1912 saw a Presidential election campaign unlike anything Americans had known before or since. It was America's only true three-way race, with the added drama of a grudge match between two men who had recently been friends and allies.
Following Scott's acclaimed Discovery Expedition, he and Ernest Shackleton plan competing expeditions to the South Pole, along with a surprise appearance by Roald Amundsen.
The early twentieth century saw the exploration of the remotest land on Earth: Antarctica.
William Howard Taft and Wilfrid Laurier negotiate a US-Canada free trade agreement, but it blows up when the Canadians get the idea that it is a step toward US annexation. The Standard Oil Company is broken up, US Senator "Fighting Bob" La Follette moves to challenge Taft for the 1912 Republican nomination, and "Alexander's Ragtime Band" takes the US and Europe by storm.