Explore 2115 historical events from 1920–1929.
Nancy Davis Reagan was an American actress who was First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989. She was the second wife of Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United Sta…
Nancy Reagan, American actress and activist, 42nd First Lady of the United States (died 2016)
Ezzard Mack Charles was an American professional boxer who competed from 1940 to 1959. Known as "the Cincinnati Cobra", Charles was respected for his slick defense and precision, a…
Ezzard Charles, American boxer (died 1975)
Adolf von Thadden was a German far-right politician who led the National Democratic Party.
Adolf von Thadden, German lieutenant and politician (died 1996)
John William Money was a New Zealand American psychologist, sexologist and professor at Johns Hopkins University known for his research on human sexual behavior and gender.
John Money, New Zealand psychologist and sexologist, known for his research on gender identity, and responsible for…
David Charles Jones was a United States Air Force general and the ninth chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In this capacity, Jones served as the highest-ranking uniformed offic…
David C. Jones, American general (died 2013)
Harvey Ross Ball was an American commercial artist. In 1963, he created a design for a pin back button, that played a pivotal role in the adoption of the modern day smiley face. Ba…
Harvey Ball, American illustrator, created the Smiley (died 2001)
Jean Marie "Jeff" Donnell was an American actress.
Jeff Donnell, American actress (died 1988)
Major General John Kirk Singlaub was a major general in the United States Army, founding member of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and a highly decorated officer in the form…
John K. Singlaub, U.S. Army Major General (died 2022)
Eunice Mary Kennedy Shriver was an American philanthropist. Shriver was a member of the Kennedy family by birth, and a member of the Shriver family through her marriage to Sargent …
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, American activist, co-founded the Special Olympics (died 2009)
Ernst Sigmund Goldner, known professionally as Ernest Gold, was an Austrian-American composer of film and television scores. He won an Academy Award and two Grammy Awards for his w…
Ernest Gold, Austrian-American composer and conductor (died 1999)
Armand Gérard Gaudreault was a Canadian ice hockey player. He played 44 games in the National Hockey League with the Boston Bruins during the 1944–45 season. The rest of his career…
Armand Gaudreault, Canadian ice hockey player (died 2013)
Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson FRS was a Nobel laureate English chemist who pioneered inorganic chemistry and homogeneous transition metal catalysis.
Geoffrey Wilkinson, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1996)
Henri Colpi was a French film editor and film director.
Henri Colpi, Swiss-French director and screenwriter (died 2006)
Robert Bruce Merrifield was an American biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1984 for the invention of solid phase peptide synthesis.
Robert Bruce Merrifield, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2006)
Sixto Alfonso Durán-Ballén Cordovez was an Ecuadorian political figure and architect who served as the 37th president of Ecuador from 1992 to 1996. He previously served as mayor of…
Sixto Durán Ballén, American-Ecuadorian architect and politician, 48th President of Ecuador (died 2016)
Leon Garfield FRSL was a British author. He is best known for children's historical novels, though he also wrote for adults. He wrote more than thirty books and scripted Shakespear…
Leon Garfield, English author (died 1996)
George Warren Barnes was an American jazz guitarist. He was also a conductor, composer, arranger, producer, author, and educator. He was hired by the NBC Orchestra at the age of 17…
George Barnes, American guitarist, producer, and songwriter (died 1977)
Louis Lachenal, a French climber born in Annecy, Haute-Savoie, was one of the first two mountaineers to climb a summit of more than 8,000 meters.
Louis Lachenal, French mountaineer (died 1955)
Mary Osborne was an American jazz guitarist. She began performing at a young age and was featured on a radio program in North Dakota, where she grew up. In New York City during the…
Mary Osborne, American guitarist (died 1992)
Toni Stone, born as Marcenia Lyle Stone, was an American female professional baseball player who played in predominantly male leagues. In 1953, she became the first woman to play a…
Toni Stone, American baseball player (died 1996)
František Zvarík was an accomplished theater actor and movie character actor. He has appeared in about two dozen Czechoslovak and Slovak films since the 1940s. Among his accomplish…
František Zvarík, Slovak actor (died 2008)
Peter Austin was a British brewer. He founded Ringwood Brewery and was a co-founder and first chairman of the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA). He built some 140 new breweries…
Peter Austin, English brewer, founded Ringwood Brewery (died 2014)
John Herschel Glenn Jr. was an American Marine Corps aviator, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space and the first to orbit the Earth, circling …
John Glenn, American colonel, astronaut, and politician (died 2016)
Richard Leacock was a British-born documentary film director and one of the pioneers of direct cinema and cinéma vérité.
Richard Leacock, English-French director and producer (died 2011)