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Sacco and Vanzetti arrested for armed robbery and murder
Sacco and Vanzetti were charged with the crime of murder on May 5, 1920, and indicted four months later on September 14. Following Sacco and Vanzetti's indictment for murder for the Braintree robbery, Galleanists and anarchists in the United States and abroad began a campaign of violent retaliation. -
KDKA goes on the air from Pittsburgh
KDKA went on the air in Pittsburgh as the world's first commercially licensed station on November 2, 1920. -
1st Miss American Pageant
The first pageant was held September 7-8, 1921, and eight finalists from cities in the Northeast competed for the title, which would later be known as Miss America. -
Teapot Dome Scandal
Secretary of the Interior Albert Bacon Fall 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 F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1925 by Charles Scribner's Sons. Set in Jazz Age New York, 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. -
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 Lindberg completes solo flight across the Atlantic
On May 21, 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh completed the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight in history, flying his Spirit of St. Louis from Long Island, New York, to Paris, France. -
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.) -
Black Tuesday (Stock Market Crash)
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, Crash of '29, or Black Tuesday, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in late 1929. It began in September with a sharp decline in share prices on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and ended in mid-November. -
St. Valentine's Day Massacre
On February 14, 1929, seven members and associates of George “Bugs” Moran's bootlegging gang were lined up against a wall and shot dead inside the garage at 2122 North Clark Street. Al Capone's Chicago Outfit was widely suspected of ordering the hit, but no one was ever prosecuted.