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Early American History
1176-1860. The colonial history of the United States covers the history of European colonization of America from the early 16th century until the incorporation of the colonies into the United States of America. -
Declaration of Independence signed
July 4, 1776 -
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Early American History
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Constitution written
September 17, 1787 -
17th Amendment: direct election of U.S. Senators
The Seventeenth Amendment restates the first paragraph of Article I, section 3 of the Constitution and provides for the election of senators by replacing the phrase "chosen by the Legislature thereof" with "elected by the people thereof." In addition, it allows the governor or executive authority of each state. -
13th Amendment
abolished slavery. Constitution of United States of America 1789 -
Bill of Rights ratified
December 15, 1791 -
Laissez-Faire
Laissez-faire is an economic system in which transactions between private groups of people are free from or almost free from any form of economic interventionism such as regulation and subsidies. -
Immigration Issues (Assimilation and Nativism)
Several aspects of assimilation are essential to study: taking on aspects of the destination community, adaptation to new social and economic characteristics (compared with those of the country of origin), and integration into the destination community. -
1889: Hull House founded, first of many settlement houses
1889: Hull House founded, first of many settlement houses.Hull House, one of the first social settlements in North America. It was founded in Chicago in 1889 when Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr rented an abandoned residence at 800 South Halsted Street that had been built by Charles G. Hull in 1856 -
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr., often referred to as Teddy or his initials T. R., was an American statesman, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer, who served as the 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909 -
Civil War/Reconstruction
1860-1877. The Reconstruction era, the period in American history that lasted from 1865 to 1877 following the American Civil War, marked a significant chapter in the history of civil rights in the United States. -
Jane Addams
Jane Addams was an American settlement activist, reformer, social worker, sociologist, public administrator and author. She was an important leader in the history of social work and women's suffrage in the United States and advocated for world peace -
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Civil War/Reconstruction
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Homestead Act (1862)
provided 160 acres to anyone willing to settle on land in the west. May 20, 1862 -
14th Amendment
citizenship & due process. The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments -
Transcontinental Railroad Completed
- The Transcontinental Railroad was the first continuous railroad line across the United States and opened for through traffic on May 10, 1869 when Central Pacific Railroad President Leland Stanford ceremonially drove the gold "Last Spike" at Promontory Summit
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Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism refers to various theories that emerged in Western Europe and North America in the 1870s that applied biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology, economics, and politics -
15th Amendment
voting for all male citizens. The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the federal government and each state from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." It was ratified on February 3, 1870, as the third and last of the Reconstruction Amendments -
Telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell
- Although Alexander Graham Bell is best remembered as the inventor of the telephone, he invented other devices too. Bell developed several sonic technologies, including the photophone (1880) and the Graphophone.
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The Gilded Age
(1877-1900). In United States history, the Gilded Age was an era that occurred during the late 19th century, from the 1870s to about 1900. The Gilded Age was an era of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Western United States -
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The Gilded Age
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Douglas MacArthur
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur (26 January 1880 – 5 April 1964) was an American five-star general and Field Marshal of the Philippine Army. He was Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. -
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882): prohibited immigration of skilled or unskilled Chinese laborers, first US national immigration act
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers. Building on the earlier Page Act of 1875 which banned Chinese women from immigrating to the United States, the Chinese Exclusion Act was the first, and remains the only law to have been implemented, to prevent all members of a specific ethnic or national group from immigrating to the United States -
Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883): awarded government jobs based on merit
The Pendleton Act provided that Federal Government jobs be awarded on the basis of merit and that Government employees be selected through competitive exams. The act also made it unlawful to fire or demote for political reasons employees who were covered by the law. -
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was an American political figure, diplomat and activist. She served as the First Lady of the United States from March 4, 1933, to April 12, 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four terms in office, making her the longest-serving First Lady of the United States -
Interstate Commerce Act (1887): ensure railroad set “reasonable and just” rate and the first time government stepped in to regulate business
Approved on February 4, 1887, the Interstate Commerce Act created an Interstate Commerce Commission to oversee the conduct of the railroad industry. With this act, the railroads became the first industry subject to Federal regulation. -
The Progressive Era
(1890-1920). The Progressive Era was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States of America that spanned the 1890s to the 1920s. Progressive reformers were typically middle-class society women or Christian ministers -
Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890): outlawed trusts to promote economic fairness
The Sherman Antitrust Act (the Act) is a landmark U.S. law, passed in 1890, that outlawed trusts—groups of businesses that collude or merge to form a monopoly in order to dictate pricing in a particular market. The Act's purpose was to promote economic fairness and competitiveness and to regulate interstate commerce. -
Yellow Journalism
Yellow journalism and the yellow press are American terms for journalism and associated newspapers that present little or no legitimate, well-researched news while instead using eye-catching headlines for increased sales. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism -
Muckrakers
The muckrakers were reform-minded journalists in the Progressive Era in the United States who exposed established institutions and leaders as corrupt. They typically had large audiences in popular magazines -
Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)
outlawed business monopolies. July 2, 1890 -
Period: to
The Progressive Era
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Plessy v. Ferguson
legalized segregation, established “separate but equal”.
Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities as long as the segregated facilities were equal in quality, a doctrine that came to be known as "separate but equal" -
1896-1899: Klondike Gold Rush (Alaska)
The Klondike Gold Rush was a migration by an estimated 100,000 prospectors to the Klondike region of the Yukon, in north-western Canada, between 1896 and 1899 -
1898: USS Maine explodes off the coast of Cuba, starting the Spanish American War
On February 15, 1898, an explosion of unknown origin sank the battleship U.S.S. Maine in the Havana, Cuba harbor, killing 266 of the 354 crew members. The sinking of the Maine incited United States' passions against Spain, eventually leading to a naval blockade of Cuba and a declaration of war. -
1898: Hawaii is annexed as a territory of the United States
America's annexation of Hawaii in 1898 extended U.S. territory into the Pacific and highlighted resulted from economic integration and the rise of the United States as a Pacific power. During the 1830s, Britain and France forced Hawaii to accept treaties giving them economic privileges -
Imperialism
(1898-1910). Imperialism is a policy or ideology of extending the rule over peoples and other countries, for extending political and economic access, power and control, often through employing hard power, especially military force, but also soft power -
Period: to
Imperialism (1898-1910)
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Open Door Policy (1899): initiated free trade with China
The Open Door policy was a statement of principles initiated by the United States in 1899 and 1900. It called for protection of equal privileges for all countries trading with China and for the support of Chinese territorial and administrative integrity. -
Philanthropy
Philanthropy consists of "private initiatives, for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing -
Navajo Code Talkers
The U.S. Marines knew where to find one: the Navajo Nation. Marine Corps leadership selected 29 Navajo men, the Navajo Code Talkers, who created a code based on the complex, unwritten Navajo language. The code primarily used word association by assigning a Navajo word to key phrases and military tactics. -
Rockefeller/Carnegie (Captains of Industry vs. Robber Barons)
Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller Sr. were an “odd couple” when they made a joint appearance to defend their new charitable foundations 100 years ago. The two men made their cases before the U.S. Commission on Industrial Rights in New York City. In the end he fused together a trust that controlled 60 percent of the steel industry and employed 168,000 workers. -
1904-1914: Panama Canal Built
The United States took over the project in 1904 and opened the canal on August 15, 1914. The US continued to control the canal and surrounding Panama Canal Zone until the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties provided for handover to Panama. -
Roosevelt Corollary (1904): an addition to the Monroe Doctrine
The Roosevelt Corollary of December 1904 stated that the United States would intervene as a last resort to ensure that other nations in the Western Hemisphere fulfilled their obligations to international creditors, and did not violate the rights of the United States or invite “foreign aggression to the detriment -
Monopoly
exclusive ownership through legal privilege, command of supply, or concerted action. 2 : exclusive possession or control no country has a monopoly on morality or truth— Helen M. Lynd. 3 : a commodity controlled by one party had a monopoly on flint from their quarries— Barbara A -
1906: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is published
The Jungle is a 1906 novel by the American journalist and novelist Upton Sinclair. The novel portrays the harsh conditions and exploited lives of immigrants in the United States in Chicago and similar industrialized cities -
Meat Inspection Act (1906): law that makes it illegal to adulterate or misbrand meat
The Meat Inspection Act of 1906 was a piece of U.S. legislation, signed by President Theodore Roosevelt on June 30, 1906, that prohibited the sale of adulterated or misbranded livestock and derived products as food and ensured sanitary slaughtering and processing of livestock. -
Pure Food and Drug Act (1906): regulation of the preparation of foods and the sale of medicines
The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 prohibited the sale of misbranded or adulterated food and drugs in interstate commerce and laid a foundation for the nation's first consumer protection agency, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). -
NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington, Moorfield Storey and Ida B. Wells -
1909: NAACP Founded
The NAACP was created in 1909 by an interracial group consisting of W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, Mary White Ovington, and others concerned with the challenges facing African Americans, especially in the wake of the 1908 Springfield (Illinois) Race Riot. -
Dollar Diplomacy (1909): Taft’s policy of paying for peace in Latin America
Dollar diplomacy of the United States—particularly during President William Howard Taft's presidential term—was a form of American foreign policy to minimize the use or threat of military force and instead further its aims in Latin America and East Asia through the use of its economic power by guaranteeing loans made . -
Immigration Quotas
Dillingham introduced a measure to create immigration quotas, which he set at three percent of the total population of the foreign-born of each nationality in the United States as recorded in the 1910 census. This put the total number of visas available each year to new immigrants at 350,000. -
Initiative, Referendum, Recall
In 1911, California voters approved the constitutional processes of initiative, referendum, and recall. Through these processes, voters can adopt a change in law (an initiative), disapprove a law passed by the Legislature (a referendum), or remove an elected official from office (a recall). -
16th Amendment: established the federal income tax
Passed by Congress on July 2, 1909, and ratified February 3, 1913, the 16th amendment established Congress's right to impose a Federal income tax. ... At first, Congress placed a flat 3-percent tax on all incomes over $800 and later modified this principle to include a graduated tax. -
Assembly Line
An assembly line is a manufacturing process in which parts are added as the semi-finished assembly moves from workstation to workstation where the parts are added in sequence until the final assembly is produced. -
Federal Reserve Act (1914): established the Federal Reserve, which helped stabilize the banking industry
The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 established the Federal Reserve System as the central bank of the United States to provide the nation with a safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary and financial system. -
1914: Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated, starting World War I
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie are shot to death by a Bosnian Serb nationalist during an official visit to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. The killings sparked a chain of events that led to the outbreak of World War I by early August. -
World War I
(1914-1918). World War I was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918 -
Period: to
World War I
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1915: Sinking of the Lusitania
The sinking of the Cunard ocean liner RMS Lusitania occurred on Friday, 7 May 1915 during the First World War, as Germany waged submarine warfare against the United Kingdom which had implemented a naval blockade of Germany -
1916: National Parks System created
On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the act creating the National Park Service, a new federal bureau in the Department of the Interior responsible for protecting the 35 national parks and monuments then managed by the department and those yet to be established -
Sussex Pledge
The Sussex Pledge was a promise made by Germany to the United States in 1916, during World War I before the latter entered the war. Early in 1915, Germany had instituted a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, allowing armed merchant ships but not passenger ships to be torpedoed without warning. -
The Great Migration
The Great Migration, sometimes known as the Great Northward Migration or the Black Migration, was the movement of 6 million African Americans out of the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest and West that occurred between 1916 and 1970. -
American Expeditionary Forces
The American Expeditionary Forces was a formation of the United States Army on the Western Front of World War I. The AEF was established on July 5, 1917, in France under the command of Gen. John J. Pershing -
1917: Zimmerman Telegram intercepted by the British, warned the U.S. of a proposed ally between Mexico and Germany
The Zimmermann Telegram (or Zimmermann Note or Zimmerman Cable) was a secret diplomatic communication issued from the German Foreign Office in January 1917 that proposed a military alliance between Germany and Mexico. ... The telegram was intercepted and decoded by British intelligence. -
1917: The United States enters WWI on the Allied side
On April 6, 1917, the U.S. joined its allies--Britain, France, and Russia--to fight in World War I. Under the command of Major General John J. Pershing, more than 2 million U.S. soldiers fought on battlefields in France. Many Americans were not in favor of the U.S. entering the war and wanted to remain neutral. -
1917: Bolshevik Revolution in Russia begins, causing Russian troops to exit the war
In March 1917 riots broke loose in Russia. ... A group of Communists led by Vladimir Lenin, the Bolsheviks, overthrew the government in November 1917 and created a Communist government. Lenin wanted to concentrate on building up a communist state and wanted to pull Russia out of the war. -
Communism
a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs. -
The Red Scare
A Red Scare is the promotion of a widespread fear of a potential rise of communism or anarchism by a society or state. The term is most often used to refer to two periods in the history of the United States which are referred to by this name. -
M.A.I.N. (Causes of WWI)
The immediate cause of World War I that made the aforementioned items come into play (alliances, imperialism, militarism, and nationalism) was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. -
1918: Battle of Argonne Forest, considered the turning point of the war
The Meuse-Argonne Offensive was a part of the final Allied offensive of World War I. It was one of the attacks that brought an end to the War and was fought from September 26 – November 11, 1918, when the Armistice was signed. -
1918: Germany surrenders to the Allied Powers
The Armistice of 11 November 1918 was the armistice signed at Le Francport near Compiègne that ended fighting on land, sea and air in World War I between the Allies and their last remaining opponent, Germany. -
President Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points (1918): statement of principles for peace after World War I, included no colonialism, freedom of the seas, and a League of Nations
The 14 points included proposals to ensure world peace in the future: open agreements, arms reductions, freedom of the seas, free trade, and self-determination for oppressed minorities. ... Wilson later suggested that there would be another world war within a generation if the U.S. failed to join the League. -
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater and politics centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. -
Treaty of Versailles (1919): peace treaty that ended World War I, required Germany to accept full blame and pay war reparations as well as demilitarize
The Treaty of Versailles held Germany responsible for starting the war and imposed harsh penalties in terms of loss of territory, massive reparations payments and demilitarization. -
19th Amendment: women are given the right to vote
The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted American women the right to vote, a right known as women's suffrage, and was ratified on August 18, 1920, ending almost a century of protest. ... It would take more than 40 years for all women to achieve voting equality. -
Return to Normalcy
Return to normalcy, referring to a return to the way of life before World War I, the First Red Scare, and the Spanish flu pandemic, was United States presidential candidate Warren G. Harding's campaign slogan for the election of 1920 -
Roaring Twenties
(1920-1929). The Roaring Twenties refers to the decade of the 1920s in Western society and Western culture. It was a period of economic prosperity with a distinctive cultural edge in the United States and Europe, particularly in major cities such as Berlin, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York City, Paris, and Sydney. -
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Roaring Twenties
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1922: Teapot Dome Scandal uncovered by the Wall Street Journal
The Teapot Dome scandal was a bribery scandal involving the administration of United States President Warren G. Harding from 1921 to 1923. -
18th Amendment: prohibition is enacted and alcohol is illegal
The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution–which banned the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors–ushered in a period in American history known as Prohibition. ... In early 1933, Congress adopted a resolution proposing a 21st Amendment to the Constitution that would repeal the 18th. -
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was a federal socialist state in Northern Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991 -
American Indian Citizenship Act (1924): granted citizenship to any Native Americans born within the United States
On June 2, 1924, Congress enacted the Indian Citizenship Act, which granted citizenship to all Native Americans born in the U.S. The right to vote, however, was governed by state law; until 1957, some states barred Native Americans from voting. -
1925: Scopes Monkey Trial
The Scopes Trial, formally known as The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes and commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial, was an American legal case in July 1925 in which a high school -
1927: Charles Lindbergh makes history by making a nonstop solo flight from New York to Paris
As Charles Lindbergh piloted the Spirit of St. Louis down the dirt runway of Roosevelt Field in New York on May 20, 1927, many doubted he would successfully cross the Atlantic Ocean. Yet Lindbergh landed safely in Paris less than 34 hours later, becoming the first pilot to solo a nonstop trans-Atlantic flight.Jun 11, 2019 -
1929: Stock Market Crash
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the fall of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange collapsed. -
Great Depression
(1929-1939). The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place mostly during the 1930s, beginning in the United States. The timing of the Great Depression varied across the world; in most countries, it started in 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s -
Period: to
Great Depression
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1930-1936: Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s; severe drought and a failure to apply dryland farming methods to prevent the aeolian processes caused the phenomeno -
Hoovervilles
A "Hooverville" was a shanty town built during the Great Depression by the homeless in the United States. They were named after Herbert Hoover, who was President of the United States during the onset of the Depression and was widely blamed for it. -
Causes of the Great Depression (5)
Bank Failures. A crowd of depositors outside the American Union Bank in New York, having failed to withdraw their savings before the bank collapsed, 30th June 1931. -
1932: Franklin D. Roosevelt elected
Roosevelt defeated Republican incumbent President Herbert Hoover in a landslide, with Hoover winning only six Northeastern states. Roosevelt's victory was the first by a Democratic candidate since Woodrow Wilson won re-election in 1916. -
1932: Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established
On April 5, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt establishes the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), an innovative federally funded organization that put thousands of Americans to work during the Great Depression on projects with environmental benefits. -
1933: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) established
On June 16, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Banking Act of 1933, a part of which established the FDIC. At Roosevelt's immediate right and left were Sen. Carter Glass of Virginia and Rep. Henry Steagall of Alabama, the two most prominent figures in the bill's development. -
The New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. -
21st Amendment: repeals the 18th Amendment and prohibition ends
On December 5, 1933, the 21st Amendment was ratified, as announced in this proclamation from President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The 21st Amendment repealed the 18th Amendment of January 16, 1919, ending the increasingly unpopular nationwide prohibition of alcohol. -
1934: Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) established
On June 6, 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Securities Exchange Act, which created the SEC. This Act gave the SEC extensive power to regulate the securities industry, including the New York Stock Exchange. -
Dawes Act (1887): gave individual ownership of land to native americans instead of the tribe owning things collectively
The Dawes Act authorized the BIA to allot parcels of reservation land to individual Indians. Each Indian's allotment was to remain in trust (exempt from state laws and taxation) for 25 years. ... The Dawes Act had serious effects: Land owned by tribes fell from 138 million acres in 1887 to 48 million acres in 1934 -
Social Security Act (1935)
: established the Social Security Administration, which provides unemployment insurance, aid to the disabled, old age pensions, and insurance for families -
1935: Works Progress Administration (WPA) established
On April 8, 1935, Congress approved the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935, the work relief bill that funded the Works Progress Administration (WPA). ... The Federal Writers' Project(FWP) was one of several projects within the WPA created to employ people with skills in the arts. -
Court Packing
The Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937, frequently called the "court-packing plan", was a legislative initiative proposed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to add more justices to the U.S -
20th Amendment: adjusted the dates of the presidential terms
The exact term of the President and Vice President was fixed by the Constitution, Art. II, § 1, cl. ... Since this amendment was declared adopted on February 6, 1933, § 1 in effect shortened, by the interval between January 20 and March 4, 1937, the terms of the President and Vice President elected in 1932. -
1939: Adolf Hitler invades Poland, starting WWII
On September 1, 1939, the German army under Adolf Hitler launched an invasion of Poland that triggered the start of World War II (though by 1939 Japan and China were already at war). The battle for Poland only lasted about a month before a Nazi victory.Sep 1, 2014 -
World War II
(1939-1945). World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. -
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World War II
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honefront
the people who stay in a country and work while that country's soldiers are fighting in a war in a foreign country During the war we had to keep up morale on the home front. -
1941: Attack on Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941, Japan staged a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, decimating the US Pacific Fleet. When Germany and Italy declared war on the United States days later, America found itself in a global war. -
Island Hopping
Island hopping is the crossing of an ocean by a series of shorter journeys between islands, as opposed to a single journey directly to the destination. -
Flying Tigers
The First American Volunteer Group of the Republic of China Air Force in 1941–1942, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, was composed of pilots from the United States Army Air Corps, Navy, and Marine Corps, recruited under President Franklin Roosevelt's authority before Pearl Harbor and commanded by Claire Lee Chennault. -
Executive Order 9066 (1942): incarceration of Japanese Americans for the duration of WWII
Japanese internment camps were established during World War II by President Franklin Roosevelt through his Executive Order 9066. From 1942 to 1945, it was the policy of the U.S. government that people of Japanese descent would be interred in isolated camps.Feb 21, 2020 -
1942: Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. -
1942: Bataan Death March
The Bataan Death March was the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000–80,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war from Saysain Point, Bagac, Bataan and Mariveles to Camp O'Donnell, Capas, Tarlac, via San Fernando, Pampanga, where the prisoners were loaded onto trains. -
Rosie the Riveter
Rosie the Riveter was an allegorical cultural icon of World War II, representing the women who worked in factories and shipyards during World War II, many of whom produced munitions and war supplies. These women sometimes took entirely new jobs replacing the male workers who joined the military. -
G.I. Bill (1944): gives military veterans financial and educational benefits
Officially the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, the G.I. Bill was created to help veterans of 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. -
1944: “D-Day” - Invasion of Normandy
Normandy Invasion, also called Operation Overlord or D-Day, during World War II, the Allied invasion of western Europe, which was launched on June 6, 1944 (the most celebrated D-Day of the war), with the simultaneous landing of U.S., British, and Canadian forces on five separate beachheads in Normandy, France. -
1945: The atomic bomb, “Little Boy” is dropped in Hiroshima, Japan (August 6)
On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. The bomb was known as "Little Boy", a uranium gun-type bomb that exploded with about thirteen kilotons of force. At the time of the bombing, Hiroshima was home to 280,000-290,000 civilians as well as 43,000 soldiers. -
1945: The atomic bomb, “Fat Man” is dropped in Nagasaki, Japan, ending World War II (August 9)
The United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the only use of nuclear weapons in armed conflict. -
Liberation of Concentration Camps
On 27 January 1945, Auschwitz concentration camp—a Nazi concentration camp where more than a million people were murdered—was liberated by the Red Army during the Vistula–Oder Offensive. Although most of the prisoners had been forced onto a death march, about 7,000 had been left behind. -
Chester W. Nimitz
In January 1945, Nimitz moved the headquarters of the Pacific Fleet forward from Pearl Harbor to Guam for the remainder of the war. -
United Nations formed
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Early Cold War
(1945-1960). In June 1950, the first military action of the Cold War began when the Soviet-backed North Korean People's Army invaded its pro-Western neighbor to the south. Many American officials feared this was the first step in a communist campaign to take over the world and deemed that nonintervention was not an option. -
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Early Cold War
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Tuskegee Airmen
The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of primarily African-American military pilots and airmen who fought in World War II. They formed the 332nd Expeditionary Operations Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Forces. -
The Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada -
Containment
Containment was a United States policy using numerous strategies to prevent the spread of communism abroad. A component of the Cold War, this policy was a response to a series of moves by the Soviet Union to enlarge its communist sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, China, Korea, and Vietnam. -
Berlin Airlift
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NATO established
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Civil Rights Era
1950-1970). The Civil Rights Movement in the United States was a decades-long campaign by African Americans and their like-minded allies to end institutionalized racial discrimination, disenfranchisement and racial segregation in the United States. -
Domino Theory
The domino theory was a theory prominent in the United States from the 1950s to the 1980s that posited that if one country in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect. -
Rosenbergs trial
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First H-Bomb detonated by the United States
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Korean War
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Vietnam War
(1954-1976). The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, and in Vietnam as the Resistance War Against America or simply the American War, was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975 -
Period: to
Vietnam War
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Arms Race/Space Race
The Space Race was an informal 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the Soviet Union and the United States, to achieve firsts in spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the two nations following World War II -
Jonas Salk invents the Polio Vaccine
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Interstate Highway Act (1956): authorized the building of a national highway system
On June 26, 1956, the Senate and House both approved a conference report on the Federal-Aid Highway Act (also known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act). ... The authorization to build 41,000 miles of interstate highways marked the largest American public works program to that time. -
Dwight Eisenhower
The Eisenhower Doctrine was a policy enunciated by Dwight D. Eisenhower on January 5, 1957, within a "Special Message to the Congress on the Situation in the Middle East". -
USSR launches Sputnik
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Alvin York
Alvin Cullum York, also known as Sergeant York, was one of the most decorated United States Army soldiers of World War I. He received the Medal of Honor for leading an attack on a German machine gun nest, taking at least one machine gun, killing at least 25 enemy soldiers and capturing 132. -
Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy is an American news publication, founded in 1970 and focused on global affairs, current events, and domestic and international policy. It produces content daily on its website, and in six print issues annually -
End of the Cold War
(1970-1991) During 1989 and 1990, the Berlin Wall came down, borders opened, and free elections ousted Communist regimes everywhere in eastern Europe. In late 1991 the Soviet Union itself dissolved into its component republics. With stunning speed, the Iron Curtain was lifted and the Cold War came to an end. -
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End of the Cold War
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Rough Riders
The Rough Riders was a nickname given to the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, one of three such regiments raised in 1898 for the Spanish–American War and the only one to see combat -
1990s-21st Century
(1990-2008). Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South Africa, and the Baltic states declaring independence from the Soviet Union