1920S

Events and trends

Technology

• John Logie Baird invents the first working television system. (1925)
• Charles Lindbergh becomes the first person to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean (20 May-21 May 1927)
• Penicillin is discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming. (1928)

Science

• Great advances in quantum mechanics
• Wave mechanics and the Schrdinger equation
• Werner Heisenberg formulates the uncertainty principle
• Paul Dirac's unification of quantum mechanics with special relativity

War, peace and politics

• Rise of communism after World War I
• The Red Scare
• In the United States, peak of the Ku Klux Klan
• Irish Civil War
• Southern Ireland gains independence from the United Kingdom in 1922
• Turkish War of Independence
• Polish-Soviet war
• First Labour Government of Ramsay MacDonald formed in the United Kingdom
• Kellogg-Briand Pact to end war

Economics

• Economic boom ended by "Black Tuesday" (October 29, 1929); the stock market crashes, leading to the Great Depression

Culture, religion

• Youth culture of The Lost Generation; flappers, Charleston, bobbed hair
• Prohibition — legal attempt to end consumption of alcohol in the USA
• "The Jazz Age" — Jazz and jazz-influenced dance music widely popular
• Rise of broadcast radio as an entertainment medium
• Start of commercially viable "Talking Pictures" (motion pictures with sound tracks)
• Beginning of surrealist movement
• Beginning of the Art Deco movement
• Fads such as dance marathons, mah-jongg, crossword puzzles and pole-sitting are popular
• The Harlem Renaissance

People

World leaders

• Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King (Canada)
• President Sun Yat-sen (Republic of China)
• President Chiang Kai-shek (Republic of China)
• President Paul von Hindenburg (Germany)
• King Victor Emmanuel III (Italy)
• Prime Minister Benito Mussolini (Italy)
• President W.T. Cosgrave (Irish Free State)
• President Mustafa Kemal(Attaturk) (Turkey)
• Emperor Hirohito (Japan)
• Pope Pius XI
• Vladimir Lenin (Soviet Union)
• Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union)
• King George V (United Kingdom)
• Prime Minister David Lloyd George (United Kingdom)
• Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law (United Kingdom)
• Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin (United Kingdom)
• Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald (United Kingdom)
• President Woodrow Wilson (United States)
• President Warren G. Harding (United States)
• President Calvin Coolidge (United States)
• President Herbert Hoover (United States)

Entertainers

• Charlie Chaplin
• George Gershwin
• Duke Ellington
• Fletcher Henderson
• Al Jolson
• Jelly Roll Morton
• Cole Porter
• Bessie Smith
• Rudy Vallee
• Paul Whiteman
• Louis Armstrong
• Eddie Cantor
• Helen Kane

Sports figures

• Babe Ruth (U.S. baseball player)
• Gordon Coventry (Australian Australian Rules Football player)
• Bill Tilden (U.S. tennis player)
• Jack Dempsey (U.S. boxer)
• Red Grange (U.S. American football player)
• Bobby Jones (U.S. golfer)

<< Previous Word Browser Next >>
1756 1791 1608 1818 1914 1918 1917 1743 1826 1993 1492	1908 1997 1951 election threshold 1949 1911 1957 386bsd 1931 1926 1969	99 names of god 1948 1930s 1939 1912 1913 1901 1900s 1828 1910s 1944	1865 1945 14th century 1860s 1788 1st century 1942 1943 1946 1941 13th century