20th Century Tribute
Al Koch
July 2026
Preface
Time goes by at the speed of life. The 20th Century snippets presented for review are an invitation and appetizers to more fully enjoy the diverse menu prepared and served throughout the past one hundred years. As each cognitive morsel of life on earth is visited, sampled, and savored, remembrance of each day’s treasure reminds us to value and appreciate the gift of each day.
“Remember back in high school how plentiful and cheap days were when we were young. Like penny candy we always had a pocketful—and spent them casually. Now our supply is diminished, and their value has soared. Each one becomes worth its weight in the gold of dawn. Suddenly we live in unaccustomed thrift, cherishing hours the way lovers prize moments. Even at that, when the week is ended, it seems we’ve gone through another fortune. A day doesn’t go as far as it used to.” --Leo Rosten
Take a moment and read about us. Life turns the pages and goes by so fast. This “tribute” is but a slight pause, a welcomed respite along the way to celebrate, appreciate, and congratulate one another for the times of our life.
_________________________
Twenty-six years ago, we welcomed a new century, number 21, another opportunity to do better. There were end-of-century parties, celebrations, prognostications, predictions, and both pro and con viewpoints as to what the arrival of the 21st Century’s coming years has in store for inhabitants on planet earth. Unfortunately, we are captured by the here-and-now, the Present. We cannot predict the Future with any certainty but are able to look back and review what occurred the previous century. That’s what the following is about.
Hopefully, when reading the litany and lists of notable individuals, events, innovations, technological achievements, and milestones, of a particular decade from the 20th Century, one will recall feelings, moments, and remembrances from the past that shaped, affected, and touched their life.
Many of the 20th Century’s notable individuals, events, and developments took place before we were born and have no first-hand knowledge of what occurred. So many of us learned 20th Century history from family, teachers, radio and television broadcasts, newspapers, magazines, or hearsay from neighbors and townspeople.
Note that the herein names, places, events, innovations, inventions, and happenings represent a miniscule random sample of the international, national, and local occurrences that filled the past 100 years, 36,524 days, 876,576 hours, 52,594,560 minutes of the 20th Century. (This includes the 24 additional Leap Year days of the previous century. (see Appendix A for Listing of Leap Years.)
1900-1910
The 20th Century arrived at midnight, Monday, January 1, 1900. America was on the verge of an industrial, technological, transportation, economic, social, and financial, revolution. Accelerating their importance initiated in the closing years of the 1800s, they enriched the first decade of the new century. An individual sampling: giants of industry--Vanderbilt… Gould…Sanford, Pullman… John D, Rockefeller—Standard Oil…Andrew Carnegie – Steel/Philanthropy…J.P. Morgan-Banking/Steel…Henry Ford…George Westinghouse… Harvey Firestone…Nikole Tesla… Siemens…Gilette…Carrier…Thomas Edison…Orville and Wilbur Wright...President “Teddy” Roosevelt...Pope Leo XIII…was succeeded by Pius X in 1903…all took to the public stage and individually and collectively, changed the world.
Two of the most significant men in Whiting’s early history never lived here and didn’t spend much time here. The city is named after Herbert “Pop” Whiting, a railroad conductor who often worked the train that passed through the city. And the man who built Whiting’s main industry, the oil refinery, also never lived here, nor spent much time here. John D. Rockefeller (upper photo) did, however, create jobs for generations of local residents, including the coopers in the lower photo. They made wooden barrels in which kerosene and gas were shipped in the early 1900s.
Innovations: Brownie Camera…escalator…ice cream cone…vacuum cleaners…neon signs…cellophane… crayons…Mother’s Day…paper clips…Teddy Bear…color photography…motion pictures…1901, Guglielmo Marconi invents AM (Amplitude Modulation) Radio…windshield wipers…Kellogg’s Corn Flakes…phonograph… Major events: first airplane flight…San Francisco Earthquake…President McKinley assassinated…Edison invents nickel alkaline battery…The Cornerstone for Whiting Indiana’s Carnegie Library was set in place in 1905…and…opened on July 31, 1906—(see Appendix B)…the birth of my father and mother in 1903 and 1908 respectively…16th Amendment – July 1909—Income Tax…and…
1911 – 1929
Prohibition was not popular in Whiting. Like many places in America, a national law banning liquor did not get rid of it in Whiting. It only forced it underground and resulted in arrests of otherwise law-abiding people while making those who were not normally law-abiding richer. In Whiting, it also put businesses like this saloon operated by the Vogel family illegal. The saloon was located at Roberts Avenue and Indianapolis Boulevard.
Titanic disaster…Fenway Park opens…Panama Canal opens…Ty Cobb Detroit Tigers…President Taft…Margaret Sanger…First crossword puzzle…Babe Ruth—Red Sox/Yankees…Indianapolis 500 race 1911…Woodrow Wilson President 1913-1921—World War I…Doughboys…George M. Cohan—“Grand ‘Ol Flag,” “Over There”, “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy”…Knute Rockne/Notre Dame…Penicillin—Alexander Fleming-1928…Stock Market Crash-1929…The Great Depression…Charles Lindbergh-The Spirit of St. Louis, -solo across the Atlantic to Paris…The Roaring Twenties…Einstein Relativity…Scopes trial-1924…skyscraper age begins, Chrysler Building, Empire State Building…Helen Keller...Prohibition Amendment…Pope Benedict XV reigns from 1914-1922…his successor, Pius XI is Pope until 1939…Construction on Route 66 begins…78 rpm, 10” records begin production…Reel to Reel recording tape invented in the early 1920s…General John Pershing...League of Nations—1920…17th Amendment-May 1912--Election of Senators…18th Amendment – Prohibition –December 1917…19th Amendment, June 1919-Prohibits denial of right to vote based on sex, (Women’s Right to Vote.)…and…
1930-1949 (see Notation – Appendix B)
Hollywood heyday: Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse debuts 1930…Wizard of Oz, Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, Gone With The Wind…Hoover Dam constructed—1931-36…San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge—constructed 1933-37…aviator Amelia Earehart ‘s disappearance…Prohibition repealed via the 21st Amendment…Big Band era thrives-Dorsey Brother, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman…etc…gangster Al Capone…The Untouchables…Superman debuts in 1939 Action Comics…FDRs New Deal… Franklin Delano Roosevelt elected President in 1933—only 4-term president…1939 War begins in Europe…Adolph Hitler/NAZIs…Attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941, United States enters World War II, fighting both the Japanese in the Pacific and Germany throughout Europe…Generals Eisenhower…Patten…Bradley…Macarthur…Geroge Marshall…Admirals Nimitz…Halsey…Britian’s Winston Churchill…Russia’s Josef Stalin…Italy’s Benito Mussolini…Neighborhood air-raid wardens…Blackout drills…Eugenio Pacelli becomes Pope in 1939 until his passing in 1958…Radar…AM Radio connects America border to border, shore to shore. IWar time reports…information, news, and entertainment unite the country: FDRs Fireside chats…Jack Benny… Red Skeleton… Phil Harris… Edward R. Morrow… Gabriel Heatter…Walter Winchell…The Shadow…Suspense…Gunsmoke… Superman…Tom Mix… Jack Armstrong… The Lone Ranger…Sgt. Preston…Little Orphan Annie…soap operas—Portia Faces Life…Our Gal Sunday…The Romance of Helen Trent. Men, women, and children of all ages—faithful listeners purchase sponsors advertised products, and premiums acquired for box tops and a few coins…General Mills debuts CHEERIOS in 1941…Shirley Temple…Joe Louis…Eleanor Roosevelt…Grocho Marx…Olympian Jesse Owens…D-Day, June 6, 1944…The Death of President Roosevelt-April 12, 1945…Vice-President Harry S. Truman becomes President…V-E Day, May 8, 1945…Enola Gay drop atomic bombs—August 6, 1945--Hiroshima, Japan and August 9, 1945—Nagasaki, Japan… V-J Day, August 14 ,1945…WWII aftermath—from 1939 to 1945, over 80 million military and civilians died…The Marshall Plan…Casablanca…Louis Armstrong…Citizen Kane…George Orwell nineteen-eighty-four…Slinky toy--1949…Television pioneers: Valdmir Zworykin, and Philo Farnsworth invents first cathode ray tube to disseminate electronic images…David Sarnoff forms RCA and leads the national development of television—First televised image: Felix the Cat…Edward Howard Armstrong invented FM (Frequency Modulation) Radio—1930…Polaroid Land Camera—1948… Transistors invented in Bell Telephone Laboratory—December 1947, William Shouckley…John Bardeen…Walter Brattain—awarded Nobel Prize for physics…Route 66 is completed—1938…45 RPM, 7-inch record produced by RCA 1948…Columbia produces first 331/3 RPM long-playing 12”records…B.F. Goodrich invents tubeless automotive tire—1947…Max Steiner…Irving Belin—(1888-1989) wrote over 1250 songs. Two of his finest: God Bless America and White Christmas became most popular…Monopoly—Invented by Elizabth “Lizzy” Magie and Charles Darrow 1933—Sold to Parker Brothers in 1935…United Nations 01-24-1945…Milton Berle “Mr. Television” – 1948…first Dairy Queen—Joliet IL, 1948…WPA…Ration Stamps…Victory Gardens…CCC camps…Empire State Building – 1931…Golden Gate Bridge-1937…US Social Security (SSA) – 1935…20th Amendment defines dates of terms of office, March 1932…21st Amendment—Repeals Prohibition, 1933…War Bonds…”Kilroy was here!”{…G.I. Joe…”Praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition”…and…