-
G.I. Bill
Gave money to veterans to study in colleges, universities, gave medical treatment, loans to buy a house or farm or start a new business -
Little Boy
Was the codename for the atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. It was the first atomic bomb to be used in warfare. The Hiroshima bombing was the second artificial nuclear explosion in history, after the Trinity test, and the first uranium-based detonation. The bomb caused significant destruction to the city of Hiroshima and its occupants. -
Period: to
Cold War
The state of political hostility that existed between the Soviet bloc countries and the US-led Western powers. -
Beat Generation
Central elements of Beat culture are rejection of standard narrative values, spiritual quest, exploration of American and Eastern religions, rejection of materialism, explicit portrayals of the human condition, experimentation with psychedelic drugs, and sexual liberation and exploration -
Period: to
1950's
The Baby Boomers were born. The United States was the world’s strongest military power. Its economy was booming, and the fruits of this prosperity–new cars, suburban houses and other consumer goods–were available to more people than ever before. However, the 1950s were also an era of great conflict. For example, the nascent civil rights movement and the crusade against communism at home and abroad exposed the underlying divisions in American society. -
Fair Deal
All Americans have health insurance, that the minimum wage (the lowest amount of money per hour that someone can be paid) be increased, and that, by law, all Americans be guaranteed equal rights. -
Rock 'N' Roll
Is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, from African American musical styles such as gospel, jazz, boogie woogie, and rhythm and blues, and country music. -
Duck and Cover
Was a method of personal protection against the effects of a nuclear explosion. Ducking and covering is useful at conferring a degree of protection to personnel situated outside the radius of the nuclear fireball but still within sufficient range of the nuclear explosion. However, we all know that nothing can protect us from a nuclear explosion. -
Ike Turner
American musician, bandleader, songwriter, arranger, talent scout, and record producer. An early pioneer of fifties rock and roll, he is most popularly known for his work in the 1960s and 1970s with his then-wife Tina Turner in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. -
Bill Haley And His Comets
Was the earliest group of white musicians to bring Rock and Roll to the attention of America and the rest of the world. From late 1954 to late 1956, the group placed nine singles in the Top 20, one of those a number one and three more in the Top Ten. -
Malcolm X
African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans; detractors accused him of preaching racism and violence. He has been called one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history. -
Martin Luther King Jr’s Civil Rights beginning
Was a Baptist minister and social activist who played a key role in the American civil rights movement. His leadership was fundamental to that movement’s success in ending the legal segregation of African Americans in the South and other parts of the United States. -
Period: to
Civil Rights
The Civil Rights Movement, also known as the American Civil Rights Movement and other names,[b] is a term that encompasses the strategies, groups, and social movements in the United States whose goals were to end racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans and to secure legal recognition and federal protection of the citizenship rights enumerated in the Constitution and federal law. -
Domino Theory
the theory that a political event in one country will cause similar events in neighboring countries, like a falling domino causing an entire row of upended dominoes to fall. which governed much of U.S. foreign policy beginning in the early 1950s, held that a communist victory in one nation would quickly lead to a chain reaction of communist takeovers in neighboring states. -
Elvis
Elvis Aaron Presley was an American singer and actor. Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" -
Dr. Jonas Salk
Was an American medical researcher and virologist. He discovered and developed one of the first successful polio vaccines. While there is still no actual cure for Polio, thanks to inventor Dr. Jonas Salk there is a way to prevent it. Before Salk invented the vaccine for Polio, America was forced to live in fear of the infectious viral disease that put Franklin Roosevelt in a wheelchair. -
Polio Vaccine
Polio is an infectious disease caused by a virus that lives in the throat and intestinal tract. ... There are two types of vaccine that protect against polio: inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) and oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV). IPV is given as an injection in the leg or arm, depending on the patient's age. -
Emmett Till Tragedy
The Emmett Till murder trial brought to light the brutality of Jim Crow segregation in the South and was an early impetus of the African American civil rights movement. -
Vietnam War
long, costly armed conflict that pitted the communist regime of North Vietnam and its southern allies, known as the Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. The divisive war, increasingly unpopular at home, ended with the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1973 and the unification of Vietnam under Communist control two years later. More than 3 million people, including 58,000 Americans, were killed in the conflict. -
Rosa Parks
Parks refused to obey bus driver James F. Blake's order to give up her seat in the colored section to a white passenger, after the white section was filled. Became an activist in the Civil Rights Movement, whom the United States Congress called "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement" -
Little Richard
He claims to be “THE ARCHITECT OF ROCK AND ROLL,”
More than any other performer - save, perhaps, Elvis Presley, Little Richard blew the lid off the Fifties, laying the foundation for rock and roll with his explosive music and charismatic persona. -
Eisenhower Interstate System
Made to eliminate unsafe roads, inefficient routes, traffic jams and all of the other things that got in the way of “speedy, safe transcontinental travel.” At the same time, in case of atomic attack on our key cities, the road net would permit quick evacuation of target areas. -
Little Rock 9
The Little Rock Nine was a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas. They then attended after the intervention of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. -
Space Race
Was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States (US), for supremacy in spaceflight capability. A competition for space exploration. -
NASA
"NASA" stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Was created in response to the Soviet Union’s October 4, 1957 launch of its first satellite, Sputnik I. The United States prided itself on being at the forefront of technology, and, embarrassed, immediately began developing a response, signaling the start of the U.S.-Soviet space race. -
Hippies
Hippies created their own communities, listened to psychedelic music, embraced the sexual revolution, and used drugs such as marijuana, LSD, peyote and psilocybin mushrooms to explore altered states of consciousness. -
Chicano Mural Movement
Based on the creation of murals, large-scene paintings depicting complex scenes. But, before we can understand this movement, we need to understand where it came from. Many of these themes correlate to a Mexican heritage with images like Aztec pyramids, heroes like Pancho Villa, and references to the Virgin of Guadalupe. -
Period: to
1960's
In some cases nostalgically to describe the counterculture and revolution in social norms about clothing, music, drugs, dress, sexuality, formalities, and schooling; and in others pejoratively to denounce the decade as one of irresponsible excess, flamboyance, and decay of social order. -
Feminism
Originally focused on dismantling workplace inequality, such as denial of access to better jobs and salary inequity, via anti-discrimination laws. ... As such, the different wings of the feminist movement sought women's equality on both a political and personal level. -
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, also known as acid, is a psychedelic drug known for its psychological effects. Started being used by hippies to take a "trip." -
Sit-Ins
Form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. New tactic was added to the peaceful activists' strategy. Four African American college students walked up to a whites-only lunch counter and asked for coffee. When service was refused, the students sat patiently. Despite threats and intimidation, the students sat quietly and waited to be served. -
Sit-Ins
The nonviolent measures employed by Martin Luther King Jr. helped African American activists win supporters across the country and throughout the world. On February 1, 1960, a new tactic was added to the peaceful activists' strategy. Four African American college students walked up to a whites-only lunch counter and asked for coffee. When service was refused, the students sat patiently. Despite threats and intimidation, the students sat quietly and waited to be served. -
New Frontier
President Kennedy's nickname for his domestic policy agenda. Buoyed by youthful optimism, the program included proposals for the Peace Corps and efforts to improve education and health care. -
Peace Corps
a federal agency created by President Kennedy in 1961 to promote voluntary service by Americans in foreign countries, it provides labor power to help developing countries improve their infrastructure, health care, educational systems, and other aspects of their societies. Part of Kennedy's New Frontier vision, the organization represented an effort by postwar liberals to promote American values and influence through productive exchanges across the world -
Resolution to the Crisis
Disaster was avoided when the U.S. agreed to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s (1894-1971) offer to remove the Cuban missiles in exchange for the U.S. promising not to invade Cuba. Kennedy also secretly agreed to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
Leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores. President John Kennedy notified Americans about the presence of the missiles, explained his decision to enact a naval blockade around Cuba. Following this news, many people feared the world was on the brink of nuclear war -
Birmingham March
was a movement organized in early 1963 by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to bring attention to the integration efforts of African Americans in Birmingham, Alabama. -
"I Have a Dream " Speech
Public speech delivered by American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, in which he calls for an end to racism in the United States and called for civil and economic rights. Delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., the speech was a defining moment of the Civil Rights Movement -
Lee Harvey Oswald
Ex-Marine and communist and communist sympathizer who assassinated JFK in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. He was murdered two days later as he was being transferred from one jail to another -
Assasination of JFK
Kennedy was fatally shot by Lee Harvey Oswald while he was riding with his wife, Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally, and Connally's wife, Nellie, in a presidential motorcade. A ten-month investigation by the Warren Commission from November 1963 to September 1964 concluded that Oswald acted alone in shooting Kennedy, -
Great Society
It aimed to extend the postwar prosperity to all people in American society by promoting civil rights and fighting poverty, including programs such as the War on Poverty (expanded the Social Security system by creating Medicare and Medicaid to provide health care for the aged and poor). Johnson also signed laws protecting consumers and empowering community organizations to combat poverty at grassroots level -
Daisy Girl Ad
Controversial political advertisement aired on television during the 1964 United States presidential election by incumbent president Lyndon B. Johnson's campaign. Though only aired once (by the campaign), it is considered to be an important factor in Johnson's landslide victory over Barry Goldwater and an important turning point in political and advertising history. It remains one of the most controversial political advertisements ever made. -
Anti-War Movement
Social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. -
Death of MLK
Was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. King was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. that evening. He was a prominent leader of the Civil Rights Movement and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who was known for his use of nonviolence and civil disobedience. -
Cesar Chaves
Led a boycott that resulted in a collective bargaining agreement guaranteeing field workers the right to unionize. Hardened by his early experience as a migrant worker, Chavez founded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962. His union joined with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee in its first strike against grape growers in California, and the two organizations later merged to become the United Farm Workers. -
Apollo 11
Was the spaceflight that landed the first two humans on the Moon. Mission commander Neil Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin, both American, landed the lunar module Eagle. -
Stagflation
persistent high inflation combined with high unemployment and stagnant demand in a country's economy. A portmanteau of stagnation and inflation, is a situation in which the inflation rate is high, the economic growth rate slows, and unemployment remains steadily high. It raises a dilemma for economic policy, since actions designed to lower inflation may exacerbate unemployment, and vice versa. -
Period: to
1970's
Women, African Americans, Native Americans, gays and lesbians and other marginalized people continued their fight for equality, and many Americans joined the protest against the ongoing war in Vietnam. -
Silent Majority
In this usage it referred to those Americans who did not join in the large demonstrations against the Vietnam War at the time, who did not join in the counterculture, and who did not participate in public discourse. Nixon along with many others saw this group of Middle Americans as being overshadowed in the media by the more vocal minority.After giving the speech, Nixon's approval ratings which had been hovering around 50% shot up to 81% in the nation and 86% in the South. -
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Which was created for the purpose of protecting human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress. -
Watergate
Major political scandal that occurred in the United States in the 1970s, following a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. in 1972 and President Richard Nixon's administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement -
Title IX
No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance -
OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries)
To coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of its member countries and ensure the stabilization of oil markets, in order to secure an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consumers, a steady income to producers, and a fair return on capital for those investing in the petroleum industry. announces a decision to cut oil exports to the United States and other nations that provided military aid to Israel in the Yom Kippur War -
Endangered Species Act
Provides for the conservation of species that are endangered or threatened throughout all or a significant portion of their range, and the conservation of the ecosystems on which they depend. -
Nixon’s resignation
President Richard M. Nixon announces his intention to become the first president in American history to resign. With impeachment proceedings underway against him for his involvement in the Watergate affair, Nixon was finally bowing to pressure from the public and Congress to leave the White House. “By taking this action,” he said in a solemn address from the Oval Office, “I hope that I will have hastened the start of the process of healing which is so desperately needed in America.” -
Beginnings of the Personal Computer
Doesn't begin with IBM or Microsoft, although Microsoft was an early participant in the fledgling PC industry. The first personal computers, came as kits: The MITS Altair 8800, followed by the IMSAI 8080, an Altair clone. -
The Moral Majority
Prominent American political organization associated with the Christian right and Republican Party. It was founded by Baptist minister Jerry Falwell and associates, It played a key role in the mobilization of conservative Christians as a political force and particularly in Republican presidential victories throughout the 1980s. -
Rap Music
The 1980s marked the diversification of hip hop as the genre developed more complex styles. Prior to the 1980s, hip hop music was largely confined within the United States. However, during the 1980s, it began to spread to music scenes in dozens of countries, many of which mixed hip hop with local styles to create new subgenres. New school hip hop was the second wave of hip hop music, originating in 1983–84 with the early records of Run-D.M.C. and LL Cool J. -
Period: to
1980s
The time period saw great social, economic, and general change as wealth and production migrated to newly industrializing economies.The 80s also represented a significant technological and cultural transition, as computing expanded from a primarily business and academic phenomenon into the home with the advent of the personal computer, accompanied by the growth of the software industry, ultimately paving the way for the World Wide Web on the Internet. -
Home video game systems
Is a video game device that is primarily used for home gamers, as opposed to in arcades or some other commercial establishment. Throughout the early 1980s, other companies released video game consoles of their own. Many of the video game systems were technically superior to the Atari 2600, and marketed as improvements over the Atari 2600, but Atari dominated the console market in the early 1980s. However, a severe crash occurred in 1983 in the video game business. -
Ronald Reagan
Reagan, aided by the Iran hostage crisis and a worsening economy at home marked by high unemployment and inflation, won the election by a landslide, receiving the highest number of electoral votes ever won by a non-incumbent presidential candidate. Aged 69 at the time, Reagan became the oldest person to ever take the oval office. -
Reagonomics
The economic policies of the former US president Ronald Reagan, associated especially with the reduction of taxes and the promotion of unrestricted free-market activity. -
Sandra Day O’Connor
She was an elected official and judge in Arizona serving as the first female Majority Leader of a state senate as the Republican leader in the Arizona Senate. -
Music Television (MTV)
the channel originally aired music videos as guided by television personalities known as "video jockeys" (VJs). In its early years, MTV's main target demographic was young adults, but today it is primarily towards teenagers, particularly high school and college students. -
A.I.D.S. Crisis
After scientific discovery that the disease was also transmitted by other means, plus political pressure from those who felt the name unfairly stigmatized homosexuals, the designation was officially changed to AIDS. In Africa, where the vast majority of cases have always been (about 20 times as many cases as in the United States), the disease has always been found in the general population. -
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)
Also known as Star Wars, was a program first initiated under President Ronald Reagan. The intent of this program was to develop a sophisticated anti-ballistic missile system in order to prevent missile attacks from other countries, specifically the Soviet Union. -
Challenger Explosion
The NASA shuttle orbiter mission STS-51-L and the tenth flight of Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members. It was later determined that two rubber O-rings, which had been designed to separate the sections of the rocket booster, had failed due to cold temperatures on the morning of the launch. The tragedy and its aftermath received extensive media coverage and prompted NASA to temporarily suspend all shuttle missions. -
Discount Retailing
Is a retail store which sells products at prices that are lower than the typical market value. In the United States, discount stores had 42% of overall retail market share in 1987; in 2010, they had 87% -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
For 30 years, the Berlin Wall was the defining symbol of the Cold War, separating families and keeping the people from jobs and opportunity in the west. when the head of the East German Communist Party announced that citizens of the GDR could cross the border whenever they pleased. That night, ecstatic crowds swarmed the wall. Some crossed freely into West Berlin, while others brought hammers and picks and began to chip away at the wall itself. -
Black Entertainment Television (BET)
is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by the BET Networks division of Viacom. It is the most prominent television network targeting African American audiences,[1] with approximately 88,255,000 American households (75.8% of households with television) receiving the channel -
Period: to
1990s
Characterized by the rise of multiculturalism and alternative media, which continued into the 2000s. Movements such as grunge, the rave scene and hip hop spread around the world to young people during that decade, aided by then-new technology such as cable television and the World Wide Web. -
Persian Gulf War/1st Iraq War
Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion and occupation of neighboring Kuwait in early August 1990. Alarmed by these actions, fellow Arab powers such as 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 by mid-January 1991, and the Persian Gulf War began with a massive U.S.-led air offensive known as Operation Desert Storm. -
Rodney King Incident
Rodney King was caught by the Los Angeles police after a high-speed chase on March 3, 1991. The officers pulled him out of the car and beat him brutally, while amateur cameraman George Holliday caught it all on videotape. -
Bill Clinton
Defeating incumbent Republican opponent George H. W. Bush. At age 46, he became the third-youngest president and the first from the Baby Boomer generation. Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history and signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement. Clinton passed welfare reform and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, as well as financial deregulation measures. -
World Trade Center Attack - 1993
World Trade Center bombing was a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, carried out on February 26, 1993, when a truck bomb detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York. It failed to do so but killed six people and injured over a thousand. -
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
Agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States, creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America. Came into effect, creating one of the world's largest free trade zones and laying the foundations for strong economic growth and rising prosperity. -
Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy
Was the official United States policy on military service by gays, bisexuals, and lesbians, instituted by the Clinton Administration -
Internet
the Internet was the next big thing in technology — hot enough that TIME did a cover story on it, but so unfamiliar that we had to begin by explaining what it was (“the world’s largest computer network and the nearest thing to a working prototype of the information superhighway” -
Lewinsky Affair
scandal was an American political sex scandal that involved 49-year-old President Bill Clinton and a 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The sexual relationship took place between 1995 and 1996 and came to light in 1998 -
Oprah Winfrey
The show has been highly influential, and many of its topics have penetrated into the American pop-cultural consciousness. Winfrey has used the show as an educational platform, featuring book clubs, interviews, self-improvement segments, and philanthropic forays into world events. -
Period: to
Contemporary
This is the millennial and new generation era. What has happened 10 years ago. -
George W. Bush
America’s 43rd president, served in office from 2001 to 2009. Was a two-term Republican governor of Texas. A graduate of Yale University and Harvard Business School, Bush worked in the Texas oil industry and was an owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team before becoming governor. In 2000, he won the presidency after narrowly defeating Democratic challenger Al Gore. Bush’s time in office was shaped by the 9/11 Attack. -
9/11 Attacks
19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four airliners and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the 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. the attacks resulted in extensive death and destruction, triggering major U.S. initiatives to combat terrorism. 3 thousand died. -
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a military campaign launched by the Bush Administration in response to the al-Qaida 9/11 terrorist attacks. The War on Terror includes the Afghanistan War and the War in Iraq. in a speech to Congress. "Our war on terror begins with al-Qaida," he said, "but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated." -
No Child Left Behind Education Act
Authorizes several federal education programs that are administered by the states. The law is a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Under the 2002 law, states are required to test students in reading and math in grades 3–8 and once in high school. -
Hurricane Katrina Disaster
Storm surge also devastated the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama, making Katrina the most destructive and costliest natural disaster in the history of the United States, and the deadliest hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane. The total damage from Katrina is estimated at $108 billion -
Immigration upticks from Asia and Latin America
The undocumented population peaked declining in the wake of the Great Recession and the resulting weakening in labor demand. For the first time in six decades, the undocumented population is no longer growing. This population has stabilized at approximately 11 million persons. -
The Great Recession
The resulting loss of wealth led to sharp cutbacks in consumer spending. This loss of consumption, combined with the financial market chaos triggered by the bursting of the bubble, also led to a collapse in business investment. As consumer spending and business investment dried up, massive job loss followed. -
Barack Obama
First African-American President to be elected into office. He was subsequently elected to a second term over former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. He improved many things. -
First Hispanic SCOTUS judge - Sonya Sotomayor
known for being the first Hispanic justice nominee on the United States Supreme Court. During her tenure on the Supreme Court, Sotomayor has been identified with concern for the rights of defendants, calls for reform of the criminal justice system, and making impassioned dissents on issues of race, gender and ethnic identity. -
Affordable Care Act (ACA) “Obamacare”
Make affordable health insurance available to more people. The law provides consumers with subsidies that lower costs for households with incomes between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level.
Expand the Medicaid program to cover all adults with income below 138% of the federal poverty level.
Support innovative medical care delivery methods designed to lower the costs of health care generally.
