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The Anthracite coal miners worked under dangerous conditions and considered themselves underpaid and that they had too many work hours so they went on strike. The coal barons who employed the workers of the area tried to wait out the strike knowing that they would eventually need more money to pay off debts. Theodore Roosevelt asked the coal barons to meet the requests of the workers but they refused. Theodore Roosevelt then ordered the U.S. Army to occupy and work on the coal fields.
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The Jungle by Upton Sinclair and other events shined a light on the subject of unsanitary food practices the Pure Food and Drug Act was passed. The act was the first significant series of consumer protection laws. The act also led to the eventual creation of the Food and Drug Administration. The law itself was passed to prevent adulterated or mislabeled food and drug products. Around this time the Meat Inspection Act is also passed which was a similar act, but was more centered toward meat.
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The Race Riot of 1908 in Springfield, Illinois partially led to the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. the lynching of black men, was at an all time high. Mary White Orvington, William English Walling, and others gathered for a meeting to talk about racial justice. This meeting led to the forming of the NAACP with the help of W.E.B. Dubois which went on to be a major organization during the civil rights movement and is still around today.
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The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire took place in Manhattan in New York City. The fire was the deadliest industrial disaster in the city's history. The tragedy led to the deaths of 146 garment workers, most of them being women and girls. The victims died from the fire, smoke inhalation, and jumping or falling to their deaths. Most of the victims were recent Italian and Jewish workers, most of them being aged 14-23. The fire brought widespread attention to poor sweatshop working conditions.
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Both Theodore Roosevelt and the Senate wanted to pursue making a canal through Panama which would make shipping goods from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts much cheaper and faster. Columbia, the owners of Panama did not agree to the U.S.'s deal to create the canal so Theodore Roosevelt took matters into his own hands and helped the people in Panama revolt against Columbia. The revolution was a success and the new leaders of Panama allowed the Canal to be built which is still in use today.
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The Federal Trade Commission Act was passed which established the Federal Trade Commission. The federal law outlawed unfair methods of competition and practices that were heavily affecting commerce. A major reason for passing the law was to further stop trusts which were corrupt and only allowed the very rich to get richer which created few at the top while workers and others were left with debt. The FTC went on not only to break up trusts but also to promote the protection of the consumers.
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The Great Migration was a time period from 1916 to 1970 in which millions of African Americans migrated from the Southern U.S. to the North. The Great Migration originally started during WW1 and mainly occurred when the U.S. was fighting in the war. The main reason for the migration was the poor economic conditions that African Americans suffered and also the to leave the racial discrimination and segregation of the South where Jim Crow laws were still upheld.
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The Red Scare began following the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia which was a communist revolution. The scare took place in a period of roughly around 1917 to 1920 which was a time where American patriotism was at a high due to WW1. There was already a decent amount of tension between immigrants with there being many new immigrants arriving from Eastern and Southern Europe. The "first" Red Scare ended and there eventually was a second Red Scare in the form of McCarthyism during the Cold War.
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The United States attempted to stay neutral for the majority of WW1 while still trading with Britain and the allies. Germany attempted to send a telegram to Mexico known as the Zimmermann telegram which was a proposal of military alliance between the two countries if America were to enter WW1 against Germany. The Zimmermann telegram and the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare along with other factors essentially force the U.S. to enter WW1 against Germany.
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The Espionage Act is passed shortly after the U.S. enters WW1 and its main goal was to stop very important information relating to national defense from getting in the hands of someone who was not entitled to have it. The Espionage Act was amended in 1918 under the Sedition Act which was highly controversial as it was argued that it took away people's first amendment rights as it prohibited most abusive or disloyal speech towards the government at the time.
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The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural and intellectual revival of African American art forms such as music, art, literature, and others. The era was centered in Harlem, Manhattan located in New York City. The Great Migration allowed there for there to be many new African Americans in the North which was a key factor in the start of the Harlem Renaissance. A major takeaway from this era would be the blues genre of music which at the time was enjoyed by people of all races, ages, and sexes.
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The armistice was signed in France and ended all fighting on land, in the air, and at sea between the allies and the last remaining opponent, Germany. The Armistice effectively ended WW1 as beforehand all of the other opponents of WW1, Bulgaria, Austria-Hungary, etc. had already signed peace treaties with the allies.
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The 18th Amendment of the U.S. established the prohibition which banned the production, importation, transportation, and sale of all intoxicating alcohol. The prohibition of alcohol was the culmination of decades of effort from the temperance movement which supporters of thought that a ban of alcohol would better poverty and other societal issues. The 18th Amendment went on to be the only ever amendment in the U.S. to be repealed.
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The 19th Amendment's ratification prohibited the U.S. and its states from denying anyone to vote on the basis of sex, simply, allowing women to vote. The amendment was the product of the decades long woman's suffrage movement. The Amendment was a massive push for women's equality though they were no where near equal. Activists for women's rights went on to also protest during the civil rights movement era.
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The Treaty of Versailles was the most important peace treaty to come from WW1 as it fully ended the war between the Allies and Germany and also enacted a list of requirements Germany needed to meet in order to follow the treaty. The Treaty of Versailles was pretty harsh towards Germany as it heavily limited their military by number of people and fleet sizes. Land was also taken away from Germany. These reparations towards Germany letter to later anger and essentially led to the start of WW2.
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Nicola Sacco and Bartholomeo Vanzetti were two Italian immigrants who were anarchists. Sacco and Vanzetti were near the scene of an armed robbery where two men were killed. Sacco and Vanzetti were found guilty for the crime they likely did not commit. They were given the death sentence. It was never 100% proven that they could have been the ones to commit the crimes and were largely accused due to the fact that they were immigrants and their beliefs of anarchism.
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The Immigration Act of 1924 was put into place to limit the amount of immigrants that could be allowed to enter the country and also fully prevented any immigration from Asia. The U.S. Border Control was also formed through the authorization of the act. Immigration was heavily limited as 80% less immigrants were allowed to enter the country since before WW1.
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The Market Crash or Wall Street Crash of 1929 happened when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange plummeted. The crash was the most devastating crash in United States and signaled the start of the Great Depression of the 1930's. The 1920's known as the "Roaring Twenties" was a time of wealth and excess. It was highly speculated that the stock market would just rise forever which caused people to spend a considerable amount of money on stocks.
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The Dust Bowl was a period of time in the South Western region of the United states where there were many major dust storms that took place from 1930 to 1936. A severe drought in the region along with a failure to apply dry land farming methods to prevent wind erosion led to the phenomenon of the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl led to a fair few cultural works on the subject, notably Grapes of Wrath which is widely considered an American classic novel.
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The New Deal was a series of public work projects, financial reforms, and programs that were enacted my President Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1939.The First New Deal helped to deal with the Great Depression through the Emergency Banking Act which provided 500 million dollars for relief operations. The New Deal could be argued for either side that it was either helpful in ending the depression or that the U.S. pulled out o it on its won, either way FDR provided support in the moment.
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The House Un-American Activities Committee was a committee on the U.S. House of Representatives. HUAC was created to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities, mainly those of fascist or communist ties. The committee's anti-communist investigations are often directly tied to McCarthyism although Joseph McCarthy had no direct affiliation with them. After the founding of HUAC they went on to be a large factor in the second Red Scare along with McCarthyism.
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The Munich Conference was the agreement between the United States, France, Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The agreement essentially allowed Germany to retake the Sudetenland which was a part of Germany before WW1 that later when to become Czechoslovakia's territory. Many people viewed the Munich Conference as a prevention of major war in Europe as Hitler, the leader of Germany said that it would be the last territorial claim in Northern Europe.
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The invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and The Soviet Union is most often seen as the beginning of WW2. The Invasion shortly came after the signing of the Molotv-Ribbentrop Pact between Germany and The Soviet Union. Poland was shortly fully taken over and was fully annexed with half the territory going to Germany and the other half going to The Soviet Union.
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The Attack on the Pearl Harbor Military Base in Hawaii was a surprise military strike by the Japanese Navy. At the time of the attack the U.S. was a neutral country in WW2. The attack led to the U.S.'s formal entry into the war the next day. Many people were angered by the attack and many joined the military response. The day that Pearl Harbor was attacked is largely remembered as "A date that will live in infamy." which is quoted from Franklin D. Roosevelt's speech from the same day.
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The Congress of Racial Equality is an African American civil rights organization that played a pivotal role for African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement. C.O.R.E. was founded under the goal to bring about equality for all people regardless of race, creed, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion, or ethnic background. C.O.R.E. played a pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement by planning many protests, some alongside Martin Luther King Jr.
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The Internment of Japanese Americans occurred during WW2 with over 120 thousand people of Japanese descent, most of them being United States citizens, being incarcerated in concentration camps in the generally Western region of the country. The Executive Order for the Internment of Japanese Americans was signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt shortly after the U.S. joined WW2. It is argued if the Internment of Japanese Americans was a justified move by the U.S. government or not.
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The Manhattan Project was a research and developmental undertaking of the United States government that eventually led to the first production of nuclear weapons. The project went from 1942 to 1946. A notable name from The Manhattan project and who was largely known for it was Robert Oppenheimer who was a nuclear physicist and is famously quoted for saying "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."
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The Battle of Normandy was fought during World War II in the summer of 1944, between the Allied nations and German forces occupying Western Europe. More than 60 years later, the Normandy Invasion, or D-Day, remains the largest seaborne invasion in history, involving nearly three million troops crossing the English Channel from England to Normandy in occupied France.
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Following the collapse and defeat of Nazi Germany, the Allied Powers assert joint authority over the entire country. It is established that the United States, Britain, and France get a large portion of Western Germany and the Soviet Union gets a large portion of Eastern Germany. The U.S., U.K., and France all had their own territories but they were more recognized as a whole as Western Germany which was capitalist. Eastern Germany was Soviet territory therefore it was communist.
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Even though Germany had surrendered from WW2, Japan was continuing to fight. Harry S. Truman dwindled on the idea of dropping the atomic bomb on Japan as he knew it would kill many but there were predictions that if He didn't give orders to drop the bomb, the death toll would have been much higher. Harry S. Truman ended up deciding to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and after doing so the Japanese continued fighting which led to him dropping another bomb on Nagasaki just days later.
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The UN(United Nations) was formed shortly after WW2 with the goal of maintaining international peace and security and to develop friendly relations with nations among other things. The UN is an intergovernmental organization meaning that it is made up of many countries with some of the founding members being some of the most prominent countries in WW2 like the U.S., Britain, France, The USSR, and China. The UN, since it was founded, has been a key part in solving numerous global issues.
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Jackie Robinson was an African American who played on minor league baseball teams like any other African American baseball player would at the time. Jackie Robinson was eventually signed to the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first African American player in Major League Baseball. Jackie Robinson has lived on in memory as the the person to break the color barrier in baseball as he was inducted into the baseball hall of fame in 1962.
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The Marshall Plan was a recovery program that provided aid for Western Europe after WW2. The Marshall Plan gave in total over 13 billion dollars to countries in Western Europe which significantly helped countries recover their economies. The Marshall Plan is named after the U.S. Secretary of State as the entire plan to provide economic aid to Western Europe was his.
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Executive Order 9981 was issued by Harry S. Truman. Order 9981's goal was to abolish all discrimination "on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin." The order was to take place in the United States Armed Forces and led to the reintegration of the services during the Korean War. Executive Order 9981 was a major stepping stone in the long fight for civil rights during the 20th century.
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After over 5 years of the United States being the only power in the world to have nuclear weapons, The USSR develops their own. The USSR's development of the atomic bomb can be a considered a major turning point in the Cold War as it begins the idea of Mutually Assured Destruction which is the idea that if one nation were to bomb the other, the other would return fire resulting in both nations being completely destroyed. The USSR's development of bombs also created fear for many in the U.S.
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Officially known as the Chinese People's War of Liberation, the Chinese Communist Revolution established the People's Republic of China and ended the Chinese Civil War that had been going on for over 20 years. At the end of the revolution the communist leader, Mao Zedong, announced the creation of the People's Republic of China and the proceeded to takeover all of mainland China. The creation of the PRC is a large part of the Cold War as it introduced another very big communist country.
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The Korean War was a war between Communist North Korea and Capitalist South Korea and took place on the Korean Peninsula. The war started by North Korea invading the South's territory and almost completely took them over. The South retaliated with the help of the United Nations and pushed the border back almost to China. China then helped the North retake territory and putting the border near to where it originally was and continued to stay resulting in a stand still.
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Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were American citizens who were convicted of espionage and spying on the United States on behalf of the USSR. They were accused of giving top secret information to the USSR and were the very first people to be executed for such charges and were the first two people to get the death penalty during a time of peace.
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The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a social and political protest against the Montgomery Alabama's transportation system due to its segregation policies. The boycott began when Rosa Parks had refused to give up her seat on the bus for a white person and was arrested. The boycott lasted over a year and only stopped due to a Supreme Court ruling which considered the segregation on buses unconstitutional.
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The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine African American students who were some of the very first African American students to experience desegregation in the South. The Little Rock Nine had enrolled in Little Rock Central High School and were going to attend the school until Arkansas State Governor, Orval Faubus, initially denied their entry into the school. It wasn't until President Dwight Eisenhower intervened that they could finally attend their school.
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The U2 Incident occurred when a United States U2 spy plane was shot down deep in the USSR's territory while it was taking reconnaissance photos. The spy plane was being flown by Francis Gary Powers who had safely parachuted to the ground in USSR territory and was captured. Powers was imprisoned was interrogated by the USSR until a prisoner exchange happened between them and the U.S. where they got back their own Russian spy who had been captured in America.
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The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a planned military invasion of Cuba thought up by Dwight Eisenhower in which Cuban exiles who opposed Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution would be trained by the U.S. military to invade Cuba. Before Eisenhower could go through with his plan, his presidency ended and John F. Kennedy took it over. John F. Kennedy changed the plan to not include air support which later resulted in a massive fail on the U.S.'s and the invasion quickly ended.
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The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that was in between communist East Berlin and capitalist West Berlin. The wall completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Berlin and Germany. The idea of the wall was to protect East Berlin from the "fascist' West. JFK quoted "Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us." which perfectly encapsulates the real reason for the wall.
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The Cuban Missile Crisis was a sort of climax to the Cold War as it was the closest the world had ever come to full-scale nuclear warfare. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a month long confrontation between the U.S. and the USSR. The crisis turned international when the deployment of American missiles in Italy and Turkey were matched with Soviet deployments of missiles in Cuba.
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The March On Washington was a large scale protest for the civil rights movement that was organized by Martin Luther King and the NAACP. The purpose of the march was to advocate for civil and economic rights of African Americans. It is estimated that 200-300 thousand people showed up and participated in the march. The march is famous for being the protest in which Martin Luther King gave his infamous "I have a dream" speech which was easily his most impactful speech.
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John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated in Dallas, Texas while riding through a motorcade through Dealey Plaza. In the car with JFK was his wife, Jacqueline, the governor of Texas, John Connally, and Connally's wife. JFK was shot from a nearby building by Lee Harvey Oswald. John Connally was also seriously wounded. The assassination was followed with JFK's vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson being inaugurated as the 36th president the same day.
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The Voting Rights Act was signed in by Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movement. The act was signed with the goal of completely prohibiting racial discrimination in voting. The act secured the right to vote for many racial minorities throughout the country, especially in the South. Congress went on to later amend the act five times to further expand its protection.
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Martin Luther King was fatally shot at Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee where he was rushed to the hospital to be found dead shortly after. Martin Luther King was one of if not the most influential civil rights leader in all of U.S. history having had won a Nobel prize for Peace. MLK's assassin, James Earl Ray, was arrested two months later for the crime where he plead guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in prison where he went on to die in prison in 1998.
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The Moon Landing was a part of the Apollo 11 NASA mission. The moon landing was the first ever space flight to land humans on the moon. The landing was a sort of end to the long lasting space race that was going on between the United States and the USSR. The USSR had been winning the space race for a long time until the U.S. definitively won it by first landing on the moon. Neil Armstrong famously said "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" when first stepping onto the moon.
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President Richard Nixon's resignation was the end result of a long lasting scandal that overshadowed his presidency's second term. The Watergate scandal was a major scandal that occurred during Nixon's second election where members of Nixon's administration broke into Democratic National Committee's headquarters in the Watergate Hotel. Nixon did not directly give the order for the break in but suspiciously continuously tried to cover up the break in ever happening.