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Bessemer Process
he Bessemer Process was developed in 1855 when the Englishman Henry Bessemer invented a process to create steel from iron which produced steel cheaply and efficiently. The Bessemer Process was an extremely important invention because it helped made stronger rails for constructing the railroads and helped to make stronger metal machines and innovative architectural structures like skyscrapers. The United States Industrial Revolution moved from the Age of Iron to the Age of Steel. -
Period: to
Transforming the West
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Homestead Act
Signed into law in May 1982, the Homestead Act opened up settlement in the Western United States, allowing any Americano, including former slaves. For a claim up to 160 acres of land. By the end of the Civil War, 15,000 homestead claims had been established, and more after the war. Eventually, 1.6 million individual claims would be approved; nearly ten persent of all government held property for a total of 420,000 square miles of territory. -
Robber Barons
Robber baron was a term applied to a businessman in the 19th century who engaged in unethical and monopolistic practices, wielded widespread political influence, and amassed enormous wealth. As the United States transformed into an industrial society with little regulation of business, it was possible for small numbers of men to dominate crucial industries. Facing few impediments to creating monopolies, engaging in shady stock trading, exploiting workers some individuals made enormous fortunes. -
Period: to
Becoming an Industrial Power
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Transcontinental Railroad
The Pacific Railroad Act, chartered the Central Pacific & the Union Pacific Railroad Companies and tasked them with building a transcontinental railroad that would link the United States from east to west. Over the next seven years, the 2 companies would race toward each other from California on the one side & Nebraska on the other, struggling against great risks. On May 10, after several delays, a crowd of workers watched as the final spike linking the Central Pacific and Union -
Laissez Faire
Laissez Faire is an economic and political doctrine that holds that economies function most efficiently when unnumbered by government regulation. It advocates favoring individual self-interest and competition, and oppose the taxation and regulation of commerce. Laissez-faire reached its apex in the 1870's during the age of industrialization as American factories operated with a free hand. A contradiction developed, as competing businesses began to merge, resulting in decreasing of competition. -
Indian Appropriations Act
The federal government realized that Native Americans drew strength from their tribal ties and memberships. On March 3, 1871, the Indian Appropriations Act was passed. This law ended treaty making between tribes and the federal government. Native Americans were stripped of their power & their strength, from that point on they were considered only as individuals. This increased the power & authority of the government and was one more step forward dismantling the tribal way of life for Natives. -
Red River War
The campaign called the Red River War was the last major conflict between the U.S. Army and the southern Plains Indians. Under the terms of President Ulysses S. Grant's developing Peace Policy, American Indians who moved onto the reservations were given rations and offered an opportunity for education and training as farmers. Many of the Indians, but by no means, all, accepted their assigned reservations. Some continued to raid, using the reservations as safe havens from retaliation. -
Farmer's Alliance
A fraternal organization of white farmers and other rural southerners, including teachers, ministers, and physicians, the Farmers' Alliance swept across the entire South. The organization attempted to solve the mounting financial problems of southern farmers by forming cooperative purchasing and marketing enterprises. It advocated a federal farm-credit and marketing scheme called the subtreasury plan. The Alliance played a leading role in establishing a national third party, Populist Party. -
Telephone
Alexander Graham Bell receives a patent for his revolutionary new invention, the telephone. Bell wanted to improve on this by creating a harmonic telegraph, a device that combined aspects of the telegraph and record player to allow individuals to speak to each other from a distance. In this first telephone, sound waves caused an electric current to vary in intensity and frequency, causing a thin, soft iron plate called the diaphragm to vibrate. The original sound would be replicated in the ear. -
Battle of Little Big Horn
The Battle of the Litle Bighorn fought on June 25th, 1876, near the Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory, pitted federal troops led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer against a band of Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. Tensions between the two groups had been rising since the discovery of gold on Native American lands. Custer was unaware of the number of Indians fighting, and his forces were outnumbered & quickly overwhelmed in what became known as Custer's Last Stand. -
Period: to
The Gilded Age
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Lightbulb
In 1878, Edison focused on inventing a safe, inexpensive electric light to replace the gaslight–a challenge that scientists had been grappling with for the last 50 years. Edison set up the Edison Electric Light Company and began research and development.He made a breakthrough in October 1879 with a bulb that used a platinum filament, and in the summer of 1880 hit on carbonized bamboo as a viable alternative for the filament, which proved to be the key to a long-lasting & affordable light bulb. -
Assassination of President Garfield
As Garfield’s carriage pulled up outside the Baltimore and Potomac, Charles Guiteau paced the waiting room inside, ready to fulfill what he believed was a mission from God. Stalked the president across Washington, patiently waiting for a chance to gun him down. After an hour of excruciating prodding, the president was carried from the train station to a bedroom at the White House. His doctors feared he would not survive the night, but Garfield put on a brave face for his children. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. Those on the West Coast were especially prone to attribute declining wages and economic ills on the despised Chinese workers. Although the Chinese composed only.002 percent of the nation's population, Congress passed the exclusion act to placate worker demands and assuage prevalent concerns about maintaining white "racial purity". This act was singed by President Chester A. Arthur. -
Pendleton Act
The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act was passed to regulate and improve the civil service of the United States. The purpose of the Pendleton Act was to break the Spoils System which had become the 'custom and practice' of presidential administrations. The law was sponsored by reformer Senator George Hunt Pendleton of Ohio and was signed into law by President Chester Arthur on January 16, 1883. One of the important events during his presidency was the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. -
Great Upheaval of 1886
From a distance, it seems to have failed. In many cases, workers did have their demands met. No telling how many future pay cuts were avoided because of fear. The Great Upheaval was spontaneous. There was absolutely no advanced planning, showing how many rank and file workers had the same concerns about the quality of life, as well as the same anger at those who controlled the wealth. More than 100,000 workers had gone on strike, shutting down nearly half of the nation's rail systems. -
Haymarket Riot 1886
On May 4, 1886, a labor protest rally near Chicago’s Haymarket Square turned into a riot after someone threw a bomb at police. At least eight people died as a result of the violence that day. Despite a lack of evidence against them, eight radical labor activists were convicted in connection with the bombing. The Haymarket Riot has viewed a setback for the organized labor movement in America, which was fighting for such rights as the eight-hour workday. The men convicted were seen by many. -
American Federation of Labor
Established in 1886, the American Federation of Labor is an umbrella organization for other unions. This organization became the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1886, in Columbus, Ohio.Many members of these two groups were disgruntled members of the Knights of Labor, the most influential organization of unions in the United States during the 1870s.The group also originally prohibited women, African Americans, and other racial minorities from joining the organization. -
Interstate Commerce Commission
Established in 1887 it was charged with regulating the economics and services of specified carriers engaged in transportation between states. Surface transportation under the ICC's jurisdiction included railroads, trucking companies, bus lines, freight forwarders, water carriers, oil pipelines, transportation brokers, and express agencies. Most ICC control over interstate trucking was abandoned in 1994, and the agency was terminated at the end of 1995. Most remaining functions were transferred. -
Dawes Severalty Act
On this day in 1887, President Grover Cleveland signs the Dawes Severalty Act into law. The act split up reservation held communally by Native Americans tribes into smaller units and distributed these units to individuals within the tribe. The law changed the legal status of Native Americans from tribal members to individuals subject to federal laws and dissolved many tribal affiliations The Dawes Severalty/General Allotment Act constituted a huge blow to tribal sovereignty. -
Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show
The birth of the Wild West as a successful genre was largely a product of personality, dramatic acumen, and good timing. The golden age of outdoor shows began in the 1880's and with his theatre experience, Buffalo Bill already was skilled in the use of press agentry and poster advertising. His fame and credibility as a westerner lent star appeal and an aura of authenticity. Most important, Buffalo Bill have the show a dramatic narrative structure. -
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
The Sherman Anti-Trust Act, the first federal antitrust law, authorized federal action against any "combination in the form of trusts or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade." In the eyes of many Congressmen, the measure would look good to the public, the be difficult to enforce. In the first 10 years of the law's existence, many more actions were brought against unions than big business. The Supreme Court ruled that the acquisition of refineries & the business of sugar manufacturing. -
Silver Act
Agitation for action on the silver question was intense by 1890. Farmers were straining under growing debt and sharply falling prices. Western mining interests were anxious for a ready market for their silver and exerted pressure on Congress. Western voices were much stronger with the recent addition of Idaho, Montana, Washington, Wyoming and the Dakotas to the Union.The Sherman Silver Purchase Act was part of a broader compromise. Gave their support in return for Republican votes for silver. -
Period: to
Imperialism
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Depression of 1893
Like most major financial downturns, the depression of the 1890s was preceded by a series of shocks that undermined public confidence and weakened the economy. The Panic of 1893 provided a spectacular financial crisis the contributed to the economic recession.Although thousands of businesses were ruined and more than four million were left unemployed.L ike most people of both major parties, that the business cycle was a natural occurrence and should not be tampered with by politicians. -
World’s Columbian Exposition 1893
The World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 was the first world’s fair held in Chicago. Congress awarded Chicago the opportunity to host the fair over the other candidate cities of New York, Washington D.C. and St. Louis, Missouri. The fair built awareness among visitors that Chicago was taking its place as the “second city” after New York. Locals, too, were proud of the enormous progress and growth that were achieved in the two decades following the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. -
American Railway Union
The American Railway Union (A.R.U.) was founded on June 20, 1893, in Chicago, Illinois. Led by Eugene V. Debs, the A.R.U. very quickly became the nation's largest organized union. The A.R.U. welcomed any railway worker except for those above the rank of foreman. After a boycott against the Pullman Company led to a strike against the railroads, the federal government broke the strike and jailed Eugene Debs after which point the A.R.U. quickly fell apart. Few members remained by the end of 1895. -
Pullman Strike
Th strike had two important events. The events of the Pullman strike led to a deepening awareness that there was a "labor problem" in America, a "labor question" in American politics. As a result of Pullman, reformers energetically began searching for a new way of protecting the "public interest" in the face of the competing interests of labor and capital. The lives of American workers would never improve unless they controlled governmental power through their strength of numbers in elections. -
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Progressive Era
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Klondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush was an event of migration by an estimated 100,000 people prospecting to the Klondike region of northwestern Canada in the Yukon region between 1896 and 1899. It's also called the Yukon Gold Rush, the Last Great Gold Rush, and the Alaska Gold Rush. Mining was challenging due to pretty unpredictable distribution of gold and digging was slowed by permafrost. Minors decided to buy ad sell their claims so they could build an investement of the backs of other. -
Election of 1896
The United States presidential election on November 3, 1896, saw Republican William McKinley defeat Democrat William Jennings Bryan in a campaign considered by historians to be one of the most dramatic and complex in American history. The 1896 campaign is often considered by political scientists to be a realigning election that ended the old Third Party System and began the Fourth Party System. ryan was the nominee of the Democrats, the Populist Party, and the Silver Republicans. -
Spanish American War
The Spanish-American War was a conflict between the United States and Spain that ended Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and resulted in U.S. acquisition of territories in the western Pacific and Latin America. Spain declared war on the United States on April 24, followed by a U.S. declaration of war on the 25th, which was made retroactive to April 21. The war was one-sided since Spain had readied neither its army or navy for a distant war with the formidable power of the United States. -
Treaty of Paris 1898
In France, the Treaty of Paris is signed, formally ending the Spanish-American War and granting the United States its first overseas empire.The Spanish-American War had its origins in the rebellion against Spanish rule that began in Cuba in 1895.The once-proud Spanish empire was virtually dissolved as the United States took over much of Spain’s overseas holdings. Puerto Rico and Guam were ceded to the United States, the Philippines were bought for $20 million, & Cuba became a U.S. protectorate. -
Philippine- American War
After its defeat in the Spanish-American War of 1898, Spain ceded its colony of the Philippines to the United States in the Treaty of Paris. On February 4, 1899, just two days before the U.S. Senate ratified the treaty, fighting broke out between American forces and Filipino nationalists. The Philippine-American War lasted 3 years & resulted in the death of over 4,200 American and over 20,000 Filipino combatants. As many as 200,000 Filipino civilians died from violence, famine, & disease. -
Boxer Rebellion
n response to widespread foreign encroachment upon China’s national affairs, Chinese nationalists launch the Boxer Rebellion. The Boxers soon grew powerful, and in late 1899 regular attacks on foreigners and Chinese Christians began. On August 14, the international force, featuring British, Russian, American, Japanese, French, and German troops, relieved Peking after fighting its way through much of northern China.China was forced to pay $333 million dollars as a penalty for its rebellion. -
Great Migration
The Great Migration was the relocation of more than 6 million African Americans from the rural South to the cities of the North, Midwest, and West. Driven from their homes by unsatisfactory economic opportunities and harsh segregationist laws, many blacks headed north, where they took advantage of the need for industrial workers that first arose during the First World War. To build a new place for themselves in public life, economic, political and social challenges. -
American Indian Citizenship Act
Native Americans have long struggled to retain their culture. Until 1924, Native Americans were not citizens of the United States. Many Native Americans had, and still have, separate nations within the U.S. on designated reservation land. On June 2nd, 1924 Congress granted citizenship to all Native Americans born in the U.S. Yet even after the Indian Citizenship Act, some Native Americans weren't allowed to vote because the right to vote was governed by state law. -
Election of 1900
The United States presidential election of 1900 was held on November 6, 1900. It was a rematch of the 1896 race between Republican President William McKinley and his Democratic challenger, William Jennings Bryan. The return of economic prosperity and recent victory in the Spanish-American War helped McKinley to score a decisive victory. President McKinley chose New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt as his running mate as Vice President Garret Hobart had died from heart failure in 1899. -
Big Stick Policy
Big Stick diplomacy is the policy of carefully mediated negotiation supported by the unspoken threat of a powerful military ("big stick"). The Great White Fleet, a group of American warships that toured the world in a show of peaceful strength, is the leading example of Big Stick diplomacy during Roosevelt’s presidency. President Roosevelt used Big Stick diplomacy in many foreign policy situations. “Speak softly, & carry a big stick.” “Big Stick diplomacy” defined his leadership. -
Northern Securities Trust
In general, by the first decade of the twentieth century American railroads were consolidating into great interregional systems. By 19 there were groups of railroad lines controlling per cent of the track miles in the United States. In these groups of railroads, individual companies my remain distinct, but cooperate with other railroads through joint ownership and overlapping memberships on boards of directors.The Democrats of course criticized Roosevelt for his antitrust policies. -
Russo Japanese War
During the subsequent Russo-Japanese War, Japan won a series of decisive victories over the Russians, who underestimated the military potential of its non-Western opponent. Roosevelt mediated a peace treaty at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Japan emerged from the conflict as the first modern non-Western world power and set its sights on greater imperial expansion. However, for Russia, its military’s disastrous performance in the war was one of the immediate causes of the Russian Revolution of 1905. -
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World was established in Chicago, in 1905, by members of the socialist-led Western Federation of Miners and other groups opposed to what they saw as "class collaboration" by the American Federation of Labor (A.F.L.). The driving force behind the I.W.W. was William D. Haywood, the leader of the Western Federation of Miners, which had established a reputation for work stoppages in Colorado mines. It resulted in labor laws aimed at curtailing such creative tactics. -
Pure Food & Drug Act
The first Pure Food and Drug Act was passed in 1906. The purpose was to protect the public against adulteration of food and from products identified as healthful without scientific support. The original Pure Food and Drug Act was amended in 1912, 1913, and 1923. President Theodore Roosevelt began the process by ensuring the passage of the Meat Inspection Act of 1906, which was followed by the Pure Food and Drug Act, passed in 1906 to become effective at the start of 1907. -
Meat Inspection Act
Meat Inspection Act of 1906, U.S. legislation, signed by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt prohibited the sale of adulterated or misbranded livestock & derived products as food and ensured that livestock was slaughtered and processed under sanitary conditions after they were slaughtered & processed for human consumption. Slaughtered animals & meat products were proven ineffective in regulating many unsafe and unsanitary practices by the meatpacking industry. The law was amended by the Wholesome Meat Act. -
Gentlemen's Agreement
The United States and Japan represented an effort by Theodore Roosevelt to calm growing tension between the two countries over the immigration of Japanese workers. A treaty with Japan in 1894 had assured free immigration, but as the number of Japanese workers in California increased, they were met with growing hostility. Japan agreed to deny passports to laborers seeking to enter the United States; this, however, did not stop the many workers who obtained passports to Canada, Mexico, or Hawaii. -
Great White Fleet
The "Great White Fleet" sent around the world by President Theodore Roosevelt from 16 December 1907 to 22 February 1909 consisted of sixteen new battleships of the Atlantic Fleet. The battleships were painted white except for gilded scrollwork on their bows. The Atlantic Fleet battleships only later came to be known as the "Great White Fleet." The fourteen-month long voyage was a grand pageant of American sea power.They covered some 43,000 miles and made twenty port calls on six continents. -
Muller v. Oregon
In 1903, Oregon passed a law that said that women could work no more than 10 hours a day in factories and laundries. A woman at Muller's laundry was required to work more than 10 hours. Muller was convicted of violating the law. His appeal eventually was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. By a 9-0 vote, the justices upheld the Oregon law. . The justices were convinced that Oregon's law was significantly different from the New York law they had struck down just three years before in Lochner. -
17th Amendment
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures. When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. -
Election of 1912
The United States presidential election of 1912 was fought among three major candidates. President William Howard Taft was renominated by the Republican Party with the support of the conservative wing of the party. After former President Theodore Roosevelt failed to receive the Republican nomination, he called his own convention and created the Progressive Party. It nominated Roosevelt & ran candidates for offices in major states. Woodrow Wilson was nominated on the ballot of a convention -
Federal Reserve Act
The Federal Reserve System would then become a privately owned banking system that was operated in the public interest. Bankers would run the twelve Banks, but those would be supervised & by the whose members included the Secretary of the Treasury, the Comptroller of the Currency, and other officials appointed by the President to represent public interests. The system exists today is not quite the same creature that was produced. The system has undergone rare but overhauls over the years. -
Period: to
WWII
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Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
In an event that is widely acknowledged to have sparked the outbreak of World War I, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, nephew of Emperor Franz Josef and heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, is shot to death along with his wife by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Otto von Bismarck, the man most responsible for the unification of Germany in 1871, quoted a saying at the end of his life that “One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans.” As he predicted -
Schlieffen Plan
The Schlieffen Plan was created by General Count Alfred von Schlieffen in December 1905. The Schlieffen Plan was the operational plan for a designated attack on France once Russia, in response to international tension, had started to mobilize her forces near the German border. The execution of the Schlieffen Plan led to Britain declaring war on Germany on August 4th, 1914.Europe had effectively divided into two camps by this year. Germany, Austria, and Italy. Also, Britain, France and Russia. -
Panama Canal
Following the deliberations of the U.S. Isthmian Canal Commission and a push from President Theodore Roosevelt, the U.S. purchased the French assets in the canal zone for $40 million in 1902. Although construction was on track when President Roosevelt visited the area in November 1906, the project suffered a setback when Stevens suddenly resigned a few months later and he also oversaw the addition of facilities to improve the quality of life for workers and their families. It was opened in 1914 -
Margaret Sanger
Margaret Sanger opened the first birth-control clinic in the United States. An advocate for women’s reproductive rights who was also a vocal eugenics enthusiast, she leaves a complicated legacy & conservatives have periodically leveraged into sweeping attacks on the organization she helped found: Planned Parenthood. She did focus her efforts on minority communities that were where, due to poverty & limited access to health care, women were vulnerable to the effects of unplanned pregnancy. -
Sussex Pledge
The Sussex Pledge was made in response to the US demands to alter the German policy of unrestricted submarine warfare and stop the indiscriminate sinking of non-military ships during WW1. A promise was given by the German Government, to the then neutral United States, not to sink any more passenger ships and that Merchant ships would not be sunk until the presence of weapons had been established and provisions made for the safety of passengers and crew. Germany went back of its promises. -
Zimmermann Telegram
The so-called Zimmermann Telegram, a message from the German foreign secretary to the German ambassador to Mexico proposing a Mexican-German alliance in the case of war between the United States and Germany, is published on the front pages of newspapers across America.In the telegram, intercepted and deciphered by British intelligence in January 1917, Zimmermann told the ambassador, to offer financial aid to Mexico if it agreed to enter any future U.S-German conflict as a German ally. -
Espionage Act
Two months after America’s entrance into World War I against Germany, the United States Congress passes the Espionage Act. Enforced largely by A. Mitchell Palmer, the United States attorney general under President Woodrow Wilson, the Espionage Act essentially made it a crime for any person to convey information intended to interfere with the U.S. armed forces prosecution of the war effort, to promote the success of the country’s enemies.Reinforced by the Sedition Act of the following year. -
14 Points
The Fourteen Points was an address delivered before a joint meeting of Congress during which Wilson outlined his vision for a stable, long-lasting peace in Europe, the Americas and the rest of the world following World War I. The devastation and carnage of the First World War grimly illustrated to Wilson the unavoidable relationship between international stability and American national security. Called for the victorious Allies to set unselfish peace terms with the vanquished Central Powers. -
Sedition Act
On May 16, 1918, the United States Congress passes the Sedition Act, a piece of legislation designed to protect America’s participation in World War I. Aimed at socialists, pacifists and anti-war activists, the Sedition Act imposed harsh penalties on anyone found guilty of making false statements that interfered with the prosecution of the war; insulting the U.S. government, the flag, the Constitution & military, agitating against the production of necessary war materials. -
Argonne Forest
The colossal battle of the Argonne fought 75 years ago, started with a shouting match between General John J. Pershing and his immediate commander, French Field Marshal Ferdinand Foch. Pershing and his staff were putting the finishing touches on an offensive Foch had ordered in hopes of wiping out the German salient that bulged into the Allied lines north and south of the ancient French city. Foch had appeared at the headquarters of the brand-new American First Army in Ligny-en-Barriois. -
Paris Peace Conference
In Paris, France, some of the most powerful people in the world meet to begin the long, complicated negotiations that would officially mark the end of the First World War. Leaders of the victorious Allied powers; France, Great Britain, the United States & Italy–would make most of the crucial decisions in Paris over six months. Wilson struggled to support his idea of a “peace without victory” & make sure that Germany, the leader of the Central Powers & loser of the war, was not treated harshly. -
Treaty of Versailles
World War I officially ended with the Treaty. Negotiated among the Allied powers with little participation by Germany, its 15 parts & 440 articles reassigned German boundaries & assigned liability for reparations. After strict enforcement for five years, the French assented to the modification of important provisions. The negotiations revealed a split between the French, who wanted to dismember Germany to make it impossible for it to renew the war with France, and the British and Americans. -
The Lost Generation
A group of American writers who came of age during World War I & established their literary reputations in the 1920s. The term is also used more generally to refer to the post-World War I generation.The generation was “lost” in the sense that its inherited values were no longer relevant in the postwar world and because of its spiritual alienation from the United States that, basking “back to normalcy” policy, seemed to its members to be hopelessly provincial, materialistic, & emotionally barren. -
Anti-Saloon League
The Anti-Saloon League of America was one of the most prominent prohibition organizations in the United States of America in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries.The Ohio Anti-Saloon League hoped to reduce alcohol consumption, if not outright prohibit it, by enforcing existing laws and by implementing new ones. This organization also sought to eliminate bars, taverns, and saloons, believing that these businesses promoted the consumption of alcohol. Hoped to close down saloons. -
First Red Scare
World War I was over, but the hysteria lingered. The Eastern front had not gone well for Russia. The pressures of their losing effort forced the Russian czar to abdicate. The new government had not fared much better. Finally, in November 1917, Lenin led a successful revolution of the Bolshevik workers. Once the war against Germany was over, the Western powers focused their energies on restoring Czar Nicholas. All this effort was in vain. The Bolsheviks murdered the entire royal family. -
Harlem Renaissance
The development of the Harlem neighborhood in New York City as a black cultural mecca in the early 20th Century and the subsequent social & artistic explosion that resulted. Lasting roughly from the 1910s through the mid-1930s, the period is considered a golden age in African American culture, manifesting in literature, music, stage performance and art. The end of Harlem began with the stock market crash of 1929 which meant white patrons no longer sought out the illegal alcohol in uptown clubs. -
Period: to
1920's
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Volstead Act
Temperance societies were prevalent in the United States. Concerned citizens had begun warning others about the effects of alcohol. In 1826 the American Temperance Society was founded to convince people to abstain from drinking. Not long after, the Women's Christian Temperance Union pledged not only to ban alcohol & drugs but to improve public morals. The anti-Saloon League was formed in 1893 and eventually became a powerful political force in passing a national ban on alcoholic beverages. -
18th Amendment
After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation or the exportation from the United States & all territory subject to the jurisdiction for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment by the legislatures of the several states, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the states by the Congress. -
19th Amendment
The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted American women the right to vote, a right is known as women’s suffrage and was ratified on August 18, 1920, ending almost a century of protest.Following the convention, the demand for the vote became a centerpiece of the women’s rights movement. After a lengthy battle, these groups finally emerged victorious with the passage of the 19th Amendment.It raised public awareness and lobbied the government to grant voting rights to women. -
Immigration Act of 1924
On this date, President Calvin Coolidge signs into law the Immigration Act of 1924, the most stringent U.S. immigration policy up to that time in the nation’s history. The new law reflected the desire of Americans to isolate themselves from the world after fighting World War I in Europe, which exacerbated growing fears of the spread of communist ideas. It also reflected the pervasiveness of racial discrimination in American society at the time. Caused unfair competition for jobs and land. -
Scopes Monkey Trial
In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called “Monkey Trial” begins with John Thomas Scopes, a young high school science teacher, accused of teaching evolution in violation of a Tennessee state law. The law, which had been passed in March, made it a misdemeanor punishable by fine to “teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.” For one of the most famous trials in U.S. history. -
Period: to
The Great Depression
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Valentine's Day Massacre
Four men dressed as police officers enter gangster Bugs Moran’s headquarters on North Clark Street in Chicago, line seven of Moran’s henchmen against a wall, and shoot them to death. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, as it is now called, was the culmination of a gang war between arch rivals Al Capone and Bugs Moran. George “Bugs” Moran was a career criminal who ran the North Side gang in Chicago during the bootlegging era of the 1920s .Both survived several attempted murders. -
Teapot Dome Scandal
The Teapot Dome Scandal of the 1920s shocked Americans by revealing a level of greed & corruption within the federal government. The scandal involved oil tycoons, poker-playing politicians, illegal liquor sales, a murder-suicide, a womanizing president & a bribery cash delivered on the sly. The scandal would empower the Senate to conduct rigorous investigations into government corruption. It's also the first time a U.S. cabinet official served jail time for a felony committed while in office. -
The Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl refers to the drought-stricken Southern Plains region of the United States, which suffered severe dust storms during a dry period in the 1930s. As high winds and choking dust swept the region from Texas to Nebraska, people and livestock were killed and crops failed across the entire region. The Dust Bowl intensified the crushing economic impacts of the Great Depression and drove many farming families on a desperate migration in search of work and better living conditions. -
Election of 1932
The United States presidential election of 1932 took place as the effects of the 1929 Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression were being felt intensely across the country. President Herbert Hoover's popularity was falling as voters felt he was unable to reverse the economic collapse or deal with prohibition. Roosevelt won by a landslide, and this "critical election" marked the collapse of the Fourth Party System or Progressive Era. The voters soon were realigned into the Fifth Party System. -
The Holocaust
The word has taken on a new and horrible meaning: the mass murder of some 6 million European Jews (as well as members of some other persecuted groups, such as Gypsies and homosexuals) by the German Nazi regime during the Second World War. To the anti-Semitic Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, Jews were an inferior race, an alien threat to German racial purity and community.came to fruition under the cover of world war, with mass killing centers constructed in the concentration camps of occupied Poland. -
The New Deal
When President Franklin Roosevelt took office in 1933, he acted swiftly to try and stabilize the economy and provide jobs and relief to those who were suffering. Over the next eight years, the government instituted a series of experimental projects and programs, known collectively as the New Deal, that aimed to restore some measure of dignity and prosperity to many Americans. More than that, Roosevelt’s New Deal permanently changed the federal government’s relationship to the U.S. populace. -
Emergency Relief Act
During Roosevelt’s time as governor of New York, he had become good friends with Harry Hopkins. Hopkins had over 20 years of experience with social work and welfare issues. Roosevelt realized that most of the federal government’s relief efforts had never been successful because they often got stuck in political wrangling. To prevent these problems, Roosevelt told Hopkins to focus on action rather than the complications of politics. Roosevelt needed to come and make an effective plan for relief. -
Glass - Steagall Act
Separated commercial banking from investment banking and created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, among other things. It was one of the most widely debated legislative initiatives before being signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in June 1933. The bill was designed “to provide for the safer and more effective use of the assets of banks, to regulate interbank control, to prevent the undue diversion of funds into speculative operations, and for other purposes.” -
21st Amendment
Prohibition proved difficult to enforce & failed to have the intended effect of eliminating crime and other social problems to the contrary, it led to a rise in organized crime, as the bootlegging of alcohol became an ever-more lucrative operation. Widespread public disillusionment led Congress to ratify the 21st Amendment, which repealed Prohibition. Since then, liquor control in the United States has largely been determined at the local level. A few states continued statewide prohibition. -
Federal Housing Authority
The Federal Housing Administration revolutionized home ownership by creating our current financial mortgaging system. In the process, it produced a lending structure which helped to solidify the racial segregation that still exists today. The FHA has insured over 35 million home mortgages and 47,205 multifamily project mortgages since 1934. The FHA Underwriting Handbook incorporated “residential security maps” into their standards to determine where to mortgages could or could not be issued. -
Securities and Exchange Act
In contrast to the Securities Act of 1933, the Exchange Act primarily regulates transactions of securities in the secondary market that is, sales that take place after a security is initially offered by a company. To protect investors, Congress crafted a disclosure process that is designed to force companies to make public information that investors would find pertinent to making an investment decision.In addition, it provides for direct regulation of the markets on which securities are sold -
Social Security Act
An act to provide for the general welfare by establishing a system of Federal old-age benefits, and by enabling the several States to make more adequate provision for aged persons, blind persons, dependent and crippled children, maternal and child welfare, public health, and the administration of their unemployment compensation laws; to establish a Social Security Board; to raise revenue; and for other purposes.enacted by the Senate & House of Representatives in Congress assembled. -
Neutrality Acts
FDR signs the Neutrality Act which he calls an “expression of the desire…to avoid any action which might involve in war.” The signing came at a time when newly installed fascist governments in Europe were beginning to beat the drums of war. Roosevelt said that the new law would require American vessels to obtain a license to carry arms, would restrict Americans from sailing on ships from hostile nations and would impose an embargo on the sale of arms to “belligerent” nations. -
Migrant Mother Photograph
As the United States sank into the Great Depression, a photographer named Dorothea Lange turned her attention away from studio and portrait work toward the suffering she was seeing around her.Lange approached one of the idle pickers, a woman sitting in a tent, surrounded by her seven children, and asked if she could photograph them.Migrant Mother became the iconic photo of the Depression, and one of the most familiar images of the 20th century.With her children behind her hiding their faces. -
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World War II
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German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
Shortly before World War II broke out in Europe enemies Nazi Germany & the Soviet Union surprised the world by signing the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, in which the two countries agreed to take no military action against each other for the next 10 years. German Chancellor Adolf Hitler used the pact to make sure Germany was able to invade Poland unopposed. The pact also contained a secret agreement in which the Soviets and Germans agreed how they would later divide up Eastern Europe. -
Dunkirk
Dunkirk evacuation, (1940) in World War II, the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and other Allied troops from the French seaport of Dunkirk (Dunkerque) to England. Naval vessels and hundreds of civilian boats were used in the evacuation, which began on May 26. When it ended on June 4, about 198,000 British and 140,000 French and Belgian troops had been saved. With Dunkirk, the disastrous defense of the Low Countries ended in a brief flash of glory for the Allies. -
The Battle of Britain
German & British air forces clashed in the skies over the United Kingdom, locked in the largest sustained bombing campaign to that date. A turning point of the war, the Battle of Britain ended when Germany’s Luftwaffe failed to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force despite months of targeting Britain’s air bases, military posts & ultimately, its civilian population. Britain’s victory saved the country from invasion & possible by German forces proving that air power could win a battle. -
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is a U.S. naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, and was the scene of a devastating surprise attack by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. Hundreds of Japanese fighter planes on the base, where they managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, & 300 airplanes. More than 2,400 Americans died in the attack, including civilians, and another 1,000 people were wounded. The day after the assault, Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. -
U.S. Office of War Information
To attract U.S. citizens to jobs in support of the war effort, the government created the Office of War Information (OWI) on June 13, 1942, some six months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In addition to waving the flag and promoting a vision of apple-pie America, OWI photographers covered less happy occasions. The OWI also documented social change, including the massive movement of women into the workforce and the advancement of African Americans in the military. "Uncle Sam wants you!" -
Quebec Conference
Quebec Conference held in the city of Quebec during World War II. The first code, Quadrant, was held to discuss plans for the forthcoming Allied invasions of Italy & France and was attended by Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The decision made there to advance against Germany on two western fronts, instead of pursuing a concerted drive on Berlin, was criticized in the postwar period because it allowed the Soviet army to take possession of the German capital. -
Battle of the Bulge
Germans launch the last major offensive of the war, Operation Mist, also known as the Ardennes Offensive & the Battle of the Bulge, an attempt to push the Allied front line west from northern France to northwestern Belgium. The Battle of the Bulge called because the Germans created a “bulge” around the area of the Ardennes forest in pushing the American defensive line, was the largest fought on the Western front.The war wouldn't end until better American aircraft to bomb German positions. -
VE Day
Both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine. The eighth of May spelled the day when German troops throughout Europe finally laid down their arms: In Prague, Germans surrendered to their Soviet antagonists, after the latter had lost more than 8,000 soldiers, and the Germans considerably more in Copenhagen and Oslo.
