US History 1877-2008

By Maia.McQuhae
  • Period: to

    Early American History

  • Declaration of Independence 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

    abolished slavery

  • 14th amendment

    citizenship & due process

  • Transcontinental Railroad Completed

  • 15th Amendment

    voting for all male citizens

  • Telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell

  • Period: to

    The Gilded Age

    1. Rockefeller/Carnegie (Captains of the Industry vs. Robber Barons)
    2. Philanthropy : promote welfare of others by donation of money
    3. Monopoly : possession or control of the supply of or trade in a commodity or service
    4. Jane Addams : advocate of immigrants, the poor, women, and peace
    5. Laissez-Faire : policy of letting things take their own course

  • 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

    ensure railroad set "reasonable and just" rate and the 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

  • Period: to

    The Progressive Era

    1. Muckrakers : journalers about the issues of big buissness
    2. Initiative, Referendum, Recall : with the people. voters may remove public officials from office, measure submitted by the government to the people for their approval
    3. The Great Migration : movement of 6 million African Americans from rural to urban
    4. NAACP : civil rights organization in the United States
    5. Immigration Issues (Assimilation and Nativism) : make native americans grow into another culture

  • Sherman Antitrust Act

    outlawed business monopolies

  • Sherman Antitrust Act

    outlawed trusts to promote economic fairness
  • Period: to

    Klondike Gold Rush (Alaska)

  • 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
  • Period: to

    Panama Canal Built

  • Roosevelt Corollary

    an addition to the Monroe Doctrine

  • The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is published

  • Pure Food and Drug Act

    regulation of the preparation of foods and the sale of medicines

  • Meat Inspection Act

    law that makes it illegal to adulterate or misbrand meat

  • NAACP Founded

  • Dollar Diplomacy

    Taft's policy of paying for peace in Latin America

  • 16th Amendment

    established the federal income tax

  • 17th Amendment

    direct election of U.S. Senators

  • Federal Reserve Act

    established the Federal Reserve, which helped stabilize the banking industry

  • Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated , starting WW1

  • 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

  • Zimmerman Telegram intercepted by the British, warned the U.S. of a proposed ally between Mexico and Germany

  • The United States enters WW1 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 WW1 , included no colonialism, freedom of the seas, and a League of Nations

  • 18th Amendment

    prohibition is enacted and alcohol is illegal

  • Treaty of Versailles

    peace treaty that ended WW1, required Germany to accept full blame and pay war reparations as well as demilitarize
  • 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

  • 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: due to Great depression homeless citizens built hoovervilles in and around cities in the U.S.
    2. The New Deal series of programs, public projects, financial reforms, and regulations.
    3. Causes of the Great Depression:Stock Market Crash, speculation, Overproduction
    4. Court Packing:a attempt to pass a bill that would allow new justices for those that did not retire soon enough
    5. Eleanor Roosevelt:She pressed the U.S. to join and support the UN and became its first delegate
  • Period: to

    Dust Bowl

  • Franklin D. Roosevelt elected

  • Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established

  • Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) established

  • 20th Amedment

    adjusted the dates of the presidential terms

  • 21st Amendment

    repeals the 18th Amendment and prohibition ends

  • Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) established

  • Works Progress Administration (WPA) established

  • 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 :

  • 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 WW2

  • Attack on Pearl Harbor

  • Bataan Death March

  • Battle of Midway

  • Executive Order 9006

    incarceration of Japanese Americans for the duration of WW2.

  • "D-Day" - Invasion of Normandy

  • G.I. Bill

    gives military veterans financial and educational benefits

  • United Nations formed

  • Period: to

    Early Cold War

    1. Containment : keeping communism from spreading to non communist countries
    2. Arms Race/Space Race : US and USSR both built up their nuclear weapons supply
    3. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics : the other super power during the Cold War
    4. Communism : total government control with no input from the people
    5. Domino Theory : something happening in one country will/can spread and happen in a neighboring country

  • The atomic bomb,"little boy" is dropped in Hiroshima, Japan

  • The atomic bomb, "Fat Man" is. dropped in Nagasaki, Japan ending WW2

  • 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 WW2

  • NATO established

  • 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

  • Period: to

    Korean War

  • Rosenbergs Trial

  • 22nd Amendment

    prohibits anyone who has been elected president twice from being president again

  • First H-Bomb detonated by the United States

  • Period: to

    Vietnam War

  • Hernandez v. Texas

    Mexicans Americans and all other races provided equal protection under the 14th amendment

  • Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

    Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and mandated desegregation

  • Jonas Salk invents the Polio Vaccine

  • Period: to

    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

  • Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech at the march in Washington

  • John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, TX

  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

    begins undeclared war in Vietnam

  • 24th Amendment

    abolishes the poll tax

  • Civil Rights Act of 1964

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

  • 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 renting 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

  • 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 (1973)

    law limited the Presidents right to send troops to battle without Congressional approval

  • Watergate Scandal which leads to Nixon's resignation

  • Fall of Saigon, marks end of Vietnam War

  • Camp David Accords

  • Three Mile Island Disaster

  • Period: to

    Iran Hostage Crisis

  • Period: to

    Iran Contra Affair

  • Period: to

    1990s-21st Century

    Barak Obama : served as the 44th president of the United States, first African American President of U.S.
    Al - Qaeda : militant Islamist organization founded by Osama bin Laden in the late 1980s
    No Child Left Behind : reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; included Title I provisions applying to disadvantaged students
    President Clinton's Impeachment : 42nd president of the U.S. , impeached for "high crimes and misdemeanors"
    Presidential Election of 2000 : Bush won vs. Al Gore
  • Period: to

    Persian Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm)

  • Fall of the USSR - Official end of The Cold War

  • NAFTA created free trade between Mexico, United States, and Canada

  • Attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon

  • USA Patriot Act

    tightened the national security, particularly as it was related to foreign terrorism

  • Hurricane Katrina