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G.I. Bill
The Serviceman's Readjustment Act of 1944, also known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). It was designed by the American Legion, who helped push it through Congress by mobilizing its chapters (along with the Veterans of Foreign Wars); the goal was to provide immediate rewards for practically all World War II veterans. -
Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain was the name for the boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West and non-Soviet-controlled areas. On the east side of the Iron Curtain were the countries that were connected to or influenced by the Soviet Union. -
Period: to
Cold War
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Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was an American foreign policy whose stated purpose was to counter Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War. Direct American military force was usually not involved, but Congress appropriated financial aid to support the economies and military's of Greece and Turkey. More generally, the Truman Doctrine implied American support for other nations allegedly threatened by Soviet communism. -
Second Red Scare
The Red Scare refers to the fear of communism that American politics, culture, and society from the late 1940s through the 1950s, during the opening phases of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. This episode of political repression lasted longer and was more pervasive than the Red Scare that followed the Bolshevik Revolution and World War I. Popularized by Senator Joseph McCarthy ,who made himself famous by claiming that large numbers of Communists had infiltrated the U.S. State Department. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was an American initiative to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave over $13 billion in economic assistance to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War II. The plan was in operation for four years beginning on April 3, 1948. The goals of the United States were to rebuild war-torn regions, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, improve European prosperity, and prevent the spread of Communism.[ -
Berlin Airlift
The Russians closed all highways, railroads and canals from western-occupied Germany into western-occupied Berlin. This, they believed, would make it impossible for the people who lived there to get food or any other supplies and would eventually drive Britain, France and the U.S. out of the city for good. The U.S. and its allies decided to supply their sectors of the city from the air. This effort, known as the “Berlin Airlift,” lasted for more than a year. -
T.V. Shows
Entertainment sources of the 1950s derived from television were mainly shows that portrayed many ideals of the 1950s and continue to shine as the "perfect family" model today. These shows coined the terms of obedience and hard work in a family and helped reinforce the roles of a traditional family. Shows such as "Leave it to Beaver" and "Father Knows Best" highlighted these traditional family values. -
Period: to
1950's
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The News
The news would help people actually visually see whats really going on with the world like the racial situations, that really helped people come to realization, maybe they couldn't physically be there but they can actually see what people were going through as well as being updated on daily news about the country. -
Ike Turner
Ike Turner, a black musician made the first Rock & Roll song "Rocket 88". White artists would later rip off Turner's music and other African American artists. Ike Turner was born on November 5, 1931, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and grew up playing the blues. He debuted many popular singles with his partner Tina Turner and was a major catalyst in the beginning of popular Rock 'n' Roll music. In the long run however Turner faced abuse allegations from Tina and virtually lost his whole fanbase. -
AIDS Crisis
The U.S. (CDC) publish a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report(MMWR), describing cases of a rare lung infection, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia(PCP), in five young, previously healthy, gay men in Los Angeles. All the men have other unusual infections as well, indicating that their immune systems are not working; two have already died by the time the report is published. This edition of the MMWR marks the first official reporting of what will become known as the AIDS epidemic. -
Bill Haley and 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. 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. Bandleader Bill Haley had previously been a country music performer, he changed musical direction to a new sound which came to be called rock and roll. -
Polio Vaccine
On March 26, 1953, American medical researcher Dr. Jonas Salk announces on a national radio show that he has successfully tested a vaccine against poliomyelitis, the virus that causes the crippling disease of polio. In 1952, there were 58,000 new cases reported in the United States, and more than 3,000 died from the disease. For promising eventually to eradicate the disease, Dr. Salk was celebrated as the great doctor-benefactor of his time. -
Period: to
Civil Rights
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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". Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, with his family when he was 13 years old. His music career began there in 1954, recording at Sun Records with producer Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African American music to a wider audience. -
Brown v. Broad of Education
In Topeka, Kansas a African american girl named Linda Brown had to walk a mile to get to her black school everyday even though a white school was closer to her house.The parents tried enrolling her in that school but they got denied, in 1951 the NAACP requested to forbid segregation of pubic schools the decision energized the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950's and 1960's. -
Little Richard
Little Richard helped define the early rock ‘n’ roll era of the 1950s with his driving, flamboyant sound. In 1955 Richard hooked up with Specialty Records producer Art Rupe, who’d been hunting for a piano-pounding frontman to lead a group of musicians in New Orleans. In September, Richard stepped into the recording studio and pumped out “Tutti-Frutti,” an instant Billboard hit that reached No. 17. Over the next year, the musician churned out several more rock hits, amassing a grand following. -
Emmett Till
While visiting family in Money, Mississippi, 14-year-old Emmett Till, an African-American from Chicago, is brutally murdered for flirting with a white woman. Till was dragged out of his home in the middle of the night and then beat to near death by two men, the white woman's husband and her brother gouged out his eye, shot him in the head, then threw his body, tied to a cotton-gin fan with barbed wire, into the river. The brutal events proved to be the kick-starter of the civil rights movement. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a civil-rights protest during which African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating. The boycott took place from December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956, and is regarded as the first large-scale U.S. demonstration against segregation. Four days before the boycott began, Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, was arrested and fined for refusing to yield her bus seat to a white man. -
Eisenhower Interstate System
On June 29, 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. The bill created a “National System of Interstate and Defense Highways” that would, according to Eisenhower, eliminate unsafe roads, inefficient routes, traffic jams and all of the other things that got in the way of “speedy, safe transcontinental travel.” At the same time, highway advocates argued, “in case of atomic attack on our key cities, the road net [would] permit quick evacuation of target areas.” -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
In 1957, President Eisenhower sent Congress a proposal for civil rights legislation. 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. It also established a federal Civil Rights Commission with authority to investigate discriminatory conditions and recommend corrective measures. -
Little Rock 9
Little Rock, Arkansas, September 1957, nine black students enrolled at formerly all-white, Central high school testing a landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional. The Supreme court advocated for schools to integrate “with all deliberate speed”. However, On September 4, 1957, the first day of classes at Central High, Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas called in the state National Guard to bar the black students’ entry into the school. -
Period: to
1960's
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Greensboro, North Carolina Sit In
Greensboro, North Carolina recorded as the first Sit-In against segregation. The sit-ins started on February 1st, 1960 when four black students from North Carolina A&T College sat down at a Woolworth lunch counter in downtown Greensboro. They protested to fight against the racial segregation of the "Whites only" lunch counters at Woolworth. These Sit-ins lasted from about February 1 - July 25, 1960. The end result was the light sparked in the hearts of young people to fight for civil rights. -
Nashville, Tennessee Sit-In
The Nashville sit-in movement is widely regarded as one of the most successful student-directed sit-in campaigns of the Civil Rights movement. Contributing to its success was the leadership and organization provided by the noted pacifist, James M. Lawson. Lawson and the Nashville Student Movement launched a large-scale sit-in campaign targeting segregated restaurants and department stores in the city's downtown commercial district. Eventually, the city agreed to desegregate public businesses. -
New Frontier
The term New Frontier was used by liberal Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy in his acceptance speech in the 1960 United States presidential election to the Democratic National Convention.The ideas behind the New Frontier instilled a sense of both confidence and new ambitions in America's society. Reaching new frontiers in space, economy, and politics. These promises made by Kennedy was a major catalyst in the positive vibes around the 1960s until a certain assassination occurred. -
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. The work is generally related to social and economic development. And many citizens were allowed to get loans from the government to help their way to go to specific countries. -
Freedom Rides
To challenge laws mandating segregated interstate transportation, busloads of integrated black and white students rode through the South. The first freedom riders left Washington, D.C., in May 1961 en route to New Orleans. Several participants were arrested in bus stations. When the buses reached Anniston, Alabama, an angry mob slashed the tires on one bus and set it aflame. Soon after, the rides ended by highlighting the bravery of civil rights activists all around, predominantly young teens. -
Cuban Missle Crisis
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba. In a TV address, President John Kennedy notified Americans about the presence of missiles, explained his decision to enact a naval blockade around Cuba and made it clear the U.S. was prepared to use military force if necessary to neutralize this perceived threat to national security. -
Letter from Birmingham Jail
The Letter from Birmingham Jail is an open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King Jr. The letter defends the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism. It says that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws and to take direct action rather than waiting potentially forever for justice to come through the courts. Responding to being referred to as an "outsider," King writes, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere". -
March on Washington
On August 28, 1963, 200,000 Americans gathered in D.C., for a political rally known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Organized by a number of civil rights and religious groups, the event was designed to shed light on the political and social challenges African Americans continued to face across the country. The march, which became a key moment in the growing struggle for civil rights in the United States, culminated in Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. -
Birmingham Bombing
At 10:22 a.m. on the morning of September 15, 1963, some 200 church members were in the building–many attending Sunday school classes before the start of the 11 am service–when the bomb detonated on the church’s east side. The bodies of four young girls were found beneath the rubble and injured more.This event in Birmingham only elevated the intensity of the civil rights movement. In the aftermath of the bombing, thousands of angry black protesters gathered at the scene of the bombing. -
John F. Kennedy Assassination
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated while traveling through Dallas, Texas. As their vehicle passed the Texas School Book Depository Building at 12:30 p.m., Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly fired three shots from the sixth floor, fatally wounding President Kennedy and seriously injuring Governor Connally. Kennedy was pronounced dead 30 minutes later at Dallas’ Parkland Hospital. Kennedy's assasination ended the optimistic era of the 1960s. -
Lee Harvey Oswald
The presumed assassin of President John F. Kennedy. Oswald allegedly shot Kennedy from a high window of a building in Dallas on November 22, 1963, as Kennedy rode down the street in an open car. Oswald was captured the day of the assassination but was never tried. A government commission led by Chief Justice Earl Warren concluded later that Oswald, though active in communist causes, was not part of a conspiracy to kill Kennedy. Assumed to be working with another organization or person. -
Jack Ruby
Jack Ruby, had relations with a number of Dallas police officers, operated strip joints and dance halls and had minor connections to organized crime.On November 24, Oswald was brought to the basement of the Dallas police headquarters on his way to a more secure county jail. As Oswald came into the room, Jack Ruby fatally wounded him with a single shot from a concealed .38 revolver. Ruby, who was immediately detained, claimed that rage at Kennedy’s murder was the motive for his action. -
Warren Commission
On November 29, 1963, Johnson established the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy in order to investigate his predecessor’s death.During its almost yearlong investigation, the Warren Commission reviewed reports by the FBI, Department of State and the attorney general of Texas. The commission concluded that the bullets that killed Kennedy and injured Connally were fired by Oswald from a rifle pointed out of a sixth-floor window in the Texas School Book Depository. -
Gulf of Tonkin
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorized President Lyndon Johnson to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression” by the communist government of North Vietnam. It was passed on August 7, 1964, by the U.S. Congress after an alleged attack on two U.S. naval destroyers stationed off the coast of Vietnam. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution effectively launched America’s full-scale involvement in the Vietnam War. -
Selma March
The Selma to Montgomery march was part of a series of protests that occurred in 1965 in Alabama, a Southern state with deeply entrenched racist policies. In March of that year, in an effort to register black voters in the South, protesters marching the 54-mile route from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery were confronted with deadly violence from local authorities and white vigilante groups, marchers finally achieved their goal, walking around the clock for three days to reach Montgomery. -
Watts Riots
In the predominantly black Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, racial tension reaches a breaking point after two white policemen scuffle with a black motorist suspected of drunken driving. The five days of violence left 34 dead, 1,032 injured, nearly 4,000 arrested, and $40 million worth of property destroyed. The Watts riot was the worst urban riot in 20 years and foreshadowed the many rebellions to occur in ensuing years during the 1967 Detroit Riots, the Newark Riots, and other violence. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on August 6, 1965, with Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders present at the ceremony. The act banned the use of literacy tests, provided for federal oversight of voter registration in areas where less than 50 percent of the non-white population had not registered to vote, and authorized the U.S. attorney general to investigate the use of poll taxes in state and local elections. -
Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive was a coordinated series of North Vietnamese attacks on more than 100 cities and outposts in South Vietnam. The offensive was an attempt to foment rebellion among the South Vietnamese population and encourage the United States to scale back its involvement in the Vietnam War. Though U.S. and South Vietnamese forces managed to hold off the attacks, news coverage of the massive offensive shocked the American public and eroded support for the war effort. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, an event that sent shock waves reverberating around the world. A Baptist minister and founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), King had led the civil rights movement since the mid-1950s, using a combination of impassioned speeches and nonviolent protests to fight segregation and achieve significant civil-rights advances for African Americans. -
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, in neighboring streets and in nearby Christopher Park. -
Period: to
1970's
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OPEC
OPEC's stated mission is "to coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of its member countries and ensure the stabilization of oil markets, in order 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." -
Title IX
Title IX, as a federal civil rights law in the United States of America, was passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972. It was co-authored and introduced by Senator Birch Bayh in the U.S. Senate. It was later renamed the Patsy Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act in 2002 after Patsy Mink, its late U.S. House co-author and sponsor. The following is the original text as made, signed into law by U.S. President Richard Nixon in 1972. -
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex; it seeks to end the legal distinctions between men and women in terms of divorce, property, employment, and other matters. The amendment was introduced in Congress for the first time in October 1921 and has prompted conversations about the meaning of legal equality for women and men ever since. -
Watergate
June 17, 1972, several burglars were arrested inside the office of the DNC located in the Watergate building in Washington, D.C. The prowlers were connected to President Nixon’s reelection campaign, and they had been caught while attempting to wiretap phones and steal secret documents. While people were not sure whether Nixon knew about the Watergate espionage operation before it happened, he took steps to cover it up afterward, raising “hush money” for the burglars -
Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade is a landmark decision issued in 1973 by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of the constitutionality of laws that criminalized or restricted access to abortions. The Court ruled 7–2 that a right to privacy under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment extended to a woman's decision to have an abortion, but that this right must be balanced against the state's interests in regulating abortions: protecting women's health and protecting the potentiality of human life -
Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation is an American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose policies were taken from Heritage's policy study Mandate for Leadership. Heritage has since continued to have a significant influence in U.S. public policy making, and is considered to be one of the most influential conservative research organizations in the United States. -
Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is one of the few dozens of US environmental laws passed in the 1970s, and serves as the enacting legislation to carry out the provisions outlined in The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna Designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation", the ESA was signed into law on December 28, 1973. -
Beginning of Personal Computers
The 1981 launch of the IBM Personal Computer coined both the term Personal Computer and PC. A personal computer is one intended for interactive individual use,as opposed to a mainframe computer where the end user's requests are filtered through operating staff, or a time-sharing system in which one large processor is shared by many individuals. After the development of the microprocessor, individual personal computers were low enough in cost that they eventually became affordable consumer goods. -
Iran Hostage Crisis
On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking more than 60 American hostages. The immediate cause of this action was President Jimmy Carter’s decision to allow Iran’s deposed Shah, a pro-Western autocrat who had been expelled from his country some months before, to come to the United States for cancer treatment. However, the hostage-taking was about more than the Shah’s medical care -
Morajl Majority
The Moral Majority was a prominent American political organization associated with the Christian right and Republican Party. It was founded in 1979 by Baptist minister Jerry Falwell and associates, and dissolved in the late 1980s. It played a key role in the mobilization of conservative Christians as a political force and particularly in Republican presidential victories throughout the 1980s. -
Period: to
1980's
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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. -
Robert Johnson
Robert Louis "Bob" Johnson (born April 8, 1946) is an African American entrepreneur, media magnate, executive, philanthropist and investor.He is the founder of BET, which was sold to Viacom in 2001. He also founded RLJ Companies, a holding company that invests in various business sectors. Johnson is the former majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. He became the first black American billionaire. -
Sandra O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor is a retired associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving from her appointment in 1981 by Ronald Reagan until her retirement in 2006. She was the first woman to serve as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. -
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) "Star Wars"
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), also known as Star Wars, was a program first initiated on March 23, 1983, under President Ronald Reagan. The intent of this program was to develop a sophisticated anti-ballistic missile system in order to prevent missile attacks from other countries, specifically the Soviet Union. With the tension of the Cold War looming overhead, the Strategic Defense Initiative was the United States’ response to possible nuclear attacks from afar. -
Just In Time Inventory
In 1983, the company set up a private satellite system to track delivery trucks, process credit card transactions, and transmit sales data. This last process led to Walton’s pioneering “just-in-time” inventory. This method eliminates the need for storage at each store. Instead, the local distribution center can know, via satellite, when a given store is nearly out of a product and can truck more in immediately(year but no specific date) -
Reagan Doctrine
The Reagan Doctrine was a strategy orchestrated and implemented by the United States under the Reagan Administration to overwhelm the global influence of the Soviet Union in an attempt to end the Cold War. The doctrine was the centerpiece of United States foreign policy from the early 1980s until the end of the Cold War in 1991. -
Challenger Explosion
Shuttle Challenger (OV-99) broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members, which consisted of five NASA astronauts and two payload specialists. The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:39. The O-ring was not designed to fly under unusually cold conditions as in this launch. Its failure caused a breach in the SRB joint it sealed, allowing pressurized burning gas from within the solid rocket motor to reach. -
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah is an American media proprietor, talk show host, and producer. She is best known for her talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show, which was the highest-rated television program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. Dubbed the "Queen of All Media" she has been ranked the richest African-American and is currently North America's first and only multi-billionaire black person. (Date Is from first oprah winfrey show) -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989.Constructed by the German Democratic Republic. starting on 13 August 1961, the Wall completely cut off . West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until government officials opened it in November 1989. Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and was completed in 1992 -
Fall of Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall stood until November 9, 1989, when the head of the East German Communist Party announced that citizens of the GDR could cross the border whenever they pleased. That night, ecstatic crowds swarmed the wall. Some crossed freely into West Berlin, while others brought hammers and picks and began to chip away at the wall itself. To this day, the Berlin Wall remains one of the most powerful and enduring symbols of the Cold War. -
Period: to
1990's
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Persian Gulf War
Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion and occupation of neighboring Kuwait in early August 1990. Alarmed by these actions, Arab powers such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt called on the U.S. and other Western nations to intervene. Hussein defied the UN Security Council's demands to withdraw from Kuwait by mid-January 1991, thus launching the war into full action. Though the Persian Gulf War was initially considered an unqualified success for the international coalition. -
Rodney King
On March 3, 1991, Rodney King was caught by the Los Angeles police after a high-speed chase. Thereafter, the officers pulled him out of the car and beat him brutally, while amateur cameraman George Holliday caught it all on videotape. As a result, riots engulfed the intersection of Florence and Normandie in South Central Los Angeles. The riots stemmed from 3 other black men and lit Los Angeles ablaze with the reminiscing fires of the civil rights movement and racial violence appearing once more. -
Election of 1992
The election of 1992 had 3 major candidates: Republican President George Bush Democrat Bill Clinton, and independent Ross Perot. Bush had lost much of his conservative base by breaking his campaign pledge against raising taxes, the economy was in a recession, and he perceived greatest strength foreign policy, was regarded as much less important following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the relatively peaceful climate in the Middle East after the defeat of Iraq in the Gulf War. Clinton won. -
World Trade Center Attack
The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, when a truck bomb detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The 1,336 pounds urea nitrate–hydrogen gas enhanced device was intended to send the North Tower crashing into the South Tower, bringing both towers down and killing tens of thousands of people.It failed to do so but killed six people and injured over a thousand -
NAFTA
NAFTA, a trade pact between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, eliminated virtually all tariffs and trade restrictions between the three nations. Clinton said he hoped the agreement would encourage other nations to work toward a broader world-trade pact. The passage of NAFTA was one of Clinton’s first major victories as the first Democratic president in 12 years though the movement for free trade in North America had begun as a Republican initiative. However, it received heavy criticism. -
Don't Ask Don't Tell
The official United States policy on military service by gays, bisexuals, and lesbians, instituted by the Clinton Administration. The policy prohibited military personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants, while barring openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual persons from military service. -
Contract With America
The “Contract with America” outlined legislation to be enacted by the House of Representatives. Among the proposals were tax cuts, a permanent line-item veto, measures to reduce crime and provide middle-class tax relief, and constitutional amendments requiring term limits and a balanced budget. With the exception of the constitutional amendment for term limits, all parts of the “Contract with America” were passed by the House, under the leadership of the speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich. -
Welfare Reform
The bill was a cornerstone of the Republican Contract with America and signed by President Bill Clinton on August 22, 1996, fulfilling his 1992 campaign promise to "end welfare as we have come to know it". PRWORA instituted Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which became effective July 1, 1997. The law was heralded as a "reassertion of America's work ethic" by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, largely in response to the bill's workfare component. -
Defense of Marriage Act
The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was a United States federal law that, prior to being ruled unconstitutional, defined marriage for federal purposes as the union of one man and one woman, and allowed states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages granted under the laws of other states. DOMA's passage did not prevent individual states from recognizing same-sex marriage, but it imposed constraints on the benefits received by all legally married same-sex couples. -
Lewinsky Affair
The Clinton–Lewinsky scandal was an American political sex scandal that involved 49-year-old President Bill Clinton and 22-year-old White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The sexual relationship took place between 1995 and 1997 and came to light in 1998. Clinton ended a televised speech with the statement that he "did not have sexual relations" with Lewinsky. Further investigation led to charges of perjury and to the impeachment of President Clinton in 1998 by the U.S. House of Representatives. -
Period: to
Contemporary Times
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Election of 2000
The United States presidential election of 2000 was a contest between Republican candidate George W. Bush, then-governor of Texas and son of former president George H. W. Bush (1989–1993), and Democratic candidate Al Gore, then-Vice President.
Bush narrowly won the November 7 election, with 271 electoral votes to Gore's 266 (with one elector abstaining in the official tally). -
Bush vs. Gore SCOTUS Case
On December 9, the Court had preliminarily halted the Florida recount that was occurring. Eight days earlier, the Court unanimously decided the closely related case of Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board. The Electoral College was scheduled to meet on December 18, to decide the election. The Court ruled that there was an Equal Protection Clause violation in using different standards of counting in different counties and ruled that no alternative method could be established within the time -
9/11
On September 11, 19 militants associated with al-Qaeda hijacked 4 planes and carried out suicide attacks against places in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York, a third plane hit the Pentagon outside D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. The attacks resulted in extensive death and destruction, triggering major U.S. initiatives to combat and defining the presidency of George W. Bush. 3,000 were killed. -
No Child Left Behind Act
The major focus of No Child Left Behind is to close student achievement gaps by providing all children with a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education. The U.S. Department of Education emphasizes four pillars within the bill, accountability, flexibility, research-based education, parent options. Ensured that states and schools boost the performance of certain groups of students, such as students in special education, and poor, minority children. -
Hurricane Katrina
Early in the morning, August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States. The storm itself did a great deal of damage, but its aftermath was catastrophic. Levee breaches led to massive flooding, many people charged that the federal government was slow to meet the needs of the people affected by the storm. Hundreds of thousands of people in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama were displaced from their homes, estimated costs in damage were around $100 billion in damage. -
Election of 2008
Democrat Barack Obama, United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain. Nine states changed allegiance from the 2004 election. The selected electors from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia voted for President and Vice President of the United States on December 15, 2008. Those votes were tallied before a joint session of Congress on January 8, 2009. Obama received 365 electoral votes, and McCain 173. -
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was developed in response to the Great Recession, the ARRA's primary objective was to save existing jobs and create new ones as soon as possible. Other objectives were to provide temporary relief programs for those most affected by the recession and invest in infrastructure, education, health, and renewable energy.
The approximate cost of the economic stimulus package was estimated to be $787 billion at the time of passage. -
Sonya Sotomayor
On May 26, 2009, President Barack Obama announced his nomination of Sotomayor for Supreme Court Justice. The nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in August 2009 by a vote of 68 to 31, making Sotomayor the first Latina Supreme Court Justice in U.S. history. Her impressive profile from Princeton and Yale gained her the position of the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, and she served in that role from 1992–1998 -
Affordable Care Act
The Purpose of "ObamaCare" was to make affordable health insurance available to more people. The law provides consumers with subsidies (“premium tax credits”) that lower costs for households with incomes between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level. Expand the Medicaid program to cover all adults with income below 138% of the federal poverty level. Support innovative medical care delivery methods designed to lower the costs of health care generally. -
Undoing of DOMA
The Repealing of DOMA was enacted by the landmark Supreme court case, United States v. Windsor in which the United States Supreme Court held that restricting U.S. federal interpretation of "marriage" and "spouse" to apply only to opposite-sex unions, by Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), is unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The Court declared it "a deprivation of the liberty of the person".
