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1901
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J.P. Morgan purchases Carnegie Steel from Andrew Carnegie, leading to the creation of U.S. Steel, the first billion-dollar corporation and a landmark in business consolidation.
September: An anarchist assassinates President McKinley. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt becomes president. His vehement antitrust rhetoric will target corporations such as Standard Oil.
October 9: John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abby Aldrich are wed at Warwick Estate in Rhode Island. One thousand guests attend.
Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research is created. The institute, called Rockefeller University today, will become a leader in the new field of experimental medicine.
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1902
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The General Education Board is created by the Rockefellers to promote education in the South without distinction of race.
November: "McClure's Magazine" runs the first of nineteen installments on the history of Standard Oil, written by muckraking journalist Ida Tarbell.
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1903
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Abby gives birth to daughter "Babs" (Abby), dubbed "the richest of all babies" in the press.
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1905
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John D. Rockefeller Sr. decides to build a mansion at his Pocantico estate. It will take numerous changes and revisions, and eight years of construction, for Kykuit (Dutch for "lookout") to be completed.
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1906
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Rockefeller and Carnegie are perceived by the press as being locked in competition over the extent of their philanthropic giving.
Abby gives birth to John D. III.
John D. Rockefeller Sr.'s father, Bill Rockefeller, dies at age 96.
President Roosevelt's attacks on Rockefeller and Standard Oil escalate. Rockefeller is singled out as one of the "malefactors of great wealth." Anti-Rockefeller sentiment is at an all-time high.
After years of heart problems, John D. Rockefeller Sr.'s eldest daughter Bessie dies at age forty.
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1907
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The U.S. government has seven different suits pending against Standard Oil. The lawsuits argue that Standard Oil is more than twenty times the size of its closest competitor.
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1908
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William Randolph Hearst's "The World" publishes a cover story revealing the "Secret Double Life of Rockefeller's Father," revealing Bill Rockefeller's bigamy.
July 8: Abby gives birth to Nelson, on his grandfather John D. Rockefeller Sr.'s birthday.
The U.S. government launches its largest antitrust suit to date, targeting Standard Oil.
Rockefeller finances a campaign to fight hookworm in the South. By 1927 the disease will be eradicated.
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1910
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John D. Rockefeller Jr. leaves Standard Oil to devote himself to philanthropy. He is named foreman of New York's White Slavery Special Jury to investigate the traffic in young women forced into prostitution.
Abby gives birth to Laurance.
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1911
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May 15: The U.S. Supreme Court announces its decision to dismantle Standard Oil. The company is ordered to divest itself of its subsidiaries within six months.
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1912
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Abby gives birth to Winthrop.
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1913
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Edith travels to Zurich seeking treatment for depression with Swiss clinical and experimental psychiatrist Carl Jung.
Rockefeller Foundation is incorporated "to promote the wellbeing of mankind throughout the world." Rockefeller gives the foundation $100 million in its first year.
Rockefeller's wealth reaches its lifetime peak of $900 million, thanks in part to the dismantling of Standard Oil. Newspapers run daily box scores of his wealth.
September 26: A United Mine Workers strike begins in Southern Colorado. Nine thousand workers of the Rockefeller-owned Colorado Fuel & Iron, the largest mining operation in the area, go out on strike. Miners and their families are evicted, and they set up massive tent colonies.
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1914
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April 6: John D. Rockefeller Jr. testifies before the House Subcommittee on Mines and Mining regarding the miners' strike. He upholds the principle of the open shop and reiterates his support for Colorado Fuel & Iron management.
April 20: The Ludlow massacre. At least twenty-four miners die, among them two women and eleven children, in a 14-hour confrontation between miners and the National Guard. John D. Rockefeller Jr. denies any responsibility.
April 30: President Wilson sends Federal troops to curb an outbreak of violence in tent camps in Colorado.
April-May: Writer and activist Upton Sinclair stages anti-Rockefeller demonstrations. Protesters descend on Kykuit. Several "Wobblies," members of the revolutionary Industrial Workers of the World union, are killed when a bomb possibly aimed at John D. Rockefeller Jr. goes off.
August: World War I begins. The Rockefellers donate millions to international relief agencies.
December: The United Mine Workers union agrees to call off its strike without having achieved its goals.
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1915
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January 25: John D. Rockefeller Jr. testifies before the U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations. He softens his position on labor unions and vows to improve the situation at Ludlow.
March: Laura ("Cettie") Spelman Rockefeller dies at age 75.
August: Abby gives birth to David.
September: John D. Rockefeller Jr. and his advisor MacKenzie King tour Ludlow and meet the miners in a well-publicized visit.
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1917
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John D. Rockefeller Sr. begins to transfer his wealth. His son John D. Rockefeller Jr. will be the main beneficiary.
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1919
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President Wilson sets aside Mount Desert Island, Maine, as a national park. Over the next decade, John D. Rockefeller Jr. will donate 11,000 acres to what will eventually become Acadia National Park.
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1921
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Edith returns to the United States after an eight-year stay in Switzerland.
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1922
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John D. Rockefeller Jr. checks in to Kellogg Battle Creek Sanitarium, complaining of exhaustion and migraines.
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1925
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John D. Rockefeller Jr. offers to purchase the Barnard Cloisters, a medieval museum in upper Manhattan, for the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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1926
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John D. Rockefeller Jr. launches the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg.
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1929
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October: The stock market crashes. The crash cripples the national economy and wipes out more than half of the Rockefeller fortune.
November: The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) opens in New York City. Abby is one of its co-founders, with friends Lillie P. Bliss and Mary Quinn Sullivan.
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