I am posting this on May 11, 2024.  My father, Richard Leigh Dearing, was born 120 years ago today, May 11, 1904.

What was it like in 1904? Here is a little 1904 trivia:

• After their maiden flight in 1903 at Kitty Hawk, in May 1904 the Wright brothers completed their next version of the Wright flier.
• 1904 was 15 years before women could vote in the US
• 1904 was 4 years before the Ford Model T was introduced
• 1904 was 10 years before the start of WWI
• 1904 was 14 years before the first electric refrigerators were sold for home use
• In 1904, only 1% of US homes had electricity
• In 1904, the population of the US was 1/4 of what it is today; 86 million compared to 332 million
• The US had 45 States in 1904
• Other notable 1904 births: Cary Grant, Robert Oppenheimer, Salvador Dali (also on May 11)

And here are some events and milestones at 10 year intervals to add some context to what was going on in the world during his lifetime.

1904:

• The United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone
• Charles Rolls and Henry Royce meet for the first time to agree on production of Rolls-Royce motor cars
• The first underground line of the New York City Subway opens
• Top Movie: “Impossible Voyage”
• Top Song: “Sweet Adeline (You’re the Flower of My Heart)”

1914 – Dad is 10 Years Old

• WW1 declaredPresident Woodrow Wilson orders the US Military into Mexico to block the port at Veracruz.  See: The Mexican Revolution  
• Baseball legend Babe Ruth makes his major league debut, with the Boston Red Sox
• The first electric traffic light is installed between Euclid Avenue and East 105 Street, in Cleveland, Ohio
• The Panama Canal is inaugurated with the passage of the SS Ancon
• Top Movie: “Cabiria”
• Top Song: “Cohen on the Telephone”

1924 – Dad is 20 Years Old

•  The first Winter Olympics  open in Chamonix, in the French Alps
• Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to deliver a radio broadcast from the White House
• Adolf Hitler is sentenced to 5 years in prison for his participation in the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch
• J. Edgar Hoover is appointed head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
• American astronomer Edwin Hubble announces that Andromeda, previously believed to be a nebula, is actually another galaxy, and that the Milky Way is only one of many such galaxies in the universe.
• Top Movie: “Sherlock, Jr”
• Top Song: “It Ain’t Gonna Rain No Mo'”

1934 – Dad is 30

• John Dillinger and his gang rob the First National Bank in Mason City, Iowa, United States, stealing $52,000.
• American outlaws Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed and killed by police in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
• Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany
• The Dust Bowl hits the Midwest, damaging or ruining 300 million acres of cropland in Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas
• Top Movie: It Happened One Night
• Top Song: Moon Glow

1944 – Dad is 40

• WWII: D-Day: 155,000 Allied troops shipped from England land on the beaches of Normandy in northern France, beginning Operation Overlord and the Invasion of Normandy.
• Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from Westerbork to Auschwitz concentration camp
• Germany begins the Ardennes offensive, later known as the Battle of the Bulge
• Dad’s step-son Neil turns 13, and his daughter Sheila turns 2 years old this year
• Top Movie: Double Indemnity
• Top Song: You Always Hurt The One You Love

1954 – Dad is 50

• The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched
• The first mass vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.
• U.S. officials announce that a hydrogen bomb test has been conducted, on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
• Bill Haley & His Comets record “Rock Around the Clock”
• In Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court of the United States rules unanimously that segregated schools are unconstitutional.
• Texas Instruments announces the development of the first commercial transistor radio.
• The United States Senate votes 67–22 to condemn Joseph McCarthy, for “conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.”
• The TV dinner is introduced
• Dad’s step-son Neil turns 23, daughter Sheila turns 12, daughter Diana turns 9 and son Paul turns 3 years old this year
• Top Movie: “Rear Window”
• Top Song: “Little Things Mean a Lot”

1964 -Dad is 60

• The first computer program written in BASIC is run. BASIC (Beginners’ All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is an easy to learn high level programming language
• The U.S. sends 5,000 more military advisers to South Vietnam, bringing the total number of United States forces in Vietnam to 21,000
• The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enacted
• Neil turns 33, Sheila turns 22,  Diana turns 19 and Paul turns 13
• Top Movie: “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”
• Top Song: “I Want to Hold Your Hand”

1974 – January and February*

• The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) giving women the right to have credit in their own name (without their husband’s permission) was passed by congress.  It was enacted later in the year.
• After a record 84 days in orbit, the crew of Skylab 4 returns to Earth.
• The maximum speed limit on U.S. highways was lowered to 55 miles per hour (89 km/h), a limit that would remain in effect for the next 13 years, in order to conserve gasoline during the OPEC embargo.
• Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Airport (DFW), which would become the second-busiest in the world for passenger service, opened in the U.S. state of Texas for scheduled flights. The first flight to land was a Boeing 727 arriving from Memphis, Tennessee.
• The U.S. TV sitcom Happy Days debuted on ABC.
• Top Movie:  “Blazing Saddles” Premiered on February 7th
• Top Song: “The Way We Were” Released in October 1973 and went on to be the top song of 1974

*Dad died young on February 21, 1974