Timeline: Alta Mae Schlotfeldt: Gerber Family of Langnau

1915 - 1932 (17 years)

	Date	Event(s)
1	1915	1915: Armenia - Armenian Genocide 1915: USA - D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation is Released 1915: UK - Lusitania Sunk by German U-Boat 1915: Ypres, France - Second Battle of Ypres 1915: New York, NY, USA - Eugene Sullivan and William Taylor co-invent Pyrex
2	1916	1916: UK - Navy employs animal trainer 'Captain' Joseph Woodward's music hall sea lions for U-boat sabotage. 1916: USA - Coca-Cola adopts a distinctive bottle which identifies the company internationally 1916: France - Battle of the Somme 1916: Verdun, France - Battle of Verdun 1916: Ireland - Easter Rising 1916: USA - First Self-Service Grocery Store Opens 1916: UK - Radio tuners invented that received different stations. 1916: UK - Stainless steel invented by Henry Brearly.
3	1917	1917: Russia - Bolshevik revolution installs a new government headed by V.I. Lennin 1917: New York, NY, USA - French artist Marcel Duchamp submits a porcelain urinal, signed 'R. Mutt' and titled Fountain, to the New York Independents Exhibition; it is rejected. 1917: UK - First Pulitzer Prizes Awarded 1917: Germany - Mata Hari Executed for Being a Spy Apr 1917: USA - The United States joined World War I on the side of the Triple Entente
4	1918	1918: UK - Influenza Epidemic 1918: Russia - Czar Nicholas II and his family are killed 1918: UK - Summer:Great Influenza Epidemic begins, reaches height end of year, new outbreak first quarter of 1919: England and Wales lose 150,000 (15,000 in London alone) 1918: UK - Final casualties for World War I - almost 1 million British Empire men killed, about 3 million maimed (744,000 killed are from UK) 1918: UK - Women over 30 given the vote (complete voting equality with men comes in 1928), all men over 21 (except peers, lunatics and felons) given vote 1918: UK - Consumer purchasing power now about 1/3 of what it was in 1914 1918: USA - Charles Jung invented fortune cookies. 1918: UK - Police strikes this year and the next 9 Nov 1918: Europe - Kaiser abdicates, peace signed two days later at Treaty of Versailles, ending World War I
5	1919	1919: UK - Eddington and Frank W. Dyson measured the bending of starlight by the gravitational pull of the sun, thus confirming Einstein's general theory of relativity 1919: USA - Prohibition Begins in the U.S. 1919: Ireland - Irish Republican Army begins terrorist campaign against police ('Black and Tans') and their families 1919: London, UK - First woman in House of Commons, Viscountess Astor 1919: Ireland - Alcock and Brown arrive after flying across the Atlantic 1919: UK - Strikes and riots in Glasgow for 40- hour week; National Industrial Conference convenes, trades union representatives resign in disgust 1919: Europe - Regular air service commences across the English Channel 1919: UK - Post-war boom collapses, unemployment problem, 1920 Act provides small payment under National Insurance Scheme 1919: UK - Most war-time rationing ends 1919: UK - One-week railway strike - Emergency Powers Act passed to give government war-time powers to deal with threats from 'Triple Alliance' of miners, railwaymen and dockers, re high prices, shortage of housing 1919: UK - The pop-up toaster invented by Charles Strite. 1919: UK - Short-wave radio invented. 1919: UK - The arc welder invented. 1919: UK - Runaway inflation; Coal Mines Act (1919) and Mining Industry Act (1920) create 7-hour day for miners plus minor reforms Jun 1919: UK - Sir Ernest Rutherford publishes account of splitting atom
6	1920	1920: India - Bubonic Plague strikes 1920: UK - League of Nations Established 1920: UK - Population of England/Wales - 37,887, Scotland - 4,882, N.Ireland - 1,258 1920: UK - Economic slump, 2,170,000 unemployed 1920: Palestine - Serious clashes between Jews and Arabs 1920: USA - US restricts immigration 1920: Ireland - Southern Irish parliament passes Government of Ireland Act, civil war effectively ends (until 1968) 1920: UK - Lloyd George sells honours in return for party contributions, partly responsible for downfall of Coalition government 1920: Egypt - Britain recognizes Egyptian independence 1920: UK - British Broadcasting Company (BBC) begins transmission of speech over air to public 1920: Italy - Benito Mussolini becomes fascist dictator 1920: UK - First football cup final at Wembley 1920: UK - Greyhound racing becomes popular 1920: UK - Radio and cinema begin growth (by 1929, 3,000 cinemas in Britain) 1920: UK - Convictions for drunkenness fall from 189,000 in 1913 to 53,000 in 1930 1920: France - Tuberculosis vaccine developed 1920: UK - The tommy gun patented by John T Thompson. 1920: USA - The Band-Aid invented by Earle Dickson 1920: Ireland - Irish Republican Army begins Civil War with raids on police barracks and income tax offices all over Ireland 1920: UK - Communist Party of Great Britain founded; affiliation with Labour Party rebuffed = schism between communism and socialism 1920: UK - Population of Great Britain has grown by 5 per cent, emigration overseas declines from 256,000 in 1923 (post-war peak) to 92,000 in 1930 and many return to offset those leaving; British population gravitates to south and away from depressed areas of South Wales and northern England, Greater London is now over 8 million Dec 1920: Ireland - New Government of Ireland Act proposes partition of Ireland into Ulster (north) and Irish Free State (south), each to have its own government
7	1921	1921: UK - Stage debut of John Gielgud 1921: Germany - Extreme Inflation sets in 1921: Ireland - Irish Free State Proclaimed 1921: Washington, DC, USA - Warren Harding president in 1921. He dies of an embolism in San Francisco. He had taken ill on 31 Jul 1921 1921: Washington, DC, USA - Calvin Coolidge president 1921-1929. Vice president under Warren Harding, he was sworn in as president the day after Harding dies. 1921: UK - The first robot is built. 1921: CA, USA - John Larson, a University of California medical student, invented the modern lie detector (polygraph), used by police since 1924.
8	1922	1922: London, UK - BBC launched as limited company 1922: Turkey - Kemal Atatürk Founds Modern Turkey 1922: Ireland - Michael Collins Killed in Ambush 1922: Rome Italy - Benito Mussolini Marches on Rome 1922: USA - The Reader's Digest is first published 1922: UK - Insulin invented by Sir Frederick Grant Banting 1922: USA - The first 3-D movie (spectacles with one red and one green lens) is released. Nov 1922: Thebes, Egypt - Tomb of Tun-ankh-amen discovered
9	1923	1923: USA - Electrolux produced the first electric refrigerator 1923: USA - Kodak introduces home movie equipment 1923: UK - Charleston Dance Becomes Popular 1923: Germany - Adolf Hitler Jailed After Failed Coup 1923: Ruhr, Germany - Ruhr Occupied by French and Belgian Forces 1923: USA - Teapot Dome Scandal 1923: USA - Garrett A. Morgan invents a traffic signal 1923: USA - Early television or iconoscope invented by Vladimir Kosma Zworykin. 1923: UK - John Harwood invented the self-winding watch. 1923: UK - Clarence Birdseye invents frozen food.
10	1924	1924: UK - First Olympic Winter Games 1924: USSR - V.I. Lenin Dies 1924: UK - First Labour government headed by Ramsay MacDonald 1924: UK - The dynamic loudspeaker invented by Rice and Kellogg. 1924: UK - Notebooks with spiral bindings invented. Aug 1924: UK - Housing Act to produce 2.5 million houses by 1939 becomes law 4 Nov 1924: London, UK - Government falls due to purported link with Communists in Russia, known as Red Letter scare, Stanley Baldwin forms new government
11	1925	1925: UK - Flapper Dresses in Style 1925: Germany - Adolf Hitler Publishes Mein Kampf 1925: UK - Infants' Custody Act, women finally secure same rights as men with regard to custody of children
12	1926	1926: UK - General Strike paralyses transport, mining and many other areas of the economy 1926: Wolverhampton, UK - The first automatic traffic light was installed. It remained in service until 1968 1926: UK - A.A. Milne Publishes Winnie-the-Pooh 1926: UK - Houdini Dies After Being Punched 1926: USA - Robert Goddard Fires His First Liquid-Fuel Rocket 1926: A Woman Swims the English Channel 1926: UK - Imperial Conference sets stage for colonies and dominions to become Commonwealth of Nations
13	1927	1927: USA - The Jazz Singer - first film talking movie released 1927: London, UK - John Logie Baird demonstrates electro-mechanical television system 1927: USA - Babe Ruth Makes Home-Run Record 1927: Atlantic - Charles Lindbergh Flies Solo Across the Atlantic 1927: London, UK - Trade Disputes and Trade Union Act makes sympathetic striking illegal and prohibits political use of Union funds 1927: UK - JWA Morrison invents the first quartz crystal watch. 1927: USA - Philo Taylor Farnsworth invents a complete electronic TV system. 1927: USA - Technicolor invented. 1927: UK - Erik Rotheim patents an aerosol can. 1927: UK - Philip Drinker invents the iron lung. 4 Jun 1927: London, UK - Stanley Baldwin resigns, Ramsay MacDonald forms another Labour government, includes first female Cabinet Minister, Margaret Bondfield, Minister of Labour
14	1928	1928: Los Angeles, USA - First Mickey Mouse cartoon 1928: Oxford, UK - First Oxford English Dictionary Published 1928: UK - Kellogg-Briand Treaty Outlaws War 1928: London, UK - Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin. 1928: USA - Bubble gum invented by Walter E. Diemer. 1928: UK - Jacob Schick patented the electric shaver. 1928: UK - Long, critical illness of George V this year and the next
15	1929	1929: UK - Economic upturn this year and the next 1929: UK - First UK television broadcast 1929: UK - Frank Whittle, combining the concepts of rocket propulsion and gas turbines, invented jet propulsion. Independently, Hans von Ohain put together the same combination in 1933 1929: Antarctica - Byrd and Bennett Fly Over South Pole 1929: USA - First Academy Awards 1929: USA - New York Stock Market Crashes 1929: USA - St. Valentine's Day Massacre 1929: UK - Further serious clashes between Jews and Arabs in Palestine 1929: USA - Herbert Hoover president 1929-1933. 1929: USA - Paul Galvin invents the car radio. 1929: USA - Yo-Yo re-invented as an American fad. 1929: UK - Great Depression (to 1932), British segment hits worst in 1931, when unemployment surges quickly to more than 3.25 million in 1931, then more slowly to a high of 3.75 million in September 1932
16	1930	1930: UK - Gandhi's Salt March 1930: USA - Clyde Tombaugh discovers planet Pluto 1930: UK - Sliced Bread Available 1930: USSR - Stalin Begins Collectivizing Agriculture 1930: UK - Sir Oswald Mosely, former Conservative MP and now Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, resigns and forms New Party (Fascist) 1930: USA - Scotch tape patented by 3M engineer Richard G. Drew. 1930: Boston, MA, USA - The differential analyzer, an analog computer, is invented by Vannevar Bush at MIT
17	1931	1931: UK - Housing Act passes, provides subsidies for slum clearance 1931: USA - Al Capone Imprisoned for Income Tax Evasion 1931: UK - Auguste Piccard Reaches Stratosphere 1931: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Christ Monument Built on Hilltop 1931: New York, NY, USA - Empire State Building Completed 1931: USA - First official US National Anthem 1931: UK - Census shows British professional workers now number .75 million (8 per cent); up from 80,000 in 1921 Census: population: England/Wales - 39,952, Scotland - 4,842, N. Ireland - 1,243 1931: USA - Harold Edgerton invented stop-action photography. 1931: Germany - Germans Max Knott and Ernst Ruska co-invent the electron microscope. 24 Aug 1931: UK - Resignation of Labour government accepted by King, asks Ramsay MacDonald to form National Government (Coalition) to deal with economic crisis 21 Oct 1931: UK - General Election, vote for National Government overwhelming, more votes for Conservatives, Liberal party in disarray
18	1932	1932: UK - Agricultural Marketing Act passed, regulates quality of produce 1932: USA - Air Conditioning Invented 1932: Amelia Earhardt First Woman to Fly Solo Across the Atlantic 1932: Cambridge, UK - Scientists Split the Atom 1932: USA - Zippo Lighters Introduced 1932: Ireland - De Valera succeeds Cosgrave as Prime Minister of Irish Free State, ousts British Governor-General, abolishes senate, alters law re citizenship to distinguish Irish nationality from British, but still claims Commonwealth membership 1932: USA - Polaroid photography invented by Edwin Herbert Land. 1932: UK - Unemployment falls from 3 million to below 2 million in July 1935; production rises, but imports steady, exports decline; new industries booming - chemicals, rayon, cars, radio, cost of living falls Sep 1932: UK - 6-7 million living on 'dole', worse in Tyne and Tees and Welsh valleys