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Sacco and Vanzetti arrested for armed robbery and murder
Sacco and Vanzetti were charged with committing robbery and murder at the Slater and Morrill shoe factory in South Braintree. On the afternoon of April 15, 1920, payroll clerk Frederick Parmenter and security guard Alessandro Berardelli were shot to death and robbed of over $15,000 in cash. -
KDKA goes on the air from Pittsburgh
first commercial radio station was KDKA in Pittsburgh, which went on the air in the evening of Nov. 2, 1920, with a broadcast of the returns of the Harding-Cox presidential election. The success of the KDKA broadcast and of the musical programs that were initiated thereafter motivated others to install… -
1st Miss American Pageant
Sixteen year-old Margaret Gorman from Washington, DC (at far left in white hat) won the first competition. The 1921 Atlantic City Pageant was designed to encourage visitors to stay in the resort past Labor Day, the traditional end of the season. -
Teapot Dome Scandal
It centered around Interior Secretary Albert Bacon Fall, who had leased Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome in Wyoming, as well as two locations in California, to private oil companies at low rates without competitive bidding. The leases were the subject of an investigation by Senator Thomas J. Walsh. -
1st Winter Olympics Held
The first Winter Games were held in Chamonix (France), in 1924. Initially called the “International Winter Sports Week”, this event was renamed the “1st Olympic Winter Games” only in 1926 at the IOC Session in Lisbon. The decision to create a separate Winter Games cycle was taken at the 1925 IOC Session in Prague. -
The Great Gatsby published by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby, novel by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1925. It tells the story of Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire, and his pursuit of Daisy Buchanan, a wealthy young woman whom he loved in his youth. Set in 1920s New York, the book is narrated by Nick Carraway. -
Scopes Monkey Trial
The Scopes “monkey trial” was the moniker journalist H. L. Mencken applied to the 1925 prosecution of a criminal action brought by the state of Tennessee against high school teacher John T. Scopes for violating the state's Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of evolution in public schools. -
Charles Lindbergh completes solo flight across the Atlantic
traveling more than 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometers) in 33.5 hours, Lindbergh landed safely in Paris. A crowd of 100,000 swarmed around the plane, hoisting the pilot on their shoulders and cheering his achievement. The papers called him the "Lone Eagle" and "Lucky Lindy." -
The Jazz Singer debuts (1st movie with sound)
The Jazz Singer, American musical film, released in 1927, that was the first feature-length movie with synchronized dialogue. It marked the ascendancy of “talkies” and the end of the silent-film era. (Read Lillian Gish's 1929 Britannica essay on silent film.) -
St. Valentine's Day Massacre
At 10:30 in the morning on Saint Valentine's Day, Thursday, February 14, 1929, seven men were murdered at the garage at 2122 North Clark Street, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago's North Side. They were shot by four men using weapons that included two Thompson submachine guns. -
Black Tuesday (Stock Market Crash)
What led to Black Tuesday? The Crash of 1929 was the result of a complex set of factors, including excessive speculation in the stock market, overvalued stocks, and economic imbalances. The optimism and bullish sentiment in the market, fueled by easy credit and margin trading, created a bubble that was unsustainable.