U.S. History: 1877-2008

By Katherine.Redman
  • Period: to

    Early American History

  • 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

    Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. (abolish slavery)

  • 14th Amendment

    All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. (citizenship and due process)

  • 15th Amendment

    The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. (voting rights to men)

  • Telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell

  • Period: to

    The Gilded Age

  • 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

  • Open Door Policy

  • Period: to

    The Progressive Era

  • Sherman Antitrust Act

    outlawed business monopolies

  • Klondike Gold Rush (Alaska)

  • Plessy v. Ferguson

    Allowed segregation to occur, jim crow laws and such

  • 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

  • Roosevelt Corollary

    an addition to the Monroe Doctrine

  • The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is published

  • Pure Food and Drug Act

    regulation of the preparation of foods and the sale of medicines

  • Meat Inspection Act

    law that makes it illegal to adulterate or misbrand meat

  • 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

  • Panama Canal Built

  • Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated, starting World War I

  • Period: to

    World War I

  • Federal Reserve Act

    established the Federal Reserve, which helped stabilize the banking industry

  • Sinking of the Lusitania

  • National Parks System created

  • The United States enters WWI on the Allied side

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

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

  • 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

  • 18th Amendment

    prohibition is enacted and alcohol is illegal

  • 19th Amendment

    women are given the right to vote

  • 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

  • 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

  • Dust Bowl

  • Franklin D. Roosevelt elected

  • Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established

  • Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) established

  • 20th Amendment

    adjusted the dates of the presidential terms

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 22nd Amendment

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

  • 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

  • Period: to

    End of the Cold War

  • Period: to

    1990s-21st Century