-
Standard Oil Trust
Standard Oil Co. was an American oil-producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 by John D. Rockefeller and Henry Flagler as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world at its height -
Sherman Antitrust Act-outlaws monopolies, price-fixing, other trade restraints
This Act outlaws all contracts, combinations, and conspiracies that unreasonably restrain interstate and foreign trade. This includes agreements among competitors to fix prices, rig bids, and allocate customers, which are punishable as criminal felonies. -
Federal forces massacre 200 Sioux Indians
Army's 7th cavalry surrounded a band of Ghost Dancers under the Sioux Chief Big Foot near Wounded Knee Creek and demanded they surrender their weapons. During the standoff, two Native Americans were killed, one federal marshal was seriously wounded and numerous people were arrested. -
Populist Party - formed specifically to give farmers a voice in government
Beginning in the late nineteenth century, the nation's farmers began.After the harvest, they were required to pay back the loans in the form of cotton crops. -
Yellow Journalism - journalism that features unethical or unprofessional practices by news media organizations or individual journalists.
Yellow journalism and yellow press are American terms for journalism and associated newspapers that present little or no legitimate, well-researched news while instead using eye-catching headlines for increased sales. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering -
Plessy vs. Ferguson – 'Separate but Equal' is constitutional (overturned by Brown vs. Board of Education)
a landmark 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine. ... As a result, restrictive Jim Crow legislation and separate public accommodations based on race became commonplace. -
Grandfather Clause - voting rights of blacks challenged with literacy tests and poll taxes
Poll taxes, literacy tests, fraud and intimidation all turned African Americans away from the polls. Until the Supreme Court struck it down in 1915, many states used the "grandfather clause " to keep descendents of slaves out of elections. -
Spanish-American War – Teddy Roosevelt leads Rough Riders, U.S. crushes Spain's Navy
: The Spanish-American War (Hispanic Division ... the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry under the leadership of Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt resigned his position as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in May 1898 -
Treaty of Paris - ends the Spanish-American War
The Treaty of Paris, signed on December 10, 1898, was a peace agreement between Spain and the United States that ended the Spanish-American War. Under the treaty, Cuba gained independence from Spain, and the United States gained possession of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam. -
Open Door Policy - U.S. attempt to gain foothold in Chinese markets
first initiated in 1899, with a follow-up missive in 1900—was significant in its attempt by the United States to establish an international protocol of equal privileges for all countries trading with China and to support China's territorial and administrative integrity. -
President McKinley assassinated, Teddy Roosevelt now 26th President
William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States, was shot on the grounds. Roosevelt accepted the nomination and was elected on McKinley's ticket -
Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine - increases U.S. presence in Latin America
While the Monroe Doctrine blocked further expansion of Europe in the Western Hemisphere, the Roosevelt Corollary went one step further. Should any Latin American nation engage in "chronic wrongdoing," a phrase that included large debts or civil unrest, the United States military would intervene. -
Muckraker – writers who expose big business corruption
John Spargo (1876–1966) – American reformer and author, The Bitter Cry of Children (child labor). Lincoln Steffens (1866–1936) The Shame of the Cities (1904) – uncovered the corruption of several political machines in major cities. Ida M. Tarbell (1857–1944) exposé, The History of the Standard Oil Company. -
Pure Food and Drug Act, Meat Inspection – set food quality standards
The version of the bill which became the Pure Food and Drug Act originated in the Senate, and after being sent to the House it was reported out of the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee with amendments on March 7th. It sat unconsidered for three months, causing some to wonder if Speaker Joe Cannon of Illinois was delaying it. -
Panama Canal – connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans (opens in 1914)
The United States took over the project in 1904 and opened the canal on August 15, 1914. The US continued to control the canal and surrounding Panama Canal Zone until the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties provided for handover to Panama. -
Henry Ford introduces the Model T car, assembly lines introduced
On December 1, 1913, Henry Ford installs the first moving assembly line for the mass production of an entire automobile. His innovation reduced the time it took to build a car from more than 12 hours to one hour and 33 minutes. -
16th Amendment - establishment of income tax, 17th Amend.- direct election of senators
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration. -
World War I begins in Europe
World War I, also known as the Great War, began in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. His murder catapulted into a war across Europe that lasted until 1918. -
German U-Boat sinks British passenger liner Lusitania, Americans killed on board
the British ocean liner Lusitania is torpedoed without warning by a German submarine off the south coast of Ireland. Within 20 minutes, the vessel sank into the Celtic Sea. Of 1,959 passengers and crew, 1,198 people were drowned, including 128 Americans. -
Germany continues unrestricted submarine warfare-gets warning from U.S.
Unrestricted submarine warfare was first introduced in World War I in early 1915, when Germany declared the area around the British Isles a war zone, in which all merchant ships, including those from neutral countries, would be attacked by the German navy -
Selective Service Act - establishes the draft
Some six weeks after the United States formally entered the First World War, the U.S Congress passes the Selective Service Act on May 18, 1917, giving the U.S. president the power to draft soldiers. -
Zimmerman Telegram - intercepted by British, asks for Germany/Mexico alliance against U.S.; US. Enters WWI
The Zimmermann Telegram (or Zimmermann Note or Zimmerman Cable) was a secret diplomatic communication issued from the German Foreign Office in January 1917 that proposed a military alliance between Germany and Mexico if the United States entered World War I against Germany. -
Fourteen Points - by Woodrow Wilson, 14th pt most important - calls for League of Nations
Most important, where many countries believed that only self-interest should guide foreign policy, in the Fourteen Points Wilson argued that morality and ethics had to be the basis for the foreign policy of a democratic society. -
18th Amendment-outlaws purchase, sale, and transport of alcohol
The Eighteenth Amendment declared the production, transport, and sale of intoxicating liquors illegal, though it did not outlaw the actual consumption of alcohol. Under the terms of the Eighteenth Amendment, Prohibition began on January 17, 1920, one year after the amendment was ratified. -
Treaty of Versailles – ends WWI; calls for heavy reparations on Germany, disarmament, and creation of League of Nations; U.S. Senate rejects it
In setting policy for ending the war, Wilson, the idealist, sought a “peace without victory,” while Lodge, the realist, demanded Germany's unconditional surrender. approval of the Treaty of Versailles and its provision for a League of Nations -
19th Amendment - women's suffrage (right to vote)
Passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920, the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote. -
Teapot Dome Scandal - exposes massive corruption in Harding Administration
Teapot Dome Scandal, in American history, scandal of the early 1920s. entered the American political vocabulary as a synonym for governmental corruption. Warren G. Harding transferred supervision of the naval oil-reserve lands from the named in the Teapot Dome scandal that tarnished the administration of Pres. -
Dawes Plan - ease war reparations on Germany
Young, the head of General Electric and a member of the Dawes committee, proposed a plan that reduced the total amount of reparations demanded of Germany to 121 billion gold marks, almost $29 billion, payable over 58 years. Another loan would be floated in foreign markets, this one totaling $300 million. -
Scopes Monkey Trial - popularizes debate over teaching evolution in schools -outlawed
William Jennings Bryan, and the controversy surrounding his denial of a strictly literal interpretation of Within the six chapters that follow, a picture of Dayton's infamous “Monkey Trial” is ... the teaching of evolution in public schools.His celebrity alone meant that Bryan had more effect on popularizing the antievolution. -
Charles Lindbergh - completes world's first solo flight across Atlantic - seen as a hero
Charles A. Lindbergh completed the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight in history, flying his Spirit of St. Louis from Long Island, New York, to Paris, France -
FDR elected for unprecedented 3rd Term
Roosevelt won a third term by defeating Republican nominee Wendell Willkie in the 1940 United States presidential election. He remains the only president to serve for more than two terms. -
Atlantic Charter - agreement b/n U.S President FDR and Britain Prime Minister Churchill
Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill had a close relationship, and the U.S. president once sent the British leader a cable that read: “It is fun to be in the same decade as you.” The document that resulted from the Roosevelt-Churchill meetings was issued on August 14, 1941, and became known as the Atlantic Charter. -
Battle of Midway - U.S. defeats Japan, seen as turning point in the war in the Pacific
The loss of four aircraft carriers was devastating to the Japanese. They also lost a number of other ships, 248 aircraft, and over 3,000 sailors. This battle was the turning point in the war and the first major victory for the Allies in the Pacific. Today Midway Island is considered a territory of the United States. -
"Iron Curtain" - describes division of Communist Eastern Europe from Western Europe
The Iron Curtain specifically refers to the imaginary line dividing Europe other Soviet satellite states in Central and Eastern Europe during the Cold War.the phrase iron curtain gained popularity as a shorthand reference to the division in Pravda (the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union) -
Korean war begins; U.S. aids South Korea against North Korea; Peace Treaty in 1953
90,000 communist troops of the North Korean People's Army invaded South Korea across the 38th parallel, catching the Republic of Korea's forces completely off guard and throwing them into a hasty southern retreat.