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Pluto Discovered
It was American astronomer Percival Lowell who first thought there might be another planet somewhere near Neptune and Uranus. Lowell had noticed that the gravitational pull of something large was affecting the orbits of those two planets.
However, despite looking for what he called "Planet X" from 1905 until his death in 1916, Lowell never found it.
Thirteen years later, the Lowell Observatory (founded in 1984 by Percival Lowell) decided to recommence Lowell's search for Planet X. They had a mo -
Al Capone Imprisoned for Income Tax Evasion
On June 16, 1931, Al Capone pled guilty to tax evasion and prohibition charges. He then boasted to the press that he had struck a deal for a two-and-a-half year sentence, but the presiding judge informed him he, the judge, was not bound by any deal. Capone then changed his plea to not guilty.
On October 18, 1931, Capone was convicted after trial and on November 24, was sentenced to eleven years in federal prison, fined $50,000 and charged $7,692 for court costs, in addition to $215,000 plus int -
Amelia Earhart First Woman to Fly Solo Across the Atlantic
On June 17, 1928, the journey began when the Friendship, a Fokker F7 specially outfitted for the trip, took off from Newfoundland bound for England. Ice and fog made the trip difficult and Earhart spent much of the flight scribbling notes in a journal while her co-pilots, Bill Stultz and Louis Gordon, handled the plane.
On June 18, 1928, after 20 hours and 40 minutes in the air, the Friendship landed in South Wales. Although Earhart said she did not contribute any more to the flight than “a sac -
Adolf Hitler Appointed Chancellor of Germany
On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed as the chancellor of Germany by President Paul Von Hindenburg. This appointment was made in an effort to keep Hitler and the Nazi Party “in check”; however, it would have disastrous results for Germany and the entire European continent. In the year and seven months that followed, Hitler was able to exploit the death of Hindenburg and combine the positions of chancellor and president into the position of Führer, the supreme leader of Germany. -
FDR Launches New Deal
On March 4, 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt delivered his first inaugural address before 100,000 people on Washington’s Capitol Plaza. “First of all,” he said, “let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” He promised that he would act swiftly to face the “dark realities of the moment” and assured Americans that he would “wage a war against the emergency” just as though “we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.” His speech gav -
Prohibition Ends in the U.S.
Prohibition was the period in United States history in which the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquors was outlawed. It began officially on January 16, 1920 (exactly a year after the ratification of the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution) and ended with the ratification of the 21st Amendment on December 5, 1933. Many people called prohibition the "noble experiment" and debates continue over whether or not making alcohol illegal made society any safer. -
The Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl was the name given to an area of the Great Plains (southwestern Kansas, Oklahoma panhandle, Texas panhandle, northeastern New Mexico, and southeastern Colorado) that was devastated by nearly a decade of drought and soil erosion during the 1930s. The huge dust storms that ravaged the area destroyed crops and made living there untenable. Millions of people were forced to leave their homes, often searching for work in the West. This ecological disaster, which exacerbated the Great Dep -
Alcoholics Anonymous Founded
A.A. had its beginnings in 1935 at Akron, Ohio, as the outcome of a meeting between Bill W., a New York stockbroker, and Dr. Bob S., an Akron surgeon. Both had been hopeless alcoholics. Prior to that time, Bill and Dr. Bob had each been in contact with the Oxford Group, a mostly nonalcoholic fellowship that emphasized universal spiritual values in daily living. In that period, the Oxford Groups in America were headed by the noted Episcopal clergyman, Dr. Samuel Shoemaker. Under this spiritual in -
The Book Gone With the Wind First Published
Margaret Mitchell only published one complete novel, but it was quite the book - Gone With the Wind earned her the Pulitzer Prize in 1937 and National Book Award for 1936. The epic romance tale set in and around Atlanta, Georgia during the American Civil War has remained a bestseller, even before the equally popular film starring Clark Gable and Vivian Leigh was made in 1939. -
World War 1 Begins
World War II, which lasted from 1939 to 1945, was a war fought primarily between the Axis Powers (Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan) and the Allies (France, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and the United States).
Although World War II was started by Nazi Germany in their attempt to conquer Europe,it turned into the largest and the bloodiest war in world history, responsible for the deaths of an estimated 40 to 70 million people, many of whom were civilians. World War II included the attempte
