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Berlin Wall
During the cold war Germany was split into four different zones. The east side was ruled by the soviet union and was a communist government. The west side on the other hand was ruled by the united states, great Brittan and France and was democratic. The same thing happened to Germanys capital Berlin. Berlin was now split into east Berlin and west Berlin. As the feud between the democratic and communist government grew, the citizens of east Berlin were fleeing to west Berlin. This was making -
Berlin Wall part 3
wire fence, but it was quickly replaced with a sturdier, more permanent wall made out of concrete blocks, topped with barbed wire. In 1965 it grew to be a concrete wall supported by steel girders. Throughout 1975-1980 the fourth version of the wall was built. This included concrete slabs reaching nearly 12-feet high and 4-feet wide, plus it had a smooth pipe running across the top so that people wouldn’t be able to grip it to scale the wall. Also was a 300 ft no mans land, soldiers patrolling -
Berlin Wall part 2
east Berlins economy weaken, so the soviets decided to create a wall down the border splitting the east and west to try to stop people from fleeing. This wall was known as the Berlin wall. It stretched over 100 miles long and wrapped around all of west Germany so no one could escape. When it went up anything in its way was torn down and families were split apart. As people still found ways to escape the east made the wall harder to get across in many ways. The wall started out as just a barbed -
Berlin Wall part 4
with dogs, a mine field, watchtowers, bunkers, electric fences, light systems, a raked ground that showed footprints, a trench to stop vehicles, and even another inner wall. Many people tried to escape even though they could be killed. It is estimated that 5,000 people made it to west Berlin. Around 100 or 200 people were not so lucky though. East Germany was weakening rapidly, and on November 9th, 1989 they announced the end of the Berlin wall. On October 3rd, 1990 Germany became one state. -
War on Poverty
Kennedy saw a rising rate in poverty in the USA. He wanted to take a chunk out of it, but before he could get and of his ideas developed and set to motion he was assassinated on November 22 by a man named Lee Harvey Oswald. A new president came to power, Lyndon Johnson, and he had the same drive as Kennedy did. He wanted to put poverty to an end. He created the Economic Opportunity Act in 1964 which focused on the education of all adults who did not go to college or have any secondary education -
War on Poverty part 2
He wanted to raise the number of adult literacy. To accomplish this the Office of Economic Opportunity gave grants to adults so they could get a better education. -
The Vietnam War part 3
and president Nixon beat him. Nixon immediately began taking his troops out of Vietnam and began bombing the north to try to get them to negotiate a peace treaty. In January 1973 everyone involved in the war agree to a peace treaty and the American soldiers came home. Later the north overthrew the south and took control in 1975. American suffered 58,000 casualties and 303,000 wounded. -
The Vietnam War part 2
boats. Johnson fought back with bombings. The next day U.S. combat troops arrived in Vietnam. The war has begun. In 1967 there were about 500,000 American soldiers in Vietnam. The war was very costly and Johnson found himself having to cut back on his funding for his society programs, loosing the support of many Americans. As the war continued on in 1968 Vietcong attacked the south , and soon the U.S. said that Vietcong had been defeated. Johnsons popularity fell as the election was approaching -
The Vietnam War
The communist ruler in Vietnam was Ho Chi Minh at the end of WW II. There was an election to be held to reunite the nation, but before it could happen the Prime Minister Ngo Dinh declared himself the ruler and the U.S. supported him because they feared Ho becoming the ruler and Vietnam falling to communism. But as he was a harsh leader, the military in the south with help from the U.S. overthrew him. Following this there was an attack on American destroyers in 1964 by north Vietnamese torpedo -
The Civil Rights Act
African Americans had faced a long history of discrimination that dates all the way back to when America first became a nation. African Americans finally had enough of being pushed around and walked all over, so they decided to fight for their rights. In the 1950s social changes started to be made. The beginning of this was the Brown vs. The Board of Education case. This case declared that schools were going to have to be desegregated. The previous "separate but equal" saying that was decided in -
Civil Rights Act part 2
the Plessy vs. Ferguson case was declared unconstitutional and was overruled. Many schools refused to allow African American students into their schools still. An example of this was the little rock 9 in Little Rock Arkansas. Eventually the government sent in the national guard to force the school to let the students in. African Americans gained more rights after buses were desegregated due to the Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama. It all started when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a -
Civil Rights Act part 3
white man and she got throw in jail. African Americans, lead by Martin Luther King Jr., refused to ride public buses for over a year which severely hurt the business. Eventually buses were forced to be desegregated. They would also preform sit ins at cafes and freedom rides. The final blow to segregation was the March on Washington in 1963 when more than 250,000 people supported the civil rights act to be passed. After president Kennedy was assassinated, Johnson got the civil rights act passed. -
Medicare and Medicaid
Medicare and Medicaid became a law when president Lyndon Johnson signed it on July 30th, 1965. The former president Harry Truman fought for these two years earlier, and when Johnson decided to sign off on it he met with the Truman family and did it with them. Medicare was a basic program of hospital insurance for people the age of 65 and older. This helped them pay their medical bills. This money came from a tax on what people earned and contributions by employers. Medicaid was a program to -
Medicare and Medicaid part 2
provide aid to low income women, children, elderly people and disabled people. It helps pay for expensive medical or medical related bills that these people would struggle with paying. Both of these health programs helped out millions of Americans and helped boost the Economy. -
The first man on the moon part 2
interested in space. Science classes became more common and the government gave a lot more funding to improve technologies to explore space more. This helped the economic growth. -
First man on the moon
The soviet union had successfully had sent a person into orbit around the Earth in the great space race president Kennedy became restless to get a man on the moon. This has never been accomplished before and it would defiantly show the soviets who's more powerful. Kennedy also wanted to be able to bring this man back to earth within 10 years. Finally this was accomplished on July 20, 1969 when Neil Armstrong took his first step on the moon. For years to come society became increasingly -
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock was a festival in 1969 that went from August 15th-18th. This was a festival for rock musicians in New York. The founders of this, John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfeld, and Mike Lang, wanted a way to pay for a studio. They immediately began to work on the festival. They sold tickets ($7 for one day, $13 for two days, and $18 for three days) and began organizing food, musicians, and hiring security.Things didn’t go so smoothly though, there first problem arose when they couldn’t -
The Woodstock festival part 3
booths didn’t get finished in time, so around 50,000 people camped out in the area. Because there was no way to get these people to buy tickets the festival became free. Upon hearing this over 1,000,000 people headed to New York. Only 500,000 people actually made it. The music started on time and tons of rock artists got to preform, and in the end there were about 25,000 people left at the festival. This became the most popular music event in history. -
The Woodstock festival part 2
find a location, because nobody wanted a bunch of hippies in their town. Laws were passed against the festival declaring that it couldn’t be held in their vicinity. About a month and a half before the festival was supposed to begin, and new location had to be found. Luckily a farmer gave up his 600 acre land in Bethel, New York to the festival and they immediately began building the stage, a performers' pavilion, parking lots, concession stands, and a children's playground. Gates and ticket -
New Federalism
This was a plan put to action by the Nixon administration that’s purpose was to transfer some powers previously held by the federal government back to the state level. When president Roosevelt Franklin created his new deal it took some of the power away from the state, so this idea of new federalism will help the states regain some authority. -
Earth Day
As American was becoming more modern they were paying little attention to the harmful effects of some of the things they do. Nobody thought twice about how much pollution was being put into the air by all of the factories. Gaylord Nelson, a US senator from Wisconsin, had the idea to raise awareness for the environment after the oil spill in Santa Barbra, California in 1969. As a result, on the 22nd of April, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to form rallies to help -
Earth Day part 2
form rallies to help support the protection of the environment. College students and universities held protests against the deterioration of the environment, while groups that had been fighting for similar things realized they had a lot in common with this cause and decided to join in. Earth day soon gained political support, and led to the creation of the Environmental protection agency, and to the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. -
Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA )
The EPA was created in 1970 to ensure environmental protection in a time when people started to become concerned with environmental pollution. Since it has been created its main goal is to create a healthier, cleaner environment. They get involved in a variety of federal research, monitoring, standard-setting and enforcement activities to ensure protection to the world around us. This was the start of Americans being conscious of our actions and the effects they have on the environment. -
Gender Equality
Women have come a long way since the birth of our nation. They gained many rights like the right to vote and to own their own property. They could even have some of the same jobs as the men, but when it came to the workplace and politics, women still needed to gain more equality. Women formed many groups and they include the National Women's Political Caucus (1971), the Equal Rights Amendment Ratification Council (1973)and the Coalition of Labor Union Women (1973). All of these groups had one -
Gender Equality part 2
main goal, to get the Equal rights Amendment ratified into the constitution. It was approved the by the house of representatives and the senate, but ratification fell three states short of the 38 needed. Despite this women started to feel equality in politics and in the workplace. Feminism was growing all around the world which changed women's roles in society. -
The Watergate Scandal
Nixon was running for president again and he campaign crew were willing to do anything it took to keep him in power. They hired 5 men to raid the democratic party and copy files and place taps on phones, but they got caught. All sources tried to cover up the link to the White House. After Nixon got re-elected people slowly started to find out about the scandal when someone said the White House was involved. They found out about the tapes Nixon possessed, but he wouldn’t give them all up. He kept -
The Watergate Scandal part 2
the more important ones. Three days later a house representative voted to impeach Nixon. When the rest of the tapes were released, everyone knew Nixon knew about the scandal, and he decided to resign, but he didn’t admit to the crime. This proved that nobody was higher up than the government. -
Supply Side Economics
Supply side economics is a theory that focuses on influencing the amount of labor and goods as the path the economic success, rather than trying to fix the issue through the gross national product. In 1980 president Ronald Regan tried this theory for the first time, and it succeeded with a 12 year economic growth. This was the longest unbroken growth in American history and had an average GNP rate of 3.2 percent. Twenty one million jobs were created and the government revenues even grew. -
The Nuclear Freeze Movement
The nuclear freeze movement was formed in 1980 under the organizational leadership of the American Friends Service Committee, Fellowship of Reconciliation, and Clergy and Laity Concerned. This created a mutual freeze on nuclear weapons and their delivery systems that been proposed by President Lyndon Johnson's administration. By September 1983, 156 national and international organizations had endorsed the idea to have the nuclear freeze. Reagan carried it through and nuclear weapons were banned -
The Nuclear Freeze Movement part 2
from the war. Reagan went to the Soviet leader and proposed the freeze and treaties were made to ban certain nuclear weapons. -
The Reagan Doctrine part 2
Sandinista government and forced the Soviets to withdraw from Afghanistan, but other said that he only prolonged bloody wars in the U.S. -
The Reagan Doctrine
The Reagan doctrine served as the foundation for the Reagan administration's support of "freedom fighters" around the world. It was set into action on February 6, 1985. These freedom fighters were countries that wanted to create a Democracy. Regan would stand by them and support them with military assistance. They first supported the Contras in their attacks on the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua, then Afghan rebels in their fight against the soviets. He declared that it weakened the -
Intermediate-Range Nuclear
This was an agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union that eliminated nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with intermediate ranges from the war. Following this weapons began to be immediately destroyed, and both nations under the treaty were allowed to inspect the other nations military installation. This treaty was important because it took away the fear of a nuclear attack and took out some of the most dangerous weapons in the world. -
George H.W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st President of the United States in 1989. Before he became president he served two terms as the representative to congress from Texas. He tried to run for senate twice, but failed both times. After this he was appointed to many high level positions that include the following: Ambassador to the United Nations, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in the peoples republic of China, and Director of the -
George H.W. Bush
Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ). In 1980 Bush ran for the Republican nomination for president but lost, so Ronald Regan chose him as his running mate. Bush became the vice president. Then in 1988 Bush won the republican nomination and won the election. As president he succeeded in the military, but made the economy weak and only made it worse by high spending. He did not get reelected in 1992. -
The Persian Gulf War
Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi leader, was trying to overtake Kuwait in 1990. Some of the other Arab powers Saudi Arabia and Egypt called upon the United States and other Western nations in the UN security council for help on stopping them. The UN told Saddam to withdraw from Kuwait in 1991, but he ignored them. After this the Persian Gulf War began with operation Desert Storm lead by the US air force. 42 brutal days went by and the fighting continued until finally president George H.W. Bush -
The Persian Gulf War part 2
declared a cease fire on February 28, even though most of the Iraq forces either already surrendered or fled. Conflict between the US and Iraq still continued though and this lead to the second gulf war also know as the Iraq War that began in 2003. -
9/11
This was a terrorist attack on the US by the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda. They got ahold of 4 airliners and committed suicidal acts on different targets in the US. Two of these airliners were flown into the twin towers of the world trade center in New York making the buildings go up in flames and collapse. Another one of the planes was flown into the pentagon just outside Washington D.C. The last plane didn’t do as much damage because it was flown into a field in Pennsylvania. Over 3,000 -
9/11 part 2
people were killed from these attacks, including over 400 police officers and firefighters. This was one of the most fateful days in America. Today there is a memorial of two waterfalls with the names of those lost around the borders placed where each of the towers were before they went down. 9/11 made Americans more aware of terrorist attacks and more determined to prevent them. -
Barack Obama
Barack Obama is the 44th and current president of the United States. He was the first African American to become president and by doing this broke another barrier for the African Americans. He was voted president on November 4, 2008 and was sworn in on January 20, 2009. In the Illinois state senate he passed the first major ethics reform in 25 years, cut taxes for working families, and expanded health care for children and their parents. As the United States senator he passed lobbying reform, -
Barack Obama part 2
locked up some of the most dangerous weapons in America, and he even put federal spending online for the world to see so the government was more open. He was reelected this year in 2013 and continues leading the U.S.
