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President Mckinley Assassination
McKinley was hit by two bullets, one of which grazed him and the other of which entered his abdomen and was never found. McKinley appeared to be improving at first, but his wounds turned gangrenous on September 13, and he died early the next morning; he was replaced by his vice president, Theodore Roosevelt. -
First Flight for the Wright Brothers
The Wright brothers created history on Dec. 17, 1903, when they flew their Kitty Hawk Flyer for the first time. Wilbur and Orville Wright had recently completed their training as the first real airplane pilots. The first of four flights that day lasted only 12 seconds and covered barely 180 feet, but it demonstrated the feasibility of human flight. -
San Francisco Earthquake
A powerful earthquake struck San Francisco, California, early on April 18, 1906. Despite the fact that the quake lasted less than a minute, its immediate consequences were severe. Several fires erupted across the city as a result of the earthquake, which lasted for three days and damaged over 500 city blocks. -
Panic of 1907
The Panic of 1907 was a short-lived banking and financial crisis in the U.S. that occurred at the beginning of the twentieth century. The Panic was caused by a build-up of excessive speculative investment driven by loose monetary policy. -
Sinking of the Titanic
Some have accused Captain E.J. Smith, the Titanic's commander, for sailing the big ship at such a high speed (22 knots) into the iceberg-filled waters of the North Atlantic from the start. Some speculated that Smith was attempting to beat the Olympic, Titanic's White Star sister ship, in terms of crossing time. -
Woodrow Wilson Elected
Wilson comfortably defeated Republican incumbent William Howard Taft and third-party contender, Theodore Roosevelt, in the 1912 presidential election, being the first Southerner to accomplish so since 1848. -
World War 1 Begins
After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in 1914, World War I, commonly known as the Great War, began. His assassination sparked a European war that lasted until 1918. -
US enters World War 1
The United States Senate voted in favor of declaring war on Germany on April 4, 1917. Two days later, the House agreed. On December 7, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany's ally Austria-Hungary.