1865 - 1920 Timeline

By kh55075
  • U-boats created

    Naval submarines operated by Germany.
  • Bessemer Process

    The first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel.
  • Discovery of Gold in Pikes Peak

    The first significant gold discovery in the Rocky Mountain Region.
  • Homestead Act

    Accelerated the settlement of the western territory.
  • Morrill Land grant act

    Committed the federal government to grant each state 30,000 acres of public land.
  • Transcontinental r/r completed

    The completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, one of mankind's biggest accomplishments.
  • Battle of little bighorn

    Marked the most decisive Native American victory.
  • Farmers alliance created

    A social organization on the central Texas frontier.
  • Carlisle school established

    The United States founded the Carlisle school at the site of an old military base.
  • Thomas Edison invents the light bulb

    Thomas Edison creates the first electric light bulb.
  • Chinese exclusion act

    The first significant law restricting immigration into the United States.
  • Edison lights up NYC

    The first electrical lighting in New York City signaled a new era of urban illumination.
  • Interstate commerce act passed

    Federal law that was designed to regulate the railroad industry.
  • Dawes act

    An act to provide for the allotment of lands to Indians on the various reservations.
  • American federation of labor is founded

    National federation of labor unions.
  • Alfred T Mahan writes his book on sea power

    Alfred T Mahan writes "The Influence of Sea Power upon History".
  • Jacob Riis published his book of photos

    Jacob Riis publishes "How the Other Half Lives".
  • Sherman antitrust act passed

    The first Federal act that outlawed monopolistic business practices.
  • Wounded knee massacre

    The slaughter of Lakota Indians by United States Army troops.
  • Fredrick Jackson Turner writes an essay of settling the west

    Fredrick Jackson Turner writes an essay called, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History".
  • Pullman strike

    Widespread railroad strike and boycott that severely disrupted rail traffic in the Midwest.
  • Plessy v Ferguson

    A Supreme Court decision in which the Court ruled that racial segregation laws did not violate the U.S. Constitution.
  • Holden v hardy

    A U.S. labor law case in which the U.S. Supreme Court held a limitation on working time for miners and smelters as constitutional.
  • Spanish American War begins

    Conflict between the United States and Spain that ended Spanish colonial rule.
  • Hawaii is annexed

    Hawaiian Islands were annexed by a joint resolution.
  • Phillipines islands are annexed

    United States paid Spain $20 million to annex the entire Philippine archipelago.
  • Newlands Reclamation act

    A United States federal law that funded irrigation projects for the arid lands of 20 states in the American West.
  • Panama Canal is built

    Canal that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the narrow Isthmus of Panama.
  • Lochner v New York

    A New York law limiting the number of hours bakers could work in a day and in a week.
  • Sinclair’s the Jungle written

    Wrote to expose the appalling working conditions in the meat-packing industry.
  • Pure Food and drug act passed

    Prohibited the sale of misbranded or adulterated food and drugs in interstate commerce.
  • Muller V Oregon

    Limited the number of work hours for women for women did not violate the right to contract in the Fourteenth Amendment.
  • Founding of the NAACP

    The home of grassroots activism for civil rights and social justice.
  • Hepner act

    Imposes the forfeiture and liability to pay double the value of the goods received.
  • 17th Amendment

    Allowing voters to cast direct votes for U.S. senators.
  • Ford Motor company's first full assembly line starts

    Henry Ford installs the first moving assembly line for the mass production of an entire automobile.
  • Federal Reserve act

    Established the Federal Reserve System as the central bank of the United States.
  • Beginning of the first world war

    Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.
  • Clayton Antitrust act

    A piece of legislation, passed by the U.S. Congress, and signed into law in 1914, that defines unethical business practices.
  • Lusitania Sunk

    German submarine (U-boat) U-20 torpedoed and sank the Lusitania.
  • US enters WWI

    Congress voted to declare war on Germany, joining the bloody battle.
  • Selective Service act

    An act to provide for the common defense by increasing the strength of the Armed Forces of the United States.
  • WWI ends

    After more than four years of horrific fighting and the loss of millions of lives, the guns on the Western Front fell silent.
  • 18th Amendment

    Prohibited the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors.
  • 19th Amendment

    Granted women the right to vote.
  • Immigration quota act

    Provided immigration visas to two percent of the total number of people of each nationality in the United States.
  • National origins act

    A law that severely restricted immigration by establishing a system of national quotas that blatantly discriminated against immigrants from southern and eastern Europe and virtually excluded Asians.
  • Statue of Liberty is built

    The Statue of Liberty is built, gifted to us by the people of France.
  • Scopes trial

    Journalist H. L. Mencken applied to the 1925 prosecution of a criminal action brought by the state of Tennessee against high school teacher John T. Scopes.