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The inauguration of President William McKinley
First inauguration of William McKinley. Chief Justice Melville Fuller administering the oath to McKinley as President in 1897. Out-going President Grover Cleveland stands to the right. The first inauguration of William McKinley as the 25th President of the United States took place on Thursday, March 4, 1897. -
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The Spanish American War
The reasons for war were many, but there were two immediate ones: America's support the ongoing struggle by Cubans and Filipinos against Spanish rule, and the mysterious explosion of the battleship U.S.S. Maine in Havana Harbor -
The passing of the Platt Amendment
The amendment also demanded that Cuba sell or lease lands to the United States necessary for coaling or the development of naval stations. -
President McKinley is assassinated
William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States, was shot on the grounds of the Pan-American Exposition at the Temple of Music in Buffalo, New York. ... Regarding McKinley as a symbol of oppression, Czolgosz was convinced that it was his duty as an anarchist to kill him. -
Cuba declares independence from U.S.
American War, Spain and the United States signed the 1898 Treaty of Paris, by which Spain ceded Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam to the United States for the sum of $20 million -
The first Major League World Series of Baseball
The 1903 World Series was the first modern World Series to be played in Major League Baseball -
The Wright Brothers make their first flight
Wilbur and Orville Wright made four brief flights at Kitty Hawk with their first powered aircraft. The Wright brothers had invented the first successful airplane. The Wrights used this stopwatch to time the Kitty Hawk flights. -
United States acquires the Panama Canal zone
The Canal Zone came into being on May 4, 1904, under the terms of the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903 by which Panama granted to the United States, in return for annual payments, the sole right to operate and control the canal and about 5 miles of land on each side. -
President Theodore Roosevelt is inaugurated for the second time
The inauguration marked the beginning of the second term of Theodore Roosevelt as President and the only term of Charles W. Fairbanks as Vice President. -
"The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair is written
to expose the appalling working conditions in the meat-packing industry. -
The San Francisco earthquake occurs
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18 with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of 6 -
The Antiquities Act is passed
o prevent looting of Indian artifacts from archaeological sites. The act has mostly been used since then by presidents to turn public land into national monuments protected forever from commercial development or future mineral exploitation. -
Oklahoma is admitted as a state
The vote was certified and delivered to the President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt and on November 16, 1907, Roosevelt issued Presidential Proclamation 780 admitting Oklahoma as the forty-sixth state. -
The NAACP is established
In New York City by white and black activists, partially in response to the ongoing violence against African Americans around the country -
The inauguration of William Howard Taft
The inauguration of William Howard Taft as the 27th President of the United States was held on Thursday, March 4, 1909 in the Senate Chamber at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C -
The RMS Lusitania makes its FIRST voyage
The Lusitania, which was owned by the Cunard Line, was built to compete for the highly lucrative transatlantic passenger trade -
The U.S. currency is placed on the gold standard
Americans could trade in $20.67 for an ounce of gold. The country effectively abandoned the gold standard in 1933