-
Sandinistas
a member of a left-wing Nicaraguan political organization, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), which came to power in 1979 after overthrowing the dictator Anastasio Somoza. Opposed during most of their period of rule by the US-backed Contras, the Sandinistas were voted out of office in 1990. -
California v. Bakke
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265, was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States. It upheld affirmative action, allowing race to be one of several factors in college admission policy. -
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was President of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party -
Supply-Side Economics
argues economic growth can be most effectively created by lowering taxes and decreasing regulation -
Religious Fundamentalism
Religious fundamentalism refers to the belief of an individual or a group of individuals in the absolute authority of a sacred religious text or teachings of a particular religious leader, prophet,and/ or God. -
AIDS
a disease in which there is a severe loss of the body's cellular immunity, greatly lowering the resistance to infection and malignancy -
Trickle-Down Economics
economic theory that advocates reducing taxes on businesses and the wealthy as a means to stimulate business investment in the short term and benefit society at large in the long term. -
PACTO Strike
The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization or PATCO was a United States trade union that operated from 1968 until its decertification in 1981 following a strike that was declared illegal and broken by the Reagan Administration. -
Sandra Day O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor is a retired Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving from her appointment in 1981 by Ronald Reagan to 2006. She is the first woman to serve on the Court. -
Walter Mondale
Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale is an American politician, diplomat and lawyer who served as the 42nd Vice President of the United States from 1977 to 1981, and as a United States Senator from Minnesota. -
Economic Recovery Tax Act
tax cut -
Ronald Reagan
40th President of the United States from 1981 to 1989 -
William Rehnquist
William Hubbs Rehnquist was an American lawyer and jurist who served on the Supreme Court of the United States for 33 years, first as an Associate Justice from 1972 to 1986, and then as the 16th Chief Justice of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2005. -
Boland Amendment
The Boland Amendment is a term describing three U.S. legislative amendments between 1982 and 1984, all aimed at limiting U.S. government assistance to the Contras in Nicaragua. -
PLO
The Palestine Liberation Organization is an organization founded in 1964 with the purpose of the "liberation of Palestine" through armed struggle, with much of its violence aimed at Israeli civilians. -
Geraldine Ferraro
Geraldine Anne "Gerry" Ferraro was an American attorney and Democratic Party politician who served in the United States House of Representatives. -
Moral Majority
The Moral Majority was a prominent American political organization associated with the Christian right and Republican Party. It was founded in 1979 by Baptist minister Jerry Falwell and associates, and dissolved in the late 1980s. -
SDI
The Strategic Defense Initiative was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons. The concept was first announced publicly by President Ronald Reagan on 23 March 1983. -
Iran-Contra Affair
The Iran–Contra affair, also referred to as Irangate, Contragate or the Iran–Contra scandal, was a political scandal in the United States that occurred during the second term of the Reagan Administration. -
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, GCL is a Russian and former Soviet politician. He was the eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union, having been General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991. -
Glasnost & Perestroika
To reform the distraught Soviet Union, the democratization of the Communist Party was promoted through Party Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of “perestroika” and “glasnost.” Perestroika refers to the reconstruction of the political and economic system established by the Communist Party. -
Bob Dole
American former politician and attorney who represented Kansas in Congress from 1961 and served as the Republican Leader of the United States Senate until 1996 -
Beirut Bombings
The 1983 Beirut barracks bombings were acts of terrorism that occurred on October 23, 1983, in Beirut, Lebanon, during the Lebanese Civil War. -
Immigration Act of 1986
law criminalized the act of engaging in a "pattern or practice" of knowingly hiring an "unauthorized alien" and established financial and other penalties for those employing illegal immigrants under the theory that low prospects for employment would reduce undocumented immigration -
“Tear down this wall”
"Tear down this wall!" is a line from a speech made by US President Ronald Reagan in West Berlin on June 12, 1987, calling for the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to open up the barrier -
INF Agreement
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) is the abbreviated name of the Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Elimination of Their Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles, a 1987 agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union -
John McCain
American politician serving as the senior US Senator- Republican nominee for President of the United States in the 2008 election, which he lost to Barack Obama -
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa, popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar, was a Palestinian political leader. -
“Read my lips, no new taxes.”
spoken by then-American presidential candidate George H. W. Bush at the 1988 Republican National Convention as he accepted the nomination on August 18. Written by speechwriter Peggy Noonan, the line was the most prominent sound bite from the speech. -
George H.W. Bush
41st President of the United States from 1989 to 1993 -
Tiananmen Square
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, commonly known in mainland China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led demonstrations in Beijing, the capital of the People's Republic of China, in 1989. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall: The Fall of the Wall. On November 9, 1989, as the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin's Communist Party announced a change in his city's relations with the West. Starting at midnight that day, he said, citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country's borders. -
Panama Invasion
The United States Invasion of Panama, code named Operation Just Cause occurred between mid-December 1989 and late January 1990. -
Bosnia and Kosovo
Serb attacks, initially sponsored by the Yugoslav National Army, began as a war between nation states. Kosovo, on the other hand, is a province of Serbia, which together with Montenegro makes up the new Yugoslavia -
Lech Walesa
Lech Wałęsa is a retired Polish politician and labour activist. He co-founded and headed Solidarity, the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland from 1990 to 1995. -
Persian Gulf War
Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait set off a brief but consequential conflict involving an international coalition of forces led by the United States. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion and occupation of neighboring Kuwait in early August 1990. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. -
NRA
National Rifle Association- to promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis -
“Ethnic Cleansing”
systematic forced removal of ethnic or racial groups from a given territory by a more powerful ethnic group, often with the intent of making it ethnically homogeneous -
Nuclear Proliferation
spread of nuclear weapons, fissionable material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information to nations not recognized as "Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty -
West Bank and the Gaza Strip
Palestinian Territories-the southern limit of the Gaza Strip is the border with Egypt. Egypt renounced all claims to land north of the international border, including the Gaza Strip, in the Israel-Egypt peace treaty -
Internet
global system of interconnected computer networks that use the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to link devices worldwide -
Taliban
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist political movement in Afghanistan currently waging war within that country -
Breakup of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union occurred on December 26, 1991, officially granting self-governing independence to the Republics of the Soviet Union. It was a result of the declaration number 142-Н of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Wikipedia -
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was a Soviet and Russian politician and the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999. -
Start I and II
START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) was a bilateral treaty between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) on the reduction and limitation of strategic offensive arms. The treaty was signed on 31 July 1991 and entered into force on 5 December 1994. -
Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas is an American judge, lawyer, and government official who currently serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. -
EU
European Union- Maastricht Treaty (formally known as the Treaty on European Union) -
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Prior to the presidency, he was the Governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981, and again from 1983 to 1992. -
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. -
NAFTA
North American Free Trade Agreement-negotiated among the US, Canada and Mexico for the purpose of removing barriers to the exchange of goods and services among the three countries -
Brady Bill
a provision of US federal law that requires a waiting period for handgun purchases and background checks on those who wish to purchase handguns -
Al Gore
American politician and environmentalist who served as the Vice President of the US -
Hillary Clinton
American politician, former diplomat, and First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001 -
“Don’t ask, don’t tell”
policy restricting US military personnel from efforts to discriminate closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants, while barring those who are openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual from military service -
Contract with America
document released by the United States Republican Party during the Congressional election campaign -
Newt Gingrich
American politician and author and ultimately serving as 50th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives -
Oklahoma City Bombing
domestic terrorist truck bombing on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City -
WTO
intergovernmental organization that regulates international trade -
Ross Perot
Henry Ross Perot is an American business magnate and former politician. As the founder of Electronic Data Systems, he became a billionaire. -
Welfare Reform
Signed by Clinton, a comprehensive bipartisan welfare reform plan that will dramatically change the nation's welfare system into one that requires work in exchange for time-limited assistance -
Madeleine Albright
Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright is an American politician and diplomat. She is the first woman to have become the United States Secretary of State. She served from 1997 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton -
G-8
Group of Eight- inter-governmental political forum from with the participation of the major industrialized countries in the world, that viewed themselves as democracies. -
Kyoto Accord
The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty which extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that (part one) global warming is occurring and (part two) it is extremely likely that ... -
Deficit Reduction Budget
US refers to taxation, spending, and economic policy debates and proposals designed to reduce the Federal budget deficit -
Clinton Impeachment
initiated by the House of Representatives and led to a trial in the Senate for the impeachment of Bill Clinton -
Bush v. Gore
decision of the United States Supreme Court that settled a recount dispute in Florida's 2000 presidential election -
George W. Bush
President who led the US response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and initiated the Iraq War. Before his presidency, Bush was a businessman and served as governor of Texas. -
Bush Tax Cuts
changes to the United States tax code passed originally during the presidency of Bush and extended during the presidency of Barack Obama -
Enron
Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas -
9/11
series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda on the United States -
Al-Qaeda
militant Sunni Islamist multi-national organization founded in 1988 by Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Azzam, and several other Arab volunteers who fought against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan -
Osama bin Laden
founder of al-Qaeda, the organization responsible for the September 11 attacks -
No Child Left Behind
federal law that provides money for extra educational assistance for poor children in return for improvements in their academic progress -
Homeland Security
cabinet department of the United States federal government with responsibilities in public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries -
“Axis of Evil”
phrase used to describe governments that his administration accused of sponsoring terrorism and seeking weapons of mass destruction -
WMD’s
Weapon of mass destruction- weapon of mass destruction is a nuclear, radiological, chemical, biological or other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large pop. or cause great damage to structures -
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Iraq War was a protracted armed conflict that began in 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a United States-led coalition that overthrew the government of Saddam Hussein -
Abu Ghraib Prison
personnel of the United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency committed a series of human rights violations against detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq -
Hurricane Katrina
extremely destructive and deadly Category 5 hurricane that caused catastrophic damage along the Gulf coast from central Florida to Texas, much of it due to the storm surge and levee failure -
Sarah Palin
American politician, commentator, author, and reality television personality, who served as the ninth Governor of Alaska from 2006 until her resignation in 2009 -
Great Recession
period of general economic decline observed in world markets -the scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country -
Housing Bubble
real estate bubble affecting over half of the U.S. states. Housing prices peaked, and started to decline in 2006 -
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
government-sponsored enterprises- they are privately owned, but receive support from the Federal Government, and assume some public responsibilities -
Barack Obama
American politician who served as the 44th President of the United States -
D.C. v. Heller
landmark case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right -
Tea Party
movement is an American conservative movement within the Republican Party. Members of the movement have called for a reduction of the national debt of the United States and federal budget -
Sonia Sotomayor
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving since August 2009. She has the distinction of being its first justice of Hispanic descent -
Dodd-Frank Act
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act- law that places major regulations on the financial industry -
Affordable Care Act
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often shortened to the Affordable Care Act or nicknamed Obamacare, is a United States federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress -
Arab Spring
was a revolutionary wave of both violent and non-violent demonstrations, protests, riots, coups, foreign interventions, and civil wars -
Citizens United
landmark U.S. constitutional law, campaign finance, and corporate law case dealing with regulation of political campaign spending by organizations -
Syrian Civil War
The Syrian Civil War is an ongoing multi-sided armed conflict in Syria fought primarily between the Ba'athist Syrian Arab Republic led by President Bashar al-Assad, along with its allies -
Mitt Romney
Willard Mitt Romney is an American businessman and politician who served as the 70th Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 and was the Republican Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2012 election -
John Kerry
American politician who served as the US Secretary of State -Democrat, previously represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate -
Debt Ceiling
an upper limit set on the amount of money that a government may borrow -
Boston Marathon Bombing
On April 15, 2013, two homemade bombs detonated 12 seconds and 210 yards apart at 2:49 p.m., near the finish line of the annual Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring several hundred others, including 16 who lost limbs -
Shelby County v. Holder
landmark United States Supreme Court case regarding the constitutionality of two provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965: Section 5 -
Same-Sex Marriage
marriage of a same-sex couple, entered into in a civil or religious ceremony
