Miriam Rhodes (1900 - 1984)

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

In 1900, in the year that Miriam Rhodes was born, artist Henri Matisse, born in 1869 in France, began the fauvist movement. Only lasting a few years in popularity (ending around 1904), fauvism was in many ways the beginning of modern art. Matisse was fond of bright, vibrant colors and used them in his paintings - contrary to the muted use of color previously. While the fauvist movement declined in popularity, Matisse did not and he went on to create many more works of art and even a museum for his work, 2 years before his death in 1954. (In French, les Fauves means "the wild beasts". Matisse and those who followed his example were called "beasts" because of the bold colors that they used in their artwork.)

In 1913, she was just 13 years old when ratified in February the 16th Amendment, establishing a Federal income tax, became law. Previously, customs duties (tariffs) and excise taxes were the primary sources of federal revenue. With the passage of the 16th Amendment, incomes of couples exceeding $4,000, as well as those of single persons earning $3,000 or more, were subject to a 1% Federal tax (that would be about $98,000 and $74,000 now). Rates rose to 7% for incomes over half a million dollars. Less than 1% of the population was subject to income tax.

In 1948, at the age of 48 years old, Miriam was alive when on May 14th, the State of Israel was proclaimed by David Ben-Gurion, who became Israel's first Premier, and the U.S. officially recognized Israel. That evening, Egypt launched an air assault on Israel.

In 1954, when she was 54 years old, from April 22 through June 17th, the Army v. McCarthy hearings were held. The U.S. Army accused Roy Cohn (chief counsel to Senator McCarthy and later trusted mentor of Donald Trump) of blackmail. McCarthy and Cohn accused the U.S. Army of harboring communists. The Army allegations were found to be true. The U.S. Senate later censured McCarthy.

In 1984, in the year of Miriam Rhodes'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".