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Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in Washington, DC, and is succeeded by his vice president, Andrew Johnson. Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, prohibiting slavery
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U.S. acquires Alaska from Russia for the sum of $7.2 million
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President Johnson is impeached by the House of Representatives but he is acquitted at his trial in the Senate
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Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing citizenship
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Ulysses S. Grant is inaugurated as the 18th president
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Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads are joined at Promontory, Utah, creating first transcontinental railroad
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Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, giving blacks the right to vote
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Crédit Mobilier scandal breaks, involving several members of Congress
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Grant's second inauguration
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Lt. Col. George A. Custer's regiment is wiped out by Sioux Indians under Sitting Bull at the Little Big Horn River
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Rutherford B. Hayes is inaugurated as the 19th president
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James A. Garfield is inaugurated as the 20th president
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Garfield is shot by Charles Guiteau in Washington, DC, and later dies from complications of his wounds in Elberon, N.J. Garfield's vice president, Chester Alan Arthur, succeeds him in office.
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U.S. adopts standard time
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Grover Cleveland is inaugurated as the 22nd president
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Statue of Liberty is dedicated in America
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American Federation of Labor is organized
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Benjamin Harrison is inaugurated as the 23rd president
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National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) is founded, with Elizabeth Cady Stanton as president
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Sherman Antitrust Act is signed into law, prohibiting commercial monopolies
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Jacob Coxey leads a march on Washington by the unemployed.
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Workers at the Pullman sleeping car plant in Chicago go on strike after the company cut wages without reducing rents in company-owned housing. On June 26, the American Railway Union begins to boycott trains carrying Pullman cars.
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Plessy v. Ferguson: Landmark Supreme Court decision holds that racial segregation is constitutional, paving the way for the repressive Jim Crow laws in the South
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William McKinley is inaugurated as the 25th president
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: USS Maine is blown up in Havana harbor, angering many Americans into wantning war war with Spain
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U.S. to declare war on Spain after building tensions reach a climax
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Commodore George Dewey's flotilla defeats the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay in the Philippines, suffering only eight wounded
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U.S. annexes Hawaii by an act of Congress
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Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Spanish-American War
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Delegates from the US and 25 other nations meet at The Hague to discuss disarmament, arbitration of international disputes, protection of noncombatants, and limitations on methods of warfare.
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U.S. acquires American Samoa by treaty with Great Britain and Germany
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According to the 1900 census, the nation's population numbers nearly 76 million.
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McKinley's second inauguration
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He is shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz in Buffalo, N.Y., and later dies from his wounds
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McKinley is succeeded by his vice president, Theodore Roosevelt.
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U.S. acquires Panama Canal Zone
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Wright brothers make the first controlled, sustained flight in heavier-than-air aircraft at Kitty Hawk, N.C
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Theodore Roosevelt's second inauguration
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At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, a large earthquake hit San Francisco. Even greater than the damage caused directly by the earthquake, the city was ravaged by fire for four days.
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Bureau of Investigation, forerunner of the FBI, is established
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The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded on February 12, 1909
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Ernest Rutherford discovers the structure of an atom
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•Boy Scouts Established in U.S.
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Poor working conditions and improper safety codes cause this fire in New York City to kill over a hundred workers.
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•Standard Oil Company Broken Up by Supreme Court ruling
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Titanic sinks on its maiden voyage
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Personal income tax is introduced into the United States
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Henry Ford introduces a mass assembly line into manufacturing
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Frans Ferdinand is assassinated, sparking World War I
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The Panama Canal is officially open to the world.
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German U-boats sink the Lusitania, and 1,198 people die.
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Alexander Graham Bell makes first transcontinental telephone call.
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Albert Einstein proposes general theory of relativity.
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Woodrow Wilson is reelected.
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The battles of Verdun and Somme claim millions of lives.
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The United States enters World War 1.
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The Selective Service Act sets up the draft
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Russia withdraws from the war.
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Congress passes the Sedition Act.
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President Wilson proposes the League of Nations.
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The Bolsheviks establish a Communist regime in Russia.
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Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending World War I
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Eighteenth Amendment outlaws alcoholic beverages
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Mohandas Gandhi becomes leader of the independence movement in India.
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Women are given the right to vote. This legislation is taken into question and ridicule even today.
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The Panama Canal is completed in its entirity
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Citizenship Act makes Indians citizens
without impairing status as tribal members -
Lindbergh crosses
Atlantic non-stop -
Al Capone tricks and slaughters a rival gang at a local dock in this massacre.
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Well... the stock market crashed.
