What happened in the 1920s?
The Roaring Twenties brought radio, talking pictures, flappers and penicillin, and ended in the Wall Street Crash.
67 events, oldest first.
Timeline of The 1920s
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1920
Agatha Christie's first novel is published
The Mysterious Affair at Styles introduced Hercule Poirot.
Art & literature history
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1920
American women win the right to vote
Tennessee's deciding vote came from a young legislator who had a letter from his mother.
Politics & society history
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1920
Haribo is founded
The name comes from its founder: HAns RIegel, BOnn.
Food & brand history
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1920
Prohibition begins in the United States
Alcohol was banned nationwide for almost 14 years.
Politics & society history
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1920
The first commercial radio station goes on air
KDKA in Pittsburgh began by broadcasting US presidential election results.
Science & technology history
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1920
The League of Nations is founded
The United States, whose president had proposed it, never joined.
History of sport
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1920
The NFL is founded
It was founded at a car showroom in Canton, Ohio.
History of sport
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1920
The Olympic flag flies at the Games
Each of its five rings has a colour found in many national flags.
History of sport
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1920
The Yankees buy Babe Ruth from Boston
Boston fans blamed the sale for an 86-year World Series drought.
History of sport
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1920
Tug of war's last Olympic contest
Tug of war was an Olympic sport for five Games; Britain won it twice.
History of sport
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1921
Chanel No. 5 is launched
Coco Chanel picked the fifth sample she was shown.
Food & brand history
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1921
The play that coined the word 'robot' premieres
Karel Čapek's brother Josef suggested the word, from the Czech for 'forced labour'.
Art & literature history
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1921
The pop-up toaster is patented
Charles Strite invented it after being served burnt toast in a factory canteen.
Science & technology history
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1921
White Castle, the first burger chain, opens
It sold its small square burgers for 5 cents each.
Food & brand history
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1922
Betty White is born
She was born six years before sliced bread went on sale.
Pop culture history
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1922
Haribo invents the gummy bear
Hans Riegel's 'dancing bears' were inspired by trained bears at street fairs.
Food & brand history
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1922
Insulin is first used to treat diabetes
The first patient, 14-year-old Leonard Thompson, made a dramatic recovery.
Science & technology history
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1922
James Joyce's Ulysses is published
The whole novel takes place on a single day in Dublin.
Art & literature history
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1922
Mussolini's March on Rome
Mussolini himself arrived in Rome by sleeper train.
Modern history
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1922
The Irish Free State is established
Michael Collins called the treaty 'the freedom to achieve freedom'.
Politics & society history
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1922
The Lincoln Memorial is dedicated
Its statue of Lincoln is about 5.8 metres tall.
Modern history
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1922
The Ottoman Empire is dissolved
The empire lasted over 600 years, from before Machu Picchu was built until after the First World War.
Politics & society history
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1922
The Soviet Union is formed
The USSR lasted almost 70 years.
Politics & society history
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1922
Tutankhamun's tomb is discovered
Howard Carter's team spent ten years cataloguing its more than 5,000 objects.
History of exploration
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1923
Atatürk founds the Republic of Turkey
Turkey switched from Arabic to Latin script just five years later.
Politics & society history
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1923
Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch fails
He wrote Mein Kampf during his time in prison afterwards.
Modern history
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1923
The first Le Mans 24 Hours
It was won by a French Chenard & Walcker car.
History of sport
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1923
The Great Kanto earthquake
It struck at lunchtime, and fires from cooking stoves spread through Tokyo.
Natural history & deep time
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1923
The Hollywood sign is put up
It originally read 'HOLLYWOODLAND' and advertised a housing development.
Pop culture history
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1923
The Milky Way bar is launched
It was named after a malted milk drink, not the galaxy.
Food & brand history
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1923
Wembley hosts its first FA Cup final
In the 'White Horse Final', a police horse helped clear the crowd off the pitch.
History of sport
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1924
George Mallory vanishes on Everest
His body was found in 1999; whether he reached the summit is still a mystery.
History of exploration
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1924
Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue premieres
Its famous opening clarinet swoop began as a joke by the clarinettist in rehearsal.
Art & literature history
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1924
IBM gets its name
Before that it was the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company.
Food & brand history
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1924
Johnny Weissmuller wins Olympic swimming golds
The Olympic champion went on to play Tarzan in Hollywood.
History of sport
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1924
Lenin dies
His embalmed body is still on display in Moscow's Red Square.
Politics & society history
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1924
Paavo Nurmi wins five Olympic golds
The 'Flying Finn' won two of them within an hour.
History of sport
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1924
The first Cheltenham Gold Cup steeplechase
It was won by a horse called Red Splash.
History of sport
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1924
The first Winter Olympics
Held in Chamonix, France, they were originally billed as 'International Winter Sports Week'.
History of sport
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1925
The Great Gatsby is published
It sold poorly at first, and Fitzgerald died thinking himself a failure.
Art & literature history
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1926
Queen Elizabeth II is born
She was born in the same year as Marilyn Monroe.
Politics & society history
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1926
The General Strike in Britain
About 1.7 million workers walked out in support of the miners.
Modern history
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1926
Winnie-the-Pooh is published
Pooh was named partly after Winnipeg, a real black bear at London Zoo.
Art & literature history
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1927
Babe Ruth hits 60 home runs in a season
His record stood for 34 years.
History of sport
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1927
Jaffa Cakes are launched
A UK court ruled they are cakes, not biscuits, for tax purposes.
Food & brand history
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1927
Lindbergh flies solo across the Atlantic
He packed five sandwiches for the 33-hour flight and ate only one and a half.
History of exploration
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1927
Lucozade is created
It was first sold in pharmacies as a drink to help sick people recover.
Food & brand history
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1927
PEZ is invented in Austria
It began as a peppermint for adults trying to quit smoking; the name comes from Pfefferminz.
Food & brand history
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1927
The first Ryder Cup
It is named after Samuel Ryder, an English seed merchant.
History of sport
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1927
The Harlem Globetrotters play their first game
Despite the name, the team was formed in Chicago.
History of sport
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1927
The Jazz Singer brings talking pictures
It was the first feature film with synchronised spoken dialogue.
Pop culture history
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1928
British women win equal voting rights
The voting age for women was lowered from 30 to 21, matching men.
Politics & society history
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1928
Kingsford Smith flies across the Pacific
The flight from California to Australia took about 83 hours of flying.
History of exploration
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1928
Penicillin is discovered
Alexander Fleming noticed mould killing bacteria on a dish left out while he was on holiday.
Science & technology history
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1928
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are created
H. B. Reese had been a dairy farmer for Milton Hershey.
Food & brand history
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1928
Sliced bread is first sold
The first commercially sliced loaves were sold in Chillicothe, Missouri.
Food & brand history
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1928
Steamboat Willie introduces Mickey Mouse
One of the first cartoons with synchronised sound, it featured Walt Disney himself voicing Mickey.
Pop culture history
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1928
The Oxford English Dictionary is completed
Planned to take about ten years, it took around seventy.
Art & literature history
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1929
7 Up is launched
It originally contained lithium citrate, a mood-stabilising drug.
Food & brand history
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1929
Edwin Hubble shows the universe is expanding
Einstein later visited Hubble at Mount Wilson Observatory.
Science & technology history
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1929
Magritte paints 'This is not a pipe'
The joke: it's a painting of a pipe, not a pipe.
Art & literature history
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1929
New York's Museum of Modern Art opens
It opened just nine days after the Wall Street Crash.
Art & literature history
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1929
Richard Byrd flies over the South Pole
The crew had to dump supplies to clear the high polar plateau.
History of exploration
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1929
The first Academy Awards
The ceremony lasted about 15 minutes.
Pop culture history
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1929
The first Monaco Grand Prix
Winner William Grover-Williams later became a British secret agent in the Second World War.
History of sport
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1929
The Wall Street Crash
Share prices didn't regain their pre-crash peak until 1954.
Politics & society history
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1929
Tintin first appears
Hergé created him for the children's supplement of a Belgian newspaper.
Pop culture history
Think you know your history?
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