U.S. History: 1877-2008

By Rana.Brown
  • 1090

    Persian Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm)

  • 1094

    Panama Canal Built

  • 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 (1862)

    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 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)

  • Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)

    outlawed business monopolies

  • 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

  • Klondike Gold Rush (Alaska)

  • Open Door Policy

    initiated free trade with China

  • Roosevelt Corollary

    an addition to the Monroe Doctrine

  • Roosevelt Corollary

    an addition to the Monroe Doctrine

  • 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

  • Dollar Diplomacy

    Taft’s policy of paying for peace in Latin America

  • 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
  • Period: to

    Roaring Twenties

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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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
    4Communism
    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

  • Period: to

    Civil Rights Era

  • Rosenbergs trial

  • First H-Bomb detonated by the United States

  • Period: to

    Vietnam War

  • Jonas Salk invents the Polio Vaccine

  • Interstate Highway Act

    authorized the building of a national highway system

  • USSR launches Sputnik

  • Cuban Missile Crisis

  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

    begins undeclared war in Vietnam

  • Medicare and Medicaid established

  • Tet Offensive

  • 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

    1. OPEC
    2. Sandra Day O’Connor
    3. Community Reinvestment Act of 1977
    4. AIDS Epidemic
    5. Star Wars (NOT the movies)

  • Pentagon Papers leaked

  • 26th Amendment:

    moved the voting age from 21 years old to 18 years old

  • 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

  • Period: to

    1990's-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

  • 17th Amendment

    direct election of U.S. Senators

  • 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

  • 22nd Amendment

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

  • NAFTA created free trade between Mexico, the United States

  • 16th Amendment

    established the federal income tax

  • Attack on World Trade Center and Pentagon

  • USA PATRIOT Act

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

  • Hurricane Katrina