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  • Moldova (Then Bessarabia)
    Thursday May 1, 1919
    Hungarian–Romanian War

    Romania Was Ordered To Leave Bessarabia

    Moldova (Then Bessarabia)
    Thursday May 1, 1919

    On 1 May, Bolshevik Soviet Russian Foreign Minister Georgy Chicherin issued an ultimatum to the Romanian government. Romania was ordered to leave Bessarabia.




  • Tisza River, Hungary
    Thursday May 1, 1919
    Hungarian–Romanian War

    Romania controled The Entire East bank of The Tisza River

    Tisza River, Hungary
    Thursday May 1, 1919

    On the evening of 1 May the entire east bank of the Tisza River was under the control of the Romanian army.




  • Hungary
    Friday May 2, 1919
    Hungarian–Romanian War

    Hungary Sued For Peace

    Hungary
    Friday May 2, 1919

    On 2 May, Hungary sued for peace via a request delivered by his representative, Lieutenant Colonel Henrik Werth. Kun was prepared to recognize all of Romania's territorial demands; requested the cessation of hostilities; and asked for ongoing control of Hungarian internal affairs.




  • U.S.
    Sunday May 4, 1919
    Anna May Wong

    The Red Lantern

    U.S.
    Sunday May 4, 1919

    Wong was working at Hollywood's Ville de Paris department store when Metro Pictures needed 300 female extras to appear in Alla Nazimova's film The Red Lantern (1919). Without her father's knowledge, a friend of his with movie connections helped her land an uncredited role as an extra carrying a lantern.




  • Carnegie Hall, New York City, New York, U.S.
    Monday May 5, 1919
    Red Summer

    National Conference on Lynching

    Carnegie Hall, New York City, New York, U.S.
    Monday May 5, 1919

    The National Conference on Lynching took place in Carnegie Hall, New York City, May 5–6, 1919. The goal of the conference was to pressure Congress to pass the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill. It was a project of the new NAACP, which in April released a report, Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States, 1889-1918.




  • U.S.
    Tuesday May 6, 1919
    Harry S. Truman

    Honorably Discharged from the Army

    U.S.
    Tuesday May 6, 1919

    Truman was honorably discharged from the Army as a captain on May 6, 1919.




  • Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.
    Saturday May 10, 1919
    Red Summer

    Charleston riot of 1919

    Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.
    Saturday May 10, 1919

    The Charleston riot resulted in the injury of 5 white and 18 black men, along with the death of 3 others: Isaac Doctor, William Brown, and James Talbot, all black. Following the riot, the city of Charleston, South Carolina imposed martial law. A Naval investigation found that four U.S. sailors and one civilian—all white men—initiated the riot.


  • Moldova (Then Bessarabia)
    Saturday May 10, 1919
    Hungarian–Romanian War

    The Bolshevik Soviet Russian Troops' Large Attack On Bessarabia

    Moldova (Then Bessarabia)
    Saturday May 10, 1919

    Under the command of Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko, Bolshevik Soviet Russian troops gathered along the Dniester River in preparation for a large attack on Bessarabia on 10 May.


  • Vicksburg, Mississippi, U.S.
    Thursday May 15, 1919
    Red Summer

    Vicksburg riots

    Vicksburg, Mississippi, U.S.
    Thursday May 15, 1919

    In Vicksburg, 1000 white rioters broke Lloyd Clay out of jail, hung him, and burned him in the city center as the crowd watching. The riot spurred by rumors of an attack on a white women.


  • U.S.
    May, 1919
    Carter G. Woodson

    Red Summer

    U.S.
    May, 1919

    The summer of 1919 was the "Red Summer", a time of intense racial violence that saw about 1,000 people, most of whom were black, killed between May and September 1919.


  • Indonesia
    Monday May 19, 1919
    Disasters with highest death tolls

    Mount Kelud

    Indonesia
    Monday May 19, 1919

    On May 19, 1919, an eruption at Kelud killed an estimated 5,000 people, mostly through hot mudflows (also known as "lahars").


  • Ottoman Empire
    Monday May 19, 1919
    Ottoman Empire

    Turkish War of Independence

    Ottoman Empire
    Monday May 19, 1919

    There arose a nationalist opposition in the Turkish national movement. It won the Turkish War of Independence (1919–1923) under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal (later given the surname "Atatürk").


  • Miskolc, Hungary
    Tuesday May 20, 1919
    Hungarian–Romanian War

    Hungary Attacked Miskolc

    Miskolc, Hungary
    Tuesday May 20, 1919

    With cessation of hostilities, Kun worked to improve his battered international position. On 20 May 1919, a force under Colonel Aurél Stromfeld attacked and routed Czech troops from Miskolc.


  • U.S.
    May, 1919
    Red Summer

    We return from fighting

    U.S.
    May, 1919

    In May, following the first serious racial incidents, W. E. B. Du Bois published his essay "Returning Soldiers": We return from the slavery of uniform which the world's madness demanded us to don to the freedom of civil garb. We stand again to look America squarely in the face and call a spade a spade. We sing: This country of ours, despite all its better souls have done and dreamed, is yet a shameful land.… We return. We return from fighting. We return fighting.


  • Milan, Georgia, U.S.
    Sunday May 25, 1919
    Red Summer

    Milan riot

    Milan, Georgia, U.S.
    Sunday May 25, 1919

    At 1:00 AM on the morning of May 24, 1919, two white men, John Dowdy and Levi Evans went into the black section of Milan. They first tried to get into the home of Emma McCollers who had two young daughters. When the family refused to open the door Dowdy fired his gun. This caused the girls to flee to another house, the home of widow Emma Tisber. The two men followed and invaded the Tisber home and attempted to assault two young black girls. When the two girls attempted to hide under the porch, Dowdy and Evans began ripping up the floor to get to them. Washington, a black man, attempted to defend the girls and get the men to leave. Dowdy fired at Washington and after a struggle, Washington, who was 72 years old, shot and killed Dowdy. Washington went uptown and woke up the chief of police, Mr. Stuckey, who sent Washington to the McCrae jail at 2:00 AM May 24, 1919. There he stayed in jail until the 25th, at 12:00 PM, when a crowd of white men, led by a Baptist minister, removed Washington from the jail. To possibly hide their crimes all black residents of Milan were rounded up and ordered out of the town on the night of May 25th. At 2:00 AM on May 26th the lynch mob hung him from a post and shot him repeatedly until his body fell in pieces from the post. White residents rioted in the city, damaging and burning many black homes. They threatened black citizens, lest they dare to speak out about the events in public.


  • Bender (Then Tighina), Moldova
    Tuesday May 27, 1919
    Hungarian–Romanian War

    The Action at Tighina

    Bender (Then Tighina), Moldova
    Tuesday May 27, 1919

    Bolshevik Soviet Russian attacks in Bessarabia intensified, peaking on 27–28 May with an action at Tighina.


  • New London, Connecticut, U.S.
    Thursday May 29, 1919
    Red Summer

    New London riot

    New London, Connecticut, U.S.
    Thursday May 29, 1919

    On May 30, 1919, about 20 sailors and soldiers were arrested by police officers, marines, and firemen. The Greeneville Daily Sun reported that the trouble began when "African American sailors" entered the Coast Guard Academy in New London and attacked white sailors. On June 29, 1919, another riot erupted which required the Marines to restore order.


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