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Senate Rejects League
The Senate refuses to ratify the Versailles Treaty or authorize United States participation in the League of Nations -
Nineteenth Ammendment
The Nineteenth Amendment is ratified, granting women the right to vote -
Harding Landslide
Republican Warren G. Harding is elected to the presidency by a landslide. Harding wins 60% of the popular vote and 75% of the electoral vote -
Sacco-Vanzetti Trial
The Sacco-Vanzetti trial begins; immigrant Italian radicals Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti will eventually be convicted of murder and executed. -
World Series
Baseball's World Series is broadcast on radio for the first time; the New York Giants defeat the New York Yankees, five games to three. -
Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium, "The House that Ruth Built," is constructed in the Bronx, New York -
Harding Dies
President Warren G. Harding dies of stroke in a San Francisco hotel room. Vice President Calvin Coolidge ascends to presidency. -
Scopes Violates Ban
Tennessee schoolteacher John Scopes is arrested for teaching evolution, in violation of new state law banning the teaching of Darwin . The ensuing "Scopes Monkey Trial," pitting defense attorney Clarence Darrow against three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan in a proxy debate of modernity versus fundamentalism, captivates the nation. Scopes is eventually found guilty. -
Klansmen March
Forty thousand Ku Klux Klansmen march on Washington , their white-hooded procession filling Pennsylvania Avenue -
Spirit of St. Louis
Aviator Charles Lindbergh completes the first solo transatlantic flight, landing his "Spirit of Saint Louis" in Paris 33 hours after departing from New York . Lindbergh becomes a national hero. -
Kellog-Briand Pact
Fifteen nations, including the United States , sign the Kellogg-Briand pact "outlawing" war. The unenforceable pact will be made a mockery through the rise of European fascist states in the 1930s. -
Hoover President
Herbert Hoover, running on a slogan of "A chicken in every pot, a car in every garage," is elected to the presidency, crushing Catholic Democrat Al Smith to maintain Republican dominance of the Oval Office. -
Mickey Mouse
Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie premieres, introducing the world to a new animated character—Mickey Mouse -
Stock Market Collapses
The American stock market collapses, signaling the onset of the Great Depression. The Dow Jones Industrial Average peaks in September 1929 at 381.17—a level that it will not reach again until 1954. The Dow will bottom out at a Depression-era low of just 41.22 in 1932. -
Chicago Mob
In the "Saint Valentine's Day Massacre," the single bloodiest incident in a decade-long turf war between rival Chicago mobsters fighting to control the lucrative bootlegging trade, members of Al Capone's gang murder six followers of rival Bugs Moran.
