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President Lincoln Assassination
President Lincoln was attending a play at the Ford's Theater in Washington when Cofederate supporter John-Wilkes Booth shot the president in his seat. The plan was to also kill the Vice President Andrew Johnson, but the person who was to carry out that plan abandoned it last minute. This was done in the name of white supremacy and in hopes of eliminating the heads of the Union government. -
Ratification of the 15th Amendment
Where the 13th Amendment set free African Americans, and the 14th Amendment promised them citizenship, the 15th Amendment gave them the right to be heard. Once ratified, the 15th Amendment gave everyone in America, regardless of race or religion, the right to vote. -
Haymarket Riot
In the attempt to try and establish 8-hour workdays, a large group of workers gathered in the Haymarket Square of Chicago to protest. What started out as a mass, peaceful, protest, turned into an anarchist-event as a bomb was thrown into the lines of Chicago Police that were present to deescalate the event. -
Dawes Severalty Act
A new and revised version of the Homestead Act, This act was allowed the government to take the land that was owned by the Native American tribes and divide it up for families and individuals. It also allowed the government to hold the newly acquired land from Native Americans in a trust for 25 years, and only then would they be given the title for it and be granted citizenship rights. -
Homestead Steel Strike
On the night of July 2nd, 1892, after days of already striking outside the Homestead Steel Plant owned by Andrew Carnegie, the workers intercepted a boat that had private security personnel on board to help the replacement workers get passed the strike. While there was an initial fight that involved weapons and gunfire, someone threw a bomb on the boat injuring 150 and killing 16. -
Ellis Island Opens
New York City had the highest influx of immigrants of all the cities who had spikes in population due to New York being the primary port. To help combat this, the Bureau of Immigration in New York City opened up Ellis Island for intake of immigrants into America. About half on the population today has ancestors who came to America and started their journey on Ellis Island -
Theodore Roosevelt Becomes President
After the assassination of sitting President William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt took up the position and became the youngest president in United States history. He pushed the government toward Progressive reforms in the ways of Progressivism and is well known for his push on foreign policy. -
Creation of the U.S. Children's Bureau
The National Child Labor Committee was formed in 1904 to assist in getting legislation passed to ban or limit child labor. A census from 1900 showed that one out of every six children between the ages on five and ten were working. In 1912 the U.S. Children's Bureau was formed as a branch of the Department of Labor to oversee the issue of child labor and led to other laws that helped the children -
1st Women's Suffrage Parade
Women at this time were still struggling to gain their right to vote, in the 1912 election it was a major issue that was still not addressed. In the hopes of gaining support and attention, women from all over came to Washington D.C. to march. Inez Milholland, a well-known suffragette, led the parade on a white horse. Issues erupted quickly however when African American women came along with their chapter and their white counterparts did not agree and were forced to the back of the parade. -
World War I Begins
Known as the Great War, set off by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. At the beginning of the war, Woodrow Wilson held office and refused to intervein at first, until Germany decided to declare the waters around the British Isle a war zone and started sinking passenger carrying vessels, including four US merchant ships. After this, President Wilson went to Congress and requested a declaration of war against Germany and we entered the Great War. -
National Defense Act is Passed
Agreeing to a "preparedness campaign" for reelection, Woodrow Wilson passed this act to double the size of the Army to nearly 225,000 and this was a segway for the Naval Appropriations Act that expanded the Naval fleet to battleships, destroyers, and submarines. -
Stock Market Crash
The economic stability of America was lacking at this point, and people were losing their faith in the banking system. Driven by panic, people started pulling their money from the banks, causing the downhill plunge of the economy and shoving America into The Great Depression. Although not the sole reason for the depression, it did break the dam so to speak that lead to its beginning. -
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Elected President
After President Hoover, and his inability to properly assess the needs of American's during The Great Depression, President Roosevelt brought in a breath of fresh air and immediate change. In his first 100 days in office, the new president pushed more bills than any other president had, all in the name of stabilizing the economy and bringing back a better America -
Pearl Harbor
Unhappy with diplomatic negotiations about access to oil, Japan set off a two-wave attack on the U.S Pacific fleet that was anchored at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack sunk four of the eight ships in the fleet and killed over 2400 people and injuring many more. -
GI Bill Passed
The GI Bill, Or the Servicemen's Readjustment Act, was passed before the end of the war and was hoped to aid in the transition from war time to peace for those who were on the front lines. The act paid the veterans one year of wages and pushed for them to pursue education in hopes they would not flood the job market. The bill also included low interest loans needed to buy homes or start small businesses, the downfall to the bill is it did not fully cover all who served. -
Atomic Bomb Drop
The testing and development of the Atomic Bomb started years prior with the aid of Albert Einstein, who emigrated to America to escape the Nazi's, it was known as the Manhattan Project. The military needed targets to test the project and realized they needed a "compact city with high military value" and landed on the headquarters of Japan's Second Army, Hiroshima and the 2nd bomb for Nagasaki, the industrial center. -
President Kennedy Assassination
To many, Kennedy represented a bright and fruitful future of fixing problems and striving forward. Knowing that they needed the support of African American's Kennedy along with his Vice President, Lydon Johnson, went to Texas to rally support. While in his motorcade, shots rang out severely injuring the President who was transported to the hospital and pronounced dead. Later that day Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for his murder. -
Martin Luther King Assassination
In attempts to help sanitation workers trying to unionize, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled to Memphis, Tennessee. What he realized was that he had a group of people who were split between following his practices and younger activists who wanted to use force. He was shot and killed on his motel balcony and within hours there were violent riots in most major cities across the country. -
Apollo 11
A project idea brought to Congress before his death, President Kennedy had declared that the United States would make it to the moon before the end of the decade. After his passing, although many were skeptical of its ability to be completed successfully, the plan moved forward. On July 16th, 3 astronauts launched into space and landed on the moon, and on July 20th, the first man walked on the moon. It was celebrated at that time as "the greatest human achievement." -
Roe vs. Wade
A Texas mother wanted to terminate her pregnancy due to her impoverished state of living, but Texas law only allowed for it in the instance it would be fatal to the mother. Norma McCorvey, known as Roe in court paperwork, sought help of lawyers who filed paperwork for her with the Supreme Court. They decided that under the 14th Amendment right to privacy, abortion was legal and overturned Texas law.