Printable Timeline
Timeline
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1900
Songs of America
Amy Marcy Cheney Beach sets to music Three Browning Songs, including "Ah, Love, But a Day and "The Year's at the Spring."
John Rosamond Johnson writes the anthem "Lift Every Voice and Sing" to lyrics by James Weldon Johnson.
The King Family performs the traditional dance song "Cripple Creek" on string band instruments: banjo, mandolin, guitar, fiddle, and bass fiddle. Originally from Arkansas, this family of musicians moved west during the dust bowl. Recorded by Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin the Arvin FSA Camp, 1940.
"Casey Jones," ballad sung by Jim Holbert. Recorded by Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin at the Visalia FSA Camp, California, August 7, 1940.
Culture
Sigmund Freud publishes The Interpretation of Dreams
John Philip Sousa takes his band on their first European tour
Magnetic recording introduced
L. Frank Baum publishes The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Mail order catalogs begin making it easier for Americans in remote rural areas to obtain instruments such as mandolins and banjos. This availablity gives rise to what becomes known as "string band music."
In the News
Engineer John Luther "Casey" Jones is killed when his train, passenger train Number One, also known as the "Cannonball Express," crashes into the back of a caboose on the track at Vaughan, Mississippi on a foggy night.
Carrie Nation begins her hatchet crusade against liquor
Boxer Rebellion in China
Devastating hurricane in Galveston, Texas
William McKinley is re-elected president of the U.S.
Secretary of State John Hay announces Open Door Policy with regard to international access to China
U.S. population is over 75,000,000
J. Rosamond Johnson 
The King Family (string band) -
1901
Songs of America
American composer and teacher Arthur Farwell (1872-1952) founds the Wa-Wan Press to promote new music by American composers. The name Wa-Wan comes the Omaha language, meaning "to sing to someone." Farwell and other composers published by the press were part of the "Indianist" movement in which "classical" composers used Native American musical themes in their compositions.
Philip Dalmas (1870-1925) writes Four Songs from Whitman, including "As I Watch'd the Ploughman Ploughing," and "A Clear Midnight."
Carrie Jacobs Bond's "I Love You Truly" is published, the first song written by a woman to sell over one million copies of sheet music.
Edgar Stillman-Kelley (1857-1944) sets to music Edgar Allan Poe's El Dorado.
"Zolgotz," a ballad about the assassination of President McKinley, sung and played on the banjo by folksong collector Bascom Lamar Lunsford of North Carolina. Recorded by Duncan Emrich, March 1949 in Washington, D.C.
"Funeral Song," sung by George Miller and Joseph Merrick. Recorded by Francis La Flesche, September 1895. Collector's note: "the Omaha had only one funeral song." This Omaha song provided the inspiration for "Song to the Spirit" in American Indian Melodies, by Arthur Farwell, 1901.
Culture
Pablo Picasso's Blue Period begins
The Victor Talking Machine Company is founded by Emile Berliner and Eldridge Johnson.
Booker T. Washington: Up from Slavery
Henry Hadley's Symphony no. 2, "The Four Seasons" wins the Paderewski Prize.
Arthur Farwell publishes American Indian Melodies. A story of an encounter with the ghost warrior Formation of the Hethu'shka Society, told by Hollis Stabler Sr. on August 22, 1985 is also related by Farwell in his introduction to the sheet music. Neptune Plaza Concert Series Collection: 1985/015: 0714.
In the News
U.S. Steel incorporated as the first billion-dollar corporation
President McKinley is shot twice on September 6 by anarchist Leon Czolgosz, while touring the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. One bullet was removed, but the doctors were unable to find the second. McKinley dies on September 14. Theodore Roosevelt becomes the twenty-sixth president.
Queen Victoria dies in England
Assassination of President McKinley -
1902
Songs of America
John Alden Carpenter (1876-1951) writes a collection titled Improving Songs for Anxious Children with drawings by his wife, interior designer Rue Winterbottom.
Frederick Converse (1871-1940) sets to music the John Keats poem La Belle Dame sans Merci for baritone voice and orchestra.
Culture
Claude Debussy writes the opera Pelléas et Mélisande
Enrico Caruso makes his first phonograph record
Scott Joplin composes "The Entertainer"
In the News
Congress limits the number of Chinese people that may enter the U.S. in any given year
Carnegie Institute founded in Washington D.C.
Cecil Rhodes scholarship fund forms with $10 million
First Rose Bowl played in Pasadena, California
Anthracite coal miners strike
Ida Tarbell's series on the history of Standard Oil begins in McClure's Magazine
"The Entertainer" -
1903
Songs of America
Organist and composer Homer N. Bartlett sets to music Hamlet's soliloquy, "To Be or Not to Be." A prolific composer, Bartlett published over 271 works including later pieces that highlight his interest in Japanese culture.
Clara Kathleen Rogers (1844-1931) sets to music "Overhead the Tree Tops Meet" by Robert Browning. Although Ms. Rogers's personal collection of correspondence and manuscripts was donated to the Harvard University Library, a manuscript copy of this song can be found in the A.P. Schmidt Company Archives at the Library of Congress.
"The Old Ninety Seven" a ballad about train wreck in Virginia sung by Fred J. Lewey. An early version of the song better known as "The Wreck of the Old Ninety Seven." Recorded by Robert Winslow Gordon in Concord, North Carolina, October 15, 1925.
Culture
W.E.B. DuBois publishes The Souls of Black Folk
John Singer Sargent paints Charles Martin Loeffler
Victor Herbert's "Babes in Toyland," premieres in New York City
Enrico Caruso's recording of "Vesti la giubba" for Victor is the first record to achieve sales of a million copies over time.
In the News
First successful airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina by Orville and Wilbur Wright
U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor forms
U.S. signs agreement acquiring a naval station at Guantanamo Bay Cuba
The Southern Railroad train known as the "Fast Mail," or the "Ninety Seven" derailed at Stillhouse Trestle near Danville, Virginia, killing eleven people.
Hay-Buneau-Varilla Treaty gives the U.S. the right to a 10-mile strip in Panama, where future canal will be built.
Wilbur Wright -
1904
Songs of America
Horatio Parker's Four Songs include "Serenade" (Nathan Haskell Dole) and "Good Bye" (Christina Rossetti).
Tin Pan Alley composer Kerry Mills writes "Meet Me in St. Louis" in honor of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, also known as the St. Louis World's Fair.
Victor Herbert writes the patriotic song "In the Folds of the Starry Flag."" Complimentary copies of the song were distributed to new subscribers by the Chicago Tribune on July 31, 1904.
Culture
First performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams' Songs of Travel on poetry by Robert Louis Stevenson
Charles Ives writes Symphony no. 3, "The Camp Meeting"
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, commonly known as the St. Louis World's Fair, opens in St. Louis, Missouri.
In the News
Russo-Japanese War begins
American Academy of Arts and Letters forms
New York Subway officially opens
Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine asserts U.S. authority of international police power in Latin America
Horatio William Parker, 1863-1919 -
1905
Songs of America
Arthur Farwell publishes Folk Songs of the West and South, op. 19.
Charles H. Gabriel (1856-1932) writes the classic gospel song 'His Eye is on the Sparrow.'
Culture
The Institute of Musical Arts is founded in New York – forerunner of The Juilliard School
Albert Einstein proposes theory of special relativity
In the News
Theodore Roosevelt inaugurated president
Russo-Japanese War ends with the defeat of the Russian fleet
Rotary Club organized in Chicago
International Workers of the World (IWW or "Wobblies") formed
Russians and Japanese after the surrender -- Port Arthur -
1906
Songs of America
Charles Wakefield Cadman (1881-1946) sets to music 'At Dawning' by Nelle Richmond Eberhart.
"Corrido del soldado," a ballad about the Brownsville Affair sung by José Suarez. Recorded by John Avery Lomax and Ruby Terrill Lomax
Culture
Upton Sinclair publishes The Jungle
Ambrose Bierce publishes The Cynic’s Wordbook
Alexander Scriabin performs his own piano music in New York City
In the News
San Francisco's great earthquake
Mahatma Gandhi coins the term Satyagraha to characterize the non-violence movement in South Africa.
The Brownsville Affair: African American infantrymen of the Twenty-Fifth Infantry Regiment are accused of conspiracy in the killing of a white citizen of Brownsville, Texas. Though they were in their barracks at the time of the killing, 167 troops were dishonorably discharged.
Pure Food and Drug Act; Meat Inspection Act passed by U.S. Congress
"At dawning" 
San Francisco earthquake -
1907
Songs of America
Charles Tomlinson Griffes returns to America after studying composition in Berlin with Engelbert Humperdinck. Griffes is known for his masterful text setting in both English and German.
Amy Marcy Cheney Beach writes The Chambered Nautilus, set to a poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Tin Pan Alley composer John W. Bratton (1867-1947) writes the instrumental tune "Teddy Bear Two-Step." In 1932, lyrics are added by Jimmy Kennedy and the classic children's song "Teddy Bears' Picnic" is born.
"Manabus Tells the Ducks to Shut Their Eyes," a Menominee song sung by Louis Pigeon. Recorded by Frances Densmore in Keshena, Wisconsin in 1925.
Culture
Edward Curtis publishes The North American Indian, the first of twenty volumes of photos of Native American life
MacDowell Colony is established in New Hampshire
Ethnomusicologist Frances Densmore begins documenting American Indian music and song for the Smithsonian Institution Bureau of Ethnology in Washington, D.C.
In the News
Oklahoma becomes the 46th state in the U.S.
Finland is first European country to give women the right to vote
Roosevelt's "gentlemen's agreement' with Japanese to bar Japanese laborers from the United States
U.S. Navy's "Great White Fleet" begins world cruise
Russians and Japanese after the surrender -- Port Arthur -
1908
Songs of America
"Take Me Out to the Ball Game," performed by baseball organist Ed Alstrom as a sing-along with the audience at the Baseball Americana Symposium at the Library of Congress, October 3, 2009.
Arthur Farwell writes Three Indian Songs: "Song of the Deathless Voice," "Inketunga's Thunder Song," and "The Old Man's Love-Song."
Culture
First exhibit of Ashcan School of painting
"Take Me Out to the Ball Game," by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer is one of the biggest hit songs of 1908. Singing it at baseball games subsequently becomes a seventh-inning tradition.
First Cubist paintings
The Christian Science Monitor begins publication
L.M. Montgomery publishes Anne of Green Gables
In the News
First Model T Ford introduced
The New York Singer Building is the first skyscraper in New York City
Singer Building, New York -
1909
Songs of America
Charles Wakefield Cadman publishes Four Indian Songs, op. 45 including the popular hit "From the Land of the Sky-Blue Water" after spending the summer with the Omaha Indian tribe.
Charles Tomlinson Griffes sets to music Five German Poems, including Nikolaus Lenau's "By a Lonely Forest Pathway."
John Alden Carpenter sets to music Robert Louis Stevenson's "Looking-Glass River" and "The Green River" by Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas.
Culture
Poet Robert Underwood Johnson founds the Keats House in Rome
The Ballet Russes is founded by Sergei Diaghilev
Sergei Rachmaninoff makes first U.S. concert tour
Columbia discontinues cylinder production in favor of flat disc.
In the News
William Howard Taft inaugurated as twenty-seventh president. Teddy Roosevelt leaves for hunting trip in Africa.
American explorers Robert Peary and Matthew Henson reach the North Pole
NAACP founded
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1910
Songs of America
Carrie Jacobs-Bond's "A Perfect Day" is published, eventually selling over 8 million copies of sheet music and 5 million records.
George Whitefield Chadwick sets to music "When I Am Dead" by Christina Rossetti.
Charles Wakefield Cadman writes Sayonara: A Song Cycle on Japanese Themes.
Culture
Igor Stravinsky's composes ballet score The Firebird
Ralph Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony includes musical settings of Whitman
Black musicians begin using the term "blues" to describe the established 12-bar form
In the News
Glacier National Park is established in Montana
National Institute of Arts and Letters incorporated by Congress
Thubten Gyatso, the 13th Dali Llama, is exiled to India after Chinese invasion of Tibet
Boy Scouts of America and Camp Fire Girls Organization founded
"A Perfect Day" 
George W. Chadwick (1854-1931) 
Thubten Gyatso -
1911
Songs of America
Irving Berlin (1888-1989) writes his first big hit "Alexander’s Ragtime Band."
Carrie Jacobs-Bond writes a collection of Half Minute Songs.
"My Slovak Tongue," sung in Slovak by Reverend Stephen M. Tuhy, pastor of the Lutheran Church of Slavia, Florida, and a chorus of young girls. Recorded by Alton C. Morris, August 31, 1939.
Culture
Edith Wharton publishes her novel Ethan Frome
Frank Lloyd Wright builds his home Taliesin in Wisconsin
Members of a Slovak community in Cleveland, Ohio incorporated themselves as the Slavia Colony Company and purchased land northeast of Orlando, which became Slavia, Florida.
In the News
Roald Amundsen is first to reach the South Pole
Calbraith Perry Rodgers makes the first transcontinental flight across the U.S.
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York results in 146 deaths, largely because exit doors had been locked
Andrew Carnegie forms Carnegie Corporation of New York (for scholarly and charitable works)
"Alexander's Ragtime Band" 
Taliesin I, interior: living room -
1912
Songs of America
Wa-Wan Press is sold to publishing house G. Schirmer and closes.
"God Moves on the Water," a song about the sinking of the RMS Titanic, sung by Lightnin' Washington and a group of convicts at Darrington State Prison, Sandy Point, Texas. Recorded by John Avery Lomax and Ruby Terrill Lomax, December 1939.
Culture
Carl Jung publishes The Theory of Psychoanalysis
Arnold Schoenberg writes Pierrot Lunaire
James Reese Europe leads the first black jazz orchestra to perform in Carnegie Hall
Henry Cowell shocks the San Francisco Music Club with a performance of his tone-cluster compositions for piano
In the News
New Mexico and Arizona become 47th and 48th states, respectively
U.S. Federal employees are given an eight hour workday
The RMS Titanic sinks, April 15, 1912, causing the deaths of 1,514 people.
Juliette Gordon Low organizes Girl Scouts
Democrat Woodrow Wilson defeats Republican William H. Taft, Bull Moose Theodore Roosevelt and Socialist Eugene V. Debs for the presidency
Titanic survivors on way to rescue-ship Carpathia -
1913
Songs of America
John Alden Carpenter sets to music three poems from Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali, including "When I Bring to You Colour'd Toys."
Methodist revival preacher George Bennard writes the classic hymn 'The Old Rugged Cross'.
Mabel Wheeler Daniels (1877-1971) writes The Desolate City for baritone soloist, mixed chorus, and orchestra while staying at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire.
Culture
Igor Stravinsky writes The Rite of Spring
The first "talking movie" is demonstrated by Edison using his Kinetophone process, a cylinder player mechanically synchronized to a film projector.
Rabindranath Tagore wins Nobel Prize for poetry
New York Armory art show introduces Cubism
Woolworth Building in New York is tallest in the world
In the News
Woodrow Wilson inaugurated
16th Amendment establishes a federal income tax in the U.S.
British House of Commons rejects women's right to vote
Thousands of women demonstrate for Dutch suffrage
17th Amendment leads to direct election of U.S. senators
Henry Ford introduces moving assembly line
Federal Reserve Bank established
Rabindranath Tagore -
1914
Songs of America
Henry Burleigh writes the song cycle Saracen Songs.
Charles Ives writes "General William Booth Enters Into Heaven" on a poem by Vachel Lindsay, honoring the founder of the Salvation Army.
"Hatikva" (or "Hatkivah," "The Hope"), performed in Hebrew by Alma Gluck, with Efrem Zimbalist on violin. The song reflects the hope of a Jewish homeland in Israel. This song was an unofficial anthem of Israel for decades, and became the official National Anthem of Israel in 2004. Victor recording, 1918.
Culture
Charles Ives writes Three Places in New England
Founding of ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers
English composer Gustav Holst begins writing The Planets
In the News
Archduke Franz Ferdinand and wife Sophie assassinated in Sarajevo; World War I begins
Panama Canal opens
Transcontinental phone service from New York to San Francisco
As World War I begins, the nascent Zionist Movement in the United States is cut off from the larger movement in Europe. The organization appoints lawyer and public advocate Louis Dembitz Brandeis as its new president. Brandeis uses his considerable influence to bring greater attention to discrimination against Jews in Europe and the goal of creating a Jewish state in Palestine. (In 1916 he is appointed to the United States Supreme Court.)
Federal Trade Commission established
Marcus Garvey founds Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in Jamaica
Clayton Anti-Trust Act exempts labor unions from anti-trust laws
Mother's Day celebrated nationally on the second Sunday in May
Louis D. Brandeis -
1915
Songs of America
Henry Burleigh sets to music Walt Whitman's poem "Ethiopia Saluting the Colors."
"There is a Balm in Gilead," performed by the Fisk Jubilee Quartet. The lead tenor is John Wesley Work, Jr. Victor Recording, 1909.
"Psalm 52: In that day we praise the Lord, I was the smallest brother of all," a psalm sung in Russian by the Russian Molokan congregation. Recorded by Sidney Robertson Cowell, in Potrero Hill, San Francisco, California, 1938.
"De le [Dle] Yaman," sung by in Armenian. This love song's refrain, yearning for "my beloved," took on a different meaning of loss for refugees escaping the Armenian Genocide of 1915. This singer is an immigrant to the U.S. Recorded by Sidney Robertson Cowell in Fresno, California on April 16, 1939 [title written as "De Le Yaman" by Cowell].
"Derzor [Deir ez Zor] Chollerenda," a love song sung in Armenian by Vartan S. Shapazian. Recorded by Sidney Robertson Cowell in Fowler, California, October 30, 1939.
Culture
New Orleans jazz flourishes
Choir director and folk song collector John Wesley Work, Jr. publishes Folk Song of the American Negro, a compilation of the songs and spirituals. His son, John Wesley Work, III, will follow in his father's footsteps.
D. W. Griffith directs the motion picture, The Birth of a Nation, which contributes to revitalization of the Ku Klux Klan
Henri Matisse paints Goldfish
The Panama-Pacific International Exposition opens in San Francisco.
Russian Molokan Church leader Efim Gerasimovich Klubnikin dies in Los Angeles, California. Recognized as a prophet from childhood by exiled Molokans in the Caucuses, he led about 2,000 "Old Believers" to seek religious freedom in the U.S.
In the News
The U.S. Coast Guard is formed
The Lusitania is sunk off the coast of Ireland
The American Committee for Relief in the Near East is organized in the U.S., with the primary concern of aiding Armenians being deported from the newly-formed Ottoman Republic and to call attention to what is later called the Armenian Genocide. Armenian survivors flee to several countries, including the U.S.
The Birth of a Nation -
1916
Songs of America
Composer and critic Deems Taylor writes the song cycle The City of Joy depicting an idyllic life in the big city.
Bandleader William Christopher (W.C.) Handy (1873-1958) writes his famous "Beale Street Blues" in honor of the famous musical thoroughfare in Memphis, TN.
"I'm Sad and I'm Lonely," a love song sung by poet Carl Sandburg, recorded by Anne Grimes, 1953.
Culture
Charles Ives writes Fourth Symphony
James Joyce publishes A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Oscar Sonneck publishes Suum Cuique: Essays on Music
Carl Sandburg publishes Chicago Poems, for which he receives national acclaim. In speaking engagements that follow, he frequently performs folksongs as well as reading his poetry.
In the News
Woodrow Wilson is re-elected on "He Kept Us Out of War" slogan
National Park Service created
Congress passes Federal Farm Loan Act
Pancho Villa raids on Columbus, New Mexico
Keating-Owen Act passed to curb child labor
Jeanette Rankin of Montana is the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives
"Beale Street Blues" 
Pancho Villa -
1917
Songs of America
Henry Burleigh publishes arrangements of spirituals, including "Deep River."
Charles Ives sets to music Three Songs of War, including "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae.
Charles Griffes sets to music Five Poems on Ancient China and Japan, op. 10.
"Die Judische ligionerie," a song about the Jewish Legion, sung in Yiddish by Shloimele Rothstein. Composed by Joseph Rumshinsky. Recorded in New York, New York March 9, 1925.
"Molly and the Baby Don't You Know," a temperance song composed by J. B. Herbert and sung by Homer A. Rodeheaver. Victor recordings, 1916.
Culture
Salzburg Music Festival begins
Marc Chagall paints The Grey House
The Boston Symphony makes its first recordings
Vachel Lindsay publishes The Chinese Nightingale and Other Poems
Pulitzer Prize first awarded
In the News
U.S. Congress declares war on Germany and passes the Selective Service Act, entering World War I.
Bolshevik Revolution in Russia forces Czar Nicholas II to abdicate
Puerto Rico becomes a U.S. territory
Great Britain announces the formation of the Jewish Legion, regiments of Jewish soldiers sent to fight in Palestine and North Africa during the First World War. The Legion includes both British and Russian soldiers, joined in 1918 by Canadians and Americans. Some veterans of the Legion, including Americans, settle in Palestine after the war.
On August 1, 1917 the Senate passes a resolution with the language of the 18th Amendment to ban the sale, distribution, and manufacture alcoholic beverages. This then needed to be ratified by 36 states.
U.S. takes possession of Virgin Islands from Denmark
Zimmerman Telegram becomes known to U.S. authorities
Liberty Loan Act passed, authorizing sale of government bonds to raise money for war effort
John "Black Jack" Pershing named commander of American forces in France; American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) created
Flanders Fields 
Bolshevik Revolution -
1918
Songs of America
Arthur Foote (1853-1937) sets to music A Twilight Fear by C.G. Blanden.
Charles Tomlinson Griffes composes Two Songs by John Masefield: "An Old Song Resung" and "Sorrow o' Mydath" and Three Poems by Fiona MacLeod, op. 11, including "The Lament of Ian the Proud."
"La Piave," sung in Italian by Mario Olmeda. This is a patriotic song about Italy's "Battle of the Solstice" in June 1918. Recorded by Sidney Robertson Cowell in Concord, California on February 13, 1939.
Culture
Sergei Rachmaninoff moves to the United States
In the News
Woodrow Wilson announces his Fourteen Points, outlining his war aims into the postwar world.
First air mail service begins
In June 1918 the Italian Army successfully defeats the Austrian army at the Piave River, a major turning point in World War I. The U.S. supports Italy with needed materials such as coal and steel.
American forces participate in battles of Belleau Wood, Saint-Mihiel, and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive
"Spanish flu" influenza epidemic becomes global pandemic
Daylight savings time introduced
Armistice on November 11 ends World War I
1918 Influenza epidemic 
Serge Rachmaninoff -
1919
Songs of America
Arthur Foote sets to music Three Songs 1914-1918: "In Flanders Fields" (Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae), "The Soldier" Rupert Brooke), and "Oh, Red is the English Rose" (Dr. Charles Alexander Richmond).
George Gershwin (1898-1937) writes "Swanee" with lyrics by Irving Caesar. It was introduced by singer Al Jolson in the show "Sinbad" at the Winter Garden in New York City.
"Alcoholic Blues," composed by Albert Von Tilzer, performed by Billy Murray, January 27, 1919.
Culture
Folklorist Vance Randolph, who was born in Kansas, moves to Missouri. There he will spend much of his career documenting the life, lore, and songs of the people of the Ozarks.
U.S. Post Office burns early portions of Joyce's Ulysses
Bauhaus School of architecture begins
The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) is founded. The company had a long association with Victor records and ultimately purchased it in 1929, creating RCA Victor.
Darius Milhaud writes Le Boeuf sur le Toit
In the News
The Eighteenth Amendment, prohibiting the sale, distribution, and manufacture of alcoholic beverages, is ratified. It sets a delay of one year before it goes into effect under the Volstead Act.
Grand Canyon National Park is established in Arizona
The American Legion is formed
The American Communist Party is formed
Versailles Peace Conference in France; negotiations for end of World War I. U. S. Senate will refuse to ratify resulting treaty due to League of Nations.
"Black Sox" baseball scandal
"Alcoholic Blues" 
Prohibition -
1920
Songs of America
Charles Ives sets to music Cowboy Songs including "Charlie Rutlage."
"The Argentines, the Portuguese, and the Greeks" was written by Arthur M. Swanstrom and Carey Morgan. Performed by the Duncan Sisters, it's a humorous song of envy and begrudging admiration for the new wave of immigrants
"Bill Burroughs," sung and played on the piano by Theodore "Tea Roll" Rolle. A jazz song about a Bahaman who smuggled rum into Florida during Prohibition. Recorded by Stetson Kennedy in Florida, 1940.
Culture
Maurice Ravel composes La Valse
Edith Wharton publishes The Age of Innocence
Sinclair Lewis publishes Main Street
Eugene O'Neill's Emperor Jones on Broadway
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a landmark of German Expressionist film
In the News
The 18th amendment prohibiting the sale, manufacture, and making of alcohol, or "Prohibition" goes into effect
19th Amendment ratified; gives women the right to vote
Thousands arrested and deported in Red Scare "Palmer Raids"
Socialist Eugene V. Debs makes his fifth run for president, this time from prison
League of Nations is created; United States never joins
Italian anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti arrested on murder chargers; their case will become a cause célèbre
First national radio service begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; broadcasts results of presidential election
"The Argentines, the Portuguese, and the Greeks" -
1921
Songs of America
Charles Ives publishes 114 songs, including "The Housatonic at Stockbridge."
Culture
French composer, conductor and educator Nadia Boulanger begins teaching at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau
James Joyce publishes full-length Ulysses
T.S. Eliot publishes The Waste Land
Rudolph Valentino stars in The Sheik
Pablo Picasso paints The Three Musicians
Einstein lectures in New York on theory of relativity
In the News
Warren Harding inaugurated as twenty-ninth President of the U.S.
Former President Taft appointed as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
Resurgence of Ku Klux Klan
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier placed at Arlington Cemetery
-
1922
Songs of America
Charles Wakefield Cadman writes The Willow Wind, a song cycle on Chinese themes.
"Boll Weevil," work song sung by Irvin "Gar Mouth" Lowry and Willie "Red Eye" Williams One of several different boll weevil songs with the same or similar titles. Recorded by John Avery Lomax and Ruby Terrill Lomax at Cummins State Farm, Camp #5, near Varner, Lincoln County, Arkansas, May 20, 1939.
Culture
Maurice Ravel orchestrates Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition
Louis Armstrong joins King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band
F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tales of the Jazz Age names a decade
Carl Engel becomes head of Library of Congress Music Division
Reader's Digest begins publication
In the News
Lincoln Memorial dedicated in Washington D.C.
Benito Mussolini and his National Fascist Party rise to power in Italy
Fourteen Russian states form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
The crop-destroying boll weevil that entered the U.S. through Mexico in about 1892 spreads to the southeastern U.S. by 1922, causing a crisis in the cotton industry. Eventually the insect spreads to all states where cotton is grown.
Maurice Ravel -
1923
Songs of America
John Duke's first songs are published.
Culture
Arnold Schoenberg turns to twelve-tone method of compositions
League of Composers is formed in New York
Le Corbusier writes Towards an Architecture
In the News
Harding dies; Calvin Coolidge becomes thirtieth President of the United States
Antitoxin for scarlet fever is discovered
Adolf Hitler is arrested after the failed "Beer Hall Putsch."
The Treaty of Lausanne is signed, expelling Greeks from Asia Minor, now Turkey. These Greeks fled to Greece as well as to other countries, including the U.S. These people became known as "the Greek refugees."
Greek immigrants -
1924
Songs of America
Samuel Barlow (1892-1982) writes Three Songs from the Chinese. In 1935, Barlow's opera Mon ami Pierrot was the first American opera performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.
Amy Marcy Cheney Beach: A Mirage, op. 100 for soprano and piano trio, on a poem by Bertha Ochsner.
"Konjanik" (Rider on Horseback), sung in Serbo-Croatian by Peter Boro and played on the gusle. A portion of the Croatian epic about the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. Croatians are among the groups with quotas imposed on their immigration to the U.S. in 1924. Recorded by Sidney Robertson Cowell in San Mateo, California on May 7, 1939.
Culture
Wallingford Riegger is the first American to win the Coolidge Prize for his cantata La Belle Dame sans Merci
The Curtis Institute of Music is founded in Philadelphia
Thomas Mann: The Magic Mountain
Eugene O'Neill: Desire Under the Elms
H.L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan found The American Mercury magazine
George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" premieres
In the News
The Indian Citizenship Act grants full U.S. citizenship to American Indians
After two years of investigation, Congress directs the president to cancel fraudulent oil leases involved in the Teapot Dome scandal
Leopold and Loeb murder case in Chicago; defendants represented by Clarence Darrow
The Immigration Act of 1924 limits immigration to two percent of the number of a country's nationals in the U.S. as of 1890. The Act tailored to reduce immigration from parts of the world other than Western Europe. Japanese are excluded entirely.
Amy Beach -
1925
Songs of America
Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979) writes "June Twilight" on a poem by John Masefield.
Experimental composer John J. Becker (1886-1961) writes Heine Song Cycle on poetry translated from the German by James Thomson.
"Santa Barbara Earthquake," sung by Mrs. Vester Whitworth with Zelmer Ward on guitar. Recorded by Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin at the Arvin FSA Camp, California, August 1, 1940.
Culture
Jazz arrives in Europe
Society of American Women Composers founded; Amy Marcy Cheney Beach is first president
Flowering of Harlem Renaissance
The first electrically recorded 78 rpm discs were introduced.
Alban Berg’s opera Wozzeck premieres in Berlin
F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
In the News
Adolph Hitler publishes Mein Kampf
The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, known as the Scopes Monkey Trial, highlights the growing conflict in America between scientific truth and biblical truth, particularly over evolution. Clarence Darrow represents the defendant, while William Jennings Bryan aids the prosecution.
On June 28 at 6:44 AM, a 6.3 earthquake hits Santa Barbara, California.
Harlem Renaissance -
1926
Songs of America
Sidney Homer (1864-1953) sets to music Vachel Lindsay's "General Booth Enters into Heaven."
John Alden Carpenter publishes settings of Langston Hughes as Four Negro Songs: "That Soothin' Song," "The Cryin' Blues," "Jazz Boys," and "Shake Your Brown Feet, Honey."
"Hurricane," sung by James Brown, Jr., Walter Bass, and Ned Bass. This song uses the tune and refrain of "God Moves on the Water," a song about the steamship Titanic. Recorded in Florida in 1940 by Corita Doggett Corse and Robert Cornwall.
"Come by Here," sung by H. Wylie. Folklorist Robert Winslow Gordon makes the first recording of this song on wax cylinder. The location is not known, but, as the speaker uses Gullah dialect, it was probably recorded in costal South Carolina or Georgia. This song will become famous as "Kumbayah," as it is picked up by singers in the Folk Song Revival of the 1950s.
Culture
Edgar Varèse: first performance of Amériques
Langston Hughes publishes first jazz poems, The Weary Blues
Ernest Hemingway publishes The Sun Also Rises
In the News
Henry Ford institutes the five day work week
First public demonstration of television by John L. Baird in London
Gertrude Ederle is the first woman to swim the English Channel
A category four hurricane devastates Miami, Florida (sometimes called "The Great Miami Hurricane").
General William Booth enters into Heaven [sheet music] -
1927
Songs of America
Vittorio Giannini (1903-1966) sets to music Karl West Flaster's poem "Tell Me, Oh Blue, Blue Sky."
Irving Berlin writes "Blue Skies"
"Poet's Song" by Aaron Copland (1900-1990) is a setting of E.E. Cummings’ poem "in spite of everything."
"Oh, Mr. Brown," a fire jumping song performed by Zora Neale Hurston, which she collected in the Bahamas. Hurston explains the dance after singing the song. Recorded by Herbert Halpert in Florida, June 18, 1939.
Culture
Henry Cowell founds New Music, quarterly journal that publishes scores
"The Jazz Singer" is released as the first commercial talking picture, using Vitaphone sound on disks synchronized with film.
"Grand Ole Opry" first broadcast
Zora Neale Hurston, while a graduate student in anthropology at Barnard University, wins grants that allow her to do fieldwork on African American folklore and culture in the southern U.S. and the Caribbean (1927 to 1932).
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences formed; first Academy Awards given in 1929
In the News
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti executed
Charles Lindbergh flies solo from New York to Paris
Joseph Stalin expels Trotsky and his supporters from the Russian Communist Party and gains full control
President Coolidge signs bill creating Federal Radio Commission
Babe Ruth hits 60 home runs, setting a record that will stand for more than 50 years
Disastrous flood in lower Mississippi River Valley
Holland Tunnel opens between New York and New Jersey
Al Jolson in "The Jazz Singer" -
1928
Songs of America
"Influenza," sung and played on guitar by Ace Johnson, April 15, 1939. Lyrics to the tune of "The Titanic" about the influenza epidemic of 1928-29. Recorded by John Avery Lomax and Ruby Terrill Lomax, Clemens State Farm, Brazoria, Brazoria County, Texas, April 15, 1939.
Culture
Robert Winslow Gordon becomes the first "director of the Archive of American Folk Song" at the Library of Congress. In this recording, he is testing disc recording equipment by singing a verse from "Casey Jones," Library of Congress, 1932.
Cartoon character Mickey Mouse appears in animated film Steamboat Willie
In the News
The U.S. influenza epidemic in 1928 and 1929 rekindles fears of the pandemic of 1918.
Kellogg-Briand Pact signed; aims to outlaw war to settle disputes
-
1929
Songs of America
Milton Ager (1893-1979) writes the popular song Happy Days Are Here Again. It is used in the 1930 film "Chasing Rainbows" and in 1932 as the campaign song for Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
"The United States Needs Prayer, Everywhere," hymn sung by Lulu Morris and the congregation of the African Methodist Church. Recorded by Herbert Halpert in Tupelo, Mississippi, in May, 1939.
"Yo cuando era niño mi padre querido" [first line], sung in Spanish and played on guitar by José Suarez, guitar, April 26, 1939. Recorded by John Avery Lomax and Ruby Terrill Lomax in Brownsville, Texas, April 26, 1939. A song composed by the singer about picking cotton as a child with his father.
"Sunny California," Mrs. Mary Sullivan sings a song she wrote about her experience leaving her family in Texas to find work as a migrant in New Mexico, Arizona, and California. The song title is ironic, as she arrives in California during a flood. Recorded by Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin at the Shafter FSA Camp, California, August 9, 1941.
"Versos del Mojado" ("Song of the Wetback"), sung in Spanish and played on guitar by Homero López and Manuel Salinas. A song about the troubles of an illegal immigrant who crosses the Rio Grande to find work in the U.S. Recorded by John Avery Lomax and Ruby Terrill Lomax in Sarita, Kennedy County, Texas, April 29, 1939.
Culture
William Faulkner publishes The Sound And The Fury
Thomas Wolfe publishes Look Homeward, Angel
Ernest Hemingway publishes A Farewell To Arms
After completing his doctoral dissertation on British Isles sea songs at Harvard in 1928, James Madison Carpenter earns a Harvard Fellowship to return to England and Scotland to continue and broaden his research. He spends the next six years recording folksongs, ballads, and folk plays on wax cylinders, sung and played on the fiddle by Sam Bennett. Recorded by James Madison Carpenter in Bampton, England, in 1933.
Thomas A. Edison Inc. ceases production of cylinders.
In the News
Herbert Hoover inaugurated as thirty-first President of the U.S.
St. Valentine's Day Massacre, in which mobster Al Capone's men massacre rival gangsters in turf war in Chicago during Prohibition
Stock market crashes in October, beginning of Great Depression; a decade of world-wide economic depression is worsened in the United States by a long period of severe drought in the Midwest and Southwest.
Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
Alexander Fleming -
1930
Songs of America
Samuel Barber sets to music Matthew Arnold's poem Dover Beach for baritone voice and string quartet. A talented singer, Barber performed the work on many occasions.
Culture
William Grant Still writes Afro-American Symphony
Kurt Stille develops improvements in wire recording.
Grant Wood paints American Gothic
Edward Hopper paints Early Sunday Morning
In the News
Mao Tse-tung writes "A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire"
Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto
Communist Parties are formed in Vietnam and Panama
Widespread drought affects Mexico, causing workers to cross into the U.S. to seek work as migrant laborers, mainly in California.
Samuel Barber 
William Grant Still -
1931
Songs of America
"Eaton Clan," ballad sung and played on guitar by Roger "Burn Down" Garnett. Recorded by John Avery Lomax and Ruby Terrill Lomax at State Penitentiary, Camp #10; Stockade Hall, Parchman, Sunflower County, Mississippi, May 23, 1939.
Culture
George and Ira Gershwin write "Of Thee I Sing"
Salvador Dali paints The Persistence of Memory
Edgard Varèse completes his masterpiece for percussion Ionisation
In the News
President Hoover signs Public Law 823 of the 71st Congress which states: "That the composition consisting of the words and music known as "The Star-Spangled Banner is designated the national anthem of the United States of America."
Al Capone sentenced to prison for tax evasion
Bootleggers Ruey and Edgar Eaton of Dry Creek, Mississippi are convicted of killing Marshal Clyde Rivers.
Nine African-American youths in Scottsboro, Alabama charged with assaulting a white woman. The convictions of the "Scottsboro Boys" were overturned by the Supreme Court in 1935.
Empire State Building opens in New York City
Ira Gershwin 
Al Capone -
1932
Culture
Radio City Music Hall opens in New York City
In the News
Charles Lindbergh baby kidnapped and killed
Amelia Earhart is first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic
Bonus Army March to Washington, in which WWI veterans lobby to receive promised bonuses early to relieve suffering during Great Depression
Radio City Music Hall -
1933
Songs of America
Charles Ives composes "Walt Whitman," based on a stanza from the poet's "Song of Myself."
Henry Cowell sets to music two poems by Catherine Riegger: "Sunset" and "Rest"
"Loveless CCC," a song about the Civilian Conservation Corps sung and played by Tommy Rhoades. Recorded by Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin at the Vasilia FSA Camp, California, August 7, 1940.
"The Job's Just Around the Corner," a poem composed and spoken by Mrs. Imogene Chapin, originally of Marshall, Arkansas. Recorded by Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin at the Arvin FSA Camp, California, August 1, 1940.
Culture
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers make their first film together: Flying Down to Rio
Samuel Barber’s The School for Scandal Overture wins the Bearns Prize
Henry Cowell: American Composers on American Music
In the News
Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurated as thirty-second Preisdent of the U.S. declaring, "the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself." New Deal begins.
FDR's first "100 days" leads to creation of many "alphabet agencies" including: Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), National Recovery Administration (NRA).
FDR's first "fireside chat" over the radio
21st Amendment: Prohibition repealed
Adolph Hitler appointed German Chancellor
Frances Perkins becomes first female cabinet member as secretary of labor
Severe drought and erosion caused by non-sustainable farming techniques combine to create dust storms in the Midwest that strip the topsoil away, cause lung disease, and deaths. This results in the largest migration of people in American history, mainly to western states, during the era that to be called the "Dust Bowl." These conditions persist for nearly a decade.
Civilian Conservation Corps -
1934
Songs of America
"Hijo, hijo, mira esta muher," a children's game song sung in Spanish by Josephine and Aurora Gonzalez, >Pearl Manchaco, Lia Trujillo, and Adela Flores. Recorded by John Avery Lomax and Alan Lomax in San Antonio, Texas, May 1934.
"I Got a Home in New Orleans," a blues song sung by Clyde Hill. Recorded by John Avery Lomax and Ruby Terrill Lomax at Clemens state farm, Brazoria, Texas, April 16, 1939.
"Just a Jitterbug," swing song composed and sung by James Griffin, 1939. Recorded by Stetson Kennedy and Robert Cook in Florida.
Culture
Premiere of Four Saints in Three Acts by Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein
F. Scott Fitzgerald publishes Tender is the Night
American Academy of Poets founded
John A. Lomax and his son, Alan Lomax, co-author American Ballads and Folk Songs, a collection of songs they had collected. Alan Lomax is just 19.
Cab Calloway's recording "Call of the Jitterbug" popularizes the use of the word "jitterbug," for a style of swing music and dance.
In the News
Federal Communications Commission established
Alcatraz becomes federal prison in San Francisco Bay
Oklahoma aviator Wiley Post discovers the jet stream
An attempt by Louisiana Senator Huey Long to unseat New Orleans Mayor Thomas Semmes Walmsley nearly results in armed conflict.
Export-Import Bank established
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) established
Notorious criminals Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, Pretty Boy Floyd, and John Dillinger ("Public Enemy No. 1") all gunned down by authorities
Cab Calloway -
1935
Songs of America
Samuel Barber (1910-1981) writes "Night Wanderers," text by William Henry Davies.
Henry Burleigh sets to music Langston Hughes's "Lovely, dark, and lonely one."
Albert Malotte sets "The Lord's Prayer" to music.
"Midnight Special," an excerpt played on guitar and sung by Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter. Recorded by Alan Lomax in Wilton, Connecticut, February, 1935.
"Government Camp Song," sung by 12-year old girls Mary Campbell and Margaret Treat. The girls composed this song with Betty Campbell, Mary Campbell's sister. Recorded by Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin at the Shafter FSA Camp, California, 1941.
"Joe Louis," blues song sung by Buster Ezell. Recorded by Willis Laurence James and Louis Wade Jones in Fort Valley, Georgia, March 1943.
Culture
George and Ira Gershwin write Porgy and Bess
Bela Bartok’s fifth string quartet premieres at the Library of Congress
Kurt Weill immigrates to U.S.
AEG (Germany) exhibits its "Magnetophon" Model K-1 at the Berlin Radio Exposition.
BASF prepares the first plastic-based magnetic tapes.
John A. Lomax brings the singer/song writer Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter north, arriving in New York on January 1, 1935. Leadbelly performs and makes commercial recordings. This begins his process of gaining exposure to a wider audience than he had previously had in Louisana.
In the News
Nuremberg Laws in Germany discriminate against persons of Jewish descent
Works Progress Administration (WPA) established; includes Federal Theatre and Federal Music projects
Social Security Act is passed
The Resettlement Administration (R.A.), later the Farm Security Administration (F.S.A), is established to aid agricultural families suffering from the effects of the Great Depression and the dust bowl. The F.S.A. establishes camps for migrant workers that help them to eke out a living by relieving them from the need to put all their income into housing and gasoline to move from place to place.
Rural Electrification Administration created
Alcoholics Anonymous founded
Wagner Act establishes National Labor Relations Board
Senator Huey P. Long assassinated in Louisiana
Joe Louis Barrow knocks out heavyweight Primo Carnera in six rounds, knocks out former world champion Max Baer later the same year, and is proclaimed Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press.
Leadbelly -
1936
Songs of America
Union Man, sung by Albert Morgan. Recorded by George Korson in the Newkirk Tunnel Mine, Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, 1946.
"La Capinera" (Blackbird), sung in Italian by Mario Olmeda, who learned the song from his father. Recorded by Sidney Robertson Cowell in Concord, California on February 13, 1939.
Culture
Piet Mondrian paints Composition in White
Carl Orff composes Carmina Burana
Many Italians who had opposed Benito Mussolini's rise to power immigrate to the U.S.
Margaret Mitchell publishes novel Gone With the Wind; 1939 motion picture is equally popular
In the News
Union organizer and president of the United Mine Workers John L. Lewis helped to create the Congress of Industrial Organizations representing unskilled workers within the American Federation of Labor in 1935. The following year during a dispute within the union, the CIO members are expelled, and form their own union with John L. Lewis as their president. These unions merge again in 1955.
Flint Sit-Down Strike of automotive workers in Michigan
Mussolini and Hitler form Axis
Spanish Civil War begins; American volunteers organize as Abraham Lincoln Brigade
FDR reelected president; will be first president to be inaugurated in January, per change mandated by the 20th Amendment
Hoover Dam completed on the border of Nevada and Arizona
African-American track and field star Jesse Owens wins four gold medals at Olympics held in Berlin
King Edward VIII abdicates the British throne to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson. They will be given the titles of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor
Flint strikers -
1937
Songs of America
"Rock Island Line," a work song sung by Joe Battle, C.A. Story, Willie Johnson, John Denny, George Jones, and Joe Green. Recorded by John Avery Lomax and Ruby Terrill Lomax at Cummins State Farm, Camp #1, near Varner, Lincoln County, Arkansas, May, 21 1939.
Culture
Marc Blitzstein writes The Cradle Will Rock
Aaron Copland publishes What to Listen for in Music
Copland and others found American Composers’ Alliance
Virgil Thomson becomes music critic for the New York Herald- Tribune
Pablo Picasso paints Guernica
Nazi exhibit of "Degenerate Art"
June 22, 1937, Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter makes his first commercial recording of Rock Island Line, a song he learned in prison that he was to make famous, and that he recorded several times. John Avery Lomax had recorded the song in Arkansas prisons from inmates, including Ledbetter, beginning in 1934.
In the News
Hindenburg disaster, in which the dirigible caught fire as it prepared to land at Lakehurst, New Jersey
Amelia Earhart Putnam disappears while flying over the Pacific Ocean
The Golden Gate Bridge opens in San Francisco
Indian National Congress party wins regional elections in India
Possibly the singers of "Rock Island Line" 
Golden Gate Bridge -
1938
Songs of America
Samuel Barber sets to music Four songs for voice and piano, including James Agee's "Sure on This Shining Night" and "The Secrets of the Old" by William Butler Yeats.
Louis Talma (1906-1996) writes "I fear a man of scanty speech" on the text by Emily Dickinson.
Irving Berlin writes the well-known revised version of "God Bless America."
"Shove it Over," a track lining work song performed and described by WPA fieldworker Zora Neale Hurston. Recorded by Herbert Halpert in Florida, June 18, 1939.
"Desert Blues," a blues song composed and sung by Hattie Ellis, with Jack Ramsey on guitar. Recorded by John Avery Lomax and Ruby Terrill Lomax at Goree State Farm, near Huntsville, Walker County, Texas, May 14, 1939.
Culture
Samuel Barber writes Adagio for Strings
Aaron Copland's ballet score Billy the Kid
Jean-Paul Sartre publishes Nausea
Frank Lloyd Wright builds Taliesin West in Arizona
Orson Welles's radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds
Zora Neale Hurston joins the WPA Federal Writer's Project to collect and describe songs, stories, and traditions of Florida.
Pianists Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis, and Pete Johnson perform at Carnegie Hall, launching the Boogie Woogie music and dance craze.
Former bootlegger Hattie Ellis begins an unusual career as a blues singer while serving time for murder in Texas. She records songs for the prison radio station, WBAP, and becomes extremely popular with Texas blues fans. Later, all the recordings made by the radio station were destroyed. Recordings made by John and Ruby Lomax may be the only existing record Ellis's songs.
In the News
Germany invades Austria (Anschluss)
Munich Pact; Britain and France appease Hitler in allowing Germany to control Sudetenland
Kristallnacht; German Jews forced to wear Star of David
Italy passes its own version of anti-Jewish Nuremberg laws
U.S. Congress creates the House on Un-American Activities (HUAC)
Pete Johnson -
1939
Songs of America
Samuel Barber writes Three Songs, texts by James Joyce.
"Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen," sung by Marian Anderson, recorded in 1924. This spiritual is among the songs performed by Marian Anderson at the Lincoln Memorial concert.
Harold Arlen writes Over the Rainbow for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. The song will win the Academy Award and become one of the most popular songs of all time.
"Fight for Union Recognition," a union song sung by Ruby and Bert Rains. A song sung during the 1939 Madera Cotton Strike near Arvin, California. Recorded by Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin in Bakersfield, California, August 15, 1940.
"Corn Dodgers," a folk song sung by Mrs. Myra Pipkin. According to the collectors, Mrs. Pipkin may have been the inspiration for the character "Ma Joad" in John Steinbeck's novel, The Grapes of Wrath. Recorded by Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin at the Arvin FSA Camp, California, August 26, 1941.
Culture
Founding of BMI: Broadcast Music Incorporated
After the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow Marian Anderson to perform at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., Eleanor Roosevelt intercedes and organizes an outdoor concert. On April 9, Marian Anderson performs on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to an audience of seventy-five thousand, with a radio audience of millions more. Thousands of members of the DAR, including the First Lady, resign.
Founding of American Music Center
New York World's Fair takes visitors to "The World of Tomorrow"
James Joyce publishes Finnegan's Wake
John Steinbeck publishes his novel, The Grapes of Wrath, calling attention to the plight of migrant workers of the Dust Bowl. He based his work on the Arvin Federal Government Camp, also called "Weedpatch Camp."
In the News
World War II begins in Europe
Researchers at Columbia University split the atom for the first time
The Russo-Finnish War begins
The Spanish Civil War
Madera Cotton Strike near Arvin, California. This was a strike by the newly-formed United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA), which was violently opposed by the Associated Farmers.
Hatch Act proscribes political activity by employees of the federal government
Hitler-Stalin Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union
Congress approves "cash and carry" plan in new Neutrality Act
Marian Anderson -
1940
Songs of America
"Kickin' Mule" a string band song performed by the King Family, a migrant worker family that performed for dances at the Visalia FSA Camp, California. Recorded by Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin, September 2, 1941. This band performed in the 1940 film, The Grapes of Wrath.
"Perdió Jacobo a José" (Jacob Lost Joseph), sung by Ricardo Archuleta. A song from the folk drama "El Niño Perdido." Recorded by Juan B. Rael, August 1, 1940. Location unidentified (Possibly Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico).
Barbara Lynn and Friends: Texas Rhythm and Blues [webcast]. Recorded at the Library of Congress November 18, 2009.
Culture
John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Grapes of Wrath, is made into a motion picture directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda.
Juan B. Rael embarks on his historic effort to document and analyze "shepherd’s plays," the folk dramas of rural Hispanic people of New Mexico.
William Sidney Wilson invents the first fully electric guitar while a student in electrical engineering at North Carolina State College, improving on previous experiments in the creation of electrified guitars.
Walt Disney's film Fantasia is released using eight-track stereophonic sound.
In the News
First peacetime military draft instituted in the United States
"Battle of the Atlantic" by German U-boats against Allied ships
Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain
President Roosevelt proclaims the U.S. to be the "arsenal of democracy" during December radio broadcast
King family musicians 
Production crew at work on set of "The Grapes of Wrath" -
1941
Songs of America
"We are Americans, Praise the Lord," a World War II Gospel song sung by Bertha Houston and congregation. Recorded by Willis Laurence James in Fort Valley, Georgia, 1943.
"Roosevelt and Hitler," a World War II blues song composed, sung, and played by Buster Ezell. Recorded by Willis Laurence James in Fort Valley, Georgia, 1943.
Culture
James Agee and Walker Evans publish Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
William Grant Still's opera Troubled Island is produced by the New York City Opera company. It is the first grand opera by an African-American composer to be produced by a major opera company in the United States.
Orson Welles's film Citizen Kane is released.
Brothers Bruce and Sheridan Fahnestock travel in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) documenting the music and song of the region. This was also a covert intelligence-gathering mission funded by the Roosevelt administration, prior to the U.S. entry into World War II. "Tabuh Gari," played by the Gamelan Semar Pegulingan Ensemble. Recorded by Bruce and Sheridan Fahnestock in Ubud [Teges], Bali, in 1941. Fahnestock South Sea Collection, AFC 1986/033: AFS 25,863 A.
In the News
Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurated for the third time.
United Service Organization (USO) formed to meet the needs of servicemen through material goods and entertainment opportunities
Lend-Lease Act allows the U.S. to provide military aid to Allied nations
National Gallery of Art opens in Washington, D.C.
Yankee baseball great Lou Gehrig dies of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), now known as Lou Gehrig's disease
Atlantic Charter issued by the United States and Great Britain
U.S.S. Reuben James sunk by German U-boat while on convoy duty off Iceland
On December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor is attacked, initiating U.S. military involvement in World War II.
Willis Laurence James -
1942
Songs of America
"Catfish Blues," a blues song played and sung by David "Honeyboy" Edwards at the 50th Anniversary Concert for the Archive of Folk Culture at the Library of Congress, 1978. The song, also known as "Rollin' Stone," was written by Robert Petway in 1941, and is the source for the name of the rock group The Rolling Stones. AFS 20103.
"Obey the Ration Laws," a World War II blues song performed by Buster Ezell Recorded by Willis Laurence James in Fort Valley, Georgia, 1943.
"What a Time," a World War II Gospel song performed by the Golden Jubilee Quartet. The chronology presented in the song ends with Hitler "ruling the sea," a reference to the U-boats off the U.S. coast. Recorded by Willis Laurence James in Fort Valley, Georgia, 1943.
"Let's Go Fight," a World War II blues song composed, sung, and played by Buster Ezell. Recorded by Willis Laurence James in Fort Valley, Georgia, 1943.
"Tear Tokyo Down," a World War II song sung by Deacon Sam Jackson, Oak Grove Missionary Church. These are World War II lyrics set to the old spiritual "Sampson," casting General Douglas MacArthur in the role of "the strongest warrior." Recorded by Willis Laurence James in Peach County, Georgia, 1943.
Culture
Leonard Bernstein becomes assistant to Serge Koussevitzky at Tanglewood in Massachusetts
Choreographer Merce Cunningham and composer John Cage begin collaborating
William Schuman wins Pulitzer Prize for Music for the cantata A Free Song on text from Walt Whitman’s "Drum Taps."
French author Albert Camus publishes The Stranger
Alan Lomax makes the first recordings of influential blues artist David "Honeyboy" Edwards at the Library of Congress. Edwards does not make his first commercial recording until 1951.
Rodeo, a ballet scored by Aaron Copeland and choreographed by Agnes De Mille premieres at the Metropolitan Opera House on October 16, 1942. Copeland found his inspiration for the "Hoe Down" theme in the ballet in a fiddle tune, "Bonaparte's Retreat," played by William Hamilton Stepp. Recorded by Alan and Elizabeth Lomax in Salyersville, Kentucky, October 26, 1937. Alan and Elizabeth Lomax Kentucky Collection: AFC 1937/001: AFS 01568 A02.
In the News
On January 26, 1942, the first U.S. forces arrive in Great Britain.
Executive Order 9066 orders the internment of Japanese Americans
On March 12, 1942, under orders from President Roosevelt, General Douglas MacArthur retreats from the Philippines and relocates U.S. troops under his command to Australia vowing "I shall return". On April 18, 1942, MacArthur is appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific.
Bataan Death March of Allied forces by the Japanese in the Philippines
Doolittle Raid on Tokyo
Office of Civilian Defense established
Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAC) created
Battle of Coral Sea in the Pacific Theater; first battle fought solely by airplanes from aircraft carriers
Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes Commander of U.S. forces in Europe
Battle of Midway in the Pacific Theater
World War II: the German navy begins a U-boat offensive along east coast of the U.S., attacking, damaging, and sinking U.S. and Allied naval, merchant, and passenger ships.
Office of War Information established
Office of Strategic Services (OSS) established; precursor to the postwar Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Battle of Stalingrad in the Soviet Union
Battle of Guadalcanal; fight for island extends to February 1943
The U.S. Office of Price Administration (OPA) freezes prices on nearly all everyday goods, starting with sugar and coffee. Ration books are issued, limiting the amount of goods that can be purchased by any individual.
Shoe rationing has hit us, gentlemen ... -
1943
Songs of America
Leonard Bernstein writes the comic song cycle I Hate Music! A Cycle of Five Kid Songs.
"Gypsy Davy," a ballad performed by Woody Guthrie. Recorded by Alan Lomax and John Langenegger, 1942.
Norman Dello Joio (1913-2008) writes the Ballad of Thomas Jefferson on a text by Louis Lerman.
"Sit Down," (a World War II version of the Gospel song "Sit Down"), performed by Deacon Sam Jackson and chorus, Oak Grove Missionary Church. Recorded by Willis Laurence James in Peach County, Georgia, 1943.
Culture
Leonard Bernstein makes his conducting debut with the New York Philharmonic
Woody Guthrie publishes Bound for Glory.
Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! opens on Broadway
Norman Rockwell paints his Four Freedoms series
In the News
Casablanca Conference of President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill
The Pentagon building is completed in northern Virginia
U.S. forces pushed back by German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps at Kasserine Pass in Tunisia
Jewish uprising in Warsaw ghetto
The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C.
Iin May, Winston Churchill travels to the U.S. to meet with President Roosevelt and plan strategy for the war in Europe. He also addresses a joint session of Congress, praising the partnership of the U.S. and Great Britain in the war effort.
Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles between white servicemen and Mexican youth sporting "zoot suit" style clothing
Current Tax Payment Act introduces income tax withholding policy still followed in the 21st Century
Benito Mussolini forced to resign in Italy
Italian campaign begins
"Big Three" Conference in Teheran of FDR, Churchill and Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union
The Chinese Exclusion Act is repealed by the Magnuson Act. This law, enacted in 1882, prohibited immigration from China, stopping the wave of immigration that had begun with the Gold Rush era.
Woody Guthrie 
Jews rounded up in Warsaw -
1944
Songs of America
Flory Jagoda and Friends: Traditional Sephardic Music from the Former Yugoslavia and the World. Recorded at the Library of Congress, March 21, 2007 [webcast]. The singer, who lost her family to the holocaust, immigrated to the U.S. in 1946.
Culture
Leonard Bernstein's musical On the Town and ballet Fancy Free
Aaron Copland's score for Martha Graham's ballet Appalachian Spring includes the Shaker melody "Simple Gifts"
Tennessee Williams writes The Glass Menagerie
In the News
The Roosevelt Administration creates the War Refugee Board to aid civilian victims of the Nazi and Axis powers in Europe.
German bombers attack London with V-1 and V-2 rockets
D-Day Normandy invasion and liberation of Paris
Servicemen's Readjustment Act, or "G.I. Bill," provided benefits for World War II veterans, including low-interest mortgages and tuition payments
First liberation of a German concentration camp
Following Japanese defeat at Leyte Gulf, Kamikaze missions begin
FDR wins fourth presidential election
Battle of the Bulge begins on the Western front in Europe
[Martha Graham and ensemble in Appalachian spring] 
[View of unidentified German concentration camp at time of liberation by U.S. Army] -
1945
Songs of America
Spade Cooley's Western Swing Song Folio is published. It is the first publication to identify the genre "Western Swing."
John Jacob Niles publishes The Anglo-American Ballad Book.
Culture
George Antheil writes memoir Bad Boy of Music
First performance of Benjamin Britten’s opera Peter Grimes (commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation)
Two Magnetophon tape decks are sent back to the U.S. in pieces in multiple mailbags by Army Signal Corps Major John T. (Jack) Mullin.
Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel wins the New York Drama Critics award
In the News
Yalta Conference of FDR, Churchill and Stalin to discuss the end of WWII.
Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa in the Pacific Theatre
Roosevelt dies; Truman becomes thirty-third president
United Nations founded
Germany surrenders, "V-E Day"
Potsdam Conference near Berlin attended by Truman, Stalin, Churchill (and his successor as prime minister, Clement Atlee)
Atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; World War II ends with surrender by Japan
Nuremburg Trials begin for high Nazi officials accused of war crimes
General panoramic view of Hiroshima after the bomb -
1946
Songs of America
Paul Bowles sets to music four poems by Tennessee Williams as Blue Mountain Ballads: "Heavenly Grass," "Lonesome Man," "Cabin," and "Sugar in the Cane."
Culture
First Darmstadt Contemporary Music Festival
Jack Mullin demonstrates "hi-fi" tape recording with his reconstructed Magnetophon at an Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) meeting in San Francisco.
George Grosz paints Peace II
Robert Penn Warren wins Pulitzer Prize for literature for All the King’s Men
In the News
Winston Churchill gives his "Iron Curtain" speech in Missouri, coins the phrase "cold war."
Philippine independence
Labor strikes begin following wartime pledges to refrain from strike activity
Atomic Energy Commission established
Dr. Benjamin Spock publishes Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care
Tennessee Williams 
President Roosevelt signing the bill for Philippine independence -
1947
Songs of America
Samuel Barber writes the orchestral song Knoxville: Summer of 1915.
Elinor Remick Warren (1900-1991) sets to music verses from Whitman's "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" as "We Two."
Culture
Arnold Schoenberg writes A Survivor from Warsaw
Bing Crosby and his technical director, Murdo McKenzie, agree to audition tape recorders brought in by Jack Mullin and Richard Ranger. Mullin's is preferred, and he is brought back to record Crosby's Philco radio show.
Ampex produces its first tape recorder, the Model 200.
Tennessee Williams writes A Streetcar Named Desire
American composer, author, and ethnomusicologist Paul Bowles moves to Tangiers, Morocco to write and to document traditional music of the region. "Chorus and dance," sung and played by Rais Mahamad ben Mohammed and ensemble, musicians of the Haha tribe in Tamanar. Recorded by Paul Bowles in Essaouira, Morocco, August 8, 1959. Paul Bowles Moroccan Music Collection, AFC 1960/001: AFS 11,625 3B.
In the News
Central Intelligence Agency is formed
Truman Doctrine pledges the U.S. to aid nations threatened by Communism
Partition of India and Pakistan
Air Force established as a separate service
Pilot Chuck Yaeger breaks the sound barrier in the Bell X-1
Truman issues executive order instituting loyalty program for government employees
Secretary of State George C. Marshall proposes recovery plan for Europe that will become known as the Marshall Plan
Truman becomes first president to appear on national television broadcast
HUAC begins to investigate communist influences in the motion picture industry
Jackie Robinson integrates major league baseball when he signs with the Brooklyn Dodgers
Truman defeats primary challenger Republican Thomas Dewey for the presidency
Elinor Remick Warren -
1948
Songs of America
John Duke composes song set Four Poems of Edwin Arlington Robinson, on "Luke Havergal," "Richard Cory," and "Miniver Cheevy."
Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver of Tennessee, recipients of the 2006 National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Award, perform bluegrass songs and gospel songs in bluegrass style at the Library of Congress, September 13, 2006.
Culture
Olivier Messiaen: Turangalila Symphony premiere (commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation)
Aaron Copland writes his Clarinet Concerto for Benny Goodman
Bluegrass emerges as a musical form distinct from old-time and country music. The name likely derives from The Blue Grass Boys, a band featuring Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, Lester Flatt, Chubby Wise, and Howard Watts.
The microgroove 33-1/3 rpm long-play vinyl record (LP) is introduced by Columbia Records.
In the News
Gandhi assassinated in India
Organization of American States chartered (preceded by International Conferences of American States and Pan American Union)
Article: "The Origin of Chemical Elements" by George Gamow, Ralph Alpher and Robert Herman is published in Physical Review, proposing the Big Bang Theory
Israel declares independence
Palomar telescope dedicated in California
Truman orders desegregation of the armed forces
Bill Monroe -
1949
Songs of America
Celius Dougherty writes Love in the Dictionary on text from Funk and Wagnalls Students’ Standard Dictionary.
Riots in Peekskill, NY at Paul Robeson concerts.
Culture
Leonard Bernstein composes The Age of Anxiety
Blitzstein's Regina on Broadway
RCA introduces the microgroove 45 rpm, large-hole, 7-inch record and record changer/adaptor.
George Orwell publishes 1984
In the News
Mao Tse-tung proclaims People's Republic of China
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ratified by Congress
Soviet Union detonates its first atomic bomb
First women graduate from Harvard Medical School
Alger Hiss trial for perjury related to alleged espionage; he will be found guilty in 1950
Department of Defense created
Chairman Mao Tse-tung