U.S. History: 1877-2008

  • Period: to

    Early American History

  • Declaration of Independence signed

  • Constitution written

  • Bill of Rights ratified

  • Period: to

    Civil War/Reconstruction

    1869: Transcontinental Railroad Completed
    1876: Telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell
  • Homestead Act

    provided 160 acres to anyone willing to settle on land in the west
  • 13th Amendment

    abolished slavery
  • 14th Amendment

    citizenship & due process
  • Transcontinental Railroad Completed

  • 15th Amendment

    voting for all male citizens
  • Telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell

  • Chinese Exclusion Act

    prohibited immigration of skilled or unskilled Chinese laborers, first US national immigration act
  • Pendleton Civil Service Act

    awarded government jobs based on merit
  • Interstate Commerce Act

    ensure railroad set “reasonable and just” rate and the first time government stepped in to regulate business
  • Dawes Act

    gave individual ownership of land to native americans instead of the tribe owning things collectively
  • Hull House founded, first of many settlement houses

  • Sherman Anti-Trust Act

    outlawed trusts to promote economic fairness
  • Sherman Antitrust Act

    outlawed business monopolies
  • Klondike Gold Rush (Alaska)

  • Plessy v. Ferguson

    legalized segregation, established “separate but equal”
  • USS Maine explodes off the coast of Cuba, starting the Spanish American War

  • Hawaii is annexed as a territory of the United States

  • Open Door Policy

    initiated free trade with China
  • Panama Canal Built

  • Roosevelt Corollary

    an addition to the Monroe Doctrine
  • Meat Inspection Act

    law that makes it illegal to adulterate or misbrand meat
  • The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is published

  • Pure Food and Drug Act

    regulation of the preparation of foods and the sale of medicines
  • NAACP Founded

  • Dollar Diplomacy

    Taft’s policy of paying for peace in Latin America
  • 16th Amendment

    established the federal income tax
  • 17th Amendment

    direct election of U.S. Senators
  • Federal Reserve Act

    established the Federal Reserve, which helped stabilize the banking industry
  • National Parks System created

  • Period: to

    Roaring Twenties

  • Period: to

    Great Depression

  • Adolf Hitler invades Poland, starting WWII

  • Attack on Pearl Harbor

  • Executive Order 9066

    incarceration of Japanese Americans for the duration of WWII
  • Bataan Death March

  • Battle of Midway

  • “D-Day” - Invasion of Normandy

  • G.I. Bill

    gives military veterans financial and educational benefits
  • United Nations Formed

  • Period: to

    Early Cold War

    In 1947 the 22nd Amendment was made. It prohibits anyone who has been elected president twice from being elected again In 1947 the Truman Doctrine Act was passed. It was the U.S. policy that gave military and economic aid to countries threatened by communism In 1948 the Marshall Plan Act was passed. It was a program to help European countries rebuild after World War II https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LUoS5MQgr7MQScXA5dSkrrStDPRZJUZsYK_eoWhwjyo/edit
  • The atomic bomb, “Little Boy” is dropped in Hiroshima, Japan (August 6)

  • The atomic bomb, “Fat Man” is dropped in Nagasaki, Japan, ending World War II (August 9)

  • Berlin Airlift

  • NATO established

  • Koren war starts

  • Period: to

    Civil Rights Era

  • Sweatt v. Painter

    ruled the separate law school at the University of Texas failed to qualify as “separate but equal”
  • Rosensberg trials

  • First H-Bomb detonated by the United States

  • Korean War ends

  • Period: to

    Vietnam War

  • Hernandez v. Texas

    Mexican Americans and all other races provided equal protection under the 14th Amendment
  • Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

    overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and mandated desegregation
  • Jonas Salk invents the Polio Vaccine

  • Montgomery Bus Boycott after Rosa Parks’ arrest

  • Interstate Highway Act

    authorized the building of a national highway system
  • USSR launches Sputnik

  • Little Rock Nine integrated into an all-white school in Little Rock, AK

  • Bay of Pigs Invasion in Cuba

  • Berlin Wall built to prevent people from leaving communist East Berlin

  • Cuban Missile Crisis

  • Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” at the March on Washington

  • John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, TX

  • 24th Amendment

    Abolishes the poll tax
  • Civil Rights Act of 1964

    Made discrimination based on race, religion, or national origin in public places illegal and required employers to hire on an equal opportunity basis
  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

    begins undeclared war in Vietnam
  • Medicare and Medicaid established

  • Voting Rights Act of 1965

    Eliminated literacy tests for voters
  • Martin Luther King is assassinated

  • Civil Rights Act of 1968

    prohibited discrimination in the sale or rental of housing
  • Tet Offensive

  • First Man on the Moon

  • Tinker v. Des Moines

    defined the First Amendment rights for students in the United States Public Schools
  • Period: to

    End of the Cold War

  • Kent State University shooting

  • Pentagon Papers leaked

  • 26th Amendment

    moved the voting age from 21 years old to 18 years old
  • Title IX

    protects people from discrimination based on gender in education programs
  • War Powers Act

    law limited the President’s right to send troops to battle without Congressional approval
  • Watergate Scandal, which leads to Nixon’s Resignation

  • Fall of Saigon, marks the end of the Vietnam War

  • Camp David Accords

  • Three Mile Island Disaster

  • Iran Hostage Crisis

  • Iran Contra Affair

  • Period: to

    1990s-21st Century

  • Period: to

    1990s-21st Century (The Big Five)

  • Persian Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm)

  • Fall of the USSR - Official end of the Cold War

  • NAFTA created free trade between Mexico, the United States, and Canada

  • Attack on World Trade Center and Pentagon

  • USA PATRIOT Act

    tightened the national security, particularly as it was related to foreign terrorism
  • Hurricane Katrina