U.S. History: 1877-2008

By marianna.vitiello
  • Period: to

    Early American History

  • Declaration of Independence 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 & due process

  • Transcontinental Railroad Completed

  • 15th Amendment

    Voting for all male citizens

  • Telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell

  • 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

  • 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 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)

  • Klondike Gold Rush (Alaska)

  • Homer A. Plessy v. John H. Ferguson (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

  • Period: to

    Imperialism

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

  • Open Door Policy

    Initiated free trade with China

  • Roosevelt Corollary

    An addition to the Monroe Doctrine

  • Panama Canal Built

  • The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is published

  • Meat Inspection Act

    Law that makes it illegal to adulterate or misbrande meat

  • 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

  • Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated, starting World War I

  • Period: to

    World War I

    1-Alvin York
    2-Homefront
    3-M.A.I.N. (Causes of WWI)
    4-Sussex Pledge
    5-American Expeditionary Forces

  • Sinking of the Lusitania

  • National Parks System created

  • Zimmerman Telegram intercepted by the British, warned the U.S. of a proposed ally between Mexico and Germany

  • The United States enters WWI on the Allied side

  • Bolshevik Revolution in Russia begins, causing Russian troops to exit the war

  • Battle of Argonne Forest, considered the turning point of the war

  • Germany surrenders to the Allied Powers

  • President Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points

    Statement of principles for peace after World War I, included no colonialism, freedom of the seas, and a League of Nations

  • Treaty of Versailles

    Peace treaty that ended World War I, required Germany to accept full blame and pay war reparations as well as demilitarize

  • 18th Amendment

    Prohibition is enacted and alcohol is illegal
  • Period: to

    Roaring Twenties

    1-Social Darwinism
    2-The Red Scare
    3-Assembly Line
    4-Return to Normalcy
    5-Harlem Renaissance

  • 19th Amendment

    Women are given the right to vote
    20th Amendment: adjusted the dates of the presidential terms

  • Teapot Dome Scandal uncovered by the Wall Street Journal

  • American Indian Citizenship Act

    Granted citizenship to any Native Americans born within the United States

  • Scopes Monkey Trial

  • Charles Lindbergh makes history by making a nonstop solo flight from New York to Paris

  • Stock Market Crash

  • Period: to

    Great Depression

    1-Hoovervilles
    2-The New Deal
    3-Causes of the Great Depression (5)
    4-Court Packing
    5-Eleanor Roosevelt

  • Dust Bowl

  • Franklin D. Roosevelt elected

  • Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established

  • Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) established

  • 21st Amendment

    Repeals the 18th Amendment and prohibition ends

  • Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) established

  • Works Progress Administration (WPA) established

  • Social Security Act

    Established the Social Security Administration, which provides unemployment insurance, aid to the disabled, old age pensions, and insurance for families

  • Adolf Hitler invades Poland, starting WWII

  • Period: to

    World War II

    1-Island Hopping
    2-Liberation of Concentration Camps
    3-Dwight Eisenhower
    4-Douglas MacArthur
    5-Chester W. Nimitz
    6-Navajo Code Talkers
    7-Tuskegee Airmen
    8-Flying Tigers
    9-The Manhattan Project
    10-Rosie the Riveter

  • Attack on Pearl Harbor

  • Battle of Midway

  • Bataan Death March

  • Executive Order 9066

    Incarceration of Japanese Americans for the duration of WWII

  • D-Day” - Invasion of Normandy

  • G.I. Bill

    Gives military veterans financial and educational benefits

  • 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)

  • United Nations formed

  • Period: to

    Early Cold War

    1-Containment
    2-Arms Race/Space Race
    3-The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
    4-Communism
    5-Domino Theory

  • 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

  • 22nd Amendment

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

  • First H-Bomb detonated by the United States

  • 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
  • Period: to

    Vietnam War

  • 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

  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

    Begins undeclared war in Vietnam.

  • Civil Rights Act

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

  • 24th Amendment

    Abolishes the poll tax

  • Medicare and Medicaid established

  • Voting Rights Act

    Eliminated literacy tests for voters

  • Tet Offensive

  • Martin Luther King is assassinated

  • Civil Rights Act

    Prohibited discrimination in the sale or rental of housing

  • First Man on the Moon

  • Tinker v. Des Moines

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

  • 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

  • Iran Hostage Crisis

  • Three Mile Island Disaster

  • Iran Contra Affair

  • Persian Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm)

  • Period: to

    1990s-21st Century

    1-Barack Obama
    2-Al-Qaeda
    3-No Child Left Behind
    4-President Clinton’s Impeachment
    5-Presidential Election of 2000

  • 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