Welcome to the great year of 1919. It is pretty amazing to see how these early years of the 20th century shaped the world we live in today. Here are some of the other notable events to occur in 1919 that we didn’t discuss in this episode.

Jan 5th - National Socialist Party (Nazi) forms as German Farmers Party

Feb 25th - Oregon is 1st state to tax gasoline (1 cent per gallon)

Feb 26th - Congress forms Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona

May 2nd - 1st US air passenger service starts

Jun 4th - Senate passes Women’s Suffrage bill

Sep 10th - NYC welcomes home Gen John J Pershing & 25,000 WW I soldiers

Sep 25th - President Woodrow Wilson is paralyzed by a stroke

Now about this wave of Molasses in Boston that killed 21 people. All I can say is that it really happened, we are not making this up. In fact, enjoy this little excerpt from a book written about the event called Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 by Stephen Puleo.

“Molasses, waist deep, covered the street and swirled and bubbled about the wreckage. Here and there struggled a form — whether it was animal or human being was impossible to tell. Only an upheaval, a thrashing about in the sticky mass, showed where any life was… Horses died like so many flies on sticky fly-paper. The more they struggled, the deeper in the mess they were ensnared. Human beings — men and women — suffered likewise” 

There you have it, next time you are enjoying your favorite molasses flavored something tip your glass to the 21 that died on that fateful day in a tidal wave of molasses.

And with that we will see you in the past!