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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 Ottoman Empire lost the bulk of its territory in Europe. Austria-Hungary, although not a combatant, became relatively weaker as a much enlarged Serbia pushed for union of the South Slavic peoples. -
Robert Johnson
Robert 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 many legends. One myth says that he sold his soul to the devil at a local crossroads of Mississippi highways to achieve high success. -
G.I. Bill
The Serviceman's Readjustment Act, also known as the G.I. Bill was a law that provided a range of benefits for returning World War II veterans. It was designed by the American Legion, who helped push it through Congress by mobilizing its chapters (along with the Veterans of Foreign War); the goal was to provide immediate rewards for practically all World War II veterans. -
Hiroshima
Hiroshima was a supply and logistics base for the Japanese military, making it a primary target. On August 6th, 1945, an American B-29 bomber dropped the world's first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90% of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people, killing tens of thousands of people. After the first bombing and the second on Nagasaki, Japan's Emperor Hirohito announced unconditional surrender, citing the devastation as the most cruel. -
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Cold War
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Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was an American foreign policy whose stated purpose was to counter Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War. President Truman pledged to contain threats to Greece and Turkey. Direct American military force was usually not involved, but Congress appropriated financial aid to support the economies and militaries of Greece and Turkey. The Truman Doctrine implied American support for other nations allegedly threatened by Soviet Communism -
Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Airlift was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post-World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control. The Soviets offered to drop the blockade if the Western Allies withdrew the newly introduced Deutsche mark from West Berlin. -
Hydrogen Bomb
A thermonuclear weapon is a second-generation nuclear weapon design using a secondary nuclear fusion stage consisting of implosion tamper, fusion fuel, and spark plug which is bombarded by the energy released by the detonation of a primary fission bomb within, compressing the fuel material and causing a fusion reaction. The result is greatly increased explosive power when compared to single stage fission weapons. The device is called the H-Bomb because it emplys the fusion of hydrogen. -
The Fair Deal
The Fair Deal was a set of ambitious set of proposals put forward by U.S. President Harry Truman to Congress in his 1949 State of the Union address. More generally the term characterizes the entire domestic agenda of the Truman administration. It offered new proposals to continue New Deal liberalism, but with the Conservative Coalition controlling Congress, only a few of its major initiatives became law and then only if they had considerable GOP support. -
1950s TV
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. Like the radio before it, the spread of the TV has a huge cultural impact. Beginning with the 1948 campaign, it made itself felt in U.S. politics. One wonderful effect was that it made speeches shorter. Politicans and commentators alike began to think and speak in "sound bites" that fit the medium. -
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The 1950s
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Korean War
The Korean War was a war between North Korea and South Korea. The war when North Korea invaded South Korea following a series of clashes along the border. The United Nations, with the United States as the principal force, came to the aid of South Korea. China came to the aid of North Korea, and the Soviet Union also gave some assistance to North Korea. As a result of the war, the division of the sovereign states of North Korea and South Korea were established. -
Bill Haley & The Comets
Bill Haley & His Comets were an American rock and roll band, founded in 1952 until Haley's death in 1981. The group placed nine singles in the Top 20, one of those a number one and three more in the Top 10. Bandleader Bill Haley had previously been a country singer until he changed music direction to a new sound which came to be called rock and roll. Bill Haley became the most famous of the group, many fans consider them to be as revolutionary as the Beatles during their time. -
1950s News
In the 1950s, TV was almost a necessity in most American households, famous networks even to this date started to appear, such as NBC, CBS, and ABC. For the first time in history, TV signals could reach into the most remote corners of the United States which broke down the last vestiges of isolation in America. Common national carriage of news events meant that there was a sense of a shared nation experience. National conversations were started about news events broadcasted the previous day. -
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Civil Rights
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Dr. Jonas Salk
Jonas Salk was an American medical researcher and virologist. He discovered and developed one of the first successful polio vaccines. Until Salk introduced the polio vaccine, polio was considered one of the most frightening public health problems in the world. Salk also campaigned for mandatory vaccination, claiming that public health should be considered a moral commitment. His sole focus had been to develop a safe and effective vaccine as quick as possible, with no interest in personal profit -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and the government of South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese army was supported by the Soviet Union, China and other communist allies and the South Vietnamese army was supported by the United States, South Korea, Australia, Thailand and other anti-communist allies. -
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks was an activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The United States Congress has called her "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement." Rosa Parks refused to obey a bus driver in Alabama who ordered her to give up her seat in the "colored section" to a white passenger after the whites-only section was filled. Her prominence in the community inspired the black community to boycott the buses. -
Albert Sabin
Albert 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. With the menace of polio growing, Sabin and other researchers sought a vaccine to prevent or mitigate the illness. The Sabin vaccine is an oral vaccine containing weakened forms of strains of polioviruses. However in 1955, the Salk vaccine, which "killed" strands of polio was released for use. -
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley was an American singer and actor. Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "The King." Elvis transformed the field of popular music and had a huge effect on the broader scope of popular culture. As the catalyst for the cultural revolution that was rock and roll, he was central, not only to defining it as a music genre but in making it a touchstone of youth culture and rebellion. -
Little Rock 9
Little Rock Nine was a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by a the Little Rock Crisis in which students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by the Governor of Arkansas. The African American students were able to attend the high school with the invervention of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. -
Little Richard
Little Richard is an American musician, songwriter, singer, and actor. An influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades, Little Richard's most celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s when his dynamic music and charismatic showmanship laid the foundation for rock and roll. His music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk music. He also greatly influenced singers and musicians across numerous genres, even to this day. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
In 1957, President Eisenhower sent Congress a proposal for civil rights legislation. The result was the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. The act established allowed the Justice Department to obtain court injunctions against interference with the right to vote. It also established a federal Civil Rights Commission with authority to investigate discriminatory conditions and recomment corrective measures. -
Feminism
Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity and thought that first began in the early 1960s in the United States. It quickly spread across the Western world with an aim to increase equality for women by gaining more than just voting rights. Issues addressed by the second-wave included rights regarding domestic issues and in employment. Women in this time did not seek employment due to their engagement with domestic and household duties as this was the norm at the time. -
OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries)
OPEC is an intergovernmental organization of 14 nations as of February 2018, founded in 1960in Baghdad by the first five members (Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela). As of 2016, the 14 countries accounted for an estimated 44 percent of the world's global oil production and 73 percent of the world's proven oil reserves, giving OPEC a major influence on global oil prices that were previously determined by American-dominated multinational oil companies -
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1960s
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Ike Turner
Izear Luster "Ike Turner, Jr. 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 1960s and 1970s with his then-wife Tina Turner in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. Turner recorded for many of the key R&B record labels of the 1950s and 1960s, including Chess, Modern, Trumpet, Flair and Sue. With his former wife, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. -
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. Volunteers work with governments, schools, non-profits, etc in education, business, information tech, agriculture, and the environment. -
Cesar Chavez
Cesar Chavez was an American labor leader and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association. Originally a Mexican American farm worker, Chvez 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. His public relations that were non-violent made the farm workers' struggle a nationwide issue and brought support. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 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 to the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war. In the aftermath, the top Soviet leadership took the Cuban outcome as a blow to its prestige bordering on humiliation. -
Birmingham March
The Birmingham March was a movement organized in the early 1963 by the Southern Cristian Leadership Conference to bring attention to the integration efforts of African Americans in Birmingham, Alabama. Led by Martin Luther King Jr., James Bevel, Fred Shuttlesworth and others, the campaign of nonviolent direct action culminated in widely publicized confrontations between black students and white civic authorities led to the change it the city's discrimination laws. -
I Have a Dream Speech
"I Have a Dream" is a public speech delivered by American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28th, 1963, in which he calls for an end to racism in the United States and called for civil and economic rights. Delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., the speech was a defining moment of the civil rights movement. -
Assassination of JFK
John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated in Dallas, Texas while riding in a presidential motorcade in Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was riding with wife, a Texas governor and his wife. He was fatally shot by the former U.S. Marine Lee Harvey Oswald. Kennedy's death marked the fourth and most recent assassination of an American President. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson automatically became President upon Kennedy's death. -
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald was an American ex-Marine and Marxist who assassinated United States President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. According to four federal government investigators and one municipal investigation, Oswald shot and killed Kennedy from a sniper's nest on the sixth floor of a school book depository as the President travelled by motorcade through Dealey Plaza in the city of Dallas, Texas. -
Warren Commission
The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established by President Lyndon B. Johnson through Executive Order 11130 to investigate the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy. The Commission authorized the Presidential appointed Commission to report on the assassination , mandating the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of evidence -
Barry Goldwater
Barry Goldwater was an American politician, businessman, and author who was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. Despite losing the election by a landslide, Goldwater is the politician most often credited for sparking the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s. He was a vocal opponent of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, believing it was an overreach of federal government. -
Daisy Girl Ad
Daisy 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 once by the campaign, it is often 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. -
LSD
LSD was popularized in the 1960s by individuals such as psychologist Timothy Leary, who encouraged American students to "turn on, tune in, and drop out." This substance developed an entire counterculture of drug abuse and spread the drug from American to the United Kingdom and the rest of the world. Experiments in the possible use of LSD to change the personalities of intelligence targets, and to control whole populations as the drug is hallucinogenic but was eventually banned by the government. -
Phyllis Schafly
Phyllis Schlafly was an American constitutional lawyer and conservative political activist. She was known for staunchly conservative social and political views, antifeminism, opposition to legal abortion, and her successful campaign against ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Consitution. Her book, A Choice Not an Echo, a polemic against Republican leader Nelson Rockefeller, sold more than three million copies. -
Hippies
Hippies were members of a countercultural movement in the 1960s and 1970s that rejected the mores of mainstream American life. The movement originated on college campuses in the United States. Although the movement arose in part as opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, hippies were often not directly engaged in politics. Hippies felt alienated from middle class-society, which they saw as dominated by materialism and repression, and they developed their own distinctive life. -
Malcolm X
Malcolm X 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 all of American history. -
Selma March
Selma March also called Selma to Montgomery March, political march from Selma, Alabama, to the state's capital, Montgomery, that occurred March 21-25, 1965. Led by Martin Luther King, Jr., the march was the culminating event of several tumultuous weeks during which demonstrators twice attempted to march but were stopped, once violently. Together, these events became a landmark in the American civil rights movement and directly led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. -
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther was a political organization founded by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton in 1966. At its inception, 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 made the largest impact in the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Area. -
Jack Ruby
Jack Ruby was the Dallas, Texas nightclub owner who fatally shot Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24th, 1963, while Oswald was in police custody after being charged with assassinating U.S. President John F. Kennedy and the murder of Dallas policeman J.D. Tippit two days earlier. A Dallas jury found him guilty of murdering Oswald, and he was sentenced to death. Ruby's conviction was later appealed, however, before a date for his trial could be decided, he died in his prison cell from lung cancer. -
Apollo 11
Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first two human beings on the Moon. Mission commander Neil Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin, both American, landed the lunar module Eagle on July 20th, 1969. Armstrong became the first to step onto the lunar surface of the moon. The Apollo spacecraft had three parts, a command module with a cabin for the three astronauts, and the only part that returned back to Earth was the service module which support the systems required for life in outer space. -
Warren Burger Supreme Court
The Burger Court refers to the Supreme Court of the United States from 1969 to 1986, when Warren Burger served as Chief Justice of the United States. Burger succeeded Earl Warren as Chief Justice after the latter's retirement, and Burger served as Chief Justice until his retirement, at which point William Rehnquist was nominated and confirmed as Burger's replacement. The Burger Court has been described as a "transitional" court which continued the liberal legacy of the Warren Court. -
Stonewall Riot
The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations by members of the gay (LGBT) community against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28th, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. They are widely considered to constitute the most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States. -
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The 1970s
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Watergate
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal that occurred in the United States during the early 1970s, following a break-in by five men at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex along with President Nixon's administration's subsequent attempt to cover up its involvement. The administration resisted Congress probes which led to a constitutional crisis and the eventual resignation of President Richard Nixon, the first ever in history. -
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 influential conservative research organization in the United States. -
Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is one of the few dozens of United States 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 adequate concern and conservation signed into law by Richard Nixon. -
Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter 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. -
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal rights for all citizens regardless of sex; it seeks to end the legal distinctions between men and women in terms of a divorce, property, employment, and other matters. The amendment was first introduced to Congress for the first time in1921 and has prompted conversations about the meaning of equality for women and men. -
Soviet War in Afghanistan
The Soviet-Afghan War lasted over nine years. Insurgent groups are known collectively as the mujahideen, who fought a guerrilla war against the Soviet Army and the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan government, mostly in the rural countryside. The mujahideen groups were backed primarily by the United States and Pakistan making it a Cold War proxy war. Between 562,000 and 2,000,000 civilians were killed and millions of Afghans fled the country as refugees mostly to Pakistan and Iran. -
Three-Mile Island
The Three Mile Island accident occurred on March 28th, 1979, in reactor number 2 of Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Stations (TMI-2) in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, near Harrisburg. It was the most significant accident in the U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history. The incident was rated a five on the seven-point International Nuclear Event Scale: Accident with wider consequences. The accident began with failures in the non-nuclear secondary system. -
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 1979 to 1981 after a group of Iranian students belonging to the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, who supported the Iranian Revolution, took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. It stands as the longest hostage crisis in recorded history. -
Period: to
The 1980s
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Election of 1980
The United States presidential election of 1980 was the 49th quadrennial presidential election. Republican nominee Ronald Reagan defeated incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter. Due to the rise of conservativism following Reagan's victory, some historians consider the election to be a realigning election that marked the start of the "Reagan Era." Carter's unpopularity and poor relations with Democratic leaders encouraged intra-party challenges. -
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 tenure on the Court, she was an elected official and judge in Arizona serving as the first female Majority Leader of a state senate as the Republican leader in the Arizona Senate. Upon her nomination to the Court, O'Connor was confirmed ananimously by the Senate. -
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th President of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Prior to the presidency, he was a Hollywood actor and union leader before serving as the 33rd Governor of California from 1967 to 1975. Reagan was raised in a poor family in small towns of northern Illinois. After moving to Hollywood, he became an actor and starred in a few major productions. -
A.I.D.S. Crisis
The epidemic of the immunodeficiency disease AIDS, which began in Sub-Saharan Africa in the 1930s as a mutation of a chimpanzee disease found its way to the shores of the United States in the 1960s but was first noticed in young gay men in various cities across the country in 1981. Originally the disease was called GRID, but by 1982, after scientific disease discovery that the disease was also transmitted by other means, political pressure was unfairly on homosexuals throughout the country. -
Space Shuttle Program
The Space Shuttle program was the fourth 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. Its official name, Space Transportation System (STS), was taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft of which it was the only item funded for development. -
Reagonomics
Reaganomics refers to the economic policies promoted by U.S. President Ronald Reagan during the 1980s. These policies are commonly associated with supply-side economics, referred to as trickle-down economics or voodoo economics by political opponents, and free-market economics by political advocates. The four pillars of Reagan's economic policy were to reduce the growth of government spending, reduce the federal income tax and capital gains tax, among other things. -
Reagan Doctrine
The Reagan Doctrine was a strategy orchestrated and implemented by the United States under the Reagan Administration to overwhelm the global influence of the Soviet Union in an attempt to end the Cold War. The doctrine was the centerpiece of United States foreign policy from the early 1980's until the end of the Cold War in 1991. Under the Reagan Doctrine, the United States provided overt and covert aid to anti-communist movements in order to "roll back" Soviet-backed governments. -
Iran Contra Affair
The Iran-Contra affair also referred to as Irangate, was a political scandal in the United States that occurred during the second term of the Reagan Administration. Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo. They hoped, thereby, to fund the Contras in Nicaragua while at the same time negotiating the release of several U.S. hostages. -
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show, host, actress, producer, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, which was the highest-rated television program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011 in Chicago. Dubbed the "Queen of All Media", she is the richest African-American and North America's first multi-billionaire African American and ranked the greatest black philanthropist in American history. -
Challenger Explosion
The NASA shuttle orbiter mission STS-51-L and the tenth flight of Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members, which consisted of five NASA astronauts and two payload specialists. The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:39 EST. The disintegration of the vehicle began after a joint in its right solid rocket booster failed at liftoff. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
The Hungarian government began taking down the electrified fence along its border with Austria which allowed 13,000 East Germans to escape through Hungary and into Austria. This set up a chain of events that ended up with mobs of Germans gathering at the Wall in Berlin, demanding that the guards open the gates. Soon after, East German authorities gave the order for guards to allow people to cross through the checkpoint and East Germans and West Germans rejoiced together. -
Persian Gulf War
The Gulf War codenamed Operation Desert Shield for operations leading to the buildup of troops and defense of Saudi Arabia and Operation Desert Storm, in its combat phase, was a war waged by coalition forces from 35 nations led by the United States against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait. The war is also known under other names, such as the Persian Gulf War. -
Period: to
The 1990s
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Election of 1992
The United States presidential election of 1992 was the 52 quadrennial presidential election. It was held between Democratic Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas, who defeated incumbent Republican President George H. W. Bush, independent businessman Ross Perot of Texas, and a number of minor candidates, Bush had alienated many of the conservatives in his party by breaking his 1988 campaign pledge against raising taxes. -
Al Gore
Al Gore is an American politician and environmentalist who served as the 45th Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Gore was Bill Clinton's running mate in their successful campaign in 1992, and the pair was re-elected in 1996. Near the end of Clinton's second term, Gore was selected as the Democratic nominee for the 2000 presidential election but lost the election in a very close race after a Florida recount. -
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, Clinton was ideologically a "New Democrat" and many of his policies reflected a centrist "Third Way" political philosophy. Clinton defeated incumbent Republican opponent George H. W. Bush, becoming the third-youngest President at the age of 46 and the first from the Baby Boomer generation to become President. -
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton is an American politician who was the First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001, and served as the junior U.S. Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009 and 67th United States Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013. In 2008, she sought and lost the Democratic Party's nomination for President of the United States to Barack Obama. She became the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2016 election, but lost to Republican Donald Trump. -
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
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 superseded the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement. Most economic analyses indivcate that NAFTA has been beneficial to the North American economies and the average citizen, but harmed a small minority of workers in industries exposed to trade competition. -
Lionel Sosa
Lionel Sosa is a Mexican-American advertising and marketing executive. Sosa entered political advertising by supporting John Tower. With Sosa's support, Tower won 37% of the Hispanic vote. The previous Hispanic best vote percent for a statewide Republican candidate had been below 8%. Sosa was named one of the twenty five most influential Hispanics in America by Time Magazine. Sosa has also been named to the Texas Business Hall of fame. -
Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader is an American political activist, author, lecturer, and attorney, noted for his involvement in consumer protection, environmentalism and government reform causes. The son of Lebanese immigrants to the United States, Nader was educated at Princeton and Harvard and first came to prominence in 1965 with the publication of the bestselling book Unsafe at Any Speed, a critique of the safety record of American automobiles manufacturers that became an important journalistic piece. -
Lewinsky Affair
The Clinton-Lewinsky was an American political sex scandal that involved 49-year-old President Bill Clinton and 22-year-old White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The sexual relationship took place between 1995 and 1997 and came to light in 1998. Clinton ended a television speech with the statement that he 'did not have sexual relations" with Lewinsky. Further investigation led to charges of perjury and to the impeachment of President Clinton in 1998 by the U.S. House of Representatives. -
Health Care Reform
Health care reform is a general rubric used for discussing major health policy creation or changes--for the most part, government policy that affects health care delivery in a given place. Health care reform typically attempts to: Broaden the population that receives health care coverage through either public sector insurance programs or private sector insurance companies, improve the access and quality of health care/health care specialists, give more care to citizens and decrease the cost. -
Period: to
Contemporary
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9/11 Attacks
The 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 Tuesday, September 11, 2001. The attacks killed 2,996 people, injured over 6,000 others, and caused at least $10 billion in infrastructure and property damage. Four passenger airlines operated by two major U.S. airlines were hijacked by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists. -
Patriot Act
The USA Patriot Act is an Act of Congress that was signed into law by President George W. Bush. With its ten-letter abbreviation expanded, the full title is "United and Strengthening American by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001". The abbreviation, as well as the full title, have been attribuated to Chris Cylke, a former staffer of the House Judiciary Committee. -
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. Katrina was also one of the five deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States. As Katrina made landfall, its front right quadrant, which held the strongest winds, slammed into Gulfport, Mississippi, devastating it. -
John McCain
John McCain is an American politician serving as the senior United States Senator from Arizona since 1987. He was the Republican nominee for President of the United States in the 2008 election, which he lost to Barack Obama. McCain graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1958 and followed his father and grandfather--both four-star admirals--into the United States Navy. During the Vietnam War, he was almost killed in the 1967 USS Forrestal fire. -
The Great Recession
The Great Recession was a period of general economic decline observed in world markets during the late 2000s and early 2010s. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country. In terms of overall impact, the International Monetary Fund concluded that it was the worst global recession since the 1930s. The cause of the recession largely originated in the United States, particularly related to the real-estate market, though choices made by other nations contributed as well. -
Election of 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. The Democratic ticket of Barack Obama, a Senator from Illinois, and Joe Biden, a long time-time 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. -
Barack Obama
Barack Obama is an American politician who served as the 44th President of the United States from 2009 to 2017. The first African American to assume the presidency, he was previously the junior United States Senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008. During his first term, he signed many landmark bills into law. His second term promoted inclusiveness for LBGT Americans -
Obamacare
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or nicknamed Obamacare, is a United States federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama. The term "Obamacare" was first used by opponents, then reappropriated by supporters, and eventually used by President Obama himself. Together with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 amendment, it represents the U.S. healthcare system's most significant regulatory overhaul.
