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United States acquires Alaska
In 1867, William Seward arranged for the U.S to buy Alaska from the Russians for $7.2 million. Some people thought it was silly to buy what they called "Seward's icebox". Seward had some trouble persuading the House of Representitives to approve funding for the purchase. -
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Industrialization
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The power of electricity
Thomas Edison established the world's first research laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. He later invented an entire system for producing and distributing electrical power. -
Mary Harris Jones
Mary Jones was the most prominent organizer in the women's labor movement. She supported the Great Strike and later organized for the UMW. She endured death threats and jail with the coal miners, who gave her the nick name Mother Jones. -
Great Strike of 1877
Workers for Baltimore and Ohio Railroad struck to protest their second wage cut in two months. After several state governors asked president Rutherford B. Hays to intervene, saying that strikers were impeding interstate commerce, federal troops ended the strike. -
Interstate Commerce Act
The act established a five-member Interstate Commerce Commission for the purpose of public outrage. In 1886, the suprime court ruled that a state could not set rates on interstate commerce-railroad traffic that either came from or was going to another state. -
U.S.S Marine explodes.
Earlier in 1898, President McKinley had ordered the U.S.S Marine to Cuba to bring home American citizens in danger from the fighting and to protect American property. The ship blew up in the harbor of Havana on February 15, 1898. The explosion killed more than 260 men. -
George Dewey
He gave the command to open fire on the Spanish fleet at Manila, the Philippine capital. Within hours, Dewey's men had destroyed every Spanish ship there. Dewey's victory allowed U.S troops to land in the Philippines. -
Treaty of Paris
The US and Spain signed this agreement, ending what John Hay called a "Splended little war". Spain sold the Philippines to the US for $20 million. Arguments centered on whether or not the US had a right to annex the Philippines, but imperialism was the big issue. -
The move north
Between 1910 and 1920, in a movement known as the Great Migration, hundreds of thousands of African Americans had uprooted themselves from their homes in the south and moved north to the big cities in search of jobs. -
School enrollments
Approximately 1 million American students attended high school. By 1926, that number had risen to nearly 4 million, an increase sparked by prosperous times and higher educational standards for industry jobs. -
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First World War
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Zimmerman note
telegram from the German foreign minister to the German ambassador in Mexico that was intercepted by British agents. The telegram proposed an alliance between Mexico and Germany and promised that if war with the US broke out, Germany would support Mexico in recovering "lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona". -
Selective Service Act
The act required men to register with the government in order to be randomly selected for military service. By the end of 1918, 24 million men had registered under the act. -
Espionage act
A person could be fined up to $10,000 and sentenced to 20 years in jail for interfering with the war effort or saying anything disloyal, profane, or abusive about the government or the war effort. -
Double standard
A set of principles granting stricter standards of behavior that men did. -
Speakeasies
When inside, one spoke quietly, or "easily", to avoid detection. Speakeasies could be found everywhere, in penthouses, cellars, office buildings, rooming houses, tenements, hardware stores and tearooms. -
The election of 1928
Took place in a mood of apparent national prosperity. This election pitted Republican candidate Herbert Hoover against democrat Alfred E. Smith. -
The depression in cities
In cities across the country, people lost their jobs, were evicted from their homes and ended up in the streets. Some slept in parks or sewer pipes, wrapping themselves in newspapers to fend off the cold. -
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The Great Depression
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The New Lift
The growing growth movement of the 1960's became known as the New Lift. The movement was "new" in relation to the "old lift" of the 1930's, which generally tried to move the nation toward socialism, and in some cases, communism. -
Federal Home Loan Bank Act
In 1932, Hoover signed into the act which lowered mortgage rates for homeowners and allowed farmers to refinance their farm loans and avoid foreclosure. -
Battle of the Atlantic
After the attack on Pear Harbor, Hitler ordered submarine raids against ships along America's east coast. The German wanted to prevent food and war materials from reaching the Soviet Union and Great Britian. -
The battle of the atlantic.
After the attack on Pear Harbor, Hitler ordered submarines to raid against ships along America's east coast. In the first four months of 1942, the Germans sunk 87 U.S ships off the Atlantic shore. -
Manhattan Project
Not only was it the most ambitious scientific enterprise in history, but also the best-kept secret in the world. At it's peak, more than 600,000 Americans were involved in the project, although a few of them knew it;s ultimate purpose- the creation of an atomic bomb. -
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
Civil rights leader James Farmer foinded an interracial movement called CORE to confront urban segregation in the north. The same year, CORE staged it's first sit-in at a segregated Chicago resturant. -
Life on the home front
Newspapers reported the end of automobile production in the United States. The last car to roll off an automaker's assembly line was a grey sedan with "victory trim," which meant the car had no chrome. This was just one more sign that the war would affect almost every aspect of life on the home front. -
WAAC became a law.
The law gave the WAACs an official status and salary but few of the benefits granted to male soldiers. -
France battles the Vietminh
The United States entered the Vietnam struggle, dispite Peter Dewey's warnings. That year, president Truman sent nearly $5 million in economic aid to France. -
The Troop Buildup Accelerates
By the end of 1965, the U.S Government had sent more than 180,000 Americans to Vietnam. The American commander in South Vietnam, requested more troops. -
Violence And Protest Grip The Nation.
America was rocketed by the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Violence ripped through more than 100 U.S cities as enraged follwers of the slain civil rights leader burned buildings and destroyed neighborhoods. -
Pentagon Papers.
The 7,000 page document, revealed among other things that the government had drawn up plans for entering the war even as the president promised that he would not send American troops to Vietnam.
