-
The invention of the phonograph by Thomas Edison in 1877
Thomas Edison, while working on telegraph and telephone technology, developed a machine that could transcribe telegraphic messages through indentations on paper tape, which could later be sent over the telegraph repeatedly. This invention, which he called the phonograph, was a device that could record and reproduce sound, making it a groundbreaking invention. -
American Federation of Labor formed of 1886
The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutual support and disappointed in the Knights of Labor. -
Battle of Wounded Knee of 1890
Wounded Knee Massacre, the slaughter of approximately 150–300 Lakota individuals by United States Army troops in the area of Wounded Knee Creek in southwestern South Dakota. The massacre was the climax of the U.S. Army’s late 19th-century efforts to repress the Plains peoples. It broke any organized resistance to reservation life and assimilation to Euro-American culture, although Native American activists renewed public attention to the massacre during a 1973 occupation of the site. -
Spanish-American War of 1898
The Spanish-American War of 1898 was a brief but impactful conflict between the United States and Spain, stemming from the Cuban struggle for independence, the sinking of the USS Maine, and ultimately leading to the United States acquiring territories like Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, and establishing a protectorate over Cuba. -
NAACP formed
The NAACP, or National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is America's oldest and largest civil rights organization, founded in 1909, dedicated to fighting racial discrimination and advocating for the rights of African Americans. -
The Start of World War I
World War I, also known as the Great War, was a global conflict that began in 1914 and ended in 1918, pitting the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire) against the Allied Powers (Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and later the United States). -
Panama Canal completed
The completion of the Panama Canal helped shortcut greatly the time for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, enabling them to avoid the lengthy, hazardous route around the southernmost tip of South America via the Drake Passage, the Strait of Magellan or the Beagle Channel -
U.S. enters World War I
The US entered World War I in April 1917 primarily due to Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare, which included sinking American merchant ships, and the Zimmerman Telegram, where Germany proposed an alliance with Mexico against the US. -
Stock market crashes
The 1929 stock market crash, also known as the Great Crash, was a severe and sudden decline in stock prices that began in October 1929, triggering a rapid erosion of confidence in the U.S. banking system and marking the beginning of the Great Depression. -
Hitler invades Poland
Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, primarily to gain "Lebensraum" for the German people and to establish German dominance in Eastern Europe, as well as to overturn the Treaty of Versailles and expand Germany's territory. -
Japanese attack Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, damaging or destroying numerous ships and aircraft, and killing over 2,400 Americans, which led to the US declaring war on Japan and entering World War II. -
U.S. involvement in World War II
The United States' involvement in World War II was triggered by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, leading to a declaration of war against Japan, and subsequently against Germany and Italy, who were Japan's allies. -
D-Day
D-Day, officially the Normandy landings, refers to the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, during World War II, marking the start of the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi control. -
Brown v. Board of Education
On May 17, 1954, a decision in the Brown v. Board of Education case declared the “separate but equal” doctrine unconstitutional. The landmark Brown v. Board decision gave LDF its most celebrated victory in a long, storied history of fighting for civil rights and marked a defining moment in US history. -
USSR launches Sputnik I satellite
The launch of Sputnik I by the USSR on October 4, 1957, marked the beginning of the space age and the Space Race, triggering a surge in Cold War tensions and prompting the US to accelerate its own space and weapons programs. -
Cuban missile crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13-day confrontation in October 1962, where the US and Soviet Union nearly went to nuclear war over the Soviet Union's secret deployment of nuclear missiles to Cuba, just 90 miles from US shores. -
President Kennedy assassinated
President Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963, was significant because it led to a national trauma, the swift ascension of Lyndon B. Johnson to the presidency, and a renewed focus on civil rights and social issues. -
President Nixon visits China
Nixon visited the PRC to gain more leverage over relations with the Soviet Union, following the Sino-Soviet split. The normalization of ties culminated in 1979, when the U.S. transferred diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing and established full relations with the PRC. -
Watergate scandal; President Nixon resigns
He fired White House Counsel John Dean, who went on to testify before the Senate Watergate Committee and said that he believed and suspected the conversations in the Oval Office were being taped. This information became the bombshell that helped force Richard Nixon to resign rather than be impeached. -
U.S. invades Iraq
The US, along with the UK and other allies, invaded Iraq in 2003, primarily citing Saddam Hussein's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and his purported ties to terrorist organizations, particularly al-Qaeda, as justifications for the invasion.