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The 28th president
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The Ford Motor Company institutes the first automobile assembly line to produce the Model T. Company founder Henry Ford breaks precedence and pays his line workers $5 a day, believing that higher wages would lead to greater worker productivity and loyalty.
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In one of the largest philanthropic acts in American history, John D. Rockefeller donates $100,000,000 to begin the Rockefeller Foundation.
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Congress establishes Mother's Day as the second Sunday in May.
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The Panama Canal officially opens after decades of toil, controversy, and diplomatic maneuvering.
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The United States declared war on Germany. Although President Woodrow Wilson had campaigned for reelection in 1916 emphasizing how he had kept the United States out of the war, he soon realized that the United States could not stand by and remain neutral in the Great War.
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Is the 29th President
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The Thompson-Urrutia Treaty with Colombia is ratified. The treaty grants Colombia $25 million as compensation for the loss of Panama, which had gained its independence in 1903 with the help of the United States.
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Harding appoints former President William Howard Taft as chief justice of the Supreme Court.
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The Supreme Court unanimously finds the Nineteenth Amendment, providing for women's suffrage, constitutional.
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The Cable Act, which allows an American woman to maintain her citizenship following marriage to an alien, is signed by Harding.
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The 30th US president
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President Warren Harding died in San Francisco, California, while on a speaking tour. His death was most likely due to a heart attack.
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Governor J. C. Walton places Oklahoma under martial law in order to suppress the increasing terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan, which has reemerged in the South and Midwest in response to worsening economic conditions.
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France and the United States sign an agreement that eventually cancels sixty percent of the French debt from the Great War.
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The U.S. Marines land in Nicaragua to quiet a revolt. America military forces will maintain a presence in Nicaragua until 1933.
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The first “talkie,” The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson, is released.
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The United States recognizes Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang (KMT) nationalist government of China and signs a tariff treaty with the Chinese.
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The 31 US president
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On “Black Thursday,” the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) experiences a collapse in stock prices as 13 million shares are sold. Even wealthy investors J. P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller, in an effort to save the market by furiously buying stock, cannot check the fall.
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On “Black Tuesday,” a record 16.4 million shares of stock are traded on the NYSE as large blocks of equities are sold at extremely low prices. The trading continues the sharp downward trend of the previous week. It is an abrupt change from the over-speculation of the previous months. By December 1, NYSE stocks will have lost $26 billion in value.
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A major bootlegging operation in Chicago is shut down with the arrest of 158 people from 31 organizations. Together, these groups were estimated to have distributed more than seven million gallons of whiskey nationwide with an estimated worth of around $50 million.
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The London Naval Treaty is signed by the United States, Britain, and Japan. France and Italy refuse to sign major provisions of the treaty, which remains in effect until 1937.
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Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to complete a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
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The 32nd US president
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Congress passes the Federal Securities Act, requiring all issues of stocks and bonds to be registered and approved by the federal government.
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Congress passes the Revenue Act, increasing taxes on inheritances and gifts, as well as on higher incomes and corporations. The bill reverses long-standing revenue laws that had favored America's wealthiest elite.
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Congress passes the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenancy Act, establishing the Farm Securities Administration (FSA), which provides low-interest loans to struggling farmers.
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Germany launches a major invasion of Poland, starting the Second World War.
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France and Britain declare war on Germany. With limited domestic support for war, FDR declares U.S. neutrality.
