The first Teddy Bear, named after President Theodore Roosevelt, is made.

1903 - On 17 December, Orville Wright flies the Wright Flyer for 120 feet in 12 seconds at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, USA, to complete the first heavier-than-air machine powered flight in the world. He built the aircraft with brother Wilbur.

The US supports a successful revolution in Panama that paves the way for the construction of the Panama Canal.

1906 - Greensburgh, Indiana, sees the first of a series of race riots in protest of the northward migration of African Americans. A violent earthquake shakes San Francisco, killing some 700 people. Kellogg sells Corn Flakes for the first time.

1909 The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is formed to fight for the civil rights of African Americans.

1914 America declares itself neutral on the outbreak of World War One.

1915 The Supreme Court rules against the Oklahoma law, known as the "Grandfather Clause" that denies the right to vote if a citizen's ancestors had not been enfranchised in 1860.

America is enraged after a German submarine sinks the British ship, the Lusitania, killing US passengers.

1917-18 - The US intervenes in WWI, but rejects membership of League of Nations at the end of the war.

1919 Chicago is rocked by a series of race riots which last for several days, leaving several people dead.

The sale and manufacture of alcohol is outlawed, seeing in the era of Prohibition.

1920 Women are given the right to vote under the 19th Amendment.

1924 - Congress gives indigenous people citizenship and the right to vote. The Immigration Bill bars Japanese people from settling in the US.

1928 - The first Mickey Mouse talking film is released.

1929-33 - Some 13 million people become unemployed after the Wall Street stock market crash of 1929 triggers what became known as the Great Depression.

1931 The Empire State Building, the world's tallest building at the time, opens in New York.

1933 - President Franklin D Roosevelt launches "New Deal" recovery programme which includes major public works. Sale of alcohol resumes.