-
Spanish American War
Key Facts
1) Sparked by "Yellow Journalism" started by WIlliam Hurst and Joseph Pulitzer.
2) 8 February 1898 - the de Lome letter was stolen and printed in which a Spanish official in Cuba writing home called US President McKinley a "beggar" and "cheap jigglos" or war monger.
3) 15 February 1898 - the USS Maine, while in Havana harbor is rocked by an explosion and sunk. The US responds quickly by declaring war on Spain. Causes of the explosion are never actually discovered. -
Period: to
World War I
Key Facts
1) Started after the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip of the Black Hand
2) Called "the Great War" because of the size and scale, also called "the Family War" due to the leaders of the European countries being related in some fashion to each other.
3) The use of treaties brought most of Europe into the war.
4) The armistace ended the war at 11AM on Nov. 11, 1918
5) The armistace was signed at the palace of Versailles. -
Great Depression Begins
Key Facts
1) Officially started on October 29, 1929 (Black Tuesday) with the stock market crash in the US
2) Preceded by Black Thursday with an unprecedented fall in stock prices, starting a massive panic.
3) Led FDR to create the New Deal program of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or FDIC which still to this day protects bank investments.
4) Also led to the creation of the Federal Trade Commission to help monitor and regulate the stock market and stock trading industry. -
Period: to
World War II
Key Facts
1) Officially begins with the German invasion of Poland on Sept 1, 1939.
2) Axis Powers - Germany, Italy and Japan
3) Allied Powers - France, England, US and Russia
4) US enters the war on Dec 7, 1941 after Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
5) The war ended in Europe on May 8, 1945 (V-E Day) and in Japan on August 14, 1945 (V-J Day)
6) The war against Japan ended after the US dropped two atomic bombs, Fat Man and Little Boy on Hiroshima and Nagasaki -
Sputnik 1 Launched
Key Facts
1) First artificial satellite in space
2) Starts the US-Soviet Space Race
3) First of many Soviet victories -
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassinated
Key Facts
1) One of the key leaders of the Civil Rights Movemement
2) Assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee
3) Killed by James Earl Ray
4) Sadly, death help push through Civil Right Reform. -
US Lands on the Moon
Key Facts
1) Apollo 11 first manned landing on the moon
2) First US victory in the "Space Race"
3) Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin were the Apollo 11 Astronauts.
4) Buzz Aldrin was the first man to actually step foot on the moon -
The Cold War Ends
Key Facts
1) The Soviet Union dissolved due to economic pressures and problems with communism and the arms race with the US
2) Gorbachev's programs of perestroika and glasnost
3) Allowed US to become the sole leader as a military power
4) Created multiple new countries, largest being the Russian Federation. -
Terror Attacks on World Trade Center and Pentagon
-
Barak Obama Elected President of the United States
Key Points
1) 1st African-American President
2) 44th President
3) Democrat
