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Spanish American War Starts
The Spanish-American War (1898) was a conflict between the United States and Spain that ended Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and resulted in U.S. acquisition of territories in the western Pacific and Latin America. The war originated in the Cuban struggle for independence from Spain, which began in February 1895. Spain’s brutally repressive measures to halt the rebellion were graphically portrayed for the U.S. public by several sensational newspapers , sympathy for American rebels rose. -
US Annexes Hawaii
When the Hawaiian islands were formally annexed by the United States in 1898, the event marked end of a lengthy internal struggle between native Hawaiians and white American businessmen for control of the Hawaiian government. In 1893 the last monarch of Hawaii, Queen Lili'uokalani, was overthrown by party of businessmen, who then imposed a provisional government. Soon after, President Benjamin Harrison submitted a treaty to annex the Hawaiian islands to the U.S. Senate for ratification . -
Spanish American War Ends
The brief and one-sided Spanish-American War comes to an end when Spain formally agrees to a peace protocol on U.S. terms: the cession of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Manila in the Philippines to the United States pending a final peace treaty.The Spanish-American War had its origins in the rebellion against Spanish rule that began in Cuba in 1895.In January 1898, violence in Havana led U.S. authorities to order the battleship USS Maine to the city’s port to protect American citizens. -
Theodore Roosevelt becomes president after McKinley is assassinated
On this day in 1901, President William McKinley is shaking hands at the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, New York, when a 28-year-old anarchist named Leon Czolgosz approaches him and fires two shots into his chest. The president rose slightly on his toes before collapsing forward, saying “be careful how you tell my wife.”He was rushed into surgery and seemed to be on the mend by September 12. McKinely died from gangrene. His vice president, Theodore Roosevelt, was sworn in to replace him. -
US builds naval base at Pearl Harbor
The major opposing naval force in the Pacific would be the U.S. Navy, which had moved to its forward base at Pearl Harbor in May 1940. As part of the Japanese of fensive, Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, commander in chief of the Combined Japanese Fleet, devised a secret plan for a preemptive air strike against the American fleet in order to give Japan time to fortify its newly conquered territories. It was an extremely risky gamble—projecting a naval task force composed of six of Japan's nine aircrafts.
