Van D Allen (1922 - 1992)

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

In 1922, in the year that Van D Allen was born, on December 6th, the Irish Free State, a self-governing dominion of the British Empire, was officially proclaimed. While establishing some independence for the people of Ireland, it did not create a fully independent Ireland and the fighting continued.

In 1940, Van was 18 years old when on November 5th, President Franklin Roosevelt was elected to a third term, defeating Wendell Willkie of Indiana (a corporate lawyer). Roosevelt running for a third term was controversial. But the U.S. was emerging from the Great Recession and he promised that he would not involve the country in any foreign war (which of course changed when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor). Roosevelt defeated Willkie in the popular vote by 54.7 to 44.8% and in the Electoral College 449 to 82.

In 1950, he was 28 years old when on October 2, Charlie Brown appeared in the first Peanuts comic strip - created by Charles Schultz - and he was the only character in that strip. That year, Schultz said that Charlie was 4 years old, but Charlie aged a bit through the years.

In 1981, by the time he was 59 years old, 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".

In 1992, in the year of Van D Allen's passing, in April, Bosnia-Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia. The newly created Bosnian Serb army then began a campaign against Muslim Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats - killing, raping, torturing, beating and robbing - and resulting in the deaths of over 100,000.