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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
Already they were known as broadcast pioneers. So began the first broadcast by a commercially-licensed radio station. KDKA went on the air in Pittsburgh as the world's first commercially licensed station on November 2, 1920. -
1st Miss American Pageant
What has become known as the first Miss America pageant was, at its start in 1921, an activity designed to attract tourists to extend their Labor Day holiday weekend and enjoy festivities in Atlantic City, New Jersey. -
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 a seminal investigation by Senator Thomas J. Walsh. -
1st Winter Olympics Held
On January 25, 1924, the first Winter Olympics took off in style at Chamonix in the French Alps. Spectators were thrilled by the ski jump and bobsled as well as 12 other events involving a total of six sports. The “International Winter Sports Week,” as it was known, was a great success, and in 1928 the International Olympic Committee officially designated the Winter Games, staged in St. Moritz, Switzerland, as the second Winter Olympics. -
The Great Gatsby published by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby's obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
St. Valentine's Day Massacre
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. -
Black Tuesday (Stock Market Crash)
On October 29, 1929, "Black Tuesday" hit Wall Street as investors traded some 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Around $14 billion of stock value was lost, wiping out thousands of investors. The panic selling reached its peak with some stocks having no buyers at any price.