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Economic Recovery Tax Act
A federal law passed to boost the economy, reduce inflation and increase employment. -
NRA
National Recovery Administration: established and administered a system of industrial codes to control production, prices, labor relations, and trade practices. -
Nuclear Proliferation
The spread of nuclear weapons to nations that do not have nuclear capabilities. -
Osama Bin Laden
Founder of al Qaeda, the terrorist network responsible for the attacks of September 11, 2001, and other attacks. -
WMD's
Generally nuclear weapons with tremendous capability to destroy a population and the planet. WMD warfare refers to the application of force between countries using biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons. -
PLO
Palestinian Liberation Organization; formed with the purpose of creating a homeland for Palestinians in Israel. -
Yasser Arafat
Came to power after the 1967 war, and became the chairman of the PLO. He went to war with Israel, using guerrilla warfare. -
William Rehnquist
United States jurist who served as an associate justice on the United States Supreme Court from 1986, when he was appointed chief justice -
California V. Bakke
A 1978 Supreme Court ruling that narrowly upheld affirmative action, declaring that race may be one factor, but not the sole criterion in school admissions -
Sandinistas
Members of a leftist coalition that overthrew the Nicaraguan dictatorship of Anastasia Somoza in 1979 and attempted to install a socialist economy. -
Moral Majority
A religious endeavor that moved to have a faith based political agenda in lobbying that was comprised of mostly conservatives who believed in the idea of mortal law. -
Saddam Hussein
President of Iraq from 1979 to 2003. Waged war on Iran in 1980-1988. In 1990 he ordered an invasion of Kuwait but was defeated by United States and its allies in the Gulf War (1991). -
Side-supply economics
An economic philosophy that holds the sharply cutting taxes will increase the incentive people have to work, save, and invest. Investing will lead to a better economy and more jobs for the people. -
Trickle-Down Economics
Economic theory that holds that money lent to banks and businesses will trickle down to consumers. -
Religious Fundamentalism
A Religious movement where the followers are to return to the foundations of the faith and to influence state policy where every word of the bible is interpreted literally. -
Ronald Reagan
First elected president in 1980 and elected again in 1984. He ran on a campaign based on the common man and "populist" ideas. -
PACTO Strike
Reagan took a tough stand against unions - he fired thousands of striking federal air traffic controllers for violating their contract and decertified their union. -
Sandra Day O'Connor
First woman supreme court justice appointed by President Ronald Reagan -
AIDS
Huge deadly outbreak in the '70s started with gay men and was labeled the "gay plague" but soon began to affect drug users, hemophiliacs, and minorities. -
Boland Amendment
An act passed by congress that said the president could not support the Contras. -
SDI
Reagan's intent to pursue a high technology missile defense system,
goal was to shoot nuclear missiles from space specifically to the Soviet Unions. -
Beirut Bombings
Suicide bomber crashed a bomb-filled truck into U.S. Marine barracks on October 23, 1983 killing over 200 marines, Reagan had to withdraw the troops, -
Internet
A computer network consisting of a worldwide network of computer networks that use the TCP/IP network protocols to facilitate data transmission and exchange -
Walter Mondale
American politician who served as the 42nd Vice President of the United States from 1977 to 1981, and was the democrat who ran against Reagan in the election of 1984. -
Geraldine Ferraro
American attorney and Democratic Party politician who served in the United States House of Representatives. First female vice presidential candidate in election of 1984. -
Iran-Contra Affair
President Reagan who secretly supported an anti-Communist group in Nicaragua and funneled weapons to Iranian terrorists in exchange for American hostages -
Mikhail Gorbachev
·Head of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991. His liberalization effort improved relations with the West, but he lost power after his reforms led to the collapse of Communist governments in eastern Europe. -
Glasnost & Perestroika
Policies of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev which called for more openness with the nations of West, relaxing of restraints on Soviet citizenry, and to revitalize the Soviet economy by opening it up to more free enterprise. -
Immigration Act of 1986
Also known as the Johnson-Reed Act. Federal law limiting the number of immigrants that could be admitted from any country to 2% of the amount of people from that country who were already living in the U.S. as of the census of 1890. -
"Tear down this wall"
Ronald Reagan said this referring to the Berlin Wall in his speech, wanting for Mikhail Gorbachev to hear and the stop of communism -
IFN agreement
Required the United States and the Soviet Union to eliminate and permanently forswear all of their nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers. -
"Read my lips, no new taxes."
A phrase spoken by American presidential candidate George H. W. Bush at the 1988 Republican National Convention as he accepted the nomination on August 18 -
Al-Qaeda
A radical Sunni Muslim organization dedicated to the elimination of a Western presence in Arab countries and militantly opposed to Western foreign policy: founded by Osama bin Laden -
Tiananmen Square
Site in Beijing where Chinese students and workers gathered to demand greater political openness. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
Marked the symbolic end of the Cold War and was the beginning of the collapse of communism in eastern Europe. -
Panama Invasion
Bush ordered this to remove the autocratic General Manuel Noriega; the alleged purpose of this was to stop Noriega from using his country as a drug pipeline to the US. -
NAFTA
A trade agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico that encourages free trade between these North American countries. -
Lech Walesa
President of Poland who brought down the communist influence in Poland and won The Nobel Peace Prize in 1983. -
Persian Gulf War
Conflict between Iraq and a coalition of countries led by the United States to remove Iraqi forces from Kuwait -
Americans with Disabilities Act
A wide-ranging civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability; covers employment, transportation, building accessibility, transportation, etc. -
Breakup of the Soviet Union
Boris Yeltsin turns Russia into a Republic and the country is out of turmoil. Many republics declared independence; the Soviet government was clearly powerless to stop the fragmentation. -
Boris Yeltsin
President of the Russian Republic in 1991. Helped end the USSR and force Gorbachev to resign. -
Start 1 and 2
The Strategic Arms Reductions Treaties, known as START I and START II, were agreements to reduce the number of long-range nuclear weapons in the United States and the former Soviet Union. -
Clarence Thomas
African American nominated by George H. W. Bush to be on the Supreme Court and became the second African American to hold a seat in the Supreme; against Affirmative Action. -
Ross Perot
Third-party candidate in the 1992 presidential election who won 19 percent of the popular vote and advocated smaller federal bureaucracy and commonsense skills to solve economic problems -
"Ethnic Cleansing"
Process in which more powerful ethnic group forcibly removes a less powerful one in order to create an ethnically homogeneous region -
Bill Clinton
42nd President who advocated economic and healthcare reform; second president to be impeached. -
Failure of Health Reform
Health care reform package under the Clinton Administration that required each US citizen and permanent resident alien to become enrolled in a qualified health plan was ultimately defeated because there were not enough Democratic Senators behind a single proposal to pass a bill. -
Brady Bill
Law passed in 1993 requiring a waiting period on sales of handguns, along with a criminal background check on the buyer -
Deficit Reduction Budget
Combined with an increasingly buoyant economy by 1996 to shrink the federal deficit to its lowest level in more than a decade. -
West Bank and the Gaza Strip
Oslo Accords made agreement (1993) where Israel gave Palestinian self-rule in Gaza Strip and West Bank. -
EU
An international organization of European countries formed after World War II to reduce trade barriers and increase cooperation among its members -
Al Gore
Served as the 45th Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Ran for President in 2000 and won popular vote but lost Electoral College -
Hillary Clinton
Wife of President Bill Clinton, she was also the First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001 and also headed the committee of health-care reform -
"Don't ask, don't tell"
The official United States policy on military service by gays, bisexuals, and lesbians, instituted by the Clinton Administration -
Newt Gingrich
The Republican speaker in the House. He pushed for more conservative legislation during Clinton's presidency. -
Oklahoma City Bombing
Bombing of Murrah Federal Building. The blast, set off by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, killed 168 people, including 19 children in the building's day-care center. -
Bosnia and Kosovo
Carried out independence movements which were suppressed by Milosevic. Bombs and troops from NATO countries stopped the bloodshed in Bosnia 1995 and Kosovo 1999. -
WTO
Administers the rules governing trade between its 144 members. Helps producers, importers, and exporters conduct their business and ensure that trade flows smoothly -
Welfare Reform
Ended guarantees of federal aid to children, turned over programs such programs to states, food stamp spending cut, added five year limit on payments to any family -
Bob Dole
Served as the Republican Leader of the United States Senate from 1985 until 1996. He was the Republican presidential nominee in the 1996 presidential election against Clinton. -
Taliban
A group of fundamentalist Muslims who took control of Afghanistan's government -
Contract with America
Republican plan headed by Newt Gingrich that focused on scaling back the government, balancing the budget, and cutting taxes -
Madeleine Albright
The first woman to serve as secretary of state; proved to be more assertive in the use of American power -
G-8
An international organization of the leading capitalist industrial nations: US, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, Russia. Largely controlled the world's major international financial organizations: World Bank, IMF, and GATT -
Clinton Impeachment
Result of a political sex scandal emerging from a sexual relationship between United States President Bill Clinton and a 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky -
Bush v. Gore
This case ruled in favor of Bush by saying that recounting the votes in certain counties of Florida was unconstitutional because of equal protection of the law -
George H.W. Bush
Vice President under Reagan and 41st President of the United States -
George W. Bush
43rd president of the US who began a campaign toward energy self-sufficiency and against terrorism in 2001 -
Bush Tax Cuts
The Bush tax cut was a cut on the amount of taxes given out it was part of the conservative agenda and the excessive amount of taxation -
No Child Left Behind
An education bill created and signed by the George W. Bush administration. Designed to increase accountability standards for primary and secondary schools -
Enron
The Enron scandal, eventually led to the bankruptcy of the Enron Corporation, an American energy company based in Houston, Texas, and the dissolution of Arthur Andersen, which was one of the five largest audit and accountancy partnerships in the world. -
9/11
The terrorist attack on the world trade center in NYC -
Homeland Security
Newest executive department set up to combat issues of terrorism, border control, and intelligence: immigration services. FEMA, and the coast guard -
"Axis of Evil"
A group of nations accused by the Bush administration of sponsoring terrorism and threatening to develop weapons of mass destruction -
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Operation where U.S. troops invaded Iraq and Saddam's forces collapsed almost immediately. -
John Kerry
Democratic senator from Massachusetts who ran unsuccessfully for president against incumbent Bush -
Hurricane Katrina
Considered to be the one crisis of the Bush administrations second term and in is inefficiency to deal with the crisis. It destroyed 80% of New Orleans and more than 1300 people died, while the damages were $150 billion -
Kyoto Accord
Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change dealing with global warming and to limit the greenhouse gas emissions. -
Housing Bubble
The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates in response to the end of the technology surge, encouraging investors to purchase real estate, causing another "bubble" and increased housing prices -
Abu Ghraib Prison
Revelations of abuse perpetrated by American soldiers against Iraqi prisoners in this Baghdad prison inflamed anti-American sentiment in the Middle East and beyond, calling into question America's democratic ideals -
Great Recession
Has had long-term lingering effects on unemployment, and was preceded by the largest housing bubble in US history, caused by short term economic thinking, speculation, and irresponsible spending -
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mae
Two corporate organizations that make house mortgages available to people with modest incomes - when housing bubble burst and people defaulted on housing loans, these two corporations taken over by government -
Barack Obama
Illinois Senator who won the presidency in 2008, first African-American President, advocate for universal healthcare, an end to the Iraqi War, and economic recovery. -
John McCain
This Republican senator was a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War and was seeking the Republican nomination in the 2008 presidential election -
Sarah Palin
Republican vice-presidential candidate with John McCain in the 2008 election, the second woman to run for vice president of a major party and the first Republican -
D.C. v. Heller
2008 Court held that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that firearm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self- defense within the home. -
Tea Party
A national social movement, primarily attracting fiscal and social conservatives, that seeks to limit government spending and cut taxes -
Sonia Sotomayor
Appointed by President Obama in 2009, first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice -
Dodd-Frank Act
A law enacted in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008-2009 that strengthened government oversight of financial markets and placed limitations on risky financial strategies such as heavy reliance on leverage -
Affordable Care Act
An expansion of medicaid, most of employers must provide health insurance, have insurance or face surtax, prevents rejection based on pre-existing condition. Also referred to as "Obamacare", -
Citizens United
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010). Court rules that corporations have first amendment right to spend as much as they like in elections. -
Debt Ceiling
Legislative mechanism to limit the amount of debt that can be issued by Treasury by limiting money the government can borrow. -
Arab Spring
A revolutionary wave of protests and demonstrations overtaking dictators in the Middle East. -
Syrian Civil War
Arab spring produced an on-going civil war in Syria, Obama criticized for not intervening more forcefully in failed states like Syria -
Mitt Romney
Republican nominee for president in 2012, former governor of Massachusetts -
Boston Marathon Bombing
During the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. The two suspects were identified later that day as the brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev -
Shelby County v. Holder
Concerned constitutionality of two parts of the Voting Rights Act, one was struck down because it was outdated and potentially limited voters' rights. -
Same-Sex Marriage
On June 26, 2015, same-sex marriage was established in all 50 states as a result of the ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States in the landmark civil rights case of Obergefell v. Hodges.
