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On the date

Friday, January 30, 1920

From the day

Perspective: The Future Historian · Sight

The flash of magnesium bulbs illuminates the sidewalk, catching the sharp glint of beaded silk as a woman in a low-slung cloche hat hurries past the newsies shouting about the Morgan scandal. To suggest that a nineteen-year-old heir chose a bride nearly twice his age is utter applesauce, yet the headlines scream of secret New Hampshire vows while the city pulses with the electric birth of the Jazz Age. I watch a shopgirl pause before a frosted window, her bobbed hair peeking from beneath her felt hat as she stares at a new **Raggedy Andy** doll perched amidst the winter display. He sits limp-limbed and wide-eyed, a checkered contrast to the stiff silhouettes of the old world that is so rapidly dissolving into this neon-lit, T-strap-heeled future.

Memories from that day

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The Headlines

MORGAN'S NEPHEW REPORTED MARRIED; Laurens M. Hamilton, 19 Years old, Said to Have Chosen a Bride of 30. RELATIVES REFUSE TO TALK Marriage Supposed to Have Taken Place in New Hampshire, Bridegroom Being a Minor.

Read in The New York Times →

Best-selling Sheet Music

Whispering

John Schonberger

The must-have

Raggedy Andy

On This Day

  • Japanese carmaker Mazda is founded, initially as a cork-producing company.

    Wikipedia →

Slang

Slang of the decade

General

applesaucebaloneycheaterscrush

Flapper

bee's kneescat's pajamasgiggle watershebahotsy-totsy

Gangster

big cheesebump offstool pigeongatfall guy

Catchphrases of 1920

  • Return to normalcy

Tech Check

Commercial Radio Stations (KDKA), Hair Dryer & Band-Aid.

Style of 1920

Silhouette: Straight and drop-waisted (Flapper)

Material: Beaded silk and rayon

  • Bobbed hair
  • Cloche hats
  • T-strap heels

Cost of Living (1920)

Loaf of Bread

$0.11

Gallon of Gas

$0.30

Average Home

$6,296

New Car

$575

Meanwhile

  • Post-WWI RecessionSevere deflation and collapse of agricultural prices.

Time Elapsed

38,843 days ago

(106 years, 153 days)