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You are currently viewing Timeline 1900-2021, part 2: 1910-1919
Recruitment poster for World War 1. Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase, 1912. Cass Gilbert, Woolworth Building, 1912.

Timeline 1900-2021, part 2: 1910-1919

Second of 12 posts with an illustrated decade-by-decade timeline for the years 1900 to 2021. For more on the timeline and a link to the book on Amazon, see here. This post is available as a video at https://youtu.be/QnmSoERdDJQ.

1910-1919

This post is a teaser, not the full text for 1910-1919.

Among the events of this decade:

  • 1914-1918 World War 1, with casualties worldwide of some 17 million.
  • Spanish flu epidemic, with casualties worldwide of 25-50 million. In the US, nearly half those who die are ages 20-40.
  • 1911 Standard Oil broken up.
  • In 1913: the 16th Amendment allows the government to levy an income tax; the 17th Amendment requires senators to be elected by popular vote; and the Federal Reserve Act establishes a central bank.
  • 1916 Margaret Sanger sets up first birth-control clinic in US (in Brooklyn), and is promptly arrested.
  • 1918-1920 First Red Scare: fear of spread of Communism following Russian Revolution.
  • Best-selling books include Eleanor H. Porter’s Pollyanna,1913, and Vicente Blasco Ibanez’s Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,1916 (set in WW1).
  • Movie production shifts to Hollywood.
  • Cass Gilbert’s 60-story Woolworth Building, 1912, is the tallest skyscraper ever built, and remains so until 1930.
  • The Armory Show of 1913 introduces abstract and avant-garde painting and sculpture to the US.
  • Music: hits by Irving Berlin and George M. Cohan, rise of jazz and blues, Ziegfeld Follies, earliest radio broadcast.
Recruitment poster for World War 1. Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase, 1912. Cass Gilbert, Woolworth Building, 1912.
1919 cartoon re the Red Scare: Bolshevism tries to pull Civilization down into Chaos. George M. Cohan, “Over There,” 1917. Ziegfeld Follies poster, 1912.

Feedback I’d appreciate from you on the PDF of 1910-1919

  • Have I listed all the most significant events for this decade? Space is limited and there’s room for disagreement, but do tell me if you think anything important is missing. In case you want to add events important to you, I’ve allowed some blank space on every set of facing pages.
  • I have not read all the books I mention nor listened to all the musical styles. Are any of the facts or descriptions wrong? Corrections welcome.
  • I’d like to include major events in areas such as education, psychology, Supreme Court decisions, and sports. If you can boil down those or similar fields to a half-dozen significant events from 1900 to 2021, send them to me and I’ll try to work them in.
  • Of course, point out typos, bad grammar, messy syntax, and so on.

More

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