The History of Aquatics: 1926 - 1938.

1926 The world's largest hotel pool is built at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Fla. It measures 22,000 square feet, holds 600,000 gallons of water, and is still in use today.

1926 American Gertrude Ederle is the first woman to swim the English Channel (beating all previous men's times).

1928 Clarence "Buster" Crabbe takes a bronze medal in 1,500-meter freestyle in the 1926 Olympics in Amsterdam, Netherlands. But he makes his mark four years later in the Los Angeles Games, winning gold in the 400 freestyle, edging world-record holder Jean Tans of France by 1/10th of a second. "That 1/10th of a second changed my life," he says at the time. "It was then that [the Hollywood producers] discovered latent histrionic abilities in me." Crabbe goes on to star in Aquacades and make nearly 200 movies. He stars in roles such as Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Tarzan and Captain Gallant. In 1965, he becomes a charter inductee to the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

1930s Companies such as Ruud, Rheem and A.O. Smith begin adapting heaters for pool use. In 1932, the first heated pool in the United States is built at the William Wrigley Estate on Catalina Island, off the Southern California coast.

1930 The American Association of Pools and Beaches is formed, in response to the rapid development of the swimming industry during the 1920s. N.S. Alexander of Woodside Pool and Crystal Pool of Philadelphia is the first president. Four years later, the group becomes part of the National Association of Amusement Parks, which later changes its name to IAAPA.

1932 More than 1 million swimmers a year are reported to participate in the YMCA's programs,

1933-45 Calling it his "little White House," President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who suffers from polio, travels to Warm Springs, Ga., for therapeutic baths, spurring public interest in hydrotherapy.