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1995-1996 Triangulation
In 1995 and 1996, President Clinton worked hard to take some of the focus away from the Republicans by adopting tougher stances on conservative social issues and supporting parts of the Reagan-era push to reduce Great Society programs. To respond to conservative concerns about social issues, Clinton introduced a few moderate policies himself, but very importantly, he often went along with what conservatives were already trying to do (Kruse and Zelizer, 217-218). -
1995 Oklahoma City Bombing
On the morning of April 19, 1995, a truck packed with 4,800 pounds of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil exploded outside the north side of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The blast killed 168 people and left about 850 others very injured. According to the governor's office, the bombing left 30 children without their parents, 219 children with only one parent, 462 individuals without their homes, and about 7,000 people who could not go back to work (Linenthal). -
1998: Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal
The Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal became public in January of 1998. It involved Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky and led to President Bill Clinton being impeached. On January 7, 2000, Monica Lewinsky, who used to be an intern at the White House, signed an affidavit denying that she had an affair with Bill Clinton. -
1999: Columbine, Colorado School Shooting
This was the beginning of a new era of school shootings. There was a Colorado school shooting in 1999 that took place in Columbine, Colorado, just outside of Denver. Two high school students kill twelve students as well as a teacher and marking the beginning of a new wave of school shootings that range all the way from K-12 and higher education. -
Y2K Crisis
The Y2K Crisis signified the end of an era as the 2000s hit. There was a fear that the software in the computers was not prepared for that transition, and they ran some examples, and the systems ended up imploding. The servers being used by a bank are going to get wiped, and banking records are going to disappear. -
2000 Presidental Election
This was the election between George Bush and Al Gore. It was an extremely close election, and it is so close because it boils down to one state which is Florida. There is a 537 vote total difference between the two candidates. A lot of votes are thrown out and these votes shift the balance of the election away from Gore to Bush. George Bush is elected president, and he loses the popular vote, and if all the ballots were lost in FL, he would not have been president. -
9/11
On September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four airplanes. Two of them crashed into the Twin Towers, a third crashed into the Pentagon, and the fourth crashed in PA. Over 3,000 people die. This ultimately reorders the Bush administration and everything else over the last 25 years, as he was president at the time. Moreover, a man named Osane Bin Laden was responsible for a series of terror attacks already. In 1993, there was a bombing at the World Trade Center by members of al-Qaeda. -
2001: USA Patriot Act
The USA Patriot Act was passed on October 26, 2001 and it aimed to increase national security. This act allowed the government to conduct roving wiretaps, work on a better definition of terrorism, observe and watch out for records in business and e-mails, to expand control over undocumented immigration enforcement, and more. On October 24, 2001, the USA Patriot Act was enacted by the House with a vote of 357 to 66, and the Senate the next day with a vote of 98 to 1 (Kruse and Zelizer 257). -
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in August of 2005. It lands as a category four hurricane, and the meteorologists say that it is going to miss New Orleans, but they are wrong. About 2,000 people die and it is the deadliest hurricane in U.S. history. New Orleans is very different now from what it used to be before the hurricane hit. The criticism comes from the response of the Bush administration to the hurricane itself. -
Hurricane Sandy
Hurricane Sandy occurred on October 29, 2012 and hit two main states, New Jersey and New York. It was a category 3 hurricane and over two hundred people died. It was one of the most destructive hurricanes in United States history. The hurricane resulted in flooding, homes destroyed, power outages for days and weeks, and falling trees all over the place.