Lawrence Watson (1891 - 1973)

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

In 1891, in the year that Lawrence Watson was born, on June 25th, in the July issue of The Strand Magazine in London, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes appeared in a series of short stories for the first time. Doyle eventually wrote 4 novels and 56 short stories with Holmes as the main character.

In 1902, when he was only 11 years old, the Aswan Low Dam (the old Aswan Dam) began construction in Egypt in 1899 and was completed in 1902 - making it the largest masonry dam in the world at the time. The dam was built on the Nile River in order to conserve water and regulate flooding, allowing for population increase along the Nile.

In 1914, when he was 23 years old, in June, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated by a Yugoslavian national. Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to Serbia. Other major powers took sides - and World War I began: Austria declared war on Serbia; Germany on Russia and France; Britain on Germany . . . and on it went until most of the world was embroiled in the war.

In 1938, by the time he was 47 years old, on October 30th, a Sunday, The Mercury Theatre on the Air broadcast Orson Welles' special Halloween show The War of the World's. A clever take on H.G. Wells' novel, the show began with simulated "breaking news" of an invasion by Martians. Because of the realistic nature of the "news," there was a public outcry the next day, calling for regulation by the FCC. Although the current story is that many were fooled and panicked, in reality very few people were fooled. But the show made Orson Welles' career.

In 1973, in the year of Lawrence Watson's passing, on August 15th, amidst rising calls for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon, Congress imposed an end to the bombing of Cambodia.