U.S. History Timeline: Progressive Era and World Wars - 1900?1949
Timeline: Progressive ERA &
World Wars1900-1949
Read about major events in U.S. History from 1900?1949, including the San Francisco earthquake, Great Depression, World War II, and more.
1900
September 8
- Galveston hurricane leaves an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 dead. According to the census, the nation's population numbers nearly 76 million.
1901
March 4
- McKinley's second inauguration.
September 6
- McKinley's is shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz in Buffalo, N.Y.
September 14
- He later dies from his wounds and is succeeded by his vice president, Theodore Roosevelt.
1903
Treaty signed November 17
- U.S. acquires Panama Canal Zone.
December 17
- Wright brothers make the first controlled, sustained flight in heavier-than-air aircraft at Kitty Hawk, N.C.Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk
1905
March 4
- Theodore Roosevelt's second inauguration.
1906
April 18
- San Francisco earthquake leaves 500 dead or missing and destroys about 4 sq mi of the city.
1909
March 4
- William Howard Taft is inaugurated as the 27th president.
- Mrs. Taft has 80 Japanese cherry trees planted along the banks of the Potomac River.Cherry Trees in Blossom at the Washington Monument
1913
March 4
- Woodrow Wilson is inaugurated as the 28th president.
April 8
- Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, providing for the direct election of U.S. senators by popular vote rather than by the state legislatures.
1914 ?
1918
- World War I: U.S. enters World War I, declaring war on Germany (April 6, 1917) and Austria-Hungary (Dec. 7, 1917) three years after conflict began in 1914.
Nov. 11, 1918
- Armistice ending World War I is signed.
1914
August 15
- Panama Canal opens to traffic.
1915
January 25
- First long distance telephone service, between New York and San Francisco, is demonstrated.
1916
Treaty signed Aug. 14
- U.S. agrees to purchase Danish West Indies (Virgin Islands) for $25 million.
November 7
- Jeannette Rankin of Montana is the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.Jeannette Rankin
1917
March 5
- Wilson's second inauguration.
May 15
- First regular airmail service begins, with one round trip a day between Washington, DC, and New York.
1918
- Worldwide influenza epidemic strikes; by 1920, nearly 20 million are dead. In U.S., 500,000 perish.
1919
January 13
- League of Nations meets for the first time; U.S. is not represented.
January 16
- Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and transportation of liquor. It is later repealed by the Twenty-First Amendment in 1933.
August 18
- Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, granting women the right to vote.
September 26
- President Wilson suffers a stroke.
November 19
- Treaty of Versailles, outlining terms for peace at the end of World War I, is rejected by the Senate.
1921
March 4
- Warren G. Harding is inaugurated as the 29th president.
July 2
- He signs resolution declaring peace with Austria and Germany.
1923
Aug. 2
- President Harding dies suddenly. He is succeeded by his vice president, Calvin Coolidge.
October
- Teapot Dome scandal breaks, as Senate launches an investigation into improper leasing of naval oil reserves during Harding administration.
1925
March 4
- Coolidge's second inauguration.
March 23
- Tennessee passes a law against the teaching of evolution in public schools.
July 10?25
- This sets the stage for the Scopes Monkey Trial.
1927
May 20?21
- Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight in his plane The Spirit of St. Louis.Charles Lindbergh
1929
March 4
- Herbert Hoover is inaugurated as the 31st president.
October 29
- Stock market crash precipitates the Great Depression.
1931
March 3
- The Star-Spangled Banner is adopted as the national anthem.
1932
January 12
- Hattie Wyatt Caraway of Arkansas is the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate, to fill a vacancy caused by the death of her husband. She is reelected in 1932 and 1938.Hattie Wyatt Caraway
May 21
- Amelia Earhart completes first solo nonstop transatlantic flight by a woman.
1933
January 23
- Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution, sometimes called the ?Lame Duck Amendment,? is ratified, moving the president's inauguration date from March 4 to Jan. 20.
March 4
- Franklin Roosevelt is inaugurated as the 32nd president.
March 9 ? June 16
- New Deal recovery measures are enacted by Congress.
December 5
- Twenty-First Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, repealing Prohibition.
1935
April 8
- Works Progress Administration is established.
August 14
- Social Security Act is passed.
- Bureau of Investigation (established 1908) becomes the Federal Bureau of Investigation under J. Edgar Hoover
1937
Jan. 20
- F. Roosevelt's second inauguration.
1938
June 25
- Fair Labor Standards Act is passed, setting the first minimum wage in the U.S. at 25 cents per hour.
1939 ?
1945
September 5, 1939
- World War II: U.S. declares its neutrality in European conflict.
January 20, 1941
- F. Roosevelt's third inauguration. He is the first and only president elected to a third term.
December 7, 1941
- Japan attacks Hawaii, Guam, and the Philippines.
December 8
- U.S. declares war on Japan.
December 11
- Germany and Italy declare war on the United States; U.S. reciprocates by declaring war on both countries.
October ? December 1942
- Allies invade North Africa.
September ? December 1943
- Allies invade Italy.
June 6, 1944
- Allies invade France on D-Day.
January 20, 1945
- F. Roosevelt's fourth inauguration
February 4 ? 11
- President Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin meet at Yalta in the USSR to discuss postwar occupation of Germany.
April 12
- President Roosevelt dies of a stroke and is succeeded by his vice president, Harry Truman.
May 7
- Germany surrenders unconditionally.
July 16
- First atomic bomb is detonated at Alamogordo, N.M.
July 17 ? August 2
- President Truman, Churchill, and Stalin meet at Potsdam, near Berlin, Germany, to demand Japan's unconditional surrender and to discuss plans for postwar Europe.
August 6
- U.S. drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.Bomb cloud at Hiroshima
August 9
- U.S. drops atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.
August 14
- Japan agrees to unconditional surrender.
September 2
- Japanese envoys sign surrender terms aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo harbor.
1945
October 24
- United Nations is established.
1946
July 4
- The Philippines, which had been ceded to the U.S. by Spain at the end of the Spanish-American War, becomes an independent republic.
1947
July 18
- Presidential Succession Act is signed into law by President Truman.
- Central Intelligence Agency is established.
1948
April 2
- Congress passes foreign aid bill including the Marshall Plan, which provides for European postwar recovery.
June 24
- Soviets begin blockade of Berlin in the first major crisis of the cold war.
June 26
- In response, U.S. and Great Britain begin airlift of food and fuel to West Berlin.
1949
Jan. 20
- Truman's second inauguration.
April 4
- North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is established.
- Soviets end blockade of Berlin (May 12), but airlift continues until Sept. 30.