The 1900s Government, Politics, and Law: Chronology

1900:     March 24 The Carnegie Steel Corporation is incorporated and becomes the nation's largest corporation.

1900:     April 30 Under an act of Congress, Hawaii becomes a territory of the United States. It joins Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Alaska as American territories.

1900:     November 6 Republican presidential candidate William McKinley and his running mate, Theodore Roosevelt, defeat Democrat William Jennings Bryan.

1901:     March 3 U.S. Steel is incorporated and is hailed as the nation's first billion-dollar corporation.

1901:     September 6 President McKinley is shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz while attending the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, New York. Theodore Roosevelt becomes the twenty-sixth president of the United States.

1902:     May 12 Pennsylvania's anthracite coal miners strike when mine owners reject their calls for a wage increase and an eight-hour workday. The strike continues until October and drastically limits the nation's coal supply.

1902:     June 17 Congress enacts the Newlands Reclamation Act, which allows for the construction of irrigation dams throughout the West.

1902:     July 1 Congress recognizes the Philippines as an unincorporated American territory; its citizens are given limited protections under the U.S. Constitution.

1903:     January 5 The Supreme Court, in Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock, rules that Congress shall have total control over Indian lands; this decision violates earlier treaties.

1903:     April 27 The Supreme Court upholds a clause in the Alabama constitution that effectively prohibits African Americans from voting.

1903:     May 23 Wisconsin becomes the first state to hold direct primary elections.

1904:     April 22 The Panama Canal officially comes under the control of the U.S. government.

1904:     September 21 A woman is arrested for smoking publicly in New York City.

1904:     October 19 The American Tobacco Company is formed by the merger of the Consolidated Tobacco Company and American & Continental Tobacco.

1904:     November 8 Theodore Roosevelt is elected president of the United States. Republican majorities in both houses of Congress are increased.

1905:     June 27 The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) is organized by a combination of miners, socialists, and anarchists who are dedicated to overthrowing the capitalist system.

1905:     July 9 The "Niagara Movement" is established at Niagara Falls, Canada, where a group of black leaders (including W.E.B. Du Bois) advocate full civil and political rights for African Americans.

1905:     August 9-September 5 President Roosevelt works with Japan and Russia to seek a negotiated solution to the war they have been waging since February 1904. Roosevelt is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.

1906:     March 17 President Roosevelt coins the term "muckrakers" to define journalists who point out only the faults of large corporations without commenting on their positive social benefits.

1906:     June 30 Congress passes the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act.

1906:     September 22 Whites riot in Atlanta after hearing rumors of black men attacking white women. Twenty-one people are killed and the city is placed under martial law.

1906:     November 9-26 President Roosevelt is the first president to journey outside the United States when he travels to Panama to inspect the canal project.

1907:     January 26 Congress forbids corporations from making contributions to election campaigns of national candidates.

1907:     March 14 President Roosevelt bars Japanese immigration into the United States. His authority to do so stems from the recently passed Immigration Act.

1907:     November 16 Oklahoma becomes the forty-sixth state to join the union.

1908:     February 20 The Illinois Supreme Court holds that picketing is illegal.

1908:     May 28 The Child Labor Law for the District of Columbia, which prohibits the labor of children, is passed by Congress.

1908:     November 3 Republican William Howard Taft is elected the twenty-seventh president of the United States.

1909:     July 12 Congress proposes the Sixteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which authorizes a federal income tax. It is not ratified by the states until 1913.

1909:     September Workers at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City are fired for attempting to form a union.

1909:     September 27 President Taft continues Roosevelt's land conservation policies as he prohibits drilling on three million acres of oil-rich land.