Mary Melone (1911 - 1984)

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

In 1911, in the year that Mary Melone was born, the first use of aircraft as an offensive weapon occurred in the Turkish-Italian War. First used for aerial reconnaissance alone, planes were then used in aerial combat to shoot down recon planes. In World War I, planes and zeppelins evolved for use in bombing.

In 1945, at the age of 34 years old, Mary was alive when on January 9th, the (over 8 month long) Battle of Luzon began in the Philippines with the United States and Filipino forces attacking Japanese forces - with the intent to take back control of the Philippines. By March, the Allies had taken control of all of the strategically and economically important locations in the Philippines but pockets of resistance held out until the surrender of Japan in August.

In 1968, Mary was 57 years old when 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.

In 1971, Mary was 60 years old when in March, Congress passed the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which lowered the voting age to 18 (from 21). It was a response to the criticism that men could fight at 18, but not vote for the policies and politicians who sent them to war. The states quickly ratified the Amendment and it was signed into law on July 1st by President Richard Nixon.

In 1984, in the year of Mary Melone's passing, due to outrage about "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" (it seemed too "dark" to many and it was rated PG), a new rating was devised - PG-13. The first film rated PG-13 was "Red Dawn".