Ralph Picerni (1903 - 1981)

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

In 1903, in the year that Ralph Picerni was born, two brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright, flew the first powered heavier-than-air plane. They flew 4 times in one day - the longest flight lasting 59 seconds and a little over 852 feet. While the brothers had notified several newspapers of their attempt, only one - a local paper - covered it. After their 4th flight, a gust of wind caught the plane, turned it over, and totaled it.

In 1913, he was just 10 years old when the Philippine–American War ended for good in June. While the official end of the war was in 1902, fighting continued for several years. An estimated 200,000 to 250,000 total Filipino civilians died and although the U.S. viewed its role as a colonial presence as one of preparing the Philippines for independence, American colonization drastically changed the character off the culture. The Catholic Church was no longer the state religion and English became the primary language of the government.

In 1943, by the time he was 40 years old, on June 20th through June 22nd, the Detroit Race Riot erupted at Belle Isle Park. The rioting spread throughout the city (made worse by false rumors of attacks on blacks and whites) and resulted in the deployment of 6,000 Federal troops. 34 people were killed, (25 of them black) - mostly by white police or National Guardsmen, 433 were wounded (75 percent of them black) and an estimated $2 million of property was destroyed. The same summer, there were riots in Beaumont, Texas and Harlem, New York.

In 1979, he was 76 years old when on November 4th, Iranian militant students seized the US embassy in Teheran and held 52 American citizens and diplomats hostage for 444 days. They were released at the end of the inauguration speech of the newly elected Ronald Reagan.

In 1981, in the year of Ralph Picerni's passing, on August 1st, MTV debuted. It was the first music video TV channel. The first music video played was the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star" - the second was Pat Benatar's "You Better Run".