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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 benefits for returning World War II veterans. It was designed by the American Legion, who helped push it through Congress by mobilizing its chapters; the goal was to provide immediate rewards for practically all World War II veterans. The act avoided the highly disputed postponed life insurance policy payout for World War I veterans that caused political turmoil for a decade and a half after that war. -
Second Red Scare
The second Red Scare refers to the fear of communism that permeated American politics, culture, and society from the late 1940's through the 1950's during the opening phases of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. The second Red Scare occurred after World War II, and was popularly known as "McCarthyism" after its most famous supporter, Joseph McCarthy. This episode of political repression lasted longer and was more pervasive than the Red Scare that followed the Bolshevik Revolution & World War I. -
Atomic Bomb
The atomic bomb, and nuclear bombs, are powerful weapons that use nuclear reactions as their source of explosive energy. Scientists first developed nuclear weapons technology during World War II. Atomic bombs have been used only twice in war—both times by the United States against Japan at the end of World War II. During the final stage of World War II, the United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively. -
The Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain was the name for the boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas using barbed wire and barricades starting from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. It was a closure to western ideas. In 1946, Winston Churchill gave a speech in which he declared that Russia had built an "Iron Curtain". Churchill meant that the Soviet Union had separated the eastern European countries from the west so that no one knew what was going on behind the “curtain.” -
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Cold War
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Truman Doctorine
The Truman doctrine stops the spread of communism anywhere in the world through economic and military aid. It 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. -
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 Marshall Plan had two interrelated goals. The Plan was intended to improve the economic situations of the countries of Western Europe and, at the same time, to discourage them from embracing communism. -
Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Airlift: The End of the Blockade. By spring 1949, it was clear that the Soviet blockade of West Berlin had failed. It had not persuaded West Berliners to reject their allies in the West, nor had it prevented the creation of a unified West German state. At the end of the Second World War, U.S., British, and Soviet military forces divided and occupied Germany. Also divided into occupation zones, Berlin was located far inside Soviet-controlled eastern Germany. -
Rock and Roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll or rock 'n' roll) is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940's and early 1950's, from African American musical styles such as gospel, jump blues, jazz, boogie woogie, and rhythm and blues, along with country music. The major pioneers, those who made rock and roll popular were obviously Elvis Presley, Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, and Little Richard. -
Beat Generation
Starting in the 1950's, the Beat Generation rose to prominence in America, inspiring a culture of nonconformity and social revolution. Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac were some of the more famous faces synonymous to the group, as was William S. Burroughs. The Beat Generation was a literary movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-World War II era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized throughout the 1950's. -
Korean War
Korean War, a 'Forgotten' Conflict That Shaped the Modern World. The Korean War has been called “the Forgotten War” in the United States, where coverage of the 1950's conflict was censored and its memory decades later is often overshadowed by World War II and the Vietnam War. It was a war between North Korea and South Korea. The war began on the 25th of June, 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea following a series of clashes along the border -
Television
Perhaps no phenomenon shaped American life in the 1950's more than television. At the end of World War II, the television was a toy for only a few thousand wealthy Americans. Just 10 years later, nearly two-thirds of American households had a television. Television forever changed changed politics. The first president to be televised was Harry Truman.It did not take long for political advertisers to understand the power of the new medium. In the 1950's, "I LOVE LUCY" topped the ratings charts. -
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The 1950's
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Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483, was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down racially segregated schools as unconstitutional in its landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling. Explore 10 illuminating facts about the lead-up to and aftermath of this defining civil rights movement. -
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Civil Rights
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News
CBS launched CBS Television News in May 1948 to compete against the NBC newsreel programs, hosted on camera by Douglas Edwards, it was renamed Douglas Edwards with the News in 1950. According to The Magic Window: American Television, 1939-1953, news of the attack on Pearl Harbor constituted television’s first bulletin and Sam Cuff of WNBT’s Face of the War stood in front of a map showing viewers where the Japanese attacks occurred. -
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. More generally the term characterizes the entire domestic agenda of the Truman administration, from 1945 to 1953. His Fair Deal recommended that all Americans have health insurance, that the minimum wage (the lowest amount of money per hour that someone can be paid) be increased, and that, by law, all Americans be guaranteed equal rights. -
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. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ordered Montgomery to integrate its bus system, and one of the leaders of the boycott, a young pastor named Martin Luther King, Jr., emerged as a prominent leader of the American civil rights movement. -
Rosa Parks
Civil rights activist Rosa Parks (February 4, 1913 to October 24, 2005) refused to surrender her seat to a white passenger on a segregated Montgomery, Alabama bus, which spurred on the 381-day Montgomery Bus Boycott that helped launch nationwide efforts to end segregation of public facilities. The city of Montgomery had no choice but to lift the law requiring segregation on public buses after the massive boycott in Montgomery. -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War also known as the Second Indochina War, and in Vietnam as the Resistance War Against America or simply the American War, was a conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was a long, costly and divisive conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its ally, the US. The conflict was intensified by the ongoing Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. -
Ike Turner
Izear Luster "Ike" Turner, Jr. (November 5, 1931 – December 12, 2007) was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, arranger, talent scout, and record producer. An early pioneer of fifties rock and roll, he is most popularly known for his work in the 1960's and 1970's with his then-wife Tina Turner in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue.Turner began playing piano and guitar when he was eight, forming his group, the Kings of Rhythm, as a teenager. -
Polio Vaccine
The first polio vaccine was the inactivated polio vaccine. It was developed by Jonas Salk and came into use in 1955. The oral polio vaccine was developed by Albert Sabin and came into commercial use in 1961. Today, only 3 countries in the world have never stopped transmission of polio (Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria). Despite the progress achieved since 1988, as long as a single child remains infected with polio virus, children in all countries are at risk of contracting the disease. -
Emmett Till Tragedy
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 four days earlier. The white woman’s husband and her brother made Emmett carry a 75-pound cotton-gin fan to the bank of the River and ordered him to take off his clothes. The two men then beat him nearly to death, gouged out his eye, shot him in the head and then threw his body, tied to the cotton-gin fan with barbed wire into the river. -
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". Elvis was initially called the "Atomic powered singer" in the early-mid 1950's. In 1954, the performer kicked off a musical revolution by modernizing traditional genres such as blues, country and bluegrass for contemporary (and more youthful) audiences. -
Space Race
The Space Race refers to the 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the Soviet Union and the US, for dominance in spaceflight capability. The Space Race began on August 2, 1955 when the Soviet Union responded to the US announcement. The Soviet Union beat the US to this, in October 4, 1957 with orbiting Sputnik 1, and later beat the US to the first human in space, on April 12, 1961. The "race" peaked in July 20, 1969 with US landing of the first humans on the Moon with Apollo 11. -
Sit Ins
Sit-Ins are a form of protest in which demonstrators occupy a place, refusing to leave until their demands are met.Often the participants would be jeered and threatened by local customers. Sometimes they would be pelted with food or ketchup. Angry onlookers tried to provoke fights that never came. In the event of a physical attack, the student would curl up into a ball on the floor and take the punishment. Any violent reprisal would undermine the spirit of the sit-in. -
New Frontier
The term "New Frontier" refers to the economic and social programs of the presidency of John F. Kennedy. 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. The phrase developed into a label for his administration's domestic and foreign programs. -
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The 1960's
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Albert Sabin
Albert Bruce Sabin was a Polish American medical researcher, best known for developing the oral polio vaccine which has played a key role in nearly eradicating the disease. Being known as the developer of the oral live virus polio vaccine, Dr. Sabin not only dedicated his entire professional career to the elimination of human suffering though his groundbreaking medical advances, he also waged a tireless campaign against poverty and ignorance throughout his lifetime. -
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. The program was established by Executive Order 10924, issued by President John F. Kennedy on March 1, 1961. -
Cesar Chavez
Cesar Chavez ( March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) was an American labor leader and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962. Originally a Mexican American farm worker, Chavez became the best known Latino American civil rights activist, and was strongly promoted by the American labor movement, which was eager to enroll Hispanic members. After his death he became a major historical icon for the Latino community. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis of 1962, was a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union concerning American ballistic missile deployment in Italy and Turkey with consequent Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba. The confrontation is often considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war. The world had a sigh of relief after the superpowers reached an agreement ending the threat of nuclear war. -
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald was an American Marxist and ex-Marine who assassinated United States President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Five government investigations concluded that Oswald shot and killed Kennedy from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository as the President traveled by motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. About 45 minutes after Oswald assassinated Kennedy, he shot and killed Dallas police officer J. D. Tippit on a local street. -
Assasination of JFK
John F. Kennedy, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas while riding in a presidential motorcade in Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was riding with his wife Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally, and Connally's wife, Nellie, when he was fatally shot. Governor Connally was seriously wounded in the attack. The motorcade rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital where President Kennedy was pronounced dead about thirty minutes after the shooting; Connally recovered from his injuries. -
Ascendancy of Lyndon Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson was the 36th president of the United States; he was sworn into office following the November 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Upon taking office, Johnson launched an ambitious slate of progressive reforms aimed at creating a “Great Society” for all Americans. 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. -
Birmingham Bombing
The Birmingham church bombing occurred on September 15, 1963, when a bomb exploded before morning services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama; a church with a predominantly black congregation that also served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders. Four young girls were killed and many other people injured. Outrage over the incident and the clash between protesters and police that followed helped draw attention to the struggle for civil rights for African Americans. -
Great Society
The Great Society was a set of domestic programs in the United States launched by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964–65. The main goal was the elimination of poverty and racial injustice. President Johnson first used the term "Great Society" during a speech at Ohio University, then unveiled the program in greater detail at an appearance at University of Michigan. New major spending programs that addressed education, medical care, transportation, etc. were launched during this period. -
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician, businessman, and author who was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona (1953–65, 1969–87) and the Republican Party's nominee for President of the United States in 1964. Despite his loss of the 1964 presidential election in a landslide, Goldwater is the politician most often credited with sparking the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960's. -
Hippies
A hippie (also spelled as hippy) is a member of a counterculture, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960's and spread to other countries around the world. The word hippie came from hipster and used to describe beatniks who moved into New York City's Greenwich Village and San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district. The term hippie first found popularity in San Francisco. By the 1940s, it had become part of African American jive slang. -
Malcolm X
Malcolm X (1925–1965) was an African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans; detractors accused him of preaching racism and violence. He has been called one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history, serving as the public face of the controversial group for a dozen years. -
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. This act was signed into law on August 6, 1965, by President Lyndon Johnson. It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. -
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), also known as acid, is a psychedelic drug known for its psychological effects, which may include altered awareness of one's surroundings, perceptions, and feelings as well as sensations and images that seem real though they are not. It is used mainly as a recreational drug and for spiritual reasons. LSD is typically either swallowed or held under the tongue. It is often sold on blotter paper, a sugar cube, or gelatin. It can also be injected. -
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party or the BPP was a political organization founded by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton in 1966. The Black Panther Party's core practice was its armed citizens' patrols to monitor the behavior of officers of the Oakland Police Department and challenge police brutality in Oakland, California. In 1969, community social programs became a core activity of party members. The party enrolled the largest number of members and made the greatest impact in the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Area. -
Earl Warren Supreme Court
Earl Warren was an American jurist and politician who served as the 30th Governor of California (1943–1953) and later the 14th Chief Justice of the United States (1953–1969). He is best known for the liberal decisions of the Warren Court, which outlawed segregation in public schools and transformed many areas of American law, especially regarding the rights of the accused, ending public school-sponsored prayers, and requiring "one man–one vote" rules of apportionment of election districts. -
OPEC
OPEC is an intergovernmental organization of 14 nations as of February 2018, founded in 1960 in Baghdad, and headquartered since 1965 in Vienna, Austria. 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. -
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The 1970's
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Watergate Hotel
The Watergate Hotel, however, was controversial from the start. When it opened in 1965, celebrity Italian architect Luigi Moretti's curvy, sprawling design sent shock waves through conservative DC. Despite criticism, the hotel quickly became a playground for the fabulous. Its glamorous reputation was eclipsed with political scandal on June 17, 1972, when five intruders were caught in the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, leading to Richard Nixon’s resignation. -
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 and Flora . Designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and development untempered by concern and conservation", the ESA was signed into law by Richard Nixon on December 28, 1973. -
Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation is an American conservative public policy 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. -
Nixon's Presidency
Richard Milhous Nixon was an American politician who served as the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 until 1974, when he resigned from office, the only U.S. president to do so. He had previously served as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961, and prior to that as a U.S. Representative and also Senator from California. Nixon ended American involvement in the war in Vietnam in 1973 and brought the American POWs home, and ended the military draft. -
Warren Burger Supreme Court
The “Burger Court” dealt with everything from abortion to capital punishment to pornography, and it most likely ended Richard Nixon’s stay in the White House in 1974. Ironically, it was President Nixon who nominated Burger to replace Earl Warren. During his 13 years on that court, Burger earned a reputation as a conservative constructionist, and the incoming President Nixon was expected to have Burger on a short list to replace Warren, who had led what was considered a liberal court. -
Federal Election Commission
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is an independent regulatory agency whose purpose is to enforce campaign finance law in United States federal elections. Created in 1974 through amendments to the Federal Election Campaign Act, the commission describes its duties as "to disclose campaign finance information, to enforce the provisions of the law such as the limits and prohibitions on contributions, and to oversee the public funding of Presidential elections." -
Jimmy Carter's Presidency
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. He previously was the 76th governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975, after two terms in the Georgia State Senate from 1963 to 1967. Carter pardoned all evaders of the Vietnam War drafts.Carter has remained active in public life during his post-presidency, and in 2002 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in co-founding the Carter Center. -
Iran Hostage Crisis
The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic standoff between Iran and the United States. Fifty-two American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981. The hostage crisis had far-reaching effects. It stirred patriotic sentiment in Iran that allowed the Islamic government to consolidate its power, and drove the United States into the arms of Saddam Hussein, who we supported in the Iran-Iraq war because we were so angry at Iran. -
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 1980's. It played a key role in the mobilization of conservative Christians as a political force and particularly in Republican presidential victories throughout the 1980's. The group played a role in the 1980 elections through its strong support of conservative candidates. -
Election of 1980
The United States presidential election of 1980 was the 49th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 1980. Republican nominee Ronald Reagan defeated incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter. Carter's unpopularity and poor relations with Democratic leaders encouraged an intra-party challenge by Senator Ted Kennedy, a younger brother of former President John F. Kennedy. Carter defeated Kennedy in the majority of the Democratic primaries. -
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The 1980's
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Sandra Day 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 to 2006. She is the first woman to serve on the Court. Prior to O'Connor's tenure on the Court, she was an elected official and judge in Arizona serving as the first female Majority Upon her nomination to the Court, O'Connor was confirmed unanimously by the Senate. She announced her intention to retire effective upon the confirmation of a successor. -
Space Shuttle Program
The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. The Space Shuttle—composed of an orbiter launched with two reusable solid rocket boosters and a disposable external fuel tank—carried up to eight astronauts and up to 50,000 lb (23,000 kg) of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). -
Music Television (MTV)
MTV (originally an initialism of Music Television) 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" . At first, MTV's main target demographic was young adults, but today it is primarily teenagers, particularly high school and college students. -
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)served as the 40th U.S. president from 1981 to 1989. Raised in small-town Illinois, he became a Hollywood actor in his 20s and later served as the Republican governor of California from 1967 to 1975. Dubbed the Great Communicator, the affable Reagan became a popular two-term president. He cut taxes, increased defense spending, negotiated a nuclear arms reduction agreement with the Soviets and is credited with helping to bring a quicker end to the Cold War. -
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. He previously was the 76th governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975, after two terms in the Georgia State Senate from 1963 to 1967. Carter has remained active in public life during his post-presidency, and in 2002 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in co-founding the Carter Center. -
A.I.D.S epidemic
The AIDS epidemic, caused by HIV, 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. Treatment of HIV/AIDS is primarily via a "drug cocktail" of protease inhibitors, and education programs to help people avoid infection. -
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. 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, to force Soviet troops to withdraw. -
Robert Johnson
Robert Leroy Johnson was an American blues singer-songwriter and musician. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generations of musicians. Johnson's shadowy and poorly documented life and death at age 27 have given rise to much legend. Johnson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in its first induction ceremony, in 1986, as an early influence on rock and roll. -
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey 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 was the richest African American of the 20th century North America's first multi-billionaire black person and has been ranked the greatest black philanthropist in American history. -
Balkans Crisis
The Balkan Wars consisted of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan Peninsula in 1912 and 1913. Four Balkan states defeated the Ottoman Empire in the first war; one of the four, Bulgaria, suffered defeat in the second war. The annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary in October, 1908, led to a controversy between the Dual Monarchy and Turkey. It also led to international complications which for several weeks early in 1909 threatened to end in a general European war. -
Black Entertainment Television
The network first aired on January 25, 1980. Its founder, Robert L. Johnson, was a former lobbyist for the cable television industry in the late 1970's. In that capacity, Johnson quickly recognized the dearth of television programming designed for the African American public and created BET to reach that demographic audience. The company lost money during its first several years but began to turn profitable by the mid 1980's. It started to really flourish during the 1990's. -
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The 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. 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. After 42 days of relentless attacks by the allied coalition in the air and on the ground, U.S. President George H.W. Bush declared a cease-fire on February 28. -
Rodney King Incident
Rodney Glen King was an African-American taxi driver who became known internationally as the victim of Los Angeles Police Department brutality, after a videotape was released of several police officers beating him during his arrest on March 3, 1991. George Holliday, filmed the incident from his nearby balcony and sent the footage to local news station KTLA. The footage clearly showed King being beaten repeatedly, and the incident was covered by news media around the world. -
Rap Music
On June 22, 1991, Billboard announced a new album had surpassed Out of Time, by R.E.M., to become the most popular in the country. It was Niggaz4life, by N.W.A., which had debuted the previous week at number 2 and sold nearly a million copies in its first seven days. Billboard had published an album chart for 45 years, but this marked a historic week: It was the first time that a rap group claimed the top spot on the Billboard 200. -
Election of 1992
The United States presidential election of 1992 was the 52nd quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 3, 1992. Democratic Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas defeated incumbent Republican President George H. W. Bush, independent businessman Ross Perot of Texas.Bush had alienated many of the conservatives in his party by breaking his 1988 campaign pledge against raising taxes, but he fended off a primary challenge from conservative commentator Pat Buchanan. -
Ross Perot
Henry Ross Perot (born June 27, 1930) is an American business magnate and former politician. As the founder of Electronic Data Systems, he became a billionaire. He ran an independent presidential campaign in 1992 and a third party campaign in 1996, establishing the Reform Party in the latter election. Both campaigns were among the strongest presidential showings by a third party or independent candidate in U.S. history. He became a salesman for IBM after serving in the United States Navy. -
World Trade Center Attack
The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, carried out on February 26, 1993, when a truck bomb detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The 1,336 pounds (606 kg) 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. -
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. The agreement came into force on January 1, 1994. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect, creating one of the world's largest free trade zones and laying the foundations for strong economic growth and rising prosperity.NAFTA boosted trade by eliminating all tariffs between the three countries. -
Defense of Marriage Act
The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is a federal law that denies federal recognition of same-sex marriages and authorizes states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages licensed in other states. The Supreme Court struck down a portion of DOMA last year that barred the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages. But because the rest of the law is still in effect, states that have banned same-sex marriage are not required to recognize legal marriages performed in other states. -
George W. Bush
The United States presidential election of 2000 was the 54th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 7, 2000. Republican candidate George W. Bush, the Governor of Texas and the eldest son of the 41st President George H. W. Bush, narrowly defeated Democratic nominee Al Gore, the incumbent vice president. It was the fourth of five presidential elections in which the winning candidate lost the popular vote. -
SCOTUS Case
Florida Supreme Court reversed and remanded. Bush v. Gore, was a decision of the United States Supreme Court that settled a recount dispute in Florida's 2000 presidential election. On December 9, the Court had halted the Florida recount that was occurring. The ruling was issued on December 12, 2000. The Supreme Court decision allowed the previous vote certification to stand, as made by Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, for George W. Bush as the winner of Florida's 25 electoral votes. -
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. American presidential election held on Nov. 7, 2000, in which Republican George W. Bush narrowly lost the popular vote to Democrat Al Gore but defeated Gore in the electoral college. -
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Contemporary
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9/11
9/11 attacks were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda on the United States on the morning of September 11, 2001. The attacks killed 2,996 people, and injured over 6,000 others. Four passenger airliners operated by two major U.S. passenger air carriers were hijacked by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists. Two of the planes, were crashed into the North and South towers, respectively, of the World Trade Center complex in New York City. -
No Child Left Behind Education Act
The No Child Left Behind Act authorizes several federal education programs that are administered by the states. The law is a re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Under the 2002 law, states are required to test students in reading and math in grades 3–8 and once in high school. President Bush's education-reform bill, was signed into law on Jan. 2002. It is the most sweeping education-reform legislation since 1965, when Lyndon Johnson passed his landmark Education Act. -
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was an extremely destructive and deadly tropical cyclone that is tied with Hurricane Harvey of 2017 as the costliest tropical cyclone on record. As Katrina made landfall, its front right quadrant, which held the strongest winds, slammed into Gulfport, Mississippi, devastating it.The storm originated over the Bahamas on August 23, 2005, from the merger of a tropical wave and the remnants of Tropical Depression Ten. -
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is an American politician who served as the 44th President of the United States from January 20, 2009 to January 20, 2017. The first African American to assume the presidency, he was previously the junior United States Senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008. Before that, he served in the Illinois State Senate from 1997 until 2004. Obama was born in 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii, two years after the territory was admitted to the Union as the 50th state. -
Election of 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 4, 2008. The Democratic ticket of Barack Obama, a Senator from Illinois, and Joe Biden, a Senator from Delaware, defeated the Republican ticket of Senator John McCain of Arizona and Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. Obama became the first African American ever to be elected as president, and Joe Biden became the first Catholic to ever be elected as vice president. -
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), nicknamed the Recovery Act, was a stimulus package enacted by the 111th U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in February 2009. It is an economic stimulus bill created to help the United States economy recover from an economic downturn that began in late 2007. It was created to To preserve and create jobs and promote economic recovery. -
Obamacare
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often shortened to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or nicknamed Obamacare, is a United States federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. The term "Obamacare" was first used by opponents, then reappropriated by supporters, and eventually used by President Obama himself. The ACA's major provisions came into force in 2014.
