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During this time in our history we began a new area, one of imperialism, prominence on the world stage, and involvement in the greatest most horrific war in world history.
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In 1911 the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in Manhattan caught fire. The doors of the factory had been chained shut to prevent employees from taking unauthorized breaks, managers who held the keys saved themselves, leaving everyone else trapped. Women lined the rooftop and windows of the ten-story building and jumped, landing in a mangled, bloody pulp. Life nets held by firemen tore at the impact of the falling bodies. By the end of the fire it left 71 workers injured, and 146 dead. -
The election in 1912 saw four candidates run, Woodrow Wilson Democrat won with 435 electoral votes, In the Bull Moose party Theodore Roosevelt had 88 electoral votes, William Howard Taft Republican won 8 electoral votes, and Eugene V. Debs with the Socialist Party won only 918,332 votes. -
On 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb Yugoslav nationalist, assassinated the Austro-Hungarian heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, leading to the July Crisis. In response, Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia on 23 July. Serbia's reply failed to satisfy the Austrians, and the two moved to a war footing. A network of interlocking alliances enlarged the crisis from a bilateral issue in the Balkans to one involving most of Europe. -
World War I was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. It led to the mobilization of more than 70 million military personnel, making it one of the largest wars in history. It also was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated 8.5 million combatant deaths and 13 million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war. Resulting genocides and the related 1918 Spanish flu pandemic killed another 17–100 million people worldwide. -
Congress declared war on Germany on April 4, 1917. The nation entered a war three thousand miles away with a small and unprepared military. On May 18, 1917, Congress approved the Selective Service Act, and President Wilson signed it a week later. The new legislation avoided the unpopular system of bonuses and substitutes used during the Civil War and was generally received without major objection by the American people. -
Wilson signed the Espionage Act in 1917 and the Sedition Act in 1918, stripping dissenters and protesters of their rights to publicly resist the war. Critics and protesters were imprisoned. Immigrants, labor unions, and political radicals became targets of government investigations and an ever more hostile public culture. Americans lent their financial support to the war effort by purchasing war bonds or supporting the Liberty Loan Drive. Many Americans, however, sacrificed much more than money.