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North America

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1922

Science 20th Century North America

First Successful Insulin Treatment for Diabetes

In the early 1920s, Type 1 diabetes remained a fatal condition with only strict starvation diets offering limited extension of life. Researchers Frederick Banting, Charles Best, and James Collip at the University of Toronto had isolated insulin from pancreatic extracts after years of experimentation. On January 11, 1922, 14-year-old Leonard Thompson, critically ill and weighing about 65 pounds, received the first human injection of insulin at Toronto General Hospital. The initial dose caused an allergic reaction due to impurities, but a refined preparation administered on January 23 dramatically stabilized his blood sugar. Thompson's survival and recovery demonstrated insulin's potential, leading the university to license production royalty-free to pharmaceutical companies.

Event Detail

1922

Culture 20th Century North America

Lincoln Memorial Dedicated on Memorial Day

Construction of the Lincoln Memorial began in 1914 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., designed by architect Henry Bacon in a neoclassical style modeled after a Greek temple, with a 19-foot marble statue of Abraham Lincoln by Daniel Chester French inside. The project honored the 16th president and the preservation of the Union after the Civil War, featuring inscriptions of the Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural Address. Chief Justice and former President William Howard Taft led the dedication ceremony on May 30, 1922, attended by President Warren G. Harding, Lincoln's son Robert Todd Lincoln, and an estimated 50,000 people. The event occurred on what was then Decoration Day, now Memorial Day, and included speeches emphasizing Lincoln's virtues of tolerance...

Event Detail America 250 Atlas

1923

Culture 20th Century North America

Time Magazine Publishes Its Inaugural Issue

Journalists Briton Hadden and Henry Luce, former Yale Daily News colleagues, launched a new weekly news magazine aimed at busy readers seeking concise summaries of current events. The first issue of Time, dated March 3, 1923, featured Speaker of the House Joseph G. Cannon on the cover and organized content into departments covering national and international affairs. Lacking the later iconic red border, the 32-page publication emphasized brevity and systematic coverage of politics, business, and culture. It quickly gained traction as the first successful weekly news magazine in the United States. The venture reflected the growing demand for synthesized information in the Roaring Twenties media landscape.

Event Detail America 250 Atlas

1924

Civil Rights 20th Century North America

U.S. Grants Citizenship to Native Americans

Native Americans had long held a complex legal status, often treated as members of sovereign tribes rather than U.S. citizens despite centuries of interaction and conflict with federal authorities. Thousands of Native men had served in World War I, highlighting the inconsistency of their non-citizen status. Representative Homer P. Snyder introduced legislation to address this. On June 2, 1924, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act, conferring U.S. citizenship on all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States. The law did not automatically grant voting rights, which remained subject to state laws, nor did it dissolve tribal sovereignty or treaty obligations.

Event Detail America 250 Atlas

1924

Politics Born On 20th Century North America

George H. W. Bush Born in Milton

George Herbert Walker Bush was born on June 12, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy after high school and became a naval aviator during World War II, surviving the loss of his aircraft during a mission in the Pacific. After graduating from Yale, Bush entered the Texas oil business before beginning a long public career. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives, as ambassador to the United Nations, chairman of the Republican National Committee, U.S. representative to China, and director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Bush served as vice president under Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1989 and was elected the forty-first president in 1988. His presidency coincided with the end of the Cold War,...

Event Detail Assassination Attempts

1924

Politics Born On 20th Century North America

Jimmy Carter Born in Plains, Georgia

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter Jr. was born on October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1946 and served as a naval officer, including work in the early nuclear-submarine program. After his father's death, Carter returned to Georgia to manage the family agricultural business and entered politics. He served in the Georgia State Senate and as governor before winning the 1976 presidential election. Carter served as the thirty-ninth president from 1977 to 1981. His administration emphasized human rights in foreign policy, negotiated the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, established formal diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, and faced inflation, energy shortages, and the Iran hostage crisis. After leaving office,...

Event Detail Assassination Attempts

1925

Economics Born On 20th Century North America

G. William Miller Born in Sapulpa

George William Miller was born on March 9, 1925, in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, and grew up largely in Borger, Texas. He graduated from the United States Coast Guard Academy in 1945, served as a Coast Guard officer, and later earned a law degree from the University of California, Berkeley. Miller joined the industrial conglomerate Textron and eventually became its chief executive and chairman. President Jimmy Carter nominated him to chair the Federal Reserve Board, and Miller served as Federal Reserve chairman from March 1978 until August 1979, a period marked by serious inflation and economic uncertainty. Carter then appointed him secretary of the Treasury, a position he held through the end of the administration in January 1981. His Treasury tenure included...

Event Detail US Military Atlas

1925

Law 20th Century North America

Scopes Monkey Trial Ends with Guilty Verdict

In the 1920s, tensions between religious fundamentalism and modern science ran high in parts of the United States, leading Tennessee to pass the Butler Act in March 1925 prohibiting the teaching of human evolution in public schools. Local businessman George Rappleyea in Dayton, Tennessee, recruited high school teacher John T. Scopes to test the law deliberately as a way to bring attention and economic benefit to the small town. The resulting trial, pitting defense attorney Clarence Darrow against prosecutor William Jennings Bryan, drew massive national media coverage and featured dramatic testimony including Bryan's cross-examination on biblical interpretation. On July 21, 1925, after eight days of proceedings, the jury deliberated for just nine minutes before finding Scopes guilty of violating the...

Event Detail America 250 Atlas

1925

Politics Born On 20th Century North America

Robert F. Kennedy Born in Brookline

Robert Francis Kennedy was born on November 20, 1925, in Brookline, Massachusetts, into the large political family of Joseph P. and Rose Kennedy. After wartime service in the U.S. Navy, he graduated from Harvard University and the University of Virginia School of Law. Kennedy managed his brother John F. Kennedy's successful 1952 Senate campaign and later became chief counsel to a Senate committee investigating labor racketeering. President Kennedy appointed him U.S. attorney general in 1961. In that position he played important roles in federal civil-rights enforcement, organized-crime prosecutions, and administration deliberations during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Kennedy was elected to the U.S. Senate from New York in 1964 and increasingly spoke about poverty, racial injustice, and the Vietnam War. He...

Event Detail Assassination Attempts

1926

Technology 20th Century North America

Goddard Launches World's First Liquid-Fueled Rocket

In the early twentieth century, American physicist Robert H. Goddard pursued rocket propulsion theories while most dismissed space travel as fantasy. After years of experiments with solid fuels and mathematical modeling, Goddard shifted to liquid propellants for greater efficiency and control. On March 16, 1926, at his aunt's farm in Auburn, Massachusetts, he successfully launched a 10-foot rocket powered by liquid oxygen and gasoline. The modest flight lasted 2.5 seconds, reached 41 feet in altitude, and traveled 184 feet. Though initially met with skepticism, the test proved liquid-fuel rocketry viable and opened pathways for future aerospace development.

Event Detail America 250 Atlas

1927

Exploration 20th Century North America

Lindbergh Takes Off for Solo Atlantic Crossing

Aviation in the 1920s featured growing long-distance attempts amid prizes like the Orteig for a nonstop New York-to-Paris flight. Charles Lindbergh, a 25-year-old airmail pilot, prepared the Spirit of St. Louis monoplane with extra fuel tanks for the 3,600-mile journey. After weather delays, he departed Roosevelt Field on Long Island at 7:52 a.m. on May 20, 1927, navigating by dead reckoning and a periscope over 33.5 hours. He landed at Le Bourget Field near Paris on May 21 to massive acclaim. The feat demonstrated the reliability of single-engine aircraft for transoceanic travel despite earlier failures by other aviators.

Event Detail

1927

Technology Born On 20th Century North America

Marvin Minsky Born in New York City

Marvin Lee Minsky was born on August 9, 1927, in New York City. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he studied mathematics at Harvard University and earned a doctorate at Princeton. Minsky became one of the early architects of artificial intelligence as an academic field. He joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and, with John McCarthy, helped establish its Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. His research addressed neural networks, robotics, machine perception, knowledge representation, and theories about how intelligence emerges from interacting mental processes. Minsky also developed an early neural-network learning machine and patented a precursor of the confocal scanning microscope. His books included The Society of Mind, which presented intelligence as the product of many relatively simple...

Event Detail Guided Agentic AI

1927

Civil Rights 20th Century North America

Sacco and Vanzetti Executed After Controversial Trial

In 1920s America, fears of radicalism, immigration, and anarchism ran high following World War I and the Russian Revolution. Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco, a shoemaker, and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, a fish peddler, both anarchists, were arrested in connection with a 1920 payroll robbery and murder in Braintree, Massachusetts. Their 1921 trial featured disputed ballistics evidence, eyewitness identifications later questioned, and judicial bias from Judge Webster Thayer, who openly expressed prejudice against their politics and ethnicity. Despite worldwide protests, appeals, and a 1927 review committee upholding the verdict, they were electrocuted at Charlestown State Prison just after midnight on August 23, 1927. Governor Michael Dukakis later issued a 1977 proclamation declaring the trial unfair.

Event Detail America 250 Atlas

1927

Technology Born On 20th Century North America

John McCarthy Born in Boston

John McCarthy was born on September 4, 1927, in Boston, Massachusetts. After studying mathematics at the California Institute of Technology and Princeton University, he became one of the foundational researchers in computer science and artificial intelligence. McCarthy coined the term "artificial intelligence" in a 1955 proposal for the Dartmouth summer research project that helped establish AI as a distinct field of study. While at MIT, he developed the Lisp programming language, which became especially important for early artificial-intelligence research, and he advocated time-sharing systems that allowed multiple users to interact with computers. McCarthy joined Stanford University permanently in 1962 and established the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. His research ranged from automated reasoning and knowledge representation to computer systems and the...

Event Detail Guided Agentic AI

1927

Culture 20th Century North America

Carving Begins on Mount Rushmore Sculpture

Sculptor Gutzon Borglum had long envisioned a massive monument in South Dakota's Black Hills to celebrate American presidents and attract tourism. After years of planning, site selection, and a dedication ceremony earlier in 1927, actual carving commenced on October 4. Workers used dynamite for the bulk of material removal on the granite face, followed by precise drilling and hand-finishing techniques. The project, funded through a mix of private and eventual federal support, aimed to depict George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. Over the next 14 years, approximately 400 workers transformed the mountain despite challenging conditions and funding challenges.

Event Detail America 250 Atlas

1927

Culture 20th Century North America

The Jazz Singer Premieres as First Talkie

By the mid-1920s, Warner Bros. invested heavily in Vitaphone sound-on-disc technology to differentiate its films amid competition. The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson, adapted a stage play about a Jewish cantor's son pursuing a singing career. It premiered on October 6, 1927, at Warner's Theatre in New York City, featuring synchronized music, songs, and limited spoken dialogue. The film combined silent sequences with sound elements, drawing large audiences despite mixed critical reception. Its success validated the commercial potential of sound films.

Event Detail

1927

Technology 20th Century North America

Holland Tunnel Opens to Vehicular Traffic

New York and New Jersey authorities had long sought a direct vehicular link beneath the Hudson River to ease ferry congestion and support growing automobile use. Engineer Clifford Holland designed the project, which began construction in 1920 after his death was completed by successors including Ole Singstad. The twin tubes featured innovative ventilation systems to handle exhaust. Ceremonies occurred on November 12, 1927, with President Coolidge participating remotely. At midnight on November 13, the Holland Tunnel officially opened to traffic as the world's longest continuous underwater vehicular tunnel at the time, with thousands of cars lining up on the New Jersey side.

Event Detail America 250 Atlas

1928

Culture Born On 20th Century North America

Maya Angelou Born in St. Louis

Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. She spent important parts of her childhood in Stamps, Arkansas, and later lived in California. Angelou developed a remarkably varied career as a writer, performer, singer, dancer, journalist, educator, and civil-rights activist. She worked with both Martin Luther King Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference and organizations connected with Malcolm X. Her 1969 memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings brought international attention to her account of childhood, racism, trauma, family, and resilience and helped expand the possibilities of autobiographical writing by Black women. Angelou published poetry, essays, screenplays, and additional autobiographical volumes and taught at Wake Forest University. In 1993, she delivered her poem "On...

Event Detail AI Wisdom Council

1928

Culture 20th Century North America

Mickey Mouse Debuts in Plane Crazy Test Screening

Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks had been developing animated characters after losing rights to earlier creations like Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Seeking a new star for their studio, they created a cheerful mouse inspired by pet mice and barnyard animals. On May 15, 1928, the silent short Plane Crazy received its first test screening before a theater audience in Hollywood, introducing Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse as they attempted aviation antics. The film failed to secure a distributor initially. It later received a sound version and wide release in 1929 after Steamboat Willie's success.

Event Detail

1929

Other 20th Century North America

St. Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago

During Prohibition, Chicago's organized crime syndicates battled for control of illegal alcohol distribution, with Al Capone's South Side Italian gang clashing against George "Bugs" Moran's North Side Irish gang. On the morning of February 14, 1929, seven men associated with Moran's operation gathered at a garage on North Clark Street. Four assailants, two dressed as police officers and two in civilian clothes, entered the premises, lined the victims against a wall under the pretense of a raid, and executed them with submachine guns and shotguns. The victims included Moran's key lieutenants; Moran himself narrowly escaped by arriving late. Capone was widely suspected of ordering the hit, though never convicted, intensifying public outrage over gang violence.

Event Detail

1929

Culture 20th Century North America

First Academy Awards Presented in Hollywood

As the film industry matured in the late 1920s with the transition to sound pictures, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences sought to honor excellence and promote the art form. The inaugural ceremony took place on May 16, 1929, at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel before roughly 270 guests during a private dinner. Janet Gaynor received the first Best Actress award for performances in three films, while Emil Jannings won Best Actor; the event lasted only about fifteen minutes.

Event Detail

1929

Civil Rights 20th Century North America

Persons Case Affirms Women as Legal Persons

In early twentieth-century Canada, the Famous Five—Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Irene Parlby, Louise McKinney, and Henrietta Muir Edwards—challenged barriers preventing women from Senate appointments under the British North America Act. The Supreme Court of Canada had ruled women were not “persons,” but the case reached the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Britain. On October 18, 1929, the Council reversed the decision, declaring that women qualified as persons eligible for public office. The ruling immediately opened pathways for female senators and broader civic participation. It marked a key victory after years of advocacy by the Alberta women.

Event Detail America 250 Atlas

1929

Economics 20th Century North America

Black Thursday Stock Market Crash Begins

The 1920s had brought unprecedented stock market speculation in the United States fueled by easy credit, margin buying, and optimistic economic forecasts following World War I recovery. Warning signs emerged in September and early October as prices fluctuated wildly and some sectors showed weakness. On October 24, 1929, panic selling erupted on the New York Stock Exchange with a record 12.9 million shares traded and prices plunging sharply at the opening bell. Bankers attempted to stabilize the market by purchasing large blocks of stock, providing temporary relief, but the underlying lack of confidence persisted. The day became known as Black Thursday, marking the start of the broader Wall Street crash.

Event Detail America 250 Atlas

1929

Economics 20th Century North America

Black Tuesday Stock Market Crash Begins Great Depression

The Roaring Twenties had fueled speculative investment in U.S. stocks, with prices detached from economic fundamentals amid rising unemployment, agricultural woes, and overproduction. After earlier warnings and a sharp drop on Black Thursday, panic selling intensified on October 29, 1929, as over 16 million shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, erasing billions in value and leaving the ticker tape hours behind. Leading bankers attempted support but could not stem the tide, which continued for days and wiped out fortunes built on margin buying. The crash shattered public confidence in the financial system and exposed vulnerabilities in unregulated markets. Immediate effects included bank runs and business failures that rippled across the industrialized world.

Event Detail