Abraham Lincoln often used stories to illustrate points of wisdom. One of his favorites was the tale of an ancient king who asked his counselors to produce the wisest maxim of all time, so that he could memorialize it in stone. The sages came up with, “This too shall pass away.”

Time does pass quickly, and it is made evident in the study of the last century. Here are the noteworthy events of the years from 1924 to the current year, decade by decade.

The year 1924: A robust year economically, the year 1924 began in the midst of what has been historically named The Roaring Twenties. After World War I, prosperity and a joie de vivre returned to the nations now at peace (with the exception of Germany, upon whom repercussions were heaped at war’s end). Many Americans owned a car – and by the year 1924 the Ford Motor Company had sold ten million autos.1  

For the United States, 1924 was an election year. Calvin Coolidge, who had taken the oath of office in 1923 after the sudden death of President Warren Harding, ran for election. In spite of the scandals that had plagued his predecessor (the Teapot Dome Scandal chief among them), Coolidge had managed to avoid being implicated. He won reelection handily. He was immensely popular in spite of his reticence – he was called Silent Cal for that reason.  

Due to a significant rise in immigration, President Coolidge signed a law to restrict the number of border crossings. For a time, Ellis Island in New York Harbor was completely closed. It was a controversial move. Coolidge also signed into law the rights of Native Americans to be U.S. citizens – a right that was centuries overdue.

That same year President Coolidge proclaimed the Statue of Liberty a national monument.

A century ago, the archaeologist Howard Carter gave a lecture tour of his recent discovery of the tomb of Egyptian King Tutankhamun. The discovery sparked a world-wide interest in ancient Egypt. The excavation of the tomb was time-consuming and immense, not completed until 1932.

In January 1924 the first Winter Olympic games were held in Chamonix, France.

Mahatma Gandhi made headlines that year for his 21-day fast, a peaceful attempt to gain attention in order to quell the many religious uprisings between Hindus and Muslims in his native India. Farther north, Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen successfully completed the longest dog sled journey at that time, reaching Barrow, Alaska.

That same year a patent was issued for the iconoscope, the invention that would become television. At the time, most American households owned a radio.  

Scientist and astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered distant galaxies with his newly invented Hubble Telescope. J.Edgar Hoover was appointed the director of the newly established Federal Bureau of Investigation, a position he held for decades. Nellie Taylor Ross was elected as the first female governor in the United States, for the state of Wyoming.

In 1924, Adolf Hitler was in prison for his failed coup attempt in Munich, Germany. Sentenced for five years, he was jailed less than a year, freed by December. He spent those months writing his memoir Mein Kampf (My Fight). During that time, he realized that he would only gain power through the ballot box, and planned how he would accomplish that in the years to come. He admired the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, who that year survived an assassination attempt.

That same year, the USSR became a nation of conglomerate communist nations, with the former Russia the head of them all. Great Britain, Canada, and China were among the first to officially recognize the new country. The United States was not among them.

The first Macy’s parade, originally called the Macy’s Christmas Parade (it later became the annual Thanksgiving Day Parade), was launched in 1924. American poet Robert Frost won the Pulitzer Prize. Mark Twain’s autobiography was posthumously published to great acclaim. Judy Garland, age 2, first appeared on the stage, demonstrating an amazing aptitude for song. Silent films were immensely popular, with large crowds lining up to watch them at the theaters. The most famous man in America, and the most popular, was the comedian and actor Will Rogers.

In 1924 Dwight D. Eisenhower spent his last full year in Panama, overseeing the safety of the Panama Canal with his mentor, General Fox Conner.

Some who were born during the year 1924 included actors Marlon Brando and Lauren Bacall. Two future Presidents also made their debut into the world: Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush.

Those who passed on in 1924 were Russian dictator Vladimir Lenin, English mountaineer George Mallory, who was lost while attempting to scale Mount Everest, and former President Woodrow Wilson, the first Virginia-born Commander-in-Chief since the Civil War. Wilson as a child had met an aged Robert E. Lee. He was the President who led the United States through World War I. Having been ill for many years, Wilson died in his sleep at age 77.

The Roaring Twenties would come to an abrupt end with the Wall Street crash, followed by a decade of great economic depression.

The Year 1934: Ninety years ago the world was in the throes of the Great Depression. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was beginning his second year as Commander-in-Chief. In the western United States, where some of the populace had migrated to escape the terrible economy, the situation was even worse as disproportionate farming and dry conditions led to significant erosion – and another disaster called The Dust Bowl. Crops failed and giant dust clouds and dust storms ruined lives. Small children and the elderly fell prey to pneumonia caused by the relentless dust. With no money and no means of escaping their predicament, many succumbed to this disease. The dust storms were sometimes as finely ground as flour, others were gravelly and could break windows and cause roofs to cave.2

In 1934 in Germany, Adolf Hitler, according to his earlier plan from prison, was appointed Chancellor of Germany by then President Paul von Hindenberg. Although Hitler’s Nazi party had not secured Hitler an office by ballot, they managed to win seats in Parliament and caused repeated uprisings. To quell the riots, Hindenberg placed Hitler in a seat of prominence. In August of that year, the 85-year-old German president died and Hitler immediately took power. He terminated the office of Chancellor and President, and named himself Führer (leader) of Germany. He also terminated civil rights and began rallying against Jewish citizens. Any who opposed him were soon silenced. Hitler immediately arrested some detractors and surreptitiously killed others. He had accomplished his coup after all, in what was named The Night of the Long Knives. That same year he sent many whom he deemed unfit to his first concentration camp, Dacau.3  

Although Germany had been forbidden to arm themselves due to the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler made an alliance with Joseph Stalin of the USSR. Stalin furtively helped this uneasy ally, sending him weapons and military arms.

The man who would later defeat Hitler, Dwight D. Eisenhower, was at that time in the Philippines as the personal assistant to General Douglas MacArthur. Ike always knew another war was imminent. “From 1931 onward,” he remembered, “a number of senior officers in the Army had frequently expressed to me their conviction that the world was heading straight toward another global war. I shared these views.”4

To escape the heaviness of life, many flocked to the theaters, where a movie ticket cost less than a quarter. That same year, Mickey Mouse’s dubious friend Donald Duck and his dog, Pluto, were introduced. The film It Happened One Night won the Oscar for Best Picture that year – also about a pair who wanted to escape the hardships of their lives.

In 1934 author Margaret Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for her only novel, Gone with the Wind. Agatha Christie won acclaim for her novel, Murder on the Orient Express. Mrs. Christie took the newspaper headlines of 1932, engrossed in the terrible true account of the kidnapping and subsequent murder of aviator Charles Lindbergh’s infant son. In 1934, the perpetrator, Bruno Hauptmann, was discovered with the ransom money and promptly arrested.   

That same year the first x-ray was taken in a New York hospital. The first Masters Golf Tournament was held in Augusta, Georgia. The planet Pluto (now recognized as a dwarf planet) was discovered. The ocean liner The Queen Mary made her first voyage across the Atlantic. Gas for Henry Ford’s automobiles cost ten cents a gallon.

 Some who were born ninety years ago included baseball great Hank Aaron, and film stars Maggie Smith and Sophia Loren. In addition to the aged President von Hindenberg, others who died that year included scientist Marie Curie, and the notorious Bonnie and Clyde. The two bank robbers and cold-blooded killers were ambushed by law enforcement near the Texas border in rural Louisiana.

The Year 1944: Fifteen years after the stock market crash in New York, the Great Depression had ended but the global war that many feared would erupt was already five years extant. The United States became involved after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, but Europe had been embroiled in the terrible conflict since September of 1939. While Europe battled against the infamous Hitler and his Nazi regime, the United States had to fight on two fronts: against the Nazis in Europe and the Japanese in the Pacific.

Two of the most pivotal battles of that war were fought in 1944: the D-Day invasion in June, and in December in the Ardennes Forest in a fight known as the Battle of the Bulge.  

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, as the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, orchestrated the D-Day assault. Since Hitler had built an Atlantic Wall and sank mines in the English Channel all along the coasts of Europe, the massive Operation Overlord had taken years to plan and the troops had been well trained. “For that sort of attack we had no precedent in history,” Ike recalled. “OVERLORD was at once a singular military expedition and fearsome risk.” General Eisenhower had no secondary plan. Retreat was not an option. The beaches of Normandy were successfully breached and the day, June 6, 1944, was the beginning of the end for Hitler and his ilk.5

As the harsh winter arrived in December 1944, and many exhausted troops were allowed Christmas leave, they were replaced with new recruits to hold the line at the Ardennes. Shortly before Christmas, Hitler launched his last, desperate offensive. In the attempt to break the Allied lines and reach the port at Antwerp, the Nazis nearly succeeded. It was called the Battle of the Bulge. The Americans clung to their lines and managed to turn the Nazi tide.

The Americans gained victories in the Pacific as well, with the capture of Guam, the Marshall Islands, and the Solomon Islands.

Back in the states, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected that year to his fourth term in office – the only U.S. President ever elected to four consecutive terms. He had led the nation through an economic depression and was steadily leading the populace through the worst war ever fought in modern times. The stress of the position and his own failing health were evident on his features, and Roosevelt would not survive another year.

That same year, the former French Indochina, realizing that France was too busy with her own survival to keep their country as a colony, claimed independence. It was then named Vietnam, and the nation’s first President was Ho Chi Minh.   

Journalist Ernie Pyle traveled with the GIs through the islands of the Pacific, sharing their tents, their meals, and their perils. In 1944, he published a book about these soldiers of temerity, entitled Brave Men. He received the Pulitzer Prize for his efforts.

Another book that would become world famous was discovered on the floor of a hidden annex in Amsterdam and retrieved from Nazi eyes. The Diary of a Young Girl was salvaged, but its author could not be saved. Fifteen-year-old Anne Frank was taken with her family in August 1944, after someone had divulged their hiding place to the Germans. Anne, her sister Margo, and their mother were taken first to Auschwitz. Mrs. Frank was killed there, but the two sisters were later transferred to Belsen, a work camp south of Hamburg. The two died of typhoid fever in 1945, shortly before the Allied troops liberated the camp.6

That same summer, a group of disgruntled Germans, many of them aristocratic, attempted an assassination on Hitler. It failed, and the perpetrators suffered torturous deaths. One who had been implicated was Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, though he had been at the front at the time. He committed suicide to spare his family any repercussions. His death was added to countless others due to World War II.

The Year 1954: Dwight D. Eisenhower, the former Supreme Allied Commander during World War II, was in his first term as President of the United States. He was also at that time a resident of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The year 1954 was one of peace for the nation, and the people enjoyed great economic prosperity. A harbinger of a problematic future, however, showed in the distance as the new nation of Vietnam was divided into two sections. In the north, Communist activists began to take over the land, while the South embraced democracy. President Eisenhower, who knew too well the horrors of war, warned against American involvement in the issue.

That same year, the first nuclear plant was opened in Obninsk, near Moscow, in the USSR. The United States responded with renewed atomic testing of their own. On March 1, 1954, the first hydrogen bomb – measuring fifteen megatons – was detonated at Bikini Atoll in the distant Marshall Islands.

Because of the concern with the new Russian nuclear facility and the subsequent spread of Communism in Vietnam, Senator Eugene McCarthy began Congressional hearings to bring U.S. citizens to task for what he termed anti-American activities. Many prominent people, with a special emphasis on Hollywood actors and producers, were questioned in what was considered a witch hunt. As a result, many were blacklisted, losing their careers and reputations.

That same year, a new political star rose on the horizon. John F. Kennedy was elected the junior senator from Massachusetts and made his television debut on Meet the Press. Television was the new national apparatus by 1954, and almost every American home had one. That year the color television was introduced, but most individuals and families owned the more affordable black and white ones.

In 1954 the first successful kidney transplant was performed at Harvard Medical Center. In Pennsylvania, Dr. Jonas Salk, the creator of the first polio vaccine, inoculated schoolchildren for the first time.

Author Ernest Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954 with his story The Old Man and the Sea.  

That same year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against segregation in Brown vs. the Board of Education.

In California, Walt Disney opened his first theme park, Disneyland.

The Year 1964: A tumultuous year racked with changes, the year 1964 was filled with race riots, the Cold War, and the escalation of unrest in the divided Vietnam.

President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had taken recently taken the oath of office in late November 1963 with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, declared a war on poverty. Civil unrest unfurled nation-wide, especially in the South. In spite of a Democrat-led filibuster, Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law.

The year 1964 was an election year, and Johnson won the election against Arizona senator Barry Goldwater.

Jacqueline Kennedy, the widow of the slain former President, had been in seclusion for months after the widely televised funeral. She emerged in early 1964 with her first television appearance.

In 1964 the Warren Commission, a group investigating the death of President Kennedy, announced Lee Harvey Oswald as the lone gunman. The decision was received with great skepticism, and remains so to the present date.

In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania another former President was busy writing his memoirs. General Dwight D. Eisenhower made frequent visits to his office near Gettysburg College, writing his book At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends.

In 1964 the Olympic games took place in Tokyo, Japan. In South Africa, Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment for rebellion against the Apartheid government. The African nations of Algeria, Zambia and Kenya became republics. In Alaska, two major earthquakes, the first an 8.4 and the subsequent a 9.2 on the Richter scale, erupted near the coasts, killing over one hundred victims.  

That same year Cassius Clay won the Heavyweight Boxing title. He changed his name shortly afterward, to Muhammad Ali.

In 1964 the 24th Amendment to the Constitution was passed. It stated that no citizen could be refused the right to vote because of the failure to pay taxes.  

That same year Martin Luther King Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Among those who left us in 1964 included former President Herbert Hoover, General Douglas MacArthur, wildlife activist Rachel Carson, and author Ian Fleming.

The Year 1974: Threatened with articles of impeachment for his role in the Watergate break-in and its subsequent cover-up, President Richard Nixon was the first U.S. President to submit his resignation. His appointed Vice-President, Gerald Ford, became Commander-in-Chief as a result, the only man who occupied the White House without being elected by the people.  

Inflation was rampant during 1974, accompanied by an energy crisis. In Gettysburg, the Eternal Light Peace Memorial, the first monument to exhibit an eternal flame, was extinguished for a time due to the oil and gas shortage.

Across the Atlantic, religious wars continued in Northern Ireland, with bombings and riots in Belfast. A famine induced by long-term drought threatened millions in Africa. A flood in Bangladesh swept away nearly three thousand people.

In Israel, Prime Minister Golda Meir stepped down and was replaced by Yitzhak Rabin.

In Tennessee, historian Shelby Foote finished the last of his narrative tomes on the Civil War.

Among those who passed away that year were aviator Charles Lindbergh, comedian Jack Benny, Hollywood mogul Sam Goldwyn, President Juan Peron of Argentina, and musician Duke Ellington.

The Year 1984: In 1949, author George Orwell published a book entitled 1984, predicting a futuristic world where overreaching government destroyed the freedom of all. By the time the actual year dawned, freedom was, although fragile, still extant. Unrest still grabbed headlines, however. There were mass demonstrations in Manila, in the Philippines, against dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, was assassinated. A far-reaching famine in Ethiopia, in its second year, claimed over one million lives. A new, deadly, virus known as AIDS was made known to the public.

Ronald Reagan, in 1984, was ending his first term as President. He won reelection by a wide margin later that year, partly due to the robust economy. In 1984, President Reagan signed into law the admission of two historical persons as American citizens. William Penn, the founder of the colony of Pennsylvania, and his wife Hannah, were honored with U.S. citizenship at last. President Reagan acknowledged that the Penns had done much to bring freedom to America. The couple, who had been unable to stay in the American colonies in order to lend their aid to their fellow Quakers in England, learned that the crown had confiscated their property and money. William Penn died penniless in England. He and his family are buried in the village of Jordans, near Oxford.7

The Year 1994: Another year of reasonable prosperity continued during the last decade of the 1900s. Bill Clinton was in his first term as President of the United States. In the year 1994 the Gulf War had recently ended. President Clinton made a trip to the Middle East to encourage peace talks between Israel and Jordan. That year, Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, and Yasser Arafat received the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts.

In 1994 the Chunnel, an underground tunnel connecting Great Britain to France beneath the English Channel, was opened to traffic.

In the United States, there was political upset over some of President Clinton’s policies, resulting in a Republican takeover in Congress – the first time in many decades. The new Speaker of the House was Georgia statesman Newt Gingrich.

In the African nation of Rwanda, unrest and genocide seemed unstoppable, although the United States made continued efforts to aid the civilian populace.

That same year, former President Ronald Reagan announced that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease. He made no more public appearances.

In Los Angeles, the former wife of football giant O.J. Simpson was found murdered. Suspicion immediately fell upon her ex-husband, who was promptly arrested. He was later acquitted of the crime, although many believed he was indeed the perpetrator.

Others who left us in 1994 included former President Richard Nixon, former First Lady Jackie Kennedy, former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, actor Burt Lancaster, and composer Henry Mancini.

The Year 2004: Twenty years ago, the United States had made great changes due to the September 11 terror attacks. The Department of Homeland Security began issuing threat levels on a regular basis, and air travel was never the same with the introduction of TSA screening. Even at Gettysburg, visits to the battlefield by tourists from outside the nation had ceased and did not begin again until 2006.

President George W. Bush, the son of former President George H.W. Bush, was the 42nd President of the United States. He was finishing his first term, and successfully won a second term later that year.

In the summer, ninety-three-year-old former President Ronald Reagan died, losing his battle with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Many more lost their lives in 2004. The most noteworthy – and unfortunately terrible –headline that year was the disastrous earthquake near Sumatra that took place the day after Christmas in southern Asia. The quake, which measured a 9.3 on the Richter Scale, unleashed a major tsunami that washed away multitudes on the thousands of islands in the Indian Ocean. Because the area did not have a warning system in place, vacationers and islanders from Indonesia to Thailand were swept away. The death toll neared a quarter of a million people. It remains one of the worst disasters of modern history.

The Year 2014: Ten years ago, Barack Obama was President of the United States, in his second term. Unrest continued around the world with the emergence of ISIS, a terrorist organization, who took power in Iraq and Syria. Russia, under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, invaded the Crimea and threatened Ukraine, the country that had previously held that territory. In Africa, the Ebola virus outbreak quickly escalated into a pandemic, and the deadly disease seemed to have no cure. A few cases emerged in the United States, but were quickly isolated and quelled.

Another tragedy occurred over the Indian Ocean in 2014. A Malaysia Airlines flight disappeared mysteriously over the sea. It was never found.

Some who left us in 2014 included actors Mickey Rooney, Lauren Bacall, and Robin Williams.

The Year 2024: As the century closes in from 1924 to the present, there is much of the same that occurs. A border crisis, similar to the influx in 1924, continues to be problematic for the citizens of the United States. Most of them are coming illegally into the country, and many are seeking asylum. Inflation is also high, making the cost of living difficult to maintain.

Wars continue between Israel and Palestine, and in Ukraine. The United States is sending aid to allies in both conflicts.  

In Baltimore, Maryland, a merchant ship accidentally hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing the bridge to collapse. Six construction workers on the bridge were killed in the accident.

On April 8, a solar eclipse took place, with totality occurring through western Pennsylvania. Gettysburg saw 92% of the eclipse, making it seem like twilight just after 3 p.m. that day.

Like so many years that end in four, the year 2024 is an election year – and the majority of the American populace look toward the election with uneasiness. Former President Donald Trump was going to run for election against the incumbent Joe Biden, but President Biden, due to his age and declining abilities, announced in late July that he would not seek reelection. He endorsed his Vice President, Kamala Harris. If Ms. Harris succeeds, she will be the first woman U.S. President. Because President Biden made his announcement late in the year, there was no primary to elect the candidate, and some Americans are displeased with this issue.

President Trump, who often draws large crowds, held an outside rally in western Pennsylvania on July 13. A young gunman shot at the former President, who narrowly escaped assassination. A spectator in the audience was killed and two others critically wounded. The Secret Service found the shooter, a 20-year-old student, and killed him. To date, it is a mystery why the would-be assassin made such an attempt.

From late July through early August, the Olympics were held in Paris, France. A century ago, France had hosted the first winter Olympics.

There were many who left us in 2024. Among them were O.J. Simpson, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, journalist Lou Dobbs, and comedian Bob Newhart.  

A century ago, Jimmy Carter was born in Plains, Georgia. At this writing he remains living – one who has witnessed an entire century. If he survives to October 1, he will celebrate his one hundredth birthday. Whether he continues to survive or not, Mr. Carter is our longest living President.

One hundred years may seem like a long time, but a century is not such an extended period after all. As Abraham Lincoln had succinctly noted, this too shall pass away. Yet, it seems that life goes in cycles that repeat themselves, with natural disasters, wars, pandemics, uprisings and unrest that are tempered with great inventions and amazing accomplishments.

Whatever the future holds, we can always learn from the pages of the past. Whether we actually learn from the mistakes of those from days gone by, and make the necessary changes so that the repetition stops, it is up to us to decide if we want more of the same in the coming century.

Sources: Bettman, Otto L. The Good Old Days – They Were Terrible! New York: Random House, 1974. The Constitution of the United States (first published in 1789). Washington D.C.: The National Center for Constitutional Studies, 2009. Egan, Timothy. The Worst Hard Time. Boston and New York: Marine Books, 2006. Eisenhower, Dwight D. Crusade in Europe. New York: Doubleday & Company, 1948. Eisenhower, Dwight D. At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends. National Park Service: Eastern Acorn Press, 1998 (reprint, first published in 1967). Frank, Anne. The Diary of a Young Girl. New York: Bantam Books, 1952. Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1975. Orwell, George. 1984. New York: Signet Classics, 1977 (reprint, first published in 1949). Hawes, James. The Shortest History of Germany. New York: The Experiment, 2019. Whitney, David C. with Robin Whitney. The American Presidents: Biographies of the Chief Executives from Washington through Clinton. New York: Guild America Books, Inc., 1993. The William Penn File, Adams County Historical Society (hereafter ACHS). Additional information gleaned from the author’s diaries.

End Notes:  

1. Grun, p. 485.

2. Egan, p. 185.  

3. Hawes, pp. 167-170.   

4. Eisenhower, Crusade, p. 5.  

5. Eisenhower, At Ease, p. 273.  

6. Frank, pp. 278-279.  

7. William Penn File, ACHS. The author has visited the Penn graves in Jordans, England.