New Years: 1928 & 2017

With this being the New Year holiday, I’m taking a break from the series on the Dieselpunk Lexicon. I’ll return to the Lexicon in my next post.

2017 promises to be an important year in the world affairs. Since as dieselpunks we look to the past to better understand the future, I thought I would look back on another major year in world history: 1928.

The year 1928 was one of those years that at the time seemed mundane but was actually important in that we saw events and trends that would dramatically change the world as well as some that strike some hauntingly similar trends today.

In the area of science and technology there were great advances. Following are a few:

Jan 1 1st US air-conditioned office building opens, San Antonio
Jan 13 RCA and GE install three test television sets in homes in Schenectady, New York allowing American inventor E.F.W. Alexanderson to demonstrate the first home television receiver which delivered a poor and unsteady 1.5 square inch picture
Feb 3 Paleoanthropologist Davidson Black reports his findings on the ancient human fossils found at Zhoukoudian, China in the journal Nature and declares them to be a new species he names 'Sinanthropus pekinensis' (now known as 'Homo erectus')
Feb 8 1st transatlantic TV image received, Hartsdale, NY
Jun 18 American aviator Amelia Earhart becomes the 1st woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean landing at Burry Port, Wales
Jul 2 The Jenkins Television Corporation (owned by Charles Jenkins) goes on air with W3XK, the first television broadcasting station in the USA
Jul 3 1st color TV broadcast in London
Jul 6 1st all-talking motion picture shown in NY (Lights of NY)
Jul 12 1st televised tennis match
Jul 30 George Eastman shows 1st color motion pictures (US)
Sep 15 Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin while studying influenza
Oct 15 German dirigible "Graf Zeppelin" lands in Lakehurst, NJ
Nov 18, Steamboat Willie was released
All year throughout the world radio stations popped up like dandelions after a rainstorm.

However, while science and technology advanced, the world political scene was dark and was getting darker.

Mar 15 Benito Mussolini modifies Italy electoral system (abolishes right to choose)
Apr 19 Japanese troops occupies Sjantung-schiereiland
May 12 Benito Mussolini ends women's rights in Italy
Oct 1 USSR launches its first 5-year plan
On Nov 6, Herbert Hoover was reelected to a second term. With the strong economy, the Republicans gained a strong majority in both the Senate and the House.

On this last note: It’s important to remember that less than a year after Hoover was reelected and the Republicans increased their majority in Congress, the US Stock Market crashed and the worst economic crisis of the modern world began.

Here’s wishing all of us a prosperous and joyous 2017!