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Bessemer Process
The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron. -
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 622 grams of gold. The first significant gold discovery in the Rocky Mountain region. -
Homestead Act
Daniel Freeman made the first claim under the Act, which gave citizens or future citizens up to 160 acres of public land to live on, improve it, and pay a small registration fee. This was to help develop the American West and spur economic growth. -
Morrill Land grant act
First proposed when Morrill was serving in the House of Representatives, the Morrill Land Grant College Act set aside federal lands to create colleges to “benefit the agricultural and mechanical arts.” The president signed the bill into law. -
Transcontinental r/r completed
The completion of the Transcontinental Railroad is recognized as one of our country's biggest achievements. Just as it opened the markets of the west coast and Asia to the east, it brought products of eastern industry to the growing populace beyond the Mississippi. -
Battle of little bighorn
It proved to be the height of Native American power during the 19th century. It was also the worst U.S. Army defeat during the Plains Wars. -
Farmers alliance created
One of the group's main goals was to form cooperatives. Farmers set up cooperatively owned retail stores and marketing organizations. -
Thomas Edison invents light bulb
Thomas Edison received the historic patent embodying the principles of his incandescent lamp that paved the way for the universal domestic use of electric light. -
Carlisle school established
Carlisle was the first of many American Indian boarding schools. The United States founded the Carlisle school in 1879 at the site of an old military base, used during the colonial era and the Civil War. -
Chinese exclusion act
This act was the first significant restriction on free immigration in U.S. history, and it excluded Chinese laborers from the country under penalty of imprisonment and deportation. -
Edison lights up NYC
His company flipped the switch on his Pearl Street power station, providing hundreds of homes with electricity. -
Statue of Liberty built
On a rainy October 28, 1886, the Statue of Liberty was officially unveiled in the United States. -
American federation of labor founded
It was founded by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutual support and disappointed in the Knights of Labor. -
Interstate commerce act passed
Both the Senate and House passed the Interstate Commerce Act. -
Dawes act
The law authorized the President to break up reservation land, which was held in common by the members of a tribe, into small allotments to be parceled out to individuals. -
Jacob Riis published his book of photos
Scribner published Riis's work in book form - How the Other Half Lives, Studies Among the Tenements of New York. -
Alfred T Mahan writes his book on sea power
A revolutionary analysis of the importance of naval power as a factor in the rise of the British Empire. -
Sherman antitrust act passed
The First Federal act that outlawed monopolistic business practices. -
Wounded knee massacre
A massacre of nearly three hundred Lakota people by soldiers of the United States Army. -
Frederick Jackson Turner writes essay of settling the west
Frederick Jackson Turner's essay about the settling of the West was published. -
Pullman strike
The Pullman Strike was two interrelated strikes that shaped national labor policy in the United States during a period of deep economic depression. -
Plessy v Ferguson
Supreme Court decision in which the Court ruled that racial segregation laws did not violate the U.S. Constitution as long as the facilities for each race were equal in quality. -
Holden v hardy
A US labor law case in which the US Supreme Court held a limitation on working time for miners and smelters as constitutional. -
Spanish American War begins
The Spanish–American War began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of USS Maine in Havana Harbor in Cuba, leading to United States intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. -
Hawaii is annexed
The Hawaiian Islands were annexed by this joint resolution. -
Phillipines islands are annexed
The United States paid Spain $20 million to annex the entire Philippine archipelago. -
Newlands Reclamation act
Act that provided federal funds for the construction of dams, reservoirs, and canals in the West. -
Panama Canal is built
The Panama Canal is an artificial 82 km waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. -
Sinclair’s the Jungle written
He wrote a novel based on the meatpacking industry in Chicago. -
Lochner v New York
A landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court holding that a New York State statute that prescribed maximum working hours for bakers violated the bakers' right to freedom of contract under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. -
Pure Food and drug act passed
Prohibited the sale of misbranded or adulterated food and drugs in interstate commerce. -
Muller V Oregon
Upheld an Oregon law limiting the workday for female wage earners to ten hours. -
Founding of the NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is a civil rights organization in the United States that was formed in 1909. -
Hepner act
This action of debt was brought by the United States to recover a penalty under the statute of Congress regulating the immigration of aliens into this country. -
17th adm
Allows voters to cast direct votes for U.S. senators. Prior to its passage, senators were chosen by state legislatures. -
Ford Motor company's first full assembly line starts
Henry Ford installed the first moving assembly line for the mass production of an entire automobile. -
Federal Reserve act
The Federal Reserve Act created the Federal Reserve System, known simply as "The Fed." -
Beginning of the first world war
A major global conflict that lasted from 1914 to 1918. -
U-boats created
Germany built new and larger U-boats to punch holes in the British blockade, which was threatening to starve Germany out of the war. -
Clayton Antitrust act
The Clayton Act prohibits price discrimination. -
Lusitania Sunk
Lusitania was a British-registered ocean liner that was torpedoed by an Imperial German Navy U-boat during the First World War. -
US enters WWI
Congress thus voted to declare war on Germany, joining the bloody battle. -
Selective Service act
Authorized the Federal Government to temporarily expand the military through conscription. -
WWI ends
WWI ended. -
18th adm
Prohibits the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors". -
19 adm
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
Limited the number of immigrants allowed entry into the United States through a national origins quota. -
National origins act
A law that severely restricted immigration by establishing a system of national quotas that blatantly discriminated against immigrants from southern and eastern Europe and virtually excluded Asians. -
Scopes trial
The first highly publicized trial concerning the teaching of evolution, the Scopes trial also represents a dramatic clash between traditional and modern values.