- 1920
| Jan 02 | The U.S. Bureau of Investigation began carrying out the nationwide Palmer Raids. Federal agents seized labor leaders and literature in the hopes of discouraging labor activity. A number of citizens were turned over to state officials for prosecution under various anti-anarchy statutes. | Ref: 5 |
| Jan 05 | The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was formed. The company became a giant in electronics, especially radios and TVs. It would later own its own TV network (NBC) and other broadcast interests. | Ref: 18 |
| Jan 16 | (Prohibition) 18th Amendment, prohibition, becomes the law of the land one year after ratification; it is repealed in 1933. | Ref: 5 |
| Jan 20 | American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) formed. | Ref: 17 |
| Feb 22 | The American Relief Administration appeals to the public to pressure Congress to aid starving European cities. | Ref: 2 |
| Feb 27 | The United States rejects a Soviet peace offer as propaganda. | Ref: 2 |
| Mar 24 | First US coast guard air station established (Morehead City NC). | Ref: 5 |
| May 05 | US President Wilson makes Communist Labor Party illegal. | Ref: 5 |
| Jun 12 | Farmer Labor Party organized (Chicago). | Ref: 5 |
| Jun 16 | ITT (International Telephone and Telegraph) was incorporated | Ref: 62 |
| Jul 16 | Gen Amos Fries appointed first US army chemical warfare chief. | Ref: 5 |
| Jul 26 | The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified. "All Created Equal..." | Ref: 2 |
| Aug 18 | Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which guaranteed the right of women to vote. | Ref: 70 |
| Aug 26 | The 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was certified by Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby. The amendment prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex -- in the voting booth. In other words, it gave women in the United States the right to vote. In 1973, Congresswoman Bella Abzug presented a bill to Congress designating this day as Women’s Equality Day. The President issued a proclamation and in 1974 it became Public Law #93-382. | Ref: 4 |
| Sep 29 | Joseph Horne Company’s department store in Pittsburgh, PA advertised radios in The Pittsburgh Sun for $10 and up. One could get a ready-made radio in a box with headphones and tuning knob. | Ref: 4 |
| Nov 02 | KDKA, Pittsburgh, the first commercial radio station, begins broadcasting. | Ref: 4 |
| Dec 28 | The United States resumes the deportation of communists and suspected communists. | Ref: 2 |
- 1921
| Feb 24 | Herbert Hoover becomes Secretary of Commerce. | Ref: 2 |
| Mar 04 | Warren G. Harding is sworn in as America's 29th President. | Ref: 2 |
| Mar 04 | Hot Springs National Park created in Arkansas. | Ref: 5 |
| Mar 06 | Police in Sunbury PA issue an edict requiring women to wear skirts at least 4 inches below the knee. | Ref: 5 |
| Apr 11 | Iowa became the first state to impose a cigarette tax. | Ref: 70 |
| May 03 | West Virginia imposed the first state sales tax. | Ref: 70 |
| May 12 | National Hospital Day first observed. | Ref: 5 |
| May 19 | Congress passes the Emergency Quota Act, which establishes national quotas for immigrants. | Ref: 70 |
| Jun 10 | The General Accounting Office (GAO) is established as an independent US government agency. | Ref: 17 |
| Jun 12 | President Warren Harding urges every young man to attend military training camp. | Ref: 2 |
| Jun 30 | Documents were signed forming the Radio Corporation of America, better known as RCA. RCA soon rivaled its main competitor, General Electric (GE). | Ref: 4 |
| Aug 22 | William J. Burns, the head of a famous private detective agency, became Director of the BOI. Twenty-six year old J. Edgar Hoover was named Assistant Director. | Ref: 14 |
| Oct 11 | President Harding dedicates Tomb of Unknown Soldier. | Ref: 5 |
| Oct 26 | Solomon Porter Hood named minister to Liberia. | Ref: 5 |
| Nov 23 | President Warren G. Harding signs the Willis Campell Act, better known as the anti-beer bill. It forbids doctors to prescribe beer or liquor for medicinal purposes. | Ref: 2 |
| Dec 23 | President Warren G. Harding frees Socialist Eugene Debs and 23 other political prisoners. | Ref: 2 |
- 1922
| Jan 03 | First living person identified on a US coin (Thomas E Kirby) on the Alabama Centennial half-dollar. | Ref: 5 |
| Jan 19 | Geological survey says US oil supply would be depleted in 20 years. | Ref: 5 |
| Jan 24 | Lehman Caves National Monument established. | Ref: 5 |
| Feb 06 | The Washington Disarmament Conference comes to an end with signature of final treaty forbidding fortification of the Aleutian Islands for 14 years. | Ref: 2 |
| Feb 06 | US, UK, France, Italy & Japan sign Washington naval arms limitation. | Ref: 5 |
| Feb 09 | The U.S. Congress establishes the World War Foreign Debt Commission. | Ref: 2 |
| Feb 11 | US intervention army leaves Honduras. | Ref: 5 |
| Feb 22 | Congress authorizes Grant Memorial $1 gold coin. | Ref: 5 |
| Feb 27 | Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover convenes first National Radio Conference. | Ref: 5 |
| Mar 15 | First southern radio station begins radio transmissions (WSB-AM, Atlanta GA). | Ref: 5 |
| Mar 20 | President Warren G. Harding orders U.S. troops back from the Rhineland. | Ref: 2 |
| Mar 20 | The 11,500-ton Langley was commissioned into the U.S. Navy as America’s first aircraft carrier. | Ref: 2 |
| Apr 04 | WAAB (Baton Rouge La) becomes 1st US radio station with "W" calls. | Ref: 5 |
| May 30 | The Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington DC, by Chief Justice William Howard Taft. | Ref: 5 |
| Aug 12 | The home of Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C. is dedicated as a memorial. | Ref: 2 |
| Aug 28 | The first commercial to be broadcast on radio was heard on WEAF in New York City. Announcer H.M. Blackwell spoke about Hawthorne Court, a group of apartment buildings in Queens, New York. (Xenia Daily Gazette, p 4A, 8/28/2000) | |
| Oct 11 | Largest US flag displayed (150' X 90') expanded in 1939 (270' X 90'). | Ref: 5 |
| Oct 27 | The first annual celebration of Navy Day took place. | Ref: 5 |
| Nov 11 | Largest US flag displayed (150' X 90') expanded in 1939 (270' X 90'). | Ref: 5 |
| Dec 06 | First electric power line commercial carrier in US, Utica NY. | Ref: 5 |
- 1923
| Feb 02 | US signs friendship treaty with Central American countries. | Ref: 5 |
| Feb 22 | The first successful chinchilla farm in the United States is established in Los Angeles by Mathias Chapman. (XDG, p 4A, 2/22/2001) | Ref: 83 |
| Mar 02 | Time magazine was first published | Ref: 5 |
| Mar 03 | US Senate rejects membership in International Court of Justice, The Hague. | Ref: 5 |
| Mar 03 | The first issue of Time magazine is published. It's editor, Henry R. Luce, is just out of Yale. | Ref: 2 |
| Mar 05 | Montana & Nevada become first states to enact old age pension laws. | Ref: 5 |
| Mar 21 | US foreign minister Charles Hughes refuses USSR recognition. | Ref: 5 |
| Apr 07 | Workers Party of America (NYC) becomes official communist party. | Ref: 5 |
| May 04 | (Prohibition) NY state revokes Prohibition law. | Ref: 5 |
| May 28 | Attorney General says it is legal for women to wear trousers anywhere. | Ref: 5 |
| Jun 08 | A bill establishing Bryce Canyon National Park signed by President Calvin Coolidge | Ref: 62 |
| Dec 03 | First Congressional open session broadcast via radio (Washington DC). | Ref: 5 |
| Dec 08 | German-US friendship treaty signed. | Ref: 5 |
- 1924
| Feb 28 | U.S. troops are sent to Honduras to protect American interests during an election conflict. | Ref: 2 |
| Mar 19 | U.S. troops are rushed to Tegucigalpa as rebel forces take the Honduran capital. | Ref: 2 |
| Mar 28 | WGN-AM in Chicago IL begins radio transmissions. | Ref: 5 |
| Apr 23 | The US Senate passes the Soldiers' Bonus Bill. | Ref: 2 |
| May 10 | Attorney General Harlan Fiske Stone appoints J(ohn) Edgar Hoover as acting Director of the (Federal) Bureau of Investigation. (TWA, 1989) | Ref: 95 |
| May 26 | President Coolidge signs Immigration Law (restricting immigration). | Ref: 5 |
| Jun 02 | A child labor ammendment to the U.S. Constitution was proposed; only 28 of the necessary 36 states ever ratified it. | Ref: 59 |
| Jun 02 | Congress grants US citizenship to all American Indians. (XDG, p 4A, 6/2/2000) | Ref: 83 |
| Jun 03 | Gila Wilderness Area established by Forest Service. | Ref: 5 |
| Jun 06 | The German Reichstag accepts the Dawes Plan, an American plan to help Germany pay off its war debts. | Ref: 2 |
| Jun 10 | The first political convention on radio was presented by NBC. Graham McNamee provided coverage of the Republican National Convention from Cleveland, OH. McNamee was one of the great sports broadcasters of radio’s Golden Age. | Ref: 4 |
| Jun 15 | Native Americans are proclaimed US citizens | Ref: 5 |
| Jun 26 | After eight years of occupation, American troops leave the Dominican Republic. | Ref: 2 |
| Jul 01 | The BOI set up an Identification Division after Congress authorized "the exchange of identification records with officers of the cities, counties, and states." The Bureau established its fingerprint files in Washington, D.C., by consolidating collections from the former Bureau of Criminal Identification at Leavenworth, Kansas and those of the International Association of Chiefs of Police formerly housed in Chicago. | Ref: 14 |
| Dec 10 | J. Edgar Hoover is appointed permanant Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. (TWA, 1989) | Ref: 95 |
- 1925
| Jan 11 | Franc B Kellogg replaces Charles Hughes on as US Secretary of State. | Ref: 5 |
| Feb 12 | First federal arbitration law approved by Congress. | Ref: 5 |
| Feb 19 | President Calvin Coolidge proposes the phasing out of inheritance tax. | Ref: 2 |
| Feb 24 | A thermite reaction was used for the first time to break up an ice jam. The 250,000-ton jam had clogged the St. Lawrence River near Waddington, NY. | Ref: 4 |
| Feb 27 | Glacier Bay National Monument is dedicated in Alaska. | Ref: 2 |
| Mar 02 | State and federal highway officials developed a nationwide route-numbering system and adopted the familiar U.S. shield-shaped numbered marker. For instance, in the east, there is U.S. 1 that runs from New England to Florida and in the west, the corresponding highway, U.S. 101, from Tacoma, WA to San Diego, CA. | Ref: 4 |
| Mar 04 | Swain's Island (near American Samoa) annexed by US. | Ref: 5 |
| Apr 18 | World's fair opens in Chicago. | Ref: 5 |
| May 20 | HQ for the Chamber of Commerce of the United States dedicated in Washington D.C. | Ref: 10 |
| Aug 04 | US marines leave Nicaragua after 13-year occupation. | Ref: 5 |
| Aug 14 | Mount Rushmore figures are proposed. | Ref: 51 |
| Oct 11 | Auto thief Martin James Durkin shot and killed Special Agent Edwin C. Shanahan while Shanahan tried to arrest him. Agent Shanahan was the first BOI (predecessor of the FBI) agent killed in the line of duty. | Ref: 14 |
| Oct 21 | (Prohibition) The U.S. Treasury Department announces that it had fined 29,620 people for (alcohol) prohibition violations. The fines totaled $5,000,000. | Ref: 4 |
| Dec 17 | Colonel William "Billy" Mitchell is convicted at his court-martial of insubordination. | Ref: 5 |
| Dec 25 | U.S. troops in Nicaragua disarm insurgents in support of the Diaz regime. | Ref: 2 |
| Dec 26 | Six U.S. destroyers are ordered from Manila to China to protect interests in the civil war that is being waged there. | Ref: 2 |
- 1926
| Jan 27 | US Senate agrees to join World Court. | Ref: 5 |
| Feb 23 | President Calvin Coolidge opposes a large air force, believing it would be a menace to world peace. | Ref: 2 |
| Mar 26 | The first lip-reading tournament held in America. | Ref: 5 |
| Apr 16 | The Book-of-the-Month Club in New York City chose as its first selection, Lolly Willowes or The Loving Huntsman by Sylvia Townsend as the offering to its 4,750 members. | Ref: 4 |
| May 02 | US military intervenes in Nicaragua. | Ref: 5 |
| May 03 | US marines land in Nicaragua (9-months after leaving), stay until 1933. | Ref: 5 |
| May 20 | Congress passes Air Commerce Act, licensing of pilots & planes. | Ref: 5 |
| May 27 | The people of Hannibal, MO erected the first statue of literary characters. The bronze figures of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer were hoisted above a red granite base. | Ref: 4 |
| May 28 | United States Customs Court created by Congress | Ref: 5 |
| Jul 02 | US Army Air Corps created; Distinguish Flying Cross authorized. | Ref: 5 |
| Nov 27 | Restoration of Williamsburg, Virginia, begins. | Ref: 5 |
| Nov 27 | US Senate agrees to join World Court. | Ref: 5 |
- 1927
| Jan 06 | US marines sent to Nicaragua. | Ref: 5 |
| Jan 12 | U.S. Secretary of State Kellogg claims that Mexican rebel Plutarco Calles is aiding communist plot in Nicaragua. | Ref: 2 |
| Jan 13 | US & Mexico battle over oil interests. | Ref: 5 |
| Feb 03 | President Calvin Coolidge signs a bill creating the Federal Radio Commission to regulate the airwaves. | Ref: 2 |
| Feb 10 | President Coolidge asks for 2nd disarmament conference. | Ref: 5 |
| Feb 16 | US restores diplomatic relations with Turkey. | Ref: 5 |
| Feb 23 | The Federal Radio Commission began its work of assigning frequencies, hours of operation and power allocations for radio broadcasters across the U.S. The name was changed to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on July 1, 1934. | Ref: 4 |
| Mar 05 | 1,000 US marines land in China to protect American property. | Ref: 5 |
| Mar 17 | US government doesn't sign League of Nations disarmament treaty. | Ref: 5 |
| May 18 | Ritz Hotel opens in Boston. | Ref: 5 |
| Jun 27 | The US Marines adopt the English bulldog as their mascot. | Ref: 2 |
| Jun 30 | US Assay Office in Deadwood SD closes. | Ref: 5 |
| Jul 09 | Atty William T Francis named minister to Liberia. | Ref: 5 |
| Jul 16 | Augusto Sandino begins 5-year war against US occupation of Nicaragua | Ref: 5 |
| Aug 04 | Peace Bridge between US & Canada opened. | Ref: 5 |
| Aug 04 | Radio station 2XAG, later named WGY, the General Electric station in Schenectady, NY, began experimental operations from a 100,000-watt transmitter. Later, the FCC regulated the power of AM radio stations to not exceed 50,000 watts on ‘clear channels’ (where few, if any, stations would cause interference with each other). | Ref: 4 |
| Aug 07 | The Peace Bridge between the United States and Canada was dedicated during ceremonies attended by the Prince of Wales and Vice President Charles Dawes. | Ref: 5 |
| Sep 29 | Telephone service between U.S. and Mexico inaugurated. | Ref: 10 |
| Dec 17 | U.S. Secretary of State Kellogg suggests a worldwide pact renouncing war. | Ref: 2 |
- 1928
| Jan 01 | First US air-conditioned office building opens, San Antonio. | Ref: 5 |
| Jan 01 | The BOI instituted a theoretical and practical training course for new Special Agents. During a two-month assignment to the Washington Field Office, New Agents were instructed in Bureau rules and procedures, provided with practical exercises in crime investigation, and evaluated by experienced Agents as to their qualities and potential. | Ref: 14 |
| Feb 07 | The United States signs an arbitration treaty with France. | Ref: 2 |
| Mar 16 | The United States plans to send 1,000 more Marines to Nicaragua. | Ref: 2 |
| Apr 01 | The BOI (predecessor of the FBI) prepared a Manual of Rules and Regulations for all investigative employees. | Ref: 14 |
| Jun 30 | Radio Service Bulletin lists radio stations call signs that are to be changed to conform with international standards. | Ref: 5 |
| Aug 07 | The US dollar began to shrink. New bills, one third smaller than previous bucks, were issued by the US Treasury Department. | Ref: 4 |
| Sep 27 | The United States said it was recognizing the Nationalist Chinese government. | Ref: 70 |
| Nov 01 | First celebration of Author's Day. | Ref: 5 |
| Dec 21 | President Calvin Coolidge signs the Boulder Dam bill. | Ref: 2 |
- 1929
| Jan 13 | Humanist Society established, Hollywood CA. | Ref: 5 |
| Jan 15 | The U.S. Senate ratifies the Kellogg-Briand anti-war pact. | Ref: 2 |
| Jan 19 | Acadia National Park, Maine established. | Ref: 5 |
| Feb 13 | Cruiser Act OKs construction of 19 new cruisers & an aircraft carrier. | Ref: 5 |
| Feb 20 | American Samoa organized as a territory of US. | Ref: 5 |
| Feb 26 | President Coolidge signed a measure establishing Grand Teton National Park. | Ref: 5 |
| Mar 02 | US Court of Customs & Patent Appeals created by US Congress | Ref: 5 |
| Mar 22 | USCG vessel sank Canadian schooner suspected of carrying liquor. | Ref: 5 |
| Apr 01 | The yo-yo is introduced in the United States by Louie Marx. | Ref: 2 |
| May 31 | Atlantic City Convention Center opens. | Ref: 5 |
| Jun 25 | Pres Hoover authorizes building of Boulder Dam (Hoover Dam). | Ref: 5 |
| Jul 10 | The US government began issuing paper money in the small size we currently carry. | Ref: 4 |
| Jul 24 | President Herbert Hoover proclaimed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which renounced war as an instrument of foreign policy. | Ref: 70 |
| Dec 05 | First US nudist organization (American League for Physical Culture, New York NY). | Ref: 5 |
| Dec 08 | The Royal Gorge Bridge, the highest bridge above water, was first opened. It was 1053 feet above the Arkansas River in Colorado. | Ref: 62 |
| Dec 23 | A teletypewriter system connects the police departments of 95 cities and borroughs in Pennsylvania. (XDG, p 4A, 12/23/2000) | Ref: 83 |
- 1930
| Jan 23 | George Washington Birthplace National Monument VA established. | Ref: 5 |
- 1942
| Aug 03 | Mildren McAfee becomes the first commissioned officer in the US Navy. | Ref: 17 |
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US History 1920 to 1929 Chronology