Henrietta Calder Mayhew (1859 - 1948)

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

In 1859, in the year that Henrietta Calder Mayhew was born, on April 25th, the Suez Canal Company began construction of the Suez Canal. It took 10 years to complete the canal.

In 1866, by the time she was merely 7 years old, Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, businessman, and philanthropist Alfred Nobel invented dynamite in Germany. During his lifetime he held 355 patents, of which dynamite was the most famous. He also established the Nobel Prizes in his will.

In 1920, Henrietta was 61 years old when the Volstead Act became law. Formally called the National Prohibition Act, the Volstead Act enabled law enforcement agencies to carry out the 18th Amendment. It said that "no person shall manufacture, sell, barter, transport, import, export, deliver, or furnish any intoxicating liquor except as authorized by this act" and defined intoxicating liquor as any beverage containing more than 0.5% alcohol by volume.

In 1936, she was 77 years old when on November 3rd, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was reelected to a second term. He ran against Republican Governor Alf Landon (Kansas), defeating Landon in the popular vote by 60.8% to 36.5%. Vermont and Maine were the only two states in which Landon won. John Nance Garner IV became the Vice-President in this election.

In 1948, in the year of Henrietta Calder Mayhew's passing, on January 30th, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in New Delhi by a member of a Hindu nationalist party who thought that Gandhi was too accommodating to Muslims. The man, Nathuram Godse, shot Gandhi 3 times. He died immediately. The shooter was tried, convicted, and hung in November 1949.