Important Events 1876-1941

  • End of Reconstruction

    Battle of Little Big Horn-Custer and the 7th Calvary was ambushed by Sitting Bull and the Sioux Nation-Greatest Native American victory over the US Army
  • Munn v. Illinois

    Court rules states may regulate warehouse rates
  • Stand Oil Trust formed

    Started in 1863 by John D. Rockefeller. He built up the company through 1868 to become the largest oil refinery firm in the world. In 1870, the company was renamed Standard Oil Company, after which Rockefeller decided to buy up all the other competition and form them into one large company in 1879.
  • America Invents

    Big Business emerge
  • Railroad companies divide nation into four time zones.

    Middleton Civil Service Act- provided that Federal Government jobs be awarded on the basis of merit and that Government employees be selected through competitive exams
  • Haymarket Riots

    The riot took place in Chicago between rioters and the police. It ended when someone threw a bomb that killed dozens. The riot was suppressed, and in addition with the damaged reputation of unions, it also killed the Knights of Labor, who were seen as anarchists.
  • Interstate Commerce Commission

    Five member committee to regulate the practices of interstate railroads; banned practices such as pooling and rebates by railroad companies.
  • Dawes Act

    Broke up previous land settlements given to Native Americans in the form of reservations, and separated them into smaller, separate parcels of land to live on.
  • Act Law was Passed

    Sherman Anti-Trust Act-law passed to outlaw trusts and monopolies.
  • Massacre at Wounded Knee

    In 1890 at Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, killed over 240 Indians practicing the Ghost Dance
  • Sherman Silver Purchase Act

    Required the U.S. government to purchase nearly twice as much silver as before, but also added substantially to the amount of money already in circulation.
  • Period: to

    Immigration

    Fifteen million "new" immigrants flee into the United States
  • Silver Purchase Act

    Repeal of Sherman Silver Purchase Act
  • Pollock vs. Farmers

    Imposed a direct tax on the incomes of American citizens and corporations, thus declaring the federal income tax unconstitutional.
    Court strikes down income tax.
  • War with Spain

    Hawaii was annexed
  • Peace with Spain

    U.S. receives Philippines, Samoa, Guam, and Puerto Rico.
  • Theodore Roosevelt becomes President

  • Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine.

  • Period: to

    Panama Canal built

  • Hepburn Act

    Pure Food and Drug Act-passed by Theodore Roosevelt after The Jungle was published.
    The Jungle-work of fiction by Upton Sinclair about the evils of the Chicago meat packing industry
  • Election of Woodrow Wilson

  • Federal Reserve System Begun

    Gave the 12 Federal Reserve banks the ability to print money in order to ensure economic stability.
  • World War I begins

    U.S. troops occupy Vera Cruz
  • U.S. troops sent to Haiti

    Lusitania sunk, U. S. intervened.
    KKK revived- new KKK was anti-foreign, anti-Catholic, anti-black, anti-Jewish, anti-pacifist, anti-Communist, anti-internationalist, anti-revolutionist, anti-bootlegger, anti-gambling, anti-adultery, and anti-birth control
  • Germany War

    Germany issues Sussex pledge-avoided war between Germany and the US over U-boat sinking of commercial ships in Atlantic waters in the early stages of WWI
  • Russian Revolution

    Following the Bolshevik success in Russian Revolution in 1919, Americans feared the eventual fate that communism and other radical political forms would take over the nation resulting in "two red scares."
  • WWI Ends

    Treaty of Versailles-puts all the blame on Germany and sets the stage for WWII.
  • Red Scare

    Eighteenth Amendment prohibits alcoholic beverages.
  • Nineteenth Amendment gives women the right to vote.

  • Lindbergh crosses the Atlantic

  • Stock Market Crashes

  • Franklin Roosevelt was elected president.

  • Bank Holiday

    From March 6th to 10th, the banks nationwide would all shut down in order to prevent more bank run and bankrupt. The government would then sort things out.
  • Social Security Act

    The new union group that organized large numbers of unskilled workers with the help of the Wagner Act and the National Labor Relations Board.
  • FDR re-elected

  • FDR attempts to pack Supreme Court

    FDR's scheme for gaining Supreme Court approval of New Deal legislation.
  • United States Housing Authority

    The act required that the construction of new public housing units be matched by the removal of an equal number of substandard dwellings from the local housing supply.
  • World War II Begins

  • Hitler attacks USSR

    Germany's tactic of discouraging USSR's aggression by promising half of Poland to Stalin. Effectively contributed to Hitler's success in the Western front before its formal invasion of the Soviet Union.
  • Japan attacks Pearl Harbor

    December 7th, 1941 hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii.