George T Davidson (1919 - 2003)

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

In 1919, in the year that George T Davidson was born, the "Black Sox Scandal" rocked baseball fans during the World Series. Eight players on the Chicago White Sox were accused of throwing the World Series, thus allowing the Cincinnati Reds to win, and making money off of the losses. All of the players were found not guilty by a jury but the fallout lasted for decades. The players were banned from baseball even though they were found innocent.

In 1922, when he was only 3 years old, the Reparations Commission assessed German liability for World War 1 at 132 billion gold marks (over $32 billion U.S. dollars at the time). This led to hyperinflation in Germany and created the political and social atmosphere in which Hitler was able to rise to power.

In 1930, he was merely 11 years old when as head of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, William Hays established a code of decency that outlined what was acceptable in films. The public - and government - had felt that films in the '20's had become increasingly risque and that the behavior of its stars was becoming scandalous. Laws were being passed. In response, the heads of the movie studios adopted a voluntary "code", hoping to head off legislation. The first part of the code prohibited "lowering the moral standards of those who see it", called for depictions of the "correct standards of life", and forbade a picture from showing any sort of ridicule towards a law or "creating sympathy for its violation". The second part dealt with particular behavior in film such as homosexuality, the use of specific curse words, and miscegenation.

In 1952, by the time he was 33 years old, on July 2, Dr. Jonas E. Salk tested the first dead-virus polio vaccine on 43 children. The worst epidemic of polio had broken out that year - in the U.S. there were 58,000 cases reported. Of these, 3,145 people had died and 21,269 were left with mild to disabling paralysis.

In 1981, when he was 62 years old, on August 1st, MTV debuted. It was the first music video TV channel. The first music video played was the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star" - the second was Pat Benatar's "You Better Run".