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Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles officially ended WWI and marked the beginning of the Interwar Years in the U.S. It is significant that the U.S. failed to ratify the treaty because they feared it threatened to pull the country back into European conflicts. The end of WWI saw the U.S. shift back into a period of isolationism. -
Beginning of the Harlem Renaissance
New York City's Harlem neighborhood became a cultural hub for African Americans heading north as part of the First Great Migration. It produced writers, musicians, entertainers, and political activists from the African American community. The movement persisted into the early 1930s. -
Prohibition Begins
The legal prevention of the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages in the United States from 1920 to 1933 under the 18th Amendment. -
Trial of Sacco and Vanzetti
Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were anarchists who were convicted of murdering two men during a 1920 armed robbery in South Braintree, MA. They were Italian immigrants and the trial was very controversial. It focused more on their beliefs and less on if they actually committed the crime. They were executed on August 23, 1927. -
Sheppard Towner Act
Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act of 1921 provided federally financed instruction in maternal and infant health care. The act was created to encourage states to develop programs to better serve women at a lower income level. -
Five Power Naval Treaty
The leading Post-WWI naval powers of Britain, France, Italy, Japan and the United States concluded a landmark agreement that was intended to slow the Naval arms race and reduce the possibilities for future wars by limiting the naval armaments of all five participating nations. The major world powers all voluntarily reduced their navies. -
Calvin Coolidge Inaugurated
Calvin Coolidge was a fiscally conservative President who cut taxes and limited federal spending. He believed in a lassiiez-fiare approach to the economy and an isolationist/ pacifist approach to foreign policy. -
The Immigration Act of 1924
The Immigration Act of 1924, was a US federal law that limited the number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already living in the United States in 1890, down from the 3% cap set by the Immigration Restriction Act of 1921 based on a Census of 1900. It was aimed at restricting Southern and Eastern Europeans immigrants as well as prohibiting East and Southeast Asian immigrants. -
Scopes Trial
A young biology teacher named John Scopes challenged the state of Tennessee's ban on teaching Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in public schools. William Jennings Bryan argued against Scopes saying evolution cannot be taught because it is not in the Bible. It highlighted the controversy between Modernity vs. Tradition. -
KKK March on Washington DC
In August of 1925, 60,000 Ku Klux Klan members marched to the White House. As nativism rose in the U.S. so did public acceptance of the KKK. At its peak it boasted about one million members. It was based on racism, anti-Catholicism, anti-Communism, and anti-Semitism. -
Herbert Hoover Inaugurated
Hoover was a moderately progressive President. He wanted the federal government and businesses to cooperate in market regulation. He promoted a friendly foreign policy with Latin America. He was president during the Stock Market crash and began some of the first public programs to provide relief of the Great Depression that would later be expanded in the New Deal. -
Stock Market Crash
The stock market crash of 1929, also know as Black Tuesday, marked the beginning of the Great Depression. Unsustainable growth of the 1920s suddenly reversed in a huge decrease in stock values. Many people lost their businesses and their savings overnight. -
Franklin D. Roosevelt Inaugurated
FDR greatly expanded the role of the federal government in an attempt to mitigate the Great Depression. -
First New Deal
The First New Deal from 1933-1934 focused on relief and recovery. It began with the Emergency Banking Act in the week following FDR's inauguration and continued with the "alphabet soup" of relief and recovery agencies: AAA, CCC, FERA, FHA, HOLC, NRA, FDIC, SEC, TVA and more. -
Second New Deal
The Second New Deal, roughly from 1935-1938 focused on continuing recovery and reform. It was more aggressive in the use of federal power and some of the efforts later proved unconstitutional. It included the WPA, Wagner Act, Revenue Act, Social Security, Supreme Court Retirement Act, Fair Labor Standards Act.
