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Invention of the Mechanical Reaper
The mechanical reaper was invented by Cyrus McCormick in 1831. This machine was used by farmers to harvest crops mechanically. -
Cornelius Vanderbilt became a railroad tycoon
In the 1860s, he shifted his focus to the railroad industry, where he built another empire and helped make railroad transportation more efficient. When Vanderbilt died, he was worth more than $100 million. -
Beginning of the Civil War.
The war began when the Confederates bombarded Union soldiers at Fort Sumter, South Carolina on April 12, 1861. The war ended in Spring, 1865. Robert E. Lee surrendered the last major Confederate army to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865. -
Homestead Act
the Homestead Act encouraged Western migration by providing settlers 160 acres of public land. In exchange, homesteaders paid a small filing fee and were required to complete five years of continuous residence before receiving ownership of the land. -
End of Civil War
The war ended in Spring, 1865. Robert E. Lee surrendered the last major Confederate army to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865. The last battle was fought at Palmito Ranch, Texas, on May 13, 1865. -
Chinese workers helped build the Transcontinental Railroad
The First Transcontinental Railroad was a 1,912-mile continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail network at Council Bluffs, Iowa with the Pacific coast at the Oakland Long Wharf on San Francisco Bay. -
Andrew Carnegie created a steel company
In the early 1870s, Carnegie co-founded his first steel company, near Pittsburgh. -
J.P. Morgan becomes a robber baron in banking
Born into a prominent New England family in 1837, J.P. Morgan began his career in the New York financial industry in the late 1850s. He co-founded the banking firm that became J.P. Morgan & Co. in 1871 -
John D. Rockefeller created an oil company
He built his first oil refinery near Cleveland and in 1870 incorporated the Standard Oil Company. By 1882 he had a near-monopoly of the oil business in the U.S., but his business practices led to the passing of antitrust laws -
Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone
Alexander Graham Bell was a Scottish-born scientist and inventor best known for inventing the first working telephone in 1876 -
Thomas Edison invented the light bulb
Edison and his team of researchers in Edison's laboratory in Menlo Park, N.J., tested more than 3,000 designs for bulbs between 1878 and 1880. In November 1879, Edison filed a patent for an electric lamp with a carbon filament -
Chinese exclusion act passed
In the spring of 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur. This act provided an absolute 10-year moratorium on Chinese labor immigration. -
Ellis island opened
Ellis Island officially opened as an immigration station on January 1, 1892 -
Immigration restriction act passed
The Immigration Restriction Act was drafted and passed in the House of Representatives in Federal Parliament in 1901. -
The Wright Brothers invented the airplane
On December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright made four brief flights at Kitty Hawk with their first powered aircraft. The Wright brothers had invented the first successful airplane. -
First subway system created
The first underground line of the subway opened on October 27, 1904. -
Urbanization began in America
The Midwestern and Western United States became urban majority in the 1910 -
Henry Ford developed the assembly line
On December 1, 1913, Henry Ford installs the first moving assembly line for the mass production of an entire automobile. His innovation reduced the time it took to build a car from more than 12 hours to two hours and 30 minutes. -
Old immigration ended
Immediately after the end of World War I (1914–18) and into the early 1920s, Congress changed the nation's basic policy about immigration. -
New immigration ended
