Esther Williams (1840 - 1920)

Refresh this page to see various historical events that occurred during Esther's lifetime.

In 1840, in the year that Esther Williams was born, on July 23rd, Upper Canada and Lower Canada were merged by the British Parliament, creating the United Province of Canada. This area later became the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.

In 1853, Esther was just 13 years old when in May, Levi Strauss & Co. was founded in San Francisco. In the 1870's, the company began manufacturing denim overalls and their first pair of Levis 501 jeans were introduced in the 1890s.

In 1900, she was 60 years old when the Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud published his book (written in 1899) "The Interpretation of Dreams". Sigmund Freud, born Sigismund Schlomo Freud in May of 1856, is the "father of psychoanalysis". Although he was a medical doctor, he was fascinated with the psyche and hypothesized the existence of the id, the ego, the superego, the libido, the unconscious, the Oedipus complex, and more. These are concepts that are still used by modern psychology.

In 1913, at the age of 73 years old, Esther was alive when the Philippine–American War ended for good in June. While the official end of the war was in 1902, fighting continued for several years. An estimated 200,000 to 250,000 total Filipino civilians died and although the U.S. viewed its role as a colonial presence as one of preparing the Philippines for independence, American colonization drastically changed the character off the culture. The Catholic Church was no longer the state religion and English became the primary language of the government.

In 1920, in the year of Esther Williams's passing, Italian born factory worker Nicola Sacco and fish peddler Bartolomeo Vanzetti were picked up by police on May 5th in connection with the April 15th murder and robbery of a guard and a paymaster at the Slater and Morrill Shoe Company in South Braintree, Mass. Although in later years they were thought to be innocent, they were anarchists and were convicted of the crime and put to death.