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Communism
Communism was a philosophy developed by Karl Marx in 1845, and while it almost took hold in France in 1871, it wasn't officially put into practice until 1917, when Russia adopted it as a form of government and became the first communist state. -
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George Washington Carver
George Washington Carver was born in Kansas Territory near Diamond Grove, Missouri, during the bloody struggle between free-soilers and slaveholders. His father, a slave on a nearby farm, was killed shortly before Carver was born.George Washington Carver was a prominent American scientist and inventor in the early 1900s. Carver developed hundreds of products using the peanut, sweet potatoes and soybeans. He also was a champion of crop rotation and agricultural education. -
The First Transcontinental Railroad
The First Transcontinental Railroad was built crossing the western half of America and it was pieced together between 1863 and 1869. It was 1,776 miles long and served for the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States to be connected by rail for the first time in history. -
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell was born on March 3, 1847, in Edinburgh, Scotland. The second son of Alexander Melville Bell and Eliza Grace Symonds Bell, he was named for his paternal grandfather. He is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. -
Thomas Alva Edison
Edison had a big break when he saved a young boy from being struck by a runaway train. His grateful father, J.U. Mckenzie, had Edison trained as a telegraph operator and, aged 19, Edison moved to Louisville, Kentucky to work as a telegraph operator for Western Union.Thomas Edison is famous because he is the most prolific inventor in American history. His 1,093 patents, covered innovations and improvements in a number of areas such as electric power, motion pictures and sound recording. -
Brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright
They built and flew the first airplane in human history. they were engineers who founded the Wright Cycle Company in Dayton Ohio in 1892.While the bicycle business sustained them, they began to experiment with flying machines.Their first successful flight with Orville at the control, took place at Kitty Hawk,North Carolina on 17 December 1903.The plane covered 120 feet in 12 seconds; a short flight, but enough to make history. the Wrights’ creation was the first, motor-powered, heavy air craft. -
Henry Ford
Henry Ford was an extremely influential character from 1917-1930 in the U.S., important for bringing the automobile to the mainstream and evoking the promises that cars brought to the nation. -
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
On this day in 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie are shot to death by a Bosnian Serb nationalist during an official visit to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. The killings sparked a chain of events that led to the outbreak of World War I by early August. On June 28, 1919, five years to the day after Franz Ferdinand’s death, Germany and the Allied Powers signed the Treaty of Versailles, officially marking the end of World War I. -
World War I ends with German defeat.
This 'Stab in the Back' theory would become hugely popular among many Germans who found it impossible to swallow defeat. During the war, Adolf Hitler became obsessed with this idea, especially laying blame on Jews and Marxists in Germany for undermining the war effort. To Hitler, and so many others, the German politicians who signed the armistice on November 11, 1918, would become known as the 'November Criminals.' -
League of Nations founded.
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The Treaty of Versailles
WW1 or the "Great War" officially ended the state of war between Germany and the Allies when the Treaty of Versailles was signed at the Palace of Versailles in France on June 28, 1919. -
Adolf Hitler becomes leader of National Socialist (Nazi) Party.
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Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch.
In April of 1921, the victorious European Allies of World War One, notably France and England, presented a bill to Germany demanding payment for damages caused in the war which Germany had started. This bill (33 billion dollars) for war reparations had the immediate effect of causing ruinous inflation in Germany. -
Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" published.
Although it is thought of as having been 'written' by Hitler, Mein Kampf is not a book in the usual sense. Hitler never actually sat down and pecked at a typewriter or wrote longhand, but instead dictated it to Rudolph Hess while pacing around his prison cell in 1923-24 and later at an inn at Berchtesgaden. -
Germany admitted to League of Nations.
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Herbert Hoover 31st President
President Herbert Hoover approached the problem of the Great Depression by promoting his vision of private sector and government cooperation; urging businesses, banks, and government to act in the best interest of the country. As the depression worsened, he signed legislation for public works projects and increased government spending. -
Stock Market on Wall Street crashes.
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Germans elect Nazis making them the 2nd largest political party in Germany.
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Nazis open Dachau concentration camp.
After Hitler came to power in early 1933, the Nazis began a systematic roundup of political opponents and all known anti-Nazis. There were so many arrests that conventional prisons quickly became overwhelmed. -
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Franklin D. Roosevelt 32nd President
Franklin D Roosevelt (1882-1945), nicknamed the "F.D.R.", was the 32nd American President and served in office from 1933-1945. The Presidency of Franklin D Roosevelt spanned the period in United States history that encompasses the events of the Depression & WW2 era. -
Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany.
On the night of January 30, 1933, the Nazis organized a massive torchlight parade in Berlin to celebrate the appointment of Hitler as Chancellor of Germany. Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring greet the participants in the parade as they pass beneath the window of Hitler's new office. Below: A view of the parade passing German President Paul von Hindenburg who gazes out the window at the sight. -
The German Reichstag burns.
The Reichstag building, seat of the German government, burns after being set on fire by Nazis. This enabled Adolf Hitler to seize power under the pretext of protecting the nation from threats to its security. -
First concentration camp opened at Oranienburg outside Berlin.
Nazi SA guards oversee prisoners who are carrying a tub near the entrance to the Oranienburg concentration camp in 1933.The SA was eventually replaced by Himmler's SS as the concentration camp system expanded to house an ever increasing number of political opponents and Jews,arrested and imprisoned without a trial or any right of appeal.The first camps included;Dachau in southern Germany near Munich,Buchenwald in central Germany near Weimar,and Sachsenhausen near Berlin in the north. -
Enabling Act gives Hitler dictatorial power.
On March 23, 1933, the newly elected members of the German Parliament (the Reichstag) met in the Kroll Opera House in Berlin to consider passing Hitler's Enabling Act. It was officially called the 'Law for Removing the Distress of the People and the Reich.' If passed, it would effectively mean the end of democracy in Germany and establish the legal dictatorship of Adolf Hitler. -
Nazi boycott of Jewish owned shops.
Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels delivers a speech to a crowd in the Berlin Lustgarten urging Germans to boycott Jewish-owned businesses. He defends the boycott as a legitimate response to the anti-German "atrocity propaganda" being spread abroad by "international Jewry." Below:Nazi storm troopers block the entrance to a Jewish-owned store. Their signs read: "Germans, defend yourselves against the Jewish atrocity propaganda, buy only at German shops!" -
Nazis burn books in Germany.
May 10, 1933 - An event unseen since the Middle Ages occurs as German students from universities formerly regarded as among the finest in the world, gather in Berlin and other German cities to burn books with "unGerman" ideas. Books by Freud, Einstein, Thomas Mann, Jack London, H.G. Wells and many others go up in flames as they give the Nazi salute. -
Nazi Party declared Germany's only political party.
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Germany quits the League of Nations.
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The Nazi "Night of the Long Knives."
The four million brown shirted Nazi storm troopers, the SA (Sturmabteilung), included many members who actually believed in the 'socialism' of National Socialism and also wanted to become a true revolutionary army in place of the regular German Army. -
Nazis murder Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss.
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German President Hindenburg dies.
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Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany.
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Hitler violates the Treaty of Versailles by introducing military conscription.
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German Jews stripped of rights by Nuremberg Race Laws.
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The German Gestapo is placed above the law.
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German troops occupy the Rhineland.
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Mussolini's Italian forces take Ethiopia.
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Civil war erupts in Spain.
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Olympic games begin in Berlin.
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Franco declared head of Spanish State.
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Soviet leader Josef Stalin begins a purge of Red Army generals
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Hitler reveals war plans during Hossbach Conference.
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Germany announces 'Anschluss' (union) with Austria.
Adolf Hitler, Führer of Germany, accepts salutes and cheers from the Nazi controlled Reichstag after announcing the Anschluss (union) with Austria. Immediately after the Anschluss, Nazis began a brutal crackdown on Austrian Jews, arresting them and publicly humiliating them. Below: Austrian Nazis and local residents watch as Jews are forced to get on their hands and knees and scrub the pavement. -
German military mobilizes.
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British Prime Minister Chamberlain appeases Hitler at Munich.
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German troops occupy the Sudetenland; Czech government resigns.
A Sudeten woman dutifully salutes parading Nazis, October, 1938. The Sudetenland was the portion of Czechoslovakia inhabited by over 3 million Sudeten Germans. Many of them became Nazis and strongly supported the acquisition of the Sudetenland by Hitler. -
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Kristallnacht - The Night of Broken Glass.
A massive, coordinated attack on Jews throughout the German Reich on the night of November 9, 1938, into the next day, has come to be known as Kristallnacht or The Night of Broken Glass. The attack came after Herschel Grynszpan, a 17 year old Jew living in Paris, shot and killed a member of the German Embassy staff there in retaliation for the poor treatment his father and his family suffered at the hands of the Nazis in Germany. -
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World War 2
Known as one of the most brutal conflicts in recent history, the Second World War wreaked havoc for six years, involving 113 countries from six continents. Starting in 1939, the Allied forces – mainly Britain, Russia, and the USA – sought to stop Nazi Germany in its conquest for European domination. -
Harry S Truman
Harry S. Truman was born in Missouri on May 8, 1884. He was Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s vice president for just 82 days before Roosevelt died and Truman became the 33rd president. In his first months in office he dropped the atomic bomb on Japan, ending World War II. -
Brown v Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. -
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Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a war fought between 1964 and 1975 on the ground in South Vietnam and bordering areas of Cambodia and Laos, and in bombing runs over North Vietnam. Fighting on one side was a coalition of forces including the United States, the Republic of Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea. -
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Berlin Wall
The Fall of the Berlin Wall was inadvertently sparked by the reform policies of Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. November 9, 1989 is recognized as the date of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, although the official demolition of wall started on June 13, 1990. -
March on Washington
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, held on August 28, 1963, in Washington, D.C., was a landmark event for the early civil rights movement and is partly credited with winning the passage of the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 . Over 250,000 demonstrators converged on Washington, D.C., in what was to that point the largest public protest in the history of the nation. -
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Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon (1913-1994), nicknamed the "Tricky Dicky", was the 37th American President and served in office from 1969-1974. The Presidency of Richard Nixon spanned the period in United States history that encompasses the events of the Cold War Era and the age of the Space Race and the Cold War Arms Race. -
Apollo 11
Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first two people on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin, both American, landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC. Armstrong became the first person to step onto the lunar surface six hours later on July 21 at 02:56:15 UTC; Aldrin joined him 19 minutes later. They spent about two and a quarter hours together outside the spacecraft. -
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Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford (1913-2006), nicknamed "Mr. Nice Guy", was the 38th American President and served in office from 1974-1977. The Presidency of Gerald Ford spanned the period in United States history that encompasses the events of the Cold War Era and the age of the Space Race and the Cold War Arms Race. -
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Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter, nicknamed the "Peanut Farmer", was the 39th American President and served in office from 1977-1981. The Presidency of Jimmy Carter spanned the period in United States history that encompasses the events of the Cold War Era and the age of the Space Race and the Cold War Arms Race. -
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Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan (1911-2004), nicknamed the "Gipper", was the 40th American President and served in office from 1981-1989. The Presidency of Ronald Reagan spanned the period in United States history that encompasses the events of the Cold War Era and the age of the Space Race and the Cold War Arms Race. -
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George H. W. Bush
George H W Bush, nicknamed the "Poppy", was the 41st American President and served in office from 1989-1993. The Presidency of George H W Bush spanned the period in United States history that encompasses the events of the Modern Era and the rise of terrorism. -
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Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton was the 42nd president of the United States. He was born in Arkansas in 1946. While in high school, Clinton attended Boys State and earned a position as a representative in the American Legion’s Boys Nation, which gave him the opportunity to meet then-president John F. Kennedy. -
War on Terror
The War on Terror The War on Terror, also known as the Global War on Terrorism is a phrase usually applied to an international military movement which started because of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. This resulted in an international military campaign to do away with al-Qaeda and other militant organizations. -
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George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician and businessman who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He had previously served as the 46th governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000. -
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Barack Obama
Barack Obama was the 44th president of the United States, and the first African American to serve in the office. First elected to the presidency in 2008, he won a second term in 2012.
