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Rutherford B. Hayes takes office, becoming the first president to install a telephone and a typewriter into the White House, and the first president to visit the west coast while in office. -
A canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans begins construction in Panama, a territory that is both in South America and Central America. -
James A. Garfield takes office, becoming the first president to give a campaign speech in a language other than English. He was assassinated on September 19th of the same year he took office. -
Chester A. Arthur takes office after the death of James A. Garfield. He was the first president to put an elevator in the White House. -
Grover Cleveland becomes the first president to get married and have a child born in the White House, and set a record for most vetoes done by a president at over 500. -
Benjamin Harrison takes office, becoming the first president to be the grandson of another former president. He was also the first president to install electric lights in the White House, and the first president to have their voice recorded. -
The Sherman Anti-Trust Act outlaws monopolies and many monopolistic and trade-restricting practices. -
Grover Cleveland returns to office, becoming the first president to serve multiple non-consecutive terms. -
William McKinley takes office, becoming the first president to ride in an automobile. -
Theodore Roosevelt takes office, becoming the first president to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, the first president to leave the contiguous states while in office, and the first president to ride in a submarine and an airplane (separately). -
The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 is the first large set of laws aimed at the protection of consumers, and it would eventually lead to the founding of the FDA. -
President William Howard takes office, becoming the first president to be in power over all 48 contiguous states. -
President Woodrow Wilson takes office, becoming the first president to go to Europe, meet with the pope, and meet with a currently reigning British monarch while he was in office. -
The Panama Canal is opened to allow ships to cross between the American Continents, no longer requiring ships to go all the way around one of the American Continents. -
The archduke of Austria is killed, which leads to Austria declaring war on Serbia, which leads to a long chain of countries declaring war on each other because their status as allies obligated them to. This eventually led to the Allied Powers fighting the Central Powers, each of them including four large countries. America eventually joined the Allied Powers, leading to the Allied victory.
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Alcohol of all forms were prohibited, this did not work nor last. Alcohol was never gone from the public, just illegally purchased. Alcohol was no longer under government control, and while consumption rates did drop sharply by 70%, they eventually rose to over 160% of pre-prohibition levels. Once prohibition was repealed in 1933, alcohol consumption rates dropped to levels that were very close to the pre-prohibition levels. -
President Warren G. Harding takes office, becoming the first president to hear about his victory over the radio, and the first president to be elected on his birthday. He was also the first president to visit Canada while in office. -
President Calvin Coolidge takes office. He was the first president to visit Cuba while in office, and the first president to give a radio broadcast from the White House. He was also the first president to appear on a US coin while still in office. -
President Herbert Hoover takes office and becomes the first president to have a telephone on his desk, and the first president to have a non-white Vice President, Charles Curtis. He also set the record of longest time alive after presidency, at over 30 years. -
The American economy was reliant on good stocks constantly rising, eventually leading to the point where banks would freely give out loans for people buy stocks with, knowing that loaners would easily be able to pay back their loans. This large dependency on a prospering stock market led to the entire American economy rapidly declining after a sharp drop in the stock market. This drop was known as Black Tuesday, and America took almost a full decade to recover from it.
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt takes office, becoming the first to do so on January 20th, as required by the new 20th Amendment> He was the first president to appear on television, and the first president to serve more than 2 terms (1933-1945). He was also the first president to visit Asia and Africa while in office. -
Adolf Hitler of Germany was enraged at the post-war agreements of WW1 and how unfair they were to Germany, allowing him to slowly rally the entirety of Germany to fight against the Jews. His slowly rose to power, until almost all of Germany was under his dictatorial rule. Germany, combined with Japan and Italy, formed the Axis Powers. They were eventually defeated by the Allied Powers, which included America.
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America begins secretly developing the first nuclear bomb to use against Germany. The first nuclear bomb test was carried out on July 14th, 1945. Many people were incapable of processing the existence of such power being in the control of men. -
President Truman decided to drop an atomic bomb on Japan to make them surrender. After dropping the bomb, Japan still refused to surrender, so a second bomb was dropped. The Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were completely destroyed by the bombs, resulting in Japan finally surrendering. -
President Harry S. Truman takes office, becoming the first president to use nuclear weapons in an attack. He was also the first president to visit Germany while in office, the first to have their inauguration televised nationally, and the first president to leave office on Jan 20, as required by the 20th Amendment. Additionally, he was the first person to receive a Medicare card. -
America and Russia begin a war with little to no actual combat in it. After the world witnessed the destructive power of the atomic bomb, Russia became scared and started developing their own. America and Russia then entered an Arms Race of nuclear weapons, resulting in both countries having multiple thousand nuclear weapons each. Both countries eventually calmed down and decided to remove their weapons from strategic locations, eventually creating truces and treaties.
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President Dwight D. Eisenhower takes office, becoming the first president to serve in both World Wars. He was also the first president to appear on colored television, and the first president to receive a pilot's license. -
America enters a very controversial war with Vietnam, resulting in America also entering an unofficial war with its own citizens who did not want to fight Vietnam. Many innocent Vietnamese citizens were killed, and America eventually lost this war.
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Even after America and Russia ended their potentially world-ending war, they were still wanting to be better than each other. America and Russia were rapidly developing technology for entering space. A fake device owned by America that was supposedly able to shoot lasers to disarm nukes mid-flight was what eventually led to the end of the Cold War. Russia made most of the victories in the Space Race, but America ended the Space Race by putting a man on the Moon.
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Russia launches the first successful man-made satellite into orbit around Earth, the USSR Sputnik. -
President John F. Kennedy takes office, becoming the first president to grant an honorary citizenship to a non-US citizen. He was also the first Catholic president. He was later assassinated (see next event). -
On November 22nd, John F. Kennedy is assassinated in public while riding in a car in Texas. JFK was in the car with the governor of Texas, his wife, and the governor's wife when he was shot and killed by former US Marine, Lee Harvey Oswald. Police were already surrounding the area and the car the moment it happened, however Oswald was not found until much later. -
Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson takes office and becomes president after Former President JFK was assassinated. Due to the nature of his inauguration, he was the first president to be inaugurated while airborne in an airplane. He was also the first president to receive a Silver Star. -
President Richard M. Nixon takes office, and he becomes the first president to visit all 50 states. He was later impeached for the Watergate Scandal, although he technically resigned the day before his impeachment. -
Neil Armstrong, commanding the Apollo 11, successfully lands and steps on the moon, putting an end to the Space Race between Russia and America. -
US president Richard Nixon carries out the well known Watergate scandal, including multiple break-ins, destroying evidence, stealing money, and recording tapes. Nixon later refused to give these tapes in court, eventually leading to the tapes being forcefully taken. Nixon would then be charged with obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of congress. Nixon was bound to be impeached, but resigned before the impeachment. -
The highly Arab organization OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) refused to sell oil to any country that supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War. America was one of these countries, and America soon suffered an extreme shortage of oil and petroleum products (mainly gasoline). -
President Gerald R. Ford takes office after Nixon's impeachment. President Ford pardons Nixon of the Watergate charges, a decision that was met with much outcry from the public. -
President James Carter takes office, becoming the first president to be born in a hospital, and he currently holds the record for the longest living president. As of April 2021, he is 96 years old and still alive. -
President Ronald Reagan takes office, and he is the first president to win many awards, such as the Golden Globe, the Razzie, and the Golden Boot. He was also the first president to survive his attempted assassination injuries while in office. Reagan decided to make large tax cuts, hoping for his later named plan of "reganomics" to boost the economy by making it less restricted, this works very well. -
73 seconds after launching, the Space Shuttle Challenger (OV-099) had a fuel leak, leading to a massive fireball that many mistake to be an explosion. The entire crew was killed, including a teacher, Christa McAuliffe, who had won a competition in order to join the crew. -
Osama Bin Laden founds the terrorist group named Al Qaeda, which translates to "The Base," with the mission of performing symbolic acts of terrorism rather than simply achieving sheer military strength. -
President George H. W. Bush takes office, becoming the first president to be the director of what is now known as the CIA. He was also the first president to have previously been an acting president, while President Reagan was sedated for surgery. He also is responsible for sparking the Turkey Pardon Tradition. -
President William J. Clinton takes office, becoming the first president to have their inauguration streamed live over the internet. He was also the first president to visit 24 separate countries, and the first president to send an email. -
The turn of the year 2000 has arrived. Many people feared that simple computer calendars that only use 2 digits of the year will not be able to tell the difference between the year 2000 and the year 1900. This thing they were fearing was known as the "Y2K bug" and in some cases, this bug did break large systems. Thankfully, little came of this incident. However a new method of timekeeping was organized, and now all 4 digits of the year are required when keeping time in computers. -
President George W. Bush takes office, making him the current president during the tragedy of 9/11. Despite the terrorist attack, President Bush was the first president to leave office while both of his parents were still alive. -
The Al Qaeda terrorist group launched an attack by hijacking planes that were going cross-country, so that they were full of flammable fuel, and piloting multiple planes to crash into the two Twin Towers, killing everyone inside and many surrounding people. Another plane narrowly missed The Pentagon, killing many in a fire from the fuel. A fourth plane meant for the Capitol Building was re-hijacked and crashed near a coal mine. Totals are almost 3000 dead and 6000 injured. -
President Barack Obama takes office. He was the African-American president, and the first president to be born outside of the 48 contiguous states (Hawaii). He was also the first president to publicly approve of LGBT activity (same-sex marriage). -
Osama Bin Laden finally killed by Navy SEAL Robert O'Neill during a "Tier 1 mission" to accomplish that very goal. This achievement made Robert one of America's most "decorated" veterans.
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President Donald Trump takes office, becoming the oldest president when entering office. He was also the first president to be a billionaire prior to becoming president. He retried "reganomics" and it worked again. However, the 2020 COVID-19 virus was declared a pandemic and he chose to shut down the entire economy to help slow transmission. He was also the first president to be impeached twice by the House of Representatives, and the first president to never have an approval rating over 50%. -
President Joe Biden takes office, becoming the new oldest president when entering office. He was the first president to formally recognize the Armenian Genocide. As of May 2021, President Biden has yet to complete his first quarter-year in office. -
Internet users band together to intensely boost GameStop stocks to financially harm big businesses who were predicting it would continue slowly declining. As this was not the act of any individual person, this is a new type of marketing that has never been seen before where people with a common goal can hurt or harm others through stocks.
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