American business: events and eras.

March 9, 2011

Recession of 1937-1938

March 9, 2011
The recession demonstrated that the New Deal was having problems, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt blamed business for the economic downturn.
March 8, 2011

Railroad strike of 1877

March 8, 2011
Workers in many industries joined the railroaders in their strike, making this first nationwide strike one of the broadest general strikes in American labor history.
March 7, 2011

Pullman Strike

March 7, 2011
The Pullman strikers not only received better wages as a result of the strike but also were successful in affecting economies in the majority of states throughout the union.
March 7, 2011

Prohibition

March 7, 2011
Industrialists and businessmen who contributed heavily to the temperance movement later became Prohibition’s most important opponents, primarily because of a rise in crime and hostility toward authorities and threats of increased taxation.
March 4, 2011

Poor People’s Campaign of 1968

March 4, 2011
A grassroots movement that linked economic justice, poverty, unemployment, and homelessness to the broader Civil Rights movement during the 1960’s.
March 4, 2011

Pike’s western explorations

March 4, 2011
Pike’s journals provided detailed and colorful descriptions of the resources of the upper Mississippi Valley and the southern Great Plains, with data on their distribution and possibilities for future commercial exploitation.
March 2, 2011

Panic of 1907

March 2, 2011
The Panic of 1907 led to the creation of the Federal Reserve system.
March 2, 2011

Panic of 1893

March 2, 2011
The Panic of 1893 marked a major shift in investment techniques, as investors began to place more money in stocks than in bonds.
March 2, 2011

Panic of 1873

March 2, 2011
The Panic of 1873 represented the first great crisis of industrial capitalism in the United States, and it altered the nature of economic enterprise, political ideology, and labor rights.
March 2, 2011

Panic of 1857

March 2, 2011
The Panic of 1857 was linked to the absence of a central banking system in the United States.
March 1, 2011

Panic of 1837

March 1, 2011
The Panic of 1837 undermined the state banking system established during President Andrew Jackson’s administration.
March 1, 2011

Panic of 1819

March 1, 2011
The Panic of 1819 revealed the consequences of the lack of a national currency system controlled effectively by a federal bank.
February 27, 2011

Nixon’s China visit

February 27, 2011
A visit by the U.S. president to the People’s Republic of China that signaled an end to China’s isolation and opened a new era of Sino- American relations.
February 23, 2011

Mexican War

February 23, 2011
The Mexican War resulted in Mexico ceding an area fromTexas to California to the United States, extending the country to the Pacific Coast and immensely increasing its territorial assets and economic potential.
February 21, 2011

Louisiana Purchase

February 21, 2011
The largest single acquisition of territory by the United States, the Louisiana Purchase more than doubled the size of the nation, creating a vast new territory to be explored and incalculable commercial opportunities to be exploited.
February 21, 2011

Lewis and Clark expedition

February 21, 2011
Acting as official representatives of the United States government, Lewis and Clark explored and charted territories newly acquired through the Louisiana Purchase.
February 19, 2011

Korean War

February 19, 2011
The Korean War forged the link between U.S. defense spending and manufacturing, normalized government agencies controlling business, and helped develop Japan’s manufacturing capabilities.
February 19, 2011

Klondike gold rush

February 19, 2011
News that gold had been discovered in and around the Klondike River caused a stampede northward through Alaska of those hungry for wealth.
February 18, 2011

Iraq wars

February 18, 2011
Although the U.S. government cited a number of reasons for each of these wars, both wars were fought, at least in part, to protect the American economy and its businesses from the threatened loss of access to petroleum.
February 15, 2011

American Industrial Revolution

February 15, 2011
The American Industrial Revolution fostered an increase in the quantity and diversity of consumer goods produced by American businesses, though small businesses employing artisans suffered.
February 15, 2011

Indian removal

February 15, 2011
The Indian removal resulted in European American farmers claiming and transforming the Southeast and the Ohio River Valley, instituting intensive agricultural development of those regions and increasing the agricultural production of the nation.
February 11, 2011

Hurricane Katrina

February 11, 2011
The most costly storm in U.S. history, Katrina devastated the economy of the Gulf Coast in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama and caused massive damage to New Orleans in particular.
February 11, 2011

Homestead strike

February 11, 2011
A strike by the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers against the Homestead Steel Works Company turned violent when Pinkerton agents and the state militia were sent to break the strike.
February 10, 2011

HealthSouth scandal

February 10, 2011
Richard Scrushy, the founder and chief executive officer of HealthSouth, was the first person to be indicted under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which held senior executives responsible for the accuracy and completeness of corporate financial reports.
^