Thursday 13: 1927

Play along here.

Yesterday, my beloved Nonna (that's grandmother in Italian) celebrated her 93rd birthday! In honor of her special day, here are 13 facts about her birth year, 1927.

1. The President of the United States was Calvin Coolidge and the Vice President was Charles Dawes.
2. May 20-21: Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo non-stop trans-Atlantic flight from New York to Paris in his single-seat, single-engine monoplane Spirit of St. Louis. A ticker tape parade in his honor is held on June 13 in New York City.
3. January 7: the first transatlantic telephone call was made from New York City to London.
4. The average income was $1,313, a gallon of gas cost 20 cents, a dozen eggs cost 30 cents, and a movie ticket was 30 cents.
5. Popular songs were My Blue Heaven (Gene Austin), Singin' The Blues (Frankie Trumbauer), and Stardust (Hoagy Carmichael).
6. April 22-May 5: The Great Mississippi Flood affects 700,000 in the greatest national disaster in U.S. history at that time.
7. October 8: The New York Yankees sweep the Pittsburgh Pirates, winning the World Series in 4 games.
8. October 6: The Jazz Singer movie opens in the U.S. and becomes a great success, marking the end of the silent movie era.
9. November 13: The Holland Tunnel opens to traffic as the first Hudson River vehicular tunnel linking New Jersey to New York City.
10. September 18: The Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System (CBS) is formed and goes on the air with 47 radio stations.
11. August 23: After six years of appeals, Italian migrant anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed for their part in the 1920 murder of a guard and a paymaster at the Slater and Morrell Shoe Company.
12. October 28: Pan American Airways' first flight departs Key West for Havana.
13. Celebrities born this year include: Eartha Kitt (Jan.17), Harvey Korman (Feb.15), Erma Bombeck (Feb.21), Sidney Poitier (Feb.20), Harry Belafonte (March 1), Coretta Scott King (April 27), Jerry Stiller (June 8), Neil Simon (July 4), Janet Leigh (July 6), and Rosalyn Carter (Aug. 18).