U.S History Timeline 1865-1920

By mg45235
  • U-boats created

    Naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World War.
  • Bessemer Process

    This was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron before the development of the open hearth furnace.
  • Discovery of Gold in Pikes Peak

    Green Russell and Sam Bates found a small placer deposit near the mouth of Little Dry Creek that yielded about 20 troy ounces of gold.
  • Homestead Act

    This act provided that any adult citizen, or intended citizen, who had never borne arms against the U.S government could claim 160 acres of surveyed government land.
  • Morrill Land-Grant Act

    This act made it possible for states to establish public colleges funded by the development or sale of associated federal land grants.
  • Transcontinental r/r completed

    This railroad became the first line across the United States. This helped bring products of eastern industry to the growing populace beyond the Mississippi.
  • Statue of Liberty Built

    This statue is recognized as a universal symbol of freedom and democracy.
  • Battle of little bighorn

    An armed engagement between the combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes of the United States army.
  • Thomas Edison invents Lightbulb

    This provided a much safer alternative to the open flame of the gaslight. Edison was trying to come up with a high resistance system that would require far less electrical power than was used for the arc lamps.
  • Farmers Alliance Created

    This was an organized agrarian economic movement that sought to improve the economic conditions for farmers through the creation of cooperatives and political advocacy.
  • Carlise School Established

    The first-government-run boarding school for Native American Children.
  • Chinese exclusion Act

    This was the first law restricting immigration into the United States. This act provided an absolute ban on Chinese laborers immigrating to the United States.
  • Edison lights up NYC

    Edison's company flipped the switch on his Pearl Street power station on Sept 4, 1882, providing hundreds of homes with electricity.
  • American Federation of Labor Founded

    This was dedicated to the principles of craft unionism. A national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL- CIO.
  • Interstate commerce Act passed

    This act addressed the problem of railroad monopolies by setting guidelines for how the railroads could do buisness.
  • Dawes Act

    This act regulated land rights on tribal territories within the United States.
  • Jacob Riis published book of photos

    He published "How the Other Half Lives" and this novel stimulated the first significant New York Legislation to curb poor conditions in tenement housing.
  • Sherman Antitrust Act

    This act prescribed the rule of free competition among those engaged in commerce.
  • Wounded Knee Massacre

    This was a massacre of nearly three hundred Lakota people by soldiers of the United States Army.
  • Frederick Jackson Turner writes essay of setting the West.

    His thesis was about a settler colonial exceptionalism, under the guise of American democracy, was formed by the appropriation of the rugged American frontier.
  • Alfred T Mahan

    He argued that British control of the seas, combined with a corresponding decline in the naval strength of its major European rivals.
  • Pullman Strike

    This was a widespread railroad strike an boycott that severely disrupted rail traffic in the Midwest of the United States.
  • Plessy v Ferguson

    This was a landmark U.S supreme court decision in which the Court ruled that racial segregation laws did not violate the constitution as long as the facilities for each race were equal in quality.
  • Spanish American War begins

    This began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of USS Maine in Havana Harbor in Cuba, leading to the U.S Intervention in the Cuban war of Independence.
  • Holden v Hardy

    This was a U.S labor law case in which the US Supreme Court held a limitation on working time for miners and smelters as a constitutional.
  • Hawaii is annexed

    This extended U.S territory into the pacific and highlighted resulted from economic integration and the rise of the United States as Pacific Power.
  • Philippines Islands are annexed

    The U.S paid Spain $20 million dollars to annex the entire Philippines archipelago.
  • Newlands Reclamation Act

    This federal law funded irrigation projects for the arid lands of 20 states in the American West
  • Panama Canal is built

    An artificial 82 km waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America.
  • Lochner v. New York

    This was a landmark decision of the U.S Supreme Court holding that a New York State Statue that prescribed maximum hours for bakers violated the bakers' right to freedom of contract under the 14th amendment to the U.S Constitution
  • Sinclair's the Jungle written

    Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle to expose the appalling working conditions in the meat-packing industry.
  • Pure Food and drug act passed

    This was the first series of significant consumer protection laws which was enacted by Congress.
  • Muller v. Oregon

    This was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme court. Women were provided by state mandate lesser work-hours than allotted to men.
  • Founding of the NAACP

    The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is a civil rights organization in the United States.
  • Hepner Act

    This action of debt was brought by the US to recover a penalty under the statue of Congress of March 3, 1903
  • 17th amendment

    Allows voters to cast direct votes for U.S senators
  • Ford motor company first full assembly

    His innovation reduced the time it took to build a car from more than 12 hour to one hour and 33 minutes
  • Federal Reserve Act

    This law created the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the U.S
  • Clayton Antitrust Act

    This act prohibits price discrimination. The act of selling the same product to different buyers and charging different prices based on who is purchasing the goods.
  • Beginning of First World War

    A major global conflict that lasted from 1914 to 1918. It was fought between two coalitions, the allies and the central powers.
  • Lusitania Sunk

    A British-registered ocean liner that was torpedoed by an Imperial German Nay U-boat during the First World War.
  • US enters WWI

    U.S Senate voted in support of the measure to declare war on Germany.
  • Selective Service Act

    This authorized the Federal Government to temporarily expand the military through conscription.
  • WWI ends

    After more than 4 years of horrific fighting and the loss of millions of lives, the guns on the Western front fell silent.
  • 18th amendment

    Prohibits the "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating.
  • 19th amendment

    The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
  • Immigration Quota Act

    This limited the number of immigrants allowed entry into the United States through a national origins quota.
  • National Origins Act

    This federal law prevented immigration from Asia and set quotas on the number of immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe
  • Scopes Trial

    This was brought by the state of Tennessee against a high school teacher named John T. Scopes for violating the states's butler act, which prohibited the teaching evolution in public schools.