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John D. Rockefeller starts Standard Oil
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Tenement Act
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Alaska is purchased from Russia
Secretary of State William H. Seward agreed to purchase Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. Russia offered to sell Alaska to the United States in 1859, believing the United States would off-set the designs of Russia's greatest rival in the Pacific, Great Britain. This purchase ended Russia's presence in North America and ensured U.S. access to the Pacific northern rim. -
Completion of Transcontinental Railroad
On May 10, 1869, a golden spike was driven at Promontory, Utah, signaling the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States. The transcontinental railroad had long been a dream for people living in the American West. It connected the United States and made transportation unimaginably fast for the time period. -
Alexander Gram Bell invents the Telephone
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Thomas Edison brings light to the world with the light bulb
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Chinese Exclusion Act
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Samuel Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL)
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Sherman Antitrust Act
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Ellis Island opens
Most of the immigrants during this time period passed through using Ellis Island. Ellis Island was located in New York. The majority of the immigrants that passed through Ellis Island were European. -
Carnegie Steel Homestead Strike
Was a violent riot between the Carnegie Steel company and it's workers. The strike pitted the company’s management, the strikebreakers who had been hired, and the Pinkerton National Detective Agency against members of the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, who worked for the company. A gun battle resulted in which a number of Pinkerton agents and strikers were killed and many were injured. -
Plessy v Ferguson
Plessy v. Ferguson was a landmark 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine. The case stemmed from an 1892 incident in which African-American train passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a car for blacks. It allowed segregation to become the law in the United States. -
The U.S. declares war on Spain
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Hawaii is annexed
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Rudyard Kipling published “The White Man’s Burden” in The New York Sun
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The start of the Boxer Rebellion
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Pres. McKinley is assassinated and Progressive Theodore Roosevelt becomes President
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The Philippine Insurrection comes to an end
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The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe doctrine declares the U.S. right to intervene in the Wesern Hem
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Upton Sinclair releases “The Jungle”
"The Jungle" was a novel written by Upton Sinclair, and it describes the horrid conditions of the meat industry. It's descriptions were so vivid and gross even President Roosevelt considered going vegetarian. When the book was discovered to be true, it led to the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act being passed. -
Pure Food and Drug Act and The Meat Inspection Act are passed
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Peak year of immigration through Ellis Island
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Henry Ford produced first Model T car
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Creation of NAACP
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The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
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The Assassination of of Austria's archduke Franz Ferdinand
Is what most people consider the event that started WW1 and WW2. Austria-Hungary immediately blamed the Serbian government for the attack. Nationalism played a specific role in World War I when Archduke Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated by Princip, a member of a Serbian nationalist terrorist group fighting against Austria-Hungary's rule over Bosnia. -
Panama Canal is completed and opened for traffic
The Panama Canal is located in Panama. North America and South America were once connected, but after the creation of the Panama Canal they are separated. It connects the Atlantic and Pacific ocean. The Panama Canal cost Americans around $375,000,000, including the $10,000,000 paid to Panama and the $40,000,000 paid to the French company. It was the single most expensive construction project in United States history to that time. -
The United States enters WWI
The United States entered the war because of the Germans' decision to resume the policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, and the so-called "Zimmerman telegram," intercepted by the British, in which Germany floated the idea of an alliance with Mexico. The telegram asked Mexico to attack America at the border. Germany promised Mexico to get back the states Texas, New Mexico, California, and Arizona if they formed an alliance with them. -
Ratification of the 18th Amendment - Prohibitions
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Women got the right to vote
The Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, stating: 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. Meaning every single female citizen of United States now has the right to vote as soon as they were at voting age.
