Ralph Howell (1849 - 1930)

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

In 1849, in the year that Ralph Howell was born, on February 14th, President James Polk had his photograph taken in New York City. He was the first President to have his photo taken.

In 1863, at the age of merely 14 years old, Ralph was alive when on January 1st, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The Proclamation made the abolition of slavery in the Confederate states an official war goal. It also immediately freed 50,000 slaves, with the rest freed as Union armies advanced into Confederate states. The Proclamation wasn't a Congressional law - it was an Executive Order.

In 1877, when he was 28 years old, on November 21st, Thomas Edison announced his new invention - the phonograph. Recording sound was considered to be Edison's first great invention. On November 29th, he demonstrated the phonograph for the public.

In 1884, by the time he was 35 years old, on December 6th, the Washington Monument was completed. Building began in 1848 but was stopped because of lack of funds and also due to the Civil War. It would be dedicated in 1885. At the time of its completion, it was the tallest structure in the world.

In 1930, in the year of Ralph Howell's passing, as head of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, William Hays established a code of decency that outlined what was acceptable in films. The public - and government - had felt that films in the '20's had become increasingly risque and that the behavior of its stars was becoming scandalous. Laws were being passed. In response, the heads of the movie studios adopted a voluntary "code", hoping to head off legislation. The first part of the code prohibited "lowering the moral standards of those who see it", called for depictions of the "correct standards of life", and forbade a picture from showing any sort of ridicule towards a law or "creating sympathy for its violation". The second part dealt with particular behavior in film such as homosexuality, the use of specific curse words, and miscegenation.