The Jazz Age: Charleston & Beyond, Time Line

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The Jazz Age, Charleston and Beyond: 1920-1929, A Time Line of Selected Events

1920 | 1921 | 1922 | 1923 | 1924 | 1925 | 1926 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929

Key:

Statistics

Politics

Science

Social

Sports

Arts

1920: CHARLESTON

Population of Charleston 100,000
3,462 registered automobiles reflect local prosperity
Total enrollment of C of C is 138, 43 were women
C of C graduating class is 8 male students: Brown, Burgess, Easterby, Figg, Hirschmann, Seymour, Simonds, Wellbrock
John P. Grace is mayor of Charleston
Sewer lines and water lines extended to black residential areas due to high death rates resulting from overcrowding and unsanitary housing
Society for the Preservation of Old Dwellings is founded (later renamed Preservation Society of Charleston)
Restoration of Cabbage Row (later Rainbow Row) begins
Gloria Theater is constructed
DuBose Heyward et al. organize the Poetry Society of SC

1920: BEYOND

U.S. Population is 105,710,620
For the first time more than half of all Americans live in urban areas
Model T Ford costs $575
Warren G. Harding (Rep.) elected president
18th Amendment goes into effect: Prohibition throughout United States
19th Amendment gives American women the vote
League of Nations holds its first meeting in Geneva
Senate rejects U.S. membership in League of Nations
Gandhi emerges as India's leader in its struggle for independence
German astronomer shows the true structure of the Milky Way for the first time
First radio station is licensed (Pittsburgh)
American Professional Football Association is formed
The Boston Red Sox sell Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for $125,000
Eugene O'Neill is awarded a Pulitzer Prize and publishes The Emperor Jones
Edith Wharton publishes The Age of Innocence
F. Scott Fitzgerald publishes This Side of Paradise
Edna St. Vincent Millay publishes A Few Figs From Thistles
Sinclair Lewis publishes Main Street
William Dean Howells dies

1921: CHARLESTON

Value of ocean-borne trade reaches $154 million, a figure unsurpassed until WWII
Carl Sandburg addresses The Poetry Society; conservative members criticize his work
First yearbook published by The Poetry Society

1921: BEYOND

U.S. population reaches 107 million
Washington Conference on international naval disarmament
Hitler's storm troopers begin to terrorize political opponents
Unknown Soldier interred at Arlington National Cemetery
Albert Einstein wins Nobel Prize for Physics for his photoelectric effect discovery
Founding of the British Broadcasting Company
Ku Klux Klan becomes violent throughout southern United States
Sacco and Vanzetti found guilty of murder
Edward Munch paints The Kiss
Ezra Pound: Poems 1918-1921
John Dos Passos publishes Three Soldiers

1922: CHARLESTON

Society for the Preservation of Negro Spirituals tours and sings before segregated East Coast audiences
The Citadel moves from Calhoun Street to Hampton Park
The Gibbes Art Gallery (Meeting Street) exhibits the work of local artists
Amy Lowell addresses the Poetry Society

1922: BEYOND

Mussolini forms Fascist government
Gandhi is sentenced to six years imprisonment for civil disobedience
Stock market "boom" starts in America
Invention of the self-winding wristwatch
American cocktail becomes popular in Europe
Emily Post publishes Etiquette
Founding of Reader's Digest
Louis Armstrong arrives in Chicago from New Orleans
Shuffle Along becomes the first all-black Broadway production
T.S. Eliot publishes The Waste Land
James Joyce publishes Ulysses in Paris
U.S. Post Office burns 500 copies of James Joyce's Ulysses upon its arrival in U.S.
F. Scott Fitzgerald publishes Tales of the Jazz Age
Sinclair Lewis publishes Babbitt
e. e. cummings publishes The Hairy Ape
James Weldon Johnson publishes Book of American Negro Poetry
Claude McKay publishes Harlem Shadows

1923: CHARLESTON

Free tuition for C of C is extended to the residents of Charleston County
The city donates land on the Battery as the site for a tourist hotel
Charleston's Junior League established

1923: BEYOND

President Harding dies in August; succeeded by Calvin Coolidge
First non-stop transcontinental flight
Dodge produces the first car with an all-steel, closed body
First birth control clinic opens in New York
Col. Jacob Schick patents electric razor
Widespread KKK violence in U.S.
Teapot Dome scandal (1923-1924)
Celebration of the first Mother's Day in Europe
Founding of Time magazine
Bix Beiderbecke organizes a jazz band in Chicago
Joseph "King" Oliver and "Jelly Roll" Morton record New Orleans-style jazz
Bessie Smith, "Empress of the Blues," makes her first record
George Gershwin writes Rhapsody in Blue
Carl Jung's translated Psychological Types is published
William Butler Yeats wins Nobel Prize for Literature
Edna St. Vincent Millay receives Pulitzer Prize for poetry
D. H. Lawrence publishes Studies in Classic American Literature
Wallace Stevens publishes Harmonium
William Carlos Williams publishes Spring and All
Edna St. Vincent Millay publishes Harp-Weaver
Jean Toomer publishes Cane
Bambi is written

1924: CHARLESTON

The average price for a house in the city is $6,000; average rent is $30.
A new dress costs $14.00
A pair of shoes from Condon's costs $8.00
Groceries: can of milk- 11¢, dozen eggs- 30¢, 100 cigarettes- 15¢
Thomas P. Stoney is mayor of Charleston
C of C baseball is played at College Park
Francis Marion hotel (King and Calhoun) is built and is the largest hotel in the Carolinas
First concerts of the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of Charleston
The Charleston Community Concert Association sponsors several annual concerts

1924: BEYOND

Calvin Coolidge is elected president
J. Edgar Hoover is appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation (renamed the FBI in 1935)
U.S. National Origins Act limits immigrants
Lenin dies
Ford Motor Company produces 10 millionth car
2.5 million radios are in use in the United States
Insecticides are used for the first time
Frost wins Pulitzer Prize
Publication of Sigmund Freud's Collected Writings
Pablo Picasso's abstract period
Comedian Will Rogers at height of his career

1925: CHARLESTON

Fort Sumter Hotel is built at the Battery (now the Fort Sumter House)
Parking is a problem at C of C
"The Charleston" becomes the fashionable dance, drawing attention to the city
DuBose Heyward's Porgy is published

1925: BEYOND

U.S. population 115 million
A copy of The Bible costs $3.00
Hitler reorganizes Nazi Party and publishes Mein Kampf
John Scopes goes on trial for violating Tennessee law prohibiting the teaching of evolution
First woman governor in America is elected in Wyoming
First television transmission
International protest against illegal narcotics trade
New York's New Madison Square Garden opens
Trinity College in North Carolina changes its name to Duke University
Crossword puzzles become fashionable
Jazz (Chicago style) arrives in Europe
George Bernard Shaw wins the Nobel Prize for Literature
F. Scott Fitzgerald publishes The Great Gatsby
e. e. cummings publishes XLI Poems
Theodore Dreiser publishes An American Tragedy
Sinclair Lewis publishes Arrowsmith
Bruce Barton publishes The Man Nobody Knows
John Dos Passos publishes Manhattan Transfer
Eugene O'Neill publishes Desire Under the Elms
The Book of American Negro Spirituals published
Countee Cullen publishes Color
Publication of the Harlem Renaissance anthology The New Negro, edited by Alain Locke
Circulation of The New Yorker magazine for the first time

1926: CHARLESTON

C of C enrollment increases to 253
First concrete Ashley River Bridge opens and is dedicated to the SC citizens who died in WWI

1926: BEYOND

Nobel Prize for Medicine is awarded for cancer research
Firing of first liquid fuel rocket
Kodak produces the first 16mm movie film
Invention of the permanent wave
Book-of-the-Month Club starts
Popular song: "I found a Million Dollar Baby in the Five-and-Ten-Cent Store"
Harry Houdini dies
First woman swims the English Channel
Duke Ellington's first records appear
"Jelly Roll" Morton's first records appear
R. H. Tawney's Religion and the Rise of Capitalism
Ernest Hemingway publishes The Sun Also Rises
Production of films Ben Hur and Don Juan
Carl Van Vechten publishes Nigger Heaven
Langston Hughes publishes The Weary Blues

1927: CHARLESTON

Mayor Stoney reelected
Charleston Museum exhibits tour the county's black schools
The Citadel plays a football game to dedicate Johnson Hagood Stadium
The American Institute of Architects publishes the complete work of the city's early architecture, attracting international attention
Drama Porgy by Dorothy and DuBose Heyward debuts in New York, Jenkins Orphanage Band plays at the debut of the play

1927: BEYOND

Great Mississippi River Flood
Sacco and Vanzetti executed
First vehicular tunnel links New York and New Jersey
Lindbergh flies "Spirit of St. Louis" nonstop from New York to Paris in 33.5 hrs
Pavlov proposes "Conditioned Reflexes"
First all-electric television image
15 millionth Model T Ford produced
Ford introduces the Model A, which sells for $850
Development of "Iron Lung"
Airplanes first used to dust crops with insecticide
Fluorescent lamps are improved
Slow fox trot is the fashionable dance
Babe Ruth hits 60 home runs for the New York Yankees
Harlem Globetrotters basketball team organizes
Freud publishes The Ego and the Id
Al Jolson stars in the first talkie, The Jazz Singer
Kern and Hammerstein write Show Boat
Ernest Hemingway publishes Men Without Women
Herman Hesse publishes Steppenwolf
Langston Hughes publishes Fine Clothes to the Jew
Countee Cullen publishes Copper Sun and "Ballad of the Brown Girl"
James Weldon Johnson's Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912) is reprinted with his name given as author

1928: CHARLESTON

Tourism becomes the city's biggest industry in the late 20's; 47,000 visitors annually spending $4 million
Freshman class at C of C has 128 students, of these 32 graduate
C of C woman's Fencing Club starts
Julia Peterkin's novel Scarlet Sister Mary wins a Pulitzer Prize

1928: BEYOND

Brazil's economy collapses due to the overproduction of coffee
Fleming discovers penicillin
First color motion picture exhibit
First scheduled television broadcasts by WGYN, Schenectady, N.Y.
New York Times installs "moving" electric sign around Times Building
Richard Byrd starts expedition to Antarctica (returns 1930)
Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly across the Atlantic
The first Academy Awards (Oscars) are presented
Women participate in the Olympic Games for the first time
George Gershwin's An American in Paris is performed in New York
The first Mickey Mouse films by Disney
Warner Bros. releases The Lights of New York, longest sound film to date
Oxford English Dictionary published after 44 years of research
D.H. Lawrence publishes Lady Chatterley's Lover
Margaret Mead publishes Coming of Age in Samoa
Nella Larsen publishes Quicksand
W.E.B. DuBois publishes Dark Princess
Claude McKay publishes Home to Harlem
Jessie Fauset publishes Plum Bun

1929: CHARLESTON

Tourist trade and truck-farming industry evaporates in response to stock market crash
Cooper River Bridge opens as third largest cantilevered bridge in the world
Charleston's 1st zoning laws are established to protect city's historic district (the 1st historic zoning ordinance in America)
C of C awards Doctor of Literature degree to DuBose Heyward

1929: BEYOND

Herbert Hoover elected president
"Black Friday" - New York U.S. Stock Exchange collapses; world economic crisis; The Great Depression begins
Establishment of the independent Vatican City
Arabs attack Jews in Palestine after dispute over Jewish use of the Wailing Wall
Chevrolet AC Sports Coupe mechanically surpasses the obsolete Model T
Scotch tape is developed
Manufacturing of aluminum furniture (chairs) in America
"Graf Zeppelin" airship flies around the world
Flight over the South Pole by Richard Byrd
St. Valentine's Day Massacre: 6 notorious Chicago gangsters murdered
Construction begins on Empire State Building, New York City
"Talkies" kill silent films
Wallace Thurman's play Harlem is a hit on Broadway
Museum of Modern Art opens in New York; exhibition include works by Cezanne, Gauguin, Seurat, and Van Gogh
All Quiet on the Western Front is a best seller
Ernest Hemingway publishes A Farewell to Arms
William Faulkner publishes The Sound and the Fury
Thomas Wolfe publishes Look Homeward Angel
Nella Larsen publishes Passing