1920s

The Headlines of the 1920’s

1923
The Moderation League of New York overturned its liquor prohibition laws, joining a growing movement for the repeal of Prohibition and motivating Washington to send federal agents into the state to enforce the national ban on alcohol.
· March 2 - Time Magazine hits newsstands for the first time.
· March 9 - Vladimir Lenin suffers a stroke, his third, which renders him bedridden and unable to speak; consequently he retires his position as Chairman of the Soviet government.
· May 27 - Ku Klux Klan defies law requiring publication of its members. Oklahoma Governor places the state under martial law in an attempt to quell KKK uprising.
· August 2 - Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the United States, (1921 - 1923) dies in office of food poisoning and is succeeded by Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929).
· September 4 - In Lakehurst, New Jersey, the first American airship, the USS Shenandoah, takes to the sky for the first time.

1924
Due to cost-saving assembly-line production, the price of a basic Model T Ford dropped to $290. Ford produced its 10-millionth automobile.
Calvin Coolidge was re-elected president.
2½-million radios were in American households. Only 500 receivers existed in 1920.
· January 21 - Vladimir Lenin dies and Joseph Stalin begins to purge his rivals to clear way for his leadership.
· January 25 – The first Winter Olympics held in Chamonix, France .
· February 8 - Death penalty: The first state execution using gas in the United States takes place in Nevada.
· February 12 - Rhapsody in Blue, by George Gershwin, first performed in New York City at Aeolian Hall.
· February 22 - Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to deliver a radio broadcast from the White House.
· May 21 - University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a thrill killing.
· June 2 - U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States.
· June 8 - George Mallory and Andrew Irvine are last seen "going strong for the top" of Mount Everest by teammate Noel Odell at 12:50 PM. The two mountaineers were never seen alive again.
· November 19 - In Los Angeles, California, famous silent film director Thomas Ince ("The Father of the Western") dies, reportedly of a heart attack, in his bed (rumors soon surface that he was shot dead by publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst).
· November 27 - In New York City the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held.

1925
· January 27–February 1 - The 1925 serum run to Nome, or the "Great Race of Mercy", relays diphtheria antitoxin by dog sled across the U.S. territory of Alaska to combat an epidemic.
· February 21 - The New Yorker magazine publishes its first issue.
· March 4 - Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to have his inauguration broadcasted on radio.
· April 10 - F. Scott Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby
· July 21 - In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100.
· November 28 - Country-variety show Grand Ole Opry makes its radio debut on station WSM (it would later become the longest-running live music show).
· December 26 - The Sphinx was finally dug out in 1925, to the great pleasure of its numerous visitors.
· Thompson submachine gun sells for $175 in the 1925 Sears, Roebuck and Company mail order catalog.
1926
· March 16 - Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts
· May 12 Roald Amundsen flies over the North Pole.
· May 18 - Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappears while visiting a Venice, California beach.
· September 18 - Great Miami Hurricane: A strong hurricane devastates Miami, Florida, leaving over 100 dead and caused several hundred million dollars in damage; equal to nearly $100 billion dollars today. The hurricane also put an end to a period of heavy speculation and real estate brokering in the area
· September 20 - Twelve cars full of gangsters open fire at the Hawthorne Inn, headquarters of Al Capone in Chicago. Only one of Capone's men is wounded
· September 26 - Gene Tunney defeats Jack Dempsey and becomes heavyweight champion of the world.
· October 31 - Magician Harry Houdini dies of gangrene and peritonitis that developed after his appendix ruptured.
· November 11 - U.S. Route 66 was established.
· November 15 - The NBC radio network opens with 24 stations (it was formed by Westinghouse, General Electric and RCA).
1927
The Mt. Rushmore Monument was dedicated.
Babe Ruth slammed 60 homers during the Yankees' regular season and two more in their World Series play against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The first full-length "talkie", The Jazz Singer, starred Al Jolson.
· January 7 - First transatlantic telephone call is made: New York City to London.
· February 23 - The U.S. Federal Radio Commission (later renamed the Federal Communications Commission) begins to regulate the use of radio frequencies.
· March 11
o In New York City, the Roxy Theater is opened by Samuel Roxy Rothafel.
o First armoured car robbery, committed by the Flatheads gang.
· April 22 - May 5 - The Great Mississippi Flood affects 700,000 people in the greatest national disaster in US history to date.
· May 11 - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the "Academy" in "Academy Awards," is founded.
· May 18 - Bombings result in 45 deaths, mostly children, in the Bath School disaster in Bath Township, Michigan.
· May 20-21 first solo non-stop Trans-Atlantic flight from New York to Paris by Charles Lindbergh.
· May 23 - The first demonstration of television before a live audience. Nearly 600 members of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Institute of Radio Engineers view the demonstration at the Bell Telephone Building in New York.
· August 23 - Sacco and Vanzetti are executed.
· September 18 - The Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System (later known as CBS) is formed and goes on air with 47 radio stations.
· October 6 - The Jazz Singer opens and becomes a huge success, marking the end of the silent film era.
· October 28 - Pan American Airways first flight took off from Key West to Havana.
· November 12
§ Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin with undisputed control of the Soviet Union.
§ The Holland Tunnel opens to traffic as the first Hudson River vehicular tunnel linking New Jersey to New York City.
· November 14 - The explosion of three Equitable Gas storage tanks in the North Side of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania kills 26 people and causes damages estimated between contemporary totals of $4 million and $5 million.
· December 27 - Kern and Hammerstein's Show Boat, based on Edna Ferber's novel, opens on Broadway and goes on to become the first great classic of the American musical theatre.
· Voluntary Committee of Lawyers founded to bring about repeal of prohibition of alcohol in United States.
1928
· March 21 - Charles Lindbergh is presented the Medal of Honor for his first trans-Atlantic flight.
· June 17 - Aviator Amelia Earhart starts her attempt to become the first woman to successfully pilot an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean (she succeeded the next day).
· June 29 - New York Governor Alfred E. Smith becomes the first Catholic nominated by a major political party for U.S. President, at the Democratic National Convention in Houston, Texas.
· September 1 - Richard Byrd leaves New York for Arctic.
· September 3 - Alexander Fleming discovers Penicillin.
· September 16 - The 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane kills at least 2,500 people in Florida.
· November 6 U.S. presidential election, 1928: Republican Herbert Hoover wins by a wide margin over Democrat Alfred E. Smith.
· November 18 - Mickey Mouse appears in Steamboat Willie, the first sound cartoon.
1929
Al Capone was sentenced to a year in prison for carrying a concealed weapon.
The first Academy Awards were held. Wings was named best picture, Emil Jannings best actor and Janet Gaynor best actress.
· January 2 - Canada and the United States agree on a plan to preserve Niagara Falls.
· January 17 - Popeye, a comic strip character created by Elzie Crisler Segar, makes his debut.
· February 14 - St. Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven gangsters, rivals of Al Capone, are murdered in Chicago.
· February 18 - First Academy Awards are announced.
· March 4 - Herbert Hoover is inaugurated as the 31st President of the United States, succeeding Calvin Coolidge.
· March 16 - A part-talkie film version of Show Boat, based on Edna Ferber's novel rather than the musical, premieres in Palm Beach. The film stars Laura La Plante and Joseph Schildkraut. It is critically panned and not successful at the box office.
· May - Wickersham Commission begins investigation of alcohol prohibition in U.S.
· May 13 - National Crime Syndicate founded in Atlantic City.
· May 17 - Al Capone and bodyguard were arrested for concealing deadly weapons.
· August 19 - The radio comedy show Amos and Andy makes its debut starring Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll.
· October 24 - The start of the Black Thursday stock market crash on the New York Stock Exchange
· October 29 - Black Tuesday stock market crash on the New York Stock Exchange
· December 3 - Great Depression: US President Herbert Hoover announces to U.S. Congress that the worst effects of the recent stock market crash are behind the nation and the American people have regained faith in the economy.