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Hurricane Andrew hit the US in August of 1992. It mainly affected southern Florida and Louisiana. It took 65 lives and cost the US over $26.5 billion dollars in damage. It was the most expensive hurricane at the time, but is now ranked 3rd after Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Ike. Hurricane Andrew was a fast moving hurricane and was extremely destructive. It is ranked the 4th worst hurricane to hit the US in history. (Rafferty). -
Bill Clinton, democratic nominee, ran against incumbent president George H. W. Bush, republican nominee, in the 1992 presidential election. Though a close race, Clinton ultimately won the presidency. Though previously serving as governor and attorney general of Arkansas, Clinton was not a well known candidate when he launched his presidential campaign. Clinton was a man who didn't lean too far to his leftist beliefs, but emphasized a vital center between republicans and democrats. (Class 4/24). -
The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), was enacted on September 21, 1996 under Bill Clinton’s presidency. DOMA established a legal definition of marriage consisting of a heterosexual relationship: one man and one woman. It discriminated against gay marriages and allowed states the right to not recognize same sex marriages. Before Clinton’s presidency, he promised support to gays, but wasn't a man of his word. Clinton signed this act into law which lasted until 2013. (Kruse and Zelizer, 205, 218). -
Google’s founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin met while attending Stanford University in 1995. Working together, their goal was to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useable. On September 4th, 1998, the search engine "Google" was officially created. Today, Google is the most popular search engine both nationally and globally. It has transformed the way information is retrieved, being taken from anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds. (about.google.com). -
Y2K, short for “Year 2000,” was a monumental event being the new millennium. There were fears that computer systems would fail on New Year's Day, 2000 due to coding errors. The newness and lack of knowledge about the internet and computers caused a lot of uncertainty. There was fear that once January 1st, 2000 hit, computer systems would revert to 1900. There were a lot of rumors and mass hysteria that caused panic among people during this time. (Kruse and Zelizer, 237). -
George W. Bush, son of former president George H. W. Bush was elected 43rd president of the United States. Before presidency, he served as the 46th governor of Texas. He ran against and defeated Al Gore, in the 2000 presidential election. It was a close race and came down to Florida being the tiebreaker. Bush implements tax cuts in the spring of 2001 that benefit wealthy people. This is a prominent flaw of his and it upsets democrat citizens. (In Class 4/27, Duignan). -
On 9/11/01, Islamic terrorists hijacked four US planes: two hitting each tower of the World Trade Center, one crashing into the Pentagon, and one crashing in a remote place in Pennsylvania. It is believed to have been aimed at the Capitol. US presence in the Middle East is a factor that caused these terrorist attacks. America seemed to be the last strong country standing after the Cold War and was a target. The attacks of 9/11 resulted in nearly 3,000 casualties. (Kruse and Zelizer, 243). -
Within twelve hours of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, US forces occupied Afghanistan. Less than one month later, President Bush initiated a full invasion of Afghanistan. This was a war on self defense with the goal of Taliban government removal. They had been providing safe haven to Osama Bin Laden. This was the beginning of a twenty year war between Afghanistan and the US, being the longest war the US has ever fought. Over 2,000 American casualties resulted from this war. (Class 4/27, Witte). -
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was passed by the senate with a 91-8 vote. It was later signed into law by President Bush on January 8, 2002. Standardized testing was implemented into public schools in order to identify weaker performing schools. The goal of NCLB was to help students to succeed no matter the school they attended. It created new standards for public schools in the US and implemented corrective measures for schools that didn't meet them. (Class 4/17, Duignan). -
Barack Obama, democrat nominee, ran against John McCain, republican nominee, in the 2008 presidential election. Obama won the election against his competitor, making him the 44th president of the USA and the first African-American to take on this role. One of Obama's greatest impacts he left as president was providing affordable health care to citizens. This is also known as "Obamacare." (Britannica, Mendell and Wallenfeldt).