Modernism

  • Panama Canal Opens to Traffic

  • Jeannette Rankin of Montana is the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

  • Wilson's second inauguration.

  • US enters WWI

  • Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and transportation of liquor.

  • Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, granting women the right to vote.

  • President Wilson suffers a stroke

  • Treaty of Versailles, outlining terms for peace at the end of World War I, is rejected by the Senate.

  • Warren G. Harding is inaugurated as the 29th president.

  • Harding signs resolution declaring peace with Austria and Germany.

  • President Harding dies suddenly. He is succeeded by his vice president, Calvin Coolidge.

  • Coolidge's second inauguration.

  • Tennessee passes a law against the teaching of evolution in public schools.

  • Period: to

    Scopes Monkey Trial

  • Herbert Hoover is inaugurated as the 31st president.

  • Stock market crash precipitates the Great Depression.

  • The Star-Spangled Banner is adopted as the national anthem.

  • Hattie Wyatt Caraway of Arkansas is the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate

  • Amelia Earhart completes first solo nonstop transatlantic flight by a woman.

  • Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution, moving the president's inauguration date from March 4 to Jan. 20.

  • Franklin Roosevelt is inaugurated as the 32nd president.

  • Period: to

    New Deal recovery measures are enacted by Congress.

  • Twenty-First Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, repealing Prohibition.

  • Social Security Act is passed.

  • F. Roosevelt's second inauguration.

  • Fair Labor Standards Act is passed, setting the first minimum wage in the U.S. at 25 cents per hour.

  • U.S. declares its neutrality in European conflict.

  • F. Roosevelt's third inauguration. He is the first and only president elected to a third term.

  • Japan attacks Hawaii, Guam, and the Philippines.

  • US declares war on Japan.

  • Germany and Italy declare war on the United States; U.S. reciprocates by declaring war on both countries.

  • F. Roosevelt's fourth inauguration

  • President Roosevelt dies of a stroke and is succeeded by his vice president, Harry Truman.

  • Germany surrenders unconditionally.

  • First atomic bomb is detonated at Alamogordo, N.M.

  • U.S. drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.

  • U.S. drops atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.

  • Japan agrees to unconditional surrender.

  • United Nations is established.