Dr. Quintard Taylor, Jr.

President William McKinley is assassinated. He is shot on September 6 and dies on September 14. Later that day Vice President Theodore Roosevelt (New York) becomes the twenty-sixth President.

New York City journalists Lincoln Steffens and Ida Tarbell publish muckraking articles and books.

On December 17, the Wright Brothers fly the first airplane off the coast of North Carolina.

On October 6, U.S Marines occupy Cuba. They will remain there until 1909.

On April 18, the San Francisco Earthquake kills approximately 3,000 people.

The Pure Food and Drug Act becomes law on June 30.

On November 3, William Howard Taft of Ohio is elected the twenty-seventh President of the U.S.

The thirteenth U.S. census reveals that the nation's population on April 5 is 92,228,496

The Mexican Revolution begins on November 20. It will continue for the next decade and over one million Mexicans will die in the military and political violence.

On February 14, Arizona becomes the forty-eighth state.

On November 5, Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey is elected the twenty-eight President of the U.S.

On February 3, the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution, creating the federal income tax, becomes law with its ratification by New Mexico.

On June 26, Illinois Governor Edward F. Dunne signs law allowing the women of the state to vote in presidential elections only. Nonetheless it becomes the first state east of the Mississippi to extend voting right to women. Alaska Territory also grants women the right to vote.

On April 21, U.S. troops land in Veracruz, Mexico, beginning a six-month occupation.

The Federal Trade Commission is established on September 26.

On November 3, Montana and Nevada grant women the right to vote with approvals of new constitutions.

On November 7, Jeanette Rankin, a Montana Republican, becomes the first woman elected to Congress.

The fourteenth U.S. census reveals that the nation's population on January 5 is 106,021,527

On August 18, the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which grants women the right to vote, becomes law with its ratification by Tennessee.

On November 2, Warren G. Harding of Ohio is elected the twenty-ninth President of the U.S.

President Warren G. Harding dies in office on August 2. Later that day Vice President Calvin Coolidge (Massachusetts) becomes the thirtieth President of the U.S.

Schoolteacher John Thomas Scopes is convicted on July 21 of violating Tennessee's ban on teaching evolution in the "Scopes Monkey Trial."

Ernest Hemingway (Illinois) publishes The Sun Also Rises.

The first talking motion picture, The Jazz Singer, is released in Hollywood on October 6.

Ernest Hemingway publishes A Farwell to Arms.

The fifteenth U.S. census reveals that the nation's population on April 1 is 122,775,046.

Chicago gangster Al Capone is convicted of tax evasion on October 18 and is later sent to the federal penitentiary in Atlanta.

On January 23, the Twentieth Amendment, which sets dates for the beginning of presidential and congressional terms, becomes law with its ratification by Utah.

On March 5, President Roosevelt declares a four-day Bank Holiday, closing all banking institutions in the U.S. to stop the banking panic.

On May 12, Congress passes the Federal Emergence Relief Act which authorizes immediate grants to states for relief projects.

Congress passes the Home Owners Refinancing Act on June 13 to provide mortgage money and other assistance to homeowners.

On June 16, Congress passes the Banking Act of 1933 which establishes the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. This is the final piece of major legislation created during the Hundred Days Session.

On November 9, President Roosevelt by executive order creates the Civil Works Administration (CWA ) to provide work for the unemployed.

On January 30, Congress passes the Gold Reserve Act to give the government control over fluctuations in the value of the dollar.

On May 11, the Roosevelt Administration established the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) to help bring electricity to previously unserved areas.

On August 14, President Roosevelt signs into law the Social Security Act.

On August 26, President Roosevelt signs the Public Utilities Act which gives federal agencies greater power in regulating gas and electric companies.

On September 15, the Nuremburg Laws are implemented against German Jews.

On January 6, the U.S. Supreme Court in U.S. v. Butler rules that the Agricultural Adjustment Act is unconstitutional.

On March 1, Congress passes the Supreme Court Retirement Act which permits Supreme Court Justices to retire at 70 with full pay.

On May 24, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Social Security Act is constitutional.

The United States institutes the first peacetime draft on October 16.

Japan attacks Pearl Harbor on December 7 and the U.S. enters World War II the following day.

On December 18, the U.S Supreme Court in Korematsu v. United States affirms the right of the government to intern Japanese aliens and Japanese citizens during a war emergency.

President Franklin Roosevelt dies in office on April 12 while visiting Warm Springs, Georgia. Later that day Vice President Harry S. Truman of Missouri becomes the thirty-third President of the U.S.

Germany surrenders on V-E Day, May 8.

The U.S. Congress officially recognizes the Pledge of Allegiance on December 28.

The Employment Act of 1946, signed into law on February 20 by President Harry S. Truman, creates the Council of Economic Advisors.

Dr. Benjamin Spock publishes The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care. The book sells over 25 million copies and revolutionizes childcare in the U.S.

The Truman Doctrine is announced by President Harry Truman in a speech to Congress on March 12.

The McCarran Internal Security Act is passed overwhelmingly by Congress despite President Truman's veto of the measure on September 22.

On April 11, President Truman fires General Douglas McArthur.

Ralph Ellison (Oklahoma) publishes Invisible Man.

On November 4, General Dwight David Eisenhower (Kansas) becomes the thirty-fourth President of the U.S.

Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is first performed on March 24.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is founded under the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King on January 10.

The Little Rock School Desegregation Crisis begins on September 4. President Eisenhower calls in the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army to protect the nine children attempting to integrate the school. Elements of the Division remain there until May 1958.

John Kenneth Galbraith (Massachusetts) publishes The Affluent Society.

Sit-in demonstrations protesting racial segregation and discrimination begin in Greensboro, North Carolina on February 1 and sweep across the South.

Massachusetts Senator John Kennedy defeats Vice President Richard Nixon on November 8 in one of the closest elections in U.S. history. The senator becomes the thirty-fifth President of the United States.

On March 29, the Twenty-third Amendment to the Constitution, which grants Washington, D.C., electoral votes, becomes law with its ratification by Ohio.

The Cuban Missile Crisis runs from October 14 to November 20.

Martin Luther King delivers his "I Have a Dream" Speech at the March on Washington, August 28.

The Clean Air Act is signed by President Johnson on December 17.

On February 9, the British rock group, the Beatles, appear on the Ed Sullivan Show.

The National Organization for Women (NOW) is founded on June 30, in Washington, D.C.

On February 10, the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution, which defines presidential disability procedures, becomes law with its ratification by Nevada.

U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated in Los Angeles on June 5.

Former Vice President Richard Nixon (California) defeats both Hubert Humphrey (Minnesota) and George Wallace (Alabama) for the Presidency on November 5 to become the thirty-seventh President of the US.

The nineteenth U.S. census reveals the nation's population on April 1 is 203,302,032.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was founded on December 3.

On July 1, the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the Constitution, which lowers the voting age to 18, becomes law with its ratification by Oklahoma.

The Equal Rights Amendment is passed by Congress on March 22 but is never ratified by the required number of states.

The Treaty of Paris signed on January 27 creates a cease-fire in Vietnam and initiates the U.S. withdrawal from that nation.

Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns on October 10 and President Nixon appoints Michigan Congressman Gerald Ford as his replacement.

The Endangered Species Act is passed on December 28.

Former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter is elected the thirty-ninth President of the United States on Nov. 2.

Camp David Accord between Egypt and Israel on September 17 leads to a period of peace between the nations that continues until the present day.

On November 4, former California Governor Ronald Reagan defeats incumbent President Jimmy Carter to become the fortieth President of the United States.

On September 25, Sandra Day O'Connor becomed the first woman justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.  She is appointed by President Ronald Reagan.

On July 12, Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale (Minnesota) chooses New York Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro as his vice presidential running mate. Ferraro becomes the first woman and the first Italian American to appear on a major party ticket.

On January 28, the Space Shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Beginning with Poland on March 9, most Eastern European nations oust communist governments.

On October 23, U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Clarence Thomas is appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court after controversial confirmation process.

On November 3, former Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton defeats President George H.W. Bush to become the forty-second President of the U.S.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Canada, the United States, and Mexico, is signed into law by President Bill Clinton on December 8.

On November 30, over 40,000 demonstrators protested the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle in what became the largest public demonstrations of the 1990s.

On May 24, President Bill Clinton signs legislation normalizing trade relations with China.