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Declaration of Independence
The declaration that freed us from Britan's rule and made the U.S an independent country. -
"E Pluribus Unum"
Meaning "Out of Many, One" in Latin, was the original motto of the United States. -
U.S Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. -
Bill of Rights
The first ten amendments to the US Constitution, ratified in 1791 and guaranteeing such rights as the freedoms of speech, assembly, and worship to all Americans regardless of race, gender, etc. It was written up in 1789 and later passed into effect in 1791. -
Alex de Tocqueville and his Five Principles : Liberty, Egalitarianism, Individualism, Populism, and Laissez-faire.
Alexis de Tocqueville "Individualism Liberty Egalitarianism Populism Laissez-Faire 5 Principles of Democracy A society of equals" made the availability of land and everyone's ability to own it. Published in 1835. -
Nativism
Beginning in the 1830s and 1840s, many white Americans developed nativist sentiments towards Irish immigrants. -
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Homestead Act
The 1862 Homestead Act accelerated settlement of U.S. western territory by allowing any American, including freed slaves, to put in a claim to federal land. -
Eugenics
The study of how to arrange reproduction within a human population to increase the occurrence of heritable characteristics regarded as desirable. Developed largely by Sir Francis Galton as a method of improving the human race. -
Settlement House Movement
The settlement house movement developed in response to growing industrial poverty and other social problems associated with rapid urbanization, industrialization, and immigration in the late 1880's. -
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Muckrakers
Muckrakers were journalists and novelists who sought to expose corruption in big business and government. The work of muckrakers influenced the passage of key legislation that strengthened protections for workers and consumers. They were active in the 1890's-1920's. -
Homestead Strike of 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. The battle was a pivotal event in U.S. labor history. -
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Klondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush began in August 1896 when Skookum Jim Mason, Dawson Charlie, and George Washington Carmack discovered gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada’s Yukon Territory. From 1897 to 1898, thousands of stampeders poured into southeast Alaska with dreams of gold and riches across the mountains in the Klondike. -
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Spanish-American War
The Spanish-American War was a conflict between the United States and Spain that effectively ended Spain's role as a colonial power in the New World. -
Political Machines
During the Gilded Age, politics were characterized by " political machines. Political machines routinely used fraud and bribery to further their ends. Benefits and problems both resulted from the rule of political machines. The modern era of politics was dominated by machine politics in many ways. This dates back to the 19th centry. -
Tenement
Tenements were first built to house the huge influx of urban manual workers to the city during the industrial revolution of the Victorian era. The earliest were built between 1850 and 1900. -
16th Amendment
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. -
17th Amendment
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislatures. -
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal was successfully built between 1904-1914. The purpose for building the canal was to shorten the distance ships had to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It enabled shippers to cheaply transport different types of goods in a shorter period of time. The Panama Canal impacted the United States because after the construction, trading became easier and faster which allowed the United States to expand on trade. -
Establishment of the National Park System
On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the "Organic Act" creating the National Park Service, a federal bureau in the Department of the Interior responsible for maintaining national parks and monuments that were then managed by the department. The National Park System has since expanded to 423 units. -
Reasons for US entry into WW1
German Atrocities in Belgium, economic interests, the sinking of Lusitania, unrestricted submarine warfare, Zimmermann Telegram, etc. -
18th Amendment
Section 1 After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. -
19th Amendment
The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted American women the right to vote, a right known as women’s suffrage, and was ratified on August 18, 1920, ending almost a century of protest. -
Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley was a collection of music publishers and songwriters in New York City which dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tin Pan Alley was the popular music publishing center of the world between 1885 to the 1920’s. -
Harlem Renaissance
A literary movement in the 1920s that centered on Harlem and was an early manifestation of black consciousness in the US The movement included writers such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. -
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Teapot Dome Scandal
The Teapot Dome scandal was a bribery scandal involving the administration of United States President Warren G. Harding from 1921 to 1923 -
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. -
American Indian Citizenship Act of 1924
The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, also known as the Snyder Act, granted full U.S. citizenship to Native Americans. -
Deportation of People of Mexican Heritage During the Great Depression
During the Great Depression, the American government forcibly deported between 1 and 2 million American citizens and legal residents of Mexican descent. This mass deportation, known as the Mexican Repatriation, took place from 1929 to 1939 and was fueled by panic over unemployment in the United States. -
Flying Tigers
The First American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Republic of China Air Force, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, was formed to help oppose the Japanese invasion of China. Operating in 1941–1942, it was composed of pilots from the United States Army Air Corps, Navy, and Marine Corps, and was commanded by Claire Lee Chennault. -
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves. -
Executive Order 9066
Executive Order 9066, (February 19, 1942), executive order issued by U.S. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt, which granted the secretary of war and his commanders the power “to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded.” -
Bataan Death March
The Bataan Death March began on April 10, 1942, when the Japanese assembled about 78,000 prisoners (12,000 U.S. and 66,000 Filipino). They began marching up the east coast of Bataan. Although they didn't know it, their destination was Camp O'Donnell, north of the peninsula. -
Bracero program
The Bracero program was a series of laws and diplomatic agreements, initiated on August 4, 1942, when the United States signed the Mexican Farm Labor Agreement with Mexico. -
Social Darwinism
The theory that individuals, groups, and peoples are subject to the same Darwinian laws of natural selection as plants and animals. The American historian Richard Hofstadter popularized the term in the United States in 1944. -
Korematsu v. U.S.
Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case concerning the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II regardless of their citizenship. -
Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries and other crimes in World War II. -
"In God We Trust"
The official motto of the U.S as of 1956.
