Timeline of Events and Historical Figures Tangential to Ragtime
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. (Founder Henry Ford pictured right)
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.
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
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People 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.
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.