Margaret Mary Wingrave (1891 - 1931)

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

In 1891, in the year that Margaret Mary Wingrave was born, from March 9th through the 12th, a blizzard hit the south and west of England. Called the Great Blizzard of 1891, it led to snow drifts of up to 15 feet and killed 200 people and 6,000 animals. Fourteen ships sank.

In 1905, by the time she was only 14 years old, the German born physicist, Albert Einstein, proposed the Special Theory of Relativity: 1) that observers can never detect uniform motion except relative to other objects and that 2) unlike the velocity of massive objects, the speed of light is a constant and is the same for all observers independent of their constant velocity toward or away from the light source. Not such simple concepts that lead to the equation everyone now knows: E = mc2.

In 1918, she was 27 years old when following European countries, Daylight Saving Time went into effect in the United States in March. It was an effort to conserve fuel needed to produce electric power. This was a war effort and proved unpopular so in most areas of the United States, Daylight Saving Time ended after World War I. It returned during World War II.

In 1922, by the time she was 31 years old, on James Joyce's 40th birthday, his book Ulysses was published in France. The book covers the experiences of an Irishman in Dublin on an ordinary day, 16 June 1904. Now considered a classic, it was controversial at the time. Due to some sexual content, the book was banned in the U.S. during the 1920's and the U.S. Post Office destroyed 500 copies of the novel.

In 1931, in the year of Margaret Mary Wingrave's passing, in March, “The Star Spangled Banner” officially became the national anthem by congressional resolution. Other songs had previously been used - among them, "My Country, 'Tis of Thee", "God Bless America", and "America the Beautiful". There was fierce debate about making "The Star Spangled Banner" the national anthem - Southerners and veterans organizations supported it, pacifists and educators opposed it.