-
Period: to
Early American History
-
Period: to
Civil War/Reconstruction
-
Period: to
The Gilded Age
-
Period: to
The Progressive Era
-
Period: to
Imperialism
-
Period: to
World War I
-
Period: to
Roaring Twenties
-
Period: to
Great Depression
-
Period: to
World War II
-
Period: to
Early Cold War
-
Period: to
Domino Theory
The domino theory was a Cold War era belief popular within the United States from the 1950's until the end of the Cold War. The Cold War was a major world event that took place from approximately 1945 until 1990. -
Period: to
Communism
With the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union is dissolved. New Russian President Boris Yeltsin bans the Communist Party. Communism soon ends in Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Congo, Kenya, Yugoslavia and other nations. China, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam remain under communist rule. -
Period: to
United Nations formed
The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization that aims to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations. -
Period: to
Containment
George F. Kennan, a career Foreign Service Officer, formulated the policy of “containment,” the basic United States strategy for fighting the cold war (1947–1989) with the Soviet Union. -
Period: to
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union and the United States and their respective allies, the Eastern Bloc and the Western Bloc, after World War II. -
Period: to
22nd Amendment
Prohibits anyone who has been elected president twice from being elected again. -
Period: to
Truman Doctrine
U.S. policy that gave military and economic aid to countries threatened by communism. -
Period: to
Marshall Plan
Program to help European countries rebuild after World War II. -
Period: to
Berlin Airlift
The Allies would supply their sectors of Berlin from the air. Allied cargo planes would use open air corridors over the Soviet occupation zone to deliver food, fuel and other goods to the people who lived in the western part of the city. -
Period: to
NATO established
The discussions between the Western nations concluded on April 4, 1949, when the foreign ministers of 12 countries in North America and Western Europe gathered in Washington, D.C., to sign the North Atlantic Treaty. -
Period: to
Civil Rights Era
-
Period: to
Korean War
Korean War, conflict between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea) in which at least 2.5 million persons lost their lives. The war reached international proportions in June 1950 when North Korea, supplied and advised by the Soviet Union, invaded the South. -
Period: to
Sweatt v. Painter
ruled the separate law school at the University of Texas failed to qualify as “separate but equal” -
Period: to
Rosenberg's trial
Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg were American citizens who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union. -
Period: to
First H-Bomb detonated by the United States
1, 1952 the U.S. detonated the first hydrogen bomb, resulting in the first successful full-scale thermonuclear weapon explosion. Operation Ivy was conducted on the Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands. -
Period: to
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and mandated desegregation -
Period: to
Jonas Salk invents the Polio Vaccine
On March 26, 1953, American medical researcher Dr. Jonas Salk announces on a national radio show that he has successfully tested a vaccine against poliomyelitis, the virus that causes the crippling disease of polio. -
Period: to
Vietnam War
-
Period: to
Hernandez v. Texas
Mexican Americans and all other races provided equal protection under the 14th Amendment -
Period: to
Montgomery Bus Boycott after Rosa Parks’ arrest
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and a social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a seminal event in the civil rights movement in the United States. -
Period: to
USSR launches Sputnik
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the earth's first artificial satellite, Sputnik I. The successful launch came as a shock to experts and citizens in the United States, who had hoped that the United States would accomplish this scientific advancement first. -
Period: to
Little Rock Nine integrated into an all-white school in Little Rock, AK
During the summer of 1957, the Little Rock Nine enrolled at Little Rock Central High School, which until then had been all white. The students' effort to enroll was supported by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which had declared segregated schooling to be unconstitutional. -
Period: to
Arms Race/Space Race
The Soviet's launch of the first Sputnik satellite on October 4, 1957, stunned and concerned the United States and the rest of the world, as it took the Cold War arms race soon became the Space Race. President Dwight D. -
Period: to
Bay of Pigs Invasion in Cuba
On April 17, 1961, 1,400 Cuban exiles launched what became a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba. In 1959, Fidel Castro came to power in an armed revolt that overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. -
Period: to
Berlin Wall built to prevent people from leaving communist East Berlin
Berlin Wall: Photograph of the Berlin Wall taken from the West side. The Wall was built in 1961 to prevent East Germans from fleeing and stop an economically disastrous migration of workers. It was a symbol of the Cold War, and its fall in 1989 marked the approaching end of the war. -
Period: to
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was a direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and was the moment when the two superpowers came closest to nuclear conflict. -
Period: to
Cuban Missile Crisis
Leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores. Kennedy also secretly agreed to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey. -
Period: to
Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” at the March on Washington
I Have a Dream" is a public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, in which he called for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the United States. -
Period: to
John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, TX
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. -
Period: to
24th Amendment
Abolishes the poll tax. -
Period: to
Civil Rights Act of 1964
In 1964, Congress passed Public Law 88-352 (78 Stat. 241). The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Provisions of this civil rights act forbade discrimination on the basis of sex, as well as, race in hiring, promoting, and firing. -
Period: to
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Begins undeclared war in Vietnam. -
Period: to
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing President Johnson to take any measures he believed were necessary to retaliate and to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asia. -
Period: to
Medicare and Medicaid established
On July 30, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law legislation that established the Medicare and Medicaid programs. For 50 years, these programs have been protecting the health and well-being of millions of American families, saving lives, and improving the economic security of our nation. -
Period: to
Medicare and Medicaid established
On July 30, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law legislation that established the Medicare and Medicaid programs. For 50 years, these programs have been protecting the health and well-being of millions of American families, saving lives, and improving the economic security of our nation. -
Period: to
Voting Rights Act of 1965
This act was signed into law on August 6, 1965, by President Lyndon Johnson. It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. -
Period: to
Pentagon Papers leaked
The Pentagon Papers, officially titled "Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force", was commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1967. In June of 1971, small portions of the report were leaked to the press and widely distributed. -
Period: to
Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive was a coordinated series of North Vietnamese attacks on more than 100 cities and outposts in South Vietnam. The offensive was an attempt to foment rebellion among the South Vietnamese population and encourage the United States to scale back its involvement in the Vietnam War. -
Period: to
Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive was a coordinated series of North Vietnamese attacks on more than 100 cities and outposts in South Vietnam. The offensive was an attempt to foment rebellion among the South Vietnamese population and encourage the United States to scale back its involvement in the Vietnam War. -
Period: to
Martin Luther King is assassinated
Martin Luther King Jr. was an African American, Baptist minister, and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. -
Period: to
Civil Rights Act of 1968
An expansion of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Civil Rights Act of 1968, popularly known as the Fair Housing Act, prohibits discrimination concerning the sale, rental, or financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, and sex. -
Period: to
Tinker v. Des Moines
Defined the First Amendment rights for students in the United States Public Schools. -
Period: to
Tinker v. Des Moines
Tinker v. Des Moines is a historic Supreme Court ruling from 1969 that cemented students' rights to free speech in public schools. Mary Beth Tinker was a 13-year-old junior high school student in December 1965 when she and a group of students decided to wear black armbands to school to protest the war in Vietnam. -
Period: to
First Man on the Moon
Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin formed the American crew that landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle -
Period: to
End of the Cold War
-
Period: to
Kent State University shooting
The Kent State shootings, also known as the May 4 massacre and the Kent State massacre, were the killings of four and wounding of nine other unarmed Kent State University students by the Ohio National Guard on May 4, 1970 in Kent, Ohio, 40 miles south of Cleveland. -
Period: to
Pentagon Papers leaked
The Pentagon Papers, officially titled "Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force", was commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1967. In June of 1971, small portions of the report were leaked to the press and widely distributed. -
Period: to
26th Amendment
moved the voting age from 21 years old to 18 years old -
Period: to
26th Amendment
The Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the states and the federal government from using age as a reason for denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States who are at least eighteen years old. -
Period: to
Title IX
Title IX is a federal civil rights law in the United States of America that was passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or other education program that receives federal money. -
Period: to
War Powers Act
Law limited the President’s right to send troops to battle without Congressional approval. -
Period: to
War Powers Act
The War Powers Resolution (also known as the War Powers Resolution of 1973 or the War Powers Act) (50 U.S.C. 1541–1548) is a federal law intended to check the U.S. president's power to commit the United States to an armed conflict without the consent of the U.S. Congress. -
Period: to
Watergate Scandal, which leads to Nixon’s Resignation
He fired White House Counsel John Dean, who went on to testify before the Senate Watergate Committee and said that he believed and suspected the conversations in the Oval Office were being taped. This information became the bombshell that helped force Richard Nixon to resign rather than be impeached. -
Period: to
Fall of Saigon, marks the end of the Vietnam War
On April 30, 1975, North Vietnamese troops entered Saigon as the last Americans evacuated the city. The surrender of South Vietnam ended the decades-long war and signaled the reunification of North and South Vietnam. The country had been divided in 1954. -
Period: to
Fall of Saigon, marks the end of the Vietnam War
The South Vietnamese stronghold of Saigon (now known as Ho Chi Minh City) falls to People's Army of Vietnam and the Viet Cong on April 30, 1975. The South Vietnamese forces had collapsed under the rapid advancement of the North Vietnamese. -
Period: to
Camp David Accords
The Camp David Accords were a pair of political agreements signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on 17 September 1978, following twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David, the country retreat of the President of the United States in Maryland. -
Period: to
Three Mile Island Disaster
The Three Mile Island Unit 2 reactor, near Middletown, Pa., partially melted down on March 28, 1979. This was the most serious accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant operating history, although its small radioactive releases had no detectable health effects on plant workers or the public. -
Period: to
Iran Hostage Crisis
On November 4, 1979, Iranian students seized the embassy and detained more than 50 Americans, ranging from the Chargé d'Affaires to the most junior members of the staff, as hostages. ... The Iranians held the American diplomats hostage for 444 days. -
Period: to
Iran Contra Affair
The Iran–Contra affair, popularized in Iran as the McFarlane affair, the Iran–Contra scandal, or simply Iran–Contra, was a political scandal in the United States that occurred during the second term of the Reagan Administration. -
Period: to
1990s-21st Century