The Year 1920:  The dawn of the new decade was a most welcome one after the horrendous previous years that brought worldwide devastation with World War I and the ensuing Spanish influenza pandemic.  Millions died from these two catastrophic events.  It is no surprise, then, that the winning slogan for the Presidential election that year was Return to Normalcy.  Woodrow Wilson, finishing his last year in office as the 28th President of the United States, was in poor health caused by a massive stroke the previous year.  Republican candidates Warren G. Harding from Ohio and Calvin Coolidge from New England won the election against the Democratic former Ohio governor James Cox and his running mate, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1920, the Treaty of Versailles, effectively negotiating the peace from the recent war, finally took effect, casting almost the entire blame upon Germany and demanding reparations for their role in the Great War.  Woodrow Wilson, for his efforts in establishing The League of Nations, received the Nobel Peace Prize.  Two amendments to the U.S. Constitution were ratified: the 18th Amendment outlawed the sale and use of alcoholic beverages – it became known as Prohibition – and the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote.

In spite of the world’s longing for a perpetual peace, there were nevertheless a series of revolts and invasions.  The Russian Civil War continued with Bolshevik uprisings, radicalized people who were finished with centuries of aristocracy and royal rule, determined (and eventually being successful) in taking over the reins of government vacated by the slain Tsar Nicholas.  Russia also invaded Poland with a phalanx of troops.  For the entire year Poland attempted, in vain, to keep them away.  In Turkey, with the failing Ottoman Empire, British troops took command in Constantinople.  In Ireland a war for independence from Great Britain lasted all year long.  In Jerusalem, rioting between Arabs and Jews broke out, killing hundreds.  In Mexico, a civil war was in its final year, having lasted a full decade.

That same year, due in part to his anger for Germany receiving a lion’s share of the blame for the recent world war, a former corporal in Kaiser Wilhelm’s army, Adolph Hitler, formed the Nazi Party – also called the National Socialist German Workers Party.  He embarked on speaking engagements throughout Germany and Austria to great acclaim.

In London, England, the first Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was created with a young unidentified British soldier laid to rest in Westminster Abbey.  In Rome, Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans who was executed in 1431, was canonized.  The National Football League and the American Civil Liberties Union were established.

In 1920 Babe Ruth was transferred from the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees.  The first death that occurred from an accident involving the game of baseball that same year, happened when 28-year-old Ray Chapman, a shortstop for the Cleveland Indians, was hit by a wild pitch during a game in New York against the Yankees.  His death introduced the wearing of helmets while at bat.  That same year, a scandal broke involving team members of the Chicago White Sox, for deliberately losing the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds.

In New York City, a terrorist detonated a bomb on Wall Street that killed 35 people and wounded 130 more.

In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the first radio broadcast was aired.  In France, waterskiing was introduced.  In India, Mahatma Gandhi first began peaceful protests for independence, and gained international notoriety.

That same year, the newly married Harry Truman opened a haberdashery in Kansas City, Missouri.

In 1920 Edith Wharton published The Age of Innocence .  Agatha Christie published her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles .  F. Scott Fitzgerald published his first book, This Side of Paradise.  Another future literary giant, John Steinbeck, was a student at Stanford University.

Some who were born in 1920 included authors Isaac Asimov, Arthur Hailey, Ray Bradbury and Mario Puzo; actors Mickey Rooney, Walter Matthau, and Maureen O’Hara; musician Dave Brubeck, future Secretary of State George Shultz, Dr. Henry Heimlich, Annie Glenn (wife of astronaut and statesman John Glenn), journalist Helen Thomas, and Pope John Paul II.  Among those who died that year included Arctic explorer Admiral Robert Peary, Evander Law – the last surviving Confederate general who had fought at Gettysburg, Charles R. Douglass -- a Civil War veteran and the youngest son of activist Frederick Douglass; William H. Seward, Jr., son of Lincoln’s Secretary of State; and,  jeweler to the former Russian tsar Nicholas II, Peter Fabergé.

The Year 1930:  The much-desired return to normalcy did not last.  In 1930, the world was in the throes of the Great Depression, with many Americans out of work.  Vagrants, known as hoboes, were omnipresent as homelessness abounded.  President Herbert Hoover promised better times, but they remained elusive for much of the populace.  In addition, a severe draught affected the south-central United States, causing widespread crop failure.  With the falling prices and lack of customers to make purchases, many farmers left their lands fallow – a dangerous act in the middle of extremely dry conditions.  In the summer, the first of the Black Blizzards affected Texas and Oklahoma – the beginning of the devastating Dust Bowl.

With few jobs available, there was, not surprisingly, a spike in crime in the United States, especially organized crime.  Al Capone had a tight grip on Chicago, and illegal brews flowed there and in many other cities and towns.  In Dallas, a young Bonnie Parker met Clyde Barrow at the home of a mutual friend.

In the election in Germany, the Nazi Party gained 107 seats in national offices.  There was a revolution in Argentina. 

In 1930, artist Grant Wood completed his famous work American Gothic.  The first Nancy Drew mystery, The Secret of the Old Clock, was published.  George Washington’s likeness was sculpted on Mount Rushmore, the first of what would be four U.S. Presidents.  The Philadelphia A’s won the World Series against St. Louis.

Some who were born in the year 1930 included Charles Lindbergh, Junior –  firstborn son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife, writer Anne Morrow Lindbergh; actors Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen and Gene Hackman; astronaut Neil Armstrong, justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Princess Margaret of Great Britain, and author Shel Silverstein.  Among those who passed away in 1930 were authors Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and D.H. Lawrence; actor Lon Chaney, and former U.S. President and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court William Howard Taft.

The Year 1940:  A terrible conflict raged in Europe – it would soon become the Second World War with Adolf Hitler at the forefront – but the United States was not yet involved.  President Franklin Roosevelt occupied the White House, finishing his second term that year, but he would be the only U.S. President to win a third (and later a fourth) term in office.

Rationing was the new normal in America, as the Great Depression still caused havoc with the populace and commodities were scarce.  While life in general had improved, there was still 17% unemployment in the nation.

In 1940 the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, in the state of Washington, opened to the public.  A severe windstorm later that year caused it to collapse.  That same year the Pennsylvania Turnpike opened.  The Keystone State also made national news when its native daughter, Frances Marie Burke, won the Miss America pageant.

Because of the war escalating across the Atlantic, there were no Olympic games held and no Nobel prizes awarded.  The Nazis invaded Norway, marched into Paris and took over France and much of mainland Europe.  They bombarded England with night attacks by plane, known as the Battle of Britain or Blitzkrieg.  Prime Minister Winston Churchill vowed to never surrender and repeatedly asked the United States for help.  Due to his leadership and the pluck of the British populace, civilians rode across the English Channel in thousands of seaworthy vessels to rescue trapped troops at Dunkirk.

In 1940 color television was invented.  Oldsmobile came out with the first automatic car, and Plutonium was discovered.

Those who were born in 1940 included Jack Nicklaus, Brazilian soccer player Pele, film stars Raquel Welch, Al Pacino and Martin Sheen.  Among those who died were former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, author F. Scott Fitzgerald, actor Tom Mix, and Titanic survivor Madeline Astor.

Another who passed away in 1940 was Robert Wadlow of Illinois, who still holds the world record for being the world’s tallest man at 8 feet, 11.1 inches tall.

The Year 1950:  Although the United States had emerged victorious in World War II, by the year 1950 the nation was embroiled in yet another conflict: the Korean War.

Harry Truman, who was thrust into the Presidency with the death of President Roosevelt in the spring of 1945, occupied the White House in 1950.   That same year, after returning from serving during World War II as the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and his wife, Mamie, were looking for a place to settle.  They purchased their Gettysburg farm south of town.  While running for President two years later, Ike was still making significant improvements to their farm.

In 1950 the McCarthy hearings began in Congress as a reply to the growing threat of Communism in the world.  They were  named for Senator Joseph McCarthy, who led the investigations.  Newspapers first used the term “McCarthyism” that year.

In 1950 baseball great Jackie Robinson signed with the Dodgers.  The comic strip Peanuts was introduced.  The FBI circulated its first Top Ten Wanted list. 

That same year disposable diapers and plastic garbage bags first appeared on store shelves.

The new decade continued with the nation’s Baby Boom, caused by an influx of veterans returning from World War II, and with most of the 1950s being years of prosperity and peace.  Some born that year included Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, singers Stevie Wonder and Natalie Cole, actors Bill Murray, Tom Berenger, and Meryl Streep; journalist Tim Russert, and singer Peter Frampton.  Some who died that year included singer Al Jolson, actor Walter Huston, poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, and writers George Orwell and George Bernard Shaw.

The Year 1960:  As the first full year with fifty states in the United States, the year 1960 was an election year, choosing John F. Kennedy as the 35th President.  Dwight D. Eisenhower was in his last year as President, coming to his Gettysburg farm as often as time permitted.  In answer to an increase in racial unrest and numerous sit-ins for equality, Ike signed the Civil Rights Act into law.  After years of attempting cordial relations with Nikita Khruschev, premier of the Soviet Union, the United States lost hope when one of their spy planes was shot down over Russia, and the pilot captured.

In 1960 there were many turbulent events: an earthquake in Chile, a devastating hurricane that scourged the eastern seaboard from Florida to New England, and a large typhoon in China.  That same year, the capital of Brazil was changed to Brasilia from Rio de Janeiro.

In 1960 Rome hosted the Olympics and the Middle Eastern oil conglomerate OPEC was established. 

Theodore Seussel, better known as Dr. Seuss, wrote Green Eggs and Ham.  Harper Lee published her first novel, To Kill a Mockingbird .  The film West Side Story was a popular film in theaters.  The movie blockbuster of 1959, Ben Hur, won ten Academy Awards.  The musical Camelot, especially popular with the new President-Elect, opened on Broadway.

Among those born in 1960 were singer Amy Grant, professional baseball great Cal Ripkin, Jr., football star John Elway, actor Hugh Grant, and son of the newly elected President John F. Kennedy, Jr.  One of the most notable deaths of 1960 was the passing of actor Clark Gable, at age 59.

The world also mourned in 1960 when the Berlin Wall was built, separating West Germany from East Germany – with the eastern half controlled by a communist regime.

The Year 1970:  The United States was involved in another costly war in Vietnam when the year 1970 began.  Richard Nixon occupied the White House, halfway into his first term.  In Ohio four college students were killed by police while protesting the Vietnam War.

In Peru an earthquake killed nearly 60,000 and leveled many towns and villages.  In Africa, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) became a Republic and independent of British rule.  In the South Pacific, the island nation of Tonga also claimed independence.

Egypt elected Anwar Sadat as its President.

In 1970 the Baltimore Orioles won the World Series.  Writer and poet Maya Angelou achieved national acclaim for her autobiographical book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings . 

In Findlay, Ohio, a popular young music teacher, who had not yet moved to Gettysburg, decided to grow a beard.  His name was James Getty.

With the drug culture growing exponentially in the late 1960s into the 1970s, many celebrities succumbed in 1970, including singers Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.  Famed coach of the Green Bay Packers, Vince Lombardi, died at age 57 of cancer.

In 1970 First Lady Melania Trump was born.

The Year 1980:  The United States was enduring an economic recession in 1980.  Among the top issues of the year were the continued captivity of American civilians in Iran.  President Jimmy Carter, whether he deserved it or not, was blamed for both ongoing problems.  Former actor and former governor of California, Ronald Reagan, was elected the 40th President of the United States in November.  Shortly after his inauguration, the hostages in Iran were freed.

The year 1980 was a good one for Pennsylvania in sports: The Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series and the Pittsburgh Steelers won the Superbowl.

That same year Jack Nicklaus won the U.S. Open.

Because of the economic situation where 10% of Americans were unemployed, with the continued gasoline shortage and the rising prices, customers were given the option to pump their own gasoline at service stations.

Computers and word processors were becoming prevalent with the onset of the new decade, rapidly replacing typewriters.  As a result, computer games were introduced, including Pac-Man.  They were immediately popular.  By 1980 most Americans owned a microwave oven.

On Sunday, May 18, 1980, Mount Saint Helens erupted, sending half of the mountain situated in southern Washington into the atmosphere.  Ash fell for thousands of miles eastward, burying neighboring states in a seeming snowstorm of volcanic particles.

Some who left us in 1980 included Olympic runner Jesse Owens, filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock, actors Peter Sellers and Steve McQueen, restaurant mogul Colonel Sanders, author Jean-Paul Sartre, and Otto Frank – the father of diarist and martyr Anne Frank.  At the end of the year, former Beatle John Lennon was murdered by a crazed fan while returning from a recording session in New York City.

The Year 1990:  After twenty-seven years of imprisonment in South Africa, Nelson Mandela was freed.  Within a decade he was President of that nation.

In the United States, George H.W. Bush was the 41st President of the United States, in the middle of his only term in office.  In Poland, Lech Walesa was elected President.  In Great Britain, John Major succeeded Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister.

Since the infamous Berlin Wall had been destroyed a year earlier, by 1990 the Cold War was considered at an end.  Germany was no longer divided by east-west boundaries, and Berlin was once again an undivided capital.

In 1990, the largest and best example of a complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex was unearthed in South Dakota.  The dinosaur was named Sue.

That same year the Hubble Telescope was launched, returning pictures taken from deep space.  The U.S. Supreme Court decreed that burning the United States flag was permitted by the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Some who passed away in 1990 included actress Ava Gardner, author Roald Dahl, composer Leonard Bernstein, singer Sammy Davis, Jr., and former Speaker of the House Thomas “Tip” O’Neill.

The Year 2000:  The onset of a new year in 2000 brought also a new century and a new millennium.  It was also a year of great unrest.

Election years in the United States of America have often been controversial and at times difficult for the average citizen to endure.  The first year of the new millennium was especially so.

Bill Clinton finished his final full year in office, and by the end of the year, Americans still did not know who was elected to the White House.  Clinton’s Vice President Al Gore vied with Texas governor George W. Bush, the son of George H.W. Bush.  The race was too close to call, with Florida being the last contested state.  By the end of the year, every voting American knew exactly what a hanging chad was.

While Bill Clinton was on his way out of political leadership, his wife, Hillary, was elected to the U.S. Senate from New York.

Terrorism reared its head again in 2000 with the assault in Yemen of the U.S.S. Cole.  In Yugoslavia, former dictator Slobodan Milosevic was overthrown and executed.  In Europe, Mad Cow Disease was rampant, including in Great Britain.

In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the Delaware State Memorial was dedicated.

That same year the last Pyrenean Ibex died, rendering the species extinct. 

Pope John Paul II visited Israel, the first Catholic pontiff to do so.

Closer to home, a young Cuban refugee, Elian Gonzalez, was rescued from the sea by Florida fishermen.  When the U.S. government took him back to Cuba by breaking into his guardians’ home, armed with rifles, the citizenry was incensed.  It is believed that this act may have tipped the election for George Bush.

In 2000, Americans bid farewell to the Peanuts comic strip – as its creator, Charles Shultz, died.  Others who passed away in 2000 included Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, actors Steve Allen and Sir Alex Guinness, and Mary Trump, the mother of the current U.S. President.

The Year 2010:  Nearly ninety years after the Treaty of Versailles, in 2010 Germany paid its final reparations for World War I.  At the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, five valuable paintings were stolen.  In Chile, an earthquake that registered 8.8 on the Richter Scale devastated the country.  In New Zealand, a 7.8 earthquake occurred.  An earthquake in Haiti left over 300,000 dead.

A solar eclipse, one of the first and best of the millennium, was seen. 

President Barack Obama was in the middle of his first term in office.  Americans were first hearing from Wikileaks , a website that exposed Federal classified documents.  The Center for Disease Control announced that the H1N1 virus was no longer a threat to world health.

In Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, was opened to the public.

Some who died in the year 2010 included author J.D. Salinger, producer Blake Edwards, singer Lena Horne, actors Patricia Neal, Tony Curtis, and 100-year-old Gloria Stuart.

The Year 2020:  While it is not yet over, so much has happened in this most tumultuous of years.  It began with the impeachment of President Trump, who was acquitted.  In the first month of the year, news appeared about a virus that began in China.  It soon crossed borders and oceans, evolving into the virulent Covid-19 epidemic. It is still ongoing.  With the United States ordered to shut down all but essential businesses to prevent spread of the disease, there has been an economic reversal in the nation and the world, including the postponement of the Olympics in Japan, and the Kentucky Derby in Louisville.  The killing of an unarmed ethnic man, George Floyd, by a police officer in Minneapolis on Memorial Day sparked international protests.  While many protests, which continue, have remained peaceful, others are not; riots, murders, destructions, thefts, and conflagrations have marred the protests and the nation.

In addition to protests over the death of Mr. Floyd and others, some protesters have insisted on either disposing of or defunding the police force, and have torn down statues of America’s historic figures.  In cities scattered across the country, protesters have destroyed or desecrated numerous monuments.  While many are statues of past Confederate leaders, destructions also include former U.S. Presidents, such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant. Other historic figures like Christopher Columbus and even Frederick Douglass are among them.

One of the areas where protests were aimed is Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  Many of the monuments on the battlefield have been erected and dedicated to Confederate troops, and some people are averse to them remaining.  Others who feel that the battlefield is an historic, outdoor museum, wish the monuments to remain.

In the summer, the Neowise Comet was seen in the night skies across North America.  The summer saw record-breaking heat waves during the month of July, and the hurricane season has already seen eleven named storms by August.  Among them were two simultaneous hurricanes that hit the Texas coast and Hawaii the same day.  For the first time in decades, two tropical disturbances – one a major hurricane and the other a tropical storm, made landfall from the Gulf of Mexico to the U.S. southern shores, just two days apart.  In North America, earthquakes hit Utah, Alaska, California, Mexico and North Carolina.  During an especially hot summer, wildfires plagued the American west, with over a million acres burned in California alone.

Because the U.S. Mint had been closed down for a time during the pandemic, there is a significant coin shortage.  A peace treaty was signed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.  Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) received a posthumous Presidential pardon for voting illegally, before the passage of the 19th Amendment.

Among the many who have passed on in 2020 were basketball star Kobe Bryant, centenarians Kirk Douglas, Annie Glenn, and Olivia de Havilland; Civil Rights activist and Congressman John Lewis, entrepreneur Herman Cain, and television personality Regis Philbin.  J. Kennedy Smith, the last surviving child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy, and sibling of JFK, died at age 93 of natural causes.

The year is not yet over, but many of us would welcome what Warren Harding promised a century ago: a return to normal.