U.S. History: 1887-2008

By daniel.hwang
  • Period: to

    Early American History

  • Declaration of Independence signed

    July 4, 1776

  • Constitution written

    September 17, 1787

  • Bill of Rights ratified

    December 15, 1791
  • Period: to

    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

  • Transcontinental Railroad Completed

    1869

  • 15th Amendment

    voting for all male citizens

  • Telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell

    1876
  • Period: to

    The Gilded Age

    1- Rockefeller/Carnegie (Captains of Industry vs. Robber Barons). Rockefeller forms Standard Oil of Ohio.(1870)
    2- Philanthropy. Rapid economic and industrial growth.
    3- Monopoly. Advances in transportation and manufacturing.
    4- Jane Addams. Expansion of personal wealth, philanthropy, and immigration.
    5- Laissez-Faire. Politics experienced corruption.

  • 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.

  • Dawes Act

    gave individual ownership of land to native americans instead of the tribe owning things collectively.

  • Interstate Commerce Act

    ensure railroad set “reasonable and just” rate and the first time government stepped in to regulate business.

  • Hull House founded, first of many settlement houses

    1889

  • 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)

  • Klondike Gold Rush (Alaska)

    1896-1899

  • 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

  • Open Door Policy

    initiated free trade with China.

  • Panama Canal Built

    1904-1914

  • Roosevelt Corollary

    An addition to the Monroe Doctrine.

  • Meat Inspection Act

    law that makes it illegal to adulterate or misbrand meat.

  • The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is published

    1906

  • Pure Food and Drug Act

    regulation of the preparation of foods and the sale of medicines.

  • NAACP Founded

    1909

  • Dollar Diplomacy

    Taft’s policy of paying for peace in Latin America.

  • 16th Amendment

    established the federal income tax. February 3, 1913.

  • 17th Amendment

    direct election of U.S. Senators. April 8, 1913.

  • 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

    1916

  • 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.

  • 18th Amendment

    prohibition is enacted and alcohol is illegal. January 16, 1919
  • Period: to

    Roaring Twenties

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

  • 19th Amendment

    women are given the right to vote. August 18, 1920

  • 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
    4- Court Packing
    5- Eleanor Roosevelt

  • Dust Bowl

    1930-1936

  • Franklin D. Roosevelt elected

  • Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established

  • 21st Amendment

    Repeals the 18th Amendment and prohibition ends.

  • Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) established

  • 20th Amendment

    Adjusted the dates of the presidential terms. January 23, 1933.

  • 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
    4- Communism
    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

    1950-1953

  • Sweatt v. Painter

    ruled the separate law school at the University of Texas failed to qualify as “separate but equal”
  • Period: to

    Civil Rights Era

  • Rosenbergs trial

  • 22nd Amendment

    prohibits anyone who has been elected president twice from being elected again. February 27, 1951

  • First H-Bomb detonated by the United States

  • Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

    overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and mandated desegregation.

  • Hernandez v. Texas

    Mexican Americans and all other races provided equal protection under the 14th Amendment.
  • Period: to

    Vietnam War

  • Jonas Salk invents the Polio Vaccine

  • Montgomery Bus Boycott after Rosa Parks’ arrest

  • Interstate Highway Act

    authorized the building of a national highway system.

  • USSR launches Sputnik

  • Little Rock Nine integrated into an all-white school in Little Rock, AK

  • Bay of Pigs Invasion in Cuba

  • Berlin Wall built to prevent people from leaving communist East Berlin

  • Cuban Missile Crisis

  • 24th Amendment

    Abolishes the poll tax

  • John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, TX

  • Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” at the March on Washington

  • Civil Rights Act of 1964

    Made discrimination based on race, religion, or national origin in public places illegal and required employers to hire on an equal opportunity basis.

  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

    begins undeclared war in Vietnam.

  • Medicare and Medicaid established

  • Voting Rights Act of 1965

    Eliminated literacy tests for voters

  • Tet Offensive

  • Martin Luther King is assassinated

  • Civil Rights Act of 1968

    prohibited discrimination in the sale or rental of housing.

  • First Man on the Moon

  • Tinker v. Des Moines

    Defined the First Amendment rights for students in the United States Public Schools.

  • Kent State University shooting

    May 4 massacre and the Kent State massacre, were the killings of four and wounding of nine other unarmed Kent State University students.
  • Period: to

    End of the Cold War

  • Pentagon Papers leaked

  • 26th Amendment

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

  • Title IX

    protects people from discrimination based on gender in education programs.

  • 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

    The Watergate scandal was a political scandal in the United States involving the administration of U.S.

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

  • 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.

  • Three Mile Island Disaster

    A partial meltdown of reactor number 2 of Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, near Harrisburg, and subsequent radiation leak that occurred on March 28, 1979.
  • Period: to

    Iran Hostage Crisis

    diplomatic standoff between the United States and Iran.
  • Period: to

    Iran Contra Affair

    The Iran Contra Affair involved senior administration officials in the Reagan administration secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo.
  • Period: to

    1990s-21st Century