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Dred Scott Decision
It was a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that people of African descent brought into the U.S. and held as slaves were not protected by the Constitution and were not U.S. citizens. -
Lincoln Assassination
The assassination was planned and carried out by the well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth, as part of a larger conspiracy in a bid to revive the Confederate cause. -
Social Security Act
It established a system of old-age benefits for workers, benefits for victims of industrial accidents, unemployment insurance, aid for dependent mothers and children, the blind, and the physically handicapped. -
McCarthy Hearings
The hearings were held for the purpose of investigating conflicting accusations between the United States Army and Senator Joseph McCarthy. -
Brown V. Board of Education
The Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which allowed state-sponsored segregation. -
Medicaid
Provides medical insurance to low-income families. Funded by State and federal governments, and is managed by the states. -
Civil Rights Act of 1965
Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1965 to ensure the voting rights of African Americans. Though the Constitution's 15th Amendment (passed 1870) had guaranteed the right to vote regardless of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude,” African Americans in the South faced efforts to disenfranchise them, including poll taxes and literacy tests, as late as the 1960s, when the civil rights movement focused national attention on infringements of their voting rights; Congress responded with th -
Medicare
Medicare
Guarantees health insurance for people over the age of 65. If you have disabilities, permanent kidney failure or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease), you can qualify for Medicare. This program helps with the cost of health care, but it does not cover all medical expenses. -
Watergate Affair
A political scandal that occurred in the U.S. as a result of the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement. The scandal eventually led to the resignation of Richard Nixon. -
9/11/01
a series of four coordinated suicide attacks upon the United States in New York City and the Washington, D.C. areas on September 11, 2001. On that Tuesday morning, 19 terrorists from the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger jets. The hijackers intentionally flew two of those planes, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center complex in New York City; both towers collapsed within two hours.
