John Bridges (1889 - 1965)

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

In 1889, in the year that John Bridges was born, on April 20th, Adolf Hitler was born in Austria-Hungary - now Austria. In his early 30's, he began his rise to power in German politics, eventually becoming the leader of the Nazi Party and Führer of Nazi Germany. He presided over the death of millions of civilians as well as leading Germany through World War II.

In 1919, by the time he was 30 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 1928, when he was 39 years old, aviatrix Amelia Earhart, age 31, became the first woman to fly solo across North America and back in August. In June, she had been part of a 3 man crew that flew the Atlantic Ocean but since she had no instrument training, she couldn't fly the plane - she kept the flight log. The North American flight became one of her many "firsts" as a female pilot.

In 1953, when he was 64 years old, actress and comedian Lucille Ball gave birth to Desi Arnaz, Jr on January 19th. On the same day on "I Love Lucy", the fictional Little Ricky was born as well. Baby Desi graced the cover of the first TV Guide magazine with a headline that read ""Lucy's $50,000,000 baby" - because the commercial revenue from his birth was expected to be that amount.

In 1965, in the year of John Bridges's passing, on March 8th, the first US combat troops arrived in Vietnam. The 3500 Marines joined 23,000 "advisors" already in South Vietnam. By the end of the year, 190,000 American soldiers were in the country.