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Henry Ford and the Assembly Line
Ford's perfection of the assembly line caused productivity to explode in his business; the assembly line was adopted by most industrial manufacturers by the early 1920s. -
Decline of Farm Prosperity
With the end of wartime demand of crops in Europe, farmers found themselves indebted and their market weakened. -
Theodore Roosevelt Dies
With the former president's death, liberal Republicanism declined, allowing the conservative Republicans to return to power. -
Rise of the Radio
With the introduction of the very first commercial radio station, Americans were able to enjoy a brand new form of mass entertainment and communication. -
Census of 1920
This census indicated that 1920 was the very first year in which the majority of Americans lived in urban locations. -
The Jazz Age
Thanks to the rebellious youth of America, black-invented jazz music became prolific for several years. -
Women vs. Sexual Taboo
During the 20's, many young women began shun the idea of abstinence by wearing more suggestive clothes and performing loose dances. -
Hugh Selwyn Mauberly
This long poem by Ezra Pound was about his own struggle to be a successful poet during an age of philistinism. -
Anna Christie
This play written by Eugene O'Neill, which was about a former prostitute trying to turn her life around, won him the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. -
Prohibition Begins
With the ratification of the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution and the passing of the Volstead Act to uphold it, the production and sale of alcohol were made illegal. -
President Warren Harding
This Ohio publisher was little more than a Republican puppet, and though he was not a bad man, many of the men he had chosen to be his underlings were corrupt. -
Quota Laws
These laws, passed during peak periods of nativism, were designed to limit immigration from certain regions of the world (largely from Asia and southern/eastern Europe). -
Louis Armstrong's Rise to Fame
This black musician became known for his trumpet skills, gravelly voice, and improvisation when he joined the Creole Jazz Band with his mentor Joe "King" Oliver. -
Media Heroes
Around the time that radios became massively popular, new "heroes" arose in the public eye, such as sports superstars and popular actors. -
Babbit
This novel by Sinclair Lewis revolved mainly around satire regarding conforming to society. -
President Calvin Coolidge
Upon the untimely death of President Harding, Vice President Coolidge became President and was later reelected despite his relative lack of action while in office. -
Duke Ellington
This black musician led a popular jazz orchestra from 1923 until 1974, when he died. -
Marcus Garvey and Black Separatist Movement
This Jamaican man tried to "free" black citizens from the oppression of whites by ferrying them to Africa; his movement collapsed when he was arrested for fraud. -
The Scopes Trial
When Tennessee made teaching Darwin's theory of evolution illegal in public schools, a biology teacher named John Scopes broke the law intentionally to challenge the legality of this law court. -
Al Capone and Alcohol Bootlegging
After a previous crime boss died, the now infamous gangster Capone took over the crime organization and its illegal alcohol business. -
The Great Gatsby
Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, this harsh novel was about the cancerous nature of the so-called "American dream." -
Rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan
The KKK reemerged stronger than ever before with an intensified hatred of black citizens, as well as Catholics, Communists, and Jews; their white hands spread to take control of politics in the South, much to the dismay of the black citizens. -
The Sun Also Rises
This novel was the very first written by Ernest Hemingway, and was about a group of Brits and Americans who traveled to Pamplona from Paris to the running of the bulls. -
The Election of 1928
Republican Herbert Hoover and Democrat Alfred Smith competed for the presidency, which Hoover won in a landslide largely due to Smith's Catholicism. -
Black Thursday
With intense selling of stocks at Wall Street, the stock market crash that set the Great Depression in motion began. -
Black Tuesday
In a panic from plummeting stock prices, millions of investors sold their stocks, which only made stock prices drop even further. -
The Automobile
By the end of the 1920s, over 26 million automobiles were owned by Americans; the sale of automobiles became vital for other industries as well, such as steel and rubber companies. -
The Hawley-Smoot Tariff
President Hoover signed an extremely high tariff rate, thinking that it would protect US markets from foreign competition, but only made the problem worse. -
Oil and Electricity
Oil began to replace coal as the number one energy source in factories, and electric motors began filling American homes thanks to novel products. -
Divorce Laws
With newer divorce laws allowing women to more easily escape toxic marriages, divorce increased across the country. -
Black Citizens in the North
Sick of the discrimination of the South, nearly 20% of black citizens moved to the North by 1930, where the discrimination was less intense and dangerous. -
Debt Moratorium
When the current system for collection of war debts became impossible, President Hoover defaulted on the loans for several indebted nations. -
Repeal of Prohibition
The ratification of the 21st amendment nullified the 18th Amendment, officially ending prohibition. -
Bank Holiday
To prevent total bank failure across the whole country, President FDR ordered banks to close until they could re-stabilize. -
Beginning of FDR's Fireside Chats
President FDR began going onto radio broadcasts to address and reassure the American people, largely to ease their minds on the bank crisis. -
The Federal Emergency Relief Administration
President FDR's new organization offered grants of money to local governments to assist the jobless. -
Agricultural Adjustment Administration
This government organization bought livestock and paid farmers not to plant in parts of their property in order to prevent overproduction from lowering prices. -
Civil Works Administration
This government organization offered temporary manual labor jobs for the jobless. -
National Recovery Administration
This government organization temporarily lifted antitrust laws and granted workers the right to unionize in order to improve the economy. -
The Wheeler-Howard Act
President FDR signed this act, returning control of lands to Native American tribes. -
Securities and Exchange Commission
This government body was formed to regulate the stock market to prevent massive over-speculation that caused crashes. -
Federal Housing Administration
This government body helped both construction companies and homeowners by assisting in loans that would finance the construction or rebuilding of houses. -
Black Sunday
With Western topsoil being picked up by powerful winds, massive dust storms transformed farmland in the West into the "Dust Bowl." -
National Youth Administration
This government organization provided high school and college students with part-time jobs, which they could keep until they got a full-time job. -
Resettlement Administration
This government body gave loans to tenants, small farmers, and sharecroppers; it also formed camps for migrant workers to live in. -
Wagner Act
This labor law legalized labor unions and the rights of labor unions. -
Social Security
This act created a federal program designed to assist the public by providing checks for the unemployed, the disabled, dependents, and people over 65. -
Works Progress Administration
This government organization hired unskilled workers for labor jobs and artistic workers to produce creative works in an attempt to lower unemployment. -
Father Coughlin Gets Kicked Off the Radio
Despite having years of successful radio broadcasts, this Catholic priest was forced to end his broadcasts because of their Fascist and anti-Semitic themes. -
The Grapes of Wrath
Novelist John Steinbeck wrote a book about the difficulties of dust bowl farmers, called "The Grapes of Wrath." -
The Repatriodos
In order to reduce relief roles, the Immigration and Naturalization Service forced over 400,000 Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans back into Mexico.
