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On the date

Monday, February 14, 1921

From the day

Perspective: The Future Historian · Sound

The rhythmic *clack-clack* of Underwood typewriters in the newsroom competes with a nearby radio humming "The Sheik of Araby," nearly drowning out the boys shouting about bootleggers and whisky trucks on the street below. There’s a strange energy in the air this Valentine's Day, a shift from human muscle to something more precise, like that new **polygraph** machine they say can catch a liar or the talk of **insulin** finally taming the sugar-sickness. People are even whispering about "Rossum’s Universal **Robots**" over at the theater, but it sounds like a load of **baloney** to a man who still has to crank his own Ford. I adjust my collar against the Newark chill, listening to the cacophony of a world outgrowing its own skin.

Memories from that day

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The Headlines

POLICE GET CLUES TO JERSEY SLAYERS; Men Who Held Up Whisky Truck Described at Newark Conference. FAKE DRY AGENT INVOLVED New Witnesses Tell Whitman's Assistant That Police Auto Grafters Aided Bootleggers.

Read in The New York Times →

Best-selling Sheet Music

The Sheik of Araby

Harry B. Smith & Ted Snyder

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 1921

  • Ain't we got fun?

Tech Check

Robots (The Term 'Robot'), Polygraph (Modern) & Insulin (Medical Tech).

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

38,462 days ago

(105 years, 137 days)