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1910 - 1914
- 1910 - Electrical current for domestic residencies becomes standardized. Electrical appliance prices fall markedly over the next 20 years.
- 1910 - Over 181,000 passenger cars are sold in America.
- 1910 - US cigarette production and consumption overtakes cigars for the first time.
- 1910 - John Wanamaker opens a twelve-story department store in Philadelphia, the most monumental commercial structure in the world at the time.
- 1910 - $600 million is spent on advertising by big business; this represents 4% of the national income.
- 1910 - The National Negro Committee becomes the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
- 1910 - The tango, sweeping Europe with its South American flavor, begins to catch on in New York City ballrooms.
- 1911 - American Tobacco Company controls 92% of world's tobacco business.
- 1911 - Antitrust action against the American Tobacco Company breaks it into several major companies: American Tobacco Company, R. J. Reynolds, Liggett & Meyers Tobacco Company, Lorillard, and British American Tobacco.
- 1911 - Air conditioning is invented.
- 1911 - The Supreme Court rules that Standard Oil Company of New Jersey must be dissolved under antitrust laws.
- 1911 - The Taft administration files a suit against the United States Steel Company under the Sherman Antitrust Act, in spite of Theodore Roosevelt's earlier pledge to J.P. Morgan that such a suit would not be brought.
- 1911 - A fire sweeps through the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in lower Manhattan, killing 145 workers, most of them young girls. The factory's owners are indicted for manslaughter due to unsafe working conditions.
- 1911 - A new macadam track at the Indianapolis Speedway is inaugurated with a five-hundred-mile race, the first Indianapolis 500.
- 1911 - The New York City Association of Advertising Agencies is formed.
- 1912 - Liggett & Myers introduces Chesterfield brand cigarettes with the slogan "They do satisfy."
- 1912 - The Titanic sinks on its maiden voyage, killing 1,518 passengers and crew.
- 1912 - Crowds swarm New York's Times Square to see the World Series score on the new electric bulletin board of the New York Times.
- 1913 - The REO car company sells the 'Reo the Fifth' for $1,095. The top, windshield, lighting and starting systems are all optional.
- 1913 - Camel cigarettes are first marketed by R. J. Reynolds.
- 1913 - The New York World publishes the first crossword puzzle.
- 1913 - The Federal Reserve System is created. All national banks are required to join the system.
- 1913 - The Woolworth Building opens in New York City, at a height of 792 feet.
- 1913 - The Sixteenth Amendment, giving Congress the power to tax personal incomes without apportionment among the states, is adopted.
- 1913 - Henry Ford opens the first moving assembly line for cars in Highland Park, Michigan. It can produce a Model T in three hours.
- 1914 - Hollywood, California, becomes the center of motion picture production in the US when filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille establishes his studio there, and other producers follow.
- 1914 - Henry Ford announces he will pay his employees a minimum of five dollars a day and inaugurate three eight-hour shifts. But to qualify for the new wage, workers must answer questions about their home lives and habits from Ford's new Sociological Department.
- 1914 - Congress passes a resolution to celebrate Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May.
- 1914 - The Federal Trade Commission is established.
- 1914 - The Panama Canal is officially opened.
- 1914 - The first full-length feature comedy motion picture, Tillie's Punctured Romance, stars Marie Dresser, Mabel Normand, and newcomer Charlie Chaplin.
- 1910s - There is a phenomenal growth in the retail industry, mirroring the vast increase in mass production.
- 1910s - Millions of dollars are spent by companies on advertising and public relations to stimulate consumer buying.
- 1910s - Women begin to wield power in labor unions, especially in the garment industry.
- 1910s - Modern market research begins. As a result, ads become increasingly targeted to specific audiences.
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