U.S. History: 1877-2008

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    Early American History

    July 4, 1776: Declaration of Independence signed
    September 17, 1787: Constitution written
    December 15, 1791: Bill of Rights ratified
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    Civil War/Reconstruction

    1869: Transcontinental Railroad Completed
    1876: Telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell
    13th Amendment: abolished slavery
    14th Amendment: citizenship & due process
    15th Amendment: voting for all male citizens
    Plessy v. Ferguson: legalized segregation, established “separate but equal”
    Homestead Act (1862): provided 160 acres to anyone willing to settle on land in the west
    Sherman Antitrust Act (1890): outlawed business monopolies
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    The Gilded Age

    Rockefeller/Carnegie (Captains of Industry vs. Robber Barons)
    Philanthropy
    Monopoly
    Jane Addams
    Laissez-Faire
    1889: Hull House founded, first of many settlement houses
    1896-1899: Klondike Gold Rush (Alaska)
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    The Gilded Age-Continued

    Chinese Exclusion Act (1882): prohibited immigration of skilled or unskilled Chinese laborers, first US national immigration act
    Interstate Commerce Act (1887): ensure railroad set “reasonable and just” rate and the first time government stepped in to regulate business
    Dawes Act (1887): gave individual ownership of land to native americans instead of the tribe owning things collectively
    Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883): awarded government jobs based on merit
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    The Progressive Era-Continued

    Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890): outlawed trusts to promote economic fairness
    Meat Inspection Act (1906): law that makes it illegal to adulterate or misbrand meat
    Pure Food and Drug Act (1906): regulation of the preparation of foods and the sale of medicines
    Federal Reserve Act (1914): established the Federal Reserve, which helped stabilize the banking industry
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    The Progressive Era

    Muckrakers
    Initiative, Referendum, Recall
    The Great Migration
    NAACP
    Immigration Issues (Assimilation and Nativism)
    906: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is published
    1909: NAACP Founded
    1916: National Parks System created
    16th Amendment: established the federal income tax
    17th Amendment: direct election of U.S. Senators
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    Imperialism

    Theodore Roosevelt
    Rough Riders
    Foreign Policy
    Immigration Quotas
    Yellow Journalism
    1898: USS Maine explodes off the coast of Cuba, starting the Spanish American War
    1898: Hawaii is annexed as a territory of the United States
    1904-1914: Panama Canal Built
    Open Door Policy (1899): initiated free trade with China
    Roosevelt Corollary (1904): an addition to the Monroe Doctrine
    Dollar Diplomacy (1909): Taft’s policy of paying for peace in Latin America
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    World War I-Continued

    Alvin York
    Homefront
    M.A.I.N. (Causes of WWI)
    Sussex Pledge
    American Expeditionary Forces
    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
    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
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    World War I

    1914: Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated, starting World War I
    1915: Sinking of the Lusitania
    1917: Zimmerman Telegram intercepted by the British, warned the U.S. of a proposed ally between Mexico and Germany
    1917: The United States enters WWI on the Allied side
    1917: Bolshevik Revolution in Russia begins, causing Russian troops to exit the war
    1918: Battle of Argonne Forest, considered the turning point of the war
    1918: Germany surrenders to the Allied Powers
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    Roaring Twenties-Continued

    American Indian Citizenship Act (1924): granted citizenship to any Native Americans born within the United States
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    Roaring Twenties

    Social Darwinism
    The Red Scare
    Assembly Line
    Return to Normalcy
    Harlem Renaissance
    1922 Teapot Dome Scandal uncovered by the Wall Street Journal
    1925 Scopes Monkey Trial
    1927 Charles Lindbergh makes history by making a nonstop solo flight from New York to Paris
    18th Amendment: prohibition is enacted and alcohol is illegal
    19th Amendment: women are given the right to vote
    20th Amendment: adjusted the dates of the presidential terms
    21st Amendment: repeals the 18th Amendment and prohibition ends
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    Great Depression

    Hoovervilles
    The New Deal
    Causes of the Great Depression (5)
    Court Packing
    Eleanor Roosevelt
    1929: Stock Market Crash
    1930-1936: Dust Bowl
    1932: Franklin D. Roosevelt elected
    1932: Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established
    1933: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) established
    1934: Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) established
    1935: Works Progress Administration (WPA) established
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    Great Depression-Continued

    Social Security Act (1935): established the Social Security Administration, which provides unemployment insurance, aid to the disabled, old age pensions, and insurance for families
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    World War II

    Island Hopping
    Liberation of Concentration Camps
    Dwight Eisenhower
    Douglas MacArthur
    Chester W. Nimitz
    Navajo Code Talkers
    Tuskegee Airmen
    Flying Tigers
    The Manhattan Project
    Rosie the Riveter
    1939 Adolf Hitler invades Poland starting WWII
    1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor
    1942 Battle of Midway
    1942 Batan Death March
    1944 D-Day Invasion of Normandy
    1945 The atomic bomb Little Boy is dropped in Hiroshima August 6th
    1945 The atomic bomb Fat Man is dropped in Nagasaki ending World War II August 9
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    World War II-Continued

    Executive Order 9066 (1942): incarceration of Japanese Americans for the duration of WWII
    G.I. Bill (1944): gives military veterans financial and educational benefits
    Interstate Highway Act (1956): authorized the building of a national highway system
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    Early Cold War

    Containment
    Arms Race/Space Race
    The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
    Communism
    Domino Theory
    1945: United Nations formed
    1948: Berlin Airlift
    1949: NATO established
    1950-1953: Korean War
    1951: Rosenbergs trial
    1952: First H-Bomb detonated by the United States
    1955: Jonas Salk invents the Polio Vaccine
    1957: USSR launches Sputnik
    22nd Amendment: prohibits anyone who has been elected president twice from being elected again
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    Early Cold War-Continued

    Truman Doctrine (1947): U.S. policy that gave military and economic aid to countries threatened by communism
    Marshall Plan (1948): program to help European countries rebuild after World War II
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    Civil Rights Era II

    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
    Voting Rights Act of 1965: Eliminated literacy tests for voters
    Civil Rights Act of 1968: prohibited discrimination in the sale or rental of housing
    Title IX: protects people from discrimination based on gender in education programs
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    Civil Rights Era III

    Sweatt v. Painter: ruled the separate law school at the University of Texas failed to qualify as “separate but equal”
    Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka: overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and mandated desegregation
    Hernandez v. Texas: Mexican Americans and all other races provided equal protection under the 14th Amendment
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    Civil Rights Era I

    1955-1956: Montgomery Bus Boycott after Rosa Parks’ arrest
    1957: Little Rock Nine integrated into an all-white school in Little Rock, AK
    1961: Bay of Pigs Invasion in Cuba
    1961: Berlin Wall built to prevent people from leaving communist East Berlin
    1963: Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” at the March on Washington
    1963: John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, TX
    1968: Martin Luther King is assassinated
    1969: First Man on the Moon
    24th Amendment: Abolishes the poll tax
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    Vietnam War

    1962 Cuban Missile Crisis
    1965 Medicare and Medicaid established
    1968 Tet Offensive
    1971 Pentagon Papers leaked
    1975 Fall of Saigon marks the end of the Vietnam War
    26th Amendment moved the voting age from 21 to 18
    Tinker v Des Moines: defined the First Amendment rights for students in the United States Public Schools
    Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964): begins undeclared war in Vietnam
    War Powers Act (1973): law limited the President’s right to send troops to battle without Congressional approval
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    End of the Cold War

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    1990s-21st Century