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Iran Contra Affair
The Iran-Contra Affair was a secret U.S. government arms deal that freed some American hostages held in Lebanon but also funded armed conflict in Central America. In addition, the controversial dealmaking and the ensuing political scandal threatened to bring down the presidency of Ronald Reagan. President Reagan who secretly supported an anti-Communist group in Nicaragua and funneled weapons to Iranian terrorists in exchange for American hostages. -
Fat Man
The Fat Man was an atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945 and killed about 80,000 Japanese by the end of the 1945. The bomb weight 10,800 lbs, and left 10 ft 8 in with a diameter of 60 in. It was the second of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in warfare, the first being Little Boy, and its detonation marked the third-ever man-made nuclear explosion in history. The name Fat Man refers generically to the early design of the bomb, because it had a wide, round shape. -
Little Boy
The Little Boy was an unsuccessful Thin Man nuclear bomb. The bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and killed 90,000 to 166,000 in the four-month period following the explosion. A gun-type nuclear weapon, Little Boy relied on one mass of uranium-235 hitting another to create a nuclear reaction. As a result, the core component of the bomb was a smooth bore gun barrel through which the uranium projectile would be fired. The final design specified the use of 64 kilograms of uranium-235. -
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1950s
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Period: to
Civil Rights
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Cold War
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Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was also known as the European Recovery Program and channeled over $13 billion to finance the economic recovery of Europe between 1948 and 1951. The Marshall Plan successfully sparked economic recovery, meeting its objective of ‘restoring the confidence of the European people in the economic future of their own countries and of Europe as a whole.’ The plan is named for Secretary of State George C. Marshall, who announced it in his speech at Harvard University on June 5, 1947. -
Truman Doctrine
In a dramatic speech to a joint session of Congress, President Harry S. Truman asks for U.S. assistance for Greece and Turkey to forestall communist domination of the two nations. Historians have often cited Truman's address, which came to be known as the Truman Doctrine, as the official declaration of the Cold War. The Truman Doctrine was an American foreign policy whose stated purpose was to counter Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War. -
Fair Deal
On January 5, 1949, president Harry S. Truman announced in his State of the Union Address, that every american has a right to expect from our government a fair deal. Truman announced his plans for domestic policy reforms including national health insurance, public housing, civil rights legislation and federal aid to education. He advocated an increase in the minimum wage, federal assistance to farmers and an extension of Social Security. -
Korean War
The Korean War began in 1950 when 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People's Army poured across the 38th parallel the boundary between the Soviet-back Democratic People's Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. By July, American troops had entered the war on South Korea’s behalf. As far as American officials were concerned, it was a war against the forces of international communism itself. -
Elvis Presley
Musician and actor Elvis Presley rose to fame in the mid-1950s on the radio, TV and the silver screen and continues to be one of the biggest names in rock 'n' roll. He was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis Presley came from a very humble beginnings and grew up to become one of the biggest names in rock n' roll. By the mid-1950s, he appeared on the radio, television and the silver screen. At age 42, he died of heart failure, which was related to his drug addiction. -
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 education and training provisions existed until 1956, while the Veterans’ Administration offered insured loans until 1962. -
Albert Sabin
Albert Sabin was born on August 26, 1906, in Bialystok, Poland. He was a polish-born physician and virologist who developed the first effective and widely used love virus polio myelitis vaccine. At the end of the war, Sabin returned to Cincinnati and to his research on the polio virus. His approach was to make the human stomach a hostile environment for the polio virus. He intended to accomplish this by isolating a mutant form of the polio virus that was incapable of producing the disease. -
2nd Red Scare
As the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States wrosen in the late 1940s and early 1950s, hysteria over the perceived threat posed by Communists in the U.S. became known as the Red Scare. The Red Scare led to a range of actions that had a profound and enduring effect on U.S. government and society. The climate of fear and repression linked to the Red Scare finally began to ease by the late 1950s. Communist were called "Reds" for their allegiance to the red Soviet flag. -
Little Richard
Richard Wayne was born on December 5, 1932, in Macon, Georgia, Little Richard helped define the early rock ‘n’ roll era of the 1950s with his driving, flamboyant sound. With his croons, wails and screams, he turned songs like “Tutti-Frutti” and “Long Tall Sally” into huge hits and influenced such bands as the Beatles. Known for his flamboyant performances, Little Richard's hit songs from the mid-1950s were defining moments in the development of rock ‘n’ roll. -
Polio Vaccine
On March 26, 1953, American medical researcher Dr. Jonas Salk announces on a national radio show that he was successfully tested a vaccine against poliomyelitis, the virus that causes the crippling disease of polio. This disease had killed more than 3,000 people and about 58,000 new cases had been reported to the United States. Polio, a disease that has affected humanity throughout recorded history, attacks the nervous system and can cause varying degrees of paralysis. -
Domino Theory
The domino theory was a Cold War policy that suggested a communist government in one nation would quickly lead to communist takeovers in neighboring states, each falling like a perfectly aligned row of dominos. In Southeast Asia, the U.S. government used the now-discredited domino theory to justify its involvement in the Vietnam War and its support for a non-communist dictator in South Vietnam. With the exception of Laos and Cambodia, communism failed to spread throughout Southeast Asia. -
Bill Haley and the Comets
In 1954 bandleader Bill Haley and His Comets recorded “Rock Around the Clock,” a rock and roll anthem that stayed at Number One for eight weeks and sold an estimated twenty-five million copies worldwide. In 1954 bandleader Bill Haley and His Comets recorded “Rock Around the Clock,” a rock and roll anthem that stayed at Number One for eight weeks and sold an estimated twenty-five million copies worldwide. Haley has been called “the father of rock and roll” and “rock ‘n’ roll’s first star.” -
Brown v. Board of Education
The Brown v. Board of Education case was a landmark 1954 Supreme court case in which the justice ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. This was one of the cornerstones of the civil rights movement, and helped establish the precedent that "separate but equal" education and other services were NOT equal what so ever. -
Vietnam War
A long, costly and divisive conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. The conflict was intensified by the ongoing Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union. More than 3 million people were killed in the Vietnam War, and more than half of the dead were Vietnamese civilians. Opposition to the war in the US bitterly divided Americans, even after President Nixon ordered the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1973. -
Emmett Till Tragedy
While visiting family in Money, Mississippi, Emmett Till, an African American from Chicago, is brutally murdered for allegedly 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. -
Malcolm X
Malcolm X, was a minister, human rights activist and prominent black nationalist leader who served as a spokesman for the Nation of Islam during the 1950s and 1960s. Due largely to his efforts, the Nation of Islam grew from a mere 400 members at the time he was released from prison in 1952 to 40,000 members by 1960. Articulate, passionate and a naturally gifted and inspirational orator, Malcolm X exhorted blacks to cast off the shackles of racism "by any means necessary," including violence. -
Dr. Jonas Salk
Jonas Salk was an American physician and medical researcher who developed the first and effective vaccine for polio. In 1947, he became head of the Virus Research Lab at the University of Pittsburgh where he began his research on polio. On April 12, 1955, the vaccine was released for use in the United States and later established the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in 1963. Jonas Salk died in 1995. -
Television in the 1950s
One of the most popular products in the 1950s was the TV. At the start of the decade, there were about 3 million TV owners; by the end of it, there were 55 million, watching shows from 530 stations. By 1960, the televised debates between candidates Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy were considered a crucial element in Kennedy’s narrow victory. TV also helped make professional and college sports big businesses, and sometimes provided excellent comedy and dramatic shows to vast audiences. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a civil-rights protest during which African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating. The boycott took place from December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956, and is regarded as the first large-scale U.S. demonstration against segregation. Four days before the boycott began, Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, was arrested and fined for refusing to yield her bus seat to a white man. -
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks was a civil rights activist who refused to give up her seat in a bus to a white passenger. Thus spurned the Montgomery boycott and other efforts to end segregation. The city of Montgomery had no choice but to lift the law requiring segregation on public buses. Rosa Parks received many accolades during her lifetime, including the NAACP's highest award. The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted 381 days and helped launch nationwide efforts to end segregation in public facilities. -
Little Rock 9
The Little Rock 9 were a group of nine black students who enrolled at formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September 1957. Their attendance at the school was a test of Brown v. Board of Education, a landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional. 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. -
Cesar Chavez
Cesar Chavez employed nonviolent means to bring attention to the plight of farm workers, and formed both the National Farm Workers Association, which later became United Farm Workers. As a labor leader, Chavez led marches, called for boycotts and went on several hunger strikes. It is believed that Chavez's hunger strikes contributed to his death on April 23, 1993, in San Luis, Arizona. -
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev was who led the Soviet Union during the Cold War, serving as premier from the 1958 to 1964. Though he largely pursued a policy of peaceful coexistence with the West, he instigated the Cuban Missile Crisis by placing nuclear weapons 90 miles from Florida. At home, he initiated a process of “de-Stalinization” that made Soviet society less repressive. Known for his colorful speeches, he once took off and brandished his shoe at the United Nations. -
OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries)
OPEC is a permanent, intergovernmental Organization, created at the Baghdad Conference on September, 1960, by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. OPEC's objective is to co-ordinate and unify petroleum policies among Member Countries, in order to secure fair and stable prices for petroleum producers; an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consuming nations; and a fair return on capital to those investing in the industry. -
New Frontier
The term New Frontier was used by liberal Democratic president 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 american to support him. JFK followed FDR's New Deal but he named his New Frontier instead and brought new things for the United States of America. -
George Wallace
George C. Wallace was a four-time governor of Alabama and three-time presidential hopeful. He is best remembered for his 1960s segregationist politics. After law school and military service, he embarked on a career as a judge and local politician. He served four terms as Alabama governor in the 1960s and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. presidency three times. Despite his later efforts to revise his public image, Wallace is remembered for his strong support of racial segregation in the '60s. -
Period: to
1960s
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Freedom Riders
Freedom Riders were groups of white and African American civil rights activists who participated in Freedom Rides, bus trips through the American South in 1961 to protest segregated bus terminals. They tried to use “whites-only” restrooms and lunch counters at bus stations in Alabama and other Southern states. The groups were confronted by arresting police officers as well as horrific violence from white protesters along their routes, but also drew international attention to their cause. -
Assassination of JFK
On November 22, 1962, John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States was assassinated while traveling through Dallas, Texas, in an open-top convertible. First lady Jacqueline Kenned was beside him, along with Texas Governor John Connally and his wife in the streets of downtown Dallas. As their vehicle passed the Texas School Book Depository Building, Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots from the sixth floor, fatally wounding President Kennedy and seriously injuring Governor Connally. -
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald was a former U.S. Marine who was accused of killing President John F. Kennedy. While in police custody, Oswald was murdered by Jack Ruby. 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. Before the assassination of JFK, Oswald was in the U.S. Marines but later defected to the Soviet Union for a period. -
Anti-War Movement
An anti-war movement is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. The antiwar movement did not begin in earnest until nearly two years later, when President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered massive U.S. military intervention. -
Warren Commission
A week after JFK was assassinated, LBJ established a comision to investigate Kennedy's death. After a nearly investigation, the commission, led by Chief Justice Earl Warren concluded that alleged gunman Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in assassinating American's 35th president. Despite its seemingly firm conclusions, the report proved controversial and failed to silence conspiracy theories surrounding the event. -
Barry Goldwater
Barry Goldwater was an American politician best known as a senator from Arizona and the Republican candidate for president in 1964. He served in the senate for 30 years, gaining recognition for his fiscal conservatism. Goldwater lost the 1964 campaign for the presidency to Lyndon B. Johnson in unprecedented landslide. He died in Paradise Valley, Arizona, on May 29, 1998. As the United States entered World War II, Goldwater made an unsuccessful attempt to obtain a combat flight assignment. -
Jack Ruby
Jack Ruby was a 52-year-old Dallas nightclub operator who shot Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy to death. On November 24, as the suspect was being transferred from the city jail to the county jail, Ruby stepped out of a crowd of onlookers and gunned down the younger man. The event was witnessed by millions of Americans on live television. Ruby, a Chicago native with a shadowy past, was convicted of murder in 1964. -
The New Right
The New Right was a combination of Christian religious leaders, conservative business bigwigs who claimed that environmental and labor regulations were undermining the competitiveness of American firms in the global market, and fringe political groups. When foreign competition made inroads against American corporations in the 1970s, many people began to believe Goldwater had been right. Big business wielded its financial resources as a backbone of the New Right Movement -
Daisy Girl Ad
"Daisy," sometimes known as "Daisy Girl" or "Peace, Little Girl," was a controversial political advertisement aired on television during the 1964 United States presidential election by incumbent president Lyndon B. Johnson's campaign. Though only aired onc, it is considered to be an important factor in Johnson's landslide victory over Barry Goldwater and an important turning point in political and advertising history. It remains one of the most controversial political advertisements ever made. -
Great Society
A domestic program in the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson that instituted federally sponsored social welfare programs. 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. The Great Society in scope and sweep resembled the New Deal domestic agenda of Franklin D. Roosevelt. -
Watts Riots
The Watts Riots, also known as the Watts Rebellion, was a large series of riots that broke out August 11, 1965, in the predominantly black neighborhood of Watts in Los Angeles. The Watts Riots lasted for six days, resulting in 34 deaths, 1,032 injuries and 4,000 arrests, involving 34,000 people and ending in the destruction of 1,000 buildings, totaling $40 million in damages. A crowd began to gather, and back-up police arrived under the assumption that the crowd was hostile. -
Warren Burger Supreme Court
In 1969, President Richard Nixon named Warren Burger chief justice of the Supreme Court. He didn't fulfill Nixon's desire to reverse Warren Court decisions (1953-1969). Burger's court upheld the 1966 Miranda decision, and Burger voted with the majority in the court's landmark 1973 decision, Roe v. Wade, establishing women's constitutional right to have abortions. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1988. -
Earl Warren Supreme Court
Earl Warren was a prominent 20th century leader of American politics and law. Elected California governor in 1942, Warren secured major reform legislation during his three terms in office. After failing to claim the Republican nomination for the presidency, he was appointed the 14th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1953. The landmark case of his tenure was Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, in which the Court unanimously determined the segregation of schools to be unconstitutional. -
Environmental Protection Agency
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 human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress. Was established in December 1970 under United States President Richard Nixon. The EPA is an agency of the United States federal government whose mission is to protect human and environmental health. -
Period: to
1970s
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Ike Turner
Ike tuner was an R&B legend born on November 5, 1931, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and grew up playing the blues. He married Tina Turner and together they became Ike & Tina Turner Revue and created several R&B hits. The couple earned their first and only Grammy Award in 1971. Their last hi together was "Nutbush City Limits" which was written by Tina. Turner died of cocaine overdose on December 12, 2007, in San Marcos, California. -
Equal Rights Amendment
On March 22, 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment is passed by the U.S. Senate and sent to the states for ratification.First proposed by the National Woman’s political party in 1923, the Equal Rights Amendment was to provide for the legal equality of the sexes and prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex. More than four decades later, the revival of feminism in the late 1960s spurred its introduction into Congress. Under the leadership of U.S. -
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. Provides for the conservation of species that are endangered or threatened throughout all or a significant portion of their range, and the conservation of the ecosystems on which they depend. -
Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade was a landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that established a woman’s legal right to an abortion.The Court ruled, in a 7-2 decision, that a woman’s right to choose an abortion was protected by the privacy rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The legal precedent for the decision was rooted in the 1965 case of Griswold v. Connecticut, which established the right to privacy involving medical procedures. -
Federal Election Commission
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is an independent regulatory agency created by Congress in 1975 to administer and enforce the Federal Elections Campaign Act. The FEC is responsible for disclosing campaign finance information, enforcing limits and prohibitions on contributions, and the overseeing the public funding of presidential elections. The commission is led by six members. The six members are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate -
Iran Hostage Crisis
In 1979, a group of Iranian student stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking more that 60 American Hostages. The immediate cause of this action was President Jimmy Carter's decision to allow Iran's deposed Shah, a pro-Western autocrat who had been expelled from his country some months before, to come to the United States for cancer treatment. -
Three-Mile Island
Three Mile Island is the sire of nuclear power plant in south central Pennsylvania. In March 1979, a series of mechanical and human errors at the plant caused the worst commercial nuclear accident in U.S. history, resulting in a partial meltdown that released dangerous radioactive gasses into the atmosphere. Three Mile Island stoked public fears about nuclear power no new nuclear power plant have been built in the United States since the accident. -
Election of 1980
The Election of 1980 was held on November 4, where the 49th presidential election, Senate elections, and House of Representatives elections took place. The election was between Republican former Ronald Reagan and Democratic Jimmy Carter. Ronald Reagan defeated Carter in a landslide and the Republican gained control of the Senate for the first time in 28 years and increased their numbers in the House. The Republicans also gained four seats in governors' races. -
Period: to
1980s
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Music Television (MTV)
In 1981, MTV: Music Television goes on the air for the first time ever, with the words: “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll.” The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” was the first music video to air on the new cable television channel, which initially was available only to households in parts of New Jersey. MTV went on to revolutionize the music industry and become an influential source of pop culture and entertainment in the United States and other parts of the world. -
Space Shuttle Program
Space Shuttle Columbia was the first space-rated orbiter in NASA's Space Shuttle fleet. It launched for the first time on mission STS-1 on April 12, 1981, the first flight of the Space Shuttle program. Over 22 years of service it completed 27 missions before disintegrating during re-entry near the end of its 28th mission, STS-107 on February 1, 2003, resulting in the deaths of all seven crew members. -
Sandra Day O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor was the first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. A Republican, she was considered a moderate conservative and served for 24 years. Sandra Day O'Connor was elected to two terms in the Arizona state senate. In 1981 Ronald Reagan nominated her to the U.S. Supreme Court. She received unanimous Senate approval, and made history as the first woman justice to serve on the nation's highest court. She retired in 2006 after serving for 24 years. -
A.I.D.S. Crisis
In the 1980s, the virus was little understood. Scientists were yet to pin-point why swathes of otherwise healthy people were dying from rare conditions. Misinformation and homophobia were rife. AIDs was labelled the “gay plague”, suggesting that it was spread among men who had sex with men. For a period of 6 months in 1982, the condition was mistakenly labelled “Gay Related Immune Deficiency”. In total, 35 million people have died of AIDs worldwide since the 1980s, including millions in Africa. -
Reagonomics
Economists disagreed over the achievements of reagono. Tax cuts plus increased military spending would cost the federal government trillions of dollars. Reagan advocated paying for these expenses by slashing government programs. In the end, the Congress approved his tax and defense plans, but refused to make any deep cuts to the welfare state. Even Reagan himself was squeamish about attacking popular programs like Social Security and medicare. -
Reagan Doctrine
President Ronald Reagan defines some of the key concepts of his foreign policy, establishing what comes to be known as the "Reagan Doctrine." The doctrine served as the foundation for the Reagan administration's support of "freedom fighters' around the globe. Reagan began his foreign policy comments with the dramatic pronouncement that, “Freedom is not the sole prerogative of a chosen few; it is the universal right of all God’s children.” -
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan, a former actor and California governor, served as the 40th U.S. president from 1981 to 1989. He was raised in a small-town Illinois and 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. -
Challenger Explosion
The 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, which had been designed to separate the sections of the rocket booster, had failed due to cold temperatures on the morning of the launch. -
Fall of Berlin Wall
On August 13, 1961, the Communist government of the German Democratic Republic began to build a barbed wire and concrete “Antifascistischer Schutzwall,” or “antifascist bulwark,” between East and West Berlin. The official purpose of this Berlin Wall was to keep Western “fascists” from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state, but it primarily served the objective of stemming mass defections from East to West. This was the defining symbol of the Cold War. -
George H.W. Bush
George H.W. Bush was the 41st president of the United States. He first served as vice president under Ronald Reagan and he was the father of George W. Bush, the 43rd president. Bush was born on June 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts. He fought in the World War two and was elected the U.S. House of Representatives in 1966. After being VP for two terms, he won the 1988 U.S. presidential race, before losing his big for a second term to Bill Clinton. -
Black Entertainment Television (BET)
Black Entertainment Television (BET) is a Viacom–owned cable network based in Washington, D.C. The cable channel is viewed in more than 90 million homes worldwide. As of 2010 it was the most prominent television network targeting young black-American audiences and was the leading provider of black American cultural and entertainment based programming. The network first aired on January 25, 1980. Founder, Robert L. Johnson, was a former lobbyist for the cable television industry in the 1970s. -
Period: to
1990s
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Rodney King Incident
Born in Sacramento, California, on April 2, 1965, Rodney King was caught by the Los Angeles police after a high-speed chase on March 3, 1991. The officers pulled him out of the car and beat him brutally, while amateur cameraman George Holliday caught it all on videotape. The four L.A.P.D. officers involved were indicted on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and excessive use of force by a police officer. -
Election of 1992
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. Bush had alienated much of his conservative base by breaking his 1988 campaign pledge against raising taxes, the economy was in a recession, and Bush's perceived greatest strength, foreign policy, was regarded as much less important following the collapse of the Soviet Union. -
Health Care Reform
The Clinton health care plan, was a 1993 healthcare reform package proposed by the administration of President Bill Clinton and closely associated with the chair of the task force devising the plan, Hillary Clinton. It was created in January 1993, but its own processes were somewhat controversial and drew litigation. Its goal was to come up with a comprehensive plan to provide universal health care for all Americans, which was to be a cornerstone of the administration's first-term agenda. -
Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)
The Defense of Marriage Act is a law that, among other things, prohibited married same-sex couples from collection federal benefits. The Baehr v. Lewin court case concluded in 1993 mobilized opponents of same-sex marriages, who feared that gay marriage would soon be legal in Hawaii. In late 1999, the Hawaiian Supreme Court determined that this new ban was effective and refused to recognize same-sex marriages in the state. -
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. It was one of the worst terrorist attacks ever to occur on U.S. soil, until eventually be overshadowed by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when Al Qaeda operatives crashed hijacked airplanes into the towers and brought them down. -
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
The North American Free Trade Agreement was made up on January 1994, after the US Canada Trade Agreement which was made up in 1991. Tariffs were eliminated progressively and all duties and quantitative restrictions, with the exception of those on a limited number of agricultural products traded with Canada, were eliminated by 2008. NAFTA also includes chapters covering rules of origin, customs procedures, agriculture and sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and government procurement. -
Lewinsky Affair
The Monica Lewinsky scandal took place in the late 1990s, when America was rocked by a political sex scandal between President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, an intern at the White House in her early 20s. They began to have sexual relationships in 1995 which continued for about two years. The news was out to the public about the affair in the 1998, and Clinton denied the relationship. Clinton was later impeached by the House of Representatives for perjury and obstruction of justice. -
Oprah Winfrey
Billionaire media giant and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey is best known for hosting her own internationally popular talk show from 1986 to 2011. From there, she launched her own television network, OWN. She was born in the town of Kosciusko, Mississippi on January 29, 1954. Winfrey moved to Baltimore in 1976 where she hosted a television chat show, People Are Talking. She was later recruited to have her own morning show by a Chicago TV station. -
Election of 2000
The United States presidential election of 2000 was between Republican candidate George W. Bush, governor of Texas and son of former president George H.W. Bush, and Democratic candidate Al Gore, then-Vice President. Bill Clinton, the incumbent President, was vacating the position after serving the maximum two terms allowed by the Twenty-second Amendment. Bush narrowly won the November 7 election, with 271 electoral votes to Gore's 266. Bush was the winner of this election. -
Period: to
Contemporary
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PATRIOT Act
President George W. Bush signs the Patriot Act, an anti-terrorism law drawn up in response to the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The USA PATRIOT Act, as it is officially known, is an acronym for “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism.” Bush hoped the bipartisan legislation would empower law enforcement and intelligence agencies to prevent future terrorist attacks on American soil. -
9/11 Attack
On September 11, 2001, 19 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four planes and carried out suicide attacks against the United States. Two of the planes were hit into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in NYC, a third plane hit the Pentagon, and the fourth plane crash in a field in Pennsylvania of a nose dive from the pilot. Almost 3,000 people were killed during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which triggered major U.S. initiatives to combat terrorism. -
Hurricane Katrina Disaster
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States. Once the storm hit landfall, the hurricane was a Category 3 rating of the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale-it. There was massive flooding, and many people charged that the federal government was slow to meet the needs of the people affected by the storm. Hundreds of thousands of people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama were displaced from their homes, Katrina caused more than $100 billion in damage. -
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. It is the most sweeping education-reform legislation since 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson passed his landmark Elementary and Secondary Education Act. -
The Great Recession
The Great Recession was a global economic downturn that devastated world financial markets as well as the banking and real estate industries. The crisis led to increases in home mortgage foreclosures worldwide and caused millions of people to lose their life savings, their jobs and their homes. It’s generally considered to be the longest period of economic decline since the Great Depression of the 1930s. -
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. 2. Joe Biden is the first Roman Catholic ever to serve as vice president. The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 4, 2008. Obama became the first African American ever to be elected as president. -
Sonia Sotomayor
Nominated by President Barack Obama on May 26, 2009, Sonia Sotomayor became the first Latina Supreme Court Justice in U.S. history. 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. -
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was nicknamed the Recovery Act and was a stimulus package enacted by the 111th U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama. This was developed in a response to the Great Recession, the ARRA's primary objective was to save existing jobs and create new ones as soon as possible. Other objectives were to provide temporary relief programs for those affected by the recession and invest in infrastructure, education, and health. -
Affordable Care Act (ACA) "Obamacare"
The Affordable Care Act or ACA, and also known as Obamacare is the landmark health reform legislation passed by the 111th Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in March 2010. The legislation includes a long list of health-related provisions that began taking effect in 2010. Key provisions are intended to extend coverage to millions of uninsured Americans, to implement measures that will lower health care costs and improve system efficiency.
