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American Federation of Labor (AFL)
Samuel Gompers helps to establish the American Federation of Labor (AFL), one of many labor unions formed during the Progressive Era. Labor unions fight for safer working conditions and higher wages. -
Sherman Antitrust Act
Congress passes the Sherman Antitrust Act, the first legislation enacted by Congress to curb concentrations of power that interfere with trade and reduce economic competition. -
Theodore Roosevelt takes presidential office
Upon the assassination of U.S. President William McKinley, his vice president, Theodore Roosevelt, becomes president. Roosevelt takes office with progressive ideas and hopes to reform several arenas of American society. -
The Jungle and food processing regulations
Food safety practices in the meat processing industry are brought to the public’s attention by muckrakers such as Upton Sinclair, whose book The Jungle (1906) outraged and disgusted people. This led Congress to pass legislation on June 30 to help regulate food safety, including the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act, which passed on the same day. -
16th Amendment
It meant that income taxes could be put on wages, and fall on working class Americans, but that rich people who earned most of their income from property could not be taxed on that income. Soon afterward, progressives began pressing for a Constitutional amendment that would allow the federal government to tax income, no matter its source, and without having to divide it proportionately among the states.In February 1913, the 16th amendment allowing for taxes on incomes was ratified by the states. -
Sweatshop incident causes attention about worker safety
The Triangle shirtwaist factory fire leads to the deaths of 146 workers, mostly young immigrant women, in an overcrowded and unsafe New York City clothing factory. The tragedy brings attention to the sweatshop conditions that many labor in. -
The Progressive Party is formed
For the 1912 presidential election the Republican party decides to support the reelection of President William Howard Taft, causing progressive Republicans to form the Progressive Party as competition. With former president Theodore Roosevelt as its nominee, the party is also called the Bull Moose Party, a nod to Roosevelt’s perceived strength. The Progressive Party splits the Republican vote, so the Democrats’ nominee, Woodrow Wilson, is elected president. -
17th Amendment
It altered the electoral mechanism established in Article I, Section 3, of the Constitution, which had provided for the appointment of senators by the state legislatures. The amendment reflected popular dissatisfaction with the corruption and inefficiency that had come to characterize the legislative election of U.S. senators in many states. -
18th Amendment
Emerged from the organized efforts of the temperance movement and Anti-Saloon League, which attributed to alcohol virtually all of society’s ills and led campaigns at the local, state, and national levels to combat its manufacture, sale, distribution, and consumption. -
Women's right to vote
Congress passes the Nineteenth Amendment, giving all women citizens the right to vote in U.S. elections. This is showing that times are changing, to a place (and time) where all people have equal rights.