Robert Simpkins (1914 - 1972)

Robert's immediate relatives including parents, siblings, partnerships and children in the Simpkins family tree.

Robert's Family

Add a parent

Add a parent

Robert Simpkins Add a partner Add a child Add a partner Add a child

Add a sibling

We currently do not have photos of Robert Simpkins. Below are potential family photos that share Robert's last name or surname. Pictures really do say a thousand words. Add photos of Robert during various points of his life

Tolbert Simpkins

Family Ties

Scott Keith Simpkins

Hatfield McCoy feud, KY & WV

Grandpa Simpkins

Add photo

What do you remember about Robert Simpkins? Share your memories of special moments and stories you have heard about him. Or just leave a comment to show the world that Robert is remembered.

Post

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

In 1914, in the year that Robert Simpkins was born, President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation designating Mother's Day, the second Sunday in May, as a national holiday to honor mothers. Anna Jarvis had championed a Mother's Day for years but Congress had joked a few years earlier that then they would have to proclaim a "Mother-in-law's Day" as well. The President who championed a woman's right to vote also created a day in their honor.

In 1927, he was merely 13 years old when the first "talkie" (a movie with music, songs, and talking), The Jazz Singer, was released. Al Jolson starred as a cantor's son who instead of following in his father's footsteps as expected, becomes a singer of popular songs. Banished by his father, they reconcile on his father's deathbed. It was a tear-jerker and audiences went wild - especially when they heard the songs. Thus begun the demise of silent films and the rise of "talkies".

In 1934, by the time he was 20 years old, on June 6th, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was formed as a response to the stock market crash of 1929 and the continuing Great Depression. Previously, the states regulated the offering and sales of stocks - called "blue sky" laws. They were largely ineffective. Roosevelt created a group (one member was Joseph Kennedy, father of the future President Kennedy) who knew Wall Street well and they defined the mission and operating mode for the SEC. The new organization had broad and stringent rules and oversight and restored public confidence in the stock market in the United States.

In 1951, when he was 37 years old, on April 5th, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (husband and wife) were sentenced to death for treason. They were executed on June 19th. American citizens, they were convicted of spying for the Soviet Union. Their two young sons were adopted by a high school teacher and his wife.

In 1972, in the year of Robert Simpkins's passing, on June 17th, 5 men were arrested by police in an attempt to bug the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington D.C.’s Watergate hotel. The burglars were found to be paid by cash from a slush fund used by the Committee for the Re-Election of the President - the official organization of President Nixon's campaign.