F. Scott Fitzgerald and the World He Lived In (A Timeline)

Here, I will show you some important events in Fitzgerald's life as they coincided with events in history. Hopefully it will be as interesting to you all as it is to me.

• September 1896: Fitzgerald born; Queen Victoria surpasses her grandfather King George III as the longest reigning monarch in British history.
• September 1908: Fitzgerald begins school at St. Paul Academy; the first production of the Ford Model T automobile was built.
• October 1909: "The Mystery of the Raymond Mortgage" is Fitzgerald's first ever published work; Comte de Lambert of France sets airplane altitude record of 300 m
• August 1911: Fitzgerald's first play, "The Girl from Lazy J" is produced by the Elizabethan Dramatic Club; Vincenzo Perugia steals Mona Lisa from Louvre, Paris (recovered in 1913)
• September 1913: Fitzgerald enters Princeton University as a member of the class of 1917; 1st aerobatic maneuver, sustained inverted flight, performed in France
• December 1914: Fitzgerald's first Princeton Triangle Club show "Fie! Fie! Fi-Fi!", for which he wrote book and lyrics, produced; legendary/unofficial "Christmas Truce" takes place (Brits & Germans)
• January 1915: Fitzgerald meets Ginerva King, a debutante, with whom he becomes romantically involved; earthquake in Avezzano, Italy kills 29,800; Japan claims economic control of China; Alexander Graham Bell in NY calls Thomas Watson in SF
• June 1915: "The Ordeal" (re-named "Benediction") is Fitzgerald's first short story published in the "Nassau Literary Magazine"; the Turks invade Armenia; 78,000 ANZAC troops land at Gallipoli; Italy secretly signes Pact of London with Britain, France & Russia
• November 1915: Fitzgerald drops out of Princeton for the remainder of his junior year; Theodore W. Richards is 1st American to win Nobel Prize in chemistry
• September 1916: Fitzgerald returns to Princeton as a member of the class of 1918; Manfred von Richthofen ("The Red Baron"), a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkräfte, wins his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France; John D. Rockefeller becomes the first billionaire
• October 1917: Fitzgerald commissioned as a second lieutenant in US infantry; 1st British bombing of Germany; 1st Americans to see action on front lines of WWI; in Russia, Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, seize power
• November 1917: Fitzgerald reports to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and begins work on "The Romantic Egotist, a novel; 1st US soldiers are killed in combat; NY allows women to vote; October Revolution in Russia, Lenin seizes power
• February 1918: While on leave, Fitzgerald visits Princeton, finishes "The Romantic Egotist", and submits it to Shane Leslie who later submitted it to Charles Scribner's Sons; Britain grants women (30 & over) vote; first victory of Red Army over the Kaiser's German troops near Narva and Pskov
• June 1918: Fitzgerald arrives at Camp Sheridan, near Montgomery; Battle of Belleau Wood, 1st US victory of WW I
• July 1918: Fitzgerald meets Zelda at a country-club dance; Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic forms
• August 1918: "Romantic Egotist" rejected by Scibner's (they also decline the revised version in October); Bolshevik revolutionary leader, Moisei Uritsky, is assassinated
• October 1918: Fitzgerald's regiment reports to Camp Mills, Long Island; Arab forces, under T. E. Lawrence (aka "Lawrence of Arabia"), capture Damascus; forest fire in Minnesota & Northern Wisconsin kills about 800; Spanish flu-virus kills 21,000 in US in 1 week
• November 1918: War is over before Fitzgerald's regiment is ever sent overseas. Regiment returns to Camp Sheridan; Germany surrenders ending WWI, Allies & Germany sign armistice
• February 1919: Fitzgerald is informally engaged to Zelda. Goes to New York, works for Barron Collier advertising agency, and tries unsuccessfully to break into the magazine market; League of Nations 1st meeting; Fascist Party forms in Italy by Benito Mussolini
• June 1919: Zelda breaks engagement; 1st nonstop Atlantic flight (Alcock & Brown) lands in Ireland; Germany ends incorporation of Austria
• July 1919: Fitzgerald returns to St. Paul and finishes "The Romantic Egotist" while living with his parents
• September 1919: "Babes in Woods" is Fitzgerald's first story to be sold to a magazine ("The Smart Set"); Scribner's accepts his rewritten novel, now titled "This Side of Paradise"; Communist Party of America organizes in Chicago; President Woodrow Wilson is paralyzed by a stroke
• November 1919: Fitzgerald becomes a client of Harold Ober at the Reynold's literary agency; US Senate rejects (55-39) Treaty of Versailles & League of Nations
• January 1920: Fitzgerald visits Zelda in Montgomery and their engagement resumes; 18th Amendment, prohibition, goes into effect (repealed in 1933); Walt Disney starts 1st job as an artist
• March 1920: "This Side of Paradise" is published
• April 1920: Fitzgerald and Zelda marry; American Professional Football Association (NFL) forms
• May 1920: The Fitzgerald's live in Westport, Connecticut, where he begins work on "The Beautiful and the Damned"; President Wilson makes Communist Labor Party illegal
• September 1920: "Flappers and Philosophers", Fitzgerald's first collection of short stories is published; US Air Mail service begins
• October 1921: Fitzgerald's daughter Scottie is born; Green Bay Packers play 1st NFL game, 7-6 win over Minneapolis
• March 1922: "The Beautiful and the Damned" is published; "Nosferatu" premieres in Berlin; British court sentences Mahatma Gandhi to 6 years in prison
• September 1922: "Tales of the Jazz Age", Fitzgerald's second set of short stories, is published; Mussolini ask Vatican for support of fascist party program
• June 1924: The Fitzgerald's take residence at Villa Marie in St. Raphael, France; 1st political convention broadcast on radio (Republicans at Cleveland); Ziegfeld Follies opens on Broadway
• Summer-Fall 1924: Fitzgerald completes and revises first draft of "The Great Gatsby"
• April 1925: "The Great Gatsby" is published
• May 1925: Fitzgerald meets Hemingway at the Dingo bar in Montparnasse
• February 1926: Owen Davis's play version of "The Great Gatsby" opens on Broadway. The play had a successful run of 113 performances and was the basis for the 1926 silent film; "All the Sad Young Men", Fitzgerald's third collection of short stories, is published; 3 men dance Charleston for 22 hours; Walt Disney Studios forms
• April 1930: Zelda suffers first emotional breakdown. She is hospitalized at Malmaison Clinic outside Paris; The Chrysler Building in New York City officially opens
• June 1930: Zelda becomes patient at Pragins Clinic at Nyon, Switzerland; Chicago Tribune reporter Jake Lingle is killed during rush hour at the Illinois Central train station by the Leo Vincent Brothers, allegedly over a $100,000 USD gambling debt owed to Al Capone
• September 1931: Zelda is released from Pragins. The Fitzgeralds return permanently to the US and take up residence in Montgomery; 1st LP record demonstrated (RCA Victor, NYC), venture failed
• January 1932: The Fitzgerald's travel to St. Petersburg, Florida where Zelda suffers a second emotional collapse; Hattie W. Caraway elected 1st woman senator
• February 1932: Zelda becomes a patient of Phipps Psychiatric Clinic at John Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore; Al Capone sent to prison; immigrant Adolf Hitler gets German citizenship
• February 1934: Zelda suffers third breakdown
• April 1934: "Tender is the Night" is published; Bonnie & Clyde kill 2 police officers; 418 Lutheran ministers arrested in Germany; Shirley Temple appears in her 1st movie, "Stand Up & Cheer"
• March 1935: "Taps at Reveille", Fitzgerald's fourth and final short story collection, is published; Adolf Hitler announces the creation of a new air force; Hitler orders German rearmament, violating Versailles Treaty
• March 1937: "Trouble", Fitzgerald's last story in the "Saturday Evening Post" is published; 1st permanent automobile license plates issued; 1st blood bank forms
• July 1937: Fitzgerald receives six-month contract with MGM and meets Sheilah Graham, with whom he becomes romantically involved; Amelia Earhart & Fred Noonan disappear over Pacific Ocean; Japanese & Chinese troops clash, (Marco Polo Bridge), becomes WWII
• December 1937: Fitzgerald's MGM contract renewed for one year; 1st feature-length color & sound cartoon premieres (Snow White); Lincoln Tunnel (NYC) opens to traffic
• December 1938: Fitzgerald's MGM contract is not renewed; French/German non-attack treaty drawn (Ribbentrop-Bonnet Pact)
• July 1939: Fitzgerald breaks with long-time agent Harold Ober; German Nazi's close last Jewish enterprises; Frank Sinatra made his recording debut
• December 1940: Fitzgerald has heart attack and dies at Sheilah Graham's apartment in Hollywood; Germany begins dropping incendiary bombs on London
• October 1941: "The Last Tycoon, Fitzgerald's unfinished last novel, is published by Scribners; Germans launch attack on Moscow; 16,000 Jews massacred in Odessa, Ukraine; Mount Rushmore is completed
• March 1948: Zelda Fitzgerald dies in a fire at Highland Hospital; US rocket flies record 4800 KPH to 126k height
• November 1950: Scottie Fitzgerald Lanahan donates the Fitzgerald papers to Princeton University

Works cited:
"Fitzgerald, F. Scott - Introduction." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Matthew J. Bruccoli and Richard Layman. Vol. lm1. Gale Cengage, 2000.eNotes.com. 2006. 31 Jan, 2011 <http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-literary-criticism/
f-scott-fitzgerald/introduction>


"Browse Dates by Year." HistoryOrb.com - Articles, Birthdays & Today in History. Web. 30 Jan. 2011 <http://www.historyorb.com/dates-by-year.php>.