Our Personal History is also surrounded by actual history.
The Church Fathers consistently summed up the meaning of the Incarnation by using the formula “God became human, that humans might become God.” God’s entry into our humanity, even to the point of personal union, amounts, they saw, to the greatest possible affirmation and elevation of the human. St. Irenaeus, the great second-century theologian, could express the essence of Christianity with the pithy adage “the glory of God is a human being fully alive!”
Bishop Robert Barron, The Glory of God is a Human Being ‘Fully Alive’ (January 22, 2006) Word on Fire
In my 50 Years and 100 Posts, I mentioned some of these events. That goes back to 1920.
Here I isolate them for you so you can have a comprehensive list of great and interesting things or in other words Cool Trivia you can impress your friends with at parties and while your driving along in the car with nothing better to talk about. It can lead to a discussion like…
“I remember playing with that game when I was a Kid”.
I also decided to add stuff I didn’t mention in those other posts and also that took place beyond those posts. I added 20 years to round out the century spanning the years from 1900 – 2020. With a few years beyond.
There are more events I could have added, this is not a comprehensive and definitive list but just a record of some of the key moments that that have stood out in history that I and others have noticed and that have made a impact on the lives of many. Some sections have more information then others. Some topics have a lot more earlier dates then others. This is meant to be a reference post as opposed to reflection post. As I go about my day I discover ever more exciting and interesting things so this is a list that can be perpetually updated. You can copy this post and add your own information you think would fit here. As I said, I didn’t think of everything.
I did try to check sources as best as possible and I do find Wikipedia to be a pretty good reference for things.
In another post I take a more intense and realistic look into the harsh reality of life in Sufferings, Trials and Hope.
But for now, here is a look at some Hopeful and Wonderful events in recent human history.
So here it is…
Amusement Parks
Canobie Lake Park: Salem, New Hampshire (1902)
Knott’s Berry Farm (1920)
Disney Land (July 17, 1955)
Universal Studios Theme Park (1964)
Six Flags (1961)
Disney World (October 1, 1971)
SeaWorld Orlando (December 15, 1973)
Water Country (1984)
Communications
Movie Theaters (1905)- The first successful permanent theatre showing only films was “The Nickelodeon”, which was opened in Pittsburgh.
Radio Broadcast (1920) – First radio broadcasts, by KDKA in Pittsburgh and WWJ in Detroit
Television (1928) John Logie Baird invents the first working mechanical television system (1925). In 1928, he invents and demonstrates the first color television.
First TV Station (1928) WRGB (then W2XB) was started as the world’s first television station. It broadcast from the General Electric facility in Schenectady, NY. It was popularly known as “WGY Television”.
Events
August 15, 1969 – The Woodstock Music & Art Fair opens in upstate New York, featuring some of the top rock musicians of the era.
August 15, 1995– Bayside Boys mix of the Macarena is released.
Exploration and Discovery
December 1911– Norwegian Roald Amundsen, along with four others, arrives at the South Pole.
April 24–May 10, 2016– Voyage of the James Caird: An open boat journey from Elephant Island in the South Shetland Islands to South Georgia in the southern Atlantic Ocean (800 nautical miles (1,500 km; 920 mi)) is undertaken by Sir Ernest Shackleton and five companions, to obtain rescue for the main body of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, following the loss of its ship Endurance.
1922- Howard Carter opens the innermost shrine of King Tutankhamun’s tomb near Luxor, Egypt,
Food
Kellogg’s Cereal Company (1906) was founded by Will Keith Kellogg. as Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company in Battle Creek, Michigan, U.S.
Oreo (1912) Oreo is the best selling cookie brand in the United States.
Milybar (1930) Nestlé releases the first white chocolate candy as the Milkybar.
Frozen Food (March 8, 1930) The first frozen foods of Clarence Birdseye were sold in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States.
The Chocolate Chip Cookie (1938) was developed by Ruth Graves Wakefield.
Cap’n Crunch (1963) The breakfast cereal.
Games
Monopoly (1903)- Current Form (1935) Cartoonist F. O. Alexander contributed the design. T
Miniature Golf (1916)
Scrabble (1938)
Chutes and Ladders (1943)
Candy Land (1948)
Clue (1949)
Yatzi (1956)
Spacewar! (1962) The first computer video game.
Operation game (1965)
Twister (1966)
Battleship (1967)
Jenga (1970’s)
Uno (1971)
Atari (1972)
Hungry Hungry Hippos (1978)
Pac-Man Video Game (1980)
Trivial Pursuit (1981)
Phase 10 (1982)
Spy Hunter Video Game (1983)
Holidays
Mother’s Day (1914) The modern holiday of Mother’s Day was first celebrated in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother at St Andrew’s Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia.[1914 – Mother’s Day established as a national holiday.
Father’s Day (1910) It was founded by Sonora Smart Dodd, and is celebrated on the third Sunday of June.
Martin Luther King Day (1986)
Household Items
Refrigerators -In 1913, refrigerators for home and domestic use were invented by Fred W. Wolf of Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Electric Razor (1928) is patented by the American manufacturer Col. Jacob Schick.
Scotch Tape (1933) marketed by the 3M company.
Tupperware (1946)
The Microwave Oven (1947)
Velcro (1952)
White Out (1956 ) It was invented by Betty Nesmith Graham the mother of Michael Nesmith of the music group the Monkees.
Medicine
January 27–February 1 , 1925– The 1925 serum run to Nome (the “Great Race of Mercy”) relays diphtheria antitoxin by dog sled across the U.S. territory of Alaska, to combat an epidemic.
Penicillian (1928) Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.
Restaurants
Kentucky Fried Chicken (1930) is founded by Colonel Harland Sanders.
McDonald’s (1940) is founded by Richard and Maurice McDonald and opens in San Bernardino, California.
Chick-fil-A (1946) was founded by S. Truett Cathy. It was originally called the Dwarf Grill , then ‘Dwarf House’ until rebranding as Chick-fil-A in 1967.
Dunkin’ Donuts (1950) was founded by William Rosenberg in Quincy, Massachusetts.
Burger King (1953) was founded as Insta-Burger Kinga.
Domino’s Pizza (1961) was founded by Thomas Stephen Monaghan.
Papa Ginos Pizza (1961) was founded Helen and Michael Valerio. (I have worked at 4 different Papa Ginos over the years. Since 2018 they have filed for bankruptcy.
Taco Bell (1962) founded by Glen Bell in Irvine, California,
Wendy’s (1969) founded by Dave Thomas on in Columbus, Ohio.
Scouts
Boy Scouts of America (1910)
Girl Scouts of the USA (1912) was started by Juliette Gordon Low.
Science
1912,- Alfred Wegener puts forward his theory of continental drift.
1914 -Max von Laue discovers the diffraction of x-rays by crystals.
1916– Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
1927-Fr. Georges Lemaître (July 17, 1894 – 20 June 20, 1966) proposed what later became known as the “Big Bang theory” of the origin of the universe, initially calling it the “hypothesis of the primeval atom” .
1937 -Francis Crick and James Watson discover the spiral structure of DNA.
1951– Henrietta Lacks (born Loretta Pleasant; August 1, 1920 – October 4, 1951)[2] was an African-American woman[3] whose cancer cells are the source of the HeLa cell line, the first immortalized human cell line[4] and one of the most important cell lines in medical research. An immortalized cell line reproduces indefinitely under specific conditions, and the HeLa cell line continues to be a source of invaluable medical data to the present day
Space Exploration
August 25, 2012 Voyager 1 became the first human-made object to leave the Solar System into interstellar space. The probe passed the heliopause at 121 AU to enter interstellar space.
Far from Earth The Apollo 13 flight passed the far side of the Moon at an altitude of 254 kilometers (158 miles; 137 nautical miles) above the lunar surface, and 400,171 km (248,655 mi) from Earth, marking the record for the farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth in 1970.
Voyager 1 is currently at a distance of 145.11 astronomical units (2.1708×1010 km; 1.3489×1010 mi) (21.708 billion kilometers; 13.489 billion miles) from Earth as of January 1, 2019.[22] It is the most distant human-made object from Earth.[23]
GN-z11 is the most distant known object from Earth, reported as 13.4 billion light-years away.
Sports
First Baseball World Series (October 1, 1903 )
July 1–19 – The first Tour de France bicycle race is held; Maurice Garin wins it.
(NHL) National Hockey League (November 26, 1917) was founded in in Montreal Canada.
Babe Ruth’s Contract is sold by The Red Sox to the New York Yankees (December 26, 1919)
(NFL) National Football League (August 20, 1920) was founded in Canton Ohio.
Heavey Weight Champion James ‘Cincerella Man’ Braddock marries Mae Fox in 1930 and the couple had three children, James (Jay) Jr., Howard and Rosemarie.
(NBA)The National Basketball Association (June 6, 1946) was founded in New York City.
First Super Bowl (1967)
Technology
RCA Victor (1931) introduced the first long-playing phonograph record.
Kodachrome (1935) is invented, being the first color film made by Eastman Kodak.
First Computer (1937–1947)-The Atanasoff-Berry computer is now considered one of the first electronic digital computing device built by John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry at Iowa State University during
Radar (1938) was invented, known as RDF (Radio Direction Finding), such as in British Patent GB593017 by Robert Watson-Watt.
Karaoke Machine (1971)
Mobile Phone (1973) The first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola using a handset weighing c. 2 kilograms (4.4 lbs)
Video Home System (VHS) (1977) This is the year it is released in the United States
Walkman (1979)
Compact disc (CD) (1982)
World Wide Web (1990)- Tim Berners-Lee begins his work on the World Wide Web, 19 months after his seminal 1989 outline of what would become the Web concept.
Sony enters the video game market with the release of the PlayStation. (1995)
Digital Video Disc (DVD) (1996)
The iPhone, (2007) The first modern smartphone, is released.
Toys
Teddy Bear (1902) The name of this toy comes from former United States President Theodore Roosevelt.
Raggedy Ann Doll (1915)
Lincoln Logs (1916)
Yo-yo Manufacturing Company (1928) Pedro Flores, a Filipino immigrant to the United States, opened the company in Santa Barbara, California.
Silly Putty (1943)
The Slinky (1945)
Frisbee (1948)
Legos (1949)
Mr. Potato Head (1952)
Smurfs (1958)
Barbie Doll (March 5, 1959)
Skateboard (1959)
Toy Trolls (1959)
Etch-A-Sketch (1960)
Easy Bake Oven (1963)
G. I. Joe (1964)
Tonka Trucks (1964)
Rollerblading (1980)
Cabbage Patch Kids (1983)
Transformers (1984)
American Girl Dolls (1986)
Super Soaker (1990)
Beanie Babies (1993)
Travel
December 17, 1903 – The Wright brothers make their first powered flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
1903 – Harley-Davidson Motor Company created in Milwaukee, Wi.
June 16, 1903 – Ford Motor Company was formed in Detroit, MI by Henry Ford.
1908 – Ford Model T first appears on the market
August 15, 1914– Panama Canal opens to traffic.
January 5 – Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday, and a daily wage of $5.
May 20–21, 1927-Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight in his plane The Spirit of St. Louis.
1930’s- The Volkswagen Beetle is created and developed in Nazi Germany.
February 18, 1930-Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft, and also the first cow to be milked in an aeroplane.
May 21, 1932– Amelia Earhart completes first solo nonstop transatlantic flight by a woman.
1937– Howard Hughes sets a record in his H-1 Racer by flying non-stop from Los Angeles to Newark in 7 hours, 28 minutes, and 25 seconds (beating his own previous record of 9 hours, 27 minutes). His average ground speed over the flight was 322 mph (518 km/h).
1947-The sound barrier was broken in October, 1947.
United States
Oklahoma becomes the 46th State on November 16, 1907
New Mexico becomes the 47th State on January 6, 1912
Arizona becomes the 48th State on February 14, 1912
Alaska becomes the 49th State on January 3, 1959
Hawaii becomes the 50th State on August 21, 1959
1909 – The U.S. penny is changed to the Abraham Lincoln design
1917 – U.S. Virgin Islands purchased from Denmark
March 3, 1931 The Star-Spangled Banner is adopted as the national anthem.
1929 – American Samoa officially becomes a U.S. territory
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