-
Oil Boomed/Boosted the Economy
The 19th century was a period of great change and rapid industrialization. The iron and steel industry spawned new construction materials, the railroads connected the country and the discovery of oil provided a new source of fuel. The discovery of the Spindletop geyser in 1901 drove huge growth in the oil industry. Within a year, more than 1,500 oil companies had been chartered, and oil became the dominant fuel of the 20th century and an integral part of the American economy. -
Rough Riders
Teddy Roosevelt resigned in 1898 to organize the Rough Riders, the first voluntary cavalry in the Spanish-American War. The Riders included a diverse group of cowboys, miners, law enforcement officials, and Native Americans. They participated in the capture of Kettle Hill, and then charged across a valley to assist in the seizure of San Juan Ridge. -
Wright Brothers Take Flight
Wilbur and Orville set to work trying to figure out how to design wings for flight. They observed that birds angled their wings for balance and control, and tried to emulate this, developing a concept called “wing warping.” When they added a movable rudder, the Wright brothers found they had the magic formula. On December 17, 1903, they succeeded in flying the first free, controlled flight of a power-driven, heavier than air plane. -
U.S. Enters WW1
President Wilson sought to distance America from WWI by issuing proclamation of neutrality. But, the German challenged to American Neutrality. Germany launched a campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare. On April 6, 1917, the U.S. joined its allies to fight in World War I. Under the command of Major General John J. Pershing, more than 2 million U.S. soldiers fought on battlefields in France. Many Americans were not in favor of the U.S. entering the war and wanted to remain neutral. -
19th Admendment
Passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920, the 19th amendment guarantees all American women the right to vote. Achieving this milestone required a lengthy and difficult struggle; victory took decades of agitation and protest. Beginning in the mid-19th century, several generations of woman suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience to achieve what many Americans considered a radical change of the Constitution. -
Prohibition
Prohibition, the legal prevention of the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages, lasted from 1920 to 1933 under the terms of the Eighteenth Amendment. Although the temperance movement had succeeded in bringing about this legislation, millions of Americans were willing to drink liquor illegally, which gave rise to bootlegging and speakeasies, both of which were capitalized upon by organized crime. As a result, the Prohibition era also is remembered as a period of gangsterism -
Hitler's Reign in Germany
Nazi leader Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) was one of the most powerful and infamous dictators of the 20th century. After World War I, he rose to power, taking control of Germany in 1933. His establishment of concentration camps for Jews and other groups resulted in the death of more than 6 million people. His attack on Poland in 1939 started World War II, the tide of the war turned following an invasion of Russia and the U.S. entry into battle; Hitler killed himself shortly before Germany’s defeat. -
D-Day
On June 6, 1944, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline, to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end, the Allies gained a foot-hold in Continental Europe. The cost in lives on D-Day was high. The sacrifice of the Allied soldiers allowed more than 100,000 Soldiers to begin the trek across Europe, to defeat Hitler’s crack troops. -
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
On August 6, 1945, a B-29 plane dropped a uranium atomic bomb, code named "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, Japan's 7th largest city. In minutes, half of the city vanished. Another bomb was assembled at Tinian Island on August 6. On August 8, Field Order No.17 called for its use the following day on either Kokura, the primary target, or Nagasaki, the secondary target. Three days after Hiroshima, the B-29 bomber reached the sky over Kokura on the morning of August 9 but changed course for Nagasaki. -
Brown v. Board of Education
On May 17, 1954, the Court unanimously ruled that "separate but equal" public schools were unconstitutional. The Brown case served as a catalyst for the modern civil rights movement, inspiring education reform everywhere. After Brown, the nation made great strides toward opening the doors of education to all students. With court orders and active enforcement of federal civil rights laws, progress toward integrated schools continued through the 1980s. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a 13-day standoff in October 1962 over nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba. In a TV address, President JFK notified Americans about the presence of the missiles and made it clear the U.S. was prepared to use military force if needed. However, disaster was avoided when the U.S. agreed to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s offer to remove the Cuban missiles in exchange for the U.S. promising not to invade Cuba. -
Black Power
The progress made by African Americans in the 1950s and early 1960s at achieving their civil rights was compromised by violence. Many young blacks rejected the courage and patience displayed by Dr. Martin Luther King in his non-violent response to injustice. The epitome of the Black Power Movement was the Black Panther Party. Founded by Huey P. Newton this party justified the use of violence in the accomplishment of black justice. The movement stimulated a number of other blacks to speak out. -
Google Founded
All things Google began in 1995. That's when Sergey Brin, a 21-year-old student at Stanford University, took University of Michigan graduate Larry Page, just a year older, on a tour of the campus. The Google search engine, which handled 70 percent of all online requests at the time we wrote this, is just the tip of a rapidly expanding empire. Over the years, Google has introduced a suite of innovative applications and services, ranging from Gmail and Google Apps to AdWords and AdSense. -
-
Black Lives Matter Movement
Black Lives Matter (BLM) is an international activist movement, originating in the African-American community, that campaigns against violence toward black people. BLM regularly organizes protests around the deaths of black people in killings by law enforcement officers, and broader issues of racial profiling, police brutality, and racial inequality in the United States criminal justice system. In 2013, the movement began with the use of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media.
