Archduke Franz Ferdinand -IND- Jordan Cook

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Ferdinand was born December 18^th, 1863 in the country of Austria. He was educated by private tutor and joined the Austro-Hungarian Army in 1883. His military career included service with an infantry regiment in Prague and with the hussars in Hungary. While in the army Ferdinand received several promotions: captain, major, colonel, and general.

           Ferdinand was popular with the armed forces and in the summer of 1914. General Oskar Potiorek, governor of the Austrian provinces of Bosnia-Herzegovina, invited the Inspector of the Armed Forces to watch his troops on maneuvers. The assassination of this man was one of the many reasons that The Great War or WWI started. 

The Zimmermann Telegram -ME- Jordan Cook

The Zimmermann Telegram

The Zimmermann Telegram was a coded message sent from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to Germany's ambassador in Mexico. The message was said to include the instructions to have Mexico enter the war. In exchange, the Mexicans will gain back all the land they had lost to the Americans. The British Intelligence somehow found a way to intercept this coded message and were able to decipher it.

 Within this secret message, the British let the United States know about it, and made plans for war.  The WWI coded message that helped change the tide of public opinion in the U.S. The American press made newspapers stating that were are going to war with Germany on April 6^th 1917. The validity of the message is still unknown as the British Intelligence keeps the case classified to this day. 

Eugene Debs -IND- Selena Yoder

Eugene Debs 

                 Eugene Debs, founder of the Industrial Workers of the World, was a socialist and a commonly nominated candidate for the presidential election. He was a highly charismatic leader and speaker. He often called on the vocabulary of Christianity, even though he disliked religion. President Wilson referred to Debs as ‘a traitor to his country’ due to his ties with the Union. After he was imprisoned on April 13, 1919 he ran for president in 1920.  He was released in 1921, and nominated for a peace prize in 1924.

Gentlemen's Agreement -ME- Selena Yoder

The Gentlemen's Agreement 

              After the huge influx of immigrants, many Americans began to discriminate against the newest immigrants. These feelings announced themselves in the Workingman’s Party of California, led by Denis Kearney, who was an Irish immigrant. They fought to cut off the Asian immigrants and ended up landing seats in California’s legislature. From there, they pressured Congress to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act, a law that disallowed immigration from Chinese for ten years and blocked the Chinese already in the country from becoming citizens.

              The discrimination did not just stop at the Chinese, in 1906 the board of Education in San Francisco ordered that all Chinese, Korean, and Japanese children to go to a racially segregated school in Chinatown. Japan took offense to the horrid treatment their people were being given. As a response President Roosevelt invited the school board leaders to the White House. He proposed an idea where the Asian children could go back to their regular school, and he would stop immigration from Japan. He then proceeded to discuss a deal with Japan, who agreed to limit emigration to the US. This became known as the Gentleman’s Agreement because no papers were filed and it depended on both sides to carry out their end of the bargain.

Treaty of Versailles -ME- Selena Yoder

Treaty of Versailles

             

                 The Treaty of Versailles states peace between Germany and the Allied Powers at the end of World War I. It was signed exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Even though the treaty ended the war it didn't apply to the Central Powers (the ones allied with Germany) and there were later treaties created for them. Because of this there was six months of war after the war ended.

               One of the terms of the treaty was that Germany and the other Central Powers had to accept responsibility for causing the war.  It was a leading cause of World War II. Under the treaty, Germany was forced to allow the Allied Forces to occupy Rhineland for fifteen years. Germany wasn’t allowed to have more than 100,000 soldiers, it’s navy was limited to 15,000 men. There was no exporting or importing of weapons. 

Sussex Pledge -ME- Taylor Raatz

Sussex Pledge

            The Americans did not want to join World War I; however a series of events triggered America to join the war.  Shortly after the war began, Britain declared a blockade on German ports forcing them not to ship items sailing to Europe. They forced the ships to land at British ports for inspections. Britain and France depended on oversea shipping from America for food and supplies. To stop this, Germans deployed submarines to stop the ships from shipping their items. The Germans then announced that they would sink any ship they saw around British waters, America was furious.

            On May 7, 1915, The British passenger ship, Lusitania, entered the war zone. A German submarine then sunk the ship killing 1,200 people including 128 Americans. Wilson tried to defuse the crisis, by sending several protests to Germany saying that they need to stop endangering their men. Then a German submarine torpedoed a boat called the Sussex, injuring several Americans. Wilson then made one last offer and the Germans accepted it, it was called the Sussex Pledge, saying that Germany would no longer sink merchant ships.

Jose Marti -IND- Jordan Cook

Jose Marti

José Julián Martí Pérez was born January 28, 1853 in Havana, Cuba. He was a poet, an essayist, a journalist, a revolutionary philosopher, a translator, a professor, a publisher, and a political theorist. He did so much in his short life.

He extensively traveled to Spain, Latin America, and the United States, raising awareness and support for the cause of Cuban independence. Jose Marti is considered one of the great turn of the century Latin American intellectuals. Marti believed that freedom and justice should be the cornerstones of any government; one has only to read his work and learn of the struggle that he took up freely. Marti died in military action on May 19, 1895 at the age of 42.

Pancho Villa -IND- Taylor Raatz

Pancho Villa

            Pancho Villa was in charge of a group called the guerillas, which was an armed band that used surprise attacks instead of open fire. They burned the town of Columbus, New Mexico and killed 16 Americans. Wilson then took 6,000 troops under Pershing to go capture Villa. The expedition went on and dragged into failure. Then the stress of the war in Europe caused Pershing to withdraw the troops from Mexico.  

Foraker Act -ME- Selena Yoder

Foraker Act

After the Spanish-American War, the United States gained six new territories. One of which was Puerto Rico. A question on how to govern Puerto Rico was discussed by Congress and the President.  In 1900 they passed the Foraker Act that established a civil government for the island. The act called for a governor and an executive council, both of which would be appointed by the President. The Supreme Court ruled that Puerto Ricans were not American citizens and did not have constitutional rights.

Gradually Puerto Rico gained control over themselves and more freedom from the States, in 1917 they were granted American Citizenship. In 1947 they were allowed to elect their own officials. Around that time and on through to today there has been debate on whether to make Puerto Rico, a state, keep it as it is, or give them independence.

William McKinley -IND- Selena Yoder

William McKinley                

                  Even though his term as president was short, McKinley did impact America in more ways than one. Beginning with his Gold Standard Act and ending with his assassination, McKinley raised the economy out of poverty and gained the United States six new territories. In the Spanish-American War, he bypassed both his Secretary of War and the commanding general to the army. Taking advice from Adjutant General Henry Corbin, he found new strategies to win. He expanded America's trades over seas and began working to compete for China’s trades he ended up creating an Open Door Policy in which no country could try to take over China, but all could trade with the small country.

                 McKinley beat William Bryan in his second run at presidency by a landslide. However a few months after his second inauguration he was shot twice in the abdomen by Leon Czolgosz while delivering a speech to the public. Though he didn’t die from the gun shots, he came down with gangrene which later killed him. His body was laid to rest in a tomb in Canton, Ohio.

Spanish American War -ME- Taylor Raatz

Spanish American War

            In 1868 Cuban rebels declared independence and started a guerilla war against Spain and its authorities. Nearly 200,000 troops were sent from Spain to Cuba to shut down the rebellion and appointed General Valeriano Weyler as governor.  The Cuban rebels would stage hit and runs, burned plantation and sugar mills, and tore up railroad tracks. Knowing that they had American businesses in Cuba, the rebels hoped that with the destruction of American property would lead to America’s intervention in the war. To prevent the rebels from doing these things, Weyler would heard hundreds of thousands of men and women into “reconcentration camps” where they would all be kept without food or water.

            In 1897 the president made it clear that if the Spanish did not negotiate then America would have to intervene. The Spanish offered up Cubans right to their own government but they would still have to be a part of the Spanish empire, the Cubans refused. On April 19, congress proclaimed Cuba independent and declared that Spain withdrew themselves from the island. In response, Spain declared war on America. On December 10, 1898 the United States and Spain signed the Treaty of Paris. 

The Gilded Age -ME- Jordan Cook

The Gilded Age

The Gilded Age was a bad era for the poor. Most of everyone was looking for a job or didn’t have a job. The rich had everything like most rich people, the rich didn't care about the middle class. It was a time of enormous growth that attracted millions from Europe. The Gilded Age was the period following the American Civil War, to the end of Reconstruction in 1877 to the turn of the 20^th century. Railroads were the major industry, but the factory system, mining, and labors came to the United States for work and gained their importance.

The growth was interrupted by major nationwide depressions known as the Panic of 1873 and the Panic of 1893. Most of the growth and prosperity came in only the former Union states of North and West. Mark Twain was alive during this era also, he wrote some stories and books about the life in the Gilded Age “The Gilded Age a Tale of Today”. The Gilded Age I think was  an age where people were starting to finally build lives and get a grip on things. The Reconstruction years, people got jobs, people had homes, there were places to go to and have fun, there were railroads that could travel accosted the nation. This was all a big step into the 20^th century, and The Gilded Age I think helped. 

Joseph Pulitzer -IND- William Kelly

Joseph Pulitzer

Joseph Pulitzer was originally born Politzer Jozsef in Mako Hungary on April 10, 1847. He traveled to the United States in 1864 and in 1868 he became a newspaper reporter. In 1871 he bought a share of the paper and then resold it. Three years later he acquired another paper and then sold that one. Four years after that he gained control of the St. Louis-Dispatch. After the St. Louis Dispatch he shifted his ideas to New York City. Eventually he would become the voice of the United States Democratic Party. One of his many claims to fame was setting up the modern template and set up of the newspaper. His rival in the newspaper business was William Randolph Hearst who owned The Journal, where Pulitzer owned The World. Their competition was to increase circulation between their businesses. In order to do this they resorted to yellow journalism which was basically over-exaggerated writing about a certain topic. Pulitzer died October 29, 1911. 

Social Darwinism -ME- William Kelly

Social Darwinism

Social Darwinism is a term and powerful idea that was loosely used and derived from Charles Darwin’s theories of Natural Selection. This idea strongly reinforced the idea of individualism. Herbert Spencer was a British philosopher and applied Darwin’s theory of evolution to the human society. In Darwin’s 1859 book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, he argued that plant and animal life evolved by a process called natural selection. During natural selection, organisms that cannot adapt to the surroundings eventually die off and those who do adapt evolve and live longer. Spencer took this theory and argued that the human society also evolved through competition and natural selection. Spencer as well as others became known as Social Darwinists because they believed that society progressed and became better because the fittest survived.

We have all heard of the catchphrase “survival of the fittest”. This line became the slogan for the Social Darwinists. Well for many of the Christians these ideas of Darwinism were offensive and upsetting. Because they believed that the theory contradicted the Bible, they in turn reject the idea. Later on some ministers would conclude that maybe that was God’s way of creating the world. The name for these people, especially the renowned Henry Ward Beecher, called themselves a “Christian evolutionist”. 

Louis Sullivan -IND- Taylor Raatz

Louis Sullivan  

Louis Sullivan graduated from the Chicago School of Architecture in the late 1800’s, he was one of the most influential students to ever graduate from that school. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1856. Sullivan only studied architecture for one year at MIT; he then left MIT to go to Ecole Des Beaux, an art school. Sullivan wanted a more American type of architecture, so he made appropriate tall commercial office buildings. Sullivan’s most famous building was the Transportation Building which was finished in 1893, standing at 960 feet tall.

Sullivan also made the Carson, Pirie Scott Department Store, Auditorium Theater, and the Charnley House which was made in Chicago. Most of his structures featured simple lines and spacious windows. He used new durable plate glass which made his buildings lofty. He had a vision that his buildings would be built more upward, instead of spread across a wide area. Sullivan died in 1924; he was penniless and forgotten to the public by this time in his life.

Vladimir Lenin IND- William Kelly

Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Lenin was one of the leading political figures and revolutionary thinking figures in the world. He masterminded the Bolshevik takeover in Russia in 1917 and was the first architect and head of the USSR. Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov was born in Simbirsk on the Volga River on April 22, 1870. He was born into a wealthy family which led to his going to a university. While at the university studying law he was exposed to his famous radical thinking. Later on he would be expelled from the university for his way of thinking. Lenin introduced the Socialist Model of Economy and the New Economic policy to the Russian/Soviet people. In 1918 he narrowly suffered an assassination attempt and was severely injured which would affect his long term health. He suffered a stroke in 1922 and worried about his eventual successors increasing power, Joseph Stalin. Lenin died on January 24^th 1924. His body was embalmed and placed in mausoleum in Moscow’s Red Square. 

Boxer Rebellion -ME- William Kelly

Boxer Rebellion

Beginning in 1898 peasants in China began to band together and form a secret society known as the “I-ho ch’uan”. This was also known as “Righteous and Harmonious Fists.” Members practiced secretly the activities such as boxing and callisthenic rituals, thus giving the group its name of “The Boxers”. The group believed that by practicing these rituals, especially boxing, it would make them bullet-proof.

At first the Boxers wanted to take down the Ch’ing dynasty, which had ruled for over 250 years, and get rid of all foreign affairs which influenced China. This would save the Chinese culture in which they though were being destroyed. In late 1899 they massacred Christian missionaries and Chinese Christians.

By May of 1900 an international force of about 2,100 U.S., U.K., Russian, French, Italian and Japanese soldiers were sent to subdue the rebellion. In June of that year, Emperess Dowager ordered all foreigners to be killed. Ultimately the rebellion weakened the Ch’ing dynasty and made China a republic before diminishing.

Jacob August Riis -IND- Jordan Cook

             Jacob August Riis

Jacob August Riis was born in Denmark in 1849, he immigrated to New York in 1870. He was very poor, begged for food and stayed at police logging houses. Looking for work anything he could do and found nothing.  Jacob didn't have a great life when he moved to the United States, until most things started turning around and get better for the poor man. Three years go by and Jacob finds a job to be a police reporter, with the New York Evening Sun. He worked in the most poor and crime filled area to get good pictures.

 Jacob started realizing how poor this part was and wrote a book called “The Other Half”. Jacob Riis suggested the upper-class to put more lighting on the roads and playgrounds, he also suggested to put up houses for the poor to sleep in and make this place New York a better place to live in. Jacob traveled around trying his best to help out all the poor that were everywhere and helping the city look and operates better, until he died May 26^th, 1914.

Credit Mobilier -ME- Taylor Raatz

Credit Mobilier

The Credit Mobilier was a construction company set up by several stockholders of the Union Pacific Railroad. Working for both Union Pacific and Credit Mobilier, the investors signed contracts with themselves. Credit Mobilier would then overcharge the Union Pacific and added a lot of miles onto the railroad construction. The railroad agreed to pay the inflated bills, since the same investors controlled both companies.

So when the Union Pacific railroad was completed the investors had made millions of dollars off of it. But the railroad itself was almost bankrupt due to the usage of its federal grants. One of these investors was a Congress member named Oakes Ames. An angry associate had sent a letter the New York Sun telling the members of Congress that had accepted the shares. The scandal did not hurt the Congress members that were included in Credit Mobilier.

Kodak Camera, George Eastman -IND- Selena Yoder

Kodak Camera

George Eastman invented the Kodak camera in 1888 along with flexible new film that could be used to take 100 photos. This was a fairly large step in technology because you no longer had to depend on a professional photographer to get photos. Anyone could just crank and click to capture a memory. Unfortunately for Eastman there has already been several patents pending for instant camera, while Eastman was the first to actually manufacture one with working film, he lost out on the patent. However he ended up buying twenty one patents that related to photography from David H Houston.

This invention highly impacted the way people viewed photos. Instead of having to go to a professional studio and having to hold still as possible for it to work, someone could pull out a camera and just click. These gave everyone the ability to save memories and portraits of loved ones. This invention is what gave us the ability to show off our family vacation photos and to give the family the ability to see the newest additions to families.

Charles and Franks First Automobile -ME- Jordan Cook

First Automobile

America's first gasoline powered commercial car manufacturers Charles and Frank Duryea; the brothers were bicycle makers and got fascinated by gas engines. On September 20^th 1893 they had a successful driving test on the streets of Spring Street, Massachusetts. Charles Duryea founded the Duryea Motor Wagon Company in 1896, the first company to manufacture and sell gasoline powered vehicles.

By 1896, the company had sold thirteen cars of the model Duryea. Charles was the guy that sought out buyers and people to buy the Automobile, Frank was the guy that was all hands on and worked on the Automobile. They called the Automobile a wagon because they look like a wagon, as you can see in the picture below. Their business was called The Duryea Motor Wagon Company, the Company that had a big influence on the world.

Thomas Edison -IND- Taylor Raatz

Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison was born February 11, 1847  in Milan, Ohio. Thomas Edison was an extremely important figure when it comes to our history of developing items for the future. Some items that he invented were the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and, of course, the long lasting electrical light bulb. He is most know and famous for the invention of the light bulb. He then perfected the light bulb in 1879; he was supposed to make it low cost and available to the public within six weeks, but it took him over a year.

Edison had a laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey, where he did most of his work. This laboratory was the forerunner of modern research. He developed this lab with the money he earned from improving the telegraph system for Western Union. During the first 5 years of Menlo Park, and invention was patented almost every single month. After Edison died, his company then went on to power the entire city of New York with electricity. Edison’s companies then combined to form “Edison General Electric Company” today it is known as GE.

Wright Brothers -ME- William Kelly

Wright Brothers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5o-fhBKf8Y

The Wright Brothers hailed from Dayton, Ohio; however, the accomplishments they made took them all the way to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. There, in the year 1903, the world would be changed forever. Around the turn of the 20^th century, dozens of groups in Europe and America were scrambling to find the right formula for, what we refer to it today as, and airplane. The Wright Brothers found this formula after numerous trials and tribulations that they overcame.

A 25 horse power engine made all the difference. An engine that no automobile company would be able to supply because it didn’t offer the correct power to weight ratio the brothers were looking for. Before the year 1903 they began to experiment in 1896 in secret. Finally, on December 17^th of 1903 they could test their product that they thought would work and did it ever. The airplane that they manufactured lifted 20 feet off of the ground and flew 852 feet as well. They also made more than one run at it with the fourth and final one being a crash. Wilbur, one of the brothers, was taking on a spin and after the usual ups and downs the plane took in the beginning, it started to settle down. Then at approximately 800 feet, the plane darted into the ground but miraculously on damaging the front rudder, not the main frame. I guess you could say after this day, the brothers made all of the “Wright” moves.

Grenville Dodge -IND- William Kelly

Grenville Dodge

Mr. Dodge was originally from Massachusetts and was born in the year 1831; however, little did he know that he would end his life in a little town just outside of Omaha, Nebraska.

One of the major events that most like summed up Dodge’s personality would be when the young engineer met president-to- be Abraham Lincoln by chance in Council Bluffs, Iowa in 1859. On that day Dodge assure Lincoln that the Platte Valley would be the route of the Pacific Railroad. A pretty bold statement for a young gun engineer. He was right because seven years later he began the project.

Before the project to complete the Transcontinental Railroad was stuck in his head, something else was. A Rebel bullet to be exact because Dodge worked his way up to Brigadier General under future president Ulysses S. Grant and earned the friendship of William Tecumseh Sherman.  In 1864, Lincoln decided to ask him to man the Eastern part of the Pacific Railroad. After the project that changed transportation across the United States was completed, Dodge would retire to a town east of Omaha, Nebraska where the railroad began to Council Bluffs, Iowa. There he rested with his wife Ruth Anne Brown Dodge, later dying in 1916.