1900: As we turn the corner and enter into this new century, the Library of Congress is 100 years old on April 24th. This is a picture of the LOC. By the late 1990s, the LOC will contain the finest library holdings in the World. There are 45 stars on the American Flag, and on April 30th, Hawaii is granted territorial status by Congress. Interestingly, the Hawaiian alphabet contains only 12 letters, the smallest in the World (a, e, i, o, u, h, k, l, m, n, p, and w). Almost no one in the World has visited these islands, but by end of the century, Hawaii will become one of the World's favorite tourist attraction. In May, Carrie Nation (1846-1911) leads women through Kansas destroying saloons using a hatchet, which is her symbol. Her first husband, an alcoholic, biased her against alcohol, and eventually she would be arrested more than 30 times. "Hot dogs" are invented on the opening day of this baseball season at the Polo Grounds in New York. "Editorial cartoonist Tad Dorgan is credited with coining the term "hot dog." The story goes that Dorgan, uncertain as to the spelling of "dachshund" sausages -- the name used by New York Polo Ground vendors -- simplified it to "hot dogs," and so the name was born." However, both Germany and Austria claim to be the birthplace for the hot dog concept more than 500 years ago. W. Edwards Deming is born and Al Capone is one year old. Like every other baby in the World, neither knows anything about crime, engineering, gangs, hate, murder, quality control, revenge, or science. Yet each will become famous for very opposite reasons. Capone will become America's most notorious gangland criminal, and responsible for the 1929 Saint Valentine Day's Massacre, whereas Deming will publish Out of the Crisis (which contains his 14 points for Management), and become America's most famous quality control expert and be draped in honors from around the world. The Nation has 76 million people, and the average life expectancy is 47 years. That is mainly because so many babies die. By 1990, the life expectancy will be about 75 years due to a number of factors, such as better hygiene, medical advances, and access to them (e.g., better education, more phones and cars). For example, there are only 150 miles of paved roads for our 8,000 cars. People are moving west. After the fare for a train ticket from the Mississippi Valley to the Pacific dropped to $25.00, the populations in Los Angeles and San Diego explode. This year the population in Los Angeles is 100,000 [Source]. Frank L. Baum (1856-1919) publishes The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in May. It started as a story being told to his children in 1898, yet will become one of the most popular stories in children's literature. Disney will create the movie in 1939. There are 15,900 newspapers with a circulation of 15.1 million which is phenomenal growth when considering the population size and contrasted with the 235 newspapers in 1800. Unlike all other nations, our First Amendment encouraged the growth of newspapers. Surprisingly, the year in this Century with the largest number of newspapers (17,000) will be 1909 (Grant, 1996). After 1909, the number of newspapers will decline slowly to 12,200 in 1995, after which time many newspapers will be available on the World Wide Web---a concept inconceivable at this time. The twelfth U.S. census is taken. "All persons in each household are listed by name. All dwellings in each census district were given a number. Each family was also assigned an identification number. Each census sheet lists the county as well as town or township. Many new questions were asked this census year!" The second largest group in the population and work force of all developed countries at this time consists of live-in servants. They are considered as much a law of nature as farmers are. "Census categories of the time defined 'lower middle class' households as one that employed fewer than three servants..." (Drucker, 1994).

1901: The first U.S. president of this century is William J. McKinley (1843-1901). On May 20th, Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt leads the procession into the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, a major event for this Nation. On September 5th President McKinley makes a speech at the Exposition. McKinley serves as President from 1897 until he is assassinated one day after that speech by Leon Czolgosc who wears a bandage on one hand to conceal a gun. Later Leon says, "I done my duty. I don't believe one man should have so much service and another man should have none." (Rubel, 1994). McKinley is the third President to be assassinated. Czolgosc is executed at Auburn Prison, in what may be the first execution on film. To obtain a time perspective, President McKinley was 18 years old when the Civil War broke out in 1861, and he enlisted two months later. As president, he always wears a red carnation in his lapel for good luck. The Underwood No. 5 typewriter begins production, sets the trend, and will become the most popular typewriter in the World until the 1961 IBM Selectric. By the 1920s, every typewriter company will imitate this design that allowed typists to see what they typed, as well as provide 84 keys, four banks (also called rows), and a single shift. Moreover, millions of these machines will be "used by secretaries, journalists, government officials, and writers throughout the first half of the twentieth century." After assuming office, President Roosevelt invites black leader Booker T. Washington to the White House, and the South reacts with violence against blacks. Political cartoons are alive and well. On November 21st, the War Department authorizes creation of the Army War College to instruct commissioned officers. It will be built in Leavenworth, Kansas. The first U.S. motorcycle is created by "engineering wizard Carl Oscar Hedstrom and bicycle enthusiast George Hendee." In 1923 they will change their name to the Indian Motorcycle company, and their Scout and Chief models will become famous. Indian will survive the Great Depression (with Harley) [see 1965], but then go out of business in 1953.

1902: President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), our 26th President, is aggressive in his effort to control the excesses of big business, and will become known for his Latin American policy of "Speak softly and carry a big stick," which leads to the construction of the Panama Canal. Journalist Ida Tarbell (1857-1944) publishes an expose about the Standard Oil Company in McClure's Magazine two years before publishing it as a book. This is but one of several well researched published investigative reports at this time, including The Octopus, The Pit, The Iron Heel, and The Shame of the Cities. By 1906 when Upton Sinclair publishes The Jungle, which exposes the filth in the meat-packing plants, Americans will be so outraged that Congress will pass The Pure Food and Drug Act to protect meat and other foods. One of every 920 Americans lives in an almshouse for the poor (Beito, 1995). Carrie Catt is elected president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and in her address states, "The question of woman suffrage is a very simple one....Woman suffrage must meet precisely the same objections which have been urged against man suffrage, but in addition, it must combat sex-prejudice, the oldest, the most unreasoning, the most stubborn of all human idiosyncrasies." On March 6th, the Census is established under the Department of the Interior. Prior to now, the censuses were made by U.S. Marshalls using temporary staff. In 1994, the 32nd director will remind us that the "first" director of the census was Thomas Jefferson. Newspaper artist (no news photographers at this time) Clifford Berryman draws a sketch for the Washington Post of President Roosevelt refusing to shoot a small bear that was captured for him to shoot during his hunting trip (Severin, 1995), and this launches the later widely popular Teddy Bear craze. In practice, but not in name, small cloth (felt) bears have been made by the Steiff family in Germany since 1892. But after that drawing appears, numerous rumors and stories about "Teddy's bear" capture the imagination of the public. Shortly thereafter Morris and Rose Michtom, Russian immigrants, who run a stationary store in Brooklyn, put a copy of the drawing in their window next to a toy bear, and it sells. In 1907 they will start the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company, and will be the only company in the U.S. making the toy bears. But, by 1910 even catalogues will carry cloth "Teddy Bears" in various sizes, ranging in price from 59 cents to $1.75 or more. In the 1990s such collectibles are unusually valuable; for example, in "1989, a 1926 Steiff brought $86,350 at auction, setting a new high price that shook the teddy bear community - but has since been surpassed more than once." In 1947 Smokey the Bear will caution us, "Remember, only YOU can prevent forest fires."

1903: On May 23rd, Wisconsin becomes the first state to adopt direct primary elections. By 1948 all states will have them. Ford Motor Company starts on June 16, 1903, by Henry Ford and 11 associates in Lansing, Michigan. Although Ford was not first, few technologies will grow as fast or have the impact on the world as the automobiles created here. The flight at Kitty Hawk takes place on December 17th, and the Wright Brothers flight lasts 12 seconds, and flies 120 feet. The plane has a four-cylinder, 200 pound, gasoline engine that generates 12 horsepower. Only one photographer is there to record this significant event in aviation history. Sixty-six years later, two astronauts will walk on the moon. Still later, on "the eve of the 93rd anniversary of the Wright Brothers' flight, the Air Force named its newest stealth bomber the Spirit of Kitty Hawk...in ceremonies at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. A full-size model of the original Wright Brothers flyer was dwarfed by the giant B-2 bomber outside a hanger at the air base. The wingspan of the B-2 is longer than the entire flight first made by the Wright Brothers." After being told by metallurgists that putting a sharp blade on thin inexpensive sheet metal was impossible, King Camp Gillette finds a way, and sells a razor and 20 blades for $5.00 (Stuller, 1995). The first baseball World Series is played at the Boston Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds--now the site of Northeastern University. The Boston Americans beat the Pittsburgh Nationals 5 to 3 in the best of a nine game series. Pride and illogic will cancel the following World Series game in 1904, but they will resume in 1905 and continue until 1995 when a baseball strike would again cancel the game for similar reasons. Actuality films reach their peak. Such films included "local actualities (for example, scenes of the local fire department in action), [and] were popular, as were topical, news, travel, sports, comedies, and trick films. Films depicting current events such as the Spanish-American War or the Boer War fascinated viewers, as did films featuring notable world leaders, such as William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt." New York City is the Nation's new metropolis, and one of its biggest problems is garbage. The problem was addressed with an "army" of broom sweepers called the White Wings who parade proudly while an Edison cameraman is there to film them. On August 31st, "a Packard automobile ended a 52 day journey from San Francisco to New York, the first time an automobile crossed the continent under its own power" [Source].

1904: Interestingly, Berea College, founded in 1855, was the first interracial college in the South, and also was coeducational long before most of higher education understood that value. This year the College is compelled by the passage of a Kentucky "state law, the Day Law, to forego interracial education." After the Day Law is upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, the College trustees raise $400,000 "to endow a new school for Black students, Lincoln Institute, located near Louisville. When the Day Law was amended in 1950 to allow integration above the high school level, Berea College again opened its doors to Black students." The topic of race is notorious throughout this American Ledger, and useful background reading can be found in the November, 1994 issue of Discover magazine. On May 14th, the U.S. wins 21 events at the Olympic Games, part of the St. Louis Exposition and World' Fair. It is the third modern Olympiad. On October 27th, the first section of New York City's subway opens between City Hall and West 145th Street. By 1997 there will be 468 subway stations. This subway preceded busses because the first bus route will be opened on July 13, 1907, and uses the "first gasoline-powered bus, an open-top double-decker." Phone service is no simple matter. Most of the Nation lives in the country (rural areas); not in cities. Moreover, more than half of the 1,051 incorporated towns and cities have more than one phone company (Friedlander, 1995), most likely accounting for the fact that approximately only three percent of calls are long distance. Not until 1920 will we become a Nation with more of its population in the cities than in rural areas. New York State passes the first automobile speed law: 10 mph in the cities, 15 mph in small towns, and 20 mph in the country.

1905: During the 57 public hearings about the insurance scandal, many of the Nation's most wealthy men are found to be involved. Albert Einstein, during an incredibly productive time, discusses or invents the law of mass-energy, Brownian theory of motion (a good example of parallel discovery), and the photon theory of light. John Harris and Harry Davis introduce the first Nickelodeon (movie theater) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. On December 30th an ex-governor and bank president Frank Steunenberg is murdered in cold blood as he opens the front gate to his yard in Caldwell, Idaho (Busch, 1992). This crime has many components, including an enduring labor union dispute, Federal intervention and strike breaking, martial law, revenge, the successful use of a booby-trap, search and seizure, an inter-state legal dispute, a famous attorney (Clarence Darrow), bold legal strategy, religious conversion, and an escape to Russia, most of which serve to signal similar events throughout the following century. The Niagara Movement is founded by W. E. B. Du Bois in Niagara Falls to promote an assertive focus for black rights. Later its principles would form the foundation of the NAACP. Neon light signs appear.

1906: The Pure Food and Drug Law is passed to protect the populace from medical quackery, a practice at least as old as recorded history. Moreover, "until its enactment, it was possible to buy, in stores or by mail order medicines containing morphine, cocaine, or heroin, and without their being so labeled." Oliver Wendell Holmes, physician, poet, and inventor of the stereoscope, said, "There is nothing people will not do, there is nothing they have not done, to recover their health and save their lives. They have submitted to be half drowned in water, half cooked with gases, to be buried up to their chins in earth, to be seared with hot irons likes slaves, to be crimped with knives, like codfish, to have needles thrust into their flesh, and bonfires kindled on their skin, to swallow all sorts of abominations, and to pay for all this, as if to be singed and scaled were a costly privilege, as if blisters were a blessing and leeches were a luxury." (Trachtman, 1994). It is the dawn of the FDA. The Department of Agriculture was created in 1862 and gained Cabinet status in 1889, and it is noteworthy that prior to World War I, "farmers composed the largest single group in every country." By 1990, productive farmers in the U.S. will make up about two percent of the work force. (Drucker, 1994). The San Francisco earthquake takes a 270 mile section of land and moves it north by 20 feet. At 5:12 a.m. on April 18th, San Francisco is "struck by an 8.3 magnitude earthquake. With thousands of un-reinforced brick buildings and closely-spaced wooden Victorian dwellings, the city was poorly prepared for a major earthquake. Collapsed buildings, broken chimneys, and a shortage of water due to broken mains led to several large fires that soon coalesced into a city-wide holocaust." An estimated 3,000 people die. A brief eyewitness account survives. Susan B. Anthony, leader of the American woman suffrage movement dies. At her death only four states allow women to vote. Later she will be honored on October 10, 1978 by President Jimmy Carter who will sign into law the Susan B, Anthony Dollar Act which creates a dollar coin. Alfred C. Fuller starts the Fuller Brush Company. Their motto is "Every product is designed to work, and crafted to last." Door to door sales are big because only the largest cities have stores, most of the Nation lives in rural communities, and distribution is difficult. From a one-man fiber suitcase filled with unique custom-made brushes, the company has expanded to a wide selection of home/business and personal care products. Fuller Brush is an early direct marketing company, and will become World famous with others such as Amway, Avon, Mary Kay, and Tupperware by popularizing multilevel marketing [MLM].

1907: Oklahoma becomes the 46th state. The first comic strip called Mr. Mutt, later Mutt and Jeff, by Bud Fisher appears in San Francisco. However, comic books have been available since at least 1896. Ninety years after Mr. Mutt, in 1997, hundreds of comics will be available on the InterNet. The Government starts numbering Presidential Orders, beginning with documents issued in 1862 [see 1948 and 1950]. The Panic of 1907 starts with the failure of the United Copper Company. When many depositors start withdrawing funds from the Knickerbocker Trust Company (associated with the Copper Company), the bank closes its doors, initiating a full financial panic. This event serves as the basis for the Federal Reserve System, and the "Challenge of Central Banking" continue into the late 1990s. Plastic is invented by Leo Baekeland. "For centuries, ivory had been the standard for everything from knife handles to billiard balls. In the 1880s, a dwindling supply of tusks and a billiard boom conjoined to create a crisis." Fortunately, Leo "hit upon the right combo of phenols and formaldehyde....Bakelite" (Life, Fall, 1997).

1908: The FBI is created by "Attorney General Bonaparte who applied a Progressive philosophy to the Department of Justice by creating a corps of Special Agents. It had neither a name nor an officially designated leader other than the Attorney General. Yet, these former detectives and Secret Service men were the forerunners of the FBI." Between now and 1995, 44 agents will die fighting corruption, terrorism, organized crime, espionage, and other crimes. The organization will gain fame during the `30s tracking and arresting gangsters. It will gain notoriety during the early 90s for mistakes in Idaho and Texas. Henry Ford produces the first Model-T car. His ingenuity and mass production skills are well known; however, it was the Duryea brothers who built the first "car" or horseless carriage in September of 1893. It had no brakes, no steering wheel, and the transmission belt kept slipping, but it ran an estimated eight miles an hour. (Clancy, 1994). Nevertheless, the automobile will bring extraordinary change to the U.S. and the World. It will cause or pave the way for unprecedented advances or changes in vacations, tourism, suburbs, highways, marketing, product distribution, etc. President Roosevelt, demonstrating insight and wisdom, says, "We should exercise foresight in conserving and wisely using the property which contains the assurance of well-being for us and our children." Julia Ward Howe, the author of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," is elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The song, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is written by Albert Von Tilzer and Jack Norworth, well known Tin Pan Alley musicians. Albert wrote the music and had never been to a baseball game.

1909: On February 22nd, in the last few days of President Theodore Roosevelt's term of office, the Great White Fleet of 16 battleships returns after two years of visits to South America, Australia, and Japan. Many nations start to recognize the importance of the United States in World affairs. President Taft (1857-1930), our 27th President, never wanted to be President. Instead his fondest ambition is a seat on the Supreme Court. Consequently, he is not as effective as he should be, and thus will be defeated in his bid for re-election in 1912. Eventually (1921) he will become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. New York City residents view their newest skycraper, the 700-foot-tall Metropolitan Life Insurance Tower. "This 50-story tower is a copy on a grand scale of a European work, the Campanile in the Piazza San Marco in Venice, which collapsed in 1902. Pundits and wags thought they saw a parallel between the Campanile's fall and the much larger Tower's rise; between the two events, Met Life president John Hegeman had been indicted for unethical business practices, but was cleared of all charges." [source]. On June 1st, Harvard educated W. E. B. Du Bois, Oswald Garrison Villard, and liberal whites establish the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to promote economic and intellectual equal opportunity for blacks. The group directly opposes Booker T. Washington's policy of restraint. Movie stars are born when film makers produce the first close-up shots of actors. The Biograph girl, unnamed at first, was known by a huge audience, and when Biograph Studios issued a statement that Florence Lawrence had not been killed in a streetcar accident (the first movie publicity stunt because no one had suggested that she had), she achieved stardom. Both Florence and Mary Pickford perform in this year's film Two Memories (American Biograph, Directed by D.W. Griffith), yet it is Mary who will achieve enduring fame.

1910: William Boyce borrows an idea from the English Boy Scouts, and charters the Boy Scouts of America on February 6th. On June 25th, Congress passes the Mann Act which prohibits the import of girls to work in houses of ill-repute (or bordellos). It also prohibits taking women across state lines for immoral reasons. The issues both before and after the Mann Act are compelling. The pending return of Halley's comet causes thousands to believe that the world is coming to an end. Comet pills are sold to protect the users, and some miners refuse to enter the mines on May 18th, the predicted date. Many workers stay home "to be with their families while others hid in tornado cellars or caves....Chicago, not to mention Paris, Bermuda, Johannesburg, and much of the rest of the world, was worried. In fact, reported The Times, Chicago was terrified. Especially, one is forced to conclude, the women." Daily reports from this time, reprinted in The New York Times Guide to the Return of Halley's Comet (1985), are worth reading. The comet will not reappear again until 1985-6. Its return, however, will be a minor event relative to the 1997 comet Hale-Bopp, independently discovered by two amateur astronomers which will be called the "Comet of the Century." Bayer aspirin is practically a house hold name, and physicians worldwide prescribe it for a wide range of human ailments such as fever, gonorrhea, gout, inflammation, pleurisy, tonsillitis, and tuberculosis. Bayer is a German company, and in 1897 one of their chemists, Felix Hoffmann, was searching for pain relief for his father who suffered from rheumatism. The rest is history. Bayer aspirin debuted in 1899, and in 1900 became the first major drug marketed as a convenience tablet. By 1997, approximately 25 million tablets will be consumed in the U.S. each year. Joyce C. Hall's hobby is picture postcards, and he transforms it into a greeting card business. By 1998, Hallmark will have grown into a $3 billion corporation, and become "the undisputed leader of its industry," having its headquarters in Kansas City, Mo. It will publish greeting cards in more than 30 languages and distribute them in more than 100 countries [Source].

1911: Marie Curie becomes the only woman to win two Nobel Prizes; the first in 1903 for physics, and the second this year for chemistry. Andrew Carnegie establishes the Carnegie Corporation of New York with $125 million "to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding." It is the first prominent foundation for scholarly and charitable works. During fiscal year 1996, the Corporation will make 343 grants and appropriations totaling approximately $59 million. In a wider view of 1996, 40,000 philanthropic foundations will contribute $11 billion to the arts and other projects ranging from support for school vouchers to environmental issues. After four years, President Roosevelt (now deceased) prevails and on May 5th the Supreme Court orders Standard Oil Company dissolved, under the 1890 Antitrust Act, because it controls about 85% of the domestic oil. Oil is one of the indispensable sagas of the Twentieth Century, and the public TV video called "The Prize" must be viewed for a basic understanding its role in this American epic. The Mona Lisa is removed from the Louvre by an Italian who believed that it belonged back home. Less than eight years after the Wright Brothers famous flight at Kitty Hawk, Cal Rodgers becomes "the first pilot to fly coast-to-coast. On September 17th Rodgers started from Sheepshead Bay, New York in a competition to win a $50,000 prize offered by William Randolph Hearst to anyone who could fly coast-to-coast in 30 days or less. No one won the prize but Rodgers was the only pilot to complete the flight which lasted 49 days and ended at Pasadena at 4:08 p.m. on November 5, 1911." The distance, as the crow flies, is 2447 miles (3938 km), with an initial bearing of 274. Frederick W. Taylor, the Father of Scientific Management, publishes The Principles of Scientific Management. So bold are his ideas about how to manage workers that he is invited by Congress to discuss them. Later, in 1924, Ida Tarbell will state that, "No man in the history of American industry has made a larger contribution to genuine cooperation and juster human relations than did Frederick Winslow Taylor by his Principles of Scientific Management. He is one of the few - very few - creative geniuses of our times." (Saturday Review of Literature, October 25, 1924).

1912: New Mexico is granted statehood on January 6, 1912. On August 22, 1911, President Taft vetoed statehood for Arizona because it permited the recall of judges. Subsequently, Arizona is granted statehood this year on February 14, after it quietly lifts that provision. However, later it will re-adopt the recall of judges. On April 14-15 the British ship Titanic sinks and 1,513 people drown. However, it is the wireless telegraph that manages to save hundreds of lives. This event is important because the Titanic was billed as unsinkable. Jim Thorpe, arguably America's greatest athlete, wins both the pentathlon and decathlon in the Olympics Games at Stockholm. Hitler, who attended, is notably disturbed. Thorpe's medals will be taken back after the discovery of his playing semiprofessional baseball in 1909. Not until January 18, 1983, fifty years after his death, were those medals restored to his daughter. Casimar Funk learns that by giving rice hulls to sick pigeons he can cure them from the disease Beriberi. He calls the unknown ingredient "vitamine." A few years later the Wisconsin nutritionist Elmer McCullum identifies and names those ingredients as Vitamin A and Vitamin B. China sends some cherry trees to Washington, D.C. as a goodwill gesture. Eventually, each Spring, they will become a predominate tourist attraction. Carl Laemmle establishes Universal Studios movie company, and Paramount Pictures initiates the star system of producing movies. Eventually all of the major movie studios (MGM, Paramount, United Artists, Universal, and Warner Brothers) will use the same system wherein 10-20 "names," (famous actors and actresses) work under tight contract and become studio "property." Later, during America's 1930s depression, economic suffering would reach world wide, but not in Hollywood where everyone worked and each studio cranked out approximately 52 films a year, using 8 three-hour shifts. Some people will later report that they worked 50 years without a day off. The most important year for film quality during the star system will be 1939 when more excellent movies are made than any other year. The first successful parachute jump occurs nine years after the first successful flight. Former President Theodore Roosevelt is shot point-blank in Milwaukee on his way to make a speech. The bullet, however, passes through a folded hour-long speech and his eye glass case, saving his life. Virginia Park, 13 1/2 years old, records her "Great Train Ride."

1913: President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), our 28th President's nickname is "The Professor." His earliest memory, as a very young boy in Georgia, is hearing that Lincoln won the Presidency, and so there will be a war between the states. Although he works to establish a Federal Reserve and to improve conditions for workers, the Nation is not ready for his vision about a League of Nations for the prevention of future wars. The 17th Amendment provides for the popular election of Senators. Previously, they were chosen by the state legislatures, and were unresponsive to the people. Originally, the Apollo Theater, in Harlem, provided burlesque shows for white audiences only. The Post Office establishes Parcel Post package delivery. That will pave the way for the catalog sales industry that will thrive throughout this century. The first movie cowboy hero is Gilbert M. "Broncho Billy" Anderson who built his own movie company together with George K. Spoor. Broncho Billy's 1913 movie, The Making of Broncho Billy, is a silent film. Eventually, he would direct and star in more than one hundred one and two reel films. The Met Life Tower in New York City is replaced as World's Tallest Building by the elegant 792-foot-tall Woolworth Building at 233 Broadway. This Gothic-style, 60-story "skyscraper resembles a medieval cathedral stretched heavenward." Woolworth is setting retail trends and for much of this century will become a household word. But in 1997 they will close the doors of all of its stores due to an inability to face competition from Target and Wal-Mart discount stores. The first crossword puzzle in an American newspaper appears in the New York Sunday World on December 21st. Trees, the famous poem by Joyce Kilmer, is written and published in Poetry magazine. It begins, "I think that I shall never see, A poem lovely as a tree." The Department of Labor is formed on March 4, by President William Howard Taft, just hours before Woodrow Wilson takes office. "A Federal Department was the direct product of a half-century campaign by organized labor for a "Voice in the Cabinet." Also, the Department was an indirect product of the Progressive Movement of the early 1900s which promoted the achievement of better working conditions, conservation of natural resources and a host of other goals through both private and government action. In the words of the organic act establishing the Department of Labor, its main purpose is "to foster, promote and develop the welfare of working people, to improve their working conditions, and to enhance their opportunities for profitable employment.""

1914: The first feature-length comedy movie is Tillie's Punctured Romance, staring Charlie Chaplin (Seymore, 1994). Carl Wickman, an immigrant from Sweden, starts the company that will become Greyhound Lines, "when he began transporting miners between the villages of Hibbing and Alice, Minnesota, for 15 cents one-way or 25 cents round-trip on his seven-seat Hupmobile." By 1921 the first true intercity bus routes will be established, and in 1930 the company will officially be called the Greyhound Corporation, and will display a running dog for its trademark [see 1995]. In January, the Ford Motor Company Board of Directors makes a press announcement that hereafter the work day will consist of 8 hours, that the factory will convert to three daily shifts instead of two, and that pay will increase to $5.00 an hour. These events, shared World wide, cause strong discontent among Ford's fellow capitalists, but Ford's vision is much wider. He institutes profit sharing (guaranteeing a stable labor force) and schools for immigrants. These schools do not just teach English, they teach the American way of life to thousands of immigrants. Curtis (1987) argues persuasively that Berry Gordy will use that school model in 1959 when he designs his own school for Motown performers.

1915: Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) publishes a little known paper titled, "The Unconscious." That paper together with his seminal 1900 book, The Interpretation of Dreams signals a momentous shift in the way we think about ourselves. Henceforth at least some of our behavior is understood as unconscious or not under our direct control, and consequently both the concept of neurosis and psychoanalysis will become dominant forces this century in the treatment of abnormal human behavior. By the late 1980s, diverse examples of false and repressed memory will contribute to numerous divided communities, court cases, and controversy (e.g., Loftus, 1997). Moreover, it has been suggested that Freud spawned the "self-absorption" movement, and there is little doubt that many if not most self-help books and popular magazines in the second half of this century reflect that theme. Downs (1983) will identify Freud's Interpretation of Dreams as one of 27 Books That Changed The World. Combining the Revenue Cutter Service (1790) with the Life Saving Service, Congress establishes the U.S. Coast Guard on January 28th, and places it under the Treasury Department, except for times of war. In 1939 it will absorb the Lighthouse Service. Taxicabs, with drivers called "hackers" in the east and "cabbies" in the midwest become popular when car owners discover that people are willing to pay a nickel (a jitney) for a short ride. These short rides serve as the foundation for the future intercity bus routes, such as Greyhound and Trailways. The U.S. Marines land in Haiti on July 29th, one week after the assassination of their president. Booker T. Washington, the most influential black American in the world at this time, dies on November 14th. He was born a slave in 1856, acquired his own education, and organized Tuskegee Institute, a prominent school for blacks. On December 10th, the one millionth Model T car rolls off Ford's production line. The popular Touring model costs $440 which is almost half of what it cost in 1909. By 1997, that same car, restored of course, will cost more than $18,000. The very popular poet Robert Frost writes The Road Not Taken." It ends, "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." Thomas Edison, one of America's great inventors, influences three major events this year---the phone, the phonograph, and the Navy. First, on March 10, 1876 Edison invented the phone, and his first words were "Come here, I want you." This year, the first trans-continental phone call, between New York and San Francisco, occurs on January 25th between Alexander Graham Bell and Dr. Thomas A. Watson. Second, Edison invented a hand-cranked phonograph that recorded sound on grooved metal cylinders in 1877. He shouted verses of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" into the machine, which played back his voice. It was the first recording of a human voice, and the first phonograph. By 1903 opera recordings were sold; but it took another decade to produce an orchestra recording. This year the Victor Talking Machine Company creates a phonograph called the Victrola, a name that soon becomes generic and known throughout the World. (By 1919 there will be "nearly 200 phonograph manufacturers in the U.S. Throughout the 1910s demand for phonographs and records actually exceeded supply. Many new companies entered this lucrative field as basic phonograph patents held by Victor, Columbia, and Edison were expiring" [Source]). Third, this year Edison suggests that the U.S. create a Naval Research Lab. (see 1920).

1916: Visionary President Wilson establishes the National Park Service. At this time there are 14 National parks, 21 monuments, and one reserve. By 1994, there will be 51 National Parks, 102 Monuments and Memorials, 108 historic sites and historic parks, 24 National battlefields and military parks, 18 recreational areas, 14 National seashores and lake shores, etc. Eighty million acres would seem sufficient; however, 75 years after its establishment, the Nations Parks are under a "visitor siege." For example, Yosemite Valley has 4,600 parking spaces for many times that number of daily visitors. Adolph Weinman, a German immigrant, designs two U.S. coins that will become exceptionally popular, the Liberty Walking half dollar, and the Mercury dime. The Mercury dime is 17.9 mm in diameter, weighs 2.5 grams, and contains 90 percent silver and 10 percent copper. It will be issued until 1945, but will become part of the silver meltdown during 1979-80. The first "supermarket," called Piggly Wiggly opens in Memphis, and astounds customers with its open aisles and customer baskets. Race movies mature. Movies by blacks about blacks began in 1910 in Chicago and were exceptionally popular, but were slap stick or comedic. This year Lincoln Pictures produces the first serious dramatic race movie called The Realization of a Negro's Ambition, and it becomes a box office hit in the major northern cities. In a way it is a reaction to Birth of a Nation, a 3-hour, fifteen reel 1915 film that was hailed by President Wilson and white Americans, yet despised by almost all blacks for its sanctioning of the KKK and its stereotype after stereotype. "Based on the novel The Clansman by Thomas Dixon, the Civil War Reconstruction epic, known as The Birth of a Nation (1915) became a landmark in American filmmaking, both for its artistic merits and for its unprecedented use of such innovative techniques as flashbacks, fade-outs, and close-ups. The film was harshly condemned, however, for its racial bias and glorification of the Ku Klux Klan; several subsequent lynchings were blamed on the film. In response to this criticism, Griffith made what many consider his finest film, Intolerance (1916) in which the evils of intolerance were depicted in four parallel stories--a framework that required a scope of vision and production never before approached." Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) creates his first of 322 covers for the Saturday Evening Post on the May 20th edition. The Post is an illustrated weekly that sells for 5 cents. Rockwell's covers will become famous for his depictions of typical American life. This cover called the "The Baby Carriage" shows a neatly dressed frowning boy pushing a baby carriage while two other boys in baseball uniforms gloat. It is in black and red, the two colors typically used for duotone. The common use of full color and photographs is still years away. Rockwell is different than other illustrators in that, for example, he uses real boys as models, and his artistic renderings are anatomically correct (he studied human anatomy such as face muscles and motions) [Image source]. The Post, founded by Benjamin Franklin, traces its history back to 1728, and will cease publication in 1969 after 147 years. Nineteen months later it will reopen with a new owner in another city, Indianapolis, Indiana.

1917: President Woodrow Wilson calls for war against Germany on April 15th in one of the most famous speeches of this Century. In it he states, "The world must be made safe for democracy." He also states that, "we have no quarrel with the German people....We fight without rancor and without selfish object." (Garraty, 1991). Denmark sells the Virgin Islands for $25 million. Joseph Pulitzer, an immigrant, owned and published the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and later the New York World. Later, in 1912 he founded the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. This year, on June 4th, the first Pulitzer Prizes are awarded in the areas of biography, history, and journalism. Next year, the first award for Public Service will be made to the New York Times for their reports about the war in Europe, and a glance at the yearly Pulitzer Public Service Award will identify many of the perennial issues found in this Timeline. By 1997, a 19-member board will make 14 awards in Journalism and 7 awards in Letters, Drama, and Music. George M. Cohan's patriotic war song "Over There" is sung for the first time in New York where the crowd exhibits strong excitement. Later he will receive the Congressional Medal of Honor for writing it. On December 12th, Father Flanagan opens the door of a modest house in Omaha, Nebraska for about a half-dozen boys, and Boys Town begins a long useful journey. It is a residential facility for boys, and will develop a "long history of offering help, hope and healing to abused, abandoned, neglected, handicapped or otherwise troubled children. In fact, our mission is to change the way America cares for her at-risk children." The 1938 MGM movie Boys Town starring Mickey Rooney and Spencer Tracy will bring them National attention. Their slogan, "He ain't heavy, Father ... he's m' brother" will become equally famous. Boys Town will produce "doctors, lawyers, judges, state senators, military leaders, professional football players and founders and owners of major businesses around the country." Walter Scott retires as the creator of the first roadside diner. He started in 1872 roving about Providence, Rhode Island in a small horse-drawn cart selling homemade food and hot drinks to workers late at night when nothing else was open. Walter's diner was a covered freight wagon. Later, diners will become stationary with stools inside. (Offitzer, K. Diners, 1997. NY: Todtri).

1918: Many consider World War I (WW I) to be the bloodiest war in history. According to Guinness, an estimated 54.8 million people lose their lives in WW I, and Poland suffers most, losing 6 million or 17.2 percent of its people. Although the U.S. entered the war quite late, we lose 116,000 killed in action, 200,000 wounded, and 106,000 psychiatric casualties (Naval Institute Proceedings, November, 1994). Overall, 4.7 million men and women contributed in some way and 2 million of them reached France. It is impossible to record casualties accurately, especially when civilians are included. Another set of statistics is provided here, with pictures that should remind us once again about the appalling cost of war. WW I marks a transition in warfare for two reasons. First, unlike most previous wars that consisted of aggression between two or three nations, this war is worldwide. Second, unlike all previous wars (from the powerful Assyrians in 700 BC until now) that used horses, mules, and carts pulled by them, this war also uses motor driven vehicles, including motorcycles (Thompson, J., The Lifeblood of War, 1991). Outbreaks of the influenza virus occur about every two years and have been recorded since the 1500s, yet the flu eruption during this bitter winter causes the most harm. This letter provides a rare medical description. Some people wear masks to protect themselves, and even risk fines or jail for not doing so, but to no avail. An estimated 21 million people worldwide die, with 600,000 deaths in the U.S alone. Interestingly, this influenza virus will kill more Americans in three months than World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam combined, but no one discusses it, and most know nothing about it, even in the following decades [see 1945]. Less serious pandemics will occur in 1957, 1968, and 1977. On November 21st, the President passes the Wartime Prohibition Act, which bans the making or sale of liquor except for export, and until demobilization. The Marine Corps prints its Hymn for the first time; the first stanza is printed first in The Quantico Leatherneck, and then later the entire song. William Strunk (1869-1946) publishes a small volume called The Elements of Style. Later he will be joined by co-author E.B. White, and this book will be revised several times. It will have a profound influence on all future academic generations, and serve as a required text in almost all college introductory English courses, among others. The value in The Elements is clear and concise writing. Executives from 12 fund-raising federations meet in Chicago and form the American Association for Community Organizations (AACO), the first National center for local charity organizations. Later they will use the name Community Chests, numbering 39 in 1919 and 353 in 1929. These local organizations reflect the widespread American spirit of giving to the less fortunate. Later they will form the United Way of America, and in 1974 raise $1 million for the first time. In 1981, the United Ways will raise "$1.68 billion, a 10 percent increase over the previous year" [Source], but in 1992 the United Way of America will be rocked by a scandal. The 1996-97 United Way Campaigns will raise a record $3.25 Billion.

1919: The Prohibition Amendment (18th) prohibits the transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages. It is the first amendment to have a ratification time limit (7 years), and it will become the only one to be repealed. The Volstead Act was passed by Congress ten months later (October 28th) over the President's veto, and defined intoxicating liquor as containing at least one half of one percent alcohol. F.W. Woolworth dies. His very successful five and dime chain has 1,081 stores and sales of $119 million. He built his first successful store in 1879 at Lancaster, PA where everything was priced at either a nickel or a dime. It was a six-story building with ornate stone work, two minarets, and a splendid garden on the roof. For close to half a century after Woolworth's death the chain excels, but then falters for several reasons. From 1992 until 1997, the company will go from 1,465 general merchandise stores to 400, and in 1997 will close all of its remaining 400 stores [see 1913]. Cher Ami is an American carrier pigeon, "one of 600 birds owned and flown by the U.S. Army Signal Corps" which is carrying messages during the World War I in Europe. Today we take telephones and satellite communications for granted, but communication has always been critical, and the carrier pigeon has been used for centuries. The magazine True Story makes it debut by Bernarr Macfadden (1868-1955), the father of physical culture. True Story is the original confession magazine, and is based on the popularity of articles such as, "I taught my wife to drink," that were published in his earlier Physical Culture magazine. The first issue cover stories included, "A Wife Who Awoke in Time," "An Ex-Convict's Climb to Millions," and "How I learned to Hate My Parents." He sells it for 20 cents, twice the going rate for magazines, and it is successful. The secret of success consists of, "first-person accounts, written in an untutored but clear style, of sin and redemption. The sin, usually carnal, was described in some detail; but the actual consummation nearly always seemed to take place between paragraphs, and it was invariably dressed up in a moral lesson (American Heritage, December, 1981). He then started its own competition, True Romances, and True Experiences, yet others would eventually release similar publications using every possible combination of the words, true, confessions, love, romance, and story. In 1941 the stockholders will force him to resign as President, yet by 1981 Macfadden Publications will sell 2.5 million such magazines a year. Confessions date back to at least Saint Augustine in 397 A.D., and combined with the public's seemingly insatiable curiosity [see 1903, 1933, 1956, 1967, and 1986 ], symbolize a perennial and powerful cultural force.

1920: This is the first year that the US urban population exceeds the rural population We now are a Nation of cities. Ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution (Woman's suffrage and their right to vote) represents the culmination of one of the oldest and most furiously fought social battles of all times. And no person will be given more credit than Susan B. Anthony, who will be honored by being placed on the 1979 and 1980 U.S. dollar coin. Nevertheless, relatively few women will actually vote in pending elections. The U.S. Senate votes against joining the newly formed League of Nations. On April 15th, a Braintree, MA manufacturer paymaster and a guard are attacked and killed by two men who steal the weekly payroll of $15,000. Later, a jury for the Sacco-Vanzetti case finds the defendants guilty of first degree murder in a quite ordinary trial. However, this trial will be called, "the most celebrated case in American judicial history (Busch, 1992). The reason for the fame, and one which will repeat itself, is because the defendants are radicals, and likely anarchists, and many believe that they were tried and convicted solely for that reason. After their execution, popular and distinguished people such as Edna St. Vincent Millay and John Dos Passos will be arrested during a protest. On the other hand, this case is unprecedented in the extremity, legal and otherwise, in support for the defendants. Ambassadors or consulates in France, Switzerland, England, Uruguay, Buenos Aires, Mexico, etc. were either threatened or terrorized, in addition to protests and riots in Lisbon, Rotterdam, Brussels, Stockholm, Sofia, Prague, Athens, Morocco, Sydney, and Lima. Even President Coolidge was threatened, and the judge's home was bombed and destroyed. However, theNew York Times stated that, "Human law can do no more," and the Philadelphia Inquirer was more specific, "No men, convicted by due process, ever had greater consideration." From Busch's account, apparently accurate, this case appears to represent an ignoble and too common example of human passion over reason. Houdini, the World famous magician exposes "psychic fraud, including slate writing, spirit photographs, "finger printing a spirit," and trumpet mediums." His greatest challenge is a medium known as Margery, and his most important legacy, too often unrecognized is a healthy skepticism about the supernatural. "On Election Day, Pittsburgh radio station KDKA and Detroit's WWJ broadcast results of the presidential race between Warren Harding and James Cox, ushering in the age of electronic media in national politics." By the 1930s, Franklin Roosevelt will be "addressing the Nation weekly by radio, inviting the country to the White House for fireside chats with the president. Roosevelt's voice, projected into the living rooms of America, narrowed the gap between the president and his constituency, helping him expand his electoral base and win more presidential campaigns than any candidate in American history." Based on Edison's 1915 suggestion, the Navy builds a modern research laboratory that will pioneer work in radio and sound technology. Progressive Education advances when Helen Parkhurst (1887-1973) starts Dalton School. She states that "there is no such thing as a subject on the Dalton Plan. With us it is living on the Dalton Plan." In 1922, she will put forth her educational philosophy in Education on the Dalton Plan." An "agricultural education instructor from Blacksburg, Va., organizes the Future Farmers of Virginia for boys in agriculture classes." Soon similar groups will form across the Nation, and in 1928 during "the National Livestock Judging Contests, 33 students from 18 states establish the Future Farmers of America to provide leadership training for farm boys. During this first annual convention, Leslie Applegate of Freehold, N.J., is elected president and dues are set at 10 cents annually. The convention is still held in Kansas City today." Girls will be admitted in 1969.

1921: President William G. Harding (1865-1923), our 29th President, promised voters a "return to normalcy" last year in reaction to President Wilson's idealism. He was politically neutral during the campaign about the League of Nations, but shortly after being elected announces that he will not support joining that organization. His administration will be responsible for scandals (Teapot Dome and the Veteran's Bureau) at the Presidential level unparalleled since the Whiskey Ring in 1875, and until President Nixon's Watergate scandal in 1971. President Harding is unfit for the position he holds, and he knows it. "`I am not fit for this office,' he once told a White House visitor, `and should never have been here.'" He will die in office during a train trip to "assure the American people that he was an honest man." However, more than 700 academics and historians will rate him as the worst President in the history of the U.S. (Ridings & McIver, 1997). KDKA in Pittsburgh provides first regular radio broadcast. Shortly thereafter, in what has been described as the "Battle of the Century" Julius Hopp persuades KDKA and WJZ to broadcast for the first time the World Heavyweight Championship bout "pitting American Jack Dempsey, the champion, against France's Georges Carpentier, on July 2, 1921." Dempsey wins in the fourth round. At this time only amature radio operators and theaters have radios (receivers), so the estimated radio audience is perhaps 35,000 people. Later, WJZ in Newark, New Jersey carries the first World Series broadcast on October 5th. On September 8th, [or 14th] the first Miss America, 16 year old Margaret Gorman from Washington, D.C., is crowned in Atlantic City, NJ. She is the "daughter of the executive clerk to the Secretary of Agriculture at Washington....The judges declared her to be one of the most beautiful girls in America. They presented her with the $1500 trophy, the chief prize of the Pageant, a golden mermaid." Apparently, this first pageant is "a comparatively modest affair. A promotional gimmick devised to keep tourists in Atlantic City after Labor Day, the customary end of the seaside resort's summer season, the original Miss America competition had only eight sponsoring newspapers and a corresponding number of contestants." [Source]. "Swimsuits have been a part of the Miss America pageant since the first [when it was called the] "bathers review"....women paraded on the beach between the Garden and Steel piers. Almost everyone involved in the competition -- the mayor, pageant band and even city policemen -- donned bathing suits." Margaret will die in 1995 at the age of 90, bored by it all, as indicated in her last interview in 1980, "I never cared to be Miss America. It wasn't my idea. I am so bored by it all. I really want to forget the whole thing." On November 5th, President Harding declares that November 11th will be a National holiday called Armistice Day to honor the military who fought in WW I. It is generally known that on November 11, 1918 a treaty with Germany was signed; what is not generally known is that the clerk who typed the treaty at 5 p.m. inadvertently put the carbon paper in the typewriter backwards, and that shortly thereafter the most powerful military leaders in the World sign blank pages. "The World War One Unknown [soldier] was transported to the United States aboard the U.S.S. Olympia, a cruiser which was the flag ship of Admiral Dewey during the Battle of Manila Bay. The U.S.S Olympia's own flag ship was the destroyer U.S.S Reuban James, which was the first ship sunk in World War II. The World War One Unknown arrived in Washington D.C. on the 9th of November 1921 and the interment of the Unknown took place on the 11th of November 1921" Thomas Hunt Morgan puts forth the chromosome theory of heredity. White Castle hamburgers are born when a fry cook and a real estate developer borrow $700 to go into the "hamburger-stand business." They call their five-seat, cinder-block diner "White Castle," and sell square burgers called slyders (steamed flatten meat in a bed of water and onions that is slid onto a heated bun to retain the juices) for a nickle. By 1930 there will be 300 White Castles, and in 1961 it will be the number one burger chain [Source ]. But soon McDonalds (Ray Kroc will open his first McDonald's in Des Plaines, Illinois in April 1955), will take the lead in the hamburger fast food industry, and by April 1997, there will be more than 21,000 McDonalds' arches in over 100 countries. The Tulsa, Oklahoma race riot exemplifies both the worst side of human behavior, as well as the too typical attitude about race in many communities during this time.

1922: The U.S. Postal Service burns 500 copies of the book, Ulysses. Restricting speech and behavior is universal, only the boundaries of censorship are in question, and this topic will arise again with each new technology and shift in culture. In February, Readers Digest begins publication, of what founder, DeWitt Wallace, calls his "Little Magazine." By 1997, their 75th anniversary, they will publish 48 editions in 19 languages reaching 100 million readers around the world each month, and be on line as Reader's Digest Interactive. In September, "Cannonball" Baker sets "a new transcontinental speed record with a time of 6 days, 22 hours, and six minutes to cover the 3,332 miles (5,365km) from Los Angeles to New York" on an Ace motorcycle. Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) dies. He was born in Scotland, educated in England, taught speech at Boston University, and demonstrated the first telephone, shown here, in 1876.   "Bell lacked the electrical knowledge and expertise of other multiple telegraph inventors like Edison and Gray. But he did posses a unique area of expertise. He was a teacher of the deaf....Bell's interest in teaching the deaf kindled his interest in devices used to visualize sound." This invention, sending sound through electric wires, will affect every home and business during this century.

1923: During the Veteran's Bureau's scandal, President Harding asks a close friend to the Attorney General to leave Washington. Worse, Charles Forbes, head of the Veterans Bureau will be forced to resign, and his assistant will commit suicide. President Harding dies, most historians believe, from natural causes (Rubel, 1994). President Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933), our 30th President, learns that he is President while visiting his family in Vermont. This is the desk he uses to sign the Oath of Office. He is a strong supporter of commercial aviation, and business in general. He once said, "The chief business of America is business." President Coolidge will become popular enough, partly by cutting taxes, that he can refuse to run for a third term. "The National Woman's Party first proposes the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to eliminate discrimination on the basis of gender." As of 1997, it has never been ratified. Freud publishes The Ego and the Id, the most formal presentation of his personality theory. It describes the three parts of his personality theory---the id, the ego, and the superego (Fine, 1973). The id represents our instincts---the source of all basic drives. When human life begins, there is only the id. Later, after they develop, the ego deals with reality, and the superego contains the rules and prohibitions that we use to live socially. It is poignantly intriguing to consider that, in 1993, a computer game company called id will release a 3-D game called "DOOM" wherein the primary focus is to destroy almost all of everything you meet before they destroy you. After releasing a series of free and commercial games, they will claim that more than 15 million copies have been distributed free (many to children), and that millions are able to link to their games over the InterNet. The traffic light is patented by Garrett Augustus Morgan (1877-1963) on November 20th. Earlier he "witnessed a traffic crash between an automobile and a horse-drawn carriage [and] was so distressed by this collision that he went home and immediately began work on his next invention" [Source].

1924: On April 26, newly formed MGM dedicates its studio in Culver City with all of the magnificence and ceremony that will mark much of later Hollywood. John Gilbert, Lon Chaney, and even Will Rodgers attend. At this time, Louis B. Mayer's assets (Samuel Goldwyn had left) are approximately $100,000. On June 12, the Newton Boys steal $3 million at Rondout, Illinois. Before that they had robbed more than 60 banks and 6 trains during fours years. Most significantly, they avoided hurting anyone, and even canceled a robbery when someone showed up unexpectedly at the last minute. (Stanush, 1994). The Teapot Dome scandal implicates the Mammoth Oil company, and results in the conviction of Albert B. Fall, the first Cabinet member (Secretary of the Interior) to go to jail. Ralph C. Smedley moves to Santa Ana, CA and founds Toastmasters. By 1994 it will have 170,000 members in 8,100 chapters in 51 countries. Women, who were excluded for the first 50 years, make up half of the membership. The Ford Motor company builds its 10 millionth car on June 15th, at a cost of $290 without a self-starter (the cost of a Model-T in 1909 was $950). J. Edgar Hoover is appointed as the FBI's (then Bureau of Investigation) director. During his long tenure he will become known for (a) fingerprint files. (b) compilations of Nation wide crime statistics, (c) the DNA laboratory, (d) the training academy in Quantico, Virginia, and (e) the National Crime Information Center (in 1967). There are 2.5 million radios in the U.S. The Loeb-Leopold legal trial captures the interest of the world. The last American whaler leaves port and is grounded on Cuttyhunk Island the next day [Source]. Whaling was critical in previous centuries because whale oil was used to create light after sunset (especially important in northern locations with shorter daylight hours), heating, lubrication, soap, paint, etc. Two technology changes saved the whales---first the switch to kerosene lamps (invented by Dr. Abraham Gesner, a Canadian geologist, in 1849, and second, electric lights [1931]. The mutual fund is invented by Massachusetts Investors