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The First Transcontinental Railroad Completed
Finally the two sets of railroad tracks were joined and the continent united with elaborate ceremony at Promontory, Utah on May 10, 1869. The impact was immediate and dramatic. Travel time between America's east and west coasts was reduced from months to less than a week. -
Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone
United States Patent No. 174,465 was issued to Alexander Graham Bell in 1876, and became recognized as the most valuable patent in history. Yet early efforts to popularize the telephone were met with disappointment. Though people paid to hear Alexander Graham Bell lecture on "the miracle discovery of the age," for a long time they seemed unaware of the telephone's possibilities. -
Chinese Exclusion act is passed
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882. It was one of the most significant restrictions on free immigration in US history, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers. -
Ellis Island opens to Process imigrants
Ellis Island opened in 1892 as a federal immigration station, a purpose it served until it closed in 1954. Millions of newly arrived immigrants passed through the station during that time, it has been estimated that close to 40% of all current U.S. citizens can trace at least one of their ancestors to Ellis Island. -
William Jennings Bryan runs for president
Born in Illinois, William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925) became a Nebraska congressman in 1890. He starred at the 1896 Democratic convention with his Cross of Gold speech that favored free silver, but was defeated in his bid to become U.S. president by William McKinley. Bryan lost his subsequent bids for the presidency in 1900 and 1908, using the years between to run a newspaper and tour as a public speaker. After helping Woodrow Wilson secure the Democratic presidential nomination for 1912, he serv -
Anderew Carnegie Sells his company to J.P. Morgan, creating U.S. Steel.
He built Pittsburgh's Carnegie Steel Company, which he sold to J.P. Morgan in 1901 for $480 million (in 2014, $13.6 billion), creating the U.S. Steel Corporation. -
William McKinley is Assassinated
President William McKinley is shaking hands at the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, New York, when 28-year-old Leon Czolgosz approaches him and fires two shots into his chest. The president rose slightly on his toes before collapsing forward, saying "be careful how you tell my wife." -
Teddy Roosevelt creates a system of National Parks
heodore Roosevelt, the noted conservation president, had an impact on the national park system extending well beyond his term in office. As chief executive from 1901 to 1909, he signed legislation establishing five national parks: Crater Lake, Oregon; Wind Cave, South Dakota; Sullys Hill, North Dakota (later redesignated a game preserve); Mesa Verde, Colorado; and Platt, Oklahoma (now part of Chickasaw National Recreation Area). Another Roosevelt enactment had a broader effect, however: the Anti -
Henry Ford Creates the model T
Henry ford creates the first moving assembly line for cars makin the automobile affordable to the normal person -
16th Amendment adopted
Passed by Congress on July 2, 1909, and ratified February 3, 1913, the 16th amendment established Congress's right to impose a Federal income tax. -
Opening of Angel Island Imigration Station
Surrounded by public controversy from its inception, the station was finally put into operation in 1910. Immigrants arrived from approximately 84 different countries, with Chinese immigrants constituting the single largest ethnic group entering at San Francisco until 1915, when Japanese outnumbered the Chinese for the first time. Widely known as the “Ellis Island of the West” -
Standard Oil ruled a Monopoly
Standard Oil Company was founded by John D. Rockefeller in Cleveland, Ohio in 1870, and, in just a little over a decade, it had attained control of nearly all the oil refineries in the U.S. This dominance of oil, together with its tentacles entwined deep into the railroads, other industries and even various levels of government, persisted and intensified, despite a growing public outcry and repeated attempts to break it up, until the U.S. Supreme Court was finally able to act decisively in 1911. -
17th Amendment Adopted
Passed by Congress May 13, 1912. Ratified April 8, 1913. Note: Article I, section 3, of the Constitution was modified by the 17th amendment. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. -
19th Amendment Adopted
Passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920, the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote. The 19th amendment guarantees all American women the right to vote. -
Potato Famine in Ireland
The Great Famine (Irish: an Gorta Mór) was a period of mass starvation, disease and emigration in Ireland between 1845 and 1852.
