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the end of WWI
Germany and the Allies sign an armistice to end the fighting in World War I. -
Prohibition
Congress ratifies the Eighteenth Amendment, prohibiting the sale of alcohol anywhere in the United States. -
Treaty of versailles
In Paris, diplomats representing the combatant nations of World War I sign the Treaty of Versailles, which promises to sustain peace through the creation of the League of Nations but also plants the seed of future conflict by imposing stiff reparations upon Germany. -
Palmer Raids
period of intense government persecution of radical political dissidents in response to the postwar Red Scare sweeping the nation -
Too Cotton
Cotton prices at New Orleans peak at 42 cents a pound, prompting Southern farmers to plant the largest crop in history. The resulting overproduction causes a collapse in prices, with cotton falling to less than 10 cents a pound by early 1921. Cotton farmers will toil in near-depression conditions throughout most of the 1920s and 30s -
Senate Rejects League
The Senate refuses to ratify the Versailles Treaty or authorize United States participation in the League of Nations. -
Women Sufferage
The Nineteenth Amendment is ratified, granting women the right to vote. -
Immigration Quota
Congress passes immigration restrictions, for the first time creating a quota for European immigration to the United States. Targeted at "undesirable" immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, the act sharply curtails the quota for those areas while retaining a generous allowance for migrants from Northern and Western Europe. -
Sacco-Vanzetti
The Sacco-Vanzetti trial begins; immigrant Italian radicals Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti will eventually be convicted of murder and executed. -
Germany marks plumit
Germany, burdened by reparations payments imposed by Treaty of Versailles, suffers hyperinflation. One American dollar is now worth 7,000 German marks -
Ford Motor
The market capitalization of Ford Motor Company exceeds $1 billion. -
Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald publishes The Great Gatsby. -
monkey trail
Tennessee schoolteacher John Scopes is arrested for teaching evolution, in violation of new state law banning the teaching of Darwin. The ensuing "Scopes Monkey Trial," pitting defense attorney Clarence Darrow against three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan in a proxy debate of modernity versus fundamentalism, captivates the nation. Scopes is eventually found guilty. -
KKK march
Forty thousand Ku Klux Klansmen march on Washington, their white-hooded procession filling Pennsylvania Avenue -
Babe Ruth
New York Yankees star Babe Ruth hits his 60th home run of the season, breaking his own record of 59. Ruth's record will stand for more than thirty years. -
Stock Market Crash
The American stock market collapses, signaling the onset of the Great Depression. The Dow Jones Industrial Average peaks in September 1929 at 381.17—a level that it will not reach again until 1954. The Dow will bottom out at a Depression-era low of just 41.22 in 1932.