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The Dead Rabbits riot was a two-day civil disturbance in New York City evolving from what was originally a small-scale street fight between members of the Dead Rabbits and the Bowery Boys into a citywide gang war, which occurred July 4–5, 1857. -
The Ku Klux Klan, commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian extremist, white supremacist, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction in the devastated South. Various historians have characterized the Klan as America's first terrorist group. -
John D. Rockefeller created the Standard Oil Company on January 10, 1870, in Ohio, with his partners and brother, after a decade of growth in his oil refining business. Through shrewd, aggressive strategies focused on efficiency, consolidation, and vertical integration, he built Standard Oil into an enormous monopoly that controlled about 90% of the U.S. oil refining market by the early 1880s. -
Alexander Graham Bell was granted the patent for the telephone on March 7, 1876. This patent, US Patent No. 174,465, followed an application filed on February 14, 1876, for an invention called an “Improvement in Telegraphy”. Three days later, on March 10, 1876, Bell made the first telephone call to his assistant, Thomas Watson, saying, "Mr Watson, come here—I want to see you". -
The Great Oklahoma Land Race, or Land Rush, was a series of government-sanctioned events, beginning in 1889, where thousands of homesteaders rushed on horseback and in wagons to claim available land in what is now Oklahoma. -
Ellis Island opened as the United States' first federal immigration station on January 1, 1892, processing over 12 million immigrants over 62 years at its New York location. Immigrants arriving at the facility underwent medical and legal inspections before being admitted to the country. The first immigrant processed was 13-year-old Annie Moore, who arrived from Ireland. -
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a 1900 children's novel written by author L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. It is the first novel in the Oz series of books. A Kansas farm girl named Dorothy ends up in the magical Land of Oz after she and her pet dog Toto are swept away from their home by a cyclone. -
J.P. Morgan did not exactly "found" U.S. Steel; instead, he orchestrated its formation in 1901 by merging Carnegie Steel and other companies he controlled, such as Federal Steel and National Tube, into the United States Steel Corporation. He purchased Andrew Carnegie's steel company for $492 million, creating the largest company in the world at the time and the first billion-dollar company. -
Theodore Roosevelt's tenure as the 26th president of the United States began on September 14, 1901, and expired on March 4, 1909. Roosevelt, a Republican, took office upon the assassination of President William McKinley, under whom he had served as vice president, and secured a full term in the 1904 election. -
Based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, it was founded by Henry Ford on June 16, 1903. Ford Motor Company would go on to become one of the largest and most profitable companies in the world. -
Ida Tarbell began publishing her series of investigative articles on the Standard Oil Company in McClure's Magazine in November 1902, which were collected and published as the two-volume book, The History of the Standard Oil Company, in 1904. This seminal work of muckraking journalism detailed the company's unethical business practices under John D. Rockefeller, sparking public outrage and contributing to antitrust legislation and the eventual breakup of the Standard Oil monopoly. -
January 21, 1910, serving as the primary point of entry for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Pacific Rim countries until its closure in 1940. Initially intended to welcome immigrants, the isolated island location was used to enforce restrictive anti-Asian laws, leading to lengthy interrogations, detentions, and frequent exclusion of Chinese immigrants -
The 16th Amendment was officially ratified on February 3, 1913, giving Congress the power to levy and collect income taxes without apportionment among the states based on population. This crucial amendment settled the constitutional question of how to tax income and reversed a 1895 Supreme Court decision that had found an earlier income tax unconstitutional. -
It established the direct election of U.S. senators by the popular vote of the citizens in each state.
It also addressed the process for filling vacancies, allowing a state's governor to make a temporary appointment until a special election can be held. -
May 1, 1931, with a dedication ceremony where President Herbert Hoover pressed a button from the White House to illuminate the building's lights. The impressive skyscraper, built in a record 410 days, was dedicated to the public and quickly became an iconic symbol of New York City.