Happy New Year: Here’s a look at 2021 plans and events that took place 100, 75, 50 and 25 years ago

Looking forward and back

There are many ways to describe how 2020 went.

Unpredictable is certainly a good description when it came to the calendar and events scheduling. And, 2021 is likely to have some of the same challenges.

Today we look at a tentative schedule and some notable anniversaries that are coming up in 2021.

AHEAD IN 2021:

(Note, much of this is subject to change)

• Jan. 18: Martin Luther King Jr. Day
• Jan. 20: Inauguration Day
• Feb. 7: Super Bowl
• March 9-23: World Baseball Classic in Japan, Taiwan and the U.S.
• March 28: Palm Sunday
• March 28: Passover (first day)
• April 4: Easter
• April 8-11: Masters Augusta, Georgia, USA
• April 13: Ramadan starts
• April 29: NFL draft starts
• May 1: Kentucky Derby
• May 30: Indianapolis 500
• June: Stanley Cup finals
• June: NBA Finals
• June 17-20: U.S. Open Torrey Pines Golf Course
• June: FIFA Club World Cup, China
• July 23-Aug 8: Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan
• Sept. 7: Rosh Hashana
• Sept. 16: Yom Kippur
• October: Baseball World Series TBA
• Nov. 25: Thanksgiving Day
• Nov. 29: Cyber Monday
• Dec 7: Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day (80th anniversary)
• Dec 25: Christmas Day will be on a Saturday.
• Dec. 31: New Year’s Eve will be on a Friday.

MEMORY LANE

100 years ago, 1921:

• March 4, 1921: Warren G. Harding is sworn in as the 29th president of the U.S. He died of a heart attack in San Francisco in 1923.
• March 4, 1921: The founding of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The United States Congress approves the burial of an unidentified soldier from World War I at Arlington National Cemetery. The inscription on the tomb reads “Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God.”
• May 19: The Emergency Quota Act is passed into law.
• May 31-June 1: Tulsa race riots happen when mobs of White residents, many of them deputized and given weapons by city officials, attacked Black residents and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
• June:  The Yankees’ Babe Ruth hits his 138th home run. Ruth broke the career home run record that had been held by Roger Connor for 23 years. Ruth would extend his record to a total of 714.
• Adolf Hitler becomes chairman of the Nazi Party in his rise to power and prominence in Germany.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt, at 39 years old, contracts polio.
•  Ellis Island is placed under quarantine on May 18 due to a typhus outbreak.
• The Chicago White Sox are accused of throwing the World Series.
• More tests and advancements are being made that will later provide the basis for TV.
• Boeing obtains orders for aircraft and abandons furniture-making.
• Albert Einstein receives the Nobel Prize in physics.
• Irving Berlin’s song “All By Myself” becomes popular.
• The silent film, “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” is the biggest box office success.
• Top hit recording: “Wang Wang Blues” by Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra

75 years ago, 1946:

• Average cost of new house: $5,600.
• Average wages per year: $2,500.
• Gallon of gas: 15 cents
• Bikinis go on sale July 5 in Paris
• The first Cannes Film Festival takes place in France.
• Tupperware sold in department and hardware stores.
• The U.S. starts atomic tests on Bikini Atoll.
• AT&T announce first car phones.
• Piaggio produces the Vespa, the first successful motor scooter.
• The Mensa society is created, the only qualification for membership being a high IQ in the top 98th percentile.
• The Atomic Energy Act of 1946, also known as the McMahon Act, was signed into law by President Harry Truman during August. The act created the civilian-controlled United States Atomic Energy Commission.
• The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is created during December . The organization was created by the General Assembly of the U.N. after World War II in an effort to provide help and services to children living in war-torn or trouble countries.

50 years ago, 1971:

• Average cost of new house: $25,250
• Average income per year: $10,600
• Average monthly rent: $150
• Gallon of gas: 40 cents
• The microprocessor was invented.
• The Voting age in the United States is lowered to 18 years old. The 26th Amendment was adopted July 1, 1971.
• Walt Disney World officially opened on Oct. 1.
• NASA’s Apollo 14 mission to the moon was launched Jan. 31. This was the third successful manned mission to the Moon.
• The New York Times begins to publish sections of the Pentagon Papers starting on June 13.
• A Harris public opinion poll claims that 60% of Americans are against the war in Vietnam
• Federal Express is started by Fred Smith

Popular films in 1971 were:

• “The Last Picture Show”
• “Diamonds Are Forever”
• “The French Connection”
• “Fiddler on the Roof”
• “Dirty Harry”

25 years ago, 1996:

• Average cost of new house: $118,200.
• Average income per year: $36,300.
• Average monthly rent: $554
• Gallon of gas: $1.22
• On March 19, in L.A., Lyle and Erik Menendez are found guilty of first-degree murder for the shotgun killing of their parents.
• 30 Black churches in Mississippi are burned to the ground the previous 18 months.
• A nail bomb exploded July 27 in Centennial Olympic Park, Atlanta killing two and injuring 111.
• The Fox News Channel is launched Oct. 7 on U.S. cable systems.
• Bill Clinton (D) Defeats Bob Dole (R) and Ross Perot (Reform)
• DVDs are  launched in Japan
• In 12 months, the number of internet host computers goes from 1 million to 10 million.

Sources: History.com, The Associated Press, thepeoplehistory.com, topendsports.com

Source: Orange County Register