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Alaska Purchased from Russia
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Completion of the Transcontinental Railroad
The golden spike was driven in Promontory, Utah, marking the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. The large network of railroads in the east and few in the west needed a connecting line. The California Gold Rush made the need for the Transcontinental Railroad. -
John D. Rockefeller Starts Standard Oil
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Alexander Graham Bell Invents the Telephone
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Thomas Edison brings light to the world with the lightbulb
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Chinese Exclusion Act
Approved May 6, 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was the first significant law restricting immigration. This Act put a 10-year ban on Chinese labor immigration. The Act also placed new requirements on Chinese immigrants who had already entered the country. -
Samuel Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL)
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Sherman Antitrust Act
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Opening of Ellis Island
Ellis Island opened as a European immigration station to the United States. Over 12 million immigrants entered through Ellis Island from 1892-1954. It was also known as "Oyster Island" due to its rich oyster beds. -
Carnegie Steel Homestead Strike
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Plessy v Ferguson
"Sperate but Equal"
Louisiana enacted the "separate car act" which had all Blacks and Whites have separate railway cars. Homer Plessy participated in a test to challenge the Act in 1892. Plessy was asked to sit in a White railway car. Although he was part Caucasian, he was Black under Louisiana law. When Plessy was asked to remove himself from the railway car, he refused -- leading to his arrest. Plessy claimed the Act violated the 13th and 14th Amendments. -
Hawaii is Annexed
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The US Declares war on Spain
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Rudyard Kipling published “The White Man’s Burden” in The New York Sun
In February 1899, Rudyard Kipling, a British novelist, wrote a poem called "The White Man's Burden: The United States and the Philippine Islands". The poem encouraged the US to take the burden of empire, like Britain. The poem was published in the February 1899 issue of McClure Magazine, coinciding with the Philippine-American War. -
Start of the Boxer Rebellion
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Tenement Act
The Tenement Act was the result of a campaign by a group of reformers who had been appalled by the conditions tenements in New York's congested neighborhoods. Tenements were dark and poorly ventilated, had no running water or toilets, and were extremely dangerous due to the overcrowding. The new law required new building to have fire escapes, indoor bathrooms, proper ventilation, and outward-facing windows. -
President McKinley is assassinated and the Progressive Theodore Roosevelt becomes president
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The Philippine Insurrection comes to an end
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Panama Canal is completed and open for traffic
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Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine declares the US right to intervene in the Western Hemisphere
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Upton Sinclair releases "The Jungle"
Upton Sinclair's book, "The Jungle" exposed the horrors of the meatpacking industry. He described the contaminated, rotten, disgusting things that went on in meatpacking plants. Many people thought it was fiction at first, due to the way it was written. Sinclair wrote it as a fiction piece, but he used real facts and exposed real things. This book led to the passing of the Pure Food and Drug Act. -
Pure Food & Drug Act and The Meat Inspection Act are passed
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Peak Year for Immigration Through Ellis Island
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Henry Ford Produces His First Model T
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Creation of the NAACP
The NAACP was founded on February 12, 1909, by interracial activists. The organization was established in acknowledgement to a race riot in Illinois. the NAACP was founded by W.E.B Du Bois, Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, and Mary White Ovington. -
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
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The Assassination on Austria's archduke Franz Ferdinand started WWI
The assassination set into motion a series of events that led into WWI. Nedeljko Cabrinovic threw a bomb into the archduke's car, attempting to kill him, but the bomb landed under the car behind. Gavrilo Princip happened to see the car after it took a wrong turn. Princip fired two shots, one at the archduke, killing him, and one at his wife, Sophie. -
US enters WWI
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Ratification of the 18th Amendment
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Women get the right to vote
After a women's rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York, women began fighting for reform and the right to vote. The initial meeting was not held in support for women's rights, but many suffragists see this as the starting point of the entire movement. In the 1910s, NAWSA's membership was in the millions.
