Spirit of America Bookstore U.S.  Timeline  –  1901  to  1950 up to 1800    •    1801-1900    •    jump to 1951-2000    •    2001 to present Turn of The Century    •    World War One    •    Roaring Twenties Era The Great Depression    •    World War Two    •    Post-War Boom Era Turn  of  The  Century 1901: Founding of Quaker Oats Co. by merger of three cereal millers. 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 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 Sept 6: President McKinley was shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz in Buffalo, New York. 1901 Sept 14: President McKinley died from gunshot wounds inflicted by anarchist assassin eight days prior; Vice President Theodore Roosevelt became President. 1901 Dec 5: Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois; he died in 1966 in Burbank, California. 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 27: Birthday of author John Steinbeck in Salinas, California; he died in 1968. 1902 March 4: Founding of American Automobile Club in Chicago, Illinois. 1902 April 2: First motion picture theater 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 founded under President Tomas Estrada Palma. 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 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 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 August: Founding of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, led by Samuel Gompers. 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 Dec 15: Patent received by New York City street vendor Italo Marchiony 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 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 physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer in New York City; he died in 1967 in Princeton, New Jersey. 1904 July 23: Charles E. Menches claim 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. 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 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 Dec 5: Frank H. Fleer & Co, of Philadelphia registered the "Chiclets" (chewing-gum) trademark. 1905 Dec 24: Birthday of billionaire aviator Howard Hughes in Houston, Texas; he died in 1976. 1906: Founding of Planters Peanut Company in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. 1906: 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. 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 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 by corporations. 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 7: Birthday of sci-fi author Robert A. Heinlein in Butler, Missouri; he died in 1988 near Santa Cruz, California. 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 21: The financial 'Panic of 1907' began with a run on the Knickerbocker Trust Company of New York, dragging stocks down 37%.    "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 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 suggest nthat 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 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 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 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 Oct 1: Henry Ford 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. 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 April 8: Birthday of author John Fante in Denver, Colorado; he died in 1983 in California. 1909 June 20: Birthday of actor Errol Flynn in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia; he died at a party in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1959. 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 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. 1910: Father's Day holiday established in U.S.A. 1910 Jan 10: Founding of 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 11: Glacier National Park in Montana was established. 1910 June 20: Entertainer Fanny Brice made her official debut with The Ziegfield Follies in New York City. 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 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. 1910 Nov 20: A revolution led by Francisco I. Madero broke out in Mexico. 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 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 Tennessee Williams in Columbus, Mississippi; he died in New York City in 1983. 1911 Aug 15: Procter & Gamble Company introduced Crisco®, the first solidified shortening product made entirely of vegetable oil. 1911 Oct: California became the sixth state to give women the vote (by a very narrow margin). 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 introduced by Whitman's Candies [est. 1842] of Philadelphia. 1912 March 6: Launch of Nabisco's Oreo® Cookies. 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 Aug 12: Birthday of movie director Samuel Fuller in Worcester, Massachusetts; he died in Hollywood, California in 1997. 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, went on display at the 13th National Automobile Show in New York City. 1913 Jan 18: Birthday of entertainer Danny Kaye [1913-87] 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 3: 16th Amendment providing for a federal income tax was ratified. 1913 Feb 4: Birthday of civil rights activist Rosa Parks in Tuskegee, Alabama; she died in 2005 in Detroit, Michigan. 1913 Feb 25: 16th Amendment 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 May 9th: 17th Amendment providing for popular election of U.S. Senators (rather than selection by state legislators) was ratified. 1913 May 31: 17th Amendment declared to be in effect. 1913 Oct 10: Completion of the Panama Canal. 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 13: Founding of the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers {A.S.C.A.P.}. 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.    "Blood Passion: The Ludlow Massacre & Class War In The American West" [2007] by Scott Martelle Rutgers Univ Press pb [8/2007] for $17.13

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 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 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%. 1915 Jan 6: Birthday of Buddhist teacher Allan W. Watts in Chislehurst, Kent, England; he died in San Francisco in 1973. 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 March 16: Congress established the Federal Trade Commission. 1915 April 9: Birthday of author Leonard Wibberley in Dublin, Ireland; he died in 1983 in Santa Monica, California. 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. 1915 Aug 15: The Panama Canal opened to traffic. 1915 Oct 17: Birthday of author / playwright Arthur Miller in New York City; he died in 2005 in Roxbury, Connecticut. 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 used the pen name Ross Macdonald, and died in Santa Barbara, California in 1983. 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 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 Deptartment 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 Piggly Wiggly grocery store chain by Clarence Saunders at the first-ever self-service grocery store in Memphis, Tennessee. 1916 Nov 7: First woman elected to Congress, Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana. 1917: World's first 5-cent candy bar introduced, the Clark bar. 1917: Patent for the rotoscope animation process awarded to Max Fleischer. 1917 March 2: Puerto Ricans 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 Apr 6: U.S. Congress approved declaration of war against Germany. 1917 Sept 15: Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky declared Russia a republic. 1917 Oct 25 (Western Nov 7): Lenin's Bolshevik party overthrew the provisional government of Russia, known as the October Revolution. 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 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.    "The Great Influenza: The Story of The Deadliest Pandemic In History" [2004] New York Times bestseller by John M. Barry Penguin 8½x5½ pb [10/2005] for $11.56 Viking 9x6½ hardcover [2/2004] for $29.95 the paperback has an Afterword on avian flu    "America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918" [1997] by Alfred W. Crosby listed in Los Angeles Times 100 Most Important Books of 1997 Cambridge Univ Press 8¾x5¾ pb [7/2003] for $22.99 Cambridge Univ Press 9x6 hardcover [7/2003] for $64.40 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 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 July 15: Second Battle of The Marne began, as the Germasn Army attacked the French Army at Reims. 1918 July 17: Russia's Czar Nicholas II and his family were executed at Ekaterinburg. 1918 July 18: Second Battle of The Marne continued, as American & French forces launched a counter-offensive against the Germans. 1918 Oct 8: U.S. Army Sgt. Alvin C. York almost single-handedly killed 25 German soldiers and captured 132 more in the Argonne Forest in France. 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 1 June 1954.    "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 Feb 26: Grand Canyon became a National Park, after being a National Monument since 11 January 1908. 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 28: World War I officially ended (Treaty of Versailles). 1919 Sept 16: Founding of the American Legion by an act of Congress. 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 15 years in prison for the crime.

Roaring  Twenties  Era 1920: Good Humor® chocolate-dipped ice cream bar on a stick 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 Jan 2: Birthday of author Isaac Asimovin 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. 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 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 19: Striking miners and local police defended the town of Matewan, West Virginia against hoodlums hired by mine owners; the gunfight resulted in 12 deaths, including the mayor. 1920 June 29: Birthday of movie special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen in Los Angeles, California; he lives there still. 1920 Aug 16: Birthday of poet & author Charles Bukowski in Andernach, Germany; he died in San Pedro, California in 1994. 1920 Aug 22: Birthday of sci-fi author / poet Ray Bradbury in Waukegan, Illinois; he lives in California. 1920 Aug 26: 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the 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 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] died in Hollywood, California in 1989. 1920 Oct 22: Birthday of counterculture icon Timothy Leary, PhD in Springfield, Massachusetts; he died in Beverly Hills, California in 1996. 1921 Eskimo Pie™ chocolate-dipped ice cream bar went on the market, produced by Russell Stover Candies®. Character 'Betty Crocker' 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 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 Italian anarchists were executed for the crime in 1927. 1921 Aug 25: U.S. signed a peace treaty with Germany. 1921 Oct 5: First broadcast of baseball's World Series on radio. 1921 Nov 11: President Harding dedicated the 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 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 Sept: Clarence Birdseye founded Birdseye Seafoods, Inc. in New York City to process flash-frozen fish fillets. 1922 Oct 18: Opening of the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, California. 1922 Nov 11: Birthday of author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. in Indianapolis, Indiana; he died in 2007 in New York City. 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 May 2-3: First nonstop flight across America took 26 hours and 50 minutes. 1923 Sept 17: Birthday of singer / songwriter Hank Williams in Mount Olive, Alabama; he died while on tour on New Year's Day 1953. 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. 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 appointed Director of the F.B.I. 1924 June 2: Congress granted U.S. citizenship to all American Indians. 1924 Aug 2: Birthday of author James Baldwin in Harlem, New York City; he died in 1987. 1924 Aug 5: Harold Gray's comic strip Little Orphan Annie began in the New York Times. 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 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 Mar 13: Tennessee law made teaching of evolution there unlawful. 1925 May 19: Birthday of activist Malcolm X in Omaha, Nebraska; he died 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 July 10: Scopes 'Monkey Trial' began in Dayton, Tennessee. 1925 July 21: John T. Scopes was convicted of teaching evolution, and fined $100; conviction overturned on appeal. 1925 Aug 29: Birthday of Western author Max Evans in Ropes, Texas; he currently lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 1925 Oct 3rd: Birthday of author Gore Vidal in West Point, New York; he lives in Los Angeles, California. 1925 Nov 28: The 'Grand Ole Opry' radio program made its debut on Nashville's WSM. 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 first spring-driven, pop-up toaster was introduced by Toastmaster. Erik Rotheim of Norway invented the aerosol can. 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 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. 1926 April 28: Birthday of Harper Lee in Monroeville, Alabama; her Pulitzer-winning novel "To Kill A Mockingbird" was published in 1960, the 1962 movie won three Oscar® Awards.. 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 Miles Davis in Alton, Illinois. 1926 June 1: Birthday of actress Marilyn Monroe {nee Norma Jean Mortenson, later Norma Jean Baker} in Los Angeles, California; she died in 1962. 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 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 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 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 Nov 15: The National Broadcasting Company debuted with a radio network of 24 stations. 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 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 13: Aviator Charles Lindberg was honored with a ticker-tape parade in New York City. 1927 August 23: Executions of unjustly-convicted Italian anarchists Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco, along with bankrobber Celestino Madeieros.    "Sacco and Vanzetti" documentary feature film [indep March 2007] Directed by Peter Miller First Run Features widescreen color DVD [8/2007] for $22.49 full credits from IMDb • official movie site    "Sacco and Vanzetti: The Men, The Murders & The Judgment of Mankind" [2007] by Bruce Watson Viking 8¾x6 hardcover [8/2007] for $17.13    "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 9¼x6½ hardcover [12/78] for $32.00    "Ballads of Sacco & Vanzetti" [1996] by Woody Guthrie Smithsonian Folkways remastered recordings [2/96] for $16.98 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 Oct 6: Talking pictures arrived with the opening of "The Jazz Singer", starring Al Jolson; the movie featured both silent & synchronous-sound scenes. 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. 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 June 17-18: Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. 1928 June 20: Founding of General Mills, Inc. by merger of 5 companies. 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 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). 1929 Jan 15: Birthday of civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Atlanta, GA; he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee in 1968. 1929 Jan 17: Popeye the Sailor appeared in the first dialy "Thimble Theater" comic strip. 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 16: First Academy Awards banquet. 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 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.

The  Great  Depression    "The Great Crash: 1929" [1954 classic] by John Kenneth Galbraith [1908-2006] Mariner Books 8¼x5½ pb [4/97] for $11.20 Houghton Mifflin mass pb [1/61] out of print/many used book entry at Wikipedia    "Great Depression: A Nation In Distress" [YA 1996] by Janet Beyer & JoAnne Weisman Deitch Tandem Library 7¼x5¼ econoclad [10/2001] for $15.25 Discovery Enterprises 7½x5¼ pb [4/96] out of print/used    "The New Deal: Hope For The Nation" [1997] by Cheryl Edwards Tandem Library 7½x5¼ econoclad [10/2001] for $15.25 Discovery Enterprises 7½x5¾ pb [3/97] out of printy/used    "The Hungry Years: America In An Age of Crisis, 1929-1939" [1999] by T.H. Watkins "Maybe the best book ever written about the worst of times in America." — Smithsonian Magazine Owl Books 8¼x5½ pb [9/2000] for $13.26 Henry Holt hardcover[10/99] out of print/many used    "The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived The Great American Dust Bowl" [2005] by Timothy Egan Mariner Books 8¼x5½ pb [9/2006] for $10.17 Houghton Mifflin 9¼x6¼ hardcover [12/2005] for $18.48    ”The Forgotten Man: A New History of The Great Depression” [2007] by Amity Shlaes ”a skeptical critique of the New Deal”, but a thorough history nonetheless HarperCollins 9x6 hardcover [6/2007] for $16.17    "Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke The World" [2009] by Liaquat Ahamed listed Best of 2009 by Time Magazine Penguin 8½x5½ pb [12/2009] for $9.79 Penguin Press 9½x6½ hardcover [1/2009] for $21.75 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. 1930s: Ruth Wakefield is credited with inventing chocolate chip cookies at her Toll House Restaurant in Whitman, Massachusetts, later making a deal with Nestlé to publish her recipe on their packages of semi-sweet chocolate. 1930 March 19: Birthday of jazz musician Ornette Coleman. 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 July 3: Congress established the U.S. Veterans Administration. 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. 1931: Wall Drug Store was founded in Wall, South Dakota. 1931 March 3: "The Star-Spangled Banner" officially became the U.S. national anthem. 1931 March 18: Schick, Inc. put the first electric razor on the market. 1931 March 19: Nevada legalized gambling. 1931 April 7: Birthday of 'Pentagon Papers' whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg in Chicago, Illinois. 1931 May 1: Dedication of the 102-story Empire State Building in New York City. 1931 Oct 4: Debut of the "Dick Tracy" comic strip by Chester Gould [1900-85]; strip ended in 1977. 1931 Oct 5: The first nonstop flight across the Pacific Ocean ended 41 hours 15 minutes after leaving Japan, as pilots Clyde Pangborn & Hugh Herndon, Jr. landed in East Wenatchee, Washington. 1932: Fritos Corn Chips® put on the market, in San Antonio, Texas; merged with H.W. Lay Company in 1961. Skippy Peanut Butter introduced by Rosefield Packing Co. of Alamada, California, under license to Swift & Co.; re-introduced 1 February 1933, in both creamy & new chunk-style forms. Mars Candy Co. introduced the 3 Musketeers® Bar, named for the three flavored sections (vanilla, chocolate & strawberry) inside. James Herman Banning was the first Afro-American to fly coast-to-coast, accompanied by mechanic Thomas Allen. The flight encompassed 42 hours aloft, but took 21 days because they needed to raise money for gasoline at each stop. 1932 March 1: The 20-month-old son of aviator Charles Lindbergh & wife Anne was kidnapped from their home in Hopewell, New Jersey. 1932 May 20: Aviator Amelia Earhart began the first successful solo flight by a woman across the Atlantic Ocean, traveling nonstop from Newfoundland to Ireland. 1932 July 8: The Dow-Jones Industrial Average hit bottom at 41.22 points, a loss of 89.19 percent since September 1929. 1932 July 12: Otto Frederick Rohwedder of Davenport, Iowa received a patent for a bread-slicing machine with multiple cutting bands. 1932 July 18: The Unites States & Canada signed a treaty to develop the St. Laurence Seaway. 1932 July 30: Start of the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, California. 1932 Aug 12: #7 worst one-day Dow-Jones Industrial Average decline of 8.40% 1932 Aug 24: Aviator Amelia Earhart began a 19-hour cross-country flight (from Los Angeles, California to Newark, New Jersey) that made her the first woman to fly solo and non-stop from coast to coast. 1932 Sept 17: Birthday of mystery author Robert B. Parker in Springfield, Massachusetts; he died in 2010. 1932 Nov 8: Democratic New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated incumbent Republican Herbert Hoover for the office of U.S. President. 1932 Dec 27: Opening of Radio City Music Hall in New York City. 1933: First national minimum wage established at 25 cents per hour; the Supreme Court decided that the law was unconstitutional {as written} on 27 May 1935; new minimum wage law enacted in 1938. First version of the Philadelphia cheese steak – sliced, grilled beef & grilled onions piled on a roll – made by Harry & Pat Olivieri at their 'Pat's King of Steaks' hot dog stand near the Italian market in South Philadelphia; the options of Cheez Whiz, provolone, American cheese & pizza sauce were added later. 1933 Jan 30: Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. 1933 Feb 6: 20th Amendment {'lame duck'} declared to be in effect, establishing details of Presidential succession. 1933 Feb 17: Thomas J.C. Martin published the first issue of Newsweek Magazine (then-called "News-Week"). 1933 March-April: President Roosevelt initiated a series of programs called 'The New Deal' to reform the financial system and to restore the American economy. Further laws passed in 1935-36 are referred to as 'The Second New Deal'.    "The New Deal: A 75th Anniversary Celebration" [2008] by Kathryn A. Flynn, with Richard Polese Gibbs Smith, Publr 10x9 pb [5/2008] for $19.00 1933 March 2: The motion picture "King Kong" had its world premiere in New York City, becoming the highest grossing film of 1933. 1933 March 13: The first national radio "Fireside Chat" from President Roosevelt to the American people. (F.D.R. made thirty such broadcasts, the last in June 1944.) 1933 March 31: President Roosevelt signed the bill authorizing the Civilian Conservation Corps; operations were gradually ended after Pearl Harbor. 1933 April 5: President Roosevelt made 'hoarding' of gold illegal, effectively taking the U.S. off the gold standard. 1933 April 13: Police raid in Joplin, Missouri from which outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow and three others (D.W. Jones, brother Buck Barrow, his wife Blanche Barrow) escaped; two officers were killed and Clyde was wounded in the side. 1933 April 19: The United States officially went off the gold standard. 1933 May 27: In response to the economic crisis, Congress passed the First Glass-Steagall Act. 1933 June 6: Opening of the first drive-in movie theater, in Camden, New Jersey. 1933 June 16: Congress passed the Second Glass-Steagall Act, which founded the Federal Deposit Insurance Company, and separated commercial (consumer) banking from investment (speculative) banking. 1933 July 21: #10 worst one-day Dow-Jones Industrial Average decline of 7.84% 1933 July 22: American aviator Wiley Post completed the first solo flight around the world in seven days and 18-3/4 hours. 1933 Dec 5: 21st Amendment ratified by Utah, ending Prohibition. 1934 April 12: Charles Scribner's Sons published "Tender Is The Night" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, after serialization in Scribner's Magazine. 1934 April 18: Opening of the first laundromat (called a 'washateria') in Fort Worth, Texas. 1934 June 6: Founding of the Securities and Exchange Commission. 1934 June 18: Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act, promoted as a 'New Deal' for Native Americans. 1934 June 19: The Federal Communications Commission was created, replacing the Federal Radio Commission. 1934 July 22: Federal agents shot & killed bank robber John Dillinger outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago. 1934 Sept 29: Birthday of mystery author Stuart M. Kaminsky in Chicago, Illinois; he died in 2009. 1935: Nabisco launched Ritz Crackers in the U.S. 1935: Kodachrome™ color 35mm film put on the market (production ended June 2009). 1935 Jan 30: Birthday of poet Richard Brautigan in Tacoma, Washington; he died in 1984. 1935 Jan 24: The first canned beer, Krueger's Cream Ale, went on sale in Richmond, Virginia. 1935 April: President Roosevelt created the Works Projects Administration (shortly renamed Works Progress Administration) to hire the unemployed to construct and repair local public buildings, roads & other infrastructure, and to operate large arts, drama, media & literacy projects.    "American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of The W.P.A. - When F.D.R. Put The Nation To Work" [2008] by Nick Taylor Bantam 9¾x6 hardcover [2/2008] for $17.92 Random House official booksite 1935 April 14: Great Plains Dust Storm, per song by Woody Guthrie. 1935 June 10: Founding of Alcoholics Anonymous in Akron, Ohio. 1935 July 16: Oklahoma City installed the first parking meters. 1935 Aug 14: The Social Security Act was signed into law by President Roosevelt. 1935 Sept 17: Birthday of author Ken Kesey in La Junta, Colorado; he died in Pleasant Hill, Oregon in 2001. 1935 Sept 30: Boulder Dam on the Colorado River was dedicated by President Roosevelt.    "Boulder Dam" [1963 novel] by Zane Grey [1872-1939] Novel based on the real-life labor strife during the building of the hydroelectric dam across Black Canyon on the Colorado River. Harper mass pb [12/90] out of print/used Story House hardcover [1963] out of print/used    "Colossus: Hoover Dam and The Making of The American Century" [2010] by Michael Hiltzik Free Press 9x6 hardcover [6/2010] for $17.55   1935 Nov 9: John L. Lewis & others formed the Committee for Industrial Organization. 1935 Nov 14: President Roosevelt proclaimed the Philipine Islands a free commonwealth. 1935 Dec 1: Birthday of comedian Woody Allen in Brooklyn, New York. 1935 Dec 19: First public demonstration of F.M. radio, by American inventor Edwin Howard Armstrong. 1936: General Mills Foods introduced the Betty Crocker® line of baking mixes. 1936 Jan 29: First members named to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, including Ty Cobb & Babe Ruth. 1936 Feb: The Secretary of the Treasury and the Comptroller of the Currency were removed from the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve, so that the federal government actually has no vote on any matter. 1936 March 1: Official end of construction of Boulder Dam on the Colorado River. 1936 June 3: Birthday of author Larry McMurtry [1936] in Archer City, Texas. 1936 Oct 26: Generators at the Boulder Dam Powerplant began transmission of electricity to Los Angeles, California. 1936 Oct 28: President Roosevelt rededicated the Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary. 1936 Nov 23: Launch of Life Magazine by Henry R. Luce. 1936 Dec: Completion of the U.S. Bullion Depository vault facility at Fort Knox, Kentucky; the United States government's gold reserves were gradually shipped to the site by July 1937. 1936 Dec 5: Birthday of mystery author James Lee Burke in Houston, Texas; he lives in Montana & Louisiana. 1937: Kraft™ introduced its Macaroni & Cheese Dinner product. Margaret Rudkin began baking preservative-free bread because her son was allergic to artificial ingredients in commercial breads; began selling Pepperidge Farm™ bread to local grocers in Fairfield, Connecticut. Grover C. Thomsen & R.H. Roark invented Sun Tang Red Cream Soda™ soft drink in Waco, Texas; the brand was renamed Big Red™ in 1959. 1937 Jan 1: A party guest at the Hormel Mansion in Minnesota won $100 for a new name for the planned luncheon meat product originally called Hormel Spiced Ham; Hormel Spam® was introduced later that year. 1937 Feb 11: United Auto Workers of Flint, Michigan won their 6-week sit-down strike when General Motors agreed to recognize the union. 1937 April 27: First Social Security checks distributed. 1937 May 6: Crash in Lakehurst, New Jersey of the hydrogen-filled German dirigible airship Hindenburg; one ground crewman died, 35 of 97 on board died. 1937 May 27: San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge was opened to the public (pedestrians only). 1937 May 28: Golden Gate Bridge opened to vehicular traffic, via remote by President Roosevelt in Washington, DC.    "Golden Gate: The Life and Times of America's Greatest Bridge" [2010] by Kevin Starr {California's State Librarian Emeritus} Bloomsbury Press 7¾x5 hardcover [7/2010] for $15.52   1937 May 30: Police fired on steelworkers demonstrating near the Republic Steel plant in South Chicago, Illinois; ten people were killed, hundreds crippled; known as the Republic Steel Memorial Day Massacre. 1937 July 2: Aviator Amelia Earhart disappeared in the South Pacific while attempting the first round-the-world flight at the Equator with navigator Fred Noonan. 1937 July 13: Vernon Rudolph bought a secret yeast-based doughnut recipe from a French chef from New Orleans, rented a building in Old Salem, North Carolina and began selling Krispy Kreme doughnuts to grocery stores. 1937 July 18: Birthday of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson in Louisville, Kentucky; he died in Woody Creek, Colorado in 2005. 1937 Aug 2: F.D.R. signed a bill that effectively outlawed marijuana {cannabis sativa}. 1937 Oct 30: Birthday of author Rudolfo Anaya in Pastura, New Mexico. 1937 Dec 21: Release of the first Technicolor™ animated feature film, Walt Disney's "Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs". 1938: Buick automobiles included the first turn signals. 1938: Founding of the Topps Chewing Gum Company in Brooklyn, New York (later makers of Bazooka bubble gum). 1938 Jan 3: Founding of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis campaign to fight polio; the name was officially changed to March of Dimes in 1979. 1938 June 23: The U.S. Civil Aeronautics Authority was established. 1938 June 25: National minimum wage established at 25 cents per hour, as part of the Fair Labor Practices Act. 1938 Oct 29: Birthday of animator Ralph Bakshi in Haifa, Palestine (now Israel); he is now retired in New Mexico. 1938 Nov 16: Birthday of political philosopher Robert Nozick in Brooklyn, New York; he died in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2002.

World  War  Two War Film Festival - World War II Movies 1939: Nestlé put Toll House Real Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels (i.e. chocolate chips) on the market. 1939: Herman W. Lay founded H.W. Lay Corp. in Atlanta, Georgia as a distributor of potato chips; changed product name to Lay's Potato Chips in 1944. 1939 April 7: Birthday of movie director Francis Ford Coppola in Detroit, Michigan; he is most-famous for the 'The Godfather Saga' [1972, 1974, 1990] and for "Apocalypse Now" [1979] 1939 July 4: Baseball great Lou 'Iron Horse' Gehrig, seriously ill from A.L.S., delivered his famous farewell at New York's Yankee Stadium. 1939 Sept 1: World War II began as Nazi Germany invaded Poland. 1939 Sept 5: U.S. declared its neutrality in the war in Europe. 1939 Nov 15: President Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC (which was completed and dedicated on 13 April 1943).    "Reminisce Through The Decades - The 1940s" [Reiman Publns Aug 2007] Disk 1 is a one-hour documentary film, directed by Bill Clark; disk 2 is a slide show of 1200 still photographs; disk 3 is three hours of interviews Memory Lane Company color DVD set [8/2007] 3 disks for $29.99 official site 1940: First Dairy Queen® soft ice cream stand opened. 1940 March 1: Publication of "Native Son" by Richard Wright. 1940 June 14: German troops entered Paris, France. 1940 June 14: The Nazis opened the Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland. 1940 Sept 7: Nazi Germany began its initial blitzkrieg assault on London, England. 1940 Sept 14: Congress passed the Selective Service Act, establishing the first peacetime military draft in U.S. history. 1940 Oct 24: The 40-hour work week took effect, under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. 1940 Oct 28: Italy invaded Greece. 1940 Dec 30: California's first freeway opened, the Arroyo Seco Parkway between Downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena. 1941: General Mills introduced 'Cheerioats' as the first ready-to-eat oat cereal; changed name to Cheerios in 1945 for legal reasons. 1941 Jan 6: President Roosevelt's State of The Union Address outlined The Four Freedoms: freedom of speech and expression; freedom of every person to worship [a deity] in his own way [or not]; freedom from want; and freedom from fear. 1941 Feb 4: Founding of the United Service Organizations aka 'The U.S.O.'. 1941 May 1: Premiere of Orson Welles's masterpiece "Citizen Kane" at the R.K.O. Palace Theatre in New York City. 1941 May 24: The German battleship Bismarck sank the British battlecruiser HMS Hood in the North Atlantic; 1,415 Royal Navy sailors were lost. 1941 May 24: Birthday of musician Bob Dylan {nee Robert Zimmerman} in Duluth, Minnesota. 1941 May 27: With war tension growing around the world, President Roosevelt proclaimed an "unlimited national emergency". 1941 July 7: Delivery to U.S. Army of Willys MA 4x4 vehicle, later named the Jeep. 1941 Dec 7: Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. 1941 Dec 8: U.S. Congress declared war on Japan. 1941 Dec 11: United States joined World War II. over 100,000 : America's first parking meter ordinance passed in Santa Ana, California. Production of Hershey's Kisses candies suspended (until 1949) as tin foil was needed for the war effort. Corn dog invented by Carl & Neil Fletcher for sale at the State Fair of Texas. 1942 Jan 7: Japanese forces began a seige against American & Filipino defenses at Bataan. 1942 Feb 19: President Roosevelt signed Executive Order #9066 giving the military the authority to relocate and intern Japanese-Americans and Japanese nationals living in the U.S.; German-Americans and German nationals were rounded up and relocated from the East Coast, as well as over 10,000 Italian-Americans and Italian nationals. 1942 March 18: President Roosevelt signed Executive Order #9102 authorizing the War Relocation Authority. 1942 March 23: Federal troops began evacuating over 100,000 Japanese-Americans from their West Coast homes to internment centers farther inland, including Manzanar in the California desert, Granada in Colorado, Heart Mountain in Wyoming, Topaz Center at Delta in Utah, and the Gila River Reservation in Arizona. Spirit of America's World War II Internment Camps Page 1942 April 9: American & Filipino defense forces at Bataan surrendered to the Japanese. 1942 Nov 17: Birthday of movie director Martin Scorsese in Queens, New York. 1942 Nov 20: The 600-mile-long Alaska-Canada [AlCan] Highway was opened after only eight months of construction. 1942 Nov 26: President Roosevelt ordered nationwide gas rationing, effective December 1st. 1943: John Tyson purchased his first chicken farm, located in Springdale, Arkansas; incorporated Tyson Feed & Hatchery in 1947. 1943: The Slinky toy was accidentally invented by Richard James. 1943 Jan 14: Casablanca conference meeting of President Roosevelt, Britain's Prime Minister Churchill, and France's Gen. de Gaulle. 1943 Jan 18: U.S. wartime ban issued on pre-sliced bread (aimed at reducing bakeries' demand for metal replacement parts). 1943 Feb 7: The United States began rationing of shoes, limiting to three pairs per person for the rest of the year. 1943 March 29: The United States began rationing of meat & fats & cheese. 1939 April 13: President Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC. 1943 June 20: Two days of race-related rioting erupted in Detroit, Michigan; more than 30 people were killed. 1943 July 1: Federal 'pay as you go' income tax withholding began. 1943 Aug 17: Allied conquest of Sicily completed as U.S. and British forces took Messina. 1943 Oct 14: Radio Corporation of America completed sale for $8 million to businessman Edward J. Noble of its N.B.C. Blue Network, soon renamed the American Broadcasting Company. 1943 Dec 24: President Roosevelt appointed Gen. Eisenhower as supreme commander of the Allied forces. 1944: Piccadilly Cafeteria chain was founded in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 1944 June 6: 'Operation Overlord', the WWII invasion of Normandy's beaches, began; the event is referred to as 'D-Day', and was the delivery of 160,000 troops across the English Channel using 5,000 boats with aircover and support by 13,000 aircraft. 1944 June 22: President Roosevelt signed the G.I. Bill of Rights, officially known as the Service-men's Readjustment Act of 1944. 1944 July 1-July 22: Bretton Woods Conference in New Hampshire, attended by representatives of all 44 Allied nations, to set up regulation of the international monetary and financial order after the conclusion of World War II. Results include the World Bank, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (I.B.R.D.), the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (G.A.T.T.), and the International Monetary Fund (I.M.F.). 1944 July 17: Navy munitions explosion at Port Chicago, California killed 320 sailors, followed by 'mutiny' of 328 Afro-American sailors protesting unsafe working conditions. 1944 Aug 7: Formal delivery from I.B.M. of the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator {renamed the Harvard Mark I computer}, the first large-scale fully-automatic digital computer - using vacuum-tube technology, it weighed 10,000 pounds. 1944 Aug 15: Allied forces landed in southern France in Operation Dragoon. 1944 Aug 25: Allied forces liberated Paris, France after four years of occupation by Nazi Germany. 1944 Aug 29: The citizens of Paris, France cheered 15,000 American troops marching down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. 1944 Oct 8: Debut of "The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet" on C.B.S. Radio. 1944 Oct 27: Birthday of mystery author Judith Ann (J.A.) Jance in South Dakota; she lives in Washington State. 1944 Dec 17: The U.S. Army announced it was ending exclusion of Japanese-Americans from the West Coast. 1944 Dec 27: Twenty-eight nations signed the agreement creating the World Bank. 1945 Jan 20: Roosevelt was inaugurated as President for an unprecedented fourth term, with his third Vice President, the U.S. Senator from Missouri, Harry S. Truman. 1945 Jan 27: The Russian Army liberated the concentration camp inmates at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland.    "Auschwitz Report" [Italian 1946; English 2006] by Primo Levi & Leonardo de Benedetti; edited by Robert S. C. Gordon The newly-rediscovered early work by Holocaust survivor Levi and a fellow Auschwitz inmate, a doctor. Verso 7½x5½ hardcover [10/2006] for $10.77    "Survival In Auschwitz" [Italian 1947, English 1959] by Primo Levi Touchstone 8x5½ pb [9/95] for $11.20 Scribner 8¼x5½ hardcover? [9/93] out of print/used 1945 Jan 31: Pvt. Eddie Slovik, age 24, was executed by firing squad in France for desertion, the first U.S. soldier to receive such a sentence since the U.S. Civil War. BOOK: "The Execution of Private Slovik" by Wm. Bradford Huie 1945 Feb 11: F.D.R & Churchill & Stalin signed the Yalta Agreement. 1945 Feb 13: Allied bombers destroyed the German city of Dresden, killing 135,000 civilians. BOOK: "The Destruction of Dresden" by David Irving, American edition 1964 from H R & W BOOK: "Slaughterhouse Five" [1969] by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [1922-2007] 1945 April 1: U.S. forces invaded Okinawa, Japan. 1945 April 11: The Buchenwald Nazi slave labor camp was liberated by U.S. armored troops. 1945 April 12: F.D.R. died at Warm Springs, Georgia; Vice President Harry S. Truman became President. 1945 April 25: Delegates from 50 countries met in San Francisco to organize the United Nations. 1945 April 28: Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was executed in a remote village by partisans. 1945 April 29: American soldiers liberated the Dachau concentration camp. 1945 April 30: As Soviet tanks neared his bunker headquarters, Germany's Führer Adolph Hitler commited suicide by cyanide and pistol; his body and that of his bride Eva Braun were doused in gasoline and set afire. 1945 May 7: Germany surrendered unconditionally. 1945 May 8: "V-E Day" proclaimed for celebration of victory by Allies in Europe. 1945 July 16: First atomic bomb test (code named 'Trinity') in the New Mexico desert. 1945 July 26: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill resigned when his Conservative Party was soundly defeated in local elections; succeeded by Clement Attlee of the Labour Party. 1945 Aug 6: Atomic bomb (rated at 20 kilotons) dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, killing an estimated 140,000 people. 1945 Aug 9: Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, killing an estimated 74,000 people. Atomic U.S.A. Page at Spirit of America 1945 Aug 14: Japan surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, ending World War II. 1945 Aug 15: "V-J Day" proclaimed for celebration of victory by Allies over Japan. 1945 Aug 28: Birthday of filmmaker Robert Greenwald in New York City. 1945 Aug 30: Gen. Douglas MacArthur arrived in Tokyo to set up headquarters as Supreme Commander of The Allied Powers, to organize & implement the occupation of Japan. 1945 Sept 2: Japan formally surrendered aboard the battleship U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay. 1945 Oct 24: The United Nations officially came into existence. 1945 Nov 12: Birthday of songwriter-musician Neil Young in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 1945 Nov 23: U.S. wartime rationing of most foods, including meat & butter, ended. 1945 Dec 28: The U.S. Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance. 1946: Minute Rice® put on the market. Furr's Family Dining chain was founded in Hobbs, New Mexico. The all-time high in movie ticket sales was four billion in pre-TV 1946. 1946 Jan 25: United Mine Workers rejoined the A.F.L. 1946 Feb 14: Unveiling of E.N.I.A.C. (short for Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) at University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, as designed & built by John W. Mauchly [1907-80] and J. Presper Eckert, Jr. 1919-95]; this was the second general-purpose electronic computer and the first reprogrammable digital computer {in use until October 1955}. 1946 Feb 18: California court case Mendez et al v. Westminster School District, in which a group of civic-minded parents of Orange County successfully sued to end segregation based on national origin (i.e. 'Mexican' kids) in their schools; precursor for Brown vs. Board of Education in May 1954. 1946 March 5: Winston Churchill delivered his famous 'Iron Curtain' speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. 1946 March 30: The Soviet Union invaded Austria. 1946 July: First official flight into space, when Werner von Braun's 'Operation Paperclip' team launched a V-2 rocket from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico; the on-board payload included corn seeds and live fruit flies. 1946 July 1: Operation Crossroads Alpha above-ground atomic bomb test at Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific. 1946 July 5: First public showing of the bikini bathing suit of designer Louis Reard, at an outdoor fashion show at the Monitor Pool in Paris, France. 1946 July 25: Operation Crossroads Baker underwater atomic bomb test at Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific. 1946 Aug 1: President Truman signed the Fulbright Program into law. 1946 Sept 15: Birthday of movie producer-director Oliver Stone in New York City. 1946 Oct 30: R.C.A. publicly demonstrated an all-electronic system of color TV, on a 15x20-inch screen. 1946 Dec 31: President Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II.

Post-War  Boom  Era 1947: Topps Chewing Gum Co. developed Bazooka bubble gum; introduced baseball cards in 1951; introduced Bazooka Joe comics wrappers in 1953. 1947: Luby's Cafeteria chain was founded in San Antonio, Texas. 1947 Jan 15: Discovery of the mutilated body of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short in South Los Angeles, California; the still-unsolved homicide is known as the Black Dahlia Murder Case. 1947 Feb 21: First public demonstration of Polaroid camera & film at Optical Society of America by Dr. Edwin Land. 1947 Feb 24: Birthday of actor-director Edward James Olmos in East Los Angeles, California. 1947 April 16: Financier Bernard M. Baruch said in a speech at South Carolina's Capital Building "Let us not be deceived: We are today in the midst of a cold war." 1947 April 30: President Truman signed Public Law 43, which officially restored the name Hoover Dam and erased Boulder Dam as the name for the hydroelectric project completed in 1936 on the Colorado River. 1947 Jun 4: U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the Taft-Hartley Act, revising labor law in favor of management. 1947 June 20: Gangster Benjamin 'Bugsy' Siegel was shot dead thru the front window of the home of his girlfiend Virginia Hill in Beverly Hills, California. 1947 June 23: Congress over-rode President Truman's veto of Taft-Hartley, making it law. 1947 July 5: Baseball player Larry Doby debuted with the Cleveland Indians, becoming the first Afro-American team member in the American League. 1947 July 8: U.S. Army Air Force officials announced that a 'flying disc' had crashed 130 miles from Roswell, New Mexico, but later the same day corrected the report by announcing that the object was a weather balloon. 1947 July 26: President Truman signed the National Security Act, establishing the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 1947 Aug 15: India became an independent nation, after morte than 200 years of rule by the British. 1947 Oct 5: President Truman delivered the first televised White House address, on the subject of the world food crisis. 1947 Oct 14: Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier over Edwards A.F.B. [Muroc Dry Lake] in California, flying the Bell XS-1 to a speed of Mach 1.06. 1947 Oct 20: House Unamerican Activities Committee [H.U.A.C.] chairman J. Parnell Thomas opened hearings into alleged influence & infiltration by Communist Party members within the motion picture industry. Early witnesses were friendly, and included philosopher Ayn Rand [1905-82]. This was the beginning of the 'Hollywood Blacklist'. 1947 Nov 2: Howard Hughes flew the HH-1 'Spruce Goose' flying boat in Long Beach Harbor. 1947 Nov 24: H.U.A.C cited for contempt of Congress a group of writers, producers & directors – later known as the 'Hollywood Ten' – for refusing to answer questions about alleged Communist influence in the motion picture industry. 1947 Nov 29: The United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 181 calling for partitioning of Palestine between Arabs and Jews. 1947 Dec 6: President Truman dedicated Everglades National Park in Florida. 1947 Dec 23: Bell Labs of New Jersey publicly demonstrated the first semiconductor amplifier, a primitive transistor. 1948: Engineer Percy Spencer at Raytheon Corp. invented the commercial microwave oven. Johnson & Johnson launched the first mass-marketed disposable diaper. Trademark issued for Mountain Dew™ soft drink. 1948 Feb 16: First nightly television news broadcast, "The Camel Newsreel Theatre" on NBC-TV, showing Fox-MovieTone newsreels narrated by John Cameron Swayze (which lasted to Oct 1956). 1948 March 4: Birthday of 'demon dog' mystery author James Ellroy in Los Angeles, California. 1948 April 3: Inaugural broadcast of the Louisiana Hayride radio program from station KWKH in Shreveport, Louisiana. 1948 May 3: The U.S. Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision in U.S. vs. Paramount Pictures ordering America's motion picture studios to divest themselves of their ownership in movie theaters; this became known as the infamous 'consent decree'. 1948 March 31: Birthday of politician & eco-activist Al Gore, Jr. in Washington, DC. 1948 May 3: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that real estate covenants prohibiting sale to Afro-Americans or other racial groups were legally unenforceable. 1948 May 14: The independent state of Israel declared its existence in Tel Aviv. 1948 June 8: Debut of "Texaco Star Theater" on NBC-TV starring Milton Berle. 1948 June 18: Columbia Records publicly unveiled its new long-playing ['LP'] record in New York City. 1948 June 24: Communist forces cut off all land & water routes thru East Germany to Western-occupied sectors of the city of Berlin, prompting the Western allies to organize the massive Berlin Airlift. 1948 July 10: Aaron 'Bunny' Lapin of St. Louis, Missouri put whipped cream in a spray can, marketed it as "Reddi Wip". 1948 Sept 14: Groundbreaking ceremony for the United Nations headquarters building in New York City. 1948 Sept 16: Demonstration of the modified E.N.I.A.C. as a reprogrammable digital computer, at the U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. 1949 Jan 31: Debut of the first network daytime 'soap opera' television program "These Are My Children" from the N.B.C. afffiliate station in Chicago, which lasted only four weeks. 1949 March 2: Completion of the first around-the-world non-stop flight; the secret propellor-engined U.S.A.F. B-50 bomber mission required four mid-air refueling events. 1949 March 31: Newfoundland joined confederation with Canada as the tenth province. 1949 April 4: Signing of the North Atlantic Treaty by 12 nations, including the United States, creating N.A.T.O. 1949 May 11: The U.S.S.R. lifted the blockade of Berlin, Germany; the Berlin Airlift continued until September (to ensure sufficient supplies against another blockade). 1949 Aug 3: The Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League merged to form the National Basketball Association. 1949 Aug 10: U.S. military renamed the Defense Department. 1949 Sept 23: Birthday of singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen in Long Branch, New Jersey. 1949 Sept 30: The end of the Berlin Airlift in Germany. 1949 Oct 1: Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China during a ceremony in Beijing. Fifties Culture Nostalgia Page 1950: Nash Rambler was the first automobile to offer seatbelts. 1950 Jan 31: President Truman announced that he had ordered development of the hydrogen bomb. 1950 June 25: Korean War began. 1950 July 8: President Truman named Gen. Douglas MacArthur commander-in-chief of United Nations forces in Korea. 1950 Oct 2: The Peanuts® comic strip, created by Charles M. Schulz, was first published – in nine newspapers. 1950 Nov 1: Two Puerto Rican separatists failed in their attempt to assassinate President Harry S. Truman at the Blair House hotel in Washington, DC; one assassin was killed, one White House police officer died. up to 1800    •    1801-1900    •    1901-1950 { this page }    •   next: 1951-2000    •    2001 to present

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