All of this occurred in the summer of 1927:

A young, square midwesterner no one had ever heard of, by the name of Charles Lindbergh, became the first person to ever fly the length of the Atlantic Ocean, captivating the entire world; gangster Al Capone enjoyed his final year of eminence before his decline and eventual arrest; larger-than-life New York Yankee Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs, with Lou Gehrig nipping at his heels; the Federal Reserve made the mistake that precipitated the stock market crash leading directly to the Great Depression; "The Jazz Singer," the first movie to use sound, was filmed; radio came of age; television was created; work began on Mount Rushmore; the Great Mississippi Flood became the worse river flood in the history of the United States, devastating 10 states (nearly 15% of Arkansas was under water); a disgruntled local politician in Michigan blew up an elementary school and killed 44 people, 38 of them students, in the worst slaughter of children in American history; Henry Ford ceased production on the famous Model T (and publicly promised to stop maligning Jews); and an America souring on immigration and intoxicated with the ideals of eugenics (inspiring, it should be noted, the rising Nazi party), executed Italian-born anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti for murders they almost certainly did not commit.

Quite the summer, and quite the book. As with everything #BillBryson writes, I highly recommend it.

http://www.amazon.com/One-Summer-America-Bill-Bryson/dp/0739315293

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