US History

By hlashmar

  • George Washington Elected President

  • Established the Supreme Court

  • Rhode Island becomes 9th state to officially ratify the Constitution

  • Alexander Hamilton creates Bank of the United States (opposed by Jefferson)

  • Proclamation of American Neutrality (by George Washington) –keeps America neutral after France declares war on Britain, Spain, and Holland (example of U.S. foreign policy)

  • Whiskey Rebellion – 1st time U.S. Government uses Federal troops to subdue domestic issues (Farmers did not like new excise taxes)

  • Treaty of Greenville– U.S. cheaply pays 12 Native American tribes for Ohio territory

  • John Adams (Federalist) defeats Thomas Jefferson (Republican) in first contested Presidential Election; Jefferson becomes Vice President

  • XYZ Affair – French try to extort U.S. for diplomatic meetings – public wants war

  • Alien & Sedition Acts – expands Gov’t power, limit dissent and weakening of Gov’t, ruled unconstitutional

  • 2nd Great Awakening – major religious reform movement; helps increase abolition

  • Thomas Jefferson defeats John Adams (controversy); Aaron Burr is VP

  • John Marshall becomes first chief justice of the Supreme Court

  • Louisana Purchase – not known to Jefferson if it was constitutional to annex land, Congress approves purchase from France, doubles the size of U.S.

  • Marbury vs. Madison establishes Judicial Review

  • Embargo Act – placed by Jefferson on Britain/France; fails – hurts U.S. economy

  • James Madison elected President

  • Tecumseh establishes union of Native Americans to resist westward movement of U.S.

  • William Henry Harrison leads attack on Tecumseh at Battle of Tippecanoe (wins) War of 1812 (1812-1815)

  • Congress declares war on Britain (issues – impressments, blockades, economy, Native Americans)

  • – Underground Railroad provides Northern escape for slaves

  • James Monroe elected 5th President (reelected in 1820)

  • Erie Canal– construction begins (connects Great Lakes to Atlantic Ocean)

  • McCulloch vs. Maryland – ruling confirms Congresses’ right to found the 2nd Bank of the United States

  • Spain cedes Florida to the U.S.

  • Missouri Compromise – sets dividing line between free and slaves states at latitude 36’30’ o Above line (free), Below line (slave)

  • Stephen F. Austin establishes first U.S. Settlement in Texas

  • Monroe Doctrine– claims western hemisphere closed to European intervention (first major U.S. foreign diplomacy)

  • Gibbons vs. Ogden – establishes federal control of interstate commerce

  • Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die on same day (50th anniversary of Dec. of Independence)

  • Andrew Jackson elected 7thPresident

  • Two party system fully emerges in U.S. politics for first time

  • First Jim Crow Laws established (legal segregation)

  • Manifest Destiny – U.S. destiny and duty to expand and conquer the west

  • William Lloyd Garrison – wants immediate emancipation (he was white)

  • Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo – ends Mexican War, Mexico cedes Texas

  • Compromise of 1850 – North gets California as free states, ban of sale of slaves in D.C.

  • Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin

  • Kansas-Nebraska Act– repeals Missouri Compromise, popular sovereignty to determine slave/free states

  • “Bleeding Kansas” – John Brown leads antislavery massacre at Pottawatomie Creek, fight over slavery in Kansas

  • Dred Scott vs. Sanford– ruling effectively nullifies Missouri Compromise, declares that slaves are property – cannot sue.

  • Lincoln-Douglas Debates– Stephen Douglas wins Illinois Senate seat. Lincoln a household name

  • John Brown leads attack on arsenal at Harper’s Ferry; later captured and hanged

  • Abraham Lincoln elected 16th President; South Carolina secedes the Union = Civil War

  • Confederate States formed , Jefferson Davis – 1st and only President

  • Fort Sumter (S.C.) – confederates attack Union – war starts

  • Homestead Act– 160 acres to each farmer willing to cultivate land in West

  • Battle of Antietam – bloodiest battle of the Civil War

  • Battle of Gettysburg – turning point of Civil War; South never recovers

  • Emancipation Proclamation – frees slaves in only Confederate states; foreign diplomacy!

  • William Sherman – ‘March to Sea’ – Atlanta to Savannah – destroys everything!

  • 13th Amendment – abolishes slavery

  • Gen. Robert E. Lee (confederacy) surrenders at Appomattox Court House to Union Gen. Ulysses Grant

  • Abraham Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth; Andrew Johnson now President

  • South establishes Black Codes– limits rights of freed blacks

  • Civil Rights Act of 1866 – grants citizenship to all people born in U.S. (14th Amendment)

  • Tenure of Office Act– used to impeach Andrew Johnson (said he had violated it)

  • U.S. purchase Alaska from Russia (becomes 49th state in 1959)

  • Transcontinental Railroad– connects the coasts of the United States; greatest transportation achievement

  • 15th Amendment – grants protection of voting rights to black males

  • Hiram Revels– first black senator – Mississippi

  • William “Boss” Tweed – greatest example of a political machine (NYC)

  • Slaughter House Cases – authority of state governments over individuals

  • Whiskey Ring Scandal– corruption in Grants administration & Republican party

  • Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse lead Sioux to crushing victory of General George Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn

  • Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone

  • Susan B. Anthony – gets women’s suffrage vote to Congress – leads to 19th Amendment

  • Thomas Edison creates the electric light

  • President James Garfield assassinated

  • Booker T. Washington – gradual approach to equal rights – prove yourself W.E.B Dubois – changes in civil rights now; founds the NAACP

  • Chinese Exclusion Act – bans Chinese immigration for 10 years

  • John D. Rockefeller – Standard Oil Trust; Andrew Carnegie – Steel

  • Dawes Severalty Act – denies tribal rights, advances forced assimilation, opens lands to whites

  • Wounded Knee – Federal forces massacre 200 Sioux Indians

  • Sherman Antitrust Act – outlaws monopolies, price-fixing, other trade restraints

  • Populist Party – formed specifically to give farmers a voice in government

  • Yellow Journalism – journalism that features unethical or unprofessional practices by news media organizations or individual journalists.

  • Plessy vs. Ferguson – ‘Separate but Equal’ is constitutional (overturned by Brown vs. Board of Education)

  • Grandfather Clause – voting rights of blacks challenged with literacy tests and poll taxes

  • Spanish-American War – Teddy Roosevelt leads Rough Riders, U.S. crushes Spain’s Navy

  • Treat of Paris – ends the Spanish-American War

  • Open Door Policy

  • President McKinley assassinated, Teddy Roosevelt now 26th President

  • Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine – increases U.S. presence in Latin America

  • Muckraker – writers who expose big business corruption

  • Pure Food and Drug Act, Meat Inspection – set food quality standards

  • Panama Canal – connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans (opens in 1914)

  • Henry Ford introduces the Model T car, assembly lines introduced

  • 16th Amendment – establishment of income tax , 17th Amend.– direct election of senators

  • World War I begins in Europe

  • German U-Boat sinks British passenger liner Lusitania, Americans killed on board

  • Zimmerman Telegram – intercepted by British, asks for Germany/Mexico alliance against U.S.; US. Enters WWI

  • Germany continues unrestricted submarine warfare – gets warning from U.S.

  • Selective Service Act – establishes the draft

  • Fourteen Points– by Woodrow Wilson, 14th pt most important – calls for League of Nations

  • Treaty of Versailles – ends WWI; calls for heavy reparations on Germany, disarmament, and creation of League of Nations; U.S. Senate rejects it

  • 18th Amendment– outlaws purchase, sale, and transport of alcohol

  • 19th Amendment – women’s suffrage (right to vote)

  • Teapot Dome Scandal – exposes massive corruption in Harding Administration

  • Dawes Plan – ease war reparations on Germany

  • Scopes Monkey Trial– popularizes debate over teaching evolution in schools – outlawed

  • Charles Lindbergh – completes world’s first solo flight across Atlantic – seen as a hero

  • Sacco and Vanzetti– executed for murder; controversial because the were anarchists, politically motivated and unjustified

  • Stock Market Crash– ‘Black Tuesday’ – launches Great Depression

  • Bonus Army (WWI vets) march on Washington demanding compensation – forced out

  • Franklin Delano Roosevelt elected President

  • U.S. unemployment rate reaches 25%, FDR claims Bank Holiday to fix banks

  • Fireside Chats – FDR address public on radio – continues to 1944 – gives public hope

  • 1st 100 Days – creation of countless jobs, most productive of any president’s 1st 100 days

  • Unemployment Relief Act and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to employ public works

    oAAA – controls crop production, compensates farmers for cooperation
    oTVA – established to construct dams in Tennessee River to generate electricity
    oNIRA – sets nationwide business practices
    oNRA – manage industry recovery
    oPWA – employ jobless

  • Huey Long– criticizes FDR, “Share Our Wealth” proposes large tax burden on wealthy

  • Wagner Act– supports union rights, protects collective bargaining

  • Social Security Act – establishes funds for unemployed and elderly

  • Germany (led by Adolf Hitler) invades Poland; WWII begins

  • FDR elected for unprecedented 3rd Term

  • Lend-Lease Act – provides U.S. loan aid to Britain, USSR & allied powers

  • Battle of Midway – U.S. defeats Japan, seen as turning point in the war in the Pacific

  • Manhattan Project– creation of the Atomic Bomb

  • Allies invade Normandy, France on D-DAY, June 6, 1944 (largest land/sea invasion)

  • Battle of the Bulge – begins to break down Axis position on western front

  • Nuremberg Trials – prosecute Nazi war criminals Baby Boom, Economic Prosperity

  • Allies liberate Nazi concentration camps in Eastern Europe

  • FDR dies, Harry Truman becomes President; Adolf Hitler commits suicide

  • Germany surrenders on V-E-DAY(victory in Europe day)

  • U.S. drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima (Aug. 6) and Nagasaki (Aug 9) – Japan surrenders

  • United Nations created with 51 founding nations

  • “Iron Curtain” – describes division of Communist Eastern Europe from Western Europe

  • Truman Doctrine – U.S. intent to fight Communism by helping free nations resist it.

  • Marshal Plan – postwar economic recovery to help Western Europe; largest relief aid given by the U.S. in U.S. history

  • Berlin Blockade – USSR blocks all aid into West Berlin; Berlin Airlift – U.S. drops food and supplies by air to West Berlin

  • Harry Truman orders desegregation of military

  • NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) created – alliance system of 26 countries in North America and Europe

  • Korean war begins ; U.S. aids South Korea against North Korea; Peace Treaty in 1953

  • Joseph McCarthy – begins rabid anti-communist campaign; hurt when he accuses military of having communists; alcoholic

  • Brown vs. Board of Education – overturns Plessy vs. Ferguson; says separate but equal is unconstitutional

  • “Containment”-(Truman) must stop spread of all communism; “Domino Theory” (Eisenhower) – fears that Indochina must not go communist or it will spread all over the world

  • Geneva Peace Accords – temporally divides Vietnam at 17th parallel

  • Rosa Parks arrested for not giving up seat on bus to whites; sparks Montgomery Bus Boycott

  • Jonas Salk – creates polio vaccine

  • USSR launches first satellite in space – Sputnik

  • 1st televised Presidential debate – JFK vs. Nixon (JFK wins); JFK president 1960

  • 1st televised Presidential debate – JFK vs. Nixon (JFK wins); JFK president 1960

  • JFK launches New Frontier platform to help America

  • Lunch Counter “Sit-Ins” spark waves of civil rights protest; SCLC created by MLK, Jr.

  • Bay of Pigs– failed invasion of Cuba by U.S. (CIA) trained military

  • Berlin Wall– divides East and West Berlin (East was communist)

  • Cuban Missile Crisis– standoff b/n U.S. and USSR after Soviets placed missiles in Cuba pointed at the United States; no fighting incurs

  • “I have a dream” speech given by MLK – speech for civil rights

  • Lee Harvey Oswald assassinates JFK in Dallas, TX

  • Lyndon Johnson President– launches “Great Society” program to end poverty and racism

  • Civil Rights Act of 1964 – bans discrimination in education, employment, & public places

  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution– broadens LBJ’s military powers in Vietnam – no declare war

  • Voting Rights Act of 1965– bans literacy tests for voting

  • Malcom X (Nation of Islam) – blamed whites for African American problems; assassinated

  • Miranda vs. Arizona - police must read suspects their rights

  • Thurgood Marshall – first black justice of the Supreme Court

  • Tet Offensive launched by North Vietnamese Army – turning point of U.S. in Vietnam

  • James Earl Ray assassinated MLK, Jr. – hurts Civil Rights movement

  • Sirhan Sirhan assassinated Robert Kennedy, JFK’s brother; Richard Nixon voted President

  • Apollo 11 lands on the moon, Neil Armstrong first to walk on moon

  • My Lai Massacre – U.S. soldiers kill 200 innocent men, women, and children

  • Pentagon Papers– 7,000 page document outlining U.S. government plan in Vietnam; shows gov’t was not telling truth to public.

  • Watergate Scandal– Nixon authorizes break-in and wiretapping of Democratic National Committee headquarters in Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.

  • Roe vs. Wade – legalizes abortion (up to 3 months)

  • U.S. Energy Crisis– fuel shortage in U.S. due to OPEC raising prices

  • U.S. withdraws from Vietnam; North Vietnam overtakes South after departure

  • Jimmy Carter elected President

  • Camp David Accords – Carter negotiates peace between Egypt and Israel

  • Three Mile Island – nuclear power accident causes concern of nuclear safety

  • Ronald Reagan elected 40th President

  • Iran releases U.S. embassy hostages released after 444 days in captivity.

  • Strategic Defense Initiative (a.k.a. STAR WARS) – space based missile defense proposed

  • Space Shuttle Challenger explodes on takeoff, crew killed; space program never the same

  • U.S. bombs Libya for supporting Palestinians

  • Osama Bin Laden founds Islamist group Al Qaeda

  • Chinese government crushes pro-democracy revolt in Tiananmen Square

  • Berlin Wall falls (Reagan feels its U.S.’s great est accomplishment of the era)

  • Saddam Hussein orders invasion of Kuwait; starts Operation Desert Storm

  • Bill Clinton President; appoints Janet Reno first female attorney genera

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