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NRA
The National Recovery Association was directed by Hugh Johnson; it was an attempt to guarantee reasonable profits for business and fair wages and hours for labor. -
PLO
This was the Palestine Liberation Organization; its purpose was the liberation of Palestine through armed struggle and much of its violence aimed at Israeli civilians. -
California v. Bakke
The Supreme Court ruled in their favor in the landmark case by deciding that college admissions could not be based on race alone. -
Sandinistas
Sandinistas were Marxist regimes that had taken over Nicaragua in 1979. -
Moral Majority
This was founded by Virginia evangelist Jerry Falwell, and it financed campaigns to unseat liberal members of Congress. -
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan was the Republican nominee in 1980; he won with 51% of the popular vote and 91% of the electoral vote. His famous campaign question was, "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" -
Supply-Side Economics
This was also referred to as "Reaganomics"; the Reagan administration argued that tax cuts reduced government spending, would increase investment by the private sector, and lead to increased jobs, production, and prosperity. -
Trickle-Down Economics
This was a theory that Coolidge would assist the hard pressed railroads, banks, and rural credit corporations in the hope that if financial health were restored at the top of the economic pyramid, unemployment would be relieved at the bottom on a trickle down basis. -
Religious Fundamentalism
This was a religious movement whose objectives were to return to the foundations of the faith and to influence state policy where every word of the Bible is interpreted literally. -
Economic Recovery Tax Act
This was a major revision of the federal tax income system; it cut income taxes by 25% over just two and a half years. -
PACTO Strike
This was known as Professional Air Traffic Controllers System; it was a strike that was declared illegal, but then it was broken by the Reagan administration. -
Sandra Day O'Connor
President Reagan followed through on his pledge to appoint conservative judges to the Supreme Court; Sandra Day O'Connor was nominated, and she was the first woman on the court. -
AIDS
During the 1980s, there was a deadly outbreak of acquired immune deficiency syndrome. -
SDI
This was the Strategic Defense Initiative, which was an ambitious plan for building a high-tech system of lasers and particle beams to destroy enemy missiles before they could reach the United States territory. -
Beirut Bombings
An Arab suicide squad bombed the U.S. embassy in Beirut, and they killed 63 people. Then, another Arab terrorist drove a bomb-filled truck into the U.S. Marines barracks, killing 241 servicemen. -
Walter Mondale
The Democratic party elected Mondale for their 1986 presidential candidate, who was Carter's vice president. -
Geraldine Ferraro
In the 1984 election, the Democratic party nominated Representative Geraldine Ferraro of New York to be the first woman to run for vice president. -
Boland Amendment
Democrats opposed to the administration's policies in Nicaragua passed the Boland Amendment, which prohibited further aid to the contras. -
Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev was a dynamic reformer and became the new Soviet leader. He attempted to change Soviet domestic politics by introducing two major reforms. -
Glasnost & Perestroika
Gorbachev's two major reforms were glasnost and perestroika. Glasnost was openness to end political repression and move toward greater political freedom for Soviet citizens. Perestroika was restructuring of the Soviet economy by introducing some free-market practices. -
William Rehnquist
He was the new chief justice, and he led the Supreme Court to scale back affirmative action in hiring and promotions and limited Roe v. Wade by allowing states to impose certain restrictions on abortion, such as requiring minors to notify their parents before having abortions. -
Iran-Contra Affair
President Reagan sold U.S. antitank and antiaircraft missiles to Iran's government for its help in freeing the Americans held hostage by a radical Arab group; in 1986, a Reagan staff member had an idea to use the profits of the arms deal with Iran to fund the contras in Nicaragua. -
Immigration Act of 1986
This federal act made it illegal to knowingly hire or recruit illegal immigrants, as well as legalizing certain groups of immigrants. -
"Tear Down this Wall"
This was a line from Reagan's speech in West Berlin calling for Gorbachev to open up the Berlin Wall which had divided East and West Berlin. -
INF Agreement
Gorbachev and Reagan agreed to remove and destroy all intermediate-range missiles. -
Yasser Arafat
Arafat was the PLO leader, and he agrees to recognize Israel's right to exist in 1988. -
"Read my lips, no new taxes."
Bush appealed to voters by promising not to raise taxes: "Read my lips, no new taxes." -
Citizens United
This was a political organization that pushed a primarily conservative agenda. -
George H.W. Bush
He served as president from 1989 to 1993, and he served as vice president from 1981 to 1989. -
Tiananmen Square
In China during the spring of 1989, prodemocracy students demonstrated for freedom in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. -
Lech Walesa
He was elected President of Poland; he was the leader of the once outlawed Solidarity movement. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a gloomy symbol of the Cold War; it was eventually torn down by rebellious East Germans. -
Panama Invasion
Bush ordered the U.S. troops to invade Poland and remove the autocratic General Manuel Noriega; they wanted to stop Noriega from using his country as a drug pipeline to the United States. -
Breakup of the Soviet Union
In 1990, the Soviet Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania declared their independence, and in 1991, the remaining republics dissolved the Soviet Union. -
Saddam Hussein
Iraq's dictator invaded oil-rich but weak Kuwait and threatened Western oil sources in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
President Bush signed this into law, which prohibited discrimination against citizens with physical and mental disabilities in hiring, transportation, and public accommodation. -
Boris Yeltsin
He was the president of the Russian Republic; he joined with nine former Soviet republics to form a loose confederation, the Commonwealth of Independent States. -
Start l and ll
Bush and Gorbachev signed the Start l Agreement in 1991, which reduced the number of nuclear warheads to under 10,000 for each side. In 1992, Bush and Yeltsin agreed to start a Start ll treaty, which reduced the number of nuclear weapons to just over 3,000 each. -
Persian Gulf War
In a massive operation called Desert Storm, over half a million Americans were joined by military units from 28 other nations. After 100 hours of fighting on the ground, Iraq was forced to concede defeat. -
Clarence Thomas
The president's nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court to replace the retiring Thurgood Marshall proved extremely controversial. His conservative views were attacked by African American organizations. -
WMD's
To protect America, the president claimed that the United States would be justified in using preemptive attacks to stop the acquisition and use of weapons of mass destruction by terrorists and by nations that support terrorism. -
Bill Clinton
Clinton won the Election of 1992 against Bush. -
Ross Perot
He was a Texas billionaire, and he entered the 1992 election as an independent; he captured about 20% of the popular vote. -
"Ethnic Cleansing"
Hundreds of thousands of members of ethnic and religious minorities were killed in this process. -
Kyoto Accord
This commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. -
Failure of Health Reforms (1990's)
The Clinton administration proposed a universal healthcare plan for all American citizens, but it failed after public backlash. -
Brady Bill
This bill mandated a five-day waiting period for the purchase of handguns. -
"Don't ask, don't tell."
The military service policy prevented service members from both asking and disclosing sexual orientation. -
NAFTA
Clinton signed in the North American Free Trade Agreement, which created a free-trade zone with Canada and Mexico. -
Deficit Reduction Budget
Congress passed the deficit-reduction budget that included $255 billion in spending cuts and $241 billion in tax increases. -
Newt Gingrich
He was elected Speaker of the House, and he led the Republicans in an attack on federal programs and spending outlined in their campaign manifesto. -
Contract with America
This document was released by the Republican Party during the 1994 Congressional election campaign. -
West Bank and the Gaza Strip
The United States continued to assist in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which resulted in the return of home rule to the Palestinians in the Gaza strip and parts of the West Bank territories. -
WTO
The World Trade Organization was established to oversee trade agreements, enforce trade rules, and settle disputes. -
Oklahoma City Bombing
A federal building was bombed by militia-movement extremists; the bombing took 169 lives. -
Bosnia and Kosovo
A combination of diplomacy, bombing, and troops from NATO countries, including the United States, stopped the bloodshed first in Bosnia in 1995 and again in Kosovo in 1999. -
Welfare Reform
This federal act was designed to negate the need for welfare checks by assisting needy families, families with dependent children, and by providing job training. -
Bob Dole
Senator Bob Dole of Kansas became Clinton's republican opponent in the election of 1996. -
Madeleine Albright
She became the first woman to serve as secretary of state. -
G-8
This inter-governmental political forum was formed with Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union. -
Internet
Technological innovations in computers, the Internet, and wireless communications fueled increased national productivity. -
Clinton Impeachment
He was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice, and he was impeached. -
Nuclear Proliferation
This became a growing concern in the 1990s, when North Korea stepped up its nuclear reactor and missile programs, and India and Pakistan tested nuclear weapons for the first time in 1998. -
Taliban
The Taliban were Islamic fundamentalists who had taken over Afghanistan. -
George W. Bush
He was the governor of Texas, and he won the nomination of the Republican Party in 2000. -
AL Gore
He ended the election crisis by accepting the ruling; Bush had 271 electoral votes and Al Gore had 266. -
Bush v. Gore
The majority ruled that the varying standards used in Florida's recount violated the Equal-Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. -
Bush Tax Cuts
This series of tax cuts was executed by the W. Bush Administration, and they extended into the Obama Administration. -
9/11
This was a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda on the United States. -
Al-Qaeda
Supporters of Al Qaeda preached jihad, or holy war against the "Jews and Crusaders". -
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden was the leader of Al Qaeda. -
Homeland Security
Most Americans were willing to accept background checks and airport searches after 9/11. -
EU
The European Union became a unified market of 15 nations, 12 of which adopted a single currency, the euro. -
No Child Left Behind
This act aimed to improve student performance and close the gap between well-to-do and poor students in the public schools through nationwide testing of all students, student transfer rights to better schools, improved reading programs, and the training of high-quality teachers. -
Enron
They falsified stated earnings and profits with the help of accounting companies. -
"Axis of Evil"
In President Bush's State of the Union Address, he singled out Iraq, North Korea, and Iran as the "axis of evil". -
Operation Iraqi Freedom
The Iraq War was a protracted armed conflict that began with the invasion of Iraq by a United States-led coalition that overthrew the government of Hussein. -
Abu Ghraib Prison
The barbaric treatment of prisoners by United States troops further diminished America's reputation in Iraq and around the world. -
John Kerry
Democratic voters selected Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts as their presidential candidate. -
Hurricane Katrina
This was a Category 5 hurricane that damaged along the Gulf Coast from central Florida to Texas. -
Housing Bubble
This was a real estate bubble that affected half of the United States, and housing prices peaked. -
Great Recession
This economic recession was the worst recession since the Great Depression and was particularly devastating to the real-estate market. -
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
The federal government tried a $170 billion stimulus package and took over a few critical financial situations, such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. -
Hillary Clinton
In the election of 2008, she was the Senator of New York, and she was the early favorite to become the first woman to head a national ticket. -
Barack Obama
He was a junior senator from Illinois, and he captured the Democratic nomination for president. -
John McCain
The Republicans nominated Senator John McCain of Arizona, who was a Vietnam War hero and a political "maverick" who hoped to appeal to undecided voters. -
Sarah Palin
McCain selected Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, a relatively unknown politician, to run as his vice president. -
D.C. v. Heller
This Supreme Court case ruled that the federal handgun ban and other firearm restrictions were unconstitutional. -
Sonia Sotomayor
She became the first Latina to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. -
Tea Party
This was a Republican movement that called for lower taxes and reduction of the national debt. -
Dodd-Frank Act
This federal act improved financial stability and consumer protection. -
Affordable Care Act
This was also called Obamacare, and it was an attempt to improve the affordability of healthcare. -
Arab Spring
This was a revolutionary wave of violent and non-violent demonstrations, protests, and riot; it resulted in many civil wars. -
Debt Ceiling
The Republicans in Congress wanted to raise the debt ceiling by deficit reduction, but it resulted in a fall of the federal government's credit rating. -
Syrian Civil War
This war erupted during the Arab Spring, and the war is still going on today. -
Mitt Romney
He was the the Republican nominee in the election of 2012. -
Boston Marathon Bombing
Two homemade bombs went off near the finish line of the annual Boston Marathon. -
Shelby County v. Holder
This Supreme Court case ended with the ruling that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was unconstitutional. -
Same-Sex Marriage
In the Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges, they ruled that same-sex marriage was legal in all states.
