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The National Origins Act
This act sharply restricted the number of immigrants allowed to enter the U.S., and it set immigration quotas for each European nation. It reduced the yearly maximum number of immigrants to 164,000 per year as well as limited the annual immigration from each European country to 2% of the number of its American residents according to the 1890 U.S. census. -
The Scopes Monkey Trial
John Scopes was being tried for teaching his students evolutionary theory in violation of the Butler Act, a state law preventing evolutionary theory or any theory that denied the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible from being taught in publicly funded Tennessee classrooms. Those who believed the Butler Act was a threat to personal liberty saw the trial as a “test” case, hoping that it would lead to a day in the Supreme Court. -
Lindbergh's Transatlantic Flight
Lindbergh concluded the first ever nonstop solo flight from New York to Paris. Armed with only a few sandwiches, some bottles of water, paper maps, and a flashlight, Lindbergh successfully navigated over the Atlantic Ocean in thirty-three hours. -
Black Tuesday
On this day the stock market began its long precipitous fall. Stock values evaporated. Shares of U.S. Steel dropped from $262 to $22. The crash exposed the deep, underlying problems with the American economy in the 1920s. -
Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930
Spurred by the ongoing agricultural depression, Hoover signed into law the highest tariff in American history just as global markets began to crumble. Other countries responded in kind, tariff walls rose across the globe, and international trade ground to a halt. -
The Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps provided jobs for young, unemployed men during the Great Depression. Over its 9-year lifespan, they employed about 3 million men nationwide. These men made valuable contributions to forest management, flood control, conservation projects, and the development of state and national parks, forests, and historic sites. In return, the men received the benefits of education and training, a small paycheck, and the dignity of honest work. -
Tennessee Valley Authority
As another of Roosevelt's New Deal programs, the Tennessee Valley Authority was tasked with improving the navigability of the Tennessee River; providing flood control through reforestation of marginal lands in the Tennessee Valley watershed; developing agriculture, commerce and industry in the valley; and operating the hydroelectric Wilson Dam. -
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
This act set a national minimum wage of $0.25/hour, a standardized 44-hour work week (which would later drop to 40 hours), a requirement to pay extra for overtime work, and a prohibition on certain types of child labor. -
Beginning of World War 2
The German Wehrmacht invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Britain and France declared war two days later and mobilized their armies. -
Executive Order 8802
This act banned discriminatory employment practices by federal agencies and all unions and companies engaged in war-related work. The order also established the Fair Employment Practices Commission to enforce the new policy. -
Japan's Attack on Pearl Harbor
On the morning of December 7, 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Japanese military planners hoped to destroy enough battleships and aircraft carriers to cripple American naval power for years. Twenty-four hundred Americans were killed in the attack.