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Sacco and Vanzetti arrested for armed robbery and murder
Sacco and Vanzetti were charged with committing robbery and murder at the Slater and Morrill shoe factory in South Braintree. Two men were shot to death and robbed of over $15,000 in cash. Sacco and Vanzetti were anarchists, believing that social justice would come only through the destruction of governments. Sacco and Vanzetti were executed one convicted. The execution sparked worldwide protests against repression of Italian Americans, immigrants, labor militancy, and radical political beliefs. -
KDKA goes on the air from Pittsburgh
The first broadcast by a commercially-licensed radio station. KDKA went on the air in Pittsburgh as the world's first commercially licensed station. They chose that date because it was election day, and the power of radio was proven when people could hear the results of the Harding-Cox presidential race before they read about it in the newspaper. -
1st Miss American Pageant
The 1921 Atlantic City Pageant was designed to encourage visitors to stay in the resort past Labor Day, the traditional end of the season. This event attracted over 1,500 photographic entries from around the country. Eight finalists from cities in the Northeast competed for the title, which would later be known as Miss America. Margaret Gorman was the first winner and she received the "Golden Mermaid" award and cash prizes. -
Teapot Dome Scandal
The Teapot Dome scandal was a bribery scandal involving the administration of United States President Warren G. Harding. The Wall Street Journal had reported an unprecedented secret arrangement in which the secretary of the Interior, without competitive bidding, had leased the U.S. naval petroleum reserve at Wyoming's Teapot Dome to a private oil company. -
1st Winter Olympics Held
The Olympics was a winter multi-sport event which was held in 1924 in Chamonix, France. There was a call for equality for winter sports, and after much discussion it was decided to organize an "international week of winter sport". The original five Winter Olympic Sports were bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, Nordic skiing and skating. Norway won the unofficial team competition with 17 medals. -
The Great Gatsby published by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald was inspired to write The Great Gatsby to show the American Dream and its attainability. Set in Jazz Age New York, the novel tells the tragic story of Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire, and his pursuit of Daisy Buchanan, a wealthy young woman whom he loved in his youth. In its first year, The Great Gatsby sold a disappointing 21,000 copies. Now it's sold nearly 30 million. -
Scopes Monkey Trial
The trial begins with John Scopes, science teacher, accused of teaching evolution in violation of a Tennessee state law. The law made it a misdemeanor punishable by fine to “teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.” The Scopes trial turned out to be one of the most sensational cases in 20th century America. -
Charles Lindberg completes solo flight across the Atlantic
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. Lindbergh landed safely in Paris less than 34 hours later. In 1919 New York hotel owner Raymond Orteig offered a $25,000 prize for the completion of the first nonstop flight between New York and Paris. He changed public opinion on the value of air travel, and laid the foundation for the future development of aviation. -
The Jazz Singer debuts (1st movie with sound)
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. Its release heralded the commercial ascendance of sound films and effectively marked the end of the silent film era. -
St. Valentine's Day Massacre
This event was the murder of seven Irish members and associates of Chicago's North Side Gang which occurred on Saint Valentine's Day. Four men dressed as police officers enter gangster Bugs Moran’s headquarters, line seven of Moran’s henchmen against a wall, and shoot them to death. This was the culmination of a gang war between arch rivals Al Capone and Bugs Moran. The bloody incident dramatized the intense rivalry for control of the illegal liquor traffic during the Prohibition era in the U.S. -
Black Tuesday (Stock Market Crash)
"Black Tuesday" hit Wall Street as investors traded 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors. The main cause was the long period of speculation, during which millions of people invested their savings or borrowed money to buy stocks, pushing prices to unsustainable levels. By 1933, nearly half of America's banks had failed, and unemployment was approaching 15 million people.