US History 1865-1920

  • Bessemer Process

    The first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel.
  • Discovery of Gold in Pikes Peak

    gold was found in Pikes Peak CA
  • Homestead Act

    Any adult citizen, or intended citizen, who had never borne arms against the U.S. government could claim 160 acres of surveyed government land.
  • Morrill Land Grant Act

    States could establish public colleges funded by the development or sale of associated federal land grants
  • Transcontinental r/r completed

    The 1,912-mile continuous railroad constructed between 1863 and 1869 extending from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to San Francisco, California.
  • Battle of Little Bighorn

    General Custer and around 200 of his men were attacked by nearly 3000 native americans.
  • Farmers Alliance Created

    Was an organized agrarian economic movement among american farmers
  • Thomas Edison invents light bulb

    Thomas Edison invented the first light bulb
  • Carlisle School Established

    Boarding school made for Native Americans.
  • Chinese Exclusion Act

    The first significant law that restricted immigration into the United States
  • Edison Lights up NYC

    Edison provided electricity for hundreds of homes in NYC
  • Statue of Liberty Built

    It was built in France, then they took it apart and shipped it to the US as a gift.
  • American Federation of Labor Founded

    gaining the right to bargain collectively for wages, benefits, hours, and working conditions
  • Interstate Commerce Act Passed

    Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act, making the railroads the first industry subject to federal regulation.
  • Dawes Act

    Regulated land rights on tribal territories within the United States
  • Sherman Anti-Trust Act Passed

    The Sherman Antitrust Act was passed to address concerns by consumers who felt they were paying high prices on essential goods and by competing companies who believed they were being shut out of their industries by larger corporations.
  • Alfred T Mahan Writes his Book on Sea Power

    A book that analyzed of the importance of naval power as a factor in the rise of the British Empire.
  • Wounded Knee Massacre

    American troops slaughtered nearly 300 indians inhabiting the land near Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota
  • Fredrick Jackson Turner writes essay of settling the west

    Essay of how the frontier had made the United States unique.
  • Pullman Strike

    Widespread railroad strike and boycott that severly affected rail traffic in the west.
  • Plessy v Ferguson

    Upheld a Louisiana state law that allowed for "equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races.
  • Spanish American War begins

    It began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of USS Maine in Havana Harbor in Cuba, leading to United States intervention in the Cuban War of Independence.
  • Holden v Hardy

    Court ruling that said a limitation of working time for miners and smelters was constitutional.
  • Hawaii is Annexed

    It marked the end of an internal struggle between native Hawaiians and non-native American businessmen for control of the Hawaiian government.
  • Phillipines Islands are Annexed

    the United States paid Spain $20 million to annex the entire Philippine archipelago.
  • Newlands Reclamation Act

    The act set aside sales money from semi-arid land for the construction and maintenance of irrigation sites.
  • Lochner v New York

    A supreme court holding that a New York State statute that prescribed maximum working hours for bakers violated the bakers' right to freedom of contract under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
  • Sinclair’s the Jungle written

    The Jungle is a fictional novel by American muckraker author Upton Sinclair, known for his efforts to expose corruption in government and business in the early 20th century.
  • Pure Food and Drug Act Passed

    prohibited the sale of misbranded or adulterated food and drugs in interstate commerce
  • Founding of the NAACP

    An organization created to advance justice for black people in the United States.
  • Muller V Oregon

    a decision by the Supreme Court that stated women were provided by state mandate fewer work hours than allotted to men.
  • Hepner Act

    In an action of debt by the United States to recover a penalty imposed by the Alien Immigration Act of 1903, the court recognized the defendant had the constitutional right to have a jury pass on any tryable issues of fact.
  • Clayton Antitrust act

    the act seeks to capture anti-competitive practices in their incipience by prohibiting particular types of conduct, not deemed in the best interest of a competitive market.
  • Ford Motor Company's first full assembly line starts

    Highland Park was the birthplace of Ford's moving assembly line, which led to mass production of the iconic Model T.
  • 17th Amendment

    The 17th Amendment modified Article I, Section 3, of the Constitution by allowing voters to cast direct votes for U.S. senators.
  • Beginning of the first world war

    WW1 was a major global conflict that lasted from 1914 to 1918. It was fought between two coalitions, the Allies and the Central Powers.
  • Federal Reserve act

    Created the Federal Reserve System. It was implemented to establish economic stability in the U.S. by introducing a central bank to oversee monetary policy.
  • U-boats created

    The U-boat fleet made its first strike on September 5, 1914, with an attack on a British light cruiser off the coast of Scotland that killed more than 250 sailors.
  • Panama Canal was Built

    American and British leaders and businessmen wanted to ship goods quickly and cheaply between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
  • Lusitania Sunk

    The RMS Lusitania was a British-registered ocean liner that was torpedoed by an Imperial German Navy U-boat during the First World War.
  • US enters WWI

    The U.S. Senate voted in support of the measure to declare war on Germany.
  • Selective Service Act

    The Selective Service Act of 1917 or Selective Draft Act authorized the United States federal government to raise a national army for service in World War I through conscription.
  • WWI ends

    the infusion of American troops and resources into the Western front finally tipped the scale in the Allies' favor. Germany signed an armistice agreement with the Allies.
  • 18th Amendment

    The 18th Amendment prohibited “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors” but not the consumption, private possession, or production for one's own consumption.
  • 19th Amendment

    The 19th amendment granted 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 federal law that prevented immigration from Asia and set quotas on the number of immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe.
  • Scopes trial

    The 1925 prosecution of science teacher John Scopes for teaching evolution in a Tennessee public school, which a recent bill had made illegal.
  • Jacob Riis Published his Book of Photos

    Scribner's published Riis's work in book form, How the Other Half Lives, Studies Among the Tenements of New York (1890).