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End of Civil War
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President Lincoln's Assassination
Andrew Johnson takes his place -
U.S. acquires Alaska from Russia
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President Johnson is impeached by the House of Representatives
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Ulysses S. Grant is inaugurated as the 18th president
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Creating First transcontinental railroad
Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads are joined at Promontory and Utah -
Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, defining citizenship
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President Grant's second inauguration
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Rutherford B. Hayes is inaugurated as the 19th president
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The first telephone line is built from Boston to Somerville, Massachusettes
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U.S. adopts standard time
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Grover Cleveland is inaugurated as the 22nd president
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Statue of Liberty is dedicated
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Benjamin Harrison is inaugurated as the 23rd president
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National American Woman Suffrage Association is founded
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Sherman Antitrust Act is signed into law, prohibiting commercial monopolies
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Ellis Island becomes chief immigration station of the U.S.
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Grover Cleveland is inaugurated a second time, as the 24th president (March 4)
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Plessy v. Ferguson:
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William McKinley is inaugurated as the 25th president
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Spanish-American War
Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Spanish-American War (Dec. 10) -
U.S. annexes Hawaii
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U.S. acquires American Samoa
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McKinley's second inauguration
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Theodore Roosevelt takes office
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U.S. acquires Panama Canal Zone
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Wright brothers make the first controlled, sustained flight
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Theodore Roosevelt's second inauguration
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Bureau of Investigation, forerunner of the FBI, is established
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William Howard Taft is inaugurated as the 27th president
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Woodrow Wilson is inaugurated as the 28th president
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Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified
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World War 1 Begins
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Panama Canal opens to traffic
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First long distance telephone service is demonstrated
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U.S. agrees to purchase Virgin Islands
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Worldwide influenza epidemic strikes; nearly 20 million are dead. In U.S., 500,000 perish.
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World War 1 Ends
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Warren G. Harding is inaugurated as the 29th president
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President Harding dies and is succeeded by vice president, Calvin Coolidge.
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Tennessee passes a law against the teaching of evolution in public schools
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Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight in his plane The Spirit of St. Louis
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Herbert Hoover is inaugurated as the 31st president
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Stock market crashes and begins the Great Depression
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Hattie Wyatt Caraway is the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate
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Amelia Earhart completes first solo nonstop transatlantic flight by a woman
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Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution
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Works Progress Administration is established
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Social Security Act is passed
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F. Roosevelt's second inauguration
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World War 2
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President Roosevelt dies and is succeeded by vice president, Harry Truman
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End of WW2 and United Nations is established
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The Philippines, which had been ceded to the U.S. becomes an independent republic
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Presidential Succession Act
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Congress passes foreign aid bill including the Marshall Plan
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North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is established
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Start of Vietnam War
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Start of the Korean War
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Twenty-Second Amendment to the Constitution is ratified
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Puerto Rico becomes a U.S. commonwealth
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Dwight Eisenhower is inaugurated as the 34th president
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Korean War Ends
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Brown v. Board of Education.Supreme Court decision ends racial segregation in schools
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Explorer I, first American satellite, is launched
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Alaska becomes the 49th state
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Hawaii becomes the 50th state
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U.S. severs diplomatic relations with Cuba
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John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as the 35th president
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Lt. Col. John Glenn becomes first U.S. astronaut to orbit Earth
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Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech
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President Kennedy is assassinated and succeeded by his vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson.
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The Civil Rights Act
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Miranda v. Arizona: Supreme Court decision further defines due process clause of Fourteenth Amendment and establishes Miranda rights
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Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified
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Richard Nixon is inaugurated as the 37th president
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Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr., become the first men to land on the Moon
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The Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18
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Water Gate Scandal
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Roe v. Wade: Landmark Supreme Court decision legalizes abortion in first trimester of pregnancy
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Nixon resigns; he is succeeded in office by his vice president, Gerald Ford
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End of Vietnam War
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Jimmy Carter is inaugurated as the 39th president
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Malfunction at Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania causes near meltdown
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Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as the 40th president
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Challenger explodes 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven crew members
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George H. W. Bush is inaugurated as the 41st president
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Oil tanker Exxon Valdez spilling more than 10 million gallons of oil
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Iraqi troops invade Kuwait, leading to the Persian Gulf War
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Persian Gulf War
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U.S. and Soviet Union sign START I treaty, agreeing to further reduce strategic nuclear arms
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Bill Clinton is inaugurated as the 42nd president
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Clinton orders missile attack against Iraq in retaliation for alleged plot to assassinate former President Bush
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North American Free Trade Agreement into law
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U.S. establishes full diplomatic relations with Vietnam
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President Clinton releases 1999 federal budget plan
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U.S. and China sign historic trade agreement
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George W. Bush is inaugurated as the 43rd president
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Terroist Attack on Twin Towers- killing 3,000 and total destruction
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Bush labels Iran, Iraq, and North Korea an “axis of evil” and declares that U.S. will wage war against states that develop weapons of mass destruction
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President Bush signs legislation creating a new cabinet department of Homeland Security.
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Space shuttle Columbia explodes upon reentry into Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts on board
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President Bush signs $350 billion tax-cut bill
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Nancy Pelosi becomes the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives
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The minimum wage in the U.S. increases to $5.85, up from $5.15.
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Economy goes downhill with the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbling 4.4% in one day
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Barack Obama is inaguarated as President
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Obama executive orders closing all secret prisons and detention camps run by the CIA, including the infamous Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, and banning coercive interrogation methods
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Swine Flu Outbreak
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An explosion and fire on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico sends millions of gallons of oil into the sea.
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The Obama Administration determines that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional
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Hurricane Sandy
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Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting
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Multiple bombs explode near the finish line of the Boston Marathon
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Affordable Care Act
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Donald Trump is inaguarated as president
