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The 18th Amendment Ratified
The 18th Amendment was ratified by the US on January 16, 1919 and would be put into place on the next January in 1920. The amendment banned the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors...” Congress believed that this would stop poverty and other problems in society. The ratification was really just a social experiment to see if crime rates and poverty levels would go down. After the 18th Amendment was ratified, Congress passed the Volstead Act. -
The Sacco-Vanzetti Trial
Two Italian anarchists, Nicola Sacco and Bartolommeo Vanzetti, were put on trial for the murder of a paymaster and his guard. Sacco and Vanzetti stole 15,000 from the shoe company/paymaster. They were caught and arrested while they were both armed. The two men argued against the accusations about the murders. They were convicted and sentenced to be executed on July 14, 1921 even though there wasn’t any recorded evidence. Before their executions, protests were happening in NYC and Philadelphia. -
Babe Ruth Breaking Records
Babe Ruth playing for the New York Yankees in the 1920s was a huge deal. Babe Ruth is known as the greatest baseball player of his time. He was the first baseball player to hit 30 home runs in one season, he has the record of leading a league in home runs, most bases in one single seasons, and the highest batting average in a season. Out of 142 games in 1920, he got 137 home runs. He gave great hope to people during the 1920s and especially during the Great Depression. -
Women Get Voting Rights
After centuries of fighting for equal rights, women were finally granted the right to vote in 1920. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott’s Seneca Falls Convention that fought for women’s right to vote, paid off 72 years later. The 19th Amendment was passed and made the 1920s even more rebellious and “roaring” because women felt more free and equal. -
Election of Warren Harding
Warren Harding was an editor for the Ohio “Marian Star”, an Ohio Senator, a Lieutenant Governor of Ohio, and a USA Senator. He was elected as president in the 1920 election. He won the election against James M. Cox because of the promise that they would return to “normalcy” after WWI and the Spanish Flu. He believed that the Americans needed healing, normalcy, restoration, and serenity. Harding gained the votes of every state outside of the South. -
The Emergency Quota Act
In the early 1920s, nativism was very popular in the US after the war. Congress went on to pass the Emergency Quota Act in 1921. The quota act would limit the amout of immigrants allowed into the country per year. The Quota System was made so that the limit of immigrants would only be 2% of the population. -
The Emergency Tariff Act of 1921
The Emergency Tariff Act was passed to increase the tariff rates on wheat, sugar, meat, wools, and so on. The products with the increased rates would come from other nations into the US. The extra tariffs changed the economy because of the even higher rates that would be made. The tariffs were placed so that the government could have an increase of revenue to protect itself from foreign nations. The tariffs would make Americans want to buy American goods instead of more expensive foreign goods. -
Warren Harding Dies
At the age of 57, 1920's US President Warren Harding died of a stroke. Harding was staying at the San Francisco Palace Hotel with his wife. While she was reading the "Saturday Even Post" to him, he suddenly died. Warren Harding had been previously ill believing it was just food poisoning and being stressed about his 15,000 mile presidential tour. He was also known to have neurasthenia which was called a "nervous condition" and heart disease. -
Ford Motor Company Hits 1 Billion
In January of 1924, Ford passed the $1 billion mark. The Model T was their most popular product but was selling at the lowest it had ever been sold. In 1924, Ford had made more than 10 million vehicles. Ford was able to manufacture so many parts and vehicles because they invented the moving assembly line. This was very significant to the "roaring 20s" because it was a huge step in mass production. -
The Great Gatsby Published
The Great Gatsby was published on April 10, 1925 by F.Scott Fitzgerald. The novel is the most accurate description of how life was in the 1920s. It takes you through a story about the American spirit. When the book was published, F.Scott Fitzgerald rose to fame with wealth and power, alongside his wife, Zelda. The book was huge during the 1920s, and still is today. -
The KKK March
The KKK, Ku Klux Klan, paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC on April 8, 1925. There were 25,000 KKK members marching in their uniforms. The 1920s were the peak of the KKK when it was legal to have a racist group that killed African Americans and people of color. The KKK was so popular at the time that they had their own baseball team and white supremacists would sponsor them. Not only that, but white people would pay then to come to their baby showers and weddings. -
First Transatlantic Flight
In the late 1920s, a pilot named Charles A. Lindbergh made history when he flew continuously from Long Island, New York all the way to Paris, France. The flight was about 3,600 miles in Lindbergh’s monoplane named Spirit of St.Louis. -
The Jazz Singer Premieres
The Jazz Singer is a silent black and white film with music and sound effects. This was a huge deal for everyone around the world when it premiered in two theaters in America in 1927. The film only had 2 minutes of speaking but people everyone went crazy. This was a huge step for the film industry and actors in the 1920s. People started to want to become actors and actresses because they admired the famous ones in the film. -
The Kellogg-Briand Pact
The Kellogg-Briand Pact was an agreement to outlaw war. The pact was created to prevent another world war between world nations. The agreement is sometimes called the Pact of Paris because it was signed in Paris, France. The US, France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Belgium, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Italy, and Japan agreed to not be involved in another world war. However, that would shortly all go down hill when WW2 comes around. -
Mickey Mouse Is Born
On a train ride from Manhattan to Hollywood, Walt Disney created the most popular cartoon mouse, Mickey Mouse. He embodied the "roaring 20s" with being energetic, positive, popular, and being a dreamer. The 1920s were all about doing what you wanted and Mickey Mouse was a family friendly representation of that. Mickey Mouse became a huge icon and still is to this day. -
Herbert Hoover Becomes President
Before becoming president, he was known as a big humanitarian that saved millions of people from starvation. He led the American Relief Administration. However, later on in America during the Great Depression, he increased unemployment, homelessness, and starvation. When Warren Harding was in office, he appointed Hoover as secretary of commerce. Hoover got the Republican presidential nomination and won more than 21 million popular votes. -
Black Thursday
Black Thursday is an event that happened on Thursday, October 24, 1929, where investors had the Dow Jones Industrial Average decrease by 11%. This was the start of the Wall Street crash. Big investors and businessmen lost extreme amounts of money. This contained market crash eventually became the Great Depression. -
The Stock Market Crash of 1929
The stock market crash of 1929 was the world's biggest economic crash in history. It started off with investors trading 12.9 million shares. Then, on "Black Monday" the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 13 percent. People's lifesavings were lost during the stock market crash. This was a huge deal for every investor, and it went on to affecting the every day lives of employees. The crash accelerated the world into going to the Great Depression.
