1908

That was the year my grandmother Mabel Irvine, who died yesterday, was born. I got curious about what the world was like in 1908, and this is what I found.

Simone de Beauvoir, Tex Avery, Edward Teller, Louis L'Amour, Bette Davis, Lionel Hampton, Mel Blanc, Jimmy Stewart, Ian Fleming, Milton Berle, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Wright, John Kenneth Galbraith, Claude Levi-Strauss, Adam Clayton Powell, and Simon Wiesenthal were born.

Rimsky-Korsakov and Joel Chandler Harris died. (Also Butch and Sundance were (probably) killed in Bolivia.)

The Model T was first produced, and General Motors was founded.
Mother's Day was observed for the first time.
Robert Peary headed for the North Pole.
The New Year's ball dropped in Times Square for the first time.
The first tunnel under the Hudson River opened.
The first cross-country road trip, by Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Murdock.
First passenger airline flight...and first fatality due to a plane crash.
Wireless radio was patented.
The Tunguska Event.
The first Gideon Bible was put in a hotel room.
The Chicago Cubs won the World Series (beating the Tigers).
Leopold II sold the Congo to Belgium.
The FBI and the Boy Scouts of America were founded.
Converse Shoes were first made.

If I make it to 100, I wonder what the world will look like in 2069.