1925 Annual History Facts

1925 Annual History Facts

  • Politics: Nellie Tayloe Ross was elected governor of Wyoming, the first woman governor elected in the US.
  • Influential Songs include Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen by Marion Anderson and The Charleston by Paul Whiteman.
  • The Big Movies included Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, The Big Parade and The Gold Rush
  • Price of a pound of coffee in 1925: 50 cents
  • The World Population was ~ 2,023,000,000
  • Friendship and Freedom was the first gay-oriented periodical in the United States, published in 1924/5.
  • And… as a joke, new engineers at General Electric would be assigned to develop a ‘lightbulb’, which the experienced engineers believed to be impossible. In 1925, newly hired Marvin Pipkin got the assignment and made the first frosted light bulb.

World Series Champions

Pittsburgh Pirates

NFL Champions

Chicago Cardinals

Stanley Cup Champions

Victoria Cougars

US Open Golf

W. McFarlane

US Open Tennis (Men Ladies)

William T. Tilden/ Helen Wills

Wimbledon (Men/Women)

Rene Lacost/Suzanne Lenglen

NCAA Football Champions

Alabama & Dartmouth

Bowl Game

Rose Bowl: January 1, 1925 – Notre Dame over Stanford

Kentucky Derby

Flying Ebony

Westminster Kennel Best in Show Dog

Governor Moscow

Miss America

Fay Lamphier (Oakland, CA)

1925’s Fresh Faces and Top Celebrities

Josephine Baker, Louise Brooks, Mary Pickford, Dolores Del Rio, Anna May Wong

“The Quotes”

“Heroing is one of the shortest-lived professions there is ” – Will Rogers

Hitler later said of Mein Kampf, first published in 1925, “If I had had any idea in 1924 that I would have become Reich chancellor, I never would have written the book.”

1925 Pop Culture History

George Bernard Shaw is the only person to win a Nobel Prize AND an Oscar. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925 and an Oscar for Pygmalion in 1938.

The Federal Arbitration Act was enacted in 1925 to help merchants resolve their disputes quickly before their goods rot; it is now the reason why you cannot sue companies like Netflix and Visa.

In the 1920s, as a joke, newly hired engineers at General Electric would be told to develop a frosted lightbulb, which the experienced engineers believed to be impossible. In 1925, newly hired Marvin Pipkin got the assignment and astonished his peers by succeeding.

The world’s first ‘self-driving car’ was created by the Houdini Company. Harry Houdini allegedly trashed their office, including an electric chandelier, in a rage, saying they’d stolen his name.

A stray dog caused a war between Greece and Bulgaria in 1925 with 171 casualties.

The 1925 Tri-State Tornado holds records for longest path length (219 mi), longest duration (3.5 hrs), and fastest forward speed (73 mph) anywhere on Earth. And it was the deadliest in US history (695 dead).

Despite becoming by far the most famous dog in the 1925 serum run to Nome, ‘Balto’ ran a far shorter distance, in less hazardous conditions, than the Siberian Husky ‘Togo’.

In January 1925, a diphtheria epidemic broke out in Nome, Alaska. Medicine was hundreds of miles away in Anchorage. They gathered ‘Great Race of Mercy’ where 18-20 sleds and 150 sled dogs traveled 674 miles in 5 days to deliver diphtheria antitoxin to Nome, Alaska. According to lore, Gunner Kassan was the final sledder, led by his dog, Balto, but some say the lead dog was Togo. The journey is commemorated every year in the Iditarod. Balto is preserved in taxidermy and on display at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Ford introduced it’s first truck – the Ford Model T Runabout with a Pickup Body. The price of a Model T went from $829 in 1909 to $260 in 1925. Henry Ford continually reduced its price as production efficiency increased.

William Howard Taft is the only former President to swear in subsequent Presidents, giving the oath of office to both Calvin Coolidge (in 1925) and Herbert Hoover (in 1929).

F. Scott Fitzgerald died in 1940, he thought he was a failure, and his work was forever forgotten. His novel, The Great Gatsby, was reviewed poorly and had only sold 20,000 copies. It’s now considered the greatest novel in American history and sells over 500,000 copies yearly. The Great Gatsby became public domain in 1921, first published in 1925.

Cecilia Helena Payne-Gaposchkin discovered the chemical composition of stars and that hydrogen and helium are the most abundant elements in stars and, therefore, in the universe.

Actress Kate Mara’s mother’s side of the family has held ownership in the Pittsburgh Steelers since its formation in 1933, and her father’s side of the family has held ownership in the New York Giants since its formation in 1925.

Kensal High and Pingree High, two high school girls’ basketball teams, played an entire game plus three overtime periods in a scoring deadlock – 0 to 0. A coin toss decided the game’s fate, and the Kensals won.

There was a public outcry about the shameless product placement in the 1925 dinosaur film The Lost World, a Corona Typewriter.

THE SCOPES TRIAL – John Scopes was a substitute biology teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, a state that had passed a law banning the teaching of evolution. Mr. Scopes taught it to his class, as it was in the school’s approved textbook like every biology teacher in Tennessee did. He was found guilty and was let off on a technicality. Clarence Darrow was his lawyer.

Victor Lustig sold the Eiffel Tower while posing as a government official, pulling off one of the biggest scams ever. From 1925 to 1934, the Eiffel Tower had illuminated signs for the French automaker Citroën, which made the tower the world’s largest advertising sign.

The iconic 1959 film Ben-Hur was a remake of a 1925 silent film, which was, in turn, a remake of a 1907 silent film, based on a book from 1880. The 2016 Ben-Hur film carried the tradition on.

Greatest Salesman Ever? Self-help author, advertising executive, and politician Bruce Barton had a 100% success rate when he wrote to 24 wealthy men regarding the first racially integrated and coeducational southern college, asking for $1000 from each. (nearly $12,000 each in today’s money.)

A Listerine mouthwash ad from the 1920s coined the phrase, “Often a bridesmaid but never a bride,” to describe women with bad breath.

Spiritual master and self-proclaimed ‘god’ in human form named Meher Baba, voluntarily went silent from July 1925 until he died in 1969.

There was a total solar eclipse in 1925 had a path of totality that just grazed Manhattan. It was reported that residents below 96th St. could still see part of the Sun, while those above 96th were in total darkness.

Nellie Ross was the first female US Governor and was inaugurated in Wyoming on January 5, 1925. The second female governor, Miriam Ferguson, from Texas, was sworn into office on January 20th.

London was the world’s largest city for 94 years, from 1831 to 1925.

The US has held a stockpile of 1 billion cubic meters of helium since 1925. This is due to post WW1 fear that we may run out of helium in case of blimp warfare

Firsts

February 25 The New Yorker began publication

The Habits

Reading Soundings by A. Hamilton Gibbs
Reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (not really – it was a flop until WWII)
Reading An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

Popular Music Artists

The Biggest Pop Artists of 1925 include:
Gene Austin, Benny Krueger & His Orchestra, The Benson Orchestra of Chicago, Ben Bernie and His Orchestra, Eddie Cantor, Vernon Dalhart, Cliff Edwards,Carl Fenton and His Orchestra, Ernest Hare, Marion Harris, Lewis James, Al Jolson, Billy Jones, Isham Jones and His Orchestra, Ted Lewis and His Band, Vincent Lopez and His Orchestra, Nick Lucas, John McCormack, Billy Murray, Blossom Seeley, Bessie Smith, Aileen Stanley, Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians, Ted Weems and His Orchestra, Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra

Charts based on Billboard music charts.

Popular Movies

Battleship Potemkin, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, The Big Parade, The Gold Rush, The Eagle, The Freshman, The Gold Rush, The Lost World, The Phantom of the Opera, The Pleasure Garden, Seven Chances, Strike, The Wizard of Oz
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