U.S. History: 1877-2008

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    Early American History

  • Declaration of Independence signed

  • Constitution written

  • Bill of Rights ratified

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    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
  • 15th Amendment

    voting for all male citizens
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    The Gilded Age

    1) Rockefeller/Carnegie (Captains of Industry vs. Robber Barons): COI helped give back to the community with their businesses while RB only cared for money and their own businesses
    2) Philanthropy: the desire to promote the welfare of others
    3) Monopoly: control of the supply of commodity or service
    4) Jane Addams: american reformer who was an important leader in women's suffrage in the us
    5) Laissez-Faire: a policy or attitude of letting things take their own course without interfering
  • Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

    prohibited immigration of skilled or unskilled Chinese laborers, first US national immigration act
  • Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883)

    awarded government jobs based on merit
  • Interstate Commerce Act (1887)

    ensure railroad set “reasonable and just” rate and the first time government stepped in to regulate business
  • Dawes Act (1887)

    gave individual ownership of land to native americans instead of the tribe owning things collectively
  • Hull House founded, first of many settlement houses

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    The Progressive Era

    1) Muckrakers: journalists who exposed established institutions and leaders as corrupt
    2) Initiative, Referendum, Recall: people have right to propose a new law/a law passed needs people for approval/the people can vote to have an elected official out from office
    3) The Great Migration: movement of 6 million A.A. out of south to north
    4) NAACP: organization created to advance justice for A.A.
    5) Immigration Issues: US believed that immigrants were bad for US, making immigrants act like them
  • Sherman Antitrust Act

    outlawed business monopolies
  • Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)

    outlawed trusts to promote economic fairness
  • Plessy v. Ferguson

    legalized segregation, established "separate but equal"
  • Klondike Gold Rush (Alaska) (1896-1899)

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    Imperialism

    1) Theodore Roosevelt: 26th US president
    2) Rough Riders: 1st US volunteer cavalry in Spanish-american war
    3) Foreign Policy: a government's strategy in dealing with other nations
    4) Immigration Quotas: limited the number of immigrants allowed entry into the United States through a national origins quota
    5) Yellow Journalism: journalism that is based upon sensationalism and crude exaggeration
  • USS Maine explodes off the coast of Cuba, starting the Spanish American War

  • Hawaii is annexed as a territory of the United States

  • Open Door Policy (1899)

    initiated free trade with China
  • Roosevelt Corollary (1904)

    an addition to the Monroe Doctrine
  • Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)

    regulation of the preparation of foods and the sale of medicines
  • Meat Inspection Act (1906)

    law that makes it illegal to adulterate or misbrand meat
  • The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is published

  • Dollar Diplomacy (1909)

    Taft’s policy of paying for peace in Latin America
  • NAACP Founded

  • Federal Reserve Act (1914)

    established the Federal Reserve, which helped stabilize the banking industry
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    World War I

    1) Alvin York: one of the most decorated United States Army soldiers of World War I
    2) Homefront: people who stay in a country and work while that country's soldiers are fighting in a war in a foreign country
    3) M.A.I.N. (Causes of WW1): Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism and Nationalism
    4) Sussex Pledge: German promise not to bomb american passenger boats
    5) American Expeditionary Forces: fatigued British and French troops who sorely needed the relief offered by the American forces
  • Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated, starting World War I

  • Panama Canal Built (1904-1914)

  • 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

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

  • The United States enters WWI on the Allied side

  • President Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points (1918)

    statement of principles for peace after World War I, included no colonialism, freedom of the seas, and a League of Nations
  • Battle of Argonne Forest, considered the turning point of the war

  • Germany surrenders to the Allied Powers

  • 18th Amendment

    prohibition is enacted and alcohol is illegal
  • Treaty of Versailles (1919)

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

    1) Social Darwinism: the theory that human groups & races are subject to the laws of natural selection
    2) The Red Scare: promotion of a widespread fear of a potential rise of communism or anarchism by a society or state
    3) Assembly Line: series of workers & machines in a factory by which identical items are assembled
    4) Return to Normalcy: a return to the way of life before World War I & the Spanish flu pandemic
    5) Harlem Renaissance: a golden age in African American culture for arts & music
  • 19th Amendent

    women are given the right to vote
  • Teapot Dome Scandal uncovered by the Wall Street Journal

  • American Indian Citizenship Act (1924)

    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

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    Great Depression

    1) Hoovervilles: shanty town built during the Great Depression by the homeless in the United States
    2) The New Deal: designed to promote economic recovery and social reform during the 1930s
    3) Causes of the Great Depression (5): stock market crash, bank failures, reduced buying, US economic policy w/ Europe, dust bowl
    4) Court Packing: practice of changing the number or composition of judges on a court to make favorable to goals or ideologies
    5) Eleanor Roosevelt: activist & former 1st lady
  • Stock Market Crash

  • Dust Bowl (1930-1936)

  • 20th Amendment

    adjusted the dates of the presidential terms
  • 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 (1935)

    established the Social Security Administration, which provides unemployment insurance, aid to the disabled, old age pensions, and insurance for families
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    World War II

    Island Hopping: strategy targeted key islands
    Liberation of Concentration Camps: prisoners taken away on death marches
    Dwight Eisenhower: an US politician & soldier/ 34th president
    Douglas MacArthur: Chief of Staff of the US Army during 1930s
    Chester W. Nimitz: fleet admiral of US navy
    Navajo Code Talkers: secret line of communication
    Tuskegee Airmen: 1st black aviators in US
    Flying Tigers: pilots commanded to bomb Japan
    The Manhattan Project: nuke bomb project
    Rosie the Riveter: icon of WWII
  • Adolf Hitler invades Poland, starting WWII

  • Attack on Pearl Harbor

  • Executive Order 9066 (1942)

    incarceration of Japanese Americans for the duration of WWII
  • Bataan Death March

  • Battle of Midway

  • “D-Day” - Invasion of Normandy

  • G.I. Bill (1944)

    gives military veterans financial and educational benefits
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    Early Cold War

    1) Containment: policy using strategies to prevent spread of communism
    2) Arms Race/Space Race: competition between US & USSR for superiority in the development of weapons/ technology
    3) The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics: a former union of 15 republics comprising the larger part of the former Russian Empire
    4) Communism: a system in which all goods are owned by the government
    5) Domino Theory: theory that a political event in one country will cause similar events in neighboring countries
  • 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

  • Truman Doctrine (1947)

    U.S. policy that gave military and economic aid to countries threatened by communism
  • 22nd Amendment

    prohibits anyone who has been elected president twice from being elected again
  • Marshall Plan (1948)

    program to help European countries rebuild after World War II
  • Berlin Airlift

  • NATO established

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    Civil Rights Era

  • Korean War (1950-1953)

  • Rosenbergs Trial

  • First H-Bomb detonated by the United States

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    Vietnam War

  • Jonas Salk invents the Polio Vaccine

  • Interstate Highway Act (1956)

    authorized the building of a national highway system
  • USSR launches Sputnik

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    End of the Cold War

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    1990s-21st Century