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Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a new policy or specific law, or the referendum may be only advisory. -
Declaration of Independence
The United States Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, is the pronouncement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1776. -
“E Pluribus Unum”
E pluribus unum – Latin for "Out of many, one" – is a traditional motto of the United States, appearing on the Great Seal along with Annuit cœptis and Novus ordo seclorum which appear on the reverse of the Great Seal; its inclusion on the seal was approved by an Act of Congress in 1782. -
U.S. Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution. -
Nativism
Nativism is the political policy of promoting or protecting the interests of native or indigenous inhabitants over those of immigrants, including the support of immigration-restriction measures. -
Bill of Rights
The United States Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. -
Social Darwinism
The theory that human groups and races are subject to the same laws of natural selection as Charles Darwin perceived in plants and animals in nature. -
Susan B. Anthony
A US teacher who was a leader of the campaign for women's right to vote. In 1869, she and Elizabeth Cady Stanton established the National Woman Suffrage Association. -
Alex de Tocqueville and his Five Principles : Liberty, Egalitarianism, Individualism, Populism, and Laissez-faire
Women and children were more independent, and the freedom of religion allowed for more religious denominations. As a result of his observations, Tocqueville determined five values crucial to America's success as a constitutional republic: liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, populism, and laissez-faire. -
Alfred Thayer Mahan
A US Navy flag officer, geostrategic, and historian. His most prominent work, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660–1783, had a widespread impact on navies around the world. -
Sanford B. Dole
First president of the Republic of Hawaii (1894–1900), and first governor of the Territory of Hawaii (1900–03) after it was annexed by the United States. -
Jane Addams
She founded the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in 1919, and worked for many years to get the great powers to disarm and conclude peace agreements. -
Gen. John J. Pershing
He is most famous for serving as commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I. These troops from America bolstered the spirits of European allies and helped defeat the Central Powers in 1918. Congress promoted Pershing to the rank of “General of the Armies of the United States” in 1919. -
Homestead Act
To help develop the American West and spur economic growth, Congress passed the Homestead Act of 1862, which provided 160 acres of federal land to anyone who agreed to farm the land. The act distributed millions of acres of western land to individual settlers. -
Ida B. Wells
She leaves behind a legacy of social and political activism. In 2020, Ida B. Wells was awarded a Pulitzer Prize "for her outstanding and courageous reporting on the horrific and vicious violence against African Americans during the era of lynching. -
Henry Ford
American industrialist who revolutionized factory production with his assembly-line methods. -
W. E. B. DuBois
W.E.B. Du Bois was an American sociologist, historian, author, editor, and activist who was the most important black protest leader in the United States during the first half of the 20th century. He shared in the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). -
Political Machines
A party organization that recruits voter loyalty with tangible incentives and is characterized by a high degree of control over member activity. -
Eminent Domain
The power of the government to take private property and convert it into public use. The Fifth Amendment provides that the government may only exercise this power if they provide just compensation to the property owners. -
Upton Sinclair
What is Upton Sinclair known for?
Upton Sinclair was a famous novelist and social crusader from California, who pioneered the kind of journalism known as "muckraking." His best-known novel was "The Jungle" which was an expose of the appalling and unsanitary conditions in the meat-packing industry. -
Eugenics
The study or practice of attempting to improve the human gene pool by encouraging the reproduction of people considered to have desirable traits and discouraging or preventing the reproduction of people considered to have undesirable traits. -
Tin Pan Alley
What was Tin Pan Alley and why was it important?
The term 'Tin Pan Alley' refers to the physical location of the New York City-centered music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Tin Pan Alley was the popular music publishing center of the world between 1885 to the 1920's. -
Douglas MacArthur
American general who commanded the Southwest Pacific in World War II (1939-1945), oversaw the successful Allied occupation of postwar Japan and led United Nations forces in the Korean War (1950-1953). -
Chester W. Nimitz
Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet during World War II. One of the navy's foremost administrators and strategists, he commanded all land and sea forces in the central Pacific area. -
George S. Patton
George Patton was the first officer assigned to the Tank Corps in WWI. During WWII, he helped lead the Allies to victory in the invasion of Sicily, and was instrumental to the liberation of Germany from the Nazis. -
Settlement House Movement
The settlement movement was a reformist social movement that began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in England and the United States. Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity and social interconnectedness. -
Marcus Garvey
Garvey was known as the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Formed in Jamaica in July 1914, the UNIA aimed to achieve Black nationalism through the celebration of African history and culture. -
Alvin York
York reportedly kills over 20 German soldiers and captures an additional 132 at the head of a small detachment in the Argonne Forest near the Meuse River in France. The exploits later earned York the Medal of Honor. -
Muckraker
The muckrakers provided detailed, accurate journalistic accounts of the political and economic corruption and social hardships caused by the power of big business in a rapidly industrializing United States. -
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Eisenhower announced the Eisenhower Doctrine in January 1957, and Congress approved it in March of the same year. Under the Eisenhower Doctrine, a country could request American economic assistance and/or aid from U.S. military forces if it was being threatened by armed aggression from another state. -
Homestead Strike 1892
The Homestead strike, also known as the Homestead steel strike, Homestead massacre, or Battle of Homestead, was an industrial lockout and strike which began on July 1, 1892, culminating in a battle between strikers and private security agents on July 6, 1892. -
Omar Bradley
Army officer who commanded the Twelfth Army Group, which helped ensure the Allied victory over Germany during World War II; later he served as first chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff -
Klondike Gold Rush
A mass exodus of prospecting migrants from their hometowns to Canadian Yukon Territory and Alaska after gold was discovered there in 1896. -
Initiative
Initiative is a power reserved to the voters to propose legislation, by petition, that would enact, amend or repeal a City Charter or Code provision. -
Expansionism & Imperialism
Expansionism is defined as a policy to increase a country's size by expanding its territory, while imperialism can be defined as a policy of extending a country 's power and influence through diplomacy or military force. -
Spanish-American War
Conflict between the United States and Spain that ended Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and resulted in U.S. acquisition of territories in the western Pacific and Latin America. -
Tenement
A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access, on the British Isles notably common in Scotland. -
Charles A. Lindbergh
American aviator, one of the best-known figures in aeronautical history, remembered for the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, from New York City to Paris, on May 20–21, 1927. -
16th Amendments
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration. -
Recall
Method of election in which voters can oust elected officials before their official terms have ended. -
17th Amendments
Calls for the direct election of senators by the voters instead of their election by state legislatures. -
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a marvel of human engineering found in the Central American state of Panama.
This will have three important effects on world trade:
Job creation. The fact that the existing Panama Canal can only fit smaller ships is a limiting factor in global trade. ...
Major supply chain infrastructure development. ...
Substantial increases in business between Atlantic and Pacific nations. -
Causes of WW1
The immediate cause of World War I that made the aforementioned items come into play (alliances, imperialism, militarism, nationalism) was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. In June 1914, a Serbian-nationalist terrorist group called the Black Hand sent groups to assassinate the Archduke. -
Establishment of the National Park System
Agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages and maintains several hundred national parks, monuments, historical sites, and other designated properties of the federal government. It was established in 1916 by an act of the U.S. Congress that was signed into law by U.S. Pres. -
Reasons for US entry into WW1
Germany's violation of its pledge to suspend unrestricted submarine warfare in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean, as well as its attempts to entice Mexico into an alliance against the United States, as his reasons for declaring war. -
18th Amendments
What is the 18th Amendment short definition?
The Eighteenth Amendment is the amendment to the US Constitution that outlawed the production, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages. The Eighteenth Amendment was later repealed by the Twenty-First Amendment. -
Harlem Renaissance
the Harlem Renaissance instilled in African Americans across the country a new spirit of self-determination and pride, a new social consciousness, and a new commitment to political activism, all of which would provide a foundation for the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. -
19th Amendments
The 19th amendment granted women the right to vote. The 19th amendment legally guarantees American women the right to vote. Achieving this milestone required a lengthy and difficult struggle—victory took decades of agitation and protest. -
Vernon Baker
Vernon Baker was one of seven African Americans to receive the Medal of Honor for service in World War II, an award delayed decades by bias and discrimination. In both war and peace, Baker served as an inspirational leader for the soldiers that served under his command and for generations to come. -
Lost Generation (artists)
What is the lost generation known for?
The “Lost Generation” reached adulthood during or shortly after World War I. Disillusioned by the horrors of war, they rejected the traditions of the older generation. Their struggles were characterized in the works of a group of famous American authors and poets including Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, F -
1920s - characteristics of the decade
The 1920s was the first decade to have a nickname: “Roaring 20s" or "Jazz Age." It was a decade of prosperity and dissipation, and of jazz bands, bootleggers, raccoon coats, bathtub gin, flappers, flagpole sitters, bootleggers, and marathon dancers. -
Teapot Dome Scandal
The Teapot Dome Scandal involved Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall, who accepted large sums of money and valuable gifts from private oil companies. In exchange, Fall allowed the companies to control government oil reserves in Elk Hills, California, and Teapot Dome, Wyoming. -
Immigration Act of 1924
The Immigration Act of 1924 limited the number of immigrants allowed entry into the United States through a national origins quota. The quota provided immigration visas to two percent of the total number of people of each nationality in the United States as of the 1890 national census. -
American Indian Citizenship Act of 1924
Approved on June 2, 1924, this act of Congress granted citizenship to any Native Americans born within the United States. At the time many were still denied voting rights by individual state or local laws. -
Audie Murphy
Audie Murphy eventually became the most decorated U.S. soldier in World War II. Though he was around 20 years old at the end of the war, he had killed 240 German soldiers, had been wounded three times and had earned 33 awards and medals. After the war, he appeared in more than 40 films. -
Deportation and repatriation of people of Mexican heritage
Authorities in California and other states instituted programs to wrongfully remove persons of Mexican ancestry and secure transportation arrangements with railroads, automobiles, ships, and airlines to effectuate the wholesale removal of persons out of the United States to Mexico. -
1930s - characteristics of the decade
For the most part, banks were unregulated and uninsured. The government offered no insurance or compensation for the unemployed, so when people stopped earning, they stopped spending. The consumer economy ground to a halt, and an ordinary recession became the Great Depression, the defining event of the 1930s. -
Dust Bowl
Dust Bowl, name for both the drought period in the Great Plains that lasted from 1930 to 1936 and the section of the Great Plains of the United States that extended over southeastern Colorado, southwestern Kansas, the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, and northeastern New Mexico. -
Japan annexation of Korea and invasion of Manchuria
In the 1930s, the Japanese controlled the Manchurian railway. In September 1931, they claimed that Chinese soldiers had sabotaged the railway, and attacked the Chinese army. By February 1932, the Japanese had conquered the whole of Manchuria. Thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed. -
Civilian Conservation Corps
The program's primary goal was to bring poor young men out of America's urban centers to rehabilitate their health and morale while contributing to their families' economic well being. -
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
What did the Tennessee Valley Authority TVA do?
The new agency was asked to tackle important problems facing the valley, such as flooding, providing electricity to homes and businesses, and replanting forests. Other TVA responsibilities written in the act included improving travel on the Tennessee River and helping develop the region's business and farming. -
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FCIC)
What is the FDIC in simple terms?
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is an independent federal agency insuring deposits in U.S. banks and thrifts in the event of bank failures. The FDIC was created in 1933 to maintain public confidence and encourage stability in the financial system through the promotion of sound banking practices. -
Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC)
The Securities and Exchange Commission oversees securities exchanges, securities brokers and dealers, investment advisors, and mutual funds in an effort to promote fair dealing, the disclosure of important market information, and to prevent fraud. -
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency, that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads. -
Social Security Administration (SSA)
The Social Security Administration (SSA) oversees and runs the Social Security program in the United States. Benefits that the SSA administers include Social Security retirement income and disability income programs, among others. -
Italian invasion of Ethiopia
The war demonstrated the ineffectiveness of the League of Nations when League decisions were not supported by the great powers. -
German annexation of Austria and Sudetenland invasion of Czechoslovakia
The Sudetenland was a province in northern Czechoslovakia, bordering Germany. Germany wanted to expand its territory to include the Sudetenland and gain control of key military defenses in the area. Once it had control of these defenses, invading the rest of Czechoslovakia would be considerably easier. -
Flying Tigers
The group was notable for its unusual mission: Its members were mercenaries hired by China to fight against Japan. Eighty years ago this week, a small group of American aviators fought in their first battle in World War II. Their mission was unusual: They were mercenaries hired by China to fight against Japan. -
Tuskegee Airmen
The Tuskegee Airmen were the first Black military aviators in the U.S. Army Air Corps (AAC), a precursor of the U.S. Air Force. Trained at the Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama, they flew more than 15,000 individual sorties in Europe and North Africa during World War II. -
Navajo Code Talkers
The Code Talkers participated in every major Marine operation in the Pacific theater, giving the Marines a critical advantage throughout the war. During the nearly month-long battle for Iwo Jima, for example, six Navajo Code Talker Marines successfully transmitted more than 800 messages without error. -
Executive Order 9066 11. Manhattan Project
This order authorized the evacuation of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to relocation centers further inland. In the next 6 months, over 100,000 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry were moved to assembly centers. -
Bataan Death March
The siege of Bataan was the first major land battle for the Americans in World War II and one of the most-devastating military defeats in American history. The force on Bataan, numbering some 76,000 Filipino and American troops, is the largest army under American command ever to surrender. -
Bracero program
An executive order called the Mexican Farm Labor Program established the Bracero Program in 1942. This series of diplomatic accords between Mexico and the United States permitted millions of Mexican men to work legally in the United States on short-term labor contracts. -
Korematsu v. U.S.
In Korematsu v. United States, the Supreme Court held that the wartime internment of American citizens of Japanese descent was constitutional. Above, Japanese Americans at a government-run internment camp during World War II. -
Nuremberg Trials
The Nürnberg trials were a series of trials held in Nürnberg, Germany, in 1945 and 1946 following the end of World War II. Former Nazi leaders were indicted and tried as war criminals for their conduct by the International Military Tribunal. -
“In God We Trust”
"In God We Trust" is the official motto of the United States and of the U.S. state of Florida. It was adopted by the U.S. Congress in 1956, replacing E pluribus unum, which had been the de facto motto since the initial 1776 design of the Great Seal of the United States.