1913 History, Trivia and Fun Facts

Firsts, Inventions, and Wonders: 
America had a transcontinental highway in 1913, The Lincoln Highway, that ran from Times Square to Lincoln Park in San Francisco.

The clothing zipper was invented (and become more popular by the 1930s).

Established in 1896, Cracker Jacks added small toys in their packages in 1913.

Alfred Carlton Gilbert’s Erector Sets went on sale.

Krazy Kat by George Herriman debuted in the New York Evening Journal.

The Actors’ Equity Association was founded.

Camel Cigarettes went on sale for the first time.

The modern “word-cross” puzzle, created by Arthur Wynne, was published in the New York World newspaper.

Igor Stravinsky’s ballet score The Rite of Spring premiered in Paris. The audience did not like it.

William Knox became the first in American Bowling Congress to bowl 300.

The Palace Theater opened at 1564 Broadway, New York City.

The term ‘Lucid Dreaming,’ used to describe when someone becomes aware that they are dreaming while dreaming, was coined by Fredrick van Eeden.

Sporting Goods company Wilson was opened as a way to use animal by-products from New York slaughterhouses. Its first products were strings for tennis rackets and violins

Pop Culture News: 
A survey of US children working under difficult conditions in factories found that 412 out of 500 would rather work in sweatshops than the “monotony, humiliation, and cruelty” of school.

The Monte Carlo Fallacy – during a game of roulette in Monte Carlo the ball fell in black 26 times in a row. (odds 1 in 138,600,000)

Sigmund Freud, Joseph Stalin, Hitler, and Trotsky frequented the same café, the “Café Central”, which was located at Herrengasse 14, in the Innere Stadt first district of Vienna.

Prior to the income tax being enacted in 1913, the U.S. government got up to 40% of its revenue from alcohol taxes. Without the income tax in place, the Prohibition Amendment would likely not have been proposed by the Senate in 1917.

Before the 17th Amendment was adopted in 1913, senators were chosen by state legislatures rather than elected by the people they represented like we do today.

On January 1, The British Board of Film Censors was founded.

At the Great Gettysburg Reunion of 1913, two men purchased a hatchet, walked to the site where their regiments had fought and buried it. Over 50,000 veterans from both sides attended, without any altercation.

Thomas Jefferson wrote his State of the Union messages, instead of delivering them in a speech like George Washington. All presidents followed Jefferson’s lead until Woodrow Wilson resurrected Washington’s precedent in 1913.

Owens Lake is located in South-eastern California, it has been mostly dry since 1913 when the Owens River was diverted to supply water to Los Angeles. It is now called the largest source of dust pollution in the entire United States.

The hottest day in recorded history occurred on July 10, 1913, in Death Valley, CA where the temperature reached 134.1 degrees.

The record single-day snowfall for the entire United States is five feet three inches (63 inches) which occurred in Georgetown, Colorado on December 12, 1913.

The United State’s The Federal Reserve System was created via the Federal Reserve Act.

The statue The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen, Denmark was completed.

Popular and Notable Books From 1913: