Decade by Decade
100 Years of History
by Diana Loski
Eddie Plank, "Gettysburg Eddie"
(Adams County Historical Society)
A century is a long time. Or is it?
The following contains a glimpse at the last ten decades, for the years ending in the number six:
The Year 1926: One hundred years ago, the stars began to align for a future disaster. The Great War had ended, and the Spanish influenza, a terrible pandemic that caused millions of deaths globally, had also ended. Calvin Coolidge was President of the United States; his Vice-President, Charles Dawes, was the son of decorated Civil War veteran and Gettysburg commander Rufus Dawes. The United States enjoyed great prosperity during the time known as The Roaring Twenties.
In Europe, the outlook was not as promising. The people of Germany, in the middle of an economic crisis after World War I, began to listen to the recently released insurrectionist Adolf Hitler, whose book Mein Kampf began to sell among the populace. In Spain, the dictator Francisco Franco took over the reins of government in Madrid. In Italy, Benito Mussolini was dictator and in Japan, the young Hirohito ascended to the throne upon the death of his father, on Christmas Day.
In England’s Stratford-upon-Avon, the Shakespeare Theatre was destroyed in a fire. That same year Great Britain endured a massive coal miner’s strike.
Lufthansa Airlines made their first flight in Germany in 1926.
Ernest Hemingway’s newest novel was The Sun also Rises, a book he wrote in Paris, where he lived for much of the previous year. Jazz musician Duke Ellington (his real name was Edward Kennedy Ellington) sold his first hit record, and Godiva Chocolates opened their doors in Brussels, Belgium.1
In 1926, Harry Truman, after many failed attempts in business, was elected as presiding judge in Jackson County, Missouri. He was eager to take on the job since he was married with a small daughter. That same year future President Lyndon B. Johnson was a high school senior in Johnson City, Texas.
Dwight D. Eisenhower spent the year in studies at the U.S. Army General Staff School in Leavenworth, Texas. He had previously lived for several years in Panama, having helped in building better defenses for the new canal.
Hurricane season caused significant havoc in the southern United States and Caribbean nations. Two major storms struck in 1926, among them the great Miami Hurricane, which flooded the barrier islands and the city of Miami. Over six thousand were injured or homeless and four hundred perished. It remains one of the worst hurricanes ever to make landfall in the United States.
Another national scare arose that year with the discovery that radium proved dangerous for human consumption. Until that time, radium was marketed as a healthy addition to ointments and drinks – even for children.
In Gettysburg, school children were asked to donate a penny each to the old railroad coach in which Abraham Lincoln rode while visiting the town in 1863. Until that time, the old vehicle was stored in a railway yard in Baltimore. It was in Gettysburg that year for a special exhibit. Sadly, the coach no longer exists.
In November, Route 66, from Chicago to Santa Monica, California, opened.
Some who were born in the year 1926 include Queen Elizabeth II, author Harper Lee, musician Chuck Berry, singer Tony Bennett, Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe, comedian Mel Brooks, and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Among those who died in 1926 were artist Claude Monet, “Little Miss Sure Shot” Annie Oakley, screen idol Rudolph Valentino, and the Hungarian-born magician Harry Houdini. Some of those who passed on had ties to the town of Gettysburg. John Brooke, who led a Union brigade in the Wheatfield at the Battle of Gettysburg, was one of the last surviving Union generals of the Civil War, and died at age 88. Gettysburg’s famous son and baseball great Eddie Plank died at age 50. Robert Lincoln, the only surviving son of former President Abraham Lincoln, died at his home in Vermont, at age 82. He is the only son of Lincoln who is not buried in the family crypt in Springfield. Rather, his grave is found in Arlington Cemetery, next to that of his wife, Mary, just downhill from Robert E. Lee’s mansion.
The Year 1936: The Great Depression continued with a vengeance in the year 1936. Franklin Delano Roosevelt won reelection, marking his second term. In spite of the suffering economy, Hoover Dam was completed on the Colorado River near Las Vegas, and Lake Meade was created. In California, the Bay Bridge was completed, connecting San Francisco to Oakland across San Francisco Bay. Near Keystone, South Dakota, the bust of Thomas Jefferson was unveiled at Mount Rushmore.
Across the Atlantic, life was equally dubious. Francisco Franco’s harsh reign for the last decade had erupted into the Spanish Civil War. In England, King George V died in January, causing his eldest son, David, to ascend as King Edward VIII. Before the year ended, the new king abdicated his throne so that he could marry an American divorcee, Wallis Simpson – a woman who had been born not far from Gettysburg in 1896, in Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania. David’s younger brother, Albert, became King George VI. The scandal rocked the nation, and its monarchy.
In 1936, the Summer Olympics were held in Berlin, Germany, with Adolf Hitler showing a prosperous country to the world, in an attempt to make him appear hospitable and immeasurably superior as a world leader. Beneath the artifice, the Nazis in Germany were acting in a more sinister manner, hidden from the world. Hitler’s head of the German Police, Heinrich Himmler, ordered that same year the establishment of the Reich Central Office, used to gather data on civilians the Nazis considered inferior or dangerous to the regime. The Central Office arrested thousands of dissidents. Many were homosexuals, who were sent to concentration camps wearing a pink triangle on their uniform. Only Jewish prisoners had a lower status.2
Joseph Stalin, who headed the Soviet Union, was equally malevolent, beginning that year a system entitled the Purge. The action continued for many years, as he ordered the deaths of tens of millions whom he considered dangerous or unfit for his regime.
Weather appeared continuously unsettled in the United States. A string of tornadoes tore through the South from Georgia to Mississippi. Summer brought an excessive heat wave that killed thousands in North America, including dangerous flooding in Pennsylvania. In New Jersey, the German dirigible Hindenburg landed safely on its maiden voyage – its crash was still one year away.
Severe drought plagued the southern plains, making the Dust Bowl a serious issue with no relief in sight. Farmers and townspeople from Colorado to Oklahoma to Texas suffered with pneumonia and other ailments brought on by the never-ending black dust.
In 1936, Girl Scout Cookies made their debut. Life magazine printed its first issue, with Montana’s new Peck Dam on the cover. The Veterans of Foreign Wars organization was officially established, as was The Ford Foundation.
Some who were born in 1936 included singer Buddy Holly, senator John McCain, actors Robert Redford and Michael Landon, baseball great Don Drysdale, basketball star Wilt Chamberlain, designer Yves St. Laurent, Pope Francis, and future Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia.
Among those who passed on in 1936 were author Rudyard Kipling, Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov, aviation pioneer Billy Mitchell, football coach John Heisman, and Annie Sullivan – the beloved teacher of Helen Keller.
The Year 1946: 1946 was a year of peace, as World War II had thankfully ended by the summer of 1945. A devastated Europe was in desperate need of food and assistance. President Harry Truman and the Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower responded by sending trusted emissaries to bring relief to the starving and shattered people of continental Europe. In Nuremberg, Germany, trials continued until October, convicting many of Hitler’s Nazis of war crimes, and sentencing twelve to death. One of the notorious leaders, Herman Goering, took his own life on the eve of his scheduled execution.
After the war, Germany was divided into four occupational zones, to be controlled by the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain and France. This division would last for four years, until the allies united, forming West Germany; the Soviet Union controlled East Germany.
That same year, the League of Nations dissolved. It was replaced with the United Nations.
In 1946, the central European country of Hungary, newly freed from Nazi domination, became a republic. In Indochina, Ho Chi Minh was elected President of Vietnam.
With the return of many thousands of American soldiers after World War II, the Baby Boomer generation began.
With the sudden death of President Roosevelt in 1945, and with Harry Truman taking over the White House in the midst of war, the new President found himself overwhelmed with the war, its end, sending aid to a destitute Europe and the transport of U.S. soldiers back home. As a result, there was no Vice-President in April 1945 after FDR's death, which continued through 1946.
Some who entered the world in 1946 included three future U.S. Presidents: Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump.
The Year 1956: The decade known as the Fifties proved to be one of prosperity. Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected to his second term as President of the United States. Just before the election, however, two crises occurred which caused ripples of criticism toward America and its President. The Soviet Union invaded the young Republic of Hungary – and that country appealed to the United States for help. The Soviets soon crushed the Hungarians, and for many years they remained under communist control. Bullet holes, evidence of the gunfire that crushed the Hungarian revolt that year are still visible on many buildings near the Parliament building in Budapest. Days later, Great Britain, France, and the new nation of Israel attacked Egypt, which had closed the Suez Canal for trade. The Egyptians sank ships in the canal to prevent any vessels to enter or exit. The United States intervened, quelling the fight and returning the canal to Egypt. The United Nations worked at reaching a peaceful solution – but the canal remained closed for the entire year, opening again in 1957.
That same year the Italian cruise liner Andrea Doria sank off the coast of Nantucket.
In 1956, a joint resolution by Congress passed into law, making In God We Trust the national motto, and placing it on American currency and coins.
That same year, John F. Kennedy, a Navy veteran and war hero, was elected senator from Massachusetts. Kennedy also authored the book Profiles in Courage, which was published in 1956. Lyndon B. Johnson was the Senate Majority Leader.
In August 1956, Albert Woolson, a Minnesota native who had served as an artillerist during the Civil War, passed away at age 109. He was the last surviving Union soldier of the Civil War, and believed to be the last of both armies. His death closed forever the ties with those who participated in that great conflict of American history.3
Budapest, Hungary
(Author Photo)
The Year 1966: The decade was pivotal in American history and filled with conflict, yet tempered with plans for a better future. President Kennedy’s short tenure as President had ended abruptly with his assassination in 1963. President Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded him, plunged the country into a war in Vietnam, which took thousands of American lives. The war had escalated in 1966, and many U.S. troops remained in an attempt to keep South Vietnam from a takeover by communist North Vietnam. Fighting in the thick jungles of Indochina proved difficult. The U.S. government utilized Agent Orange, a strong weed-killer and pesticide, to eliminate the jungles so that the Americans could see their enemy and fight them more easily. Agent Orange was so toxic that many who fought in Vietnam fell prey to the cancer it induced.
In 1966, college campuses all over the country protested the war, and many young men fled to Canada in order to escape the draft for a war they felt was not our fight.
In 1966, Leonid Brezhnev was the leader of the Soviet Union, as Nikita Khrushchev, though still alive, had been ousted from power in 1964. Indira Gandhi was elected Prime Minister of India. Charles DeGaulle was President of France. Ronald Reagan was elected Governor of California.
In Gettysburg, former President Dwight D. Eisenhower was living quietly at his farm. He spent most days writing his memoirs at his office near Gettysburg College.
In New York City, groundbreaking had begun for the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan.
That same year NASA launched more Gemini missions into space, in preparation for a future moon landing. There were multiple launches, each with two men in the module. Among them were Neil Armstrong and Jim Lovell, though the two astronauts performed in different missions. In these missions, astronauts did space walks and performed other tasks to see how well human beings could survive going into space. Coinciding with the American fascination with space and the race to the moon, the television show Star Trek made its debut in 1966.
The Year 1976: The American Bicentennial was celebrated in 1976 with parades, concerts, fireworks and family gatherings. It was also an election year.
Gerald Ford, a former member of Congress who had been appointed Vice-President after the ousting of Spiro T. Agnew in 1973, had found himself President in 1974 with the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Ford had served as Commander-in-Chief without being elected, and in 1976 he hoped to gain election to the White House. In this he was disappointed, as the people elected the little-known governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter.
Americans in the year 1976 endured a wave of crimes and disasters. There was a plethora of hijackings, where terrorists took over an aircraft and its passengers, insisting that the pilots fly them to other locations, usually in the Middle East or Africa.
In northeastern Idaho, the Teton Dam on the Snake River suddenly broke, sending a dangerous onrush of water to the unsuspecting populace at Rexburg. The death toll stopped at eleven people, a miracle considering the massive wall of water that cascaded toward multiple farms and towns.
A troubling spate of serial killings vexed the nation in 1976, making many on edge. Some of the killers who were at large that year included the Son of Sam, Ted Bundy, and the Zodiac Killer. Because of the increasing number of homicides and hijackings, gun ownership soared in America, causing lobbyists to petition Washington for tighter gun-control laws.
In London, Big Ben ceased to function for many months due to a mechanical problem.
The Year 1986: Ronald Reagan was in his second term as President of the United States. Shortly after his second term began in January, the Space Shuttle Challenger was launched in order to observe the returning Halley’s Comet more closely and measure its journey toward the sun. The plan had been to also launch a commercial communications satellite in step with Reagan’s Star Wars defense program. The vessel had its first civilian on board, a teacher named Christa McAuliffe, who had planned to teach from space. The spacecraft never left the earth’s atmosphere. The O-rings that sealed the joints of the compartments of the rocket were defective. The cold weather in January caused the O-rings to disengage, resulting in an explosion that killed everyone on board. The launch had been televised, and many millions saw the terrible outcome.
Another disaster in another part of the world took place that same year with the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl in the Soviet Union. Thousands died from either the explosion or the nuclear fallout. The long-term effects of the disaster are still not completely known.
Trouble with the nation of Iran erupted in the Iran-Contra Affair, where the U.S. government sold arms to help release hostages in Iran, Lebanon, and other nations. With the money not going exactly where it was supposed to go, and without the approval of Congress, a scandal ensued, which plagued the Reagan Administration. When Colonel Oliver North testified before Congress about the affair, he mentioned a name that had never been heard before: Osama bin Laden.
In 1986 The Phantom of the Opera debuted on the London stage. The Oprah Winfrey Show first aired in Chicago. Mike Tyson won the World Boxing Championship in Las Vegas. The Hands Across America movement, where a human chain of millions joined hands from New York to California, raised money to help the homeless and eradicate hunger.
In Paris, an exiled aristocrat died of old age. Wallis Simpson, the woman who married King Edward VIII fifty years earlier and caused his abdication, passed away at her elaborate residence. She was 89.
The Year 1996: Bill Clinton, one of the youngest Americans to become President, was elected to a second term. That same year, the United States was involved in an air war with Bosnia. In Croatia, a U.S. government plane carrying Clinton’s Secretary of Commerce, Ron Brown, crashed, killing everyone on board.
On Mount Everest, a sudden and violent snowstorm in the spring enveloped the peak, killing eight climbers. O.J. Simpson, acquitted for the murder of his ex-wife a few months earlier in 1995, was brought back to court for a civil suit by the families of the two victims.
In Iraq, the nation’s dictator Saddam Hussein, a former ally of the United States, refused to allow members of the United Nations into his country to inspect energy sites to ensure no nuclear activity.
In Great Britain, Prince Charles and his wife, Princess Diana, divorced, citing irreconcilable differences.
That summer, the Olympics were held in Atlanta, Georgia.
Comedian George Burns turned one hundred years old in 1996. He died shortly after his centennial, having been in failing health for many weeks. The year ended with the shocking death of a six-year-old girl in Colorado, Jon Benet Ramsey, in her home at Christmas. Her murder has never been solved.
The Year 2006: Twenty years ago, the United States population exceeded three hundred million. The population had been thirty million during the Civil War.
George W. Bush was in the middle of his second term as President of the United States. After the disaster on September 11, 2001, the U.S. had begun a war with Iraq, which was still in force five years later. Saddam Hussein, who had been in hiding all year, was finally captured. He was found guilty of crimes against humanity and executed on December 30.
NASA’s Reconnaissance vessel orbited Mars, hoping to land there in the future. Scientists decided that Pluto was a dwarf planet, and removed it from maps of the solar system.
Iran announced its partnership with Russia in enriching uranium for a nuclear facility, an issue that continues today. North Korea, led by the dictator Kim Jong Il conducted that country’s first nuclear missile test. There was a war in Lebanon between the Christian populace and the Islamic immigrants.
The Year 2016: Ten years ago, one of the most controversial Presidential elections took place, with billionaire Donald Trump beating Hillary Clinton for the office of Commander-in-Chief.
In Great Britain, the populace voted to exit the European Union, in a movement known as Brexit.
There was great unrest in Syria, resulting in a civil war. In Turkey, a faction within the Turkish military attempted a coup that did not succeed.
In Mexico, the notorious drug lord El Chapo was captured.
A terrorist attacked pedestrians in Nice, France during a Bastille Day celebration by driving a large truck into the crowd. Dozens were killed and hundreds were injured.
In 2016 there was a surge in online usage, with Facebook, Instagram and podcasts flooding the Internet. As a result, scams, viruses and malware also escalated.
That same year Air Pods were invented, and most people became owners of a Smart phone.
The Chicago Cubs won the World Series, their first time since 1908 – marking the end of their 108-year drought.
A spate of natural disasters struck in 2016, including Hurricane Matthew, a Category 5 storm that claimed many deaths in the Caribbean islands. In Ecuador, an earthquake that reached 7.8 on the Richter scale hit the coast of that South American nation, resulting in hundreds losing their lives.
This year, 2026, is also full of historic events. Route 66 celebrates its centennial year. America celebrates its semi-quincentennial anniversary. In Lincoln Square at Gettysburg, the flags of the original thirteen colonies have been displayed. North America hosted the World Cup soccer tournaments, bringing many from distant lands to visit the country. Donald Trump is currently nearly halfway through his second term as President. In February, a war began between the United States and Iran. Gas prices have fluctuated extensively as the Strait of Hormuz is constantly under fire, being alternatively blocked and reopened as ships attempt to pass through it. Several cease-fires and peace talks have come and gone, with no end to the conflict in sight.
In early April, the Artemis II spaceship made a journey to the far side of the moon with four astronauts on board. They returned safely ten days later.
Throughout the summer, multiple earthquakes rattled the Pacific Ring of Fire, and they are too many to mention. Significant damage has occurred especially in Venezuela, where two earthquakes occurred the same day, killing many thousands, and in Colombia, not far from the city of Cali. Other quakes took place in Japan, China, California, Alaska, Russia, in the Pacific Ocean near the California and Oregon coasts, the Philippines, Indonesia, Cuba and New Guinea. A significant hurricane hit the Hawaiian Islands.
During the anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, there was record-breaking heat and humidity over several days, bringing temperatures soaring to above one hundred degrees. As a result, the annual anniversary battlefield and Eisenhower walks were canceled. The debilitating heat wave plagued much of the nation throughout the summer, and Pennsylvania was not exempt. Wildfires from Canada and the western states brought excessive smoke east and southward, and in July a rare code purple warning was issued for the entire state of Pennsylvania. Wildfires continue, afflicting most of the western United States, from the Pacific Northwest through the Rocky Mountains. Extensive drought, coupled with heavy storms during the summer, has affected crops, flooded several states, and taken lives. Many volcanoes across the world have erupted in 2026.
This summer, the President of Spain allowed open borders for a few short days, which resulted in over 60,000 Moroccans rushing across the border to the Spanish enclave town of Ceuta. Many were turned back, but some escaped into the European Union. All were men or teenaged boys. A few who agreed to be interviewed claimed that there is no future for them in Morocco, and they hope to find a new life in Europe.
Europe, too, has endured many fires and extensive heat waves throughout the summer, from the Scottish Highlands eastward into France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece.
It proves ever interesting, and disconcerting, that the cycles of history seem to repeat themselves. Yet, the current year seems to have increased in an abundance of natural disasters – in both depth and frequency.
As we experience more and more decades in our lives, we realize that they pass all too quickly. A century, then, is not a very long time after all.
The Last Survivor Sculpture, depicting Albert Woolson, Gettysburg
(Author Photo)
Sources: Heinrich Himmler Exhibition: Topographie des Terrors Museum, Berlin, Germany. Edward Plank File, Adams County Historical Society. Egan, Timothy. The Worst Hard Time. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Press, 2006. Eisenhower, Dwight D. At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends. Eastern National: Acorn Publishing 1967. Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991. Loski, Diana. “The Last Survivor”, A Gettysburg Collection. Gettysburg: Princess Publications, 2014. Shiber, Susan Hanna. “America’s Music Heritage”, Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine, February 1978, pp. 115-118. Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders. Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1964. Whitney, David C. and Robin Vaughn Whitney. The American Presidents. New York: Guild America Books, 1993.
End Notes:
1. Shiber, p. 117. Duke Ellington’s first hit song was the “East St. Louis Toodle-oo”.
2. Himmler Exhibit. Topographie des Terreurs Museum, Berlin, Germany.
3. While no records exist to prove it, Walter Washington Williams, a Confederate, claimed to be the last surviving soldier of the war. He died in 1959.
