United States - Spirit of St. Louis Flown to Washington

Charles Lindbergh piloted the Spirit of St. Louis for the last time during April when he flew the historic plane from St. Louis to Washington D.C. Lindbergh gave the plane to the Smithsonian Institute where it has remained on display as an important artifact of the early days of flight. Lindbergh had flown the plane in the first successful non-stop solo trans-Atlantic flight from New York to Paris in May of 1927 . For this daring feat he was awarded a sum of $25,000.00 by Raymond Orteig a wealthy hotel owner who had challenged aviators of the era to attempt and complete a successful transatlantic flight.

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Amsterdam Summer Olympics

The 1928 Summer Olympics take place during July. They were held in Amsterdam, Netherlands and were the eighth modern Olympic games. A total of 2,883 athletes from 46 nations participated in 109 athletic events. The Olympic flame debuted at these games and Germany participated for the first time since 1912. The number of women participating doubled in these games as more women’s events were added to the program including artistic gymnastics. The United States won the most medals with a total of 56 (22 gold, 18 silver, and 16 bronze) and the host nation finished in eighth place with 19 total medals (6 gold, 9 silver, and 4 bronze).

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United States -- St. Francis Dam Collapses

1.Construction on the St. Francis Dam began during August of 1924. The dam was a curved concrete gravity dam and it was located near Los Angeles in the San Francisquito Canyon close to Santa Clarita. It was created under the supervision of Chief Engineer William Mulholland as a part of the Los Angeles aqueduct system.

2. Construction of the dam was completed on May 6th of 1926 and it soon started showing signs of instability and leaks.

3. The St. Francis Dam suffered a catastrophic failure at about 11:57 PM on March 12th in 1928 causing a massive flood with little to no warning for residents in the surrounding who thought that the rumbling from the dam may have been an earthquake.

4. The collapse was considered one of the worst civil engineering failures in United States history and the resulting flood left between 385 - 430 people dead according to some of the official estimates, but the number may have been higher (possibly over 600 dead). Flood waters were initially 140 feet high and 12 billion gallons of water were released when it failed.

5. Some of the Southern California towns that suffered massive damage due to the collapse included Castaic, Saugus, Santa Paula, Saticoy, and Filmore.

6. An estimated 1,200 homes were destroyed by the flood and there were initial estimates of over $7 million in damage done to the area.

7. After several reports were conducted to investigate the cause of the collapse, it was determined that issues with the dam's foundation were at fault. It was also later reported that the dam may have been built on the site of an old landslide that could have contributed to the foundation issues.

8. The collapse ended Mulholland's career as many blamed him for the catastrophe, partially because he and his assistant had personally inspected the dam just 12 hours before the failure and had deemed it safe.

9. What was left of the St. Francis Dam was demolished in May of 1929 .

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World - First Trans-Pacific Flight

Charles Kingsford Smith completes the first trans-Pacific flight from Oakland, California to Brisbane, Australia during June. Kingsford Smith, along with co-pilot Charles Ulm, navigator Harry Lyon, and radio operator James Warner, flew the “Southern Cross” across the Pacific Ocean. The 7,250 mile flight took a total of 83 hours and 39 minutes to complete, The “Southern Cross” was a Fokker F. VIIb trimotor monoplane that weight over 15,000 pounds and had a 71 foot wingspan. Kingsford Smith would go on to complete the first nonstop crossing of the Tasman Sea in the same plane later that year.

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United States -- Amelia Earhart

1. Amelia Earhart begins her first flying lessons on January 3rd, 1921.

2. Earhart breaks the women's altitude record on October 22nd, 1922 by flying up to 14,000 feet.

3. She becomes the first woman to fly across the Atlantic as a passenger on June 18th,

4. In June and July of 1930 Earhart sets several speed records for women's aeronautics.

5. On May 21, 1932 she becomes the first woman to successfully fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

6. She becomes the first woman to fly solo nonstop coast to coast on August 25th of 1932.

7. On January 11th, 1935 she became the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean from Honolulu, Hawaii to Oakland, California.

8. On April 20th, 1935 she becomes the first person to fly solo from Los Angeles, California to Mexico City, Mexico.

9. On May 8th, 1935 Earhart becomes the first person to fly solo from Mexico City, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey.

10. Earhart's plane is lost on July 2nd, 1937 while attempting to fly around the world with her navigator Fred Noonan. Earhart had completed 22,000 miles of her flight and had nearly 7,000 miles to go over the Pacific in order to complete her circumnavigation flight. Earhart and Noonan were never found and it is presumed they ran out of gas and the plane went down in the ocean as they were trying to reach Howland Island.

11. Amelia Earhart is declared officially dead on January 5th, 1939. No remains are ever found and circumstances of her disappearance are forever shrouded in mystery.

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U.K. -- Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin

Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in and changed the world of modern medicines by introducing the age of antibiotics and his discovery of penicillin has, and still, saves millions of people.

More Information and Timeline for Penicillin Discovery

1. Researcher Alexander Fleming begins studying staphylococci in 1927.

2. In September of 1928, Fleming discovers a mold in some of his Petri dishes and upon further inspection see that this mold has destroyed some of his staphylococci cultures.

3. Fleming identifies this mold as Penicillium notatum and publishes a report on his findings in 1929. Little interest is shown at the time.

4. Howard Florey hires Ernst Chain to do research at Oxford University. Chain discovers Fleming's research on Penicillin in 1938.

5. Florey and Chain research the penicillin mold and begin experimenting with injections. By 1941 Florey gets funding from the Rockefeller Foundation in the United States to continue further research.

6. Florey and his researchers go to Peoria, Illinois to try to solve problems related to the mass manufacturing of Penicillin and are successful, leading to the mass production of the antibacterial "miracle cure" that would change medicine.

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U.S.A. -- Lindbergh Congressional Medal of Honor

Charles Lindbergh receives the Congressional Medal of Honor for his non-stop transatlantic flight in the previous year.

Ground-breaking aviator Charles Lindbergh was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by U.S. President Calvin Coolidge during March . Lindbergh was awarded the country's highest honor for completing the very first non-stop transatlantic flight in his plane, the Spirit of St. Louis, during May of the previous year. Congress chose to recognize him for this amazing feat as he had risked his life in attempting the flight and had advanced the field of aviation enormously with accomplishing what was once thought impossible.

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United States -- Iron Lung

Iron Lung Philip Drinker and Louis A. Shaw professors at the School Of Public Health at Harvard University invent the Iron Lung.

More Information and Timeline for Iron Lung

1. Early ideas and models for a negative pressure ventilator to help patients breathe when they cannot breathe regularly by themselves are created throughout time by various doctors.

2. The "Iron Lung" or Drinker Respirator is created by Louis Shaw and Philip Drinker in the 1920's . It was an airtight metal box with air pumps that could pull air in and our of the lungs.

3. The first clinical use of the Drinker Respirator on a person takes place on October 12th, at the Boston Children's Hospital. The test was dramatically successful and the device became a popular treatment for polio.

4. Various doctors and engineers all made different versions of the device in the 1930's. Some were smaller infant versions, others were less expensive and more efficient, some were people trying to bring the technology to their own countries.

5. Australian Edward Both designed a lighter, portable, more efficient and less expensive model of the Drinker Respirator in 1937 which became more popular than the original in various parts of the world.

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United Kingdom -- Equal Franchise Act

The U.K. passes Equal Franchise Act to make the voting age the same for men and women.

1. The original Representation of the People Act is passed in 1918 in Britain, giving limited suffrage to women over the age of 30.

2. The British House of Commons passed the Representation of the People Act of 1928, also known as the Equal Franchise Act or the Fifth Reform Act, during May .

3. The act expanded on the identically named law from 1918 by lowering the voting age restriction of women to 21 years old.

4. This achieved full suffrage for England, making men and women equal in terms of the age they could begin voting.

5. The move added many more women to the British electorate, making them the new majority.

6. The act became law in July of that year after receiving Royal Assent.

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Switzerland -- Olympic Winter Games

The Olympic Winter Games are held for the first time in the country in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

The Winter Olympics are held in St. Moritz, Switzerland during the month of February. The II Winter Olympics marked the first time that the Winter Games took place in a different country than the Summer Games. These Olympics also marked the first time the skeleton event was held and the first time that Japanese athletes participated in the Winter events. There were 25 nations that participated in total with Norway, the United States, and Sweden taking home the most event medals at the end of it.

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United States -- Boulder Dam Project Act

1. The Boulder Dam Project Act is passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge during December .

2. The following year Herbert Hoover took over negotiations of the project and by 1933 construction began.

3. The Boulder Dam, which distributed water from the Colorado river to Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Nevada, and California, was completed by 1935.

4. In 1947, it was officially renamed the Hoover Dam.

5. The project was considered an exceptional feat of civil engineering at the time and it was at that moment the largest dam in the world.

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Calendar For The Year 1928

Puerto Rico -- Famine

300,000 face famine after severe hurricane destroys crops in Puerto Rico.

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U.S.A. -- St. Francis dam collapses

on March 12th the St. Francis dam collapses causing a massive wave into the San Francisquito Canyon in California flooding the towns of Castaic Junction, Fillmore, and Bardsdale and killing an estimated 500 plus although the exact number is not known.

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UK -- Decline and Fall is published

Decline and Fall is published a novel by the English author Evelyn Waugh.

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UK -- Lady Chatterley's Lover

Lady Chatterley's Lover is banned for being to explicit in England and the US.

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UK -- The House at Pooh Corner

The House at Pooh Corner by Author A. A. Milne is published in England.

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U.S. -- "Diga Diga Doo"

"Diga Diga Doo" by Duke Ellington and His Cotton Club Orchestra.

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France -- Home Pregnancy Test

Home Pregnancy Test is first introduced which tests for the presence of hCG which doubles every 48 hrs during early pregnancy and is checked using a urine sample. Introduced by Selmar Aschheim and Bernard Zondek.

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U.S. -- Okeechobee Hurricane

The Okeechobee Hurricane or Hurricane San Felipe Segundo was a deadly hurricane that struck the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and Florida on September 16th.

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Japan -- Ends Relations With China

Japan Breaks off relations with China following the attacks in China by Japanese.

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U.S. -- Hurricane

A major hurricane strikes West Palm Beach in Florida causing the loss of over 500 lives.

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Greece -- Earthquake

Major earthquake destroys the town of Corinth leaving very few buildings standing in Greece.

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France -- feminist leaders

Ten world famous feminist leaders stormed the gates of the French presidential palace.

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Netherlands -- Summer Olympics

The Summer Olympics are held for the first time in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

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Italy -- Airship Lost

Italian Dirigible Italia (Airship ) is lost on May 29th while trying to reach the North Pole.

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