Duke Ellington is born April 29th

1899

      Duke Ellington is born on April 29th

1900 

     Eastman Kodak makes photography accessible with a $1 camera

1901  

    President McKinley is assassinated. Roosevelt becomes president

1902   

   United Mine Workers lead a five-month coal strike, crippling the U.S.

1903    

  Wright Brothers First Flight

1904     

 The first flat-disk phonograph is introduced

1905      

Albert Einstein proposes his theory of relativity

1906      

A great earthquake hits San Francisco, 2,500 people die

1907     

 A record 1.29 million immigrants enter the United States

1908    

  Jack Johnson becomes the first black heavyweight champion

 1909   

   Regular radio broadcasts begin playing ragtime

   1910  

    Angel Island in San Francisco opens as a quarantine station for immigrants from Asia

     1911 

     Irving Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band" popularizes ragtime

      1912

      The Titanic sinks, 1,513 passengers are lost, 711 are rescued

      1913

      First model T assembly line

     1914 

     World War I begins

Billy Strayhorn is born  

   1915  

    U-boat sinks the passenger ship S.S. Lusitania, killing 1,198

Declines art scholarship to Pratt   

 1916   

   Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first woman elected to Congress

1917    

  War infiltrates music; popular songs include "You're In The Army Now"

Formed his first band     

1918     

 On its tour of Europe, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band spreads the taste for jazz

Marries Edna Thompson      

1919      

Race riots break out in 29 American cities

Duke's son, Mercer Ellington born      

1920      

Women get the vote

1921     

 Channel No. 5 makes a splash, becoming the world's best-selling perfume

Family moves to Harlem, New York    

1922    

  Insulin is isolated, marking the first successful treatment for diabetes

Hires musician Bubber Miley, trumpeter   

1923   

   Harlem Renaissance begins

1924  

    George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue

1925 

     Electric recording is invented by Bell Labs and Western Electric

Recorded East St. Louis Toodle-OO

1926

      Langston Hughes publishes The Weary Blues

Begins his stint at the Cotton Club

1927

      Lindbergh crosses the Atlantic

Writes Black Beauty 

1928 

     Physicians prescribe whiskey as a therapeutic substance during Prohibition

Writes Black & Tan Fantasie  

1929  

    Stock Market crash

Recorded Mood Indigo   

1930   

   Pluto, the ninth planet, is discovered by astronomers

Recorded Rockin 'in Rhythm & Creole Rhapsody    

1931    

  The Star Spangled Banner becomes the National anthem by order of Congress

His band increases to 14 instrumentalists     

1932     

 FD Roosevelt elected President

Made his first our of Europe      

1933      

Frequency modulations (FM) permit radio reception without static

Wrote Symphony in Black for a film short      

1934      

The FCC is created to oversee U.S. Telephone and radio communications

Daisy Ellington, his mother, dies     

1935     

 First public housing projects are established on New York's Lower East Side

1936    

  Joe DiMaggio joins the New York Yankees

1937   

   George Gershwin dies at age 38

Billy Strayhorn joins the band    

1938  

    Woody Guthrie takes his one-man folk music show on the road

Duke and his band tour Europe, amidst WWII     

1939 

     World War II begins

1940

      Walt Disney's animated motion picture Fantasia, starring Mickey Mouse, debuts

1941

      First jet airplane flight

1942 

     Maxwell House invents instant coffee at the request of the U.S. Army

Makes his debut at Carnegie Hall   

1943  

    Race riots explode in Harlem, and 46 other U.S. cities

1944   

   Lillian Smith, a white southerner, publishes her anti-lynching classic, Strange Fruit

1945    

  Atomic bomb ends WWII -- 50 million people dead

1946     

 As veterans return home, the birth rate increases this year by about 20%

1947      

Jackie Robinson breaks baseball color barrier

1948      

Television begins its boom; close to one million households have television sets

1949     

 President Truman promises to give Americans a ``Fair Deal''

1950    

  Senator Joseph McCarthy begins his one-man anti-Communist witch hunt

1951   

   Marlon Brando stars in Tennessee Williams's "A Streetcar Named Desire"

1952  

    African-American novelist Ralph Ellison publishes "The Invisible Man"

1953 

     African-American novelist James Baldwin publishes "Go Tell It On The Mountain"

Composes Satin Doll

1954

      Supreme court bans school segregation

1955

      Rosa Parks/Alabama bus boycott

Newport Jazz Festival triumph 

1956 

     Elvis appears on Ed Sullivan show

1957  

    Sputnick puts Russians in space

He records his 6-part work, "Come Sunday"   

1958   

   Great Day in Harlem Photograph taken by Art Kane

Composes soundtrack, "Anatomy of a Murder    

1959    

  Jazz's ``Lady Day,'' Billie Holiday, dies

1960     

 Sit in at the Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, protesting segregation

Meets the Count (Bassie) on July 6th      

1961      

Bob Dylan produces his first album and becomes symbolic of the civil rights movement

1962      

Marilyn Monroe dies and is eulogized as ``a legend in her own time''

Starts an 81 day tour around the world     

1963     

 John F. Kennedy assassinated

Duke starts to tour Japan    

1964    

  Beatles appear on Ed Sullivan show

1965   

   Civil Rights Amendment passed

1966  

  Beatles play final concert in San Francisco

Billy Strayhorn dies 

1967 

     Thurgood Marshall becomes the first black Supreme Court justice

1968

      Martin Luther King assassinated

Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom

1969

      First man-walk on the moon

Johnny Hodges dies

1970 

     Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin both die this year

1971  

    Supreme Court upholds measure to bus children in order to enforce school integration

1972   

   Nixon has an unprecedented state visit with Chairman Mao Zedong in Bejing

Duke publishes "Music is My Mistress"    

1973    

  U.S. withdraws from Vietnam

Duke dies at the age of 75 on May 24th     

1974     

 President Nixon resigns

1975      

Microsoft is founded in Seattle by Paul Allen and Bill Gates

1976      

Reversing the 1972 decision, the Supreme Court rules the death penalty constitutional

1977     

 Elvis Presley, Charlie Chaplin and Bing Crosby die this year

Mercer publishes "Duke Ellington in Person"  

1978    

  98% of all American households have a television

1979   

   A nuclear-related accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania occurs

1980  

    Music legend John Lennon is shot in New York City

1981 

     Sandra Day O'Connor becomes the first woman to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court

1982

      The first successful heart transplant is performed in Salt Lake City, Utah

1983

      Michael Jackson's Thriller tops the charts with "Beat It''

1984 

     Ronald Reagan wins re-election to the U.S. Presidency

1985  

    Disney buys ABC for $19 billion

1986   

   The space shuttle Challenger explodes after lift-off

Archive is officially preserved at the Smithsonian  

1987    

  Toni Morrison will receive a Pulitzer Prize for her novel Beloved, published this year.

1988     

 Vice-president George Bush wins the presidential election

1989      

10 million gallons of oil pollute Alaskan waters when the Exxon Valdez runs aground

1990      

Iraq invades Kuwait, triggering Gulf War

1991     

 3 out of 4 U.S. homes own VCRs

1992    

  Rioting in Los Angeles following police acquittal for King beating

John Edward Hasse publishes "Beyond Category"   

1993   

   Steven Spielberg directs Jurassic Park and Schindler's List

1994  

    U.S. Government privatizes Internet management

1995 

     Terrorist explosion in Oklahoma City's Alfred P. Murrah Building kills 168 people

1996

      Time Warner acquires CNN, creating the world's largest media company

1997

      Sojurner transmits messages from Mars

1998 

     Dolly the sheep is cloned

His birth centennial is celebrated worldwide  

1999  

    The centennial of Ellington's birth is celebrated worldwide