Frederick Ernest Woolidge (1900 - 1980)

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

In 1900, in the year that Frederick Ernest Woolidge was born, a massive hurricane, known as the Great Galveston hurricane, hit Galveston Texas. Winds hit up to 145 miles an hour (category 4) and it remains the single most deadly event in U.S. history. Between 6,000 and 12,000 died (most estimates are around 8,000 dead). The population of Galveston at the time was about 36,000 people in 1900.

In 1919, by the time he was 19 years old, in Norfolk Virginia, the first rotary dial telephones were introduced by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), making it easier to make a call without an operator.

In 1930, he was 30 years old when on August 6th, N.Y. Supreme Court Judge Joseph Crater went through papers in his office, destroyed some of them, withdrew all his money from the bank - $5,150, sold his stock, met friends at a restaurant for dinner and disappeared after getting into a taxi (or walking down the street - his friends' testimony later changed). His disappearance was reported to the police on September 3rd - almost a month later. His wife didn't know what happened, his fellow Justices had no idea, and his mistresses (he had several) said that they didn't know. While his disappearance was front page news, his fate was never discovered and after 40 years the case was closed, still without knowing if Crater was dead or alive.

In 1972, at the age of 72 years old, Frederick was alive when on November 7th, Richard Nixon won re-election, amidst the dawning knowledge of the Watergate scandal, by 60.7% to anti-war candidate George McGovern's 37.5%.

In 1980, in the year of Frederick Ernest Woolidge's passing, on April 24th, a rescue attempt was begun in the Iranian Hostage Crisis. The attempt failed and 8 US servicemen were killed. Eight helicopters had been sent for the mission, but only 5 arrived in operating condition., Since the military had advised that the mission be aborted if there were fewer than 6 helicopters, President Carter stopped it. Upon leaving, a helicopter collided with a transport plane and the men were killed.