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Invention of Telegraph
Samuel F.B. Morse created the first workable telegraph. -
Discovery of gold in California
The discovery of gold in California in 1848 caused the first flood of newcomers to the West. -
Bessemer Process
Henry Bessemer created a process by which stell was made from pig iron. It allowed for the mass production of steel which lowered its price as it became more available. -
Discovery of Gold near Pike's Peak in 1859
Nearly 100,000 miners went to Colorado upon hearing of a discovery of gold there. -
Homestead Act
160 acres free if you live on it for five years and cultivate and improve it. -
Morrill Land Grant Act
Gave each state federal money to start and charter colleges that focused on agriultural and science. -
Beginning of Grange Movement
Oliver H. Kelley started the grange movement as a social and educational tool to better the lives of Western Farmers. They started as a method to connect farmers to ease the loneliness of farm life but extented to an activist group for farmers. -
Founding of Knights of Labor
The labor group was started in '69 and gradually grew in numbers throughout the 1870s. It is known for being larger, more socialist, and more militaristic. -
Transcontinental Railroad
The first transcontinental railroad was completed when the Central Pacific, building eastwarde from San Francisco, and the Union Pacific building westward from Omaha, Nebraska, met at Promontory Point, Utah. -
Establishment of Yellowstone National Park
As a part of the conservation movement, designated the Yellowstone River region as the first national park. -
Cigarette Rolling Machine
Hames Bonsack, an eighteen-year-old Virginian, invented a machine for rolling cigarettes. -
Munn v. Illinois
The Supreme Court upheld the right of a state to regulate busnesses of a public nature, such as railroads. -
Great Railroad Strike of 1877
Railroad workers and 500,000 workers from other industries went to strike and Rutherford B. Hayes even had to use federal troops to end the violence. -
Progress and Poverty
Henry George, who detested laissez-faire economics proposed a single tax on land that he thought would solve the problem of poverty in the US -
Incandescent Light Bulb
Edison received his patent for the incandescent light bulb which used tungsten to prevent the filament from burning up when electric current passed through it. -
Menlo Park Christmas Tree
Edison lights up strings of lights on a tree outside of the Menlo Park Laboratory. Many believe this is the beginning of the Christmas Lights tradition -
Chinesse Exclusion Act
Prohibited the entry of any more Chinese and disallowed the naturalization of CHinese already in the U.S. -
Edison lights up NYC
Edison set up a small power grid near Pearl Street station in New York, -
Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act
Set up the Civil Service Commission that ensured that public sector jobs would be distributed based on merit and qualifications rather than wealth and ocnnections. -
Haymaker Riot
Some 100,000 workers gathered in Chicago for a protest. Two days later, a fight broke out between unionists and nonunion strikebreakers, and the police shot and killed two unionists and wounded many others. The next day, laborers gathered at Haymaker Square to protest police brutality. A bomb exploded killing seven and injuring. -
Wabash v. Illinois
The S.C. ruled that individual state could not regulate interstate commerce. -
Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty was placed in the NYC harbor to symbolize the welcoming nature of America towards immigrants. -
American Federation of Labor (AFL) founding
The more exclusive, less militaristic labor group, the AFL was started to fight for their rights. Though it was smaller, it was more organized than the Knights of Labor. Furthermore, the AFL was made up of mostly skilled workers, so the marketplace was more heavily affected when they went on strike. -
Interstate Commerce Act
Required railroad rates to be "reasonable and just." The Act also set up the Interstate Commerce Comission (ICC), which had to power to investigate and prosecute pools, rebates, and other descriminatory practices. -
Dawes Severalty Act
This act broke up many Indian reservations and gave out the land to Indians as private property. Any Indians who accepted the property and settled it for 25 years would be granted citizenship. Eventually, white speculators found loopholes in the law that allowed them to buy the property from Indians. -
Founding of NAWSA
The National American Women Suffrage Association was founded to secure the right to vote for women by Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B. Anthony -
Sherman Antitrust Act
Prohibited any "contract, combination, in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce. In the E.C. Knight case, the S.C. ruled that the Act could only be used to regulate commerce not manufacturing. -
Sherman Silver Purchase Act
Increased the coinage of silver, but in amounts too small to satisfy farmers and miners. -
McKinley Tariff
Raised the tax on foreign products to a peacetime high of over 48 percent -
National Allinace
Farmers gathered in Ocaa, Florida to organize and push for direct election of U.S. Senarors, lower tariff rates, a graduated income tax, and a new banking system regulated by the federal government. -
Populist Convention in Omaha
Populists gathered in Omaha, Nebreska to draw up their reform platform. -
The Significance of the Frontier in American History
Fredrick Jackson Turner wrote a piece talking about how the independence and individualism learned from the frontier experience taught americans to be inventive, practical and resourceful. This theory was made on the troubling assumption that the West was uninhabited, which was false becausd Indians had to be moved to create space for Western settlers. -
Coxey Army's arrival in D.C.
Jacob Coxey led a group of 500 including women and children to march from Masillon, Ohio to Washington D.C. They advocated public works programs and the use of low-interest government loans to build roads and other infrastructure. -
Pullman Strike
Workers at George Pullman's factory refused to work when Pullman announced wage cuts and firings.The Supreme Court defended the business by using injunction to break up unions and strikes. -
US v. E.C. Knight
The Supreme Court ruled that the Sherman Antitrust Act could only be used to regulate commerce not manufacturing, so the power of the act was significantly reduced. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
The Supreme Court said that segregation was legal, using the "separate but equal" doctrine as justification. -
Establishment of Carlisle School
In Pennsylvania, the school was started in order to conform Indians to typical American society. -
Holden v. Hardy
The S.C. upheld a law regulating miners' working hours, concluding that an overly long workday would increase the threat of injury. -
Founding of NAACP
A group of African Americans started by W.E.B. du Bois, Ida B. Wells, and many other notable civil rights activists to wipe out racial hatred and racial discrimination. -
Newlands Reclamation Act
Sold public lands in the West to generate money for irrigation projects. -
Lochner v. New York
The S.C. decided to void a law limiting bakery workings to sixty-hour work weeks and ten-hour days. They said that baking was not a dangerous job, so bakers should be allowed to work as long as they wanted to. -
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) founding
The IWW were founded with the goal of being "one big union." They were as violent and destructive as the Knights of Labor, believing that it was the only way to get the attention of business owners. -
Sinclair's "The Jungle"
Upton Sinclair published a fictional novel about the abject conditions of meat in meat processing factories. This led to more comprehensive inspections in food industries and better protection of the consumer. -
Hepburn Act
This act strengthened the ICC by giving it the power to set maximum railroad rates among other important reforms. -
Muller v. Oregon
The Court upheld a law limiting women in laundries to a ten-hour workday. They said that a women's well-being was needed to protect the strength of the human race. -
Ford Motor Company's first full assemble line
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16th Amendment
Gave congress the power to collect the income tax. -
17th Amendment
Allowed for the direct election of senators rather than having them appointed from the state legislatures. It was a progressive effort to increase democracy. -
Federal Reserve Act
This act set up the Federal Reserve as the central banking system for the United States. -
Beginning of the First World War
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Clayton Antitrust Act
This was just a stronger version of the Sherman Antitrust Act which was largely ineffective becuase of the E.C. Knight cast. -
US Entry into the First World War
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18th Amendment
Prohibition: banned alcoholic beverages.
Took Effect: 1/16/1920
Repealed: 12/5/1933 -
19th Amendment
Gave women the right to vote. -
Immigration Quota Act
The US passed a temporary block on immigration that said a maximum of 350,000 immigrants from the Eastern hemisphere could come each year and that the immigrants each year could not exceed 3% of the nationality present in the U.S. according to the 1910 census -
National Origins Act
This act limited immigration to 150,000 per year and each nationality 2% of the population as of the 1890 census.