1900-1920

  • Death of President William McKinley

    McKinley was shot by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, in Buffalo, New York on September 6, 1901, and McKinley died on September 14, 1901. McKinley was succeeded by his vice president, Theodore Roosevelt.
  • Panama Canal Zone

    United States acquired the Panama Canal Zone after the United States signed the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty on November 17, 1903.
  • The Flight of the Wright Flyer

    The Wright brothers fly the first airplane, the Wright Flyer, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
  • The Seventeenth Amendment

    The Seventeenth Amendment of the Constitution was ratified on April 8, 1913. The amendment allowed the American people to vote for United States senators instead of the state legislatures.
  • U.S. Virgin Islands

    United States purchases the Virgin Islands of the Danish West Indies from Denmark in the Treaty of the Danish West Indies on August 14, 1916.
  • The First Woman U.S. Representative

    Jeannette Rankin of Montana was elected as the first woman representative of the U.S. House of Representatives on November 7, 1916.
  • America joins the Great War

    America joins World War I, and America declares war on Germany because the Germans sent the Zimmermann telegraph to Mexico. The telegraph asked Mexico to join Germany in fighting America, and in return, Germany would give back former Mexican territory that was taken by the Untied States after the Mexican–American War.
  • The Nineteenth Amendment

    The Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution was ratified on August 18, 1919. The amendment gave women the right to vote in elections.