1920s

  • League Of Nations Founded

    League Of Nations Founded

    The League Of Nations was founded but the United States refused to join it. It was an organization intended to preserve international peace. President Woodrow Wilson had a major role in it’s creation. Even though it was created in 1920, it was planned before World War 1 even started.
  • Nineteenth Amendment Ratified

    Nineteenth Amendment Ratified

    The Nineteenth Amendment was ratified which allowed women to vote. When it became law, about twenty six million woman became eligible to participate in U.S. politics. Issues of importance to women could no longer be ignored.
  • Treaty Of Berlin Signed

    Treaty Of Berlin Signed

    The United States and Germany signed the Treaty Of Berlin. After the U.S. rejected the Treaty of Versailles, the U.S. and Germany technically remained in war. The Warren G. Harding administration conducted direct negotiations with Germany to arrive at a separate peace treaty.
  • Emergency Quota Act Passed

    Emergency Quota Act Passed

    The Emergency Quota act is passed to restrict immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe. This did not restrict immigration from Latin America. This was a response to the anti-immigrant sentiment and the high unemployment that followed World War 1.
  • Lower Luisiana Flood

    Lower Luisiana Flood

    Fifty thousand people were affected by the Lower Luisiana flood. It remained at flood stage for 153 days. There were between 250 and 500 flood related deaths.
  • USSR Is Formed

    USSR Is Formed

    The Union of Soviet Socialists Republics was formed. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was a socialist state that spanned Eurasia during its existence from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a federal union of multiple national republics. It’s government and economy were highly centralized until its final years.
  • Great Kanto Earthquake

    Great Kanto Earthquake

    The Great Kanto earthquake devastates Tokyo and Yokohama leaving over 100,000 fatalities. The Great Kanto earthquake struck the Kanto Plain on the main Japanese island of Honshu on September 1, 1923. Witnesses state the duration of the earthquake was between four and ten minutes.
  • First Autogyro Flight

    First Autogyro Flight

    The first successful flight of an autogyro, the predecessor to a helicopter, takes place. An autogyro, also known as a gyroplane is a type of aircraft that uses an unpowered rotor in free rotation to develop lift. Forward thrust is provided independently, by an engine-driven propeller.
  • First Winter Olympics

    First Winter Olympics

    The first Winter Olympics are held. It takes place in France. The Winter Olympics is a international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice.
  • Ellis Island Closes

    Ellis Island Closes

    Ellis Island closes as an immigrant entry point to the U.S. With America's entrance into World War I, immigration was declined and Ellis Island was used as a detention center for suspected enemies
  • The Great Gatsby Published

    The Great Gatsby Published

    The classic novel "The Great Gatsby" is published by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. The novel tells the story of Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire, and his pursuit of Daisy Buchanan, a wealthy young woman that he loved when he was young.
  • First Television Transmitter Created

    First Television Transmitter Created

    The first television transmitter is developed by John Logie Baird in Great Britain. He started experimenting with television in 1922 and took out his first television patent in 1923. He demonstrated the first prototype television in 1925.
  • Route 66 Opened

    Route 66 Opened

    Route 66, a major U.S. road running from Chicago to Los Angeles, is opened. Route 66, also known as The Main Street of America or the Mother Road, was one of the original highways in the U.S. Highway System.
  • 40-hour Work Week Created By Ford

    40-hour Work Week Created By Ford

    The Ford Motor Company announces the creation of a 40-hour work week for factory workers. Ford Motor Company becomes one of the first companies in America to adopt a 40-hour week for workers in its automotive factories. The policy would be extended to Ford's office workers later on.
  • Work On Mount Rushmore Begins

    Work On Mount Rushmore Begins

    Work begins on Mount Rushmore in the late 1920's carving the faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. It takes nearly 15 years to complete. It involved the efforts of nearly 400 men and women.
  • Great Mississippi Flood

    Great Mississippi Flood

    The Great Mississippi Flood in 1927 affects 700,000 people in what was then considered the greatest national disaster in US history. The Great Mississippi Flood was the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States.
  • Iron Lung Created

    Iron Lung Created

    The "Iron Lung," a device used to help polio patients breathe, is created by Philip Drinker and Louis Shaw. An iron lung is a type of mechanical respirator which encloses most of a person's body, and varies the air pressure in the enclosed space, to stimulate breathing.
  • Mickey Mouse’s First Apperance

    Mickey Mouse’s First Apperance

    Walt Disney's famous Mickey Mouse cartoon character appears for the first time in "Steamboat Willie." The short is about Mickey Mouse steering a steamboat down a river. He entertains his passenger, Minnie, by playing music out of the menagerie on the boat.
  • The Great Depression

    The Great Depression

    The Wall Street Crash of 1929 started the period of The Great Depression in the United States. The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place mostly during the 1930s, beginning in the United States. The timing of the Great Depression varied around the world.
  • Saint Valentines Day Massacre

    Saint Valentines Day Massacre

    During most of the decade turf wars between rival gangs were frequent and extremely violent. The best known of the many was Al Capone's Saint Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago during 1929. The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre was the murder of seven members and associates of Chicago's North Side Gang that occurred on Saint Valentine's Day 1929.