Early 20th facts
While investigating facts about Early 20th, I found out little known, but curios details like:
In the early 20th century the term "Muggles" meant someone who smoked marijuana. Louis Armstrong and some bandmates would get high before recording sessions and even recorded a song called "Muggles".
When the Prussians forbade the Danes from displaying their flag in the early 20th century, the Danes responded by creating a new breed of pig that resembled the Danish flag and displayed it instead
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 50 of the best facts about Early 20th I managed to collect.
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In the early 20th century, several American condom manufacturers tested their condoms for defects and sold the rejects under cheaper brand names rather than discarding them
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Pistol dueling with wax bullets was a popular pastime in the early 20th century and even featured as a sport in the 1908 Summer Olympics
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In the early 20th century, trains in the US were destroyed in staged head-on collisions in front of live audiences for entertainment. This ended in the 1930s as it was seen to be wasteful of old but otherwise useful locomotives at the height of the Great Depression.
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The leading manufacturers of incandescent light bulbs in the early 20th century, conspired to keep the lifetime of their bulbs far below their real technological capabilities. This way, they ensure the continuous demand for more bulbs and hence, long-term profit for themselves.
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Originally, the classic banker's lamp had a green shade to lessen one's eyestrain due to early incandescent lights. The green eye visor commonly worn by accountants, telegraphers, and copy editors in the late-19th and mid-20th century were worn for similar reasons.
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Scurvy was documented as a disease by Hippocrates, and Egyptians have recorded its symptoms as early as 1550 BC. The knowledge that consuming foods containing vitamin C is a cure for scurvy has been repeatedly rediscovered and forgotten into the early 20th century.
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Ching Ling Foo and Chung Ling Soo were two magicians from the early 20th century who were bitter rivals. While Ching Ling Foo was genuinely Chinese, Chung Ling Soo was actually a New Yorker named William Robinson.
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"Doctor" Linda Hazzard, who in the early 20th century killed at least a dozen patients, who coincidentally had just added her to their wills, by "treating" them with 30-40 day total starvation therapy. At first she couldn't be prosecuted because her patients signed up willingly.
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Black Wall Street", the most affluent black neighbourhood in the early 20th century, was nearly wiped out by white residents massacring the black population in 1921
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There was a renowned deaf-mute baseball player in the early 20th century named "Dummy" Taylor. He was the highest paid deaf person of the 1900's and was also known as the comedian of the Giants, coaching at third base in rubber boots when an umpire refused to call a game due to rain.
What is true about early 20th?
You can easily fact check it by examining the linked well-known sources.
Until the early 20th century, young boys wore dresses or gowns until around the age of 8, when they reached the age of breeching, an important rite of passage in the lives of small boys when they wore breeches or trousers for the first time.
About the Automat, a fast food-like restaurant with no wait staff. Patrons would put coins into a machine in order to unlock a box with food. At it’s peak in the early 20th century, an Automat chain was one of the largest restaurant chains in the world, serving 800,000 people daily. - source
Eleanor Roosevelt was one of the most politically active women of the 20th Century. She campaigned civil rights in the early 1930’s, regularly spoke on behalf of her husband and pressed the US to join the United Nations. She eventually remodeled the meaning of ‘First Lady’. - source
Waiterless' restaurants were pioneered in the late 1800s and were a hit in the early 20th century with the arrival of the Automat; the walls inside each store were lined with a series of small windows containing food. For a fee the window unlocked, allowing customers to pull out a meal.
In the early 20th century tipping was considered deeply un-American and made illegal in 7 states - source
The selective admissions process at universities was originally designed during the early 20th century to discriminate against Jews
'art' used to be an Olympic sport. Artists were award gold, silver and bronze medals for architecture, painting, sculpture, music and literature across multiple Summer Olympics in the early 20th Century. The 'arts' were dropped from the Games because they drew too many professional artists.
In early 20th century doctors had a biased understanding of human anatomy because of only having access to the cadavers of poor people. In anatomy classes, they were used to the enlarged adrenal glands (which was actually caused by stress from poverty) and thought this was the normal size
The phrase "close, but no cigar" originated from carnivals/fairs using cigars as prizes in the early 20th century. After playing a game but not winning they would say close, but no cigar. Sense these carnivals traveled all over the place, it became a well known saying.
Mary Blagg--an early 20th-century astronomer who pioneered the field of lunar nomenclature. She was tasked with naming every discernible feature on the moon, leading her to create a list detailing thousands upon thousands of craters, fissures, and gullies along its surface.
Peoria, Illinois was a test market for new shows in the early 20th century, due to their broad demographic. This gave rise to the phrase "Will it play in Peoria?"
