During the 20s, many great entrepreneurs lived. Walter P. Chrysler, founder of the Chrysler Corporation, lived during this time. Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company, first began designing and building cars. It was Ford who came up with the concept of the assembly line. This made his cars dominant because they could be manufactured much faster than any of the other cars. Clarence Birdseye's discovery of flash-freezing to save perishable foods and development of refrigeration machinery are some of the greatest and most practical inventions of the Twentieth century. He founded Birdseye Seafoods in 1924 to use his flash-freezing method on fish and from there a huge company (General Foods) grew that continues its success today.

1920

A huge garment workers strike begins in New York City.

Estimated 1 million people on official strikes in U.S.

1921

3.5 million unemployed.

1922

AT&T releases plans to enter broadcasting to the public.

Railroad shop craft workers strike begins. Taking the side of employers, President Harding declares it to be a strike "against the government." The strike is lost the following year.

1923

First issue of Time, the first weekly news magazine, is published by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden.

Procter and Gamble guarantees employees at least 48 weeks employment a year.

U.S. Steel offers 8-hour workday following the urgings of President Harding.

Carnegie Steel Company starts eight-hour work day.

1924

Ford Motor Company Stock=$1 billion.

A stock market boom that began early in the decade hits a five-year high on this date, with 2.33 million shares traded on the New York exchange.

Wall Street breaks trading record with 2,226,226 shares trading hands.

1926

Desperate business leaders in Chicago implore U.S. Senate to investigate the city's gangland lawlessness.

Southern Bell Telegraph and Telephone Company is formed.

Briand Ministry in France falls as result of financial crisis in which the franc devalues to the equivalent of two U.S. cents.

Henry Ford institutes five-day work week and eight-hour day at his auto plants, to reduce overproduction.

1927

The German stock market collapses on "Black Friday."

Ford offers Model A, gets 50,000 orders.

1928

Record trading on Wall Street--4,796,270 shares.

Big Stock Drop--avg of 4.41 of leading issues.

The Dodge Bros. merge with Chrysler Corp. in a $160 million deal. The Plymouth model appears. The De Soto follows in August.

Wall Street Stock Market takes 22-pt plunge.

1929

March 26 - Big drop in New York stocks.

New York Stock Exchange sets record volume of 8.2 million shares traded.

April 01 - Stocks drop again.

September 03 - Wall Street issues reached an all-time high, with some stocks tripling in price from the year before.

October 24 - The U.S. stock market starts its steep downward crash on "Black Thursday," with 13 million shares sold. By Tuesday October 29, "Black Tuesday," the market seems to have bottomed out, with 16 million shares sold. A few days of apparent recovery follow, with a slight rebound in prices, but the market drops again and by November 13 prices reach their lowest point for the year--and $30 billion in stock values are wiped out. The crash, combined with other negative factors in the U.S. and world economies, very decisively brings to an end the decade of the 1920s and hastens the Great Depression.