1921

Centuries:	19th century 20th century 21st century
Decades:	1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s
Years:	1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924
Categories:	Births - Deaths - Declarations Establishments - Publications
Media:	1921 (Events)

1921 was a common year of the Gregorian calendar and a common year of the Julian calendar, the 1921st year of the Common Era (CE), the 21st year of the 20th century, and the 2nd year of the 1920s decade. As of the start of 1921, the Gregorian calendar was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923. 1921 corresponds to the years 77–78 of the Bahá'í Era (BE) according to the Badi calendar.

Events

• February: Ahmad Sháh, last ruler of the Qajar dynasty, is deposed in a coup d'état by Reza Khán, who appoints himself prime minister, ruling thereafter as Reza Sháh Pahlaví.
• February: The Shi'a petition for the possession of the House of Bahá’u’lláh in Baghdád is granted and the Bahá'is are evicted.
• February 1: Leonora Armstrong arrives in Rio de Janeiro as a pioneer.
• March 21: Construction begins on the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár in Wilmette.
• May 19–21: The first Race Amity Conference was held in Washington DC at the old First Congregational Church, a church with a reputation for opposition to racial prejudice. Several prominent Bahá’ís are involved, including Agnes Parsons, Sadie and Mabry Oglesby and their daughter Bertha, and Louis Gregory.
• July 9: Mírzá Asadu'lláh Fádil-i-Mázandarání leaves the United States for the Holy Land.
• August 20: Agnes Alexander becomes the first Bahá’í to visit Korea.
• November 23: A second suit for the possession of the House of Bahá’u’lláh in Baghdad is decided in favour of the Shi'a claimants.
  • Before the application goes before the Court, the Shi'a group prevails upon King Faisal to give an illegal personal order to the Governor of Baghdád to evict the Bahá'ís and then return the keys to them.

Ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

The funeral procession of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Haifa.

• November 29: The funeral of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá takes place, with ten thousand people in attendance.
  • Finding no instructions on where to bury ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Bahíyyih Khánum entombs Him in a vault in the Shrine of the Báb next to the one where the remains of the Báb lay.
• November 29: A cable is sent to London with news of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's passing. Shoghi Effendi, then attending university in Oxford, is summoned to the office of Wellesley Tudor Pole, where he learns of the Ascension after seeing the cable on Tudor Pole's desk.
• November–December: Following the Ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Mírzá Muhammad ‘Alí publishes widely his claim to be the successor of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. The Egyptian Bahá’ís respond by publishing a refutation of his claims. His claims are later made irrelevant upon the reading of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
• December 2: Ethel Rosenberg arrives in the Holy Land, having learned on the train from Port Said of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's passing.
• December 4: On the seventh day after the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, corn is distributed in His name to about a thousand of the poor. Up to this day, 50 to 100 poor were fed daily at the Master's House.
• December 29: Shoghi Effendi arrives in the Holy Land from England by train from Egypt. Upon his arrival, he receives an envelope addressed to him from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá containing His Will and Testament.

Establishments

Local Spiritual Assemblies

Americas

• Visalia, California, USA.

Births

• Gloria Faizi, author.
• April 29: Adib Taherzadeh, member of the Universal House of Justice.
• May 29: Alessandro Bausani, Italian Bahá'í, Islamic scholar, linguist and historian of comparative religions.
• November 10: Andrés Jachakollo, first indigenous Bahá’í of Bolivia.

Deaths

• January 23: Mírzá Ya`qúb-i-Muttahidih is assassinated in Kirmánsháh.
• October 20: Áqá Siyyid Mustafá Tabátabá'í is poisoned in Sangsar. Continual agitation prevents the burial of the body for several days.
• November 28: The Ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá passes away in Haifa and appoints Shoghi Effendi as the Guardian in his Will and Testament. This date marks the close of the Heroic Age of the Bahá’í Faith and the opening of its Formative Age, according to Shoghi Effendi's description.

Publications

• The Bahai Temple: Press Comments, Symbolism by Louis Bourgeois.
• The First Obligation by Lady Blomfield.
• The World of Abdul Baha by Mary Hanford Ford.
• Addresses by Fádil Mazandarání, translated by Mírzá Aḥmad Sohráb.