After the death of Lenin, the USSR was a socialist state without a clear understanding of what that meant. Stalin ended Lenin's New Economic Policy and created a centralized push for industrialization known as the Five-Year Plan.

The death of Sun Yat-sen came at an inopportune moment, just as the Nationalists were poised to regain control over China. Chiang Kai-shek emerged as the Party's new leader. He ended the United Front and attacked and killed Communists.

By 1922, the Lloyd George government was challenged on many fronts, which led to a general election and a new prime minister, Andrew Bonar Law. Perhaps the biggest challenge was debt repayment to the United States.

Prohibition came as something of a surprise, and there was widespread flouting of the law. A new drinking culture emerged, and criminal gangs made more money, and became more violent, than ever.

By the Revolutionary era, male British colonists in North America were among the heaviest drinkers the world had ever seen. 150 years later, alcoholic beverages were banned in the US and Canada.

Hardly anyone knew anything about Calvin Coolidge when he became President, yet he managed to run an Administration that accomplished much and remained popular.

The Teapot Dome scandal became the biggest corruption scandal in US government history. For the first time, a US cabinet secretary was sent to prison for official misdeeds.

By 1923, evidence was mounting of scandal within the Harding Administration. The President did not acknowledge this publicly, but privately he agonized about it. It may have been a factor in his death in August.

Jazz music, by its nature, has to be heard to be understood and appreciated. In an earlier time, it might have remained a regional or ethnic niche music for some time, but thanks to the phonograph, one musician or band could teach jazz to millions.

Jazz has its roots in a number of other musical forms: band music, spirituals, blues, and ragtime.