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Invention of the telephone
Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. He was trying to get someone's voice to carry through 60 feet of wire. Finally, after many tries, he succeeded, and the first words that were said by phone were, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want you." -
Presidential Election
Rutherford B. Hayes came into office with the nickname "His Fraudulency." due to the amount of suspicion surrounding him. -
Edison receives his patent
32-year-old Thomas Edison and his crew spent months perfecting their invention, the light bulb. The invention revolutionized modern technology. -
Chinse Exclusion Act
This was the first significant law that restricted immigration into the United States. It placed a ten-year ban on Chinese labor immigrants and was signed by President Chester A. Arthur. -
Women's Christian Temperance Movement
This Union is the oldest voluntary women's organization devoted to social reform. -
Interstate Commerce Commission
The ICC is the first regulatory commission that worked to regulate railroads. Late in the 1940s, it would regulate all common carrying transportation except for airplanes. -
The Dawes Act
This Act allowed the United States Government to split up tribal lands. This Act forced the Native Americans onto reservations where their ways of life were limited, and their numbers declined. -
The Panic of 1893
This was a financial crisis. The panic included precipitous declines in the stock market, the failure of Wall Street brokerage houses, and the failure of 158 national banks in 1893, mainly in the South and West. -
The Spanish-American War
The war ended Spain's colonial empire in the Western Hemisphere and secured the position of the United States as a Pacific power. Moreover, U.S. victory in the war produced a peace treaty that compelled the Spanish to relinquish Cuba's claims and cede sovereignty over Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines to the United States. -
The Treaty of Paris
A peace agreement between the U.S and Spain ended the Spanish American War. This treaty caused Spain to give up Guam, Puerto Rico, its possessions in the West Indies, and
the Philippines in exchange for a U.S. payment of
$20 million. It also allowed the United States to occupy Cuba but not annex it. This treaty ultimately marked the end of Spanish imperialism and established the United States' position as a world power.