-
9/11 Terrorist Attacks
On the morning of September 11, 2001 an Islamic terrorists group lead by al-Qadea performed four planned attacks on the United States. Out of the four airlines were hijacked and suicide crashed, two of them hit the twin towers, one and the pentagon, and the last crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. Over 3,000 lives were killed this day due to the crash and at least 400 of those were police and firefighters. This tragic attack spurred The US to combat terrorism more and protect the country. -
Bush Ground Zero Speech
Three days after the devastating attack, George W Bush improvised a heart-touching speech. He started just thanking the firefighters and those who helped for their support and efforts. Because of the improvisation, all he had to speak with was a bullhorn and when people from the crowd spoke out saying that can't hear him, his response was "I can hear you". He went on the elaborate this and reassure the people of America that revenge will take place and that he is here to protect the country. -
Afghanistan War
In October of 2001, President Bush announced that the United States had joined war with Afghanistan. The purpose of this war was to put out the Taliban regime because they had supported and trained al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden, two terrorists who were involved in the 9/11 attack. We received help from the British, Canadian, Australian, German and French troops. President Bush had warned America that this would be the beginning to a long effort to fight terrorism and it has been the longest war. -
Bush Signs USA PATRIOT Act
The Uniting and Strengthening America Act by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 was an anti terrorism act that was signed into law on October 26, 2001 after the 9/11 terrorist attack.The intentions behind this act were to help the government detect and prevent any other possible acts of terrorism, however, some citizens felt that this invaded their privacy. This law also increased the patrol of our country's borders to protect the immigrants. -
No Child Left Behind Act
President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law on January 8, 2002. The purpose behind this law was to close the gap between levels of achievement and to provide equal and fair educational opportunities to all students. One criticism of this law is that it implemented standardized tests specifically on math and reading causing schools to not have as great of a focus on other subjects. -
US Congress Authorizes War With Iraq
On October 11, 2002, the US congress authorized the declaration of war with Iraq. 68% of the House of Representatives and 77% of the US Senate voted for the declaration of war on Iraq making the congressional total 70%. President Bush and administration were to update Congress on an progress of the war every 60 days. -
Space Shuttle Columbia Self-Destructs
The NASA Space Shuttle "Columbia" started to take its landing on February 1st, 2003 when the temperature and tire pressure of the left wing was lost. This was caused from a piece of foam from the exterior falling off and hitting the left wing. NASA had known about the trouble with foam for a while so it was a large misfortune that they let it go on to kill the seven lives of astronauts in Columbia. -
Bush Delivers Address On The Iraq War
At 10:15 on March 19, 2003, President Bush delivered a speech in regard to his declaration of war on Iraq. The speech was delivered about two hours after the expired time for Hussein to leave Iraq. President Bush warned the country about the enormous threat that Hussein is to America and of the difficult time ahead. -
Operation Red Dawn
Saddam Hussein, the Iraq dictator, was captured alive on December 13, 2003. This hunt for Hussein was called Operation Red Dawn and consisted of a very intelligent plan coordinated by HUMINT. This successful operation had only happened because of the tedious and careful analyzing and plotting that the US Army put out. -
NATO Enlargement
On March 29, 2004 at 1 pm, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia were officially induced into the North Atlantic Treat Organization. The ceremony was help at in the Crash Room in Washington, DC. and President Bush held a special celebration afterwards at the White House. With the induction of these seven countries, NATO consisted of a total of twenty six countries. -
9/11 Commission Report
This book was published to report official information and facts that lead to the attack on 9/11. It also gave an outline for what action to during any other attacks. This was an elaboration of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States that was put into affect in 2002. -
Bush Wins Re-Election
In the election of 2004, Bush beat his opponent Kelly and was re-elected with 286 electoral votes compared to Kelly's 251. Two major things that had the potential to hold Bush back from being reelected was the poor economy state and the Iraq war. However, Bush's campaign strategy which focused on terrorism and moral values was able to win him the votes he needed to run a second term. -
Bush Nominates John Roberts for Supreme Court Chief Justice
On July 19, 2005, President George W. Bush nominated John Roberts for Supreme Court Chief Justice. In September of 2005 he received a qualification score of 97 and was elected Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was the youngest Chief Justice in over 100 years and played an important role in many major court cases. He had a very liberal point of view on most of his cases which caused him to loose favor with the republicans. -
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina formed on August 23, 2005. Regions along the East Coast began to evacuate on the 28th and Katrina hit the coast the next morning. The damage Katrina's over 100 mph winds and area that covered some 400 miles was completely disastrous. Nearly 2,000 lives were killed, about 90,000 square miles were damaged, and around $100 billion dollars in damage totaled from Katrina. Some people do not think that the federal government handled the disaster well as they were in utter shock. -
Saddam Hussein Sentenced To Death By Hanging
Saddam Hussein and seven others were put on trial on October 17th, 2006 in Baghdad, Iraq. It is said to be the easiest and most straightforward case to prove. Hussein, the former President of Iraq, was charged with premeditated murder, imprisonment, and torture. -
Democratic Party Takes Control Of Both Houses
On November 7, 2006 in the midterm elections, the Democratic party won the control in both houses. In the house of Representatives at least 230 of the 245 seats were won by democrats. In the senate the democrats took the lead with a 51-49 margin. Many incumbent republicans were defeated and there was also a gain in state legislative for democrats. -
Former President Gerald Ford Dies
Gerald Ford, the 38th president of the United States, died at age 83 on December 6th, 2006. His presidency came with many struggles as he was not actually elected but took office after Nixon choose to resign. He had to deal with the poor economy and the distrust in the government as well as a senate full of democrats while he was a republican. However, despite his many struggles in officer, he left a good name on the White House. -
Nancy Pelosi Becomes First Women Speaker of the House
On January 4, 2007, Nancy Pelosi was elected Speaker of the House. Previously she had been elected Democratic minority leader in 2003. And she was elected into Congress in 1987. Being elected Speaker of the House was the highest power a women had attained in congress thus far. -
U.S. Troops In Iraq
On January 10, 2007, Bush announced that they would be changing the way they were serving in the Iraq war. This new implementation would send an extra 20,000 troops to Iraq. The goal of this surge was to improve the Iraq security and to decrease the amount of violence. Whether this happened or not is controversial and it has been said that violence had begun to decrease before the surge. However, it did give time for U.S. to rebuild. -
Bush Bids Farwell
President George W. Bush gives his farewell address January 19, 2008 in the East Room of the White House. In his speech he warns the nation of hard times ahead as he is leaving behind two unfinished wars and a rocky economy. Bush was not considered as a very popular modern president at the end of his presidency but he had hoped to be remembered as a president who stayed true to his principals.
