U.S history timeline 1877-2008

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    Early American History 1776-1860

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    Civil War/Reconstruction 1860-1877

    1869: Transcontinental Railroad Completed
    1876: Telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell
    13th Amendment: abolished slavery
    14th Amendment: citizenship & due process
    15th Amendment: voting for all male citizens
    Plessy v. Ferguson: legalized segregation, established “separate but equal”
    Homestead Act (1862): provided 160 acres to anyone willing to settle on land in the west
    Sherman Antitrust Act (1890): outlawed business monopolies
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    The Gilded Age 1877-1900

    Chinese Exclusion Act (1882): prohibited immigration of skilled or unskilled Chinese laborers, first US national immigration act
    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
    Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883): awarded government jobs based on merit
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    The Progressive Era 1890-1920

    Muckrakers
    Initiative, Referendum, Recall
    The Great Migration
    NAACP
    Immigration Issu
    16th Am established the federal income tax
    17th Am direct election of U.S. Senators
    Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890): outlawed trusts to promote economic fairness
    Meat Inspection Act (1906)makes it illegal to adulterate or misbrand meat
    Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)regulation preparation of foods and the sale of medicines
    Federal Reserve Act (1914) Federal Reserve helped stabilize the banking industry
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    Imperialism 1898-1910

    Theodore Roosevelt
    Rough Riders
    Foreign Policy
    Immigration Quotas
    Yellow Journalism
    1898: USS Maine explodes off the coast of Cuba, starting the Spanish American War
    1898: Hawaii is annexed as a territory of the United States
    1904-1914: Panama Canal Built
    Open Door Policy (1899): initiated free trade with China
    Roosevelt Corollary (1904): an addition to the Monroe Doctrine
    Dollar Diplomacy (1909): Taft’s policy of paying for peace in Latin America
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    World War I 1914-1918

    Alvin York
    Homefront
    M.A.I.N. (Causes of WWI)
    Sussex Pledge
    American Expeditionary Forces
    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
    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 1920-1929

    Social Darwinism
    The Red Scare
    Assembly Line
    Return to Normalcy
    Harlem Renaissance
    8th Amendment: prohibition is enacted and alcohol is illegal
    19th Amendment: women are given the right to vote
    20th Amendment: adjusted the dates of the presidential terms
    21st Amendment: repeals the 18th Amendment and prohibition ends
    American Indian Citizenship Act (1924): granted citizenship to any Native Americans born within the United States
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    Great Depression 1929-1939

    Hoovervilles
    The New Deal
    Causes of the Great D.
    Court Packing
    Eleanor Roosevelt
    1929Stock Market Crash
    1930-1936Dust Bowl
    1932Franklin D. Roosevelt elected
    1932Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established
    1933Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) established
    1934 Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) established
    1935Works Progress Administration (WPA) established
    Social Secwhich provides unemployment insurance aid to the disabled old age pensions and insurance for families
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    World War II 1939-1945

    Island Hopping
    Liberation of Concentration Camps
    Dwight Eisenhower
    Douglas MacArthur
    Chester W. Nimitz
    Navajo Code Talkers
    Tuskegee Airmen
    Flying Tigers
    The Manhattan Project
    Rosie the Riveter
    Executive Order 9066 (1942): incarceration of Japanese Americans for the duration of WWII
    G.I. Bill (1944): gives military veterans financial and educational benefits
    Interstate Highway Act (1956): authorized the building of a national highway system
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    Early Cold War 1945-1960

    Containment
    Arms Race/Space Race
    The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
    Communism
    Domino Theory
    22nd Amendment: prohibits anyone who has been elected president twice from being elected again
    Truman Doctrine (1947): U.S. policy that gave military and economic aid to countries threatened by communism
    Marshall Plan (1948): program to help European countries rebuild after World War II
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    Vietnam War 1954-1976

    1962: Cuban Missile Crisis
    1965: Medicare and Medicaid established
    1968: Tet Offensive
    1971: Pentagon Papers leaked
    1975: Fall of Saigon, marks the end of the Vietnam War
    26th Amendment: moved the voting age from 21 years old to 18 years old
    Tinker v. Des Moines established speech rights for students.Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964): begins undeclared war in Vietnam
    War Powers Act (1973): law limited the President’s right to send troops to battle without Congressional approval
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    Civil Right Era 1950-1970

    1955-1956: Montgomery Bus Boycott after Rosa Parks’ arrest
    1957: Little Rock Nine integrated into an all-white school in AK
    1961: Bay of Pigs Invasion in Cuba
    1961: Berlin Wall built to prevent people from leaving communist East Berlin
    1963: Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” at the March on Washington
    1963: John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, TX
    1968: Martin Luther King is assassinated
    1969: First Man on the Moon 24th Amendment: Abolishes the poll tax
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    End of the Cold War 1970-1991

    OPEC
    Sandra Day O’Connor
    Community Reinvestment Act of 1977
    AIDS Epidemic
    Star Wars (NOT the movies)
    1970: Kent State University shooting
    1974: Watergate Scandal, which leads to Nixon’s Resignation
    1978: Camp David Accords
    1979-1981: Iran Hostage Crisis
    1979: Three Mile Island Disaster
    1985-1987: Iran Contra Affair
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    1990s-21st Century 1990-2008

    1990-1991: Persian Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm)
    1991: Fall of the USSR - Official end of the Cold War
    1994: NAFTA created free trade between Mexico, the United States, and Canada
    2001: Attack on World Trade Center and Pentagon
    2005: Hurricane Katrina
    USA PATRIOT Act (2001): tightened the national security, particularly as it was related to foreign terrorism
    Barack Obama
    al-Qaeda
    No Child Left Behind
    President Clinton’s Impeachment
    Presidential Election of 2000