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The Homestead Act of 1862
The Homestead Act was signed by President Lincoln on May 20, 1862. The Homestead Act accelerated the settlement of the western territory by granting adult heads of families 160 acres of surveyed public land for a minimal filing fee and five years of continuous residence on that land, which gave citizens or future citizens up to 160 acres of public land provided they live on it, improve it, and pay a small registration fee. -
First Transcontinental Railroad
The presidents of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads meet in Promontory, Utah, and drive a ceremonial last spike into a rail line that connects their railroads. This made transcontinental railroad travel possible for the first time, America's first transcontinental railroad was a 1,911-mile continuous railroad line built between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail network at Council Bluffs, Iowa, with the Pacific coast at the San Francisco Bay. -
Pendelton Act
The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, is a United States federal law passed by the 47th United States Congress and signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur on January 16, 1883, which provided that federal government jobs be awarded on the basis of merit and that government employees be selected through competitive exams. The act also made it unlawful to fire or demote for political reasons employees who were covered by the law. -
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of America who had split from the main organization in 1899. -
The Black Hand - The Mafia
Black Hand, any of several extortion rackets run by immigrant Sicilian and Italian gangsters in the Italian communities of New York City, Chicago, New Orleans, Kansas City, and other U.S. cities from about 1890 to 1920. Men of which would send anonymous extortion notes to their victims emblazoned with a feared old country symbol: the "Black Hand". -
The Jungle
Upton Sinclair's The Jungle caused much controversy in America during the Progressive Era. The book focuses on the tragic events of a Lithuanian immigrant family who arrives in the U.S. to capture the opportunites they believed the country would provide, but end up finding a life of depression. The Jungle calls out the poor working conditions of the meat packing industry in Chicago and later sparks the creation of the 1906 Meat Inpection Act. -
Meat Inspection Act of 1906
The Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906 is an American law that makes it illegal to adulterate or misbrand meat and meat products being sold as food, and ensures that meat and meat products are slaughtered and processed under strictly regulated sanitary conditions. The Federal Meat Inspection Act was enacted to prevent adulterated or misbranded meat and meat products from being sold as food and to ensure that meat and meat products are slaughtered and processed under sanitary conditions. -
Teddy Roosevelt as President
Under Theodore Roosevelt's presidency (1901-1909) and his Square Deal, several Progressive reforms for the American public were outlined, the number of national parks doubled, and 50 wildlife santuaries were established. Roosevelt stepped into power after President William McKinley's, a strong advocate for expansionism, assessination. He was popular among the people rather than political figures because of his social push for change in the working class and immigrant communities. -
Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson, a leader of the Progressive Movement, was the 28th President of the United States (1913-1921). After a policy of neutrality at the outbreak of World War I, Wilson led America into war in order to “make the world safe for democracy.” -
The 19th Amendment
After 70 years of a culmination of protest by unmarried woman suffragists, the 19th Amendment guaranteed women the right to vote and was adopted into the U.S. Constitution. During the 20th century, women's role changed in American society from upkeeping the house to becoming a part of the industrial revolution. Women worked more, broadened their education and gave birth to fewer children. Women became an active part in moving America forward.