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Woodrow Wilson President
Democrat Woodrow Wilson defeats Taft and TR in the 1912 presidential election. Wilson wins the electoral college with 435 votes to TR's 88 and Taft's 8. Wilson became the 28th President of the United States. -
Boston Police Strike
Police in Boston walk out on strike. They sought recognition for their trade union and improvements in wages and working conditions. -
19th Amendment
The Nineteenth Amendment, granting women the right to vote, officially becomes a law. -
Warren G. Harding Presdent
Warren G. Harding is elected the twenty-ninth President of the United States with an overwhelming 404 electoral votes (60.3 percent of the popular vote) to Democratic rival James Cox's 127 electoral votes (only 34.1 percent of the popular vote). -
Nobel Peace Prize
Woodrow Wilson wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to secure a lasting peace after the Great War. -
Emergency Quota Act
Harding signs the Emergency Quota Act into law, limiting the number of immigrants from any given country to 3 percent of that nationality already in the United States by 1910. The temporary act lasts three years and serves as the precursor to the harsher and permanent 1924 act. The law represents the growing nativism of the 1920s, motivated, in part, by the massive influx of south and east European immigrants into the United States following the end of World War I. -
Emergency Tarriff Act
In response to American public opinion, Harding and Congress pass the Emergency Tariff Act. Raising tariffs, especially on farm products, the temporary bill will be replaced one year later by the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act, a permanent bill with even higher tariff rates. Designed to protect American products and end the post-war recession, such protectionist legislation ultimately destabilizes international commerce by heightening economic nationalism. -
Klu Klux Klan
The nation witnesses a wave of violence by a revitalized Ku Klux Klan. Blacks, returning from the war, are not as ready to return to their previous condition of subservience and are met by whippings, brandings, and lynchings by the KKK. -
President Harding Death
President Warren Harding died in San Francisco, California, while on a speaking tour. His death was most likely due to a heart attack. -
Calvin Coolidge President
At a 2:30 a.m. ceremony in Plymouth, Vermont, Calvin Coolidge is sworn in by his father as the thirtieth President of the United States. -
Revenue Act
Coolidge signs the Revenue Act into law, as Harding's policy of “normalcy” morphs into keeping “cool with Coolidge.” With the goal of cutting the size of the Federal government, the Act reduces income taxes as well as other duties. While it helps the Republican Party weather the investigations of corruption under Harding, it further weakens the already deteriorating national economy. -
First Transatlantic Flight
Charles A. Lindbergh completes the first transatlantic flight, traversing the distance from New York to Paris in his monoplane, the Spirit of St. Louis, in less than thirty-four hours. A year later, Amelia Earhart will become the first woman to make the flight. -
Sacco and Venzetti
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed in Massachusetts for their alleged 1920 murder of a factory guard, despite protests that the two men had been unfairly prosecuted for their radical beliefs. -
Kellogg-Briand Pact
The Kellogg-Briand Pact, or the Pact of Paris, as it was also known, is signed by the United States and fifteen other nations. Named for its two principal authors, Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg and French foreign minister Aristide Briand, the pact outlaws war as a means to settle disputes, substituting diplomacy and world opinion for armed conflict. Ultimately signed by 62 nations, the pact is more symbolic than practical, though Kellogg would win the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. -
Herbert Hoover President
Hoover wins the presidential election in an apparent landslide, 444 electoral votes to Smith's 87. He becomes the thirty-first President of the United States. -
"Black Tuesday"
On “Black Tuesday,” a record 16.4 million shares of stock are traded on the NYSE as large blocks of equities are sold at extremely low prices. The trading continues the sharp downward trend of the previous week. It is an abrupt change from the over-speculation of the previous months. By December 1, NYSE stocks will have lost $26 billion in value. -
"Star Spangled Banner"
The “Star Spangled Banner” officially becomes the national anthem. -
Al Capone
The notorious gangster Al Capone is convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in prison and a $50,000 fine. For most of the 1920s, Capone ruled the Chicago underworld, taking in $105 million in 1927 alone, primarily from the lucrative and illegal business of bootlegging. He would be released in 1939, mortally ill from syphilis. -
Reconstruction Finance Corporation
Hoover establishes the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, an agency designed to lend money to banks, insurance companies, and other institutions to stimulate the economy. It will have $2 billion at its disposal. -
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to complete a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. -
Franklin D. Roosevelt President
Franklin D. Roosevelt wins the presidential election over Hoover in dramatic fashion. Roosevelt wins 472 electoral votes (22.8 million popular) to Hoover's 59 (15.8 million popular). The election illustrates the widespread public opinion that Hoover is largely to blame for the continuing economic crisis. By the end of the year, 13 million Americans are unemployed, total wages are 60 percent less than they were in 1929, and business losses are estimated to be as much as $6 billion. -
National Labor Board
FDR establishes the National Labor Board, with Senator Robert Wagner of New York as its head. The NLB is created to enforce the right of organized labor to bargain collectively. Its existence marks a sharp change in the federal government's stance toward labor. -
Gold Reserve Act
Congress passes the Gold Reserve Act, allowing the President to fix the value of the U.S. dollar at between 50 to 60 cents in terms of gold. -
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Dust Bowl
A severe dust storm hits the central and southern plains, blowing an estimated 300,000,000 tons of topsoil from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, and Colorado as far east as the Atlantic Ocean. It is only one of a number of such storms ravaging a region which becomes known as “the Dust Bowl.” In large part, the conditions are due to the improper plowing and farming practices used to squeeze yields and profits out of the land during the Depression.
