January 5, 1920: The U.S. Census Bureau conducted the 1920 Census
Per the Census, the population of the United States of America was 106,021,537 in 1920, a population increase of 15% since 1910.
Prohibition of Alcohol
January 17, 1920: Prohibition of alcohol goes into effect
In 1919, the 18th Amendment, an amendment outlawing the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages, was ratified by the requisite amount of states. In the wake of the passage of the 18th Amendment, Congress passed the Volstead Act, the enabling act that set the parameters of Prohibition. Prohibition went into effect in January 1920.
Babe Ruth Hits His First Home Run as a Member of the New York Yankees
May 1, 1920:
Above: Babe Ruth in 1920
Women's Suffrage
August 18, 1920: The 19th Amendment became a part of the U.S. Constitution, thus giving women the right to vote.
November 2, 1920: Republican Warren G. Harding was elected President of the United States
1921 The Irish Republic
January 21, 1921: The Dail Eireann, the revolutionary parliament of the Irish Republic, ratified the Easter Proclamation of 1916, the document declaring Ireland's independence from Great Britain.
The Presidency of Warren G. Harding
March 4, 1921: Warren G. Harding became President of the United States of America
March 4, 1921 to August 2, 1923
Republican Warren G. Harding, The 29th President of the United States
Above: Warren G. Harding, President of the United States from March 4, 1921 to August 2, 1923
1921 World Series: The New York Giants Defeat the New York Yankees
December 6, 1921: The British government and representatives of the Irish Republic signed the Anglo-IrishTreaty, an agreement that created the Irish Free State, a self-governing dominion and a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations. The Irish Free State, under the terms of the treaty, would come into existence one year later.
The Anglo-Irish Treaty ended the Irish War of Independence.
Above: British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, a negotiator on behalf of the UK; Irish Representative Michael Collins, negotiator on behalf of the Irish Republic;
1922 Egypt Becomes an Independent Nation as Great Britain Abolishes the Protectorate
February 28, 1922:
Above: 1923 cover of Time with Egypt's King Faud I on the cover
"On November 18, 1914, Britain declared a Protectorate over Egypt in order to prevent that country from joining (as Turkey did) the side of the Central Powers in the war. On February 28, 1922, the British Government announced that the Protectorate was abolished, but that there should be: maintenance of British Empire communications; defense of Egypt against foreign aggression; protection of foreign interest in Egypt and minorities; guarantees for British interests in the Sudan. On March 1, 1922, Sarwat Pasha formed an Egyptian Cabinet. And on March 16, Fuad, Sultan of Egypt, was proclaimed King Fuad I of Egypt —the first independent ruler of Egypt since the death of Cleopatra on August 29, 30 B. C. The British, who had ruled the country by martial law since 1914, then promised that such law would be withdrawn as soon as a constitution had been framed and agreed to."
---Time, April 28, 1923 Issue
The Founding of the American Birth Control League
April 5, 1922:
Above: Margaret Sanger
Fascist Italy
October 27-29, 1922: Benito Mussolini's Fascist Party conducted a "March on Rome" and came to power.
Above left: Fascists march to Rome Above right: Benito Mussolini (Hands on hips)
1922 World Series: The New York Giants Defeat the New York Yankees
December 6, 1922: Under the provisions of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the IrishFree State came into existence. The Irish Free State remained under a measure of British sovereignty, however.
1923 The Death of President Warren G. Harding
August 2, 1923:
Above: Warren G. Harding, President of the United States from March 4, 1921 to August 2, 1923
The Presidency of Calvin Coolidge
August 2, 1923 to March 4, 1929: Republican Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President of the United States
1923 World Series: The New York Yankees Defeat the New York Giants
November 8-9, 1923: In Munich, Germany, Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler failed in an attempted seizure of power in what became known as The Beer Hall Putsch.
Hitler was among several who were arrested, prosecuted, and convicted for their involvement in the failed coup d'etat. While serving a prison sentence, Hitler wrote a manifesto entitled, Mein Kampf, an anti-Semitic (anti-Jewish) book that laid out much of what Hitler believed.
1924 The Death of Vladimir Lenin
January 21, 1924: The Death of Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) and the rise of Josef Stalin (1879-1953)
After Lenin's death on January 21, 1924, Josef Stalin steadily gained control of the levers of power in the Soviet Union. By the late 1920s, he had exiled his biggest rival, Leon Trotsky. During the 1930s Stalin ruled the Soviet Union with an iron grip. Millions of Soviet citizens died under his murderous rule, particularly when Stalin forced the Soviet Union into an ambitious program of industrial modernization during the 1930s.
The End of the Ottoman Caliphate
March 3, 1924:
Above: Abdulmecid II, the last Ottoman Caliph
The Virginia Racial Integrity Act of 1924
March 20, 1924: The State of Virginia enacted the Virginia Racial Integrity Act, a state law establishing that all Virginians be classified as either white or colored. The law forbade interracial marriage.
The law was not overturned until June 12, 1967, when the U.S. Supreme Court, in Loving v. Virginia, declared the law to be unconstitutional.
Above: Dr. Walter A. Plecker, advocate of Virginia'sRacial Integrity Act
The Restriction of Immigration into the United States: The Immigration Act of 1924 (Also called the Johnson-Reed Act)
May 26, 1924: President Calvin Coolidge (Republican) signed the Immigration Act of 1924 into law, legislation that greatly restricted immigration into the United States, particularly Non-European immigration outside the Western Hemisphere. The law restricted the number of immigrants, and from where immigrants could come.
In particular, the 1924 law restricted immigrants by national origin in accordance to a strict formula. The formula mandated that annual immigration from a given country could not exceed 2% of the number of American residents whose national origins were that given given country in 1890. The national origins quotas ensured that most immigrants would be from the British Isles, and the western, northern, and central parts of Europe.
By 1929, the overall limit of quota immigrants was set at 150,000 per year. The number of quota immigrants from a given country was set in proportion that country's national origin share per the 1920 Census.
Above: Albert Johnson, Republican U.S. Congressman (Washington), 1913-1933; David Reed, U.S. Senator (R-Pennsylvania), 1922-1935
Above: President Calvin Coolidge signing the Immigration Act of 1924 into law
The Immigration Act of 1924, with only some modification, became the law that governed U.S immigration until 1960s when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Immigration Act of 1965, thus abolishing the national origins quotas.
Future United States President Jimmy Carter Born in Georgia
October 1, 1924:
1924 Presidential Election
November 1924: President Calvin Coolidge won the 1924 Presidential Election
1925
The Great Gatsby
April 10, 1925: The Great Gatsby, a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was published.
Above: The Great Gatsby and author, F. Scott Fitzgerald
American Religion and Science
July 10-21, 1925: Protestant Fundamentalism and the Scopes Monkey Trial
Weimar Germany and the Coming of the Nazis
July 18, 1925: Mein Kampf was published, the autobiography and political manifesto by Adolf Hitler.
The Ku Klux Klan and its War on Modernity
August 8, 1925: The Ku Klux Klan conducted a massive march on Washington, D.C.
1926 Alabama Culture
January 1, 1926: Alabama won the Rose Bowl
The University of Alabama's Rose Bowl victory is considered by many to be the dawn of Southern college football as viable and even dominant force on the national stage. Some even saw Alabama's victory in a Civil War context, revenge for Gettysburg, if you will.
The Birth of NBC
November 15, 1926: The National Broadcasting Company Radio Network was started. NBC would later expand into television.
Above: An early NBC logo
1927 American Technology and Aviation
May 1927: American Charles Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic Ocean
Flying the Spirit of St. Louis, American Charles Lindbergh flew non-stop from the east coast of the United States to France, thus becoming the first person to fly an airplane non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean from North America to Europe. Upon completing the transatlantic flight, Lindbergh became an instant worldwide celebrity.
October 6, 1927: The movie The Jazz Singer opened. Al Jolson starred in the film.
The Soviet Union under Stalin
December 1927 to June 1941: Stalin tightened his grip on the Soviet Union
With the expulsion of Leon Trotsky from the Soviet Communist Party, Stalin led the Soviet Union into a new historical phase, a period of noteworthy economic expansion, but a material expansion built on brutal repression, totalitarian injustice, mass starvation, and murder.
Prior to the Soviet Union's entry into WWII in June 1941, millions of Soviet citizens died as a result of Stalin's policies, sometimes as a side-effect, but in many cases, by deliberate design. Moreover, nor were high-level Soviet officials immune from Stalin's purges, including officials who had played important roles in the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.
Stalin's desire to eliminate any potential rival extended beyond the borders of the Soviet Union (USSR). In 1940, while in exile, Leon Trotsky himself was assassinated in Mexico City by a pick-axe wielding agent of Josef Stalin.
1928 Soviet Dictator Joseph Stalin Banishes Leon Trotsky to Internal Exile in the Soviet Union
From Hoover to Obama: The 1928 Thread in American Politics
Above: Timecovers of Republican Herbert Hoover (Left) and Democrat Al Smith (Right)
The Rise of the Walt Disney's Universe
November 18, 1928: Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie, a cartoon short with audio, was released. With Steamboat Willie, theMickey Mouse character emerged to become an American cultural icon. For the remainder of the 20th century and into the 21st, Disney productions were a staple of American mass entertainment. Walt Disney, the creator of many of the core Disney characters, died in 1966.
Above: Scenes fromSteamboat Willie
Above: A 1978 Commemorative Poster of Walt Disney'sSteamboat Willie
1929 Martin Luther King, Jr. Born in Atlanta, Georgia
January 15, 1929:
Above: NPS.gov photo of the Martin Luther King Jr's birthplace and childhood home at 501 Auburn Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia
The American Stock Market Crash of 1929 triggered a worldwide Great Depression. In Germany, the economic collapse revived the political fortunes of Adolf Hitler. In the United States, the Great Depression destroyed the political fortunes of the Republicans, the political party in power.
The 1920s
1920
Red Scare: The Palmer Raids
January 2, 1920:
Above: A. Mitchell Palmer, U.S. Attorney General from 1919 to 1921
Library of Congress: The Palmer Raids
The U.S. Census of 1920
January 5, 1920: The U.S. Census Bureau conducted the 1920 Census
Per the Census, the population of the United States of America was 106,021,537 in 1920, a population increase of 15% since 1910.
Prohibition of Alcohol
January 17, 1920: Prohibition of alcohol goes into effect
In 1919, the 18th Amendment, an amendment outlawing the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages, was ratified by the requisite amount of states. In the wake of the passage of the 18th Amendment, Congress passed the Volstead Act, the enabling act that set the parameters of Prohibition. Prohibition went into effect in January 1920.
Babe Ruth Hits His First Home Run as a Member of the New York Yankees
May 1, 1920:
Above: Babe Ruth in 1920
Women's Suffrage
August 18, 1920: The 19th Amendment became a part of the U.S. Constitution, thus giving women the right to vote.
U.S. Coast-to-Coast Airmail Service Begins
August 20, 1920
The 1920 World Series: The Cleveland Indians Defeat the Brooklyn Robins (aka Dodgers)
October 12, 1920:
Above: Program for the 1920 World Series; Team photo of the 1920 Cleveland Indians
Baseball Almanac: The 1920 World Series
1920 Presidential Election
November 2, 1920: Republican Warren G. Harding was elected President of the United States
1921
The Irish Republic
January 21, 1921: The Dail Eireann, the revolutionary parliament of the Irish Republic, ratified the Easter Proclamation of 1916, the document declaring Ireland's independence from Great Britain.
The Presidency of Warren G. Harding
March 4, 1921: Warren G. Harding became President of the United States of America
March 4, 1921 to August 2, 1923
Republican Warren G. Harding, The 29th President of the United States
Above: Warren G. Harding, President of the United States from March 4, 1921 to August 2, 1923
1921 World Series: The New York Giants Defeat the New York Yankees
Baseball Almanac: The 1921 World Series
The Anglo-Irish Treaty
December 6, 1921: The British government and representatives of the Irish Republic signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty, an agreement that created the Irish Free State, a self-governing dominion and a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations. The Irish Free State, under the terms of the treaty, would come into existence one year later.
The Anglo-Irish Treaty ended the Irish War of Independence.
Above: British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, a negotiator on behalf of the UK; Irish Representative Michael Collins, negotiator on behalf of the Irish Republic;
1922
Egypt Becomes an Independent Nation as Great Britain Abolishes the Protectorate
February 28, 1922:
Above: 1923 cover of Time with Egypt's King Faud I on the cover
"On November 18, 1914, Britain declared a Protectorate over Egypt in order to prevent that country from joining (as Turkey did) the side of the Central Powers in the war. On February 28, 1922, the British Government announced that the Protectorate was abolished, but that there should be: maintenance of British Empire communications; defense of Egypt against foreign aggression; protection of foreign interest in Egypt and minorities; guarantees for British interests in the Sudan. On March 1, 1922, Sarwat Pasha formed an Egyptian Cabinet. And on March 16, Fuad, Sultan of Egypt, was proclaimed King Fuad I of Egypt —the first independent ruler of Egypt since the death of Cleopatra on August 29, 30 B. C. The British, who had ruled the country by martial law since 1914, then promised that such law would be withdrawn as soon as a constitution had been framed and agreed to."
---Time, April 28, 1923 Issue
The Founding of the American Birth Control League
April 5, 1922:
Above: Margaret Sanger
Fascist Italy
October 27-29, 1922: Benito Mussolini's Fascist Party conducted a "March on Rome" and came to power.
Above left: Fascists march to Rome Above right: Benito Mussolini (Hands on hips)
1922 World Series: The New York Giants Defeat the New York Yankees
Baseball Almanac: The 1922 World Series
The Abolition of the Ottoman Sultanate
November 1, 1922:
The Irish Free State
December 6, 1922: Under the provisions of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the Irish Free State came into existence. The Irish Free State remained under a measure of British sovereignty, however.
1923
The Death of President Warren G. Harding
August 2, 1923:
Above: Warren G. Harding, President of the United States from March 4, 1921 to August 2, 1923
The Presidency of Calvin Coolidge
August 2, 1923 to March 4, 1929: Republican Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President of the United States
1923 World Series: The New York Yankees Defeat the New York Giants
October 15, 1923:
Baseball Almanac: The 1923 World Series
The Beer Hall Putsch
November 8-9, 1923: In Munich, Germany, Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler failed in an attempted seizure of power in what became known as The Beer Hall Putsch.
Hitler was among several who were arrested, prosecuted, and convicted for their involvement in the failed coup d'etat. While serving a prison sentence, Hitler wrote a manifesto entitled, Mein Kampf, an anti-Semitic (anti-Jewish) book that laid out much of what Hitler believed.
1924
The Death of Vladimir Lenin
January 21, 1924: The Death of Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) and the rise of Josef Stalin (1879-1953)
After Lenin's death on January 21, 1924, Josef Stalin steadily gained control of the levers of power in the Soviet Union. By the late 1920s, he had exiled his biggest rival, Leon Trotsky. During the 1930s Stalin ruled the Soviet Union with an iron grip. Millions of Soviet citizens died under his murderous rule, particularly when Stalin forced the Soviet Union into an ambitious program of industrial modernization during the 1930s.
The End of the Ottoman Caliphate
March 3, 1924:
Above: Abdulmecid II, the last Ottoman Caliph
The Virginia Racial Integrity Act of 1924
March 20, 1924: The State of Virginia enacted the Virginia Racial Integrity Act, a state law establishing that all Virginians be classified as either white or colored. The law forbade interracial marriage.
The law was not overturned until June 12, 1967, when the U.S. Supreme Court, in Loving v. Virginia, declared the law to be unconstitutional.
Above: Dr. Walter A. Plecker, advocate of Virginia's Racial Integrity Act
The Virginia Racial Integrity Act of 1924
Dr. Walter A. Plecker
The Restriction of Immigration into the United States: The Immigration Act of 1924 (Also called the Johnson-Reed Act)
May 26, 1924: President Calvin Coolidge (Republican) signed the Immigration Act of 1924 into law, legislation that greatly restricted immigration into the United States, particularly Non-European immigration outside the Western Hemisphere. The law restricted the number of immigrants, and from where immigrants could come.
In particular, the 1924 law restricted immigrants by national origin in accordance to a strict formula. The formula mandated that annual immigration from a given country could not exceed 2% of the number of American residents whose national origins were that given given country in 1890. The national origins quotas ensured that most immigrants would be from the British Isles, and the western, northern, and central parts of Europe.
By 1929, the overall limit of quota immigrants was set at 150,000 per year. The number of quota immigrants from a given country was set in proportion that country's national origin share per the 1920 Census.
Above: Albert Johnson, Republican U.S. Congressman (Washington), 1913-1933; David Reed, U.S. Senator (R-Pennsylvania), 1922-1935
Above: President Calvin Coolidge signing the Immigration Act of 1924 into law
The Immigration Act of 1924, with only some modification, became the law that governed U.S immigration until 1960s when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Immigration Act of 1965, thus abolishing the national origins quotas.
Immigration Act of 1924
Enactment of the Indian Citizenship Act
June 2, 1924:
Politico: 90th Anniversary of the Indian Citizenship Act
Future United States President George H. W. Bush Born in Milton, Massachusetts
June 12, 1924:
PBS: George H.W. Bush Timeline
Future United States President Jimmy Carter Born in Georgia
October 1, 1924:
1924 Presidential Election
November 1924: President Calvin Coolidge won the 1924 Presidential Election
1925
The Great Gatsby
April 10, 1925: The Great Gatsby, a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was published.
Above: The Great Gatsby and author, F. Scott Fitzgerald
American Religion and Science
July 10-21, 1925: Protestant Fundamentalism and the Scopes Monkey Trial
Weimar Germany and the Coming of the Nazis
July 18, 1925: Mein Kampf was published, the autobiography and political manifesto by Adolf Hitler.
The Ku Klux Klan and its War on Modernity
August 8, 1925: The Ku Klux Klan conducted a massive march on Washington, D.C.
1926
Alabama Culture
January 1, 1926: Alabama won the Rose Bowl
The University of Alabama's Rose Bowl victory is considered by many to be the dawn of Southern college football as viable and even dominant force on the national stage. Some even saw Alabama's victory in a Civil War context, revenge for Gettysburg, if you will.
The Birth of NBC
November 15, 1926: The National Broadcasting Company Radio Network was started. NBC would later expand into television.
Above: An early NBC logo
1927
American Technology and Aviation
May 1927: American Charles Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic Ocean
Flying the Spirit of St. Louis, American Charles Lindbergh flew non-stop from the east coast of the United States to France, thus becoming the first person to fly an airplane non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean from North America to Europe. Upon completing the transatlantic flight, Lindbergh became an instant worldwide celebrity.
The Executions of Sacco and Vanzetti
August 23, 1927:
Above: Sacco (left) and Vanzetti (right)
Sacco and Vanzetti Executed
American Culture
October 6, 1927: The movie The Jazz Singer opened. Al Jolson starred in the film.
The Soviet Union under Stalin
December 1927 to June 1941: Stalin tightened his grip on the Soviet Union
With the expulsion of Leon Trotsky from the Soviet Communist Party, Stalin led the Soviet Union into a new historical phase, a period of noteworthy economic expansion, but a material expansion built on brutal repression, totalitarian injustice, mass starvation, and murder.
Prior to the Soviet Union's entry into WWII in June 1941, millions of Soviet citizens died as a result of Stalin's policies, sometimes as a side-effect, but in many cases, by deliberate design. Moreover, nor were high-level Soviet officials immune from Stalin's purges, including officials who had played important roles in the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.
Stalin's desire to eliminate any potential rival extended beyond the borders of the Soviet Union (USSR). In 1940, while in exile, Leon Trotsky himself was assassinated in Mexico City by a pick-axe wielding agent of Josef Stalin.
1928
Soviet Dictator Joseph Stalin Banishes Leon Trotsky to Internal Exile in the Soviet Union
January 11, 1928:
Above: Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin
History.com: Stalin Banishes Trotsky to Internal Exile in the Soviet Union, January 11, 1928
Presidential Election of 1928
November 1928: Herbert Hoover elected to the Presidency
Republican Herbert Hoover pictured at left, Democrat Al Smith at right
Above: Time covers of Republican Herbert Hoover (Left) and Democrat Al Smith (Right)
The Rise of the Walt Disney's Universe
November 18, 1928: Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie, a cartoon short with audio, was released. With Steamboat Willie, theMickey Mouse character emerged to become an American cultural icon. For the remainder of the 20th century and into the 21st, Disney productions were a staple of American mass entertainment. Walt Disney, the creator of many of the core Disney characters, died in 1966.
Above: Scenes from Steamboat Willie
Above: A 1978 Commemorative Poster of Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie
1929
Martin Luther King, Jr. Born in Atlanta, Georgia
January 15, 1929:
Above: NPS.gov photo of the Martin Luther King Jr's birthplace and childhood home at 501 Auburn Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia
NPS.gov: Martin Luther King, Jr. Historic Sites
The Presidency of Herbert Hoover
March 4, 1929: Herbert Hoover became President of the United States
Herbert Hoover (Republican), 31st American President
Years in Office: 1929-1933
The Stock Market Crash of 1929
October 29, 1929: The American stock market crashed rapidly, and the Great Depression was underway
The 1929 Stock Market Crash
The Great Depression
The Great Depression, 1929-1940.
The American Stock Market Crash of 1929 triggered a worldwide Great Depression. In Germany, the economic collapse revived the political fortunes of Adolf Hitler. In the United States, the Great Depression destroyed the political fortunes of the Republicans, the political party in power.