100th Birthday

[thunderstorm_19]

In two weeks, on July 8th, my grandmother turns 100 years young.

This project: http://nervousness.org/lmao/index.cgi?id=12567 I started in September got half forgotten about (including by me!) and I don't know if there's really enough time now to remind those who signed up and forgot about it since.

Anyway, not to worry!

I have a new idea. And the best part is (ok well maybe it's not the best part, but) - no mailing.

I'm going to cut out some candle shapes from construction paper. (ok lots)

I'd like each one to represent a year of the past 100 years (starting at 1904, the year she was born). I'd like to put on each one: one event from one of those years (ie. birth of a famous person, the invention or discovery of something, etc) and have one candle, and thus one event, for each year.

So, I don't think there's enough time to have everyone make 'candles' and send them to me, so I will do that, but what I want your help with is the events. To make this really worth doing i've gotta get the whole 100 years covered. Each person can take however many years they'd like.

I dont' know the best way -- maybe just post the events you find out about here, making clear the years they're for. remember i'm only going to use one event for each year. try to keep them 'good' things wherever possible.

what will i do with all these candles? hmm... dunno. Either loosely bind them together to make a booklet, or leave them loose so that each guest at the party can leave with one, or tack them up as decorations...

I can't promise anything in return except my gratitude... and i'll try to post a pic or two from the party.

[Marshian]

Some ideas... hope they are useful. I've tried to stick to pop culture items as much as possible, but not always. This is the first 20 years... I'll post more later today. :) 1904: Ice Cream Cone invented
1905: Las Vegas is founded
1906: San Francisco Earthquake
1907: Rudyard Kipling wins Nobel Prize for Literature (Jungle Book)
1908: First Model T produced by Ford
1909: Boy Scouts of America Founded
1910: Earth passes through the tail of Halley's Comet
1911: The first Indianapolis 500 race
1912: Arizona is the 48th State
1913: Toy surprises added to Cracker Jack
1914: Mother's Day becomes official holiday; first electric traffic light; Panama Canel opens; Babe Ruth pitches his first professional game
1915: US Coast Guard founded; D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation premiers; first stop sign; Einstein publishes theory of general relativity
1916: first Norman Rockwell cover for the Saturday Evening Post; PGA founded
1917: first commerically released Jazz recordings; Technicolor introduced; first Pultizer prizes awarded
1918: first official American observance of Daylight Savings Time; first Tarzan film released
1919: Prohibition begins; first Miss America is crowned; Grand Canyon declared a National Park; Chicago "Black Sox" throw the world series; Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and D.W. Griffiths found United Artists studio
1920: Women get right to vote; Joan of Arc is canonized; first commercial radio station begins operation; Westinghouse makes first consumer radios available for about $10 each
1921: insulin discovered; Albert Einstein wins Nobel Prize for Physics
1922: Eskimo Pie patented; first issue of Reader's Digest; Licoln Memorial dedicated; King Tut's tomb discovered
1924: first Winter Olympics; first Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade
1925: Scopes "Monkey" Trial; Grand Ole Opry makes radio debut; Charlie Chaplin's "The Gold Rush" and Lon Chaney's "Phantom of the Opera" premier
1926: disappearance of evangelist Aimee Semple MacPherson; death of Harry Houdini; first publication of Winnie the Pooh
1927: "ShowBoat" opens on Broadway; Charles Lindbergh makes first non-stop transatlantic flight; Holland Tunnel opens; Harlem Globetrotters first game; first talking picture, Al Jolson's "The Jazz Singer"
1928: Fleming discovers penicillin; first Academy Awards given; first Mickey Mouse film, "Steamboat Willie"
1929: first Seeing-Eye dogs; New York Stock Exchange crash begins the Great Depression; first performance of "Auld Lang Syne" by Guy Lombardo
1930: Hostess Twinkie invented; first appearance of Betty Boop;
1931: Robert Frost wins Pulitzer prize for poetry; "Star-Spangled Banner" adopted as National Anthem; completion of Empire State Building; Boris Karloff's "Frankenstein" premiers
1932: Babe Ruth's famous "called shot" homer in the World Series; first Shirley Temple films; popular song - Louis Armstrong's "All of Me"
1933: first Zippo lighters; chocolate chip cookie invented; end of Prohibition; first issue of Newsweek; Mount Rushmore dedicated
1934: Bonnie and Clyde; the Dionne Quintuplets; debut of Donald Duck; first Soap Box Derby
1935: advent of Swing Music; discovery of Nylon; Hoover Dam completed; Parker Brothers releases Monopoly
1936: Edward VIII crowned and later abdicates to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson; first edition of Life magazine;
1937: Golden Gate Bridge opens; first publication of The Dandy, the world's longest running comic (British); Snow White is the first feature-length animated film, first Dr. Seuss book published
1938: first Superman comic; Orson Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast; a Coelacanth, thought extinct for millions of years, caught alive off the coast of South Africa
1939: Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz premier; Lou Gehrig's farewell to baseball
1940: Frank Sinatra joins the Tommy Dorsey orchestra; first McDonald's restaurant; Battle of Britain; birth of Bugs Bunny; release of Disney's Fantasia
1941: Mount Rushmore completed; Pearl Harbor; Glenn Miller receives the first Gold Record for Chattanooga Choo-Choo;
1942: Bambi and Casablance released; Bing Crosby's White Christmas
1943: The Pentagon is dedicated, the largest office building in the world; Oklahoma! opens on Broadway
1944: Normandy Invasion; first publication of Pippi Longstocking;
1945: Nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki; United Nations founded; first appearance of Casper the Friendly Ghost, first ball-point pens
1946: ENIAC, the first computer, is unveiled; introduction of the Bikini; Tupperware; premier of It's a Wonderful Life
1947: first Polaroid camera; Jackie Robinson breaks baseball's color barrier; voyage of the Kon-Tiki; Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier; first microwave oven
1948: formation of British Railways; first LP vinyl records; birth of NASCAR; Candid Camera
1949: first Emmy Awards; George Orwell's 1984 is published; South Pacific opens on Broadway
1950: Carousel opens in London; Guys and Dolls opens on Broadway; Peanuts comic first published
1951: first appearance of Dennis the Menace; premier of An American in Paris and The African Queen; Catcher in the Rye published
1952: first Miss Universe Pageant; Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap opens in London (and it is STILL running... longest running play in history); first broadcast of The Today Show
1953: Elizabeth II is crowned; Color Television; first Elvis Presley records; first James Bond novel; first issue of TV Guide
1954:
1955:
1956: Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco;
1957:
1958:
1959:
1960:
1961:
1962:
1963:
1964:
1965:
1966:
1967:
1968:
1969:
1970:
1971: first probes land on Mars; birth of the NASDAQ exchange; world population reaches 4 billion; Walt Disney World opens; Intel releases world's first microprocessor; birth of Greenpeace
1972: maiden flight of the Goodyear Blimp; Watergate; Mark Spitz wins a record-breaking seven Gold Medals at Summer Olympics; premiere of The Godfather
1973: Skylab is laundhed; Secretariat wins the Triple Crown; premiere of Schoolhouse Rock! series; World Trade Center opens in New York
1974: Patty Hearst kidnapped; People magazine published; supermarkets begin use of UPC barcodes to ring up products; disappearance of Lord Lucan
1975: the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald; Arthur Ashe first black man to win Wimbledon; premiere of Saturday Night Live
1976: first commercial Concorde flights; Apple Computer Company is formed; Microsoft founded
1977: Star Wars premieres
1978: casinos come to Atlantic City; Garfield comic strip debuts; first test tube baby (in vitro fertilization); Susan B. Anthony dollar
1979: Margaret Thatcher become PM; Mother Theresa wins Nobel Peace Prize
1980: Mt. Saint Helens erupts; The Empire Strikes Back premieres; death of John Lennon
1981: first Space Shuttle mission; wedding of Diana and Prince Charles; IBM PC released; Cats opens in London; birth of MTV
1982: launch of CNN; Falkland Islands War; Vietnam Veterans Memorial dedicated in Washington; first computer virus; E.T. premieres
1983: birth of the Internet; Brinks Mat Robbery in London; Return of the Jedi premieres; final episode of MASH

[sarahkate]

I just decided to go with 1950-1970. Here's what I came up with...


1950 - May 29- St. Roch, first ship to circumnavigate North America arrives in Halifax Nova Scotia.

1951- October 15 - I Love Lucy debuts on CBS.

1952- February 6 - In the United States, a mechanical heart is used for the first time in a human patient.

1953- November 9- Cambodia becomes independent from France.

1954- March 30- Canada's first subway opens in Toronto.

1955- January 19- The Scrabble board game debuts.

1956- February 22- Elvis Presley enters the music charts for the first time, with "Heartbreak Hotel".

1957- November 3- Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter space - a dog named Laika (she was kept alive for several days in space with a sophisticated life-support system).

1958- January 8- 14 year old Bobby Fischer wins the United States Chess Championship.

1959- March 9- The Barbie doll debuts.

1960- The halogen lamp is invented.

1961- January 20- John F. Kennedy becomes President of the United States.

1962- August 5- Marilyn Monroe is found dead in her Los Angeles, California home after apparently overdosing on sleeping pills.

1963- August 28- "March on Washington," civil rights rally held by 200,000 blacks and whites in Washington, D.C.; Martin Luther King delivers "I have a dream" speech.

1964- Acrylic paint is invented.

1965- March 2- The Sound of Music premieres.

1966- “Star Trek” premiered on TV.

1967- A Texas Instrument team of engineers create the Cal-Tech, the first handheld calculator.

1968- January 2- Dr. Christian Barnard performs the first successful heart transplant.

1969- July 7- French is made equal to English throughout the Canadian national government.

1970- April 22- First Earth Day celebrated.

[thunderstorm_19]

awesome guys, thanks so much!

*toddles off to start cutting candle shapes*

[Marshian]

I added another 10 years to my first post.

OH! and don't forget to add events from her own personal history to their proper years - the year she was married, the years her children were born, the years her grandchildren were born, any important events of her life that she would enjoy seeing added to your timeline.

[thunderstorm_19]

that's a good suggestion marshian... :)

hmm... going with what's above, that's about halfway there... if anyone else has any, please post them!

[nici]

1934- Dust Bowl days begin-- The worst drought in US history, covering more than 75% of the US.
1935- The Flying Keys set endurance record by flying a Curtiss Robin non-stop for 653 hours, 34 minutes
1936 -Hoover Dam is completed.
1937 Hindenburg Disaster
1938- The March of Dimes is established by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
1939 - Holocaust: The last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany are closed.
1940-January 5 - FM radio is demonstrated to the FCC for the first time.
1941- At California's March Field Bob Hope performs his first USO Show.
1942-Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to have a flight go around the world.

[thunderstorm_19]

:) thanks...

i'm going to be looking for some UK events for some years too (since my family are mostly English)...

[Marshian]

I'm through 1953, and I am not done yet. :)

I know you wanted only "good" things, so I have tried to stick to pop culture and avoid politics and disasters, but that sure was hard to do during the war years. In the end I have tried to choose things that are simple enough to represent visually, and things you could find photos of online without too much trouble.

If you find you are running out of time, and can't do 100 candles, you could do a smaller number of collages, one for each decade. You could still pack ten candles onto each page, but it might be easier using the material you've gotten if you could "cheat" with your years a little bit. ;)

I'll try to get more for you before then end of the weekend.

Cheers,
KM

[thunderstorm_19]

:)

[Marshian]

Got through 1983 (with a little gap in the 70s filled by someone else). Sorry I ran out of time before the whole 100 years was accounted for, but I hope my contribution will help. Good luck getting everything accomplished, and my blessings to your grandmother on her 100th birthday.

Cheers,
KM

[thunderstorm_19]

amazing. thanks so much.

[Mermaid]

Hi Alison
Do you need any more 'years' covered?

BTW Your Peace Train carriages are travelling.. they were most recently in Copenhagen with the Meandering Mermaid ( which is a World Dreams Peace Bridge project rather than a Nervousness object)

I think it is photo/folie 18..

http://home.t-online.de/home/Ralf.Penderak/wdpb_3.htm

[thunderstorm_19]

yes, i could use a few more years covered -- 1986, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1993-2004

i've got some canadian events for the other years between 1986 and now, but feel free to give some for those years as they might be better ones.

i'd love to put in a few UK ones (since that's where gran lived most of her life, until she came here in '81...)... doesn't really matter tho.

[sarahkate]

1986 - Westland scandal in UK government

1988 - Gorbachev proposes democratic reforms in USSR

1990 - Nelson Mandela freed after 27 years in jail.
John Major replaces margaret Thatcher as UK prime minister

1991 - Break-up of the Soviet Union, resignation of Gorbachev; Yeltsin takes power in Russia

1993 - January 25 - Catherine Callbeck becomes Premier of Prince Edward Island, becoming the first female Premier in Canada.

1994 - Channel Tunnel Opens, Connecting Britain and France

1995 - February 21 - Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.

1996 - Mad Cow Disease Hits Britain

1997 - Tony Blair wins landslide victory in UK with New Labour Party.
- Hale-Bopp Comet Visible

1998 - November 1 - The European Court of Human Rights is instituted.

1999 - New Euro currency introduced

2000 - May 12 - The Tate Modern opens in London

2001 - July 2 - World's first self-contained artificial heart implanted in Robert Tools.
(It was hard to find any "good" events from this year!) :(

2002 - June 4- Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh ride in the gold state coach from Buckingham Palace to St Paul's Cathedral for a special service marking the Queen's 50 years on the throne. In New York, the Empire State Building is lit in purpole for her honour.

2003 - November 26 - Last ever flight by Concorde.

2004 - January 8 - Queen Elizabeth II officially names the Queen Mary 2 cruise liner.
- March 29 - The Republic of Ireland bans smoking in restaurants, pubs and bars.

[thunderstorm_19]

groovy :)

[Rhane]

What about 1969? first man to walk on the Moon.

Not sure of the date, but wasn't the Sputnik (Russian satellite) launched sometime in the 50s?

For the 60s, how about the Beatles?

Just some thoughts :D

And belated happy b-day to the centenarian (I think that's the word for it!)

-=Rhane