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In 1920, Burns provides an astonishing array of statistics that were the result of Prohibition: drunk and disorderly arrests increased 41 percent; drunk driving increased 81 percent; violent crime and murder went up 13 percent; the federal prison population swelled by a staggering 366 percent; and “federal expenditures on penal institutions of all sorts soared a thousand percent!” https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/65436/10-world-shaping-events-happened-1920
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The Ku Klux Klan, a genocidal domestic terrorist organization founded during Reconstruction, was revitalized in 1920, the result in part of new Klan leadership with an eye for publicity. Fifty years later, President Johnson turned J. Edgar Hoover loose on the KKK, and the FBI would achieve the greatest law enforcement victory in its history, all but eradicating the terrorist organization. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/65436/10-world-shaping-events-happened-1920
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The "Lost Generation" became a force in American literature. Among books published in 1920 were Main Street, a skewering of small-town America by Sinclair Lewis; This Side of Paradise, the debut novel of F. Scott Fitzgerald; and Flappers and Philosophers, Fitzgerald’s first collection of short fiction. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/65436/10-world-shaping-events-happened-1920
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In the early 1900s, representatives from countries around the world worked out a way to make it easier for people to send mail across national borders. Because World War I left much of Europe in economic ruin, Ponzi realized that he could buy coupons in various countries and redeem them in the United States for a return on investment. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/65436/10-world-shaping-events-happened-1920
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The transmission of breaking news was new and unprecedented, and as word spread of this new medium, the “talking box” exploded in popularity. By 1926, there were over 700 commercial radio stations, and virtually the entire country was covered by radio signals. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/65436/10-world-shaping-events-happened-1920
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As a result of a series of bombings in 1919, the attorney general of the United States, Mitchell Palmer, mounted a campaign to capture and deport foreign radicals. After witnessing what happened to Palmer, Hoover would work obsessively to keep in the good graces of the politically powerful and work always to protect the FBI’s image. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/65436/10-world-shaping-events-happened-1920
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On January 16, 1920, the League held its first Executive Council meeting, consisting of the major member-powers. In November of that year, it held its first General Assembly in Geneva, which was open to all members. At its height, the League of Nations had 58 member states. The United States never joined. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/65436/10-world-shaping-events-happened-1920
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The women’s suffrage movement reached as far back as 1638, when Margaret Brent, a successful businesswoman in Virginia, demanded the right to vote in the state’s House of Burgesses. The last “yes” vote needed for ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which provided for women’s suffrage, was Tennessee. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/65436/10-world-shaping-events-happened-1920
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On September 16, 1920, a horse-drawn cart carrying a massive, improvised explosive was detonated on the busiest corner on Wall Street. One eyewitness described “two sheets of flame that seemed to envelop the whole width of Wall Street and as high as the tenth story of the tall buildings.” Thirty-eight people were killed in the Wall Street Bombing, and hundreds were injured. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/65436/10-world-shaping-events-happened-1920
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While on the campaign trail pushing for the U.S. to accept the League of Nations, President Wilson suffered a blood clot that caused paralysis, partial blindness, and brain damage. The First Lady, Edith Wilson, stepped in and assumed his role. She controlled access to the president and made policy decisions on his behalf until March 4th, 1921. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/65436/10-world-shaping-events-happened-1920
