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Cold War
1947-1991 A power struggle that resulted in a state of tension between two superpowers (the United States and the Soviet Union) with no actual fighting. -
Truman Doctrine
A U.S. foreign policy, established in 1947 by President Harry S. Truman, of providing economic and military aid to countries—initially Greece and Turkey—that were attempting to resist communism. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was the American initiative to aid Europe, in which the United States gave economic support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to prevent the spread of Soviet Communism. -
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
An organization created in 1949 to assist in providing protection against the Soviet Union. The organization was originally established by The United States, Canada, and some Western European countries but has expanded over the years. -
Korean War
June 25, 1950 - July 27, 1953 First "hot war" of the Cold war. The Korean War began in 1950 when the Soviet-backed North Koreans invaded South Korea before meeting a counter-offensive by UN Forces, dominated by the United States. The war ended in stalemate in 1953. -
Massive Retaliation
The "new look" defense policy of the Eisenhower administration of the 1950's was to threaten "massive retaliation" with nuclear weapons in response to any act of aggression by a potential enemy. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Supreme Court decision that overturned the Plessy vs. Ferguson decision (1896); led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Court ruled that "separate but equal" schools for blacks were inherently unequal and thus unconstitutional. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
December 5, 1955 - December 20, 1956 In 1955, after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus, Dr. Martin L. King led a boycott of city busses. After 11 months the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public transportation was illegal. -
Sputnik
The Soviet Union surprised the world by launching Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth. The resulting outcry in the United States, especially fears that the Soviets were ahead in both space exploration and military missiles, forced the Eisenhower administration to increase defense spending and accelerate America's space program. -
Freedom Rides
May 4, 1961 – December 10, 1961 The Freedom Rides of 1961 was a revolutionary movement where black and white people refused to sit in their designated areas of buses to protest segregation. Blacks sat in the front of the bus and whites sat in the back, opposite of the usual arrangements. There were multiple different rides from several different locations and a variety of people. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
October 16, 1962 – October 28, 1962 During the Cuban Missile Crisis, leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores. -
Civil Rights Act
Prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal. -
Griswold v. Connecticut
The Supreme Court ruled that a state's ban on the use of contraceptives violated the right to marital privacy. -
Voting Rights Act
Invalidated the use of any test or device to deny the vote and authorized federal examiners to register voters in states that had disenfranchised blacks. -
My Lai Massacre
A company of American soldiers brutally killed most of the people—women, children and old men—in the village of My Lai. More than 500 people were slaughtered in the My Lai massacre, including young girls and women who were raped and mutilated before being killed. The brutality of the My Lai killings and the official cover-up fueled anti-war sentiment and further divided the United States over the Vietnam War. -
Watergate
A break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate complex in Washington was carried out under the direction of White House employees. Disclosure of the White House involvement in the break-in and subsequent cover-up forced President Nixon to resign in 1974 to avoid impeachment. -
Title IX
No person in the US shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participating in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. -
Roe v. Wade
The Court held that a woman's right to an abortion fell within the right to privacy protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision gave a woman total autonomy over the pregnancy during the first trimester and defined different levels of state interest for the second and third trimesters. As a result, the laws of 46 states were affected by the Court's ruling.
