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G.I. Bill
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. From 1944 to 1949, nearly 9 million veterans received close to $4 billion from the bill’s unemployment compensation program.The Readjustment Benefits Act of 1966 extended these benefits to all veterans of the armed forces, including those who had served during peacetime. -
2nd Red Scare
The second Red Scare refers to the fear of communism that permeated American politics, culture, and society from the late 1940s through the 1950s, during the opening phases of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. The second Red Scare occurred after World War II (1939–45), and was popularly known as "McCarthyism" after its most famous supporter, Senator Joseph McCarthy who made himself famous in 1950 by claiming that large numbers of communists had infiltrated the U.S State Department. -
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. It also symbolizes the anger and constant competition between Democracy and Communism that set Eastern and Western Europe against each other. -
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. It was first announced to Congress by President Harry S. Truman on March 12, 1947 and further developed on July 12, 1948 when he pledged to contain threats to Greece and Turkey. Historians have often cited Truman's address, which came to be known as the Truman Doctrine, as the official declaration of the Cold War. -
Berlin Airlift
In June 1948, the Russians wanted Berlin for themselves and closed all highways, railroads and canals from western-occupied Germany into western-occupied Berlin. They believed would make it impossible for the people to get food or any other supplies and would eventually drive Britain, France and the U.S. out for good. Instead the U.S. and allies decided to supply their part of the city from the air. This lasted for more than a year and carried more than 2.3 million tons of cargo into W. Berlin. -
Fair Deal
In his first postwar message to Congress that year, Truman had called for expanded social security, new wages-and-hours and public-housing legislation, and a permanent Fair Employment Practices Act that would prevent racial or religious discrimination in hiring. The economy-minded 81st Congress would agree to legislate only a few of the president’s recommendations: it raised the minimum wage, promoted slum clearance, and extended old-age benefits to an additional 10,000,000 people. -
Rock 'n' Roll
This new music, of course did not develop in a vacuum, but resulted from the convergence of two musical styles, Rhythm and Blues and Country, as well as a series of technological developments that created a new market for music.In the early 1950's the American Pop Charts are dominated by the remnants of the big band era including vocalists such as Doris Day, Frankie Lane, Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney and Nat King Cole, along with band leaders Mitch Miller, Percy Faith and others. -
Bill Haley and the Comets
At 18 he made his first record "Candy Kisses" and for the next four years was a guitarist and singer with country and western bands.Haley was hired in 1947 as musical director for radio station WPWA. Working twelve to sixteen hours a day, six days a week he interviewed dozens of local people, always looking for good ideas and new talent. The four young musicians, turned their backs on their beloved country/ western music and bravely faced an unknown future as "Bill Haley and His Comets". -
Beat Generation
The Beat Generation did not believe in straight jobs and they lived in dirty apartments selling drugs and committing crimes. Some of the Beat Generation beliefs include the rejection of mainstream American values, exploring alternate forms of sexuality (homosexuality), and experimentation with drugs.The beat generation was meant to echo the Lost Generation in the 1920s but it made a bigger impact that it’s historical counter part.The Beat Generation is composed of poets and writers. -
Period: to
1950s
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Korean War
The Korean War was a war between North Korea (with the support of China and the Soviet Union) and South Korea (with the principal support of the United States). The war began on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea following a series of clashes along the border. The United Nations, with the United States as the principal force, came to the aid of South Korea. China came to the aid of North Korea, and the Soviet Union also gave some assistance to the North. -
Polio Vaccine
Polio, a disease that has affected humanity throughout recorded history, attacks the nervous system and can cause varying degrees of paralysis. Since the virus is easily transmitted, epidemics were commonplace in the first decades of the 20th century. And 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. -
Dr. Jonas Salk
Jonas Edward Salk was born October 28, 1914 in New York City. In 1942, Salk went to the University of Michigan on a research fellowship to develop an influenza vaccine.In 1947, Salk was appointed director of the Virus Research Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. In 1954, national testing began on one million children, ages six to nine, who became known as the Polio Pioneers. On April 12, 1955, the results were announced: the vaccine was safe and effective. -
Period: to
Civil Rights
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Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education was a group of five legal appeals that challenged the "separate but equal" basis for racial segregation in public schools in Kansas, Virginia, Delaware, South Carolina, and the District of Columbia. The appeals reached the Supreme Court about the same time, and because they all dealt with the same issues, the Court heard arguments on them together.In all five cases, inequality in curriculum, school structures, and transportation were the key issues. -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War pitted the communist government of N. Vietnam against S. Vietnam and its ally, the U.S. It was intensified by the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. More than 3 million people (including over 58,000 Americans) were killed in the Vietnam War, and more than half of the dead were Vietnamese civilians. Communist forces ended the war by seizing control of South Vietnam in 1975. The country was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam the following year. -
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley was born to a poor family in East Tupelo, Mississippi. When he was a teenager, the Presleys moved to Memphis, where Elvis graduated from high school and took a job as a truck driver. He played guitar and sang country and hillbilly tunes. Elvis began attracting attention with his music in 1954, when he was 19. He infused Black rhythm-and-blues songs with his distinctive style, which came to include dance moves that were considered quite sexually suggestive for the time. -
Elvis Presley
In 1954, Elvis began his singing career with the legendary Sun Records label in Memphis. In late 1955, his recording contract was sold to RCA Victor. By 1956, he was an international sensation. With a sound and style that uniquely combined his diverse musical influences and blurred and challenged the social and racial barriers of the time, he ushered in a whole new era of American music and popular culture. Elvis died at his Memphis home, Graceland, on August 16, 1977. He was 42. -
Ike Turner
R&B legend Ike Turner was born on November 5, 1931, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and grew up playing the blues. In 1956, he met a teenager and singer named Anna Mae Bullock. He married her and helped create her stage persona, the two became the Ike & Tina Turner Revue and created several R&B hits. The duo's cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary" earned them their first and only Grammy Award together in 1971. Turner died of cocaine overdose on December 12, 2007, in California. -
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. 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.The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ordered Montgomery to integrate its bus system, and one of the leaders named Martin Luther King, Jr., emerged as a leader of the civil rights movement. -
Little Richard
Born Richard Wayne Penniman on 12/5/1932, in Georgia. Little Richard helped define the early rock ‘n’ roll era of the 1950s with his driving, flamboyant sound. He turned songs like “Tutti-Frutti” and “Long Tall Sally” into huge hits and influenced such bands as the Beatles.In 1986 Little Richard was one of the 10 original inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in 1993. -
Little Rock 9
The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine black students who enrolled at formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September 1957. On September 4, 1957, the first day of classes at Central High, Governor Orval Faubus called in the Arkansas National Guard to block the black students’ entry into the high school. Later that month, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent in federal troops to escort the Little Rock Nine into the school. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
On September 9, 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Originally proposed by Attorney General Herbert Brownell, the Act marked the first occasion since Reconstruction that the federal government undertook significant legislative action to protect civil rights. It established the Civil Rights Division in the Justice Department, and empowered federal officials to prosecute individuals that conspired to deny or abridge another citizen's right to vote. -
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 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as the Democratic slogan to inspire America to support him. Kennedy pitched his 1960 presidential campaign as a crusade to bring in a "new generation of leadership—new men to cope with new problems and new opportunities." -
Counter Culture
The Counterculture of the 1960s was an anti-establishment culture that spread throughout the Western world in the 1960s and lasting into the mid-1970s. The counter culture movement was inspired by similar movement in Germany from 1896 to 1908. In Germany, the movement was commonly referred to as Wandervogel which means ‘migratory bird.' The counter culture movement started in the early 1960s in the US. The movement involved youths who opposed traditional values held by society. -
Period: to
1960s
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Peace Corps
President John F. Kennedy issued an executive order establishing the Peace Corps. It proved to be one of the most innovative and highly publicized Cold War programs set up by the United States. During the course of his campaign for the presidency in 1960, Kennedy floated the idea that a new “army” should be created by the United States. This force would be made up of civilians who would volunteer their time and skills to travel to underdeveloped nations to assist them in any way they could. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
President John Kennedy notified Americans about the 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. disaster was avoided when the U.S. agreed to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s offer to remove the Cuban missiles in exchange for the U.S. promising not to invade Cuba. Kennedy also secretly agreed to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey. -
MLK's letter from Birmingham Jail
On April 16, 1963, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., imprisoned in an Alabama prison cell, completed work on one of the seminal texts of the American Civil Rights Movement.Four days earlier King had been arrested after leading a Good Friday demonstration as part of the Birmingham Campaign, designed to bring national attention to the brutal, racist treatment suffered by blacks in one of the most segregated cities in America—Birmingham, Alabama.King's letter was a response to criticism. -
March on Washington
The March on Washington was a massive protest march that occurred in August 1963, when some 250,000 people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Also known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the event aimed to draw attention to continuing challenges and inequalities faced by African Americans a century after emancipation. It was also the occasion of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s now-iconic “I Have A Dream” speech. -
Birmingham Bombing
The Birmingham church bombing occurred on September 15, 1963, when a bomb exploded before Sunday morning services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Four young girls were killed and many other people injured. Outrage over the incident and the violent clash between protesters and police that followed helped draw national attention to the hard-fought, often-dangerous struggle for civil rights for African Americans. -
Assassination of JFK
On November 22, sitting in a Lincoln convertible, the Kennedys and Connallys waved at the large and enthusiastic crowds gathered along the parade route. 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. He was 46. -
Lee Harvey Oswald
Born on October 18, 1939, in New Orleans, Louisiana, Lee Harvey Oswald eventually joined the U.S. Marines and later defected to the Soviet Union for a period of time. He returned to America with a family, and eventually acquired firearms. Oswald allegedly assassinated President John. F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. While being taken to county jail, on November 24, 1963, Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby -
Ascendancy of Lyndon Johnson
Upon taking office, Johnson launched an ambitious slate of progressive reforms aimed at creating a “Great Society” for all Americans. Many of the programs he championed—Medicare, Head Start, the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act—had a profound and lasting impact in health, education and civil rights. Despite his impressive achievements, however, Johnson’s legacy was marred by his failure to lead the nation out of the quagmire of the Vietnam War. -
Warren Commission
Lyndon Johnson, established a commission to investigate Kennedy’s death. After a nearly yearlong investigation, the commission, led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, concluded that alleged gunman Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in assassinating America’s 35th president, and that there was no conspiracy, either domestic or international, involved. The report proved controversial and failed to silence conspiracy theories surrounding the event. -
Anti-War Movement
The U.S. war in Vietnam triggered the most tenacious anti-war movement in U.S. history, beginning with the start of the bombing of North Vietnam in 1964 and the introduction of combat troops the following year. Over the next decade, hundreds of thousands of young people become radicalized in a largely nonviolent, diverse and sometimes inchoate popular culture of war resistance, employing tactics ranging from comical street theatre to industrial sabotage. -
Feminism
The feminist movement of the 1960s and '70s originally focused on dismantling workplace inequality, such as denial of access to better jobs and salary inequity, via anti-discrimination laws. In 1964, Representative Howard Smith of Virginia proposed to add a prohibition on gender discrimination into the Civil Rights Act that was under consideration. The law passed with the amendment intact. In the summer of 1966, they launched the National Organization for Women. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. First proposed by President John F. Kennedy, it survived strong opposition from southern members of Congress and was then signed into law by Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson. -
Great Society
The Great Society was an ambitious series of policy initiatives, legislation and programs spearheaded by President Lyndon B. Johnson with the main goals of ending poverty, reducing crime, abolishing inequality and improving the environment. In May 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson laid out his agenda for a “Great Society” during a speech at the University of Michigan. With his eye on re-election that year, Johnson set in motion his Great Society, the largest social reform plan in modern history. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Voting Rights Act is considered one of the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history.The voting rights bill was passed in the U.S. Senate on May 26, 1965. -
Native-American Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights and Native rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s changed America. Both campaigns were driven by a thirst for justice, freedom, and respect.The Native rights movement had a dual goal—achieving the civil rights of Native peoples as American citizens, and the sovereign rights of Native nations. Native activists fought against dispossession, racism, poverty, and violence, but they also focused on protecting treaty rights and keeping Native tribes distinct. -
Nixon's Presidency
Richard Nixon, the 37th U.S. president, is best remembered as the only president ever to resign from office. Nixon stepped down in 1974, halfway through his second term, rather than face impeachment over his efforts to cover up illegal activities by members of his administration in the Watergate scandal. As president, Nixon’s achievements included forging diplomatic ties with China and the Soviet Union, and withdrawing U.S. troops from an unpopular war in Vietnam. -
Space Race
During the Cold War the United States and the Soviet Union engaged a competition to see who had the best technology in space. This included such events as who could put the first manned spacecraft into orbit and who would be the first to walk on the Moon. The Space Race was considered important because it showed the world which country had the best science, technology, and economic system. It began in 1955 when both countries announced that they would soon be launching satellites into orbit. -
Silent Majority's involvement in politics
President Richard Nixon goes on television and radio to call for national solidarity on the Vietnam War effort and to gather support for his policies; his call for support is an attempt to blunt the renewed strength of the antiwar movement.Pledging that the United States was “going to keep our commitment in Vietnam,” he said U.S. forces would continue fighting until the communists agreed to a fair and honorable peace, or until the South Vietnamese were able to defend themselves on their own. -
Period: to
1970s
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Environmental Protection Agency
Born in the wake of elevated concern about environmental pollution, EPA was established on December 2, 1970 to consolidate in one agency a variety of federal research, monitoring, standard-setting and enforcement activities to ensure environmental protection.The United States Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States which was created for the purpose of protecting the environment by writing &enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress. -
Title IX
Title IX is a comprehensive federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity. The principal objective of Title IX is to avoid the use of federal money to support sex discrimination in education programs and to provide individual citizens effective protection against those practices. Title IX applies, with a few specific exceptions, to all aspects of federally funded education programs or activities. -
Roe v Wade
The case involved a Texas statute that prohibited abortion except when necessary to save the life of the pregnant woman. The Supreme Court, in a decision written by Justice Blackmun, recognized a privacy interest in abortions. In doing so, the court applied the right to privacy established in Griswold v Connecticut. At stake in this matter was the fundamental right of a woman to decide whether or not to terminate her pregnancy. This right included decisional autonomy and physical consequences . -
Heritage Foundation
Founded in 1973,The Heritage Foundation is a right-wing think tank. Its stated mission is to formulate and promote public policies based on the principles of "free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense."The Heritage Foundation is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense. -
OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries)
The Arab-dominated Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announces a decision to cut oil exports to the United States and other nations that provided military aid to Israel in the Yom Kippur War of October 1973. According to OPEC, exports were to be reduced by 5 percent every month until Israel evacuated the territories occupied in the Arab-Israeli war of 1967. In December, a full oil embargo was imposed against the United States and several other countries. -
Gerald Ford's Presidency
America’s 38th president, Gerald Ford took office on August 9,1974, following the resignation of President Richard Nixon, who left the White House in disgrace over the Watergate scandal.Ford became the first unelected president in the nation’s history.A longtime Republican congressman from Michigan,Ford had been appointed vice president less than a year earlier by President Nixon.He's credited with helping to restore public confidence in government after the disillusionment of the Watergate era. -
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. Carter’s diagnosis of the nation’s “crisis of confidence” did little to boost his sagging popularity. -
The Moral 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 was formed in response to the social and cultural transformations that occurred in the United States in the 60sand70s.Christian fundamentalists were alarmed by a number of developments that,in their view,threatened to undermine the country’s traditional moral values. -
Black Entertainment Television (BET)
Black Entertainment Television (BET), American cable television network and multimedia group providing news, entertainment, and other programming developed primarily for African American viewers. BET also operates a channel geared toward African American women, Centric; features contemporary and 20th-century popular music through BET Gospel, BET Hip-Hop, BET James, and BET Soul; produces documentaries and movies for distribution on the BET channel; and sponsors the BET Awards. -
Soviet War In Afghanistan
The Soviet Union intervened in support of the Afghan communist government in its conflict with anticommunist Muslim guerrillas during the Afghan War and remained in Afghanistan until mid-February 1989.The new government, which had little popular support, forged close ties with the Soviet Union. In 1988 the Soviet Union signed an accord with the United States, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and agreed to withdraw its troops. The Soviet withdrawal was completed on Feb. 15, 1989. -
A.I.D.S. Crisis
The disease AIDS first appeared in the early 80s, and rapidly became an epidemic among gay men. Intravenous drug users who shared needles, blood transfusion patients, and women with infected sexual partners were also at risk of contracting AIDS.
Activists, particularly in the gay community, responded by creating care and education centers, and by calling for increased gov. funding to help in the crisis. The US gov. eventually committed millions of dollars to research, care, and public education. -
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, as in the fast-paced 1960s and 1970s, 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. During this decade, the Kennedy team launched 32 flights of the space shuttle, then known as the STS. -
Robert L. Johnson
Robert L. Johnson was born on April 8, 1946, in Hickory, Mississippi. Johnson founded Black Entertainment Television (BET) in 1979 with his wife, Sheila. He became the first African-American billionaire after selling the network to Viacom in 2001. Johnson has since started a new business, the RLJ Companies, and has invested in an NBA team, a film company, and political causes and campaigns. BET became the first African American-owned company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. -
Period: to
1980s
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Election of 1980
The United States presidential election of 1980 featured a contest between incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter and his Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan, as well as Republican Congressman John B. Anderson, who ran as an independent. ... This election marked the beginning of what is popularly called the "Reagan Revolution."Ronald Reagan won the election by a huge landslide. This election received the highest electoral votes towards any presidential nominee in American history. -
Reagonomics
During the campaign of 1980, Ronald Reagan announced a recipe to fix the nation's economic mess. He claimed an undue tax burden, excessive government regulation, and massive social spending programs hampered growth. Reagan proposed a phased 30% tax cut for the first three years of his Presidency. The bulk of the cut would be concentrated at the upper income levels. The economic theory behind the wisdom of such a plan was called SUPPLY-SIDE or TRICKLE-DOWN ECONOMICS. -
Sam Walton's Just-In-Time Inventory
His company was the first to use the UPC bar code to automate the inventory process. 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. -
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) "Star Wars"
he 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. -
Reagan Doctrine
In his 1985 state of the union address, President Reagan pledged his support for anti-Communist revolutions in what would become known as the "Reagan Doctrine." In Afghanistan, the United States was already providing aid to anti-Soviet freedom fighters, ultimately, helping to force Soviet troops to withdraw.The Reagan Doctrine was a strategy orchestrated and implemented by the U.S under the Reagan Admin. to overwhelm the global influence of the Soviet Union in an attempt to end the Cold War. -
Iran Contra Affair
Ronald Reagan's efforts to eradicate Communism spanned the globe, but the insurgent Contras' cause in Nicaragua was particularly dear to him. Battling the Cuban-backed Sandinistas, the Contras were, according to Reagan, "the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers." In 1985, while Iran and Iraq were at war, Iran made a secret request to buy weapons from the United States. McFarlane sought Reagan's approval, in spite of the embargo against selling arms to Iran. -
Challenger Explosion
The NASA space shuttle Challenger exploded on January 28, 1986, just 73 seconds after liftoff, bringing a devastating end to the spacecraft’s 10th mission. The disaster claimed the lives of all seven astronauts aboard, including Christa McAuliffe, a teacher from New Hampshire who would have been the first civilian in space. It was later determined that two rubber O-rings had failed due to cold temperatures on the morning of the launch. NASA to temporarily suspended all shuttle missions. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
The official purpose of this Berlin Wall was to keep Western “fascists” from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state. On 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 ecstatic crowds swarmed the wall. Some crossed freely into West Berlin, while others brought hammers began to chip away at the wall itself. The Berlin Wall remains one of the most powerful symbols of the Cold War. -
Period: to
1990s
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Persian Gulf War / 1st Iraq War
Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion and occupation of neighboring Kuwait in early August 1990. Alarmed by these actions, fellow Arab powers such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt called on the United States and other Western nations to intervene. Hussein defied United Nations Security Council demands to withdraw from Kuwait by mid-January 1991, and the Persian Gulf War began with a massive U.S.-led air offensive known as Operation Desert Storm. -
Rodney King Incident
On March 3, 1991, that four white L.A police officers brutally beat Rodney King, an unarmed black man. In 81s of video footage captured on a bystander’s camcorder, police were seen kicking and clubbing King 56 times.When the accused officers were tried a year later, a jury found them not guilty despite the evidence. In a survey conducted shortly after the verdict, 57% of those polled felt the outcome was the result of racism. Those feelings fueled the worst rioting in the U.S. since the 1960s. -
Election of 1992
1992 Presidential Election. The United States presidential election of 1992 had three major candidates: Incumbent Republican President George H. W. Bush; Democrat Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, and independent Texas businessman Ross Perot.The most recent third party initiative was the candidacy of Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996. In 1992, Perot, in running against then-President George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, received 19 percent of the vote, which seemed to help Bill Clinton win the election. -
World Trade Center Attack - 1993
On February 26, 1993, terrorists drove a rental van into a parking garage under the World Trade Center’s twin towers and lit the fuses on a homemade bomb stuffed inside. Six people died and more than 1,000 were injured in the massive explosion, which carved out a crater several stories deep and propelled smoke into the upper reaches of the skyscrapers. At the time, it was one of the worst terrorist attacks ever to occur on U.S. soil. -
North American Free Trade Agreement
NAFTA was created to eliminate barriers to trade and investment between the US, Canada and Mexico. The implementation of NAFTA immediately eliminated tariffs on more than one-half of Mexico's exports to the US and more than one-third of US. exports to Mexico.Among its main objectives is the liberalization of trade between Canada, Mexico and the United States, stimulate economic growth and give the NAFTA countries equal access to each other's markets. -
Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy
"Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) was the official United States policy on military service by gays, bisexuals, and lesbians, instituted by the Clinton Administration on February 28, 1994, when Department of Defense Directive 1304.26 issued on December 21, 1993, took effect, lasting until September 20, 2011. The policy theoretically lifted a ban on homosexual service that had been instituted during World War II, though in effect it continued a statutory ban. In 2010 it was voted to repeal. -
Lewinsky Affair
The Lewinsky scandal began in the late 1990s, when America was rocked by a political sex scandal involving President and Lewinsky, a White House intern in her early 20s. In 1995, the two began a sexual relationship that continued sporadically until 1997. During that time, Lewinsky was transferred to a job at the Pentagon, where she confided in coworker Linda about her affair with the president.The president was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice, but he was acquitted by the Senate. -
Welfare Reform
On August 22, President Clinton signed into law "The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-193)," a comprehensive bipartisan welfare reform plan that will dramatically change the nation's welfare system into one that requires work in exchange for time-limited assistance.In 1996 Gingrich and his supporters pushed for the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act aimed at reconstructing the welfare system. -
Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)
The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and the Call for a Constitutional Amendment. The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is a law that, among other things, prohibited married same-sex couples from collecting federal benefits. It 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. -
Period: to
Contemporary
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Election of 2000
The 2000 presidential election pitted Republican George W. Bush against Democrat Al Gore. ... The election hinged on results from the state of Florida, where the vote was so close as to mandate a recount. The outcome of the election was ultimately decided by the US Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore. In Bush v. Gore (2000), a divided Supreme Court ruled that the state of Florida's court-ordered manual recount of vote ballots in the 2000 presidential election was unconstitutional. -
9/11 Attacks
On Sept. 11, 2001,19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four airplanes and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States.Two of the planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C.,and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.Almost 3,000 people were killed during the 9/11 terrorist attacks and defined the presidency of George W. Bush. -
PATRIOT Act
The USA PATRIOT Act is an Act of Congress that was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001. With its ten-letter abbreviation (USA PATRIOT) expanded, the full title is “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001”. The USA Patriot Act is an acronym for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. -
No Child Left Behind Education Act
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is a federal law that provides money for extra educational assistance for poor children in return for improvements in their academic progress. NCLB is the most recent version of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act.The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, President George W. Bush's education-reform bill, was signed into law on Jan. 8, 2002. By all accounts, it is the most sweeping education-reform legislation since 1965. -
2nd Iraq War
Just after explosions began to rock Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, U.S. President George W. Bush announced in a televised address, “At this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger.” President Bush and his advisors built much of their case for war on the idea that Iraq, under dictator Saddam Hussein, possessed or was in the process of building weapons of mass destruction. -
The Great Recession
The Great Recession—which officially lasted from December 2007 to June 2009—began with the bursting of an 8 trillion dollar housing bubble. The resulting loss of wealth led to sharp cutbacks in consumer spending.Major causes of the initial subprime mortgage crisis and following recession include: International trade imbalances and lax lending standards contributing to high levels of developed country household debt and real-estate bubbles that have since burst; U.S. government housing policies -
Election of 2008
Barack Obama's victory and the 2008 presidential election in general is one for the history books. ... Barack Obama is the first African-American ever to be elected president of the United States. Joe Biden is the first Roman Catholic ever to serve as vice president.On November 4, 2008, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois was elected president of the United States over Senator John McCain of Arizona. Obama became the 44th president, and the first African American to be elected to that office. -
Sonia Sotomayor
Sonia Sotomayor is the first hispanic SCOTUS judge. Sonia Sotomayor was born on June 25, 1954, in the Bronx borough of New York City. Her desire to be a judge was first inspired by the TV show Perry Mason. She graduated from Yale Law School and passed the bar in 1980. She became a U.S. District Court Judge in 1992 and was elevated to the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals in 1998. In 2009, she was confirmed as the first Latina Supreme Court justice in U.S. history. -
Obama Presidency
When Obama took office, he inherited a global economic recession, two ongoing foreign wars and the lowest-ever international favorability rating for the United States. He campaigned on an ambitious agenda of financial reform, alternative energy and reinventing education and health care—all while bringing down the national debt. Because these issues were intertwined with the economic well-being of the nation, he believed all would have to be undertaken simultaneously. -
Affordable Care ACt (ACA) "Obamacare"
Obamacare has significantly increased the number of people with health insurance coverage. It did that by overhauling the individual insurance market and expanding Medicaid, a public program that covers low-income American. The law touches nearly every American industry, from hospitals and doctors to restaurants and even ice cream parlors. Obamacare includes lots of policies that change the way doctors get paid, with the aim of slowing the ever-growing cost of health care.
