- Alan Taylor
- January 30, 2020
- 33 Photos
- In Focus
A century ago, the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified—guaranteeing women the right to vote. In Europe, two short-lived but consequential wars were under way, the Polish-Soviet War and the Irish War of Independence. The 1920 Olympic Games were held in Belgium, an unsolved bombing on Wall Street killed 38 people, Senator Warren G. Harding of Ohio was elected as America’s 29th president, and much more. Please take a moment to look back at some of the events and sights from around the world 100 years ago.
Read more
Hints: View this page full screen. Skip to the next and previous photo by typing j/k or ←/→.
- Email/span>
In April 1920, Herbert McBride broke the world's motorcycle record for amateurs with a speed of 104.4 miles per hour. McBride, along with his teammate, Indian Motorcycles Factory Racing Team professional rider Eugene Walker, broke two dozen speed records over the course of several days along the sands of Ormond Beach, Florida. #
Bettmann / Getty
Original caption: "Infantrymen pose for a photograph on the Great Sphinx, built around 2,500 B.C., at Giza, in Egypt. March, 1920." #
Michael Nicholson / Corbis / Getty
Kentucky Governor Edwin P. Morrow signs the bill ratifying the Nineteenth Amendment (the "Susan B. Anthony Amendment"), giving women the right to vote, surrounded by members of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association, on January 6, 1920. #
Library of Congress
Stormy seas, as seen from aboard the barque Garthsnaid, circa 1920 #
Alexander Harper Turner / National Library of New Zealand
The Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin gives a speech to Red Army soldiers leaving for the front during the Polish-Soviet War, in Sverdlov Square (now Theatre Square), in Moscow, on May 5, 1920. On the right side of the platform are People's Commissar Leon Trotsky and a Politburo member, Lev Kamenev. #
Mansell / The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty
Japanese women hold a demonstration to protest low wages paid to female factory workers. #
Mansell / The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty
An aerial view of the crowds on New York's Coney Island Beach during the Fourth of July, circa 1920 #
George Rinhart / Corbis / Getty
Franklin D. Roosevelt, then a vice-presidential candidate, at his summer home in Campobello with his 14-year-old daughter Anna, in August 1920, on Campobello Island in New Brunswick, Canada. #
Bettmann / Getty
Type is prepared for a Chinese weekly newspaper. #
Bettmann / Getty
Original caption: "The War Department has assigned the 63rd Infantry as a permanent National Guard of Washington, D.C. It will be the duty of the unit to guard the National Capitol in peace times as well as war." #
Library of Congress
A "human bird" airplane is displayed at an "aero show" in July 1920. #
Topical Press Agency / Getty
A crowd of Sinn Fein sympathizers confronts British troops in front of a barricade that barred the road to Mountjoy prison, in Dublin, Ireland, on April 30, 1920. Earlier in April, Irish Republican Army prisoners in Mountjoy prison had begun a hunger strike, demanding prisoner-of-war status, during the Irish War of Independence (1919–21). #
Bettmann / Getty
The daredevil Ormer Locklear stands on the wing of a Curtiss Jenny biplane going about 90 miles an hour in June 1920. #
Bettmann / Getty
Original caption, from May 29, 1920: "Bare legs and scanty one piece bathing suits were very much in evidence at the opening of Washington's municipal bathing beach today. Officials have agreed to disregard as precedents the prohibitory orders issued at Coney Island and Atlantic City." #
Library of Congress
Original caption: "Wall Street bomb explosion, September 16th, 1920, thirty dead." Another eight of the several hundred who were wounded later died in the hospital. Those responsible for the bombing attack in New York's financial district were never identified, though several anarchist and communist groups were suspected and investigated for years. #
Bettmann / Getty
A sea of hats: A crowd of men gather in New York's financial district, trying to get a glimpse of the aftermath of the Wall Street bombing. #
Bettmann / Getty
The launching of the steamer Annie E. Morse, probably at the Virginia Shipbuilding Corporation in Alexandria, Virginia #
Library of Congress
Original caption from December 1, 1920: "The Women's Militia drilling in Soviet Russia." #
Topical Press Agency / Getty
Original caption: "Charles (Charley) Paddock, second from right, of the U.S.A. wins the 100 meters final with his famous 'flying finish' at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. Morris Kirksey, far right, of the U.S.A. was second, and Jackson Scholz of U.S.A., left, was fourth." #
Associated Press
Swimmers from Team U.S.A. photographed at the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp on July 25, 1920. At left is Ethelda Bleibtrey from New York, who won three gold medals at the competition, and at right is Hawaii's Duke Kahanamoku, who took home two gold medals. #
Bettmann / Getty
The suffragist Alice Paul unfurls a banner from the balcony of the National Women's Party headquarters, showing a star for each state that has ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, giving women the right to vote. The women were celebrating the August 18, 1920, ratification of the amendment by Tennessee, making the amendment law. #
Bettmann / Getty
A street scene in Seoul, Korea, on February 14, 1920 #
Bettmann / Getty
Original caption from August 17, 1920: "After finding the bricklaying business too full of ups and downs, this amazing young girl decided to take a shot at iron girdering for a change. She is Miss 'Collie' Collier, a reporter for the Chicago Herald-Examiner." #
Bettmann / Getty
Original caption: "Annual May Festival of the Friends Select School, Washington D.C. Held at the Friends Country Club." #
Library of Congress
An aerial view of the battleship USS Oklahoma, originally built in 1910. The Oklahoma was operated by the U.S. Navy until she was sunk in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in December 1941. #
Library of Congress
A vending machine enables a daytime worker to purchase goods after shops have closed in London, England, circa 1920. #
Hulton-Deutsch Collection / Corbis via Getty
The Republican presidential candidate Warren G. Harding gives a speech from his front porch on August 16, 1920. Harding went on to win the 1920 election, and became America's 29th president. #
Bettmann / Getty
A woman places flowers at the Cenotaph in memory of the dead of the Great War, on November 11, 1920. #
Topical Press Agency / Getty
Original caption, from November 1920: "Election crowd at White House" #
Library of Congress
Original caption from December 4, 1920: "Writing to Santa Claus" #
Library of Congress
A view of a crowded bread-distribution center at an Armenian refugee and orphan center. #
Bettmann / Getty
A horse and rider jumping between two soldiers during a horse-jumping competition at Fort Myer, Virginia. #
Library of Congress
Original caption from December 19, 1920: "Mary Pickford takes a picture of husband Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., who is executing a handstand on the roof of a building." #
Bettmann / Getty
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.
