John William Cloak (1877 - 1949)

John's immediate relatives including parents, siblings, partnerships and children in the Cloak family tree.

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John's Family

Cloak John William Cloak

Rhoda Ann Austin Cloak

John William Cloak

Parents:

Cloak John William Cloak

Unknown - Unknown

Rhoda Ann Austin Cloak

Unknown - Unknown

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In 1877, in the year that John William Cloak was born, on November 21st, Thomas Edison announced his new invention - the phonograph. Recording sound was considered to be Edison's first great invention. On November 29th, he demonstrated the phonograph for the public.

In 1883, by the time he was merely 6 years old, on May 24th, the Brooklyn Bridge - one of the oldest bridges in the US - was opened to traffic. Bridge construction began in 1869 and took 14 years to complete.

In 1903, when he was 26 years old, the United States Department of Commerce and Labor was created by President Theodore Roosevelt to control the excesses of big business. Renamed the Department of Commerce 10 years later, many departments concerned with workers were transferred to the Department of Labor at that time. Another spin-off, the Bureau of Corporations, became the Federal Trade Commission.

In 1924, when he was 47 years old, Macy's department store in New York held its first "Thanksgiving parade" on November 27th at 9a - during church services but leaving plenty of time to attend the big football game between Syracuse and Columbia universities. The parade was held as a way to promote the opening of the “World’s Largest Store” and its 1 million square feet of retail space in Manhattan’s Herald Square. The parade was 6 miles long and included floats, Macy's employees dressed as clowns, cowboys, and sword-wielding knights, and animals from Central Park Zoo. Santa Claus, of course, brought up the rear - opening the Christmas shopping season for Macy's.

In 1949, in the year of John William Cloak's passing, comedian Milton Berle hosted the first telethon show. It raised $1,100,000 for cancer research and lasted 16 hours. The next day, newspapers, in writing about the event, first used the word "telethon."