1920

← 1919

This article is about the year 1920 Please help improve this article by conforming to date guidelines and by adding citations to reliable sources.

1921 →

This article is a date listing important events for the year 1920.

Events

• January 16 – Prohibition, went into effect in the United States. The entire country went “dry”.
• February 12 – The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia voted against the 19th Amendment. (After Congress ratified the 19th Amendment on June 4, 1919, at least 36 states were needed to vote in favor for it to become law. Four other available states, Connecticut, Vermont, North Carolina and Florida, would not consider the resolution for various reasons.)
• Aug 18 – The Tennessee General Assembly voted to approve the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, making Tennessee the 36th out of the existing 48 states to ratify this amendment thereby securing the passage of the amendment allowing women the right to vote.
• August 26 – The 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote, is formally adopted into the U.S. Constitution by proclamation of Secretary of State. Tens of thousands of women across the U.S. registered and voted that fall credited to special legislation the assembly had passed in January.
• November 2 – Warren G. Harding defeated James M. Cox in the U.S. presidential election. More than 8 million women across the U.S. voted in elections for the first time.
• December 6 – A Chamber of Commerce Forum was held at the Courthouse this evening, two hundred men and women were in attendance to hear of voting on the change in form of government. According to the Daily Progress: "the average citizen found himself entirely ignorant of the merits of the question and even of the details of the proposed plan of Commission form of Government." President E. A. Alderman and Mr. S. D. Timberlake, former City Attorney of City of Staunton (1904-1908), were among the speakers. (*Staunton is credited with creating the city manager form of government, which was formally adopted in 1908. According to the International City Management Association (ICMA), Staunton’s city manager style led to the council-manager form of government that is still used by thousands of American cities.)
• December 7 – A election was held in the city of Charlottesville by which qualified voters of the city adopted the form of government provided by the 1919 Code of Virginia, known as the Modified Commission Form. The validity of this election was later called into question. (On March 24, 1922, the General Assembly approved a new charter for the City of Charlottesville. The 1922 Charter would remain until it was replaced by the 1946 Charter).

https://search.lib.virginia.edu/catalog/uva-lib:2118201/view#openLayer/uva-lib:2118202/4270/1263.5/3/1/0