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The G.I. Bill
Officially the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, the G.I. Bill was created to help veterans of World War II. It established hospitals, made low-interest mortgages available and granted stipends covering tuition and expenses for veterans attending college or trade schools. -
Iron Curtain
Imposed by Winston Churchill, The Iron Curtain was the name for the border dividing Europe into two separate states from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term expresses the efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West and non-Soviet-controlled areas. -
Atomic Weapons - Hiroshima
President Harry S. Truman, warned by some of his advisers that any attempt to invade Japan would result in horrific American casualties, ordered that the new weapon be used to bring the war to a speedy end. On August 6, 1945, the American bomber Enola Gay dropped a five-ton bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was created on March 12, 1947, established to help fight the spread of communism. This Doctrine allowed for the United States to give economic and military aid around the world. This was with the intentions of stopping communism. This helped countries fight the ideals of communism. War-torn Europe was one of the most helped countries as it was the battlegrounds for World War 2. -
The Berlin Airlift
The Berlin airlift was created because Stalin did not like capitalism in Germany, which led him to be upset, thus created a wall blocking in Western Berlin. He wanted the West to quit on Berlin. Berlin was divided into 4 military zones. The U.S. & British planes supplied West Berlin with air shipments every day, filled with lots of supplies. This lasted almost a year. However, Stalin gives up & reopened the border. -
The Fair Deal
The Fair Deal was an ambitious set of proposals put forward by U.S. President Harry S. Truman to Congress in his January 1949 State of the Union address. It offered new proposals to continue New Deal liberalism, but with the Conservative Coalition controlling Congress, only a few of its major initiatives became law. The most important proposals were an aid to education, universal health insurance, the Fair Employment Practices Commission, and repeal of the Taft–Hartley Act. -
Ike Turner
R&B legend Ike Turner was born on November 5, 1931, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and grew up playing the blues. The Ike & Tina Turner Revue created several R&B hits, including "It's Going to Work Out Fine" and "Poor Fool." The duo's cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary" earned them their first and only Grammy Award together in 1971. Their last hit together was "Nutbush City Limits," written by Tina and released in 1973. -
Bill Haley & the Comets
Bill Haley & His Comets were an American rock and roll band, founded in 1952 and continued until Haley's death in 1981. The band was also known as Bill Haley and the Comets and Bill Haley's Comets (and variations thereof). From late 1954 to late 1956, the group placed nine singles in the Top 20, one of those a number one and three more in the Top Ten. They were known for their hit "Rock Around the Clock Tonight." -
The Beat Generation
The Beat Generation was visible than any other competing aesthetic. The years immediately after the Second World War saw a wholesale reappraisal of the conventional structures of society. Just as the postwar economic boom was taking hold, students in universities were beginning to question the rampant materialism of their society. The Beat Generation was a product of this questioning. They saw runaway capitalism as destructive to the human spirit and antithetical to social equality. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education (1954), was a landmark the United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. The decision effectively overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896, which allowed state-sponsored segregation, insofar as it applied to public education. Handed down on May 17, 1954, the Warren Court's unanimous (9–0) decision. -
The Polio Vaccine
In 1947, Salk took a position at the University of Pittsburgh, where he began conducting research on polio, also known as infantile paralysis. By 1951, Salk had determined that there were three distinct types of polioviruses and was able to develop a "killed virus" vaccine for the disease. The vaccine used polioviruses that had been grown in a laboratory and then destroyed. -
Space Race
The space race was the battle between the U.S. and the Soviet Union to be the "best" in exploring space. It was kicked off when the Soviets sent out a space satellite known as Sputnik that simply beeped. However, this horrified Americans as the United States believed that the Soviet Union was extremely further ahead in technology than the U.S. itself was. When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon in 1969, America went down in popular history as the winner of the space race. -
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was an American singer and actor. Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King". He made Rock N' Roll a phenomenon. He was born extremely poor & adopted rhythm & blues. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
The result was the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. The new act established the Civil Rights Section of the Justice Department and empowered federal prosecutors to obtain court injunctions against interference with the right to vote. -
Kennedy, Nixon Debates
The key turning point of the campaign came with the four Kennedy-Nixon debates; they were the first presidential debates ever (The Lincoln–Douglas debates of 1858 had been the first for senators from Illinois), also the first held on television, and thus attracted enormous publicity. Televised debates have become a permanent feature of the American political landscape, helping to shape the outcomes of both primary and general elections. -
The New Frontier
The New Frontier. A slogan used by President John F. Kennedy to describe his goals and policies. Kennedy maintained that like the Americans of the frontier in the nineteenth century, Americans of the twentieth century had to rise to new challenges, such as achieving equality of opportunity for all. -
OPEC
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was made to coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of its Member Countries and ensure the stabilization of oil markets to secure an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consumers, a steady income to producers and a fair return on capital for those investing in the petroleum industry. -
Feminism
The resurgence of feminism across the United States in the 1960s ushered in a series of changes to the status quo that still have an impact today. In the media, and in women’s personal situations, 1960s feminists inspired unprecedented changes in the fabric of our society, changes with far-reaching economic, political, and cultural consequences. -
The Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is a volunteer program run by the United States government. The stated mission of the Peace Corps includes providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand American culture, and helping Americans to understand the cultures of other countries. Each program participant, a Peace Corps Volunteer, is an American citizen, typically with a college degree, who works abroad for a period of two years after three months of training. -
LSD
Prior to 1962, LSD was a little-known drug, available only on a small scale, and used by relatively few people. Substantially all of the LSD and psilocybin available in the United States and Canada was produced by Sandoz Laboratories and legally distributed by them to psychiatrists, psychologists, and others who certified their qualifications to use it. "Caution: New drug–– limited by Federal law to investigational use." -
March on Washington
March on Washington, in full March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a political demonstration held in Washington, D.C., in 1963 by civil rights leaders to protest racial discrimination and to show support for major civil rights legislation that was pending in Congress. This march was also the playing field for Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I have a Dream Speech." -
Birmingham Bombing
The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was an act of white supremacist terrorism which occurred at the African-American 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on Sunday, September 15, 1963, when four members of the Ku Klux Klan planted at least 15 sticks of dynamite attached to a timing device beneath the steps located on the east side of the church. -
Assassination of JFK
John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. in Dallas, Texas while riding in a presidential motorcade in Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was riding with his wife Jacqueline, and Texas Governor John Connally when he was fatally shot. The motorcade rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital where President Kennedy was pronounced dead about thirty minutes after the shooting; Connally recovered from his injuries. -
The Great Society
Part of the Great Society agenda was based on initiatives proposed by Johnson's predecessor, JFK, but Johnson's vision was comprehensive and far-reaching. Johnson wanted to use the resources of the federal government to combat poverty, strengthen civil rights, improve public education, revamp urban communities, and protect the country's natural resources. -
Gulf of Tonkin Incident
In early August 1964, two U.S. destroyers stationed in the Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam radioed that they had been fired upon by North Vietnamese forces. In response to these reported incidents, President Lyndon B. Johnson requested permission from the U.S. Congress to increase the U.S. military presence in Indochina. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin, is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. -
Hippies
In the mid-1960s, a never seen hippie counter-culture blossomed throughout the United States, inciting both the Flower Power movement as well as the general revulsion of more straight-laced, Ward Cleaver-esque Americans. No longer wanting to keep up with the Joneses or confine themselves to white picket-fenced corrals of repressive and Puritanical sexual norms, these fresh-faced masses would soon come to be known as Hippies. -
Voting Rights act of 1965
This act was signed into law on August 6, 1965, by President Lyndon Johnson. It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. It was a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. -
Earl Warren Supreme Court
In his first term on the bench, he spoke for a unanimous court in the leading school-desegregation case, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, declaring unconstitutional the separation of public-school children according to race. Rejecting the “separate but equal” doctrine that had prevailed since Plessy v. Ferguson, Warren, speaking for the court, stated that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal,” and the court subsequently called for the desegregation of public schools. -
Stonewall Riots
In the early hours of June 28, 1969, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club located in Greenwich Village in New York City. The raid sparked a riot among bar patrons and neighborhood residents as police roughly hauled employees and patrons out of the bar, leading to six days of protests and violent clashes with law enforcement outside the bar on Christopher Street. The Stonewall Riots served as a catalyst for the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world. -
Stagflation
Economic growth was weak, which resulted in rising unemployment that eventually reached double-digits. The easy-money policies of the American central bank, which were designed to generate full employment, and by the early 1970s, caused high inflation. -
Start of Home Computers
The history of the personal computer as a mass-market consumer electronic device began in the 1960s. However, it continued to the public in the 1970's. The launch of the IBM Personal Computer coined both the term Personal Computer and PC. After the development of the microprocessor, individual personal computers were low enough in cost that they eventually became affordable consumer goods. Early personal computers generally called microcomputers were generally expensive. -
Warren Burger Supreme Court
In 1969, President Richard Nixon named Warren Burger chief justice of the Supreme Court. He didn't fulfill Nixon's desire to reverse Warren Court decisions (1953-1969). Burger's court upheld the 1966 Miranda decision, and Burger voted with the majority in the court's landmark 1973 decision, Roe v. Wade, establishing women's constitutional right to have abortions. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1988. -
Nixon's Presidency
Nixon's presidency is known for a starting diplomacy with China, a slow ending of the Vietnam War, domestic acts (such as OSHA and Environmental Protection) and an era of peace with the Soviet Union (communist Russia). He is also known for corruption and the Watergate scandal which resulted in the public losing trust in him and the government, leading to his resignation. -
Gerald Ford's Presidency
As president, Ford signed the Helsinki Accords, which marked a move toward détente in the Cold War. With the collapse of South Vietnam nine months into his presidency, U.S. involvement in Vietnam ended. Domestically, Ford presided over the worst economy in the four decades since the Great Depression, with growing inflation and a recession during his tenure. In one of his most controversial acts, he granted a presidential pardon to President Richard Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal. -
Cesar Chavez
Chavez's work and that of the United Farm Workers, the union he helped found, succeeded where countless efforts in the previous century had failed: improving pay and working conditions for farm laborers in the 1960s and 1970s, and paving the way for landmark legislation in 1975 that codified and guaranteed agricultural workers' right to unionize, bargain collectively with their employers and vote in secret-ballot elections in California. -
The NRA's Rise to National Politics
By the mid-1970s, the NRA believed that the organization was losing the national debate over guns by being too defensive and not political enough. The dispute erupted at the NRA’s 1977 annual convention, where the dissidents deposed the old guard. From this point forward, the NRA became ever more political and strident in its defense of so-called “gun rights,” which is increasingly defined as nearly absolute under the Second Amendment. They also endorsed Ronald Reagan for President. -
Jimmy Carter's Presidency
As the 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter struggled to respond to formidable challenges, including a major energy crisis as well as high inflation and unemployment. In the foreign affairs arena, he reopened U.S. relations with China and made headway with efforts to broker peace in the historic Arab-Israeli conflict but was damaged late in his term by a hostage crisis in Iran. -
Soviet War in Afghanistan
The Soviets sent troops into Afghanistan in 1979 for many reasons. First, they wished to expand their influence in Asia. They also wanted to preserve the Communist government that had been established in the 1970s and was collapsing because of its lack of support other than in the military. -
Election of 1980
The United States presidential election of 1980 featured a contest between Democrat Jimmy Carter and his Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan, as well as Republican Congressman John B. Anderson, who ran as an independent. Reagan, aided by the Iran hostage crisis and a worsening economy at home, won the election in a landslide. This election marked the beginning of what is popularly called the "Reagan Revolution." -
AIDS Panic
The AIDS epidemic, caused by HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), found its way to the United States as early as 1960 but was first noticed after doctors discovered clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia in young gay men in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco in 1981. -
Sandra Day O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor was elected to two terms in the Arizona state senate. In 1981 Ronald Reagan nominated her to the U.S. Supreme Court. She received unanimous Senate approval and made history as the first woman justice to serve on the nation's highest court. -
Ronald Reagan's Presidency
President Reagan put the term "Reaganomics" into place by cutting income & corporate taxes. He had an assassination attempt made on him, but it ultimately failed. Reagan ended up getting tax reductions passed amongst congress, but the anticipated revenue never came. National debt tripled by 1988. CEO's yearly income multiply by 4x. Reagan had a hands-off approach to his cabinet, never advising his members what their future held. -
The Space Shuttle Program
During the 1980s, Kennedy Space Center made a critical shift in focus. Instead of moving relatively quickly from one human spaceflight program to another, the spaceport's workforce and facilities now were geared toward preparing and launching a revolutionary new spacecraft that would further advance our capabilities in orbit: the space shuttle. However, 73 seconds after it launched, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded. -
MTV
MTV is an American cable and satellite television channel owned by Viacom Media Networks (a division of Viacom) and headquartered in New York City. Launched on August 1, 1981, the channel originally aired music videos as guided by television personalities known as "video jockeys" (VJs). MTV's main target demographic was young adults. -
Home Game systems
In the 1980's consoles brought the arcade to home. RCA and Atari soon released their own cartridge-based consoles, with games such as Space Invaders. Through the 80's, other companies released video game consoles of their own. Many of the video game systems were technically superior to the Atari 2600 and marketed as improvements over the Atari 2600, but Atari dominated the console market in the early 1980s. However, a severe crash occurred in 1983 in the video game business. -
Sam Walton & "Just-In-Time Inventory
Samuel Moore Walton was an American businessman and entrepreneur best known for founding the retailers Walmart and Sam's Club. He created a form of inventory that would come in by demand, meaning a new supply typically came whenever the current supply was expected to run out, hence the name "just-in-time." -
Fall of 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. -
Cheap Cell-Phones
Cell phones became more advanced through the 90's introducing smaller and lighter models. These models would replace landlines and additionally, allow people to use the internet within the palms of their hands. As the processors for these phones became cheaper, so did the prices, thus becoming more affordable for consumers worldwide. -
Election of 1992
The United States presidential election of 1992 had three major candidates: Republican President George H. W. Bush; Democrat Bill Clinton, and independent Ross Perot. Bush lost his popularity among the Republican party because he went against his pledge on raising taxes, thus leading to a negative economy. Perot took several votes away from Bush. Clinton won the popular vote and a wide Electoral College margin. -
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey created a talk show in the 90's that would be a hit sensation among African-Americans, even going to the extent of becoming popular with whites as well. It covered issues and trends about the times going on. She would later become the richest African-American women earth. She also supported Obama in the election of 2008. -
World Trade Center bombing
The World Trade Center was attacked in 1993. Terrorists drove a truck bomb underneath the towers and detonated it. The parking garage was gutted, but the buildings stood up until the two planes hit it in 2001. The attack began when 2 terrorist and a 1,300-pound nitrate-hydrogen gas enhanced bomb went into a parking garage below the World Trade Center. -
North American Free Trade Agreement
The North American Free Trade Agreement is an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States, creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America. Most economic analyses indicate that NAFTA has been beneficial to the North American economies and the average citizen but harmed a small minority of workers in industries exposed to trade competition. -
The Interweb
Originally, the Internet was created for military use to connect several units with each other in the U.S. Military. However, after WW2, the internet bloomed into the public and blew up in popularity in the 1990's. By the year 1994, the Internet had a little over 6 million users. This would grow to be 130 million by the year 2001. The Internet dropped the income of the USPS because e-mail was so fast and efficient. -
Don't Ask Don't Tell Policy
The act prohibits any homosexual or bisexual person from disclosing his or her sexual orientation or from speaking about any homosexual relationships, including marriages or other familial attributes, while serving in the United States armed forces. The "don't ask" part of the policy indicates that superiors should not initiate an investigation of a service member's orientation in the absence of disallowed behaviors, though mere suspicion of homosexual behavior can cause an investigation. -
Defense of Marriage Act
In May 1996, DOMA passed both houses of Congress by large, veto-proof majorities and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in September 1996. It defined the term "Spouse" as a man and a woman in union, opposing homosexual views. This included insurance benefits for government employees, social security survivors' benefits, immigration, bankruptcy, and the filing of joint tax returns. -
Election of 2000
The 2000 presidential election pitted Republican George W. Bush against Democrat Al Gore, vice president in the administration of Bill Clinton. In their presidential campaigns, both candidates focused primarily on domestic issues, such as economic growth, the federal budget surplus, health care, tax relief, and reform of social insurance and welfare programs, particularly Social Security and Medicare. Gore took Bush to SCOTUS, known as Bush v. Gore, and the SCOTUS declared Bush the winner. -
The 9/11 Attacks
On 11 September 2001, 19 Islamist extremists hijacked four planes that were flying above the US. Two of them were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. Another was crashed into the Pentagon, Washington DC. These attacks were known as the 9/11 attacks, and 2,973 individuals died in total. This would lead to War in Afghanistan in October 2001. -
The PATRIOT ACT
This law was passed due to 9/11 attacks. It sought to prevent further terrorist attacks by allowing greater government access to electronic communications and other information, which was then criticized by some as violating civil liberties. It also detained immigrants, monitored bank accounts, and wiretapped callers. It became a question of whether it was an overreach of executive power. -
The No Child Left Behind Act
The primary purpose of NCLB is to ensure that students in every public school achieve important learning goals while being educated in safe classrooms by well-prepared teachers. To increase student achievement, the law requires that school districts assume responsibility for all students reaching 100% student proficiency levels within 12 years on tests assessing important academic content. -
Election of 2008
On November 4, 2008, after a campaign that lasted nearly two years, Americans elected Illinois senator Barack Obama their 44th president. The result was historic, as Obama, a first-term U.S. senator, became when he was inaugurated on January 20, 2009, the country’s first African American president. With the highest voter turnout rate in four decades, Obama and Joe Biden defeated Republican, John McCain, and Alaska governor Sarah Palin, winning nearly 53 percent of the vote. -
First Hispanic SCOTUS Judge
Sonia Sotomayor is known for being the first Hispanic justice nominee on the United States Supreme Court. She is recognized as a somewhat controversial and outspoken candidate whose words are sometimes misinterpreted yet she is distinguished for her many years of judicial service. She was elected nominated by Obama, along with Elena Keagan. -
"Obamacare"
This act was an expansion of Medicaid, which meant most employers must provide health insurance, have insurance or face surtax, which prevents rejection based on pre-existing condition. Also referred to as "Obamacare", it was signed into law in 2010. This upset liberals. However, this was overturned in 2018. -
Undoing of DOMA
The Defense of Marriage Act, defined “marriage” for purposes of federal law as a union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and “spouse” as a person of the opposite sex. The United States Supreme Court’s recent decisions in Windsor v. U.S. and Hollingsworth. In the Windsor case, the Court found that DOMA’s federal definition of marriage was an unconstitutional deprivation of basic due process and equal protection.
