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SIR
HENRY SEGRAVE (1896-1930). Henry Oneal de Hane Segrave was a British motor racing and speed record hero famous for
being the first man ever to exceed 200mph and the first Briton to win a Grand Prix in a British car in France 1923. He
went on to set three Land Speed Records and the water speed record combined in 1930 ; 1926 Sunbeam 174 mph
/ 1927 Sunbeam 203 mph and March 1929 231 mph in the beautiful "Golden Arrow" car which never again turned a wheel.
He was knighted in 1929. On Friday13th June 1930 in Miss England 2 on Lake Windermere he made an attempt on the World Water
Speed Record ; on the return pass the boat hit debris and captised. Segrave regained conciousness for a short time in
the hospital and was told that he had broken the record , only to die hours later of his injuries.
Kaye Don later went on to break the water speed record twice in the restored Miss England
Chicago's gangster history has fascinated world
historians and visitors to the city in equal measure since the 1920s. The trauma of gangland Chicago during the legendary
Prohibition decade has been immortalised in a variety of Hollywood movies - thrillingly represented in Brian de Palma's
'The Untouchables' and uproariously spoofed in Billy Wilder's 'Some Like It Hot'. But what is it about
this decade in Chicago's history that never fails to capture the national imagination?
For many, the figure
of gang lord Al Capone is a large part of the allure. During the prohibition years of the 1920s, when the consumption of alcohol
was banned in the United States, Capone effectively ran Chicago as his own town and went on to become the most notorious American
criminal of the twentieth century. Over the course of the decade, Capone ran his empire from the Lexington Hotel at 22nd and
Michigan Avenues in Chicago and profited from the extensive bootlegging racket that permeated the city. The illicit trade
in alcohol, and the huge number of speakeasies (establishments used for the covert selling and drinking of alcohol) that sprang
up around the city, played an enormous part in the success of Al Capone's nefarious gangs.
What's more,
the iconic St Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929 - now seen as one of Chicago's most defining moments of the 1920s -
has also ingrained itself in the American psyche. This famous incident in Chicago's history saw the shooting of seven
people - six of which were gangsters - in the climax of a hefty rivalry between the city's two main gangs: Al Capone's
South Side gang and Bugs Moran's North Side cronies.
Ultimately, Al Capone's arrest in 1931 for tax evasion
led to his downfall, and this is seen by many as an ironic - and somewhat deflating - end to this nefarious gang leader. Essentially,
the all-pervasive element of Chicago's gang warfare during the prohibition years is what makes it so appealing to history
buffs - the amazing fact that one man could have had such complete criminal control over one city, and yet be brought down
by such a mundane offence.
Of course, the eventual repeal of the prohibition act
in 1933 was seen by many as a signal that the first great domestic experiment of the twentieth century
had failed; a factor that further pushed Al Capone and his bootlegging gangs into legendary status.
Today, many visitors to Chicago are keen to survey the city's gangland past and discover where old
speakeasies were located, and this is relatively easy to do. Simply find a hotel in Chicago to use
as your base and explore the old site of the Lexington Hotel, along with Capone's range of infamous haunts. And while
this may appear to be a somewhat macabre vacation theme, it's nonetheless one that will provide
a thrill for anyone who finds a bit of gory American history entertaining.
Andrew Regan
The Nineteenth
Amendment was specifically intended to extend suffrage to women. It was proposed on June 4, 1919 and ratified on August 18,
1920.
The Nineteenth Amendment was the culmination of the work of many activists in favor of women's suffrage. One
such group called the Silent Sentinels protested in front of the White House for 18 months starting in 1917 to raise awareness
of the issue.
On January 9, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson announced his support of the amendment. The next day, the
House of Representatives narrowly passed the amendment but the Senate refused to even debate it until October. When the Senate
voted on the amendment in October, it failed by three votes.
In response, the National Woman's Party urged
citizens to vote against anti-suffrage senators up for election in the fall of 1918. After the 1918 election, most members
of Congress were pro-suffrage. On May 21, 1919, the House of Representatives passed the amendment by a vote of 304 to 89,
and 2 weeks later on June 4, the Senate finally followed, where the amendment passed by a vote of 56 to 25.
It was ratified
on August 18, 1920, upon its ratification by Tennessee, the thirty-sixth state to do so. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby
certified the ratification on August 26, 1920.
On February 27, 1922, a challenge to the Nineteenth Amendment was rebuffed
by the Supreme Court of the United States in Leser v. Garnett.
The Dust Bowl
of the 1930s lasted about a decade. Its primary area of impact was on the southern Plains. The northern Plains were not so
badly effected, but nonetheless, the drought, windblown dust and agricultural decline were no strangers to the north. In fact
the agricultural devastation helped to lengthen the Depression whose effects were felt worldwide. The movement of people on
the Plains was also profound.As John Steinbeck wrote in his 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath:
"And then the dispossessed
were drawn west- from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out, tractored
out. Car-loads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand.
They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless - restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do - to lift, to push,
to pull, to pick, to cut - anything, any burden to bear, for food. The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like ants
scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land."Poor agricultural practices and years of sustained drought caused
the Dust Bowl. Plains grasslands had been deeply ploughed and planted to wheat. During the years when there was adequate rainfall,
the land produced bountiful crops. But as the droughts of the early 1930s deepened, the farmers kept ploughing and planting
and nothing would grow. The ground cover that held the soil in place was gone. The Plains winds whipped across the fields
raising billowing clouds of dust to the skys. The skys could darken for days, and even the most well sealed homes could have
a thick layer of dust on furniture. In some places the dust would drift like snow, covering farmsteads.
Art Deco was
a popular international design movement from 1925 until 1939, affecting the decorative arts such as architecture, interior
design, and industrial design, as well as the visual arts such as fashion, painting, the graphic arts, and film. This movement
was, in a sense, an amalgam of many different styles and movements of the early 20th century, including Constructivism, Cubism,
Modernism, Bauhaus, Art Nouveau, and Futurism. Its popularity peaked in Europe during the Roaring Twenties and continued strongly
in the United States through the 1930s. Although many design movements have political or philosophical roots or intentions,
Art Deco was purely decorative. At the time, this style was seen as elegant, functional, and ultra modern. 
Americans enjoyed
a high standard of living. Food was plentiful and cheap thanks to the vast quantity produced on American farms. More and more
people bought their own houses through mortgages. They filled them with all kinds of consumer goods and parked their new cars
in the garage. But the "Roaring Twenties" was also the great age of popular entertainment. In the theatres and "speakeasies"
(secret, illegal bars) , people were entertained by "vaudeville" acts (music hall) , singers and jazz and dance
bands. The period is often called the "Jazz Age". Radio stations mushroomed all over America, the programmes being
paid for from advertising.
But above all it was the age of the cinema. (By the end of the 1920s 100 million cinema tickets
were sold each week.) Thousands of black and white silent films were made in America in the 1920s, especially in Hollywood,
which became the capital of the industry. Actors and actresses like Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Rudolf Valentino became
"stars" and were known all over the world. By the end of the 1920s sound and colour had been successfully added
on a small scale. In 1928 the first "talkie" was made called "The Jazz Singer", starring Al Jolson. Many
people had enough spare cash to invest in stocks and shares. They often made a lot more money, because as industry's profits
went up, so did the price of shares. This is called speculation and an increasing number of people tried it, often using
borrowed money. As we shall see the price of shares eventually began to fall and then collapsed, leaving many bankrupt.
The Wall Street
Crash of 1929, also known as the Crash of 29, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States,
taking into consideration the full scope and longevity of its fallout. Three phrases Black Thursday, Black Monday, and Black
Tuesday are used to describe this collapse of stock values. All three are appropriate, for the crash was not a one-day affair.
The initial crash occurred on Black Thursday (October 24, 1929), but it was the catastrophic downturn of Black Monday and
Tuesday (October 28 and October 29, 1929) that precipitated widespread panic and the onset of unprecedented and long-lasting
consequences for the United States. The collapse continued for a month. Economists and historians disagree as to what role
the crash played in subsequent economic, social, and political events. The crash in America came near the beginning of the
Great Depression, a period of economic decline in the industrialized nations, and led to the institution of landmark financial
reforms and new trading regulations.
At the time of the crash, New York City had grown to be a major metropolis,
and its Wall Street district was one of the world's leading financial centers. Modernism describes
an array of cultural movements rooted in the changes in Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
The term covers a series of reforming movements in art, architecture, music, literature and the applied arts which emerged
during this period.
It is a trend of thought that affirms the power of human beings to create, improve, and reshape
their environment, with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology or practical experimentation. Modernism encouraged the
re-examination of every aspect of existence, from commerce to philosophy, with the goal of finding that which was 'holding
back' progress, and replacing it with new, progressive and therefore better, ways of reaching the same end.
Embracing change and the present, modernism encompasses the works of thinkers who rebelled against nineteenth century academic
and historicist traditions, believing the "traditional" forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith,
social organization and daily life were becoming outdated; they directly confronted the new economic, social and political
conditions of an emerging fully industrialized world. Some divide the 20th Century into movements designated Modernism and
Post modernism, whereas others see them as two aspects of the same movement. 
A speakeasy was
an establishment that surreptitiously sold alcoholic beverages during the period of United States history known as Prohibition
(1920-1933, longer in some states), when the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol was illegal. The term comes
from a patron's manner of ordering alcohol without raising suspicion a bartender would tell a patron to be quiet and "speak
easy".
Speakeasies became more popular and numerous as the Prohibition years progressed, and also became
more commonly operated by those connected to organized crime. Although police and United States Federal Government agents
would raid such establishments and arrest the owners and patrons, the business of running speakeasies was so lucrative that
such establishments continued to flourish throughout the nation. In major cities, speakeasies were often elaborate, offering
food, live bands,floor shows, and strip joints. The police corruption at this time was notoriously rampant; speakeasy operators
commonly bribed police to either leave them alone or at least give them advance notice of any planned raids.
In the
United States, there are still 37 standing speakeasies from the 1920s.
There are 23 in New York, New York, 13
in Pennsylvania, and one single hush hush bar in the western portion of D.C. Other slang terms for an establishment similar
to a speakeasy are blind pig and gin joint. The difference between a speakeasy and a blind pig is that a speakeasy was usually
a higher class establishment, whereas a blind pig was a lower class dive.
Gangsters are
typically organized criminals who are actively engaged in crime as a group activity or enterprise for power, pleasure, or
profit.
The visibility of activities of gangsters can range from the low-level such as drug-trafficking or protectionism,
which are prone to be "under the radar", to the in-your-face spectacular, such as the UK's multi-million Brinks
Mat robbery. Gangsters often run their operations as businesses insofar as they offer a "product" or "service",
albeit an illegal one, or, as is sometimes the case, a legitimate business operating as a front for criminal activity.
From its beginnings as nothing more than a simple trading
post on the banks of the Missouri river, to its raucous heyday in the 1920's and 30's, Kansas City has retained the
independent spirit of its frontier beginnings. Even though an assortment of colorful characters, cowboys, politicians, criminals,
and even wagon trains populate the history of Kansas City, you can forget everything you've ever heard about it being
a "cow town." Today, the outgrowth of that colourful history and frontier spirit radiates energetically throughout
the city and its populace.
Widely regarded as the birthplace of Jazz. KC's early reputation as a "wide-open,
anything goes" city captivated and allured the musical performers of the day. It's central location and ease of access
via rail were the other components which induced this musical migration. Kansas City became a haven for musicians and fans
alike.
The musicians, who interpreted their experiences in KC's permissive environment through their music,
were also creating the elastic techniques and musical license, which remain at the heart of Jazz today. The hub of this development
was the
18th and Vine district. Many legendary musicians, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Turner and Charlie Parker
to name a few, made their way to Kansas City. Their connection to one another and to the Kansas City "scene" brought
about a unique musical expansion which enriched the city's history and initiated the genesis of Jazz.
A
blind pig, also known as a blind tiger or booze can, is an establishment that illegally provides alcoholic beverages.
The name originated in the United States in the 1800s, when blue laws restricted the sale of alcoholic beverages. A saloonkeeper
would charge customers to see an attraction (such as an animal), and provide a "complimentary" alcoholic beverage,
thus circumventing the law.
It was during the years of prohibition that blind pigs were most common in the U.S.
Estimates of the number of blind pigs in some major U.S. cities in the mid-1920s are:
Chicago, Illinois: 10,000
Detroit, Michigan: 15,000
New York City, New York: 30,000-100,000
The blind pig is a classic example of
black market economics, and with the end of prohibition in 1933 most blind pigs had to either become legitimate establishments
or close shop. Common current examples of the blind pig include the after hours club and the keg party.The underground economy
or black market is a market consisting of all commerce on which applicable taxes and/or regulations of trade are being avoided.
The term is also often known as the underdog, shadow economy, black economy or parallel economy.
The Hollywood musical is recognized as a distinguished
part of our movie history, playing an integral role in the evolution of movies during the 1920s through 1950s. Today, despite
this fact, most people are unaware of how they originally got their start. The development of moving pictures with sound during
the 1920s paved the way for the era of Hollywood musicals. Prior to the development of the musical, as we are familiar with,
there were some vaudeville fillers produced in the early 20th century that included music. While accepted by the audience,
they were never as popular as the full production Hollywood musicals that America came to love.
During the mid
1920s, Warner Brothers studio began experimenting with something new known as Vitaphone. The Vitaphone provided a method of
coordinating a musical soundtrack with film, thereby effectively creating a sound picture. This method, however, overlooked
much of the huge potential regarding the adding of sound to motion pictures. At this time in movie history, Warner Brothers
felt it was not necessary to hear the individuals talk, and merely wanted the sound to provide some musical background noise
to film. It wasn't until 1927 that Warner Brothers first introduced to the big screen singing along with sound in their
release of The Jazz Singer; a remake of the Broadway musical of the same name.
The late 1920s brought difficult
financial times to the country. It was during this time that Hollywood came to the publics rescue with the wonderfully entertaining
diversion of the Hollywood musical. Hollywood movie studios began to release numerous musicals which offered the movie going
public a chance to temporarily escape from the financial issues at hand. Some of the most popular and highly regarded musicals
to come out during the 1930s included 42nd St, Bright Lights, and Gold Diggers. The 1939 musical, The Wizard of Oz is one
of these classic musicals that still continues to entertain audiences today.
It was during the 1940s that the Hollywood
musical really came of age and their popularity continued right through the 1950s. One of the more popular 1940s musicals
was Yankee Doodle Dandy, a film that introduced movie lovers to a young James Cagney who gave a performance that earned him
an Oscar. This movie continues to be one of the most famous musicals ever produced. Another popular title that has become
a holiday tradition is The Bells of St. Mary's.
The original Hollywood musical is a page out of movie history
that can never be duplicated. The memories, however, are forever captured on film and continue to be enjoyed by audiences
around the world.
One of the most bold and dramatic eras of fashion was
the period of art deco. Starting in the 1920s and spanning to the 1930s, the fashion of silver jewelry was a huge departure
from the previous school of art: art nouveau. Where art nouveau jewelry was centered on natural curvy lines and flowers and
insects, art decorated jewelry focused on geometric shapes and were more intricate, due to advances in manufacturing technology.
The people of the 1920's wanted art that expressed something new, something that fulfilled society's need for a new
form of novelty in jewelry form.
The styles of design found in art decorated jewelry were a breath of fresh air
to the public. For a time, the people were captivated with Egyptology, due to King Tutankhamun's tomb being discovered
by Dr. Howard Carter, a British archeologist, in 1922. So great was the public's newfound fascination with Egypt, that
there was a high demand for reproductions of King Tut's artifacts to be reproduced into jewelry pieces. A few examples
of these would be amulets, scarabs, face masks of King Tutankhamum, snakes, along with various other unique items found within
his tomb.
But Egypt wasn't the only country to be used for inspiration for art deco jewelry. During the 1920s
and 1930s, airplane travel helped bridge the continents and inspired more communication throughout the world, particularly
Persia and India. Greater exposure to these countries wasn't lost on art deco jewelry. Hindu motifs were becoming more
popular and sought out, as were the precious stones found in the area, such as: rubies, emeralds, sapphires, diamonds and
pearls. As the maharajahs traveled to European cities, their style of jewelry was spread along the continent with them, and
served to inspire art decorated jewelry in many ways.
One of the technological advances that helped art deco jewelry
come into form was bakelite, a plastic material. Mostly used in small appliances and telephones, bakelite was soon found to
be an inexpensive way to manufacture jewelry. Bakelite could be colored and molded into small parts that was perfect for rings
and bracelets. Instead of using pricy gemstones, a piece of bakelite can be molded and colored into just about any shape and
hue. The most popular color were shades of amber, but red, green, white and black were also common colors found in bakelite
jewelry from the art deco jewelry period.
One of the most sought-out art deco jewelry pieces are the engagement
rings made during this period. Collectors have a hard time finding them, but the rings are well worth the time required to
find them. Popular metals in use were white gold and platinum. These metals were contrasted with crystals and diamonds, both
common in art deco jewelry, along with the inclusion of sapphires, emeralds, coral, turqoise and rubies. These rings made
heavy use of symmetry, and were usually found to have strong geometric shapes, as well. For newly engaged couples, art deco
rings are the most popular antique rings.
The United States
presidential election of 1920 was dominated by the aftermath of World War I and the hostile reaction to Woodrow Wilson, the
Democratic president. The wartime boom had collapsed. Politicians were arguing over peace treaties and the question of America's
entry into the League of Nations. Overseas there were wars and revolutions; at home, 1919 was marked by major strikes in meatpacking
and steel, and large race riots in Chicago and other cities. Terrorist attacks on Wall Street produced fears of radicals and
terrorists.
Outgoing President Wilson was increasingly unpopular, and as an invalid could no longer speak on
his own behalf. The economy was in a recession, the public was weary of war and reform, the Irish Catholic and German communities
were outraged at his policies, and his sponsorship of the League of Nations produced an isolationist reaction.
The Jazz Age
describes the period from 1918-1929, the years between the end of World War I and the start of the Roaring Twenties; ending
with the rise of the Great Depression, the traditional values of this age saw great decline while the American stock market
soared. The focus of the elements of this age, in some contrast with the Roaring Twenties, in historical and cultural studies,
are somewhat different, with a greater emphasis on all Modernism.
The age takes its name from and jazz music,
which saw a tremendous surge in popularity among many segments of society. Among the prominent concerns and trends of the
period are the public embrace of technological developments (typically seen as progress) cars, air travel and the telephone
as well as new modernist trends in social behavior, the arts, and culture. Central developments included Art Deco design and
architecture. In addition, many amateur artists began to aspire including Duke Ellington, Picasso, etc. 
In 1919,
the 18th Amendment passed the act of Prohibition, which made consumption and even possession of alcohol illegal. The general
intent of the this Amendment was to lower crime and improve the general status of life. But the opposite happened, crime increased
as people rebelled against not being able to drink alcohol. Numerous illegal bars called speak eases were created to provide
drinks for the people that required alcoholic beverages. This time period also included bathtub gin and other versions of
home made alcohol. Gangsters profited during this decade by smuggling alcohol and distrusting it to different illegal businesses.
Al Capone was one of these gangsters who made $105 million a year on smuggling alcohol into the United States.
The Cotton Club
was a famous night club in TGF City that operated during Prohibition. While the club featured many of the greatest African
American entertainers of the era, such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Bessie Smith, Cab Calloway, The Nicholas Brothers,
Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, and Ethel Waters, it generally denied admission to blacks. During its heyday,
it served as a chic meeting spot in the heart of Harlem, featuring regular "Celebrity Nights" on Sundays, at which
celebrities such as Jimmy Durante, George Gershwin, Al Jolson, Mae West, Irving Berlin, Eddie Cantor, Moss Hart, New York
mayor Jimmy Walker and other luminaries would appear.
Heavyweight champion Jack Johnson opened the Club Deluxe at 142nd
Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem in 1920. Owney Madden, a prominent bootlegger and gangster, took over the club in 1923 while
imprisoned in Sing Sing and changed its name to the Cotton Club. While the club was closed briefly in 1925 for selling liquor,
it reopened without trouble from the police. The dancers and strippers occasionally performed for Madden in Sing Sing after
his return there in 1933.
The club reproduced the racist imagery of the times, often depicting blacks as savages in
exotic jungles or as "darkies" in the plantation South. The club imposed a more subtle color bar on the chorus girls
whom the club presented in skimpy outfits: they were expected to be "tall, tan, and terrific", which meant that
they had to be at least 5 feet 6 inches tall, light skinned, and under twenty-one years of age. Ellington was expected to
write "jungle music" for an audience of whites. 
Starting in the
1920s, ballrooms across the U.S. sponsored dance contests, where dancers invented, tried, and competed with new moves. Professionals
began to hone their skills in tap dance and other dances of the era throughout the Vaudeville circuit across the United States.
Electric lighting made evening social entertainment more comfortable, giving rise to an era of dance halls and live music.
The most popular dances were the fox-trot, waltz and tango, and the Charleston.
Harlem played a key role in the development
of dance styles. With several entertainment venues, people from all walks of life, all races, and all classes came together.
The Cotton Club featured black performers and catered to a white clientele, while the Savoy Ballroom catered to a mostly black
clientele.
From the early 1920s, a variety of eccentric dances were developed. The first of these were the Breakaway
and Charleston. Both were based on African-American musical styles and beats, including the widely popular blues. The Charleston's
popularity exploded after its feature in two 1922 Broadway shows. A brief Black Bottom craze, originating from the Apollo
Theater, swept dance halls from 1926 to 1927, replacing the Charleston in popularity. By 1927, the Lindy Hop, a dance based
on Breakaway and Charleston and integrating elements of tap, became the dominant social dance. Developed in the Savoy Ballroom,
it was set to stride piano ragtime jazz. The Lindy Hop remained popular for over a decade, before evolving into Swing dance.
These dances, nonetheless, were never mainstreamed, and the overwhelming majority of people continued to dance the fox-trot,
waltz and tango throughout the decade. 
A gangster is
a criminal who is, or at some point almost invariably becomes, a member of a persistent violent crime organization, such as
a gang. As an adjective it can be used as an unflattering depiction of the violent and devious methods commonly used by mobsters,
and the derived form gangsterism implies such methods as practice or habit. The term gangster is most commonly used in reference
to members of the criminal organizations associated with the American offshoot of the Italian Cosa Nostra, the Mafia (sometimes
called the Mob), and the American prohibition, such as the Chicago Outfit and the Five Families, and individuals such as Al
Capone and Bugsy Siegel.
The term flapper
in the 1920s referred to a "new breed" of young women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to the
new Jazz music, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behaviour. The flappers were seen as brash
for wearing excessive make up, drinking, treating sex in a casual manner, smoking, driving automobiles, and otherwise flouting
conventional social and sexual norms.
The term flapper
first appears in Britain, though the etymology is disputed. It may be in reference to a young bird flapping its wings while
learning to fly, or it may derive from an earlier use in northern England of flapper to mean "teenage girl" (whose
hair is not yet put up), or "prostitute".
While many in the United States assumed at the time that the term
flapper derived from a fashion of women wearing galoshes unbuckled so that they could show people their bodies as they walked,
the term was already documented as in use in the United Kingdom as early as 1912. From the 1910s into the 1920s, flapper was
a term for any impetuous teenage girl, often including women under 30. Only in the 1920s did the term take on the meaning
of the flapper generation style and attitudes, while people continued to use the word to mean immature.
The 1920s is
sometimes referred to as the "Jazz Age" or the "Roaring Twenties," usually applied to the U.S. In Europe
the decade is sometimes referred to as the Golden Twenties Since the closing of the 20th Century, the 1920s has drawn close
associations with the 1950s and 1990s, especially in the United States. The three decades are regarded as periods of economic
prosperity, which lasted throughout almost the entire decade following a tremendous event that occurred in the previous decade
(World War I and Spanish flu in the 1910s, World War II in the 1940s, and the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s).
The 1918 flu
pandemic (commonly referred to as the Spanish flu) was an influenza pandemic that was first found in the United States, appeared
in Sierra Leone and France, and then spread to nearly every part of the world. It was caused by an unusually severe and deadly
Influenza A virus strain of subtype H1N1. Many of its victims were healthy young adults, in contrast to most influenza outbreaks
which predominantly affect juvenile, elderly, or otherwise weakened patients.
The Spanish flu lasted from March 1918
to June 1920, spreading even to the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. It is estimated that anywhere from 20 to 100 million
people were killed worldwide, more than double the number killed in World War I. This extraordinary toll resulted from the
extremely high infection rate of up to 50% and the extreme severity of the symptoms
The massive arms
race of the 19th century finally culminated in a war which involved every powerful nation in the world: World War I (1914
1918). This war drastically changed the way war was fought, as new inventions such as machine guns, tanks, chemical weapons,
and grenades created stalemates on the battlefield and millions of troops were killed with little progress made on either
side. After more than four years of horrifying trench warfare in western Europe, and 20 million dead, those powers who had
formed the Triple Entente (France, Britain, and Russia, later replaced by the United States and joined by Italy) emerged victorious
over the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire). In addition to annexing much of the colonial
possessions of the vanquished states, the Triple Entente exacted punitive restitution payments from their former foes, plunging
Germany in particular into economic depression. The Russian Empire was plunged into revolution during the conflict and transitioned
into the first ever communist state, and the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires were dismantled at the war's conclusion.
World War I brought about the end of the royal and imperial ages of Europe and established the United States as a major world
military power.
At the start of the period, Britain was the world's most powerful nation. However, its economy
was ruined by World War I, and its empire began to shrink, producing a growing power vacuum in Europe. Fascism, a movement
which grew out of post-war angst and accelerated by the Great Depression of the 1930s, gained momentum in Italy, Germany and
Spain in the 1920s and 1930s, finally culminating in World War II (1939–1945), sparked off by Nazi Germany's
aggressive expansion at the expense of its neighbours. Meanwhile, Japan had rapidly industrialized and transformed itself
into an aggressive and technologically-advanced industrial power. Its aggressive expansion into eastern Asia and the Pacific
Ocean brought the United States into World War II. Germany was defeated after pushed by the Soviet Union to the east and the
D-Day invasion of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Free France from the west. The war was ended with the
dropping of two devastating atomic bombs on Japan. Japan has since transitioned into one of the most pacifistic countries
on the planet, building a powerful economy based on consumer goods and trade. Germany was divided between the western powers
and the Soviet Union; all areas recaptured by the Soviet Union (East Germany and eastward) were essentially transitioned into
Soviet puppet states under communist rule. Meanwhile, western Europe was revitalized by the American Marshall Plan and made
a quick economic recovery, becoming major allies of the United States under capitalist economies and free governments. The
largest and most devastating war ever fought, World War II claimed the lives of about 60 million people.
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