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The Ford Model T was made available to the public. It was affordable to middle-class Americans thanks to Henry Ford's assembly line. It revolutionized the auto industry and made cars available to many more people.
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The world-famous "unsinkable" RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the Northern Atlantic Ocean on her maiden voyage and sinks. More than 1500 people died in the sinking.
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After over thirty years of construction and 10 years of United States construction, the Panama Canal is finished. This canal connects the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic ocean at the country of Panama, in between North and South America. It allowed ships to sail from ocean to ocean without having to sail around the tip of South America and opened up trade by a significant amount.
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The RMS Lusitania is torpedoed and sunk by a German Submarine. 1,200 people aboard the unarmed civilian ocean liner died, including 128 Americans. This sparked US interest in WW1 and provided an initial incentive for pro-war Americans.
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The Zimmerman Telegram was a telegram meant for Mexico from Germany that proposed an alliance between them if the United States entered WW1. In return, Mexico would gain Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. British codebreakers intercepted and decrypted the telegram and immediately informed Americans of its contents. This ultimately led to America declaring war on Germany.
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On this date, the United States officially declared war on Germany. Increasing tensions between the US and Germany, caused by the sinking of the Lusitania and the Zimmerman Telegram, led to the United States declaring war on Germany.
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This treaty was the most important treaty in the ending of WW1. It was signed in the Palace of Versaille and ended the declaration of war between the Allied powers and Germany. It was signed five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the start of WW1. However, the United States rejected to ratify the treaty and never joined the League of Nations.
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The 19th Amendment states that states and the federal government cannot deny a person the right to vote on the basis of gender. This meant that after over 100 years, women in the United States had the right to vote.
