Well, fun topic. Just to run with this part: "electricity, the telephone, computers, automobiles, space travel"
Electricity
Ancient Greeks identified electricity and pots were discovered in early Roman sites that strongly indicate these pots were 'batteries' used to provide lighting. I don't think the U.S. can claim discovery. Moving beyond that, we have such notable figures as William Gilbert (England, 1600s) who named it "electricity," Luigi Aloisio Galvani (Italian, 1700s) who pioneered bio-electricity (galvanic cell & galvanization anyone?), Alessandro Volta (Italian, 1800s) who invented the voltaic pile (battery) (volts and voltaic are named after him), Hans Christian Ørsted, (Dutch, 1800s) who identified a relation between electricity and magnetism, André-Marie Ampère (France, 1800s) who is credited with work on electromagnetism (of which the Ampere is named after him), Charles-Augustin de Coulomb (France, 1800s) gets credit for "Coulomb's Law," Georg Ohm (Germany, 1800's) known for "Ohm's Law" (and of course the measure of ohms), James Watt (Scotland, 1800's), who devised the concept of horsepower (the watt is named after him), James Clerk Maxwell (Scotland, 1800s) who united electrical/magnetic studies and decuded light was a product of such, Heinrich Hertz (German) who expanded upon Maxwell's work on light & electricity (the hertz being named after him). And then there's Alexander Graham Bell (Scotland, late 1800s), Nikola Tesla (Serbian) who did most of his inventions and discoveries before becoming a U.S. citizen in 1891, Michael Faraday (England), etc and so on. But there should definitely not be dismissed the works of Thomas Edison (U.S.) and Michael Morse (U.S.). Still, I would say it's a far cry to try and give the U.S. sole credit for the discoveries and inventions associated with electricity.
Telephone
The first discoveries should be handed to Carl Friedrich Gauß (Germany) and Wilhelm Eduard Weber (Germany) who invented the first electromagnetic telegraph, Charles Page (U.S.) who is credited for identifying the annoying ringing that phones are capable of, Innocenzo Manzetti (Italian) who is credited by many for inventing the telephone, Charles Bourseul (France) who authored work on music/voice telegraphing via electricity, Johann Reis (German) who invented an early phone capable of transmitting music and voice, etc and so on. Beyond this point, we're talking post-1930.
Computers
The first automated-mechanical computer was the Difference Engine, developed by Charles Baggage (England, mid 1800s). He also devised the first general mechanical computer, called the Analytical Engine, which more closely resembled the functions of modern day computers (it was never fully developed nor built). The first electro-mechanical programmable computer was devised by Conrad Zuse (German, 1936), called the Z1. The first electric programmable computer, the Colossus, was invented by Tommy Flowers (British, 1943). Since this contest was about "buildings" from 1880 to 1930, there's little need to address history.
Automobiles
First automobile was developed by Ferdinand Verbiest (Dutch, 1672), who created the first steam powered car (it was actually a toy, but it worked). Then there was Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot (French, 1769), and then Robert Anderson (Scotland, 1832), and then Carl Benz (German, 1885), and Gottlieb Daimler (German, 1886). Many others became involved after that, but the automobile was definitely "not" a U.S. invention and much of the most innovative designs came from nations other than the United States.
It is probably also important to point out that the assembly line, as utilized in the auto industry, was also not an American invention, at least not in the crediting sense. It was developed by Ransom Olds (Switzerland) for his America-based auto company, Oldsmobile. Going even further back, the assembly line concept for production was devised by Adam Smith (Scotland, 1777).
As to space travel, well we didn't participate in that one until well past 1930, and it was more an expensive venture to oppose the Soviet Union for supremacy of nothing, which helped us to develop technologies that we now take for granted every day. But look, in the U.S. we're just big consumers of everything and we use our petroleum-hog cars to drive to "third-world nation exploiting" Walmart to pick up our "now owned by Mexico" Twinkies. That really doesn't give us the card to claim we made the world, only that we ate it.
Now, it would have been nice if this contest reached to 1940, because then we could have included the 1939 Worlds Fair, which put "electricity" on the map as the future. But, such wasn't the case. The truth is that, between 1880 and 1930, the U.S. was not on top of the world. In fact, they were pretty much staying out of the rankings. It took a world recession and a second world war to pull the United States out of hermitage and into global dominance. So no, during 1880-1930 we were too busy exploiting our poor & wretched (birth of labor unions) and imprisoning our political enemies (confederates and native indians). During that timeframe Alcatraz was a military prison. In fact, it was our Guantanamo Bay of the 19th century. Should we be proud of that? Well I don't know, but we did make it an historical site and a National park, so maybe we are.
