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John D. Rockefeller started Standard Oil
American industrialist John D. Rockefeller was born July 8, 1839, in Richford, New York. He built his first oil refinery near Cleveland and in 1870 incorporated the Standard Oil Company. By 1882 he had a near-monopoly of the oil business in the U.S., but his business practices led to the passing of antitrust laws. -
Alaska is purchased from Russia
The looming U.S. Civil War delayed the sale, but after the war, Secretary of State William Seward quickly took up a renewed Russian offer and on March 30, 1867, agreed to a proposal from Russian Minister in Washington, Edouard de Stoeckl, to purchase Alaska for $7.2 million. -
Completion of the 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. -
Alexander Graham 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
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers. -
Sherman Antitrust Act
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Ellis Island opens
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Carnegie Steel’s Homestead Strike
The Homestead strike, also known as the Homestead steel strike or Homestead massacre, was an industrial lockout and strike which began on July 1, 1892, culminating in a battle between strikers and private security agents on July 6, 1892. The battle was a pivotal event in U.S. labor history. -
Samuel Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL)
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Plessy v Ferguson
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Hawaii is annexed
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The U.S. declares war on Spain
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The Philippine Insurrection comes to an end
Fighting erupted between forces of the United States and those of the Philippine Republic on February 4, 1899, in what became known as the 1899 Battle of Manila. ... The war officially ended on July 2, 1902, with a victory for the United States. -
Tenement Act
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The start of the Boxer Rebellion
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Rudyard Kipling published “The White Man’s Burden” in The New York Sun
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The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe doctrine declares the U.S. right to intervene in the Wesern Hem
The Roosevelt Corollary of December 1904 stated that the United States would intervene as a last resort to ensure that other nations in the Western Hemisphere fulfilled their obligations to international creditors, and did not violate the rights of the United States or invite -
Pure Food & Drug Act and The Meat Inspection Act are passed
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Henry Ford produced his first Model T (car)
On October 1, 1908, the first production Model T Ford is completed at the company's Piquette Avenue plant in Detroit. Between 1908 and 1927, Ford would build some 15 million Model T cars. It was the longest production run of any automobile model in history until the Volkswagen Beetle surpassed it in 1972. -
Creation of the NAACP
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The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
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The Assassination on Austria’s archduke Franz Ferdinand starts WWI
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The United States enters WWI
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Women got the right to vote.
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Ratification of the 18th Amendment - Prohibition
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The Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is completed and opened for traffic
On August 15, 1914, the Panama Canal was opened to traffic. Panama later pushed to revoke the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, and in 1977 U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian dictator Omar Torrijos signed a treaty to turn over the canal to Panama by the end of the century. -
Peak year of immigration through Ellis Island
As the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 to 1954, it processed approximately 12 million immigrants to the United States through the Port of New York and New Jersey -
Pres. McKinley is assassinated and Progressive Theodore Roosevelt becomes President
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Upton Sinclair releases “The Jungle”