Sadie Sweatt (1886 - 1975)

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

In 1886, in the year that Sadie Sweatt was born, on January 5th, Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson's book the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was published. Immediately popular, the paperback book was sold for $1 in the U.S. - almost $25 today. Stevenson's stepson said that he wrote the first draft in under 3 days.

In 1924, she was 38 years old when Macy's department store in New York held its first "Thanksgiving parade" on November 27th at 9a - during church services but leaving plenty of time to attend the big football game between Syracuse and Columbia universities. The parade was held as a way to promote the opening of the “World’s Largest Store” and its 1 million square feet of retail space in Manhattan’s Herald Square. The parade was 6 miles long and included floats, Macy's employees dressed as clowns, cowboys, and sword-wielding knights, and animals from Central Park Zoo. Santa Claus, of course, brought up the rear - opening the Christmas shopping season for Macy's.

In 1949, when she was 63 years old, on January 25th, the first Emmy Awards (for television) were handed out in Los Angeles. Shirley Dinsdale won for the Most Outstanding Television Personality and Pantomime Quiz Time earned an Emmy for the Most Popular Television Program.

In 1953, by the time she was 67 years old, actress and comedian Lucille Ball gave birth to Desi Arnaz, Jr on January 19th. On the same day on "I Love Lucy", the fictional Little Ricky was born as well. Baby Desi graced the cover of the first TV Guide magazine with a headline that read ""Lucy's $50,000,000 baby" - because the commercial revenue from his birth was expected to be that amount.

In 1975, in the year of Sadie Sweatt's passing, in January, Popular Mechanics featured the Altair 8800 on it's cover. The Altair home computer kit allowed consumers to build and program their own personal computers. Thousands were sold in the first month.