (Comrade's Religion), born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 1999)
May 19 William H. Stewart, 10th US Surgeon General (1965-69), born in Minneapolis, Minnesota (d. 2008)
May 20 Hal Newhouser, American Baseball HOF pitcher (7 × MLB All-Star; World Series 1945; AL MVP 1944, 45; Triple Crown 1945; Detroit Tigers), born in Detroit, Michigan (d. 1998)
May 20 John Harrison, British vice admiral and surgeon (Medical Director Royal Navy during Falklands War), born in Simla, British India (d. 2010)
May 20 John Marchi, US Senator (Rep-R-NY 1957-2006), born in Staten Island, New York (d. 2009)
May 20 Wolfgang Borchert, German writer, born in Hamburg (d. 1947)

Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989)

May 21 Russian nuclear physicist and an activist for disarmament, peace and human rights (Nobel 1975), born in Moscow, Russia

May 21 Leona Wood, American surrealist painter and ballet and folk dancer, born in Seattle, Washington (d. 2008)
May 23 Humphrey Lyttelton, British jazz trumpeter and bandleader ("Bad Penny Blues"), and broadcaster (BBC2 - Best Of Jazz, 1967-2007; BBC4 - I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, 1972-2008), born in Eton, Buckinghamshire (d. 2008)
May 23 James Blish [pseudonym William Atheling, Jr], American-British, sci-fi author (Hugo, Star Trek Reader), born in East Orange, New Jersey (d. 1975)
May 23 Loren Tindall, American actor (Meet Me on Broadway, Girl of Limberlost), born in Hastings, Oklahoma (d. 1973)
May 23 Montague Modlyn, English radio and TV broadcaster, born in London, England (d. 1994)
May 25 (Catherine) "Kitty" Kallen, American big band (Harry James, Jimmy Dorsey, Jack Teagarden) and pop singer ("Little Things Mean A Lot"; "My Coloring Book"), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 2016) [1]
May 25 Hal David, American lyricist ("Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head"; "What The World Needs Now Is Love"; "Do You Know the Way to San Jose"), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2012)
May 25 Jack Steinberger, American physicist (1988 Nobel Prize for Physics - Neutrinos), born in Bad Kissingen, Germany (d. 2020) [1]
May 26 Frank Mooney, New Zealand cricket wicketkeeper (13 Tests, 30 dismissals; Wellington), born in Wellington, New Zealand (d. 2004)
May 27 Caryl Chessman, American kidnapper and rapist who got the death penalty, born in St. Joseph, Michigan (d. 1960)
May 28 Heinz G. Konsalik, German author, born in Cologne, Germany (d. 1999)
May 28 Tom Uren, Australian politician, Australian heritage and conservation campaigner, born in Sydney, New South Wales (d. 2015)
May 29 George Terry, British chief constable (Sussex, England) (d. 1995)
May 31 Alida Valli [Baroness Alida von Marckenstein-Frauenberg], Italian actress (The Paradine Case, The Third Man), born in Rome, Italy (d. 2006)
May 31 Andrew Grima, Italian-born British jeweller known for his modern designs, born in Rome, Italy (d. 2007)
May 31 Howard Reig, American radio and television announcer, born in New York City (d. 2008)
May 31 Robert Arthur Ley, English sci-fi author (Telepath, Power of X) (d. 1968)

Born in 1921

Famous Deaths

May 1 Louis Campbell-Tipton, American composer, dies at 43
May 3 Teddy Pilette, Belgian auto racer (first Belgian Indy 500), dies in a road accident at 36
May 5 Alfred Hermann Fried, German pacifist (Nobel 1911-co-founder of the German peace movement), dies at 56
May 5 William Friese-Greene, British photographer and inventor (motion pictures), dies at 65
May 12 Emilia Pardo Bazán, Spanish countess and writer (Pascual López: Autobiography of a Medical Student), dies at 68
May 13 Jean Aicard, French poet and novelist (Jeune Croyances), dies at 73
May 19 Edward Douglass White, American politician and jurist (9th Chief Justice of the United States), dies at 75
May 22 Marie Wilton, Lady Bancroft, British Victorian theater manager, actress, and novelist, dies at about 82
May 28 Geo Mestdagh, Belgian aviation pioneer, dies
May 29 Abbott Handerson Thayer, American painter and naturalist (paintings of angels), dies at 71 [1]
May 29 Horace Porter, American Brigadier General (Union Army), dies at 84

What Happened in 1921

Anglo-Irish Treaty
December 6, 1921

On This Day