1920s Timeline

  • 1st Miss American Pageant

    1st Miss American Pageant
    What has become known as the first Miss America pageant was, at its start in 1921, an activity designed to attract tourists to extend their Labor Day holiday weekend and enjoy festivities in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
  • KDKA goes on the air from Pittsburgh

    KDKA goes on the air from Pittsburgh
    Already they were known as broadcast pioneers. So began the first broadcast by a commercially-licensed radio station. KDKA went on the air in Pittsburgh as the world's first commercially licensed station on November 2, 1920.
  • The Great Gatsby published by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    The Great Gatsby published by F. Scott Fitzgerald
    The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby's obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan.
  • Teapot Dome Scandal

    Teapot Dome Scandal
    The Teapot Dome scandal was a bribery scandal involving the administration of United States President Warren G. Harding from 1921 to 1923.
  • 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.
  • 1st Winter Olympics Held

    1st Winter Olympics Held
    The 1924 Winter Olympics, officially known as the I Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Chamonix 1924, were a winter multi-sport event which was held in 1924 in Chamonix, France.
  • Scopes Monkey Trial

    Scopes Monkey Trial
    The Scopes “monkey trial” was the moniker journalist H. L. Mencken applied to the 1925 prosecution of a criminal action brought by the state of Tennessee against high school teacher John T. Scopes for violating the state's Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of evolution in public schools.
  • Sacco and Vanzetti arrested for armed robbery and murder

    Sacco and Vanzetti arrested for armed robbery and murder
    In 1921, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, both Italian-Americans, were convicted of robbery and murder. Although the arguments brought against them were mostly disproven in court, the fact that the two men were known radicals prejudiced the judge and jury against them. On April 9, 1927, Sacco and Vanzetti's final appeal was rejected, and the two were sentenced to death.
  • 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.
  • St. Valentine's Day Massacre

    St. Valentine's Day Massacre
    The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre was the murder of seven Irish members and associates of Chicago's North Side Gang that occurred on Saint Valentine's Day 1929. The men were gathered at a Lincoln Park, Chicago garage on the morning of February 14, 1929.
  • Black Tuesday (Stock Market Crash)

    Black Tuesday (Stock Market Crash)
    The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange collapsed.