Pedro Coll (1929 - 2004)

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

In 1929, in the year that Pedro Coll was born, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre happened on February 14th. In Chicago, seven men from the North Side Irish gang were gunned down by Al Capone's South Side Italian gang at the garage at 2122 North Clark Street. Al Capone was making a successful move to take over Chicago's organized crime. But the St. Valentine's Day massacre also resulted in a public outcry against all gangsters.

In 1931, by the time he was merely 2 years old, on May 1st, the Empire State Building opened in New York City. At 1,454 feet (including the roof and antenna), it was the tallest building in the world until the World Trade Center's North Tower was built in 1970. (It is now the 34th tallest.) Opening at the beginning of the Great Depression, most of the offices in the Empire State Building remained unoccupied for years and the observation deck was an equal source of revenue and kept the building profitable.

In 1944, Pedro was just 15 years old when on June 22nd, the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, called the G.I. Bill, was signed into law, pushed through by the veteran's organizations. Benefits provided for veterans to return to school (high school, vocational school, or college), obtain low interest home mortgages and low interest business loans, and (if needed) one year of unemployment insurance. Since most returning vets immediately found work, less than 20% of the unemployment benefits were distributed.

In 1972, by the time he was 43 years old, on November 7th, Richard Nixon won re-election, amidst the dawning knowledge of the Watergate scandal, by 60.7% to anti-war candidate George McGovern's 37.5%.

In 1997, when he was 68 years old, on June 26th, the first Harry Potter book by J. K. Rowling was released. "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was an immediate success and spawned not only sequels but also movies, video games, plays, and amusement park attractions. J.K. Rowling, at the time of the first book a poor single mother, has become a multi-billionaire.