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United States buys Alaska
United States' acquisition of Alaska from the Russian Empire on March 30, 1867 by a treaty ratified by the United States Senate, and signed by president Andrew Johnson. The land added 586,412 square miles of new territory to the United States. -
Yellowstone becomes 1st national park
Yellowstone National Park is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. -
Spanish-American War
A conflict fought between Spain and the United States in 1898. Hostilities began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of the USS Maine in Havana harbor leading to American intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. -
United States Annexes Hawaii
House Joint Resolution 259, 55th Congress, 2nd session, known as the "Newlands Resolution," passed Congress and was signed into law by President McKinley on July 7, 1898. Once annexed by the United States, the Hawaiian islands remained a U.S. territory until 1959, when they were admitted to statehood as the 50th state. -
Theodore Roosevelt becomes president
Theodore Roosevelt became William McKinley's Vice President; and when McKinley was assassinated in September of that year, Roosevelt assumed the presidency. At the age of forty-three, Theodore Roosevelt was the youngest man to ever become President of the United States. -
Cuba gains independence
A series of rebellions during the 19th century failed to end Spanish rule. However, the Spanish–American War resulted in a Spanish withdrawal from the island in 1898, and Cuba gained formal independence in 1902. -
United States begins Panama Canal Work
Following the failure of a French construction team in the 1880s, the United States commenced building a canal across a 50-mile stretch of the Panama isthmus in 1904. -
The Jungle is written
The Jungle is a 1906 novel written by the American journalist and novelist Upton Sinclair. Sinclair wrote the novel to portray the harsh conditions and exploited lives of immigrants in the United States in Chicago and similar industrialized cities -
Pure Food and Drug Act
An Act— For preventing the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated or misbranded or poisonous or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines, and liquors, and for regulating traffic therein, and for other purposes. -
Taft elected president
William Howard Taft was elected the 27th President of the United States (1909-1913) and later became the tenth Chief Justice of the United States (1921-1930), the only person to have served in both of these offices. -
NAACP founded
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 by Moorfield Storey, Mary White Ovington and W. E. B. Du Bois. -
United States finishes Panama Canal
Opened in 1914, oversight of the world-famous Panama Canal was transferred from the U.S. to Panama in 1999. -
Wilson elected president
The United States presidential election of 1916 was the 33rd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 1916. Incumbent President Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic candidate, was pitted against Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes, the Republican candidate. -
Prohibition
A nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages that remained in place from 1920 to 1933. -
Women's Suffrage
Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Limited voting rights were gained by women in Finland, Iceland, Sweden and some western U.S. states in the late 19th century.
