THE PLAY OUR TOWN TAKES PLACE FROM 1901-1913 IN GROVER’S CORNERS, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

What else was going on in the world?

The USA| 1871-1914

This period has seen unprecedented industrial expansion. The demand for labour has sucked in millions of new immigrants, and new cities have arisen, and older ones expanding out of all recognition.

Railroad, telegraph and telephone networks now cross the country. An important effect of the railroad is to properly settle the Mid-West, hitherto little more than a staging post to the west coast (where the discovery of gold led to a massive influx of migrants from the late 1840s). Native Americans have continued to be dispossessed of their land, gradually being confined to reservations.

The USA has now acquired an overseas empire. As a result of a short war with Spain (1898), she gained Puerto Rico, the Philippines and a controlling interest in Cuba. Hawaii has also been annexed (1898). The US now has huge influence in Central America, and in 1914, the Panama Canal is opened, with the US controlling the Canal Zone through which it has been cut.

http://www.timemaps.com/history/usa-1914ad

SPECIFIC

EVENTS

1901| Major League Beginning

The 1901 season was the first season that the American League (AL) was classified as a "major league.” The AL was comprised of the Chicago White Stockings, Boston Americans, Detroit Tigers, Philadelphia Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, Washington Senators, Cleveland Blues and Milwaukee Brewers.

1901| J.P. Morgan establishes United States Steel Corporation

Financier, art collector and philanthropist John Pierpont Morgan, best known as J.P. Morgan, was born on April 17, 1837, in Hartford, Connecticut.

Started his own private banking company in 1871, which later became known as J.P. Morgan & Co.

His company became one of the leading financial firms in the country. It was so powerful that even the U.S. government looked to the firm for help with the depression of 1895.

During his career, his wealth, power, and influence attracted a lot of media and government scrutiny. During the late 1800s and even after the turn of the century, much of the country's industries were in the hands of a few powerful business leaders, especially Morgan.

Morgan was criticized for creating monopolies by making it difficult for any business to compete against his. Morgan dominated two industries in particular -- he helped consolidate railroad industry in the East and formed the United States Steel Corporation in 1901.

http://www.biography.com/people/jp-morgan-9414735

J.P. Morgan Video

1903| The Wright brothers make first airplane flight.

Perhaps the most influential brothers in history, Wilbur and Orville Wright’s creative and technological genius revolutionized transportation on planet Earth. Originally from Dayton, Ohio the two owned a bicycle repair shop and spent their spare time working towards a dream of creating a powered and controlled flying machine. Realizing that dream on December 17, 1903, modern aviation was born. Throwing open the doors for travel, communication, and international commerce, the world was reconfigured as a global community.

wrightbrothers.info/index.php

1904| NY Subway Established

The first underground line of the New York City Subway opened on October 27, 1904, almost 35 years after the opening of the first elevated line in New York City, which became the IRT Ninth Avenue Line.

Video of first subway

1908|Mass Production of the Model T car

Henry Ford began mass production of the Model T car using an assembly line.

http://www.history.com/topics/model-t

1912| The RMS Titanic Sinks

The luxury steamship RMS Titanic met its catastrophic end in the North Atlantic, plunging two miles to the ocean floor after sideswiping an iceberg during its maiden voyage.

Titanic Video

1914| Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

On June 28, 1914, a teenage Serbian nationalist gunned down Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, as their motorcade maneuvered through the streets of Sarajevo. Next in line for the Austro-Hungarian throne, Ferdinand had not been particularly well liked in aristocratic circles. Nonetheless, his death quickly set off a chain reaction of events culminating in the outbreak of World War I.

http://www.history.com/news/the-assassination-of-archduke-franz-ferdinand-100-years-ago