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| 1896 |
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| Election of William McKinley (1843–1901), running on a single gold standard platform, over William Jennings Bryan (1860–1925), Democratic candidate, supporting free silver. Because of the Democratic espousal of free silver, the Populists supported Bryan. Silver Republicans supported Bryan. McKinley was elected, with 271 electoral votes to 176 for Bryan. The election of 1896 represented a transformation in American politics—it signaled the demise of populism, the decline of the Democratic Party as a national entity, and the emergence of urban workers and immigrants as pivotal factors in national elections. This election also suggested that Republicans were beginning to lessen their appeals to evangelical Protestants in an effort to attract votes from the multiethnic cities. | 1 |
| Plessy v. Ferguson. The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the doctrine of “separate but equal” public accommodations for blacks and whites. The law would stand until 1954. | 2 |
| Thomas Edison (1847–1931) invented the motion picture camera. The first motion picture was shown in a Pittsburgh auditorium. Movies spread rapidly across the country, helping to transform patterns of leisure and popular culture. | 3 |
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| 1897, March 4–1901, Sept. 14 |
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| WILLIAM McKINLEY, 25th president. | 4 |
| National Federation of Afro-American Women and the Colored Women's League merged to form the National Association of Colored Women. Through the activities of these women, the national settlement house movement entered the black community. | 5 |
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| 1897–1901 |
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| Return of prosperity, to which the increased gold production of the world and the unusual demand abroad for American agricultural products were important contributing factors. This period brought great increases in the gold reserve and great activity in the formation of large combinations in the field of business, despite the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. This movement culminated in the organization of the United States Steel Corporation (1901), the first billion-dollar corporation. Great concentration of control by banking interests in the business world. | 6 |
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| 1898–1900 |
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| The National Civic Federation was formed by industrialists and labor leaders to find peaceful solutions to labor management conflicts. | 7 |
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| 1898 |
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| THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR (See 1895–98). The insurrection in Cuba, which broke out in 1895, was increasingly attended by inhuman treatment of the rebels. It aroused the sympathy of various elements in the United States and afforded an opportunity for the new “yellow press” of the United States to influence American sentiment against Spain. On Feb. 15, 1898, the U.S.S. Maine was mysteriously blown up in Havana Harbor, producing strong feeling against Spain in the United States. In the face of the belligerent attitude of the press and various groups in the country, McKinley finally yielded to the war clamor, despite the fact that Spain had agreed to every condition laid down by his ultimatum with respect to Cuba. | 8 |
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| April 11 |
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| McKinley sent his war message to Congress, asking for authority to intervene forcibly. | 9 |
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| April 20 |
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| Congress adopted a resolution authorizing intervention, but disclaiming any intention of annexing Cuba. | 10 |
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| April 24–25 |
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| War formally declared. The war consisted of five operations: (1) defeat of the Spanish fleet at Manila by Commodore George Dewey (May 1); (2) the blockade of Cuba; (3) the search for the main Spanish fleet; (4) the land and sea battles (Battles of El Caney and San Juan Hill in July, and the naval Battle of Santiago, July 3); and (5) the invasion of Puerto Rico (July 25). On Aug. 12 the peace protocol was signed, and on Aug. 13 Manila was captured. | 11 |
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| Dec. 10 |
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| TREATY OF PEACE SIGNED AT PARIS (See 1895–98). Spain withdrew from Cuba and ceded to the United States Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines (for the loss of the latter, Spain was paid $20 million). The larger effect of the war was to establish the United States as a world power and to extend the sphere of its political interests and contacts. | 12 |
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