Begins with the ratification of the American Declaration of Independence and ends with the re-election of William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States, the Boxer Rising in China, and the Paris International Exhibition. During this period, the world changes more in the course of a few generations than in the previous 1000 years and sees such innovations as the automobile and aeroplane, the telephone, psychiatry, the camera, the radio, Coca-Cola, and the ice cream cone.