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Seven months into a strike at the Rockefeller-owned Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation, after the National Guard has been called in to break the strike, machine guns begin firing on the workers' tent city and fire breaks out, killing 20 men, women, and children. This incident gives rise to demonstrations across the country, and by the time President Woodrow Wilson sends in federal troops to restore order, 66 people have been killed.
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Clayton Anti-trust Act exempts organized labor from anti-trust restrictions, which had been used against labor by companies in the past.
The act greatly angered big business leaders and factory owners, and was praised by union leaders and workers earning the name The Worker’s Magna Carta because it gave them the rights they had always wanted. -
The German Embassy publishes a warning in some newspapers to tell passengers that travel on Allied ships is “at their own risk.” The Lusitania, a is mentioned specifically in some of the discussion about the warning in the week leading up to its departure.
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Losing 1198 out of 1924 passengers. Although tensions run high even after Germany offers condolences, Wilson says, "There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight." The U. S. demands reparations, but Germany delays.
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In a famous case, Leo Frank, who had been convicted of the murder of Mary Phagan in a climate of anti-Semitism, is lynched in Marietta, Georgia. The group responsible calls itself the Knights of Mary Phagan, which becomes a revived Ku Klux Klan.
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In Mexico, Pancho Villa kills 18 American mining engineers whom he has forced off a train.Two months later, he raids towns in New Mexico with a force of 1500 men, killing 17 Americans. General John Pershing pursues Villa across the border in a two-year unsuccessful effort to capture him.
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The first federal law to provide for employee compensation, a law thathad been actively fought for for over 30 years
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Jeannette Rankin of Montana is the first woman elected to the House of Representatives.
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Wilson campaigns for re-election on the slogan "He kept us out of the war." He wins the election.
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Immigration Act requiring a literacy test for immigrants and excluding Asiatic workers other than Japanese is passed over Wilson's veto.
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On February 24 Britain released the Zimmerman telegram to Wilson, and news of the telegram was published widely in the American press on March 1.
Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann sent it to the German Minister to Mexico, von Eckhardt, offering United States territory to Mexico in return for joining the German cause. -
Saying that "the world must be made safe for democracy," Wilson asks Congress to declare war on Germany.
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The Selective Service Act is passed, providing for the concription of men between 20 and 30 for military service. The first American troops arrive in France in October.
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Wilson proposes "Fourteen Points" for peace in the world.
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In the fall of 1918, a deadly influenza epidemic strikes; before it ends in 1919, it kills an estimated 20 to 40 million people worldwide.
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At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of the year, all combatants put down the weapons and ended the most destructive war in history.
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Signing of the Versailles Treaty, which the Senate later refuses to ratify.
Members of Congress are worried that being in the League of Nations, a provision of the treay, will endanger U.S. soveriegnty. -
Though the govenment and many citizens worried about the subversive nature of the Communist Party of the United States, it never claimed more than 5,000 members.
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President Wilson suffers a stroke and never fully recovers. Many speculate his frustration over the League of Nations along with his whirlwind tour to gather support for it caused the stroke.
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The 18th Amendment goes into effect and is enforced by the Volstead Act.
Liquor can no longer be transported, made, bought or sold in the USA.
