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William M. Tweed
American politician and the most famous corrupt city boss of NYC’s Tammany Hall, the name given to the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in the history of 19th century New York City politics. He was convicted and eventually imprisoned for stealing millions of dollars from the city through political corruption. -
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US History
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Homestead Act of 1862
The Homestead Act of 1862 offered any farmer 160 acres of surveyed public land for a nominal fee. The Homesteader had complete ownership of the land after 5 years residence or after six months with payment of $1.50 per acre after 6 months -
The Knights of Labor
first major effort to create a genuinely national labor organization under the leadership of Uriah S. Stephens. Membership was open to all who “toiled,” a definition that included all workers, most business and professional people, and virtually all women. The Knights of labor championed an eight-hour workday and the abolition of child labor, but they were more interested in long-range reform of the economy. They also hoped to replace the “wage system” with a new “cooperative system," -
Stalwarts and Halfbreeds
The Stalwarts and Halfbreeds were political factions. They fought for control of the Republican party. The Stalwarts, led by Roscoe Conkling, favored traditional, professional machine politics. The Halfbreeds, led by James G. Blaine, favored reform. The President tried to satisfy both and ended up satisfying neither one. Garfield was assassinated by a deranged gunman who happened to be a Stalwart. -
The Dawes Act of 1887
This policy was known as the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887, and like the Homestead Act it had to do with the distribution of land. The Dawes Act essentially removed the tribes off the lands, and than gave it to individual owners. The real purpose of this act was to rid the lands of the tribes by breaking the tribes apart. -
National Consumers League
under the leadership of Florence Kelley, attempted to mobilize the power of women as consumers to force retailers and manufacturers to improve wages and working conditions. -
People’s Party
Alliance leaders discussed plans for a third political party in Cincinnati in May 1891 and St. Louis in February 1892. Finally in July 1892, the creation of the People’s Party was proclaimed. They approved an official set of principles and nominated candidates for the Presidency and Vice Presidency. -
Frederick Jackson Turner
. His most famous work would be on the ideals of the frontier. He spoke about his paper “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”; in it he speaks about the effects the frontier in the west had on American society. It played a key part in the advancement of this nation, and that in the west had emerged the distinct qualities that Americans became to be known for. He also wrote that as the frontier had passed along with it were the many opportunities it possessed. -
The Automobile 1893
First, the automobile was a major technological innovation. When gasoline was founded, Charles and Frank Duryea built a gasoline driven motor vehicle, and three years later, a man named Henry Ford started to produce these cars. He ended up making millions and by 1917 had 5 million cars on the highways. -
Panic of 1893
Philadelphia and Reading Railroad declared bankruptcy because they were unable to meet payments on loans. The National Cordage Company failed as well two months later. These events triggered a stock market collapse. -
Immigration Restriction League
Founded in 1894, five Harvard alumni formed this organization. They proposed screening of immigrants through literacy test and other standards, to separate the desirable and the undesirable. In theory a literacy test would not discriminate against the people of any particular race, creed, or color -
Progressivism
People believed in progress, and that it should take place all throughout society. With progress would come new reforms and changes socially, politically, and economically. However, the people believed that nature should not take its course and intervening would be necessary for this movement to be successful. -
Anti-Imperialist League
The Anti-Imperialist League was established in 1898 by upper class Bostonians, New Yorkers, and others to fight against Annexation. They waged a vigorous campaign against ratification of the Paris Treaty. -
The Bell System
Telephone subscribers needed only a line to central telephone office from which connections could be made to any other subscriber. A new occupations – the “telephone operator”-was born. -
The Airplane
As a search for human flight was of interest, two brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright finally invented the airplane. These guys made it possible for people to travel in the air and travel many far distances. These two things really have been a huge impact and still are today -
Corporate Research and Development
the rapid development of new industrial technologies persuades many business leaders to sponsor their own research operations, and that’s why corporate research and development came to be. -
Theodore Roosevelt
Known as the accidental president, Theodore Roosevelt took office when president William McKinley had been assassinated in 1901. He would become the leader of the progressive movement, urging change, which he thought, would advance and at the same time protect the nation. -
Progressivism
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Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
In March 1911, a factory in New York City had caught fire and claimed the lives of 146 workers, most of them immigrant women -
D.W. Griffith
Carried the motion picture into a new era with his silent epics- the birth of a nation, Intolerance and others. This introduced serious plots and elaborate production to filmmaking. -
Chicago Race Riot
Most severe of about 25 race riots throughout the U.S. in the summer after World War I. Racial friction was intensified by the migration of African Americans to the North -
Fundamentalists and Modernists
A cultural controversy of the 1920s was a conflict over the place of religion. By 1921, American Protestantism was already divided into two warring camps -
Prohibition
The prohibition of the sale and manufacture of alcohol went into effect in January 1920. -
Nation Origins Act
Banned immigration from East Asia entirely. It also reduced the quota for Europeans from 3 to 2 percent. -
Black Tuesday
In the autumn of 1929, the market began to fall apart. As it got to October, on the 29th, all efforts to save the market failed -
The Banking Crisis
In this crisis, 9,000 American banks went either bankrupt, or they closed in order to avoid bankruptcy. Since these banks closed, what happened was the nation’s supply shrank about a third or more. -
Walt Disney
During the Great Depression, they were some joyful things that came out. American culture was still on the move, and part of that came Walt Disney. -
Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl was a catastrophic natural disaster, and caused one of the worst droughts in the history of the nation -
The Bank Holiday
Two days after Franklin D. Roosevelt took office he declared a bank holiday, in which he shut down all American banks for a span of four days. Two days after Franklin D. Roosevelt took office he declared a bank holiday, in which he shut down all American banks for a span of four days. -
Tennessee Valley Authority
By 1933 there had been no efforts to produce a large-scale electric source powered by water. The TVA was instructed to continue building the Muscle Shoals Dam and others in that region. -
Harry Hopkins
one of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s closest advisors on the New Deal. The biggest program Hopkins is responsible for is the Works Progress Administration. Under his supervision the WPA was responsible for many types of jobs across the nation. -
Neutrality Acts
On August 31, 1935, Congress passed the first Neutrality Act prohibiting the export of “arms, ammunition, and implements of war” from the United States to foreign nations at war and requiring arms manufacturers in the United States to apply for an export license. -
Quarantine Speech
Given by U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on October 5, 1937, in Chicago, calling for an international "quarantine of the aggressor nations" as an alternative to the political climate of American neutrality and isolationism that was prevalent at the time. -
National Defense Research Committee
In 1940, the Government created the National Defense Research Committee. It would .later be called the Officer of Scientific Research and Development. -
Pearl Harbor
At 7:55 am on Sunday Dec.7 1941 a wave of Japanese bombers attacked the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. A second wave came a hour later. Within two hours, the US lost 8 battleships, 3 cruisers, 4 other vessels, 188 airplanes, and several vital shore installations. -
Battle of Stalingrad
In the winter of 1942-1943, the red army had successfully held off a major German assault at Stalingrad in Southern Russia. -
Sonar
Sonar was taking advantage of advances in radio technology in the 1920s and beyond. Sonar helped the Allied forces decimate German U-boats in 1943 and virtually end their effectiveness in the war. -
The Marshall Plan
This was a proposal to aid in the economic reconstruction of Western Europe. -
McCarthyism
In February of 1950, Joseph McCarthy lifted up a sheet of paper in his speech and claimed to hold a list of 205 known communists currently working in the American State Department -
Nuclear Fusion
During the height of the 50’s, the U.S. and the Soviet Union were both testing new nuclear technology. The U.S. was the first of the two to launch the first hydrogen bomb. Unlike the plutonium and uranium nuclear warheads used in World War II, the hydrogen bomb used the process of fusion to create its power. -
The Space Program
In 1957 the Soviet Union announced the launch of an orbiting satellite dubbed Sputnik. This came as a surprise to the U.S. and after that decided to put its efforts towards a space program. Eventually those efforts turned into the space program NASA, and within NASA came the Apollo Program, which sent the first three men ever to walk on the moon. -
The New Science of Ecology
The term ecology arose from this change. Environmentalists now began to care about everything in the world. The new term ecology they used was based on problems with air and water pollution, the destruction of forests, and the extinction of species. -
SNCC- Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Founded in April 1960 to coordinate southern black college students in nonviolent protests against lunch counter segregation -
Affirmative Action
Came about to help African American in the south to prove they weren’t getting discriminated against. If necessary, they should adopt positive measures to recruit minorities. -
Freedom rides
The Freedom rides of 1961 were bus riders made up of black and white Americans determined to bring the issue of racism in the south to the attention of John F. Kennedy who they thought had supported the end of racial discrimination, but in actuality had done nothing since taking office -
Medicare and Medicaid
The Government started these programs in 1965. Medicare covers most people 65 or older and those with long-term disabilities. -
Earth Day and Beyond
On April 22, 1970, people all over the United States participated in this. It was claimed that over 20 million Americans participated, making this day the largest single demonstration in the nation’s history. -
Economic Problems
A recession occurred in 1974 and 1975. Central to the economic problems was the continuing energy crisis. -
Religions Revivalism
In the 1960s, organized religion had experienced a conspicuous decline. But in the 1970s, the United States experienced the beginning of a major religious revival. -
Afghanistan Invaded
On December 27, 1979, Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan, the mountainous Islamic nation lying between the USSR and Iran. The Soviet Union had in fact been a power in Afghanistan for years and the dominant force since April 1978 -
Reaganomics
Reagan’s 1980 campaign for the presidency had promised to restore the Economy to health. This involved a bold experiment, that became known as “supply-side” - or, to its critics, “trickle-down” – economics or, to some, “Reaganomics”.
