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In the Supreme Court case Munn v. Illinois, it is decided that states have constitutional permission to regulate private businesses related to public interest. -
Rutherford B. Hayes is inaugurated as the nineteenth President of the United States. -
Thomas Edison invents the first practical incandescent electric light bulb. -
James A. Garfield is inaugurated as the twentieth President of the United States. -
President James A. Garfield is shot by Charles J Guiteau. He dies on September 19. -
A day after President James A. Garfield dies, Vice President Chester A. Arthur is inaugurated as the twenty-first President of the United States. -
The Chinese Exclusion Act is passed, limiting the entry of Chinese Immigrants into the United States. -
The Immigration Act of 1882, which limits immigration of peoples deemed dangerous or unable to care for themselves, is passed. -
Grover Cleveland is inaugurated as the twenty-second President of the United States. -
Workers strike for an eight-hour work day in Haymarket Square in Chicago, Illinois. The strike quickly becomes violent, eventually involving police intervention and bombs and causing deaths and injuries on both sides. -
The Dawes Allotment Act, which separates Native American territory into allotments to be placed into ownership of individual Native Americans, is passed. -
Benjamin Harrison is inaugurated as the twenty-third President of the United States. -
The Sherman Anti-Trust Act, which outlaws trusts and monopolies, is passed. -
Andrew Carnegie founds his million-dollar steel company Carnegie Steel, later purchased by banker J.P. Morgan and renamed United States Steel. -
Grover Cleveland is inaugurated as the twenty-fourth President of the United States. He is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms. -
The Pullman Strike, a national railroad workers' strike, begins. President Cleveland eventually sends troops to end the strike, and a major strike-leader, Eugene V. Debs, is arrested. -
The Supreme Court Case Plessy v. Ferguson decides that segregated facilities are constitutional under the condition that the separate facilities in question provide the same quality and service, or are "separate but equal." -
William McKinley is inaugurated as the twenty-fifth President of the United States. -
The U.S. Battleship Maine explodes suddenly in Cuba's Havana Harbor. Though the cause of the explosion is unknown, the nation blames Spain for the disaster. -
As a response to the United States' attempts to force Spain to free Cuba from its colonial reign, Spain declares war on the U.S. America does the same, and the war begins. -
The United States is victorious in its fight against Spain at Manila Bay in the Spanish colony of the Philippines. It is the first major battle of the Spanish-American War. -
Future president Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders are victorious in the decisive Battle of San Juan Hill, Cuba. -
The brief Spanish-American war ends only months after it begins, with an American victory. -
In the 1898 Treaty of Paris, the United States receives the Spanish colonies of Guam and Puerto Rico and purchases the Philippines. Attempts to colonize these territories leads to much opposition both at home and abroad.