Ralph Wyly (1898 - 1970)

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

In 1898, in the year that Ralph Wyly was born, on March 24th, Robert Allison of Pennsylvania became the first person to buy an American-built car. He bought a Winton, which he had seen in an advertisement in Scientific American. The Winton, built in Ohio, was made by hand and came with a leather roof, padded seats, gas lamps, and tires made by B.F. Goodrich.

In 1900, at the age of just 2 years old, Ralph was alive when the unemployment rate in the U.S. was 5.0% and the cost of a first-class stamp was $0.02. 31% of all workers were employed in the public service sector, 19% of women were employed (1 percent of all lawyers and 6 percent of physicians were women), 6% of the workforce were children, and 14% of the workforce was "non-white."

In 1917, when he was 19 years old, the NHL (National Hockey League) was established as a response to the demise of the National Hockey Association (NHA). The first superstar of the League was "Phantom" Joe Malone of the Montreal Canadiens, a leading scorer with records that still stand. The Canadiens won the NHL championship over the Senators.

In 1939, by the time he was 41 years old, on the 1st of September, Nazi Germany invaded Poland. On September 17th, the Soviet Union invaded Poland as well. Poland expected help from France and the United Kingdom, since they had a pact with both. But no help came. By October 6th, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany held full control of the previously Polish lands. Eventually, the invasion of Poland lead to World War II.

In 1970, in the year of Ralph Wyly's passing, on April 10th, Paul McCartney announced that he was leaving the Beatles. (John Lennon had previously told the band that he was leaving but hadn't publicly announced it.) By the end of the year, each Beatle had his own album.