Lester Rosler (1906 - 1979)

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

In 1906, in the year that Lester Rosler was born, the great San Francisco earthquake hit, estimated at 7.8 on the Richter scale. The earthquake caused fires that raged for days and between the earthquake and the fire, about 3,000 people were killed and 80% of the City was destroyed.

In 1936, at the age of 30 years old, Lester was alive 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 1940, he was 34 years old when on November 5th, President Franklin Roosevelt was elected to a third term, defeating Wendell Willkie of Indiana (a corporate lawyer). Roosevelt running for a third term was controversial. But the U.S. was emerging from the Great Recession and he promised that he would not involve the country in any foreign war (which of course changed when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor). Roosevelt defeated Willkie in the popular vote by 54.7 to 44.8% and in the Electoral College 449 to 82.

In 1958, Lester was 52 years old when on January 31st, Explorer I, the United States' answer to Sputnik I (and 2,) was launched. America had entered the Space Race. The first spacecraft to detect the Van Allen radiation belt, it remained in orbit until 1970.

In 1979, in the year of Lester Rosler's passing, on November 4th, Iranian militant students seized the US embassy in Teheran and held 52 American citizens and diplomats hostage for 444 days. They were released at the end of the inauguration speech of the newly elected Ronald Reagan.