The Bureau of Public Health determined the average life expectancy for an American was 54 years, up from 49 in 1901.
As America entered a 2½-year depression, a bomb blast on Wall Street killed 30.
The broadcasting industry was born when the Westinghouse Company launched radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh, which broadcast Warren Harding's defeat of James Cox in the November 2nd presidential election.
Babe Ruth — the "Sultan of Swat" — was purchased from the Boston Red Sox by the New York Yankees.
Eugene O'Neill's Beyond The Horizon opened at New York's Morasco theater and won the Pulitzer Prize.
Enrico Caruso, who died the next year, made his last public appearance at the New York Metropolitan Opera's production of La Juive.
1921
The government began licensing radio stations and regulating the frequency bands on which they broadcast. Local entertainment stations were limited to the Medium Wave band, from 500 to 1650 Kilocycles (kilohertz).
Albert Einstein came to the U.S. to lecture at Columbia University about his theory of relativity.
Frank Zuna of New York City won the silver anniversary edition of the Boston Marathon.
The U.S. Post Office issued stamps commemorating the tercentennial of the pilgrims landing at Plymouth, Massachusetts.
The first sponsored orchestral radio program was The A&P Gypsies.
The first Miss America pageant was held in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Edison Records released When Johnny Comes Marching Home by the first-recorded female trumpet player, Edna White.
1922
The Lincoln and Francis Scott Key Memorials were dedicated.
American Howard Carter assisted Lord Carnarvon in the opening of the tomb of King Tutankhamen in Egypt.
98 persons died when the roof of New York's Knickerbocker Theater collapsed.
Alexander Graham Bell died at 75.
A 500 sq. ft. hole was left in the ground when a 20-ton meteor hit Blackstone, Virginia.
American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) set up the first radio network for the Bond Club of Chicago. The twenty radio stations along the circuit were able to contribute a section to the program, which was broadcast from New York to Chicago.
Cornetist Louie "Satchmo" Armstrong joined King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, where he popularized the horn solo. The "Jazz Age" had begun.
1923
New York overturned its liquor prohibition laws, motivating Washington to to send federal agents into the state to enforce the national ban on alcohol.
President Harding — who was was caught up scandals because several of his appointees had been proven corrupt — died of food poisoning while touring the west. Vice President Calvin Coolidge assumed the post August 10th.
Colonel Jacob Schick obtained a patent for the first electric shaving device.
Time Magazine began weekly publication.
Oklahoma Governor John Calloway placed his state under martial law because of the terrorist activities of the secretive Ku Klux Klan.
The Westinghouse Company successfully broadcast on the shortwave band, "skipping" the signal off the planet's Kennelly-Heaviside layer, resulting in confirmed reception in Europe and Africa.
The song and dance, The Charleston, kicked off a social partying attitude that helped the decade become known as "the Roaring '20s." Other popular songs included Yes! We Have No Bananas!, Sonny Boy and Barney Google.
1924
Due to cost-saving assembly-line production, the price of a basic Model T Ford dropped to $290. Ford produced its 10-millionth automobile.
Calvin Coolidge was re-elected president.
J. Edgar Hoover was appointed to head up the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Eugene O'Neill's All God's Chillun Got Wings, a controversial play about an inter-racial relationship, opened in New York. Paul Robeson starred.
2½-million radios were in American households. Only 500 receivers existed in 1920.
Jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, who pioneered the use of impressionistic harmonies in jazz, had the only hit record of his lifetime, Tiger Rag. Despite a large recorded output, Beiderbecke's talents would not be appreciated until after his death from alcohol poisoning in 1931.
1925
People in New York City panicked on January 24th when the city was totally darkened by a full solar eclipse.
689 people died when a mile-wide tornado ripped through Indiana, Illinois and Missouri.
Jimmy Walker was elected mayor of New York City. Walker was a charismatic and colorful character, but a questionable administrator.
14 persons died when the dirigible Shenandoah was ripped apart by a storm over Ohio.
Nellie Ross of Wyoming and Miriam "Ma" Ferguson of Texas were inaugurated as America's first two female governors.
Reader's Digest and The New Yorker magazines were first published.
German Shepherds, called "police dogs" at the time, became popular pets. Shepherd Rin Tin Tin starred in the year's most popular movie. In addition to the traditional live piano accompaniment, the movie was enhanced with a phonograph recording of the canine star's bark.
The Marx Brothers and their favorite foil, Margaret Dumont, opened at New York's Lyric Theater in The Cocoanuts.
1926
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.
1927
The Mt. Rushmore Monument was dedicated.
Aviator Charles "Lucky Lindy" Lindbergh became the first pilot to fly solo non-stop from New York to Paris. 4,000,000 people lined the streets of New York for a ticker tape parade upon his return and President Coolidge awarded Lindbergh the first Distinguished Flying Cross medal.
87 died and over 1,000 were injured when a fast-moving tornado tore through St. Louis.
Calvin Coolidge announced he would not seek re-election in 1928.
Babe Ruth slammed 60 homers during the Yankees' regular season and two more in their World Series play against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Columbia Broadcasting System was launched.
The Federal Radio Commission was organized to stop signal and frequency wars between radio stations. Each station was allocated a specific spot on the dial and given a maximum signal wattage and nearly a third of the country's 1,100 stations were ordered off the air.
The first full-length "talkie", The Jazz Singer, starred Al Jolson.
1928
Republican Herbert Hoover was elected president.
New York police raided Margaret Sanger's birth control clinic after complaints from the Daughters Of The American Revolution. The case was thrown out of court, with the police admonished for violating a physician's right to practice medicine.
2,150 people died when a violent hurricane stalled over Florida.
Amelia Earhart became the first woman to cross the Atlantic in a plane.
27-year-old Walt Disney introduced his first animated cartoon, Plane Crazy. Its lead character, Mickey Mouse, would also appear in the first animated cartoon to use sound, Steamboat Willie.
George Gershwin composed An American In Paris.
1929
"Black Tuesday" — October 29th — saw 16 million shares traded at losses. By December 1st, the New York Stock Exchange value had dropped by over 26 billion dollars and the Great Depression had begun.
Sebastiano Lando obtained a patent for the first coin-operated vending machine.
New York's Museum Of Modern Art was founded.
Al Capone was sentenced to a year in prison for carrying a concealed weapon.
Chicago's O'Banion Gang was gunned down in the so-called "St. Valentine's Day Massacre."
Lt. Commander Richard E. Byrd piloted the first successful flight over the South Pole.
George Eastman demonstrated the first color motion picture.
The first Academy Awards were held. Wings was named best picture, Emil Jannings best actor and Janet Gaynor best actress.
