Josephine Greenwade (1876 - 1968)

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

In 1876, in the year that Josephine Greenwade was born, on November 2nd, a giant squid - a little over 20 feet long - washed up on a beach at Thimble Tickle Bay in Newfoundland. It's still a rare occurrence since giant squid live in deep sea at 1000 to 3000 foot depth.

In 1923, at the age of 47 years old, Josephine was alive when on November 8th and 9th, Adolf Hitler and his followers (the early Nazi party) staged the "Beer Hall Putsch" in Munich in an attempt to take over Bavaria (a state in Germany). They failed. Hitler was charged with treason and convicted, receiving a sentence of 5 years. He served under 1 year in jail.

In 1938, by the time she was 62 years old, on June 25th (a Saturday) the Fair Labor Standards Act was signed into law by President Roosevelt (along with 120 other bills). The Act banned oppressive child labor, set the minimum hourly wage at 25 cents, and established the maximum workweek at 44 hours. It faced a lot of opposition and in fighting for it, Roosevelt said "Do not let any calamity-howling executive with an income of $1,000 a day, ...tell you...that a wage of $11 a week is going to have a disastrous effect on all American industry."

In 1952, by the time she was 76 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 1968, in the year of Josephine Greenwade's passing, on January 31st, the North Vietnamese launched the Tet Offensive, a turning point in the Vietnam War. 70,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces swarmed into South Vietnam. The South Vietnamese and US troops held off the offensive but it was such fierce fighting that the U.S. public began to turn against the war.