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The Depression of 1920-21
At the end of World War I, the American economy faced the enormous task of retooling for peacetime. No longer needed were the factories used to support the war effort, or the giant agricultural exports to a Europe that couldn’t grow its own food. The process of shuttering excess war capacity, and its associated layoffs, produced a huge contraction in economic output that led to the Depression of 1920-21. -
Coolidge becomes 30th President of the United States
On August 2, 1923, President Harding died while traveling in California. Calvin Coolidge was in Vermont visiting his family home, which had neither electricity nor a telephone, when a messenger brought word of Harding’s death. Coolidge addressed Congress in December, giving the first presidential speech to be broadcast to the nation over the radio. -
Dawes Plan (German Reparation Payments)
In the years following the First World War, issues of debt repayment and reparations troubled relations between the Allies and the now defeated Germany. The American-sponsored Dawes and Young Plans offered a possible solution to these challenges. -
The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame
The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame comprised a winning group of American football players at the University of Notre Dame under coach Knute Rockne. -
First Transatlantic Flight
Aviator Charles Lindbergh became famous for making the first solo transatlantic airplane flight in 1927. -
Kellogg-Briand Pact
The Kellogg-Briand Pact was an agreement to outlaw war signed on August 27, 1928. Sometimes called the Pact of Paris for the city in which it was signed, the pact was one of many international efforts to prevent another World War, but it had little effect in stopping the rising militarism of the 1930s or preventing World War II.
