Timeline Description: The Great War has ended and the United States is now a world power with a new sense of peace and prosperity. Sometimes called the Jazz Age or the Roaring 20s, the 1920s are known for its new music, new fashions, and its thirst for entertainment.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| January 16, 1920 | Prohibition begins. The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution becomes official. Alcoholic beverages can no longer be made, sold, or transported in the United States. |
| August 18, 1920 | Women in the U.S. can vote. The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution becomes official. Women age twenty-one years and older now have the right to vote. |
| July 1921 | Hitler becomes leader of the Nazi Party. Adolf Hitler threatens to resign from the Nazi Party in Germany. He stays only when members agree to make him its official leader. |
| October 30, 1922 | Mussolini becomes Prime Minister. Benito Mussolini is made Prime Minister of Italy. He will become Italy's dictator in 1925. |
| August 1923 | Calvin Coolidge takes over. President Warren Harding dies. Vice-President Calvin Coolidge becomes President. Coolidge will run for re-election in 1924 and will become the 30th President of the United States. |
| 1924 | A big year for cars and radios. Ford Motor Company makes its 10 millionth Model T car. About 2.5 million radios are now in use in the United States with over 500 broadcast stations. |
| 1925 | Let's do the Charleston. Made famous in a 1923 New York play, the Charleston has become a dance craze in the U.S., and now becomes a sensation in Europe. Women who dance the Charleston are known as "Flappers." |
| January 27, 1926 | The televisor is created. Inventor John Logie Baird of Scotland demonstrates a machine that sends moving images over airwaves. He calls his machine a televisor. |
| March 16, 1926 | First liquid-fueled rocket fires. Robert H. Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket in Massachusetts. He will be called the Father of Modern Rocket Propulsion. |
| May 21, 1927 | Lindbergh flies alone. Charles Lindbergh becomes the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Paris. The flight takes 33.5 hours. |
| October 6, 1927 | The movies talk! The Jazz Singer becomes the first full-length motion picture with sound and songs. Movies will now be known as "talkies." |
| November 18, 1928 | Walt Disney speaks for Mickey Mouse. Walt Disney releases Steamboat Willie, his first cartoon with synchronized sound. Mickey is voiced by Disney himself. |
| August 29, 1929 | Airship flies around the world. German airship Graf Zeppelin lands in Lakehurst, New Jersey, completing its round-the-world flight. The trip takes 21 days from start to finish. |
| October 29, 1929 | New York Stock Exchange fails. Overconfidence causes people to pour their savings into the stock market to try to earn quick money. But when prices start to fall, panic begins and the market loses millions of shares as people try to recover their money. Many lose everything they have. Starting with a boom and ending with a bust, the 1920s was a catalyst for many changes soon to affect the world. |