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Unit One
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Emancipation Proclamation
Issued on January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation made the Civil War a war against slavery. It also made it so african americans could fiht in the union army. -
Lincoln's Assassination
Lincoln was assassinated in Forde's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth. -
End of the Civil War
The Civil War ended with General Robert E. Lee's surrender. -
13th Amendment Ratified
The U.S. Congress approved the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery throughout the nation. -
Memphis Race Riot
During three days of racial violence in Memphis in May, 1866, white mobs destroyed hundreds of structures in the black community, including a freedman's school. At least forty-six blacks (most of them Union veterans) died and more than 70 were wounded. 5 black women were raped, and 12 churches and 4 schools were burned Two whites also died in the disturbance. -
Ku Klux Klan
Members of the Ku Klux Klan disguised themselves in hooded robes while committing criminal acts against Southern blacks and their Republican allies. On this day they committed the New Orleans Massacre. -
President Johnson's Impeachment Trial
The House Managers of Impeachment, led by Thaddeus Stevens and John A. Bingham of Ohio, went before the U.S. Senate to present eleven articles of impeachment against President Andrew Johnson. The case rested on Johnson's removal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton from office, but in reality grew out of congressional disapproval of Johnson's Reconstruction policies. On May 26, 1868, the Senate voted 35-19 to convict Johnson, one vote short of the two-thirds nessisary. -
Ulysses S. Grant elected President.
Ulysses S. Grant chose Schuyler Colfax, former speaker of the House, as his running mate in the 1868 presidential campaign. "Let us have peace," the last line of Grant's letter accepting the nomination, became the Republicans' campaign slogan. -
First Black Senator Elected
The first African Americans to serve in the United States Senate, Hiram R. Revels (1822-1901) and Blanche K. Bruce (1841-1898). -
Fifteenth Amendment Ratified
In addition to voting rights, this print celebrates the rights of blacks to run for political office, own land, and worship freely. Its heroes include Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln and John Brown.The Fifteenth Amendment prohibited states from abridging the right to vote because of race. -
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Unit Two
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Garfield gets elected President
Garfield receives 214 Electoral College votes to 155 for Hancock, but barely wins the popular vote with a majority of only 7,023 voters. -
Chester Arthur takes over
The 20th President of the United States, James A. Garfield, is shot by lawyer Charles J. Guiteau. He would die two months later on September 19, 1881 from an infection. -
The Standord Oil Company Starts
The Standard Oil Company trust of John D. Rockefeller is begun when Rockefeller places his oil holdings inside it. -
The Haymarket Riot
The Haymarket riot and bombing occurs in Chicago, Illinois, three days after the start of a general strike in the United States that pushed for an eight hour workday. -
The South Fork Dam Flood
The deadliest flood in American history occurs in Johnstown, Pennsylvania when 2,200 people perish from the water of the South Fork Dam after heavy rains cause its destruction. -
Ellis Island Opens
The first Ellis Island Immigration Station was officially opened. That first day, three large ships were waiting to land, and 700 immigrants passed through Ellis Island. In the first year, nearly 450,000 immigrants passed through the Island. -
Hawaii's government is overthrone
In Hawaii, Queen Liliuokalani's government is overthrown; Hawaii becomes a U. S. protectorate despite President Cleveland's opposition. -
First Graduated Income Tax
Congress passes the first graduated income tax. The U.S. Supreme Court declares the "direct tax" unconstitutional the following year. -
The First Labor Day
The U.S. Congress designated the first Monday of September as a legal holiday to mark the contributions of labor, in part as a peace offering to the labor movement following the crackdown on the Pullman Strike. -
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Unit Three
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Douglass Dies
He was an African-American leader and statesman, and he died in Washington D.C. -
First Football Game
In Latrobe, Pennsylvania at a YMCA. -
First Olympic Games
Help in Athens, Greece with thirteen nations participating. -
Plessy vs Ferguson
Supreme Court decision holds that racial segregation is constitutional, paving the way for the repressive Jim Crow laws in the South -
William McKinley's inaguration
William McKinley is inaugurated as the 25th president. -
First Boston Marathon
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Spanish-American War
The USS Maine is blown up in Havana harbor on the 15th of February, prompting the U.S. to declare war on Spain. Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Spanish-American War on the 10th of December. Spain gives up control of Cuba, which becomes an independent republic, and cedes Puerto Rico, Guam, and (for $20 million) the Philippines to the U.S. -
Hawaii Annexes
U.S. annexes Hawaii by an act of Congress -
Filipino Rebellion
Lead by Emilio Aguinaldo. -
American Samoa Obtained
U.S. acquires American Samoa by treaty with Great Britain and Germany -
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Unit Five
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McKinley's Second Inauguration
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McKinley's Death
McKinley is shot by Leon Czolgosz in Buffalo N.Y. -
Panama Acquired
The Panama Canal Zone is acquired by Roosevelt. -
Roosevelt's Second Inauguration
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San Francisco Earthquake
Leaves 500 dead or missing and destroys about 4 sq mi of the city -
FBI is made
Bureau of Investigation, forerunner of the FBI, is established -
Taft is Inaugurated
Mrs. Taft has 80 Japanese cherry trees planted along the banks of the Potomac River. -
Woodrow Wilson is Inaugurated
He becomes the 28th president. -
The Start of World War I
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Panama Canal is Open to Traffic
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Unit Six
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First Phone Call
Bell and Watson conduct the first telephone conversation. -
Establishing the Coast Guard
The coast guard takes over the U.S. life saving services. -
Financial Aid is Given to Farmers
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Virgin Island comes under U.S. control
The Virgin Islands are bought from Denmark for $25,000,000. -
U.S. Declares War on Germany
Part of World War I. -
Prohibition
Ratified by the 18th amendment. -
Time Zones are Established
Times zones and day light savings are established in the states. -
Spanish Flu Epidemic
This epidemic kills 548,000 people in the states alone. -
National Parks East of the Mississippi
First national parks to be set up east of the Mississippi river. -
The Treaty of Versailles
The treaty that ended WWI. -
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Unit Seven
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Unit Eight
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19th Amendment
Women's right to vote -
First Miss America Pagant
Won by Margaret Gorman in Atlantic City, New Jersey. -
Teapot Dome Scandal
US Secretary leases the teapot oil reserves in Wyoming -
Harding to Coolidge
Warren G. Harding dies and Calvin Coolidge takes over. Coolidge opposes the League of Nations but approves the World Court. -
Indian Citizenship Act
Indians are designated citizens. -
The Grand Ole Pry
Transmits their first radio broadcast -
Air Commerce Act
Gives aid and assistance to the airline industry -
Mt. Rushmore
Work begins and 14 years later Gutzen Borglum finishes. -
Mickey and Minnie
Make their first appearance with Disney in Plane Crazy. -
St. Valentine's Day Massacre
Al Capone kills 7 rivals and citizens. -
Birdseye
Technology is advanced. Clarence Birdseye advances frozen foods. Bush helps create the World Wide Web and the analog computer. -
National Anthem
The Star Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key is approved by Hoover -
Trail Ridge Road
Highest continuous paved road in america was finished. It is located in Colorado. -
Dust Bowl in South Dakota Starts
The first huge dust storm hits South Dakota removing the top soil -
Haiti Troops
US pulls troops from Haiti -
Social Security Act
Part of the New Deal -
1936 summer Olympics
Held in Berlin, Germany. Supervised by Adolf Hitler. The star was Jesse Owens a black American. -
Hindenburg Combust
36 People died in the fire. -
National Minimum Wage
At the time was only 25 cents. -
Manhattan Project is started to be planned
Einstein alerts Roosevelt of the A-Bomb. This will lead to the Manhattan Project -
Period: to
Unit Nine
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The Great Smokey Mountain National Park
This is the most visited park in America and on this day was dedicated to President Roosevelt. -
The Lend-Lease Act
Gave 7 billion dollas in military credit. It later gave the USSR one billion in loans. -
Attack On Pearl Harbor
It started early in the morning, 7:55, and it brought the US into WWII. -
Executive Order 9066
Roosevelt gave this order that imprisoned 110,000 Japanese Americans. This order lasted three years. -
Manhattan Project
On this day, under the supervision of Arthur Compton and Enrico Fermi, the first nuclear chain reaction occurred. -
Race Riots
This happened in Detroit and Harlem. It caused 40 deaths and 700 injuries. -
D Day
D Day was the largest amphibious battle to this day. -
The G.I. Bill of Rights
Provided benefits to veterans. -
Trinity Test
The first atomic bomb is created and tested in Alamogordo, New Mexico. -
Hiroshima
Truman gives the A-Okay to use the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and later on Nagasaki. -
Period: to
Unit Ten
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First Miner's Strike
400,000 mine workers begin to strike and lead the other industries down this path. -
Atomic Energy Commision
AEC Atomic Energy Commission is established at this time. -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine is announced to congress. This doctrine would allow 400 million dollars sent to Greece and Turkey to battle communist activity. -
Truman Vetos Taft-Hartley
Truman vetos Taft-Hartley, this act would have curbed strikes, it was later overridden by congress on June 23rd. -
Executive Order 9981
This order, given by Truman, ended segregation in the army. -
Soviets Begin Land Blockade
The Soviet Union begin to form a land blockade of Allied sectors in Berlin, Germany. A counter blockade was formed in the West. -
Korea
The U.S. withdraws from Korea. -
U.S. Communist Leaders Convicted
11 leaders of the U.S. Communist Party are convicted of advocating violent insurrections. June 4, 1951 the convictions were upheld. -
Brinks Robbery
Held in Boston 11 masked bandits stole 28 million dollars from an armored vehicle. -
South Vietnam Help
35 military advisers were sent to South Vietnam to give military and economic aid to the anti-communistic government. -
Period: to
Unit Eleven
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ANZUS Treaty
The United States, Australia, and New Zealand sign a mutual security pact, the ANZUS Treaty. -
Overthrow Iran
The United States CIA assists in the overthrow of the government in Iran, and retains the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to the throne. -
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks, an African American seamstress, refuses to give up her seat on the bus to a white man, prompting a boycott that would lead to the declaration that bus segregation laws were unconstitutional by a federal court. -
Federal-Aid Highway Act
Interstate highway system begins with the signing of the Federal-Aid Highway Act. -
Eisenhower Reinaugurated
President Dwight D. Eisenhower is inaugurated for his second term in office. -
Lituya Bay Earthquake
The Lituya Bay, Alaska earthquake registers 7.5 on the Richter scale, producing a landslide that caused a megatsunami with a 520 meter high wave. Only two people were killed in the incident, due to the desolate nature of the area involved. The wave dissipated when reaching the open sea. -
U.S. Recognizes New Cuban Government
The United States recognizes the new Cuban government under rebel leader Fidel Castro. Castro becomes the Premier of Cuba on February 16. -
Tiros I and the New Census
Tiros I, the first weather satellite, is launched by the United States. Twelve days later, the navigation satellite, Transat 1-b is launched. The 1960 census includes a United States population of 179,323,175, an 18.5% increase since 1950. For the first time, two states, New York and California have over fifteen million people within their borders. The geographic center of the United States is located six and one half miles northwest of Centralia, Illinois. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crises begins. In response to the Soviet Union building offensive missiles in Cuba, President John F. Kennedy orders a naval and air blockade of military equipment to the island. An agreement is eventually reached with Soviet Premier Khrushchev on the removal of the missiles, ending the potential conflict after thirty-eight days, in what many think was the closest the Cold War came to breaking into armed conflict. -
New York's Worlds Fair
The New York World's Fair opens in Queens on the site of the 1939 event. One of the largest world's fairs in United States history, it was not a sanctioned Bureau of International Exhibitions event, due to conflict over the dates of the Seattle fair of 1962. This world's fair would last for two seasons, and included exhibits from eighty nations. Over 50 million visitors would attend. Its theme structure, the Unisphere, is still present. -
Period: to
Unit Twelve
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Medicare
Medicare, the government medical program for citizens over the age of 65, begins. -
First Black President
The first black United States Senator in eighty-five years, Edward Brooke, is elected to Congress. Brooke was the Republican candidate from Massachusetts and former Attorney General of that state. -
Black Riots
Black riots plague U.S. cities. In Newark, New Jersey, twenty-six are killed, fifteen hundred injured and one thousand arrested from July 12 to 17. One week later, July 23 to 30, forty are killed, two thousand injured, and five thousand left homeless after rioting in Detroit, known as the 12th Street Riots, decimate a black ghetto. The riots are eventually stopped by over 12,500 Federal troopers and National Guardsmen. -
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall is sworn into office as the first black Supreme Court Justice. -
King's Death
Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee while standing on a motel balcony by James Earl Ray. -
Nixon Recaptures the Whitehouse
Richard M. Nixon recaptures the White House from the Democratic party with his victory of Hubert H. Humphrey and 3rd Party candidate George Wallace. Nixon captures 301 Electoral College Votes to 191 for Humphrey and 46 for Wallace. -
Apollo Program
The Apollo program completes its mission. Neil Armstrong, United States astronaut, becomes the first man to set foot on the moon four days after launch from Cape Canaveral. His Apollo 11 colleague, Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. accompanies him. -
Alcatraz
Alcatraz Island, the former prison in San Francisco Bay, is occupied by fourteen American Indians in a long standoff over the issues of Indian causes. -
Earth Day
The first Earth Day celebration is held with millions of Americans participating in anti-pollution demonstrations. These demonstrations included school children walking to school instead of riding the bus. -
Independent U.S. Postal Services
The United States Postal Service is made independent in a postal reform measure for the first time in almost two centuries. -
Period: to
Unit Fourteen
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Ban on Cigarette Advertising
A ban on the television advertisement of cigarettes goes into affect in the United States. -
Disney World Opens
Walt Disney World opens in Orlando, Florida, expanding the Disney empire to the east coast of the United States. -
Peace Trip
The journey for peace trip of the U.S. President to Peking, China begins. The eight day journey by Richard M. Nixon and meetings with Mao Zedong, unprecedented at the time, began the process for normalization of relations with China. -
Watergate Crsis
The Watergate crisis begins when four men are arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate office building in Washington, D.C. on the same day that Okinawa is returned from U.S. control back to Japan. -
Wade vs Roe
The United States Supreme Court rules in Roe vs. Wade that a woman can not be prevented by a state in having an abortion during the first six months of pregnancy. -
Secretariat
In one of the most awesome displays of dominance in sports history, Secretariat, wins the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths, winning the Triple Crown of United States Thoroughbred Racing for the first time since 1948. -
Expo '74
Expo '74, the Bureau of International Exhibitions sanctioned special exposition was held for six months in the Washington State city of Spokane, one of the smaller cities to host a BIE world expo in their history. Held on the theme "Celebrating Tomorrow's Fresh, Clean Environment," the event capitalized on the Earth Day sentiments of the time, and drew over 5 million visitors to eastern Washington State. -
Nixon's Impeachment?
The first of three articles of impeachment against President Richard M. Nixon is recommended in a 27-11 vote of the House Judiciary Committee, charging that Nixon had been part of a criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice in the Watergate affair. -
Wheel of Fortune
The television show Wheel of Fortune premiers. -
Communism in South Vietnam
Communist forces complete their takeover of South Vietnam, forcing the evacuation from Saigon of civilians from the United States and the unconditional surrender of South Vietnam. -
Period: to
Unit Fifteen
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Viking I
The Viking 1 space probe successfully lands on Mars. It would be followed by a second unmanned Viking II on the Utopia Plains on September 3. The first color photos of the surface of Mars are taken on these flights. -
Microsoft
Microsoft becomes a registered trademark, one year after its name for microcomputer software is first mentioned by Bill Gates to Paul Allen in a letter. -
STARWARS
The movie Star Wars opens and becomes the highest grossing film at the time. -
Nuclear-proliferation Pact
Fifteen nations, including the United States and the Soviet Union, sign a nuclear-proliferation pact, slowing the spread of nuclear weapons around the world. -
Cloning
In one of the first articles on the subject of human cloning, the New York Post prints an article on the book The Cloning of Man which supposes the cloning of a human being. -
Camp David Peace Agreement
The Camp David Peace Agreement between Israel and Egypt is formulated in twelve days of secret negotiations at the Camp David retreat of the President. President Jimmy Carter witnessed the signing of the agreement between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat at the White House. -
Three Mile Island Accident
An accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania occurs when a partial core meltdown is recorded. A tense situation ensued for five days until the reactor was deemed under control. It is the largest accident in U.S. nuclear power history and considered the worst in the world until the Soviet Chernobyl accident seven years later. -
Iran Hostage Crisis
The Iran Hostage Crisis begins when sixty-three Americans are among ninety hostages taken at the American embassy in Tehran by three thousand militant student followers of Ayatollah Khomeini, who demand that the former shah return to Iran to stand trial. -
Operation Eagle Claw
The attempt to rescue the American hostages held captive in the U.S. Embassy in Iran fails with eight Americans killed and five wounded in Operation Eagle Claw when a mid-air collision occurs. -
Mt. St. Helen's Eruption
The Mt. St. Helen's volcano, in Washington State, erupts, killing fifty-seven people and economic devastation to the area with losses near $3 billion. The blast was estimated to have the power five hundred times greater than the Hiroshima atomic bomb. -
Period: to
Unit Seventeen
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Assassination Attempt
President Ronald Reagan withstands an assassination attempt, shot in the chest while walking to his limousine in Washington, D.C. -
Vietnam Veterans Memorial
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., holding the names of the more than 58,000 killed or missing in action during the conflict. -
Sally Ride
Astronaut Sally Ride becomes the first American woman to travel into space. -
Reagan Reelected
President Ronald Reagan wins reelection over Democratic challenger Walter F. Mondale, increasing his Electoral College victory since the 1980 election to a margin of 525 to 13. -
Windows
The first version of the Windows operating system for computers is released. -
Human Chain
Five million people make a human chain across the United States in the Hands Across America campaign to fight hunger and homelessness. -
Black Monday
The stock market crash known as Black Monday occurs on the New York Stock Exchange, recording a record 22.6% drop in one day. Stock markets around the world would mirror the crash with drops of their own. -
Patents for Genetic Engineering
The first patent for a genetically engineered animal is issued to Harvard University researchers Philip Leder and Timothy Stewart. -
Exxon Oil Spill
The Exxon Valdez crashes into Bligh Reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound, causing the largest oil spill in American history, eleven million gallons, which extended forty-five miles. -
The Hubble
The Hubble Telescope is placed into orbit by the United States Space Shuttle Discovery. One month later, the telescope becomes operational.
