Today is my dad’s 86th birthday. If you’re slow in math like I am that means he was born in 1927. Here’s a little snippit of what happened that year:

• Calvin Coolidge was president.
• Two days after his birth Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker, two of the greatest outfielders in American baseball history, were both exonerated of charges of wrongdoing by Commissioner Landis. Both had been accused, by Dutch Leonard, of conspiracy to throw a game in 1919.
• Babe Ruth became the highest paid baseball player at $70,000 a year in March. IN 1927!
• April saw The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 which affected 700,000 people in the greatest national disaster in US history
• In May Charles Lindbergh flies The Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic nonstop and solo, direct from New York City to Paris, as the first solo transatlantic flight.
• That same month an earthquake measuring 8.6 on Richter scale strikes Xining, China killing 200,000
• Work begins on Mount Rushmore in October.
• In November the first underwater twin tube tunnel – The Holland Tunnel – opens between New Jersey and New York.
• December sees the opening of Duke Ellington’s Cotton Club in Harlem and the first broadcast from the Grand Ole Opry.
• Shortly thereafter Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Communist Party and Josef Stalin takes control.

 TECHNOLOGY:

• First transatlantic telephone call – New York City to London.
• Ford Motor Company ceases manufacturing Ford Model Ts after making 15 million cars and begins selling the Model A with several body styles. Prices start from $460.
• Pan American Airways is formed.

INVENTIONS:

• Color Television by John Logie Baird in Scotland
• Talking Pictures – USA
• Videophone – USA
• Pop Up Toaster by Charles Strite
• Quartz Time keeping Hans Wilsdorf from England (in Switzerland)

POP CULTURE:

• The Jazz Singer opens October 6th and becomes a huge success, marking the end of the silent film era.
• Ain’t She Sweet
• Blue Skies Irving Berlin

THE COST OF THINGS:

• A child’s toy steam engine which was a 20’s children’s toy
  Toy Steam Engine $3.98
• Not everybody had electricity so these hand cranked washing machines were still sold
  Manual Washing Machine $15.95
• For city dwellers who had electricity an Electric Washing Machine
  Electric Washing Machine $79.00
• Other Camera’s were available but the box brownie was still popular
  Kodak Box Brownie Camera $2.29
• The astounding thing about this Radio was the price (about $1,000 in today’s money)
  Radio Receiver $74.95
• 20’s Ranges were not only used for cooking but a form of heating so were left on all day
  Wood Fired Kitchen Range $69.85

1927 IMAGES:

My how times have changed. The one thing that hasn’t changed (in the last 46 years, anyway) is that he’s still my very favorite dad ever!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!!