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Congress passes the Interstate Commerce Act, creating the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate the railroads. The Supreme Court interprets the ICC's powers so narrowly that it is rendered essentially powerless by the early twentieth century.
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Congress passes the Sherman Antitrust Act to prohibit trusts, which have grown rapidly over recent decades. This federal legislation supplements and further strengthens many preexisting state laws that lack the power to govern interstate commerce.
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President McKinley is shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.
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After Mckinley dies, vice president Roosevelt becomes @6th president of the United States.
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The hatters' union institutes a nationwide boycott of a non-union hat manufacturer in Danbury, Connecticut. The manufacturer sues the union for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act by unlawfully combining to restrain trade.
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Coal miners go on strike in Pennsylvania, protesting the deplorable working conditions of the mines and in the mining towns.
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Congress passes the Elkins Act, which is intended to strengthen the Interstate Commerce Act. The Elkins Act makes it a crime for railroads to grant freight rates other than those which they have published.
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The Supreme Court orders the dissolution of the Northern Securities Company, a trust that the Roosevelt administration has pursued for years.
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Congress passes the Pure Food and Drug Act in response to exposés of the patent-drug, meatpacking, and food industries.
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On the same day as it passes the Pure Food and Drug Act, Congress also approves its second Meat Inspection law to date. The U.S. Drug Administration must inspect all animals destined for human consumption: cattle, horses, sheep, goats, and swine, before they are slaughtered.
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A financial panic strikes the nation. Conservative Republicans incorrectly argue that Progressive reforms have caused this economic downturn.
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In the Danbury Hatters' Case, the Supreme Court decides in favor of a non-union hat manufacturer in Danbury, Connecticut. It holds that the hatters' union is in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act for unlawfully combining to restrain trade.
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The word "Progressive" enters common parlance as a description of the burgeoning political movement that seeks to reform various aspects of American society and politics.
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The Taft administration creates the Department of Labor.
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With the Republican vote split between Taft and Progressive candidate Roosevelt, the Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson is elected president.
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The Sixteenth Amendment is ratified, empowering Congress to levy income taxes.
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"Progressive Era." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Feb. 2013. Web. 20 Feb. 2013.