History revision
America 1890-1945
Time line
Key:
Bold and Underlined show events, policies or people of influence to US history from 1890-1945
RED: Political GREEN: Economic BLUE: Social BLACK: International affairs
1890- The accession of the Idaho and Wyoming brings the number of states in the Union to 44. The US Census notes that there is no longer a moving frontier in the American West. The Sherman Antitrust Act passed by Congress.
1896- William McKinley’s election victory marks the beginning of a lengthy period of Republican political dominance.
1898- Victory in the Spanish-American war marks the rise of ‘American Imperialism’ and establishes control over Cuba and the Philippines
1901- Theodore Roosevelt becomes president after the assassination of McKinley. The Platt Amendment is passed by Congress
1904- Thedore Roosevelt proclaims the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine after etsablishing US influence over Panama.
1905- President Roosevelt acts as mediator in the Treaty of New Hampshire ending the Russo-Japanese War.
1912- New Mexico and Arizona achieve statehood, bringing the number of states in the Union to 48. The Republican Party splits; Theodore Roosevelt runs for president on behalf of the ‘Bull Moose’ Progressive Party, ensuring the defeat of President Taft. Woodrow Wilson wins the Presidency for the Democrats
1914- War begins in Europe. The USA proclaims neutrality. President Wilson send US forces to occupy the port of Vera Cruz in Mexico.
1915- The sinking of the R.M.S Lusitania worsens US relations with Germany. The epic silent film Birth of a Nation, directed by D.W. Griffith, gains a national audience and gives a favourable impression of the Ku Klux Klan.
1917- Germany resumes unrestricted submarine warfare. Together with the discovery of the Zimmerman Telegram, this pushes the USA into entering the First World War on the side of the Allies. Congress passes the Espionage Act.
1918- The First World War end. The Spanish Flu pandemic begins, leading the millions of civilian deaths.
1919- Woodrow Wilson is received in Europe as a conquering hero at the start of the Paris Peace Conference. The Volstead Act brings in the era of Prohibition. The Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, makes thousands of arrests of suspected radicals in the ‘Red Scare’.
1920- Two radicals, Sacco and Vanzetti are sentenced to death for murder. Their case causes controversy and becomes a national sensation. Woodrow Wilsons attempts to persuade Congress to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and to approve American membership of the League of Nations ends in failure. The Republican Warren G. Harding wins the presidential election, promising that he would return the US to ‘Normalcy’
1922- The Washington Naval Conference establishes agreed international restrictions on building battleships.
1923- Warren G. Harding dies in office Calvin Coolidge becomes president.
1924- The election victory of Calvin Coolidge continues the period of the Republican political dominance. The Dawes Plan backed mostly by American loans, restructures Germanys reparation payments. Quotas for immigration into the USA are tightened up by the National Origin Act.
1925- Support for the Ku Klux Klan dips sharply after a series of scandals involving Klan leaders. The Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tennessee dramatizes the conflicts over the teaching of Darwins theory of evolution in schools.
1927- Sacco and Vanzetti are finally executed after long years of judicial appeals. The aviator Charles Lindberg becomes a national hero after his solo flight across the Atlantic. The era of talking pictures begins with The Jazz Singer.
1928- The US stock market reaches record heights. The Kellogg-Briand Pact, sponsored by foreign minister of the USA and France, attempts to secure international agreement to renounce war. Hebert Hoover becomes president after defeating Democrat candidate Al Smith.
1929- The stock market boom continues until the autumn in October, The Wall Street Crash causes massive losses for speculators.
1930- Dusty storms affect Arkansas at the start of years of drought in the South and West.
1931- The Great Depression begins, many banks fail, unemployment rises sharply and wheat prices drop even further. Al Capone’s career in crime end when he is imprisoned in charges of tax evasion.
1933- Adolf Hitler comes to power in Germany. Congress repeals the Volstead Act, end prohibition. Franklin D. Roosevelt launches The New Deal in the Hundred Days after his inauguration.
1935- President Roosevelt launches The Second New Deal. Huey Long , Governor of Louisiana and a strong opponent of Roosevelt’s policies, is assassinated in Baton Rouge. The drought conditions of the dust bowl reach the worst levels yet.
1936- Franklin D. Roosevelt wins re-election.
1937- After years of cautious economic recovery, there is a slowdown. The Roosevelt Recession begins. The Ludlow Amendment shows the strength of isolationism in Congress. The Japanese invasion of China causes alarm to US policymakers.
1939- Germany invades Poland, which causes Britain and France to once again declare war on Germany, The Second World War has begun in Europe.
1940- The war in Europe affects politics in the USA and brings pressure on President Roosevelt from isolationist like Charles Lindbergh. Roosevelt controversially runs a third term as president and wins re-election.
1941- After considerable controversy, the Lend-Lease agreement is concluded with Britain. Relations between the USA and Japan deteriorate. After a surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, the USA declares war on Japan. The War in the Pacific has begun. The declaration of war on Japan makes Germany declare war on the USA due to Japan and Germany being in the Axis Powers along with Fascist Italy.
1944- American war production reaches maximum output, supplying arms to Britain, Free French Forces, the USSR and China. Landings by Allied forces in Normandy begin the liberation of Occupied Europe. Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected for the fourth term
1945- At the Yalta Conference, Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin make agreements about post-war world. Roosevelt dies shortly afterwards and is succeeded by Harry Truman. After Germany’s surrender, the war with Japan continues until August, when two Atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The war ends.

Bold and Underlined glossary show events, policies or people of influence to US history from 1890-1945
The Sherman Antitrust Act 1890 A federal law passed in 1890 that committed the American government to opposing monopolies. The law prohibits contracts, combinations, or conspiracies “in the restraint of trade or commerce.
William Mckinley (January 29, 1843 – September 14, 1901) was the 25th President of the United States, serving from March 4, 1897, until his assassination in September 1901, six months into his second term. McKinley led the nation to victory in the Spanish–American War, raised protective tariffs to promote American industry, and maintained the nation on the gold standard in a rejection of inflationary proposals.
American Imperialism is the economic, military, and cultural influence of the United States on other countries. Such influence often goes hand in hand with expansion into foreign territories. Expansion on a grand scale is the primary objective of an empire, a notable example being the British Empire.
Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919) was an American politician, author, naturalist, soldier, explorer, and historian who served as the 26th President of the United States. He was a leader of the Republican Party and founder of the Progressive Party insurgency of 1912.
The Platt Amendment On March 2, 1901, the Platt Amendment passed which amended the 1901 Army Appropriations Bill. It stipulated seven conditions for the withdrawal of United States troops remaining in Cuba at the end of the Spanish–American War, and an eighth condition that Cuba sign a treaty accepting these seven conditions. It defined the terms of Cuban–U.S. relations to essentially be an unequal one of U.S. dominance over Cuba. The Monroe Doctrine was a U.S. foreign policy regarding European countries in 1823. It stated that further efforts by European nations to colonise land or interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression, requiring U.S. intervention. At the same time, the doctrine noted that the United States would neither interfere with existing European colonies nor meddle in the internal concerns of European countries.
Roosevelt Corollary was an addition to the Monroe Doctrine articulated by President Theodore Roosevelt in his State of the Union address in 1904 after the Venezuela Crisis of 1902–03.
The Treaty of New Hampshire/Portsmouth formally ended the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. The negotiations took place in August in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and were brokered in part by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857 – March 8, 1930) was the 27th President of the United States (1909–1913) and later the tenth Chief Justice of the United States (1921–1930). He is the only person to have served in both of these offices
Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924) was the 28th President of the United States from 1913 to 1921 and leader of the Progressive Movement. A Southerner with a PhD in political science, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910. He was Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913, and led his Democratic Party to win control of both the White House and Congress in 1912. First World War President who contributed towards the Treaty of Versailles and created the League of Nations.
First World War 1914-1918 also known as the Great War, was a global war mostly centered in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. More than 9 million combatants and 7 million civilians died as a result of the war, a casualty rate exacerbated by the belligerents' technological and industrial sophistication, and tactical stalemate. It was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, paving the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. USA did not enter until 1917.
R.M.S Lusitania was a British ocean liner, holder of the Blue Riband, and briefly the world's largest passenger ship. She was launched by the Cunard Line in 1906, at a time of fierce competition for the North Atlantic trade. In 1915, she was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat, causing the deaths of 1,198 passengers and crew.
The Zimmermann Telegram was a 1917 diplomatic proposal from the German Empire offering a military alliance with Mexico, in the event of the United States entering World War I against Germany. The proposal was intercepted and decoded by British intelligence. Revelation of the contents outraged American public opinion, and helped generate support for the United States declaration of war on Germany in April of that year. President Woodrow Wilson moved to arm American merchant ships to defend themselves against German submarines, which had started to attack them, although this was blocked by the US Congress.
Espionage Act 1917 is a United States federal law passed on June 15, 1917, shortly after the U.S. entry into World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code (War) but is now found under Title 18, Crime.
Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors, following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918. It took place in Paris during 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities. The major decisions were the creation of the League of Nations; the five peace treaties with defeated enemies, including the Treaty of Versailles with Germany; the awarding of German and Ottoman overseas possessions as "mandates," chiefly to Britain and France; reparations imposed on Germany, and the drawing of new national boundaries (sometimes with plebiscites) to better reflect the forces of nationalism. The main result was the Treaty of Versailles, with Germany, which laid the guilt for the war on "the aggression of Germany and her allies." This provision proved humiliating for Germany and set the stage for very high reparations Germany was supposed to pay (it paid only a small portion before reparations ended in 1931).
Volstead Act 1919 The National Prohibition Act, known informally as the Volstead Act, was enacted to carry out the intent of the Eighteenth Amendment, which established prohibition in the United States.
A. Mitchell Palmer (May 4, 1872 – May 11, 1936), best known as A. Mitchell Palmer, was Attorney General of the United States from 1919 to 1921. He is best known for overseeing the "Palmer Raids" during the Red Scare of 1919-20.
Red Scare 1919 Shortly after the end of World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the Red Scare took hold in the United States. A nationwide fear of communists, socialists, anarchists, and other dissidents suddenly grabbed the American psyche in 1919 following a series of anarchist bombings. The nation was gripped in fear.
League of Nations was an international organization, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, created after the First World War to provide a forum for resolving international disputes.
Warren G. Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th President of the United States (1921–23), a Republican from Ohio who served in the Ohio Senate and then in the United States Senate, where he played a minor role.
Calvin Coolidge Jr. (July 4, 1872 – January 5, 1933) was the 30th President of the United States (1923–1929). A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state. His response to the Boston Police Strike of 1919 thrust him into the national spotlight and gave him a reputation as a man of decisive action. Soon after, he was elected as the 29th Vice President in 1920 and succeeded to the Presidency upon the sudden death of Warren G. Harding in 1923. Elected in his own right in 1924, he gained a reputation as a small government conservative, and also as a man who said very little.
The Dawes Plan 1924 was formulated to take Weimar Germany out of hyperinflation and to return Weimar’s economy to some form of stability. The Dawes Plan got its name as the man who headed the committee was an American called Charles Dawes.
National Origin Act 1924 was a United States federal law that limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already living in the United States in 1890, down from the 3% cap set by the Immigration Restriction Act of 1921, according to the Census of 1890. It superseded the 1921 Emergency Quota Act. The law was primarily aimed at further restricting immigration of Southern Europeans and Eastern Europeans. In addition, it severely restricted the immigration of Africans and prohibited the immigration of Arabs, East Asians, and Indians.
Monkey Trial 1925 was an American legal case in 1925 in which a substitute high school teacher, John Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which made it unlawful to teach human evolution in any state-funded school. The trial was deliberately staged in order to attract publicity to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, where it was held. Scopes was unsure whether he had ever actually taught evolution, but he purposely incriminated himself so that the case could have a defendant.
Kelloggs-Briand Pact was a 1928 international agreement in which signatory states promised not to use war to resolve "disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them". Parties failing to abide by this promise "should be denied of the benefits furnished by this treaty". It was signed by Germany, France and the United States on August 27, 1928, and by most other nations soon after. Sponsored by France and the U.S., the Pact renounced the use of war and called for the peaceful settlement of disputes. Similar provisions were incorporated into the UN Charter and other treaties and it became a stepping stone to a more activist American policy
Hebert Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st President of the United States (1929–1933). He was a professional mining engineer, and was raised as a Quaker. A Republican, Hoover served as head of the U.S. Food Administration during World War I, and became internationally known for humanitarian relief efforts in war-time Belgium. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business under the rubric "economic modernization". In the presidential election of 1928, Hoover easily won the Republican nomination, despite having no elected-office experience. Hoover is the most recent cabinet secretary to be elected President of the United States, as well as one of only two Presidents (along with William Howard Taft) elected without electoral experience or high military rank.
Wall Street Crash 1929 also known as Black Tuesday, the Great Crash, or the Stock Market Crash of 1929, began in late October 1929 and was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, when taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout.
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the 1930s. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, however in most countries it started in 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s. It was the longest, deepest and most widespread depression of the 20th century.
Al Capone (January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947) was an American gangster who attained fame during the Prohibition era. His seven-year reign as crime boss of the American Mafia in Chicago ended when he was 33 years old. He was jailed on charges of tax avoidance.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945), commonly known by his initials FDR, was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 32nd President of the United States.[2] A Democrat, he won a record four elections and served from March 1933 to his death in April 1945. He was a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic depression and total war. His program for relief, recovery and reform, known as the New Deal, involved the great expansion of the role of the federal government in the economy. A dominant leader of the Democratic Party, he built the New Deal Coalition that united labour unions, big city machines, white ethnics, African Americans, and rural white Southerners. The Coalition realigned American politics after 1932, creating the Fifth Party System and defining American liberalism for the middle third of the 20th century.
The New Deal was a series of domestic programs enacted in the United States between 1933 and 1938, and a few that came later. They included both laws passed by Congress as well as presidential executive orders during the first term (1933–37) of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were in response to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call the "3 Rs": Relief, Recovery, and Reform. That is Relief for the unemployed and poor; Recovery of the economy to normal levels; and Reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression.

The Second New Deal is the term used by commentators at the time and historians ever since to characterise the second stage of the New Deal programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In his address to Congress in January 1935, Roosevelt called for five major goals: improved use of national resources, security against old age, unemployment and illness, and slum clearance, as well as a national welfare program (the WPA) to replace state relief efforts. It is usually dated 1935-36, and includes programs to redistribute wealth, income and power in favour of the poor, the old, farmers and labour unions. The most important programs included Social Security, the National Labour Relations Act ("Wagner Act"), the Banking Act, rural electrification, and breaking up utility holding companies. Programs that were later ended by the Supreme Court or the Conservative Coalition included WPA, NYA, the Resettlement Administration, and programs for retail price control, farm rescues, coal stabilization, and taxes on the rich and the Undistributed profits tax.
Huey Long (August 30, 1893 – September 10, 1935), nicknamed The Kingfish, was an American politician who served as the 40th Governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and as a member of the United States Senate from 1932 until his assassination in 1935. A Democrat, he was an outspoken populist who denounced the rich and the banks and called for "Share the Wealth." As the political boss of the state he commanded wide networks of supporters and was willing to take forceful action. He established the political prominence of the Long political family.
The Ludlow Amendment 1937 was a proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States which called for a national referendum on any declaration of war by Congress, except in cases when the United States had been attacked first. Representative Louis Ludlow introduced the amendment several times between 1935 and 1940. Supporters argued that ordinary people, who were called upon to fight and die during wartime, should have a direct vote on their country's involvement in military conflicts.
The Second World War 1939-1945 was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, though related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. In a state of "total war", the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust (during which approximately 11 million people were killed) and the strategic bombing of industrial and population centres (during which approximately one million people were killed, including the use of two nuclear weapons in combat), it resulted in an estimated 50 million to 85 million fatalities. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history.
Charles Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974), nicknamed Slim, Lucky Lindy, and The Lone Eagle, was an American aviator, author, inventor, military officer, explorer, and social activist. The first person who flew from New York to Paris across the Atlantic.

The Lend-Lease policy, formally titled "An Act to Further Promote the Defense of the United States" was a program under which the United States supplied Free France, Great Britain, the Republic of China, and later the USSR and other Allied nations with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and August 1945. It was signed into law on March 11, 1941 and ended in September 1945. In general the aid was free, although some hardware (such as ships) were returned after the war. In return, the U.S. was given leases on bases in Allied territory during the war.
Pearl Harbour is a lagoon harbour on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbour and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the United States Pacific Fleet. The U.S. government first obtained exclusive use of the inlet and the right to maintain a repair and coaling station for ships here in 1887. The attack on Pearl Harbour by the Empire of Japan on Sunday, December 7, 1941 brought the United States into World War II.
War in the Pacific 1941-1945 sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War, was the theatre of World War II which was fought in the Pacific and East Asia. It was fought over a vast area which included the Pacific Ocean and islands, the South West Pacific, South-East Asia, and in China. The Pacific War was fought by the United Sates Marine Corp against the Japanese Imperial Armed Forces, of which the first battle of this bloodthirsty conflict began on Guadalcanal, a small island in the Solomon Island chain, East of the Philippines and North of Australia.
Normandy Landings and the liberation of Europe 1944-1945 (codenamed Operation Neptune) were the landing operations on 6 June 1944 (termed D-Day) of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. The largest seaborne invasion in history, the operation began the invasion of German-occupied western Europe, led to the liberation of France from Nazi control, and contributed to an Allied victory in the war.
Yalta Conference sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, held February 4–11, 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Premier Joseph Stalin, respectively, for the purpose of discussing Europe's post-war reorganization. The conference convened in the Livadia Palace near Yalta in Crimea.
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the 33rd President of the United States (1945–53). As the final running mate of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944, Truman succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when Roosevelt died after months of declining health. Under Truman, the Allies successfully concluded World War II; in the aftermath of the conflict, tensions with the Soviet Union increased, marking the start of the Cold War.
The Atomic Bombs In August 1945, during the final stage of the Second World War, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The two bombings, which killed at least 129,000 people, remain the only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in history.