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President Wilson launches a nationwide whistle-stop campaign to generate support for Preparedness and the Continental Army with three speeches in New York.
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Archduke Francis Ferdinand heir to the Austria-Hungary throne and his wife are assassinated by a Serbian Nationalist in Sarejevo.
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Official outbreak of World War I. Germany declares war on Russia.
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Germany declares war on France.
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The British Expeditionary Force lands in France to assist the French and Belgians in stopping the German offensive.
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The Battle of the Frontiers begins.
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27,000 French soldiers are killed on this single day in an offensive thrust to the east of Paris, towards the German borders.
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Battle of Tannenberg begins
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The Battle of Tannenberg ends in total Russian defeat.
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First Battle of the Masurian Lakes begins.
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Russia loses the First Battle of Masurian Lakes.
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Japan's makes 21 demands on China.
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The American naval and military attaches in Paris and London draft a plan for mobilizing US shipping to carry an American army to Europe, but their plan is ignored
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Start of the Battle of the Somme, with the British military suffering its greatest number of casualties in a single day, 60,000.
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"Peace without Victory." speech is made by President Wilson.
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The Belorussian Communist Organisation is founded as a separate party.
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Warren Harding 29th president
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A national quota system on the amount of incoming immigrants was established by the United States Congress in the Emergency Quota Act, curbing legal immigration.
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Congresswoman Alice Mary Robertson became the first woman to preside over the US House of Representatives.
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1st living person identified on a US coin (Thomas E Kirby) on the Alabama Centennial half-dollar
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Calvin Coolidge wins presidential election, 30th president
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Disney Company founded
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All Indians are designated citizens by legislation passed in the U.S. Congress and signed by President Calvin Coolidge. The Indian Citizenship Act granted this right to all Native Americans that had been born within the territory of the United States.
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Radiovision is born. The precursor to television is demonstrated by Charles Francis Jenkins when he transmits at 10 minute film of synchronized pictures and sound for five miles from Anacostia to Washington, D.C. to representatives of the United States government
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Robert H. Goddard demonstrated the viability of the first liquid fueled rockets with his test in Auburn, Massachusetts. The rocket flew one hundred and eighty-four feet over 2.5 seconds.
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The civil war in China prompts one thousand United States marines to land in order to protect property of United States interests.
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The Great Mississippi Flood occurs, affecting over 700,000
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The Tennessee national military park known as Fort Donelson National Battlefield, site of the first major Union victory in the Civil War and known for the "unconditional surrender" of Confederate troops to Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant, is created by legislation signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge.
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Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly over the Atlantic Ocean
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The United States Congress approves the construction of Boulder, later named Hoover Dam
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The crash signaled the beginning of the 12-year Great Depression that affected all Western industrialized countries and that did not end in the United States until the onset of American mobilization for World War II at the end of 1941.
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It was a campaign of tax resistance and nonviolent protest against the British salt monopoly in colonial India, and triggered the wider Civil Disobedience Movement.
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In order to combat the growing depression, President Herbert Hoover asks the U.S. Congress to pass a $150 million public works project to increase employment and economic activity.
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"Star Spangled Banner" becomes the country's official national anthem.
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Construction is completed on the Empire State Building in New York City and it opens for business.
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Gangster Al Capone is convicted of tax evasion after years of involvement in bootlegging and gambling
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Ford introduces the Model B, the first low-priced car to have a V-8 engine
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Democratic challenger Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats incumbent President Hoover in the presidential election for his first of an unprecedented four terms.
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated for the first time. His speech with its hallmark phrase, "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself" begins to rally the public and Congress to deal with great depression issues.
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The 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is passed, ending prohibition.
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The greatest hitter in the history of baseball, Babe Ruth, retires from Major League Baseball.
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The Social Security Act is passed by Congress as part of the New Deal legislation and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
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German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station, which is located adjacent to the borough of Lakehurst, New Jersey. Of the 97 people on board,36 passengers, 61 crew, there were 35 fatalities as well as one death.
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During an attempt to make a circumnavigational flight of the globe in 1937 in a Purdue-funded Lockheed Model 10 Electra, Earhart disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island.
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German dictator Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party attempted to establish a New Order of absolute Nazi German hegemony in Europe, which culminated in 1939 when Germany invaded Poland, leading to the outbreak of World War II
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Air battle for England" or "Air battle for Great Britain" is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940.
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was the 32nd President of the United States (1933–1945) and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war.
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London bombed. FDR calls the United States the "arsenal of democracy" in a fireside chat.
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FDR asks Congress for a plan to arm the Allies.
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The Supreme Court rules that blacks can ride first-class on trains.
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Japanese tanker blocked from selling 252,000 gallons of U.S. oil to Japan.
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the Japanese launched a surprise air attack on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. After just two hours of bombing, more than 2,400 Americans were dead, 21 ships* had either been sunk or damaged, and more than 188 U.S. aircraft destroyed.
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The Maritime Commission says it has built 488 U.S. ships in the past year.
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Japanese forces withdraw from Guadalcanal after six months of fighting the Americans there.
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Striking coal workers go back to work after being denounced by FDR.
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The Detroit Race Riot broke out in Detroit, Michigan in June 1943 and lasted for three days before Federal troops restored order.
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The U.S. says thousands of American prisoners died during a "death march" at the hands of Japanese in the Philipines.
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Roosevelt praises the proposed idea of a United Nations, an international group meant to "maintain or restore international peace and security."
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The Marines raise an American flag at Iwo Jima.
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U.S. forces liberated prisoners of war in the Los Baños Prison in the Philippines.
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Some 300 American B-29s bombed Tokyo at night with almost 2,000 tons of incendiaries killing 100,000.
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An American plane drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing 60,000. Dayus later, a second bomb is dropped on Nagasaki.
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U.S. drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima
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USSR enters war against Japan
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End of World War II
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Winston Churchill delivers "Iron Curtain" speech
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Berlin Blockade by USSR begins
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Berlin Blockade ends
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USSR explodes its first atomic bomb
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Truman approved H-bomb development
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Joe McCarthy begins Communist witch hunt and loyalty tests
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USSR sent tanks into Poznan, Poland, to suppress demonstrations by workers
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Sputnik II launched - Laika died in space
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NASA began Mercury project using Atlas rocket