1920s
The First Federal Prison For Women Was Opened In 1928, ...
May 8, 2021
Nestled in the rolling hills of Alderson, West Virginia, sits the very first federal prison for women in the United States, the Federal Industrial Institute ...
Steamboat Willie: Facts, Stories, & Trivia About Mickey...
November 19, 2020
Steamboat Willie is commonly known as one the first cartoon ever made (and distributed) with sound (even though the Fleischer brothers released a cartoon tec...
The Pineapple Primary: An Election Violence Threat That...
November 8, 2020
Chicago has a long history of corrupt politics and organized crime, and tensions between two groups vying for control of the city (and a slice of its bootleg...
Ocoee Massacre Of 1920: When One Black Man Voting Spark...
November 5, 2020
Incidents of Election Day violence have occurred for generations, but one of the most gruesome and demoralizing acts of it was the Ocoee massacre, where at l...
Fascist Blackshirts March On Rome In 1922: How The Fasc...
November 1, 2020
(Unknown author/Wikimedia Commons) In 1922, after years of drumming up support for his fascist ideals, Benito Mussolini ordered his followers to march on Rome...
Liberia's 1927 Presidential Election: The Most Rigged E...
September 21, 2020
The flag of Liberia. (Government of Liberia/Wikimedia Commons) In the minds of many, "politics" and "corruption" are synonymous, and they can cite plenty of e...
Rudolph Hass, The US Postal Worker Who Invented Hass Av...
August 22, 2020
You've probably never thought about the origins of your favorite avocado, simply enjoying your taco or toast without a care for the interesting and inspirati...
19th Amendment: Aftermath And Stories About When Women ...
August 18, 2020
Three unidentified women make history by becoming the first of their sex to vote in an election after the 19th Amendment was passed, San Francisco, California, ...
Warren G. Harding's Death: Conspiracy Or Heart Attack? ...
August 3, 2020
In the history of the United States, eight presidents have died while in office. Four of them (Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley, James Garfield, and John F....
A History Of Sliced Bread: The Best Thing Since Itself
July 7, 2020
A loaf of sliced white bread. (Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images) We have probably all heard the phrase "the greatest thing since sliced bread," but it doesn...
Why Is It Called The Roaring '20s?
May 12, 2020
Magazine illustration of a roaring '20s party, New York , New York, 1926. (Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images) From provocative jazz music and scandalous flappers to snazzy bootleg...
When The U.S. Government Poisoned The Alcohol Supply Du...
January 20, 2020
The Prohibition Party was hemming and hawing about alcohol consumption for years before they got their way in 1919 with the passage of the 18th Amendment, banning...
The Oscars And Unions: The Awards Were Invented To Stop...
January 11, 2020
Presented every year to shine a light on the filmmakers who have created something truly special, the Academy Awards have morphed into a cultural barometer. Howev...
Buster Keaton Stunts: GIFs, Videos, And Stories Of His ...
December 3, 2019
Though he's remembered for his death-defying stunts, Buster Keaton was so much more than an adrenaline junkie who got his kicks in front of the camera. After get...
What You Didn’t Know About Black Tuesday And The Start ...
November 15, 2019
You probably remember from high school history class that the Great Depression of the 1930s was caused by the 1929 stock market crash, but did you know tha...
Tulsa Race Massacre: What Happened, Why, And The Afterm...
November 3, 2019
Some acts and misdeeds are so horrendous that they're hidden from history until they're nearly forgotten. The Tulsa Race Massacre is one of those moments in time...
“When It Rains, It Pours”: The History Of The Morton Sa...
May 17, 2019
Remember the Morton Salt Girl? Of course you do, Morton table salt still puts that girl (and her umbrella) on every package of their truly iconic salt. T...
The Bob: A Revolutionary And Empowering Hairstyle
April 14, 2019
American actress Louise Brooks, shown here in 1929, was known for her daring short bobbed hair. Source: (John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images) Prior to the 20th century,...
Rum Runners: A Short, But Profitable Prohibition-Era Ca...
March 6, 2019
When the United States Congress finally caved to pressures from temperance groups and passed the 18th Amendment in 1920, the country went dry. Alcohol produc...
Zoot Suits: The History and Controversy of the Flashy M...
January 21, 2019
Blue Rondo a la Turk, Aug 1981. Source: (Photo by: Graham Smith/PYMCA/UIG via Getty Images) For several decades, the zoot suit was a flashy, jazzy style trend...
What happened in the 1920s?
December 1, 2018
The League of Nations was eventually superseded by the United Nations. (Photo by A. R. Coster/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images) The League of Nations first met on 15th November 1920 with r...
Debunking the Myth of Houdini’s Death on Halloween, 192...
October 31, 2018
Always amazing and often mystifying, escape artist Harry Houdini’s name is now synonymous with daring, death-defying escape tricks. Houdini dodged death mul...
The Mysterious Disappearance of Agatha Christie
August 20, 2018
Agatha Christie is known as the best selling novelist of all time. She wrote a total of 80 novels, 66 detective novels and 14 short stories. Her books have only been out...
Fatty Arbuckle and the Start of the Me Too Movement
July 5, 2018
Long before Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby started groping young Hollywood starlets, there was Fatty Arbuckle. In the early 1920s, Arbuckle was a big star…literall...
The Fake Paris You Never Knew About
October 13, 2017
Towards the end of World War I French military planners hired private firms to help build a fake with a faux Arc di Triomphe and Goud du Nord among its many “landmarks.” Viewed from pla...
100-Year-Old Wooden Escalators Still in Operation in th...
October 12, 2017
Built between 1920 and 1930 by Otis Elevator Company, which pioneered the machinery, these wooden escalators can still be found in good working condition at Macy'...
The Lost Victorian Houses of Downtown LA
September 27, 2017
Downtown LA have a history buried under gleaming high-rise office blocks and strip malls… Despite its once fashionable apartment buildings attracting high-income residents, Bunker ...
Ada Blackjack's Adventure is One of the Most Extreme Wi...
September 1, 2017
In the early 20th century, one Canadian explorer by the name of Vilhjalmur Stefansson wanted to claim a sizeable piece of land in the Arctic Ocean, about 100 mile...
Everyday Life of Inuit People Captured in 25 Vintage Ph...
August 24, 2017
The Inuit people live in the far northern parts Alaska, Siberia, Canada, and Greenland. Everything about their lives is influenced by the cold climate in which th...
The Real Story Behind Pep 'The Cat-Murdering Dog' Who W...
August 17, 2017
The photo below has been shared over and over in the internet captioned: "The Dog Who Was Sentenced to Life Without Parole for Murdering the Governor's Cat" The ...
98-Yr-Old Man Becomes Multi-Millionaire Thanks To Stock...
July 1, 2017
In 1923, 4-year-old Russ Gremel moved into a new home with his family in the Jefferson Park area of Chicago. The street lamps had to be lit at night and people ro...
How to Do the Marcel Waves, Step-by-Step Tutorial, 1920...
June 28, 2017
The Marcel waves reached their height of popularity during the '20s, about 15 years after the first electric curling iron was invented. At the time, waving was th...
Britain's "Unkillable" Soldier, Adrian Carton de Wiart
May 29, 2017
Lt. General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart served as a British officer in the Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. He survived two plane crashes, was ...
The War Children Who Were Born YELLOW: Children of Expl...
May 17, 2017
The First World War left a taint on everyone - but for some it happened more literally than others. Gladys Sangster is one of Britain's last surviving 'Canary Bab...
The Man Who Sold Liquor to Congressmen and Senators Dur...
April 12, 2017
Back in 1920, America went “Dry” in an attempt to lower the crime and death rates, although we all know how it ended; people drank like there's no tomorrow and or...
The Ice-Skating Cocktail Waiters of at the Grand Hotel ...
March 22, 2017
In the 1920s and 30s at the Grand Hotel les Bains in St. Moritz, Switzerland, they had the right idea: serve drinks on its ice terrace by skating waiters. It took...
The Solvay Conference: Gathering of Some of the Most In...
March 22, 2017
The Solvay Conference was founded in 1912 by Belgian industrialist Ernest Solvay. It was considered a turning point in the physics world. Held in Brussels, the co...
The Orphan Train Movement, 1854 - 1929
March 10, 2017
The Orphan Train Movement was a satisfactory welfare program that moved many orphaned and homeless children from the populous Eastern cities to foster homes widely located in rural a...
The Story of The Luckiest Unlucky Man To Ever Live
March 10, 2017
Known as the world’s luckiest unlucky man, Frane Selak, a Croatian music teacher was able to cheat death --- seven times! And, incredibly, in 2003, Selak won $1,000,000 d...
You'll Find These Huge Arrows on the Ground All Over Am...
February 27, 2017
An amazing method to be on the right track...
1920s Police Mugshots - These Men Don't Look Like They'...
February 22, 2017
These compilation is one among a series of around 2500 "special pictures" captured by New South Wales Police Department photographers from the year 1910 to 1930. ...
Italy Over 100 Years Ago (Without The Influx of Tourist...
January 23, 2017
An amateur photographer took these old pictures during one of their family trips to England and Europe from 1907 to 1922. These depicted day to day living from th...
Before Radar, These Giant Concrete “Sound Mirrors” Were...
January 18, 2017
Before the invention of radars, acoustic mirrors were used in Great Britain as early warning devices. The mirrors were built to detect incoming enemies by the...
California's 1000-year-old Pioneer Cabin Tree Has Falle...
January 10, 2017
Serving as human amusement, the Pioneer Cabin tree was one among many “tunnel trees” that had been carved out. The precise age and height of this tree were not re...
Photos of Children Before Child Labor Laws Were Passed,...
January 6, 2017
Back in 1908, Lewis Hine traveled to the town of Eastport, ME. A sociologist and photographer hired by the US National Committee of Child Labour to investigate ab...
Cost of Living Throughout the Years, 1924 - 1999
January 6, 2017
Cost of living is the amount of money necessary to maintain a certain standard of living, basic expenditures included such as housing, food, taxes and health care. Take a l...
Ten Assorted Vintage Artificial Eyes from 1870 - 1920
January 4, 2017
In the 19th century, advances in complicated eye operations were discovered as more and more doctors specialize in eye disease. When anaesthesia was introduced in 1846...
Vintage Snapshots of Boxers From the Early 20th Century
December 29, 2016
Boxing has been included in the Olympic Games program since 1904. For centuries people used their fists to resolve disputes before someone thought of organizing such...
This Ingenious Car From 1923 Turns Into a Boat
December 22, 2016
In 1921, John A. Cowan of Kansas City, Mo., has patented a car roof that slips off and can be carried right into the water, turning into a lightweight flat-bottomed boat. T...
Vintage Snapshots of Female Skiers from Between 1920s a...
December 22, 2016
Skiing, one of indispensable sports of winter. But until the mid-19th century it was primarily used for transport, and since then has become a recreation and spor...
Black and White Photos Show Winter in Boston From Betwe...
December 19, 2016
Bostonians know how winter can be both magical and miserable. Here's a selection of 33 photographs taken by Leslie Jones, staff photographer for the Boston Herald...
Downtown Christmas Decorations in the 1920s - 1960s
December 16, 2016
Let's stroll back into the past through this collection of vintage photos showing beautiful street scenes of different cities during Christmas time! Photo of downtown ...
A Look Inside Hoovervilles During the Great Depression
December 11, 2016
After the stock market crashed in 1929, many Americans lost their jobs and many families in America's largest cities were unable to pay their mortgages or rent paymen...
Margaret Gorman, The First Miss America, in the 1920s
December 6, 2016
In 1921, Margaret Gorman was a rising junior at Western High School (now the Duke Ellington School of Arts) when her photo was entered into a Washington Herald city po...
Did You Know the Eiffel Tower Was Once a Giant Advertis...
November 30, 2016
Did you know that for nine years, the Citroën car company ‘rented‘ the Eiffel Tower and had it’s brand name emblazoned on it with 125,000 glowing lights? The sign...
Driving around New York City in 1928
November 27, 2016
A wonderful glimpse of life in the big city; location shots give you a real feeling for how everyday folks lived. The scenes filmed in New York City are from the 1928 silent film "Spee...
The 1920s House Obama Will Live in After He Moves Out o...
November 10, 2016
President Barack Obama will remain in the Oval Office after election day, but will officially become a “lame duck” president. He will have 73 days to tick remaini...
"Probable Causes of Insanity" Among The Inmates of the ...
November 10, 2016
The new asylum building was equipped to handle 100 patients. Seven men, chosen by the Senate, were to serve as a Board of Managers. They were tasked to hire the s...
A Time When Boys Wore Pink and Girls Wore Blue - And Bo...
November 7, 2016
Just before the 1920s, pink and blue started to become associated with gender - pink was considered suitable for boys while blue was suitable for girls. This was ...
Color Photos Showing Life In Japan In The 1860s - 1900s
October 29, 2016
Prisoner, 1860 Woman in front of the mirror, photographer Baron Raimund von Stillfried, 1860 Two tattooed men, photographer Baron Raimund von Stillfried Pilgrim g...
After Nearly 1,900 Years at the Bottom of Lake Nemi, Em...
October 16, 2016
As one of his capricious whims, Emperor Caligula ordered several large barges to be built to use on Lake Nemi. The two vessels, which were designated in modern ti...
Mildred Unger: The 10 Year-Old Girl Who Danced on the W...
October 14, 2016
Before the onset of the Great Depression, the Roaring Twenties were a time of economic prosperity, new technology and, perhaps most famously, dancing. In 1927, 1...
50 Photos Show Everyday Life of Native American People ...
October 6, 2016
American ethnologist and photographer Edward Sheriff Curtis shot these incredible vintage photos of the everyday life of Native American people during the 1900s t...
The GPS of the 1920s: The Plus Fours Routefinder
September 29, 2016
It doesn't speak to you or give live traffic updates, but the Plus Fours Routefinder is the world's first satellite navigation - invented in the 1920s. It was designed to b...
Beautiful Vintage RVs and Motorhomes (5 Photos)
September 23, 2016
Camper Truck, 1918. A custom-built camper truck perfect for picnics and camping. There is a pull-out area for cooking, a screened-in living area with rain blinds, and ample ...
Peter Freuchen: The Arctic Explorer Who Was Burried in ...
September 20, 2016
Lorenc Peter Elfred Freuchen was a 6’7” tall Danish explorer and old-school 1900s explorer who rode a dogsled 1,000 kilometers across the Greenland ice cap in the...
The Secret Room Behind Mount Rushmore
September 19, 2016
Mt. Rushmore may be one of the most recognizable landmarks on the planet, but it has been harboring a little-known secret for decades. According to The Sun, this iconic stone sculptur...
Why Do Pilots Often Say “Roger” on the Radio?
September 5, 2016
Even if you haven’t heard it in real life, you’ve probably heard a pilot on TV say “Roger.” You’ve even heard pilots say “Roger Wilco.” Have you ever wondered who Roger Wi...
21 Vintage Police Mugshots of 1920s Gangsters
August 10, 2016
Back in the day, my grandpa used to say, gangsters had class, not just swag. After looking at these 1920s police mugshots, I now believe him. See if you agree, too. 1. 2. ...
1920s: Women and their Cars
July 28, 2016
During the 1920s, many Americans had extra money to spend, and so they spent it on consumer goods such as ready-to-wear clothes and home appliances like electric refrigerators and radios. But ...
100-Year-Old Theater Converted into a Grand Bookshop
July 19, 2016
Inside the building of a 100-year-old theater is the most stunning bookshop you’ll ever see. Photo: Wikiwand Grand Splendid Theater, now converted into a bookshop call...
Vintage Photos of the Early Hair Dryers from Between th...
July 2, 2016
A woman sits under a chrome-plated hair dryer, 1928. c. 1928 A stylist uses a freestanding dryer to blow dry a client's hair with controlled precision at the Ha...
The Original “Victoria’s Secret” Beauties of the 1920s
June 13, 2016
When I see black and white portraits of women from the 1920s or early 19th century I always find them unflattering. Maybe it's the melodramatic make-up, or thei...
Rare Color Photos of 1928 England
June 2, 2016
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, photographer Clifton R. Adams was commissioned by National Geographic to record the everyday life of the people of England. Adams was able to capture th...
These Old Photos Of Daredevils Doing Stunts On Top Of F...
May 20, 2016
It wasn't long after the Wright brothers made their historic first flight that daredevils began doing death-defying stunts on, over, and below flying airplanes. ...
Old Photos of Unclaimed Lost and Found Items Left On Ra...
May 19, 2016
Countless number of things have been left on stations and trains by passengers. Normally, these items are collected by railway attendants and surrendered to the l...
30 Rare Photos Taken 85 Years Ago During the American G...
April 20, 2016
On October 29, 1929, known as the infamous Black Tuesday, the stock market collapsed, marking the start of the Great Depression -- a period of hardship, fear, and...
What It Was Like To Go Looking For a Job During The Gre...
March 11, 2016
During The Great Depression, banks failed, businesses closed, city streets were desolates, families lost their homes, and unemployment in the rose to nearly 25%. ...
Way Back Then: Life in the 1920s
March 10, 2016
A short glimpse of the way of life in the '20s. Credits: Aaron1912
