- Autograph hobby timeline
The following is a partial autograph hobby timeline:
*1920s: The "Big Five" of sports,
Red Grange , Bobby Jones,Bill Tilden ,Jack Dempsey andBabe Ruth emerge. Dempsey and Ruth in particular are considered by autograph experts to have been great signers and to have helped popularize gettingautograph s atbaseball parks andboxing gyms.
*1940s:United States President Harry Truman allegedly becomes the first President to use theAutopen machine to answer mail autograph requests.
*1950s: A young Cassius Clay is allegedly denied an autograph bySugar Ray Robinson and swears never to deny anyone an autograph if he ever becomes famous.
*1963: PresidentJohn F. Kennedy murdered in Dallas. As a consequence, Presidential visits are much more closely followed by police and secret service men since.
*1980s: The killing ofJohn Lennon as well as attacks againstRonald Reagan andPope John Paul II affect the hobby: entertainers and political figures rebuff their security detail after these incidents. The autograph collecting boom era begins.
*1993:Monica Seles is stabbed inGermany , raising security levels at worldwide sports events.
*1997: Publication ofAutograph Collector Magazine begins.
*Late 1990s: TheFBI announces the arrest of different members of a fake autograph dealer ring that was based inCalifornia and had operations in many other states.
*2001: TheSeptember 11 terrorist attacks raiseairport security levels, making it difficult for the public to approach celebrities for autographs at U.S. airports.
*2003:Television show "Celebrities Uncensored " debuts, showing entertainers as they act in public, unaware that they are being filmed, and giving autograph collectors an insight of who likes to sign autographs in person and who doesn't. An internet website announces it is selling the copy of the "Double Fantasy" album thatJohn Lennon autographed for his killer,Mark David Chapman , for $530,000 dollars. The formerMiss Venezuela ,Verushka Ramirez , is kidnapped and released only after autographing 15 calendars for her captors.
*2004: Mexican singerYahir enters theGuinness Book of World Records by signing 2,850 autographs in one show, signing without stopping for eight hours and fifteen minutes.Pamela Anderson goes on a nationwide tour across the United States, to promote and sign her book, Star. A letter signed byJohn Wilkes Booth , alleged killer ofAbraham Lincoln , sells for $1,000 at aBoston, Massachusetts auction. In April, formerchess grandmasterGarry Kasparov is attacked by a man after signing the man's chessboard; the attacker claimed that he was provoked by political reasons.
*2006: TheUnotchit , invented byMargaret Atwood , is scheduled for release. OnAugust 27 ,Trigo Figueroa , son of Mexican singerJoan Sebastian , is murdered, allegedly by fans seeking his father's autograph after a concert.
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