History of the 20th Century

Major Issues leading up to and effecting the Baby Boom Generation of WWII

1897-1904 4,227 business firms merged into 257 corporate combinations

-USA had become world's largest producer of goods (twice that of Britain and Germany combined).

-Following assassination of President William McKinley, a relatively young (43) Theodore Roosevelt became President in 1901(Republican).

-Typical work week is 10 hours per day and 6 days a week

-Roosevelt expands national forest land to 148 million acres "Walk softly but carry a big stick" was Roosevelt's motto

-William Howard Taft President, 1909 (very conservative Republican), stopped many of the reforms Roosevelt had started.

-Woodrow Wilson, President 1913. Created the Federal Reserve system. "A Southerner committed to white supremacy, he ordered racial segregation in federal agencies." Lowered tariffs on imports 1913.

-1913 17th Amendment: direct popular election of US Senators.

-"The Progressive Era" 1901-1917, but not a coherent, unified political movement. An era of reform following the 1893-96 Depression.

-Reformation of our inner cities. "Rich flight" very apparent 1911

-Prohibition made alcohol illegal. The Salvation Army provided aid to alcoholics and "bums," requiring them first to go to church and pray for forgiveness.

-Welfare policy saw uniformity and efficiency with the belief that the state had a duty to protect the interests of the people and provide for the needy.

-Major government reforms and improvements, with organized social services being funded.

1900 Invention of the escalator

1902 Invention of air conditioning

1903 Wright Brother's 1st flight

1903 First important motion picture (silent) "The Great Train Robbery" Director Edwin Porter is credited as the first to use this media to tell a story

1904-7 Invention of the radio vacuum tube

1907 First working helicopter

1909White House Conference on Children -- focused on destitute families, "boarding out", etc.

1911National Urban League on Urban Conditions -- Social work was founded here, and the workers received some training.

1912U.S. Children's Bureau Act established a national agency to collect information on children

-1913 U.S. saw a significant internal "red scare," including domestic bombings in 1919 with tremendous labor unrest throughout the U.S.

-1913 Henry Ford pioneered the assembly line

-1914 Invention & use of the tank

-Second Term for Woodrow Wilson, 1917

-1916 Federal Income Tax became mandatory. Passed Child Labor Act.

-1916 32 States regulate workmen's compensation, number of hours worked by children and women; 11 states had minimum wages for women.

-The "Great War" 1914-1918 (WWI) Germany sued for Peace: Nov 1918

-1917-1924 Significant restrictions on immigration imposed in U.S.
as racism took control of governing bodies

-1917, Illinois, "bloodiest American racial conflict of this century

-1919 18th Amendment to U.S. Constitution: Prohibition

-1919-1921 agriculture depression

-1920 Women won the right to vote

-1921 Maternity and Infancy Act reduced infant mortality rate.

-Child Labor Act was not closely regulated until the 1920s

-1921 U.S. President Warren Harding died in office, was an editor

-1922-35 Invention of radar

-1923 U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, a lawyer by trade

-1925 Frozen Food Process invented

-1926 "We are a movement of the plain people," said the "Grand Wizard" of the Ku Klux Klan as racial (immigrant) violence grew

-In May, 1926 Lindberg across the Atlantic

-1926 Liquid-fuel rockets invented

-1928 "The Auto Age"

-1928 Invention of the "iron lung" for polio victims

-1929 Typical work week drops to 5 nine-hour days

-1929 Telephone growth in the U.S. hit 20 million phones

-1929 U.S. President Herbert Hoover was an engineer by trade

-1930 almost 2/3rds U.S. farms have cars (or trucks) and half had telephones. 4 out of 5 Americans live within one hour's drive of a "big city" (population 25,000+)

-1930 Jet aircraft engine invented

-1930-42 mechanical cotton-picker invented

-1930s Less than 1 in 20 children now work for wages (1900 1:5).

-1930s, large increase in city population densities

-1933 Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) - emergency relief to states and communities. The National Recovery Act provided employment through public work projects.

-1933 U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) was a lawyer by trade

-Hitler was appointed Chancellor in Germany

-US ceases to have Cuba as a "Protectorate."

-1935 Social Security - part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal" to try to help spur a recovery from the Depression.

-1935 National Labors Relations Act ("Wagner Act") spurred the greatest organizing drive in the history of the U.S. labor movement

SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION - SSA
When:1935 - Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal"
What Social Insurance (also called transfer income)
Who:Elderly, vocational rehabilitation and unemployment.
Originally covered elderly, survivors, and disabled.
Why:Move elderly out of the workforce; make jobs for younger people.
How:FICA - Federal Income Contributory Act (Originally, 1/2 of 1% of the first $3,000 earned. First benefit paid to Ida Fuller - $22/month)

-1936 Strong resistance to the once-popular "New Deal" since very little promise or progress actually occurred.

-1938 Hitler announces his drive to consolidate all "German people"
invasion of Austria begins the same year

-1935, 1936, 1937, 1939 all saw U. S. Neutrality Acts

-1939 still 17% unemployment

-1940 British Prime Minister Churchill begins constant communication with FDR concerning the war

-1941 "Lend-Lease Act" allows Britain to benefit from U.S. Industry

-Sunday Dec 7, 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor. Draws U.S. into WWII

-1942 Japanese-Americans are moved to "resettlement camps"

-1942 Invention of the atomic reactor

-1944 The Allied Invasion of Normandy, Eisenhower Supreme Commander

-May 1945 Germany surrenders (Japan still waging war)

-Jul 16, 1945 First test of "A-Bomb" in New Mexico

-August 6 & 9, 1945 A-Bombs dropped in Japan. It surrendered quickly

-1947 transistors invented

-1947 first super-sonic airplane

-FDR dies while in office: 12 April 1945.

-1945 U.S. President Harry S. Truman, business man by trade

-The "Cold War" begins after Yalta accord in 1945 and Truman's
"distinctively combative temperament." History suggests that it would have started even if FDR had lived, as there were many clashes

-August 14, 1945 V-J Day

-1948 Russia overthrew democratic government of Czechoslovakia

-1948 Berlin blockade. Massive U.S. airlift results

-1948 President issues orders to cease segregation in the military

-1949 Russia succeeds in building their first A-bomb

-1947-1950 U.S. "Marshall Plan" sends $12 billion to Western Europe

-After WWII, the "American Dream" begins to be obtainable by many

-1950 Internal Security Act (In U.S., required communists to register)

-June, 1950 U.S. sends troops to Korea under UN authorization

-Early in the 1950s, Senator McCarthey's "red scare" went til 1954

-1950s Americans as a whole believed that poverty had been eradicated in America. Few new reforms were proposed; existing ones were threatened. Some social reformers tried to expose the hidden subculture of poverty that still existed--especially with the elderly.

-1953 U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, soldier by trade

-July, 1953 Korean war ceases -no winner, but "peaceful coexistence"

-1953 & 1954 CIA effects foreign government outcomes

-1954 Invention of hovercraft

-1954 Invention of the atomic-powered sub

-1954 U.S. paying 80% of the cost of war in Indo China-France fighting

-1954 Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka Kansas -stuck down the "separate but equal" doctrine and forced school integration

-1956 Invention of Picture Phone

-1956 Beginning of the $26 Billion national freeway system (initially it was also for Civil Defence in case of an atomic attack)

-1954 U.S. had a "brief recession" & again in 1957-58 & 60-61

-1556 Ku Klux Klan very visible after blacks boycott buses

-a decade of racial unrest. Murder claims many "workers"

-1958 laser invented

-1958-63 Measles vaccine

-1960 U-2 plane shot down over Russia; Cold War escalates

-1962 NASA uses satellite to relay tv

-1963 Invention of tape player

-1961 U.S. President John F Kennedy (JFK), author. Tried to build "Camelot;" Used media effectively. The "Bay of Pigs" disaster. Later the "Cuban Missile Crisis," which was considered a success.

-1961 First White House conference on Aging (Pres. Kennedy)

-November 1963 Dallas, Texas: JFK Assassinated

-1963 U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ), teacher by trade,
begins his "Great Society"-But Viet Nam problems are on the rise

-1963 Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassinated

-1965 Major wave of race riots begin in Watts, Los Angeles. Cal.

-1965 Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society (War on Poverty) made great strides in giving aid to the needy, many of which were designed to empower poor communities to help themselves.

MEDICARE - Title 18
When:1965 - Lyndon B. Johnson's "War on Poverty"
What:Health Insurance (When started, 80% received, currently only 41% receive)
Who:Aged (65+), disabled (must be on Social Security for 2 years to qualify), those on kidney dialysis
Why:Provide humane care to the worthy poor
How:Part A (Universal) - payroll taxes, FICA
Part B (Optional) - individual pays part (withheld from Social Security check); general revenues (taxes) pays part

MEDICAID - Title 19 "The tail that wags the (Medicare) dog"
When:1965
What:Medical Assistance - means test required
Who:Elderly, recipients of AFDC and SSI, low income
Why:Provide humane care to the worthy poor
How:State (25%) and Federal (75%) funds

OLDER AMERICANS ACT - OAA "Cornerstone of aid to the elderly in America"
When:1965
What:Community services for older Americans
Who:Older Americans (60+)
Why:Services, advocacy, politics
How:General revenues; "contributions" (the law prohibits means testing or charging of fees for services for older Americans, so the elderly are encouraged to "contribute". Many contribute because they want to pay for what they get.)

-1968 Great Society loses favor, due partly to cost of Vietnam War

-March, 1968 the "Tet Offensive" in Viet Nam escalates that war

-1968 Senator Robert F Kennedy, running for president, was assassinated (he was the brother of JFK)

-1969 U.S. President Richard M Nixon. Begins to dismantle the Great Society; Although proposes a guaranteed annual income to poor with certain requirements (SSI).

-1972 Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for poor.

SUPPLEMENTAL SECURITY INCOME - SSI
When:Passed 1972; implemented 1974
What:Income floor for the worthy poor; is means tested
Who:Aged (65+), blind (vision 20/200), disabled of any age
Why:Provide cash assistance
How:General revenues

-Nixon claimed "peace with honor" in January 1973, pulling out the American troops in View Nam

-1973 Vice-President Agnew resigns (having taken bribes); "Watergate"
come to light and is heavily investigated.Ford named Vice President

-March, 1974 Nixon resigns; given full pardon by President Ford.

-1974 Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act.

-1976 Regressive Tax - flat rate; rich & poor pay same percentage; detrimental to the poor, who have less discretionary income.

-1980 Ronald Reagan elected. This administration believed that federal social welfare output should be minimal, then only short-term. This contributed to increasing poverty. Benefits for the needy fell; homelessness grew at an alarming rate.

-1981 Revision in way unemployment tallied. Only those enrolled at Job Service are counted in unemployment rate. This doesn't provide for counting those without unemployment benefits.

-1984 Diagnostic Related Groups (DRG's) developed under the Reagan administration to check rising costs to Medicare of hospital stays. Results in many patients out "quicker and sicker."

Remember When, a century in a nut shell

-1901-1917 "The Progessive Era" Though not a coherent, unified movement, it resulted from the need for reform after the 1893-96 depression
-1911 National Urban League on Conditions
-1912 US Childrens' Bureau Act
-1913 US saw an internal "red scare" with domestic bombings. Labor unrest.
-1913 17th Amendment to US Constitution. Allows popular election of US Senators
-1913 Woodrow Wilson became President. He ordered racial segregation in federal agencies and created the Federal Reserve System.
-1916 Federal Income Tax becomes mandatory and permanent.
-1916 Child Labor Act passed
-1917 US declares war on Germany
-1917 Illinios had a very bloody racial conflict
-1918 President Wildson's 14 Points for Peace and the League of Nations
-1919 18th Amendment to US Constitution: Prohibition
-1913 Henry Ford pioneered the assembly line
-1914 to 1918 "The Great War to End All Wars" (WWI) Germany sued for peace November 1918
-1914 Invention and use of the tank for war
-1915 First transcontinental telephone call
-1919-1921 agricultural depression
-1920 Women won the right to vote
-1920 US Senate rejects Wilson's League of Nations
-1921 Maternity and Infancy Act (reduced infant mortality rate)
-1921 US President Warren Harding died in office
-1923 Calvin Coolidge (a lawyer) became US President
-1926 "We are a movement of the people" said the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan as racial violence grew
-1929 Typical work week drops to 5 nine-hour days
-1920 First regular licensed radio broadcast
-1922-35 Invention of radar
-1923 First talking motion picture
-1925 Frozen Food Process invented
-1926 Liquid-fuel rockets invented
-1927 Lindbergh flies across the Atlantic
-1928 "The Auto Age" declared
-1928 Invention of the "iron lung" for pollio victims
-1929 US telephones hit 20 million mark
-1929 STOCK MARKET Crash: The Great Depression begins -1930 Prohibition ends
-1930s now less than 1 in 20 children work for wages, down from 1900s 1 in 5
-1930s saw a large increase in city population densities
-1933 Federal Emergency Relief Administration and the National Recovery Act provided employment through public works (including the "CCC")
-1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt (a lawyer) becomes US President
-Hilter appointed Chancellor in Germany
-1935 National Labors Relations Act ("Wagner Act") encourages labor union movement
-1935 part of Roosevelt's "New Deal" Social Security Act
-1936 strong resistance to the "New Deal" since little progess actually occurred
-1938 Hitler announces his drive to consolidate all "German People" and the invasion of Austria begins
-1935, 1936, 1937, & 1939 US Neutrality Acts
-1939 still 17% unemployment
-1930 almost 2/3rds of US farms have cars or trucks half had telephones.
4 of 5 Americans now live within one hour's drive to a "big city" (population 25,000+)
-1930 Jet aircraft engine invented
-1931 Empire State Building opens
-1930-42 mechanical cotton-picker invented
-1939 US mathematician invents the computer
-1940US first peace-time draft
-1941 "Lend-Lease Act" allows Britain to benefitfrom US Industry in WWII
-1941, December 7th, attack on Pearl Harbor draws US into the war
-1942 Japanese-Americans are moved to "resettlement camps"
-1942 US defeats Japanese fleet at the battle of Midway
-1944 Allied Invasion of Normandy
-1945, 12 April, Roosevelt dies while still in office
-1945 Harry S Turman became US President
-1945, May Germany surrenders
-1945 August 6th &; 9th, A-Bombs dropped in Japan
-1945, August 14, Japan surrenders
-1945 "Yalta Peace Accord" also brings on the "Cold War"
-1947-50 US "Marshall Plan" sends $12 billion to Western Europe
-1948 Russia overthrew the democratic government of Czechoslovakia
-1948 Berlin blockade. Massive US airlift to supply Berlin
-1949 Russia succeeds in building their first A-bomb
-1950 Senator McCarthey's "red scare" went until 1954
-1950 Internal Security Act (In the US, it required communists to register with the government)
-1950, June US sends troops to Korea under UN Authorization
-1952 first H-bomb tested in the Pacific
-1953 Dwight D Eisenhower became US President
-1953, July Korean War ceases: no winner, but "peaceful co-existance"
-1953-54 US CIA effects foreign governments' outcomes
-1954 US paying 80% of the costs of war in Indo-China. France continued fighting until the Americans stepped in
-1954 Brown vs The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. US Supreme Court stuck down the "separate but equal" doctrine and forced school integration
-1956 begining of the $26 billion national freeway system (initially part of Civil Defense strategy in case of Nuclear War) -a decade of civil unrest
-1960 American U-2 spy plane shot down over Russia; Cold War escalates
-1961 John F Kennedy became US President. First President to really use the media effectively.
-1962 "Bay of Pigs" disaster.
-1962 later handled the "Cuban Missle Crisis" backing Russia down
-1961 first "White House Conference on Aging"
-1963, November assasination of JFK, Lydon B Johnson (a teacher) became US President
-1963 Martin Luther King Jr assasinated
-1963 Congress passes "Tonkin Resolution" increasing US involvement in Viet Nam
-1965 major wave of race riots begin in Wattts, Los Angeles
-1965 "War on Poverty" as part of LBJ's "Great Society"
-1965 Social Security is amended to include new health coverages (Medicare & Medicaid)
-1965 "Older American's Act passed to provide for social services (like Senior Citizen Centers) for those 65+ years old.
-1968 the "Great Society" looses favor as costs of Viet Nam War increase
-1968 "Tet Offensive" in Viet Nam escalates the war
-1968 assasination of Robert F Kenndy (JFK's brother) who was running for US President
-1969 Richard M Nixon became US President & begins to dismantle the "Great Society"
-1969 US forces in Viet Nam peak at 540,000
-1969 250,00 march against US involvement in Viet Nam
-1970 Kent State Massacre
-1971 Massive air strikes against North Viet Nam
-1971 Pentagon Papers released
-1972 Supplemental Security Income Act (though no payments until 1974)
-1972 Nixon & Mao talk in Beijing
-1973 Nixon claimed "peace with honor" and began pulling troops out
-1973 draft ended
-1973 OPEC Oil Embargo
-1973 Vice President Agnew resigns, Ford named new VP and "Watergate" came to light
-1974 March, Nixon resigns, President Ford gives him a full pardon
-1974 Child Abuse Prevention & Treatment Act
-1975 last troop pull-out from Viet Nam
-1976 The Bicentennial Year
-1977 Red Dye scare
-1978 Jonestown Massacre
-1979 Americans held hostage in Iran at US Embassy
-1980 Ronald Reagan became the US President
-1981 Revision on how inflation and unemployment are calculated
-1981 tax relief
-1982 tax increase
-1983 US troops killed in Lebanon by suicide bomber
-1984 Diagnostic Related Groups (DRGs) began to try to hold down rising Medicare costs
-1986- shuttle Challenger exploded 74 seconds after liftoff at Cape Canavaral, Florida killing all seven astronauts, including school teacher Christa McAuliffe.
-1988- Human Genome Project created.
-1990 German Reunification: after the wall fell, the push towards reuniting the two Germany's was set, October 3, 1990.
-1990 Dr. Jack Kevorkian assists his first suicide in June, 54 year old Janet Adkins, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
-1990 Africanized Honey Bees first enter U. S. in October
-1991 Operation Deset Storm retakes Kuwait; Defeats Iraq
-1991 Lithuania , Latvia, and Estonia leave Soviet Union as it ends
-1991 Tailhook Association Scandal
-1991 Jeffery Dahlmer is arrested, Over a 13 year period, this serial killer was responsible for at least 17 deaths.
-1991 Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas is accused by Anita Hill of sexual harrasment when she worked for him 10 years earlier.
-1991 Rodney King A videotape of black man being beaten by four white police officers makes national headlines.
-1992 LA Riots: the white officers who beat Rodney King were found innocent
-1992 Hurricane Andrew hits Florida Killing 14, it left 250,000 people homeless, and was one of the costliest hurricanes in history.
-1992 First Black Female Astronaut.Dr. Mae C. Jemison becomes the first African-American woman astronaut, spending more than a week orbiting Earth in the
space shuttle Endeavor.
-1993 Explosion at the World Trade Center in New York February 26
-1993 Israel and PLO Sign Peace Accord
-1993 Waco Tragedy
-1993 European Treaty ratified in October creating the Euro (by 1999) among other things
-1993 Iraq is bombed again due to infractions of the no-fly zone
-1994 South African Black Get to Vote, April. Mandela got 60 percent of the vote
-1994 Civil war in Rwanda
-1994 The Hubble telescope reveals evidence of the existence of black holes
-1994 Multiple Comets hit Jupiter
-1994 Nicole Brown Simpsons and Ronald Goldman were murdered outside Nicole's house in California. O.J. Simpson criminal trial
-1994 Los Angeles suffers massive earthquake
-1995 The Oklahoma City Bombing. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were charged and convicted
-1995 Large earthquake strikes Japan
-1995 OJ Simpsons found inocent, October 4 but later (1997) found liable in a civil trial
-1996 The unabomber, Kaczynski arrested in Montanna
-1996 US Military barracks destroyed in Saudia Arabia by a truck bomb
-1996 Olympic Park bombing
-1997 England's lease ends over Hong Kong
-1997 Scientists cloned Dolly the sheep
-1997 Heaven's Gate Cult mass suicide
-1997 Mars Pathfinder lands on Mars
-1997 Jean Benet Ramsey murdered, Princess Diana's Funeral.
-1998 2 US Embassies in Africa bombed
-1998 Clinton admits to Lewinsky affair. The House approves impeachment inquiry but the Senate later did not approve the inquiry
-1998 America bombs Iraq following a weapons inspector agreement by the UN
-1998 the Ku Klux Klan dragged a black man, James Byrd Jr. to his death in Texas
-1998 Arkansas School Massacre
-1999 Columbine Tragedy April 20

Other Events of note during the 90s
-The Hubble space telescope is launched into orbit At a cost of $1.5 million.
-Clean Air Act passed
- Nelson Mandela is freed
-Volcanic eruption in Philippines. Clark Air Base is evacuated and then abandoned. World weather patterns effected.
-Fear of "Y2K"