The 20th Century - 1st quarter

Overview:

a century of electricity, plastics, moving pictures & radio follows the century of steam & iron
the beginning of the age of convenience and fast take-away food as evidenced by the World's Fair at St Louis in 1904 which promoted:
- cooking with electricity
- peanut butter; Dr Pepper (invented 1885 in Texas but promoted 1904); fairy floss (invented c1850);
- invented at the fair: the ice cream cone; the hot dog; iced tea;
- the concept of walking whilst eating became socially acceptable.
the “Golden Oldies” or Federation generation:
- Australians born 1901-24
- civic-minded, nation builders, can-do.
- not a lot of social graces
sanitation reform, modern medicine & re-housing:
- having started on improving public health in the late 19thC, and with the new germ theory of infectious diseases established, aseptic technique allowing new surgical techniques to be developed, and the new X-rays to aid diagnosis, the 20thC, was ready to develop its scientific method of medicine & develop Paul Ehrlich's “magic bullets” to kill organisms without killing the patient, starting with 'salvarsan' for Rx of syphilis in 1910.
- re-housing projects in the 1st decade of the 20thC, together with the now publicly owned water supplies, improved sewerage disposal, further helped improve the squalid living conditions for the working class in England & by 1910, the annual death rate per thousand had fallen from 23 in 1838, 20.8 in 1875, 17.7 in 1900, 14.7 by 1910 and 12.3 by 1920. This change is mainly attributable to steady decline in deaths from TB & epidemic diseases, and from 1900, the infant mortality.
medicine and war:
- whilst Nightingale's nursing practices dramatically improved death rates of hospitalised soldiers in the Crimean War, the new advances in medicine further helped:
  - typhoid vaccine reduced annual typhoid rate from 1 in 16 German soldiers in the Franco-Prussian war to 1 in 900 British soldiers in the Four Years War.
  - in WWI, 1 in 30 injured soldiers developed tetanus, but by the 3rd month, when all wounded men were given antitoxin, only 1 in 600 developed tetanus.
the new physics:
- the new developments in physics as great as they were, had not quite readied the world for Einstein's theory of relativity in 1905 and Rutherford's atom which would change our perspective of matter, space & time, and soon our ideas of the origin of the universe.
the beginning of the motor car:
- whilst internal combustion engines were invented in 1832, no practical, convenient & economical engine was invented until Otto's in 1876 which used gas as a fuel. In the 1880's, engines were developed to use diesel or petrol, with Daimler's petrol engine making cars a possibility due to its high power to weight ratio, weighing only 88 pounds per hp (cw steam locomotive at 300lb/hp). The first meeting of automobiles took place in 1894, but these had many problems, the high cost of specially made pneumatic tyres forced owners to use solid tyres which allowed a max. speed of 12mph, whilst their low horse-power of only 2.5hp for a half a ton car, meant that they could not ascend any but the gentlest hill, whilst it was felt that only a highly skilled driver should be entrusted to drive the newer 12hp cars of 1904.
- these problems, along with inadequate road surfaces meant that cars were a rich man's luxury & were taxed as such.
- as motor transport became important, the road system was reformed at astonishing speed once the local authorities became owners of motor cars!
- cars did not become a middle-class possession until 1919-1921 when annual production in England increased from 50,000 to 250,000, it was at this time too, that returning soldiers started little concerns that ran one or two motor buses over short routes.
- the cars then allowed people to drive to the countryside, villagers to come to town & the better paid working class to live a distance from work rather than just alongside factories or near train stations.
- cars and trucks were soon to replace horses as a means of transport as well as on the farm. The resulting drop in horse dung and its attendant flies in London itself was dramatic.
the beginning of air travel:
- Zeppelin in 1900, in his 1st airship, which was the largest ballon ever made & the 1st rigid one, attained a speed of 20mph.
- the aeroplane, whilst theorised & flown as a model in 1848, really did not come to be until the Wright Brothers in 1903 flew the world's 1st aeroplane 284 yards.
- by 1913, an aeroplane had stayed in the air for over 8hrs & a non-stop flight of 630 miles had been accomplished.
- WWI spurred its development such that in 1914 a Farman seaplane had 100hp, flying at 62mph with load of 880lb, whilst by 1920, a Fairey type III had 450hp, flying at 118mph with load of 1479lb.
- the 1st commercial aeroplane service commenced in 1919 & flew between London & Paris & started the concept of air-mail.
the beginning of consumer photography:
- Kodak Brownie camera released in 1905.
literature:
- Kipling; Joseph Conrad; A.Conan Doyle; Beatrix Potter; G.Bernard Shaw; Thomas Hardy; Hermann Hesse; H.G. Wells; Ian Fleming; D.H.Lawrence; Somerset Maugham; Albert Camus; Maxim Gorki; Bertrand Russell; Aldous Huxley; Agatha Christie; F.Scott Fitzgerald; A.A. Milne; Virginia Woolf;
- 1900: Frank Baum The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; Joseph Conrad Lord Jim;
- 1901: Henry James The Sacred Fount; Rudyard Kipling Kim; Miles Franklin My Brilliant Career;
- 1902: Henry James The Wings of the Dove; Arthur Conan Doyle The Hound of the Baskervilles; James Barrie The Admirable Chrichton; Beatrix Potter Tale of Peter Rabbit;
- 1903: Henry James The Ambassadors, The Beast in the Jungle
- 1904: William Hudson Green Mansions; Henry James The Golden Bowl; Joseph Conrad Nostromo;
- 1906: William De Morgan Joseph Vance
- 1907: Henry Adams Education; Joel Harris Uncle Remus; Edmund Gosse Father and Son;
- 1908: Thomas Hardy The Dynasts; Edward-Morgan Forster A Room with a View;
- 1910: Edward-Morgan Forster Howard's End; Henry Richardson The Getting of Wisdom;
- 1911: Edith Wharton Ethan Frome;
- 1913: D.H. Lawrence Sons and Lovers;
- 1914: Thomas Hardy Satires of Circumstance; George Bernard Shaw Pygmalion;
- 1915: Joseph Conrad Victory;
- 1917: James Joyce A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man;
- 1920: Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence;
- 1921: George Moore Heloise and Abelard;
- 1922: James Joyce Ulysses;
- 1924: Edward-Morgan Forster A Passage to India;
- 1925: Francis-Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby;
art:
- Picasso; Renoir; Matisse; Salvador Dali; Cubism;
music:
- “classical music” - Elgar; Copland; R. Strauss; Puccini; Ravel; Mahler; Vaughan Williams; Rachmaninoff; Shostakovich; Bartok; Dame Nellie Melba; Stravinsky; Holst;
- musicals - Hammerstein; Irving Berlin;
- ragtime, jazz - Gershwin; “Jelly Roll” Morton;
- dance - modern dance; Isadora Duncan; Sth American & calypso styles
silent films:
- Charlie Chaplin;

Britain:

1900: Joseph Conrad's “Lord Jim”; Oscar Wilde dies; W.G.Grace retires from cricket;
1901: Q. Victoria dies, succeeded by her son Edward VII;
1902: Beatrix Potter's “Peter Rabbit”;
1903: Butler's “The way of all flesh” pub. posth.; motor car speed limit set at 20mph;
1904: Rolls Royce Company founded; drink licensing laws;
1905: Sinn Fein party founded in Dublin;
1908: Isadora Duncan becomes popular interpreter of dance; London hosts Olympic Games;
1909: Anglo-Persian Oil Company formed; Girl Guides established;
1910: King Edward VII dies succeeded by George V ( - 1936); 1st labour exchanges opened;
1911: Winston S. Churchill appointed First Lord of the Admiralty; British Official Secrets Act becomes law; London temp. reaches unprecedented 100degF
1912: coal strike; London dock strike; transport workers' strike;
1913: suffragette demonstrations in London; Lawrence's “Sons & Lovers”; Shaw's “Pygmalion”
1914: Charlie Chaplin; Britain declares war on Germany, then Austria (see WWI under Europe); Burrough's “Tarzan of the Apes”;
1916: daylight-saving time introduced; British troops put down Easter Rebellion in Ireland;
1917: British royal family renounces German names & titles; Companion of Honour & Order of the British Empire decorations established;
1918: Britain govt abandons Home Rule for Ireland; Woman over 30 get the vote;
1920: Holst's “The Planets” 1st performed;
1921: British Legion founded;
1922: Irish Free State officially proclaimed;
1923: English Channel swim 1st completed; London dock strike;
1924: MacDonald forms 1st labour govt in Britain; Britain recognises USSR; Churchill, having switched from Liberals to Conservatives, is named Chancellor of the Exchequer;

Europe:

1900: Nietzsche dies;
1902: national bankruptcy declared in Portugal; Trotsky escapes Siberian prison & settles in London;
1903: Russian Soc.Democ.Party splits into Mensheviks (led by Plachanoff) & Bolsheviks (led by Lenin/Trotsky); Anti-Jewish pogroms in Russia;
1904: church & state separated in France; 10hr work day in France; Paris Conference on white slave trade;
1905: Greeks in Crete revolt against Turks; Norway separates from Sweden;
1906: reform laws promulgated in Russia after unrest following Russo-Japanese war; 12.5mile Simpleton Tunnel b/n Italy & Switzerland opened; French Grand Prix motorcar race 1st run;
1907: universal direct suffrage instituted in Austria; Lenin leaves Russia & founds newspaper “The Proletarian”; 1st Cubist exhibition in Paris; Royal Dutch Shell Company founded;
1908: Austria & Russia agree on Austria's occupation of Bosnia & Herzegovina; King Carlos I of Portugal & the crown prince both assassinated; Young Turks revolt in Macedonia, the new Ottoman Parliament, with a large Young Turk majority, meets; Ferdinand I of Bulgaria assumes the title czar & declares his countries independence; Crete proclaims union with Greece; Earthquake in Calabria & Sicily kills 150,000; Zeppelin disaster;
1909: Turkey & Serbia recognize Austria's annexation of Bosnia & Herzegovina; Sultan Abdul Hamid II deposed by Young Turks; Mohammed Ali, Shah of Persia, deposed; women admitted to German universities;
1910: revolt in Albania; revolution in Portugal;
1911: Turk-Italian war with Italy defeating Turks and annexing Tripoli - 1st use of aircraft for offensive measures;
1912: Turkey closes Dardanelles to shipping; Montenegro declares war on Turkey; Turkey asks Powers for intervention in Balkan War; armistice b/n Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro & Turkey; Treaty of Lausanne signed b/n France & Italy; German-Austrian-Italian alliance renewed; Lenin establishes connection with Stalin & takes over editorship of “Pravda”;
1913: King George I of Greece assassinated, succeeded by Constantine I; Balkan War - Bulgarians take Adrianople & Turkey signs armistice; Outbreak of 2nd Balkan War - Bulgaria attacks Serbia & Greece, Russia declares war on Bulgaria, Turks recapture Adrianople, armistice signed & Bulgarian-Turkey treaty; Serbia invades Albania; peace treaty b/n Greece & Turkey; The “Zabern Affair” in Alsace-Lorraine endangers Franco-German relations;
1914: Serbia-Turkey peace treaty;
- WWI:
  - Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to Austrian throne, & his wife assassinated in Sarajevo June 28
  - Austro-Hungarian ultimatum to Serbia July 23 & declaration of war July 28
  - Jean Jaures, pacifist & socialist, murdered in Paris
  - Germany declares war on Russia & France, & invades Belgium
  - Britain declares war on Germany; Austria declares war on Russia;
  - Serbia & Montenegro declare war on Germany;
  - British troops land in France; France, then Britain declares war on Austria; etc, etc.
1915:
- WWI:
  - Ger. airship bombs E.Anglican ports; 1st Ger. submarine attack;
  - Anglo-Fr-Australian landings at Gallipoli; Germans in Warsaw;
  - Britain loses 1m tons of merchant ships for year.
1916:
- WWI:
  - Anzacs arrive in France; Italy declares war on Germany; Hussein proclaimed king of the Arabs;
  - Germany sends peace note to Britain;
  - Britain loses 1.5m tons of merchant ships for year;
  - gas masks & steel helmets introduced into German army;
1917: trans-Siberian railroad completed; Bolshevik revolution;
- WWI:
  - bread rationed in Britain; Ger. withdrawal on Western Front;
  - February revolution in Russia - czar abdicates;
  - US & Cuba declare war on Germany; Albanian independence proclaimed;
  - starvation year in Germany; Allies execute dancer Mata Hari as a spy;
1918: Russian constituent assembly dissolved by Bolsheviks;
- WWI:
  - 1,388 planes of German Luftwaffe assembled for attack; Germans bomb Paris;
  - collapse of Turk. resistance in Palestine
  - armistice signed between Allies & Germany on Nov 11
  - 63m mobilized forces; 8.5m killed; 21m wounded; 7.5m prisoners & missing; 15m tons shipping loss (9m British);
- Polish republic proclaimed; Revolution in Berlin, William II abdicates; Austria becomes a republic;
- Montenegro united with Serbia; Serbo-Croatian-Slovene Kingdom of Yugoslavia proclaimed; Iceland becomes a sovereign state;
1919: Mussolini founds Fasci del Combattimento; Hapsburg dynasty exiled from Austria; Red Army enters Crimea then takes Ufa, beginning of White defeat; War between Finland & USSR; German fleet scuttled; German peace treaty signed Versailles; Hungarian Red troops invade Czech. but forced to withdraw; Fighting b/n France & Syria; jazz arrives in Europe;
1920: League of Nations formed but US Senate votes against joining it; End of Russian civil war; Hitler announces his 25-point program; Joan of Arc canonised;
1921: Hitler's storm troopers begin to terrorise opponents; Kemal defeats the Britisk-backed Greeks in Turkey;
1922: Germany cedes Upper Silesia to Poland; Mussolini marches on Rome & forms Fascist govt; the great Mustapha Kemal “Ataturk” who had defeated the Anzacs at Gallipoli in WWI, removing the caliph dynasty, he proclaims Turkey a republic and begins reforms to Westernise Turkey; Soviet states form USSR; Hermande Hesse “Siddhartha”;
1923: Gregorian calendar introduced in USSR; Mother's Day 1st celebrated in Europe; Miguel Primo de Rivera assumes dictatorship in Spain; Germany abandons passive resistance; German hyperinflation sees its mark drop to 4 million to 1 US dollar; Ankara replaces Istanbul as capital of Turkey; Hitler's coup d'etat fails; King George II deposed by Greek army; Non-Fascist parties dissolved in Italy;
1924: Lenin dies; Greece proclaimed a republic; Hitler sentenced to 5yrs prison but released after 8mths; new reichsmark introduced; Albanian Republic founded; Stalin, Zinoviev & Kamenev ally against Trotsky;

America:

1900-1904: first North American bubonic plague epidemic - the San Francisco plague
1901: Cuba becomes a US protectorate; US Pres. McKinley assassinated & succeeded by Theodore Roosevelt; Treaty on building of Panama Canal; ragtime jazz;
1902: US Coal strike May-Oct; US acquires perpetual control over Panama Canal;
1903: Alaskan frontier settled; Henry Ford founds Ford Motor Co with capital $100,000; 1st coast-coast crossing USA by car taking 65 days; 1st teddy bears (named after Theodore Roosevelt);
1904: Broadway subway opened in NY;
1906: San Francisco earthquake (Richter 7.8) kills 700 & $400m property loss and destroyed 8 sq. km of city, leaving hundreds of thousands homeless; images were recorded by the newly released Kodak Brownie camera.
1907: Oklahoma becomes 46th state of USA; panic of 1907 causes run on banks, stopped by J.P.Morgan's importation of $100m in gold from Europe; immigration to USA restricted by law;
1908: Montgomery's “Anne of Green Gables”; General Motors Corp. formed;
1909: civil war in Honduras (-1911); Rockefeller Foundation;
1910: US Congress passes Mann Act prohibiting transportation of women across state lines for immoral purposes; Manhattan Bridge NY completed;
1911: Armistice ends Mexican civil war;
1912: Arizona & New Mexico becomes states of US; Woodrow Wilson becomes president US;
1913: Federal income tax introduced in US through the 16th Amendment; US Federeral Reserve System established; Grand Central Terminal opens NY;
1914: Panama Canal opens; 10.5m immigrants have entered US from southern & eastern Europe b/n 1905-14;
1916: jazz sweeps US; 1st birth control clinic; prohibition gains ground as 24 states vote against alcoholic beverages; Professional Golf Assoc. (PGA) formed;
1917: US govt purchases Dutch West Indies; Chicago becomes center of jazz;
1918: Mexico nationalizes oil fields; daylight saving time in US; US pop. 103.5m;
1919: alcohol prohibition starts with the amendment (18th) to constitution; strikes - general strike Winnipeg, Canada; Amer. steel strike; NY dockers strike; American Legion founded;
1920: 19th amendment gives women the vote; “Babe” Ruth baseballer sold for $125,000; Wall St bomb kills 35, wounds 130;
1921: Ku Klux Klan activities become violent throughout southern USA;
1923: Nevada/Montana 1st US states to introduce old age pension; Gershwin's “Rhapsody in Blue”;
1924: US bill limits immigrants, excludes all Japanese;

Asia:

China:
- 1900: Chinese Boxer rebellion against the Europeans, and the new Russian Trans-Siberian railway passing through Manchuria - resolved by Peace of Peking in 1901;
- 1905: Sun Yat-sen founds union of secret societies to expel Manchus from China
- 1906: China & Britain agree to reduction of opium production;
- 1910: China abolishes slavery;
- 1911: revolution in Central China; China Republic proclaimed; pigtails abolished; calendar reformed; Manchu dynasty falls (in power since 1644); Sun Yat-sen elected president;
- 1920: earthquake in Kansu province claims 200,000 victims;
India:
- 1913: Mahatma Ghandhi, leader of Indian Passive Resistance Movement, arrested
- 1914: Gandhi returns to India & supports govt.
- 1919: war b/n British, Indian & Afghan forces;
- 1920: Gandhi emerges as Indian leader in its struggle for independence;
- 1921: 1st Indian parliament meets;
- 1922: Gandhi sentenced to 6 yrs imprisonment for civil disobedience;
- 1924: Gandhi fasts for 21 days in protest against feuding b/n Hindus & Moslems in India;
Japan:
- 1900: Shintoism reinstated against Buddhist influence
- 1902: Anglo-Jap treaty recognizes independence of China & Korea
- 1904: Russo-Japanese war breaks out as Russia had earlier taken the east coast line from China down to Vladivostok and also Manchuria which threatened Japan and its imperial expansionary goals; 1st trenches used in war; Japan defeats the Russian navy which had to sail around Africa and wins the war against Russia - the 1st defeat of a European power by non-Europeans in modern times.
- 1910: Japan annexes Korea;
- 1911: US-Jap. & Anglo-Jap. commercial treaties signed
- 1914-18: Japan sides with the Allies in WWI to defeat Germany, and whilst gaining some German territories in the Pacific and the Shandong Provence in China, it is dealt with by the Western victors as 2nd class citizens which would further push the Japanese to show the world they are a military power
- 1921: US increasingly concerned with Japan's rise in power in the setting of its new acquisition of Guam and Philippines, develops an open door policy with China to protect its sovereignty, ensure trade and access to the immense Chinese market, signs a 4-power YAP treaty in the region (including with Japan being forced to return the Shandong Provence to China) to limit military build up in the region and protect Chinese trade. Many Japanese were outraged, and assassinated the Japanese PM Hara Takashi who was the most prominent advocate of the new treaty. This then marked a growing rise in Japanese Shinto ultra-nationalism with the military gaining increasing public support whilst the Japanese Govt falling in popularity being perceived as giving in to Western demands. The Japanese military would come to bypass government and only support the Emperor in a “State Shinto”.
- 1923: earthquake hits Tokyo & Yokohama killing 120,000;
- c1923: US banned Japanese immigration to USA.
Other Asian:
- 1898: following US victory in the US-Spanish war of 1898, US acquired the Spanish colonies, the Phillipines and Guam
- 1907: England & France agree on Siamese independence; Emperor of Korea abdicates & Japan granted protectorate over Korea; Dutch complete occupation of Sumatra with defeat of Achinese tribe;
- 1908: Dutch establish rule in Bali; Sven Hedin explores Persia & Tibet;

Australia:

see Australian history 1900-1925

New Zealand:

1907: NZ becomes a dominion within Brit. Empire;

Africa:

1901: Boers organise guerrilla warfare;
1902: Aswan Dam opened; Boer war ends with 5774 British & 4000 Boers killed;
1903: British complete conquest of Northern Nigeria;
1906: self-govt granted to Transvaal & Orange River colonies;
1908: Leopold II transfers Congo (his private possession since 1885) to Belgium; Union of Sth Africa established;
1910: Union of Sth Africa becomes a dominion within British Empire;
1914: Northern & Southern Nigeria united;

Science & Technology:

se also history of photography
1900: Freud's “Interpretation of dreams”; Radon discovered; Planck's Quantum Theory; human speech via radio waves; Minoan excavations; 1st trial Zeppelin flight; Browning revolvers;
1900: Milton Hershey created the first American mass-market chocolate bar.
1901: Planck's laws of radiation; adrenalin 1st isolated; 1st motorbikes; 1st Mercedes car; Nernst 3rd law of thermodynamics;
1902: secretin; anaphylaxis; arc generator; panchromatic plate; radio-magnetic detector;
1903: 1st recording of an opera; Wright Bros flight in powered airplane; ultramicroscope; Einthoven's ECG;
1904: general theory radioactivity; photoelectric cell; UV lamp; telegraphic transmission of photographs; thermionic tube to generate radiowaves; silicones; the ice cream cone; the hot dog; iced tea; Melbourne's William Sutherland publishes his work explaining Brownian motion a year before Albert Einstein but unfortunately it was in an English journal and thus Einstein was accredited with the theory as he published in German - the lingua franca of the physics world until the 1930's.
1905: 1st regular cinema; Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity; rayon yarn; radio tube diode; 1st motor buses in London; 1st neon light signs appear; Mt Wilson observatory CA completed; Rotary Club founded; Kodak Brownie camera brings photography to consumers.
1906: Patents Act & Merchant Shipping Act adopted by Britain; enzymic catalysis; “allergy”; Amundsen reaches North Magnetic Pole; US Pure Food & Drugs Act; 1st radio broadcast of voice & music in US; night shift for women forbidden internationally; Einstein's paper on Brownian motion - the principles of diffusion theory;
- city pop: London 4.5m; NY 4m; Paris 2.7m; Berlin 2m; Tokyo 1.9m; Vienna 1.3m;
- armies: Russia 13m; Germany 7.9m; Austria-Hungary 7.4m; France 4.8m; Italy 3m;
1907: Pavlov's conditioned reflexes; tissue culture; Lumiere's color photography; radio amplifier; radio tube triode; electric vacuum cleaner; electric washer; Boys Scout movement; Mother's Day;
1908: 1st steel & glass building; Minkowkski's 4D geometry; ammonia synthesised; helium liquefied; Bakelite; fountain pens popular; Wright flies 30miles in 40minutes; 1st model “T” Ford car produced;
1909: 1st newsreels on film; Ehrlich prepares salvarsan to Rx syphilis; genetics research; Bleriot crosses English channel by plane in 37min; Farman completes 1st 100 mile flight; US explorer Peary reaches North Pole; 1st permanent waves by hair dressers;
- Jewish world pop: Russia 5.2m; Austria-Hungary 2m; USA 1.7m; Germany 0.6m; Turkey 0.4m; UK 0.2m; France 0.1m;
1910: tango becomes popular in Europe & US; Curie's radiography; excavation of Cnossus, Crete; 1st deep-sea research; Halley's comet observed again; 122,000 telephones in use in UK; Farman flies 300miles in 8.25hrs; the “week-end” becomes popular in US; Father's Day;
1911: Amundsen reaches South Pole; Rutherford's theory of atomic structure; Kettering's 1st practical electric self-starter for automobiles; air-conditioning; gyrocompass;
1912: Jung's theory of psychoanalysis; London has 400 cinemas; 5m people visit cinemas in US daily; “vitamine”; cellophane; Scott reaches South Pole; cloud-chamber photographs detect protons & electrons; specific heat of solids; cosmic radiation; acriflavine as an antiseptic; parachute invented;
1913: Geiger counter; Bohr's theory of atomic structure; “isotope”; Schick diphtheria immunity test; composition of chlorophyll; vitamin A; Russell's theory of stellar evolution; coal dust converted to oil; basic ideas of jet propulsion; protactinium; zippers (in use since 1891) become popular; foxtrot becomes fashionable; 1st crossword puzzle published, in New York.
1914: Jeans' Radiation & quantum theory; Goddard's rocketry expts; pure thyroxin; 1st successful heart surgery on dogs; Shackleton's Antarctic expedition; 1st traffic light installed (Ohio);
1915: Einstein's General Theory of Relativity; dysentery bacillus; 1st fighter airplane; farm tractor; 1st transcontinental telephone call; wireless service estab. b/n US & Japan; Ford's 1 millionth car; Sanger jailed for writing 1st book on birth control; motorized taxis;
1916: sympathectomy to Rx angina; blood for transfusion is refrigerated; new valence theory; stainless steel; x-ray tube;
1917: “bobbed hair” as ladies fashion in US & Britain; Mt Wilson 100in telescope;
1918: Alice Evans discovered that raw milk was also contaminated with Brucella bacteria, causing a disease called undulant fever (now known as brucellosis)
1918: automatic toaster; 1st airmail postage; influenza pandemic kills 22m (1918-20);
1919: mass spectroscope / isotopy; cyclones originate as waves in sloping frontal surfaces which separate different air masses; Rutherford demonstrates atom is not the final building block; 1st expts with shortwave radio; expts on new sound-film system; Alcock/Brown makes 1st non-stop trans-Atlantic flight; Austria abolishes death penalty; Radio Corp. Amer. founded; mechanical rabbit for greyhound racing;
1920: Adler's theory of individual psychology; Cushing's new brain surgery techniques; the importance of the stratosphere; rotor ship; Rorschach's ink blot test; polymerisation to make plastics; submachine gun (Tommy gun); water-skiing pioneered;
- pop: world: 1,811m; US: 118m; NY 5.6m; LA 0.6m; USSR 136m; Japan 78m; Germany 60m; GrBritain 43m;
1921: coal to oil; separates isotopes; BCG TB vaccine; chromosome theory of heredity postulated; bacteriophages; Oberth's “The Rocket into Interplanetary Space”; as a preliminary to splitting of atom, Rutherford/Chadwick disintegrate most elements; stellar spectra & thermal ionisation theory; British Broadcasting Company (BBC) founded; table tennis revived; 1st regular radio programs in US; rise of the motor car & use of gasoline (petrol) revitalises oil drilling industry, starting the new oil-based economy.
1922: expts with transmutation of elements; vitamin E; self-winding wristwatch; insulin 1st used on pts; WBC's; radar;
1923: Bronsted's acid-base theory; earth's magnetic field; 1st birth-control clinic opens in NY; hafnium; USSR's 1st polar station; ultracentrifuge; continuous hot-strip rolling of steel; “Time” magazine founded; Schick's electric razor; Vegemite introduced in Aust;
1920s-1930s: Creation of factory made filled chocolate bars exploded — Milky Way (1923), Snickers (1930), Kit Kat (1935).
1924: skeletons of Mesozoic dinosaurs found in Gobi Desert; Broglie's wave theory of matter; iconoscope (TV) patent filed; insecticides used for 1st time; Mah-Jong world craze; 2.5million radios in use in US;

Table of Contents

The 20th Century - 1st quarter

Overview:

Britain:

Europe:

America:

Asia:

Australia:

New Zealand:

Africa:

Science & Technology: