turn of the century timeline

By Tori Rhynard & Dhasia Brown
  • Alaska is purchased from Russia

    Alaska is purchased from Russia

    Alaska was negotiated for by U.S Secretary of State William Seward. After the purchase of Alaska hade gone through it added 586,412 square miles of new land to the U.S.. after Alaska was bought they named it the District of Alaska then Territory before it became an actual state on January 3, 1959.

  • Completion of the Transcontinental Railroad

    Was a project of the two railroad companies; the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific. Since 1832, both Eastern and frontier salemens realized that need to connect the two coasts. One year into the Civil War, a Republican-controlled Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Act.

  • Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone

    Came through his experiments in sound and the furthering of his family's interest for assisting the deaf with communication. A major focus of telegraph innovation at the time and the one that ultimately led to Bell's invention of the telephone.

  • Thomas Edison brings light to the world with the light bulb

  • Chinese Exclusion Act

  • Samuel Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL)

  • Sherman Anti-trust Act

    Passed by Congress. Was the first federal act that outlawed monopolistic business practices. A second key provision makes illegal all attempts to monopolize. Firms found in violation of the act can be ordered dissolved by the courts.
  • Ellis Island opens

    Ellis Island opens

    Ellis Island was the busiest immigration station from 1892 to 1954. The first inspection station was burned down in 1897. After 1924 Ellis Island was used in WWI & WWII as a detention center.

  • Carnegie Steel’s Homestead Strike

    Steel workers struck the Carnegie Steel to protest a proposed wage cut. On July all were discharged. After an all-day battle, the Pinkertons surrendered and were forced to run a gauntlet through the crowd.

  • Hawaii is annexed

  • Plessy v Ferguson

  • The U.S. declares war on Spain

  • Rudyard Kipling published “The White Man’s Burden” in The New York Sun

  • The start of the Boxer Rebellion

  • Tenement Act

  • Pres. McKinley is assassinated and Progressive Theodore Roosevelt becomes President

  • The Philippine Insurrection comes to an end

  • The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe doctrine declares the U.S. right to intervene in the Western Hem

  • Upton Sinclair releases “The Jungle”

    Upton Sinclair releases “The Jungle”

    The novel "The Jungle" portrayed the conditions of the meat industry. The novel explained the conditions the meat was kept in, and that lead to the Meat Inspection Act. The writer Upton Sinclair was known as a muckraker as he exposed corruption in many different places in America.

  • Pure food and drug act

  • Peak year of immigration through Ellis Island

  • Henry Ford produced his first Model T (car)

  • Creation of the NAACP

  • The Triangle Shirtwaste Fire

    The Triangle Shirtwaste Fire

    The Shirtwaist fire caused the death of 146 workers. The fire was located on the 8th,9th,and 10th floor where all exits were locked.The Fire led to the improve of safety standards.

  • The Assassination on Austria’s archduke Franz Ferdinand starts WWI

  • The Panama Canal is completed and opened for traffic

  • The United States enters WWI

  • Ratification of the 18th Amendment - Prohibition

    Ratification of the 18th Amendment - Prohibition

    Prohibition of "intoxication liquors" in the United States
  • Women got the right to vote.

    Women got the right to vote.

    In the fight for suffrage there was two women's associations. Susan B. Anthony influenced many aspects of the movement. It took seven years for women activists to vote in an actual election.