Timeline: Post-Romanticism

By Laynie Lenz
  • Period: to

    Post-Romanticism

    Notable composers include Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Claude Debussy, Pyotr Tchaicovsky, and Arnold Schoenberg.
  • Period: to

    Impressionism

    Vague. Anti-Germanic. Mainly French. Main composer: Claude Debussy. Melody is an important element; however, melodies were not required to follow traditional expectations of inception, growth, and resolution. Harmonies were vague but tonal
  • Period: to

    Maximalism

    German-speaking areas. Major composers include Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler

  • "The Picture of Dorian Gray" published by Lippincott's Monthly Magazine

  • Léo Delibes, most famous for his opera "Lakmé", dies

    He was 54.

  • Mammoth Mine No. 1 explodes in Pennsylvania

    The explosion resulted in the deaths of 109 men and boys.

  • Pyotr Tchaikovsky finishes his famous ballet "The Nutcracker"

  • Ellis Island begins receiving immigrants to the United States.

  • The Nutcracker premieres. The exact premiere date is unknown.

    The ballet premiered along with the opera "Iolanta".

  • The World's Fair Colored Opera are the first African American performers to perform at Carnegie Hall.

    This performance featured soprano Matilda Sissieretta Jones.

  • Homer Plessy is arrested for sitting in a whites-only car in Louisiana.

    This event lead to the Plessy vs. Ferguson case.

  • Vogue, the most well-known fashion and lifestyle magazine, is launched.

  • Anton Dvorák composes "Symphony No. 9"

    The piece would premiere in New York City on December 16 1893. It is one of the most popular symphonies ever written.

  • "Gaelic Symphony" written by Amy Marcy Cheney Beach

    It is the first symphony to be composed and published by a female American composer.

  • "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune" ("Prelude to the afternoon of a faun") premieres in Paris

    It provided the basis for the ballet "Afternoon of a Faun", which premiered in 1912.

  • Richard Strauss releases 2 works: "Three Songs for High Voice" and "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks".

  • Oscar Wilde's final play, "The Importance of Being Earnest", is first shown at London's St. James's Theatre.

  • Gustav Mahler conducts the première of his Symphony No. 2-that is, the first three movements

    The whole piece was first performed completely on December 13.

  • Oscar Hammerstein opens the Olympia Theater.

    This was the first theater to be built in New York City's Times Square district.

  • "Woodland Sketches", a suite of ten short piano pieces by the American composer Edward MacDowell, is published.

    MacDowell wrote this piece while he was staying at his New Hampshire summer retreat.

  • Gustav Mahler's "Symphony No. 3" is completed.

    This symphony was written between 1893 and 1896. It was published in 1898 and premiered in 1902. It is the longest symphony in the standard repertoire.

  • Utah is admitted as the 45th US state.

  • Giacomo Puccini's famous opera "La Bohème" premieres at the Teatro Regio.

  • Braamfontein Explosion: A train carrying 56 tons of dynamite explodes at Braamfontein, Johannesburg, South Africa.

    More than 78 people are killed.

  • The US Supreme Court case Plessy vs. Ferguson introduces the "separate but equal" doctrine.

  • Pathé, the oldest French film company, is founded.

  • "Also sprach Zarathustra" (Thus spoke Zarathustra), a tone poem by Richard Strauss, premieres in Frankfurt

    The opening fanfare to this tone poem can be heard in the film "2001: A Space Odyssey".

  • The telharmonium is invented.

    A telharmonium was an early electrical organ developed by Thaddeus Cahill in 1896 and patented in 1897.

  • "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", a symphonic poem by the French composer Paul Dukas, is completed.

    The piece is best known for being featured in Disney's original "Fantasia".

  • The first Boston Marathon is held.

  • John Phillip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever" is performed for the first time

  • The Klondike Gold Rush begins with the arrival of the first successful prospectors in Seattle.

  • The first underground metro in North America, Boston's Tremont Street Subway, opens.

  • Ethiopia adopts the three-color flag.

  • The Spanish-American War: the USS Maine explodes and sinks.

    266 men are killed in this tragic accident

  • Giuseppe Verdi's "Quattro pezzi sacri" (Four sacred pieces) is first performed.

  • The US declares war on Spain

  • Popular snack food making company Nabisco is founded in New Jersey

  • The Spanish-American War ends.

  • Scott Joplin's famous Ragtime piece "Maple Leaf Rag" is published.

    It becomes copyrighted in September of that year

  • Arnold Schoenberg's earliest important work, "Verlärkte Nacht", is composed.

  • Claude Debussy's impressionist orchestral piece "Nocturnes" is finished.

  • The Great Blizzard of 1899

  • The Great Blizzard of 1899 ends.

  • Jean Sibelius's "Symphony No. 1" is first performed by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

  • Jules Massenet's famous opera "Cendrillon" makes its debut in Paris.

    It is based on Charles Perrault's beloved fairy tale "Cinderella".

  • The Newsboys' strike takes place.

    The newsies of New York go on strike. This inspired the 1992 Disney film "Newsies", which in turn inspired the musical of the same name.

  • Marshall "Major" Taylor becomes the first African American world champion of a sport when he wins the world 1-mile cycling championship.

  • The Second Boer War Begins

    The Second Boer War was a conflict between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South African Republic and the Orange Free State-which is now part of South Africa and Lesotho)

  • The Boxer Rebellion begins.

  • The famous orchestral piece "Flight of the Bumblebee" is published as part of the opera "The Tale of Tsar Saltan".

    The music of this piece resembles the sound a bumblebee makes.

  • Giuseppe Verdi's famous opera "Aida" makes its US debut

  • Giacomo Puccini's opera "Tosca" premieres.

  • The Hershey bar is said to be introduced on February 9th 1900.

  • Chung Sai Yat Po, the first and most popular Chinese newspaper in the US, is created.

  • Gioachino Rossini's well-known opera "La Cenerentola" premieres in Venice

    This is an Italian setting of the famous fairytale "Cinderella".

  • A fire destroys part of the roof of Buckingham Palace.

  • The second modern Olympic Games open in Paris.

  • L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" is first published in Chicago

  • Gabriel Fauré's first opera, "Prométhée", premieres.

  • Antonín Dvorák's most famous opera, "Rusalka", premieres.

  • The Boxer Rebellion ends

  • The Carnegie Institution is founded in Washington, DC.

  • The first movie theater in the US opens.

  • Claude Debussy's only opera, "Pelléas et Mélisande", premieres.

  • The Second Boer War ends.

    The Treaty of Vereeniging is what ended it.

  • After a talk by Booker T. Washington, a stampede at the Shiloh Baptist Church in Alabama occurs.

    This disaster started when someone in the choir yelled "There's a fight!" and the audience mistook the word "fight" for "fire". 115 people were killed.

  • A newspaper comic becomes the inspiration for the first teddy bear

  • The first Aswan Dam on the Nile is created.

  • The dolceola is invented

    A dolceola is a musical instrument that resembles a mini piano, but it is actually a zither with a keyboard (a zither is a stringed musical instrument whose strings are the same length as its soundboard).

  • Edward VII becomes Emperor of India.

  • The French government awards the National Order of the Legion of Honor to Claude Debussy.

    The National Order of the Legion of Honor is the highest French order of both civil and military merit.

  • The Hay-Herrán treaty is signed.

    If it were actually ratified, it would have allowed the United States to build the Panama Canal.

  • The first teddy bear, named after Theodore Roosevelt, is introduced.

  • The first women-only hotel, the Martha Washington Hotel, opens in New York City

  • The first Tour de France begins

    It ends on July 19, 1903.

  • Edward Elgar's oratorio "The Apostles" premieres.

  • The first Irish opera, "Muirgheis", is produced in Dublin.

  • Maurice Ravel's "String Quartet in F Major" makes its debut.

    It is inspired by Claude Debussy's "String Quartet" and dedicated to Gabriel Fauré.

  • Richard Strauss's orchestral tone poem "Symphonia Domestica" premieres

    It was originally supposed to premiere on March 9, 1904.

  • The International Alliance of Women is founded.

  • Theodore Roosevelt is elected as the US President.

  • Max Weber publishes "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" (Die Protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus).

    The exact date is unknown.

  • The city of Las Vegas is founded.

  • Richard Strauss's famous opera "Salome" premieres at the Königliches Opernhaus in Dresden, Germany

    The most famous song in the opera is the "Dance of the Seven Veils"

  • "The Merry Widow", an operetta by Franz Lehár, premieres at the Theater an Der Wien in Vienna.

  • Arnold Schoenberg's first chamber symphony is finished.

    It premiered on February 8, 1907. This piece is a well-known example of the quartal harmony-the building of harmonic structures built from intervals of the perfect fourth, the augmented fourth, and the diminished fourth.

  • Mount Vesuvius erupts.

  • The RMS Lusitania, the world's largest ship, is launched in Glasgow.

  • A magnitude 8.2 earthquake in Valprasìo, Chile leaves almost 20,000 injured.

  • The first Victor Victrola phonographic record player is launched.

  • SOS becomes an international distress signal.

  • The world's first feature film, "The Story of the Kelly Gang", is shown in Australia.

  • Gustav Holst's "A Somerset Rhapsody" is finished. The exact date is unknown.

  • Igor Stravinsky's "Symphony in E-flat", his first piece for orchestra, is finished.

  • Maurice Ravel's "Histories naturelles", a song cycle for voice and piano, is first performed by the mezzo soprano Jane Bathori.

  • Strauss's "Salome" is pulled from the Metropolitan Opera's repertoire for being indecent.

  • UPS is founded in Seattle, Washington.

  • The Lusitania sets out on her maiden voyage.

  • The first "ball drop" is held in Times Square.

  • Béla Bartók's first violin concerto is finished.

  • Charles Ives's "The Unanswered Question" is composed.

    It was revised from 1930 to 1935.

  • A total solar eclipse is visible near the Pacific Ocean.

  • Japanese immigration to the United States is forbidden, under the terms of the Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907.

  • The 1908 Olympics begin. They are held in London.

    They were supposed to be held in Rome, but they moved it to London because of Mt. Vesuvius erupting in 1906. They ended on July 25, with the exception of the figure skating events-they were held later that year in October.

  • The Model T automobile launches.

  • Claude Debussy's six-movement suite for solo piano "Children's Corner" premieres in Paris.

  • Arnold Schoenberg's melodrama "Erwartung (expectation)" is composed.

    It premiered in 1924.

  • The Disenfranchisement Act of 1908 takes effect in Georgia, requiring African American voters to pass a literacy test in order to vote.

  • Jean Sibelius's string quartet "Voces Intimae" is written.

  • Gustav Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde" is finished.

    He did not live to hear or see it performed.

  • Richard Strauss's opera "Elektra" premieres at the Königliches Opernhaus.

    It is one of the most frequently performed operas based on Classical Greek mythology. It is highly modernist and expressionist in style.

  • The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded.

  • William Howard Taft is inaugurated as US president.

  • Construction of the RMS Titanic begins.

  • The first newsreel is shown in cinemas.

  • Wilbur and Orville Wright demonstrate their airplane in Italy.

  • Russian ballet is brought to the Western world.

  • The first Lincoln cent coins are manufactured.

  • Cincinatti, OH becomes the first US city to adopt Daylight Savings Time.

  • Cosmetics brand L'Oreal is founded in France.

  • The United States Army Signal Corps Division buys the first military airplane

  • President Taft creates the first American oil reserve.

  • The first Boy Scout troop in the US is created in Vermont.

  • The US sends 2 warships to Nicaragua in response to the execution of 500 revolutionaries (including 2 Americans).

  • The USS Utah, thought to be "the most powerful vessel of the Navy" is launched

  • Alban Berg's "String Quartet, Op. 3" is composed.

  • Ethel Smyth's "The March of the Woman" is composed.

    It becomes the anthem for the women's suffrage movement.

  • The Orphéal-an instrument that consists of a keyboard and an electrical device that provides the air supply-is invented

  • Period: to

    Expressionism

    The most rebellious of post-romantic styles. Main composer is Arnold Schoenberg. German speaking areas.

  • The first public radio broadcast takes place.

  • Carl Nielsen's "At the Bier of a Young Artist" is first performed.

  • The Boy Scouts of America is founded.

  • The Jules Massenet opera "Don Quichotte" is presented for the first time.

  • The first film version of "Frankenstein" premieres.

  • Halley's Comet is visible from Earth.

    Its next visit is in 1986.

  • The US Commission of Fine Arts is created by legislation signed into law by President Taft.

  • Igor Stravinsky's ballet and orchestral work "The Firebird" premieres.

  • Alzheimer's disease is first given its name.

  • Louis Breguet became the first pilot to carry 5 people in an airplane.

  • Ralph Vaughan Williams's "Tallis Fantasia" is first performed.

  • A coal mine explosion in Colorado kills 52 miners.

  • The musical comedy "Naughty Marietta" makes its Broadway debut.

  • Edward Elgar's "Violin Concerto in B Minor, Op. 61" premieres.

  • The Mexican Revolution begins.

    It lasts for 9 years, 6 months, and a day.

  • Modern neon lighting is first displayed publicly.

  • The Society of Women Musicians is founded.

  • Enrique Granados's piano suite "Goyescas" is written.

    It premiered in 1914.

  • The Strauss opera "Der Rosenklavier" premieres.

  • The US and Canada announce the successful negotiation of their first reciprocal trade agreement.

  • Arnold Schoenberg composes the first of his "6 Little Piano Pieces" in a sudden burst of inspiration.

  • Gustav Mahler conducts his last concert.

  • Irving Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band" is released.

  • The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire kills 146 people.

  • Jean Sibelius conducts the first performance of his "Symphony No. 4".

  • Gustav Mahler dies at age 50.

  • Igor Stravinsky's ballet "Petrushka" is performed for the first time.

  • Hiram Bingham rediscovers Machu Picchu in Peru.

  • Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" is stolen.

  • The Hai Chi becomes the first Chinese warship to visit the United States.

  • The Italo-Turkish War begins.

  • "Et Voila", the first "cubist musical", opens.

  • Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde" premieres.

  • The film "Dante's Inferno" brings the Devil to the screen for the very first time.

  • Humans reach the South Pole for the first time.

  • The Republic of China is established.

  • Arnold Schoenberg's "Sechs kleine Klavierstücke" is first performed.

  • Arizona becomes the 48th US state.

  • The Girl Scouts are founded by Juliette Gordon Low.

  • The RMS Titanic sinks.

  • The film company Universal Studios is founded.

  • Debussy's "The Afternoon of a Faun" premieres in Paris.

  • The Vienna Philharmonic premieres Mahler's "Ninth Symphony".

  • The Woolworth Building in New York City becomes the world's tallest skyscraper.

  • Jules Massenet, French composer known for operas such as "Manon" and "Werther", dies.

    He was 70.

  • Serbia enters into an alliance with Montenegro.

  • The First Balkan War, a conflict between the Balkan League and the Ottoman Empire, begins.

  • The Richard Strauss opera "Ariadne auf Naxos" opens in Stuttgart.

  • Period: to

    The Jamaica Hurricane of 1912.

  • "The Miracle", the first full-color film, premieres at the Royal Opera House in London.

  • The word "jazz" first appears in print.

  • The famous air "Londonderry Air", also known as "Danny Boy", is published.

  • Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first African American sorority, is incorporated.

  • The US Senate votes to limit American presidents to a single six-year term.

  • The opera "Cyrano", based on the French play "Cyrano de Bergerac", premieres at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

  • "Pénélope", an opera by Gabriel Fauré, makes its debut at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo.

  • The US station at Arlington, MD sends the first wireless communication message to a station in France.

  • The term "neuropsychology" is first coined.

  • Igor Stravinsky's ballet "The Rite of Spring" premieres.

  • The Houston Symphony Orchestra is established by Ima Hogg.

  • Period: to

    The Second Balkan War.

    Bulgaria vs. Serbia and Greece.

  • Physician Dr. Rosalie M. Ladova wore the very first immodest women's bathing suit and got arrested.

    She was trying to challenge the social norms of that time. This event made global headlines.

  • The famous statue "The Little Mermaid" is unveiled in Copenhagen.

  • Jean Sibelius's tone poem "Luonnotar" premieres.

    It is based on Finnish mythology.

  • Niels Bohr's model of the atom is first presented.

  • Edward Elgar's symphonic composition "Falstaff", based on the Shakespeare character of the same name, premieres

  • British suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst delivered her famous "Freedom or Death" speech in Hartford, Connecticut.

  • Sergei Rachmaninoff's choral symphony "The Bells" premieres.

  • US President Woodrow Wilson signs the Federal Reserve Act into law.

    This created the Federal Reserve.

  • The Stoessel lute is invented.

    It is a stringed instrument with a short neck.

  • The Sakurajima volcano in Japan erupts.

  • Charlie Chaplin makes his film debut in the comedy short "Making a Living".

  • Charlie Chaplin's famous character "The Tramp" is introduced.

  • Jules Massenet's "Cléopâtre" is premiered posthumously.

  • A deadly blizzard strikes Pennsylvania.

    Almost a dozen people died.

  • Ralph Vaughan Williams' "A London Symphony" premieres.

  • The US occupies Veracruz, Mexico.

  • "Josephslegende" a ballet by Richard Strauss, premieres.

  • World War 1 begins when Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife are assassinated.

  • Period: to

    World War 1.

  • American baseball legend Babe Ruth makes his baseball debut.

  • Germany and the Ottoman Empire begin a secret alliance.

  • Rutland Boughton's fairy opera "The Immortal Hour" premieres.

  • The first poem about World War 1, "August, 1914" by John Masefield, is published.

  • Joaquín Turina's opera "Margot" premieres.

    It was the first of Turina's operas to be staged. The reviews were mixed.

  • US forces withdraw from Veracruz.

  • An unofficial temporary Christmas truce between German and British soldiers begins.

  • The world's largest outdoor pipe organ is constructed.

    It is then donated to the Panama-California Exposition.

  • Claude Debussy's three-movement suite "En blanc et noir" is written.

  • Labor activist Ralph Chaplin writes the trade union anthem "Solidarity Forever".

    It is sung to the tune of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".

  • The first US coast to coast long-distance telephone call is made.

  • A mutiny is started by Indian Muslims in Singapore.

    The reasons for this are unknown.

  • Sergei Rachmaninoff's "All-Night Vigil", an a cappella choral composition, is premiered in Moscow.

    It is Rachmaninoff''s finest achievement.

  • Charlie Chaplin's film "The Tramp" is released.

  • The International Congress of Women meets at The Hague as a peace initiative.

    Women's suffrage groups came together.

  • US Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigns over a disagreement about the nation's handling of the sinking of the RSS Lusitania.

  • The American occupation of Haiti begins.

    This occupation ends in 1934.

  • A hurricane hits Galveston, TX.

  • The Raggedy Ann doll is given a patent.

  • Period: to

    The Actions of the Hohenzollern Redoubt took place.

    It was an attack that was part of the Battle of Loos.

  • Richard Strauss's tone poem "An Alpine Symphony" premieres.

    "An Alpine Symphony" is about climbing an Alpine Mountain for 11 hours.
  • Period: to

    WW1: The Battle of Banjo.

  • Jean Sibelius's "Symphony No. 5" premieres.

  • Charlie Chaplin's 13th film "A Burlesque on Carmen" is released.

  • The toggle light switch is invented by William J. Newton and Morris Goldberg.

  • The British Royal Army Medical Corps carry out the first successful blood transfusion.

  • Enrique Granados's opera "Goyescas" premieres at the Metropolitan Opera.

    It was the first Spanish opera to be performed there.

  • Dadaism, an art movement, is founded at 6 pm.

  • Cole Porter debuts with his first musical, a comic opera called "See America First".

  • The US Navy destroyer USS Wilkes is launched.

  • Actress Mary Pickford becomes the first movie star to sign a million-dollar contract.

  • Period: to

    WW1: Battle of the Somme.

    Britain and France against Germany.

  • The National Park Service is created in the US.

  • Construction on New York City's Hell Gate Bridge is completed.

  • The Taronga Zoo in Sydney is established.

    It is the first zoo without caged animals.

  • Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first woman elected to the United States House of Representatives.

  • White Friday: in the Dolomites of Italy, 100 avalanches bury 18,000 Austrian and Italian soldiers.

  • The banjo ukulele is invented.

    It has the neck of a ukulele and the body of a banjo.

  • The Battle of Rafa is fought.

    It was the third and final battle to complete the recapture of the Sinai Peninsula by the British Forces during WW1.

  • The National Hockey Association votes in favor of expelling the Toronto Blueshirts.

  • The US releases the text of the Zimmerman Telegraph to the public.

  • The enactment of the Jones Act gives Puerto Ricans US citizenship.

  • Giacomo Puccini's opera "La Rondine" premieres at the Grand Théâtre de Monte Carlo.

  • The US enters WW1.

  • Pianist Alexander Stoffregen premieres Carl Nielsen's piano piece "Chaconne" at a concert primarily devoted to Nielsen's songs.

  • "Parade", a ballet by Erik Satie, premieres.

  • Hans Pfitzner's opera "Palestrina" makes its debut.

  • Period: to

    July Days

    Serious clashes occur in Petrograd, Russia. It is a period of unrest.
  • Period: to

    The Green Corn Rebellion.

    A lot of farmers in Oklahoma stage an uprising against the WW1 draft.

  • The Provisional Government declares Russia a republic.

  • Faure's "Cello Sonata No. 1" premieres.

    It is the first of his two cello sonatas.

  • In the US, influential suffragettes from the Silent Sentinels are physically assaulted by guards.

    This would later become known as the "Night of Terror".

  • Jesse Lynch Williams's play "Why Marry?", the first dramatic play to win a Pulitzer Prize, opens.

  • The 1918 Influenza pandemic begins.

  • The Finnish Civil War begins.

  • The last Carolina parakeet dies.

  • Béla Bartók's "String Quartet No. 2" makes its debut in Budapest, Hungary.

  • The US Congress establishes time zones and approves Daylight Savings Time.

  • The Charles Wakefield Cadman opera "Shanewis" is premiered at the Metropolitan Opera.

  • Claude Debussy dies.

  • Daylight Savings Time goes into effect in the US.

  • The Royal Air Force is established.

  • General Motors acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.

  • Béla Bartók's opera "Bluebeard's Castle" premieres.

  • The "Spanish Flu" becomes a pandemic.

  • The US Navy cruiser USS San Diego strikes a mine and sinks in the Atlantic Ocean.

  • An earthquake triggers a tsunami in the Celebes Sea (near the Philippines).

  • Stravinsky's "L'Histoire du soldat" premieres.

  • Gustav Holst's seven-movement orchestral suite "The Planets" based on astrology, premieres.

  • Germany suspends all submarine warfare.

  • Austria becomes a republic.

  • "Il Trittico", a trio of operas composed by Giacomo Puccini, premiere.

    The three operas are "Suor Angelica", "Il Tabarro", and "Gianni Schicchi".

  • "Ripley's Believe It Or Not!" premieres as a cartoon under the title "Champs and Chumps".

  • Stravinsky's "Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet" is published.

  • The 18th Amendment, banning alcohol, is ratified.

  • Most of the Grand Canyon is established as a national park.

  • Italy passes a new law which allows women to control their own property.

  • The Bauhaus movement is founded.

  • The first Hostess CupCake is sold.

  • The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending World War 1.

  • Manuel de Falla's ballet "The There-Cornered Hat" premieres.

  • Period: to

    Joaquín Turina's best-known work "Danzas fantásticas" is written.

  • The Steel Strike of 1919 begins.

  • Richard Strauss's opera "Die Frau ohne Schatten" premieres.

  • The Medical Women's International Association is established.

  • Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto premieres.

  • Igor Stravinsky's "Piano-Rag-Music" premieres.

  • Felix the Cat makes his debut.

  • The People's Freedom Union marched up Fifth Avenue in New York City to support those that were jailed through the Espionage Act,

  • The theremin is invented

  • The Treaty of Versailles goes into effect, officially ending World War 1.

  • Prohibition goes into effect in the US. Alcohol is officially banned.

  • The American Civil Liberties Union is founded.

  • The League of Women Voters is founded.

  • An earthquake hits Gori in the country of Georgia.

  • Darius Milhaud's "Le Bœuf sur le toit" premieres.

  • Constantinople is occupied by British Empire forces.

  • Ice hockey is played for the first time in the Olympic Games.

  • "Pulcinella", a ballet by Igor Stravinsky, premieres.

  • Period: to

    The Ganja Revolt

    Anti-Bolshevik rebellion

  • Australian soprano Nellie Melba becomes the first well-known performer to make a radio broadcast.

  • The Republic of China joins the League of Nations.

  • The patent application for the jungle gym is filed.

  • A man named Charles Ponzi is arrested for defrauding investors of $7,000,000.

  • The 19th amendment goes into effect in the US, giving women the right to vote!

  • The Disabled American Veterans organization is founded.

  • The League of Nations moves its headquarters to Geneva, Switzerland.

  • The longest hunger strike in history ends on its 94th day.

  • First complete public performance of Gustav Holst's suite The Planets given in London

  • Maurice Ravel's "La Valse" is performed for the first time.

  • The U.S. Sedition Act of 1918 is repealed.

  • The first 17-string koto is invented.

  • Period: to

    The Harvard Glee Club takes its first trip to Europe.

  • Women in Sweden get the right to vote.

  • The Cleveland Clinic, now one of the nation's most well-known hospitals, admits its first patients.

  • Warren G. Harding is inaugurated as president.

  • Direct telephone service is established between the United States and Cuba.

  • Period: to

    Jaffa riots

    Riots in Jaffa, Israel.

  • "Shuffle Along", the first all-black hit Broadway show, premieres.

  • Period: to

    Tulsa Race Massacre

  • "Symphonies of Wind Instruments", a concert work written by Igor Stravinsky, premieres.

  • Mongolia declares its independence from China

  • The first radio baseball game is broadcast.

  • The founding of the world's first fast food chain: the first White Castle opens in Kansas.

  • The first radio broadcast of a World Series baseball game.

  • "Tintagel", a symphonic poem by Arnold Bax, premieres.

    "Tintagel" is Bax's best-known work.

  • The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is dedicated at the Arlington National Cemetery.

  • Rued Langgard's "Music of the Spheres" premieres.

  • Rising prices lead to riots in Vienna

  • Arnold Bax's "Symphony No. 1" is finished.

  • Diabetes is first successfully treated using insulin for the first time.

  • Carl Nielsen conducts the premiere of his "Symphony No. 5" in Copenhagen.

  • James Joyce's novel "Ulysses" is published.

  • The first issue of Reader's Digest is published.

  • The silent horror film "Nosferatu" premieres in Germany.

  • Teapot Dome scandal: The United States Secretary of the Interior leases Teapot Dome oil reserves in Wyoming.

    This caused citizens to lose faith in the government.

  • Carl Nielsen's "Wind Quintet" is first performed privately.

    It is later performed for the public for the first time on October 9, 1922.

  • Igor Stravinsky's opera "Mavra" premieres.

  • The only joint meeting of Igor Stravinsky, Pablo Picasso, Sergei Diaghilev, Marcel Proust, Clive Bell, and Erik Satie.

  • US president Warren G. Harding makes his first radio speech.

  • Carl Nielsen's last major choral work, "Fynsk Foraar", premieres.

  • The Hollywood Bowl opens.

  • Morocco revolts against the Spanish.

  • The first 3D film, "The Power of Love", premieres.

  • The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) is created.

  • The Ottoman Empire is abolished.

  • Vladmir Lenin has a second stroke.

  • Francis Poulenc's "Sonata for horn, trumpet, and trombone" premieres.

  • The United Kingdom and the United States opened a conference in Washington, D.C. to settle British war debts to the U.S..

  • The American Law Institute is founded.

  • The first issue of Time Magazine is published.

  • Dmitri Shostakovich's "Three Fantastic Dances" premieres.

  • Louis Armstrong makes his first recording.

  • Stravinsky's "Octet" is finished.

  • Pipe Spring in Arizona becomes a national monument.

  • A large fire breaks out in the northwest corner of the Forbidden City in China.

  • The Hollywood sign is inaugurated in California.

  • US President Warren G. Harding has a heart attack and dies.

  • The Irish Free State joins the League of Nations.

  • Gerald Finzi's "By Footpath and Stile", a song cycle for baritone and string quartet set to poems by Thomas Hardy, premieres.

  • Turkey becomes a republic.

  • The Victorian Police Strike of 1923 begins.

  • John Foulds's "A World Requiem" premieres.

  • Turkey and Hungary sign a treaty of friendship.

  • Erik Satie's ballet "Relâche" premieres

    The title means cancelled. It is a dadaist ballet.

  • Chôros No. 2 is composed by Heitor Villa-Lobos.

  • Chôros No. 7 is composed by Heitor Villa-Lobos.

  • The last known sighting of a California grizzly bear.

  • Gabriel Fauré's only string quartet, String Quartet in E minor, Op. 121, is finished.

    Fauré dies shortly after. This is his only string quartet.

  • The first radio play is broadcast.

  • George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" premieres.

  • U.S. Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty resigns over the Teapot Dome scandal.

  • Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) is founded

  • The Immigration Act is signed and includes the Chinese Exclusion Act.

  • President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to Native Americans.

  • US occupation of the Dominican Republic ends.

  • The comic strip "Little Orphan Annie" makes its first appearance.

  • The film "Dante's Inferno" is released.

  • The first Toastmasters club is founded in California.

  • Arnold Schoenberg's "drama with music" "Die glückliche Hand" premieres.

  • French composer Gabriel Fauré dies

  • Leoš Janáček's opera "The Cunning Little Vixen" premieres.

  • Ottorio Respighi's symphonic poem "Pines of Rome" premieres.

  • Albania becomes a republic.

  • The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved.

  • First day of radio broadcasting in Sweden.

  • The very first issue of The New Yorker is published.

  • Ben Bernie records "Sweet Georgia Brown", a jazz standard.

  • L'enfant et les sortilèges: Fantaisie lyrique en deux parties (The Child and the Spells: A Lyric Fantasy in Two Parts), an opera by Maurice Ravel, premieres

  • Gustav Holst's opera "At the Boar's Head" premieres in Manchester.

  • F. Scott Fitzgerald publishes "The Great Gatsby".

  • John T. Scopes is indicted for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.

  • The Chrysler Corporation is founded.

  • Erik Satie dies.

  • The Mayfair Hotel opens in St. Louis, MO

  • The U.S. State Department warn that Americans participating in the Rif War may be subject to prosecution for "high misdemeanour".

  • Mount Rushmore is dedicated.

  • Ralph Vaughan Williams's "Flos Campi" is premiered.

  • A popular war film called "The Big Parade" premieres.

  • Gershwin's "Concerto in F" is finished.

  • The first complete performance of Alban Berg's opera "Wozzeck"

  • The George Gershwin musical "Tip-Toes" opens on Broadway.

  • Béla Bartók's "Piano Concerto No. 1" is composed

  • Arnold Bax's "Symphony No. 2" is completed

  • Aaron Copeland completes his "Piano Concerto"

    It premieres on January 28, 1927.

  • "The Capriol Suite" by Peter Warlock is composed

  • "Háry János", a Hungarian folk opera by Zoltán Kodály, premieres at the Hungarian State Opera

  • British and Belgian troops leave Cologne

  • Czech becomes Czechoslovakia's official language.

  • The Shakespeare Memorial theater is destroyed by fire.

  • Mauna Loa erupts in Hawaii

  • Giacomo Puccini's opera "Turandot" premieres.

  • Marital law is declared in Britain.

  • Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1 premières in Leningrad.

  • DeFord Bailey becomes the first African-American to perform on Nashville's Grand Ole Opry.

  • Karol Syzmanowski's opera "King Roger" premieres.

  • The Swedish Air Force is founded.

  • A weather map is televised in the US for the first time.

  • The film "Subway Sadie" opens

  • A. A. Milne's "Winnie the Pooh" is published in London

  • Carl Nielsen's "Flute Concerto" is premiered in Paris.

  • "Cardillac", an opera by Paul Hindemith, premieres.

  • The NBC radio network opens.

  • Béla Bartók's "The Miraculous Mandarin" premieres.

  • Agatha Christie goes missing.

  • Leoš Janáček's opera "The Makropulos Affair" premieres.

  • World première of Sibelius's tone poem Tapiola

  • "By the Blue Hawaiian Waters", a piece of light classical music by Albert Ketèlbey, is composed.

  • US forces invade Nicaragua.

  • The first seaside resort in Hawaii opens for business.

  • Nanking Incident.

  • Period: to

    The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.

  • Reinhold Glière's ballet "The Red Poppy" premieres.

  • The Food, Drug, and Insecticide Administration (FDIA) is created.

  • July Revolt of 1927

  • US President Calvin Coolidge announces that he does not want to run for president in 1928.

  • CBS is created

  • Carving of the sculptures of Mount Rushmore begins.

  • Period: to

    The Great Vermont Flood of 1927

  • Leoš Janáček's "Glagolitic Mass" premieres in Brno.

  • Iraq gains independence from the United Kingdom.

  • Heitor Villa-Lobos's "Quinteto" is published.

    It premiered in 1930.

  • The volcanic island Anak Krakatau appears.

  • Period: to

    The 1928 Winter Olympics.

  • "My Old Kentucky Home" becomes the state song of Kentucky

  • NBC gets the first television station construction permit.

  • The first appearance of Mickey and Minnie Mouse-"Plane Crazy"

    the film is not distributed by Disney.

  • "Die ägyptische Helena", an opera by Richard Strauss, premieres.

  • Period: to

    Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to make a successful transatlantic flight.

  • The US recalls its troops from China.

  • Period: to

    The 1928 Summer Olympics are held

  • "The Threepenny Opera" by Kurt Weill is premiered.

  • The oil industry of Argentina is nationalized.

  • The first perfomance of Carl Nielsen's "Clarinet Concerto".

  • An iron lung is used for the first time, on a polio patient.

  • Mickey Mouse appears in "Steamboat Willie", the first Mickey Mouse cartoon released, but the first Disney-distributed sound film.

  • Maurice Ravel's "Bolero" premieres.

  • Igor Stravinsky's ballet "Le Baiser de la fée" premieres in Paris.

  • The US Congress approves the construction of the Boulder Dam, which is now the Hoover Dam.

  • Karol Syzmanowski's "Stabat Mater" is premiered

  • The first appearance of Popeye.

  • The first recording of George Gershwin's "An American in Paris"

  • Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming is established.

  • Herbert Hoover is sworn in as President of the US

  • The silent drama film "Betrayal" is released

  • The first Academy Awards.

  • Sergei Prokofiev's ballet "The Prodigal Son" premieres

  • Francis Poulenc's "Aubade" premieres.

  • First London performances of two ballets by Igor Stravinsky, Apollon musagète and Le Baiser de la fée,

  • The first public demonstration of color television.

  • The Soviet Union agrees to have peace talks with China.

  • Louis Armstrong records his hit song "When You're Smiling".

  • Ernest Hemingway's novel "A Farewell to Arms" is published.

  • William Walton's "Viola Concerto" premieres.

  • Period: to

    The Stock Market crashes

    this starts the Great Depression

  • An annual solar eclipse is seen over the Atlantic Ocean and Africa

  • President Hoover signs a $160 million income tax reduction bill into law.

  • Guy Lombardo plays "Auld Lang Syne" for the first time.

  • Hoagy Carmichael's "Georgia On My Mind" is recorded

  • The Mickey Mouse comic strip makes its first appearance.

  • "Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major (First of May) Op. 20" by Dmitri Shostakovich premieres.

  • The existence of Pluto as a dwarf planet is confirmed.

  • International Unemployment day is observed worldwide.

  • Neoprene is invented.

  • The National Pan-Hellenic Council is formed

    The National Pan-Hellenic Council is all of the African American fraternities and sororities.

  • "Opus clavicembalisticum", a work for solo piano composed by Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, is completed

  • La Paz is captured by Bolivian rebels

  • The United States Department of Veteran Affairs is created.

  • The Festival Puccini is launched.

  • A military junta takes over in Peru.

  • Béla Bartók's "Cantata Profana" premieres.

  • Scotch tape is sold by the 3M company.

  • The George and Ira Gershwin stage musical "Girl Crazy" premieres.

  • The Arthur Bliss choral symphony "Morning Heroes" premieres.

  • Douglas MacArthur is sworn in as Chief of Staff of the United States Army.

  • Howard Hanson's "Symphony No. 2" premieres.

  • Igor Stravinsky's "Symphony of Psalms" premieres.

  • The Cole Porter stage musical The New Yorkers makes its Broadway debut at the Broadway Theatre.