New Year's Retrospective: 100 Years Ago
1909 Events: Benny Goodman and Burl Ives Were Born
Dec 27, 2008
None of these things had yet been invented: zippers, tinkertoys, toasters, band-aids, hair dryers, traffic lights, wheaties, blenders, bread slicers, bubble gum, penicillin, sunglasses, ballpoint pens, Monopoly, trampolines, shopping carts, nylon stockings, duct tape, Tupperware, bikini swim suits, disposable diapers, kitty litter, Velcro and milk cartons.
Most furnaces burned coal and mom’s washer, dryer, dishwasher and refrigerator bore no resemblance to what exists today. Clothes were put through a ringer then hung outside on a line to dry. The dishwasher was apt to be any child from age 10 up and the ice man delivered large slabs of ice that went into an insulated ice box. The ice box had no motor.
Population Soared
Between 1909 and 2009 world population soared from 1.7 billion to 6.4 billion.
President William Taft took over the reins of government from Teddy Roosevelt, Dora Boothby and Arthur Gore took the Wimbledon tennis titles and the North Pole was reached by explorers Robert Peary and Matthew Henson.
Airplanes in th News
Airplanes were much in the news in 1909. At Baddeck, Nova Scotia, J. A. D. McCurdy flew Alexander Graham Bell’s Silver Dart at an altitude of about 10 metres for nearly one kilometre across Baddeck Bay. This was the first airplane flight in Canada by a Canadian and the first powered flight in the British Empire.
The first US monoplane was flown by Henry W. Walden and Louis Bleriot became the first man to fly across the English Channel.
In the entertainment world Scott Joplin made ragtime popular, Irving Berlin and George M. Cohan were opening on Broadway, the New York Times published its first movie review and Serge Diaghilev opened the Ballet Russes, beginning the era of modern ballet.
The Year of Oz
Popular novels of the time included The Wonderful World of Oz, by Frank Baum, and Jack London's Call of the Wild. Leisure time was spent in family get-togethers, baseball, picnics and long Sunday drives (mostly by horse and buggy). In the evenings, families gathered for sing-alongs around the piano.
These 1909 events made headlines:
- German researcher Paul Ehrlich found a cure for syphilis.
- Shackleton’s expedition reported finding the magnetic South Pole.
- The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) was founded.
- Construction on the Titanic was begun.
- The Roman Catholic Church named Joan of Arc a saint.
- 259 miners died in a fire at the St. Paul Mine in Cherry, Illinois.
- The first credit union in the U.S. was established.
- The first event was held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
- Construction was begun on the modern city of Tel Aviv, Israel.
- In the Ottoman Empire thousands of Armenian Christians were slaughtered.
Average Weekly Wage Was $12.98
In 1909, life expectancy was under age 50, and the average worker made $12.98 per week for 59 hours. The Model "T" Ford (or "Tin Lizzy") was starting to roll off the assembly lines and people could buy homes from the Sears Catalog of Modern Homes.
Benny Goodman, Burl Ives, Katherine Hepburn, Douglas Fairbanks, Barry Goldwater, Gene Krupa, Simone Weil, Carmen Miranda, Queen Juliana (Netherlands) and Al Capp were born in 1909.
A companion article gives events 200 years ago.
SOURCES: Hisdates; ideafinder; ancestry; World Book Encyclopedia.
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