by Dr. Scot Buzza

1901   J.P. Morgan incorporates U.S. Steel, the first billion-dollar corporation.

            Emma Goldman falsely arrested after Leon Czolgosz assassinates William McKinley.

 1903   Ford Motor Company founded.

            The Immigration Act of 1903 legalizes xenophobia and denigration of the working class.

 1904  Harry Houdini moves to New York City.

 1905   Admiral Robert Peary makes his first expedition to the Arctic.

 1906  Suffragist Susan B. Anthony dies.

            Emma Goldman founds Mother Earth, publishes on anarchism, politics, labor issues, atheism,
            sexuality and feminism. 

            Vaudeville entertainer Evelyn Nesbitt’s husband murders her lover, fuels the “Crime of the Century.”

            Author Booker T. Washington lectures at Carnegie Hall. 

 1907   Composer Scott Joplin (“The King of Ragtime”) moves to New York City.

 1908   Ford’s Model T appears on the consumer market.

1908   William Howard Taft (his wife, Helen “Nellie” Herron Taft, was among the founders of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra) elected president.

            Admiral Robert Peary claims to reach the North Pole.

 1909  NAACP founded by W. E. B. Du Bois.

 1910   The commodification of popular musical styles peaks on “Tin Pan Alley.”

 1911    The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire kills 146 in New York City.

 1912    The Titanic, financed by American banker J. P. Morgan, sinks on its maiden voyage.

 1913    The first women’s suffrage parade takes place in Washington D.C. 

            Henry Ford implements his modern assembly line.

            J. P. Morgan dies at age 75.

            The Anti-Defamation League was founded in the wake of the contentious
            murder conviction of Leo Frank.

1914    World War I begins.

1915    Booker T. Washington dies at age 59.

            Georgia Governor John Slaton commuted Leo Frank’s sentence to life in prison.
            Shortly thereafter, Frank was abducted and lynched.

 1916    The Great Migration: 6 million African Americans move to the urban Northern Midwest.

            Emma Goldman arrested and imprisoned for lecturing on contraception.

 1917    The First Red Scare marks widespread panic over social, economic and labor movements.

            Scott Joplin dies.

 1919    Emma Goldman deported to Russia.

Interested in learning more about the historical figures and social events of Ragtime? Check out one of these suggested titles from the Cincinnati Public Library.