US History 1865-1920

  • U-boats created

    Germany built new and larger U-boats to punch holes in the British blockade, which was threatening to starve Germany out of the war.
  • Bessemer Process

    The Bessemer Process made it possible to produce steel as ingots
  • Discovery of Gold in Pikes Peak

    They fist discovered gold in the first week of July 1858
  • Homestead Act

    The Homestead Act accelerated the settlement of the western territory by granting adult heads of families 160 acres of surveyed public land for a minimal filing fee and five years of continuous residence of that land
  • Morrill Land grant act

    This act made it possible for states to establish public colleges funded by the development or sale of associated federal land grants
  • Transcontinental r/r completed

    the presidents of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads meet in Promontory, Utah, and drive a ceremonial last spike into a rail line that connects their railroads. This made transcontinental railroad travel possible for the first time in U.S. history. No longer would western-bound travelers need to take the long and dangerous journey by wagon train.
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    Battle of little bighorn

    The Battle of the Little Bighorn has come to symbolize the clash of two vastly dissimilar cultures: the buffalo/horse culture of the northern plains tribes, and the highly industrial based culture of the United States. This battle was not an isolated confrontation, but part of a much larger strategic campaign designed to force the capitulation of the nonreservation Lakota and Cheyenne.
  • Farmers alliance created

    sought to improve the economic conditions for farmers through the creation of cooperatives and political advocacy. The movement was made up of numerous local organizations that coalesced into three large groupings.
  • Thomas Edison invents light bulb

    the creation of a practical long-burning electric light had eluded scientists for decades. With dreams of lighting up entire cites, Edison lined up financial backing, assembled a group of brilliant scientists and technicians, and applied his genius to the challenge of creating an effective and affordable electric lamp.
  • Carlisle school established

    The first government-run boarding school for Native American children. The goal? Forced assimilation of Native children into white American society under the belief of “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.”
  • Chinese exclusion act

    This act provided an absolute 10-year ban on Chinese laborers immigrating to the United States. For the first time, federal law proscribed entry of an ethnic working group on the premise that it endangered the good order of certain localities.
  • Edison lights up NYC

    His company flipped the switch on his Pearl Street power station on September 4, 1882, providing hundreds of homes with electricity. At first, 59 customers in Lower Manhattan reaped the benefits, but this would grow to over 500 by the end of that year. Though electricity had been around for a few years prior, this was one of the first practical applications of the technology.
  • Statue of Liberty built

    The Statue of Liberty was built to honor the United States centennial of independence and the friendship with France
  • American federation of labor founded

    After the KOL rejected a proposal reaffirming the historic separation of trade-union and labour-reform functions, the craft unions revolted. Led by Samuel Gompers, an English immigrant who had organized cigar makers, the craft unions established the American Federation of Labor.
  • Interstate commerce act passed

    Interstate Commerce Act, which applied the Constitution's “Commerce Clause”—granting Congress the power “to Regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States”—to regulating railroad rates.
  • Dawes act

    Also known as the General Allotment Act, the law authorized the President to break up reservation land, which was held in common by the members of a tribe, into small allotments to be parceled out to individuals. Thus, Native Americans registering on a tribal "roll" were granted allotments of reservation land.
  • Jacob Riis published his book of photos

    Harrowing images of tenements and alleyways where New York's immigrant communities lived, combined with his evocative storytelling, were intended to engage and inform his audience and exhort them to act. Riis helped set in motion an activist legacy linking photojournalism with reform.
  • Alfred T Mahan writes his book on sea power

    The book was a revolutionary analysis of the importance of naval power as a factor in the rise of the British Empire.
  • Sherman ant-trust act passed

    The Sherman Anti-trust Act of 1890 was the first measure passed by the U.S. Congress to prohibit trusts.
  • Wounded knee massacre

    The massacre was the climax of the U.S. Army’s late 19th-century efforts to repress the Plains Indians. It broke any organized resistance to reservation life and assimilation to white American culture, although American Indian activists renewed public attention to the massacre during a 1973 occupation of the site
  • Fredrick Jackson Turner writes essay of settling the west

    Turner was inspired to write about the settlement of the frontier after the Superintendent of the 1890 Census declared that all the western lands in the United States had been claimed.
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    Pullman strike

    Widespread railroad strike and boycott that severely disrupted rail traffic in the Midwest of the United States
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    Plessy v Ferguson

    The ruling in this Supreme Court case upheld a Louisiana state law that allowed for "equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races."
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    Holden v hardy

    A US labor law case in which the US Supreme Court held a limitation on working time for miners and smelters as constitutional.
  • Spanish American War begins

    America's support the ongoing struggle by Cubans and Filipinos against Spanish rule, and the mysterious explosion of the battleship U.S.S. Maine in Havana Harbor were some reasons the Spanish American War began
  • Hawaii is annexed

    When the Hawaiian islands were formally annexed by the United States in 1898, the event marked the end of a lengthy internal struggle between native Hawaiians and non-native American businessmen for control of the Hawaiian government
  • Phillipines islands are annexed

    Desire for commercial opportunities in Asia, concern that the Filipinos were incapable of self-rule, and fear that if the United States did not take control of the islands, another power (such as Germany or Japan) might do so are some reasons why the Phillipines islands were annexed
  • Newlands Reclamation act

    Authorized the Secretary of the Interior to designate irrigation sites and to establish a reclamation fund from the sale of public lands to finance the project
  • Panama Canal is built

    To ship goods quickly and cheaply between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts the Panama Canal was built
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    Lochner v New York

    The state of New York enacted a statute known as the Bakeshop Act, which forbid bakers to work more than 60 hours a week or 10 hours a day. Lochner was accused of permitting an employee to work more than 60 hours in one week. The first charge resulted in a fine of $25, and a second charge a few years later resulted in a fine of $50. While Lochner did not challenge his first conviction, he appealed the second, but was denied in state court.
  • Pure Food and drug act passed

    It prohibited the sale of misbranded or adulterated food and drugs in interstate commerce and laid a foundation for the nation’s first consumer protection agency, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
  • Sinclair’s the Jungle written

    Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle to expose the appalling working conditions in the meat-packing industry. His description of diseased, rotten, and contaminated meat shocked the public and led to new federal food safety laws.
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    Muller V Oregon

    Oregon enacted a law that limited women to ten hours of work in factories and laundries. The owner of a laundry business, Curt Muller, was fined $10 when he violated the law. Muller appealed the conviction. The state supreme court upheld the law’s constitutionality.
  • Founding of the NAACP

    A deadly race riot rocked the city of Springfield, eruptions of anti-black violence – particularly lynching – were horrifically commonplace, but the Springfield riot was the final tipping point that led to the creation of the NAACP.
  • 17th adm

    This amendment to the Constitution calls for the direct election of senators by the voters instead of their election by state legislatures
  • Ford Motor company's first full assembly line starts

    His innovation reduced the time it took to build a car from more than 12 hours to one hour and 33 minutes.
  • Federal Reserve Act

    The 1913 Federal Reserve Act Created the Federal Reserve System, known simply as "The Fed." It was implemented to establish economic stability in the U.S. by introducing a central bank to oversee monetary policy
  • Beginning of the first World War

    Started in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. His murder catapulted into a war across Europe
  • The Clayton Act

    The Clayton Act prohibits price discrimination. This is the act of selling the same product to different buyers and charging different prices based on who is purchasing the goods.
  • Lusitania Sunk

    The luxury passenger liner was crossing the Atlantic from New York to Liverpool when the German submarine U-20 fired without warning. After a second explosion the ship quickly sank.
  • US enters WWI

    President Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany specifically citing Germany's renewed submarine policy as “a war against mankind. It is a war against all nations.” He also spoke about German spying inside the U.S. and the treachery of the Zimmermann Telegram.
  • Selective Service act

    Authorized the Federal Government to temporarily expand the military through conscription
  • WWI ends

    We imagine universal relief at the carnage of war finally ending, at least in the victorious countries. The armistice was agreed at 5.10am on 11 November to come into effect at 11am
  • 18th adm

    Established the prohibition of alcohol in the United States.
  • 19 adm

    The 19th amendment legally guarantees American women the right to vote.
  • Immigration quota act

    Limited the number of immigrants allowed entry into the United States through a national origins quota.
  • National origins act

    A law that severely restricted immigration by establishing a system of national quotas that blatantly discriminated against immigrants from southern and eastern Europe and virtually excluded Asians.
  • Scopes trial

    John T. Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which had made it illegal for teachers to teach human evolution in any state-funded school.