January 1921

• E. W. Scripps and William Emerson Ritter founded Science Service, later renamed Society for Science & the Public in the United States, with the goal of keeping the public informed of scientific developments.{{cite book|last=Tobey|first=Ronald C.|year=1971|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QTpaQgQVj9AC&pg=PA66|title=The American Ideology of National Science, 1919-1930|location=Pittsburgh|publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press|isbn=9780822975946|pages=66–70}}
• The Allied forces announced that the Turkish government at Constantinople would be permitted to use 400,000 Turkish Pounds worth of gold from the Imperial Ottoman Bank for funds for the new government's treasury.{{cite news |title=Allies to Release Turkish Gold Held— Will Allow Use of 400,000 Turkish Pounds Subject to Surveillance by Commission |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 2, 1921 |page=16}}

File:Ambassador Hotel 1921.jpg

• The 24-acre Ambassador Hotel opened in Los Angeles at 12:01 a.m. to usher in the new year.{{cite news |title=New Year's Day Program Is Gay — Ambassador Hotel to Open Minute Past Midnight |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=December 29, 1920 |page=17}}{{cite news |title=$5,000,000 L.A. Hotel, 'The Ambassador,' Open |newspaper=Los Angeles Evening Express |date=January 1, 1921 |page=3}} The hotel, remembered now as the site of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination in 1968, would close to guests in 1989 and be torn down in 2005.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}
• In US college football's only major postseason game, the 1921 Rose Bowl, an east-west match-up of two of the major undefeated teams, the California (8-0-0) defeated Ohio State (7-0-0), 28 to 0.{{cite news |title=Ohio State Falls Before California |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 2, 1921 |page=20}} In later years, the NCAA would retroactively named California the national college football champion for 1920. In the other postseason football game of the 1920 season, the Fort Worth Classic, Centre College defeated Texas Christian University, 63 to 7.{{cite news |title=Centre Eleven Victor |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 2, 1921 |page=20}}
• Born:
• César Baldaccini, French modern sculptor of the Nouveau Réalisme movement; as Cesare Baldaccini, in Marseille, France (d. 1998){{cite book|first=Alex |last=Kayser|title=Artists' Portraits|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IC04AQAAIAAJ|year=1981|publisher=H.N. Abrams|isbn=978-0-8109-2222-8|page=1917}}
• Died:
• Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, 64, Chancellor of Germany from 1909 to 1917, during the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II (b. 1856){{cite book|title=The Independent|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p8hOAQAAMAAJ|year=1921|publisher=The Independent Corporation|page=68}}
• Mary Macarthur, 40, Scottish suffragist and national secretary of the Women's Trade Union League; died of cancer (b. 1880){{Cite ODNB|id=30411 |title=Mary Reid Macarthur|first=Angela V.|last=John}}

• The Spanish liner Santa Isabel (Iquique) sank after running aground during a storm the night before, and striking rocks off the coast of Villa Garcia, killing 244 of the people on board.{{cite news |title=Fear 150 Perished— Only 45 Are Rescued From Wrecked Spanish Steamer |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 4, 1921 |page=3}} Most of the passengers and crew were below deck because of the rough weather.{{cite news |title=Panic Prevailed in Spanish Wreck |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 7, 1921 |page=4}}
• The British government issued an order to residents of Ireland requiring all households to post a list on their doors of the people residing in the dwelling, on penalty of criminal proceedings.
• Gabriele D'Annunzio ended his attempt to take over Fiume and abandoned the Italian Regency of Carnaro proclaimed by him in 1919.
• Cruzeiro Esporte Clube, one of Brazil's most successful soccer football teams, was founded in Belo Horizonte.
• Pittsburgh's KDKA (AM) radio station made the first live broadcast of a church service, and the first remote broadcast (using a telephone line to transmit the signal to the broadcasting transmitter), as it aired the Sunday services from Calvary Episcopal Church. The National Religious Broadcasters association would celebrate the anniversary half a century later by making "the first international religious broadcast to be transmitted live by satellite" on January 27, 1971.{{cite news |title=Transmission by Satellite Marks 50-Year Gain in Radio Religion |first=Donald |last=Janson |work=The New York Times |date=January 28, 1921 |page=A1}}
• Word arrived that the U.S. Navy balloon A-5598, which had been missing since the day after its departure from Rockaway, New York on December 13, had been located after its crash landing {{convert|20|mi}} north of Moose Factory, Ontario. The three aeronauts, U.S. Navy Lieutenants Louis A. Kloor Jr. (mission commander); Stephen A. Farrell (pilot) and Walter Hinton (ground observer), had been missing and were found alive. The trio of aeronauts recovered at Moose Factory, and arrived at the nearest town on a railway line, Mattice on January 11.{{cite news |title=Lost Balloon Safe Near Hudson Bay; All the Men Alive |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 3, 1921 |page=1}} The group, stranded in the wilderness, narrowly avoiding coming down in the James Bay, had wandered for four days before they located a Cree Indian fur trader who initially mistook them for Canadian revenue agents, and then guided the Americans to safety.{{cite news |title=Fright of Indian Nearly Cost Lives of Balloonists |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 6, 1921 |page=1}} The group returned to a heroes' welcome in New York City on January 14.{{cite news |title=Returning Airmen Cheered by 10,000 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 15, 1921 |page=7}}
• Died:
• William Robinson, 80, Irish-born American electrical engineer, inventor of the automatic track circuit signal that made railroad travel safer starting in the 1870s (b. 1840){{cite book|author=International Railway Congress Association|title=Monthly Bulletin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d_O_0htA5UEC|year=1922}}{{page needed|date=May 2025}}
• Doud Dwight "Ikky" Eisenhower, 3, son of U.S. Army Major Dwight Eisenhower and Mamie Eisenhower; died of scarlet fever. In his memoir after his service as President of the United States, Eisenhower would describe his child's death as "the greatest disappointment and disaster of my life, the one I have never been able to forget completely."{{cite book|first=Doug |last=Wead|title=All the Presidents' Children|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MD-RLpsl12IC&pg=PA358|date=2003|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0-7434-5139-0|pages=358}}

• At 12:30 in the afternoon Milwaukee's radio station 9XM delivered the first weather forecast to be read on commercial radio, followed by the message in Morse code.{{cite book |first=Randall |last=Davidson |title=9XM Talking: WHA Radio and the Wisconsin Idea |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |year=2007 |pages=38, 347}} Citing Calvert, E. B. (January 1923). "History of Radio in Relation to the Work of the Weather Bureau," Monthly Weather Review. p. 1. Radio weather forecasts had previously been heard in the UK and US.

File:Second Charleston West Virginia capitol building.jpg

• A fire destroyed the West Virginia State Capitol Building in Charleston. The blaze started about 5:00 in the afternoon in a small room containing paper records of the state Public Service Commission and quickly spread, leaving only the outer shell of the building. An electrician and a fireman were killed in the collapse of a section of the roof.{{cite news |title=Fire Ruins Capitol of West Virginia |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 4, 1921 |page=1}} As a result, a 1921 session of the West Virginia Legislature created a seven-member "Capitol Building Commission", which would ultimately complete construction of the present Capitol building in 1932.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}
• Germany filed its reply to France's disarmament ultimatum over the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The letter from German Chancellor Constantin Fehrenbach recited that Germany had done its best to adhere to the terms of the agreement, turning over 50,000 cannons, 60,000 machine guns, 5,000,000 rifles and 20,000 grenade launchers, but the fulfillment of the terms of the treaty to the letter had proven impossible.
• Amelia Earhart had her first flying lesson, given at Kinner Field, in what is now South Gate, California. Her teacher was Neta Snook, a pioneer female aviator who used a surplus Curtiss JN-4 "Canuck" for training.{{cite book|first=Victoria Garrett |last=Jones|title=Amelia Earhart: A Life in Flight|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uh4fnowNUUMC&pg=PP6|year=2009|publisher=Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.|isbn=978-1-4027-5157-8|pages=6}}
• Born: Jean-Louis Koszul, French mathematician and algebraic topology theorist for whom the Koszul complex is named; in Strasbourg, France (d. 2018){{cite web|url=https://www.academie-sciences.fr/en/Liste-des-membres-de-l-Academie-des-sciences-/-K/jean-louis-koszul.html|title=Jean-Louis Koszul|language=fr|website=Academie des sciences|access-date=20 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406232523/https://www.academie-sciences.fr/en/Liste-des-membres-de-l-Academie-des-sciences-/-K/jean-louis-koszul.html |archive-date=6 April 2023 |url-status=dead}}

• The U.S. House of Representatives voted 250 to 66 to override the veto made by U.S. President Wilson of the resolution to reviving the War Finance Corporation. The day before, the U.S. Senate had voted 53 to 5 to override.

{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DI1RAAAAYAAJ&q=%22current%20events%22 |journal=The American Review of Reviews |title=Record of Current Events |volume=63 |date=February 1921 |pages=135–139}}

• Britain extended martial law to four additional counties in Ireland— County Clare, County Waterford, County Wexford and County Kilkenny.
• The Mayor of Davenport, Iowa, C. L. Bargwald, elected as a candidate of the Socialist Party of America along with a majority of the city aldermen, announced that he was leaving the Socialist Party and called the leftist aldermen "disciples of Lenin, with whom no one could compromise."{{cite news |title=Mayor Drops Socialism |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 5, 1921 |page=7}} Over the previous six months, the mayor said, the Socialist majority had blocked any conservative proposal made by him and "forced a program of radical legislation on the city." Mayor Bargwald, who professed to be a follower of Leon Trotsky rather than Vladimir Lenin, said of the SPA "I'm through with them. The principles of Trotsky have no place in America."
• Born: Pedro Richter Prada, Peruvian General, served as Peru's Interior Minister from 1971 to 1975, then as Prime Minister of Peru and Defense Minister from 1979 to 1980, later charged in absentia in Italy for the murder of 25 Italian citizens; in Ayacucho, Peru (d. 2017){{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

File:Times Square illumination 1921.jpeg

• New York City put into effect "the most radical change in street traffic regulations in the history of New York" at 7:00 in the evening, changing the route through Times Square to northbound only on Broadway and on Seventh Avenue for five hours each night. The new routing affected 40,000 automobiles that traveled through the square during the hours that theaters operated.{{cite news |title=Times Sq. Tries Out New Traffic Rules |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 6, 1921 |page=1}}
• Born:
• Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, monarch and head of state of Luxembourg from 1964 until his abdication in 2000, son of Grand Duchess Charlotte; in Colmar-Berg, Luxembourg (d. 2019){{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l43JDQAAQBAJ&q=Jean%2C+Grand+Duke+of+Luxembourg+5+jan&pg=PA1150|title=The Statesman's Year-Book 1972-73: The Encyclopaedia for the Businessman-of-the-World|first=J.|last=Paxton|date=23 December 2016|publisher=Springer|via=Google Books|isbn=9780230271012}}
• Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss author and dramatist; in Konolfingen, Switzerland (d. 1990){{Cite web |title=Celebrated author Friedrich Dürrenmatt on his 100th birthday – DW – 01/05/2021 |url=https://www.dw.com/en/celebrated-author-friedrich-d%C3%BCrrenmatt-on-his-100th-birthday/a-56133623 |access-date=2025-06-07 |website=dw.com |language=en}}

• The First Battle of İnönü began, marking the first clash between the newly organized Army of the Grand National Assembly against Greek troops in the Greco-Turkish War.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}
• Rufus Isaacs, Lord Reading was appointed as the new Governor-General of India.
• A special committee of the U.S. House of Representatives voted, 10 to 4, to raise the number of U.S. Representatives from 435 to 483 and to set a permanent limit of no more than 500 members of the House.{{cite news |title=Vote to Raise House to 483 Members |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 7, 1921 |page=8}}
• Racist protestors in Harlingen, Texas, drove out two Japanese families who had recently purchased farmland for cultivation.
• Born: Marianne Grunberg-Manago, Russian-French biochemist and academic; in Petrograd, Soviet Union (present-day St Petersburg, Russia) (d. 2013){{cite book|title=The International Who's Who 1992-93|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zEp1LT7dQMoC|date=1 August 1992|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-946653-84-3|page=632}}

File:Flaga Litwy Środkowej.svg

• The Republic of Central Lithuania, a puppet state financed by Poland around the rebellion of Lucjan Żeligowski, was established with a capital in Vilnius under Żeligowski's rule. Poland annexed the area a little less than 18 months later, on March 24, 1922. On October 12, 1920, Żeligowski announced the creation of a provisional government. Soon the courts and the police were formed by his decree of January 7, 1921, and the civil rights of Central Lithuania were granted to all people who lived in the area on January 1, 1919.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

File:MaryEllenSmith1918SunsetMag.tif

• The British Columbia House of Assembly elected Mary Ellen Smith of Vancouver as Speaker of the Assembly, the first woman legislative leader in North America and in the British Empire.

• Walker D. Hines, the American arbitrator who had been selected by the Allies to make rulings concerning the disbursement of German munitions, assigned 13½ percent of Germany's Rhine river fleet of barges and tugs to France.
• U.S. Navy Lieutenant Warren H. Langdon was shot by a Japanese sentry in Vladivostok, part of the area of Russia occupied by American and Japanese troops during the Bolshevik Revolution.
• Died: Béatrice La Palme, 42, Canadian singer and musician (b. 1878){{cite news |title=Beatrice La Palme Died Saturday. Canadian Operatic Artist Made Debut at Covent Garden in 1903 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gDIjAAAAIBAJ&pg=1950,4893171&dq=la+palme+dies&hl=en |work=Montreal Gazette |date=January 10, 1921 |access-date=2010-07-07 }}

• Elections were held for the 96 seats of the Senate of France, and the Radicals and Radical Socialists received a plurality with 43 seats, followed by the Republicans with 39. Former President Paul Deschanel was elected as a Senator.
• The United Kingdom returned the colors of the Royal American Regiment, which had existed from 1756 to 1783 as the only British Army regiment to be recruited from American colonial subjects, with the regimental insignia to be hung at the chapel at Governors Island in New York.{{cite news |title=Royal American Infantry Colors of 1753 To Be Returned by Great Britain Today |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 9, 1921 |page=1}}
• Born: Ágnes Keleti, Hungarian gymnast, five-time Olympic gold medalist, won four gold medals in the 1956 Summer Olympics; as Ágnes Klein, in Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary (present-day Hungary) (d. 2025){{cite book|first1=Robert |last1=Slater |author-link1=Robert Slater |first2=Eleanor |last2=Slater |title=Great Jewish Women|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=34NtAAAAMAAJ|year=1994|publisher=Jonathan David Publishers|isbn=978-0-8246-0370-0|page=129}}
• Died: Rafael Antonio Gutiérrez, 75, President of El Salvador from 1894 to 1898 (b. 1845){{cite book|author=Pan American Union|title=Bulletin of the Pan American Union |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dF0qAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA533|year=1921|publisher=The Union|pages=533}}

• Petroleum production in Arkansas began when the Busey Well No. 1 was completed. The region's oil production, especially in El Dorado and Smackover expanded into a large part of the Arkansas economy.{{cite book |first=George C. |last=Branner |title=Outlines of Arkansas' Mineral Resources |publisher=Arkansas Bureau of Mines, Manufactures, and Agriculture |year=1927 |page=193}}
• Dr. Miguel Gastão da Cunha, Brazil's Ambassador to France, was designated as the new President of the eight-member Council of the League of Nations. Similar to the United Nations Security Council 25 years later, the League Council served as an executive body for the LON and was composed of four permanent member nations (the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Japan) and four non-permanent members selected by the League Assembly every three years. The first of the non-permanent members were Belgium, Brazil, Greece and Spain.
• The certification of the Electoral College votes was made in the Senate, and outgoing U.S. Vice President Thomas R. Marshall formally announced the election of Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge to the presidency and vice-presidency.
• A small fire at the U.S. Department of Commerce destroyed records from previous United States decennial census surveys, but did not affect the 1920 records.{{cite news |title=Census Papers Lost in Washington Fire |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 11, 1921 |page=1}}
• Corporations across New England announced drastic wage cuts for their employees, ranging from 20% to 25%, and including a 22½% decrease for textile workers.
• Born:
• James Pitts, American chemist and pioneer in research on air pollution; in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States (d. 2014){{cite news|first=Janet |last=Wilson |title=Pollution expert James Pitts dies, 1921-2014 |url=http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/pollution-expert-james-pitts-dies |work=University of California, Irvine |date=2014-06-19 |access-date=2014-07-18}}
• Mazola Holman McKerson, American politician, first African American woman to serve as the mayor of a U.S. city of at least 30,000 people, mayor of Ardmore, Oklahoma from 1979 to 1983; as Mazola Holman, in Bluff, Oklahoma, United States (d. 2014){{cite book|first=Barbara A. Seals |last=Nevergold|editor-first=Peggy |editor-last=Brooks-Bertram|title=Uncrowned Queens: African American Women Community Builders of Oklahoma |volume=4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l-EbnrFFYeoC&pg=PA60|date=2007|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-9722977-4-5|pages=60}}

• Riots in towns near Allahabad in British India, over land occupation rights and seniority, reached the point where troops were called in from Lucknow.
• The Battle of İnönü ended after five days with a retreat by the Greek forces from the Turkish Army defenders. The Turks suffered 95 deaths and the Greeks 51 deaths.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}
• The United States formally withdrew from further participation in the Allied Council, as U.S. Ambassador to France Hugh Wallace announced the severance of U.S. participation in all European councils.
• Born:
• Kathleen Byron, English actress; as Kathleen Elizabeth Fell, in Manor Park, England (d. 2009){{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/4299737/Kathleen-Byron.html |title=Kathleen Byron |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |date=21 January 2009 |url-access=limited}}
• Juanita M. Kreps, American economist, first woman to serve as the United States Secretary of Commerce from 1977 to 1979; as Clara Juanita Morris, in Lynch, Kentucky, United States (d. 2010){{cite book|first=Helen |last=Bowers |title=From Lighthouses to Laserbeams: A History of the U.S. Department of Commerce, 1913-1988|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U_I6AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA75|year=1988|publisher=U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of the Secretary |volume=1|page=75}}

File:Georges Leygues 01.jpg]]

• France's Premier Georges Leygues and his government lost a vote of no confidence held in the National Assembly, by a margin of 463 to 125 expressing their dissatisfaction with his failure to enforce reparations from Germany.{{cite news |title=French Cabinet Is Overthrown, 463 Votes to 125 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 13, 1921 |page=1}}

File:Gervase elwes signed.jpg]]

• Died: Gervase Elwes, 54, English musical tenor; killed after being struck by a train in Boston while on a concert tour of the United States (b. 1866){{cite news |title=Gervase Elwes, English Tenor, Is Killed By Train in Boston Back Bay Station |work=The New York Times |date=January 13, 1921 |page=1}}

• The first of the new Indian Councils, giving limited advisory by natives of India in the administration of British India, was inaugurated at Madras by Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, former Governor General of Canada and the uncle of King George V.{{cite news |title=New Indian Councils Inaugurated by Duke |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 14, 1921 |page=4}}
• Died: Baron Ijuin Gorō, 68, commander-in-chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War I (b. 1852){{cite book|title=The United States Army and Navy Journal and Gazette of the Regular and Volunteer Forces|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NrZ1UsxoywYC|year=1921|publisher=Army and Navy Journal Incorporated |volume=58|page=590}}

• In a bout for the world lightweight boxing championship, held before 12,000 spectators at Madison Square Garden in New York, defending champion Benny Leonard retained his title even after almost being counted out in the first round.{{cite news |title=Leonard Winner of 'Society Bout' |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 15, 1921 |page=14}} Felled by challenger Ritchie Mitchell in the first round. Leonard came within one second of being counted out as referee Johnny Houkup reached nine, before getting back up and knocking Mitchell down for the count of nine, getting back up, then twice more before the end of the round. Mitchell was knocked down again by Leonard for the count of nine in the sixth round, and again got back up. After knocking down Mitchell twice more, Leonard was given the win as the referee ended the fight.
• Born: Murray Bookchin, American environmentalist and pioneer in the ecology movement; in New York City, United States (d. 2006){{cite news |last1=Small |first1=Mike |title=Murray Bookchin |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/aug/08/guardianobituaries.usa |access-date=June 30, 2018 |work=The Guardian |date=August 8, 2006 |format=Obituary}}

• Mitsubishi Electric, the future multinational electronics business, was created as a separate corporation spun off from the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries shipyard in Japan.{{cite book |first=Tōyō Keizai |last=Shinpōsha |title=Japan Company Directory |publisher=University of California |year=1973 |p=6}}{{cite web |url=https://www.forbes.com/companies/mitsubishi-electric/#34861a8237dd |title=Mitsubishi Electric |website=Forbes}}

File:HerbertClarkHoover.jpg Herbert Hoover]]

• The first live radio broadcast of a public address from a remote location took place as incoming U.S. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover gave a speech about humanitarian aid to Europe. The speech was made at the Duquesne Club in Pittsburgh and relayed by telephone line to radio station KDKA, ten miles away. According to KDKA's owner, the broadcast would be strong enough to be picked up by amateur radio operators up to {{convert|1000|mi}} away on wavelength of 330 meters (equivalent to the 910 kHz frequency on AM radio).{{cite news |title=Radio to Carry Hoover Appeal to Far Points— Talk on European Relief Here to Be Heard Within 1,000-Mile Radius |newspaper=The Gazette Times |date=January 15, 1921}}

File:Aristide Briand 04-2008-12-06.jpg]]

• Aristide Briand formed a new government of France, presenting the President with a list of cabinet ministers with himself as the Prime Minister as an alternative to reappointing Raymond Poincare.{{cite news |title=Briand Forms Cabinet to Work with the Allies |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 17, 1921 |page=1}}
• With the departure of Gabriele d'Annunzio, General Caviglia of the Italian Army ended the blockade of Fiume.{{cite news |title=Fiume Blockade Ends |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 17, 1921 |page=1}}

File:P. T. Selbit sawing a woman in half trick.png demonstrating sawing a woman in half trick in 1937]]

• The illusion of "sawing a woman in half" was given its first public performance, as English magician P. T. Selbit demonstrated the trick at the theatre at Finsbury Park in Harringay in London.{{cite book |first=Jim |last=Steinmeyer |title=Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible |publisher=Random House |year=2003 |pages=277–295}}
• A joint resolution passed Congress urging the U.S. Secretary of War to cease recruiting for the Army until the number of troops could be reduced from 224,000 to a target of 175,000.{{cite news |title=Congress Makes the Army 175,000; Now up to Wilson |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 18, 1921 |page=1}} The measure passed the Senate, 41-32 and the House, 285 to 4.{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DI1RAAAAYAAJ&q=%22current%20events%22 |journal=The American Review of Reviews |title=Record of Current Events |volume=63 |date=March 1921 |pages=249–252}}
• In Denver, Internal Revenue officers arrested the leader of a drug ring that operated in 22 of the 48 states and had revenues of over one million dollars.
• Winston Churchill, Britain's War Minister during World War One, accepted the peacetime job of Secretary of State for the Colonies.

File:Austin Rice.jpg]]

• Born: Mohammad Asghar Khan, Pakistani military officer and businessman, commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Air Force from 1957 to 1964, president of Pakistan International Airlines; in Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir (princely state), British India (present-day Jammu and Kashmir) (d. 2018){{cite book|last1=Khan|first1=Mohammad Asghar |author-link=Mohammad Asghar Khan |title=Pakistan at the Cross Roads|date=1969|publisher=Ferozsons|location=Lahore, Pakistan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RjxuAAAAMAAJ|language=en}}{{page needed|date=May 2025}}
• Died: Austin Rice, 48, American boxer and perennial contender for the world featherweight title; died of injuries sustained after he was run over by a horse-drawn wagon (b. 1872){{cite news |title=Iron Man Austin Rice Died Saturday Evening |newspaper=Meriden Morning Record |page=2 |location=Meriden, CT. |date=17 January 1921}}

• A robbery at Chicago's busiest railroad terminal, Union Station, netted $462,000 worth of bonds and cash taken from a mail train.{{cite news |title=BIG MAIL ROBBERY at Union Station— Bold Work of 4 Men in Motor Car |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |date=January 18, 1921 |page=1}} The week before, at Mount Vernon thieves took $197,000 in currency from another train.{{cite news |title=Mail Thieves Get $700,000 in Loot |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 20, 1921 |page=1}} Gangsters Frank Rio, Robert O'Neill and Thomas Dyer were arrested in October on suspicion of carrying out the robbery{{cite news |title=$1,000,000 Mail Robbery Solved, Inspectors Say— Claim Three Leaders Are Under Arrest |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |date=October 3, 1921 |page=21}} which took place shortly after midnight in front of numerous potential witnesses, but were later acquitted.{{cite news |title=Continuances Aid Criminals to Flout Justice— Delayed Trials Are His Strongest Defense |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |date=February 14, 1922 |page=5}} Rio would continue to avoid prison sentences during his lifetime, dying in 1935.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}
• Iran's Prime Minister Fathollah Khan Akbar withdrew his resignation after pressure from Iranian business leaders. Thirty-four days later, Fathollah was deposed in a coup d'état along with the Shah, Ahmad Shah Qajar
• Born:
• Yoichiro Nambu, Japanese-born American theoretical physicist, 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics laureate for his 1960 discovery of spontaneous symmetry breaking; in Tokyo, Empire of Japan (present-day Japan) (d. 2015){{cite book|editor-first1=Lars |editor-last1=Brink|editor-first2=Lay Nam |editor-last2=Chang|editor-first3=Moo-young |editor-last3=Han|editor-first4=Kok Khoo |editor-last4=Phua |display-editors=2 |first1=Peter G. O. |last1=Freund |first2=Jeffrey |last2=Harvey |first3=Emil |last3=Martinec |first4=Pierre |last4=Ramond |display-authors=1 |chapter=Chapter 4: Yoichiro Nambu |title=Memorial Volume For Y. Nambu|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7VW2DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA37|date=2016|publisher=World Scientific|isbn=978-981-310-834-9|pages=37}}
• Alexander H. Flax, American aeronautical engineer, Chief Scientist of the U.S. Air Force from 1959 to 1961, Director of the National Reconnaissance Office during the Cold War; in Brooklyn, United States (d. 1969){{cite news|title=Alexander H. Flax Obituary|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/washingtonpost/obituary.aspx?pid=172435687|access-date=May 15, 2015|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=September 12, 2014 |via=Legacy.com}}
• Died: Adolf von Hildebrand, 73, German sculptor (b. 1847){{cite book|first=Alice |last=von Hildebrand |author-link=Alice von Hildebrand |title=The Soul of a Lion: Dietrich Von Hildebrand; A Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1OOUN3pDFsQC&pg=PA198|year=2000|publisher=Ignatius Press|isbn=978-0-89870-801-1|pages=198}}

• A treaty to merge the nations of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica into a single republic, the United Provinces of Central America (Provincias Unidas de Centroamérica) was signed in San José, Costa Rica. The attempt to recreate the Federal Republic of Central America, that had existed from 1823 to 1841 before breaking into five nations, did not include Nicaragua and would not go further than the selection of a provisional council of delegates from each state, and none of the signatories ever ratified the treaty.
• The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly rejected the Reapportionment Bill that called for the number of U.S. representatives to be increased from 435 to 483. With the number of representatives remaining at 435, each Congressional district would now represent an average of 242,267 people rather than the 1912 number of one for every 218,979.
• Born: Patricia Highsmith, American novelist of psychological thrillers, known for the Tom Ripley series; as Mary Patricia Plangman, in Fort Worth, Texas, United States (d. 1995){{cite book|first=Robin W. |last=Winks |author-link=Robin W. Winks |editor-first=Maureen |editor-last=Corrigan|title=Mystery and Suspense Writers: The Literature of Crime, Detection, and Espionage|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e3SnIItDKh8C|year=1998|publisher=Scribner's Sons|isbn=978-0-684-80519-1|page=503}}

• All 56 Royal Navy sailors and officers on the British submarine HMS K5 died when the K-class submarine sank in the English Channel.{{cite news |title=British Submarine Lost With 56 Men |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 23, 1921 |page=7}}{{cite news |title=K 5 Sunk With All Hands— Six Officers and 51 Men Lost |newspaper=The Times |date=January 24, 1921 |page=10}}
• The first constitution of modern Turkey was ratified by the Grand National Assembly, with executive power delegated to the Chairman of the Assembly and a Council of Ministers under the direction of the Assembly.{{cite book |first=J. Holland |last=Rose |title=The Development of the European Nations, 1870-1921 |publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons |year=1922 |page=211}} The 1921 constitution lasted for three years until superseded by the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey.
• The Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Dagestan ASSR) was created by the Soviet Union on the Caspian Sea coast, with a capital at Makhachkala. The ASSR would exist until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, and is now administered as a federal subject of Russia.{{cite dictionary |title=Dagestan |dictionary=Historical Dictionary of the Chechen Conflict |first=Ali |last=Askerov |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2015 |pages=85–86}}
• The Mountain Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Gorskaya ASSR) was formed by the Soviet Union as territory within the Northern Caucasus Mountains providing limited self government within the Russian SFSR for persons indigenous to region. Over a period of less than four years, the Russian government split the ASSR into various districts.{{cite book |first=Philip G. |last=Roeder |title=Where Nation-States Come From: Institutional Change in the Age of Nationalism |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2012 |page=62}}
• Died: Živojin Mišić, 65, Serbian field marshal, most decorated Serbian military officer in history; died of lung cancer (b. 1855){{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

File:Amedeo Bordiga.gif]]

• The full-length silent comedy-drama film The Kid, written, produced, directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin (in his Tramp character), with Jackie Coogan was premiered, making its first public showing at Carnegie Hall in New York before being distributed throughout North America and then the world.{{cite news |title=Chaplin Returns to Screen— His 'The Kid' as Six-Reeler, a Year in Making |newspaper=Boston Post |date=January 22, 1921 |page=6}}{{cite news |title=Chaplin Has Rival in Smart Infant; He's Jackie Coogan |newspaper=Daily News (New York) |date=January 21, 1921 |page=15}}
• The Italian Communist Party (PCI) was founded in Livorno, splitting from the Socialist Party after the delegates at the Socialist Party convention voted against joining the Moscow Internationale. The vote taken, based on the number of party members represented by each delegate, was 58,900 for joining Moscow, and 112,241 against. Amadeo Bordiga reportedly announced, "We who are in the minority are not going to accept this vote.... Therefore, we announce that the Communists will leave this hall and congregate in St. Mark's Theatre, where a new Communist party will be formed. Hurrah for the Communists!"{{cite news |title=Italian Communists Split from Socialists |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 22, 1921 |page=3}}
• The French Chamber of Deputies approved Aristide Briand as the new premier by a vote of 475 to 68, in response to his more moderate policy regarding German reparations.{{cite news |title=Briand Policy to Germany Is Approved |newspaper=Baltimore Sun |date=January 22, 1921 |page=1}}
• The Irish Republican Army attempted an ambush on Dublin police officers in Drumcondra, a district of Dublin.{{cite news |title=Hot Battle Fought Near Dublin— Crown Forces Take Ambushing Sinn Feiners by Surprise |newspaper=Pittsburg Press |date=January 21, 1921 |page=1}}{{cite book |first=Niamh |last=O'Sullivan |title=Every Dark Hour: A History of Kilmainham Jail |publisher=Liberties Press |year=2007}}{{page needed|date=May 2025}} The attack was unsuccessful; one of the IRA members was fatally wounded, and five were captured and sent to Mountjoy Prison. Six of them, led by Patrick Doyle, were executed by hanging on March 14 after being convicted of treason by a military tribunal.{{cite news |title=Six Prisoners Were Executed in Dublin Today— Twenty Thousand People Gathered Outside Prison |newspaper=Ottawa Evening Journal |date=March 14, 1921 |page=1}}
• Born:
• Andreas Ostler, German Olympic bobsledder; in Bavaria, Weimar Republic (present-day Germany) (d. 1988){{cite web|url=https://www.olympic.org/andreas-ostler|title=Andreas Ostler|website=Olympic.org|access-date=20 November 2020}}
• Howard Unruh, American mass murderer who killed 13 people in less than 15 minutes in 1949; in Camden, New Jersey, United States (d. 2009){{cite book|first=Jay Robert |last=Nash|title=Encyclopedia of World Crime: S-Z; Supplements|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VzQRAQAAMAAJ|year=1989|publisher=CrimeBooks|isbn=978-0-923582-04-3|page=3016}}
• Died:
• Arthur Sifton, 62, Canadian politician, second Premier of Alberta, 20th Secretary of State for Canada (b. 1858){{cite book |last=Hall |first=David |editor=Bradford J. Rennie |title=Alberta Premiers of the Twentieth Century |year=2004 |publisher=Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina |location=Regina, Saskatchewan |isbn=0-88977-151-0 |chapter=Arthur L. Sifton |page=38}}
• Charles F. Booher, 72, American politician, U.S. Representative for Missouri from 1889 until his death; died six weeks before the scheduled March 4 expiration of his term (b. 1848) {{CongBio|B000626}}

• The Soviet government announced, in Pravda, an immediate one-third reduction in the daily ration of bread for cities, in the middle of winter during an ongoing famine prompted by a drought and poor grain harvest in 1920. "Severe though it was," a historian{{who|date=May 2025}} would note later, "the reduction apparently was unavoidable. Heavy snows and shortages of fuel had held up food trains from Siberia and the northern Caucasus, where surpluses had been gathered to feed the hungry towns of the center and north."{{cite book |first=Paul |last=Avrich |title=Kronstadt 1921 |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2014 |page=35}} The unpopular decision led to protests in cities throughout the Soviet Union, the most prominent of which would be the Kronstadt rebellion in March.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

File:Frank A. Vanderlip.jpg]]

• The formation of the Council on Foreign Relations was proposed by Frank A. Vanderlip, formerly the Assistant U.S. Secretary of Treasury for President McKinley, and later the President of the National City Bank of New York (now Citibank).{{cite news |title=Vanderlip Plansa 'Super-Senate' |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 23, 1921 |page=12}} Vanderlip spoke in New York City at a meeting of the League for Political Education, and described a body of 30 American business and political leaders who would "direct American intercourse with foreign nations"{{quote without source|date=May 2025}} as well as being a watchdog over the U.S. Department of State. Vanderlip envisioned that the Council would eventually take over the functions of the U.S. Senate in making treaties.
• The Allied Reparations Commission provided a detailed report of German deliveries of reparations made in 1920.

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00167, Kronprinz Gustav VI. Adolf.jpg]]

• Sweden's Crown Prince Gustaf who would later reign from 1950 to 1973 as King Gustaf VI Adolf, saved the life of a British sailor in Stockholm's harbor. The man, not otherwise identified, had fallen into deep waters from a vessel that was in port, and Prince Gustaf saw the man in danger of drowning.{{cite news |title=Gustave of Sweden Saves British Tar |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 24, 1921 |page=1}}

• The Akron Pros, defending champions of the NFL's forerunner, the American Professional Football Association, played a postseason game in Los Angeles against the Conn's All-Stars and won, 21 to 7.{{cite news |title=Akron Professional Team Beats Coast Eleven, 21-7 |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=January 24, 1921 |page=15}}
• The small town of Killen, Alabama was reportedly destroyed by a fire that burned down Killen's five stores, its three lodge halls and its post office.{{cite news |title=Fire Wipes Out Alabama Town |newspaper=New York Tribune |date=January 24, 1921 |page=5}}
• Born:
• Marija Gimbutas, Lithuanian-born American anthropologist who formulated the Kurgan hypothesis that the Indo-European language group and its original speakers had their origin north of the Black Sea; as Marija Birutė Alseikaitė, in Vilnius, Central Lithuania (present-day Lithuania) (d. 1994){{cite book |last1=Ware|first1=Susan|last2=Braukman|first2=Stacy Lorraine|title=Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary Completing the Twentieth Century|year=2004|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|isbn=978-0-674-01488-6|page=234}}
• Leo Major, U.S.-born Canadian Army hero, one of only three soldiers in the British Commonwealth to receive the Distinguished Conduct Medal for heroism in two separate wars (World War II and the Korean War); in New Bedford, Massachusetts, United States (d. 2008){{citation needed|date=May 2025}}
• Died:
• Heinrich Wilhelm Gottfried von Waldeyer-Hartz, 84, German anatomist and author of the neuron doctrine who coined the terms chromosome and neuron, the Waldeyer's ring is named in his honor (b. 1836){{citation needed|date=May 2025}}
• Mykola Leontovych, 43, Ukrainian musical composer specializing in a cappella choral music; murdered by a Cheka agent (b. 1877){{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

• An assault by land and air from British forces on Somaliland against the "Mad Mullah," Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, captured or killed most of the leaders. The Mullah himself was thought to have escaped, but had actually died a month earlier.
• The U.S. Department of State deported Ludwig C.A.K. Martens, who had purported to represent the Soviet Union as an unrecognized Ambassador.
• A lynch mob in Warrenton, North Carolina broke into the Warren County Jail and forcibly removed and murdered two of the 13 African-Americans arrested in a race riot the day before, which had injured five white and three black people.{{cite news |title=Lynch Two Negroes After a Race Riot |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 24, 1921 |page=1}} The two men identified by the mob leaders as the instigators of the riot, Alfred Williams and Plummer Bullock, were taken into a forest one mile outside of town and "riddled with bullets."
• Born: Beatrice Mintz, American embryologist and genetic engineer; in New York City, United States (d. 2022){{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

File:William T. Sedgwick.jpg

• Karel Čapek's popular science-fiction play R.U.R. premiered in Prague in Czechoslovakia{{cite book |first=Willard |last=Bohn |title=Apollinaire and the Faceless Man: The Creation and Evolution of a Modern Motif |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press |year=1991 |page=166}} and introduced a new word, robot, to the languages of the world. "R.U.R." was "Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti", the name of the company, described in the opening exposition as having been created by Dr. Rossum to build artificial servants. Rendered in English as "Rossum's Universal Robots," R.U.R. was translated by Paul Selver for performance in the United States by New York's Theatre Guild at the Garrick Theatre. The Guild noted that "Rossum's Universal Robots" was "best translated as 'Knowall's Universal Hands'."{{cite news |title='R. U. R.' Opens Guild's Season; 'Chauve-Souris,' Third Edition And Hoffe's New Play This Week |newspaper=Brooklyn Times Union |date=October 8, 1922 |page=15}} A literary critic{{who|date=May 2025}} would note later, "Before R.U.R., artificially created anthropoids, like Frankenstein's monster or modern versions of the Jewish legend of the golem, might have acted destructively on a small scale; but Čapek seems to have been the first to see robots as an extension of the Industrial Revolution, and hence to grant them a reach capable of global transformation. Though his robots are closer to what we now might call androids, only a pedant would refuse Čapek honors as the father of the robot apocalypse.{{cite book |chapter=Machine Morality and Human Responsibility |first=Charles T. |last=Rubin |title=Science, Virtue, and the Future of Humanity |publisher=Lexington Books |year=2015 |page=155}}
• The U.S. freighter SS Hewitt, at sea since its departure from Port Arthur, Texas on January 20, was last seen about {{convert|250|nmi}} off of the coast of Florida after making its last regular radio call. All 42 of its crew were lost.{{cite book |first1=David A. |last1=Southern |first2=Grenville |last2=Clark |title=The Mystery Ship: Tragedy of the S.S. Hewitt and Other Ill-Fated Vessels |publisher=Military Training Publishing |year=1921 |pages=323–327}}
• Born: Josef Holeček, Czechoslovakian Olympic canoe rower, gold medalist at the 1948 and the 1952 Olympics; in Říčany (now in the Czech Republic) (d. 2005){{citation needed|date=May 2025}}
• Died: William T. Sedgwick, 65, American epidemiologist and reformer of public health services in the United States (b. 1855){{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

• Women won the right to vote in Sweden with an amendment to the law passed by its parliament, the Riksdag.{{cite book |first=Jad |last=Adams |title=Women and the Vote: A World History |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2014 |page=191}} Women would first be able to exercise their new right on September 10 in the parliamentary elections.
• The five Allied nations of the Supreme War Council, victors in World War One, gave diplomatic recognition to the Republic of Estonia and to the Republic of Latvia.{{cite news |title=Berlin to Get Until July 1 For Disarming; Esthonia and Latvia Recognized, Action on Lithuania and Georgia Held Up |newspaper=New York Tribune |date=January 27, 1921 |page=4}} The U.S. would follow in 1922, along with other nations.
• The collision of two trains killed 17 people near the Welsh village of Abermule.{{cite news |title=Sixteen Killed in Wales Railroad Wreck |newspaper=Miami Herald |date=January 27, 1921 |page=1}} On the Cambrian Railway, the northeast-bound express train from Aberystwyth to Shrewsbury was on the same single line track as the southwest-bound local train from Welshpool to Aberystwyth when the two struck each other at 12:30 in the afternoon.{{cite news |title=Welsh Express Wrecked— Head-On Collision— Sixteen Killed—London Coach Telescoped |newspaper=The Times |date=January 27, 1921 |page=10}}{{cite web |url=https://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docsummary.php?docID=103 |website=Railways Archive |title=Accident Returns: Extract for Accident at Abermule on 26th January 1921}}
• Convicted murderer Henry Lowery, an African-American, was kidnapped from a train taking him to the Texas State Penitentiary, then tortured and burned to death in a lynching so gruesome that the Governor of Arkansas called it "the most disreputable act ever committed in Arkansas."{{cite news |title=Governor Denounces Tragedy |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 27, 1921 |page=1}} A mob of 25 men in "six high-powered automobiles," waited for the train to stop at the train station in Sardis, Mississippi, overpowered two sheriff's deputies transporting Lowery, then drove him to Nodena, Arkansas. According to reports, Lowrey was chained to a log and covered with brush, and "It was forty minutes before the last death agony died away and the negro's charred body lay still in death." Lowrey's captors repeatedly turned him over and added oil to the pyre "to hasten the burning."{{cite news |title=Mob Burns Negro After 100-Mile Trip |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 27, 1921 |page=1}}
• In a National Hockey League game in Montreal, the original Ottawa Senators left their match with the Montreal Canadiens with a little more than five minutes to play, as a protest against the officiating of referee Cooper Smeaton.{{cite news |title=Unsatisfactory Finish to Pro Hockey Fixture |newspaper=Montreal Gazette |date=January 27, 1921 |page=16}} As the Ottawa players departed, Smeaton allowed the game continue for a little longer with only the six Canadiens facing a goal with no goaltender or defenders, and allowed Newsy Lalonde and Amos Arbour to make two additional scores before sounding the gong to end the action.{{cite news |title=Ottawa-Canadien Game at Montreal Ended in Uproar with Habitants Ahead, 5-3 |newspaper=Ottawa Citizen |date=January 27, 1921 |page=10}} The Senators, who would go on to win the Stanley Cup at season's end, were fined $500.
• Born:
• Eddie Barclay, French record producer for Blue Star Records and owner of the Eddie's Club nightclub; as Édouard Ruault, in Paris, France (d. 2005){{citation needed|date=May 2025}}
• Elisabeth Kirkby, English-born Australian TV actress, earned a Ph.D. at the age of 93; in Bolton, Lancashire, England{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

• District Attorney Whitman of New York City announced indictments of the 13 member "auto squad," 12 men and a woman who had committed insurance fraud by accepting 9,000 stolen automobiles and then turning them in for recovery awards from insurance companies.
• Born: Donna Reed, American actress, Academy Award winner for From Here to Eternity, co-star of It's a Wonderful Life, and star of The Donna Reed Show from 1958 to 1966; as Donna Belle Mullenger, in Denison, Iowa, United States (d. 1986){{citation needed|date=May 2025}}
• Died:
• Frances McEwen Belford, 82, American activist who successfully lobbied for the first coast-to-coast interstate highway in the United States, and dubbed the "Mother of the Lincoln Highway" (b. 1839){{citation needed|date=May 2025}}
• Justiniano Borgoño, 84, Peruvian politician, served as Prime Minister of Peru for two months in 1891, and then as the caretaker President of Peru as chairman of a junta for four months in 1894 (b. 1836){{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

• The Supreme War Council of the European Allied victors in World War One met at Paris and adjusted the total reparations that Germany would have to pay under the Treaty of Versailles, in addition to a 42-year tax of German exports at the rate of 12½% ad valorem, and providing a variable amount of annuities owed, with a range of two billion to six billion Deutschmarks in gold between 1921 and May 1, 1963.{{cite news |title=Supreme Council Decision on Disarmament Given to German Delegate in Paris; No Modifications Will Be Permitted Which Might Diminish Proceeds Of German Customs Without Approval Of Reparations Commission— 41 Annuities Running From May 1, 1921 to May 1, 1963 |newspaper=Arizona Republic |date=January 31, 1921 |page=1}} Under the plan, Germany would pay two billion per year for the first five years, four billion annually from 1926 to 1930, and six billion per year from 1931 to 1963, a total of 222 billion gold marks (equivalent at the time to $55,500,000,000 in U.S. dollars).{{cite news |title=Fix German Indemnity at $55,500,000,000, in Graded Annual Payments for 42 Years Plus 12½ % Per Cent Tax on German Exports |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 27, 1921 |page=1}}
• Dr. Robert W. Wood of Johns Hopkins University gave the first demonstration of his invention of a lamp that used filters to eliminate visible light while projecting ultraviolet UV-A light. More commonly referred to as "black light", the lamp revealed chemicals not readily detectable in ordinary light. As a result, Dr. Wood referred to his creation as the "chemical eye."{{cite news |title=Demonstrates Power of 'Chemical Eye' |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 30, 1921 |page=5}}
• R-34, the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean, was destroyed by heavy winds after its arrival at the Royal Naval Air Station at Howden in East Yorkshire. The British dirigible was one of the United Kingdom's most expensive aircraft, valued at £250,000{{cite news |title=R-34, Dirigible That Crossed Atlantic, Left Only a Scrap Heap by Heavy Wind |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 30, 1921 |page=1}} equivalent to 12.3 million pounds sterling (or $15.8 million U.S. dollars) today.{{cite web |url=https://www.in2013dollars.com/uk/inflation/1921 |title=Why a pound today is worth only 2% of a pound in 1921 |website=CPI Inflation Calculator}}

• The U.S. state of Washington was struck by the Great Olympic Blowdown, the most powerful storm in the state's history up to that time. The high winds swept from the Pacific Ocean across the Olympic Peninsula and caused damage as far east as Walla Walla. Although only two people were killed, the winds of up to {{convert|113|mph}} knocked down millions of trees, including over 40% of those growing on the southwest side of the Olympic Mountains. Hundreds of farm animals were killed by the flying debris, and the small community of La Push, Washington had 16 homes destroyed.{{cite web |url=https://www.climate.washington.edu/stormking/January1921.html |title=The Olympic Blowdown of January 29, 1921 |first=Wolf |last=Read|website=University of Washington Climatology |date=December 11, 2002}}
• The Allied Council relinquished some of its financial claims against the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.
• The New York Yankees baseball team announced that it would construct its own stadium in the Bronx, no longer sharing Manhattan's Polo Grounds with the New York Giants baseball team. The plan was to build Yankee Stadium on the site of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, bounded by Broadway, Hamilton Place, 138th Street and 136th Street, with construction to begin in June (though the plan was later changed, and the stadium built on the site of a lumberyard purchased from William Waldorf Astor).{{cite news |title=Yankees Pick Site for New Ball Park— Decide to Purchase Hebrew Orphan Asylum Plot, 136th Street, Near Broadway |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 30, 1921 |page=1}}
• The Supreme Court of France reversed the convictions of six French soldiers who had been wrongfully convicted of desertion and executed in 1914, and awarded a lifetime pension of 2,000 French francs per year to their widows, as well as 1,000 francs to their minor children. Their commanding officer, a French Army lieutenant, later admitted that he had given the men the order to retreat and had denied it during their trial.{{cite news |title=French Court Clears Soldiers Put to Death |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 30, 1921 |page=3}}
• Born: Mustafa Ben Halim, Egyptian-born Libyan politician, Prime Minister of Libya serving King Idris from 1954 to 1957; in Alexandria, Sultanate of Egypt (present-day Egypt) (d. 2021){{citation needed|date=May 2025}}
• Died: Alfred Tredway White, 74, American philanthropist and housing reformer who built quality low-income apartment buildings to replace tenements in Brooklyn during the late 19th century; drowned after falling through thin ice while skating (b. 1846){{cite news |title=A. T. White Drowns in Forest Lake; Pioneer in Charity |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 31, 1921 |page=1}}

• Twelve guests— six men and six women— died in a fire at the Colonial Hotel in Hoboken, New Jersey, United States; three others were seriously injured. The fire was caused by another guest who left a lit cigar smoldering in his room when he went out.{{cite news |title=12 Die, 3 Hurt in Hotel Due to Cigar |newspaper=Detroit Free Press |date=January 31, 1921 |page=1}}{{cite news |title=Hoboken Hotel Holocaust Claims Twelve Victims; Probe to Follow |newspaper=Daily News (New York) |date=January 31, 1921 |page=3}} The cigar set fire to drapery, and the flames then spread to other rooms.
• Died: John Francis Murphy, 67, American landscape painter; died of pneumonia (b. 1853){{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

• The commercial sailing cargo schooner Carroll A. Deering was found after it had run aground off of the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina in choppy waters, but none of its crew of 10 people were ever seen again.{{cite news |title=Mystery in Wreck of Boston Schooner |newspaper=Boston Globe |date=February 1, 1921 |page=2}} The last communication from the Deering had been on January 28 when it attempted to hail a light ship, and was spotted on January 29 moving toward the Diamond Shoals. The only living thing on board was the ship's mascot, a parrot.{{cite news |title=Parrot Lives But Can't Tell— Mystery of the Deering Remains Unsolved |newspaper=Boston Globe |date=February 3, 1921 |page=1}} When the U.S. Coast Guard was finally able to board the ship on February 4, investigators found that both of the ship's lifeboats had been taken down and evidence that the evacuation had happened quickly. The fate of the Carroll A. Deering has remained a mystery for almost a century.[https://www.nationalparks.org/connect/blog/legend-ghost-ship-carroll-deering "The Legend Of The Ghost Ship: Carroll A. Deering"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151209123222/https://www.nationalparks.org/connect/blog/legend-ghost-ship-carroll-deering |date=2015-12-09 }}, National Parks Foundation
• With less than five weeks left in his term, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson announced that he would not commute the prison sentence of Socialist Party leader Eugene V. Debs, despite the recommendations of Wilson's anti-Communist Attorney General, A. Mitchell Palmer to release Debs on February 12 for Lincoln's birthday.{{cite news |title=Wilson Refuses to Pardon Debs |newspaper=The New York Times |date=February 27, 1921 |page=1}} Debs had slightly less than five years remaining of a 10-year prison sentence for espionage and was incarcerated at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta.
• Born:
• Carol Channing, American stage and film actress and singer, winner of the 1964 Tony Award for Hello, Dolly!; in Seattle (d. 2019)
• Mario Lanza, American opera tenor, singer and film actor; as Alfredo Arnold Cocozza in Philadelphia (d. 1959)
• Abu Sayeed Chowdhury, President of Bangladesh 1972 to 1973; in Kalihati Upazila, Bengal Province, British India (d. 1987)
• Died: Frederic Hale Parkhurst, 56, Governor of Maine, of pneumonia, 26 days after his inauguration.{{cite book|title=The New England Historical and Genealogical Register|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zJkPAAAAYAAJ|year=1934|publisher=New England Historic Genealogical Society|page=173}} Parkhurst became ill after winning the general election in September. The president pro tempore of the Maine Senate, Percival P. Baxter, served the remaining 3 years and 11 months of Parkhurst's term.

{{reflist}}

{{Events by month links}}

1921

*1921-01