1890 – Susan B. Anthony establishes the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives awakens a nation to its responsibility to provide adequate housing for the poor.

The first edition of Emily Dickinson's poetry is published.

1891 – International Copyright Law established.

Dr. James A. Naismith invents basketball.

1892 – Homestead Steel strike. Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick wanted to drive the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers out of its steel factory near Pittsburgh. When Carnegie decided to cut wages for a third time within two years, the union decided to strike. Nonunion workers were hired and were to be protected by the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Violence broke out at the Pinkertons' arrival and resulted in thirteen deaths and many injuries. The Union lost public sympathy when one of its members tried to assassinate Frick. The governor called in the state's National Guard, and four months after the strike began, the union surrendered with its power effectively destroyed.

The People's Party is formed to return government "to the hands of the people." The People's Party, also called the Populist Party, was formed by laborers, feminists, farmers, and others.

Grover Cleveland defeated incumbent Benjamin Harrison for the presidency. James B. Weaver, the Populist candidate, received over one million votes, the first third party candidate to do so. In addition, the Populists elected three governors, five senators, ten representatives, and nearly fifteen hundred state legislators.

1893 – In Chicago, President Cleveland throws the switch that lights 10,000 light bulbs opening the World's Columbian Exposition, a celebration of the nation's inventiveness and incredible progress.

Opponents of alcohol form the Anti-Saloon League.

1894 – Immigration Restriction League founded in Boston. The League proposed that immigrants be screened through literacy tests and other measures to separate the "desirable" from the "undesirable."

Coxey's Army marches on Washington. Jacob S. Coxey, an Ohio businessman and Populist, organized a march to the capital to demand that the government create jobs and inflate the currency. Several thousand participated in the march, but only about four hundred reached Washington to find an unresponsive government.

Pullman strike. When George Pullman, owner of the Palace Car factory, laid off workers, cut pay without decreasing rent on company-owned housing, and refused to discuss grievances, the workers struck and convinced the new American Railway Union to strike in sympathy. President Cleveland, contending that mail delivery was interrupted, sent several thousand special deputies into Chicago to end the strike. Riots erupted and twelve died with many more injured and arrested.

1895 – In a boundary dispute between Venezuela and British Guiana, the United States invokes the Monroe Doctrine in its support of Venezuela. President Cleveland threatened war before Great Britain agreed to arbitration.

Booker T. Washington offers the Atlanta Compromise. Washington outlined a proposal for race relations: blacks would stop demanding civil rights and challenging Jim Crow laws and, instead, concentrate on self-improvement so as to prove their preparedness for equality. Whites would have to allow blacks to pursue an education and to seek financial improvement.

National Association of Manufacturers is founded to expand foreign trade. The Association was seeking a consistent safeguard to the boom-bust pattern of the American economy.

Stephen Crane publishes The Red Badge of Courage.

1896 – Plessy v. Ferguson upholds Jim Crow laws. In a Louisiana case concerning separate seating arrangements for the races on railroads, the Supreme Court ruled that separate accommodations for blacks did not violate civil rights so long as the accommodations were equal.

1897 – Boston opens the first subway in America.

1898 – Spanish-American War. Since 1868 Cubans had been resisting Spanish rule. In 1895, Jose Martí returned from the United States to renew the Cuban struggle for Independence. President Cleveland had little faith in the Cuban rebels, and although he kept the United States neutral, he pressed Spain to grant independence to Cuba, coveted by many Americans as a desirable acquisition. When President McKinley entered the White House, he called on Spain to stop harassing rebels and destroying property owned in Cuba by American businesses. McKinley sent the battleship Maine to demonstrate America's seriousness. On February 15, 1898, the Maine was sunk while it was anchored in Havana Harbor; explosives killed some 260 sailors. Newspapers reported that the Spanish were responsible for the explosion, but quite possibly, and to some more likely, the explosion was accidental and emanated from one of the engine rooms. President McKinley wanted to negotiate a settlement, but he yielded to the clamor of the Congress, newspapers, and the public, and, by late April, America had declared war on Spain. The "splendid little war," as Secretary of State John Hay called it, was over by August. The Cuban rebels had already weakened the Spanish troops by the time the Americans arrived, and the American navy wiped out a Spanish fleet in the Battle of Santiago, July 3, which cut Spain off from Cuba and virtually guaranteed America the war. Previously, as soon as war was declared, Admiral George Dewey destroyed a Spanish Fleet anchored in Manilla Bay, which opened the way for American troops to capture the Philippines. Of the 306,000 U.S. land forces involved in the war, fewer than 400 died in conflict. However, over 5,000 others died, mostly from disease.

The Teller Amendment declares that America has no intention to annex Cuba.

The Treaty of Paris, signed in December, brings a formal end to the Spanish-American War. The treaty recognized Cuban independence, ceded Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States, and sold the Philippines to the United States for $20 million. The Anti-Imperialist League was founded to lead an organized resistance movement to the acquisition of the Philippines, but the treaty was ratified by Congress.

U.S. annexes Hawaii, as Hawaiian sugar planters had long wanted. Hawaii was a crucial link for trade with the Pacific and for watching over the Philippines.

1898 - 1902 – The Philippine War. Resenting America rule, the Filipinos waged guerilla warfare for four years until their leader Emilio Aguinaldo was captured and urged his followers to stop fighting and to declare allegiance to the United States. Although fighting broke out at times over the next four years, America's possession was secure. In 1901, the United States announced that it would remain in power only until the Filipinos were prepared to govern themselves. The U.S. granted the Philippines its independence in 1946.

1899 – John Hay sends Open Door notes to England, Russia, France, Japan, and Germany to open Chinese markets to the United States.

In Cummings v. County Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruled that communities could establish schools for whites only even without supporting or establishing comparable schools for blacks.

Coco-Cola first bottled.

Frank Norris publishes McTeague.

1900 – The Currency or Gold Standard Act confirms the nation's commitment to a gold monetary standard. This law settled the dispute over whether gold alone or gold and silver should become the nation's monetary standard.

Under the Foraker Act, Puerto Ricans receive a voice in their government, a nonvoting representative in the U.S. House of Representatives, and certain tariff advantages.

Boxer Rebellion in China. The Boxers, a secret martial-arts society in China, led a revolt to dispel all foreigners from China. The rebellion reached Beijing and besieged the British Embassy. The European and American governments sent troops to break the siege.

Galveston Island, Texas, restructures its city government. After the old city government proved ineffective in dealing with the aftermath of a devastating tidal wave, reformers won approval of a new city charter that replaced the mayor and council with an elected, nonpartisan commission. Nearly four hundred cities adopted the plan by 1920.

President McKinley wins reelection by again defeating William Jennings Bryan.

Robert La Follette elected Wisconsin governor. A very successful state-level reformer, La Follette gained approval of direct primaries, regulated railroads and utilities, passed laws to regulate the workplace and to provide compensation for laborers injured on the job.

Theodore Dreiser publishes Sister Carrie.

1901 – Before granting Cuba independence in 1902, the United States insists that Cuba include the Platt Amendment in its constitution. The amendment gave America authority to intervene if Cuban independence or political stability was threatened; it required Cuba to permit American naval stations on the island, and it barred Cuba from making treaties with other nations without the consent of the United States. Cuba was left with little more than nominal independence.

The Hay-Pauncefote Treaty signed by the United States and England. Under the terms of the treaty, England gave the United States authority to build a canal across the Central American isthmus and America pledged to leave the canal open to ships of all nations.

J. Pierpont Morgan forms the United States Steel Corporation when he buys Carnegie Steel and the next eight largest competitors.

President McKinley is assassinated at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo.

Theodore Roosevelt becomes president.

The Socialist Party of America gained in strength during this progressive era. In the national election of 1900, under the presidential candidacy of its leader Eugene V. Debs.

Booker T. Washington publishes Up from Slavery.

1902 – President Roosevelt intervenes on behalf of the miners to settle the Anthracite (Hard) Coal strike. The President summoned both sides to the White House, where the union but not the owners agreed to arbitration. Roosevelt leaked word to Wall Street that he would use the military to re-open the mines if management did not yield. Management yielded.

Ida M. Tarbell publishes her exposé of Standard Oil and its owner John D. Rockefeller. Tarbell was at the forefront of investigative journalists as she exposed wrongdoings in politics and business.

Maryland adopts first workers' compensation law.

Henry James publishes The Wings of a Dove.

1903 – The Wright Brothers launch the first airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

The Boston Red Sox of the American League beat the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League in the first modern World Series.

Henry James publishes The Ambassadors.

1904 – Theodore Roosevelt elected president.

Lincoln Steffens publishes The Shame of the Cities, an indictment against large cities and its corrupt political machinery.

1905 – Edith Wharton publishes The House of Mirth.

1906 – Upton Sinclair publishes The Jungle, alarming the public about the appalling conditions in the meatpacking industry.

Pure Food and Drugs Act and Meat Inspection Act passed. Roosevelt pressured Congress into passing both acts: the first restricted the sale of medicines and the second ultimately helped to eliminate diseases once transmitted in impure meat.

The Hepburn Railroad Regulation Act allows the Interstate Commerce Commission to set maximum rates and to regulate sleeping car companies, ferries, bridges, and terminals.

1907 – William James publishes Pragmatism.

Henry Adams publishes The Education of Henry Adams.

1908 – William Howard Taft elected president, defeating William Jennings Bryan, the Great Commoner, in his third and final try for the presidency.

1909 – Ballinger-Pinchot controversy. Taft alienated the supporters he had inherited from Roosevelt when he supported his Secretary of the Interior, Richard Ballinger, in a land dispute. Ballinger had opened a million acres of public lands for sale. Chief Forester Pinchot, Roosevelt's old friend and mentor, surmised a shady deal when Alaska's public coal lands were transferred to a syndicate that included J. P. Morgan. Early in 1910, Taft fired Pinchot for insubordination.

Dollar Diplomacy. "Dollar diplomacy," explained Taft, was nothing more "than substituting dollars for bullets." Taft and his secretary of state, Philander Knox, encouraged investments in Latin America as a way to maintain United States influence. However, "dollar diplomacy" became linked with unpopular regimes, corporations, banks, and shady deals that when Woodrow Wilson became president, he immediately dropped the policy.

United States troops are sent to Nicaragua in support of rebels who are inspired by an American mining company. After the revolt, American corporations were strongly encouraged to invest in Nicaragua, but, in 1912, American troops were once again sent to the country this time to protect the existing government. An American military presence remained in Nicaragua for some ten years.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People founded.

Sigmund Freud lectures in America on his theories concerning the unconscious and harmful repressions.

Gertrude Stein publishes Three Lives.

1910 – The National Collegiate Athletic Association founded.

1911 – Mexican Revolution. General Victoriano Huerta emerges as the new leader of the Mexican government. While most European nations recognized the new government, the United States did not.

1912 – Woodrow Wilson is elected president defeating Roosevelt and Taft. Although Roosevelt had won most of the Republican primaries, the party nominated the incumbent as its candidate. However, when Roosevelt ran under the Progressive Party, the result was a split Republican vote and Wilson, the progressive governor from New Jersey, won the election.

1913 – The Sixteenth Amendment allows for an income tax. The graduated tax only affected corporations and a small portion of the population, those earning more than $4000 a year.

The Seventeenth Amendment calls for direct election of U.S. Senators. Previously, senators were selected by state legislatures.

1914 – U.S. Troops sent to Haiti and the Dominican Republic to quiet political upheavals.

U.S. troops storm Veracruz, Mexico. Learning that a German shipload of weapons was about to land in Veracruz, Wilson ordered U.S. troops to take the city. He did not expect the resulting violence which left 126 Mexicans and nineteen Americans dead. Before their attack, the troops, crew members of the USS Dolphin, were detained in Tampico negotiating an end to the ship's unauthorized landing. Wilson's dislike for Huerta seemed to be behind both the Dolphin's landing and the attack of Veracruz. Only the combined diplomacy of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, kept the United States and Mexico from going to war.

Clayton Antitrust Act bars price discrimination, holding companies, and the practice of corporate board members from sitting on multiple boards.

Federal Trade Commission created to oversee business activity and enforce orderly competition.

Panama Canal opens, linking the Atlantic with the Pacific.

World War I begins.