1920s timeline

  • 1st Winter Olympics Held

    1st Winter Olympics Held
    Well-organized and equipped with new facilities, the event was a success and led the IOC to amend its charter in 1925, establishing the Winter Games. Chamonix was thereafter recognized as the first Winter Olympics. Some 250 athletes representing 16 countries attended the Games, competing in 16 events.
  • Sacco and Vanzetti arrested for armed robbery and murder

    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

    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.
  • Teapot Dome Scandal

    Teapot Dome Scandal
    The Teapot Dome scandal was a political corruption scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Warren G. Harding.
  • 1st Miss American Pageant

    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.
  • The Great Gatsby published by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    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

    Scopes Monkey Trial
    The Scopes trial, formally The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, and commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial, was an American legal case from July 10 to July 21, 1925, in which a high
  • Charles Lindberg completes solo flight across the Atlantic

    Charles Lindberg completes solo flight across the Atlantic
    He had not slept the night before and knew that staying awake on the 33-hour flight was going to be one of his major challenges. Charles Lindbergh faced several challenges during his historic solo flight from New York to Paris on May 20-21, 1927.
  • The Jazz Singer debuts (1st movie with sound)

    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

    St. Valentine's Day Massacre
    The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre was the murder of seven members and associates of Chicago's North Side Gang on Saint Valentine's Day 1929. The men were gathered at a Lincoln Park, Chicago, garage on the morning of February 14, 1929
  • Black Tuesday (Stock Market Crash)

    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.