Mattie Cooper (1901 - 1976)

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

In 1901, in the year that Mattie Cooper was born, John Pierpont "J. P." Morgan created U.S. Steel. J.P. Morgan was an American banker and financier who dominated U.S. business at this time. He had previously overseen the creation of General Electric, as well as International Harvester and AT&T. He has been referred to as America's greatest banker. U.S. Steel was the first billion dollar company in the world, worth $1.4 billion in 1901.

In 1911, at the age of only 10 years old, Mattie was alive when British physicist Ernest Rutherford (born in New Zealand), along with German physicist Hans Geiger, discovered the structure of an atom. He found that atoms had nuclei (a nucleus) and were circled by electrons, much as planets orbit the sun.

In 1932, Mattie was 31 years old when five years to the day after Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic, Amelia Earhart flew solo from Newfoundland to Ireland, the first woman to cross the Atlantic solo and the first to replicate Lindbergh's feat. She flew over 2,000 miles in just under 15 hours.

In 1959, at the age of 58 years old, Mattie was alive when on January 3rd, Alaska became the 49th state of the United States and the first state not a part of the contiguous United States. The flag was changed to display 49 stars.

In 1976, in the year of Mattie Cooper's passing, on August 4th, a mysterious illness struck an American Legion convention in Philadelphia. Within a week, 25 people had died and 130 people had been hospitalized. It was the first known instance of what came to be called "Legionnaires Disease."