1920s

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The 1920s was a decade sometimes referred to as the "Jazz Age" or the "Roaring Twenties," usually applied to America. In Europe the decade is sometimes referred to as the Golden Twenties (see 1920s Berlin).

Events and Trends

Fashions for women: Autumn of 1928.

Since the closing of the 20th Century, the 1920s has drawn close associations with the 1950s and 1990s, especially in the United States. The three decades are regarded as periods of economic prosperity, which lasted throughout almost the entire decade following a tremendous event that occurred in the previous decade (World War I and Spanish flu in the 1910s, World War II in the 1940s, and the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s). In the United States, this decade was known as the Roaring Twenties.

Despite the comparisons, however, there were a number of differences. Firstly, Weimar Republic Germany, like many other European countries, had to face a severe economic downturn in the opening years of the decade, due to the enormous debt caused by the war as well as the one-sided Treaty of Versailles. Such a crisis would culminate with a devaluation of the Mark in 1923, eventually leading to severe economic problems and the rise of the Nazis.

Second, the decade was characterized by the rise of radical political movements, especially in regions that were once part of empires. Communism began attracting large numbers of followers following the success of the October Revolution and the Bolsheviks' determination to win the subsequent Russian Civil War. The Bolsheviks would eventually adopt semi-capitalist policies from 1921 to 1928. The 1920s also experienced the rise of the far-right in Europe and elsewhere, starting with Fascism in the world as an antidote to Communism.

The Stock Market collapsed during October 1929 (see Black Tuesday) and drew a line under prosperous 1920s.

Technology

Poster for the second All-Color All-Talking movie: Gold Diggers of Broadway 1929.

* John T. Thompson invents Thompson submachine gun, also known as "Tommy gun"
* John Logie Baird invents the first working mechanical television system (1925). In 1928 he invents and demonstrates the first color television.
* Warner Brothers produces the first movie with a soundtrack Don Juan in 1926, followed by the first Part-Talkie The Jazz Singer in 1927, the first All-Talking movie Lights of New York in 1928 and the first All-Color All-Talking movie On with the Show 1929.
* Charles Lindbergh becomes the first person to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean (20 May-21 May 1927)
* Karl Ferdinand Braun invented the modern electronic cathode ray tube in 1897. The CRT became a commercial product in 1922.
* Record companies (such as Victor, Brunswick and Columbia) introduce a Electrical Recording process on their phonograph records in 1925 (that had been developed developed by Western Electric), resulting in a more life-like sound.

Science

According to the Big Bang theory explaining the birth of an expanding universe, the Universe originated in an extremely dense ball of pure matter. Since then, space itself has expanded with the passage of time, carrying the galaxies with it.

* Insulin is discovered by Sir Frederick Grant Banting during the winter of 1921-1922
* Penicillin is discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming (1928)
* Great advances in quantum mechanics
** Wave mechanics and the Schrödinger equation
** Werner Heisenberg formulates the uncertainty principle
* Prediction and discovery of the expanding universe
* Albert Einstein wins Nobel for photoelectric effect. (1921)
* Neils Bohr wins Nobel for work on atomic theory. (1922)

War, peace and politics

See also Social issues of the 1920s
* Rise of communism after World War I

Vladimir Lenin in 1920. He was leading figure of the Communist movement until his death in 1924.

* The Red Scare in the United States (1920-1921)
* In the United States, peak of the Ku Klux Klan (about five million members)
* In the United States, KKK auxiliaries established.
* Irish Civil War
* The Irish Free State gains independence from the United Kingdom in 1922
* Marie C. Brehm becomes temperance movement leader.
* Turkish War of Independence
* Moderation League of New York worked for repeal of prohibition.
* Polish-Soviet war
* First Labour Government of Ramsay MacDonald formed in the United Kingdom
* Kellogg-Briand Pact to end war
* Prohibition leaders were at the height of their power.
* The Qajar dynasty ended under Ahmad Shah Qajar and Reza Pahlavi formed the Pahlavi Dynasty, which would later become the last monarchy of Iran.
* Hitler publishes Mein Kampf, a book that foreshadows many of the events in the 1930s.
* Mussolini became Italy's Prime Minister and started a fascist dictatorship.

Economics

* The New Economic Policy is created by the Bolsheviks in Russia.
* The Dawes Plan, which lasted from 1924-1928
* Economic boom ended by "Black Tuesday" (October 29, 1929); the stock market crashes, leading to the Great Depression

Literature and Arts

* T. S. Eliot publishes The Waste Land
* James Joyce publishes Ulysses
* Franz Kafka publishes The Trial

Culture, religion

* Prohibition — legal attempt to end consumption of alcohol in Canada, the USA, Norway and Finland

Prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol.

* Youth culture of The Lost Generation; flappers, the Charleston, and bobbed hair
* "The Jazz Age" — jazz and jazz-influenced dance music widely popular
* F. Scott Fitzgerald publishes some of the most enduring novels characterizing the Jazz Age. This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, and The Great Gatsby, as well as three short story collections, were all published in these years.
* Women's suffrage movement continues to make gains as women obtain full voting rights in the United States in 1920, in Denmark in 1921, and in England in 1928; and women begin to enter the workplace in larger numbers
* In the US, gangsters and the rise of organized crime, often associated with bootleg liquor, in defiance of Prohibition.
* Rum rows are established to import bootleg alcoholic beverages into U.S.
* First commercial radio station in the U.S. goes on air in Pittsburgh, in 1920, and radio quickly becomes a popular entertainment medium
* Methodist Board of Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Morals defends alcohol prohibition in U.S.
* First feature-length motion picture with a sound track (Don Juan) is released in 1926. First part-talkie (The Jazz Singer) released in 1927, first all-talking feature (Lights of New York) released in 1928 and first all-color all-talking feature (On with the Show) released in 1929.
* Beginning of surrealist movement
* Beginning of the Art Deco movement
* Fads such as dance marathons, mah-jongg, crossword puzzles and pole-sitting are popular
* The height of the clip joint
* The Harlem Renaissance
* The Scopes Monkey Trial (1925) which declared that John T. Scopes had violated the law by teaching evolution in schools, creating tension between the competing theories of creationism and evolution.
* Bishop James Cannon, Jr. becomes a U.S. temperance movement leader.
* The Group of Seven (artists)
* Repeal organizations organized to fight national prohibition in U.S.
* Minister Daisey Douglas Barr heads Women's Ku Klux Klan (WKKK).
* The tomb of Tutankhamun is discovered intact by Howard Carter (1922). Begins a second revival of Egyptomania.

People

Styles

*Robert Sobel The Great Bull Market: Wall Street in the 1920s (1968)

1920s: Encyclopedia BETA

Contents