This Day In History: Standard Oil Is Declared “Unreasonable” Monopoly (1911)

US Supreme Court Declares Standard Oil an “Unreasonable” Monopoly (1911)

By 1880, through elimination of competitors, mergers, and railroad rebates, John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil controlled the refining of up to 95 percent of all oil produced in the US. In 1892, the Ohio Supreme Court ordered the trust dissolved, but it continued to operate. Exposed in Ida Tarbell‘s History of the Standard Oil Company in 1904, it was broken up in 1911 after a lengthy antitrust suit by the US government. What current oil companies have ties to the former Standard Oil? More… Discuss

Henry Morrison Flagler

Flagler, an American financier, was John D. Rockefeller’s business partner and a key figure in the development of Florida as a winter playground. After visiting the state in 1883 and seeing its inadequate transportation and hotel facilities, he worked to improve them. He bought up and consolidated several local railroads and organized the Florida East Coast Railway. He also established steamship lines, dredged the Miami harbor, and built palatial hotels. What accident contributed to his death? More… Discuss

Rockefeller Center

Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 buildings located in Midtown Manhattan. Philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who sponsored the project, intended to build an opera house at the site, but that plan did not materialize. Instead, his buildings house offices, shops, restaurants, broadcasting studios, and the opulently Art-Deco Radio City Music Hall, New York City’s largest theater. Who designed the Prometheus of the central fountain, which overlooks an outdoor skating rink and mall? More… Discuss

Rockefeller-Center-Pictures/Rockefeller-Center-Promenade (click to access more pics)