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Period: to
1995-2015
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Oklahoma City Bombing
The Oklahoma City Bombing was a domestic terrorist attack carried out by Timothy McVeigh and his accomplice Terry Nichols. Fed up with the amount of government intervention and attacks in Waco, TX, and Ruby Ridge. Because of this government militarism, McVeigh sought to take action by blowing up their Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. He parked a van carrying homemade explosives and parked it out the daycare center in the building. The explosion killed 168 people and injured 684 more. -
Children' Health Insurance Program
Created by President Bill Clinton, it helped states fund health insurance for children. While it was not a full-blown national health insurance policy, "it did constitute a historic expansion of coverage" (Kruse and Zelizer, 222). He wanted to bring health insurance to children who are not insured by their parents or are unable to find insurance for other reasons. This is another effort by Clinton trying to move closer to the center of the party and distance himself from radicalism. -
The Lewinsky Scandal
Clinton was exposed for having an affair with a young intern. "The president's affair had been improbably exposed by Drudge," a gossip page created by Matt Drudge (Kruse and Zelizer 226). The affair caused a hit to Clinton. His rivals used it to attack him. Clinton was impeached for lying while under oath to cover up what he did. However, it would ultimately be Clinton's biggest critic, Newt Gingrich, who would go down. As he was exposing Clinton's affair, his affair was revealed. -
Y2K
The fear was that when the clocks turned to midnight, starting the new millennium that the computer would not be able to enter the year 2000, instead reverting back to 1900. This would cause all computers to crash. In doing so, all computers at banks and the stock market would crash, and the world would plunge into an apocalypse. However, not everyone believed this, and when it hit midnight on January 1st, 2000, nothing happened, and the world kept going on as it was. -
Election of 2000
Bush vs Gore was one of the closest elections in American History. The election came down to Florida. A mere 537 votes one Florida and the. ason for the issue was that many votes were invalidated as they did not remove the paper left by the hole punch on the paper ballot. Had everyone removed the small piece of paper, Al Gore would have won the election. This made Bush's victory seem fraudulent in the eyes of America. Bush's successful first year in office was a success, but 9/11 derailed him. -
Attacks on September 11th
On 9/11, three planes were hijacked and crashed into American buildings. Two planes famously hit the twin towers in NYC, and the third into the Pentagon in Washington, DC. These were hijacked by members of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization. The terrorists were mostly from Saudi Arabia. The attacks changed America forever, adding new strict travel regulations at airports. More famously, it united the nation around a single cause and saw a boom in community within the nation across both parties. -
Creation of Facebook
Facebook started as one of the first major social media outlets. While the Internet was still just getting started, Facebook was just getting started. While originally only for college students needing a .EDU email, Facebook quickly grew into the largest website on the internet. Facebook opened the door for later social media websites to be created and is really the father of the modern social media space on the internet. Facebook would revolutionize the already revolutionary internet. -
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a. Category 3 hurricane that landed in New Orleans. As most of Louisiana is below sea level, the storm ravaged it. Hurricane Katrina killed 2000 people, making it the most destructive in modern US history. President Bush's reaction to Katrina is another reason why this storm is so famous. He underplayed the severity of the event. His failure to address Katrina and his appointment of the head of FEMA ultimately led to Katrina being a much bigger tragedy than it needed to be -
The Great Recession
In 2008, the stock market took a huge hit. A huge housing bubble had formed in the years leading up to the recession. Once it popped, the housing market and, in turn, the economy tanked. As people could not pay their mortgages and the banks started to go under. President Bush handled the crisis by providing 700 billion dollars in federal aid to banks, companies, and families in need -
Death of Osoma bin Laden
President Obama gives a speech on how American Navy SEALs located and killed Osama bin Laden in his hideout in Pakistan. His death ends a long hunt for him after the 9/11 attacks and invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. The news causes clarification in the United States as Bin Laden had been a threat to the safety of all US citizens through his actions of Al-Qaeda and the acts of terrorism that the United States had to endure. One of the most influential events in recent US history. -
Superstorm Sandy
Sandy was a rare type of storm, a superstorm. It happens only once in about 250 years. It combines elements of a tropical storm and a winter storm. What was so consequential about Sandy was the location it hit. New Jersey. While Jersey is not a stranger to storms, Sandy was no such storm. It ravaged the Jersey shore and caused $30 billion in damage. Sandy left entire towns wiped out. Some streets once filled with houses were empty. New Jersey is still recovering from Sandy's damages today.