-
Roger Williams settles Rhode Island
Roger Williams, expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony by its Puritan leaders, decides to settle Rhode Island. His settlement is dedicated to the free practice of religion-- he is also an early abolitionist and attempts to make peace with and be fair to the natives. -
British surrender at Yorktown
The victory of the combined forces of the American Continental Army (led by George Washington) and the French army over the British in Yorktown, Virginia marks the end of the American Revolution. -
3/5ths Compromise
The compromise, originally proposed by James Wilson at the Constitutional Convention, which took place in Philadelphia, concerns how slaves would be considered in counting a state's population (regarding representation in the legislature). The South, being heavily populated by slaves, wants them to count towards legislative representation; the North doesn't. The compromise holds that each slave is equivalent to 3/5ths a free man. -
Missouri Compromise
The Northern free states favor the expansion of the ban on slavery to America's new territories, Missouri and Maine, while the South favors the opposite. Legislators temporarily resolve this conflict with the Missouri Compromise, which inaugurates Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Nat Turner, a popular black preacher, leads a slave revolt in Southampton County, Virginia. Around 120 people die during the original affair; around half being those killed by the rebel slaves, the other half being slaves executed by the State as punishment. 120 more slaves die due to the panicked organization of white militias and mobs. -
Emancipation Proclamation issued
Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, a basically symbolic document granting de jure freedom to slaves in rebelling states. Obviously, this can't be enforced until after the fall of the Confederacy, but it serves two purposes: A. Motivate African-Americans fighting on the Union's side, and B. Disincentivize foreign aid to the Confederates by centering the moral issue of slavery to the war. -
Upton Sinclair's 'The Jungle' published
Upton Sinclair, an Pulitzer Prize-winning author, is born 1878. He's a muckraker, a progressive reformist who puts entrenched institutions under scrutiny.
He writes "The Jungle," a novel about Chicago's meatpacking industry, in 1905. Sinclair, a socialist, intended to make the novel inspire horror at the poor working conditions described, but people were more appalled at the unhygienic nature of the process.
This led to public awareness of the issue and legislation like the Meat Inspection Act. -
Stock market crash occurs
The stock market crash begins Thursday, October 24, 1929, Prior to it, people were overconfident in their economic situation due to the prosperous Roaring 20s, creating an "asset bubble" of overpriced shares. People were able to "buy on margin" because of easily acquired loans and a rapid growth in bank credit. Agriculture began to struggle to make a profit.
Eventually, not only Wall Street but America and the entire world suffered an economic depression. This changed the course of the 20th c. -
Period: to
Japanese kept in internment camps
Japanese-Americans along the West Coast, which is designated an 'exclusion zone,' are forced into internment camps because of xenophobic suspicions following the US's entrance into WW2 after Pearl Harbor. These ends years later; many come back to find their homes and businesses vandalized and wrecked. -
Bay of Pigs invasion
The CIA gathers up Cuban exiles and attempts to overthrow the communist government, led by Fidel Castro, of Cuba. The invasion transpires in the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba. John F Kennedy executed the plans which had been thought up by Eisenhower. -
MLK Assassination
Martin Luther King Jr., a civil rights figure, is allegedly assassinated by one James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennessee. (The King family maintains that Ray was framed, and that the government may have been involved.) -
9/11
More than a dozen hijackers associated with Al-Qaeda execute a plan orchestrated by Osama Bin-Laden and others when they fly two airplanes into the World Trade Center towers in New York. The event kills thousands, causes incalculable property damage, etc. Succeeding 9/11, legislation implementing a more expansive security and surveillance apparatus is put into law. -
Citations
Lohnes, Kate. “The Jungle.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 4 Mar. 2019, www.britannica.com/topic/The-Jungle-novel-by-Sinclair. Marks, Julie. “What Caused the Stock Market Crash of 1929?” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 13 Apr. 2018, www.history.com/news/what-caused-the-stock-market-crash-of-1929.
