Death rates in the 20th century 1 year old. In 1999, at the end of the century, the infant mortality rate in the United States declined more than 90% to 7.2 deaths per 1,000 live births. Similarly, maternal mortality rates declined almost 99% to less than 0.1 reported deaths per 1,000 live births. There are a variety of causes for this steep decline in death rates in the 20th century: Despite these tremendous decreases in infant mortality and maternal mortality, the 20th century experienced significant disparities between minority death rates compared to death rates for white mothers. In the 1900s, black women were twice as likely
American social dancing in the 20th century to big band music, while jazz dance was done to jazz music. The 20th century brought about a change in social dances. The "old fashioned and out of step" dances such as "the waltz and polka" needed to make way "for something different and new". In the past, only upper class dances had been recorded because lower class dances were "not deemed worthy of record". However, now in the 20th century, "the Industrial Age was upon us, a new middle class was emerging and great social ... innovations were on the horizon". The upper class even became more accepting of