1910s Flashcards
Joseph Gurney Cannon
Republican Speaker of the House (1903-1911), was an old guard Republican, who prevented any progressive Republican legislation from being passed. Unprecedented abuses of power led to him being stripped of his position.
William D. Boyce
Founder of the Boy Scouts of America (1910).
Los Angeles Times bombing
The 1910 dynamiting of the L.A. Times building by labor leaders.
Jack Johnson
The first African-American heavyweight boxing champion. His 1910 defeat of white James Jeffries, nicknamed The Great White Hope, led to bitter white race riots across the U.S.
Edward Douglass White
A centrist-conservative Democrat appointed to Chief Justice by Pres. Taft in 1910.
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire
Around 140 young women and girls died in this 1911 factory fire leading to workplace reforms.
Apportionment Act of 1911
Set the number of seats in the House of Representatives at 435.
Great Blue Norther of November 11, 1911
A cold snap that affected the central U.S., states broke record highs and record lows on the same day.
Yukio Ozaki
Tokyo mayor gifted cherry blossom trees to the U.S. in 1912 to symbolize friendship between Japan and the U.S.
RMS Titanic
“Unsinkable” British ship which sank n 1912 and brought with Her over a thousand victims.
Progressive Party
A party formed in 1912 after Teddy Roosevelt lost the Republican party nomination to incumbent Taft. AKA, Bull Moose Party.
United States presidential election, 1912
Democrat Woodrow Wilson defeats incumbant Republican Taft, who comes in third after Progressive Party nominee Teddy Roosevelt. Socialist Eugene V. Debs attracted 1,000,000 votes this election.
Little Theatre Movement
This theater movement began around 1912 as a response to the growing popularity of cinema, and featured very close, personal plays performed for small audiences.
Sea Scouting
A Boy Scouts program, founded in 1912, which allowed young adults to learn about a life at sea.
16th Amendment
(1913) Gave the federal government the ability to collect income tax.
Inez Milholland
Suffragist and leader of the Women’s Suffrage Parade of 1913.
Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913
A segregated suffrage parade coinciding with Wilson’s inauguration, in which many women were mistreated by the crowds.
Alice Paul
Suffragist, main leader and strategist of the 1910’s campaign to pass the 19th Amendment. After 1920, Paul led the National Woman’s Party and campaigned for the Equal Rights Amendment. She was successful in having gender included in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The Armory Show
A 1913 New York City exhibition of Fauvism, Cubism, and Futurism movements. Angered Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, drew a distinction between American art, and the more sophisticated art of Europe.
17th Amendment
(1913) Passed to ensure the direct election of U.S. senators.
Leo Frank
A Jewish-American who was lynched in 1915 for the alleged rape and murder of a young woman.
Woolworth Building
A Manhattan skyscraper constructed in 1913 which for more than a decade was the tallest in the world.
September Morn
A painting by Paul Émile Chabas depicting a nude woman, aggressively targeted by Anthony Comstock in 1913.
Moro Rebellion
Armed conflict from 1899-1913, in response to US occupation of the Philippines. Heavy Moro casualties, an example of imperialist U.S. aggression.
Revenue Act of 1913
Wilson signed this law into effect, reinstating the income tax and lowering tariff rates.
Indianapolis Streetcar Strike of 1913
A breakdown in public order triggered by a strike of streetcar operators.
Great Lakes Storm of 1913
This, the worst storm to ever hit the Great Lakes region, resulted in millions of dollars of losses.
Camel
The first packaged cigarette company, since 1913.
Tampico Affair
(1914) Results in a breakdown of diplomatic relations between the US and Mexico, caused by misunderstandings between American and Mexican sailors, and the refusal of Mexico to give a 21-gun salute.
Ludlow Massacre
The violent deaths of 20 people, 11 of them children, during an attack by the Colorado National Guard on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado on April 20, 1914.
Ypiranga incident
A German ship was briefly captured in 1914 while America was occupying Veracruz as a result of the Tampico Affair.
Babe Ruth
He was a famous baseball player who played for the Yankees from 1914-1935. He helped developed a rising popularity for professional sports.
Harrison Narcotics Tax Act
1914 U.S. Federal Law which regulated and taxed the production of opiates and Coca.
Typhoid Mary
First person in U.S. identified as an asymptomatic carrier of Typhoid. Quarantined in 1915, becoming a minor U.S. celebrity.
Vanceboro international bridge bombing
A failed 1915 attempt by imperial German spies to destroy a U.S.-Canadian bridge.
The Birth of a Nation
An extremely racist 1915 film which depicted white actors in blackface and proclaimed the KKK as heroes. Despite its racist content, it’s been praised as an innovative film masterpiece. Led to the regrowth of the KKK in America, which would reach soaring heights during the 1920s.
RMS Lusitania
A British oceanliner sunk by German U-boats in 1915. 128 Americans died, changing public opinion about World War I and sparking protests. The British government maintained there was no ammunition on board the ship until 1982, when they finally admitted they had been lying.
William Jennings Bryant
Dominant voice in the Democratic Party. Responsible for folding the Populist Movement into the party. He was the three time nominee in 1896, 1900, and 1908. He was the Secretary of State from 1913-1915, but resigned due to his personal Presbyterian pacifist philosophy conflicting with the U.S.’s handling of the sinking of the Lusitania. Bryan was an enemy of the banks and the gold standard. He demanded free silver for the people. In the 1920s, he was a peace advocate, who supported Prohibition and famously opposed Darwinism in the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial.
United States occupation of Haiti
From 1915-1934 the U.S. occupied Haiti. Haiti was in political turmoil from 1911-1915, with a small group of German oligarchs controlling 80% of the country’s international commerce. Many Germans married native Haitians, starting mixed-race families. They were seen as a threat to American business interests. In 1915, the pro-American dictator Jean Vilbrun Guillaume Sam ordered executions of many educated and prominent mixed-race Haitians. The people revolted and lynched Pres. Sam. Anti-American president Rosalvo Babo rose in his place, and Wilson took immediate action to preserve interests, especially the Haitian American Sugar Company. The occupation was touted as “preserving peace.” It ended when the government approved a new Constitution which allowed for foreign ownership of goods.
Carl Sandburg
An American writer and editor best known for his poetry, for which he won two Pulitzers, and his biography of Abraham Lincoln. Much of his poetry focused on Chicago.
SS Eastland
A Chicago passenger ship that capsized in 1915 and left over 800 dead.
Venustiano Carranza
Mexican Revolutionary leader, whose presidency was eventually recognized by the United States.
Audrey Munson
An actress who was the first American woman to appear topless in a film in 1915’s critically praised “Inspiration”. Nicknamed The American Venus, she’s the basis of many statues.
Jimmy Lavender
Cubs player who pitched a no-hitter in 1915.
Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad
(1916) Upheld the federal income tax under the 16th Amendment.
Pancho Villa
A Mexican revolutionary whose violent actions on the New Mexican border in 1916 caused Wilson to deploy 12000 troops to find and kill him. They were recalled nine months later due to World War 1.
Newton D. Baker
Wilson’s rather centrist Secretary of War from 1916-1921.
John J. Pershing
Lead America into the Mexican Revolutionary War and World War I. He was promoted to General of the Armies. His reliance on frontal assaults has been blamed for causing unnecessarily high casualties.
Louis Brandeis
First Jewish person on the Supreme Court (1916-1939). His nomination was bitterly contested due to his pro-social justice opinions. He helped establish the Right to Privacy in the 1890s.
United States v. Forty Barrels and Twenty Kegs of Coca-Cola
(1916) Decided that the U.S. government can’t force Coca-Cola to remove caffeine from its product.
Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916
Part of the Great American mythos, these attacks left seven dead in New Jersey.
Black Tom explosion
(1916) An act of sabotage against American ammunition supplies by Germans so the ammunitions couldn’t be given to the Allies.
Jones Law
(1916) Provided a framework for a Filipino government. Provided that independence would be granted as soon as a stable government could be established.
Margaret Sanger
Founded American Birth Control League in 1916; which became Planned Parenthood in the 1940s. Advocated birth control.
Mary
An elephant who was hung in 1916 for killing her handler.
United States presidential election, 1916
Incumbent Democrat Wilson narrowly defeated Republican Charles E. Hughes by campaigning that he kept the nation out of war with Mexico and Europe.
Jeannette Rankin
Elected from Montana in 1916 to be the first woman in Congress. Re-elected in 1940, casting the sole vote against World War I following the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Kingsland Explosion
A 1917 fire at a New Jersey munitions factory which precipitated to American involvement in World War I. It was discovered that Germany was not involved.
United States Virgin Islands
Purchased from the Dutch for $25 million in 1916.
Zimmermann Telegram
A 1917 leaked proposal from the German Empire to the Mexican government to invade the United States. Intercepted by the British. Mexican invasion was never a realistic proposal.
cloture
A method by which to end the filibuster, adopted by Congress in 1917 at Pres. Wilson’s request.
Selective Service Act of 1917
Authorized the federal government to create a national army. Propagandist George Creel used labor leader Samuel Gompers to amp up public support for the effort.
Espionage Act of 1917
Forbid false statements that intended to interfere with the U.S. military forces, or materials to be mailed if they violated the law.
Schenck v. United States
(1919) Declared that the Espionage Act of 1917 was constitutional. The court unanimously held that criticism of the draft was not protected by the First Amendment, because it created a clear and present danger to the enlistment and recruiting service of the U.S. armed forces during a state of war.
East St. Louis Riots
A 1917 outbreak of labor- and race-related violence in Illinois, spurred by the migration of black laborers to the north.
Green Corn Rebellion
“Radicalized” whites, blacks, and Native Americans in Oklahoma, protested against the draft in 1917. The resulting controversy led to public discreditation of the Socialist Party of America.
Night of Terror
In 1917, a prison superintendent orders the brutalization of suffragist inmates.
First Red Scare
A period, which peaked in 1919-1920, during which Americans were terrified of Bolshevism and anarchism. United States Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer violently suppressed radicals with raids, exaggerated rhetoric, illegal raids and arrests, and deportations of hundreds of suspected radicals.
Fourteen Points
A series of proposals outlined in 1918 in which U.S. president Woodrow Wilson outlined a plan for achieving a lasting peace after World War I.
1918 flu pandemic
Killed 50-100 million people, mostly healthy young people.
Sedition Act of 1918
added to Espionage Act to cover “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about the American form of government, the Constitution, the flag, or the armed forces.
Malbone Street Wreck
A deadly 1918 New York subway crash which lead to rapid transit reformations.
Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
A cartoon, popular from 1918 into the 1930s, which dealt with bizarre and unbelievable (sometimes fabricated) facts and events.
Native American Church
An indigenous religion which includes the use of peyote by its members.
Boston Molasses Disaster
A large molasses storage tank broke, killing 21 people in 1919.
18th Amendment
Established prohibition, beginning in 1920, led to the rise of organized crime, and a situation in which alcohol consumption became used mostly by members of the middle- and upper-class.
Seattle General Strike
A five-day 1919 work stoppage incident, in which the city of Seattle became something of a communist society. Was spun as radical and subversive by the media.
Palmer Raids
During the Red Scare, from 1919-1920, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer arrested numerous prominent leftists.
1919 United States anarchist bombings
Bombings and attempted bombings carried out by followers of anarchist Luigi Galleani, contributed to the First Red Scare. Bomb packages were mailed to Attorney General Palmer and Ole Hanson, hardline mayor of Seattle during that city’s general strike.
19th Amendment
(1920) Gave women the right to vote.
Three-way splintering of the Socialist Party of America
Dying as a result of the First Red Scare and the imprisonment of Eugene V. Debs, the party splits into three groups, socialists, native-born communists, and foreign-born communists. Weakening their influence going into the 1920s.
Steel strike of 1919
A very weak strike occurring during the First Red Scare which eventually failed.
Omaha Race Riot of 1919
During this insane riot, Omaha’s mayor narrowly escaped being lynched.
The Red Summer
In 1919 during the First Red Scare, there were numerous anti-black race riots in major American cities.
Edith Wilson
The wife of Woodrow Wilson who virtually ran the White House for two years while her husband was incapacitated by a stroke.
Black Sox Scandal
Refers to an incident that took place during the 1919 World Series where members of the Chicago White Sox intentionally lost for money.
Volstead Act
Wilson’s veto failed to stop this Prohibition bill from being passed in 1919. Essentially established the guidelines for Prohibition.
Treaty of Versailles
This 1919 peace treaty ending World War I was never ratified by the U.S., due to the anti-Wilson Republican backlash of the 1920s.
Centralia Massacre
This 1919 conflict between the American Legion and workers who were members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or “Wobblies”) resulted in six deaths, additional wounded, multiple prison terms, and an ongoing and especially bitter dispute over the motivations and events that precipitated the massacre.
Newport sex scandal
A 1919 sex scandal in which FDR was accused of negligence when he hired young Navy seamen to seduce and weed out gay seamen.
