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On October 1, 1908, the Model T was shipped to its first customer. -
The Zimmerman Telegram was a letter penned by Arthur Zimmerman intended for the German ambassador for Mexico. The telegram proposed that if the U.S. joined the war on the side of the Allies, Mexico and Germany should form an alliance. Germany would help Mexico reclaim their lost land from America. This telegram was intercepted by the British on January 16, 1917, decoded, and sent to the U.S. in late February. The telegram was a key decider for America in the question of whether to go to war. -
After more than four years of war, WW1 finally came to an end. While there was still fighting going on, the signing of the armistice on November 11, 1918, was the official first step in restoring peace to the world. -
On August 14, 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified. After years of protests and marches, women finally were granted the right to vote. -
On May 21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh completed the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight in his airplane The Spirit of St. Louis. He flew from New York to Paris, France. -
On October 24, 1929, panicked investors began selling their shares. Over 12.9 million shares were sold that day, and the stock market crashed. -
The New Deal refers to the series of programs FDR initiated in order to quickly bring economic relief to the U.S. -
On January 30, 1933, Hitler was appointed as chancellor of Germany. -
On September 8, 1938, the Munich Pact was signed. The pact was signed between England, Frace, and Germany in an effort to avert war, but at the cost of giving Czechoslovakia away to German conquest. -
On September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland, initiating WW2 in Europe. -
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor. A few days later, America officially joined WW2. -
On June 6, 1944, Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France. It become known as the largest invasion force in history and was codenamed Operation Overlord. -
On August 6 and 9, 1945, America bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing tens of thousands of people. The bombing led to the end of WW2. -
On October 24, 1945, the United Nations was formed. Its goal was to maintain international peace and security and to build friendly relationships with other nations. -
On February 22, 1946, George Kennan, the American diplomat and scholar in charge of d'affaires in Moscow, sent an 8,000-word telegram to the Department of State warning the U.S. to be wary of the Soviet Union. It became the basis for the U.S. containment strategy toward the Soviet Union during the Cold War. -
NATO was formed on April 4, 1949. -
On August 29, 1949, Russia tested its first successful atomic bomb. -
The Korean War began on June 25, 1950. It ended in July of 1953. -
The verdict of Brown v Board of Education was a crucial decision made by the Supreme Court that helped establish that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. -
The Vietnam War began on November 1, 1955, and ended on April 30, 1975. -
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man. This act helped initiate the civil rights movement in the U.S. -
The Cuban Missile Crisis during the Cold War was the closest the U.S. and the Soviet Union came to using nuclear warfare on each other. -
President JFK is assassinated. -
On August 7, 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. -
On July 24, 1969, the Apollo 11 crew landed on the moon. Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon. -
On June 17, 1972, police arrested burglars in the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex. These break-ins were linked to the re-election campaign of Richard Nixon. -
On August 8, 1974, President Richard Nixon resigned from office. -
Though ideas of the internet had been evolving for many years, January 1, 1983, is considered the official birthday of the internet. -
On November 9, 1989, the Berlin wall dividing east and west Berlin fell. -
On September 11, 2001, terrorists attacked the U.S. The result of these attacks was the destruction of the Twin Towers and the death of thousands of people. -
On December 12, 2009, clusters of patients in Wuhan, China, began experiencing symptoms of sickness discovered to be Coronavirus. It soon spread across the world, resulting in millions of deaths and worldwide lockdowns.