US History 1877-2008

By VickyNguyen2022
  • 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

    Rockefeller/Carnegie (Captains of Industry vs. Robber Barons): Captains of Industry collected money for the welfare of the country, Robber Barons collect money to help themselves and go to great lengths to get it
    Philanthropy: promoting welfare of others (donations)
    Monopoly: complete control of a service or good
    Jane Addams: female activist promoting women's suffrage and created the first settlement home
    Laissez-Faire: capitalist "leave-alone" policy; little government interference

  • 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 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
  • Period: to

    The Progressive Era

    Muckrakers: people who exposed corruption (normally in politics)
    Initiative, Referendum, Recall: voters can call for a change in law, disprove a law, or remove a government official from office
    The Great Migration: movement of 6 million African Americans from rural to urban areas
    NAACP: organization promoting justice to African Americans
    Immigration Issues (Assimilation and Nativism): Native Americans assimilated to modern cultures, but they were still treated less fairly than white Americans

  • 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

    Theodore Roosevelt: 26th president & muckraker that exposed political corruption
    Rough Riders: First US Volunteer Cavalry led by Theodore Roosevelt
    Foreign Policy: government strategy of dealing with other countries
    Immigration Quotas: limited immigration in America
    Yellow Journalism: exaggerated propaganda

  • Open Door Policy

    initiated free trade with China

  • Panama Canal built

  • Roosevelt Corollary

    an addition to the Monroe Doctrine

  • The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is published

  • 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

  • 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 World War I

  • Period: to

    World War I

    Alvin York: American war hero that killed and captured enemy soldiers
    Homefront: people worked in the country while soldiers were out fighting
    M.A.I.N. (Causes of WWI): military, alliance, imperialism, nationalism
    Sussex Pledge: give warning before attacking merchant and passenger ships
    American Expeditionary Forces: formation of US Army

  • 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 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

  • 19th Amendment

    women are given the right to vote
  • Period: to

    Roaring Twenties

    Social Darwinism: "survival of the fittest" theory
    The Red Scare: fear of communism in American government
    Assembly Line: products are assembled in parts until it's finished
    Return to Normalcy: returning to life before WWI
    Harlem Renaissance: revival or African American art and literature in Harlem, Manhattan

  • 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

    Hoovervilles: town named after President Hoover built by unemployed people
    The New Deal: series of programs and reforms by President Franklin D. Roosevelt
    Causes of the Great Depression: overspeculation, overuse of credit, overproduction, overuse of farmland, overspending during WW1, oversight of government policies, stock market crash
    Court Packing: practice of changing the judges on a court, making it more favorable to certain ideas
    Eleanor Roosevelt: First Lady of US and diplomat and activist

  • Dust Bowl

  • Franklin D. Roosevelt Elected

  • Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established

  • 20th Amendment

    adjusted the dates of the presidential terms

  • 21st Amendment

    repeals the 18th Amendment and prohibition ends

  • Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) established

  • 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

    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

  • 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

  • United Nations formed

  • 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)

  • Period: to

    Early Cold War

    Containment: method of limiting/containing communism
    Arms Race/Space Race: US and Soviet Union competing to make advancements to weapons and technology, including satellites
    The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics: communist state
    Communism: classless society in which resources are distributed evenly with help from the government
    Domino Theory: political event caused in one country will cause similar effects in surrounding countries

  • 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

  • Korean War

  • 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

  • First H-Bomb detonated by the United States

  • Hernandez v. Texas

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

    Vietnam War

  • Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

    overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and mandated desegregation

  • 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

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

  • John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, TX

  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

    begins undeclared war in Vietnam

  • 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

  • 24th Amendment

    Abolishes the poll tax

  • Medicare and Medicaid established

  • Voting Rights Act

    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

  • Period: to

    End of the Cold War

  • Pentagon Papers Leaked

  • 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

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

  • Camp David Accords

  • Iran Hostage Crisis

  • Three Mile Island Disaster

  • Iran Contra Affair

  • Persian Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm)

  • Period: to

    1990s-21st Century

    Barack Obama: first African American President of the US
    al-Qaeda: multi-national terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden
    No Child Left Behind: reauthorized Elementary and Secondary Education Act
    President Clinton’s Impeachment: charged for perjury and obstruction of justice
    Presidential Election of 2000: George W. Bush won the election

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

  • 26th Amendment

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

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

  • Attack on World Trade Center and Pentagon

  • USA PATRIOT Act

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

  • Hurricane Katrina