A1 - 16th Amendment - Congress wanted to legalize income tax and let congress control the spending.  However, our Consitution forbade direct tax to a person so somebody suggests that they should just tax a little on income.  This was denied in court (unconstitutional), so congress passed an amendment to the constitution that allowed them to levy income tax.  The original tax was only 1%.

B1 - Department of Labor - A new cabinet position was created to give consideration to the concerns of workers in America.  Frances Perkins (a female) was the first Secretary of Labor and the very first woman to hold a position in any president's cabinet.

C1 - Suffrage - Until 1920, women in America were not allowed to vote.  Many women campaigned to receive the right to vote.  They were called suffragettes, which was something of a derogatory term, but the women accepted it (kind of like how Americans accepted "Yankee Doodle").

D1- Miami Beach - "How would you like to buy a little land in Florida, real cheap?"  Such lines have been used for nearly a century now, usually as a land scheme in which the buyer ended up with 50 acres of uninhabitable swamp.  John Collins and Carl Fisher buy 1600 acres, dredge, pump, and fill to create 2800 more, and turn Miami Beach into the winter destination for thousands of wealthy East-coasters.

A2 - American Cancer Society - The establishment of this organization proves that Americans were well aware of the impact of cancer at this time and that it was becoming a widespread problem that required more attention.  It is the primary group that raises money in search of a cure for the various types of cancer.

B2 - Grand Central Station - a combination of the General Post Office and the Pennsylvania Railroad Station, this structure was as grand as the architects could make it.  Long rows of columns and artistic shop fronts made it a marvel of modern engineering and design.

C2 - Zipper - Shirts, dresses, and coats have always been expected to have buttons, but even shoes were button-fastened in the early 20th century.  Gideon Sundback took the metal hooks and eyes from ladies' dresses, and created a way for them to be interlocked by a sliding device, so women could fasten dresses by themselves (it's hard to do behind your back!)  The Hookless Fastener Company will manufacture his "Talon" fastener for many years, but one salesman's enthusiatic demonstration ("Zip, it's open!  Zip, it's closed!) will give it its common name.

A3 - Arthur Wynn - Newspaperman who was searching for a diversion to keep readers interested in reading the paper in between major news stories.  He hit upon the idea of creating a puzzle in which vocabulary words were entered in a grid according to deceptive clues, and came up with the first "Cross Word" puzzle.  Today it is a staple of nearly every newspaper in the country, and a hobby for millions of Americans wishing to improve their word usage.

C3 - George Washington Carver - An African-American scientist and philosopher who developed specific ideas about the role of blacks in American society.  Carver firmly believed that blacks should become educated in order to work their way up in the American economy, and founded Tuskeegee Institute to carry out that purpose.  Unfortunately, some blacks perceived the goals of this process to be too slow-moving and perhaps demeaning to them, due to the vocational orientation of some of the courses.  Carver also discovered numerous ways in which the common peanut could be used, making it one of the most useful agricultural products in the world.  When he was invited to the White House, a great furor arose over the idea of a black man being admitted there for the first time.

D3 - Edgar Rice Burroughs - He is the author of Tarzan: Lord of the Jungle.  The story is about a baby from a noble, English family that gets lost in the jungle and raised by apes.  After being in the jungle for so long, when he is returned to civilization, it is noticed that he has a whole different perspective about things than the people who had lived in civilization their whole life.  As with many novels that contain social criticism, the adventure story is really all that people seem interested in.

A4 - Robert Ripley - Originator of "Ripley's Believe it or Not."  He was an unsuccessful cartoonist and was interested in strange happenings and objects.  When he was about to quit being a cartoonist, someone suggested that he write about all the wierd things he had discovered.  His one-panel drawings of amazing stories became a newspaper feature for many years.

B4 - Marcella Gruelle - She was a "sickly" little girl and was kept inside her house for rest and care.  Her parents loved her very much, and her father would come home from work each day and create stories about her and her stuffed animals.  The main character in those stories was her favorite doll, a homemade patchwork called "Raggedy Ann."  After Marcella died, her father wrote down all the stories he had created and published them.

D4 - Bill Tilden - "Big Bill" was a dominating tennis player.  However, his tennis skill and play was overshadowed by the suspicion that he was homosexual.

D5 - Greenbrier Resort - This resort at White Sulphur Springs, WV officially opened as a place for the wealthy to bathe in mineral waters for their health.  The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad built a 650 room hotel, and the luxurious lifestyle was displayed in every aspect of the place.  It eventually also housed the underground bunker built for Congressmen to escape Washington, D.C. in case of nuclear attack.

D6- Belligerents-  Inclined or eager to fight; hostile or aggressive.

D8- Contraband- illegal or smuggled goods

A11- Armistice-  truce or stop of fighting

Comp. 1 - What was the importance of the Glass-Owen Currency Act? - This act created the Federal Reserve bank system.  Many banks fought this act because it restricted what banks could do with "their" money.  The Federal Reserve was supposed to divide the country into 12 Federal Reserve sections.  In each there is one big Federal Reserve Bank which controls the other "National" banks.  It can do three things to slow/speed up money rate: control the interest rate (Prime Rate, the amount banks charge other banks); can call your bank to invest in government stock to slow down flow of spending from your bank; and reserve ratio (Federal Reserve can say that X% is how much of the money you have which must be kept on hand at all times.

Comp. 6 - What is the significance of radio station KDKA? - KDKA was the first full-time radio station in America, in Pittsburgh, PA.  In 1920, it was on air full time to update the election results.  It still exists today.

App. 1 - Why was the Clayton Anti-Trust Act needed?  Did it succeed? - It was needed because many corporations were creating trusts and running off other businesses.  The Clayton Act allowed our government to bust the trusts and stop a trust before it happened. It added enforcement power to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.   It also reinforces that laborers actually have rights.

App. 3- What did United Artist hope to accomplish?  Why was it formed?-  It was a movie company founded by 4 of the top names in films at the time - Douglas Fairbanks (dashing actor), Mary Pickford (beloved actress), D.W. Griffith (innovative director), and Charlie Chaplin (imaginative comedian).  They felt that the actors and actresses in the business were treated badly, so they developed their own studio to solve that problem, kind of like an actor's union.  Their desire was to increase their profits, and create films of excellence, that would advance the art.  By 1951, the company was losing so much money that Pickford and Chaplin (the only surviving partners) had to sell out.