Spirit of America Bookstore U.S.  Timeline  –  1901  to  1930 Ancient Times - 3500 B.C.E to 1490 C.E. 1491-1800    •    1801-1900    •    jump to 1931-1950    •    1951-1968    •    1969-2000    •    2001-2010 •    2011-2016    •    2017-2018    •    2019-2020    •    2021 to present Turn of The Century    •    World War One    •    Roaring Twenties Era    •    Stock Market Crash Turn  of  The  Century    "All American Ads, 1900-1919" [2005] Edited by Jim Heimann Taschen 10x8 pb [9/2005] out of print/many used 1901: Founding of Quaker Oats Co. by merger of three cereal millers. 1901: Founding of Monsanto Chemical Company in St. Louis, Missouri; today's sprawling international behemoth Monsanto Company agrichemical concern is being purchased for $66B by pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG [est. 1863] of Germany. 1901 Jan 10: The Lucas Gusher erupted in the Spindletop oil field in Beaumont, Texas - the start of the Texas oil boom. 1901 Jan 22: Britain's Queen Victoria died at age 91, succeeded by her son the long-time Prince of Wales, as Edward VII. 1901 Feb 1: Birthday of actor Clark Gable in Cadiz, Ohio; he died in 1960 in Los Angeles, California. 1901 Feb 25: Birthday of Herbert Manfred 'Zeppo' Marx in New York City; the youngest member of 'The Marx Brothers' comedy team died in Palm Springs, California in 1979. 1901 Feb 25: Financier J.P. Morgan [1837-1913] founded the United States Steel Corporation. 1901 April 23: Birthday of mystery author George Harmon Coxe, Jr. in Olean, New York; he died in Hilton Head, South Carolina in 1984. 1901 April 25: Gov. Benjamin Barker Odell of New York signed an automobile registration bill that imposed a 15 mile-per-hour speed limit on all highways. 1901 Sept 2: Vice President Theodore Roosevelt offered the advice "Speak softly and carry a big stick" in a speech at the Minnesota State Fair. 1901 Sept 6: President McKinley was shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. 1901 Sept 14: President McKinley died from gunshot wounds inflicted by an anarchist assassin eight days prior; Vice President Theodore Roosevelt became President. 1901 Oct 16: Civil rights leader Booker T. Washington [1856-1915] dined at the White House as a guest of President Theodore Roosevelt, sparking an uproar among American bigots. 1901 Nov 27: U.S. Army War College established in Washington, DC. 1901 Dec 5: Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois; he died in 1966 in Burbank, California. 1901 Dec 10: First announcement of recipients of the Nobel Prizes. (The Prize in Economic Science was added in 1969.) 1902 Founding of J.C. Penney's first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming. First description of the American-style hamburger, a recipe that combined ground beef, chopped onion, and pepper. National Biscuit Company introduced their Animal Crackers® cookies; later in the year, they introduced the colorful box designed with a string for hanging on Christmas trees. 1902 Feb 4: Birthday of aviator Charles Lindbergh in Detroit, Michigan; he died in 1974. 1902 Feb 9: Birthday of Fred Charles Harman II in St. Joseph, Missouri; he created and drew the Red Ryder & Little Beaver comic strip in 1938; after he retired in 1963, he produced award-winning Western-themed fine art; he died in 1982 at age 79. 1902 Feb 27: Birthday of author John Steinbeck in Salinas, California; he died in 1968. 1902 March 4: Founding of the American Automobile Club in Chicago, Illinois. 1902 April 2: First motion picture theater was established, by Thomas L. Tally as part of a carnival in Los Angeles, California. 1902 May 19: The Fraterville Mine Disaster in Tennesse killed 216 miners. 1902 May 20: U.S. ended control of Cuba; Republic of Cuba was founded under President Tomas Estrada Palma. 1902 June 15: Beginning of service of the New York Central Railroad's '20th Century Limited' express passenger train between New York City and Chicago; the last run was on 3 December 1967. 1902 July 19: Birthday of pulp mystery author Robert Leslie Bellem in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; he died in 1968. 1902 Aug 9: Edward VII was crowned King of England, succeeding his mother Queen Victoria. 1902 Aug 12: The International Harvester Company was formed by merger of McCormick Harvesting Machine Co., Deering Harvester Co., and several smaller manufacturers. 1902 Sept 1: Premiere of cinema pioneer Georges Méliès's short film "Le Voyage dans La Lune (A Trip To The Moon)" in Paris, France. 1902 Dec 9: Birthday of writer Lucius Beebe in Wakefield, Massachusetts; he died at age 63 in Hillsboro, California in 1966. 1903: James L. Kraft began a wholesale cheese business in Chicago. 1903: Launch of Crayola™ crayons brand. 1903 Feb 14: Founding of the U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor (split in March 1913). 1903 June 16: Henry Ford [1863-1947] founded the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan. 1903 June 22: Birthday of bank robber John Dillinger in Indianapolis, Indiana; he was shot by Federal agents in Chicago, Illinois in 1934. 1903 June 25: Birthday of British author George Orwell in India; he is most famous for "Animal Farm" [1945 novel] and "Nineteen Eighty-Four" [1949 novel], and died in London, England in 1950 at age 46. 1903 June 30: Hanna Mine Disaster in Wyoming killed 169 miners; deaths are blamed on the Union Pacific Coal Company's greed-based 'gouging' practices intended to get coal out of the mine faster. 1903 Aug: Formation of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a re-merger of T.D.I.U. & T.N.U. led by Samuel Gompers [1850-1924] of the A.F. of L. 1903 Sept 1: Massachussetts was the first state to pass a law requiring license plates on automobiles. 1903 Sept 21: Birthday of visionary auto-maker Preston Tucker near Capac, Michigan; he died in 1956. 1903 Nov 3: Panama proclaimed its independence from Colombia. 1903 Dec 15: New York City street vendor Italo Marchiony received a patent for an ice cream cone mold; the cones became wildly popular with visitors to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri in 1904. 1903 Dec 17: The Wright Brothers (Orville & Wilbur) flew the first successful manned aeroplane flights in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. 1904: Tassell Pharmacy owner David Strickler invented the banana split, per claim of Latrobe, Pennsylvania. {see 1907 Wilmington, Ohio claim} 1904: Founding of Brach's Palace of Sweets candy company in Chicago. 1904 Feb 26: The United States and Panama proclaimed a treaty of agreement for the U.S. to build a ship canal across the Panama isthmus. (The canal opened in August 1914.) 1904 March 2: Birthday of children's author Dr. Seuss in Springfield, Massachusetts; he died in Laguna Beach, California in 1991. 1904 March 26: Birthday of mythologist Joseph Campbell in White Plains, New York; he died at home in Honolulu, Hawai'i in 1987. 1904 April 22: Birthday of atomic physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer in New York City; he died in 1967 in Princeton, New Jersey. 1904 June 15: Fire erupted aboard the steamboat SS General Slocum in New York City's East River; more than 1,000 people died. 1904 July 13: Birthday of Nobel-laureate Pablo Neruda in Chile; he was arguably the most important Spanish-language poet of the XXth Century; he died in 1973 at age 69. 1904 July 23: Charles E. Menches claimed publicly that he invented the ice cream cone during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri. 1904 Oct 12: Birthday of pulp author Lester Dent in La Plata, Missouri; the originator of the Doc Savage stories died in 1959. 1904 Oct 27: Opening of the I.R.T. (Interborough Rapid Transit Company) in New York City, the first underground rapid transit system. 1904 Dec 27: Opening of J.M. Barrie's stageplay "Peter Pan: The Boy Who Wouldn't Gtow Up" at the Duke of York's Theater in London, U.K. 1905: Delicatessen owner Richard Hellman of New York City introduced the first ready-made mayonnaise. First sports endorsement, when baseball star Honus Wagner put his signature on Louisville Slugger [est. 1884] baseball bats. Pharmacist-grocer Claude A. Hatcher developed the Royal Crown Cola™ soft drink in Columbus, Georgia. 1905 Feb 2: Birthday of philosopher Ayn Rand, who emigrated from Russia to America in 1925; she died in 1982. 1905 March 6: Birthday of James Robert 'Bob' Wills near Kosse, in East Texas; the 'King of Western Swing' and his Texas Playboys band still influence the music business; he died in Fort Worth, Texas in 1975. 1905 June 20: Birthday of playwright Lillian Hellman in New Orleans, Louisiana; she died at age 79 at Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts in June 1984. 1905 June 27: Founding of the Industrial Workers of the World [I.W.W., aka 'wobblies'] trade union in Chicago, Illinois. 1905 Sept 18: Birthday of reclusive actress Greta Garbo in Stockholm, Sweden; she died in New York City in 1990. 1905 Sept 27: Albert Einstein published his famous mass-energy equivalence formula - E=mc² - in the German journal Annalen der Physik. 1905 Oct 14: Birthday of English author and chemist Baron C.P. (Charles Percy) Snow in Leicester, England; he died at age 74 in 1980. 1905 Nov 28: The Sinn Fein political party was founded in Dublin, Ireland. 1905 Dec 5: Frank H. Fleer & Co, of Philadelphia registered the 'Chiclets' (chewing-gum) trademark. 1905 Dec 9: Birthday of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo in Montrose, Colorado; he was one of the Hollywood Ten group sent to prison by Joe McCarthy and H.U.A.C. for contempt of Congress and served 11 months in prison; he died in Los Angeles, California in 1976 at age 70. 1905 Dec 16: First weekly issue of the New York-based entertainment trade publication Variety; the company also published Hollywood-based Daily Variety from 1933 to 2013. 1905 Dec 24: Birthday of billionaire aviator Howard R. Hughes in Houston, Texas; he died in 1976. 1906: Founding of Planters Peanut Company in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Publication of the novel "The Railway Children" by Edith Nesbit [1858-1924]. J.M. Thompson invented the Orange Crush soft drink in Chicago, Illinois; Clayton J. Powel of Los Angeles, California improved the Ward's Orange Crush formula and founded the Orange Crush Company in Los Angeles, California in 1916. 1906 Jan 22: Birthday of author Robert E. Howard in Peaster, Texas; the creator of 'Conan The Cimmerian' died in 1936 at age 30. 1906 April 1: Newly-formed Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Co. in Michigan started production of Kellogg's Toasted Corn Flakes™ breakfast cereal. 1906 April 18: San Francisco earthquake in California, which killed about 700 people; raging fires over the next several days raised the death toll to an estimated 3,000 to 7,000 people. 1906 May 22: The Wright Brothers received the patent for their flying machine. 1906 June 22: Birthday of movie writer-director Billy Wilder in Austria-Hungary; the winner of seven Oscar Awards died in Beverly Hills, California in 2002. 1906 June 26: Bon-Bon Company of New York City registered the Dentyne™ chewing-gum trademark. 1906 June 30: The Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act became law, due to pressure from Harvey W. Wiley's 'pure food' crusade and publication of "The Jungle" by muckraker Upton Sinclair [1878-1968]. 1906 July 12: Wrongly-convicted French Army officer Alfred Dreyfus [1859-1935] - who was pardoned in 1899 - was finally exonerated by the military and returned to active duty with a promotion to Major. 1906 July 29: Birthday of movie comedy actress Thelma Todd in Lawrence, Massachusetts; she died mysteriously in 1935 at age 29 in Pacific Palisades, California. 1906 Aug 5: Birthday of American auteur director John Huston in Nevada, Missouri; he died in Rhode Island in 1987. 1906 Aug 19: Birthday of Philo T. Farnsworth near Beaver, Utah; the inventor of television (in 1927) died in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1971. 1906 Sept 27: Birthday of pulp author James Myers 'Jim' Thompson in Anadarko, Oklahoma; he died in 1977. 1906 Dec 10: President Theodore Roosevelt was the first American to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, for his work to mediate the end of the Russo-Japanese war. 1906 Dec 24: Reginald A. Fessenden of Canada broadcast the first pre-recorded music over the radio from Brant Rock, MA; the potential audience was radio-telegraph operators aboard ship in the Atlantic Ocean; he is considered the first 'disk jockey'. 1907: Hershey's™ Chocolate Kisses® put on the market. 1907 Jan 26: Congress passed the Tillman Act, which prohibited all monetary contributions by corporations to national political campaigns. 1907 Feb 3: Birthday of author James A. Michener in New York City; he died in 1997. 1907 March 14: #8 worst one-day Dow-Jones Industrial Average decline of 8.29% 1907 March 21: U.S. Marines invaded Honduras 'to protect American lives and interests' in the wake of political violence. 1907 May 26: Birthday of actor John Wayne in Winterset, Iowa; he died in 1979 in West Los Angeles, California. 1907 Summer: Ernest R. Hazard invented the banana split at The Cafe, per claim of Wilmington, Ohio. {see 1904 Latrobe, PA} 1907 July 6: Birthday of Mexicana artist Frida Kahlo in Coyoacán, DF, Mexico; her tragic life ended in 1954 at age 47. 1907 July 7: Birthday of sci-fi author Robert A. Heinlein in Butler, Missouri; he died in 1988 near Santa Cruz, California. 1907 July 8: Florenz Ziegfeld staged his first "Follies" on the rooftop Jardin de Paris of the New York Theatre (at 44th & Broadway). 1907 July 13: Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland [1863-1944] of Yonkers, New York filed for a patent on Bakelite, the world's first synthetic plastic; the patent was granted on 7 December 1909. 1907 July 21: Birthday of children's author Franklin Folsom in Boulder, Colorado; after writing over 80 books, mostly for children, he died in 1995 at age 88. 1907 Aug 1: Beginning of the U.S. Air Force, as the U.S. Army Signal Corps established an aeronautical division. 1907 Aug 28: Founding of the American Messenger Co. in Seattle, Washington, which evolved into today's United Parcel Service. 1907 Oct 17: Guglielmo Marconi began limited commercial wireless telegraph service between Nova Scotia and Ireland. 1907 Oct 21: The financial 'Panic of 1907' began with a run on the Knickerbocker Trust Company of New York, dragging stocks down 37%.    "The Money Changers" [1908] by Upton Sinclair [1878-1968] A novel about the Wall Street Panic of 1907, a financial disaster brought on deliberately by powerful banking barons intent upon the ruin of their rivals. Kindle Edition from Public Domain Books [6/2004 edition] for FREE! Dodo Press 8¾x5¾ pb [10/2007] for $1.50 {sic} Aegypan 9x6 hardcover [9/2006] for $24.95    "The Panic of 1907: Lessons Learned From The Market's Perfect Storm" [2007] by Robert F. Bruner & Sean D. Carr Wiley 9x6 hardcover [8/2007] for $19.77 book excerpt (text) at N.P.R. 1907 Nov 16: Oklahoma was admitted to the Union as the 46th state. 1907 Nov 19: Birthday of Western author Jack Schaefer in Cleveland, Ohio; he died in New Mexico at age 83 in 1991. 1907 Nov 28: Future movie producer Louis B. Mayer [1884-1957] opened his first movie theater, in Haverhill, Massachusetts. 1907 Nov 30: Birthday of historian Jacques Barzun in France; he died in San Antonio, Texas in 2012 at age 104. 1907 Dec 6: The Monongah Mine Disaster in West Virginia killed 362 men and boys; still the worst mining disaster in U.S. history. 1907 Dec 19: The Darr Mine Disaster in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania killed 239 men and boys (recent research suggests that the death toll was hundreds higher).    "America, 1908: The Dawn of Flight, The Race To The Pole, The Invention of The Model T, and The Making of A Modern Nation" [2007] by Jim Rasenberger Scribner's 9x6&frac4 hardcover [11/2007] for $17.82 1908: Founding of the Independent Halvah & Candies Company in Manhattan to manufacture a version of the Turkish confection made with crushed sesame seeds, honey & soya protein; company name later changed to The Joyva Corporation. 1908: Buick, Cadillac, Oldsmobile & Oakland {later Pontiac) merged to form General Motors. 1908 Jan 7: Killing of the last grizzly bear in California – leaving only the one on the state flag. 1908 Jan 9: Birthday of existentialist & feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir in Paris, France where she died at age 78 in 1986. 1908 Jan 11: Grand Canyon National Monument established by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt; it was made a National Park in 1919. 1908 March 22: Birthday of Western author Louis L'Amour in Jamestown, North Dakota; he died in 1988 in Glendale, California. 1908 April 25: Birthday of broadcaster Edward R. Murrow in Greensboro, North Carolina; he died in Pawling, New York in 1965. 1908 June 30: An asteroid exploded above remote Siberia in Russia, called the Tunguska Event, which left 800 square miles of scorched or blown-down trees. 1908 July 26: U.S. Attorney General ordered creation of a force of special agents that was a forerunner of the F.B.I. 1908 Aug 8: Inventor-aviator Wilbur Wright made his first public flight. 1908 Aug 14: Race riot in Springfield, Illinois with a white mob setting black-owned homes & businesses ablaze; at least two blacks and five whites died in the violence. 1908 Aug 27: Birthday of Lyndon Baines Johnson in Stonewall, Texas; he became the 36th President of the United States, and died at age 64 in 1973. 1908 Aug 31: Birthday of author William Saroyan in Fresno, California; he died there in 1981. 1908 Sept 4: Birthday of movie director Edward Dmytryk in Grand Forks, British Columbia, Canada; he died in Encino, California in 1999. 1908 Sept 16: Founding of General Motors Company in Flint, Michigan by William C. Durant. 1908 Oct 1: Henry Ford [1863-1947] introduced the 'Model T' automobile. 1908 Oct 15: Birthday of economist John Kenneth Galbraith in Ontario, Canada; he died in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2006. 1908 Nov 14: Birthday of anti-communist demagogue Sen. Joseph McCarthy in Grand Chute, Wisconsin; the man who spurred H.U.A.C. & the Hollywood Blacklist died of acute alcoholism in 1957. 1908 Nov 25: First publication of the Christian Science Monitor newspaper in Boston, Massachu-setts; they switched from a daily format to a weekly newsmagazine format in October 2008. 1908 Dec 26: Jack Johnson [1878-1946] became the first Afro-American to win the world heavyweight boxing title, by defeating Canadian Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia. 1909: "The Harvard Classics" 51-volume set edited by Charles W. Eliot [1834-1926] was published. 1909 Jan 9: First issue of La Follette's Weekly Magazine edited by Robert M. 'Fighting Bob' La Follette [1855-1925]; name changed to "The Progressive Magazine" in 1929. 1909 Jan 28: U.S. ended direct control of Cuba. 1909 Feb 12: Founding of the N.A.A.C.P. {Natl Assn for the Advancement of Colored People}. 1909 Feb 17: Geronimo, the Chiricahua Apache war chief who led the Apaches for twenty years in wars against white invaders of the Southwest United States, died of pneumonia at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. 1909 April 8: Birthday of author John Fante in Denver, Colorado; he died in 1983 in California. 1909 June 9: Alice Huyler Ramsey, age 22, set out from New York City in a four-seater Model DA from Maxwell-Briscoe (her sponsor); her goal of becoming the first woman to drive across the U.S. was realized when she and her party arrived in San Francisco, California on August 7. 1909 June 20: Birthday of actor Errol Flynn in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia; he died at a party in Vancouver, BC, Canada in 1959. 1909 July 12: Congress passed the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which allowed for a federal income tax; it was declared ratified on 25 February 1913. 1909 July 25: French aviator Louis Bleriot became the first person to fly an airplane across the English Channel, traveling from Calais, France to Dover, England in 37 minutes. 1909 July 27: Official test of the U.S. Army's first airplane at Fort Myer, Virginia; Orville Wright flew a passenger and himself for one hour and twelve minutes. 1909 Aug 2: The Lincoln/wheat penny went into circulation, replacing the 'Indian head' penny coin. 1909 Aug 14: First event at the new Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a series of motorcycle races. 1909 Aug 19: The first automobile race at the new Indianapolis Motor Speedway. 1909 Nov 13: The Cherry Mine Disaster in Illinois killed 259 men and boys, the result of a series of blunders: an electrical outage resulted in use of kerosene lanterns, which ignited a load of hay for mules working in the mine; moving the hayload ignited timbers of the mine, and reversing the above-ground air-fan caused the fan machinery to catch fire. Twenty-one miners managed to erect a barricade against the fire and smoke and subsisted on trickles of water for eight days before being rescued. 1909 Dec 9: Birthday of actor Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in New York City; he died there in 2000. 1909 Dec 31: The Manhattan Bridge, crossing the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn, was opened to vehicular traffic. 1910: Launch of the 'Tom Swift' Books Series by Edward Stratemeyer [1862-1930], credited to 'house name' Victor Appleby; as-of 2015 there are 104 books in the various 'Tom Swift' series. 1910 Jan 10: Founding of the company that later became Hallmark Cards, when Joyce Clyde Hall arrived in Kansas City, Missouri to sell postcards wholesale. 1910 Feb 8: Boy Scouts of America was incorporated. 1910 March 23: Birthday of cinema master Akira Kurosawa in Tokyo, Japan; he died there in 1998. 1910 May 6: King Edward VII of U.K. died, succeeded by his son (grandson of Queen Victoria) George V. 1910 May 11: Glacier National Park in Montana was established. 1910 May 14: Lakeview Gusher wellhead blowout in Kern County, California deemed 'second-largest ever' oil spill at nine million barrels; finally halted on 14 September 1911. 1910 June 19: Father's Day holiday established in U.S.A.; the local celebration in Spokane, Washington is credited to Sonora Louise Smart Dodd, and later went national. 1910 June 20: Entertainer Fanny Brice [1891-1951] made her official debut with The Ziegfield Follies in New York City. 1910 Aug 26: First demonstration of Thomas Edison's improved Kinetophone device for showing a movie with synchronous sound. 1910 Oct 1: Anarchists dynamited the offices of the Los Angeles Times; 21 employees died and a hundred were injured; the press dubbed the bombing 'The Crime of The Century'.    "American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, The Birth of Hollywood & The Crime of The Century" [2008] by Howard Blum After the bombing of the Los Angeles Times in 1910, the city hired legendary former Secret Service agent William J. Burns to investigate, and he soon had the McNamara brothers in jail. Defense attorney Clarence Darrow quickly realized that the two men were provably guilty, and had them plead guilty; both were sent to prison. The author makes a case that film director David Wark Griffith, newly arrived in the outpost of Hollywood, perceived great drama in the bombing and trial and used elements of the story in his 1915 epic "The Birth of A Nation". Three Rivers Press 8x5 pb [10/2009] for $10.20 Crown 9¼x6 hardcover [9/2008] for $16.47 1910 Oct 5: King Manuel I of Portugal abdicated in the face of a coup d'etat and the country was proclaimed a republic. 1910 Oct 9: A coal dust explosion at the Starkville Mine in Colorado killed 56 miners. 1910 Nov: The secret meeting of U.S. bankers and financiers and government officials on Jekyl Island in Georgia to design a central bank for the U.S., the U.S. Federal Reserve. 1910 Nov 14: Eugene B. Ely became the first aviator to take off from a ship; his Curtiss pusher aeroplane rolled off a sloping platform built on the bow of the light cruiser USS Birmingham at Hampton Roads, Virginia, lightly touched the surface of the water, then landed on a beach. 1910 Nov 20: A revolution led by Francisco I. Madero broke out in Mexico; it ended in December 1920. 1910 Nov 27: Official opening of Pennsylvania Station in New York City. 1910 Dec 19: First commercial production of the artificial fiber Rayon, at American Viscose Co. in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania. 1911: Frank & Ethel Mars started making and selling a variety of butter-cream candies from the kitchen of their home in Tacoma, Washington; in 1922, they started Mar-O-Bar Company in Minneapolis to manufacture chocolate candy bars; later incorporated as Mars, Inc. 1911 Jan 18: Eugene B. Ely became the first aviator to land on a ship; his Curtiss pusher aeroplane flew from Tanforan Airfield in San Bruno, California and landed on a platform built on the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay. 1911 Feb 6: Birthdate of Ronald Reagan in Tampico, Illinois; he served as Governor of California [1967-75] & U.S. President [1981-89], and died in Los Angeles, California in 2004. 1911 Feb 27: Charles F. Kettering demonstrated his electric automobile starter on a Cadillac in Detroit (replacing the need for hand-cranking). 1911 March 13: Birthday of sci-fi author L. Ron Hubbard [1911-86], founder of the bogus Scientology religion. 1911 March 25: Tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City; 146 workers and managers died due to unsafe work conditions, including fire doors nailed shut. 1911 March 26: Birthdate of playwright Thomas Lanier 'Tennessee' Williams in Columbus, Mississippi; he died in New York City in 1983. 1911 April 8: An explosion at the Banner Coal Mine in Littleton, Alabama killed 128 men; all but five were Afro-American convicts sentenced to hard labor for minor crimes. 1911 June 16: Founding merger of the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, renamed International Business Machines, Inc. in 1924. 1911 June 22: Britain's King George V [1865-1936] was crowned at Westminster Abbey in London. 1911 July 24: Young Yale University professor Hiram Bingham III discovered the now-famous citadel of Machu Picchu, an ancient 'city in the clouds' high in the Andes Mountains in Peru.    "Turn Right At Machu Picchu: Rediscovering The Lost City One Step At A Time" [2011] by Mark Adams Kindle Edition from Plume [6/2011] for $9.99 Plume 8x5¼ pb [4/2012] for $10.88 Dutton Adult 9¼x6¼ hardcover [6/2011] for $17.79 Dutton Adult hardcover [6/2011] out of print/used Dutton Adult hardcover [6/2011] out of print/used 1911 Aug 8: President Taft signed a law raising the number of members in Congress from 391 to 433, with one each to be added when Arizona & New Mexico became states. 1911 Aug 15: Procter & Gamble Company introduced Crisco®, the first solidified shortening product made entirely of vegetable oil. 1911 Sept 17: Calbraith P. Rodgers set off in a Wright biplane on the first East-West crossing of the continent; the trip from Sheepshead Bay, New York to Pasadena, California took 49 days and 69 stops. 1911 Oct: California became the sixth state to give women the vote (by a very narrow margin). 1911 Oct 10: Chinese revolutionaries launched an uprising that led to the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912. 1911 Oct 11: Publication of J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan" novel "Peter and Wendy" in U.K. and U.S.A. 1911 Nov 3: Documents completed establishing the Chevrolet Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, which was merged into General Motors in 1918. 1911 Nov 5: Birthdate of Leonard Franklin Slye in Cincinnati, Ohio; he later became famous as singing cowboy Roy Rogers, and died in Apple Valley, California in 1998 at age 86. 1911 Nov 17: Founding of the Afro-American fraternity Omega Psi Phi at Howard University in Washington, DC. 1911 Dec 14: Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his team reached the South Pole first, beating the British expedition led by Robert F. Scott. 1912 Chocolate sales in Cleveland, Ohio fell in warm weather, so Clarence A. Crane invented candy mints with a hole in the middle, calling them Life Savers. Cracker Jack® began including "A Prize In Every Box". Founding of growers cooperative California Associated Raisin Company; launched Sun-Maid Raisin brand in 1915. Whitman's Sampler boxed candy was introduced by Whitman's Candies [est. 1842] of Philadelphia. 1912 Jan 1: The Republic of China was established under President Sun Yat-Sen. 1912 Jan 6: New Mexico was admitted to the Union as the 47th state. 1912 Jan 8: Founding of the South African Native National Congress political party in South Africa; it was renamed the African National Congress in 1923. 1912 Jan 11: 'Bread and Roses Strike' began at American Woolen Company factories in Lawrence, Massachussets, with support of the I.W.W.; 20,000 workers - mostly women & children - stayed out for two months. 1912 Jan 22: Opening of the Florida Keys Over-Sea Railroad built by Henry Flagler, which operated until severely damaged by the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935. (In 1912, Key West was Florida's largest city, a bustling deep-water port.) 1912 Feb 14: Arizona was admitted to the Union as the 48th state. 1912 March 4: Groundbreaking for Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team; structure was demolished in 1960. 1912 March 6: Launch of Nabisco's Oreo® Cookies. 1912 April 13: Founding of Britain's Royal Flying Corps, predecessor to the Royal Air Force. 1912 April 15: Sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic ocean liner after striking an iceberg off Newfoundland on its maiden voyage from England to New York; 1,514 people died, 710 survived. 1912 April 20: Fenway Park in Boston hosted its first professional baseball game (Red Sox vs. the New York Highlanders) and Navin Field (now Tigers Park) opened in Detroit, hosting a game against Cleveland. 1912 April 22: Founding of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce at the National Commercial Conference in Washington, DC. 1912 April 30: Founding of the Universal Film Manufacturing Company in New York City, by the merger of eight smaller businesses; company is now Universal Studios. 1912 May 16: Birthday of Pulitzer Prize-winning broadcast journalist Louis 'Studs' Terkel in New York City; he died in Chicago, Illinois in 2008 at age 96. 1912 June 4: Massachusetts passed a milestone of U.S. labor law, the nation's first minimum-wage law. 1912 June 6: The greatest volcanic eruption of the XXth Century took place in Alaska creating the Novarupta Volcano; event took several days and spewed 30 times as much debris as Mount St. Helens did in 1980. 1912 June 23: Birthday of British computer genius Alan Turing [1912-54] in London, England. 1912 July 4: The 48-star U.S. flag became official, recognizing newly-admitted states New Mexico and Arizona. 1912 July 7: Horn & Hardart of Philadelphia opened an 'Automat' cafeteria at Broadway & East 14th Street in New York City, which caused a sensation.    "The Automat: The History, Recipes & Allure of Horn & Hardart's Masterpiece" [2002] by Lorraine B. Diehl & Marianne Hardart Clarkson Potter 7¾x7¾ hardcover [11/2002] for $12.24 1912 July 14: Birthday of folk music legend Woody Guthrie in Okemah, Oklahoma; he died at age 55 of Huntington's disease in New York City in 1967. 1912 July 26: Edison Studios in New Jersey released the silent serial "What Happened To Mary", considered to be the first movie serial. 1912 Aug 1: The first U.S. Marine Corps pilot Lt. Alfred A. Cunningham flew solo for the first time, in a Burgess/Curtis Hydroplane at Marblehead Harbor in Massachusetts. 1912 Aug 12: Birthday of movie director Samuel Fuller in Worcester, Massachusetts; he died in Hollywood, California in 1997. 1912 Aug 12: Comedy actor & producer Mack Sennett [1880-1960] founded the Keystone Pictures Studio in Edendale (East Hollywood), California. 1912 Sept 12: Jungle character 'Tarzan' first appeared in print, in serialized "Tarzan of The Apes" by Edgar Rice Burroughs [1875-1950] in The All-Story Magazine. 1912 Oct 14: The First Balkan War broke out as Bulgarian, Serbian and Montenegrin forces attempted to force the Ottoman Empire out of the Balkans. 1912 Oct 14: Former president Theodore Roosevelt was shot in the chest during a campaign stop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin by New York saloon keeper John Schrank; Roosevelt went ahead with his speech, declaring that "it takes more than one bullet to kill a bull moose". 1912 Nov 5: Democratic Party candidate Woodrow Wilson won the election for president with 41.8% of the popular vote, beating a 'split ticket' of Progressive Theodore Roosevelt (27.4%), Republican William Howard Taft (23.2%), and Socialist Eugene V. Debs (6%). 1912 Nov 28: Albania proclaimed its independence from the Ottoman Empire. 1912 Dec 28: Operations began of San Francisco's Municipal Railway as the Mayor took controls of Streetcar #1 before a crowd of 50,000. 1913 Jan 1: The U.S. Parcel Post system began operation. 1913 Jan 9: Birthday of Richard M. Nixon in Yorba Linda, California; he died in 1994 in New York City. 1913 Jan 11: The first sedan-type automobile, by Hudson Motors, went on display at the 13th National Automobile Show in New York City. 1913 Jan 18: Birthday of entertainer Danny Kaye in Brooklyn, New York; he died in Los Angeles, California in 1987. 1913 Feb 2: Official opening of the Grand Central Terminal that replaced Grand Central Depot in New York City. 1913 Feb 4: Birthday of civil rights activist Rosa Parks in Tuskegee, Alabama; she died in 2005 in Detroit, Michigan. 1913 Feb 13: Silk-workers labor strike in Paterson, New Jersey, supported by the I.W.W.; the work stoppage lasted six months and ended in failure. 1913 Feb 21: Mexico's revolutionary leader Francisco I. Madero was assassinated. 1913 Feb 25: 16th Amendment providing for a federal income tax was ratified and declared to be in effect. 1913 March 1: Birthday of author Ralph Ellison in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; he died in 1994. 1913 March 14: Department of Labor signed into law by President Taft (split off from Dept. of Commerce & Labor [est. February 1903]). 1913 April 17: Incorporation of the town of Palm Beach, Florida. 1913 April 29: Swedish-born engineer Gideon Sundback of New Jersey received a U.S. patent for a 'separable fastener', later known as the zipper. 1913 May 9: 17th Amendment providing for popular election of U.S. Senators (rather than selection by state legislators) was ratified. 1913 May 19: California Gov. Hiram Johnson signed the Webb-Hartley Law, which prohibited 'aliens ineligible to citizenship' from owning farm land (targeting Asians, especially Japanese). 1913 May 30: With hostilities halted and the Ottoman Empire defeated, the Treaty of London officially ended the First Balkan War; Ottoman territories were divided up among Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia, and Albania was established as a new country. 1913 May 31: 17th Amendment declared to be in effect. 1913 June 20: Birthday of mystery author Lilian Jackson Braun in Massachusetts; she wrote 29 "The Cat Who ..." novels and died in 2011 at age 97. 1913 June 29: The Second Balkan War broke out as Bulgaria attacked former allies Serbia and Greece. 1913 July 31: As foreign troops in the Second Balkan War approached Sofia, defeated Bulgaria asked for an armistice; the Treaty of Bucharest was formally signed on 10 August. 1913 Aug 13: British metallurgist Harry Brearley developed an alloy that became known as 'stainless steel'. 1913 Oct 10: Completion of the Panama Canal, as President Wilson sent a telegraph signal from the White House that triggered destruction of a section of the Gamboa dike. 1913 Nov 5: Completion ceremony for the Los Angeles Aquaduct at the Sylmar Cascade bringing water 223 miles from the Owens Valley to Los Angeles (see L.A. Aquaduct 100th Anniversary website). 1913 Dec 1: Opening of the first U.S. drive-in service station for automobiles, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 1913 Dec 21: The first newspaper 'word-cross' puzzle was published in the New York World, invented by editor Arthur Wynne. 1913 Dec 23: Enactment by Congress of the Federal Reserve Act that created the Federal Reserve central banking system in the U.S.; immediately signed into law by President Wilson. 1914: Morton Salt® introduced the Umbrella Girl with the slogan 'When it rains it pours'. 1914: William Wrigley Jr. introduced Doublemint brand chewing gum. 1914 Feb 5: Birthday of Beat writer William S. Burroughs in St. Louis, Missouri; he died in Lawrence, Kansas in 1997. 1914 Feb 12: Groundbreaking ceremonies for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. 1914 Feb 13: Founding of the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers {A.S.C.A.P.} in New York City. 1914 April 20: 'The Ludlow Massacre': Colorado National Guard troops opened fire with machine guns on a tent city of 1,200 strikers and their families; 9 strikers, 2 women & 11 children died. The Ludlow Massacre Memorial Monument is just off I-25 at Exit 27 in SE Colorado. 1914 May 8: W.W. Hodkinson [1881-1981] merged 11 film rental bureaus and founded Paramount Pictures, the first national U.S. film distributor.

World  War  One War Film Festival - World War I Movies 1914 June 28: Austria's Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sofia were assassinated in Sarajevo by a Serb nationalist, setting off World War I. 1914 June 27: Transcontinental telephone lines completed by AT&T between San Francisco and New York City. 1914 July 23: Austria-Hungary presented a list of demands to Serbia following the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand; Serbia's refusal to agree to all the demands of the ultimatum led to the outbreak of war. 1914 July 29: First transcontinental telephone conversation, a test on AT&T lines between San Francisco and New York City. 1914 Aug 3: Germany declared war on France. 1914 Aug 4: Britain declared war on Germany; the United States proclaimed its neutrality. 1914 Aug 15: The Panama Canal opened to traffic. 1914 Aug 23: Japan declared war against Germany. 1914 Sept 5-12: First Battle of The Marne, with French & British forces halting the advance of the German Army toward Paris. 1914 Sept 12: #1 worst one-day Dow-Jones Industrial Average decline of 24.39%. 1914 Sept 26: The Federal Trade Commission was signed into law by President Wilson. 1915: The second Ku Klux Klan was formally founded atop Stone Mountain, near Atlanta, Georgia; membership peaked in the early 1920s at an estimated 4 million, but dropped to 30,000 by 1930, and the group faded away during World War II. 1915 Jan 6: Birthday of Buddhist teacher Allan W. Watts in Chislehurst, Kent, England; he died in San Francisco in 1973. 1915 Jan 12: The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote, by a 204 to 174 vote. 1915 Jan 21: Founding of the Kiwanis Club, in Detroit, Michigan. 1915 Jan 25: Alexander Graham Bell inaugurated U.S. transcontinental telephone service with major fanfare connected to the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Diego, California. 1915 Jan 28: Congress established the Coast Guard by merging the Life-Saving Service and the Revenue Cutter Service. 1915 Feb 8: Premiere of D.W. Griffith's epic "The Birth of A Nation" at Clune's Auditorium in Downtown Los Angeles, California {under original title of "The Clansman"}. 1915 Feb 12: Ceremonial laying of the cornerstone of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. 1915 April 5: Boxer Jess Willard [1881-1968] knocked out Texan Jack Johnson [1878-1946] in the 26th round of their fight in Havana, Cuba to claim boxing's heavyweight title; Willard reigned until he was severely beaten by Jack Dempsey in July 1919. 1915 April 9: Birthday of author Leonard Wibberley in Dublin, Ireland; he died in 1983 in Santa Monica, California. 1915 April 24: The Ottoman Empire rounded up 250 Armenian political and cultural leaders from Constantinople to Ankara, considered to be the beginning of the Armenian Genocide in Türkiye. 1915 April 25: Allied troops invaded the Gallipoli Peninsula, an attempt to remove the Ottoman Empire from the World War; the campaign was unsuccessful and the eventual victory is celebrated in modern Türkiye. The April 25 date is celebrated in Australia and New Zealand as Anzac Day, in honor of their valiant troops. 1915 May 6: Birthday of actor / filmmaker Orson Welles in Kenosha, Wisconsin; he died in Hollywood, California in 1985. 1915 May 7: A German U-boat torpedoed & sank the British liner R.M.S. Lusitania, with 128 Americans aboard, including author & philosopher Elbert Hubbard [1856-1915] and his second wife Alice Moore Hubbard [1861-1915]. 1915 July 24: Passenger ship SS Eastland rolled onto its side while docked at the Clark Street Bridge on the Chicago River; more than 2,500 people were on board, an estimated 844 people died. 1915 Aug 15: The Panama Canal opened to traffic. 1915 Aug 30: Mexico's revolutionary leader Pascual Orozco was shot to death by U.S. marshals in Texas. 1915 Sept 28: Birthday of Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg in New York City; she and her husband Julius Rosenberg [1918-53] were convicted as atomic spies and electrocuted at Sing Sing Prison on 19 June 1953. 1915 Oct 17: Birthday of author / playwright Arthur Miller in New York City; he died in 2005 in Roxbury, Connecticut. 1915 Oct 23: Tens of thousands of women paraded up Fifth Avenue in New York City demanding the right to vote. 1915 Nov 19: Execution by firing squad of labor leader Joe Hill [1879-1915] in Utah. 1915 Dec 13: Birthday of mystery author Kenneth Millar in Los Gatos, California; he wrote mystery novels and stories using the pen name Ross Macdonald, and died in Santa Barbara, California in 1983. 1915 Dec 18: President Woodrow Wilson, a widower, married widow Edith Bolling Galt at her home in Washington, DC. 1916: First prize in Planters Peanut symbol-design contest given to a 14-year-old boy for a drawing of Mr. Peanut®. California Fruit Canners Association [est. 1898] – the Del Monte® brand – merged with three more canners to form California Packing Corp. Founding of the Orange Crush™ soft drink company in Los Angeles, California. 1916 Jan 16: Mexico's former revolutionary President José Victoriano Huerta Márquez died of cirrhosis in El Paso, Texas. 1916 March 9: Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa invaded the United States at Columbus, New Mexico; 500 Mexican soldiers killed eight U.S. Army soldiers and ten townspeople, burned part of the town, then retreated back across the border; about 80 Mexicans were killed in the attack. 1916 March 15: U.S. Army Major General John J. 'Black Jack' Pershing [1860-1948] led an expeditionary force of 4,800 men into Mexico to capture Pancho Villa; the invasion of Mexico went 400 miles south of the border and various expeditions continued until February 1917. 1916 March 20: The Chicago Cubs baseball team played their first game at Weeghman Park (name later changed to Wrigley Field). 1916 April 12: Birthday of children's author Beverly Cleary in McMinnville, Oregon; she moved to Carmel Valley, California in the 1940s and died there in 2021 at age 104. 1916 April 24: As many as 1,600 Irish nationalist rebels launched the Easter Rising by seizing several key locations in Dublin, Ireland. 1916 April 29: The Easter Rising rebellion in Dublin, Ireland was put down by the British Army. 1916 May 15: A mob of up to 15,000 whites in Waco, Texas attended the lynching of teenage black farmhand Jesse Washington, who was dragged out of the courtroom after conviction for murdering the wife of his employer; he was mutilated, roasted over a fire, and his body burned as townspeople and schoolkids watched and celebrated. 1916 July 15: Founding of Pacific Aero Products Co. in Seattle, Washington which later evolved into Boeing Corp. 1916 July 24: Birthday of mystery author John D. MacDonald in Sharon, Pennsylvania; the creator of Travis McGee died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1986. 1916 Aug 4: The U.S. purchased the Danish Virgin Islands. 1916 Aug 25: Congress established the National Park Service within the Department of Interior. 1916 Aug 28: Birthday of sociologist C. Wright Mills in Waco, Texas; he died in Nyack, New York in 1962. 1916 Sept 5: Release of D.W. Griffith's epic "Intolerance". 1916 Sept 6: Founding of the first-ever self-service grocery store by Clarence Saunders in Memphis, Tennessee; it became the Piggly Wiggly grocery store chain . 1916 Oct 16: Birthday of Western author Frank O'Rourke in Denver, Colorado; he died in 1989. 1916 Nov 7: First woman elected to Congress, Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana. 1916 Dec 14: President Woodrow Wilson vetoed a terrible anti-immigration law. (Congress overrode Wilson's veto in February 1917. 1917: Launch of the Clark bar, the world's first 5-cent candy bar. Patent for the rotoscope animation process awarded to Max Fleischer. The 20-volume "Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction" edited by Charles W. Eliot [1834-1926] was published. 1917 Jan 17: The United States paid Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands. 1917 Jan 31: Germany declared a new policy of unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic Ocean and elsewhere. 1917 Feb: Congress overrode President Wilson's veto of their terrible anti-immigration law. 1917 March 2: Puerto Ricans were granted U.S. citizenship as President Wilson signed the Jones-Shafroth Act. 1917 March 8 (Old Style calendar February 23): Rioting and strikes in Petrograd began Russia's February Revolution. 1917 March 15 (Old Style calendar March 2): Russia's Tsar Nicholas II abdicated in the face of protests that began in February. 1917 April 6: U.S. Congress approved declaration of war against Germany. 1917 May 21: The Great Atlanta Fire burned 300 acres in the Old Fourth Ward, destroying 1,900 buildings and displacing some 10,000 residents. 1917 May 22: 50-year-old black woodcutter Ell Persons, accused of murdering a 16-year-old white schoolgirl with an axe, was captured in transit in Memphis, Tennessee and lynched at the hands of over 5,000 vengeance-seeking whites; he was set on fire, then decapitated and dismembered. 1917 May 29: Birthday of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in Brookline, Massachusetts; he was assassinated on 22 November 1963. 1917 June 4: The first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded. 1917 June 5: All men in the United States between the ages of 21 and 31 were required to register for the draft. 1917 July 2: Rioting erupted in East St. Louis, Illinois; white mobs attacked Afro-American residents, riled up by unionists to combat strike breakers; estimated death toll was 50 people, mostly blacks. 1917 July 3: Round-up among Gallup, New Mexico coal miners by the McKinley County Sheriff who shipped 34 men to Belén, New Mexico by rail; the men were returned after a week when the Governor of New Mexico intervened. 1917 July 6: British officer T.E. Lawrence led Arab forces to capture the port of Aqaba from the Turks. 1917 July 14: Round-up among Bisbee, Arizona copper miners of 1,000-plus suspected 'Wobblies' union members who were herded into boxcars and shipped to Columbus, New Mexico. 1917 July 17: Britain's King George V [1865-1936] decreed that all members of the royal family adopt the surname 'Windsor' and relenquish all German names and titles. 1917 July 28: The Negro Silent Protest Parade along Fifth Avenue in New York City, organized to protest violence against Afro-Americans such as the recent riots in East St. Louis; 10,000 people marched carrying signs, with the only sound a steady and quiet drumbeat; the women wore all white, the men wore all black. 1917 Aug 14: China entered World War I, declaring war on Germany & Austria. 1917 Sept 15: Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky declared Russia to be a republic. 1917 Sept 15: Launch of Forbes Magazine. 1917 Oct 25 (Western Nov 7): Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik party overthrew Russia's Provisional Government led by Alexander Kerensky; known as the October Revolution. 1917 Dec 6: A coal mine explosion in Monongah, West Virginia killed 362 men and boys; the event remains the worst mining disaster in American history. 1917 Dec 6: A French munitions ship collided with a Norwegian vessel at the harbor in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; about 2,000 people died, around 9,000 were injured, and the city's North End was decimated. 1917 Dec 9: British forces captured Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks. 1917 Dec 12: Father Edward Flanagan [1886-1948] founded the Boys Town orphanage outside Omaha, Nebraska. 1918: Invention of the Pogo Stick. 1918: Creation of the Cherry Mash® candy bar at Chase Candy Co. [est. 1876] of St. Joseph, Missouri. 1918 February: Russia finally adopted the Gregorian calendar of October 1582; they skipped 13 days difference. 1918 Feb 1: Opening of Grauman's Million-Dollar Theater in Downtown Los Angeles, California. 1918 March: 'Spanish' influenza pandemic began in Fort Riley, Kansas; in the next year, as many as 100 million people worldwide died from the disease; 28% of the U.S. population were infected, and 675,000 died in the U.S.    "America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918" [1976, rev 2003] by Alfred W. Crosby listed in Los Angeles Times 100 Most Important Books of 1997 Cambridge Univ Press 8¾x5¾ pb [7/2003] for $22.18 Cambridge Univ Press 9x6 hardcover [7/2003] for $64.40    "The Great Influenza: The Story of The Deadliest Pandemic In History" [2004] New York Times bestseller by John M. Barry Kindle Edition from Penguin Books [2005 edition] for $13.99 Penguin 8½x5½ pb [10/2005] for $12.08 Viking 9x6½ hardcover [2/2004] out of print/used the paperback has an Afterword on avian flu 1918 March 9: Birthday of tough-guy mystery author Mickey Spillane; he died in 2006 in South Carolina at age 88. 1918 March 19: Congress approved the Standard Time Act, which included Daylight Saving Time. 1918 May 11: Birthday of physicist Richard P. Feynman in Queens, New York City; he died in California in 1988. 1918 May 12: Birthday of Julius Rosenberg in New York City; he and his wife Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg [1915-53] were convicted as atomic spies and electrocuted at Sing Sing Prison on 19 June 1953. 1918 May 15: The U.S. Post Office began airmail service between Washington DC, Philadelphia, and New York City. 1918 June 5: Arabs began their revolt against rule by the Turkish Ottoman Empire. 1918 June 6: The Battle of Belleau Wood in France shifted as U.S. Marines attacked the German Army; U.S. forces suffered heavy casulaties, but eventually pushed the Germans back. 1918 June 9: Congress established the Distinguished Service Medal. 1918 June 22: A railroad train carrying members of the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus was rear-ended by an empty troop train near Hammond, Indiana; 86 people aboard the circus train died immediately, and 127 were injured in the subsequent fire. The engine driver and the fireman were tried; the jury deadlocked and charges were dismissed. 1918 July 15: Second Battle of The Marne began, as the German Army attacked the French Army at Reims. 1918 July 17: Russia's Czar Nicholas II and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks at Ekaterinburg. 1918 July 18: Second Battle of The Marne continued, as American & French forces launched a counter-offensive against the Germans. 1918 Sept 26: Allied forces began the Meuse-Argonne Offensive against the Germans; the Allies won, the battle ended with the Armistice. 1918 Oct 8: U.S. Army Cpl. Alvin C. York almost single-handedly killed 25 German soldiers and captured 132 more in the Argonne Forest in France; he was immediately promoted to sergeant, and received the Distinguished Service Cross; later awards included the U.S. Medal of Honor. 1918 Nov 9: Germany announced that Kaiser Wilhelm II would abdicate; he fled next day to a life of exile in neutral Netherlands. 1918 Nov 11: Cessation of hostilities at agreed-upon "eleventh hour of eleventh day of eleventh month". Commemorated as Armistice Day from 1919; name changed to Veterans Day as-of 1 June 1954. 1919 Formation by merger of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Publication of the Boston Blackie short stories in book form. Witnessed the largest number of labor strikes of any year in U.S. history.    "1919: Misfortune's End" [2007] novel by Paula Phelan Two American families who have survived the War To End All Wars and the flu epidemic of 1918 experience labor strikes, 500% inflation, and the Volstead Act, along with advances in radio and entertainment and labor-saving household appliances. ZAPmedia 8¼x5½ pb [2/2007] for $14.95 1919 Jan 1: Birthday of reclusive author J.D. Salinger in New York City; he died in 2010. 1919 Jan 18: Opening of the Paris Peace Conference in Versailles, France to negotiate the end of the World War. 1919 Feb 26: Grand Canyon became a National Park, after being a National Monument since 11 January 1908. 1919 April 10: Mexican revolutionary General Emiliano Zapata Salazar was ambushed & killed in Chinameca, Morelos by officers loyal to President Carranza. 1919 May 3: Birthday of folk singer/activist Pete Seeger in Manhattan, New York City; he is most famous for popularizing the song "We Shall Overcome", which became the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement; he died at the age 94 in January 2014, also in Manhattan. 1919 June 14: John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown began the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean, flying a biplane Vickers Vimy bomber from St. Johns, Newfoundland to Clifden, Ireland in 16½ hours. 1919 June 20: Roy Allen opened his first root beer stand in Lodi, California; he partnered with Frank Wright in 1920 to form the A&W Root Beer company. 1919 June 26: First publication of the New York Daily News tabloid newspaper. 1919 June 28: World War I officially ended by the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in France. 1919 July 10: President Wilson personally delivered the Treaty of Versailles to the U.S. Senate and urged ratification; there were not enough votes (two-thirds of members required) to ratify the treaty. 1919 July 31: Germany's National Assembly, meeting in Weimar, adopted a new constitution, creating what historians call the Weimar Republic; the Nazis rendered the constitution irrelevant in early 1933. 1919 Sept 16: Founding of the American Legion by an act of Congress. 1919 Sept 25: President Woodrow Wilson collapsed after giving a speech in Pueblo, Colorado during a speaking tour promoting the Treaty of Versailles. 1919 Oct 2: President Woodrow Wilson suffered a serious stroke at the White House, causing paralysis on his left side. 1919 Oct 17: Founding of the Radio Corporation of America. 1919 Oct 28: Congress passed the Volstead Act, overriding President Wilson's veto, and established Prohibition {of alcoholic beverages}.    "Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, 1919-1933" [2010] by Daniel Okrent Scribner 9¼x6 hardcover [5/2010] for $17.55 1919 Nov 19: The U.S. Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles by a vote of 55-39, short of the two-thirds required for ratification. 1919 December 24: Attempted robbery of an armored truck in Bridgewater, Massachusetts by five men; anarchist Bartolomeo Vanzetti was sentenced to 12-15 years in prison for the crime.    "Red Scare: A Study In National Hysteria, 1919-1920" [1955] by Robert K. Murray Univ MN Press 8½x5¾ pb [1955 edition] for $60.00 McGraw-Hill mass pb [1964] out of print/used McGraw-Hill 8¼x5¼ hardcover [1964] out of print/used

Roaring  Twenties  Era    "All American Ads {of the} 20s" [2004] Edited by Jim Heimann Taschen 10x8 pb [10/2004] out of print/used 1920: Good Humor® chocolate-dipped ice cream bar on a stick was invented by Harry Burt at the Burt Confectionery in Youngstown, Ohio. 1920: Swift & Company introduced E.K. Pond commercial peanut butter; later adopted hydrogenation technology to become the first emulsified peanut butter sold to the public; changed name to Peter Pan Peanut Butter in 1928. 1920 January: J. Edgar Hoover arrested between 6,000 and 10,000 U.S. residents in 23 states in the infamous Palmer Raids; 3,000 of Hoover's arrest warrants were later declared invalid by the Labor Department. 1920 Jan 2: Birthday of author Isaac Asimov in Petrovichi, Byelorussia; he died in 1992. 1920 Jan 10: The Treaty of Versailles went into effect, establishing the League of Nations. 1920 Jan 16: 18th Amendment prohibiting production & sale of alcoholic beverages declared to be in effect, starting the Prohibition Era (later repealed by the 21st Amendment). 1920 Jan 20: Birthday of cinema master Federico Fellini in Rimini, Italy; he died in Rome, Italy in 1993. 1920 Feb 1: Creation of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, by merging the Dominion Police and the Royal North West Mounted Police. 1920 Feb 14: Founding of the League of Women Voters. 1920 Feb 24: The German Workers Party (later the National Socialist German Workers' Party {Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei}, abbreviated N.S.D.A.P., referred to as 'Nazis'), met in Munich to adopt its platform. 1920 April 15: Two employees were killed and nearly $16,000 in payroll money taken at the Slater & Morrill Shoe Factory in South Braintree, Massachusetts; the killers escaped in a car with several other men; anarchists Sacco & Vanzetti were executed for the crime in 1927. 1920 May 16: Joan of Arc [1412-31] was canonized by Pope Benedict XV. 1920 May 19: Striking miners and local police defended the town of Matewan, West Virginia against hoodlums hired by mine owners; the gunfight resulted in 10 deaths, including the mayor. 1920 June 29: Birthday of movie special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen in Los Angeles, California; he died at home in 2013. 1920 Aug 16: Birthday of poet & author Charles Bukowski in Andernach, Germany; he died in San Pedro, California in 1994. 1920 Aug 18: The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees the right of all American women to vote, was ratified when Tennessee became the 36th state to approve it. 1920 Aug 20: Pioneer radio station 8MK in Detroit, Michigan began daily broadcasting; its call letters were later changed to WWJ. 1920 Aug 22: Birthday of sci-fi author / poet Ray Bradbury in Waukegan, Illinois; he died in California in 2012 at age 91. 1920 Aug 26: 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing women the right to vote was declared to be in effect. 1920 Aug 29: Birthday of jazzman Charlie 'Bird' Parker in Kansas City, Kansas; he died in 1955. 1920 Sept 6: Pugilism fans gathered around their radios for the first-ever broadcast of a prizefight; radio station WWJ in Detroit broadcast the match between Jack Dempsey and Billy Miske; the fight lasted three rounds when Miske dropped Dempsey with a K.O. 1920 Sept 16: The Wall Street bombing in New York City; the blast from a wagonload of dynamite at Noon killed 38 and seriously injured 143; case never solved, but the primary suspects were 'Italian anarchists'. 1920 Sept 17: Founding of the American Professional Football Assn. (a precursor of the National Football League) in Canton, Ohio. 1920 Sept 20: Birthday of animator Jay Ward in San Francisco, California; the creator of Rocky & Bullwinkle [1959-64] and other cartoon series died in Hollywood, California in 1989. 1920 Sept 28: Eight members of the Chicago White Sox baseball team were indicted for throwing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds; all were acquitted at trial but were banned from professional baseball for life. 1920 Oct 22: Birthday of counterculture icon Timothy Leary, PhD in Springfield, Massachusetts; he died in Beverly Hills, California in 1996. 1920 Dec 1: Official end of the Mexican Revolution, when Álvaro Obregón [1880-1928] was sworn in as President. 1921 Eskimo Pie™ chocolate-dipped ice cream bar went on the market, produced by Russell Stover Candies®; inventor Christian Kent Nelson in Onawa, Iowa was awarded the patent on 24 January 1922. Character 'Betty Crocker' was created to respond to cooking & baking questions received from a Gold Medal flour advertisement in Saturday Evening Post Magazine. Launch of the Baby Ruth® candy bar. 1921 March 31: The Green & Green Company of Dayton, Ohio introduced Cheez-Its crackers. 1921 May 2: Birthday of cinema master Satyajit Ray in Kolkata (Calcutta), Bengal, India; he died there in 1992. 1921 May 3: West Virginia imposed the first state sales tax. 1921 May 21: Taggart Baking Company of Indianapolis, Indiana introduced Wonder® bread. 1921 May 31-June 1: Race riot in the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma; official death toll was 39 lives (ten whites), but other estimates range from 300 to 3,000 deaths. 1921 July 14: A jury found Italian anarchists Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco guilty in the Braintree robbery & killings; the two were executed for the crime in 1927. 1921 July 18: Birthday of original astronaut John Glenn in Cambridge, Ohio; he was the first American to orbit the Earth, served 24 years as U.S. Senator, flew into space again in 1998 at age 77, and died in 2016 at age 95. 1921 July 29: Adolf Hitler became the führer of the National Socialist German Workers Party. 1921 Aug 9: The Veterans Bureau was established as part of the national effort to consolidate various Veteran programs, specifically for those from World War I; the Bureau only lasted until 1930, but its short history is significant to the establishment of the future V.A. system. 1921 Aug 10: Future president Franklin D. Roosevelt was stricken with polio at age 39 while vacationing at his summer home on the Canadian island of Campobello. (Later research and diagnosis suggests that the true condition was Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS)). 1921 Aug 25: U.S. signed a peace treaty with Germany. 1921 Aug-Sept: The five-day 'Battle of Blair Mountain' in Logan County, West Virginia. Fifty to 100 miners died, 985 were arrested; 10-30 died among those hired by the mining companies. 1921 Sept 8: The first Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey. 1921 Sept 13: Founding of the White Castle hamburger stand chain in Wichita, Kansas by Walter A. Anderson, with cook/partner Billy Ingram. 1921 Oct 5: First broadcast of baseball's World Series on radio, over station WJZ in Newark, New Jersey. 1921 Nov 9: Albert Einstein [1879-1955] was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his theory of Brownian motion per his May 1905 paper on the photoelectric effect. 1921 Nov 11: President Harding dedicated the {temporary} Tomb of The Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, DC. 1922: Chemist Joseph Rosefield added hydrogenated vegetable oil to stabilize peanut butter; the process was licensed to Swift & Company in 1923, becoming the Peter Pan® brand in 1928; Rosefield began marketing the new product as Skippy® Peanut Butter in 1933. 1922: Invention of the hot fudge sundae, at C.C. Brown's Ice Cream Parlor in Los Angeles, California. 1922 Jan 24: Patent for Eskimo Pie™ chocolate-dipped ice cream bar issued to Christian K. Nelson of Onawa, Iowa and Russell Stover of Chicago, Illinois. 1922 Feb 5: Introduction of the Klondike ice cream bar by Isaly Dairy Company in Mansfield, Ohio; the bars sold for just 10 cents apiece - they're technically cheaper now; launched nationwide in the 1980s; currently owned by Good Humor-Breyers, a division of Unilever. 1922 Feb 5: Publication of the first issue of Reader's Digest Magazine. 1922 Feb 21: Crash & explosion of Italy-built Roma semi-rigid hydrogen airship during U.S. Army testing at Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia; 34 crew members died, eleven on board miraculously survived. 1922 Feb 27: The U.S. Supreme Court decision Leser v. Garnett upheld the 19th Amendment, which guarantees women the right to vote. 1922 March 12: Birthday of Beat writer Jack Kerouac in Lowell, Massachusetts; he died in 1969 in St. Petersburg, Florida. 1922 April 14: The Wall Street Journal broke the news story about oil leases that led to Senate investigations and criminal trials known as the 'Teapot Dome Scandal'.    "The Teapot Dome Scandal: How Big Oil Bought The Harding White House and Tried To Steal The Country" [2008] by Laton McCartney Random House Trade 8x5¼ pb [1/2009] for $10.88 Random House 9½x6½ hardcover [2/2008] for $17.82 Blackstone Audio CD-ROM [2/2008] for $22.76 1922 May 30: Dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC by Chief Justice William Howard Taft. 1922 June 10: Frances Ethel Gumm was born in Grand Rapids, Minnesota; she later became famous as singer and actress Judy Garland; she died in 1969 at age 47 in London, England. 1922 June 14: Warren G. Harding became the first U.S. President heard on radio as station WEAR in Baltimore, Maryland broadast his speech dedicating the Francis Scott Key memorial at Fort McHenry. 1922 July 11: Opening of the Hollywood Bowl outdoor concert performance space. 1922 July 18: Birthday of historian & philosopher Thomas S. Kuhn in Cincinnati, Ohio; he died at age 73 in 1996. 1922 Aug 24: Birthday of activist-historian Howard Zinn; he died at age 87 in Santa Monica, California in 2010. 1922 Aug 28: Broadcast of the first-ever radio commercial on WEAF in New York City; the 10-minute ad was for the Queensboro Realty Company, which had paid a fee of $100. 1922 Sept: Clarence Birdseye founded Birdseye Seafoods, Inc. in New York City to process flash-frozen fish fillets. 1922 Sept 11: The British Mandate for Palestine went into effect. 1922 Oct 18: Opening of the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, California. 1922 Oct 18: Founding of the British Broadcasting Company, Ltd. (later renamed the B.B.C.). 1922 Oct 27: First celebration of the annual Navy Day in the U.S. 1922 Oct 27-29: The March On Rome: Black-shirted fascists led by Benito Mussolini [1883-1945] entered the city and pulled off a bloodless coup; Italy's king appointed Mussolini Prime Minister and authorized him to form a government, leading to two decades of Fascist Party rule. 1922 Nov 4: Discovery of the entrance to King Tutankhamen's tomb in Egypt. 1922 Nov 11: Birthday of author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. in Indianapolis, Indiana; he died in 2007 in New York City. 1922 Nov 14: Launch of the British Broadcasting Company's domestic radio service. 1922 Nov 21: White supremacist Rebecca L. Felton was sworn in as U.S. Senator from Georgia, the first woman and the oldest freshman (at age 87) in Senate history; she served only one day. 1922 Nov 26: Birthday of cartoonist Charles M. Schulz [1922-2000] in Minneapolis, Minnesota; he created the Peanuts® comic strip in 1950. 1922 Dec 6: The Irish Free State came into existence per the Anglo-Irish Treaty signed a year earlier. 1922 Dec 6: Publication of James Joyce's "Ulysses"; the book was banned immediately in the U.S. and England; but on this day 11 years later, in 1933, a U.S. federal judge ruled that it was not obscene. 1922 Dec 30: Vladimir I. Lenin proclaimed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. 1923: Russell Stover Candies® went on the market. 1923 Feb 14: Velveeta Cheese Company incorporated in Monroe, New York; bought in 1927 by Kraft Foods. 1923 March 2: Launch of Time Magazine by Henry R. Luce. 1923 April 22: Birthday of iconic pin-up model Bettie Page in Nashville, Tennessee; she died at age 85 in 2008. 1923 May 2-3: First nonstop flight across America took 26 hours and 50 minutes. 1923 June 13: Date of the party given by "Mrs. Dalloway" in the 1925 novel by Virginia Woolf [1882-1941]. 1923 July 13: Official dedication of the 'HOLLYWOODLAND' sign with 50-foot-tall letters to advertise the Hollywoodland real estate development in Beachwood Canyon. 1923 July 20: Mexico's retired revolutionary general Francisco 'Pancho' Villa was assassinated in his automobile in the town of Parral, Chihuahua. 1923 Aug 2: President Warren G. Harding died in San Francisco, California; Vice President Calvin Coolidge became President. 1923 Sept 1: An earthquake of magnitude 7.9 hit Japan, devastating Tokyo and Yokohama; firestorms and typhoon winds caused as many as 140,000 deaths and the loss of 447,000 homes. 1923 Sept 17: Birthday of singer / songwriter Hank Williams in Mount Olive, Alabama; he died while on tour on New Year's Day 1953. 1923 Nov 8: Adolf Hitler's first attempt to seize power in Germany failed; the two-day Munich uprising became known as the 'Beer Hall Putsch'. Hitler and others were put on trial for treason; Hitler served only eight months in prison, during which time he and Rudolf Hess wrote "Mein Kampf". Timelines of History 1924-25 1924 Pyrex® cookware went on the market. First U.S. execution using hydrocyanic gas, of a Chinese tong member at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City. Painted roadway center lines law passed by California legislature after a long campaign by Dr. June McCarroll of Indio, California. Whole wheat flakes ready-to-eat breakfast cereal accidentally invented by a health clinician in Minneapolis; process perfected by George Cormack, head miller at Washburn Crosby Co.; eventually marketed as Wheaties®. Frank Stewart opened the first Stewart's Root Beer Stand in Mansfield, Ohio to supplement his school teacher income during the summer. Stewart's Original Fountain Classics sodapop is now owned by a conglomerate and located in Rye Brook, New York; the Stewart's Drive-In Restaurants chain operates five locations in New Jersey. {See also DJ's Stewart's Root Beer fansite.} Nehi™ soft drinks introduced in Columbus, Georgia. Roy Allen opened the first drive-in restaurant - part of the A&W Root Beer restaurant chain - in Sacramento, California. Iodized salt was introduced in the U.S. A study in 2013 found that this one change in diet raised the country's collective I.Q. 1924 Jan 13: Birthday of philosopher Paul K. Feyerabend [1924-94] in Vienna, Austria; he taught for 30 years at U.C. Berkeley, and died in 1994 in Switzerland. 1924 Feb 8: First coast-to-coast radio broadcast. 1924 Feb 22: Calvin Coolidge delivered the first radio broadcast from the White House. 1924 May 10: J. Edgar Hoover [1895-1972] was appointed Director of the F.B.I. 1924 May 21: 14-year-old Bobby Franks was murdered in a 'thrill killing' by his cousin Richard Loeb and Loeb's fellow University of Chicago student Nathan Leopold, Jr. Both of the Leopold and Loeb team were convicted and sentenced to life in prison plus 99 years. (Loeb was killed by a fellow prisoner in 1936; Leopold was released from prison in 1958.) 1924 June 2: Congress granted U.S. citizenship to all American Indians. 1924 July 4: Caesar salad was invented by restaurateur Caesar Cardini [1896-1956] at the Hotel Cesar on Avenida Revolución in Tijuana, Mexico when holiday crowds depleted other kitchen supplies; the original recipe did not include anchovies, which seems to have been added in Hollywood in the 1940s. 1924 July 30: Birthday of Xicano author José Antonio Villarreal in Los Angeles, California; he died there in 2010. 1924 Aug 2: Birthday of author James Baldwin in Harlem, New York City; he died in 1987. 1924 Aug 5: Debut of Harold Gray's comic strip Little Orphan Annie in the New York Times. 1924 Sept 16: Birthday of actress Lauren Bacall in New York City; she died there in 2014 at age 89. 1924 Sept 28: Two U.S. Army aeroplanes landed in Seattle, Washington to complete the first round-the-world flight, which took 175 days. 1924 Nov: Launch of Wheaties® Whole Wheat Flakes ready-to-eat breakfast cereal. 1924 Nov 25: Macy's Department Store held its first Thanksgiving Parade in New York City. 1925: Beginning of the Goodyear blimp program. 1925 January: Release of the first sound-on-film movie "Come Take A Trip In My Airship" {IMDb}, made from the silent version of March 1924; the 'Song Car-tune Series' animated short by Fleischer Studios used the De Forest Phonofilm sound-on-film process. 1925 Jan 5: Nellie T. Ross of Wyoming became America's first female governor. 1925 Feb 20: Birthday of movie director Robert Altman in Kansas City, Missouri; he died in Los Angeles, California in 2006. 1925 Feb 21: Birthday of film director Sam Peckinpah in Fresno, California; he died in 1984 in Inglewood, California. 1925 Feb 21: Founding of The New Yorker Magazine. 1925 March 13: The Tennessee legislature passed a law that made teaching of evolution there unlawful. 1925 March 18: The Tri-State Tornado swept over 200 miles in 3½ hours, starting in southeastern Missouri, crossing southern Illinois, and ending in southwestern Indiana; some 700 people were killed and over 2,000 injured. 1925 March 21: Tennessee Gov. Austin Peay signed the Butler Act, which made teaching of evolution unlawful in public schools. The Butler Act was repealed in May 1967 {better late than never!}. 1925 April 10: Publication of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel "The Great Gatsby". 1925 May 5: Tennessee schoolteacher John T. Scopes [1900-70] was charged with violating a new state law prohibiting the teaching of evolution. 1925 May 19: Birthday of Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska; he became activist Malcolm X and was assassinated in 1965. 1925 May 27: Birthday of mystery author Tony Hillerman in Sacred Heart, Oklahoma; he died in 2008 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 1925 June 6: Founding of the Chrysler Corporation by Walter Percy Chrysler. 1925 June 29: The magnitude 6.8 Santa Barbara, California earthquake destroyed the historic Downtown, but resulted in only 13 deaths. 1925 July 10: Scopes 'Monkey Trial' began in Dayton, Tennessee. 1925 July 18: German radical Adolf Hitler published "Mein Kampf (My Battle)". 1925 July 21: John T. Scopes was convicted of teaching evolution, and fined $100; conviction later overturned on appeal. 1925 Aug 29: Birthday of Western author Max Evans in Ropes, Texas; he lived for many years in Albuquer-que, New Mexico and died there on 26 August 2020 in hospice care at the V.A. Hospital at age 95. 1925 Oct 3: Birthday of author Gore Vidal in West Point, New York; he died at age 86 at home in Hollywood, California. 1925 Oct 11: Birthday of mystery author Elmore Leonard [1925-2013] in New Orleans, Louisiana. 1925 Oct 13: Birthday of Leonard Alfred Schneider in Mineola, New York; he became the comic Lenny Bruce, and died at age 40 in Los Angeles, California in 1966. 1925 Nov 28: The 'Grand Ole Opry' radio program made its debut on Nashville's WSM. 1925 Dec 12: Opening of the first motel in America, the Milestone Mo-tel Inn in San Luis Obispo, California. 1925 Dec 25: Birthday of anthropologist & author Carlos Castañeda in Peru; he died in West Los Angeles, California in 1998. Timelines of History 1926-27 1926 Frederic J. Fisher [1878-1941] and his brother Charles [1880-1963] sold their Fisher Body Company to General Motors. Montgomery Ward opened its first store in Plymouth, Indiana; the company folded in 2001. The first spring-driven, pop-up toaster was introduced by Toastmaster. Erik Rotheim of Norway invented the aerosol can. 1926 Jan 13: Birthday of English author (Thomas) Michael Bond, CBE; he was best known for his 'Paddington Bear' series of children's books; he died in 2017. 1926 Feb 8: Birthday of Beat author Neal Cassady in Salt Lake City, Utah; he died in 1968 in Mexico. 1926 Mar 6: Birthday of economist Alan Greenspan in New York City; he served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006. 1926 March 16: Dr. Robert H. Goddard successfully launched the first liquid-fueled rocket near Auburn, Massachusetts. 1926 March 17: Publication of bestseller "The Story of Philosophy" by Will & Ariel Durant. 1926 April 3: Dr. Goddard launched his second flight of a liquid-fueled rocket. 1926 April 9: Birthday of publisher-hedonist Hugh M. Hefner in Chicago; he died in 2017 at age 91. 1926 April 21: Birthday of Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor in Mayfair, London; she became Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 and reigned longer than Queen Victoria: 70 years and 7 months; she died in September 2022 at age 96. 1926 April 28: Birthday of (Nelle) Harper Lee in Monroeville, Alabama; her novel "To Kill A Mockingbird" was a bestseller in 1960, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, and the 1962 movie won three Oscar® Awards; she lived pretty much as a recluse and died in 2016 at age 89. 1926 May 18: Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson vanished while visiting a beach in Venice, California; she reappeared a month later, claiming to have been kidnapped. 1926 May 25: Birthday of American jazz trumpeter & composer Miles Davis in Alton, Illinois; he died at a hospital in California in 1991 at age 65. 1926 June 1: Birthday of actress Marilyn Monroe {nee Norma Jean Mortenson, later Norma Jean Baker} in Los Angeles, California; she died in 1962 of a drug overdose, possibly accidental; she was 36 years old. 1926 June 3: Birthday of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in Newark, New Jersey; he died in 1997. 1926 July 2: Congress established the U.S. Army Air Corps. 1926 July 14: Archeologist Frank Figgins found a spear point embedded into the matrix of rock containing 10,000 year-old bones of ancient bison in eastern New Mexico, establishing the existence of what came to be called the Folsom Tradition. 1926 Aug 6: Warner Bros. premiered "Don Juan" in New York City, the first film using the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system (featuring music & sound effects). 1926 Aug 23: The death of silent film actor Rudolph Valentino at age 31 caused a worldwide frenzy among his fans. 1926 Sept: The severe hurricane that devastated Miami, Florida was the final blow that burst the Florida land bubble and led to the economic Great Depression of 1929.    "The Great American Land Bubble: The Amazing Story of Land-Grabbing, Speculations & Booms From Colonial Days To The Present Time" [1932 classic] by Aaron M. Sakolski Martino Fine Books 9x6 facsimile pb [7/2011] for $19.95 Harper & Brothers hardcover [1932] out of print/scarce 1926 Sept 9: The Radio Corporation of America created N.B.C., the National Broadcasting Company. 1926 Sept 23: Birthday of influential jazz saxophonist John Coltrane in Hamlet, North Carolina; he died in 1967. 1926 Oct 14: First publication in book form of "Winnie The Pooh" by A.A. Milne. 1926 Oct 15: Birthday of American writer Evan Hunter {nee Salvatore Lombino} in New York City; he also wrote as Ed McBain; he died in 2005. 1926 Oct 22: Publication of Ernest Hemingway's first novel "The Sun Also Rises". 1926 Nov 15: The National Broadcasting Company debuted with a radio network of 24 stations. 1926 Dec 25: Hirohito became Emperor of Japan, upon the death of his father Yoshihito Emperor Taisho; Hirohito reigned until 1989 and was named Emperor Showa. 1926-27 The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927: After heavy rains from the Summer of 1926 to Spring 1927, the Mississippi River broke out of its levee system in April 1927 in 145 places, flooding 27,000 square miles (70,000 km2) – an area 80 km (50 miles) wide and more than 160 km (99 miles) long. The area was inundated up to a depth of 30 feet (10 meters), causing over $400 million in damages and killing 246 people in seven states.    "Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America" [1997] by John M. Barry Kindle Edition from Simon & Schuster Digital Sales [2007 edition] for $11.14 S&S/Touchstone mass pb [4/98] for $12.24 Simon & Schuster 9½x6¼ hardcover [4/97] out of print/many used    "One Summer: America, 1927" [2013] by Bill Bryson Kindle Edition from Random House/Doubleday [10/2013] for $14.99 Doubleday hardcover [10/2013] for $20.63 1927: Edwin E. Perkins invented Kool-Aid® in Hastings, Nebraska; celebrated at the town's 'Kool-Aid Days' in August. 1927 Jan 7: Launch of trans-Atlantic telephone service, between New York City and London, England. 1927 Jan 29: Birthday of eco-activist / author Edward Abbey in Indiana, Pennsylvania; he died in Tucson, Arizona in 1989. 1927 March 31: Birthday of labor activist Cesar E. Chavez outside Yuma, Arizona; he died in 1993 in San Luis, Arizona. 1927 April 9: After lengthy appeals, Italian anarchists Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco were sentenced to death by Judge Thayer. 1927 May 4: Founding of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. 1927 May 18: Opening of Grauman's [now Mann's] Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California. 1927 May 19-20: Aviator Charles Lindbergh made the first successful solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, traveling nonstop from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, New York to Paris, France in 33.5 hours. 1927 June 1: Launch of the Hardy Boys Mystery Series books from Stratemeyer Syndicate, with publication of the first three books. 1927 June 13: Aviator Charles Lindberg was honored with a ticker-tape parade in New York City. 1927 July 4: Birthday of playwright Neil Simon in The Bronx, New York; he died in 2018 at age 91. 1927 Aug 7: Official dedication of the already-opened Peace Bridge connecting Buffalo, New York and Port Erie, Ontario, Canada. 1927 August 23: Execution of the unjustly-convicted Italian anarchists Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco, along with bankrobber Celestino Madeieros.    "Boston: A Documentary Novel {of The Sacco-Vanzetti Case}" [1928] by Upton Sinclair [1878-1968] A Boston brahmin who is the widow of the ex-governor becomes involved in the social and political turmoil created by the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti. Bentley Publrs 9x6 pb [12/78] out of print/used Bentley Publrs 9x6 hardcover [12/78] for $49.95 Bentley Publrs 9¼x6½ hardcover [12/78] out of print/used    "Sacco and Vanzetti: The Men, The Murders & The Judgment of Mankind" [2007] by Bruce Watson Kindle Edition from Penguin Publng [8/2007 edition] for $12.99 Penguin Books 8½x5½ pb [11/2008] for $13.98 Viking 8¾x6 hardcover [8/2007] for $22.95 more info on Spirit of America Bookstore's Sacco & Vanzetti Page 1927 Sept 7: Invention of all-electronic television by Philo T. Farnsworth [1906-71] in San Francisco, California. 1927 Sept 18: Debut of the Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System [later C.B.S.] with a network of 16 radio stations. 1927 Sept 22: Heavyweight boxer Gene Tunney defended his title against Jack Dempsey in the famous 'long count' fight in Chicago. 1927 Oct 6: Talking pictures arrived with the opening of "The Jazz Singer", starring Al Jolson; the movie featured both silent & synchronous-sound scenes. 1927 Nov 12: Marxist leader Leon Trotsky and Bolshevik politician Grigory Zinoviev were expelled from the Communist Party, and Joseph Stalin became the undisputed ruler of the Soviet Union. 1927 Nov 13: The Holland Tunnel beneath the Hudson River opened to traffic, providing access between Lower Manhattan and New Jersey. 1927 Nov 21: State police fired on striking coal miners at the Columbine Mine in northern Colorado; six miners were killed and dozens were injured. 1927 Dec 2: Ford Motor Company unveiled the 'Model A' automobile, successor to the Model T. 1928 Jolly Green Giant® brand placed on the market. William Dreyer partnered with candy-maker Joseph Edy to found a small ice cream factory in Oakland, California. Launch of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Introduction of the standard 4-foot by 8-foot plywood construction panel. 1928 Feb 26: Official opening of the Moffat Tunnel on the Denver & Salt Lake Railway of Colorado, still in heavy use today by the Union Pacific Railroad. 1928 March 12: Release of "The Treasurer's Report", a hilarious short starring Robert Benchley, which is actually the first ALL-sound movie in general release. 1928 March 12: Collapse of William Mulholland's St. Francis Dam just before midnight in the San Fran-cisquito Valley (now Canyon Country) of Southern California; roughly 400 people died in the flooding. 1928 March 20: Birthday of children's TV host Fred Rogers in Latrobe, Pennsylvania; he hosted the daily "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" TV shows from 1961-2001; he died in 2003 at home in Pittsburgh, PA. 1928 May 15: Birthday of Mickey Mouse, whose first public appearance was at a test screening of the silent b&w cartoon short "Plane Crazy". 1928 June 17-18: Aviator Amelia Earhart [1897-1937] became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, as a passenger with pilots Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon. 1928 June 20: Founding of General Mills, Inc. by merger of 5 companies. 1928 Sept 27: The United States recognized the Nationalist Chinese government of Chiang Kai-shek. 1928 Sept 28: Sir Alexander Fleming of Scotland discovered penicillin, for which he received a shared Nobel Prize in 1945. 1928 Oct 6: Chiang Kai-Shek [1887-1975] became president of China. 1928 Nov 18: The first successful synchronous sound animated cartoon premiered in New York City - Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie", starring Mickey Mouse. 1928 Dec 7: Birthday of philosopher-activist Noam Chomsky in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; he currently lives in Lexington, Massachusetts. 1928 Dec 16: Birthday of author Philip K. Dick in Chicago, Illinois; he died in 1982. 1928 Dec 21: President Calvin Coolidge signed the bill approving the Boulder Canyon Project (Hoover Dam). 1928 Dec 23: The National Broadcasting Company launched their permanent coast-to-coast radio network. 1929 Jan 15: Birthday of civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Atlanta, Georgia; he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee in 1968. 1929 Jan 17: Popeye the Sailor appeared in the first daily "Thimble Theater" comic strip. 1929 Jan 31: Revolutionary Leon Trotsky [1879-1940] and his family were expelled from the Soviet Union. 1929 Feb 14: Gangster Al Capone machine-gunned to death seven rivals in a Chicago garage in the 'St. Valentine's Day Massacre'. 1929 Feb 26: President Coolidge signed legislation establishing Grand Teton National Park. 1929 May 15: Birthday of author Denne Bart Petitclerc in Washington State; he died at age 76 in Los Angeles, California. 1929 May 16: First Academy Awards banquet. 1929 June 7: The sovereign state of Vatican City came into existence. 1929 Oct: Charles Leiper Grigg invented the formula for a lemon-lime patent medicine in St. Louis, Missouri; originally called 'Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda', the brand name was changed to Seven-Up™ and 7Up™ in 1936. 1929 Oct 21: Birthday of sci-fi author Ursula K. Le Guin in Berkeley, California; she lived in Portland, Oregon from 1959 until her death in January 2018 at age 88. 1929 Oct 24: Beginning of the stock market crash – referred to since as 'Black Thursday'. 1929 Oct 28: Stock market crashes! #3 worst one-day Dow-Jones Industrial Average decline of 12.82%, closing at 260.64. 1929 Oct 29: Stock market crashes! #4 worst one-day Dow-Jones Industrial Average decline of 11.73%, closing at 230.07; the infamous 'Black Tuesday' collapse of the New York stock market began America's 'Great Depression'. 1929 Nov 6: Stock market crashes! #5 worst one-day Dow-Jones Industrial Average decline of 9.92%. 1929 Nov 29: First airplane flight over the South Pole, with U.S. Navy Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd, pilot Bernt Balchen & photographer Ashley McKinney aboard.    "All American Ads {of the} 30s" [2003] Edited by Jim Heimann Taschen 10½x8¼ pb [11/2003] out of print/used 1930 Chelsea Milling Co. introduced Jiffy Mixes®. Founding of Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc. by Marcus L. Urann and two other cranberry growers. Harland Sanders began cooking chicken dinners for customers of his service station in Corbin, Kentucky; he was given the honorary title 'Kentucky colonel' by the governor in 1935. Replogle Globes, world leader in map-globe manufacture, established in Broadview, Illinois. Roy J. Plunkett invented Teflon® non-stick surfacing; the patent was granted in 1941. 1930 Feb 14: Publication by Alfred A. Knopf of the hardcover first edition of "The Maltese Falcon" novel by Dashiell Hammett [1894-1961]. 1930 Feb 18: Discovery of the ninth planet Pluto announced by astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona; the orb was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006. 1930 March 19: Birthday of 'free jazz' musician Ornette Coleman; he died in 2015 at age 85. 1930 March 26: Birthday of Beat poet Gregory Corso in New York City; he died in 2001. 1930 April 6: Continental Baking Co. executive Jimmy Dewar invented (Hostess) Twinkies as a use for cream-filled strawberry shortcake machines idled when strawberry season ended. 1930 April 10: Birthday of Xicano labor & civil rights leader Dolores Huerta in Dawson, New Mexico. 1930 April 28-29: Launch of the Nancy Drew Mystery Series books from Stratemeyer Syndicate, with publication of the first three books; a total of 64 novels were published thru 2006. 1930 May 15: Registered nurse Ellen Church flew as the first stewardess or flight attendant, aboard an Oakland-to-Chicago run by Boeing Air Transport (forerunner of United Airlines). 1930 June 17: President Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which boosted U.S. tariffs to historically-high levels and prompted foreign retaliation. 1930 July 3: Congress established the U.S. Veterans Administration; signed into law by President Hoover on July 21. 1930 July 30: Uruguay won the first FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) World Cup. 1930 Aug 30: Birthday of capitalist Warren E. Buffett in Omaha, Nebraska. 1930 Sept 30: Official beginning of the Boulder Dam Project at Black Canyon of the Colorado River. 1930 Oct 9: Laura Ingalls [1893-1967] became the first woman to fly across the United States; her nine-stop journey from Roosevelt Field, NY ended in Glendale, California after 30½ hours. Spirit of America Bookstore's U.S. History Timeline Pages Ancient Times - 3500 B.C.E to 1490 C.E. 1491-1800    •    1801-1900    •    1901-1930 { top of this page }    •   next: 1931-1950    •    1951-1968 •    1969-2000    •    2001-2010    •    2011-2016    •    2017-2018    •    2019-2020    •    2021 to present    Spirit of America's U.S.A. Timeline of the COVID-19 Epidemic    Spirit of America's New Mexico Timeline of the COVID-19 Epidemic

Visiting this webpage from outside the U.S.A.? It is possible to make purchases from these coded Amazon (USA) links
via other Amazon sites: just follow these instructions.

Online sales in association with  

top of this page        back to Spirit of America Bookstore homepage