Helen T Jacks (1905 - 1997)

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

In 1905, in the year that Helen T Jacks was born, acclaimed dancer Isadora Duncan established the first school of modern dance in Berlin Germany. Isadora Duncan, born in San Francisco California, dedicated herself to the creation of beauty - through dance. Her focus on the movement of the human body rather than formal kinds of dance helped to give rise to the modern dance movement.

In 1921, when she was 16 years old, hugely popular Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, silent film star, was arrested for rape and manslaughter after an actress died following a party at his house. He was acquitted after three trials and the jury wrote a formal letter apologizing for the charges, but his career never recovered. His films were at first banned - the ban was lifted after a year - and he was mostly ostracized by the community. He died at 46..

In 1959, when she was 54 years old, on January 3rd, Alaska became the 49th state of the United States and the first state not a part of the contiguous United States. The flag was changed to display 49 stars.

In 1960, when she was 55 years old, on May 1st, an American CIA U-2 spy plane, piloted by Francis Gary Powers, was shot down by a surface-to-air missile over the Soviet Union. Powers ejected and survived but was captured. The U.S. claimed that the U-2 was a "weather plane" but Powers was convicted in the Soviet Union of espionage. He was released in 1962 after 1 year, 9 months and 10 days in prison.

In 1997, in the year of Helen T Jacks's passing, on August 31st, Princess Diana of Great Britain was killed when her car crashed into a pillar in the tunnel under the Pont de l'Alma bridge in Paris. The car she was riding in was trying to evade the paparazzi but it was also discovered later that the driver of the car, who was also killed, had three times the legal limit of alcohol which likely contributed to the accident.