Rose R Swartz (1903 - 1995)

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

In 1903, in the year that Rose R Swartz 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 1930, at the age of 27 years old, Rose was alive when on August 6th, N.Y. Supreme Court Judge Joseph Crater went through papers in his office, destroyed some of them, withdrew all his money from the bank - $5,150, sold his stock, met friends at a restaurant for dinner and disappeared after getting into a taxi (or walking down the street - his friends' testimony later changed). His disappearance was reported to the police on September 3rd - almost a month later. His wife didn't know what happened, his fellow Justices had no idea, and his mistresses (he had several) said that they didn't know. While his disappearance was front page news, his fate was never discovered and after 40 years the case was closed, still without knowing if Crater was dead or alive.

In 1977, by the time she was 74 years old, on May 25th, Star Wars premiered in theaters. Eventually, it became the highest-grossing film of all time - until E.T. surpassed it a few years later. It was an immediate hit with theatergoers.

In 1985, Rose was 82 years old when on March 7th, the song "We Are the World" was released as a charity effort to alleviate the African famine. The song was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, and produced by Quincy Jones. They were joined by 37 other famous singers in the recording studio and a phenomena had begun

In 1995, in the year of Rose R Swartz's passing, on May 19th, the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil - before 9/11 - took place in Oklahoma City. A truck bomb went off outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown - killing 68 people, injuring more than 680 others, and destroying one-third of the building. The most disturbing images were of children - a daycare center was hit by the bomb. The deadliest incident of domestic terrorism ever, Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, and Michael Fortier were convicted of the bombing.