William Lewis (1875 - 1963)

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

In 1875, in the year that William Lewis was born, on February 21st, Jeanne Calment was born in southern France. Her father was a shipbuilder and her mother was from a family of millers. She died August 4th, 1997 of natural causes - the world's oldest documented person to have ever lived - at the age of 122 years and 164 days.

In 1893, by the time he was 18 years old, on February 1st, Thomas Edison's motion picture studio on his laboratory grounds in West Orange New Jersey was completed. The studio was called "Black Maria" and the first movie made and viewed in it was of 3 people pretending to be blacksmiths.

In 1900, he was 25 years old when the U.S. population exceeded 75 million, rising about 13 million from the 1890 census. 87.9% of the population was white, 11.6% was African-American, 0.7% was Hispanic, and 0.5% was Native American, Asian, and other minorities.

In 1940, when he was 65 years old, on July 27th, the cartoon character Bugs Bunny debuted in his first film A Wild Hare - voiced by Mel Blanc. He has since appeared in more short films, feature films, compilations, TV series, music records, comic books, video games, award shows, amusement park rides, and commercials than any other cartoon character. He even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. "What's up, Doc?"

In 1963, in the year of William Lewis's passing, the British Secretary of War, 46 year old John Profumo ,was forced to resign when he lied about an affair with 19 year old Christine Keeler. Keeler was also involved with the Soviet naval attaché and charges of espionage were feared. No proof of spying was ever found.