Brigadier General Billy Mitchell was court martialed for insubordination when he criticized the government's aviation program and called the Shenandoah tragedy the result of incompetence and criminal neglect. Mitchell was demoted to colonel and suspended from the service with half-pay.
The U.S. celebrated its 150th birthday with the Sesquicentennial Exposition at Philadelphia.
375 people died when a September hurricane destroyed 4,990 homes in Florida.
The Supreme Court ruled that a president could remove executive officers from their posts.
The National Broadcasting Company was launched.
The Warner Theater in New York exhibited the first "talking" motion picture, Don Juan, starring John Barrymore. Although the sound was not on the film, but on syncronized phonograph records, full-length "talkies" would soon revolutionize the film industry.
Bye, Bye Blackbird, In A Little Spanish Town and Jelly Roll Morton's Black Bottom Stomp were popular songs.
