| Among other things (which I may add later), this was the year of the Great Copyright Ban in the United States of America. Prior to 1909, copyright, when registered, lasted seven years, and could be extended only another seven years for a total of fourteen years. Since that time copyright has been progressively extended retroactively to 1923, most recently with the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Now copyright lasts 100 years or 75 years after the death of the author, whichever is longer. It hardly need be said that with this trend, no works from 1923 on will ever enter the public domain. These extensions have been fueled by the regular Copyright Lobby, consisting of publishers and estates of copyright holders and other criminals, but most notably Disney; it doesn't want Mickey to enter the public domain, ever.
Sonny Bono's widow (Cher) received some attention for her statements that she and her husband both believed that copyright should be forever, and when told that was unconstitutional, she said she'd settle for forever less a day. | 
