Some Historical Perspective on the World Series

A Lot Has Happened Since the Cubs and Indians Last Won It All

One of the two longest and most incredible droughts in the history of professional sports will come to an end this fall when either the Chicago Cubs or the Cleveland Indians win the World Series. For the sake of perspective, here is a look at what has happened when both teams won a title and since:

Chicago Cubs (1908)

· Teddy Roosevelt was President of the United States, a century before he became a regular fixture at Washington Nationals home games.

· There were only 15 amendments in the U.S. Constitution.

· There were only 46 states in the union.

· The Ford Motor Company started producing the Model T. (1908–1927)

· Birth of Lyndon Johnson. (1908–1973)

· Three years before the birth of Ronald Reagan. (1911–2004)

· Four years before the sinking of the Titanic. (1912)

· Six years before the outbreak of World War I. (1914–1918)

· Nine years before the Russian Revolution. (1917)

· Nine years before the birth of John F. Kennedy. (1917–1963)

· Eleven years before Prohibition. (1919–1933)

· Twelve years before the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment granting women the right to vote. (1920)

· Sixteen years before the birth of the two oldest living presidents, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter. (1924)

· Seventeen years before the passage of federal and state legislation to create the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. (1925)

· Eighteen years before the birth of Elizabeth II. (1926)

· Nineteen years before Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic Ocean. (1927)

· Twenty-one years before the Great Depression. (1929)

· Twenty-one years before the Academy Awards. (1929)

· Twenty-one years before the birth of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968)

· Twenty-two years before the Dust Bowl. (1930–1940)

· Thirty-one years before the outbreak of World War II. (1939–1945)

· The New York Highlanders had only been in existence for five years (1903) and would be renamed the New York Yankees five years later (1913). The Yankees didn’t win the first of their 27 World Series championships until 1923.

Cleveland Indians (1948)

· Harry Truman was President of the United States.

· There were only 21 amendments in the U.S. Constitution. (The 22nd Amendment was submitted to the states for ratification in 1947, but wasn’t ratified until 1951)

· There were only 48 states in the union.

· The New York Yankees had won 15 of their 27 World Series championships.

· George W. Bush and Bill Clinton were two years old.

· Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were one and two years old.

· One year before the first Soviet nuclear test. (1949)

· Five years before the coronation of Elizabeth II. (1953)

· Five years before Watson and Crick discovered DNA. (1953)

· Five years before Elvis Presley recorded his first demo. (1953)

· Six years before Brown v. Board of Education. (1954)

· Seven years before Rosa Parks’s arrest for civil disobedience. (1955)

· Nine years before the launch of Sputnik I. (1957)

· Nine years before the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants moved to California. (1957)

· Eleven years before the Cuban Revolution. (1959)

· Thirteen years before the birth of Barack Obama. (1961)

· Thirteen years before the construction of the Berlin Wall. (1961)

· Fourteen years before the Cuban Missile Crisis. (1962)

· Fourteen years before the Beatles recorded their first single. (1962)

· Twenty-one years before Woodstock. (1969)

· Twenty-one years before the Apollo 11 moon landing. (1969)

· Twenty-five years before Roe v. Wade. (1973)

· Twenty-five years before the Oil Embargo. (1973–1974)

· Twenty-six years before Richard Nixon resigned from office. (1974)

· Twenty-eight years before the Bicentennial. (1976)

· Twenty-eight years before the founding of Apple. (1976)

· Thirty years before election of John Paul II. (1978–2005)

· Thirty-one years before the Iran hostage crisis. (1979)

· Thirty-two years before the launch of CNN. (1980)

· Thirty-three years before the AIDS pandemic. (1981)

· Forty-two years before the reunification of Germany. (1990)

· Forty-three years before the collapse of the Soviet Union. (1991)

· Forty-eight years before the founding of Google. (1996)

· Fifty-two years before the Florida Recount. (2000)

· Fifty-three years before 9/11. (2001)

· Fifty-six years before the founding of Facebook. (2004)

· Fifty-nine years before the Great Recession. (2007–2009)

· Sixty-three years before the Arab Spring. (2010–2011)