A.D. 1916 | YEAR of the week

Inventions / Patents
- Lincoln Logs
- tow truck
- toggle light switch

Facts

- The cost of a first class US postage stamp was 2¢.

- A loaf of bread cost about 7¢ in the US.
- The world had fewer than 2 billion people.
- The average life expectancy was 49.6 for men and 54.3 for women in the US.
- The US population was 101,961,000.
- The Eiffel Tower was the tallest building on earth.
- The US flag had 48 stars.

Firsts
- 1st Jew to become a US Supreme Court justice (Louis Brandeis)
- 1st Chicago Cubs game
- 1st time one of Norman Rockwell's illustrations appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post
- 1st American self-service grocery store (Piggly Wiggly)
- 1st time a woman (Jeannette Rankin) was elected to the US Congress (She was also the only person to vote against US participation in both WW1 and WW2)

Deaths
- James Whitcomb Riley
- Charles Taze Russell
- Jack London
- Grigori Rasputin

Births
- Harold Wilson
- Gregory Peck
- Roald Dahl
- James Herriot
- François Mitterrand
- Walter Cronkite

WW1

- The Battles of Verdun, Jutland, and the Somme were fought.

- The French ferry SS Sussex was torpedoed by SM UB-29 in the English Channel.
- Portugal joined the Allies.

- Germany declared war on Portugal, Austria-Hungary declared war on Portugal, Romania declared war on Austria-Hungry, Turkey declared war on Romania, and Bulgaria declared war on Romania.
- Tanks were used in warfare for the first time.

Events

- In Browning, Montana, the temperature dropped from 44 to -56 °F in less than 24 hours.
- Centre Block, the main parliament building in Ottawa, Canada, burned down.
- BMW was founded in Munich, Germany.
- After some men under the command of Pancho Villa attacked a town in New Mexico, President Wilson sent thousands of US troops into Mexico to pursue Villa. The expedition failed to capture him.
- Albert Einstein published "The Foundation of the Generalised Theory of Relativity."
- J. R. R. Tolkien married Edith Bratt.
- Irish nationalists seeking to end British rule in Ireland, carried out the Easter Rising.
- After his ship Endurance sunk in Antarctic ice, Sir Ernest Shackleton and five other men traveled 920 miles for 17 days in an open boat to the island of South Georgia. All the rest of the crew stuck on Elephant Island were saved.
- US President Wilson signed a bill granting federal incorporation to the Boy Scouts of America.
- William Boeing incorporated Pacific Aero Products (which was later renamed Boeing).
- US President Woodrow Wilson signed legislation creating the National Park Service.
- Georgia Tech beat Cumberland College in a football game 222-0.
- President Woodrow Wilson defeated Charles E. Hughes in the US Presidential Election.

"Would it not be inspiring to be able to come back here a hundred years from now to behold the many changes? . . .
there is only One who can tell what marvelous achievements are in store for future generations."
from the 1916 Crockery and Glass Journal