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On the date

Thursday, April 29, 1920

From the day

Perspective: The Future Historian · Sound

The rhythmic static of the new commercial radio bands competes with the shrill whistle of a passing steam engine, a dissonant symphony of a world pivoting toward the electronic. I watch a woman in a beaded silk shift pause at the newsstand, her bobbed hair peeking from beneath a cloche hat as she scoffs at the ink-wet headline: GEN.WOOD DIVIDES OHIO DELEGATION; He Is Expected to Have Seven to Ten of the State's Total of 48 at Chicago. MAY GET ONE OF BIG FOUR Harding Faces Fight for Return to Senate as Well as Presidential Handicap. "Applesauce," she mutters over the cacophony of the street, more concerned with the crackle of modern life than the fractured politics of the GOP. To my historian’s ear, the true revolution isn't in Chicago’s delegate count, but in the humming wires overhead and the faint, tinny strains of "Whispering" drifting from a nearby shop window.

Memories from that day

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The Headlines

GEN.WOOD DIVIDES OHIO DELEGATION; He Is Expected to Have Seven to Ten of the State's Total of 48 at Chicago. MAY GET ONE OF BIG FOUR Harding Faces Fight for Return to Senate as Well as Presidential Handicap.

Read in The New York Times →

Best-selling Sheet Music

Whispering

John Schonberger

The must-have

Raggedy Andy

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

38,753 days ago

(106 years, 63 days)