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Sewing Machine
The sewing machine has a very complex and unsure history. There isn't really a specific point or date of when the sewing machine was invented. It would begin as an idea and received modifications as time went on. The earliest record of this machine is credited to Charles Weisenthal who in 1755 would patent a needle to be used in a sewing machine. However, he didn't do anything and Thomas Saint would invent the actual "first sewing machine". He also didn't do much other than drawings/sketches. -
YMCA
YMCA stands for The Young Men's Christian Association and was founded in London, England by George Williams. It was created because unhealthy social conditions would arise in the big cities at the end of the Industrial Revolution. They would be forced to work in horrid conditions and their living situation wasn't much better. The YMCA wanted young men to stop going out to the streets and instead pray and read the Bible. In 1853, the first YMCA for A.A was founded in Washington, by a freed slave -
Cornelious Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt was born in 1794. He became one the well known robber barons. When he went into the steamship captain business, he would become one of the largest operator. Eventually, he focused on the railroad industry in the 1860's. He built his empire off of this and would be worth more than $100 million when he died. He is credited with getting all the railroads that were disconnected and operating on their own system to join together and become one major railroad. He died 82 years old in 1877. -
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Transforming The West
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Homestead Act
The Homestead Act opened up land in the West (up to 160 aces) and allowed any American, including freed slaves, to buy land. Before the Civil War, southerners didn't want homestead legislation because they knew that the free slaves would try to settle in the free land and give more power to free states. In order to qualify for the land, the person had to be an adult citizen who was the head of their family. They had to pay a registration fee and live on the land continuously for five years. -
Land Grant College Act
This act, also known as the Morrill Act, was the beginning of establishing colleges. It was sponsored by a Vermont Congressman, Justin Smith Morrill, where it got its name. It would give states 30,000 acres of land for each congressional state. States would then sell this land and use it for colleges. Some would pour this money into building a brand new one while other states would give it to already existing ones to (state or private) to create schools of agriculture or mechanic arts. (A&M) -
Standard Oil Trust
The Standard Oil Trust was formed by John D. Rockefeller. It was built to to become the largest oil refinery firm in the world. In 1870, the company was renamed Standard Oil Company, after which Rockefeller decided to buy up all the other competition and form them into one large company. It established a strong foothold in the U.S. and other countries in the transportation and production,of petroleum products. The Trust broke up in 1911, which led to the skyrocketing of the trust's stock prices. -
Salvation Army
The history of the Salvation Army began with William Booth. He would abandon the concept of traditional church and instead took the gospel of Jesus Christ directly to the people. He would preach to the poor, the homeless, the hungry, and the destitute. Their organization originally operated under the name “The Christian Mission." After 10 years, there would be 1,000 volunteers and evangelists. They would begin with thieves, prostitutes, gamblers, and drunks to convert into their religion. -
Period: to
Becoming An Industrial Power
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Knights of Labor
This secret society of workers would begin in 1869 in Pennsylvania and consisted of tailors. It would slowly start gaining more members, but would have a boom after the railroad strike of 1877. There were about 700,000 members of the KOL by 1886. They would work together with the same goals in mind such as an eight-hour work day, equal pay for the same work, graduated income tax, no child labor, and many other causes. However, they didn't accept anyone. Blacks weren't allowed until after 1883. -
Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony was a pioneer crusader for the woman suffrage movement in the United States and president of the NAWSA. Her work helped pave the way for the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, giving women the right to vote. She grew up in a politically active family. They worked to end slavery in what was called the abolitionist movement. They were also part of the temperance movement. Anthony was inspired to fight for women’s rights while campaigning against alcohol during temperance. -
John Rockefeller
Rockefeller (also robber baron) became wealthy thanks to oil. He founded the Standard Oil Company. He began on his business journey by investing into a refinery. When he established SOC, it would gain about 90% of American pipelines and refineries in just a little over 10 years. During his career, Rockefeller was accused of using dirty business tricks/ unethical business practices to gain more money and create his enormous and successful monopoly. He donated over $5 mil to philanthropic causes. -
Period: to
The Age of Imperialism
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Montgomery Ward & Co.
Montgomery Ward was founded as a mail-order company. It would offer items such as furniture, tools, clothing, home appliances, instruments, and much more. It was founded in Chicago by Aaron Montgomery Ward. He began his company with over $2000. He wanted to buy huge quantities of items and sell it directly to farmers without the interference of a store. He would begin implementing a money back guarantee, something still used to this day. They would eventually get beat by Sears, Roebuck and Comp. -
Red River War
The U.S was trying to remove Indians. They were removed because many people trying to go west were having problems with the Indians. Even though there was an army in place to protect settlers, they had to leave b/c of the Civil War. The Indians took advantage of this and overpowered the settlers. However, the military would come back and they would punish them by killing buffalo in excess. There also wasn't enough food and it didn't take much to convince the Indians to go to war with settlers. -
Battle of Little Bighorn
When gold was found on Native American land, they were forced to move to another reservation. However, they refused and George Custer was sent in with an army to force them off. He underestimated the Indians and didn't bring a troop big enough to overpower the Indians. Sitting Bull commanded the Indians and they were able to kill most of Custer's men, along with him. It was considered the U.S army's worst defeat and the Native American's greatest triumph against the long battle with each other. -
Period: to
The Gilded Age
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Sarah Winnemucca
Sarah was a huge advocate of the rights of Native Americans. She was born as Thocmetony near Nevada (Humboldt Sink). She learned English, Spanish, and many N.A dialects when her grandfather brought her to California to expose her white customs/language. She became Sarah when she moved back to Nevada with a white family. She wanted to play peacemaker because she saw the violence that erupted between white settlers and N.A. However, it didn't do any good because she would have to move reserves. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
This act was signed by President Chester Arthur. It would put a 10 year ban on Chinese labor immigration, who were coming in at significant amounts to work on the railroads and in the mining. It one a significant law that restricted immigratin. The few non laborer Chinese that wanted to enter the U.S. had to get certified from the Chinese govt. that said they were qualified to immigrate. It was difficult because labor was considered "killed and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining". -
Frances Willard
Frances Willard was an American educator and founder of the World Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. She was a leader of the national Prohibition Party. In 1857 she enrolled at the Milwaukee Female College, where she remained for one term. She then transferred to the North Western Female College in Evanston, Illinois, from which she graduated in 1859.In 1871 she was named president of the new Evanston College for Ladies. In October 1874 she was elected secretary of the state temperance society. -
Pendleton Act
This act was passed after the assassination of former president, James A. Garfield. It would demand that Federal Government jobs be awarded on the basis of merit and that Government employees be selected through competitive exams The Civil Service Commission was established to enforce this act. It was enforced because when Andrew Jackson was elected President in 1828, the "spoils system," in which political friends and supporters were rewarded with Government positions, was in full force -
Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show
This show was stared by William F. Cody who was an American Scout and bison hunter. It was opened in Omaha, Nebraska. The idea of this show is actually believed to have been inspired by France during the 1500's. Even though the show was usually demeaning for Indians and showed them in a not very favorable light, they participated because they earned a high wage, something not really common in the reservations, were allowed to bring their family along, and were treated the same as everyone else. -
Time Zones
In the 1700-1800's, people would usually tell time by looking at the sun. However, it would complicate things because cities didn't have the same time since the sun was is in different positions in each city. As railroads and communications, such as telegraphs, improved, it became more obvious that railroads needed a better system to keep track of the time. Therefore, 4 different time zones were introduced by the railroads in 1883. Over time, these zones were improved and changed during history. -
Haymarket Riot
What started as a labor protest would quickly turn into a riot after one of the protesters threw a bomb at the police. They had originally gathered the protest the killing of several workers by Chicago police just a few days earlier at another strike. When someone unidentified threw the bomb, the police open fired and chaos began. One civilian and 7 police officers died. Even though there wasn't much evidence, 8 labor activists were convicted for the bombing. This would be fatal to the movement. -
Interstate Commerce Act
This act would create the Interstate Commerce Commission, which was considered the first federal regulatory agency. After it was discovered just how much railroads were abusing prices and price discrimination, the I.C.A put in regulations that would put an end to this. There were no secret rebates allowed and the pricing had to be fair and equal for every size of a company. They couldn't just cater to big companies that were willing to pay more to get their items shipped using the railroads. -
William Randolph Hearst
William Hearst was a publishing magnate. He built his media empire after inheriting the San Francisco Examiner from his father. He challenged another publisher Joseph Pulitzer by buying the rival New York Journal, earning attention for his “yellow journalism.” Hearst entered politics at the turn of the century, winning two terms to the U.S. House of Representatives. He lost many holdings during the Great Depression and fell out of touch with his blue-collar audience but was still successful. -
Dawes Severalty Act
It was also called the "Dawes General Allotment Act". It distributed Indian land among tribesmen in order to create responsible farmers in the white man's image. The president would be in charge of issuing the grants and determining if someone was eligible. If they were, the head of the house would receive 160 acres, while each unmarried adult would receive 80. If Indians were eligible for this, they would become U.S. citizens. Any land available after giving it away would be sold to the public. -
Original Kodak Camera
The original kodak camera was introduced by George Eastman in New York, Rochester. It was different from any other cameras because it had already come pre-loaded with exposure films while other cameras would use a glass plate negative for each exposure. The original Kodak sold for $25 in 1888 which included the film along with a leather carrying case. Once all 100 pictures were taken, the film would be sent to the Kodak factory to get developed for $10. Extra film would then be sold for $2. -
Original Motion Picture Camera
The motion picture camera has a very interesting starting point in history. The first official motion picture is a series of photos that would show rapidly like in movement. It was of a horse race in 1878 called The Horse In Motion. It was created after much debate because people wondered if all four of a horse's hooves were off the ground at the same time when they were galloping. This question would be answered thanks to the advanced technologyby Eadweard Muybridge and the answer was yes. -
Andrew Carnegie
Carnegie was another well known robber baron. He would also be known as a philanthropist. He was born in 1835 and immigrated to the United States from Scotland. Carnegie would start his career by working in a factory and moving around to different jobs. He learned business practices and about railroads when working for Thomas Scott's, a very important railroad official. He would eventually focus on the steel industry. Carnegie Steel Company would change steel production in the United States. -
Hull House
Hull House was founded by Jane Adams and Ellen Gates Starr in Chicago, Illinois. They were inspired after visiting Toynbee Hall in London. Most of the people living here were immigrants. They would invite people to look at paintings and read books. Then they start a kindergarten and provide a room where mothers could come sit and talk with other mothers of the community. Eventually, they started a club for teenage boys, provided lessons in cooking and sewing for girls, and provided free lectures -
Jane Addams
Jane Addams co-founded one of the first settlements in the United States, the Hull House. She would then go on to also co-win a nobel peace prize with the other founders of the Hull House. She was a social reformer, pacifist and feminist. She had eight other siblings. Her father was a state senator and businessman who knew important people, such as Abe Lincoln. She battled with health problems at a young age. She, along with a friend, would open Hull House to help with social issues/problems. -
Sherman Antitrust Act
The Sherman Antitrust Act was enacted by the United States Congress in the year 1890. It was named after John Sherman (Ohio Senator), who knew about the regulation of commerce. This act outlawed anything that restrained trade between states or with foreign nations. It also applied to restraining this by fixing prices, limit industrial output, share markets, or exclude competition. It was rarely used against industrial monopolies, and then not successfully because of what trade or commerce is. -
Panic of 1893
The Panic of 1893 would start due to the collapse of two major employer's of the U.S , Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and the National Cordage Company. When they fell, the stock market became panicked as people realized they wouldn't have any money left. Banks and other investment firms began to call in loans which caused hundreds of business bankruptcies across the U.S. However, it majorly impacted businesses such as banks, railroads, and steel mills. Over fifteen thousand businesses closed. -
Coxey's Army
Jacob S. Coxey would form a protest march that became known as "Coxey's Army." This was in protest of the federal government's failure to assist the American population (the people) during the economic downturn of the Panic of 1893. The group consisted of one hundred men who left on Easter Sunday. Their intention was to march to Washington, DC, and demand that the United States government assist the typical American worker. As they marched, more people would join them to create a huge group. -
Pullman Strike
The Pullman strike was a widespread railroad strike and boycott. It came in response to financial issues related to the economic depression that began in 1893 (Panic of 1893). The Pullman Palace Car Company cut the already low wages of its workers by about 25 percent but did not reduce rent and other charges at Pullman, its company town near Chicago, where most Pullman workers lived. Thanks to this strike, Labor Day was created as a way to please people who supported the labor movement for all. -
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize was established by the Swedish inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel through his last will where he declared that his remaining fortune would be be invested in safe securities and granted to people who made a significant change that benefited mankind. The will specified in which fields the prizes should be awarded – physics, chemistry, medicine or physiology, literature and peace. The prize was awarded by a committee of 5 people selected by the Norwegian parliament. -
Period: to
Progressive Era
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William McKinley
William McKinley was a governor of Ohio who ran for president in 1896. His platform was based off promoting American prosperity. He won against opponent, William Jennings Bryan and became the 25th president of the United States. Foreign affairs would determine hispresidential legacy He was the president when the U.S. went to war with Spain when fighting for the independence of Cuba. He was reelected in 1900, but he was assassinated by an anarchist in Buffalo, New York, in September 1901. -
Klondlike Gold Rush
This gold rush, also known by other names such as the Last Great Gold Rush, was an event where about 100,000 people migrated to the Yukon region in Canada. Even though gold was discovered in the Klondlike River in 1896, it took about a year for the news to reach people because of how remote the area was and the very frigid temperatures. People had to climb over mountains and travel on frozen rivers, trying to survive harsh snowstorms. Many people died and others gave up and returned home. -
George Dewey
George Dewey was a U.S. naval commander who defeated the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War. He was Admiral of the Navy, the only person in the United States history to have attained this rank. He also defeated the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War. Dewey was able to defeat them without the loss of a single man. His victory resulted in the acquisition of the Philippines by the United States, signaling U.S power. -
Spanish American War
This war would make Teddy Roosevelt famous. It originated in the Cuban struggle for independence from Spain, which began in February 1895. American sympathy for the rebels rose when Spain’s brutally repressive measures to halt the rebellion were graphically portrayed for the U.S media/newspaper. When the battleship USS Maine was sunk, the U.S. was even more tempted to go to war against Spain. Spain declared war on the United States on April 24, followed by a U.S. declaration of war on the 25th. -
Rough Riders
The Rough Riders was the most famous of all the units fighting in Cuba. It was given to the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry under the leadership of Theodore Roosevelt. The Rough Riders battled at Las Guásimas with General Samuel B. M. Young. There they joined the Fifth Corps, another highly trained group of great soldiers. They also made headlines for their role in the Battle of San Juan Hill, which became the stuff of legend thanks to Roosevelt's writing ability and reenactments filmed long after. -
Battle of Manila Bay
On April 30, Dewey’s lookouts caught sight of Luzon, the main Philippine island. That night, under cover of darkness and with the lights aboard the U.S. warships extinguished, the squadron slipped by the defensive guns of Corregidor Island and into Manila Bay.
After dawn a group of out-of-date warships anchored off the Cite naval station. The U.S. fleet, in comparison, was well-armed and well-staffed, largely due to the efforts of the energetic assistant secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt -
Battle Of San Juan Hill
Battle of San Juan Hill was the most significant U.S. land victory, and one of the final battles, of the Spanish-American War. After the Battle of Las Guasimas, Major General Shafter planned to take Santiago de Cuba, the island’s second largest city. Reports of Spanish reinforcements on route to the city caused him to accelerate his plans. He ordered head-on assaults against three hilltop fortified positions that made up the city’s outer defenses.several cannon protected the Spanish defenders. -
Philippine American War
The Philippine-American War may be seen as a continuation of the Philippine Revolution against Spanish rule. The Treaty of Paris had transferred Philippine sovereignty from Spain to the United States but was not recognized by Filipino leaders. Although an end to the insurrection was declared in 1902, sporadic fighting continued for several years thereafter. Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt placed the U.S. Asiatic squadron in Hong Kong on alert. Fighting flared bitterness. -
Boxer Rebellion
In 1900, a Chinese secret organization called the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists led an uprising in northern China against the spread of Western and Japanese influence there. The rebels, referred to by Westerners as Boxers because they performed physical exercises they believed would make them able to withstand bullets, killed foreigners and Chinese Christians and destroyed foreign property. An international force stopped the uprising.By the end China payed $330 million in repairs -
Theodore Roosevelt
Roosevelt became the president of the U.S in 1901 when William McKinley was assassinated. He was known as the “trust buster” for his strenuous efforts to break up industrial combinations using the Sherman Antitrust Act. He was also a dedicated conservationist, setting aside some 200 million acres for national forests, reserves and wildlife refuges during his presidency. Roosevelt won a Nobel Peace Prize for his negotiations to end the Russo-Japanese War and construction of Panama Canal. -
Henry Ford
Henry Ford revolutionized assembly-line modes of production for the automobile. Ford created the Ford Model T car in 1908, the first car to be affordable for most Americans. He sold millions of cars and became a famous business. The company lost its market dominance but had a lasting impact on other technological development and U.S. infrastructure. credited for helping to build America's economy during the nation's vulnerable early years and is considered one of America's leading businessmen. -
Bolsheviks
Bolshevik is Russian for “One of the Majority”. It is a member of a wing of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party, which, led by Lenin, seized control of the government in Russia (Oct.1917)and became the dominant political power. he group originated at the party’s second congress when Lenin’s followers, insisting that party membership be restricted to professional revolutionaries, won a temporary majority on the party’s central committee and on the editorial board of its newspaper Iskra. -
Platt Amendment
At the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898, the United States found itself in control of several overseas territories, including Cuba. This gave the U.S. intervention in Cuban affairs and let them lease/buy lands for the purpose of the establishing naval bases (the main one was Guantánamo Bay) and coaling stations in Cuba. It barred Cuba from making a treaty that gave another nation power over its affairs, going into debt, or stopping the United States from imposing a sanitation program. -
Schlieffen Plan
Schlieffen Plan was a battle plan first proposed in 1905 by Alfred, Graf von Schlieffen, chief of the German general staff. It was designed to allow Germany to wage a successful war. The plan was heavily modified by Schlieffen’s successor, Helmuth von Moltke, prior to and during its implementation in World War I. Moltke’s changes, which included a reduction in the size of the attacking army, were blamed for Germany’s failure to win a quick victory. The plan was inspired by the Battle of Cannae -
Meat Inspection Act
The Meat Inspection Act of 1906, was signed by President Theodore Roosevelt. It would prohibit the sale of adulterated or misbranded livestock and derived products as food and ensured that livestock were slaughtered and processed under sanitary conditions. The law reformed the meatpacking industry, mandating that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspect all cattle, swine, sheep, goats, and horses both before and after they were slaughtered and processed for human consumption. -
William Howard Taft
Taft worked as a judge in Ohio Superior Court and in the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals before accepting a post as the first civilian governor of the Philippines in 1900. In 1904, Taft took on the role of secretary of war in the administration of Theodore Roosevelt. He was generally more conservative than Roosevelt, making him a more successful administrator than politician. William Taft would become president during the 1908 presidential election. He would be succeeded by Woodrow Wilson. -
Pancho Villa
Pancho Villa was a famous Mexican revolutionary and guerilla leader. He joined Francisco Madero’s uprising against Mexican President Porfirio Díaz in 1909, and later became leader of the División del Norte cavalry and governor of Chihuahua. After clashing with former revolutionary ally Venustiano Carranza, Villa killed more than 30 Americans in a pair of attacks in 1916. Pardoned by Mexican President Adolfo Huerta in 1920, Villa retired to a quiet life at his ranch until his assassination. -
Angel Island
The Angel Island Immigration Station (1910–1940), located in San Francisco Bay, was one of twenty-four ports of entry established by the U.S. government to process and detain immigrants entering and leaving the country. Although popularly called the “Ellis Island of the West,” the Angel Island station was in fact quite different from its counterpart in New York. In 1963, the abandoned site became part of the state park system, and the remaining buildings were slated for demolition. Thanks to -
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was the development of the neighborhood in New York City as a black cultural mecca in the early 20th Century and the subsequent social and artistic explosion that resulted. Lasting roughly from the 1910s through the mid-1930s, the period is considered a golden age in African American culture, manifesting in literature etc. The northern Manhattan neighborhood was meant to be an upper-class white neighborhood in the 1880s, but rapid overdevelopment led to empty buildings -
Margaret Sanger
Born Margaret Higgins, Margaret Sanger was an early feminist and women's rights activist and social reformer who coined the term "birth control" and worked towards its legalization. She moved to Greenwich Village and started a publication promoting a woman's right to birth control (a term that she coined). Obscenity laws forced her to flee the country until 1915. In 1916 she opened the first birth control clinic in the U.S. Sanger fought for women's rights her entire life. She died in 1966. -
Bull Moose Party
The Bull Moose Party would formally be known as the Progressive Party. They would nominate Theodore Roosevelt as their candidate in the presidential election of 1912, which he would loose and Gov. Hiram Johnson for vice president. Their name and general objectives would be revived twelve years later. The party’s popular nickname of Bull Moose was derived from the characteristics of strength often used by Roosevelt to describe himself and quote “it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose." -
Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson was the 28th U.S. president, served in office from 1913 to 1921. He was in office during World War I. He is considered by historians as one of the nation’s greatest presidents. He was a college professor and Democratic governor of New Jersey before winning the White House in 1912. Wilson tried to keep the United States neutral during World War I but ultimately called on Congress to declare war on Germany in 1917. After the war, he helped negotiate a peace treaty. -
Franz Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand was the oldest son of Archduke Karl Ludwig. He was a member of the House of Hapsburg, rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Spanish Empire. He began his military career at age 12 and was quickly promoted through the ranks becoming a major general at age 31. In 1896, Franz Ferdinand was groomed to inherit the throne. His assassination on June 28, 1914, at the hand of a Serbian terrorist group the "Black Hand," led to the beginning of World War I. -
Gavrilo Princip
Gavrilo Princip was the son of a postman. His health was poor from an early age. While in Serbia Princip joined the secret Black Hand society, a nationalist movement favouring a union between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia. Princip was one of three sent by head of the Black Hand, to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Princip, who happened to be in Franz Joseph Street,seized his opportunity, and took aim at Ferdinand from a distance of five feet. His bullets struck the Archduke in the neck. -
Period: to
World War I
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Ludlow Massacre
The Ludlow Massacre began when a battle broke out between the Colorado National Guard and striking coal miners at their tent colony. It's unknown who fired the first shot, but it is remembered as a massacre. About nineteen people died, in the actual massacre itself. However, there were more people who died in violence throughout southern Colorado over the next few days. No matter how the casualties are counted, the Ludlow Massacre is one of the bloodiest events in American labor history. -
Great Migration
The Great Migration was the relocation of more than 6 million African Americans from the rural South to the cities of the North. Driven from their homes by unsatisfactory economic opportunities and harsh segregationist laws, many blacks headed north, where they took advantage of the need for industrial workers that first arose during the WWI. During the Great Migration, A.A began to build a new place for themselves in public life, actively confronting racial prejudice to create a black culture. -
Marcus Garvey
Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) became a leader in the black nationalist movement by applying the economic ideas of Pan-Africanists to the immense resources available in urban centers. After arriving in New York in 1916, he founded the Negro World newspaper, an international shipping company called Black Star Line and the Negro Factories Corporation. During the 1920s, his Universal Negro Improvement Association was the largest secular organization in African-American history.Indicted for mail fraud -
Vladimir Lenin
Lenin was the founder of the Russian Communist Party, leader of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, and the architect, builder, and first head of the Soviet Union. He spent the years leading up to the 1917 revolution in exile, within Russia and abroad. Despite a series of strokes in his final years, Lenin attempted to shape the future of the Soviet Union, warning against the unchecked power of party members, including Joseph Stalin whoemerged victorious fromt he power struggle following Lenin’sdeath. -
Zimmerman Telegram
The Zimmerman Telegram was penned by German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann. British code breakers intercepted an encrypted message from him for Heinrich von Eckardt, the German ambassador to Mexico. The missive gave the ambassador a now-famous set of instructions: if the neutral United States entered the war on the side of the Allies, Eckardt was to approach Mexico’s president with an offer to forge an alliance. The Germans would provide support for a Mexican attack on the United States. -
Spanish Flu
The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, the deadliest in history, infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide and killed an estimated 20-50 million victims, . The 1918 flu was first observed in Europe, the United States and parts of Asia before swiftly spreading around the world. At the time, there were no effective drugs or vaccines to treat this killer flu strain. Citizens were ordered to wear masks,bodies piled up in makeshift morgues before the virus ended its deadly global march. -
First Red Square
The so-called “Red Scare” refers to the fear of communism in the USA during the 1920’s. It is said that there were over 150,000 anarchists or communists in USA in 1920 alone and this represented only 0.1% of the overall population of the USA. However many Americans were scared of the communists especially as they had overthrown the royal family in Russia in 1917 and murdered them in the following year. In 1901, an anarchist had shot McKinley dead, Therefore the fear of communism increased -
Teapot Dome Scandal
The Teapot Dome Scandal shocked Americans by revealing an unprecedented level of greed and corruption within the federal government. The scandal involved ornery oil tycoons, poker-playing politicians, a womanizing president and a bagful of bribery cash delivered on the sly. In the end, the scandal would empower the Senate to conduct rigorous investigations into government corruption. It also marked the first time a U.S. cabinet official served jail time for a felony committed while in office. -
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth was a logical extension of Hitler’s belief that the future of Nazi Germany was its children. The Hitler Youth was seen as being as important to a child as school was. In the early years of the Nazi government, Hitler had made it clear as to what he expected German children to be like. The Hitler Youth catered for 10 to 18 year olds. The task of the boys section was to prepare the, for military service in the future. For girls, the organisation prepared them for motherhood. -
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong, nicknamed "Satchmo," "Pops" and, later, "Ambassador Satch," was born in 1901 in New Orleans, Louisiana. An all-star virtuoso, he came to prominence in the 1920s, influencing countless musicians with both his daring trumpet style and unique vocals. He was a trumpeter, bandleader, singer, soloist, film star and comedian. Considered one of the most influential artists in jazz history, he is known for songs like "Star Dust," "La Vie En Rose" and "What a Wonderful World." died 1971. -
Period: to
The 1920's
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19th Amendment
The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted American women the right to vote. It was known as women’s suffrage, and was ratified on August 18, 1920, ending almost a century of protest. 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. activists, raised public awareness and lobbied. -
Scopes Monkey Trail
In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called “Monkey Trial” begins with John Thomas Scopes, a young high school science teacher, accused of teaching evolution in violation of a Tennessee state law. With local businessman George Rappalyea, Scopes had conspired to get charged with this violation, and after his arrest the pair enlisted the aid of the (ACLU) to organize a defense. Hearing of this coordinated attack on Christian fundamentalism, William Jennings Bryan, volunteered to assist the prosecution. -
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh was an American aviator who rose to international fame in 1927 after becoming the first person to fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean in his monoplane, Spirit of St. Louis. Five years later, Lindbergh’s toddler son was kidnapped and murdered in what many called “the crime of the century.” In the lead-up to World War II, Lindbergh was an outspoken isolationist, opposing American aid to Great Britain in the fight against Germany. Some accused him of being a Nazi sympathizer. -
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover was, America’s 31st president. He took office in 1929, the year the U.S. economy plummeted into the Great Depression. Although his predecessors’ policies undoubtedly contributed to the crisis, which lasted over a decade, Hoover bore much of the blame in the minds of the American people. As the Depression deepened, Hoover failed to recognize the severity of the situation. Hoover was soundly defeated in the 1932 presidential election by Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945). -
Period: to
The Great Depression
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Valentine's Day Massacre
This rash of gang violence reached its bloody climax in a garage on the city’s North Side on February 14, 1929,seven members of Moran’s operation were gunned down while standing lined up, facing the wall of the garage. Some 70 rounds of ammunition were fired. 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. -
October 29, 1929
On October 29, 1929, Black Tuesday hit Wall Street as investors traded some 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors. In the aftermath of Black Tuesday, America and the rest of the industrialized world spiraled downward into the Great Depression , the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world up to that time.During the 1920s, the U.S. stock market fell. -
Father Charles Coughlin
Charles Edward Coughlin was a controversial Canadian-American Roman Catholic priest based in the United States near Detroit at Royal Oak, Michigan's National Shrine of the Little Flower church. Commonly known as Father Coughlin, he was one of the first political leaders to use radio to reach a mass audience, as up to thirty million listeners tuned to his weekly broadcasts during the 1930s. He was forced off the air in 1939. He was someone who greatly influenced FDR to the more liberal side. -
Hoovervilles
During the Great Depression, shantytowns appeared across the U.S. as unemployed people were evicted from their homes. As the Depression worsened in the 1930s, many looked to the federal government for assistance. When the government failed to provide relief, Herbert Hoover was blamed for the intolerable conditions, and the shantytowns that cropped up across the nation, primarily on the outskirts of major cities, became known as Hoovervilles. In the early 1940s, most remaining were torn down. -
Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl refers to the drought-stricken Southern Plains region of the United States, which suffered severe dust storms during a dry period in the 1930s. As high winds and choking dust swept the region from Texas to Nebraska crops failed, people and livestock were killed and crops failed across the region. The Dust Bowl intensified the crushing economic impacts of the Great Depression and drove many farming families on a desperate migration in search of work and better living conditions. -
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. Roosevelt’s victory would be the first of five successive Democratic presidential wins. -
Glass Stegall Act (Banking Act)
The Glass-Steagall Act effectively separated commercial banking from investment banking and created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, among other things. It was one of the most widely debated legislative initiatives before being signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in June 1933.The emergency legislation that was passed within days of President Franklin Roosevelt taking office in March 1933 was just the start of the process to restore confidence in the banking system. -
Dr. Francis Townsend
In 1935 in response to the continued popular growth of the Townsend Plan, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s proposed Social Security legislation included two titles designed to help the elderly, but neither of them as generous as the Townsend Plan. The president’s legislation included a program for poor older people with matching payments from the federal government to the states, known as (OAA), and a national social insurance retirement program for covered employees labeled: Social Security. -
Eleanor Roosevelt
First lady Eleanor Roosevelt was the wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt the U.S. president. She was a leader in her own right and involved in numerous humanitarian causes throughout her life. The niece of President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), Eleanor was born into a wealthy New York family. She married Franklin Roosevelt, her fifth cousin once removed, in 1905. By the 1920s, Roosevelt, who raised five children, was involved in Democratic Party politics and numerous social reform organizations. -
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was the leader of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. He initiated fascist policies that led to World War II and the deaths of at least 11 million people, including the mass murder of an estimated 6 million Jews. He 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 deadly Holocaust. -
Huey Long
He was a powerful Louisiana governor, rising through the ranks of the to take over the state’s top post in 1928. He dominated every governing institution within L.A, using that power to expand programs for underdeveloped infrastructure and social services. He entered the U.S. Senate in 1935, where he developed a following for his promises of a radical redistribution of wealth. Long had launched his own national political organization and was prepared to run for the presidency when he was killed. -
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World War II
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Operation Sea Lion
Operation Sealion was the name given by Hitler for the planned invasion of Great Britain in 1940. It was never carried out during the war as the Germans lost the Battle of Britain and it is now believed that Hitler was more interested in the forthcoming attack on Russia as opposed to invading Britain. The whole plan relied on Germany having complete control of the English Channel, which meant that Germany had to have control of the skies so that the Air Force could not attack German ships. -
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is a U.S. naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, and was the scene of a devastating surprise attack by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. Just before 8 a.m. on that Sunday morning, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes descended on the base, where they managed to destroy or damage nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and over 300 airplanes. More than 2,400 Americans died in the attack, including civilians, and another 1,000 people were wounded. -
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was the code name for the American-led effort to develop a functional atomic weapon during World War II. The controversial creation and eventual use of the atomic bomb engaged some of the world’s leading scientific minds, as well as the U.S. military and most of the work was done in Los Alamos, New Mexico.The Manhattan Project was started in response to fears that German scientists had been working on a weapon using nuclear technology that Hitler was prepared to use. -
Battle of the Bulge
In December 1944, Adolph Hitler attempted to split the Allied armies in northwest Europe by means of a surprise blitzkrieg. Caught off-guard, American units fought desperate battles to stem the German advance at Elsenborn Ridge, Houffalize and Bas. As the Germans drove deeper into the Ardennes in an attempt to secure vital bridgeheads, the Allied line took on the appearance of a large bulge, giving rise to the battle’s name. Lieutenant General George S. Patton’s successful maneuvering was vital. -
D-Day
Codenamed Operation Overlord, the battle began on June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day, when some 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning. Prior to D-Day, the Allies conducted a large-scale deception campaign designed to mislead the Germans about the intended invasion target. -
The Holocaust
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”–now known as the Holocaust–came to fruition under the cover of world war, with mass killing centers constructed in the concentration camps of occupied Poland. Over six million Jews were killed during this horrific era, something that still taints history. -
Tuskegee Airmen
The Tuskegee Airmen were the first black military aviators in the U.S. Army Air Corps (AAC), a precursor of the U.S. Air Force. Trained at the Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama, they flew more than 15,000 individual sorties in Europe and North Africa during World War II. Their impressive performance earned them more than 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses, and helped encourage the eventual integration of the U.S. armed forces. It was monumental because it went against the current segregation. -
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower led the massive invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe that began on D-Day. In 1952, Republicans convinced Eisenhower (then in command of NATO forces in Europe) to run for president; he won a convincing victory over Stevenson and would serve two terms in the White House. During his presidency, Eisenhower managed Cold War-era tensions with the Soviet Union under the looming threat of nuclear weapons, ended the war in Korea and authorized covert anti-communist operations by the CIA.
