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President William McKinley was assassinated only 6 months into his second term, and his Vice President, Theodore Roosevelt, becomes President.
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Henry Ford established the Ford Motor Company.
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The 1903 World Series was the first modern World Series to be played in Major League Baseball.
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The Wright Brothers flew 112 feet for 12 seconds and did the first ever flight.
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The United States received the Panama Canal.
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Susan B. Anthony died of Pneumonia.
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The 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on April 18 with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.8.
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The Meat Inspection Act started and it prohibited the sale of adulterated or misbranded livestock and derived products as food and ensured that livestock were slaughtered and processed under sanitary conditions.
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In West Virginia’s Marion County, an explosion in a network of mines owned by the Fairmont Coal Company in Monongah kills 361 coal miners. It was the worst mining disaster in American history.
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Oklahoma becomes a state.
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The FBI was established.
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The Ford Model T appeared in the market. The cheapest one initially started at $825.
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The U.S. Penny changed to Abraham Lincoln.
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NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) was found by Moorfield Storey, Mary White Ovington and W. E. B. Du Bois. It was an African-American civil rights organization in the United States.
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William Howard Taft becomes the 27th president.
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In San Francisco harbor, Eugene B. Ely lands his plane on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania for the first landing of a plane on a ship.
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The Triangle Shirtwaist Company caught on fire, and several women either died in the fire or died jumping off the building.
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The Mona Lisa was stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian theif.
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The first transcontinental airline flight was begun in New York by C.P. Rodgers. It would complete its journey to Pasadena, California after numerous stops and 82 hours and 4 minutes in the air on November 5. On October 10, Henry Ford patents the Automotive Transmission, Patent #1,005,186.
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Woodrow Wilson became the 28th President of the United States of America, after William Howard Taft.
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President Theodore Roosevelt built the Panama Canal which turned out to be a 48-mile waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a key conduit for international maritime trade.
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The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing the Federal government treasury to impose an income tax.
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The first moving assembly line is introduced and adopted for mass production by the Ford Motor Company, allowing automobile construction time to decrease by almost 10 hours per vehicle.
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World War I began because of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the archduke of Austria-Hungary.
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Babe Ruth makes his major league debut.
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President Woodrow Wilson announces that the United States will stay officially neutral in the European conflict that would become World War I. World War I hostilities had begun on June 28 when the Archduke of Austria and his wife, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were killed by a Serb nationalist in Sarajevo. Hostilities would begin on July 28 when Austro-Hungary declared war on Serbia for failing to meet conditions set after the assassinations.
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Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson conduct the first telephone conversation between New York and San Francisco.
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At graduation ceremonies of the United States Military Academy, future general and president Dwight D. Eisenhower is commissioned into the army as a 2nd Lieutenant.
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Woodrow Wilson won a second term as President with his election in the Electoral College, 277 to 254 over Republican candidate Charles E. Hughes.
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The United States government cuts diplomatic ties with Germany. The Zimmermann Telegram is given to the United States by Britain on February 24, showing the offer by Germany to give Mexico back the southwest United States if they would declare war on the United States.
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The United States entered World War I and joined its Allies Britain, France, and Russia.
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Airmail service is begun by the United States Post Office Department with regular service between New York, Philadelphia, and Washington.
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The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending World War I.
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Hitler joined the German Workers' Party, a small, extreme nationalist group. It soon changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeitespartei – NSDAP or 'Nazi' for short). He soon became the leader of the Nazi party.
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Women are given the right to vote when the 19th Amendment to the United States constitution grants universal women's suffrage. Also known as the Susan B. Anthony amendment, in recognition of her important campaign to win the right to vote.
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The United States government approves a sale of surplus war material to Great Britain.
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt continues his dominance of presidential politics with a 449 to 82 Electoral College victory over Republican candidate Wendell Wilkie, winning his third presidential election. Roosevelt becomes the first man to hold office for three terms.
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The Lend-Lease Act is approved, which provided $7 billion in military credits for American manufactured war supplies to Great Britain and other allies; in the fall, a similar Lend-Lease pact would be approved for the USSR with a $1 billion loan.
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The attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, commences at 7:55 a.m. when Japanese fighter planes launch a surprise attack on United States soil, destroying the U.S. Pacific Fleet docked at the base. This attack, which took the greatest amount of U.S. naval life in history with 1,177 sailor and marines perishing in the attack, as well as the loss or damage to twenty-one naval ships, led to the entry of American troops into World War II. One day later, US declares war on Japan.
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Executive order 9066 is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, confining 110,000 Japanese Americans, including 75,000 citizens, on the West Coast into relocation camps during World War II. The remains of the first of these detention camps resides in California's Manzanar National Historic Site. These camps would last for three years.
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The development of the first atomic bomb is signed into agreement between the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Winston Churchill, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Hyde Park, New York.
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The United States encounters its first major defeat in the European theater of World War II at the Battle for Kasserine Pass in Tunisia.
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The Tehran Conference is held for three days, concluding in an agreement between U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Josef Stalin about a planned June 1944 invasion of Europe with the code name Operation Overlord.
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The Normandy Invasion, D-Day, occurs when one hundred and fifty-five thousand Allied troops, including American forces and those of eleven other Allied nations (Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, and the United Kingdom) land in France. Allied soldiers stormed the beaches of France to begin the World War II invasion of Europe that would lead to the liberation of Paris.
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The G.I. Bill of Rights is signed into law, providing benefits to veterans.
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President Roosevelt dies suddenly; Vice President Harry S. Truman assumes the presidency and role as commander in chief of World War II.
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President Harry S. Truman gives the go-ahead for the use of the atomic bomb with the bombing of Hiroshima. Three days later, the second bomb is dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. On August 15, Emperor Hirohito of Japan surrenders.
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Four hundred thousand mine workers begin to strike, with other industries following their lead.
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The Basketball Association of America, known as the National Basketball Association (NBA) since 1949 after its merger with the rival National Basketball League, is founded.
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The Truman Doctrine is announced to the U.S. Congress. When passed it would grant $400 million in aid to Greece and Turkey to battle Communist terrorism. President Harry S. Truman implements the act on May 22.
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Jackie Robinson breaks Major League Baseball's barrier against colored players when he debuts at first base for Branch Rickey's Brooklyn Dodgers.
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President Harry S. Truman rallies from behind, capturing his first president election from the supposed winner Thomas E. Dewey, the governor of New York. Headlines in national newspapers had overtly announced a Dewey victory, only to be proven wrong. Truman won the Electoral College vote with 303 to Dewey's 189, with Strom Thurmond, running as the States' Rights candidate, receiving 39 Electoral votes. Truman won the election with less than 50% of the popular votes.
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Alger Hiss, former State Department official, is indicted for perjury in connection to denials of passing state secrets to a communist spy ring. He would be convicted of the conspiracy on January 21, 1950 and receive a five year sentence.
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Captain James Gallagher lands the B-50 Lucky Lady II in Texas after completing the first around-the-world non-stop airplane flight. It was refueled four times in flight.
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The Brinks robbery in Boston occurs when eleven masked bandits steal $2.8 million from an armored car outside their express office.
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The Korean War begins its three year conflict when troops of North Korea, backed with Soviet weaponry, invade South Korea. This act leads to U.S. involvement when two days later, the United States Air Force and Navy are ordered by President Truman to the peninsula. On June 30, ground forces and air strikes are approved against North Korea.
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United Nations forces retreat south toward the 38th parallel when Chinese Communist forces open a counteroffensive in the Korean War. This action halted any thought of a quick resolution to the conflict. On December 8, 1950, shipments to Communist China are banned by the United States.
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Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were found guilty of conspiracy of wartime espionage and sentenced to death. They were executed June 19, 1953. Morton Sobell was also convicted of the crime and sentenced to thirty years in prison.
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The United States, Australia, and New Zealand sign a mutual security pact, the ANZUS Treaty.
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President Truman authorizes the seizure of United States steel mills in order to avert a strike, but his action is ruled illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 2.
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General Dwight D. Eisenhower, a newcomer to politics, but popular due to his role in winning World War II as European commander, gains an easy victory over Democratic challenger Adlai E. Stevenson. The Electoral College vote was 442 to 89.
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President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower travels to Korea to try and end the conflict.
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Fighting ceases in the Korean War. North Korea, South Korea, the United States, and the Republic of China sign an armistice agreement.
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The Cold War continues in earnest when President Dwight D. Eisenhower approves a top secret document stating that the U.S. nuclear arsenal must be expanded to combat the communist threat around the world.
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Joseph McCarthy begins televised Senate hearings into alleged Communist influence in the United States Army. Later this year, on December 2, the U.S. Congress votes to condemn Senator McCarthy for his conduct during the Army investigation hearings.
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Racial segregation in public schools is declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in Brown vs. the Board of Education. The ruling of the court stated that racial segregation violated the 14th Amendment's clause that guaranteed equal protection. The Monroe School in Topeka, Kansas had segregated Linda Brown in its classes.
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Disneyland, the brainchild of Walt Disney, opens in Anaheim, California, with the backing of the new television network, ABC. Disneyland California remains today as one of the greatest theme park capitals of the world and some say is second only to his second park built some years later on the other side of the country, Disney World Florida.
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Rosa Parks, an African American seamstress, refuses to give up her seat on the bus to a white man, prompting a boycott that would lead to the declaration that bus segregation laws were unconstitutional by a federal court.
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The two largest American labor unions, the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, merge to form the AFL-CIO, boasting membership of fifteen million.
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The first transatlantic telephone cable begins operation.
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A repeat challenge in the presidential election between Eisenhower and Stevenson gains a similar outcome, with easy victory for the incumbent president by a 457 to 73 margin in the Electoral College vote.
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U.S. Congress approves the first civil rights bill since reconstruction with additional protection of voting rights.
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National Guard called to duty by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus to bar nine black students from attending previously all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. He withdrew the troops on September 21 and the students were allowed entrance to class two days later. A threat of violence caused President Eisenhower to dispatch federal troops to Little Rock on September 24 to enforce the edict.
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The first major world's fair since the end of World War II opens in Brussels, Belgium and evokes a Cold War debate between the pavilions of the Soviet Union and the United States. Their competing visions of the world vie for the attention of the over 41 million visitors to the event, also noted for the Atomium atom molecular structure that stood as the fair's theme. The expo, sanctioned by the Bureau of International Exhibitions, closed on October 19, 1958.
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Alaska is admitted to the United States as the 49th state to be followed on August 21 by Hawaii.
