The World in 1919 the year the war ended on paper

John Alcock and Arthur Brown crossed the Atlantic in about 16 hours, wet, cold and half deaf from the engines. An airliner now makes the same crossing in about six hours, with a meal on the way.

Life back then

The picture show had grown up. Small halls with a few dozen wooden seats were giving way to theaters with balconies and an organ down front. Silent films printed their dialogue on cards, so a picture made in Berlin or Stockholm could play in Buenos Aires with new cards in Spanish. Charlie Chaplin, a music hall comic from London, was the most famous man alive. A newsreel usually ran first, since that was the only way most people ever saw another country move.

The year in 8 events

• 🏛️Jan 21 Irish members of parliament meet in Dublin and set up their own assembly. An ambush in Tipperary the same day starts a war.
• 📣Mar 1 Koreans read out a declaration of independence in Seoul and march against Japanese rule.
• 🕯️Apr 13 British troops fire on a penned-in crowd at Amritsar in India. Hundreds are killed.
• 🎓May 4 Students march in Beijing after the peace talks hand German holdings in China to Japan.
• 🗳️Jun 4 Congress approves the amendment giving American women the vote. The states still have to agree.
• 📜Jun 28 The Treaty of Versailles is signed outside Paris, five years to the day after the shot that started the war.
• ⚾Oct 9 Cincinnati wins the World Series. It comes out later that Chicago players took money to lose.
• 🔬Nov 6 Eclipse photographs shown in London match Einstein's theory of gravity. He is famous overnight.

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