World Events
Of 1910 - 1920
World EventsOf 1910 - 1920 |
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Woodrow Wilson inaugurated US President
U.S. declares war on Germany
See World War 1 page.
Supreme Court dissolves Standard Oil Co.
On May 15, 1911 the Court ruled that Standard Oil engaged in monopolistic practices
and the Supreme Court upheld the Missouri decision to dissolve Standard into some 37 subsidiary companies. But in its ruling the Court announced a new "rule of reason" by which it could decide whether a restraint of trade was "reasonable" or not and what restraints of trade were allowable.
World War I
See World War 1 page.
Bolshevik revolution in Russia
The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917 was initiated by millions of people who would change the history of the world as we know it. When Czar Nicholas II dragged 11 million peasants into World War I, the Russian people became discouraged with their injuries and the loss of life they sustained. The country of Russia was in ruins, ripe for revolution.During a mass demonstration of women workers in February of 1917, the czar's officials called out the army to squelch the protesters. The women convinced the soldiers to put their guns away and help them in their cause. Czar Nicholas II was dethroned in Russia during this which was called the February Revolution. The Provisional Government was formed to replace the void left by the deposed czar. This provisional government was made up of bankers, lawyers, industrialists, and capitalists. The provisional government was very weak and failed to live up to its promise of ending Russia's involvement in the war. They kept Russia in the war and just made things worse for themselves and for Russia.
Hallmark, Inc.
Hallmark Cards, a privately owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri, is the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States. Approximately 50% of greeting cards sent in the United States every year are manufactured by Hallmark. Founded in 1910 by 18-year-old Joyce C. Hall selling postcards, by 1915 the company was known as Hall Brothers and sold Valentine's Day and Christmas cards. In 1917, Hall and his brother Rollie invented modern wrapping paper when they ran out of traditional colored tissue paper.
Chevrolet Motor Company
Chevrolet is a brand of automobile, produced by General Motors (GM). It is the top selling GM marquee and the best known brand of GM worldwide, with "Chevrolet" or "Chevy" being at times synonymous for GM.
Chevrolet is GM's largest brand, currently offering over 20 vehicles and many different enhanced versions in its home market. The brand's vehicles range from subcompact cars to medium duty commercial trucks. Its number one sellers in the United States include the Impala, which is the number one selling car with a domestic nameplate in the United States, and the Silverado, the second best-selling pickup truck in the U.S.
In the North American market in 2005, a huge battle for bragging rights came about with Ford. GM leads all other automakers in Strategic Vision's Total Quality Index (TQI).
Chevrolet was co-founded by Louis Chevrolet and William C. Durant. Louis Chevrolet was a racecar driver, born on December 25, 1878, in La Chaux de Fonds, Switzerland. William Durant, founder of General Motors, had been forced out of GM in 1910 and wanted to use Louis Chevrolet's designs to rebuild his own reputation as a force in the automobile industry. As head of Buick Motor Company, prior to founding GM, Durant had hired Chevrolet to drive Buicks in promotional races.
Greyhound Lines, Inc.
Greyhound Lines is the largest inter-city common carrier of passengers by bus in North America, serving 2,200 destinations in the United States. It was founded in Hibbing, Minnesota, in 1914 and incorporated as "The Greyhound Corporation" a decade later. Today it is headquartered in Dallas, Texas (United States operations) and Calgary, Alberta (Canadian operations), and is a subsidiary of the publicly traded bus operator Laidlaw. Its famous name and its logo are based on the Greyhound, the fastest breed of dog used in dog racing.
Carl Wickman was born in Sweden in 1887. He moved to the United States, and in 1914 began a bus service in Minnesota where he transported iron ore miners from Hibbing to Alice at 15 cents a ride. In 1915 Wickman joined forces with Ralph Bogan, who was running a similar service from Hibbing to Duluth. The name of the new organization was the Mesaba Transportation Company, and it made $8,000 in profit in its first year. By the end of the First World War Wickman owned 18 buses, and was making an annual profit of $40,000. In 1922 Wickman joined forces with Orville Caesar, the owner of the Superior White Bus Lines. Four years later, Wickman reached an agreement with two West Coast operations, the Pickwick Lines and the Pioneer Yelloway System.
Cellophane
Cellophane is a thin, transparent sheet made of processed cellulose. Cellulose fibers from wood, cotton, or hemp are dissolved in alkali to make a solution called viscose, which is then extruded through a slit into an acid bath to reconvert the viscose into cellulose. A similar process, using a hole (a spinneret) instead of a slit, is used to make a fiber called rayon.
Cellophane was invented by Jacques E. Brandenberger, a Swiss textiles engineer in 1911. After witnessing a wine spill on a restaurant tablecloth, Brandenberger initially had the idea to develop a clear coating for cloth to make it waterproof. He experimented, and came up with a way to apply liquid viscose to cloth, but found the resultant combination of cloth and viscose film too stiff to be of use. However the clear film easily separated from the backing cloth, and he abandoned his original idea as the possibilities of the new material became apparent. Cellophane's low permeability to air, grease, and bacteria makes it useful for food packaging
Otis Elevator Company buys "Escalator" patent
Charles Seeberger sold his patent rights for the escalator to the Otis Elevator Company in 1910, who also bought Jesse Reno's escalator patent in 1911. Otis then came to dominate escalator production, and combined and improved the various designs of escalators.
An escalator is a conveyor type transport device that moves people. It is a moving staircase with steps that move up or down using a conveyor belt and tracks keeping each step horizontal for the passenger. However, the escalator began as an amusement and not as a practical transport. The first patent relating to an escalator-like machine was granted in 1859 to a Massachusetts man for a steam driven unit. On March 15 1892, Jesse Reno patented his moving stairs or inclined elevator as he called it. In 1895, Jesse Reno created a new novelty ride at Coney Island from his patented design, a moving stairway that elevated passengers on a conveyor belt at a 25 degree angle.
First person to the South Pole
Roald Amundsen (July 16, 1872-June 22, 1928) was a Norwegian polar explorer was the first person to reach the South Pole. He was also the first person to reach both the North and South Poles. In 1910, Amundsen sailed for Antarctica, intending to be the first person to make it to the South Pole (although he had originally planned to go to the North Pole, Peary and Henson had surprised him by making it to the North Pole, so Amundsen had sudden changed his plans). Amundsen set up a base camp at the Bay of Wales (by the Ross Ice Shelf). On December 14, 1911, Amundsen and his crew made it to the South Pole on dog sleds. They returned to their base camp on January 25, 1912; they had covered 1,860 miles in 99 days. The British explorer Robert Falcon Scott had also tried to be the first to the South Pole, but Amundsen beat him there (and Scott and his crew all died on the return trip).
Boy Scouts founded (1910)
Boy Scouts, organization of boys 11 to 17 years old, founded in Great Britain by Sir Robert (later Lord) Baden-Powell. It was incorporated in 1910 in the United States, where its appearance was connected with earlier organizations—the Sons of Daniel Boone, organized by Daniel Carter Beard, and the Woodcraft Indians, organized by Ernest Thompson Seton. In the United States, James E. West was chief scout during the organization's early years (1911–43). The movement spread throughout most of the world, with the organization and programs basically the same in every country. Worldwide membership is estimated at 25 million. The first international gathering of Boy Scouts, called a jamboree, was held in London in 1920. The Scouts are intended to be nonmilitary and without racial, religious, political, or class distinctions. The Supreme Court affirmed the organization's right to limit membership to those who believe in God in 1993 and its right to exclude homosexuals in 2000, a policy that has been controversial in some areas. Activities of the Boy Scouts aim at mental, moral, and physical development, stressing outdoor skills and training in citizenship and lifesaving. The basic scout unit is a troop of about 15 boys, under the leadership of an adult scoutmaster.
Titanic sinks (1912)
RMS Titanic was an Olympic-class passenger liner that became infamous for its collision with an iceberg, and for its dramatic sinking on April 14, 1912. The second of a trio of superliners, she and her sisters, RMS Olympic and HMHS Britannic, were designed to provide a three-ship weekly express service and dominate the transatlantic travel business for the White Star Line.
Built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Titanic was the largest passenger steamship in the world at the time of her sinking. During Titanic's maiden voyage, she struck an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. on Sunday evening April 14, 1912, and sank two hours and forty minutes later, while breaking into two pieces at the aft expansion joint, 2:20 a.m. Monday morning
First transatlantic flight (1919)
May 8 - May 31, 1919. U.S. Navy flying boat NC-4 under command of Albert Cushing Read makes first transatlantic flight, 4,526 statute miles (7,284 km), from Rockaway, New York, to Plymouth, England, via Trepassey, Newfoundland, Azores, Lisbon, Portugal, and other intermediate stops, in 53 hours, 58 minutes.
American Cancer Society founded (1913)
Influenza epidemic kills 21.64 million people in Europe, America, and the Orient (1918)
Wrigley Field completed in Chicago (1914)
Wrigley Field, which was built in 1914, will be playing host to Major League Baseball for the 94th season in 2007 - and to the Cubs for the 92nd year.
Wrigley Field is the second-oldest ballpark in the majors behind Boston's Fenway Park (1912).
Originally known as Weeghman Park, Wrigley Field was built on the grounds once occupied by a seminary.
The Wrigley Field bleachers and scoreboard were constructed in 1937 when the outfield area was renovated to provide improved and expanded seating ... the original scoreboard remains intact.
National Hockey League organized (1917)
Hockey was a strictly amateur affair until 1904, when the first professional league was created -- oddly enough in the United States. Known as the International Pro Hockey League, it was based in the iron-mining region of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. That folded in 1907, but then an even bigger league emerged three years later, the National Hockey Association (NHA). And shortly after that came the Pacific Coast League (PCL). In 1914, a transcontinental championship series was arranged between the two, with the winner getting the coveted cup of Lord Stanley. World War I threw the entire hockey establishment into disarray, and the men running the NHA decided to suspend operations.
But after the war, the hockey powers that be decided to start a whole new organization that would be known as the National Hockey League (NHL). At its inception, the NHL boasted five franchises- the Montreal Canadians, the Montreal Wanderers, the Ottawa Senators, the Quebec Bulldogs, and the Toronto Arenas.
National Football League organized (1919)
1912
A touchdown was increased from five points to six. Jack Cusack revived a strong pro team in Canton.
1913
Jim Thorpe, a former football and track star at the Carlisle Indian School (Pa.) and a double gold medal winner at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, played for the Pine Village Pros in Indiana.
1915
Massillon again fielded a major team, reviving the old rivalry with Canton. Cusack signed Thorpe to play for Canton for $250 a game.
1916
With Thorpe and former Carlisle teammate Pete Calac starring, Canton went 9-0-1, won the Ohio League championship, and was acclaimed the pro football champion.
1917
Despite an upset by Massillon, Canton again won the Ohio League championship.
1919
Canton again won the Ohio League championship, despite the team having been turned over from Cusack to Ralph Hay. Thorpe and Calac were joined in the backfield by Joe Guyon. Earl (Curly) Lambeau and George Calhoun organized the Green Bay Packers. Lambeau's employer at the Indian Packing Company provided $500 for equipment and allowed the team to use the company field for practices. The Packers went 10-1.