Once again, as others pause to look back,
The Free Choice E-zine prefers to look at the year ahead.
Regardless of what happens concerning Donald Trump’s pending Impeachment Trial, the United States is facing a major Presidential election in November, while the world has the Summer Olympics and the ongoing problems of terrorism and climate change.
Presumably the items on that list do
not go hand in hand, but still…
Among other events in the days to come…
230TH ANNIVERSARY (1790)
July 16: Washington, DC was proposed as the capital of the United States. It became official October 16.
Notice how quickly something got done back then?
200TH ANNIVERSARY (1820)
March 15: Maine became the 23rd member of the United States.
170TH ANNIVERSARY (1850)
September 9: California became the 31st member of the United States.
155TH ANNIVERSARY (1865)
April 14/15: President Abraham Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. He was shot in the evening and succumbed to his wounds after midnight, hence the date notation.
December 18: The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution, abolishing slavery, went into effect.
150TH ANNIVERSARY (1870)
January 15: Thomas Nast’s Donkey became the symbol for the Democratic Party.
130TH ANNIVERSARY (1890)
July 3: Idaho became the 43rd member of the United States.
July 10: Wyoming became the 44th member of the United States.
120TH ANNIVERSARY (1900)
January 29: Major League Baseball established the American League division.
110TH ANNIVERSARY (1910)
February 8: The Boy Scouts of America was established.
100TH ANNIVERSARY (1920)
EXACT DATES ARE UNCERTAIN FOR WHEN:
The Baby Ruth Candy Bar (named after Ruth Cleveland and not the Sultan of Swat) began.
The Good Humor Ice Cream Bar was first made.
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton was first published.
The three color-four way stop traffic light was created.
The first Jungle Gym was built.
Perdue Farms began.
Raggedy Andy’s debut.
Construction began on what would become the Holland Tunnel.
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis was first published.
Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting was first published.
And it was sometime in October when
The Mysterious Affair At Styles, Agatha Christie’s first novel and the debut of Detective Hercule Poirot was published.
BUT WE DO KNOW...
January 1: Prohibition, via the Eighteenth Amendment, began in the United States.
January 1: The historic decade known as the Roaring 20’s began.
January 1: The AMC Theaters opened for business.
January 10: The League of Nations (forerunner to the United Nations) was founded.
January 20: The American Civil Liberties Union was established.
February 1: Canada established the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
February 24: Adolph Hitler officially came into power in Germany, founding the Nazi party and eventually starting World War 2.
March 26:
This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald, his first novel, was published.
March 28: The Silent Screen version of
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde starring Lionel Barrymore debuted.
May 1: Rubbermaid was founded.
May 16: Joan of Arc received Sainthood.
May 17: KLM Airlines first took flight.
June: The first Band-Aid Brand Adhesive Bandage was invented.
August 12: Charles Ponzi was arrested by American authorities for what would become known as a “Ponzi” scheme to defraud people of their money.
August 26: American women officially gained the right to vote and hold office as the 19th Amendment became law.
September 17: The American Professional Football Association, the forerunner to the National Football League, was established.
September 25: Disabled American Veterans Organization founded.
October 7: Women became eligible for degrees from Oxford University.
October 22: The Scholastic Corporation founded.
November 2: KDKA of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania became the first radio station in America on the air.
November 16: Qantas Airlines officially founded.
November 21: “Bloody Sunday” in Irish history.
November 21: Silent screen version of
The Last of the Mohicans debuted.
November 27: Douglas Fairbanks’ version of
The Mark of Zorro debuted.
December 20:
Hans
Riegel of
Bonn, Germany formed
Haribo. The Gummy Bears came later.
80TH ANNIVERSARY (1940)
February 7: Walt Disney’s version of
Pinocchio debuted.
May 10: Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of England.
75TH ANNIVERSARY (1945)
January 13: Bugs Bunny missed his first “left turn at Albuquerque” in
Herr Meets Hare.
April 21: Yosemite Sam debuted in the Bugs Bunny cartoon
Hare Trigger.
70TH ANNIVERSARY (1950)
March 1: Crusader Rabbit, the first direct to syndication cartoon series, debuted.
October 2: Charles Schulz’s
Peanuts comic strip debuted.
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| 2020 is also a Leap Year! |
65TH ANNIVERSARY (1955)
April 15: Grand opening of the first McDonald’s.
May 9: Kermit the Frog debuted on
Sam and Friends.
60TH ANNIVERSARY (1960)
April 1: TIROS 1, the first weather satellite, launched.
May 1: The start of the “U-2” incident.
September 30:
The Flintstones, first animated series in prime time, debuted.
55TH ANNIVERSARY (1965)
February 15: Canada debuted the Maple Leaf Flag.
March 18: Alekski Leonov became the first human to “walk” in outer space.
50TH ANNIVERSARY (1970)
December 13:
Santa Claus Is Coming To Town holiday special first aired.
40TH ANNIVERSARY (1980)
May 21:
Star Wars-The Empire Strikes Back debuted.
July 25:
Caddyshack 1 debuted.
35TH ANNIVERSARY (1985)
January 23: The original
Thundercats series debuted in syndication.
March 17: The
Luann comic strip debuted.
25TH ANNIVERSARY (1995)
At some point that year Doctor Sam Beckett took his first
Quantum Leap, although the show actually started in 1989.
And of course,
The Free Choice E-zine will be celebrating both our 2,300 AND 2,400th posts sometime this year!
