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Jim Thorpe
- Olympic medalist in pentathlon and decathlon of 1912
- World's greatest athlete playing basketball, hockey, track and field, baseball, football and boxing
- Stripped of his medals for violating amateur eligibility rules
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Model T
- The first car to be affordable to most Americans
- "democratizing the automobile" is what Ford was doing
- Between 1913 and 1927 more than 15 million Model T's were built and sold
- Conceieved by Henry Ford
- Less than $300 in 1925
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The Red Scare
- Refers to the fear of communism in the USA
- Rumoured over 150,000 anarchists and communists were in the USA
- Strikes in 1919 of police officers increased the fear
- 6000 people arrested and accused of being supporters of communism
- Bombings in 1919, blamed communists hiding in USA
- Started in 1917+
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Jazz Age
- Created by African Americans
- Features improvisation and off beat rhythms
- Birthed Jazz clubs (500 in Harlem)
- Harlem was the heart of Jazz
- Influenced other forms of art like literature and painting
- 1918 - 1929
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Prohibition
- Ban of transportation, sale, consumption etc. of all alcohol
- Caused riots and protests
- Part of a movemnet to cleanse the US
- RIse of bootleg liquor (Al Capone
- National Prohibition Act
- Repealed in December 5, 1933
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Labor Problems in the 1920s
- Child labor laws finally in 1918
- Multiple strikes
- Great Steel Strike, 350,000 steel workers refused to work until demands were met
- Alabama miner's strike
- Low pay
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Growth of Organized Crime
- Mafias forming
- Sale of illegal liquor during Prohibition
- Drug trafficking and illegal gambling after the Prohibition
- Notourious gangsters like Al Capone and John Gotti took control
- During and after Prohibition 1920+
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Growth of Radio
- More than 500 radio stations
- From 60,000 to 10,250,000 radios in homes
- High school music groups performed, phonograph records were played, and news and baseball scores were reported as well as elections and just news
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Teapot Dome Scandal
- Oil reserve scandal that began during the administration of President Harding
- by executive order of the President, control of naval oil reserves at Teapot Dome and at Elk Hills, was transferred from the Navy Dept. to the Dept. of the Interior
- These transactions became (1922–23) the subject of a Senate investigation
- Edward Doheny bribed Albert Fall, secretary of interior
- Fall was indicted for conspiracy and for accepting bribes
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Stock Market
- Booming business
- People invested their life savings in stocks
- Banks were illegally placing coustomers' money in stocks
- By early 1929 people were scrambling to invest in stocks
- More people investing was fIrst noticed in 1925
- Stock Market Crash in 1929
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Buying on Margin
- the buyer would put down some of his own money, but the rest he would borrow from a broker
- In the 1920s, the buyer only had to put down 10 to 20 percent of his own money and thus borrowed 80 to 90 percent of the cost of the stock
- Very risky ordeal
- People were buying on margin so much they forgot the money needed to be paid back to the brokers
- Lasted while stocks were popular
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Charles Lindbergh
- First person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean
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The Jazz Singer (Growth of Movies)
- First "talkie" or movie with sound ever
- 5,000 theatres became 22,500
- 4th largest business in America
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Amelia Earhart
- First woman to fly across the Atlantioc
- Attempted to fly around the world July 2, 1937
- Pronounced dead after her plane was lost at sea January 5, 1939
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Black Tuesday
- The Great Wall Street Crash of 1929
- March 25, 1929 the stock market suffered a mini-crash
- Banks stopped lending money
- Steel production went down, house construction slowed, and car sales waned
- Stock prices plummeted
- Economy crashed
- Starting The Great Depression