-
Period: to
Economics 100 Year Timeline
-
Labor Management
Alamba State Federation of labor is the first U.S. Union to integrate African American and white workers. National Civic Federation is established in Chicago to promote labor-management relations. -
Panic of 1901
The first stock market crash on the New York Stock Exchange. Caused in part by the financial control on the North Pacific Railway. Thousands of small investors ruined. -
Wright Brothers First Flight
The Wright Brothers powered the first airplane. This would become a very important milestone in American History. -
Federal Income Tax
The Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified which authorized federal income tax on individuals. It went into full effect and President Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act, creating a new central bank. -
Liberty Loan Act
The First Liberty Loan Act authorized the issue of $5 billion worth of bonds at 3.5 percent interest three weeks after the United States declared war on Germany. -
Silver Coinage Act
The Pittman Silver Coinage Act was approved. The Act removed a large number of silver dollars from circulation to be melted down and sold as silver. The Act required that an equal number of silver dollars be minted from American mined silver. -
Foreign Debt Commission
Congress established the World War Foreign Debt Commission. The commission rounded debts owed to the United States to $11.5 billion repayable over a 62 year term at two percent interest. The loans were never fully repaid. -
Debt Funding Agreement
The U.S. and Belgian governments concluded an agreement on Belgian war debt obligations to the United States during World War I. Afer this, The Debt Funding Agreement between the United States and Italy was signed, -
Stock Market Crash
A stock market panic occurred, foreshadowing the crash. Black Tuesday occurred, a massive stock market crash that signaled the beginning of the Great Depression. At the time the crash was considered to be a cause of the Great Depression. -
The Great Depression
10,000 banks have failed due to the Great Depression and as a nation we are 25% unemployed. Franklin D.Roosevelt also is elected against Herbert Hoover as president. -
Emergency Banking Act
Roosevelt passes a four day bank holiday, and abandons the international gold standard. The Emergency Banking Act and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation were passed, protecting depositers against bank failure. -
Social Security Bill
Roosevelt signs the Social Security Bill, supported by citizens' taxes and wages. He also issues executive order establishing work programs to provide employment. -
Pearl Harbor
The Japenese bomb Pearl Harbor,bringing the U.S. into the war.Roosevelt's fledgling economy could expand industrially via the demand on a wartime economy. Putting men in the army meant there were even less people jobless. -
World War II
Government spending for World War II causes an economic boom taking the U,S out of the Great Depression. Americans gear up with equipment and aircract production for the war, wage and price controls are imposed to fight wartime inflation. -
Atomic Bomb
With Harry S. Truman now as president, he agrees to the usage of the atomic bomb. During the making of this bomb, tax prices have skyrocketed as well as how much the government spent on making this bomb, two billion dollars. -
Brinks Robbery
The Brinks robbery in Boston occurs when eleven masked bandits steal $2.8 million from an armored car outside their express office. This worried people more about the money they had in their pocket until all eleven gang members were captured. -
Korean War
Korean War creates prospects of additional government deficits and new government debt. The Treasury pressures the Federal Government to maintain a low fixed interest rate but the Fed fears inflation. -
Unemployment Act
The Unemployment Assistance Act was passed by Congress, establishing a needs test and requiring the federal government to share 50% of the costs. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crises begins. In response to the Soviet Union building offensive missiles in Cuba, President John F. Kennedy orders a naval and air blockade of military equipment to the island. -
Kennedy's Tax Cut
Congress passes Kennedy's $12-billion tax cut and the economy takes off, with an increase in fiscal policy. Job Corps is created under Economic Opportunity Act. -
Medicare&Medicaid
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs a landmark amendment to the Social Security Act, creating Medicare and Medicaid. They provide federal health insurance for citizens over 65 and poor citizens. -
Cigarette Smoking Act of 1971
There was a ban on television advertisements for cigarettes that went into effect. The Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act was designed to limit the practice of smoking and have a stronger health warning on the packet. -
Walt Disney World
Walt Disney World opens up for business in Florida and is an overnight success. It is one of the biggest money making entertainment centers, expanding the Disney empire. -
1973 Oil Crisis
Because of the oil shortage involving Israel and Egypt, the United States' prices on oil were raised to the maximum, prompting stagflation to take place. This ultimately caused the most unemployment rates the U.S. had ever seen. Not to mention, a high gas shortage. -
1980 Grain Embargo
President Jimmy Carter announced the embargo on sale of grain and high technology, due to the Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan. However, commodity prices dropped following the embargo, contributing to a severe farm crisis. -
1982 Unemployment
The highest unemployment rate since 1940 was recorded at 10.4%. By the end of November, over eleven million people would be unemployed. When the economy finally ended its deep recessionary slide, unemployment had risen even higher, with the number of jobless people at 12 million. -
Ban on Missiles
A world-wide ban on missiles is reached between the Soviet Union and the United States to relieve citizens' worry and fear of being bombed and the safety of the environment. -
Art Theft of 1990
The largest art theft in U.S. history occurs in Boston, Massachusetts, when two thieves posing as policemen smuggle twelve paintings worth an estimated $100-200 million from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. As of 2005, the painting had not been recovered and there is worry that it never will be. -
North American Free Trade Agreement
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into effect, creating a free trade zone between Canada, the United States, and Mexico. This will lower the struggle on poorer families unable to attain natural resources and necessities. -
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is created, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) formed from a series of post-war treaties on trade. The World Trade Organization is more highly structured than the GATT and counted seventy-six nations among its members in 1995. -
9/11
Islamic terrorists bomb the U.S. Twin Towers at the World Trade Center. The attack of two planes levels the World Trade Center and the crash of one plane inflicts serious damage to the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, causing nearly 3,000 deaths. This was in part of the Al-Qaeda organization led by Osama Bin Laden. -
NASA Tragedy
A tragedy at NASA occurs when the Space Shuttle Columbia explodes upon reentry over Texas. All seven astronauts inside are killed. President Bush seemed to ignore all consequences of the space program, despite the economic impact it appeared to have, one including that it cost over 300 billion dollars to build optic lines for the shuttle. -
Hurricane Katrina
A hurricane struck the Gulf Coast, destroying the city of New Orleans. Over one thousand three hundred people perish from Alabama to Louisiana in one of the worst natural disasters to strike the United States. It will take half of a lifetime to restore the damage done from the storm. -
War of Terror
The War of Terror continues. With elections in Iraq to confirm a new constitution with internal terrorism amid the U.S. military presence a statement from the Iranian President calls for the destruction of Israel and condemns the peace process, causing the start of an ongoing war for the U.S.
