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House-Select Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) is a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives which investigated allegations of communist activity in the U.S. They had an intimidating atmosphere that often created dramatic but questionable revelations about Communists invading American institutions and subversive actions by well-known citizens. HUAC’s tactics contributed to the fear, suspicion and suppression that existed during the anticommunist hysteria. -
G.I. Bill
The G.I. Bill established hospitals, made low-interest mortgages available and granted stipends covering tuition and expenses for veterans attending college or trade schools.Million of veterans received about $4 billion from the bill’s unemployment compensation program. The Veterans’ Administration offered insured loans until 1962. The Readjustment Benefits Act of 1966 expanded these benefits to all veterans of the armed forces, as well as including those who had served during peacetime. -
Little Boy
Little Boy was known as the first atomic bomb that was used in Wold War II against Japan. It dropped in Hiroshima which was the second artificial nuclear explosion in history and killed between 90,000 and 166,000 people. This bomb was developed by Lieutenant Commander Francis Birch's group of Captain William S. Parsons's Ordnance Division at the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II. It was developed after Thin man which was a nuclear bomb that was unsuccessful. -
Period: to
Cold War
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Iron Curtain
The iron curtain had received fame after Winston Churchill’s speech in which he said that an “iron curtain has descended” across Europe. This was the political, military, and barrier by the Soviet Union after World War II to seal off itself and its dependent eastern and central European allies from open contact with the West and other non communist areas. He was talking about the boundary line that divided Europe into Western Europe (political freedom) and Eastern Europe (communist Soviet rule). -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was established by President Harry S. Truman from a speech before a joint session of Congress. This stated that the United States would provide countries around the world resources to fight communism which would also stop the spread of communism. The resources involved political, military and economic assistance to everyone. This reoriented U.S. foreign policy, away from its usual stance of withdrawal from regional conflicts not directly involving the United States. -
The Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan is also known as the European Recovery Program and this was made to finance the economic recovery of Europe. The Marshall Plan successfully caused economic recovery which met its objective of ‘restoring the confidence of the European people in the economic future of their own countries and of Europe as a whole.’ This plan was named for Secretary of State George C. Marshall, who had announced it in a commencement speech at Harvard University. -
Fair Deal
The Fair Deal was President Harry S. Truman’s liberal domestic reform program. In 1945, in his postwar message to Congress, Truman had called for expanded social security, new wages-and-hours, public-housing legislation, & a permanent Fair Employment Practices Act that would stop racial discrimination in hiring. After he won at the polls in November 1948, Truman affirmed his proposals under the Fair Deal. This then raised the minimum wage, promoted slum clearance, & extended old-age benefits. -
Beat Generation
The Beat Generation was an American social and literary movement that was in the bohemian artist communities. They would called themselves "Beatniks” and would expressed themselves by choosing a uniform style of seedy dress, manners, and “hip” vocabulary that was borrowed from jazz musicians.They also supported personal release, purification, and illumination through the heightened sensory awareness that might be encouraged by drugs, jazz, sex, or the disciplines of Zen Buddhism. -
Television- TV Shows
The 1950s, was known for being the golden age of television since it became a new form of entertainment. News and other broadcasts transitioned from radio to television because of the amount of people watching TV for the very first time. And years later, most of American families had their own television in their living room. Sitcoms and comedies were the most popular to watch, some of the best shows were I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners and I Married Joan, these in which gained high ratings. -
Period: to
1950s
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Little Richard
Little Richard made hit songs during the 1950s that were one of the defining moments in the development of rock ‘n’ roll. He caught his first major break when a performance at an Atlanta radio station yielded a record contract with RCA in 1951. But Richard’s career failed to take off as he'd hoped it would. However, years later, he hooked up with Specialty Records producer Art Rupe, who’d been hunting for a piano-pounding front man to lead a group of musicians in New Orleans. -
Bill Haley and the Comets
Bill Haley and the Comets were a rock and roll band. Th is band in which released nine singles in the Top 20. Bill Haley had been a country music performer before being in a rock and roll band. After recording a country and western-styled version of "Rocket 88", a rhythm and blues song, he changed rock and roll. Bill Haley was always the leader although several members of the Comets became famous. Many fans consider them to be as revolutionary in their time as the Beatles were a decade later. -
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley was an 18-year-old who became famous in the 1950s as a rock and roll superstar. He started his career when he entered Sun Records Studio to record two songs for his mother and with these songs, he became Sun Records' most promising artist with the hit single. Years later, Presley earned a large fan base because of hits he released, two being "Hound Dog," and "All Shook Up." He also, however, received a lot of criticism because of his hip-shaking performances. -
Dr. Jonas Salk
Jonas Salk was an American physician and medical researcher who developed the first effective vaccine for polio. He started testing the polio vaccine in 1952 which ended up with millions of children getting shot with the vaccine during the test phase. By 1953, Salk administered the experimental vaccine to himself, his wife & sons and was approved for use years later. After this, the number of cases of polio fell to less than a thousand but the vaccine was then replaced by a live virus vaccine. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark Supreme Court case in which the justices ruled that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. Brown v. Board of Education was one of the cornerstones of the civil rights movement, and helped make the precedent that “separate-but-equal” education and other services were not equal at all. This led to Rosa Parks refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus and later created the Montgomery bus boycott. -
Period: to
Civil Rights
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Domino Theory
The Domino Theory was a policy that proposed a communist government in a nation could lead to communist takeovers in neighboring states, each falling like a perfectly aligned row of dominos. This theory was used by the U.S. government in Southeast Asia to justify its connection in the Vietnam War & its support for a dictator in South Vietnam. The American failure to prevent a communist victory in Vietnam had less of an impact than had been assumed by proponents of the domino theory. -
Emmett Till Tragedy
Emmett Till was a 14 year old African American boy from Chicago that was brutally murdered for flirting with a white woman four days earlier. His murderers, the white woman’s husband and her brother, made Emmett carry a 75-pound cotton-gin fan to the bank of the Tallahatchie River and ordered him to take off his clothes. The two men then beat him nearly to death, gouged out his eye, shot him in the head and then threw his body, tied to the cotton-gin fan with barbed wire, into the river. -
Ike Turner
Ike Turner made many of R&B hits with singer and wife Tina Turner. He met his wife, Anna Mae Bullock, who was a singer at that time in 1956. When he married her, he helped create her stage persona, Tina Turner and the two became the Ike & Tina Turner Revue who created many R&B hits. Some being "I Idolize You," "It's Going to Work Out Fine" and "Poor Fool." They had earned their first Grammy Award together for their duo's cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary". -
Albert Sabin
Albert Bruce Sabin was a Polish American physician and microbiologist best known for developing the oral polio vaccine. When trying to find the polio vaccine, he had isolated strains of each of the three types of poliovirus that were not strong enough to produce the disease itself but were able to stimulate the production of antibodies. Years later, the Sabin oral polio vaccine was approved for use in the United States in 1960 and became the main defense against polio throughout the world. -
Orval Faubus
Governor Orval Faubus was a governor who had announced that he would call in the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the African-American students’ entry to Central High. He stated that he was doing this to protect the students in Central High. On television, Faubus then insisted that violence and bloodshed might break out if black students were allowed to enter the school. Because of this the Mother’s League held a sunrise service at the school as a protest against integration. -
Sputnik
Sputnik was the first artificial satellite that was launched by the Soviet Union. It launched to go with the International Geophysical Year, a solar period that the International Council of Scientific Unions declared would be ideal for the launching of artificial satellites to study Earth & the solar system.Visible with binoculars before sunrise or after sunset, Sputnik transmitted radio signals back to Earth strong enough to be picked up by amateur radio operators. It burned in the atmosphere. -
Bay of Pigs
Bay if Pigs was when a young Cuban nationalist named Fidel Castro drove his guerilla army into Havana and overthrew General Fulgencio Batista. Years later, officials at the U.S. State Department and the CIA tried to push Castro from power. And in April 1961, the CIA launched the definitive strike which was a full-scale invasion of Cuba by American-trained Cubans who had fled their homes when Castro took over. However, the invaders were outnumbered by Castro’s troops, and surrendered. -
Hippies
Hippies were known as a counter cultural movement that rejected the mores of mainstream American life. The movement came to be on college campuses in the United States, but it spread to other countries, some including Canada and Britain. Even though the movement arose because of the United States involving in the Vietnam War, hippies never really engaged in politics. The people who would engage in politics were their activist counterparts known as “Yippies”. -
New Frontier
The New Frontier were economic and social programs of the presidency of John F. Kennedy. The concept of a "New Frontier" epitomized Kennedy's commitment to renewal and change. It basically called for advancing "the civil and economic rights essential to the human dignity of all men," raising the minimum wage, guaranteeing equal pay for women, rebuilding the inner cities, increasing federal aid for education, initiating a Peace Corps, and developing a Medicare program to assist the elderly. -
LSD
LSD was a symbol of the 1960s counterculture. It is a hallucinogenic drug that was made by a Swiss scientist. The CIA had conducted clandestine experiments with LSD for mind control, information gathering and other purposes during the Cold War. LSD users usually have hallucinogenic experiences which they call “trips." LSD is a strong hallucinogen that gives effects that are unpredictable. When a person is using it, there’s no way to know if they're going to have a good trip or not. -
Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee was a civil-rights group formed to give younger blacks more of a voice in the civil rights movement. This group became one of the movement’s more radical branches. In the rising of the Greensboro sit-in at a lunch counter closed to blacks, Ella Baker, director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, helped set up the first meeting of what then became the SNCC. She was concerned that SCLC, was out of touch with younger blacks. -
Chicano Mural Movement
The Chicano mural movement began in Mexican-American barrios throughout the Southwest. Artists began using the walls of city buildings, housing projects, schools, and churches to depict Mexican-American culture. Chicano muralism has been linked to pre-Columbian peoples of the Americas and Mexican revolutionary-era painters José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaros Siqueiros, collectively known as los tres grandes, who painted murals in the United States. -
Period: to
1960s
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Earl Warren Supreme Court
During Earl Warren's third term as governor, President Dwight D. Eisenhower nominated Warren to be chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Warren then led the Court in a series of liberal decisions that changed the role of the U.S. Supreme Court. Warren was known a a judicial activist, in that he believed the Constitution should be interpreted with the times.Warren spearheaded radical changes in areas of equal protection, law enforcement, and representative apportionment. -
Freedom Rides
Freedom Riders were groups of white and African American civil rights activists who took part in bus trips through the American South to protest segregated bus terminals. These bus trips were called Freedom Rides. What they basically did was use “whites-only” restrooms and lunch counters at bus stations in Alabama, South Carolina and other Southern states. During the rides, however, they were confronted by arresting police officers and horrific violence from white protesters. -
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps was a trial program established by President John F. Kennedy that proved to be one of the most innovative and highly publicized Cold War programs set up by the United States. He had proposed to help the developing countries, by promoting peace and encouraged them to go to needy countries and give them aid, financially, educationally, and physically. So, the Peace Corps became popular with college graduates. But years later people's interest in the Peace Corps began to decline. -
Warren Commission
A week after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Lyndon Johnson, made a commission to investigate Kennedy’s death. After a year of investigation, the commission, led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, concluded that alleged gunman Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in assassinating America’s 35th president, and that there was no conspiracy involved. The report, however, failed to silence conspiracy theories surrounding the event called into question the Warren Commission’s report. -
Birmingham Bombing
The Birmingham bombing was when a bomb exploded at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama which is a church mainly for black congregation that also served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders. In this bombing, four young girls were killed and many other people injured. This causing outrage over the incident and the violent clash between protesters and police followed helped draw national attention to the hard-fought struggle for civil rights for African Americans. -
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald was a former U.S. Marine who was accused of killing President John F. Kennedy. and was later killed by Jack Ruby during police custody.He had returned to America with family and ordered a .38 handgun, as well as later getting a hold of a rifle. It was later found that he had used the rifle to murder President John F. Kennedy and was found leaving the scene of the shooting. He was later confronted some distance away by police officer J.D. Tippit, who Oswald then shot & killed. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was what ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. It was first proposed by President John F. Kennedy and survived strong opposition from southern members of Congress and was then signed into law by Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson. Years later, Congress expanded the act and passed additional civil rights legislation such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965. -
Daisy Girl Ad
Daisy Girl was an advertisement that aired on television when the United States presidential election was going on. It was by Lyndon B. Johnson for his campaign. This ad only aired once but it was known to be a very important factor in Johnson's landslide victory over Barry Goldwater as well as an important turning point in political and advertising history. This ad still keeps being one of the most controversial political advertisements ever made. -
Great Society
The Great Society was made by President Lyndon B. Johnson which were a series of policy initiatives, legislation and programs spearheaded. The main goals were to end poverty, reduce crime, abolish inequality and improve the environment. President Lyndon B. Johnson laid out his program for a “Great Society” during a speech at the University of Michigan. Johnson started making progress with his Great Society, this in which was the largest social reform plan in history. -
Anti-War Movement
The anti-war movement was a movement against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. This movement began small, among peace activists and leftist intellectuals on college campuses, but then gained national prominence in after the United States began bombing North Vietnam. Anti-war marches and other protests, attracted a widening base of support over the next three years until the successful Tet Offensive by North Vietnamese troops in 1968 which proved that war’s end was nowhere near. -
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party was a political organization that would challenge police brutality against the African American community. They would dress in black berets and black leather jackets. And would organize armed citizen patrols of Oakland and other U.S. cities. The Black Panther Party had thousands of members. But the organization later declined because of internal tensions, deadly shootouts and the FBI intelligence activities that aimed at weakening the organization. -
Death of MLK
Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. He was a Baptist minister and founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference who led the civil rights movement since the using a combination of speeches and nonviolent protests to fight segregation and achieve significant civil-rights advances for African Americans. When he was assassinated, anger came among black Americans, as well as a period of national mourning that helped speed the way for an equal housing bill. -
Apollo 11
Apollo 11 took off from Kennedy Space Center with American astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, who later became the first humans ever to land on the moon. The first to step foot on the moon was Armstrong. As he stepped on the moon, he spoke his famous quote,“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” This mission happened eight years after President John Kennedy announced a national goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. -
OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries)
OPEC is a permanent, intergovernmental Organization, created at the Baghdad Conference by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Its objective is to co-ordinate and unify petroleum policies among Member Countries, in order to secure fair and stable prices for petroleum producers. OPEC in the 1970s rose to international prominence as its Member Countries took control of their domestic petroleum industries and acquired a major say in the pricing of crude oil on world markets. -
Stagflation
Stagflation is a combination of stagnant economic growth, high unemployment, and high inflation. It's an unnatural situation because inflation is not supposed to occur in a weak economy. Consumer demand drops enough to keep prices from rising. Slow growth in a normal market economy prevents inflation. Stagflation happens when the government or central banks expand the money supply at the same time they constrain supply. It can also occur when central bank monetary policies create credit. -
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Environmental Protection Agency was an agency of the U.S. government that sets and enforces national pollution-control standards. It was initially charged with the administration of the Clean Air Act which enacted to abate air pollution primarily from industries and motor vehicles; the Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act; and the Clean Water Act, regulating municipal and industrial wastewater discharges and offering grants for building sewage-treatment facilities. -
The New Right
The New Right is a movement of American conservatives that rose up against liberal policies on taxes, abortion, affirmative action, & foreign policy stances on the Soviet Union. This movement gave support to the Republican Party, which led to Republicans winning control of the U.S. Senate and the election of Ronald Reagan. This movement began forming when its members were shocked by increased sexuality in the public arena, rising crime, lack of restrictions of abortion, etc. -
Period: to
1970s
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Title IX
Title IX is a civil rights law that was passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972 by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. This law protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive Federal financial assistance. It also applies to institutions that receive federal financial assistance from ED, including state and local educational agencies. Title IX was placed as a follow-up to passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. -
Gerald Ford's Presidency
Gerald Ford was the 38th President of the United States and took office after the resignation of President Richard Nixon, who left the White House in shame after the Watergate scandal. Ford was the first unelected president in the nation’s history. Ford was a Republican congressman from Michigan who had been appointed vice president less than a year earlier by President Nixon. He is known for helping to restore public confidence in government after the disillusionment of the Watergate era. -
Federal Election Commission (FEC)
The Federal Election Commission is an independent agency created by the U.S. Congress to regulate election campaign finance in the United States. This happened when Congress amended the FECA to set limits on contributions and made the FEC. The mission of it is to administer and enforce the Federal Election Campaign Act that governs the financing of federal elections. The FEC has jurisdiction over campaigns for the U.S. House, the U.S. Senate, the presidency and the vice presidency. -
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian dictator Omar Torrijos had signed a treaty agreeing to transfer control of the Panama Canal from the United States to Panama. This treaty also authorized the abolishment of the Canal Zone. Congress opposed to giving up control of the Panama Canal but America’s colonial-type administration of the strategic waterway had disliked Panamanians for a long time -
The Moral Majority
Moral Majority is an American political organization that was founded by Jerry Falwell, a religious leader and televangelist, to advance conservative social values. Although it removed years later, it helped establish the religious right as a force in American politics. It was formed in response to the social and cultural transformations. Christian fundamentalists were alarmed by a number of developments like civil rights movement, the women’s movement, the gay rights movement, etc. -
Three-Mile Island
Three Mile Island is the site of a nuclear power plant in south central Pennsylvania. In this nuclear power plant, a series of mechanical and human errors caused the worst commercial nuclear accident in U.S. history, this in which resulted in a partial meltdown that released dangerous radioactive gasses into the atmosphere. This incident in the Tree Mile Island created public fears about nuclear power. This then causing no building of any new nuclear power plants in the United States. -
Reaganomics
Reaganomics is President Ronald Reagan's conservative economic policy that attacked recession and stagflation. Reaganomics promised to decrease the government's influence on the economy. Reaganomics is based on the theory of supply-side economics. It states that corporate tax cuts are the best way to grow the economy. When companies get more cash, they should hire new workers and expand their businesses. It also says that income tax cuts give workers more incentive to work. -
Robert Johnson
Robert Johnson, born in Hickory, Mississippi, was the founder of Black Entertainment Television along with his wife, Sheila. BET was the first cable network that targeted the African- American market. It was initially broadcasted two hours a week. This cable network was what made him into the country’s first African-American billionaire. BET later became the first African American-owned company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange and has continued to grow since that time. -
Period: to
1980s
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Election of 1980 - Jimmy Carter
The election of 1980 was between Democrat Jimmy Carter & Republican Ronald Reagan as well as Republican Congressman John B. Anderson. Carter, after defeating Ted Kennedy for the Democratic nomination, attacked Reagan as a dangerous right-wing radical because Reagan, the former Governor of California, ridiculed Carter multiple times & won a decisive victory. Reagan won 489 electoral votes while Carter won 49. This election marked the beginning of what is popularly called the "Reagan Revolution." -
Sandra Day O'Connor
Sandra Day O’Connor was the first woman to serve as a justice on the United States Supreme Court. When President Ronald Reagan nominated her for associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, it broke new ground for women in the legal field when she became the first female justice on the Supreme Court. Sandra Day O’Connor was considered to be a moderate conservative. She tended to vote in line with her politically conservative nature, but she still considered her cases very carefully. -
A.I.D.S. Crisis
AIDS is a disease where there is a severe loss of the body's cellular immunity which lowers the resistance to infection and malignancy greatly. It was found when cases of a rare lung infection called Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia were found in five gay men in Los Angeles. At the same time, there were reports of a group of men in New York and California with an unusually aggressive cancer. By the end of the year, there were 270 cases of severe immune deficiency among gay men. -
Music Television (MTV)
MTV is a cable television network that began as a 24-hour platform for music videos. It debuted just after midnight with the broadcast of “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles. Video disc jockeys then introduced videos and bantered about music news between clips. MTV expanded its programming to include rhythm and blues artists. Singles such as “Billie Jean” and “Beat It” from Michael Jackson’s Thriller which proved that exposure on MTV could propel artists to success. -
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) “Star Wars”
The Strategic Defense Initiative was a program first started under President Ronald Reagan. The point of this program was to develop a sophisticated anti-ballistic missile system to be able to prevent missile attacks from other countries. The Strategic Defense Initiative was the United States’ response to possible nuclear attacks from far away. But, there were concerns brought up about the program breaking the anti-ballistic missile of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks years before. -
Reagan Doctrine
The Reagan Doctrine served as the foundation for the Reagan administration’s support of “freedom fighters” around the globe. In this doctrine, the United States gave overt and covert aid to anti-communist guerrillas and resistance movements in an effort to get back Soviet-backed communist governments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The Reagan Doctrine was designed to get rid of Soviet influence in these regions as part of the administration's strategy to end the Cold War. -
Iran Contra Affair
The Iran-Contra Affair was a secret U.S. arms deal that involved the National Security Council trading missiles and other arms to free some Americans held hostage by terrorists in Lebanon. These missiles and other arms were prohibited by the U.S. Congress or violated the stated public policy of the government. It also used funds from the arms deal to support armed conflict in Nicaragua though. The controversial deal making, threatened to bring down the presidency of Ronald Reagan. -
Challenger Explosion
The challenger explosion was when a NASA space shuttle Challenger exploded just seconds after liftoff which brought a devastating end to the spacecraft’s 10th mission. The disaster killed all seven astronauts that were on board, including Christa McAuliffe, a teacher from New Hampshire who would have been the first civilian in space. The tragedy and its aftermath received extensive media coverage and prompted NASA to temporarily suspend all shuttle missions. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
The Communist government of the German Democratic Republic began to build a barbed wire and concrete wall between East and West Berlin in 1961. The purpose of this was to keep Western “fascists” from coming in East Germany and undermining the socialist state. This was then taken down in 1989, when the head of the East German Communist Party announced that citizens of the GDR could cross the border whenever they pleased. That night, crowds gathered around the wall . -
Persian Gulf War / 1st Iraq War
The Persian Gulf War was when Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion and occupation of neighboring Kuwait. Alarmed by these actions, Saudi Arabia and Egypt called on the United States and other Western nations to intervene. Hussein defied United Nations Security Council demands to withdraw from Kuwait and the Persian Gulf War began. Days later, George H.W. Bush declared a cease-fire and by that time, most Iraqi forces in Kuwait had either surrendered or fled. -
Period: to
1990s
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Rodney King Incident
Rodney King was caught by the Los Angeles police after a high-speed chase. The officers pulled him out of the car and beat him brutally, while amateur cameraman George Holliday caught it all on videotape. The four officers involved were indicted on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and excessive use of force by a police officer. However, after a three-month trial, a predominantly white jury acquitted the officers which made the violent Los Angeles riots. -
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
The North American Free Trade Agreement is controversial trade pact that eliminated most tariffs and other trade barriers on products and services passing between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The pact effectively created a free-trade bloc among the three largest countries of North America and was inspired by the success of the European Economic Community in eliminating tariffs. Some argued that creating a free-trade area would bring prosperity through increased trade and production -
Ross Perot
Ross Perot is an American businessman and philanthropist who ran as an independent candidate for U.S. president in 1992 and 1996. He had announced that he would enter the 1992 U.S. presidential election as a candidate if supporters would file petitions enabling him to be on the ballot in all 50 states. With Democratic Bill Clinton and with Republican president George H.W. Bush, support for Perot earned widespread popularity. Polls showed Perot was winning, but he later dropped from the race. -
World Trade Center Attack - 1993
The World Trade Center Attack happened when terrorists drove a rental van into a parking garage under the World Trade Center’s twin towers and lit the fuses on a homemade bomb stuffed inside. The massive explosion caused six people to die and more than 1,000 injured, which carved out a crater several stories deep and propelled smoke into the upper reaches of the skyscrapers. During this time, this was one of the worst terrorist attacks that ever happened in United States history. -
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Policy
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was another name for the former official U.S. policy regarding the service of homosexuals in the military. The term was coined after Pres. Bill Clinton signed a law directing that military personnel “don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue, and don’t harass.” When it went into effect, the policy theoretically lifted a ban on homosexual service that had been instituted during World War II. Years later, the House of Representatives and the Senate voted to repeal the policy. -
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi. She is known as a billionaire media giant, philanthropist and for hosting her own internationally popular talk show. She first hosted a hit television chat show, People Are Talking. Afterward, she was hired by a Chicago TV station to host her own morning show. She later became the host of her own, wildly popular program, The Oprah Winfrey Show. Since talk shows were becoming trashy, Winfrey promised to keep her show free of tabloid topics. -
Lewinsky Affair
The Lewinsky Affair happened when there was a political sex scandal involving President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern in her early 20s. When they began a sexual relationship, Lewinsky moved to a job at the Pentagon, where she talked to her coworker Linda Tripp about her affair with Clinton. Tripp secretly taped their conversations and the news made the affair public. This resulting in the House of Representatives impeaching Clinton for perjury and obstruction of justice. -
Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)
Defense of Marriage Act was a law that specifically denied to same-sex couples all benefits given to opposite-sex couples. Some of the benefits that were denied because of this law were the legal recognition of relationships, access to a partner’s employment benefits, rights of inheritance, joint tax returns and tax exemptions, immigration or residency for non citizen partners, next-of-kin status, protection from domestic violence, and the right to live together in military or college housing. -
Welfare Reform
A Welfare Reform is a movement to change the federal government's social welfare policy by moving some of the responsibility to the states and cutting benefits. A major welfare reform is the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 which is a United States federal law. The bill was a cornerstone of the Republican Contract with America and President Bill Clinton signed PRWORA into law fulfilling his campaign promise to "end welfare as we have come to know it". -
Period: to
Contemporary
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Bush v. Gore (SCOTUS case)
The Bush v. Gore case deals with Administrative law, which inspects any event where the Federal Government of the United States engages its citizens with matters involving the administration of government programs, the establishments of regulatory federal standards or the creation of agencies. The case made its way to the United States Supreme Court. Gore had won his case and the ballots were manually recounted however, George W. Bush explained that this recount undermined the 14th Amendment. -
War on Terror
War on Terror was the American-led global counter terrorism campaign launched in response to the terrorist attacks. It was intended to represent a new phase in global political relations and has had important consequences for security, human rights, international law, cooperation, and governance. It was a multidimensional campaign of almost limitless scope. Its military dimension involved major wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, covert operations in Yemen and elsewhere, and others. -
9/11 Attacks
The 9/11 Attacks was when 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four airplanes and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Thousands of people were killed which made major U.S. initiatives to combat terrorism. -
PATRIOT ACT
The Patriot Act was an anti-terrorism law drawn up in response to the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. Bush hoped the bipartisan legislation would empower law enforcement and intelligence agencies to prevent future terrorist attacks on American soil. The law was intended, in Bush’s words, to “enhance the penalties that will fall on terrorists or anyone who helps them.” As well as increased intelligence agencies’ ability to share information. -
No Child Left Behind Education Act
The No Child Left Behind Act is a re authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. States are required to test students in reading and math in grades 3–8 and once in high school. All students are expected to meet or exceed state standards in reading and math by 2014. The major focus of No Child Left Behind is to close student achievement gaps by providing all children with a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education. -
Hurricane Katrina Disaster
Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States. When the storm made landfall, it had a Category 3 rating & did a great deal of damage. But its aftermath was catastrophic. Levee breaches led to massive flooding, & many people charged that the federal government was slow to meet the needs of the people affected by the storm. Thousands of people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama were displaced from their homes, and is estimated that Katrina caused more than $100 billion in damage. -
The Great Recession
The Great Recession was a global economic downturn that devastated world financial markets as well as the banking and real estate industries. The led to increases in home mortgage foreclosures worldwide and caused millions of people to lose their life savings, their jobs and their homes. It’s generally considered to be the longest period of economic decline since the Great Depression. The Great Recession was most pronounced in the United States and in Western Europe. -
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was a fiscal stimulus that ended the Great Recession. Congress approved President Obama's plan to put billions into the pockets of American families and small businesses. That would boost demand and instill confidence. It was a necessary follow-up to President Bush's plan, the Troubled Asset Recovery Program. ARRA encouraged demand by sending billions to families. They received the funds through tax cuts, tax credits and unemployment benefits. -
First Hispanic SCOTUS judge - Sonya Sotomayor
Sonia Sotomayor was born in the Bronx borough of New York City. Her desire to be a judge was first inspired by the TV show Perry Mason. She graduated from Yale Law School and became a U.S. District Court Judge. She then was elevated to the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Years later, President Barack Obama announced his nomination of Sotomayor for Supreme Court justice. The nomination was by the U.S. Senate which made Sotomayor the first Latina Supreme Court justice in U.S. history. -
Affordable Care Act (ACA) “Obamacare”
The Affordable Care Act has 3 primary goals. One being making affordable health insurance available to more people. This provides consumers with subsidies that lower costs for households with incomes of the federal poverty level. Another is expanding the Medicaid program to cover all adults with income below the federal poverty level. Last goal is supporting innovative medical care delivery methods designed to lower the costs of health care generally.
