1920s

  • Sacco and Vanzetti arrested for armed robbery and murder

    Sacco and Vanzetti arrested for armed robbery and murder
    Sacco and Vanzetti were charged with the crime of murder on May 5, 1920, and indicted four months later on September 14. Following Sacco and Vanzetti's indictment for murder for the Braintree robbery, Galleanists and anarchists in the United States and abroad began a campaign of violent retaliation.
  • KDKA goes on the air from Pittsburgh

    KDKA goes on the air from Pittsburgh
    first commercial radio station was KDKA in Pittsburgh, which went on the air in the evening of Nov. 2, 1920, with a broadcast of the returns of the Harding-Cox presidential election.
  • 1st Miss American Pageant

    1st Miss American Pageant
    1921–1967. Margaret Gorman, Miss District of Columbia, was declared "The Most Beautiful Bathing Girl in America" in 1921 at the age of 16 and was recognized as the first "Miss America" when she returned to compete the next year.
  • Teapot Dome Scandal

    Teapot Dome Scandal
    On April 15, 1922, Wyoming Democratic senator John Kendrick introduced a resolution that set in motion one of the most significant investigations in Senate history.
  • 1st Winter Olympics Held

    1st Winter Olympics 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.
  • The Great Gatsby published by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    The Great Gatsby published by F. Scott Fitzgerald
    The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional towns of West Egg and East Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. Many literary critics consider The Great Gatsby to be one of the greatest novels ever written.
  • Scopes Monkey Trial

    Scopes Monkey Trial
    The Scopes Trial, formally known as The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes and commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial, was an American legal case in July 1925
  • Charles Lindberg completes solo flight across the Atlantic

    Charles Lindberg completes solo flight across the Atlantic
    On May 21, 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh completed the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight in history, flying his Spirit of St. Louis from Long Island, New York, to Paris, France.
  • The Jazz Singer debuts (1st movie with sound)

    The Jazz Singer debuts (1st movie with sound)
    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.
  • St. Valentine's Day Massacre

    St. Valentine's Day Massacre
    The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre was the 1929 murder of seven members and associates of Chicago's North Side Gang that occurred on Saint Valentine's Day. The men were gathered at a Lincoln Park garage on the morning of that feast day.
  • Black Tuesday (Stock Market Crash)

    Black Tuesday (Stock Market Crash)
    On October 29, 1929, Black Tuesday hit Wall Street as investors traded some 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors.