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Seneca Falls Convention
This was a declaration that outlined the women's rights movement of the mid 19th century. The document was modeled after the Declaration of Independence. 200 women were attended this event, to discuss the social, civil, and religious rights of women. -
Matthew Perry Sails into Tokyo Bay
Japan for a long while had been a very isolationist country, as in they didn't have much of an interaction with may countries, and they were known to be a powerful country. That's why it was a huge deal when Americans sailed in and got them to agree on a trade deal. Perry sailed in with warships to use as an intimidation factor to help his case. -
Freedmens Bureau
Freedmen's bureau was established by an act of Congress. It was formally known as the bureau of refugees. This bureau was to help millions of black slaves and poor white people from the south survive from the aftermath of the civil war. It provided food, housing, medical aid, and established schooling. However, this bureau didn't follow through completely due to a shortage of funds, and personnel. -
Reconstruction Acts of 1867
This series of acts is basically what officially began the period of the radical reconstruction. During this time, the south was divided into 5 military districts. Some of these acts include the military reconstruction act, the command of the army act, and the tenure of office act. With these acts, voters now had to be registered. Also, it required the southern states to ratify the 14th amendment, and to allow all black men to vote. -
Seward Purchase's Alaska
Before Alaska was a part of the USA, it had been owned by Russia. William Seward at the time was the secretary of state, and he had an interest in Alaska. He managed to buy it for 7.2 million dollars. At first, many people thought Seward was stupid because they thought the purchase was pointless, because it was one big chunk of ice. But when gold was discovered in Alaska, people weren't complaining anymore. Now Alaska is a big part of our country. -
Enforcement acts of 1871
Were acts that were supposed to be an attack on the combat of the Ku Klux Klan. However, the didn’t prove very successful. Most people either ignored the acts, or were involved with the KKK. -
Battle of Little Bighorn
Gold was found in the Sioux hills, and this created tension between the Indians and the Americans. Custer, a military leader, and his crew ended up fighting a battle against the Indians for this piece of land. Unfortunately, him and all his men were killed. Sitting Bull and the Sioux Indians came out on top. -
Compromise of 1877
In 1877, the republicans and democrats divided our country, and their two presidential candidates tied while running for office. To compromise, the Republicans got their president, and the democrats got the reconstruction to end. -
Standard Oil Trust
This trust took place in 1882. It included the Standard Oil Company and any other oil company. In this agreement, it allowed the companies to be purchased, created, dissolved, merged, or divided. Because of this trust the John D Rockefeller formed, he dominated 95 percent of the oil production in the United States. -
The Chinese Exclusion Act
This act ended Chinese immigration into America. There was a nativist movement that took place. The Chinese were not wanted in our country by many people. Eventually, the xenophobia led to the Chinese exclusion act, that ended the immigration. This was the first significant law restricting immigration int9 the United States. -
The Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty was designed by Frederic Bartholdi. It was a friendship gift from France, and it is supposed to symbolize peace, and freedom. Still today, people go and visit it everyday. It inspires poems, songs, and stories. The Statue of Liberty is one of our greatest national monuments, and it symbolizes what our country is supposed to be. -
The Dawes Act
This act was based off of Henry Dawes’ plan to assimilate the Native Americans. This meant trying to push them into regular American culture, as far as the food they eat, their housing, their schooling, and such and such. However, the act did not prove successful. It just wasn’t a good idea to try and change someone’s culture. -
Wounded Knee
The Sioux Indians we performing their “ghost dance” ritual, and it alarmed the Americans. The Americans arrested Sitting Bull, and killed him. Later, they surrounded the other Sioux Indians at a creek called Wounded Knee. A conflict broke out, and 150 Sioux soldiers died. This was known as the end of the conflicts with the natives. -
James Naismith invents basketball
When James Naismith invented basketball, it changed the way Americans lived. It paved the way for lots on entertainment. Spectator sports came to life. The idea of watching people play sports was a brilliant idea, and it is something we still do today. Not only here in the U.S., but around the world. -
Ida B. Wells crusades against lynching
Ida B. Wells was a former school teacher, in Memphis. Three of her friends were murdered in a mob. When the police refused to find the killers of her black friends, she tried to go against public stores and transportation owned by white people. She eventually began a newspaper going against lynchings and racism. Her stance played a big impact, and helped to get people thinking about racism. -
Plessy Vs. Ferguson
This is where the Supreme Court decided to make segregation legal, as long as the separated public facilities were viewed as equal. I guess you could kind of say this was a step in the right direction, but it didn’t seem to change much in my opinion. People were still separating themselves from black people which meant they still believed they were less then them. If you really viewed someone as your equal, then You’d have no problem sharing public facilities with them. -
Battle of Manila Bay
This battle took place in the Philippines, during the Spanish-American war. In this battle, Commodore George Dewey led the United States to victory. It is considered a significant battle, be the United States defeated the Spanish in under 6 hours. This was also considered the first major battle of the war. -
Battle of San Juan Hill
Teddy Roosevelt led the rough riders to victory in this battle. It took place about 2 kilometers from the city of Santiago, in Cuba. This battle is one of the more famous victories the United States has had in their history. -
Crater Lake National Park Opening
Theodore Roosevelt was much respected for his passion for nature. He felt a connection with nature, and he very much valued the National Parks. While he was president, he opened five of them. One of them is Crater Lake National Park. There are some who say National Parks are America's best idea they've had. -
The Food and Drug Act
During this time, Upton Sinclair published the book The Jungle. After Theodore Roosevelt read it, he wanted to push for better production of packaged foods. In that same year, The Pure Food and Drug Act was passed. This required truth in package labels, and halted the sale of contaminated items. This was a reform to improve the conditions of packaged food. -
The assasination of Archduke Frank Ferdinand
This event was probably the spark that led World War Two Ferdinand was an important person in the Austria-Hungary government, and he was shot and murdered by a Serb. This caused the Austrian government to declare war on the Serbian government. Because of complicated alliances, other countries were automatically involved, so it spread. -
Sinking of the Lusitania
This event was big, because it play a role in getting the United States involved in the war. The Lusitania was a British passenger ship, that secretly carried ammunition for the war. This ship also had a fair amount of US citizens. The Germans somehow got a suspicion that this was indeed an ammunition ship, so they shot it down with a U boat. Many Americans were not happy with this, because they weren’t even in the war and innocent citizens were killed in it. -
Selective Service Act
The United States had made up their mind to join the world war. During this time, the allies in Europe were running low on fresh troops. So because the US had already been sending over resources for the war, the only thing they could do was send their fresh troops. At the time, they only had around 100,000 men. When Wilson signed the selective service act, it allowed him to have a draft that registered men for the war. 10 million men were registered in the first few months after it was signed. -
Prohibition of Alcohol
The 18th amendment was the prohibition of alcohol amendment. It prohibited the manufacturing, sale, and transportation of alcohol. Even though this amendment was ratified in 1919, it didn't actually go into effect until 1920. Instead of helping our country, it actually caused a lot of problems. It raised the demand for alcohol, and so the gangsters found good business out of smuggling alcohol into the United States. Some secretly sold beer in bars. -
The 19th Ammendment
For years in our country, women weren’t allowed to vote. This shows that women weren’t viewed as equal with men. With the help of Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and other women’s suffragettes, they were able to convince enough states to ratify the 19th ammendment. This was a huge event in our history, because it brought us one step closer to equality. We are all one human race, and we should all be able to have equal rights. -
Quota System
This system was adopted in 1922. Many people who were nativist began to develop xenophobia. The quota system was a system that limited the number of immigrants that were allowed in our country. Different ethnic groups were favored over others. For instance, the Europeans were favored mostly because our people originally came from there. The Chinese were not favored, and were a big target of the quota system. -
St. Valentine's Day Masacre
This big massacre on Valentine's Day was considered to be the climax of the bloody violence that was going on in Chicago during this time. This happened on the city's north end where 7 men were shot dead. These men happened to be associated with George Moran. George Moran at the time was one of Al Capone's biggest enemies. So even though Al Capone wasn't for sure responsible for this event, many people believe he had a part in it. -
Black Tuesday
Black Tuesday is the day that the stock market crashed in 1929. The market crashed to to a series of events such as overproduction, inflation, low wages, which led to unemployment, which eventually led to the stock market crashing. A lot of panic went on during this time, and many many banks in the country closed, and people lost lots of money. -
The Smoot Hawley Tariff
The Smoot Hawley Tariff was an act to raise the tariffs of U.S. imports up to 50%. They believed raising the trade barriers would force citizens to buy more goods, and more could be employed. Instead, it virtually closed all of our trade barriers. This was known as the greatest mistake made by the Hoover Administration. -
Jane Addams Noble Peace Prize
Jane Addams did a lot for other people in her life. She opened the Hull House in Chicago. This house invited in and helped the poor to have a good place to live, and feel safe. Eventually the organization grew and it included more than 10 buildings. She included child care, educational courses, public kitchens, and several other social programs. In 1931, she was rewarded for he caring heart, by wining the Noble Peace Prize. -
Al Capone Convicted
Al Capone was a gangster in the 20s who made a lot of money smuggling alcohol. He lived in Chicago, and created an empire of illegally selling alcohol. For many years, Capone violated the prohibition laws. But they had a really hard time arresting him, and finding him guilty. Finally in 1931, he was arrested because he had failed to pay his income taxes. -
Babe calls his shot
Babe Ruth was well known around the country at this time, as the greatest baseball player in the world. He set the record for most career home runs during his time. In game 3 of the 1932 World Series, Babe Ruth supposedly pointed to the place where he would hit the ball, and he hit it exactly there. This is a famous event in sports, and still today there are debates about whether or not he actually called his shot. -
Franklin Roosevelt Elected
For the length of the Great Depression, Hoover received much of the blame. People made a fool out of him with Hoovervilles, and Hoover blankets. When this election came up, there was no question who would win. Roosevelt won by such a long shot, and there was the idea that he would bring our country out of the depression. -
Veterans March to Washington
After the war, many veterans became jobless. This greatly increased unemployment in the Great Depression, because the war veterans weren't getting payed what they were supposed to after the war. On this day in 1932, many war veterans protested in Washington D.C. for immediate payment. -
Huey Long assassinated
Huey Long was someone who had gained a lot of power in the state of Luisiana during the Great Depression. This caught on to his enemies, and they created a plan to assassinate him. Dr. Carl Weiss came and shot Huey, and Huey's bodyguards went in and shot Weiss. Weiss died instantly, but Huey went the hospital, and died two days later. -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
This was the event that brought The United States into World War 2. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. officially joined the war. Because of this, many job opportunities opened up. Many people think our country needed the war to get out of our depression, and that the war saved us. -
Golden Spike Monument
This monument was dedicated to the building of the transcontinental railroad. It is located at Promontory Point, Utah, which is where the railroad was completed. This monument means a lot to our history, because of how influential the transcontinental railroad was to the development of our country. -
Battle of Midway
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Americans joined the war. Not too long after, they had a massive naval victory against the Japanese navy. This allowed for the United States to create a defensive position. Admiral Chester Nimitz leading the Japanese couldn't stop the strength of the U.S. Navy, and this battle turned out to be a turning point for the war. -
D-day
D-day took place on the beaches of Normandy, where 3 million U.S and British troops passed through. This turned out to be the largest land-sea-air operation in military history. This operation was known as "operation overlord" and its mission was to push the Germans out of France. -
Franklin Roosevelt Re-Elected
Franklin Roosevelt was re-elected in a landslide in the 1944 election. He won the popular vote over Thomas Dewey by 60 percent. There was some debate about re electing him, but it didn't make sense not to. It seems as if he wasn't super loved by the people, but there was no reason not to re-elect him because the progress with the war was going pretty good. -
V-E Day
The "V" and "E" Day stand for victory, and Europe. This day marked the day that Germany surrendered in the war, and the allies only had Japan left in their way. All of the POWs were in Italy were sent back to their countries. This was a day Great Britain and the United States could celebrate. -
V-J Day
V-J Day stands for "victory in Japan Day." Because Japan was the last of the Axis Powers to surrender, this was considered to be the end of the war. Japan's whole mindset was to never surrender, and that they would use every last person in their country to fight in the war. However, they were so devastated by the atomic bombs, and knew what would keep coming if they didn't surrender, so they finally did. -
The Berlin Airlift
The Soviets, who controlled East Germany, didn't want the people in West Berlin to receive food or supplies, so they would flee. They closed all canals, roads, and highways leading to West Berlin. But the U.S and British brought tons and tons of supplies over to the people who lived in West Berlin, by air. This became known as the "Berlin Airlift." -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks was asked to giver up her seat on a bus, and she refused to. So she was arrested and fined. Rosa Parks is very appraised for taking this stand. This started a bus boycott where black people stopped riding the buses if they had to be segregated. This boycott eventually proved to be successful, thanks to Rosa Parks for taking the first stand. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
On this date, Dwight Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957. This event marked the first occasion since Reconstruction that the federal government undertook significant legislative action to protect civil rights. This act was very important, because it signaled a growing federal commitment to the cause of civil rights. -
First Man in Space
The space race between the Soviet Union and the U.S had been going on, and the Soviet was the first to send a man to space. Yuri Gregarin successfully went to space and back. Yuri was aboard Vostok 1, and Vostok 1 not only went into space, but it orbited the earth. -
Reagan Visits Berlin Wall
In 1961, Ronald Reagan visited the Berlin Wall, which separated East Berlin from West Berlin. Standing in front of the Brandenburg Gate, Reagan delivered a very famous speech. In this speech, he commanded that Mikhail Gorbachev would tear the wall down. However, Reagan's speech of freedom and unification, still wasn't enough to convince Gorbachev to tear down the wall quite yet. -
The Bay of Pigs
Fidel Castro had been the leader of Cuba for a number of year. Kennedy and the CIA weren't happy about it, because Castro kept on minimizing the American influence on the island. The Americans didn't like this, because they were worried Cuba could eventually fall into communism, with the Soviet Union. The Americans tried to attack Castro's airforce, but they heard about the attack, and hid at the Bay of Pigs. The Americans were surprised and hit hard by Castro's airforce, losing the invasion. -
Diem is Assassinated
For a long time, the United States supported Diem, as the leader of South Vietnam. But later on, Diem became a dictator, and he caused many problems for the people in the south. Buddhist monks started publicly setting themselves on fire. Eventually, the United States stopped supporting him, and they indirectly helped Diem's generals assassinate him. -
JFK Assassination
One day, the president was riding in a convertible car around the city of Washington D.C., the state capital. When he rounded the corner where a school book depository building was, A man named Lee Harvey Oswald was on the sixth floor with a sniper rifle. He is known to have shot JFK as he rounded the corner in his car, although there is a lot of debate as to what actually happened. JFK was rushed to the hospital, but could not be retained, and he was pronounced dead. -
Selma-Montgomery March
This was a march from Selma to Montgomery, to protest local resistance to black voter registration in Alabama. Around 500 to 600 demonstrators marched, led by a man named John Lewis. When they reached Edmund Pettus Bridge, they were attacked. This day became known as "Bloody Sunday" and it gained nationwide support for the passage of voting rights legislation. -
Open Fire at Kent State University
Because of the violence going on with the war in Vietnam, many people in the States began to protest. An anti-war movement was rising in popularity, especially in our universities. There was an incident at Kent State University where students unarmed were fired at. Four were killed, and nine were wounded. This brought a lot of the conflict in the US, as opposed to just Vietnam. -
The My Lai Massacre
This was an event that took place during the Vietnam War. The United States slaughtered the village, because they believed it functioned under the Vietcong. 500 men, women, and children were slaughtered. Women were said to have been raped before being killed. Many people questioned the Morales of the US soldiers after this massacre, even though they were fighting back on the Test Offensive. -
Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination
Martin Luther King Jr. was a leader of the civil rights movement, as he stood up for what he believed in, and had very many influential speeches. One day, he was standing on the second floor balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, when a sniper bullet hit him in the neck. He was rushed to the hospital, and pronounced dead an our later, at 39 years old. -
US Military leaves Vietnam
The Paris Peace Agreement ended the United State's involvement with the Vietnam War. They removed all their troops from Vietnam. That is, all except for the POWs. Some conflict went on about how many POWs were left in Vietnam, and what the US did or didn't do to save them. Many people consider this war the United States only failure in a war, because they suffered a good amount of casualties, and the South eventually got taken over by the North. -
Richard Nixon Resigns
The Watergate scandal had been growing and growing. At first, it was just thought to be a normal crime, and no-one thought to make a big deal out of it. However, some people had suspicions of Nixon not taking charge to fire people in the government who may have been involved in the scandal. So for a while, suspicions on Nixon kept on rising. Eventually, it became pretty clear to most people Nixon played a role, and he resigned. -
Reunification of East and West Germany
Germany had been divided in two sides for a long time. The East was communist, and Germany was basically separated into two countries. When Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty was signed, it was able to release some tensions. The Berlin Wall came down, and the Soviet Union left Germany. With the help of Helmut Kohl, Germany was reunited, and Kohl became the chancellor.
