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The IBM Corporation is founded
The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, the precursor to IBM, was founded on June 16, 1911. At its beginning, it was a merger of three manufacturing businesses, a product of the times orchestrated by the financier, Charles Flint. -
The 18th Amendment goes into effect
On January 29, 1919, Congress ratified the 18th Amendment, which prohibited the manufacturing, transportation and sale of alcohol within the United States; it would go into effect the following January. -
The Palmer Raids arrest and deport over 6,000 suspected “radicals”
The Palmer Raids took place during November 1919 and January 1920. The U.S. Department of Justice, under the leadership of the Attorney General Alexander M. Palmer, sought to arrest and/or deport all radicals and anarchists living in the United States. -
The League of Nations is founded
The League of Nations was an international organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference in 1919–1920. League of Nations, an organization for international cooperation established on January 10, 1920, at the initiative of the victorious Allied Powers at the end of World War I. -
Sacco and Vanzetti Trial concludes
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian-born American anarchists who were controversially convicted of murdering a guard and a paymaster during the April 15, 1920 armed robbery of the Slater and Morrill Shoe Company in Braintree, Massachusetts, United States. -
19th Amendment is ratified by Congress
Passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920, the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote. The 19th amendment guarantees all American women the right to vote. -
Radio Station KDKA airs the first commercially broadcast program
On November 2, 1920, station KDKA made the nation's first commercial broadcast (a term coined by Conrad himself). They chose that date because it was election day, and the power of radio was proven when people could hear the results of the Harding-Cox presidential race before they read about it in the newspaper. -
Warren G. Harding is elected president
Harding's campaign for the presidency promised a "return to normalcy." He was elected president on his birthday and inaugurated in 1921, following World War I. After serving as president for less than three years, on August 2, 1923, Harding died unexpectedly of a heart attack while traveling in California. -
Readers Digest is founded
Reader's Digest is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace. -
The Teapot Dome Scandal is uncovered
After Pres. Warren G. Harding transferred supervision of the naval oil-reserve lands from the navy to the Department of the Interior in 1921, Fall secretly granted to Harry F. Sinclair of the Mammoth Oil Company exclusive rights to the Teapot Dome (Wyoming) reserves. -
First game in newly built Yankee Stadium is played
The first game at yankee stadium. It was 50 years ago on April 18, 1923 that Yankee Stadium was opened for major league baseball. In the historic first game, the Yankees defeated the Boston Red Sox 4-1. -
President Warren G. Harding dies
At that time, he was one of the most popular U.S. Presidents, but the subsequent exposure of scandals that took place under his administration such as Teapot Dome eroded his popular regard, as did revelations of an affair by Nan Britton, one of his mistresses. In historical rankings of the U.S. Presidents, Harding is often rated among the worst. -
Adolf Hitler leads a failed attempt to overthrow the German government ( Beer Hall Putsch )
From November 8 to November 9, 1923, Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) and his followers staged the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, a failed takeover of the government in Bavaria, a state in southern Germany. Since 1921, Hitler had led the Nazi Party, a fledgling political group that promoted German pride and anti-Semitism and was unhappy with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the peace settlement that ended World War I (1914-18) and required many concessions and reparations from Germany. -
The First Winter Olympics is held
The 1924 Winter Olympics, officially known as the I Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was held in 1924 in Chamonix, France. -
George Gerschwin releases "Rhapsody in Blue"
Rhapsody in Blue is a 1924 musical composition by American composer George Gershwin for solo piano and jazz band, which combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects. The composition was commissioned by bandleader Paul Whiteman. -
The National Origins Act is passed limiting immigration
A law that severely restricted immigration by establishing a system of national quotas that blatantly discriminated against immigrants from southern and eastern Europe and virtually excluded Asians. The policy stayed in effect until the 1960s. -
President Calvin Coolidge is elected president
The United States presidential election of 1924 was the 35th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 4, 1924. In a three-way contest, incumbent Republican President Calvin Coolidge won election to a full term. -
Ellis Island closes as an immigration point to the United States
Government shuts down Ellis Island, Nov. 12, 1954. On this day in 1954, the federal government shut down Ellis Island. From 1892 to 1924, the station processed some 12 million immigrants there. -
The Great Gatsby is published by F. Scott Fitzgerald
First published by Scribner's in April 1925, The Great Gatsby received mixed reviews and sold poorly; in its first year, the book sold only 20,000 copies. Fitzgerald died in 1940, believing himself to be a failure and his work forgotten. -
Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf (German: [maɪ̯n kampf], My Struggle) is a 1925 autobiographical book by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler. The work describes the process by which Hitler became antisemitic and outlines his political ideology and future plans for Germany. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926. -
Scopes Monkey Trial begins in Dayton, TN
The Scopes Trial was formally known as The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes and commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial. It was an American legal case in July 1925 in which a substitute high school teacher, John T. Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which had made it unlawful to teach human evolution in any state-funded school. -
Langston Hughes publishes his first set of poems in his The Weary Blues
"The Weary Blues" is a collection of poems by American poet Langston Hughes. Written in 1925, "The Weary Blues" was first published in the Urban League magazine, Opportunity. It was awarded the magazine's prize for best poem of the year. The poem was included in Naveid's first book, a collection of poems, also entitled The Weary Blues. -
Gertrude Ederle is the first woman to swim the English Channel
Gertrude Ederle. Gertrude Caroline Ederle (October 23, 1905 – November 30, 2003) was an American competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in five events. On August 6, 1926, she became the first woman to swim across the English Channel. -
The Ford Motor Company announces the creation of a 40 hour work week
On this day in 1926, Ford Motor Company becomes one of the first companies in America to adopt a five-day, 40-hour week for workers in its automotive factories. The policy would be extended to Ford’s office workers the following August. -
The Great Mississippi Flood displaces 700,000 people
The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States, with 27,000 square miles inundated up to a depth of 30 feet. To try to prevent future floods, the federal government built the world's longest system of levees and floodways. -
Charles LIndbergh makes the first non-stop TRans-Atlantic flight
When he successfully reached Paris, Lindbergh became a world hero who would remain in the public eye for decades. In 1919 New York hotel owner Raymond Orteig offered a $25,000 prize for the completion of the first nonstop flight between New York and Paris. Early in 1927, Charles Lindbergh obtained the backing of nine St. Louis investors to compete for the prize. -
Babe Ruth hits 60 home runs
In 1927, Babe Ruth set the first truly long-term single season home run standard. However, his first Major League home run record was established during the 1919 season when he connected a then unbelievable twenty-nine times with the Boston Red Sox. -
The Holland Tunnel connecting NYC and NJ opens
At the time of its opening, the Holland Tunnel was the longest continuous underwater vehicular tunnel in the world. The Holland Tunnel is one of three vehicular crossings between Manhattan and New Jersey, the others being the Lincoln Tunnel and the George Washington Bridge. -
The first film with sound "The Jazz Singer" debuts
On December 30, 1927, The Jazz Singer, the first commercially successful full-length feature film with sound, debuts at the Blue Mouse Theater at 1421 5th Avenue in Seattle. The movie uses Warner Brothers' Vitaphone sound-on-disc technology to reproduce the musical score and sporadic episodes of synchronized speech. -
Mickey Mouse makes his first appearance in the short film “steamboat willie”
Created as a replacement for a prior Disney character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Mickey first appeared in the short Plane Crazy, debuting publicly in the short film Steamboat Willie (1928), one of the first sound cartoons. -
Alexander Fleming discovers Penicillin
In 1928 Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, though he did not realize the full significance of his discovery for at least another decade. He eventually received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945. -
Chicago’s St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre is the name given to the 1929 Valentine's Day murder of seven members and associates of Chicago's North Side Gang. The men were gathered at a Lincoln Park garage on the morning of Valentine's Day, where they were made to line up against a wall and shot by four unknown assailants. -
Herbert Hoover is elected president
Herbert Clark Hoover was an American engineer, businessman and politician who served as the 31st President of the United States from 1929 to 1933 during the Great Depression. -
Stock Market crashes on ‘Black Tuesday’
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Stock Market Crash of 1929 or the Great Crash, is the stock market crash that occurred in late October, 1929. It started on October 24 ("Black Thursday") and continued until October 29, 1929 ("Black Tuesday"), when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange collapsed. -
Amelia Earhart attempts to fly around the world
Amelia Earhart is about to attempt to fly around the world. ... Amelia Rose Earhart plans to take off from Oakland, Calif., sometime between June 23 and 26, and return two and a half weeks later. If successful, she would become the youngest woman ever to circumnavigate the globe in a single-engine airplane.
