1926
- At 19-years-old, on her second try, Gertrude Ederle was the first woman to swim the English Channel in 14 hours and 31 minutes.
- A.A. Milne publishes "Winnie the Pooh"
- Harry Houdini, magician and escape artist, died from a ruptured appendix.
- April 7th, Violet Gibson of Great Britain attempted to assassinate Benito Mussolini, Italy's Fascist leader while in Rome. Mussolini had just completed a speech to the International Congress of Surgeons praising the marvels of modern medicine. Gibson shot Mussolini 3 times and hitting hime twice in the nose. Gibson was taken into custody and Mussolini was shocked that his would-be assassin was a woman. She was saved from death on the request of Mussolini and she was deported back to Britain and spent the remainder of her days in a mental asylum.
- The US Senate agrees to join the World Court, which is the primary judicial branch of the United Nations.
- Physicist Erwin Schrödinger publishes his theory of wave mechanics and presents what becomes known as the Schrödinger equation in quantum mechanics
- 20 miners were killed in an explosion in Horning, Pennsylvania
- The Orpheum Theatre opened in Los Angeles, CA
- 20,000 fans packed the Fulford-Miami Speedway to witness the first race at the world's fastest speedway, won by Pete DePaolo. It was the only race ever held at the speedway, as it was destroyed in the Great Miami Hurricane later that year and never rebuilt.
- First transatlantic phone call from London to New York happens
- Robert Goddard launches the first liquid fuel rocket and it reaches 184'
- Riots between Muslims and Hindus in Calcutta
- Germany and Russia sign neutrality/peace treaty
- France and US reach accord on repayment of WWI
- Civil War broke out in Nicaragua
- Women in India were allowed to run for public office
- Explorer Richard E. Byrd and co-pilot Floyd Bennett claimed to be the first to fly over the North Pole in the Josephine Ford monoplane, taking off from Spitsbergen, Norway and returning 15 hours and 44 minutes later. Both men were immediately hailed as national heroes, though some experts have since been skeptical of the claim, believing that the plane was unlikely to have covered the entire distance and back in that short an amount of time. An entry in Byrd's diary discovered in 1996 suggested that the plane actually turned back 150 miles short of the North Pole due to an oil leak.
- The College Board administers the first SAT exam in the USA
- The United States and Panama signed the Panama Canal Treaty, allowing the American military to conduct peacetime maneuvers on Panamanian territory and obligating Panama to go to war if the U.S. ever did. The treaty was very unpopular in Panama.
- League of Nations vote unanimously to admit Germany
- Bugs Moran attempts to assassinate Al Capone in a drive-by shooting but fails
- The film, The Great Gatsby, based on the book by F. Scott Fitzgerald was released
- The restoration of Colonial Williamsburg began in Williamsburg, Virginia.
- Duke Ellington and his band recorded "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" for the first time. The jazz tune became one of Ellington's best known numbers and a sort of theme song for the bandleader.
- Gas refrigerator patented
Women's Fashion for 1926
12/1/15
Year: 1929
- Prohibition is going strong. The prosperous Jazz Age came to a close and the Great Depression began when the stock market crashed in October. In the late 1920s, the American economy had never looked better, but the danger signs were there. More products were being produced than could be purchased. In addition, more and more people played the ever-soaring stock market, borrowing on their borrowings to buy nothing but paper profits.
- Evelyn "Bobbi" Trout shattered the female pilot endurance record of 8 hours with a flight of 12 hours and 11 minutes. She was part of the "Powder Puff Derby", a transcontinental air race with women pilots that happens in August 1929.
- Prohibition agents in San Francisco seized 1,100 cases of whiskies and 2,000 gallons of Belgian alcohol worth $90,000. Prohibition agents in Oakland, Ca., seized 200 gallons of moonshine at a residence.
- Wyatt Earp, famous gunfighter at the OK Corral, dies in Los Angeles. Earp had a colorful life! He was a U.S. Marshal, until he avenged the death of his brother by killing two men that were suspects in his brother's murder. He was a gold spectator, ran a saloon, raised thoroughbred horses, and finally was a movie advisor for westerns in Hollywood.
- Martin Luther King Jr, civil rights leader and activist, is born in Atlanta, Georgia.
- San Francisco police took Frances Orlando to the Bush Police Station because she was dressed in men's clothing.
- The first seeing-eye guide dog school received their charter in New Jersey. The school was named Seeing Eye Inc and trained guide dogs for the blind. It began following interest an article written by Dorothy Eustis, who stated that experiments were underway to train dogs to assist blind veterans from World War I.
- Leon Trotsky was expelled from Russia to Turkey.
- Weightlifter, Charles Rigoulet of France, achieved the first 400 pound ‘clean and jerk’ as he lifted 402-1/2 pounds.
- The Lateran Treaty was signed, with Italy recognizing the independence and sovereignty of Vatican City. The Italian government, under dictator Benito Mussolini, paid the Vatican $91.7 million for the papal lands it seized in 1870.
- In Chicago the "St. Valentine's Day Massacre" took place in a garage of the Moran gang as seven rivals of Al Capone's gang were gunned down. Police found seven men shot to death in a North Chicago garage. With the exception of one, the men were working under George "Bugs" Moran, a well-known bootlegger and gangster, and staunch rival of Al "Scarface" Capone. Members of Capone’s gang lured the victims into the garage under the guise of selling cheap alcohol. Then two of Capone’s men, dressed up as police officers, staged a raid. Believing them to be real, Moran’s outfit turned over its weapons, turned to face the wall and waited for the arrest. It was at that point that the hit on Moran’s men took place. Neighbors heard the gunfire, but assumed the police were involved when Capone’s costumed officers escorted the gunmen outside and together, they all fled the scene.
- President Coolidge signed a measure establishing Grand Teton National Park In Wyoming.
- The San Mateo-Hayward Bridge, then called the San Francisco Bay Toll-Bridge, opened. The $7.5 million, 7.1-mile span was for the time the longest in the world. The initial toll was 45 cents per car with an additional nickel for each passenger.
- Herbert Hoover was inaugurated as the 31st President of the United States of America.
- Major Seagrave broke the auto speed record in Daytona Beach. He reached an average of 223.2 mph in a 450 horse powered Golden Arrow.
- Richter Clyde Perky dedicated a new tower in Sugarloaf Key, Florida. It was built to house "malaria-eradicating, guano-producing bats." Unfortunately no bats ever showed.
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- The first telephone installed in White House.
- Louie Marx introduced the Yo-Yo in the US.
- First non-stop flight from England to India was completed.
- Hollywood staged an experimental publicity stunt for the movie industry at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel that grew to become the Academy Awards extravaganza. The first Academy Awards were presented during a banquet at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The movie "Wings" won best production while Emil Jannings and Janet Gaynor were named best actor and best actress. The first ceremony gave out a 2nd best award that went to F.W. Murnau’s "Sunrise." The dog Rin Tin Tin received the most votes for best actor, but the academy decided it would be a more auspicious precedent to grant the award to a human.
- Anne Frank, German-Jewish diarist and Holocaust victim, was born in Holland. She with her family hid from the Nazis in Holland during World War II. She died at age 15 of typhus at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945, a month before the camp was liberated by British troops.
- Pres. Von Hindenburg refused to pay the German debt of WW I.
- Germany’s Graf Zeppelin airship embarked from Lakehurst, New Jersey, on the first round-the-world passenger voyage.
- Babe Ruth hit his 500th major league home run against the Cleveland Indians.
- The first cross-country women’s air derby began called "The Powder Puff Derby". Louise McPhetride Thaden won first prize in the heavier-plane division, while Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie finished first in the lighter-plane category.
- Roger Babson, investment advisor, gave a speech saying, "Sooner or later a crash is coming, and it may be terrific." Later that day the stock market declined by about 3%. This became known as the "Babson Break". The Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression soon followed.
- On September 18th, Charles Lindbergh took off on a 10,000 mile air tour of South America.
- Fighting between China and the Soviet Union broke out along the Manchurian border.
- Communist and Nazi factions clashed in Berlin.
- In NYC demolition began of the Waldorf-Astoria to make way for the new Empire State Building.
- On October 24th, Black Thursday, the first day of the stock market crash, began the Great Depression. Dow Jones was down 12.8%. Stock values collapsed and 13 million shares changed hands as small investors frantically tried to sell off their holdings. Thousands of confused investors and brokers were ruined and banks, which had also invested heavily in the market, failed when they could not produce enough cash on demand for angry depositors.
- Former Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall was convicted of accepting a $100,000 bribe in connection with the Elk Hills Naval Oil Reserve in California. This conviction was in addition to the one he received for accepting kickbacks in conjunction with the Wyoming Teapot Dome Scandal. Fall served under Pres. Warren Harding, but it is unclear if Harding was aware of any wrongdoing.
- On October 29th, the Dow Jones dropped 11.7%. "Black Tuesday" was the worst day of the market crash as panicked survivors dumped 16 million shares on the market. Clerical workers stayed up all night to find that $30 billion in paper value had been wiped out in one day. Prices collapsed amid panic selling and thousands of investors were wiped out as America's Great Depression began. On Wall street prices plunged $14 million. By mid- November $30 billion of the $80 billion worth of stocks listed in September were been wiped out. Stocks continued to slide until 1932, but the fear caused by the crash made Americans unwilling to buy or invest and the economy slowly worsened into the Great Depression.
- The Museum of Modern Art in New York City opened to the public.
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