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Panama Canal
President Roosevelt oversaw the realization of a long-term United States goal a transisthmian canal. Throughout the 1800s, American and British leader and businessmen wanted to ship goods quickly and cheaply between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Panama signed treaties that transferred control of the canal to Panama in 1999 but gave the United States the right to use military force to defend the waterway against any threat to its neutrality. -
2nd Red Scare
This was the fear of communism that permeated American politics, culture, and society. This happened after World War II and war known as "McCarthyism". Since Senator Joseph McCarthy coincided with increased popular fear of communist espionage consequent to a Soviet Eastern Europe, -
G.I. Bill
This bill provided many benefits to veterans of World War II. The purpose of the act was to help the nation reabsorb millions of veterans returning from overseas who had been fighting in World War II. It established hospitals, made low-interest mortgages available and granted stipends covering tuition and expenses for veterans attending college or trade schools. -
Atomic Bomb
President Truman was warned that if the United States invaded Japan would result in horrific American casualties. As a result of this, he ordered that the new weapon be used to bring the war to and end. On August 6, 1945, the American bomber Enola Gay dropped a five-ton bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Truman believed that the bombs saves Japanese lives and he also saw little difference between atominc bombing Hiroshima and fire bombing Dresden or Tokyo. -
38th Parallel established as border
The 38th parallel was established as the boundary between the Soviet and American occupations zones. The significance of this event was that it roughly divided the American and Soviet zones in two. The Americans controlled south of the line and the Russians instalees a communist regime in the north, later ceding influence to China. -
Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain was a boundary dividing Europe two separate areas. Winston S. Churchill made Iron Curtain a popular phrase in a speech given in Fulton, Missouri. He said, "From stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic and iron curtain has descended across the country. This speech was important because he was annoucing the beggining of the Cold War. -
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Cold War
This lasted about 45 years. America and its allies struggled to keep the communist, totalitarian Soviet Union from expanding into Europe, Asia, and Africa. They called it the Cold War because there was no physical fighting between the Soviet Union and the United S states. Harry Truman was the first American president to fight the Cold War. -
Marshall Plan
This was a program in which the United States gave large amounts of economic aid to European countries to help them after World War II. Some of the countries that it helped were Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France and many others. This plan was also developed to prevent the growth of Communist influence in the war. -
Berlin Airlift 1948-1949
A military operation that brought food and other needed goods into the West Berling air. After east Germany had cut off its supply routes. The importance of this even could be that the first battle of the Cold War, which lasted for longer than a year. -
Fair Deal
This was a set of proposals put forward by U.S. President Truman to Congress in his States of the Union address. More generally the term characterizes the entire domestic agenda of the Truman administration. This was recommended that all Americans have health insurance, that the minimum wage be increased, and that by all Americans be guaranteed equal rights. -
McCarthyism
This was the name given to the time in American history saw Joseph McCarthy started a series of investigations to try to expose communist in various areas of the U.S. This was a practice of making accusations without any evidence. This was important because McCarthy did not back down to his American principles he is considered a hero by many. -
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1950s
During this time the United States was the world's strongest military power. Its economy was booming, and helping with this was the new cars, suburban houses and other consumer goods were available to more people than ever before. However during this time, there was also great conflict. For. The nascent Civil Rights movement and the crusade against communism at home and abroad exposed the underlying divisions in American society. -
Korean War (The Forgotten War)
This began when North Korea invaded South Korea. North Korea, supported the Soviet Union and China decided to invade South Korea, which was supported by the United States. President Truman committed soldiers from the United Nations because the Soviet Union -
Television
At the end of Wold War II, the television was a toy for only a few thousand wealthy Americans. Nearly two-thirds of American households had a television. This helped the national popular culture.The first president to be televised was Harry Truman. The television commercial was born companies had bought television broadcast time for advertising. Sponsors were leaving radio for television at an unstoppable rate. -
Space Race
This was during the 20th century between the Soviet Union and the United States for supremacy in spaceflight capability. This was important because it showed the world which country had the best science, technology, and economic system. After World War II they both realized that rocket reasearch would be important to the military -
Ike Turner
He was an 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 Tuner. His first recording "Rocket 88", credited to "Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats", in 1951 considered a contender for first rock and roll song. -
Bill Haley & His Comets
They were an American rock and roll band, founded in 1952 and continued until Haley's death in 1981. They were the earliest group of white musicians to bring rock and roll to the attention of American and the rest of the world. The group placed nine singles in the top 20, one of those a number one and three more in the top ten. -
Eisenhower's election and the end of the conflict
Newly elected Dwight D. Eisenhower goes to Korea to see whether he can find the key to ending the bitter and frustrating Korean War. During his presidential campaign, Eisenhower announced that if elected he would personally go to Korea. Eisenhower established a get-tough policy toward the communists in Korea. The Chinese were exhausted for two years, finally agreed to terms and an armistice was signed. -
Polio Vaccine
American medical researcher Dr. Jonas Salk announces on a national radio show that he had successfully tested a vaccine against poliomyelitis, the virus that causes the crippling disease of polio.Dr. Salk was celebrated as the great doctor-benefactor if his time. In April 1955, it was announced that the vaccine was effective and safe, and a nationwide inoculation campaign began. New polio cases dropped to under 6,000 in 1957. -
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Civil Rights
The Civil Rights Movement was a social movement in the United States whose goals were to end racial segregation and discrimination against African-Americans and to secure legal recognition. It was also so secure equal access to and opportunities for the basic privileges and rights of U.S. citizenship. A woman named Rosa Parks began the movement when she refused to give her seat on a bus to a white man. For this act of protest, Parks wars arrested. the blacks started a boycott of the bus system. -
Earl Warren Supreme Court
After failing to claim the Republican nomination for the presidency, he was appointed the 14th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1953. The landmark case was Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, in which the court unanimously determined the segregation of schools to be unconstitutional. The Warren Court also sought electoral reforms, equality in criminal justice and the defense of human rights before its chief justice retired. -
Brown v. Board of Education
This was a landmark the United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate schools for black and white student to be unconstitutional. The Brown v. Board decision helped break the back of state-sponsored segregation, and provided a spark to the American civil rights movement. This ended federal tolerance of racial segregation. -
Rock 'n' Roll
This was 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 as gospel, jump blues, and rhythm and blues, along with country music. The major pioneers, those who made rock and roll popular were Elvis Presley, Bill Haley, Buddy and Little Richard. -
Emmett Till Tragedy
He was an African-American teenager who was lynched in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman four days earlier. His assailants-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 body, tied to the cotton-gin fan with barbed wire. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
This was the first large-scale demonstration against segregation in the U.S. they began on the day of Rosa Parks's court hearing and lasted 381 days. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ordered Montgomery to integrate its bus system, and one of the leaders of the boycott, a young pastor named Martin Luther King Jr., emerged as a prominent national leader of the Americans civil rights movement in the wake of the action. -
Elvis Presley
He was an American singer, actor and song producer. There were more than one billion Elvis records sold worldwide, with 120 singles in the U.S. top 40-20 reaching number one. Elvis has an impact on pop culture he wasn't the first to sing in a rock 'n' roll style, but his version of this new music became widely popular during the mid 1950s. -
Little Rock Nine
Was a group of nine African- American students enrolled in Little rock Central High School. 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. He ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prevent African-American students from enrolling at Central High School. Central High was an all white school. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
This was enacted primarily a voting rights bill, was the first federal civil rights legislation passed by the United States Congress since the Civil Rights Act of 1875. This was also set in place to show support for the Supreme Court's Brown decision, which had eventually led to the integration of public schools. Following the Supreme Court ruling, Southern whites in Virginia against blacks rose there and in other states. -
Beat Generation
This was a movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-World War II era. They inspiring a culture of nonconformity and social revolution. Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac were some of the more famous faces to the group. -
LSD
Alber Hofman, a chemist working for Sandoz Pharmaceutical, synthesized LSD for the first time in 1938. It was later found that an oral dose of as little as 25 micrograms is capable of producing vivid hallucinations. LSD was popularized in the 1960s by individuals such as psychologist who encouraged American student to "turn on, tune in, and drop out." This created an entire counterculutre of drug abuse and spread the drug from America to the UK and the rest of Europe. -
Period: to
1960s
During this time John F. Kennedy became president of the United States. His confidence that, as one historian put it, "the government possessed big answers to big problems "seemed to set the tone for the rest of the decade. However, that golden age never materialized. On the contrary, by the end of the 1960s it seemed that the nation was falling apart. -
Sit-Ins
These were series of nonviolent protests in Greensboro, North Caroline. Which led to the Woolworth department store chain removing its policy of racial segregation in the Southern United States. These were a form of direct action that involved one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often, to promote political, social, or economic change. By sitting in protest at an all-white lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, four college students sparked national interest. -
Feminism
The first move towards feminism in the United States began with the Seneca Falls Convention, the first women's rights convention, held at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, Second-wave feminism is a period of feminist activity, and eventually spread throughout the Western world and beyond. In the United States lasted through the early 1980s -
Counter Culture
This developed in the United States in the late 1960s, lasting from 1964 to 1972, and coinciding with America's involvement in Vietnam. It was characterized by the rejection of conventional social norms. This was a period when long-held values and norms of behavior seemed to break down, particularly among the young. Many college-age men and women became political activists and were the driving force behind the Civil Rights and antiwar movement. -
Albert Sabin
He was a polish American medical researcher, best known for developing the oral polio vaccine which has played a key role in nearly eradicating the disease. This also played a key role in nearly eradicating the disease.The polio vaccine that is taken by mouth and contains the three serotypes of poliovirus in a weekend. -
Peace Corps
This program was established, President John F. Kennedy. This was created to promote world peace and friendship through three goals. To help the peoples of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women. It also helped promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served; and to help promote better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans. -
Freedom Rides
This took place when seven blacks and six whites left Washington D.C. on two public buses bound for the Deep South. They intended to test the Supreme Court's which declared segregation in interstate bus and rail stations. They were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States and subsequent years in order to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions. -
Cesar Chavez
He was an American labor leader and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association. He was important because he was a prominent union leader and labor organizer. Hardened by his early experience as a migrant worker. He was a Mexican-American labor leader who used non-violent methods to fight for the rights of migrant farm workers in the southwestern USA. -
Birmingham March
Activists in Birmingham launched one of the most influential campaigns of the Civil Rights Movement. It would be the beginning of a series of lunch counter sit-ins, marched on City Hall and boycotts on downtown merchants to protest segregation laws in the city. The peaceful demonstrations would be met with violent attacks using high-pressure fire hoses and police dogs on men, women and children alike. -
John F. Kennedy assassination
Sitting in a Lincoln convertible, the Kennedys and Connallys waved at the large and enthusiastic crowds gathered along the parade route. As their vehicle passed the Texas School Book Depository Building at 12:30 p.m., Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly fired three shots from the sixth floor, fatally wounding President Kennedy and seriously injuring Governor Connally. Kenndy was pronounced dead 30 minuted later at Dalla's Parkland Hospital. He was 46 -
Lee Harvey Oswald
Was an American former U.S. Morine who assassinated the United States President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, and was later charged with the murder of Kennedy. Oswald had to initially been arrested not for the Kennedy assassination but for fatally shooting a Dallas police officer named J.D. Tippit. Oswald who was stopped by Tippit in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas about 45 minutes after the president was killed, shot the police officer at point blank range. -
Anti-war movement
The anti-war movement began mostly on college campuses, as members of the leftist organization Students for a Democratic Society began organizing "tech-ins" to express their opposition to the way in which it was being conducted. Though the vast majority of the population still supported the administration policy in Vietnam, a small but outspoken liberal minority was making its voice heard by the end of 1965. -
Freedom Summer
This was a voter registration project in Mississippi, part of a larger effort by civil rights groups such as the Congress on Rachial Equality and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee to expand black voting in the South. Robert Moses proposed the idea of Freedom Summer to SNCC and COFO leader in the fall and was chosen to direct it. More than 1,000 out of state predominately white volunteers, faced constant abuse and harassment from the Mississippi's white population. -
Ascendancy of Lyndon Johnson
He launched an ambitious slate of progressive reforms aimed at alleviating poverty and creating what he called a "Great Society" for all Americans. Many of the programs he introduced-including Medicare and Head Start-made a lasting impact in the areas of health, education, urban renewal, conservation and civil rights. Despite his impressive domestic achievements, however, Johnson's legacy was equally defined by his failure to lead the nation out of the Vietnam War. -
Hippies
The Beat Generation, especially those associated with the San Francisco Renaissance gradually gave way to the 1960s era. They were part of a countercultural movement that rejected the mores of mainstream American life. The movement originated on college campuses in the United States, although is spread to other countries, including Canada and Britain. They are a part of a liberal counterculture, originally a youth movement. -
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. This sparked riots after the acquittal of the four officer involved was found dead in his swimming pool Sunday, authorities informed him and his fiancee. -
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1970s
In some ways, the decade was a continuation of the 1960s. Women, African Americans, Native Americans, gay and lesbians and other marginalized people continued their fight for equality, and many Americans joined the protest against the ongoing war in Vietnam. President Richard Nixon undermined many people's faith in the good intentions of the federal government. By the end of the decade, these divisions and disappointments had set a tone for public life. -
The New Right
This refers to two historically distinct conservative political movements, and currently the alt-right movement which includes right-wing ideologies that are an alternative to mainstream American conservatism. Antifeminists rallied against the Equal Rights Amendment and the eroding traditional family unit. Many ordinary Americans were shocked by the sexual permissiveness found in films and magazines. This was a combination of Christian leader and conservative business leaders. -
Equal Rights Amendment
As founder of the National Women's Party, Alice Paul first introduced the Equal Rights Amendment to Congress. Paul would work for the passage of the ERA until her death in 1977. Equality of rights under the law shall bot be abridged by the United States or by any on account of sex. This was passed by the U.S. senate and sent to the states for ratification. It was provided for the legal equality of the sexes and prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex. -
Heritage Foundation
This was a research and educational institution a think tank whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense. It stated missions to formulate and promote public policies based on the principles. The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. -
Endangered Species Act
This 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. It has been in force for more than 40 years. The Act aspires to prevent extinction, recover imperiled plants and animals, and protect the ecosystems on which they depend. -
Nixon's Presidency
Nixon was the 37th U.S. president, is best remembered as the only president ever to resign from office. Nixon stepped down in 1974, halfway through his second term, rather than face impeachment over his efforts to cover up illegal activities by members of his administration in the Watergate scandal. Nixon's achievements included forging diplomatic ties with China and the Soviet Union, and withdrawing U.S. troops from an unpopular war in Vietnam. -
Gerald Ford's Presidency
America's 38th president took office following the resignation of President Richard Nixon, who left the White House in disgrace over the Watergate scandal. Ford became the first unelected president in the nation's history. A longtime Republican congressman from Michigan, Ford had been appointed vice president less than a year earlier. He is credited with helping to restore public confidence in government after the disillusionment of the Watergate era. -
Jimmy Carter's Presidency
As the 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter struggled to respond to formidable challenges, including a major energy crisis as well as high inflation and unemployment. In the foreign affairs arena, he also reopened U.S. relations with China and made headway with efforts to broker peace in the historic Arab-Israeli conflict, but was damaged in his term by a hostage crisis in Iran. Carter built a distinguished career as a diplomat, humanitarian and author. -
Space Shuttle Program
This was officially called the Space Transportation System, was the United States government's manned launch vehicle program. In the spring Lockheed Aircraft, McDonnell Douglas, Grumman, and North American Rockwell submitted proposals to build the shuttle. The NASA selection group thought that Lockheed's shuttle was too complex and too expensive, and the company had no experience with building manned spacecraft. -
Three Mile Island
This was a series of mechanical and human errors nuclear generating plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, resulted in an accident that profoundly affected the utility industry. A combination of stuck valves, misread gauges and poor decisions led to a partial meltdown of the reactor and the release of radioactive gases into the atmosphere. Although the health effects were not serious, the accident heightened public fears and led to the immediate shutdown of several plants. -
Iran Hostage Crisis
A group of Iranian student stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran;talking more than 60 American hostages. The immediate cause of his action was President Jimmy Carter's decision to allow Iran's deposed Shah, a pro-Western autocrat who had been expelled from his country some months before, to come to the United States for cancer treatment. It was a way to raise the intra- and international profile of the revolution's leader.The students set their hostages free 444 days after the crisis began. -
Reagonomics
This was a popular term used to refer to the economic policies of Ronald Reagan, the 40th U.S. present, which called for widespread tax cuts, decreased social spending, increased military spending and the deregulation of domestic markets. He unveiled a new tax program and he claimed an undue tax burden, excessive government regulation, and massive social spending program hampered growth -
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1980s
For many people, the symbol of the decade was the baby boomer with a college education, a well-paying job, and expensive taste. Many people derided yuppies for being self-centered and materialistic, and surveys of young urban professionals across the country showed that they were more concerned with making money and buying consumer goods than their parents and grandparents had been -
Election of 1980
United States presidential election of 1980, American presidential election held on Nov. 4, 1980, in which Republican Ronald Reagan defeated incumbent Democratic Pres. Jimmy Carter from Georgia and Vice President Walter Mondale from Minnesota, and the Republican national ticket of Ronald Reagan. Reagan, aided by the Iran hostage crisis and a worsening economy marked by high unemployment and inflation, won the election by a landslide. -
Sandra Day O'Connor
She was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and was the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court. A moderate conservative, she was known for her dispassionate and meticulously researched opinions. For 24 years, Sandra Day O'Connor was a pioneering force on the Supreme Court and will always be remembered as acting as a sturdy guiding hand in the court's decisions during those years and serving a swing bote in many important cases -
Ronald Reagan
President Ronald Reagan implemented policies to reduce the federal government's reach into the daily lives and pocketbooks of Americans, including tax cuts intended to spur growth. He also advocated for increases in military spending, reductions in certain social programs and measures to deregulate business. The nation's economy had started to recover and enter a period of prosperity that would extend through the rest of Reagan's presidency. -
Music Television (MTV)
Music Television goes on the air for the first time ever, with the words "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll." "Video Killed the Radio Star" was the first music video to air on the new cable television channel, which initially was available only to households in parts of New Jersey. MTV went on to revolutionize the music industry and become an influential source of pop culture and entertainment in the United States and other parts of the world. -
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) "Star Wars"
This was known as Star Wars, was a program 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. This was a strategic defensive system against potential nuclear attacks as originally conceived. -
Iran-Contra Affair
This was an action not approved of by the United States Congress. It began when President Reagan's administration supplied weapons to Iran a sworn enemy in hopes of securing the release of American hostages held in Lebanon by Hezbollah terrorists loyal to the Ayatollah Khomeni, Iran's leader. This article is rooted in the Iran Hostage Crisis. The U.S. took millions of dollars from the weapons sale and routed them and guns to the right-wing guerillas in Nicaragua. -
Reagan Doctrine
In his State of the Union address, President Ronald Reagan defines some of the key concepts of his foreign policy, establishing what comes to be known as the "Reagan Doctrine." The doctrine served as the foundation for the Reagan administrations support of freedom fighters around the globe. Reagan declared that we must stand by our democratic allies. And we must bot break faith with those who are risking their lives on every continent. -
Challenger Explosion
The American shuttle orbiter Challenger broke up 73 seconds after liftoff, bringing a devastating end to the spacecraft's 10th mission. The disaster claimed the lives of all seven astronauts aboard, including Christa McAuliffe, a teacher from New Hampshire who had been selected to join the mission and teach lessons from space to school children around the country. It was later determined that two rubber O-rings, which had been designed to separate the section of the rocket buster, had failed. -
Oprah Winfrey
American television host, actress, producer, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and expanded to an hour at the age of 32, Winfrey became not only the first African- American television host to be nationally syndicated but also a millionaire. During 987 to 1988, her income jumped to 30 million dollars. -
George H.W. Bush
Served as the 41st U.S. president he was also U.S. vice president under Ronald Reagan. Bush, a World War II naval aviator and Texas oil industry executive, began his political career in the U.S. House of Representative. He held a variety of government posts, including CIA director. Bush defeated Democratic rival Michael Dukakis to win the White House. In the office, he launched successful military operations against Panama and Iraq. However popularity at home was marred by an economic recession. -
Period: to
1990s
The 1990s are characterized by the rise of multiculturalism and alternative media, which continued in the 2000s. Movement 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. World communism which collapsed in the first two years of the decade it was politically defined by a movement towards the right wing, including increase in support for far right parties. -
Persian Gulf War/1st Iraq War
Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion and occupation of neighboring Kuwait. 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.The Persian Gulf War began with a massive U.S. led air offensive known as Operation Desert Storm. -
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton helped define the role of the modern political spouse and was one of the most accomplished first ladies in American history. She was one of her husband's closest advisors throughout his political career, which culminated in his election as president in 1992. As the first lady, she focused on her lifelong interest, in children's issues and, more controversially, health care. -
Bill Clinton Presidency
During Clinton's time in the White House, America enjoyed an era of peace and prosperity, marked by low unemployment, declining crime rates and a budget surplus. Clinton appointed a number of women and minorities to top government posts, including Janet, the first female U.S. attorney general, and Madeleine Albright, the first female U.S. attorney. The house of representatives impeached Clinton on charges related to a sexual relationship he had with a White house intern. -
World Trade Center Attack- 1993
At 12:18 p.m., a terrorist bomb explodes in a parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City, leaving a crater 60 fee7 wide and causing the collapse of several steel-reinforced concrete floors in the vicinity of the blast. Although the terrorist bomb failed to critically damage the main structure of the skyscrapers, six people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured. The World Trade Center itself suffered more than 5,000 million in damage. -
Dont Ask Dont Tell Policy
This was the official United States policy on military service by gays, bisexuals, and lesbians, instituted by the Clinton Administration. This was a ban on gay and lesbian service members is officially in the dustbin of history. For 17 years, the law prohibited qualified gay and lesbian Americans from serving in the armed forces and sent a message discrimination was acceptable. Don't ask don't tell is the term commonly used for the policy restricting United States military personnel. -
Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)
This was a United States federal law that prior, to being ruled unconstitutional, defined marriage to federal purpose as the union of one man and one woman, and allowed states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages granted under the laws of other states. Until Section 3 of the Act was stuck down in 2013, DOMA, in conjunction with other statutes, had barred same-sex married couples from being recognized as "spouses". -
Lewinsky Affair
This was an American political sex scandal that involved 49-year-old President Bill Clinton and 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The sexual relationship took place between 1995 and 1996 and came to light in 1998. Clinton ended a televised speech with the statement that he did not have sexual relations with Lewinsky. Further investigation led to charges of perjury and led t the impeachment of President Clinton. -
Period: to
Contemporary
In the first half of the century, the Information Age or Information Era, also commonly known as the Age of the Computer, is an idea that the current age will be characterized by the ability of individuals to transfer instant information freely, and to have instant access to knowledge that would have been difficult or impossible to find previously. -
George W. Bush Presidency
Bush first term in the White House was dominated by the Septemeber 11, 2001, terrorist attack against America, in which 3,000 people were killed, and their aftermath. The following month, in repose to the attacks, the United States invaded Afghanistan in an attempt to overthrow the Taliban Government, which was suspected of harboring Osama Bin Laden, leader of Al-Qaeda, the organization responsible for the 9/11 attacks. -
9/11 attack
Militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four airliner and carried out suicide attacks againts targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the towers of the World Trade 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. -
Patriot Act
President George W. Bush signs the Patriot Act, an anti-terrorism law drawn up in response to the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. The USA Patriot Act was an acronym for "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tooks Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism." Bush hoped the bipartisan legislation would empower law enforcement and intelligence agencies to prevent future terrorist attacks on American soil. -
No Child Left Behind Act
Was a U.S. of Congress that reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; it included Title I provisions applying to disadvantaged students. The Act required states to develop assessments in basic skills. This authorizes several federal education programs that are administered by the states. The law is a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education are required to test students in reading and math in grades 3-8 and once in high school. -
2nd Iraq War
The Iraq War was a protracted armed conflict that began in 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by the United States-led coalition that toppled the government of Saddam Hussein Iraqi forces were quickly overwhelmed as U.S. forces swept through the country. This war combined force of troops from the United States and Great Britain they invaded Iraq and rapidly defeated Iraqi military and paramilitary forces. -
Hurricane Katrina Disaster
Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States. When the storm made landfall, it had a Category 3 rating on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale-it brought sustained winds of 100-140 miles per hour and stretched some 400 miles across. The storm itself did a great deal of damage, but its aftermath was catastrophic. Levee breaches led to massive flooding, and many people charged that the federal government was slow to meet the needs of the people affected by the storm. -
Housing Bubble
The United States housing bubble was a real estate bubble affecting over half of the U.S. states. Housing prices peaked in early 2006, started to decline in 2006 and 2007, and reached new lows in 2012. On December 30, 2008, the Case-Shiller home price index reported its largest price drop in its history. Housing bubble is a run-up in housing prices fueled by demand, speculation and exuberance enter the market, further driving demand. -
The Great Recession
The National Bureau Research dates the beginning of the recession as December 2007. According to the Department of Labor, roughly 8.7 million jobs were shed from February 2010, and GDP contracted by 5.1% making the Great Recession the worst since the Great Depression. This represents the sharp decline in economic activity during the late 2000s. -
Barack Obama
Senator Barack Obama of Illinois was elected president of the United States over Senator John McCain of Arizona. Obama became the 44th president, and the first African- American to be elected to that office. He was subsequently elected to a second term over former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Obama's campaign to build support at the grassroots level and used what supporters saw as the candidate's natural charisma. -
Affordable Care Act (ACA) "Obamacare"
This was signed by law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. Under the act, hospitals and primary physicians would transform their practices financially, technology, and clinically to drive better health outcomes, lower costs, and improve their methods of distribution and accessibility. The Affordable Care Act was designed to increase health insurance quality and affordability, lower insured rate by expanding insurance coverage and reduce the costs of healthcare.
