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Fabulous 1890s Weekend |
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189O'S TRIVIA |
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The 1890s was a colorful decade in history that helped shape the face of American enterprise and culture for nearly 50 years. It was the beginning of an end to the days of the old west, cowboy shootouts and Indian uprisings, the horse and buggy and a primarily agrarian society. The dramatic changes would reshape America from a fledgling nation to a modern industrialized superpower. 1890 JULY: IDAHO AND WYOMING ADMITTED AS 43RD AND 44TH STATES DECEMBER 15: SIOUX CHIEF SITTING BULL KILLED BY INDIAN POLICE DURING ATTEMPT BY ARMY TO PREVENT GHOST DANCE CEREMONIES *December 29: 200 Sioux are massacred at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. BUFFALO BILL’S WILD WEST SHOW INCREASES IN POPULARITY WITH AMERICAN AUDIENCES EMILY DICKINSON POEMS *Her sister had discovered Writings after her death in 1886. *Publisher reluctant for fear her unconventional style will not be acceptable to the public, alters many of her poems. *Critics hostile, but public acceptance leads to publication of all poems found. U.S. POST OFFICE PROHIBITS MAILING OF LEO TOLSTOY’S, THE KREUTZER SONATA *Theodore Roosevelt, Gov. of New York, calls Tolstoy a "sexual and moral pervert." 1891 MARCH 4: MOB STORMS NEW ORLEANS JAIL AND LYNCHES 11 ITALIAN IMMIGRANTS, OF WHOM THREE ARE ITALIAN NATIONALS, AFTER COURTS FREED THREE SICILIANS ACCUSED AND ACQUITTED OF MURDER OF LOCAL SHERIFF *After federal government refuses to intervene on grounds that crime is a state matter, Italy recalls its ambassador to U. S. and U. S. recalls its ambassador from Italy. * 1882: Matter settled when U. S. pays Italy $25,000 indemnity. MAY 5: CARNEGIE HALL, ENDOWED BY ANDREW CARNEGIE, OPENS IN NEW YORK CITY JULY: THOMAS A. EDISON PATENTS HIS KINETOSCOPIC CAMERA WHICH TAKES MOVING PICTURES ON A STRIP OF FILM * Movies, called peep shows, are seen by one person at a time who peeps into a box and turns a crank. JAMES A. NAISMITH OF SPRINGFIELD, MASS INVENTS BASKETBALL AS AN INDOOR WINTER SUBSTITUTE FOR FOOTBALL AND BASEBALL IN YMCA TRAINING COLLEGE WHITCOMB L. JUDSON PATENTS THE ZIPPER 1892 JULY 6: HOMESTEAD STRIKE * Strikers protesting wage cuts and demanding recognition of their union fired on Pinkertons hired to break the strike. * 10 killed and many wounded. * July 9: Governor of Pennsylvania sends in National Guard troopers to keep order. * Troopers remain at the mill for three months until strike is broken. * Workers return as nonunion men. * Successfully prevented organization of steel mills for 40 years. SEPTEMBER: TOOL AND BICYCLE MAKERS FRANK AND CHARLES DURYEA BUILD FIRST GAS POWERED AUTOMOBILE IN U.S. * Test indoors for fear of ridicule. * Engine too weak for success, builds a more powerful one the next year. * 1893 Henry Ford tests his first automobile. OCTOBER 15: PRESIDENT HARRISON OPENS 1.8 MILLION ACRE CROW RESERVATION IN MONTANA TO SETTLEMENT NOVEMBER 8: DEMOCRAT GROVER CLEVELAND ELECTED * Democrats gain control of both houses of Congress. A. CONAN DOYLE, THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES PUBLISHED IN U.S. 1893 INAUGURATION OF GROVER CLEVELAND (DEMOCRAT, N.Y.) * Previously served as President from 1885-1889 APRIL 21: AT AGE TWENTY-SIX, FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT OPENS ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN FIRM AND COMPLETES HIS FIRST HOME UNDER HIS OWN NAME APRIL 21: FINANCIAL PANIC OF 1893 BEGINS * Gold reserves fall below safe minimum ($100 Million) - national treasury drained because of sales of gold securities to foreign investors and effect of McKinley tariff and high veterans' pensions on treasury. * June 27: Stock Market Crashes--reaches new low. * By end of year, gold reserves decline to $80 million. * 600 banks fail, 15,000 businesses are bankrupted, and one-third of all railroads are broke. * Depression and widespread unemployment last until 1897. NOVEMBER: PATENT ON BELL TELEPHONE EXPIRES * Ends Bell Telephone Company monopoly on phone service. * In short time many small companies begin service in areas not served by Bell. 1894 APRIL 30: COXEY'S ARMY REACHES WASHINGTON, D. C. * 500 unemployed men led by Jacob S. Coxey of Ohio. * Demands Public Works Programs for relief of unemployment. * Demands the federal government issue $500 million in legal tender paper to put more money in circulation. * May 1: Coxey and two other leaders arrested on courthouse steps for trespassing and his "army" disbands. * First and most famous of several protest armies of unemployed during this period. MAY 11: WORKERS AT PULLMAN PALACE CAR COMPANY STRIKE IN PROTEST AGAINST WAGE REDUCTIONS * Amid violence and bloodshed, railroad cars are looted and burned. * June 26: Eugene Debs, head of American Railway Union, calls out his membership in sympathy with Pullman strikers. * Result is spread of sympathy strikes that paralyze 50,000 miles of railroad throughout Midwest. * July 2: U. S. Court issues injunction against strikers under provisions of Sherman Antitrust Act which forbid interference with interstate commerce and U. S. Mails. * July 3: President Cleveland sends U. S. troops into Chicago over the protest of Illinois Governor John. P. Altgeld. * July 17: Eugene Debs indicted for criminal conspiracy and contempt of court for which he is later sentenced to six months in jail. * July 20: Troops withdrawn from Chicago and two weeks later the strike ends without having accomplished its purpose. A YEAR OF UNEMPLOYMENT AND LABOR DISCONTENT * Riot among striking miners in Pennsylvania leaves ll dead. * 136,000 coal miners strike for higher wages in Ohio. * Several Negro miners are killed in Alabama by striking workers. * In New York City, 12,000 clothing workers strike against piecework and sweatshop system. AUGUST 28: CONGRESS PASSES FIRST GRADUATED INCOME TAX * Becomes law without President Cleveland's signature. * Income tax called "socialism, Communism, and devilism" by one senator. * Supreme Court declares it a direct tax and therefore unconstitutional the next year. HENRY DEMAREST LLOYD, WEALTH AGAINST COMMONWEALTH * Important muckraking journalism. * Exposes Standard Oil. 1895 FEBRUARY 24: CUBANS BEGIN FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE FROM SPAIN * Result of Spanish oppression and financial depression resulting from Panic of 1883 and high American tariff on sugar. * "Yellow Journalism" of William Randolph Hearst (New York Morning Journal) and Joseph Pulitzer (New York World) fan country into war hysteria. * April 6: Congress grants belligerent rights to Cuba, President Cleveland offers peace arbitration to Spain. * May 22: Spain refuses offer. OCTOBER: U. S. SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS USE OF FEDERAL TROOPS AND INJUNCTIONS TO MAINTAIN FLOW OF MAILS AND INTERSTATE COMMERCE IN THE PULLMAN STRIKE OF 1894 * Sanctions use of the Sherman Antitrust Act as a strikebreaking device. * Essentially removes protection of laws developed to protect labor unions since 1842. OCTOBER: SEARS ROEBUCK COMPANY OPENS MAIL ORDER BUSINESS * Sears and Montgomery Ward opened in 1872 revolutionize retail business. * Response to farmer (especially Grange) resentment of profits taken by middlemen. * Rural inhabitants have difficulties reaching urban markets--Sears and Ward brings the markets to them. * Rural Free Delivery started in 1896 to help end isolation of farm communities as well as aid mail order business. STEPHEN CRANE'S, THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE, PUBLISHED WOODVILLE LATHAM DEMONSTRATES HIS MOVING PICTURE PROJECTOR, THE PANOPTIKAN * Combines Edison's kinetoscope with the "Magic Lantern". * First of many devices over the next few years, all of which only run films of short duration. 1896 JANUARY 4: UTAH ENTERS UNION AS FORTY-FIFTH STATE AFTER FIVE UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS * Congress would not admit Utah until Mormon elders outlawed polygamy. APRIL 6: JAMES B. CONNOLLY, WINNER OF HOP, SKIP, AND JUMP EVENT BECOMES FIRST OLYMPIC CHAMPION IN 1500 YEARS AT REVIVAL OF OLYMPIC GAMES IN ATHENS, GREECE * U. S. team arriving on day of opening after a long sea voyage wins 9 of the 12 track and field events. APRIL 6: GOLD DISCOVERED IN YUKON DISTRICT OF NORTHWEST CANADA * Sets off last great North American gold rush. * Jack London. NOVEMBER 3: REPUBLICAN WILLIAM McKinley (OHIO) WINS PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION NOVEMBER: U. S. SUPREME COURT IN PLESSY V FERGUSON UPHOLDS"SEPARATE BUT EQUAL" DOCTRINE DURYEA BROTHER, WHOSE MACHINES HAVE WON MOST SPEED COMPETITIONS IN THE PAST TWO YEARS, PRODUCE 10 AUTOMOBILES IN THEIR FACTORY SARAH ORNE JEWETT PUBLISHES HER COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES, THE COUNTRY OF POINTED FIRS KOSTER AND BIAL'S MUSIC HALL IN NEW YORK HOLDS FIRST PUBLIC EXHIBITION OF MOVING PICTURES * Called the "Crown and Flower of Nineteenth Century Magic". NEW YORK WORLD PUBLISHES "THE YELLOW KID" * Forerunner of modern comic strip. FORMER BASEBALL PLAYER WILLIAM ASHLEY ("BILLY") SUNDAY BEGINS CAREER AS EVANGELIST * Conducts 300 revivals and is heard by over 100 million people before his death in 1935. 1897 INAUGURATION OF WILLIAM MCKINLEY (REPUBLICAN, OHIO) JULY 7: FIRST PRACTICAL SUBWAY IN U. S. OPENS IN BOSTON * Plans for New York subway rejected the year before as too great a financial burden for the city. CHARLES M. SHELDON, CONGREGATIONAL MINISTER, PUBLISHES IN HIS STEPS * Collection of sermons telling young people what them might achieve if they emulated Jesus for one year. * To the present the book has sold over 8 million copies in 20 languages. EDWARD ARLINGTON ROBINSON PUBLISHES COLLECTION OF POEMS, THE CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT WILLIAM JAMES PUBLISHES COLLECTIONS OF ESSAYS INCLUDING THE WILL TO BELIEVE AND OTHER ESSAYS IN POPULAR PHILOSOPHY AND THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 1899 FEBRUARY 15: U. S. BATTLESHIP MAINE IN HAVANA TO PROTECT AMERICAN RESIDENTS AND PROPERTY IN CUBA IS SUNK IN THE HARBOR WITH THE LOSS OF 260 MEN * Perpetrator never discovered, but American people accept Spain as responsible. * "Remember the Maine" becomes battle cry of Americans who want war against Spain. * Sensational newspaper accounts inflame anti-Spain sentiment and make involvement in the Cuban rebellion inevitable. * February 25: Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt orders Pacific Fleet to the Philippines with instructions to attack the Spanish fleet if war breaks out. * August 12: U. S. Proposal agreed to by Spain calls for Spain to relinquish sovereignty over Cuba, cede Puerto Rico to U. S., and agree to U. S. Occupation of Philippines. * August 13: U. S. forces and Filipino guerrillas fight battle for Manila, unaware that hostilities have ceased. * Surrender of Manila on the following day ends one hundred years of Filipino rebellion against Spain. 1900 FILIPINOS INCENSED AT THE REFUSAL OF THE UNITED STATES TO GRANT THEIR INDEPENDENCE IMMEDIATELY BEGIN ARMED REVOLT * About 70,000 men on each side involved. * Organized resistance ends by December 1899, but guerilla action continues until spring of 1902. * Ends when Americans assure Filipinos that military occupation will end and independence be granted when Filipinos are capable of self-governance. FEBRUARY 17: FORMATION OF ANTI-IMPERIALIST LEAGUE TO TRY AND KEEP U. S. FROM EXTENDING ITS INTERESTS BEYOND CONTINENTAL LIMITS * Before the year is over, U. S. has achieved sovereignty in American Samoa and Wake Island. JOHN DEWEY BEGINS REVOLUTION IN EDUCATION WITH PUBLICATION OF THE SCHOOL AND SOCIETY * Advocates learning through experience rather than through mastery of traditional subject matter. LOUIS SULLIVAN BUILDS THE SCHLESINGER AND MEYERS DEPARTMENT STORE IN CHICAGO * Later became Carson, Pirie, Scott & Company building. * First modern style commercial building in the U. S. * Anticipates modernism in architecture. EDWIN MARKHAM PUBLISHES "MAN WITH A HOE" IN SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER * Within one week it is published in newspapers throughout the U. S. * Becomes most popular poem to this date published in the U.S. ECONOMIST THORNSTEIN VEBLEN PUBLISHES THE THEORY OF THE LEISURE CLASS FRANK NORRIS', "THE OCTOPUS," PUBLISHED. LATER FOLLOWED BY "THE PIT" IN 1902.
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