1920s

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The 1920s was a decade sometimes referred to as the "Jazz Age" or the "Roaring Twenties," usually applied to America. In Europe the decade is sometimes referred to as the Golden Twenties (see 1920s Berlin).

Events and Trends

Fashions for women: Autumn of 1928.

Since the closing of the 20th Century, the 1920s has drawn close associations with the 1950s and 1990s, especially in the United States. The three decades are regarded as periods of economic prosperity, which lasted throughout almost the entire decade following a tremendous event that occurred in the previous decade (World War I and Spanish flu in the 1910s, World War II in the 1940s, and the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s). In the United States, this decade was known as the Roaring Twenties.

Despite the comparisons, however, there were a number of differences. Firstly, Weimar Republic Germany, like many other European countries, had to face a severe economic downturn in the opening years of the decade, due to the enormous debt caused by the war as well as the one-sided Treaty of Versailles. Such a crisis would culminate with a devaluation of the Mark in 1923, eventually leading to severe economic problems and the rise of the Nazis.

Second, the decade was characterized by the rise of radical political movements, especially in regions that were once part of empires. Communism began attracting large numbers of followers following the success of the October Revolution and the Bolsheviks' determination to win the subsequent Russian Civil War. The Bolsheviks would eventually adopt semi-capitalist policies-- New Economic Policy-- from 1921 to 1928. The 1920s also experienced the rise of the far-right in Europe and elsewhere, starting with Fascism in the world as an antidote to Communism.

The Stock Market collapsed during October 1929 (see Black Tuesday) and drew a line under prosperous 1920s.

Technology

Poster for the second All-Color All-Talking movie: Gold Diggers of Broadway 1929.

• John T. Thompson invents Thompson submachine gun, also known as "Tommy gun"
• John Logie Baird invents the first working mechanical television system (1925). In 1928 he invents and demonstrates the first color television.
• Warner Brothers produces the first movie with a soundtrack Don Juan in 1926, followed by the first Part-Talkie The Jazz Singer in 1927, the first All-Talking movie Lights of New York in 1928 and the first All-Color All-Talking movie On with the Show 1929.
• Charles Lindbergh becomes the first person to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean (20 May-21 May 1927)
• Karl Ferdinand Braun invented the modern electronic cathode ray tube in 1897. The CRT became a commercial product in 1922.
• Record companies (such as Victor, Brunswick and Columbia) introduce a Electrical Recording process on their phonograph records in 1925 (that had been developed developed by Western Electric), resulting in a more life-like sound.

Science

According to the Big Bang theory explaining the birth of an expanding universe, the Universe originated in an extremely dense ball of pure matter. Since then, space itself has expanded with the passage of time, carrying the galaxies with it.

• Insulin is discovered by Sir Frederick Grant Banting during the winter of 1921-1922
• Penicillin is discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming (1928)
• Great advances in quantum mechanics
• * Wave mechanics and the Schrödinger equation
• * Werner Heisenberg formulates the uncertainty principle
• Prediction and discovery of the expanding universe
• Albert Einstein wins Nobel for photoelectric effect. (1921)
• Neils Bohr wins Nobel for work on atomic theory. (1922)

War, peace and politics

See also Social issues of the 1920s

• Rise of communism after World War I

Vladimir Lenin in 1920. He was leading figure of the Communist movement until his death in 1924.