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1901
Ecuador – General Leonidas Plaza assumes the presidency.
1903
Colombia – Military uprising in the province of Panama.
Panama – The Republic of Panama is established. Treaty of Hay-Bunau-Varilla.
1906
Chile – Valparaiso earthquake.
1908
Venezuela – The dictatorship of General Juan Vicente Gómez begins
1909
Prohibition of alcohol production for one year.
1914
World War I begins.
Panama—On the 15th of August the Panama Canal is inaugurated. The First World War begins.
1916
The Invention of the Tow Truck
The tow truck industry had its beginning in 1916 in the city of Chattanooga, after Ernest Holmes, Sr., native of Chattanooga, helped a friend recover his automobile with three posts, a pulley and a chain hooked to the chassis of a 1913 Cadillac. After patenting his design, Holmes began the manufacture of tow trucks (called wreckers) and accessories for sale to mechanic garages for cars and whoever else had interest in recovering or towing crashed vehicles or with mechanical problems.
His first factory was a little local one on Market Street, a few blocks
With the expansion of the automobile industry Holmes’ business grew and eventually his products gained a world reputation for their quality and capacity. Ernest Holmes, Sr. died in 1943 and his son, Ernest Holmes, Jr. took charge of the company until he retired in 1973. That year the company was sold to the Dover Corporation. And that same year the grandson of the founder, Gerald Holmes, left the company and stated a new one named Century Wreckers. He constructed the factory in neighboring Ooltewah, Tennessee, and quickly it transformed into competition for the original company with its hydraulic system trucks.
1918
The 9th of July, in Nashville, 101 people died and 171 were wounded the worst train accident in the history of the United States.
Corporal Alvin C. York kills more than 20 Germans and forces 132 others to surrender the 8th of October in 1918, close to Chateau Chehery in France. This earns him the Congressional Medal of Honor.
End of World War I.
1920
Chile – Arturo Alessandri assumes the presidency.
1922
The first radio station in Tennessee, WNAV, begins to transmit from Knoxville.
1925
The radio transmission of the Grand Ole Opry begins in Nashville.
The 10th of June, Tennessee adopts a new book on the study of biology that denies the Theory of Evolution.
Professor John T. Scopes is declared guilty of violating the state law that prohibits the teaching of the Theory of Evolution. The “monkey trial” as it was called, attracts world attention when two celebrities, William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow battled in court. They fined Scopes $100 in the end but the penalty was annulled due to a minor legal error.
1927
Chile – The Dictatorship of General Carlos Ibañez del Campo
1928
President Calvin Coolidge, the 26th of March, signs the legislation that creates the National military park “Fort Donelson National Battlefield” on the site of the first important victory of the Union in the Civil War. (February 1862)
1930
Uruguay—The First World Cup of Soccer is celebrated. Uruguay is the world champion.
Dominican Republic—Rafaél Leónidas Trujillo defeats President Horacio Vásques and takes power
1933
The Federal government establishes the Tennessee Valley Authority to conserve and develop the resources of the Tennessee River Valley.
Cuba – Coup d’état by Sargent Fulgencio Batista removes President Céspedes from power. Batista is now a Colonel.
1935
Elvis Presley is born the 8th of January in Tupelo, Mississippi.
Venezuela – Dictator Juan Vicente Gómez dies
1937
Bolivia – Coup d’état removes President José Luis Tejada Sorzano from power
1938
Chile—Pedro Aguirre Cerda becomes president.
1939
A radio network transmits for the first time from the “Grand Ole Opry.”
Uruguay – Battle of the Plata River on the Uruguayan coast, the British forces sink the German battleship Graf Spee.
1940
Cuba – Fulgencio Batista assumes the Presidency (1940-44)
1941
Glenn Miller and his Orchestra record Chattanooga Choo Choo in Hollywood on the 6th of May and it is an immediate and tremendous success.
1942
The federal government begins to construct an atomic energy plant in Oak Ridge. They begin work to build an atom bomb.
Aretha Franklin, Queen of Soul, is born in Memphis.
1943
On June 5th the Grand Ole Opry moves to the Ryman Auditorium, The “Mother Church” of country music.
Argentina – Coup d’état. Pedro Pablo Ramirez Machuca takes power.
1945
Argentina – Juan Domingo Perón assumes the presidency
1946
Bolivia – Workers and Students Uprising takes over the Presidential Palace. President Mayor Villarroel López is hung from a post in the main plaza.
1948
The first television station in the state: WMCT-TV in Memphis.
New state elections deny control to the political boss E.H. Crump.
Colombia- Period of Violence
Puerto Rico – Luis Muñóz Marín wins the first democratic election (for governor) in the history of Puerto Rico.
Venezuela – Coup d’état. A Military junta (also known as a military dictatorship) that includes General Marcos Pérez Jiménez presides.
1949
The American Museum of Atomic Energy is inaugurated in Oak Ridge on the 19th of March.
1950
10,500 Tennesseans volunteer to serve in the Korean War.
Uruguay – Champions for the 2nd time in the FIFA World Cup, called “El Maracanzao” (The Maracaña Blow)”
1952
Sun Studio in Memphis makes its first rock ‘n roll recording.
The state constitution is amended.
Elvis Presley graduates from L.C. Humes High School in Memphis on June 14th.
Chile – Ibañez returns to the Presidency.
Cuba – Coup d’état by Fulgencio Batista.
Venezuela – Marcos Pérez Jiménez, de facto President
1953
Colombia – General Gustavo Roja Pinilla takes power
1955
The Grand Ole Opry is transmitted on television for the first time.
On December 1st, Rosa Louise McCauley Parks refuses to obey the bus driver who orders her to give up her seat to a white passenger. The defiant action of Rosa Parks triggered the bus boycott in Montgomery and transformed her into an icon of the resistance to racial segregation.
Argentina – Coup d’état. Bombing of the Casa Rosada (Pink House) Eduardo Lonardi takes power briefly. Pedro Aramburu assumes the Presidency and governs until May of 1958.
1956
The National Guard is called to control a racial disturbance when 12 African-American children were admitted to schools in Clinton, TN.
Elvis Presley appears for the second time on the Milton Berle show, the Texaco Star Theater, singing Heartbreak Hotel. The critics say that his act appears like an aboriginal dance.
