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Meet the Barton's

TNG version: 15.0.2

Eliza N. Wardwell

Female 1845 -

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Timeline

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1890
1959
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   Date  Event(s)
1 1613 
  • 21 Feb 1613—15 Mar 1917: The Romanov Dynasty, the last imperial dynasty to rule Russia, begins when 16 year old Mikhail Romanov is elected as Czar.Russiapedia Hillwood
2 1837 
  • 20 Jun 1837—22 Jan 1901: Victoria. Ruler of England 1837-1901. House of Hanover: Daughter of Edward, 4th son of George III; married (1840) her cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who became Prince Consort.HistoricUK
3 1845 
4 1846 
  • 4 Feb 1846—13 Jun 1846: Brigham Young and 3000 Mormons leave Nauvoo, Illinois on the first leg of their journey, heading for Utah.PBS NPS
  • 25 Apr 1846—2 Feb 1848: Mexican-American War 1846-1848.AHC PBS
  • 13 May 1846: President James K. Polk signs a declaration of war against Mexico.UVA USState
  • 14 Jun 1846: Anglo-Californians rebel against Mexican rule in the Bear Flag Revolt.BFM NPS
  • 10 Aug 1846: The Smithsonian Institute is founded.SI USNA
  • 10 Sep 1846: Elias Howe Jr. patents his sewing machine.ASME SI
  • 23 Sep 1846: The planet Neptune is discovered.EarthSky" Astronomy
  • 30 Sep 1846: Dentist William Morton uses ether to anesthetize a patient in Boston which begins its use for general anesthesia.W I R E D ASA
  • 28 Dec 1846: Iowa becomes a state.ThoughtCo 50States.com
5 1847 
  • 4 Jan 1847: Samuel Colt makes the first sale of his revolver to the U. S. government.History.com UTX
  • 13 Jan 1847: The signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga puts an end to the fighting in the Mexican-American War in California.KCET NXTGOV
  • 9 Mar 1847—29 Mar 1847: The American military attack the Mexican city of Veracruz.SotS UTA
  • 5 Apr 1847—24 Jul 1847: Brigham Young leads the first Mormon wagon train bound for Utah on the final leg of their journey.Utah NPS
  • 5 May 1847: The American Medical Association is founded.NEJM AMJMS
  • 1 Oct 1847: Maria Mitchell is the first American to record a comet sighting.NEHS Nature
6 1848 
7 1849 
  • 23 Jan 1849: Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first woman in the U. S. to receive a medical doctorate.NIH LoC
8 1850 
9 1851 
  • 12 Aug 1851: Isaac Merritt Singer is granted a patent for a sewing machine.SI PG
  • 22 Aug 1851: The yacht America wins the first America's Cup.LoC NYYC
  • 14 Nov 1851: Moby Dick is first published in the U. S..Melville NBWM
  • 24 Dec 1851: A fire at the Library of Congress destroys nearly two thirds of the books purchased from Thomas Jefferson.LoC AoC
  • 29 Dec 1851: The first American YMCA is founded in the Old South Church in Boston, Massachusetts.YMCA UMN
10 1852 
  • 16 Feb 1852: Henry and Clement Studebaker found a blacksmith and wagon building business, the company that will eventually produce that famous car.MotorTrend SILib
  • 20 Mar 1852: Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is published.NCC SIMag
  • 28 Apr 1852: The first municipal electric fire alarm system using call boxes with automatic signaling to indicate the location of a fire was placed into operation in Boston, Massachusetts.ETHW CI
  • 2 Nov 1852: Franklin Pierce is elected the 14th president of the United States of America, 1853 - 1857.NEHS KCET
11 1853 
12 1854 
  • 28 Mar 1854—1 Apr 1856: Britain and France declare war on Russia beginning their involvement in the Crimean War.SLSA HK
  • 29 Apr 1854: The Ashmun Institute, the first black college, is chartered in Pennsylvania.Lincoln Columbia
13 1855 
  • 28 Jan 1855: A train runs from the Atlantic Ocean across the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean for the first time.PCM SBH&RM
  • 8 Mar 1855: The first train crosses the Niagara Railway Suspension Bridge, the first such bridge in the U. S..NFT NG
  • 2 Jun 1855: The Portland Rum Riot begins.MHS NEHS
14 1856 
15 1857 
16 1858 
17 1859 
18 1860 
  • 22 Feb 1860: More than 20,000 shoemakers go on strike in Lynn, Massachusetts.MassMoments PEM
  • 3 Apr 1860—26 Oct 1861: The Pony Express mail delivery service is established.PX NPX
  • 29 Jun 1860: The final stone is laid completing the Minot's Ledge Lighthouse, still in use today.US-L H2G2
  • 18 Jul 1860: The first photographs of a solar eclipse are taken.HA EclipseMaps
  • 6 Nov 1860: Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th president of the United States of America, 1861 - 1865.SIMag LoC
  • 20 Dec 1860: Confederate States begin to secede from the Union.Tulane SI
19 1861 
  • 29 Jan 1861: Kansas becomes a state.ThoughtCo 50States.com
  • 4 Feb 1861: The Confederate States of America is formed.CWH LoVA
  • 18 Feb 1861: Jefferson Davis becomes the President of the Confederate States of America.ACW LoC
  • 19 Feb 1861: Serfdom is abolished in Russia by Alexander II.SHU LoC
  • 28 Feb 1861—1 Aug 1876: Colorado Territory is organized.COEnc Politico
  • 12 Apr 1861—14 Apr 1861: Fort Sumter is attacked. NPS LoC
  • 21 Jul 1861: The first major land battle of the Civil War occurs, the first Battle of Bull Run.USSenate ABT
  • 5 Aug 1861: President Abraham Lincoln imposes the first income tax in order to afford the Civil War.NCC NPS
  • 19 Nov 1861: The U. S. exports its first oil shipments to London.AOGHS
20 1862 
  • 9 Mar 1862: The first naval engagement between ironclad ships, the USS Monitor fights the CSS Virginia to a draw.ACW NPS
  • 8 Apr 1862: John D. Lynde receives the first patent for an aerosol dispenser.DC GooglePatents
  • 20 Apr 1862: The first pasteurization test, aimed at disproving the theory of spontaneous generation and proving food could be preserved by applied heat, is completed by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard.HP AZDHS
  • 29 Apr 1862: Union Admiral David Farragut forces the surrender of New Orleans, Louisiana.History.com HoW
  • 15 May 1862: The United States Department of Agriculture is established.USDA USNA
  • 1 Jul 1862: The Revenue Act of 1862 establishes the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, what will become the IRS in 1918.USNA Treasury
  • 4 Nov 1862: Dr. Richard Gatling patents the machine gun ushering in the age of high powered weaponry.IN GooglePatents
  • 5 Nov 1862: More than 300 Santee Sioux are sentenced to hang in Minnesota.History.com NDStudies
  • 13 Dec 1862: Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee defeat the Union forces under Ambrose Burnside, who abandoned his campaign 2 days later.LoC ABT
  • 26 Dec 1862: 38 members of the Sioux nation are executed in Mankato, Minnesota in the largest mass hanging in U. S. history.UNA UDM
21 1863 
  • 1 Jan 1863: The Emancipation Proclamation is issued.USNA OurDocs
  • 10 Jan 1863: The first stretch of the London Underground opens.Telegraph DM
  • 3 Mar 1863: The National Academy of Sciences is established.NAS Harvard
  • 20 Jun 1863: West Virginia becomes a state.ThoughtCo 50States.com
  • 1 Jul 1863—3 Jul 1863: Confederate forces meet Union forces at the Battle of Gettysburg.NPS ABT
  • 13 Jul 1863: The New York City Draft Riots begin.UChicago CUNY
  • 17 Sep 1863—18 Sep 1863: The Battle of Antietam gives the Union a "victory", even though it is militarily a draw.ABT NPS
  • 3 Oct 1863: Lincoln issues his Thanksgiving Day Proclamation establishing Thanksgiving as the last Thursday in November.NPS WAPO
  • 19 Nov 1863: President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address.LoC
22 1864 
23 1865 
  • 1 Feb 1865: President Abraham Lincoln signs the 13th Amendment which abolishes slavery and involuntary servitude.LoC OurDocs
  • 8 Feb 1865: Gregor Mendel first presents his works on plant hybridization.Nature NIH
  • 9 Apr 1865: Lee surrenders to Grant at the Appomattox Court House ending the Civil War.LoC USNA
  • 14 Apr 1865: President Abraham Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre.LoC Ford's
  • 15 Apr 1865: President Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot by John Wilkes Booth the previous day.PBS LoC
  • 15 Apr 1865: Andrew Johnson becomes the 17th president of the United States of America upon President Lincoln's death. He serves from 1865 - 1869.NPS LoC
  • 9 May 1865: Dr. Richard Gatling receives a patent for his machine gun.USNA SAWar
  • 2 Jun 1865: Confederate forces west of the Mississippi sign the terms of surrender, officially ending the Civil War.NPS DC
  • 19 Jun 1865: Union soldiers land at Galveston, Texas with news that the Civil War was over and that the enslaved were now free.SI PBS
24 1866 
  • 27 Jul 1866: Cyrus W. Field finally succeeds in laying the first working trans-Atlantic Telegraph cable from Ireland to Newfoundland.N&LH PBS
  • 6 Oct 1866: The Reno brothers pull off the first train robbery in the United States.History.com
25 1867 
26 1868 
27 1869 
  • 11 Jan 1869: The synthesis of alizarin, the standard for red dyes and pigments, is announced as it is also being prepared in front of the audience.GoogleBooks
  • 26 Feb 1869: Physician Friedrich Miescher reports that he isolated DNA from white blood cells, naming it nuclein.SciDir RalfDahm
  • 6 Mar 1869: Dmitri Mendeleev presents his Periodic Table of Elements to the Russian Chemical Society.PopSci BYLib
  • 10 May 1869: The first transcontinental railroad is complete when the Union and Central Pacific Railroads join rails in Promontory Summit, Utah.W-F CA
  • 23 Jul 1869: The French-Atlantic cable is landed at Duxbury, Massachusetts.DRHS DH
  • 16 Oct 1869: The Cardiff Giant, a 10 foot petrified body of a man, is "discovered" in Cardiff, New York.WRVO Hoaxes
  • 3 Nov 1869: Ulysses S. Grant is elected the 18th president of the United States of America, 1869 - 1877.USEA
  • 28 Dec 1869: William Semple of Mount Vernon, Ohio receives a patent for chewing gum.OHC OTC
28 1870 
  • 3 Jan 1870: Ground is broken and construction of the Brooklyn Bridge begins.GG NY
  • 9 Feb 1870: President Ulysses S. Grant signs a joint resolution of Congress authorizing the Secretary of War to establish a national weather service.NOAA NWS
  • 13 Apr 1870: The Metropolitan Museum of Art is incorporated in New York City.MetMuseum ArtNet
  • 31 May 1870: The modern asphalt paving process is issued a patent.GoogleBooks McVey
  • 22 Jun 1870: The U. S. Department of Justice is established.USNA DOJ
  • 1 Nov 1870: The National Weather Service makes its first forecast.NWS PBS
29 1871 
  • 27 Apr 1871: The American Museum of Natural History opens to the public.AMNH GoogleBooks
  • 8 Oct 1871—10 Oct 1871: A fire starts in a barn that spreads into the Great Chicago Fire. Architecture
30 1872 
  • 20 Feb 1872: New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art opens its doors to the public for the first time.TheMet ArtStor
  • 10 Apr 1872: Nebraskans plant more than a million trees on the first Arbor Day.LoC ArborDay
  • 9 Jul 1872: Sea captain, John F. Blondel of Thomaston, Maine, patents the doughnut cutter.tFT CBSNews
  • 9 Nov 1872—10 Nov 1872: A great fire destroys structures across 65 acres in the city of Boston.BFHS LoC
  • Dec 1872: The first Rand McNally map is published.NA.gov
31 1873 
  • 20 May 1873: Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.W I R E D LS&Co
32 1874 
  • 10 Feb 1874: Lewis Latimer, the son of slaves and an inventor who worked closely with Edison on the incandescent light bulb, receives his first patent - a railroad car water closet.MassMoments RtG
  • 16 May 1874: A dam bursts on the Mill River in western Massachusetts killing 139 people.MassMoments NEHS
  • 7 Nov 1874: The first depiction of the Republican party as an elephant appears in Harper's Weekly in a Thomas Nast cartoon.SIMag LoC
33 1875 
  • 9 Feb 1875: The first train passes through the Hoosac Tunnel, at the time, the second longest tunnel in the world.HT MassMoments
34 1876 
  • 2 Feb 1876: The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, which comes to be more commonly known as the National League is formed.Reds SABR
  • 7 Mar 1876: Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.USNA PBS
  • 10 Mar 1876: Alexander Graham Bell makes the first telephone call, telling his associate "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you".LoC W I R E D
  • 25 Jun 1876: Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and all of his men are killed in the Battle of Little Big Horn.SIMag NPS
  • 31 Jul 1876: The Revenue Cutter Service School of Instruction is founded in New Bedford, Massachusetts, later to become the United States Coast Guard Academy.MassMoments SPW
  • 1 Aug 1876: Colorado becomes a state.ThoughtCo 50States.com
  • 19 Sep 1876: Melville Bissell patents the carpet sweeper.BH GooglePatents
  • 9 Oct 1876: Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson have the first "long distance" telephone conversation.Atlantic UILibs
  • 7 Nov 1876: Rutherford Birchard Hayes is elected the 19th president of the United States of America, 1877 - 1881.USEA
  • 23 Nov 1876: After being captured in Spain, "Boss" Tweed is delivered to authorities in New York City.History.com
  • 5 Dec 1876: Daniel C. Stillson of Somerville, Massachusetts receives a patent for the first practical wrench used in plumbing applications.DATAMP GooglePatents
35 1877 
  • 8 Jan 1877: Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their final losing battle against the U. S. Cavalry in Montana.History.com ICT
  • 13 Mar 1877: 15 year old Chester Greenfield of Farmington, Maine patents the earmuff.MIT ME
  • 6 May 1877: Due to constant harassment by the U. S. Army and a shortage of food, Crazy Horse finally surrenders.ALMCC AHC
  • 24 Jul 1877: For the first time, federal troops are used against striking workers.POLITICO WVCulture
  • 5 Sep 1877: Crazy Horse is killed.CHM NPS
  • 21 Nov 1877: Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph, a way to record and play back sound. History.com
36 1878 
  • 11 Feb 1878: The first bicycle club in the U. S. is formed - the Boston Bicycle Club.1878 ASU
  • 12 Feb 1878: Fred Thayer, the captain of the Harvard baseball team, receives a patent for his invention - the catcher's mask.MLB NBHoF
  • 19 Feb 1878: Thomas Edison patents the phonograph.LoC Signals
  • 21 Feb 1878: The first telephone book is produced in New Haven, Connecticut.OTB SIMag
37 1879 
  • 18 Feb 1879: A design patent is granted for the Statue of Liberty.GIZMODO MIT
  • 3 Mar 1879: The United States Geological Survey is established.USGS USCapitol
  • 8 Apr 1879: Milk is sold for the first time in glass containers.W I R E D CI
  • 10 May 1879: The Archaeological Institute of America is founded in Boston.GoogleBooks AIA
  • 31 Dec 1879: Thomas Edison demonstrates the incandescent light bulb to the public.LoC HFM
38 1880 
  • 27 Jan 1880: Thomas Edison receives his patent for the incandescent light bulb.OurDocs USNA
  • 3 Jun 1880: Alexander Graham Bell transmits the first wireless telephone message on his newly invented photophone.LoC Vice
  • 2 Nov 1880: James Abram Garfield is elected the 20th president of the United States of America. Garfield is wounded by an assassin's bullet on 3 Jul 1881 and dies on 19 Sep 1881.USEA USHouse
  • 6 Nov 1880: Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, a French army surgeon, discovers the malaria parasite.CDC NIH
39 1881 
40 1882 
  • 24 Mar 1882: Robert Koch, a German physician and scientist, announces his discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB).CDC PBS
  • 29 Mar 1882: The Knights of Columbus, the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization, is founded in New Haven, Connecticut.CTHist KoC
  • 5 Jun 1882: The baggage claim check as it exists today is patented.WK CIPO
  • 4 Sep 1882: The Edison Electric Illuminating Company at 257 Pearl Street in New York City begins providing eletricity to homes and businesses.JAIA ETHW
  • 22 Dec 1882: For the first time, a Christmas tree is decorated using a string of electric lights.W I R E D DLG
41 1883 
  • 19 Jan 1883: The first electrical transmission system utilizing overhead wires is put in place by Thomas Edison.fold3 USSI
  • 24 May 1883: The Brooklyn Bridge opens to the public.LoC BWH
  • 26 Aug 1883: Krakatoa begins erupting.ArcGIS NOAA
  • 27 Aug 1883: Krakatoa blows its top, making the loudest noise ever heard, then collapses into a caldera.Nautilus NOAA
  • 22 Oct 1883: The Metropolitan Opera House opens in New York City.LoC NYPAP
  • 18 Nov 1883: Canadian and U. S. railroads standardize on five time zones.W I R E D TCE
42 1884 
43 1885 
  • 28 Feb 1885: The American Telephone and Telegraph Company, or AT&T, is chartered in New York.A-C GPM
  • 26 Mar 1885: In Saskatchewan, Louis Riel leads the local Métis people and farmers for control of Fort Carlton beginning the North-West Resistance against Canada.CFP EoS
  • 15 Apr 1885: Cree Uprising - 200 Anishinabe soldiers attack Fort Pitt, commanded by Francis Dickens, son of Charles Dickens, in western Saskatchewan.A-H CMA
  • 17 Jun 1885: The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor on board the French Navy ship Isère.NPS IBTimes
  • 30 Aug 1885: Gottlieb Daimler patents the first gas-engined motorcycle.W I R E D IH
  • 1 Dec 1885: Dr Pepper® is served for the first time at a drugstore in Waco, Texas.WH BH
44 1886 
  • 20 Mar 1886: Shops and hotels are lit up along Main Street in Great Barrington, Massachusetts as a demonstration of AC electricity's capabilities. HMdb WM
  • 4 May 1886: A peaceful labor demonstration erupts into violence and death at Haymarket Square in Chicago.ILHS PBS
  • 8 May 1886: After John Pemberton invents Coca-Cola earlier in the year, the first sales are made at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta.Coca-Cola LoC
  • 31 Aug 1886: The largest earthquake in South Carolina history occurs.EARTH USC
  • 4 Sep 1886: Geronimo finally surrenders in Skeleton Canyon, Arizona.AO ICT
  • 28 Oct 1886: The Statue of Liberty is dedicated.SoL NPS
  • 30 Nov 1886: The Westinghouse Electrical Company begins the first commercially successful transmission of A/C electricity.Google Books ETHW
45 1887 
  • 2 Feb 1887: Groundhog Day! Six more weeks of winter if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow.GD 3RP
  • 8 Feb 1887: The Dawes Act grants land to individual Native Americans.OurDocs PBS
  • 27 Apr 1887: The first deliberate appendectomy in the U. S. is performed.GoogleBooks BMJ
  • 27 May 1887: 34 Chinese gold miners are murdered on the Snake River.AM LT
  • 8 Jun 1887: Herman Hollerith files for a patent for the punch card.WDN GooglePatents
46 1888 
  • 27 Jan 1888: The National Geographic Society is incorporated. WHP
  • 11 Mar 1888—14 Mar 1888: The Great Blizzard of March 1888 or the Great White Hurricane, hits the northeastern United States.HI LoC
  • 22 Sep 1888: The National Geographic Society begins publishing its magazine. Biblio
  • 30 Oct 1888: John J. Loud of Weymouth, Massachusetts receives the first patent for a ball-point pen.Pens tBPP
  • 6 Nov 1888: Benjamin Harrison is elected the 23rd president of the United States of America, 1889 - 1893.USEA
  • 9 Dec 1888: Statistician Herman Hollerith's computing device is installed at the U. S. War Department.RJ GoogleBooks
  • 23 Dec 1888: Artist Vincent Van Gogh cuts off his ear.SIMag VGG
47 1889 
48 1890 
  • 3 Jul 1890: Idaho becomes a state.ThoughtCo 50States.com
  • 10 Jul 1890: Wyoming becomes a state.ThoughtCo 50States.com
  • 6 Aug 1890: The first execution by electric chair is carried out.DPI ABA
  • 23 Sep 1890: The first automatic fire alarm is patented.SD GooglePatents
  • 11 Oct 1890: The Daughters of the American Revolution is founded.DAR FairPark
  • 15 Dec 1890: Sitting Bull is killed during a confrontation with Indian police in Grand River, South Dakota.ICT SI
  • 29 Dec 1890: On Wounded Knee Creek, near the Pine Ridge agency, the Seventh Cavalry of the U. S. Army opens fire on an encampment of Big Foot's band of Miniconjou Sioux killing nearly 300 of the original 350 men, women, and children.LoC ICT
49 1891 
  • 17 Aug 1891: U.S. Government rainmaking experiments begin in Texas.SIMag
  • 21 Dec 1891: James Naismith, a physical education instructor at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, introduces a new game to his class, basket ball.HoopHall MassMoments
50 1892 
  • 1 Jan 1892: Ellis Island Immigration Station opens.EI LoC
  • 15 Jan 1892: The first rules of basketball are published by Dr. James Naismith.USAB OCLC
  • 19 Apr 1892: Charles Duryea becomes the first American to build and sell a gasoline-powered automobile.Hemmings DPL
  • 28 May 1892: The Sierra Club is incorporated.SierraClub UCB
  • 4 Aug 1892: Lizzie Borden kills her father and stepmother with a hatchet.CM SIMag
  • 27 Sep 1892: Book matches receive a patent.PSU Hagley
51 1893 
52 1894 
  • 14 Aug 1894: The first wireless transmission of information using Morse code is demonstrated by Oliver Lodge during a meeting of the British Association at Oxford.RSP NS
53 1895 
  • 11 Jun 1895: The first U. S. patent for a gasoline-driven automobile by a U. S. inventor was issued to Charles E. Duryea of the Duryea Motor Wagon Co. in Springfield.USNA HFM
  • 27 Jun 1895: The first rail system in the U. S. using electric locomotives begins operating in Baltimore.HMdb A-R
  • 26 Aug 1895: Water is diverted from Niagara Falls to begin the first large scale generation of electricity.SI BAH
  • 8 Nov 1895: William Roentgen (Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen) discovers X-rays.NobelPrize APS
  • 28 Nov 1895: The first American automobile race takes place in Chicago.LoC THF
  • 28 Dec 1895: The world's first commercial movie screening takes place in Paris. Variety
54 1896 
  • 4 Jan 1896: Utah becomes a state.ThoughtCo 50States.com
  • 29 Jan 1896: Émil H. Grubbe becomes the first to use radiation to treat a patient with recurrent breast cancer.ASCoPost RK
  • 11 Aug 1896: Harvey Hubbell of Bridgeport, Connecticut receives a patent for the first on-and-off pull chain, electric light bulb socket.CTHist F-a-G
  • 16 Aug 1896: Gold is discovered in Rabbit Creek in the Yukon. The Klondike Gold Rush is on when word reaches civilization almost a year later.UoW PBS
  • 3 Nov 1896: William McKinley Jr. is elected the 25th president of the United States of America, 1897 - 1901. William McKinley dies in Buffalo, New York on 14 Sept 1901.USEA USSenate
  • 12 Dec 1896: Marconi demonstrates the radio and 5 years later, on this same day, transmits the first trans-Atlantic radio signal.W I R E D
55 1897 
56 1898 
  • 15 Feb 1898: "Remember the Maine!" The U.S.S. Maine explodes in Havana harbor after striking a mine. 260 sailors are lost leading to the Spanish-American War.SIMag LoC
  • 17 Mar 1898: John P. Holland launches what will become the U. S. Navy's first modern submarine.NavHist USSNautilus
  • 21 Apr 1898: The U. S. declares war on Spain.NPS MoAGI
  • 25 Apr 1898—Jul 1902: Spanish-American War: War is formally declared between the United States and Spain.LoC PBS
  • 30 May 1898: Superman beware, Krypton is discovered.JLab NIH
  • 1 Jul 1898: Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders make the charge up San Juan Hill.PBS USArmy
  • 30 Jul 1898: William Kellogg, understanding the value of the flaked cereal served at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, invents Cornflakes.TiS WCSA
  • 29 Aug 1898: The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is incorporated.Goodyear OHC
  • 26 Nov 1898—27 Nov 1898: New England experiences a a severe storm, The Portland Gale.HazeGray NOAA
  • 18 Dec 1898: The first recorded land speed record is set when Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat travels 39.252 miles per hour in a Jeantaud, a French electric automobile.WoS AC
57 1899 
  • 10 Jan 1899: David Misell receives a patent for his "electric device" - better known as the flashlight, which is still almost unchanged from its original design.FF USPTO
  • 14 Mar 1899: Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin receives a United States patent for his rigid airship design.W I R E D AW
  • 13 Sep 1899: The first U. S. traffic fatality occurs after Henry Bliss is struck by a cab in New York City.W I R E D SIMag
  • 2 Nov 1899—7 Sep 1901: The Boxer Rebellion, an uprising against foreigners in China, occurs.TW GoogleBooks
58 1900 
  • 14 Mar 1900: Gold becomes the official standard of United States currency.NYTimes POLITICO
  • 11 Apr 1900: The U. S. Navy acquires its first modern submarine, the Holland, designed by Irish immigrant John P. Holland, propelled by gasoline while on the surface and by electricity when submerged.LoC DoD
  • 2 Jul 1900: Count Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, with five passengers, flies the world's first untethered rigid airship, the LZ-1 near Lake Constance in Germany.Airships CoF
  • 8 Sep 1900: A hurricane hits Galveston, Texas killing over 6000 people.1900Storm NPS
  • 15 Oct 1900: Boston Symphony Hall is opened.BSO NET
59 1901 
  • 10 Jan 1901: The oil industry gets underway in Texas with the Spindletop well.TXAlmanac TSHA
  • 22 Jan 1901—6 May 1910: Edward VII. Ruler of England 1901-1910. House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha: Eldest son of Victoria, married Alexandra, Princess of Denmark.HistoricUK
  • 21 May 1901: Connecticut enacts the first speed limit law for automobiles in the U. S..W I R E D CTHist
  • 6 Sep 1901: U. S. President William McKinley is shot while attending the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.LoC BN
  • 14 Sep 1901: Theodore Roosevelt becomes the 26th president of the United States of America upon the death of President McKinley. He serves 1901 - 1909.LoC NCC
  • 10 Dec 1901: The first Nobel Prizes are awarded.NP NPP
60 1902 
  • 4 Mar 1902: The American Automobile Association is established in Chicago.AAA C&R
  • 6 Mar 1902: The permanent United States Census Bureau is established through a legislative act.Census USFR
  • 20 Apr 1902: Marie and Pierre Curie successfully isolate radioactive radium salts from the mineral pitchblende in their laboratory in Paris.SN DTE
  • 9 Jun 1902: The first fast food restaurant in the United States, the Automat, opens in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.W I R E D PE
  • 10 Jun 1902: Americus F. Callahan of Chicago receives a patent for the window envelope.NDM GooglePatents
  • 17 Jul 1902: Willis Carrier completes the design for the world's first successful air-conditioning system.WC W I R E D
61 1903 
  • 18 Jan 1903: The first two-way transatlantic wireless communication occurs.CapeCod TRC
  • 15 Feb 1903: The first Teddy bears go on sale.History.com Politico
  • 23 Feb 1903: The Treaty of Cuba is signed by President Roosevelt giving the United States the right to Guantanamo Bay.Avalon USState
  • 15 Jul 1903: The newly formed Ford Motor Company takes its first order.Ford HF
  • 11 Aug 1903: The first patent in the United States for instant coffee is received by Chicago chemist Satori Kato.W I R E D GooglePatents
  • 1 Oct 1903—13 Oct 1903: The first baseball World Series begins - the Boston Americans and Pittsburgh Pirates.MLB BA
  • 17 Dec 1903: The Wright brothers fly the first gas-powered, human-controlled, heavier-than-air aircraft.NASA LoC
62 1904 
63 1905 
  • 25 Jan 1905: The world's largest diamond is found in a South African mine.GIA IS
  • 5 Aug 1905: Teddy Roosevelt gathers up the Russian and Japanese peace delegates in Oyster Bay, herds them aboard the yacht Mayflower, and heads off to Portsmouth.GoogleBooks GLIAH
  • 5 Sep 1905: The Treaty of Portsmouth ends the Russo-Japanese War.MMN PPT
  • 27 Sep 1905: Albert Einstein publishes the Theory of Relativity and makes famous the equation, E = mc2.Dummies EarthSky
64 1906 
  • 18 Apr 1906: San Franciscans are shaken out of bed by the Great San Francisco Earthquake. The city is further destroyed by an uncontrolled inferno the rages for four days and nights.USGS USNA
  • 21 Apr 1906: The Canada-Alaska border is established.GoogleBooks USNA
  • 24 Sep 1906: President Roosevelt establishes the first National Monument, Devils Tower in Wyoming.NPS NPF
  • 3 Nov 1906: The distress signal S.O.S. becomes the worldwide standard at the 2nd International Radiotelegraphic Convention.SIMag GA&C
65 1907 
66 1908 
  • 30 Jun 1908: A large meteorite, presumed to be about 120 feet across, enters the atmosphere above Siberia and explodes, destroying about 80 million trees and lighting up the sky. NASA EarthSky
  • 26 Jul 1908: The Federal Bureau of Investigation is founded.FBI USNA
  • 3 Aug 1908: The first nearly complete skeleton of a Neanderthal is found.LS PNAS
  • 16 Sep 1908: General Motors is founded by William "Billy" Durant.AH Forbes
  • 6 Oct 1908: Henry S. Winzeler founds the Ohio Art Company, makers of the Etch-A-Sketch.GoogleNews
  • 29 Dec 1908: A patent is granted for a 4-wheel automobile braking system.365DoM BH
67 1909 
  • 16 Jan 1909: Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.W I R E D EarthSky
  • 5 Feb 1909: The first synthetic plastic, Bakelite, is announced to the world by its inventor, Leo Baekeland, during a presentation to the American Chemical Society in New York City.PN NYTimes
  • 12 Feb 1909: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,or NAACP, is founded.NAACP LoC
  • 7 Apr 1909: Americans Robert Peary and Matthew Henson become the first non-native men to reach the North Pole.USNA Bowdoin
  • 19 Aug 1909: The first automobile race is held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.IMS FSS
  • 30 Aug 1909: Charles Walcott of the Smithsonian Institute discovers the Burgess Shales, one of the world's richest fossil troves.ESCONI tCE
  • 3 Nov 1909: William Howard Taft is elected 27th president of the United States of America, 1909 - 1913.USEA
68 1910 
  • 13 Jan 1910: The first public radio broadcast takes place with a live performance at New York's Metropolitan Opera House. SIMag WQXR
  • 8 Feb 1910: The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated.LoC BSA
  • 28 Mar 1910: Engineer Henri Fabre takes off in the Canard, the first airplane to lift off from water under its own power.SI W I R E D
  • 6 May 1910—20 Jan 1936: George V. Ruler of England 1910-1936. House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917): 2nd son of Edward VII, married Princess Mary of Teck. Accession, Jan 20, abdication, Dec 10.HistoricUK
69 1911 
  • 17 Feb 1911: The first electric "self-starter" is installed in a Cadillac.Hemmings EC
  • 23 May 1911: The New York Public Library opens.NYPL LoC
  • 30 May 1911: The first Indianapolis 500 is run.AH IN
  • 16 Jun 1911: The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, the precursor to IBM, is founded in New York.IBM CHM
  • 4 Jul 1911: The highest temperature recorded in Vermont is 105°F at Vernon.NetState CW
  • 4 Jul 1911: The highest temperature recorded in New Hampshire is 106°F at Nashua.NetState CW
  • 10 Jul 1911: The highest temperature recorded in Maine is 105°F at North Bridgton.NetState RCS
  • 24 Jul 1911: The ancient city of the Incas, Machu Picchu, is discovered by Hiram Bingham, a professor at Yale University.TiC Andina
  • 25 Sep 1911: Ground is broken for Fenway Park in Boston.MLB
  • 23 Oct 1911: An airplane is used for the first time in war.W I R E D A&SMag
  • 14 Dec 1911: Raold Amundsen and four others are the first to reach the South Pole.SP SA
70 1912 
71 1913 
  • 2 Feb 1913: Grand Central Terminal opens.GCT PBS
  • 13 May 1913: Igor Sikorsky's Ilya Mourometz, the world's first 4-engine airplane, takes flight.AFMag SA
  • 13 Aug 1913: The first stainless steel is produced.W I R E D QSeals
  • 7 Oct 1913: Ford debuts the assembly line to speed up Model-T production.BI Hemmings
  • 31 Oct 1913: The first transcontinental highway, the Lincoln Highway, is dedicated.DOT ILH
72 1914 
73 1915 
  • 19 Jan 1915: The first air raid against civilian targets takes place when German Zeppelins attack Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn, England.1stWW WHO
  • 27 Mar 1915: Mary Mallon - Typhoid Mary, the first healthy carrier of disease ever identified in the United States, is put in her final quarantine at Riverside Hospital on North Brother Island, where she would remain for the rest of her life.PBS AH
  • 7 May 1915: The RMS Lusitania is sunk by a German U-boat.1stWW LoC
  • 17 Aug 1915: Charles F. Kettering, co-founder of DELCO in Dayton, Ohio, is issued a patent for his "engine-starting device".OAC AN
  • 6 Sep 1915: The first military tank rolls off the assembly line.ACA USArmy
74 1916 
  • 11 Feb 1916: Emma Goldman, an American anarchist and feminist, advocate of free speech, the eight-hour work day and birth control, is arrested in New York City before giving a lecture on family planning.LoC PBS
  • 15 Mar 1916: General John Pershing leads an invasion of Mexico in pursuit of Pancho Villa.1stWW USArmy
  • 24 Apr 1916—29 Apr 1916: Easter Rising - Ireland rises up against British rule and proclaims its independence.B B C IC
  • 6 Jul 1916: "Uncle Sam" is created by James Montgomery Flagg as the cover of Leslie's Weekly.TIME DoD
  • 15 Sep 1916: Tanks are introduced into battle for the first time.SA MotAGI
75 1917 
  • 24 Feb 1917: The Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany offers United States western territory to Mexico if Mexico declares war on the U. S., is presented to Woodrow Wilson, effectively bringing America into the war.USNA OurDocs
  • 18 May 1917: The U. S. passes the Selective Service Act.NAF USNA
  • 15 Oct 1917: Mata Hari is executed for spying. PBS
  • 6 Nov 1917: The Bolshevik Revolution begins (October 24th, old style calendar).IWM MSU
  • 26 Nov 1917: The National Hockey League is founded.NHL
  • 6 Dec 1917: The Mont-Blanc, a French munitions ship, explodes in Halifax, Nova Scotia harbor after a collision, killing over 1800, injuring 9000 and entirely obliterating parts of the city.SIMag CanGeo
  • 12 Dec 1917: Father Flanagan founds Boys Town.BoysTown
76 1918 
  • 6 Jan 1918: The Bolsheviks take control of the Russian government.UoS UCA
  • 9 Jan 1918: The last battle of the American Indian Wars occurs at the Battle of Bear Valley.RCH BYU
  • Feb 1918—Dec 1920: The Spanish Flu pandemic kills at least 3% of the World's population.VLib npr
  • 21 Feb 1918: The last known Carolina Parakeet dies in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.Audubon USC
  • 11 Mar 1918: At Fort Riley in Kansas, one of the first cases of what will become known as the Spanish Flu is recorded.WHO ACEP
  • 12 Mar 1918: Moscow becomes the capital of the Soviet state of Russia.BYPLib TASS
  • 19 Mar 1918: Time Zones and Daylight Savings Time are established by the Standard Time Act.POLITICO USDoD
  • 21 Apr 1918: Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, is shot down and killed in the skies over the Somme River in France.PBS CoF
  • 16 May 1918: The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed curtailing the free speech rights of U. S. citizens during time of war.ZEP MTSU
  • 27 Aug 1918: U. S. Army forces trade shots with Mexican troops and their German advisors in the only battle of World War I fought on American soil.BYU Tucson
  • 26 Sep 1918—1 Oct 1918: The Meuse-Argonne Offensive begins.1stWW USArmy
  • 29 Sep 1918: Allied forces break through the Hindenburg Line.NCDCR AWM
  • 8 Oct 1918: Acting Corporal Alvin C. York kills 28 Germans and takes 132 of them as prisoners in the Battle of the Argonne.GWPDA SgtYork
  • 7 Nov 1918: Dr. Robert Hutchings Goddard demonstrates tube-launched solid-propellant rockets at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, the forerunners to the bazooka.ESA AFHF
  • 11 Nov 1918: Germany signs the Armistice.GHDI LoC
  • 27 Dec 1918: Greater Poland Uprising - Poles begin their push for independence from Prussian control in the city of Poznań, which quickly spreads.PolandIn PC
77 1919 
  • 15 Jan 1919: A tank of molasses ruptures in Boston's North End killing 21 people - the Great Molasses Flood.MassMoments SIMag
  • 16 Jan 1919: The eighteenth amendment is ratified, Prohibition in the United States begins.LoC NCC
  • 5 Feb 1919: Hollywood stars Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin, along with director D. W. Griffith, get together to form United Artists.CSL WHP
  • 8 May 1919—27 May 1919: The Navy's NC-4 flying boat makes the first successful transatlantic flight.SI A&SMag
  • 4 Jun 1919: The 19th Amendment is passed by Congress giving women the right to vote.OurDocs ZEP
  • 28 Jun 1919: World War I ends.WW1.net USNavy
  • 16 Sep 1919: The American Legion is issued a federal charter by the U. S. Congress.AL ALP224
  • 2 Oct 1919: U. S. President Woodrow Wilson suffers a stroke that will leave him incapacitated until the end of his presidency.PBS JNS
  • 17 Oct 1919: Radio Corporation of America, better known as RCA, is incorporated.LoVA VTInc
78 1920 
  • 24 Jul 1920: The Boston Post runs a story that exposes Charles Ponzi and his financial scheme.MassMoments SIMag
  • 18 Aug 1920: With the passing of the nineteenth amendment, women win the right to vote.USCensus OurDocs
  • 20 Aug 1920: Seven men, including legendary all-around athlete and football star Jim Thorpe, meet to organize a professional football league in Canton, Ohio.OHC DT
  • 12 Oct 1920: Construction begins on the Holland Tunnel.HHM PA
  • 2 Nov 1920: Warren Gamaliel Harding is elected the 29th president of the United States of America. He dies of a heart attack in San Francisco on 2 August 1923. USEA LoC
79 1921 
  • 26 Apr 1921: The first U. S. weather report to be broadcast on the radio is made from station WEW in St. Louis, Missouri.Current MBA
  • 31 May 1921—1 Jun 1921: A white mob attacks residents, homes and businesses in the predominantly black affluent Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma. SIMag TH
  • 21 Jul 1921: Brigadier General William "Billy" Mitchell demonstrates the ability of aircraft to sink enemy warships.CoF SI
  • 25 Aug 1921—2 Sep 1921: The Battle of Blair Mountain, striking coal miners take on strike breakers and police.WVU CH
80 1922 
  • 11 Jan 1922: Insulin is first used to successfully treat diabetes.MNT WHP
  • 20 Mar 1922: The United States Navy's first aircraft carrier, USS Langley, is commissioned.USNA USDoD
  • 5 Apr 1922: Firestone begins production of the first low-pressure balloon tires in Akron, Ohio.AF Bridgestone
  • 14 Nov 1922: The BBC begins broadcasting from London.B B C
  • 21 Nov 1922: Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia takes the oath of office becoming the first woman to serve in the U. S. Senate.USSenate
  • 26 Nov 1922: Howard Carter and Lord Carnavon enter King Tut's tomb.History.com
  • 30 Dec 1922: The Soviet Union is established.LoC MSU
81 1923 
  • 16 Feb 1923: King Tut's tomb is unsealed.NYTimes
  • 12 Mar 1923: The Phonofilm movie process, a sound track added to the movie film, is demonstrated to the press.W I R E D WZ
  • 18 Jun 1923: The first Checker Cab rolls off the assembly line in Kalamazoo, Michigan.AH Hagerty
  • 13 Jul 1923: The Hollywoodland (now just Hollywood) sign is officially dedicated.CAW&P SD
  • 3 Aug 1923: John Calvin Coolidge Jr. becomes the 30th president of the United States of America the day after President Warren G. Harding dies - from 1923 - 1929.Whitehouse LoC
  • 16 Oct 1923: Walt and Roy Disney found the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in Hollywood, California.D23 Disney
  • 24 Dec 1923: A U. S. national Christmas tree is lit for the first time.NPS WHHA
82 1925 
  • 19 Jan 1925: The lowest temperature recorded in Maine is -48°F at Van Buren - which has since been broken with a -50°F at Black Bear River on 16 Jan 2009.NetState CC
  • 28 Feb 1925: An earthquake measuring approximately 7 on the Richter scale strikes the Charlevoix-Kamouraska area of eastern Canada.NRCan MM
  • 13 Mar 1925: Tennessee bans the teaching of evolution in all public schools.NIH CERC
  • 25 May 1925: John T. Scopes is indicted for teaching Darwinian evolution theory.LHL ABAJ
  • 10 Jul 1925: Jury selection begins for the Scopes Monkey Trial.npr MTSU
83 1926 
  • 26 Jan 1926: Television is demonstrated to the public for the first time.HoI TIME
  • 16 Mar 1926: Robert H. Goddard, a physics professor at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, launches the world's first liquid fueled rocket from a field in Auburn, Massachusetts.MassMoments NASA
  • 9 May 1926: Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett, in a Fokker Trimotor, fly over the North Pole.PBS AFMag
  • 12 May 1926: The Norge, a semi-rigid Italian-built airship, just misses being the first aircraft to fly over the North Pole.NYCGP TH
  • 23 Jun 1926: The first Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is administered.PBS SIMag
  • 31 Oct 1926: Escape artist Harry Houdini dies.tGHH SIMag
84 1927 
  • 7 Jan 1927: The first commercial transoceanic telephone service begins, using radio, between New York and London.EDN USNA
  • 20 May 1927—21 May 1927: Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo transatlantic flight from New York to Paris.MNHS PBS
  • 26 May 1927: After 19 years, production of the Ford Model T ceases.AH HFM
  • 23 Aug 1927: Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti die in the electric chair.ZEP MA
  • 7 Sep 1927: Philo Taylor Farnsworth transmits the first electronic image - television.ThePilot tHoTV
  • 4 Oct 1927: Work begins on Mount Rushmore.History.com
  • 6 Oct 1927: "The Jazz Singer", the first talking movie, premieres.AISH MTV
  • 13 Nov 1927: At midnight, the Holland Tunnel opens to automobile traffic.NYCRoads PANYNJ
  • 21 Nov 1927: Striking coal miners are gunned down by state police in Serene, Colorado, killing six and wounding twenty others.WU CU
85 1928 
  • 13 Jan 1928: The first television sets are installed in Schenectady, New York.MIT RM
  • 18 Sep 1928: The Graf Zeppelin takes off on its maiden flight.Airships WingNet
  • 28 Sep 1928: Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.NIH PBS
  • 12 Oct 1928: A young polio sufferer at Children's Hospital in Boston becomes the first person to use the iron lung artificial respirator.W I R E D BMag
  • 6 Nov 1928: Herbert Clark Hoover is elected 31st president of the United States of America, 1929 - 1933.USEA
  • 18 Nov 1928: Mickey Mouse makes his silver screen premier in Steamboat Willie.MoMA TIME
86 1929 
  • 8 Aug 1929: The Graf Zeppelin begins its round-the-world flight.WingNet TDiA
  • 29 Oct 1929: The Great Depression in the United States begins with the crash of the stock market, Black Tuesday.TIME BT
87 1930 
  • 18 Feb 1930: Pluto is discovered.Lowell EarthSky
  • 13 Mar 1930: The discovery of the planet Pluto is announced by its discover Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory.APS Lowell
  • 6 Apr 1930: The Twinkie is invented.NPR Trib
  • 21 Apr 1930: 320 inmates die in a fire at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus, many burning to death when their cell doors are not unlocked.OHC QRFS
  • 12 May 1930: The first planetarium in the U. S., the Adler Planetarium, opens to the public.Adler CCT
  • 15 May 1930: The first female flight attendant takes off.AJC UAHF
  • 24 Jun 1930: Preliminary testing of what will later become Radar begins.I&T GoogleBooks
  • 7 Jul 1930: Construction of the Hoover Dam begins.Tucson CC
  • 9 Aug 1930: Betty Boop makes her first appearance.VN KF
  • 12 Aug 1930: Clarence Birdseye receives a patent for the production of quick-frozen fish.MassMoments npr
  • 20 Aug 1930: W2XCR begins broadcasting from Jersey City, New Jersey, with first demonstration of home reception of television.ET GoogleBooks
  • 8 Sep 1930: 3M rolls out Scotch© Brand Cellulose Tape, later renamed Scotch Transparent Tape.ACS FV
88 1931 
  • 19 Mar 1931: Gambling becomes legal in Nevada.NRA LoA
  • 1 May 1931: The Empire State Building opens.LoC HDC
89 1932 
  • 12 Jan 1932: Hattie Caraway becomes the first women elected to the U. S. Senate.USCongress SIMag
  • 1 Mar 1932: Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., the 20-month-old son of the famous aviator and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, is kidnapped during the night.FBI CM
  • 31 Mar 1932: Ford unveils its new flathead V8 engine.AH JJ
  • 28 Apr 1932: A vaccine for yellow fever is introduced.NIH
  • 8 Nov 1932: Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected the 32nd president of the United States of America, 1933 - 1945. He died in office on 12 April 1945.USEA
  • 27 Dec 1932: Radio City Music Hall opens in New York City.LoC NYPAP
90 1933 
  • 5 Jan 1933: Construction begins on the Golden Gate Bridge.SIMag GGB
  • 25 Feb 1933: The USS Ranger, the first purpose-built aircraft carrier, is launched at Newport News, Virginia.NI&SHM USNavy
  • 12 Mar 1933: Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first "fireside chat" is broadcast.npr MC-UVA
  • 6 Jun 1933: The first drive-in movie theater opens in Camden, New Jersey.History.com DIT
  • 10 Jun 1933: The Immigration and Naturalization Service is established.USCitizenship USNA
  • 12 Jul 1933: The first Dymaxion is produced.AH tVN
  • 22 Jul 1933: American aviator Wiley Post lands at Floyd Bennett Field in New York, completing the first solo flight around the world in 7 days, 18 hours, and 49 minutes.A&SMag PopMech
  • 17 Oct 1933: Albert Einstein, his wife, his assistant and his collaberator/assistant arrive in New York harbor aboard the Westernland on his way to Princeton.IRC EDN
  • 24 Oct 1933: Charles Brace Darrow copyrights his Monopoly game.LLG PI
  • 12 Nov 1933: Hugh Gray takes the first photograph of the Loch Ness Monster.Nessie Hoaxes
  • 5 Dec 1933: Prohibition ends.History.com TIME
  • 30 Dec 1933: The lowest temperature in Vermont, -50°F, is recorded at Bloomfield.NetState UVM
91 1934 
  • 29 Jan 1934: The lowest temperature in New Hampshire is -47°F recorded on Mount Washington.NetState WA
  • 12 Apr 1934: The highest surface wind measured anywhere on earth was clocked by the staff of the Mount Washington Observatory at 231 mph.MWOBS WU
  • 23 May 1934: Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are ambushed and killed by police officers in Louisiana ending their crime spree.FBI TXArchive
  • 2 Aug 1934: Adolf Hitler becomes Führer.USHMM JVL
  • 15 Aug 1934: Otis Barton and William Beebe make the first deep sea dive in their Bathysphere.NOAA APS
92 1935 
  • 11 Jan 1935—12 Jan 1935: Amelia Earhart takes off on the first solo flight from Hawaii to California. PBS
  • 24 May 1935: Major League Baseball plays its first night game.SABR NBHoF
  • 2 Jun 1935: Babe Ruth retires.TIME ESPN
  • 16 Jul 1935: The world's first parking meter is installed in Oklahoma City.GIZMODO ExpiredMeter
  • 14 Aug 1935: The Social Security Act is passed establishing a system of old-age benefits.SSA OurDocs
  • 15 Aug 1935: The Social Security Act becomes law.OurDocs USNA
  • 17 Dec 1935: The Douglas DC-3, the most successful passenger airliner ever, takes its first flight.A&S AFMag
93 1936 
  • 20 Jan 1936—11 Dec 1936: Edward VIII. Ruler of England 1936. House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917): Eldest son of George V.HistoricUK
  • 5 Mar 1936: The prototype of the British Supermarine Spitfire flies for the first time.SI Bonhams
  • 21 Mar 1936: Snow melt and ice blocks causes flooding along the Connecticut River Valley saving the worst for Springfield, Massachusetts.MassMoments USNI
  • 7 Jul 1936: Henry F. Phillips receives patents for a new kind of screw and the new screwdriver needed to make it work.W I R E D F-a-P
  • 7 Sep 1936: The last known Tasmanian Tiger dies in captivity.NMA AusGeo
  • 9 Oct 1936: The Hoover Dam begins sending electricity to Los Angeles.LoC W&PA
  • 23 Nov 1936: The first issue of Life Magazine is published.LIFE WHP
  • 11 Dec 1936—6 Feb 1952: George VI. Ruler of England 1936-1952. House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917): 2nd son of George V, Duke of York; married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.HistoricUK
94 1937 
  • 16 Feb 1937: Linear Condensation Polymer, better known as Nylon, is patented by Wallace Carothers of DuPont.SN AH
  • 26 Apr 1937: Nazis test their new air force, destroying the Basque town of Guernica in northern Spain, inspiring the Picasso anti-war painting.Zinn PBS
  • 6 May 1937: The Hindenburg, a rigid airship, explodes while attempting to land at Lakehurst, New Jersey.Airships SIMag
  • 28 May 1937: The Golden Gate Bridge opens to vehicular traffic.GGB PBS
  • 4 Jun 1937: The first shopping cart rolls out at the Humpty Dumpty supermarket in Oklahoma City.W I R E D SI
  • 2 Jul 1937: Amelia Earhart disappears on her quest to be the first person to fly around the world.TIME USNA
  • 21 Dec 1937: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first animated full-length movie, premieres.History.com Disney
  • 22 Dec 1937: The center tube of the Lincoln Tunnel opens to automobile traffic.PANYNJ AH
95 1938 
  • 24 Feb 1938: The first nylon-bristled toothbrushes, the first modern toothbrushes, go on sale.W I R E D SM.UK
  • 6 Apr 1938: DuPont chemist Roy Plunkett accidentally invents Teflon.W I R E D Teflon
  • 21 Sep 1938: The Great New England Hurricane of 1938 slams into Long Island and southern New England.NOAA NEHS
  • 22 Oct 1938: The first xerographic copy is made in a laboratory in Astoria, Queens, New York, the birth of Xerox. SIMag APS
  • 30 Oct 1938: Orson Welles broadcasts "The War of the Worlds," from a New York City studio causing a panic.SIMag WotW.org
  • 16 Nov 1938: Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is first synthesized by Dr. Albert Hofmann.CV PSR
  • 23 Dec 1938: A coelacanth, previously known only from fossil evidence, is caught in the Chalumna River, near East London, South Africa. Nature SD
96 1939 
97 1940 
  • 27 Feb 1940: Carbon-14 is discovered by scientists Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben working at the University of California at Berkeley making it now possible to date once living material.W I R E D BerkLab
  • 15 May 1940: The first McDonald's restaurant opens in San Bernardino, California.RestMag LoC
  • 26 May 1940—4 Jun 1940: British forces begin evacuation of France through Dunkirk.EB TheTelegraph
  • 10 Jul 1940: The Battle of Britain begins.FWR
  • 12 Sep 1940: The Lascaux Cave paintings are discovered.VVD YouTube
  • 27 Sep 1940: Germany, Italy and Japan sign a treaty of mutual assistance - the Tripartite Pact.Avalon WHP
  • 26 Oct 1940: The P-51 Mustang takes its maiden flight with test pilot Vance Breese.MM DW
  • 7 Nov 1940: "Galloping Gertie", the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, collapses due to high winds.WSDOT KIRO7
98 1941 
  • 12 Feb 1941: The first human trials of penicillin begin.Forbes NIH
  • 12 May 1941: The first fully functional, programmable computer is unveiled.W I R E D CHM
  • 9 Jul 1941: The Enigma key is broken.MSN History.com
  • 30 Oct 1941: FDR approves $1 billion in Lend-Lease aid for the USSR.USState JVL
  • 31 Oct 1941: Mt. Rushmore is completed.NPS
  • 1 Dec 1941: The Civil Air Patrol is established.GovInfo CAP
  • 7 Dec 1941: The forces of the Japanese Empire attack the U. S. Fleet while it lies at anchor at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.USNavy NPS
  • 8 Dec 1941: The U. S. declares war on Japan.Avalon USNA
  • 12 Dec 1941: Adolf Hitler personally orders the mass extermination of European Jews during a meeting of Nazi German regional governors in the chancellery.AH.dk SIMag
  • 26 Dec 1941: Thanksgiving is established as the 4th Thursday in November.USNA LoC
99 1942 
  • 14 Jan 1942: FDR orders that "enemy aliens" must register with the government.History.com UCSB
  • 19 Feb 1942: President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066 resulting in the forcible internment of people of Japanese ancestry. USNA OurDocs
  • 18 Apr 1942: Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle leads an air raid against Tokyo and other Japanese cities in retaliation for the attack on Pearl Harbor.USNavy SIMag
  • 13 Aug 1942: The Manhattan Project begins.AHF NWWIIM
  • 9 Sep 1942: A submarine-based Japanese seaplane fire bombs the Oregon forest.SitOS USDA
  • 21 Sep 1942: The B-29 Superfortress takes its maiden flight.AFHF MoF
  • 28 Nov 1942: A fire at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston, Massachusetts kills 492 people.CB BFHS
100 1943 
  • 20 Feb 1943—1952: The Parícutin volcano begins to erupt in Parícutin, Mexico, marking the first time scientists are able to observe the complete life cycle of a volcano. SDSU SIArchives
  • 16 Apr 1943: Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann accidentally discovers the psychedelic properties of LSD.W I R E D DW
  • 19 Apr 1943—16 May 1943: Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto begin uprising against the Nazis.USHMM JVL
  • 10 Jun 1943: Brothers László and Georg Bíró, Hungarian refugees living in Argentina, patent the ballpoint pen.W I R E D FPN
101 1944 
  • 23 Apr 1944—4 May 1944: Sikorsky's R4 helicopter becomes the first used in a combat role.A&SMag VTOL
  • 6 Jun 1944—7 Jun 1944: D-Day - allied forces begin the invasion of continental Europe.USArmy IWM
  • 6 Jul 1944: A fire in the Ringling Brothers/Barnum and Bailey Circus tent takes 168 lives in Hartford, Connecticut.HCF CTHist
  • 20 Jul 1944: Hitler survives an assassination attempt.UoC JVL
  • 9 Aug 1944: The first poster of Smokey the Bear is created.StB TIME
  • 21 Oct 1944: The first individual kamikaze attack occurs when a Japanese plane attacks HMAS Australia off Leyte Island.RDunn NHSA
  • 25 Oct 1944: Kamikaze are used en masse for the first time against Allied forces in the Battle of Leyte Gulf.NNAM AFMag
  • 12 Nov 1944: Avro Lancasters of the British Royal Air Force sink the German battleship Tirpitz off Håkøya Island near Tromsø, Norway.KBismarck BCM
  • 16 Dec 1944—31 Jan 1945: The Battle of the Bulge, a surprise offensive by the German Army pushes Allied forces back through Belgium and Luxembourg.USArmy PBS
  • 27 Dec 1944: The federal government takes control of Montgomery Ward.UCSB AHC
102 1945 
  • 25 Jan 1945: Fluoridation is introduced to drinking water.W I R E D ADA
  • 12 Apr 1945: Harry S. Truman becomes the 33rd president of the United States of America upon the death of FDR, 1945 - 1953.Whitehouse LoC
  • 1 May 1945: Adolf Hitler commits suicide.JVL tPCfM
  • 5 May 1945: A Japanese balloon bomb kills 6.W I R E D OE
  • 7 May 1945: Germany unconditionally surrenders, effectively ending World War II in Western Europe. Soviet surrender terms were signed the next day.DoD USHMM
  • 8 May 1945: V-E Day is celebrated, Germany is defeated.DoD NWWIIM
  • 16 Jul 1945: "Trinity", the first atomic bomb, explodes in the early morning hours near Alamogordo.B B C DoE
  • 28 Jul 1945: A B-25 Mitchell bomber, flying from New Bedford, Massachusetts, to LaGuardia Airport in New York City, crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building killing 14 people. NYCR&I npr
  • 30 Jul 1945: The USS Indianapolis is sunk by a Japanese submarine, killing 883 sailors.USSIndianapolis USNavy
  • 6 Aug 1945: The first atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.B B C CTBTO
  • 9 Aug 1945: The atomic bomb is dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.OSTI USNA
  • 2 Sep 1945: World War II ends, Japan surrenders to the United States aboard the USS Missouri.CNN WAPO
  • 26 Sep 1945: The first American soldier is killed in Vietnam.History.com ANC
  • 24 Oct 1945: The United Nations is established.UN USState
  • 20 Nov 1945—1 Oct 1946: Nazi officials are put on trial in Nuremburg, Germany.USHMM LoC
  • 5 Dec 1945: U. S. Navy Flight 19, consisting of 5 Grumman TBM Avenger torpedo bombers, disappears in the Bermuda Triangle off the coast of Florida, never to be seen again.Navy NASFM
  • 6 Dec 1945: The microwave oven is invented by Percy Spencer of the Raytheon Corporation.NASA Web+
103 1946 
  • 13 Feb 1946: ENIAC, the first Electrical Numerical Integrator And Calculator, is unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania’s Moore School of Electronics.KurzweilAI AA
  • 14 Feb 1946: ENIAC, the first large scale, general purpose, digital computer is announced to the public.UPenn CH
  • 22 Feb 1946: Rutgers University Professor Selman A. Waksman announces a second (after penicillin) clinical application of antibiotics - streptomycin against tuberculosis.JC BALLYA
  • 8 Mar 1946: The Bell Model 47 becomes the first helicopter to be certified for civilian use.GoogleBooks TW
  • 16 May 1946: Jack Mullin gives the first public demonstration of a professional quality tape recorder in the U. S..MoB LATimes
  • 6 Jun 1946: The National Basketball Association is founded in New York.NBA NBAHO
  • 5 Jul 1946: The world is introduced to the bikini swimsuit.WAPO CR
  • 8 Aug 1946: The first true intercontinental bomber, the B-36, makes its first flight.SACM FAS
  • 13 Nov 1946: The first man-made snowfall is produced over Mt. Greylock in western Massachusetts.MassMoments NWS
  • 11 Dec 1946: UNICEF is founded.UNICEF History.com
104 1947 
  • 21 Feb 1947: Edwin Land demonstrates his instant camera and film - the Polaroid.SI ACS
  • 16 Apr 1947: The first television zoom lens, the Zoomar lens, is demonstrated by NBC-TV in New York City, allowing close-up and distant camera shots from the same stationary camera, rather than moving the entire camera as had been done previously.TiS BH
  • 16 Apr 1947: A French ship loaded with fertilizer explodes, killing almost 600 people in Texas City, Texas.Chron TSHA
  • 28 Apr 1947: Thor Heyerdahl and Kon-Tiki set sail from Peru on a course for French Polynesia.SIMag K-TBC
  • 11 May 1947: The B.F. Goodrich Co. announces the development of the tubeless tire.History.com DA
  • 6 Jul 1947: The world's most popular assault rifle, the AK-47, begins production.SN W I R E D
  • 7 Jul 1947: The Roswell Incident occurs.Space RAM
  • 8 Jul 1947: The U. S. Army Air Force announces that it had captured a flying saucer.AJ W I R E D
  • 7 Aug 1947: After 101 days, Thor Heyerdahl completes his voyage with Kon-Tiki.MLP AO
  • 18 Sep 1947: The CIA is established through the National Security Act of 1947.HSDL USNA
  • 18 Sep 1947: The United States Air Force is established as the Department of the Air Force, a new agency within the Department of Defense.USAF AFHF
  • 26 Sep 1947: Personnel from the Army Air Forces are transferred from the Department of the Army to the Department of the Air Force.USAF
  • 5 Oct 1947: President Harry Truman makes the first-ever televised presidential address from the White House.History.com
  • 14 Oct 1947: U. S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager becomes the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound.USNA Space
  • 20 Oct 1947: The House Un-American Activities Committee opens an investigation of communism in Hollywood.N TIME
  • 24 Nov 1947: The "Hollywood 10" are charged with contempt by the U. S. Congress.ABAJ CUNY
  • 29 Nov 1947: The United Nations votes to partition Palestine.Knesset JCPA
105 1948 
  • 21 Jan 1948: The fleur-de-lis flag becomes the official flag of Québec.CBC QC
  • 30 Jan 1948: Gandhi is assassinated.History.com BP
  • 21 Feb 1948: The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, NASCAR, is incorporated.Hemmings HR
  • 7 Apr 1948: The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.WHO AJC
  • 14 May 1948: The State of Israel is established.Israel USState
  • 3 Jun 1948: The 200 inch Hale Telescope goes into operation at the Palomar Observatory.NPS UC
  • 21 Jun 1948: Columbia Records introduces the 12" LP (long playing) record.W I R E D 33Audio
  • 30 Jun 1948: Bell Labs holds a press conference to announce their latest invention, the transistor.PBS CHM
  • 28 Nov 1948: The first commercial instant camera, Polaroid Land camera Model 95, goes on sale at the Jordan Marsh department store in Boston.Haaretz TDiTH
  • 24 Dec 1948: The first completely solar heated house, the Peabody house in Dover, Massachusetts, is ready for occupancy.TiS OTD
106 1949 
  • 6 Jan 1949: The first photograph of genes was taken at the University of Southern California by Dr. Daniel Chapin Pease and Dr. Richard Freligh Baker. TiS DE
  • 10 Jan 1949: The 45-rpm record, cheaper and more portable than other record formats, is introduced by RCA.W I R E D CNYNews
  • 26 Feb 1949—2 Mar 1949: The first non-stop round-the-world flight takes place in a Boeing B-50A, the Lucky Lady II, lasting 94 hours and 1 minute.AFMag PBS
  • 4 Apr 1949: NATO, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is founded.USNA Avalon
  • 27 Jul 1949: The world's first jet-propelled airliner, the British De Havilland Comet, makes its maiden test-flight in England.AFMag CoF
  • 3 Aug 1949: The NBA is born.NBA tPG
107 1950 
  • 17 Jan 1950: A group of armed, masked men rob the Brink's depot in Boston, getting away with $2.7 million.FBI NEHS
  • 31 Jan 1950: President Truman announces plans for the U. S. to develop the hydrogen bomb.PBS AHF
  • 14 Mar 1950: The FBI Ten Most Wanted list makes its debut.FBI CMag
  • 19 May 1950: As a munitions barge is being loaded in South Amboy, New Jersey, it explodes, destroying the waterfront and much of the town.Hagley HMdb
  • 25 Jun 1950: Korean War: The United States (as part of the United Nations) and South Korea vs. North Korea and Communist China 1950-1953.PBS USNA
  • 24 Jul 1950: Cape Canaveral launches its first rocket.W I R E D CoF
  • 24 Sep 1950: Black Sunday occurs when smoke from forest fires in western Canada makes its way east, darkening the skies in the eastern United States and Canada and as far away as western Europe.BLM WR
  • 2 Oct 1950: The comic strip Peanuts is first published.TIME GoComics
  • 25 Nov 1950—29 Nov 1950: The "Storm of the Century" strikes the eastern U. S..History.com NOAA
108 1951 
  • 31 Mar 1951: UNIVAC I, the first commercially produced computer, is delivered to the United States Census Bureau.Census ETHW
  • 10 Nov 1951: Mayor M. Leslie Downing of Englewood, New Jersey and Mayor Frank Osborne of Alameda, California make the first direct-dialed, transcontinental telephone call.CSL BH
  • 20 Dec 1951: A nuclear reactor produces useful electricity for the first time. DoE APS
109 1952 
  • 6 Feb 1952: Elizabeth II. Ruler of England 1952-present.House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917): Elder daughter of George VI, acceded Feb 6, 1956.HistoricUK
  • 15 Apr 1952: The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress makes its first flight and is still in service today.KAFB Boeing
  • 3 May 1952: The first airplane lands at the North Pole.HC ASN
  • 15 Jul 1952—31 Jul 1952: The first transatlantic helicopter flight begins.RH PP
  • 25 Jul 1952: Puerto Rico becomes a Commonwealth of the United States.tPR USState
  • 20 Sep 1952: Geneticists Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase publish their conclusion that DNA is where life's hereditary data is found.OSU RUP
  • 4 Nov 1952: Dwight David Eisenhower is elected the 34th president of , 1953 - 1961.USEA
110 1953 
  • 28 Feb 1953: At Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University, scientists James D. Watson and Frances H.C. Crick announce that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA.NIH GO
  • 26 Mar 1953: The success of the polio vaccine is announced on the radio.NIH WAPO
  • 29 Apr 1953: The ABC affiliate KECA-TV broadcasts the show Space Patrol in 3-D but it can only be viewed using special polarized lenses.EDN Signals
  • 29 May 1953: Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay become the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest. PBS
  • 9 Jun 1953: The Worcester tornado takes 94 lives.NEHS TT
  • 19 Jun 1953: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed after being convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage.SI JWA
  • 26 Jul 1953—1 Jan 1959: Fidel Castro leads a revolt against the United States backed Batista regime.npr LaHabana
  • 27 Jul 1953: The Korean War ends.OurDocs USNA
  • 20 Nov 1953: Piltdown Man is reported to be a hoax in the bulletin of the British Natural History Museum.PBS
  • 30 Dec 1953: The first color televisions go on sale in the U. S..S&V EoaG
111 1954 
  • 21 Jan 1954: The USS Nautilus, the first operational nuclear powered submarine, is launched at Groton, Connecticut.Nautilus USNA
  • 27 Jan 1954: The atomic battery is unveiled.RCA NYTimes
  • 15 Feb 1954: The governments of Canada and the U. S. agree to jointly build a line of radar stations in defense against a possible air Soviet attack, the DEW (Distant Early Warning) line.1370th T&G
  • 18 Feb 1954: The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles based upon the religious philosophy of writer L. Ron Hubbard.EAEC CoS
  • 23 Feb 1954: A group of Pennsylvania school children receive the first injections of the new Salk polio vaccine.History.com TIME
  • 25 Mar 1954: Production of RCA's first commercial color television set begins.W I R E D TVTech
  • 6 Apr 1954: Swanson introduces us to the TV Dinner.GoogleNews TMC
  • 17 May 1954: The United States Supreme Court unanimously rules for school integration in the landmark initiative, Brown v. Board of Education.OurDocs SI
  • 14 Jun 1954: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a bill inserting the words "under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance.tGLIoAH CNY
  • 27 Jun 1954: The world's first nuclear power plant goes online.W I R E D PT
  • 16 Aug 1954: Sports Illustrated makes its debut.SI SHT
  • 24 Aug 1954: U. S. President Eisenhower signs the Communist Control Act into law, making the Communist Party illegal.UCSB IA
  • 11 Sep 1954: The first broadcast of the Miss America pageant occurs.IMDb Tango
  • 29 Sep 1954: The CERN Convention is entered into force.CERN SA
  • 18 Oct 1954: The first transistor radio, the Regency TR1, is introduced to the world.PBS EDN
  • 30 Nov 1954: A meteorite crashes through the roof and strikes a napping Ann Hodges in Sylacauga, Alabama, the only documented injury from an extra-terrestrial object.Space SIMag
  • 23 Dec 1954: The first successful human organ transplant occurs.npr NIH
112 1955 
  • 12 Apr 1955: Jonas Salk announces his polio vaccine to the world.UMich CDC
  • 15 Apr 1955: Ray Kroc opens his first McDonald's restaurant in Chicago, Illinois.CL McDonald's
  • 11 Jun 1955: Disaster occurs at the Le Mans 24 hour race.Hagerty Hemmings
  • 17 Jul 1955: The happiest place on Earth, Disneyland opens.DD T&L
  • 19 Aug 1955: Hurricane Diane becomes the first storm to top $1 billion in damages in the U. S..NEHS NWS
  • 31 Aug 1955: GM demonstrates the first solar-powered car.EEW GMA
  • 1 Dec 1955: Seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating racial segregation laws.LoC THF
  • 5 Dec 1955: The labor organizations AFL and CIO merge to form one.AFL-CIO SI