The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Catches Fire (Mar. 25, 1911)
On March 25, 1911 in New York City, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company caught fire, resulting in the tragic loss of nearly 150 young women and girls. The garment workers protested to gain better wages and work conditions. This was not received well by the factory's management, who responded by locking the workers into the building. Fabric scraps, oil and hot machines crammed into the rooms on the upper floors of the 10-story building quickly caught on fire. But as the exits were blocked, the girls attempted to use the rusted fire escape or jump from windows instead. The tragedy was made worse by the failure of the U.S. government who did nothing to protect its citizens working in such conditions. The deaths of these innocent girls unified female labor reformers of the Progressive era.
The Great Migration Begins (1915)
For the vast majority of the time that African Americans had been on this continent, they had been primarily Southern and rural. But, all of this changed with the Great Migration which saw a mass relocation of 6 million African Americans from the Jim Crow South to the North and West. Starting in 1915, this leaderless movement started due to the labor shortage in the North during World War I. Once the door opened, a flood of people came. Individuals who migrated became the advance guard of the Civil Rights movement, shaping American culture from music to sports. Nevertheless, some were still blocked from living the American dream, as in some areas, the response to their presence was fear and hostility.
The Prophet Is Published (Sept. 23, 1923)
The Prophet, written by Lebanese-born, Boston-based poet-philosopher Kahlil Gibran, became one of the world's most translated works of philosophy. The book features a collection of inspirational sermons delivered by a fictional prophet. The sermons talk about love, marriage, work, reason, self-knowledge as well as orthodoxies and oppressive ideologies. The book's success lay in its ability to make such insights feel like revelations. Since its release, The Prophet has served as an inspiration for readers who tried to break free from conformity.
The KKK Marches in Washington (Aug. 8, 1925)
This photo was captured when the KKK paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C.. The headline in the New York Times read: 'Sight Astonishes Capital: Robed, but Unmasked Hosts in White Move Along Avenue.' The article stated that the marchers received 'a warm reception'. This event symbolized the Nadir of Race Revelations, a terrible era that started in 1890 and lasted through 1940, when race relations grew worse and worse. Throughout this time, white Americans became more racist than at any other point in America's history, even during slavery.
Thomas Dorsey Invents the Gospel Blues (1932)
African-American composer Thomas A.Dorsey wrote a song inspired by his wide's death in childbirth in 1932. The song, called 'Take My Hand, Precious Lord', which consequently became the foundation for the modern African American gospel music tradition. The song's success stimulated an entirely new music industry, known as the Gospel Blues. It also influenced the dramatic role that music played in sustaining and forwarding America's Civil Rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr, for instance, often asked supporters to sing this song before they marched. The song later became the foundation for singers like Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston.
Harry Hopkins Starts Work (May 22, 1933)
Two months after he took office, Franklin Roosevelt appointed a former social worker - Harry Hopkins to head an emergency program of aid to the unemployed. The moment he started working, before he even had an office, he dragged a desk into the hall of the building and immediately began sending out money. While some critics disapproved of his haste and wanted longer consideration of this federal expenditure, Hopkins responded 'People don't eat in the long run, they eat every day.' In just two hours he spent $5 million, which is the equivalent of about $70 million today. Emergency relief became the most popular of the New Deal programs and has been called a major step in saving capitalism. Consequently, this created a pattern of government action in crisis.
Truman Replaces Wallace (July 21, 1944)
In July 1944, Harry S. Truman took the place of vice-president Henry Wallace on the Democratic ticket. President Roosevelt had a secret plan for how he would work things out with Stalin, but he died before sharing it. But when Truman entered the White House with almost no experience in foreign policy, the State Department told him that action on the Russian threat must be taken. Consequently, this resulted in the Truman Doctrine which pitched: good against evil, communism against democracy - causing the Cold War.
The North Atlantic Treaty Is Signed (April 4, 1949)
After intervening twice in the previous 32 years to restore peace in Europe, the U.S. finally committed to an international alliance in peacetime after signing the North Atlantic Treaty. The treaty focused on preventing war in the first place. And this act shaped America's foreign policy, politics, military spending, military structure, doctrine, equipment, and military for years to come. It also had a remarkable effect on helping to bring a shattered Europe together as a group of free and democratic states.
Emmett Till Is Murdered (Aug. 28, 1955)
In September 1955, Mose Wright stood as a witness in a Mississippi courtroom. He rose from his chair, pointed a finger at one of the two men who had murdered his niece's son Emmett Till. In an extraordinary act of personal courage, Wright said: 'There he is.' While Till's killers were not convicted in 1955, Till - who's killers thought had been seen flirting with a white woman - still changed the country.
The Immigration and Nationality Act Is Signed (Oct. 3, 1965)
President Lyndon Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 in a dramatic ceremony at the Statue of Liberty. This catalyzed an increase in cultural diversity in the United States. In the wake of the civil right movement, the old restrictive quotas from the 1920s, which favored northern Europeans over southern Europeans, struck many Americans as anachronistic. So, the act was meant to promote family unification, level the field for lawful entry and ease the way for foreign-born professionals. Its impact can be seen at all levels of society. Today, over 40 million foreign-born individuals live in the United States.
California Passes Proposition 13 (June 6, 1978)
Voters of California overwhelmingly passed Proposition 13 in June of 1978, which limited local property taxes and made it harder for communities to raise them in the future. As a result, this 20th-century tax revolt opened the floodgates to other anti-tax ballot measures at the state level and initiated a general shift in popular opinion. This anti-tax reorientation led to increases in alternative, regressive sources of taxation such as the sales tax, decreased the amount and quality of public services and encouraged new kinds of inequalities between old and new homeowners. But on a broader scale, Proposition 13 represented a new unwillingness to view government as a provider of positive benefits to all members of a community and an embrace of more consumerist and individualized ways of securing services.
The Pneumocystis Pneumonia Report (June 5, 1981)
On June 5, 1981, the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) published an article titled 'Pneumocystis Pneumonia-Los Angeles,' a two-page essay that turned out to be the first published account of the AIDS epidemic. It described Pneumocystus carinii, a rare protozoan infection, that exploits weak immune systems. The topic of AIDs has allowed us to talk about sexuality in a frank manner, and ironically, has helped open the door to gay marriage.
The Americans With Disabilities Act Is Signed (July 26, 1990)
The Americans With Disabilities Act formally recognized the fact that people who are disabled, physically as well as mentally, are part of society. Toward the end of the 20th century, the United States came face to face with the fact these people cannot simply be ignored.
