Who Was President in 1929?
In 1929 there were two presidents. President Calvin Coolidge, our 30th president, had been in office since 1923 but his term ended early in the year on March 4, 1929. He was succeeded by President Herbert Hoover who remained in office for one term through to March 4, 1933. Sort of interesting, actually, as Coolidge is from the state I live in now, Vermont, and I attended Herbert Hoover High School in Fresno, California. But I digress . . .
Coolidge was married to Grace Anna Goodhue Coolidge, who received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Vermont in 1902, and taught lip reading to deaf children at the Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech in Northampton, Massachusetts. She married Calvin in 1905.
Hoover married Lou Henry Hoover in 1899, and is the only first lady to have spoken Chinese (or any Asian language), as their first home together as newlyweds was in Tianjin, near Shanghai, China.
Coolidge’s vice president was Charles G. Dawes, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925, and Hoover’s was Charles Curtis, who was the first American of Indian ancestry to reach high office.
Arts & Culture
Newspapers introduce readers to a new comic strip character, Popeye. »
The first Academy Awards are held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel; Wings wins best picture, Emil Jennings wins best actor, and Janet Gaynor best actress.
Ray Keech, driving Simplex Special, wins the Indy 500. »
Mickey Mouse speaks his first words, “Hot dog!” in the short The Karnival Kid.
Babe Ruth hits his 500th home run against the Cleveland Indians
The comedy series, Amos & Andy, makes its first appearance on NBC radio.
“Aint Misbehavin,” by Louis Armstrong, “Am I Blue?,” by Billie Holiday, and “Happy Days Are Here Again,” by Leo Reisman and His Orchestra, are released; and Count Basie makes his first record, Blue Devil Blues, with Walter Page’s Blue Devils, in Kansas City, Missouri, for Vocalion Records. »
Georgia O’Keefe is included in the Museum of American Art exhibition, Paintings by 19 Living Americans
Fashion
I’ll add more as I can find them that I’m able to use legally. This is one family, taken circa 1930 in Pennsylvania, to give an idea of what they were wearing at the time.
The 1929 Diary 