The following events occurred in August 1921:
August 1, 1921 (Monday) The first congress of the South African Communist Party concluded, in Cape Town. Riots broke out in Spain and troops mutinied against the government of King Alfonso XIII after the defeat of Spanish troops by Moroccan tribesmen in Melilla. U.S. President Warren G. Harding officiated at the tercentenary celebration at Plymouth, Massachusetts for the 300th anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims in North America."New Pilgrim Spirit to Lead World, Declares Harding", The New York Times, August 2, 1921, p. 1
President Harding informed the U.S. Congress that Secretary of State Hughes had concluded that the U.S. was obligated to lend five million dollars to Liberia as part of an agreement made in September, 1918."Declares Liberia Entitled to Loan", The New York Times, August 2, 1921, p. 15 Born: Jack Kramer, U.S. tennis player and commentator, in Las Vegas (d. 2009)
August 2, 1921 (Tuesday) The Spanish outposts of Nadar and Selouane in Morocco fell to rebel forces in the aftermath of the Battle of Annual. The Black Sox scandal trial in Chicago ended with the acquittal by a jury of eight Chicago White Sox players on charges of conspiracy to throw the 1919 World Series, finding that the charges had not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Major League Baseball officials declared that the preponderance of the evidence was still sufficient to continue the ban against reinstating any of the former players. Baseball Commissioner K. M. Landis said in a statement, "Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player that throws a ball game; no player that undertakes or promises to throw a ball game; no player that sits in a conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers where the ways and means of throwing games are planned and discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball." The United States Coast Guard seized and boarded the British schooner Henry L. Marshall in international waters more than three miles (five kilometers) off the coast of Atlantic City, New Jersey, and found that the vessel was carrying 12,000 cases of liquor despite the prohibition against the sale and distribution of alcohol in the U.S. Born: Edward D. Goldberg, American marine chemist; in Sacramento, California (d. 2008) Died: Enrico Caruso, 48, Italian operatic tenor, died of peritonitis. Caruso had been convalescing from illness at the Hotel Vesuvius in Naples and had been scheduled for emergency surgery for a subphrenic abscess, but died at 9:00 in the morning before he could be taken to a hospital. Vajirananavarorasa, 61, Thai Buddhist leader and Supreme Patriarch of Thailand since 1910, died of tuberculosis.
August 3, 1921 (Wednesday)
"Aerial application" of sprayed pesticides to farmland by an airplane, commonly called "crop dusting", was performed for the first time. The procedure was developed as a joint venture by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Pilot John A. Macready and engineer Etienne Dormoy took off from McCook Field near Dayton, and flew a Curtiss JN4 airplane to disperse lead arsenate to kill caterpillars at a farm near Troy, Ohio. A Pact of Pacification was signed between Italian leader Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Revolutionary Party (PFR), the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) and the General Confederation of Labor (CGL). In Germany, the Nazi Party's security unit, which would later become the Sturmabteilung (commonly called the "Storm Troopers"), was renamed the Turn und Sportabteilung division ("Gymnastic and Sports Division"). Russian poet Nikolay Gumilyov was arrested in the Soviet Union by the Cheka secret police on charges of being a monarchist. He was executed along with 60 other defendants on August 25. Died: Jaime Camps, 25, Spanish Olympic sprinter, was killed in action at the Battle of Annual.
August 4, 1921 (Thursday) The new Irish Republican parliament, Dáil Éireann, was summoned by Éamon de Valera to meet at Dublin on August 16 after negotiations with the United Kingdom secured a recognition of a self-governing Irish Free State rather than a province of Southern Ireland. For the first time, what is now called a "fax" was sent across the Atlantic Ocean when "a written document was transmitted fac simile... by wireless telegraphy" by the Belinograph machine, which had been used in Europe but had not been employed in North America. A handwritten message by New York Times editor C. V. Van Anda was transmitted from Annapolis, Maryland to Malmaison in France. The U.S. submarine was launched at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in New Hampshire, after being christened by the wife of Gordon Woodbury, Assistant U.S. Secretary of the Navy. The first annual world championship for bicycle road racing was held by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) in Copenhagen, and was won by Gunnar Sköld of Sweden. The U.S. Navy announced that the largest dirigible ever constructed up to that time, its Airship ZR-2, would begin its first transatlantic flight on August 25 to be brought to the United States from England. Born: Charles H. Coolidge, American Medal of Honor recipient and the longest-lived recipient from World War II; in Signal Mountain, Tennessee (d. 2021)
August 5, 1921 (Friday) The first broadcast of a baseball game was aired by U.S. radio station KDKA, as the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 8 to 5 at Forbes Field. Harold Arlin, a Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, called the play-by-play during the broadcast. WRR-AM received its municipal license. It first broadcast out of the Dallas, Texas fire station. WRR was the first radio station in Texas and one of the first five radio stations in the US. In the Rif War against Morocco, the Army of Spain suffered more losses as the army garrisons in the cities of Nador and Selouane fell in North Africa, and of Moroccan territory reclaimed by Arab tribesmen."Spain's Moroccan Disaster Grows— Loss of Nador and Zeluan, With Garrison Massacres, Brings on Cabinet Crisis", The New York Times, August 6, 1921, p. 4 Of 200 soldiers of the Selouane garrison, all but nine were killed."Jumped Into Seat to Escape Moors", The New York Times, August 7, 1921, p. 3
August 6, 1921 (Saturday) The sinking of the U.S. passenger ship Alaska killed 42 of the 214 people on board, with 31 passengers and 11 crew missing after the ship ran aground on Blunts Reef off the coast of California. The 172 survivors were rescued by the British ship Anyox."Coast Steamer Lost on California Reef; 12 Dead, 36 Missing", The New York Times, August 8, 1921, p. 1 In return for American humanitarian aid to relieve the famine in the Soviet Union, the Russian Relief Committee's Chairman Kamenev pledged that all Americans held prisoner in Soviet Russia would be released to Walter L. Brown of the American Relief Administration."Promise to Free Americans Monday— Russians Make the Pledge Through Chairman of Their Relief Committee", The New York Times, August 7, 1921, p. 1 In the wake of the Upper Silesia plebiscite of March 1921, an expert report by the Committee of the Allied Supreme Council recommended a redefinition of the border between Poland and Germany, on the basis of which the greater part of the Upper Silesian industrial district was awarded to Poland. Died: Rorer A. James, 62, U.S. Representative for Virginia
August 7, 1921 (Sunday) In accordance with an agreement between the United Kingdom and Irish Republicans, British prisons released all Sinn Féin members who had been elected to Dáil Éireann. Born: Manitas de Plata (stage name for Ricardo Baliardo), Spanish-French guitar virtuoso, in Sète in France (d. 2014) Died: Alexander Blok, 40, Russian poet, dramatist and critic
August 8, 1921 (Monday) Italy and China announced that they would accept U.S. President Harding's invitation to participate in the Washington Disarmament Conference on November 11. Born: Esther Williams, U.S. champion swimmer and actress, in Inglewood, California (d. 2013) While some references cited 1922 as her year of birth, Williams told The Associated Press in 2004 that she was born August 8, 1921. Died: J. D. Edgar, 36, English professional golfer and twice winner of the Canadian Open, was killed by a hit-and-run driver in front of his home in Atlanta."J. D. Edgar, Ex-Golf Champion, Killed by an Auto in Atlanta", The New York Times, August 9, 1921, p. 1"Suspect Murder Now in Death of J. D. Edgar; Police Doubt Golver's Wound Was Accidental", The New York Times, August 16, 1921, p. 1 Thomas Wintringham, 54, British MP, died suddenly during a break in the parliamentary session at the Palace of Westminster, while in the smoking room with fellow Members of Commons."Fell Dead in House of Commons", Montreal Gazette, August 9, 1921, p. 1"M.P.'s Death in the Commons— Mr. Wintringham's Collapse", Manchester Guardian, August 9, 1921, p. 7 Margaret Wintringham, Wintringham's widow, would win the by-election for his seat on September 23, becoming only the second woman M.P. in British history."Second Woman Is Elected To the House of Commons", The New York Times, September 24, 1921, p. 1
August 9, 1921 (Tuesday) Over 2,000 soldiers of the Spanish Army were killed after surrendering the Monte Arruit garrison near Al Aaroui in Morocco following a 12-day siege. General Felipe Navarro y Ceballos-Escalera was taken prisoner by the Moroccan Moors, along with his nine-member staff of officers, after Spanish forces were routed near Mount Arruit in North Africa."Moors Capture Spanish General— Arab Chief Seizes Commander and Nine Officers of Beleaguered Column— 400 Slain in One Fight", The New York Times, August 12, 1921, p. 3
Governor Lennington "Len" Small of the U.S. state of Illinois was placed under arrest at his home, the Executive Mansion in Springfield, Illinois, on warrants from three indictments made against him on charges of embezzlement during his prior job as Illinois State Treasurer."Arrest Gov. Small; Hold Him in $50,000", The New York Times, August 10, 1921, p. 1 The sheriff of Sangamon County, Illinois, Henry Mester, came to the Governor's official residence, placed Small under arrest and required Small to come with him to for a court appearance before the Sangamon County Judge, who set a $50,000 bail to secure Small's appearance at a September hearing. Small posted his own bond as surety and was allowed to return home.
August 10, 1921 (Wednesday) The Soviet Union began the release of American prisoners, with six Americans being turned over to the American Relief Administration at Reval in Estonia."American Captives, Ragged and Hungry, Safe Out of Russia", The New York Times, August 11, 1921, p. 1 The SS Moerdijk of the Holland-American steam line set a world speed record, completing a journey from London to Los Angeles in 24 days and 12 hours.Los Angeles Herald, 10 August 1921 The Allied Supreme Council announced its neutrality in the Greco-Turkish War, abandoning the Treaty of Sèvres that had granted territory of the former Ottoman Empire to Greece. Lord Byng of Vimy, appointed as the new Governor General of Canada, arrived in Canada after the steamer Empress of France brought him over from the United Kingdom."Byng Arrives in Canada", The New York Times, August 11, 1921, p. 9
August 11, 1921 (Thursday)
While on holiday at Lubec, Maine, future U.S. president (and recent U.S. vice presidential nominee in the 1920 election) Franklin D. Roosevelt suffered the first signs of paralysis from poliomyelitis. The disease was misdiagnosed by a local doctor as resulting from a bad cold.
Spain's Prime Minister Manuel Allendesalazar y Muñoz de Salazar and his cabinet resigned as a result of the Spanish defeat in Morocco. Antonio Maura, a former Premier, formed a new ministry two days later."Maura in Premiership", The New York Times, August 14, 1921, p. 3