1865-1920 timeline

  • Bessemer process

    A steel-making process in which impurities are removed from molten pig iron by oxidation.
  • Discovery of gold in Pikes Peak

  • Homestead act

    The Homestead Act accelerated the settlement of the western territory by granting adult heads of families 160 acres of surveyed public land for a minimal filing fee and five years of continuous residence on that land.
  • Morrill land grant act

    Federal act to set aside land to create colleges to "benefit the agricultural and mechanical arts".
  • Transcontinental railroad completed

  • Battle of little bighorn

  • Farmers alliance created

    The Farmers' Alliance was first organized in Texas in the mid-1870s and soon spread to other states and territories in the South and Midwest. One of the group's main goals was to form cooperatives. Farmers set up cooperatively owned retail stores and marketing organizations.
  • Thomas Edison invents the light bulb

  • Carlisle school established

  • Chinese exclusion act

    Was a law passed that prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years.The law made exceptions for merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplomats.
  • Edison lights up NYC

    Thomas Edison created the first electrical lighting in New York City.
  • Statue of Liberty built

  • American federation of labor founded

    The American Federation of Labor was a national federation of labor unions.
  • Dawes act

    the law authorized the President to break up reservation land, which was held in common by the members of a tribe, into small allotments to be parceled out to individuals.
  • interstate commerce act passed

    This act regulated the trade between foreign nations among the several states.
  • Alfred T Mahan writes his book on sea power

  • Sherman antitrust act passed

    A law which prescribes the rule of free competition among those engaged in commerce. It was passed by Congress.
  • Jacob Riis publishes his book of photos

  • Wounded knee massacre

    The wounded knee massacre was a massacre of nearly three hundred Lakota people by soldiers of the United States Army.
  • Frederick Jackson Turner writes essay on settling the west

  • Pullman strike

    The Pullman strike was a nationwide boycott of the U.S. rail system.
  • Plessy V Ferguson

    This case was a Supreme Court decision ruling that racial segregation laws did not violate the U.S Constitution as long as the facilities for each race were equal in quality, a doctrine that came to be known as "separate but equal".
  • Holden V Hardy

    Holden V Hardy was a US labor law case in which the US Supreme Court held a limitation on working time for miners and smelters as constitutional.
  • Spanish American war begins

  • Hawaii is annexed

  • Philippines are annexed

  • Newlands reclamation act

    The Reclamation Act of 1902 is a United States federal law that funded irrigation projects for the arid lands of 20 states in the American West.
  • Lochner V New York

    Lochner V New York was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court holding that a New York State statute that prescribed maximum working hours for bakers violated the bakers' right to freedom of contract under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
  • Sinclair's the jungle is written

  • Pure food and drug act passed

    This was the first of a series of significant consumer protection laws which was enacted by Congress in the 20th century and led to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration.
  • Muller V Oregon

    Muller V Oregon was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court. Women were provided by state mandate lesser work-hours than allotted to men. The posed question was whether women's liberty to negotiate a contract with an employer should be equal to a man's.
  • Hepner act

    The Reclamation Act of 1902 is a United States federal law that funded irrigation projects for the arid lands of 20 states in the American West.
  • Founding of the NAACP

    he National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans.
  • 17th amendment

    Declares voters can vote directly for U.S. senators.
  • Ford Motor company's first assembly line starts

  • Federal reserve act

    The law created the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States.
  • Panama Canal is built

  • Beginning of the first world war

  • U-boats created

  • Clayton antitrust act

    he Clayton Act seeks to prevent anticompetitive practices in their incipiency.
  • Lusitania sunk

    The RMS Lusitania was a British-registered ocean liner that was torpedoed by an Imperial German Navy U-boat during the First World War
  • US enters WW1

  • selective service act

    The Selective Service Act of 1917 or Selective Draft Act authorized the United States federal government to raise a national army for service in World War I through conscription.
  • WW1 ends

  • 18th amendment

    Prohibited the use or sale of alcohol in the United States.
  • 19th amendment

    Gave women the constitutional right to vote.
  • immigration quota act

    Limited the number of immigrants allowed in the country.
  • National origins act

    determined whether certain immigrants could come into the country or not.
  • scopes trial

    Trial in which a school teacher in Tennessee taught evolution when not allowed.