U.S. History: 1877-2008

By Emiliano.Gonzalez
  • Period: to

    Early American History

  • DOI signed

  • Constitution written

  • Bill of Rights ratified

  • Period: to

    Civil War/Reconstruction

  • Homestead Act

    Provided 160 acres to anyone willing to settle on land in the west.

  • 13th Amendment

    Abolished slavery

  • 14th Amendment

    Citizenship and due process

  • Transcontinental Railroad Completed

  • 15th Amendment

    Voting for all male citizens

  • Telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell

  • Interstate Commerce Act

    Ensure railroad set “reasonable and just” rate and the first time government stepped in to regulate business
  • Period: to

    The Gilded Age

    1.Rockefeller/Carnegie (Captains of Industry vs. Robber Barons)
    2.Philanthropy
    3.Monopoly
    4.Jane Addams
    5.Laissez-Faire

  • 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

  • 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 Antitrust Act

    Outlawed business monopolies

  • Sherman Anti-Trust Act

    Outlawed trusts to promote economic fairness
  • Period: to

    The Progressive Era

    1.Muckrakers
    2.Initiative, Referendum, Recall
    3.The Great Migration
    4.NAACP
    5.Immigration Issues (Assimilation and Nativism)

  • Plessy v. Ferguson

    Legalized segregation, established “separate but equal”

  • Klondike Gold Rush (Alaska)

  • Period: to

    Imperialism

    1.Theodore Roosevelt
    2.Rough Riders
    3.Foreign Policy
    4.Immigration Quotas
    5.Yellow Journalism

  • The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is published

  • Meat Inspection Act

    Law that makes it illegal to adulterate or misbrand meat

  • Pure Food and Drug Act

    Regulation of the preparation of foods and the sale of medicines

  • NAACP Founded

  • 16th Amendment

    Established the federal income tax

  • 17th Amendment

    Direct election of US senators

  • Federal Reserve Act

    Established the Federal Reserve, which helped stabilize the banking industry
  • Period: to

    World War I

  • National Parks System created

  • Period: to

    Roaring Twenties

  • Period: to

    The Great Depression

  • Period: to

    World War II

  • United Nations formed

  • Period: to

    Early Cold War

    1.Containment: US actions to contain the spread of communism
    2.Arms Race/Space Race: US and USSR competing in technology matters to see which was the most powerful and advanced nation
    3.The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics: Federal socialist state in Europe/Asia
    4.Communism: Economic/political theory of no social classes and no private means of production
    5.Domino Theory: the theory that a political event in one country will cause similar events in neighboring countries like falling dominos

  • 22nd Amendment

    Prohibits anyone who has been elected president twice from being elected again

  • Truman Doctrine

    U.S. policy that gave military and economic aid to countries threatened by communism

  • Berlin Airlift

  • Marshall Plan

    Program to help European countries rebuild after World War II

  • NATO established

  • Korean War

  • Sweatt v. Painter

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

    Civil Rights Era

  • Rosenbergs trial

  • First H-Bomb detonated by the United States

  • 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
  • Period: to

    Vietnam War

  • Jonas Salk invents the Polio Vaccine

  • Montgomery Bus Boycott after Rosa Parks’ arrest

  • 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

  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

    Begins undeclared war in Vietnam

  • 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

  • Medicare and Medicaid established

  • Voting Rights Act of 1965

    Eliminated literacy tests for voters

  • Tet Offensive

  • Martin Luther King is assassinated

  • Civil Rights Act of 1968

    prohibited discrimination in the sale or rental of housing

  • Tinker v. Des Moines

    Defined the First Amendment rights for students in the United States Public Schools

  • First Man on the Moon

  • Kent State University shooting

  • Period: to

    End of The Cold War

  • 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

  • Persian Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm)

  • Period: to

    1990s-21st Century

    Barack Obama: First African American that became President (44th) al-Qaeda: multi-national terrorist organization founded in 1988 by Osama bin Laden No Child Left Behind: authorizes several federal education programs that are administered by the states. President Clinton’s Impeachment: grounds of perjury to a grand jury Presidential Election of 2000: the vote was so close that no winner could be declared. The court stopped the recount, and Florida's electoral votes went to Bush.

  • 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