by Anthony

'27 was a very exciting year in sports. The world champion New York Yankees won another world series title. Museums were also a big attraction in 1927. The television got its first U.S. demonstration.

• On January 5 the Rosewood Massacre occurred after a doubtful rape charge was made by a white woman against an unidentified black assailant. At least 300 whites invaded the town of Rosewood, Florida, and killed at least 8 black residents. Also, they burned down the town. No one was prosecuted for the outrage.
• The first demonstration of the Television happened on April 7 in the auditorium of The Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York by the President of AT&T Walter S. Gifford. A large group of viewers see Commerce Secretary Herbert C. Hoover in his office at Washington while hearing his voice over telephone wires. The Televisions development was stopped because the fact that it takes a frequency of 4 million cycles, versus only 400 for an ordinary radio band, to transmit the 250,000 bands needed for a clear picture.
• Charles Linbergh made his first solo flight across the Atlantic. He took off from New York made the first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean to Paris. He left on the foggy morning of May 20 with hundreds of gallons of fuel, and some coffee and food. Known as lucky Lindy, he landed the next day, with hundreds, of French people cheering for him.
• Production of the Model T Ford  ended on May 26. Even though the Model T went through a lot of body changes in an attempt to improve the car, it stayed basically the same. Eventually it failed to keep up with the technology of the future.
• Babe Ruth of the world series champion New York Yankees_ hit his sixtieth home run of the season on September 30 off of a pitch by Washington’s Tom Zachary. The really exciting thing about this is that it was the last game of the regular season. Ruth broke a record that will stand for 30 years. Also, the Yankees won the World Series that year by defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates 4 games to 0.
• The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson made its debut on October 6.
• The Iron Lung is invented. The Lung was invented by a Harvard professor named Philip Drinker. It has an airtight chamber that uses high and low pressure to force air in and out of a patient’s lungs. To make the machine, Drinker used two old household vacuum cleaners and other scrap metal pieces. Originally, it was called the Drinker Respirator. It was manufactured in Boston and used for the first time in October of 1928 to treat a girl at Boston Children’s Hospital who was suffering from respiratory failure because of a lung disease called poliomyelitis.
• Al Capone earned $105 million, the largest income of any U.S. citizen. He was part of the Chicago gangsters. Most of the gang's money came from bootleg liquor operations and prostitution. Capone took in $35 million more than Henry Ford did when he was at the top of his business.
• A Canadian anatomist found the fossil remains of Peking Man. The remains, dating to between 300,000 and 400,000 BC were found near Beijing, China. Davidson Black, a Canadian Anatomist, found the remains of (Pithecanthropus Pekinsis.)
• The Philadelphia Museum of Art opened.
• Food was also beginning to take shape in 1927. Wonder Bread  was introduced in a balloon-decorated wrapper, by Continental Baking Company. It was and still is one of the biggest companies in the bread business.
• Gutzom Borglum began drilling into the 6,200-foot mountain that would become Mount Rushmore.

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last updated 12/04/05