Introducing the 1910's. The 1910's was a decade of entertainment, science, technology, fads and many more!  Some popular interests in the second decade were,  going to the movies, a dance craze called the Tango, and The Saturday Evening Post.  People also enjoyed the abstract work of Picasso and Matisse. A different type of artist people enjoyed was Stravinsky. In the years before WWI, there was enormous confidence science and technology. For as long as many people could remember, inventors had produced one wonder after another,and there seemed no reason why this should not go on forever. Then in 1912 came a disaster, and shook this confidence, the sinking of the Titanic. 
 

The Sinking of the Titanic     The Titanic was the unsinkable ship, so they said. On April 14, 1912  enormous icebergs were sighted in the direct path of the Titanic, but little did they know one of the icebergs was going to kill the majority of them. By 11:40 p.m. the iceberg had then done the damage, by scraping the edge. The Titanic's bow was under at 2:17am . Seeing chaos all over and panicked faces was a tragedy its self. At three am the Titanic had totally vanished. Newspaper headlines were screaming again and were ubiquitous. The sinking of the Titanic was a major event of the second decade.

A shocking event took place along with many others in the 1910’s. This event changed history forever. Can you guess what event we're talking about? If you haven’t caught on yet it’s the Great War, otherwise known as World War I. WWI sent graves for more than 100,000 American soldiers. To begin the war, Germany invaded France, Belgium and Luxembourg. The war first started in August of 1914. The U.S. got involved in 1917, when they declared war with Germany. There were two major groups, one group would be Germany, Italy, and Austria/Hungary. The other major group was France, Russia and Great Britain. The war started when the leader of Hungary being killed by Serbian terrorists. After that Hungary declared war on Serbia. Russia and Serbia were good friends and fought for each other. Germany and Hungary were good friends and fought for each other also. After that more and more countries joined the war. The U.S. join the war in 1917 for two different reasons. One reason we joined is because the Germans sent a telegram to Mexico that said we’ll help you get Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona back if you help us in the war. (Mexico said no) Second, the Germans torpedoed a cruise ship with 128 Americans.The U.S. pretty much solved the war and France, Russia, England and the U.S. won the victory of the war. Here are some interesting facts on WWI. Poison was used for the very first time which would cause you to burn, go blind and cough. Tanks were also used for the first time, along with submarines. After the war there were so many trenches that if you added them up together they would go around the Earth once.  The war was very terrifying. 
 

Fashions 

      Women's fashion industry expanded dramatically after the invention of the sewing machine in the mid-19th century. By 1910, the trend towards looser , lighter clothing picked up during this time. The popularity of sports like tennis helped this trend towards comfortable fitting clothing.  This was a big change from earlier decades when women wore tight clothing, corsets, padding and elaborate decoration. Large hats were popular; the hats were usually floppy and were further softened by feathers. Women also carried parasols as essential accessories. 
     Men's clothing and fashion changed very little from the previous decades. Men preferred military looks during the war periods. Men also wore bowler hats as part of their attire.

Presidents
      The U.S. Presidents of the 1910’s were Woodrow Wilson and William Taft. William Taft was president of the United States from 1909-1913. After he retired from presidency, he was selected to become Chief Justice of The United States. Taft was a conservative president. Another greatly remembered president was William Taft. Roosevelt's popularity was at it's peak as the campaign of 1908 neared, but he was unwilling to break the tradition by which no president had held office for more than two terms, so instead he decided to support Taft on his campaign and finally won. Taft was administrator of the Panama Canal and was also a former judge with much experience on politics.   He brought together the Interstate Commerce Commision and strengthened their ambitions. He also continued the Prosecution of Trusts and established a postal savings system ans a parcel post system also, and finally spent his years of old age expanding the civil service system and was a sponsor to the enactment of two ammendments to the Constitution. The two presidents served the country well in their time. The reformers did not like his conservative policies. However, he lost the election in 1912. 

      Woodrow Wilson was elected president of the United States in the 1912 election and held this position until 1920. He also tried to keep America out of World War I. But when the Germans continued to attack American Ships, he asked the Congress to declare war in 1917. Whew! What a long wait! America was dying to fight for rights in the War. He intended to make the world "safe from democracy." He proved to be a very great wartime leader. After the war, Wilson was a leading person in the Peace Conference. The League of Nations was all his idea. Although he urged the Senate to join the League, he refused to do so. Wilson fell seriously ill in 1919. He retired from politics, a disappointed man. 
 
 

  Science and Technology

   New discoveries were made in science. On February 27, 1912, in New York, Wilhelm Roentgen discovered X-rays when doctors removed a nail from a boy's lungs. On November 8, 1911, Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize for chemistry, discovering a new source called radium. No woman had been ever elected to the academe before.  Madame Curie, in 1914, opened her own institute dedicated to learning about radioactivity. Marie Curie's hard devotion to radioactivity earned her fame and fortune around the world. Soon, her institute earned her success and was finally built in July, 1914. Sadly, a month later it was abandoned - all the students and workers had gone to defend their country in the war, known as The Great War. Ten days after the war had begun, Marie Curie received a request from the French Minister of War to equip operators for radiographic work.  The use of X-rays to detect injuries in the body had already started.  Marie Curie found ways to equip cars with the X-ray machines to go where the fighting was.  By October, Marie, her daughter, with an operator were at work converting a car into an X-ray van. On November 1, radiological car E was was ready and rolled into action. 

Inventions

    There were many new inventions in the 1910’s some of them I can’t imagine living without. One thing that is very important is the telephone and traffic light. Another thing that was invented was the refrigerator. Can you imagine life without a fridge? This one is really funny, the zipper. There were many different inventions. See if you can find some more. 
 

The Decade Timeline

1910 

• Union of South Africa established
• Japan annexes Korea
• Revolution overthrows Portuguese monarchy
• Boy Scouts of America and Campfire Girls are founded
• Radon discovered
• Deaths of Edward VII, nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale, writers Mark Twain, O. Henry and Tolstoy and painter William Holman Hunt

• "Agadir crisis" brings France and Germany to the brink of wa.
• Manchu dynasty overthrown in China and a republic established 
• Triangle Shirtwaist fire leads to reforms in building codes and labor laws
• First electric self-starter for automobiles
• First air conditioner invented
• Italy annexes Libya
• Amundsen beats Scott to the South Pole
• Assassination of Russian Premier Peter Stolypin
• Deaths of composer Mahler and writer/librettist W.S.Gilbert

• U.S. Public Health Service is established
• Arizona becomes the 48^th state
• Albania declares its independence
• Woodrow Wilson elected as U.S. president
• Sinking of the Titanic
• First use of zippers in clothing

• Panama Canal completed
• Ford Motor Company introduces moving assembly line

• Ireland on the brink of civil war
• Outbreak of World War I
• Anglo-French forces halt German advance at Battle of the Marne
• U.S. Federal Trade Commission established
• Panama Canal opens

• Fist use of poison gas in warfare
• Liner Lusitania sunk by German U-boat
• Japan’s "Twenty-One Demands"? an attempt to reduce China to a protectorate
• Deaths of poet Rupert Brooke and educator Booker T. Washington

• Battle of Jutland — major naval engagement of World War I
• Battle of the Somme
• First use of tanks in war
• Abortive " Easter Uprising" in Dublin
• Arab revolt against Ottoman rule
• Albert Einstein proposes General Theory of Relativity
• Woodrow Wilson reelected as U.S. president
• Deaths of writers Henry James and Jack London

• The United States enters World War I
• Revolution in Russia forces tsar’s abdication
• Italian armies collapse at Caporetto
• Finland proclaims independence
• Puerto Rico becomes a U.S. territory
• Deaths of showman "Buffalo Bill" Cody, painter Edgar Degas and sculptor Auguste Rodin

• Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ends war between Bolshevik Russia and Central Powers
• Civil war in Russia leads to murder of tsar and his family
• President Woodrow Wilson proposes Fourteen Points, a plan for world peace
• Austria becomes a Republic
• T.E. Lawrence leads Arabs into Damascus
• Germany accepts terms of Allied armistice
• Deaths of composer Claude Debussy, and poet Joyce Kilmer

• Communist rising crushed in Germany
• Treaty of Versailles signed in Paris
• Amritsar massacre — British forces kill unarmed Indian demonstrators
• First airline links established between London and Paris
• Alcock and Brown fly the Atlantic nonstop
• Paris Peace Conference redraws European frontiers
• Worldwide influenza epidemic
• White Sox' scandal

     There were many new inventions in the 1910’s some of them I can’t imagine living without. One thing that is very important is the telephone and traffic light. Another thing that was invented was the refrigerator. Can you imagine life without a fridge? This one is really funny, the zipper. There were many different inventions. See if you can find some more.
 
 
 

Bibliography

Portrait of A Decade  by Trevor Fischer
Ghost Liners by  Robert D. Ballard 
Take Ten Years by Margaret Sharman