1900s America

1910

Median Income: $574 a year/$0.52 an hour*

Cost of a pound of butter: $0.39

Cost of a dozen eggs: $0.36

Cost of 5 pounds of sugar: $0.30

Cost of a gallon of milk: $0.25

Cost of a pound of bacon: $0.25

Buying Power of $1 USD: $24.92

1913

President: William Howard Taft

Vice President: Thomas R. Marshall

Chief Justice: Edward Douglass White

Speaker of the House: Champ Clark

1901

-Oil is discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont, TX

-Major League Baseball is established

-US Steel is incorporated by J.P. Morgan

-Platt Amendment passed, limiting Cuban autonomy

-Cuba becomes a US protectorate

-Theodore Roosevelt invites Booker T. Washington to the White House

1902

-The first Rose Bowl is held

-The first movie theatre opens in Los Angeles

-Texaco is founded

-Cuba gains independence from the US

1903

-The first World Series is held

-Orville Wright's first flight takes place in Kitty Hawk, NC

-Crayola Crayons first produced

-Cocaine is eliminated from the Coke-a-Cola formula

-Panama declares independence from Columbia, making way for the American canal to be built.

1904

-Henry Ford sets new automobile land speed record at 91.37 MPH

-With a $10 million deal, US gains control of the Panama Canal Zone

-The Ice Cream Cone is invented in St. Louis

-First underground NY subway opens

1905

-Lochner vs. NY invalidates the 8 Hour Work Day law

-Tornado kills 97 people in Snyder, Oklahoma

-Las Vegas is founded in Nevada

-W.E.B du Bois and William Trotter establish the Niagara Movement, a precursor to the NAACP

1907

-Hershey Park opens

-Ellis Island sees its busiest year with 1.1 million immigrants arriving

-UPS founded by Jim Casey in Seattle

-Department of Justice is established by the Federal Government

1908

-New Years is celebrated by the ball dropping in NY for the first time.

-Japanese immigration restricted under the Gentleman's Agreement

-Mother's Day is observed for the first time

-John Baxtor Taylor becomes the first African American to win Olympic Gold Medal

-Ford introduces the first Model T

1909

-NAACP founded

-William Howard Taft is elected President of the United States

-US Army buys first airplane

-Pearl Harbor is founded as a US Naval Base

-Manhattan Bridge opens

1910

-Boy Scouts of America incorporated

-Black boxer Jack Johnson beats his White opponent James Jeffries, sparking race riots across the country

-Ford sells 10,000th car

-Father's Day is (unofficially) observed for the first time

1911

-The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire kills 146 people

-Mexican Revolutionaries attempt to take Agua Prieta but are defeated by American troops

-The first Indianapolis 500 race is held

-Groundbreaking for Fenway Park happens in Boston

-Austin Dam breaks, destroying the Pennsylvania town of Austin

-Chevrolet Motor Car Company incorporated

1912

-New Mexico admitted as the 47th US State, it is followed shortly by Arizona which becomes the 48th

-Albert Berry makes the first airplane parachute jump

-The Girl Scouts of America incorporated

-Tokyo mayor, Yukio Ozaki gives 3,000 Cherry Blossom Trees to the Federal Government as a sign of friendship

-The Titanic leaves England and sinks 5 days later

-Tiger Stadium opens in Detriot

-Republican party fissures, leading to the creation of the Progressive or Bull Moose party

-The first "Little" theatre, the Toy Theatre, opens in Boston

1913

-Grand Central reopens as the world's largest train station

-16th Amendment is ratified establishing the federal income tax

-The Woman Suffrage Parade takes place in D.C., led by Inez Milholland on horseback

-17th Amendment is ratified, establishing the direct election of senators

-50th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg

-Ford introduces the first moving assembly line

-Woodrow Wilson creates the Federal Reserve

-R.J. Reynolds introduces Camels, the first packaged cigarette

-Towns Winston and Salem merge into Winston-Salem in North Carolina