United States News: 1900 and on

[snip]

Santiago de Cuba, Cuba January 1st, 1902

Tomás Estrada Palma and General Leonard Wood sipped on cups of coffee in the early morning hours of the new year. Wood set down his cup. "I suppose I should say congratulations Mr. President elect. But knowing you as well I as I do, I won't harp on the point."

"That is much appreciated" Palma replied. "And after seeing the letter from Senator Davis, I am much in agreeance with you." The letter Palma referenced had told General Wood that after the election he would be introducing legislation calling for the annexation of Cuba as a formal territory of the United States.

Wood nodded "The Senator would be a bad man to cross. Of course, we don't know how the President will react to this. If McKinley had not been assassinated, I would be able to give you better advice. I do not know President Roosevelt well enough to tell you how he will react."

"All the same, I to hold many doubts in my heart about whether or not we are truly ready to be cast off on our own." Palma chuckled lightly "Tho how far we will get with your troops around is anybody's guess."

Wood smiled. "You are correct."

Palma's expression grew more serious. "I feel the need to ask you a question, but not as politician to solder or Cuban to American, but man to man. Do you think Cuba is ready to be an independant nation?"

Wood stroked his chin in thought. "That is a question to which I would say I am not fully qualified to answer on a professional level. But on a personal one, I am afraid I must say no. Cuba is not ready to fight off anybody, and there is only so much the United States would be able to do once Cuba is independent. Protectorate status can make certain a measure of support. More effective yet would be annexation, but that is not my call to make."

"I understand General." Palma's reply was calm. "I share many of your same fears. If the amendment passes, I am not likely to fight it. We have no army, no navy, and even if we did we cannot stand up to America. I await word from Washington."

Both men went back to sipping coffee.

[snip]

United States Senate, Washington DC, February 4th 1902

Cushman K. Davis stood at the podium in the center of the Senate chamber and coughed. "Gentlemen, the time has come to resolve the issue of Cuba once and forall. As you know Cuba is working to fulfill the conditions of the Platt Amendment, and negotiations are ongoing to secure naval bases on the island. But I ask each and every one of you this, is Cuba truly ready to be an independant nation on the world stage? Will we not just have to fight again to secure the freedom of the Cuban people if they prove unable to stand up to another colonial oppressor? We have given the the protection of being an official protectorate, but that power only goes so far. The true way we can best ensure the Cuban people maintain their freedom is to annex Cuba."

The assembled senators and guests rumbled at the idea, loudly enough that the gavel behind Cushman rapped loudly. "Order! We shall have order!" The rumbling died down.

"What this bill provides for," Cushman continued "is the continued freedom of Cuba and the prosperity of its people. By formally declaring Cuba to be a territory, we ensure they have continued protection, access to our markets, and the freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution. We have given the Cuban people the gift of liberty, we should not be so quick to jeopardize that gift by casting them out before they are ready. Pass this resolution." Cushman stepped down from the podium and returned to his seat.

The votes were taken, tallied and officially recorded. The resolution had passed with more then enough votes to forgo a filibuster. Later that day Theodore Roosevelt would approve the act. The formal text was transferred to General Wood in Cuba to present to Tomás Estrada Palma and the Cuban government.

Santiago de Cuba, Cuba February 11th 1902

Tomás Estrada Palma read over the documents from General Wood again. "This looks to be exactly what you told me was coming. Please communicate my full intent to cooperate back to Washington. I'm sure some of the more independent minded members of government will do lots of ceremonial blustering, it might even get some out of the way due to resigning in protest. I doubt we will experience any major uprisings, the people are happy."

General Wood nodded. "Of course. When do you think the necessary procedures will have taken place?"

"By July, it will all be official." Tomás Estrada Palma replied. "Cuba will be part of the United States. I suppose I like the sound of Governor better then President."

[snip]

Events of Public Record: January through June 1902

January
--Pasadena, California hosts the first college football bowl game. The Rose Bowl is played on New Years Day between the University of Michigan and Stanford University.
--Park Avenue Tunnel in New York is the site of a train accident that kills 17 and injures 38. The incident leads to an increased demand for electric trains.
--The Carnegie Institution is founded in Washington, DC.

February
--Northern Securities Company is prosecuted for violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust act. The government would eventual win the lawsuit, the first of its kind against a corporation, and Northern Securities Company would be dissolved.
--Senators Benjamin Tillman and John L. McLaurin engage in fisticuffs on the floor of the Senate chambers. Both senators are officially censored a week after the brawl.
--The Yellow Fever Commission publishes the first official study detailing that the disease is carried by mosquitoes.

March
--Thomas Edison is blocked from maintaining a monopoly on motion pictures by a Circuit Court.

April
--Electric Theatre, the first movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles, California.
--Texaco is founded. The company drills oil in Texas.

May
--Lyman Gilmore claims to have made a powered flight with a steam engined aircraft. The flight reportedly takes place in Grass Valley, California. Claims of this flight are disputed and not widely accepted.
--Cuba becomes a formal territory of the United States of America.

June
--What will become known as the Anthracite Coal Strike begins in eastern Pennsylvania.
--The 20th Century Limited begins running from New York to Chicago.
--The Newlands Reclamation Act passes Congress. The act provides funding for irrigation projects in 17 western states.

[snip]

Events of Public Record: July through December 1902

July
--The Rolling Mill Mine in Johnstown, Pennsylvania suffers a firedamp explosion which kills 7 men outright with another 105 killed from afterdamp effects.
--Congress passes the Biologics Control Act. The Act requires the licencing of all companies which produce antitoxins, serum, and vaccines. The Act was constructed after contaminated diphtheria antitoxin and smallpox vaccine killed 20 children.
--Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company is founded. (OOC Note: We know this today as 3M, maker of most everything sticky)
--Felix Pedro discovers gold in Fairbanks, Alaska. This marks the begining of the Fairbanks Gold Rush.
--National Farmers Union is founded in Point, Texas.

August
--On a visit to Hartford, Connecticut, Theodore Roosevelt rides in a Columbia Electric Victoria automobile. He is the first President to ride in a automobile.
--Compagnie Francaise de Navigation a Vapeur v. Louisiana Board of Health is ruled on by the Supreme Court of the United States. The ruling establishes the constitutionality of involuntary quarantine of individuals suffering from communicable diseases.
--Cadillac is founded. The first cars produced under the new brand begin selling in October.
--Madison National Forest is established in Montana.

September
--The Supreme Court of Nebraska finds in favor of the Krayenbuhl family in Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Co. v. Krayenbuhl. A child was playing near an unguarded and unlocked turntable and had his foot severed when the turntable moved unexpectedly. The case is the first to establish negligent liability on a railroad company.
--The Shiloh Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama is the site of a stampede that kills 115 people. A person calling out about a fight that had broken out was mistakenly heard as calling out about a fire. The mostly black congregation was present to listen to a speech by Booker T. Washington.
--Absaroka National Forest is established in Montana.
--The Yacolt Burn series of wildfires strikes Oregon and Washington. The fire resulted in 238,920 acres of timber destroyed, $13,767,100 in damages to property, and 65 deaths. The fire burned 500,000 acres overall.

October
--The United Mine Workers strike which began in June ends.
--The Supreme Court of Missouri upholds a lower court ruling in State v. Mitchell. Mr. Mitchell had intended to kill an associate by shooting him in his sleep. However, on the night Mitchell shot the bed in which the associate normally slept in a way which would have been fatal, the associate was not there. Mitchell argued in his defense that because the crime of murder was impossible to commit under the set of circumstances that he was not guilty. The lower court convicted him of attempted murder.
--Crater Lake National Park is established in Oregon.
--The American Labor Union is founded.

November
--Kid Curry Logan, second in command of the Wild Bunch, is sentenced to 20 years hard labor.
--Mountain View, California is incorporated.
--The Audubon Society of Portland is founded in Portland Oregon. (OOC Note: A cool place to visit)
--American Society of Equity is founded. The goal of the society is to create a "third power" within the United States on equal terms with capital and organised labor.

December
--Big Basin Redwoods State Park is established in Santa Cruz County, California.
--International Harvester company is founded out of merger between McCormick Harvesting Machine Company and Deering Harvester Company along with other small firms. The merger was overseen by JP Morgan.
--Construction begins on the Studebaker Building in New York City.

[snip]

December 17th, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

A light wind tossed around the hair of those present on the beach, but did little more then that to disturb the events. A man with a camera observed the goings on, waiting for something to capture for all of time. Two men, Wilbur Wright and his brother Orville, fussed over the strange looking contraption that sat at one end of what looked to be a single railway track. The bundle of wires, wood, metal, and fabric looked very similar to the glider the two had flown before, but it had two large wooden pattle-like blades on the rear end. The two men, apparently finished with their preparation, then walked a short distance away from the contraption. The photographer saw a coin flip through the air. The two men then shook hands, and one of them was then strapped into the contraption by the other. Assisted by other men from the nearby lifeguard station, the pattles were set spinning. The man on the contraption adjusted some levers as the rest of the men held the thing in place. Finally with a nod to his brother, the man and contraption accelerated along the rail. The photographer winced as the contraption neared the end of the rail, so worried that it would crash into a tangle of debris, that he almost did not hit the shutter button on his camera as the contraption lifted into the air as if plucked by a divine hand.



OOC Note: I know this is a year early, but I have had the tech for a little while. Having talked with some of the other players who have the tech, we agreed to keep the US with the first flight. Rather then force them to wait an additional year, I figured it best to move the event up.