U.S. History: 1877-2008

  • Period: to

    Early American History

  • Declaration of Independence was 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 ratified

    Abolished Slavery in the US
  • 14th Amendment ratified

    Citizenship and due process
  • Transcontinental Railroad Completed

  • 15th Amendment ratified

    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

    Ensured railroads 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)
  • Plessy v. Ferguson

    Legalized segregation, established “separate but equal”
  • Period: to

    Klondike Gold Rush (Alaska)

  • Hawaii is annexed as a territory of the United States

  • USS Maine explodes off the coast of Cuba, starting the Spanish American War

  • 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
  • Period: to

    Panama Canal Built

  • 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
  • The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is published

  • NAACP Founded

  • Dollar Diplomacy

    Taft’s policy of paying for peace in Latin America
  • 16th Amendment ratified

    Established the federal income tax
  • 17th Amendment ratified

    Direct election of U.S. Senators
  • Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated, starting World War I

  • Federal Reserve Act

    Established the Federal Reserve, which helped stabilize the banking industry
  • 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

  • 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

  • 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
  • Germany surrenders to the Allied Powers

  • 18th Amendment ratified

    Prohibition is enacted and alcohol is illegal
  • Treaty of Versailles

    Peace treaty that ended World War I, required Germany to accept full blame and pay war reparations as well as demilitarize
  • 19th Amendment ratified

    Women are given the right to vote
  • 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

  • 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
  • Period: to

    Dust Bowl

  • Franklin D. Roosevelt elected

  • Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established

  • Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) established

  • 21st Amendment ratified

    Repeals the 18th Amendment and prohibition ends
  • 20th Amendment ratified

    Adjusted the dates of the presidential terms
  • 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
  • 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
  • Executive Order 9066

    Incarceration of Japanese Americans for the duration of WWII
  • G.I. Bill

    Gives military veterans financial and educational benefits
  • 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
  • 22nd Amendment

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

  • Period: to

    Civil Rights Era

  • Period: to

    Korean War

  • 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
  • Period: to

    End of the Cold War

  • 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
  • Fall of Saigon, marks the end of the Vietnam War

  • Period: to

    1990s-21st Century