1906
Congress passes the Employers' Liability Act, but the Supreme Court declares it unconstitutional in 1908.

The Pure Food and Drug Act prohibits the sale of adulterated (impure) foods
and drugs and requires statement of contents on labels.

American Novelist, Upton Sinclair (1878-1835), was a muckraker and had an interest in social and industrial reform underlies most of his writing. In The Jungle (1906), Sinclair traced the decline and fall of group of Lithuanian peasants in the brutal environment of the Chicago stockyards (meat packing factory) and Jurgis Rudkus’ Ultimate conversion to socialism. The principal effect of the was to force the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Beef Inspection Act. As Sinclair ruefully commented, “ I aimed at the public’s heart and by accident hit it in the stomach. In the following passage he describes the mechanization of hog butchery The book's graphic description of the meat packing industry causes the passage of food inspection laws.

The Meat Inspection Act is enacted by Congress as a result of public disclosure of unclean conditions in Chicago packing plant

State troopers put down anti-Black riot in Atlanta Georgia, which is placed under martial law.

The word muckraker, taken from Bunyan's Pilgrim;s Progress, is first used by President Roosevelt. It refers to the writers, journalists and political activists who help bring about reform by exposing the corrupt aspects of American life.

The most servere earthquake in the United States history, followed by fire, destroys most of San Francisco's central area. Damage is estimated at about $400 million and nearly 700 people are killed.
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