A timeline detailing the events of the 1920s
Created by xaurex on Apr 1, 2011
Last updated: 04/10/11 at 09:32 PM
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By the end of the 1920s Americans had become big consumers. The economy was spurred on by millions of Americans constantly spending money on more and more products.
In the 1920s, national brands appeared. People built a familiarity with large brand names, supported by the advent of advertising on the radio.
Install\ment buying was another new way for paying for things. Around 60 percent of all furniture and radio were bought through installment plans.
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=454
President Herbert Hoover entered office believing that the government should have very limited influence on the nation's economic system. He supported the use of presidency as being able to improve the life of all Americans.
Peacekeeping effort; this was an agreement signed by almost all of the nations around the globe to renounce war.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/314413/Kellogg-Briand-Pact
Claude McKay was a Jamaican-American writer during the Harlem Renaissance. In 1928 he published a book called Home to Harlem, which ended up being a best-seller.
Henry Ford masters the assembly line (it had already been invented before him), and on April 1st, 1913, the Ford's first moving assembly line was put into mass production. In 1927, Ford introduced the new Model A, changing the engine and body design (which he left up to the decision of his son).
The first "talkie" movie with synchronized sound & picture is released.
Charles Lindbergh made the first solo nonstop Trans-Atlantic flight which later earned him the name of "Lucky Lindy" and the "Lone Eagle". His son, Charles Lindbergh Jr., was kidnapped and murdered in what was called the "Crime of the Century."
Ezra Pound was a poet and a critic. One of his best-known works Cantos, was published in 1925 (although this was was only the first section; more was to come in later years).
He was a major figure in the modernist movement of poetry.
http://www.biography.com/articles/Ezra-Pound-9445428?part=0
James Weldon Johnson was an American author during the Harlem Renaissance. In 1925, he published The Book of American Negro Spirituals.
Young schoolteacher John Scopes stood trial in Tennessee for violating state law in teaching evolution. Scopes was not charged guilty on account of a technicality, and later in 1967 the Supreme Court would strike down Tennessee's anti-evolution law for violating the Constitution's prohibition against the establishment of religion.
Fitzgerald publishes the Great Gatsby, a novel that characterized the American dream of romance and wealth.
Georgia O'Keefe was an American artist. She was known for pushing the boundaries of modern American artistic style. She mainly painted natural things like flowers, shells and the like. In the mid 1920s she started making large scale paintings of natural forms close up.
http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/okee-geo.jpg
Zora Neale Hurston was an American author during the Harlem Renaissance. Shortly after she arrived in New York City in 1925, her short story "Spunk" was selected for the anthology The New Negro.
Countee Cullen was one of the leading poets of his time, and was a part of the Harlem Renaissance. In 1925 he published Color, which included poems such as "Incident", "Near White", "Heritage", and others.
J. Edgar Hoover is appointed the Director of Bureau of Investigation, which would later become the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAhooverE.htm
The Dawes Act of 1924 granted birhright citizenship to Native Americans.
In 1924 Nellie Tayloe Ross was sworn in as governor to finish off her late husband's term. Two weeks later, Miriam Ferguson became the first female governor of Texas.
National Origins Act
http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/Immigration_Act_Basic_Law/
Warren G. Harding suddenly dies and Calvin Coolidge succeeds him as President of the United States
Frank Lloyd Wright performed a variety of professions; he was an American architect, interior designer, writer, and educator. He was ultimately known as the greatest architect later in 1991 by the Institute of Architects.
In 1923 and 1924, he used a system called the textile block system.
http://www.cmgww.com/historic/flw/bio.html
By 1923, the number of Americans owning radios equal to 3 million. Through the radio, people received news information, bulletins, advertising and music.
The Teapot Dome Scandal was a bribery incident that occurred between President Warren G. Harding and oil companies, in which the President and Secretary of Interior Albert B. Fall leased Navy petroleum to to private oil companies without competitive bidding.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAteapot.htm
Garvey Marcus was a Jamaican journalist/orator who promoted Black Nationalism, determined to lift his entire race from bondage. The Garvey Movement consisted of 8 million followers.
http://www.notablebiographies.com/Fi-Gi/Garvey-Marcus.html
T.S. was an American-born English poet. He founded the highly esteemed literary journal Criterion in 1922. Later in 1948, he received a Nobel Prize for Literature.
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1948/eliot-bio.html
Sinclair Lewis's alleged greatest work, Babbitt, was published in 1922. Babbitt was a satire of American commercial culture self-pride.
Later in 1930, Sinclair Lewis received a Nobel Prize in Literature.
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1930/lewis-autobio.html
This Act raised tariffs to protect factories and farms.
Edward was an American realist painter well known for his oil paintings. In 1922 he painted New York Restaurant, which was one of his more notable paintings in that decade.
http://www.artchive.com/artchive/H/hopper.html
US called an international conference to limit the naval arms race & work on security agreements in the Pacific.
US, Great Britain, Japan, and France signed for Four-Power Pact to respect each others' territories/islands in the Pacific.
Later the Five-Power Naval Treaty would be signed by US, Great Britain, Japan, France, and Italy to scrap around 1.9 million tons of warships from the Great Powers.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/636484/Washington-Conference
Also known as the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, this act restricted the number of immigrants admitted from any country to 3% of the residents from that same country living in the US.
Warren G. Harding becomes the 28th President of the United States.
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000192
Langston Hughes was an American poet. In 1921 he published the poem "The Nego Speaks of Rivers" in The Crisis, which later on became his signature poem. He was a very prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissances.
Ratified on August 18, 1920, this amendment prohibited any United States citizen to be denied the right to vote based on sex.
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/nineteentham.htm
Billy Sunday was a former athlete-turned Christian. He was a very devout Revivalist, and never had any scandals. Shortly after his conversion, he started speaking in churches and at YMCAs.
Aimee Semple McPherson was a Canadian-born Evangelist--one of the first female Evangelists of the decade. She founded the Foursquare Church.
http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ma
In the early 1920s, a new version of the Ku Klux Klan appeared. Fears and anger against immigrants and radicals were prevalent during this time period.
Prohibition came into effect in the United States in 1920. Shortly after this, organized crime that had previously been focused on gambling and thievery started focusing on liquor for profits.
The Labor Movement in the 1920s was about unions of workers that campaigned for better conditions and treatment from workers
In 1919 women were given the right to vote. More and more women started working out of the homes and into the workplaces. Clerical work was now offered to them. One big change to women was the flapper. This was a woman who cut her hair, drank, danced, and smoked.
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement centered in New York City. It was an explosion of African-American expression through song, dance, paint and print.
In the 1920s America was prosperous, but the South did not do as well as the North economically. The blacks were faced with the combination of racism and anger at this economic situation. The KKK was an organisation that targeted blacks in a series of murder, rape, castration, etc.
The Apollo Theatre at Harlem, New York was built in 1913 as a dance hall and ballroom. During the Harlem Renaissance it served as an important stage for various shows.
Welfare capitalism was gaining prominence in this age. It promoted economic security and social reform.
In the 1920s regarding the arts new ideas emerged and there were movements for different points of view. Modernism came to define the 20s. It was a revolt against realism. Fundamentalism was the strict following of theological doctrines that typically went against Modernism. Functionalism is a doctrine that decides that the mental state of something does not depend on what is inside it, only how it functions as a part of something else.
Alfred Smith was a politician and a leader of the Progressive Era. He was concerned with welfare issues, improving housing for low-income workers, and pushed for reform of factory laws.
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Alfred_E._Smith
A. Phillip Randolph was an African-American civil rights leader who spoke for all those who were at a disadvantage, which included blacks, poor whites, Puerto Ricans and others. People called him the most dangerous black in America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ7sa7x0h6w
In the 1920s radios dominated the American market. This new method of communication served as a place for news and advertisements. In addition to this new form of entertainment, Americans of this age thrived on sports. They were interested in baseball, football, boxing, and much more.
In the 1920s the US kept up its policy of isolationism. A great number of Americans thought that US's participation in the Great War was a waste of time and money.
In the 1920s, the Jazz Age was a movement in which jazz music and dance was formed. It was originally associated with African Americans, but it later became accepted for white middle-class society. Some prominent figures of the Jazz Age included Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, and Paul Robeson.
Group of politicians associated with Warren G. Harding, the 29th President of the United States. This group was responsible for the Teapot Dome scandal.
Sacco and Venzetti are arrested as suspects to the South Braintree crime, falling into the police trap involving the Red Scare. Although neither of them had any previous criminal records, they were well known among the authorities as anarchist militants.
http://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/sacvan.html
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