LIFE & TIMES
A quick guide to the main events in the life of Amy Beach
1867
Amy Marcy Cheney is born on 5 September in NEW HAMPSHIRE. Her father is a paper manufacturer and importer, her mother a keen singer and pianist.
1885
Two years after making her public debut as a pianist, she curtails performances following her marriage to HENRY BEACH, a physician.
1896
Her GAELIC SYMPHONY, the first symphony written by a female American composer, enjoys great acclaim at its debut in Boston.
1912
On a tour of Europe after the deaths of her husband and mother, she impresses critics and audiences in Germany both as a composer and as a pianist.
1916
Returning to the US due to the outbreak of World War I, she eventually settles in Hillsborough, New Hampshire, where she lives with her aunt Franc and cousin Ethel.
1930
She rents an apartment for the winter months in New York, where her involvement at St Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church involves writing music for services.
1944
Four years after retiring due to heart disease, she dies in New York, aged 77.
1867
Fearing that the territory might be captured by force, Alexander II of Russia sells Alaska to the US for the sum of $7.2m (c$123m today).
1885
Invented by pharmacist Charles Alderton in Waco, Texas, the drink DR PEPPER is sold for the first time, preceding Coca-cola by a few months.
1896
New England culinary expert FANNIE FARMER publishes the Boston Cookingschool Cook Book, introducing the idea of standardised cup and spoon measures.
1912
On the campaign trail in Milwaukee for the 1912 US election, former president Theodore Roosevelt survives an assassination attempt by John Flammang Schrank, a disaffected loner from New York.
1916
Following its attack on the SS Sussex in the English Channel, Germany signs the Sussex Pledge to appease the US, making a promise not to torpedo any more passenger or merchant ships.
1930
As the US is held in the grip of the Great Depression, President HERBERT HOOVER introduces the Smoot-hawley Tariff Act to raise tariffs on imports and so boost American-made goods.
1944
Launched on 6 June (D-day), Operation Overlord sees Allied forces, numbering over 150,000 troops, begin a concerted assault on the coast of Normandy.