VICIOUS
VILLA (Jan. 16): Animosity between the United States and Mexico
escalates after Mexican bandit Francisco "Pancho" Villa and his band of
rebels kill 16 American mining engineers. He killed 17 more Americans
in a raid on attacks Columbus, N.M. Brig. Gen. John J. Pershing is ordered
to Mexico to capture Villa. World War I will intervene, and Villa will
be put on hold. A popular hero in Mexico, he will later be assassinated
on his ranch.
SCOUTS INC. (June 15): The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated in a bill signed by President Wilson.
WE
WANT YOU (July 6): A portrait of Uncle Sam titled "What Are
You Doing for Preparedness?" makes its appearance on the cover of Leslie's
Weekly. Created by New York illustrator James Montgomery Flagg, who used
his own face as a model, the image went on to become the most popular
recruitment poster of all time.
POLIO EPIDEMIC (Summer): A polio epidemic strikes 28,767 Americans. About 6,000 die, 2,000 of them in New York. Thousands more are crippled.
MINDLESS MOVIES (Sept. 24): Naturalist John Burroughs asserts that moving pictures deprive viewers of brain power.
GOLFERS UNITE: The Professional Golfers' Association is founded in New York with 82 charter members.
REPRODUCTIVE
FREEDOM FIGHT (Oct. 16): The first birth control clinic in
the United States is opened at 46 Amboy St. in Brooklyn, N.Y., by Margaret
Sanger. Police raid the clinic, and Sanger is jailed for 30 days. She
founds the New York Birth Control League after her release and begins
publication of the Birth Control Review.
FIRST CONGRESSWOMAN (Nov. 7): Jeannette Rankin, 36, a Republican pacifist, feminist and social reformer from Montana, becomes the first woman elected to Congress.
WAR
TORN (Nov. 11): President Wilson wins re-election on a platform
that includes the slogan, "He kept us out of war." The United States will
be heavily involved in the war within five months.
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What's Hot Births P.W. Botha, South African leader, Jan. 12 Irving Wallace, author, March 19 Yehudi Menuhin, violinist, April 22 Francois Mitterrand, French Socialist leader, Oct. 26 Deaths Thomas Eakins, U.S. artist (born 1844) Hetty Green, miserly financier known as the "witch of Wall Street" (born 1834) Henry James, novelist (born 1843) Jack London, author of "The Call of the Wild" (born 1876) Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, "mad monk" of Russia (born 1872) |
Rockwell's
Illustrations
An
animated drawing of three boys -- two in baseball duds and another
in his Sunday best -- graces the May 20, 1916, edition of The Saturday
Evening Post. It is the first cover illustration for the venerable
weekly magazine by a 22-year-old artist named Norman Rockwell. Rockwell
will go on to produce 322 covers for the Post, charming and delighting
audiences for six decades. He, more than any other artist, mirrors
the nation's daily life during the first half of the century, giving
vision to its values and dreams with topical, humorous and sentimental
drawings of Americans in everyday settings.