This was the first federal census in Iowa's history to show a decline in population. There were no further declines until the census of 1990.

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There were 186 reported cases of polio in Iowa in 1910.

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The Majestic Theatre was built in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1910. It was scheduled for demolition in the 1960s when a group of citizens saved it. It has been restored and is called the Five Flags Theater.

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There were over 400 coal mines in Iowa in the 1910s. Close to 18,000 miners worked to produce nine million tons of coal.

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The Colby Motor Company produced several thousand vehicles in Iowa before it went out of business in 1914.

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The average annual wage for an Iowa worker in manufacturing was $549.

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A dam was built at Keokuk. The generators had a capacity of 310,000 electrical horsepower. Keokuk became known as "Power City."

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Iowa native John L. Lewis organized the American Federation of Labor (AFL), the largest labor federation in the world.

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The University of Iowa started a wrestling program.

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The tune for "The Song of Iowa" is taken from the German Christmas song "O Tannenbaum," which translates as "Oh Christmas Tree."

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Rural health came to be recognized as an issue that needed attention. This is still one of the tenets of the medical school at the University of Iowa, and the problem of finding doctors to serve in small towns in Iowa is an ongoing problem.

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The first Iowa boys' high school basketball competition was played. The first tournament was held in Iowa City with teams from Ottumwa, Sioux City, Grundy Center and Wilton Junction.

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The first National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Wrestling Championships were held in Ames.

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Iowa joined a nationwide trend when it passed workers' compensation laws. These laws made employers responsible for injuries caused by defective machinery or negligence by the company's management.

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Keokuk Dam was the first hydroelectric dam to be constructed on the Mississippi River. It was the beginning of the lock-and-dam system that maintains a constantly navigable channel in the river.

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Germany and Austria-Hungary (Central Powers) fought against France, Russia, Great Britain and Italy (Allies). The United States joined the Allies in 1917. More than 10 million soldiers were killed. Another 20 million were wounded. About 10 million civilians died.

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Laws made it illegal for children to skip school to work. Children under 16 were no longer allowed to work at dangerous occupations. The children working in street trades or agriculture were not protected under this law.

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The Iowa chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was organized in Des Moines. S. Joe Brown was the first president.

Find out more about the Iowan who helped establish the first Iowa Chapter of the NAACP.

Iowa State organized a wrestling team.

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In 1916 the movie The Birth of a Nation played in Des Moines. The movie portrayed the Ku Klux Klan organizing to defend white people against blacks. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) protested.

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Prohibition made the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages illegal in the early 1900s. It was a very controversial policy. Iowa had statewide prohibition from 1916 to 1933.

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President Woodrow Wilson created the National Park Service.

Jeanette Rankin from Montana was the first woman elected to Congress.

The United States was not involved directly in the early years of the European conflict. The sinking of the Lusitania and Germany's continued attacks on English and American ships made America change its mind about going to war. In April 1917 the United States declared war on the Central Powers and began the drafting of young men for the army.

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Camp Dodge served as the major training center for African-American officers during World War I.

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Pvt. Merle Hay was one of the first American soldiers killed in combat in World War I. He was one of three soldiers killed simultaneously in France by a shell explosion. There is a monument for him in the cemetery at Glidden, Iowa, which includes a replication in stone of the Ding Darling cartoon showing Uncle Sam wading back across the Atlantic Ocean bearing the dead body of Hay.

Find out more about Private Merle Hay.

The Des Moines Association of Fine Arts was formed and later gave its collection to the Des Moines Art Center.

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The Junior Red Cross had started in the early 1880s but was not officially formed until 1917. In 1918 about 41 percent of schoolage children in Iowa were members.

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Over 500,000 people died of the influenza. The flu caused almost as many deaths worldwide as the First World War.

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Mason City Junior College (MCJC) was founded in Mason City. In 1969 the name was changed to North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC), it has the distinction of being the very first public two-year college in Iowa and one of the first such institutions in the country.

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At a meeting in Marshalltown, the Farm Bureau was formed to rival the Farmers' Union, which many people feared might be subversive. It grew to become a major voice for farmers in Iowa and a major political force in the state.

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Governor William Harding issued a proclamation which forbade the use of any language but English in public gatherings of two or more people. This was nicknamed the "Babel Proclamation," and in speeches the governor consistently referred to the "American" language. This was spurred by the war against Germany, but misuse of the proclamation by County Councils of Defense led to persecution of innocent people. People who spoke Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Czech were targeted as well as those who spoke German. Elderly women in Scott County were jailed for speaking German over the telephone. A Lutheran pastor was jailed for preaching part of a funeral service for a soldier killed in the war in Swedish because the young man's grandparents did not speak English. Governor Harding even made the point in a public speech that God did not hear prayers that were spoken in any language but English. There was no restitution after the war for any of those unjustly prosecuted.

Find out more about this time in Iowa's history.

Marian Crandell, a teacher of French at St. Katharine's School in Davenport, volunteered for service with the French Canteen service. She was killed in the war zone by an exploding shell, the first American woman to die in the combat zone during World War I. There is an historical marker in her honor on the grounds of the former Annie Wittenmyer Home in Davenport.

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John Deere Company opened a factory in Waterloo, Iowa.

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When the women's vote was attained in 1920, Carrie Lane Chapman Catt encouraged the formation of the League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan educational group. Catt was honorary president of the group for the rest of her life.

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The 18th Amendment outlawed the manufacture, sale and transportation of liquors.

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Iowa's first radio station, WSUI, at the University of Iowa (then called State University of Iowa), began broadcasting in Iowa City in 1919, and the first commercial station began broadcasting in 1922 in Davenport. Radio changed the lives of Iowans by bringing news, culture and entertainment into their homes. Iowa had many commercial and public radio stations early on. Two stations in Shenandoah, KFNF and KMA, became nationally famous for their programming, particularly the radio homemakers.

Find out more about the communications industry in Iowa.