1921-1941

  • Warren G. Harding is inaugurated as the 29th president

  • President Harding dies suddenly

    Succeeded by his vice president, Calvin Coolidge.
  • Coolidge's second inauguration

  • Tennessee passes a law against the teaching of evolution in public schools.

  • Period: to

    Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight in his plane The Spirit of St. Louis

  • Herbert Hoover is inaugurated as the 31st president

  • Stock market crash precipitates the Great Depression.

  • The Star-Spangled Banner is adopted as the national anthem

  • Hattie Wyatt Caraway of Arkansas is the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate

    Reelected in 1932 and 1938.
  • Amelia Earhart completes first solo nonstop transatlantic flight by a woman

  • Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified

    Sometimes called the “Lame Duck Amendment,” moved the president's inauguration date from March 4 to Jan. 20
  • Franklin Roosevelt is inaugurated as the 32nd president.

  • Twenty-First Amendment to the Constitution is ratified

    Repealed the Prohibition
  • Social Security Act is passed

  • F. Roosevelt's second inauguration

  • Fair Labor Standards Act is passed

    Set the first minimum wage in the U.S. at 25 cents per hour
  • Period: to

    World War II

  • F. Roosevelt's third inauguration

    He is the first and only president elected to a third term.
  • Pearl Harbor

  • U.S. declares war on Japan.

  • Germany and Italy declare war on the United States; U.S. reciprocates by declaring war on both countries