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Temperance Movement
Temperance movement, movement dedicated to promoting moderation and, more often, complete abstinence in the use of intoxicating liquor. Although an abstinence pledge had been introduced by churches as early as 1800, the earliest temperance organizations seem to have been those founded at Saratoga, New York, in 1808 and in Massachusetts in 1813. The movement spread rapidly under the influence of the churches; by 1833 there were 6,000 local societies in several U.S. states. -
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Cornelius Vanderbilt was born on May 27, 1794, in New York. He began a passenger ferry business in New York harbor with one boat, then started his own steamship company, eventually controlling Hudson River traffic. When he died in 1877, Vanderbilt had amassed the largest fortune accumulated in the U.S. at that time. Vanderbilt is deemed one of America's leading businessmen and is credited with helping to shape the present-day United States. -
Susan B. Anthony
Susan Brownell Anthony (February 15, 1820 to March 13, 1906), better known as Susan B. Anthony, was an American writer, lecturer and abolitionist who was a leading figure in the women's voting rights movement. Raised in a Quaker household, Anthony went on to work as a teacher. She later partnered with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and would eventually lead the National American Woman Suffrage Association. -
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Transforming the West
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Exodusters
Exodusters were former slaves that would wader west after they received their freedom. When the Homestead Act was passed, these Exodusters would move towards the west to both to claim land and to find the family members they were separated from. They also moved towards the west to escape racial discrimination and the Jim Crow Laws. They particularly mostly settled in Kansas due to the association with freedom that the state got during Bleeding Kansas. -
Homestead Act
The Homestead Act opened up settlement in the western United States, allowing all Americans to put in a claim for up to 160 free acres of federal land and were given 5 years to "flip the land". Whether it be adding cattle or cleaning and putting up a cabin. By the end of the Civil War, 15,000 homestead claims had been established. Eventually, 1.6 million individual claims would be approved. -
John Rockefeller
CONTENTS PRINT CITE
John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937), founder of the Standard Oil Company, became one of the world’s wealthiest men and a major philanthropist. Born into modest circumstances in upstate New York, he entered the then-fledgling oil business in 1863 by investing in a Cleveland, Ohio, refinery. In 1870, he established Standard Oil, which by the early 1880s controlled some 90 percent of U.S. refineries and pipelines. -
Chinese Worker Exploitation
Chinese immigrants in the 19th century worked as laborers, particularly on the transcontinental railroad, such as the Central Pacific Railroad. They also worked as laborers in the mining industry, and suffered racial discrimination at every level of society. While industrial employers were eager to get this new and cheap labor, the ordinary white public was stirred to anger by the presence of this "yellow peril". -
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Becoming An Industrial Power
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Knights of Labor
The Knights of Labor was an important American labor organization that was established in 1869 and led by Uriah S. Stephens. The Knights of Labor was originally founded as a secret organization of tailors in Philadelphia. The Knights of Labor played an important role in the development of the labor movement in the United States of America bringing together workers from different trades. The Knights of Labor was responsible for the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. -
Red River War
The Red River War was a military campaign launched by the United States Army in 1874 to remove the Comanche, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne, & Arapaho Native American tribes from the Southern Plains and forcibly relocate them to reservations in Indian Territory. The first battle of the Red River War came on August 30, 1874, when troops of the Sixth Cavalry and Fifth Infantry under the command of Colonel Miles caught a large group of Southern Cheyenne near the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River. -
Battle of Little Big Horn
The Battle of Little Bighorn was fought by the 7th Cavalry led by General George Custer and a combined force of Sioux, Cheyenne & Arapaho Native Indians led by Chief Sitting Bull. The Battle of Little Bighorn was a major conflict in the Great Sioux War, the date of the battle was June 25 1876. It was a famous victory for the Native American Indians and crushing defeat that led to the deaths of General George Custer and his US Army battalion. Soon after Sitting Bull fled to Canada. -
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The Gilded Age
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The Great Upheaval of 1886
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, also known as the Great Upheaval, was a national crisis. It began on the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) line at Camden Junction, Maryland over pay cuts during an economic depression. It was the first major nationwide strike that started on July 14, 1877 and lasted under one month. The strike was over by August 5, 1877. The Great Railroad strike was run by disorganized mobs and President Hayes ordered federal troops to quell the riots and protect the mail. -
Child Labor
Child labor reached new extremes during the Industrial Revolution. Children often worked long hours in dangerous factory conditions for very little money. Children were used as laborers because their size allowed them to move in small spaces in factories or mines where adults couldn’t fit, children were easier to manage and control and children could be paid less than adults. Child laborers often worked to help support their families but were forced to forgo an education. -
Immigration of the Japanese
Japanese immigrants first came to the Pacific Northwest in the 1880s, when federal legislation that excluded further Chinese immigration created demands for new immigrant labor. Railroads in particular recruited Issei from Hawaii and Japan. Thousands of Japanese workers helped construct the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Oregon Short Line and other railroads in the Columbia River Basin. By 1907, the Japanese comprised about 40 percent of Oregon’s total railroad labor force. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first significant law to restrict immigration to the United States and banned the immigration of unskilled laborers from China. This was because Americas where scaed to losing their jobs. Chinese Exclusion Act was passed on May 6, 1882. The law was intended to restrict immigration from China for 10 years from 1882 to 1892, however, the Exclusion Act was then extended by the 1892 Geary Act and then made permanent until it was repealed in 1943. -
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show
Opening in London, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show was basically a circus like pageant celebrating the life in the west. However it was inaccurate. They would hire Indians and have them act like they were violent people that were miniscle to the white man. The Cow-boys were manly and kept the indians from attacking them. They would also include ope tricks, bulldogging, and amazing feats of marksmanship. This circus act went on for about 4 years, each show having more than 20,000 people attending. -
Creation of Timezones
American railroads maintained many different time zones during the late 1800s.Each train station set its own clock making it difficult to coordinate train schedules and confusing passengers. Time calculation became a serious problem for people traveling by train. Operators of the new railroad lines needed a new time plan that would offer a uniform train schedule for departures and arrivals. Four standard time zones for the continental United States were introduced on November 18, 1883. -
Cocaine Toothache Drops
A cheery vintage advertisement depicting kids playing in a yard promotes “cocaine toothache drops” sold at an Albany, New York, pharmacy in March 1885. In the late 1800s, cocaine was considered a possibility for local anesthesia. The method involved drying the patient’s gums and then brushing them in 3 applications with a solution that included cocaine. In the early 1900s, cocaine’s drawbacks started to make the rounds, and novocaine became the preferred local anesthetic, instead. -
Dawes Severalty Act
The Dawes Act was a federal law that was approved on February 8, 1887. The purpose of the Dawes Act was passed to protect Native American property rights and welfare during the land rush that was anticipated when lands in Indian Territory were opened for white settlement. The Dawes Severalty Act was supposed to protect the property rights of Native American Indians but it would organize for the tribe members would be assimilated and integrated into American society and culture. -
Kodak Camera
This Original Kodak camera, introduced by George Eastman, placed the power of photography in the hands of anyone who could press a button. George Eastman invented flexible roll film and in 1888 introduced the Kodak camera shown to use this film. It took 100-exposure rolls of film that gave circular images 2 5/8" in diameter. In 1888 the original Kodak sold for $25 loaded with a roll of film and included a leather carrying case. -
Carrie A. Nation
Carry Nation entered the temperance movement in 1890 when a U.S. Supreme Court decision in favor of the importation and sale of liquor in “original packages” from other states weakened the prohibition laws of Kansas, where she was living. Alone or accompanied by hymn-singing women, she would march into a saloon and proceed to sing, pray, hurl biblical-sounding vituperations, and smash the bar fixtures and stock with a hatchet. -
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Imperialism
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Sherman Antitrust Fund
The 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act was named after its primary supporter, Ohio Senator John Sherman and dated July 2, 1890. The purpose of the Sherman Antitrust Act was to maintain free competition in business and made it a crime to monopolize any part of trade or commerce. One of the many purposes of the Sherman Antitrust Act was to respond to the public outcry against monopolies and their damaging effect on prices and therefore consumers and suppliers. -
City Beautiful Movement
City Beautiful movement was an American urban-planning movement led by architects, landscape architects, and reformers that flourished between the 1890s and the 1920s. The idea of organized comprehensive urban planning arose in the United States from the City Beautiful movement, which claimed that design could not be separated from social issues and should encourage civic pride and engagement. Its influence was most prominent in cities such as Cleveland, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. -
Yellow Journalism
Yellow journalism, the use of lurid features and sensationalized news in newspaper publishing to attract readers and increase circulation. The phrase was coined in the 1890s to describe the tactics employed in furious competition between two New York City newspapers, the World and the Journal. Joseph Pulitzer had purchased the New York World in 1883 and sensational reporting and crusades against political corruption and social injustice had won the largest newspaper circulation in the country. -
Depression of 1893
The Panic of 1893 during the 'Gilded Age' and was a financial crisis that triggered a depression that lasted for four years leading to economic hardships, civil unrest, demonstrations and labor action such as the Pullman Strike. The crisis led to the national unemployment rate approaching 20%. The Panic of 1893 started when the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, one of the first railroads constructed in the United States, when bankrupt. -
Pullman Strike
The Pullman Strike started in the Pullman district on the south side of Chicago during 1894 and spread across the country. The economic depression caused by the Panic of 1893, Pullman increased working hours, cut wages and cut jobs. The workers protested and started the Pullman Strike on May 11, 1894, and violence broke out. It got violent enough to the point where President Cleveland out US troops to suppress the strikes. Debs was sent to jail and the strike was broken by July 17, 1894. -
Queen Liliuokalani
Liliuokalani was born into a royal Hawaiian family on September 2, 1838, and was educated at a missionary school. In 1891, following the death of King Kalakaua, she became the first female monarch of the country. Relegated to house arrest after annexationists staged a coup, Liliuokalani officially abdicated the throne in 1895. She died from complications related to a stroke in 1917. -
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Progressive Era
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Bicycle Craze
1896 found the United States in the middle of a bicycle craze. A recent technological innovation brought about changes in material and design that made the late 1800's bicycle a lighter, smoother, and faster ride than ever before. By 1896, there were over 150 bicycle factories in the United States, producing over 1,000 different makes of bicycles for men, women, and children. They were used for recreation and exercise, and in some cases, even for political campaigning. -
Election of 1896
The election of 1896 is seen as the beginning of a new era in American politics, or a "realignment" election. Ever since the election of 1800, American presidential contests had, on some level, been a referendum on whether the country should be governed by agrarian interests (rural indebted farmers--the countryside--"main street") or industrial interests (business--the city--"wall street"). This was the last election in which a candidate tried to win the White House with mostly agrarian votes. -
Klondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush began with a discovery made by George Carmack in a part of the Klondike river, a tributary of the Yukon River, which flowed through Alaska and the Yukon Territory in north-western Canada. The Klondike Gold Rush led to a stampede of hopeful prospectors to Alaska and brought substantial economic benefits to the United States of America. While at first it failed and people were ready to leave, they soon found gold on the shore of the beach. -
Rough Riders
The "Rough Riders" was the name given to 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 to join the volunteer cavalry. The original plan for this unit called for filling it with men from the Indian Territory. However, once Roosevelt joined the group, it quickly became the place for a mix of troops ranging from Ivy League athletes to glee-club singers to Texas Rangers and Indians. -
Treaty of Paris
The 1898 Treaty of Paris was the peace treaty that was made between Spain and the United States following the Spanish-American War. The Treaty of Paris was signed on December 10, 1898, and came into effect on April 11, 1899, when the ratifications were exchanged. The provisions of the Treaty of Paris were that Spain agreed to remove all soldiers from Cuba, ceded Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States. The United States compensated Spain for its losses with a payment of $20 million dollars. -
Battle of Manila Bay
On May 1, 1898, at Manila Bay in the Philippines, the U.S. Asiatic Squadron destroyed the Spanish Pacific fleet in the first major battle of the Spanish-American War (April-August 1898). The United States went on to win the war, which ended Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and resulted in U.S. acquisition of territories in the western Pacific and Latin America. Spanish losses were estimated at more than 370 troops, while American casualties were fewer than 10. -
Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism, the theory that human groups and races are subject to the same laws of natural selection as of Charles Darwin. According to the theory, which was popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the weak were diminished and their cultures delimited while the strong grew in power and in cultural influence over the weak. Social Darwinists held that the life of humans in society was a struggle for existence ruled by “survival of the fittest.” -
Child Labor - Progressive Era
Child labor reached new extremes during the Industrial Revolution. Children often worked long hours in dangerous factory conditions for very little money. Children were used as laborers because their size allowed them to move in small spaces in factories or mines where adults couldn’t fit, children were easier to manage and control and children could be paid less than adults. Child laborers often worked to help support their families but were forced to forgo an education. -
Laissez Faire
Laissez-faire is an economic and political doctrine that holds that economies function most efficiently when unencumbered by government regulation. Laissez-faire advocates favor individual self-interest and competition and oppose the taxation and regulation of commerce. America was kind of ok with the government not oing much and kind of laying low. -
Election of 1900
Election of 1900, American presidential election held on Nov. 1900, in which Republican incumbent Pres. William McKinley defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan, winning 292 electoral votes to Bryan’s 155. President McKinley was easily renominated at the Republican Convention in June 1900. The major issue at the convention was who would be the vice presidential candidate. Despite his reluctance to give up the governorship of New York, Theodore Roosevelt accepted the VP nomination. -
Russo-Japanese War
Russo-Japanese War, (1904–05), military conflict in which a victorious Japan forced Russia to abandon its expansionist policy in the Far East, becoming the first Asian power in modern times to defeat a European power. The Russo-Japanese War developed out of the rivalry between Russia and Japan for dominance in Korea and Manchuria. In 1898 Russia had pressured China into granting it a lease for the strategically important port of Port Arthur, at the tip of the Liaodong Peninsula. -
Teddy Roosevelt
Born in New York City on October 27, 1858, Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was governor of New York before becoming U.S. vice president. At age 42, Teddy Roosevelt became the youngest man to assume the U.S. presidency after President William McKinley was assassinated in 1901. He won a second term in 1904. Known for his anti-monopoly policies and ecological conservationism, Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize for his part in ending the Russo-Japanese War. He died in New York on January 6, 1919. -
Henry Cabot Lodge
Henry Cabot Lodge was an American politician from Massachusetts and the first U.S. Senate majority leader. Henry Cabot Lodge was born on May 12, 1850, in Beverly, Massachusetts. A recipient of the first Ph.D. in political science awarded by Harvard University, Lodge served in both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate and served as the first Senate majority leader. Cabot is most remembered for his opposition to the League of Nations and, thusly, the Treaty of Versailles. He died in 1924. -
Gentleman’s Agreement
The Gentlemen’s Agreement between the United States and Japan in 1907-1908 represented an effort by President Theodore Roosevelt to calm growing tension between the two countries over the immigration of Japanese workers. A treaty with Japan in 1894 had assured free immigration, but as the number of Japanese workers in California increased, they were met with growing hostility. -
Henry Ford
Henry Ford was an American automobile manufacturer who created the Ford Model T car in 1908 and went on to develop the assembly line mode of production, which revolutionized the industry. Ford sold millions of cars and became a world-famous company head. The company lost its market dominance but had a lasting impact on other technological development and U.S. infrastructure. Henry Ford is credited with helping to build America's economy and is considered one of America's leading businessmen. -
Muller v.s. Oregon
Muller v. State of Oregon, U.S. Supreme Court case decided in 1908 that, although it appeared to promote the health and welfare of female workers led to additional protective legislation that was detrimental to equality in workplace for years At issue was an Oregon law passed in 1903 that prohibited women from working more than 10 hours in one day. Curt Muller, a laundry owner, was charged in 1905 with permitting a supervisor to require E. Gotcher to work more than 10 hours and was fined $10. -
Model T
The Model T, also known as the “Tin Lizzie,” changed the way Americans live, work and travel. Henry Ford’s revolutionary advancements in assembly-line automobile manufacturing made the Model T the first car to be affordable for a majority of Americans. More than 15 million Model Ts were built in Detroit and Highland Park, Michigan, and the automobile was also assembled at a Ford plant in Manchester, England, and at plants in continental Europe. -
Paper Sons
"Paper Son" was a term coined for young Chinese males attempting to enter the United States on identity papers that were bought for them. The identity papers were established by American citizens of Chinese descent who left the US to travel back to China. They would claim a marriage and the birth of several sons. Years later, these young Chinese males would appear claiming to be the sons of these citizens. In fact, a substantial number of these boys were sons "on paper only" -
Election of 1912
United States presidential election of 1912, Democrat Woodrow Wilson defeated Bull Moose (Progressive) candidate and former Republican president Theodore Roosevelt and Republican incumbent president William Howard Taft. Some Republicans, unhappy with William Howard Taft, split with the Republican Party and created the Progressive Party in 1912. Former president Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt ran as the Progressive Party candidate, but was unsuccessful in obtaining a presidential win. -
Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson was the two-term 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. Wilson was nominated as the Democratic presidential candidate on the New Freedom platform in 1912, opposing Republican incumbent William Howard Taft. However Theodore Roosevelt, Taft's predecessor, was disgruntled with his performance as president and launched a third party run. This split the Republican vote, ensuring Wilson's win. He was inaugurated on March 4, 1913. -
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World War I
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Great Migration
The Great Migration during WW1 was a flow of African American migrants from the rural farmlands in the South to the urban cities of the industrialized north. The WW1 draft caused a shortage of labor in the northern factories and African Americans migrated to take advantage of new job opportunities, better education and modern facilities of the cities. The massive demographic shift of the Great Migration dramatically altered African American history culturally, socially and politically. -
Trench Warfare
Trench warfare, warfare in which opposing armed forces attack, counterattack, and defend from relatively permanent systems of trenches dug into the ground. The opposing systems of trenches are usually close to one another. Trench warfare is resorted to when the superior firepower of the defense compels the opposing forces to “dig in” so extensively as to sacrifice their mobility in order to gain protection. -
Mustard Gas
Mustard gas, or sulfur mustard, is a chemical agent that causes severe burning of the skin, eyes and respiratory tract. It can be absorbed into the body through inhalation, ingestion or by coming into contact with the skin or eyes. First used during World War I, the gas is effective at incapacitating its victims en masse. Sulfur mustard is generally colorless in its gaseous state, though it may have a faint yellow or green tint. It's most easily recognized by its trademark "mustardy" odor. -
Sussex Pledge
The Sussex Pledge was made in due to the US demands to alter the German policy of unrestricted submarine warfare and stop the indiscriminate sinking of non-military ships during WW1. The Sussex Pledge, made on May 4th, 1916, was a promise given by the German Government, to the then neutral United States, not to sink any more ships. On February 1, 1917, Germany lied about itspromises of the Sussex Pledge and resumed unrestricted submarine warfare and German U-Boats began to attack American ships. -
National Park System
The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations. Created on August 25, 1916, by Congress through the National Park Service Organic Act and agency of the United States Department of the Interior. The NPS is charged with both of preserving the ecological and historical integrity of the places entrusted to its management. -
American Expeditionary Force (AEF)
The American Expeditionary Forces were the United States Armed Forces sent to Europe under the command of General John J. Pershing in 1917 to help fight World War I. At first the AEF fought in France alongside French and British allied forces. The war started in August 1914 and the AEF arrived in April 1917. They were fighting against the German Empire. The AEF fought in support of the French and British units which had been fighting since the start of the war. -
U-Boats
Germany announces the renewal of unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic said to be sighted in war-zone waters. The Germans’ most formidable naval weapon was the U-boat, a submarine far more sophisticated than those built by other nations at the time. The typical U-boat was 214 feet long, carried 35 men and 12 torpedoes, and could travel underwater for two hours at a time. In the first few years of World War I, the U-boats took a terrible toll on Allied shipping. -
Barbed Wire
Barbed wire was looked at to protect no man's land and trenches during World War 1. As the world became more industrialized before World War One, mass production of barbwire for cattle farms was underway. The military use of barbwire was quickly adapted, by making the barbs longer and sharper. Millions of kilometers of barbed wire were laid by both sides. In some cases, the barbed wire in front of a trench could be 30 or 40 meters wide. -
Red Army
Red Army, Russian Krasnaya Armiya, Soviet army created by the Communist government after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. The name Red Army was abandoned in 1946. The Russian imperial army and navy, together with other imperial institutions of tsarist Russia, disintegrated after the outbreak of the Russian Revolution of 1917. By a decree of Jan. 28 1918, the Council of People’s Commissars created a Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army on a voluntary basis. -
18th Amendment
By the late 1800s, prohibition movements had sprung up across the United States, driven by religious groups who considered alcohol,a threat to the nation. The movement reached its apex in 1920 when Congress ratified the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors. Prohibition proved difficult to enforce and failed to have the intended effect of eliminating crime and other social problems–to the contrary, it led to a rise in organized crime. -
Spanish Flu
The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, the deadliest in history, infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide and killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million victims, including some 675,000 Americans. The 1918 flu was first observed in Europe, the United States and parts of Asia before swiftly spreading around the world. There were no effective drugs or vaccines to treat this killer flu strain. Citizens were ordered to wear masks. -
Murder of the Romanovs
The Romanov family was murdered at Ekaterinburg on July 17th, 1918. After his abdication in March 1917,Nicholas and his family had been put under house arrest and kept just outside of St. Petersburg. As the civil war developed, the whole family was sent to Tolbolsk in Siberia and from here to Ekaterinburg in the Urals. In the summer of the 1918, Ekaterinburg was threatened by the advancing Whites. The decision was taken by the Bolsheviks to kill Nicholas and his family. -
Treaty of Versailles
WW1 officially ended the state of war between Germany and the Allies when the Treaty of Versailles was signed at the Palace of Versailles in France on June 28, 1919. The terms of the Treaty of Versailles were extremely harsh towards Germany who had taken responsibility for the war. France, Britain &Italy wanted to take revenge and punish the Germans. Wilson's Fourteen Points Plan was criticized for being too lenient toward s Germany and were scuttled and by the other leaders of the Allies. -
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a period during the 1920s when African-American achievements in art, literature & music flourished. A period of great diversity and experimentation. The WW1 Great Migration saw the movement of thousands of African Americans from the farmlands in the south to the cities in the north in order to find new opportunities and build better lives. Many made their way to the New York city neighborhood of Harlem in Manhattan, New York City which became the home of the movement. -
The Lost Generation
Lost Generation, a group of American writers who came of age during World War I and established their literary reputations in the 1920s. The term is also used more generally to refer to the post-World War I generation. The generation was “lost” in the sense that its inherited values were no longer relevant in the postwar world and because of its spiritual alienation from a United States that seemed to its members to be hopelessly provincial, materialistic, and emotionally barren. -
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1920's
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19th Amendment
The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted American women the right to vote, a right is known as women’s suffrage, and was ratified on August 18, 1920, ending almost a century of protest. In 1848 the movement for women’s rights launched on a national level with the Seneca Falls Convention organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. Following the convention, the demand for the vote became a centerpiece of the women’s rights movement. -
William Howard Taft
From a prominent political family, he followed his forebears into law and was on track to be a career jurist, well on his way to his dream job of sitting on the Supreme Court, when he was sidetracked for a term as the 27th U.S. president by his wife and Theodore Roosevelt. Taft finally achieved his dream of being appointed a chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1921, becoming the only person to have served both as a chief justice and president. Taft died in DC on March 8, 1930. -
Silent Films
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound. In silent films for entertainment, dialogue is conveyed by the use of muted gestures and mime in conjunction with title cards, written indications of the plot and key dialogue lines. The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is nearly as old as film itself, but because of the technical challenges involved, the introduction of synchronized dialogue became practical only in the late 1920s. -
Joseph Stalin
Born on December 18, 1879, in Gori, Georgia, Joseph Stalin rose to power as General Secretary of the Communist Party, becoming a Soviet dictator upon Vladimir Lenin's death. Stalin forced rapid industrialization and the collectivization of agricultural land, resulting in millions dying from famine while others were sent to camps. His Red Army helped defeat Nazi Germany during WWII. -
Immigration Act of 1924
The Immigration Act of 1924 made the principle of national origin quotas the permanent basis for U.S. immigration policy. The Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act) restricted the number of immigrants from a given country to 2% of the number of residents from that same country living in the United States. The Immigration Act of 1924 shut the 'Golden Door' to America and 87% of immigration permits went to other immigrants. The law completely excluded immigrants from Asia -
Charles Lindbergh
In the 1920s, hotel owner Raymond Orteig was offering a prize of $25,000 to the first pilot to make the journey from New York to Paris without making any stops. Lindbergh wanted to win this challenge and enlisted the support of some St. Louis businessmen. Several others had tried and failed, but this didn't deter him. Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, New York, on May 20, 1927. Flying a monoplane named Spirit of St Louis, he crossed the Atlantic Ocean. -
Herbert Hoover
Born in Iowa in 1874, Herbert Hoover moved into the post of U.S. secretary of commerce and spearheaded the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Hoover Dam. In 1928, Hoover was elected president, but eight months later the stock market crash of 1929 occurred, ushering in the Great Depression. Hoover’s policies could not overcome the economic destruction and despair that resulted, and he lost his reelection bid in 1932. -
Black Tuesday
Black Tuesday hits Wall Street as investors trade 16,410,030 shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors, and stock tickers ran hours behind because the machinery could not handle the tremendous volume of trading. In the aftermath of Black Tuesday, America and the rest of the industrialized world spiraled downward into the Great Depression. -
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The Great Depression
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Valentine's Day Massacre
Gang violence reached its bloody climax in a garage on the city’s North Side on February 14, 1929, when seven men associated with the Irish gangster George “Bugs” Moran, one of Capone’s longtime enemies, were shot to death by several men dressed as policemen. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, as it was known, was never officially linked to Capone, but he was generally considered to have been responsible for the murders. -
Teapot Dome Scandal
Teapot Dome Scandal in American history, a scandal of the early 1920s surrounding the secret leasing of federal oil reserves by the secretary of the interior, Albert Bacon Fall. After Pres. Warren G. Harding transferred supervision of the naval oil-reserve lands from the Navy to the Department of the Interior in 1921, Fall secretly granted to Harry F. Sinclair of the Mammoth Oil Company exclusive rights to the Teapot Dome (Wyoming) reserves (April 7, 1922) -
October 29, 1929
Black Tuesday hits Wall Street as investors trade 16,410,030 shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors, and stock tickers ran hours behind because the machinery could not handle the tremendous volume of trading. In the aftermath of Black Tuesday, America and the rest of the industrialized world spiraled downward into the Great Depression. -
Hoovervilles
President Herbert Hoover was blamed for the intolerable economic and social conditions, and the shantytowns that cropped up across the nation, primarily on the outskirts of major cities, became known as Hoovervilles. The highly unpopular Hoover, a Republican, was defeated in the 1932 presidential election by Democrat Franklin Roosevelt, whose New Deal recovery programs eventually helped lift the U.S. out of the Depression. In the early 1940s, most remaining Hoovervilles were torn down. -
Father Charles Coughlin
Charles E. Coughlin, U.S. Roman Catholic “radio priest” who in the 1930s developed one of the first deeply loyal mass audiences in radio broadcast history. He seriously considered entering politics but finally chose the priesthood, and he was ordained in Detroit in 1923. In 1926 he became pastor of the Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak, Michigan, and in 1930 experimented with the new medium of radio, broadcasting sermons and talks to children in 1930. -
Jane Addams
Born on September 6, 1860, in Cedarville, Illinois, Jane Addams co-founded one of the first settlements in the United States, the Hull House in Chicago, Illinois, in 1889, and was named a co-winner of the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize. Addams also served as the first female president of the National Conference of Social Work, established the National Federation of Settlements and served as president of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She died in 1935 in Chicago. -
The Brain Trust
Brain Trust is a group of advisers to Franklin D. Roosevelt during his first campaign for the presidency. Under the chairmanship of Moley, the Brain Trust presented Roosevelt with its thinking on economic and social problems facing the nation and helped him weigh the alternatives of public policy that would be open to the new president. It contributed suggestions and drafts for campaign speeches, all of which underwent considerable revision by Roosevelt. -
The Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl was a "decade-long disaster" and a series of droughts was one of the worst natural disasters in American history. The Dust Bowl disaster was caused by a series of devastating droughts in the 1930s, poor soil conservation techniques and over-farming. Dust Storms began in 1932 that ripped up the topsoil sweeping thousands of tons of dirt across America. 100 million acres of farming land was destroyed and many farmers were forced to migrate to California. -
Election of 1932
United States presidential election of 1932, American presidential election held on Nov. 8, 1932, in which Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Republican Pres. Herbert Hoover. The 1932 election was the first held during the Great Depression, and it represented a dramatic shift in the political alignment of the country. Republicans had dominated the presidency for almost the entire period from 1860, save two terms each won by Grover Cleveland and by Woodrow Wilson. -
Hitler
Adolf Hitler was chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, serving as dictator and leader of the Nazi Party, or National Socialist German Workers Party, for the bulk of his time in power. Hitler’s policies precipitated World War II and led to the genocide known as the Holocaust, which resulted in the deaths of some six million Jews and another five million noncombatants. With defeat on the horizon, Hitler committed suicide with wife Eva Braun on April 30, 1945, in his Berlin bunker. -
Hitler Youth
Hitler Youth, German Hitlerjugend, organization set up by Adolf Hitler in 1933 for educating and training male youth in Nazi principles. Under the leadership of Baldur von Schirach, head of all German youth programs, the Hitler Youth included by 1935 almost 60 percent of German boys. On July 1, 1936, it became a state agency that all young “Aryan” Germans were expected to join. -
The Wizard of Oz connection to the Gilded Age
There are many connections of "The Wizard of Oz" to the Gilded Age. The Scarecrow could represent the populist of the time. The populist party flourished during the turn of the 19th century. This intelligent party, who opposed the gold standard and pushed for standard time, was many up of what most people considered to be dumb and uneducated: the farmers. The Yellow Brick Road serves as a metaphor for the gold standard. These gold coins essentially "paved the way" to bussiness. -
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World War II
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Rosie the Riveter
Rosie the Riveter was the star of a campaign aimed at recruiting female workers for defense industries during World War II, and she became perhaps the most iconic image of working women. American women entered the workforce in unprecedented numbers during the war, as widespread male enlistment left gaping holes in the industrial labor force. Between 1940 and 1945, the female percentage of the U.S. workforce increased 10%, and by 1945 nearly 1 out of 4 married women worked outside the home -
Ward Boss
boss, in politics, is a person who controls a unit of a political party although he/she may not hold political office. Numerous officeholders in that unit are subordinate to the single boss in party affairs. One of the most powerful party leaders was James A. Farley who was the chief dispenser of Democratic Party patronage during Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. He was not a boss because he worked under the direction of Roosevelt himself. -
Auschwitz
Auschwitz opened in 1940 and was the largest of the Nazi concentration and death camps. Located in southern Poland, Auschwitz initially served as a detention center for political prisoners. It evolved into a network of camps where Jewish people and other perceived enemies of the Nazi state were exterminated. During World War II. more than 1 million people, by some accounts, lost their lives at Auschwitz. -
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor attack was a surprise aerial attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu Island, Hawaii, by the Japanese that precipitated the entry of the United States into World War II. The strike climaxed a decade of worsening relations between the United States and Japan prompted the United States to respond that same month by freezing Japanese assets in the United States and declaring an embargo on petroleum shipments and other vital war materials to Japan -
Executive Order 9066
Executive Order 9066, executive order issued by U.S. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt, which granted the secretary of war and his commanders the power “to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded.” While no specific group or location was mentioned in the order, it was quickly applied to virtually the entire Japanese American population on the West Coast. -
Eleanor Roosevelt
Born in 1884 in New York City, Eleanor Roosevelt was the niece of one U.S. president, Theodore Roosevelt, and married a man who would become another, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Redefining the role of the first lady, she advocated for human and women's rights, held press conferences and penned her own column. After leaving the White House in 1945, Eleanor became chair of the U.N.'s Human Rights Commission. The groundbreaking first lady died in 1962 in New York City. -
The Holocaust
The Holocaust was the systematic state-sponsored killing of six million Jewish men, women, and children.To the anti-Semitic Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, Jews were an inferior race, an alien threat to German racial purity and community. After years of Nazi rule in Germany, during which Jews were consistently persecuted, Hitler’s “final solution” came to fruition under the cover of world war, with mass killing centers constructed in the concentration camps of occupied Poland. -
Fat Man Bomb
"Fat Man" was the codename for the atomic bomb that was detonated over the Japanese city of Nagasaki by the United States on 9 August 1945. It was the second of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in warfare, the first being Little Boy, and its detonation marked the third-ever man-made nuclear explosion in history. The name Fat Man refers generically to the early design of the bomb, because it had a wide, round shape. It was also known as the Mark III. -
20th Amendment
The 20th amendment is a simple amendment that sets the dates at which federal (United States) government elected offices end. In also defines who succeeds the president if the president dies. This amendment was ratified on January 23, 1933. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3rd of January.
