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Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as the sixteenth president of the United States in Washington, DC
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Battle of Big Bethel, the first land battle of the war in Virginia.
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Battle of Mill Springs, Kentucky. The Union victory weakened the Confederate hold on the state.
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Emancipation Proclamation issued.
Frees slaves in states in rebellion and authorizes the enlistment of black troops -
Lincoln reelected president. Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th president of the United States over a deeply divided Democratic Party, becoming the first Republican to win the presidency.
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The Freedmen's Bureau established.
Provides assistance to emancipated African Americans. Abolished in 1872. -
Republican Ulysses S. Grant defeats Democrat Horatio Seymour and is elected president of the United States.
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John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company is incorporated in Ohio. Its controversial history as one of the world's first and largest multinational corporations ended in 1911, when the United States Supreme Court ruled that Standard was an illegal monopoly.
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President Ulysses S. Grant is reelected to a second term as president of the United States. Was easily elected to a second term in office, with Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts as his running mate, despite a split within the Republican Party.
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Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. The development of the modern electrical telephone involved an array of lawsuits founded upon the patent claims of several individuals and numerous companies.
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Thomas Edison developed the world’s first practical incandescent electric light bulb. Edison eventually produced a bulb that could glow for over 1500 hours.
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Karl Benz was granted a patent for an automobile powered by a gasoline engine. Was a German engine designer and car engineer, generally regarded as the inventor of the first automobile powered by an internal combustion engine,
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U.S troops landed in Cuba. Approximately, 25,000 U.S. troops were stationed in Tampa, which only had a population of 25,000 at the time.
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Puerto Rico is Invaded. In December, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Spanish-American War and officially approving the cession of Puerto Rico to the United States
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The World War ended with the downfall of three imperialist powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia. Four Great Powers emerged from the war as victors: the United States, Britain, France and Japan. Peace Treaty is signed
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Germany declares war on Russia. With Germany officially at war with France and Russia, a conflict originally centered in the tumultuous Balkans region—with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife
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Germany declares a "war zone" around Great Britain, essentially effecting a submarine blockade where even neutral merchant vessels were to be potential targets.
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Germany sends the secret Zimmerman Telegram to Mexico in an effort to entice Mexico to join the war.
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Germany and the Allies sign an armistice to end the fighting in World War I.
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Congress ratifies the Eighteenth Amendment, prohibiting the sale of alcohol anywhere in the United States.
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Signing of the Treaty of Versailles. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers.
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The Nineteenth Amendment is ratified, granting women the right to vote.
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Adolf Hitler becomes leader of National Socialist (Nazi) Party.
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Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" published. Hitler began dictating the book to his deputy Rudolf Hess while imprisoned for what he considered to be "political crimes" following his failed Putsch in Munich in November 1923
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Black Thursday stock market crash $30 billion total losses
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Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected president for the first time. Many Americans did not think that President Hoover did enough to help them and hope that Roosevelt will end the Depression.
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Japan bombs American ships at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Thousands of Americans are killed in the attack.
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The Yalta Conference occurs, deciding the post-war status of Germany.World War II meeting of the heads of United States, United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Premier Joseph Stalin
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President Truman gives permission for the world's first military use of an atomic weapon against the Japanese city of Hiroshima
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Ho Chi Minh declares an independent Vietnam, called the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
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Joseph Stalin makes his Election Speech, in which he states that capitalism and imperialism make future wars inevitable
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James Meredith becomes the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi.
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Martin Luther King is arrested and jailed during anti-segregation protests in Birmingham, Alabama
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The first U.S. combat troops arrive in Vietnam. This was the first American combat troops in South Vietnam and there was considerable reaction around the world to the new stage of U.S. involvement in the war.
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Congress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This Act made it easier for Southern blacks to register to vote.
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South Vietnam surrenders to the communists. Vietnam War was know as the Resistance War Against America or the American War, was a Cold War-era proxy war that occurred in Vietnam
