Francis O Wyly (1909 - 1999)

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

In 1909, in the year that Francis O Wyly was born, the U.S. penny was changed to the Abraham Lincoln design. The Lincoln penny was so popular that it soon had to be rationed and it sold on the secondary market for a quarter. Abraham Lincoln was the first historical figure to be on a U.S. coin - which was released to commemorate his 100th birthday. This penny was also the first U.S. cent to include the words "In God We Trust.".

In 1910, he was merely 1 year old when Thomas Edison introduced his kinetophone, which he hoped would make "talkies" a reality. But the sound wasn't synchronized to the pictures and only 45 Kinetophones were made.

In 1933, at the age of 24 years old, Francis was alive when on March 4th, Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the 32nd President of the United States. He was elected four times (equaled by no other President) and guided the United States through the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and World War 2. His wife was his cousin Eleanor Roosevelt (Teddy Roosevelt's niece) who President Truman called "First Lady of the World". Some of the major programs that survive from his presidency are the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Wagner Act (The National Labor Relations Act of 1935) , the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Social Security.

In 1976, he was 67 years old when on August 4th, a mysterious illness struck an American Legion convention in Philadelphia. Within a week, 25 people had died and 130 people had been hospitalized. It was the first known instance of what came to be called "Legionnaires Disease."

In 1998, at the age of 89 years old, Francis was alive when on December 19th, the House of Representatives initiated impeachment charges against U.S. President Bill Clinton. He was subsequently acquitted of these charges by the Senate on February 12th.