What comes to mind when we ask what were the most famous 1922 events? The world was very different (almost) one hundred years ago. Let us remind you. It is truly fascinating to look back and see history unfold day by day, including the rise of Mussolini and the establishment of the USSR. You can read even more about the major events that occurred in 1922 in an original 1922 newspaper.
1922 Timeline
Turn the page to:
- January
- February
- March
- April
- May
- June
- July
- August
- September
- October
- November
- December
- The Rise of Mussolini
- The Creation of the USSR
January
January 1: Driving moves to the right side of the road in Vancouver, Canada.
January 1: The Rand Rebellion starts with a strike by coal miners in South Africa.
January 6: The Conference of Cannes begins.
January 7: The Anglo-Irish Treaty is ratified.
January 9: A strike by metalworkers in Rotterdam comes to an end.
January 11: Insulin is used for the first time to treat diabetes in humans.
January 15: Arthur Griffith is elected President of Ireland.
January 19: A geological survey states that the US will run out of oil in the next 20 years.
January 21: The first slalom ski race takes place in Murren, Switzerland.
January 24: Eskimo Pie is patented by Christian Nelson..
January 29: The union of Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador is dissolved.
February
February 2: ‘Ulysses’ by James Joyce is published in Paris.
February 4: Japan returns the Shantung Province to China.
February 5: The first Reader’s Digest magazine is published.
February 6: Cardinal Achille Ratti is elected Pope Pius XI.
February 6: The UK, US, France, Italy and Japan sign the Limitation of Naval Armament.
February 9: The Bonomi government falls in Italy.
February 9: Congress establishes the World War Foreign Debt Commission.
February 11: Semana de Arte Moderna (Modern Art Week) begins in São Paulo, Brazil.
February 20: Vilnius and Lithuania separate from Poland.
February 21: 34 people are killed when Airship Rome explodes in Virginia.
February 21: Eamon De Valera declares that the Republican Government is the only legitimate one in Ireland.
February 21: Egypt is declared a sovereign state.
February 27: The 19th Amendment (women’s right to vote) is upheld by the US Supreme Court.
February 27: The first National Radio Conference is convened by US Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover.
March
March 3: Fiume and Rijeka are occupied by fascists in Italy.
March 6: Babe Ruth signs a three year contract with the New York Yankees.
March 7: Theresa Weld Blanchard wins the US Ladies’ Figure Skating Championship.
March 7: Sherwin Badger wins the US Men’s Figure Skating Championship.
March 10: During a mine strike in Johannesburg, a state of siege is proclaimed.
March 15: Sultan Fuad is crowned King of Egypt.
March 15: France accepts raw materials as reparation payments from Germany.
March 18: Mahatma Gandhi is sentenced to 6 years imprisonment for disobedience in India.
March 18: The first Bat Mitzvah is celebrated publicly in New York City.
March 20: The US commissions its first aircraft carrier.
March 22: The Rand Rebellion is brought to an end by police in South Africa.
March 24: Music Hall wins the 81st Grand National.
Sultan Fuad is crowned King of Egypt.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
April
April 3: Vladimir Lenin appoints Joseph Stalin as General Secretary of the Russian Communist Party.
April 7: The Teapot Dome scandals begin.
April 14: Four courts in Dublin are occupied by Republican rebels.
April 16: The Poodle Dog Restaurant closes in San Francisco.
April 16: The German Republic and the Soviet Union sign the Treaty of Rapallo.
April 17: Clarence DeMar wins the 26th Boston Marathon.
April 22: The South Ossetian Autonomous Region is formed.
May
May 5: Construction of the Yankee Stadium begins.
May 9: Annie Jump Cannon’s stellar classification system is adopted by the International Astronomical Union.
May 10: The Kingman Reef is annexed by the US.
May 13: Morvich wins the 48th Kentucky Derby.
May 15: The Upper Silesia region becomes part of Poland.
May 21: Eugene O’Neill is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his play ‘Anna Christie’.
May 23: Laugh-O-Gram becomes Walt Disney’s first incorporated film company.
May 24: A trade agreement is signed between Italy and Russia.
May 25: Babe Ruth is suspended for one day and fined $200 after throwing dirt on an umpire.
May 26: Vladimir Lenin suffers a stroke.
May 29: Ecuador becomes independent.
May 29: The US Supreme Court rules that organized baseball is a sport and not a business.
May 30: An accord is signed between Latvia and the Vatican.
May 30: The official dedication of the Lincoln Memorial takes place.
May 30: Jimmy Murphy wins the Indianapolis 500.
June
June 1: The Royal Ulster Constabulary is founded.
June 1: Mussolini threatens a revolt at a gathering of over 50,000 fascists in Bologna.
June 5: The Reparations Commission refuses to give Germany a loan
June 13: One of the more bizarre events this year: a man named Charlie Osborne gets the hiccups, which continued for 68 years.
June 14: US President Warren Harding becomes the first president to use radio.
June 16: Henry Berliner demonstrates his helicopter.
June 16: A national election results in the Irish Free State being a dominion of the British Commonwealth.
June 22: 21 people are killed in the Herrin Massacre.
June 23: Walter Hagen wins the British Men’s Golf Open.
June 24: The American Professional Football Association is renamed the National Football League.
June 24: The Chicago Stanleys are renamed the Chicago Bears.
June 24: Adolf Hitler begins his sentence of one month in prison.
June 26: Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution is invoked.
June 28: The Irish Free State attacks anti-treaty republicans in Dublin, marking the start of the Irish Civil War.
June 29: France grants Canada the use of one square kilometer at Vimy Ridge.
President Warren Harding
Image: Wikipedia Commons
July
July 3: Nansen passports (for people with no state) are created at the Intergovernmental Conference on Identity Certificates for Russian Refugees.
July 5: The first general election takes place in the Netherlands.
July 5: An uprising begins in Rio de Janeiro.
July 5: Women vote in the Dutch elections for the first time.
July 8: Suzanne Lenglen wins her fourth consecutive title at Wimbledon.
July 10: Gerald Patterson wins his second title at Wimbledon.
July 11: The Hollywood Bowl opens.
July 15: The duck-billed platypus is exhibited for the first time in the US at the New York Zoo.
July 15: Gene Sarazen wins his first US Men’s Golf Open title.
July 17: Curacao harbor workers strike.
July 23: Firmin Lambot wins the 16th Tour de France.
July 27: The International Geographical Union is formed.
July 31: A general strike in Italy against fascist violence takes place.
August
August 1: A national strike is declared by Alianza del Lavoro in Italy, but it fails immediately and the headquarters are destroyed by fascists.
August 2: 60,000 people are killed when a typhoon hits China.
August 12: Frederick Douglass’ home is declared a national shrine in Washington D.C.
August 18: Gene Sarazen wins the PGA Men’s Golf Championship.
August 19: Molla Bjurstedt Mallory wins the US Women’s National Tennis Championship.
August 20: The first Women’s World Games takes place.
August 26: 284 people are killed when a Japanese ship hits rocks.
September
September 1: New York City requires by law that all “pool” rooms must change their name to “billiards” rooms.
September 2: ‘Deutschland Uber Alles’ becomes the German national anthem.
September 4: The Swallow Sidecar Company is founded by William Walmsley and William Lyons.
September 5: The New York Yankees play their final game at Polo Grounds.
September 9: Turkish troops take control of Smyrna.
September 11: The British Mandate of Palestine begins.
September 11: The Treaty of Kars is ratified.
September 13: The Straw Hat Riot begins in New York City.
September 16: Bill Tilden wins the US National Men’s Tennis Championship.
September 18: Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck retains his position as Prime Minister of the Netherlands.
September 18: Hungary joins the League of Nations.
September 19: Queen Wilhelmina ascends the Dutch throne.
September 21: A resolution is signed by Warren Harding, US President, to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
September 22: The Cable Act is passed by the US Congress.
September 23: The Polish parliament passes the Gdynia Seaport Construction Act.
September 27: Constantine I abdicates as King of Greece.
September 29: Benito Mussolini asks the Vatican to support his party.
September 30: Alexandros Zaimis forms a government in Greece.
October
October 4: Austria gains independence.
October 5: The New York Giants win the Baseball World Series.
October 11: Alaska Davidson, becomes the first female Special Investigator at the FBI.
October 11: A ceasefire is signed by Greece and Turkey.
October 18: The BBC (British Broadcasting Company) is founded.
October 24: The parliament declares Friedrich Ebert as President of Germany until 1925.
October 26: The government of Italy resigns.
October 27: Luigi Facta resigns as Prime Minister of Italy.
October 28: The March on Rome results in Benito Mussolini assuming power of Italy.
October 30: Benito Mussolini forms his own government.
October 31: Benito Mussolini becomes Premier.
Benito Mussolini
Image: Wikipedia Commons
November
November 1: The Dutch Historical Maritime Museum is opened in Amsterdam.
November 1: Mustafa Kemal Ataturk brings the Ottoman Empire to an end by taking Constantinople.
November 3: Prince Andreas is banned for life by the Greek parliament.
November 4: The tomb of Tutankhamun is discovered by Howard Carter in Egypt.
November 9: Frederick Soddy is awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
November 15: Andrew Bonar Law becomes Prime Minister after the Conservative party wins the general election in Britain.
November 16: Pope Pius XI calls on the people of Belgian to unite.
November 17: Mehmed VI, the last sultan of the Ottoman Empire, is expelled to Malta.
November 18: Abdul Medjid is nominated caliph by the Turkish National Assembly.
November 21: Rebecca Felton is sworn in as the first female Senator in the US.
November 22: Ramsay MacDonald is elected as leader of the Labour party in Britain.
November 24: Benito Mussolini is granted temporary dictatorial powers by the Italian parliament.
November 25: Crown Prince Hirohito becomes Regent of Japan.
November 26: Howard Carter opens Tutankhamun’s tomb.
November 26:The first Technicolor film, ‘The Toll of the Sea’, premieres in New York City.
November 30: Hitler gives a speech to 50,000 national-socialists.
December
December 1: Captain Turner of the RAF writes “Hello USA” in the first skywriting over the US.
December 1: Józef Piłsudski resigns as Chief Marshal in Poland.
December 4: Lucile Atcherson is the first woman to be appointed as a United States Diplomatic Officer.
December 6: The first constitution of the Irish Free State.
December 9: Gabriel Narutowicz is elected President of Poland.
December 9: Margaret Molesworth wins the first Australasian Women’s Tennis Championship.
December 9: James Anderson wins the first Australasian Men’s Tennis Championship.
December 10: Francis William Aston is awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
December 10: Niels Bohr is awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.
December 10: Fridtjof Nansen is awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.
December 10: The Canton Bulldogs win the first National Football League Championship.
December 17: All of the British troops in the Irish Free State leave.
December 19: Theresa Vaughn confesses to getting married 61 times in a court in Sheffield.
December 20: The USSR (Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics) is formed.
December 20: Stanislav Wojcieckowski is selected as President of Poland by the parliament.
December 23: BBC Radio begins broadcasting news on a daily basis.
December 24: The first British radio play, The Truth about Father Christmas, is broadcasted by the BBC.
December 24: The London Coliseum opens.
December 25: Lenin’s “political testament”.
December 30: The creation of the USSR is formally announced in Moscow.
1922 Events
Let’s revisit some of these major world events in 1922 in a bit more detail.
The Rise of Mussolini
Noted as an inspiration for Adolf Hitler and Francisco Franco, it is fair to say that at this point in time it was not clear what a significant part Benito Mussolini would play in the history of the world. At the beginning of 1922, no one could have predicted that by November of the same year, he would be granted dictatorial powers by the Italian parliament, even if this was supposed to be temporary.
The March on Rome was undoubtedly one of the most significant moments of the twentieth century. The gathering of approximately 30,000 blackshirts succeeded in forcing Prime Minister Luigi Facta to resign and inserting a fascist government.
The Creation of the USSR
The Cold War would come to define the latter half of the twentieth century, but this could not have been predicted when the USSR was formed during the final months of 1922.
Despite suffering his third stroke in this year, Vladimir Lenin still managed to deliver his famous “political testament”, and his decision to appoint Joseph Stalin as General Secretary of the Russian Communist Party would become a key moment in the history of the world.