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Birth of the airline industry
Wilbur and Orville Wright, two inventors from Dayton, Ohio, tested the airplane they had built using $1,000 from their personal savings. On December 17,1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville made the first crewed, powered flight in history. After the Wright brothers' successful flight, the aviation industry began developing rapidly. -
Radio Industry
In 1913, Edwin Armstrong, invented a special circuit that made it practical to transmit sound via long-rang radio. The radio industry began a few years later. -
The managerial revolution
By the early 1920s, many industries had begun to create modern organizational structures. Companies were split into divisions with different functions, such as sales, marketing, and accounting. To run these divisions, businesses needed to hire managers. Managers freed executives and owners from the day-to-day running of the companies. -
Nativism resurges
The 1920s was a time of economic growth, but it was also a time of cultural turmoil. When the 1920s began an economic recession, an influx of immigrants, and cultural tensions combined to create an atmosphere of disillusionment and intolerance. The fear and prejudice many felt toward Germans and communists during and after World War I expanded to include all immigrants. This triggered a general rise in racism and nativism- a belief that one's native land needs to be protected against immigrants. -
Return of the Ku Klux Klan
The old KKK had flourished in the South after the Civil War and used threats and violence to intimidate newly freed African Americans. The new Klan had other targets as well: Catholics, Jews, immigrants, and other groups said to be "un-American." -
Sacco-Vanzetti Case
This controversial case reflected the prejudices and fears of the era. On April 15, 1920, two men robbed and murdered two employees of a shoe factory in Massachusetts. Police subsequently arrested two Italian immigrants, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, for the crime. -
The farm crisis
American farmers did not share in the prosperity of the 1920s. On average, they earned less than one-third of the income of workers in the rest of the economy. Technological advances in fertilizers, seed varieties, and farm machinery allowed them to produce more, but higher yields without a corresponding increase in demand meant they they received lower prices. Between 1920 and 1921, corn prices dropped almost 19 percent. -
Emergency Quota Act
This act restricted annual admission to the United States to only 3 percent of the total number of people in any ethnic group already living in the nation. Ethnic identity and national origin thus determined admission to the United States. -
Washington Conference
The Washington Naval Conference, the world's largest naval powers gathered in Washington, D.C. for a conference to discuss naval disarmament and ways to relieve growing tensions in East Asia. -
Dawes Plan
The Dawes Plan was an attempt in 1924 to solve the World War I reparations problem that Germany had to pay, which had bedevilled international politics following World War I and the Treaty of Versailles. -
National Origins Act
This act made immigration restriction a permanent policy. The law set quotas at 2 percent of each national group represented in the U.S. Census of 1890. -
The decline of unions
Benefits programs made unions seem unnecessary to many workers. During the 1920s, unions lost both influence and membership. Employers promoted the open shop- a workplace where employees were not required to join a union. With benefits covering some of their basic needs, workers were able to spend more of their income to improve their quality of life. Many purchased consumer goods they previously could not afford. -
The Scopes Trial
Tennessee outlawed any teaching that denied "the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible," or taught that "man descended from a lower order of animals." The American Civil Liberties Union advertised for a teacher willing to be arrested for teaching evolution. John T. Scoped taught evolution and was arrested. -
Kellogg-Briand Pact
The Kellogg-Briand Pact is a 1928 international agreement in which signatory states promised not to use war to resolve "disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them." -
Teapot Dome Scandal
During the Teapot Dome scandal, Albert B. Fall, who served as secretary of the interior in President Warren G. Harding's cabinet, is found guilty of accepting a bribe while in office. Fall was the first individual to be convicted of a crime committed while a presidential cabinet member.