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American Civil War
was a civil war that was fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. As a result of the long-standing controversy over slavery -
13th Amendment
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction -
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Reconstruction
The Reconstruction era was the period from 1863 or 1865 to 1877. -
14th Amendment
All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. -
15th Amendment
prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". -
Jim Crow Laws Start in South
any of the laws that enforced racial segregation in the South between the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and the beginning of the civil rights movement in the 1950s. -
Plessy V. Ferguson
case in which the U.S. Supreme Court, on May 18, 1896, by a seven-to-one majority (one justice did not participate), advanced the controversial “separate but equal” doctrine for assessing the constitutionality of racial segregation laws -
Wright Brothers Airplane
r, the Wright brothers were no longer content to merely add to the growing body of aeronautical knowledge; they were going to invent the airplane. Still, they recognized that much hard work lay ahead, especially the creation of a propulsion system. -
Gi Bill
also called Servicemen's Readjustment Act, U.S. legislation passed in 1944 that provided benefits to World War II veterans -
Germany Divided
Germany was cut between the two global blocs in the East and West, a period known as the division of Germany -
United Nations Formed
The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization tasked to promote international cooperation and to create and maintain international order. -
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Baby Boom
a temporary marked increase in the birth rate, especially the one following World War II -
Truman Doctrine
an American foreign policy whose stated purpose was to counter Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War -
Mao Zedong Established Communist Ruled in China
a Chinese communist revolutionary, poet, political theorist and founding father of the People's Republic of China, which he ruled as the Chairman of the Communist Party of China -
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The Cold War
was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc and powers in the Western Bloc. -
Berlin Airlift
was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War -
Arab-Israeli War Begins
Israel responds to an ominous build-up of Arab forces along its borders by launching simultaneous attacks against Egypt and Syria -
Marshall Plan
an American initiative to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave over $13 billion in economic assistance to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War Il -
NATO Formed
is an intergovernmental military alliance between several North American and European countries based on the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed -
Chinese forces cross Yalu and enter Korean War
300000 Chinese troops attacked American and U.N. forces in North Korea. China's intervention in the war came as a surprise to many, and vastly expanded the scope of the conflict. -
UN forces push North Korea to Yalu River- the border with China
he Chinese Army entered the Korean War in earnest with a violent attack against the American and United Nations forces in North Korea -
Kim ll-sung invades South Korea
the Soviets installed Kim as chairman of the North Korean branch of the Korean Communist Party -
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Korean War
a war between North Korea and South Korea -
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1950s Prosperity
“America at this moment,” said the former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1945, “stands at the summit of the world.” During the 1950s, -
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg Execution
a married couple convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage in 1951, are put to death in the electric chair. The execution marked the dramatic finale of the most controversial espionage case of the Cold War. -
Armistice Signed
the Armistice came into force at Paris time and marked a victory for the Allies and a complete defeat for Germany, although not formally a surrender -
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Dwight D. Eisenhower
an American Army general and statesman who served as the 34th President of the United States -
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Warren Court
the Supreme Court of the United States between 1953 and 1969, when Earl Warren served as Chief Justice -
Hernandez v. Texas
the first and only Mexican-American civil-rights case heard and decided by the United States Supreme Court during the post-World War II period -
Brown v. Board Of Education
United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional -
Polio Vaccine
Polio vaccines are vaccines used to prevent poliomyelitis. There are two types: one that uses inactivated poliovirus and is given by injection, and one that uses weakened poliovirus and is given by mouth. -
Warsaw Pact Formed
a collective defence treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland among the Soviet Union and seven Soviet satellite states -
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Vietnam War
known as the Second Indochina War, and in Vietnam as the Resistance War Against America or simply the American War, was a conflict that occurred in Vietnam -
Interstate Highway Act
the law authorized the construction of a 41,000-mile network of interstate highways that would span the nation -
Elvis Presley First Hit Song
As "Heartbreak Hotel" makes its climb up the charts on its way to #1, -
Sputnik l
the first artificial Earth satellite. The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit -
Leave It To Beaver First Airs on TV
an American television sitcom about an inquisitive and often naïve boy, Theodore "The Beaver" Cleaver and his adventures at home, in school, and around his suburban neighborhood -
Kennedy versus Nixon TV Debate
In a closely contested election, Democrat John F. Kennedy defeated incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon, the Republican Party nominee -
Bay Of Pigs Invasion
Cuban exiles launched what became a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba -
Mapp v. Ohio
a landmark case in criminal procedure, in which the United States Supreme Court decided that evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment -
Peace Corps Formed
a volunteer program run by the United States government -
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John F. Kennedy
an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963 -
Sam Walton Opens First Walmart
Sam Walton opens the first Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas. The Walton family owns 24 stores, ringing up $12.7 million in sales. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
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 -
Kennedy Assassinated in Dallas, Texas
John F. Kennedy,was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas while riding in a presidential motorcade in Dealey Plaza -
Gideon v. Wainwright
the Supreme Court ruled that states are required under the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to provide counsel in criminal cases -
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Lyndon B. Johnson
an American politician who served as the 36th President of the United States from 1963 to 1969 -
Israeli-Palestine Conflict Begins
This conflict came from the intercommunal violence in Mandatory Palestine between Israelis and Arabs -
The Great Society
a set of domestic programs in the United States launched by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson in The main goal was the elimination of poverty and racial injustice -
Escobedo v. Illinois
criminal suspects have a right to counsel during police interrogations under the Sixth Amendment -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
was a joint resolution that the United States Congress passed on August 7, 1964, in response to the Gulf of Tonkin incident. -
Miranda v. Arizona
the name of the formal warning that is required to be given by police in the United States to criminal suspects in police custody before they are interrogated, in accordance with the Miranda ruling -
Six Day War
was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967 by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria -
Thurgood Marshall Appointed to Supreme Court
John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit -
Tet Offensive
The General Offensive and Uprising of Tet Mau Than 1968 by North Vietnam and the NLF, was one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War, -
My Lai Massacre
was the Vietnam War mass murder of unarmed Vietnamese civilians by U.S. troops in South Vietnam on 16 March 1968. -
Vietnamization
a policy of the Richard Nixon administration to end U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War through a program to "expand, equip, and train South Vietnamese forces and assign -
Apollo 11
was the spaceflight that landed the first two humans on the Moon. Mission commander Neil Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin, both American, landed the lunar module Eagle on July 20, 1969, -
Tinker v. Des Moines
a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court that defined the constitutional rights of students in U.S. public schools -
Woodstock Music Festival
the Woodstock Festival or simply Woodstock— was a music festival in the United States in 1969 which attracted an audience of more than 400,000 -
Draft Lottery
the Selective Service System of the United States conducted two lotteries to determine the order of call to military service in the Vietnam War for men born from 1944 to 1950 -
Manson Family Murders
was a commune established in California in the late 1960s, led by Charles Manson. They gained national notoriety after the murder of actress Sharon Tate and four others on August 9, 1969 by Tex Watson and three other members of the Family, acting under the instructions of Charles Manson. -
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Richard Nixon
the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 until 1974, when he resigned from office, the only U.S. president to do so -
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
o repair and restore the nation's water infrastructure and cleaning up contaminated land -
Invasion of Cambodia
a series of military operations conducted in eastern Cambodia during 1970 by the United States and the Republic of Vietnam as an extension of the Vietnam War and the Cambodian Civil War -
Kent State Shootings
the shootings on May 4, 1970 of unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio during a mass protest -
Policy of Detente Begins
a French word meaning release from tension) is the name given to a period of improved relations between the United States and the Soviet Union -
26th Amendment
prohibits the states and the federal government from using age as a reason for denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States who are at least eighteen years old -
Pentagon Papers
Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, is a United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967 -
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Jimmy Carter
an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States -
Nixon Visits China
President Richard Nixon takes a dramatic first step toward normalizing relations with the communist People's Republic of China by traveling to Beijing for a week of talks -
Watergate Scandal
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 in Washington, D.C. -
Endangered Species Act
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 -
OPEC Oil Embargo
Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposed an embargo against the United States in retaliation -
First Cell Phones
Motorola was the first company to produce a handheld mobile phone -
War Powers Resolution
is a federal law intended to check the president's power to commit the United States to an armed conflict without the consent of the U.S. Congress. -
United States v. Nixon
was a landmark United States Supreme Court case which resulted in a unanimous decision against President Richard Nixon, ordering him to deliver tape recordings and other subpoenaed materials to a federal district court -
Ford Pardons Nixon
President Gerald Ford, who assumed office on the heels of President Richard M. Nixon’s resignation, pardons his predecessor for his involvement in the Watergate scandal -
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Gerald Ford
an American politician who served as the 38th President of the United States -
Bill Gates Starts Microsoft
Microsoft was founded on April 4, 1975, by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico. -
National Rifle Associate (NRA) Lobbying Begins
The group was founded in 1871 as a recreational group designed to "promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis". The NRA's path into political lobbying began in 1934 when it began mailing members -
Ho Chi Minh Established Communist Rule in Vietnam
helped found the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930 and the League for the Independence of Vietnam, or Viet Minh, in 1941 -
Fall of Saigon
was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the People's Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam on 30 April 1975 -
Steve Jobs Starts Apple
when Jobs was just 21, he and Steve Wozniak started Apple Computer in the Jobs' family garage. -
Community Reinvestment Act of 1977
intended to encourage depository institutions to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they operate, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods -
Camp David Accords
were signed by Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on 17 September 1978, following twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David -
Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty
was signed in Washington, D.C., United States on 26 March 1979, following the 1978 Camp David Accords -
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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 -
War On Drugs
an American term usually applied to the U.S. federal government's campaign of prohibition of drugs, military aid, and military intervention, with the stated aim being to reduce the illegal drug trade -
AIDS Epidemic
is a global pandemic. As of 2016, approximately 36.7 million people are living with HIV globally. In 2016, approximately half are men and half are women. -
Sandra Day O Connor Appointed to U.S.Supreme Court
a retired Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving from her appointment in 1981 by Ronald Reagan to 2006. She was the first woman to serve on the Court. -
Conservative Resurgence
its detractors labeled it the Fundamentalist Takeover. It was launched with the charge that the seminaries and denominational agencies were dominated by liberals -
"Trickle Down Economics"
is an economic theory that advocates reducing taxes on businesses and the wealthy in society as a means to stimulate business investment -
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Ronald Reagan
an American politician and actor who served as the 40th President of the United States from 1981 to 1989 -
Marines in Lebanon
service personnel -- including 220 Marines and 21 other service personnel -- are killed by a truck bomb at a Marine compound in Beirut, Lebanon. -
Iran-Contra Affair
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. -
The Oprah Winfrey Show First Airs
often referred to simply as Oprah, is an American syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986 to May 25, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. -
"Mr.Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall!"
is a line from a speech made by US President Ronald Reagan in West Berlin on June 12, 1987, calling for the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to open up the barrier -
End of Cold War
the Berlin Wall came down, borders opened, and free elections ousted Communist regimes everywhere in eastern Europe
