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KDKA goes on the air from Pittsburgh
KDKA went on the air in Pittsburgh as the world's first commercially-licensed radio station on November 2, 1920. While amateur ham radio operators and military communications had been sending messages over the airwaves for several years, KDKA was the first official station. -
Sacco and Vanzetti arrested for armed robbery and murder
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti did not receive a fair trial, according to experts. The Italian anarchists were charged with committing robbery and murder at a shoe factory in 1920. Frederick Parmenter and Alessandro Berardelli were shot to death and robbed of over $15,000 in cash. No arrests were ever made and none of the stolen money was ever recovered. -
Teapot Dome Scandal
Teapot Dome Scandal, also called Oil Reserves Scandal or Elk Hills Scandal is a scandal of the early 1920s surrounding the secret leasing of federal oil reserves. Secretary of the interior Albert Bacon Fall secretly granted to Harry F. Sinclair of the Mammoth Oil Company exclusive rights to the Teapots Dome (Wyoming) and Elk Hills (California) reserves in 1922. -
1st Miss America Pageant
The first Miss America pageant was held in 1921 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Over 1,500 beauty queens from around the country competed for the "Golden Mermaid" award. The contest was designed to attract tourists to Atlantic City over the Labor Day holiday weekend. -
1st Winter Olympics Held
On January 25, 1924, the first Winter Olympics take off at Chamonix in the French Alps. The "International Winter Sports Week," as it was known, was a great success. In 1928 the Winter Games, staged in St. Moritz, Switzerland, was officially designated the second Winter Olympics. -
The Great Gatsby published by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The novel was inspired by a youthful romance with socialite Ginevra King, and the parties he attended on Long Island. After making revisions, Fitzgerald was ambivalent about the book's title, and considered several alternatives. -
Scopes Monkey Trial
The Scopes trial, formally The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, was an American legal case from July 10 to July 21, 1925. In it, Scopes was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which made it illegal for teachers to teach human evolution in state-funded schools. -
Charles Lindbergh completes solo flight across the Atlantic
Charles A. Lindbergh completed the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight and the first ever nonstop flight between New York to Paris. His single-engine monoplane, The Spirit of St. Louis, had lifted off from Roosevelt Field in New York 33 1/2 hours before. -
The Jazz Singer debuts (1st movie with sound)
On December 30, 1927, The Jazz Singer, the first commercially successful full-length feature film with sound, debuts at the Blue Mouse Theater in Seattle. The movie uses Warner Brothers' Vitaphone sound-on-disc technology to reproduce the musical score and sporadic episodes of synchronized speech. -
St. Valentine's Day Massacre
The North Side Gang members were lined up against a wall and shot by four unknown assailants, two dressed as police. The perpetrators have never been conclusively identified, but former members of the Egan's Rats gang working for Capone are suspected of a role. -
Black Tuesday (Stock Market Crash)
On October 29, 1929, 16 million shares were traded on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors. The crash led to the Great Depression, the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in history.