1909
Admiral Robert Edwin Peary planted the U.S. flag on the North Pole.
259 coal miners died in an explosion at Cherry, Illinois.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded.
The 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth attracted over a million people to observances
in New York City. The keynote speaker was Booker T. Washington.
A constitutional amendment passed by the senate would give congress the powers to enact
income taxes.
The first animated cartoon, Gertie The Dinosaur, was made from 10,300 drawings by newspaper
cartoonist Windsor McCay.
W.C Handy's 
Memphis Blues - originally a political campaign song called Mr. Crump - became
the first published American blues song. It was later reworked as St. Louis Blues.
