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William McKinley
Republican
Vice Presidents: Garret Hobart, Theodore Roosevelt
Major Laws and Legislation: Dingley Tarriff Law (1897) - raises custom duties by an average of 57 percent. Volunteer Army Act (1898) - authorizes the organization of the First Volunteer Cavalry
Major Events: War with Spain (1898), the first Boston Marathon (1897) -
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Theodore Roosevelt
Republican
Vice President: Charles Fairbanks
Major Legislation: Hay-Pauncefote Treaty (1901) - British grant control of an isthmian canal to the United States, Newlands Reclamation Act (1902) - authorizes federal irrigation projects
Major Events: Crater Lake National Park in Oregon is established (1902), Roosevelt signs a bill creating the Department of Commerce and Labor (1903) -
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William Howard Taft
Republican
Vice President: James Sherman
Major Legislation: Sixteenth amendment to the Constitution (1909) - authorizes Congress to collect income taxes, New Mexico is admitted as the forty-seventh state (1912), Arizona is admitted as the forty-eighth state (1912)
Major Events: The National Urban League is formed in New York (1910), The Titanic sinks (1912) -
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Woodrow Wilson
Democrat
Vice President: Thomas Marshall
Major Legislation: Congress divides the Department of Commerce and Labor into two departments (1913), Federal Reserve Act (1913) - creates the Federal Reserve System
Major Events: Panama Canal is completed (1913), Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria is assassinated (1914) -
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Warren G. Harding
Republican
Vice President: Calvin Coolidge
Major Legislation: Emergency Quota Act (1921) - limits immigrants to 3 percent of that nationality in U.S by 1910, Nineteenth Amendment (1922) - allows women to vote
Major Events: Rebecca L. Felton becomes the first female senator (1922), War with Germany ends (1921) -
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Calvin Coolidge
Republican
Vice President: Charles Dawes
Major Legislation:Soldiers' Bonus Bill (1924) - provides 20-year annuities for veterans, Revenue Act (1926) - reduces income tax as well as others
Major Events: The Ku Klux Klan holds a massive political demonstration in Washington, D.C. (1925), sixty percent of the French debt from the Great War is cancelled through an agreement with the U.S (1926) -
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Herbert C. Hoover
Republican
Vice President: Charles Curtis
Major Legislation: Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act (1930) - places high tariffs on imports, Bonus Loan Bill (1931) - allows veterans to obtain cash up to 50% of their bonus certificates
Major Events: The first annual Academy Awards are presented (1929), The construction contract for the Empire State Building is awarded (1929) -
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Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democrat
Vice Presidents: John Garner, Henry Wallace, Henry S. Truman
Major Legislation: United States is taken off the gold standard (1933), Federal Securities Act (1933) - requires all issues of stocks and bonds to be registered and approved by the federal government
Major Events: The London Economic Conference meets (1933), National Labor Relations Board is created (1935) -
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Harry S. Truman
Republican
Vice President: Richard M. Nixon
Major Legislation: The National Security Act passes (1947), Congress raises the minimum wage from forty cents to seventy-five cents an hour (1949)
Major Events: Germany surrenders and WWII ends in Europe (1945), The United States drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan (1945) -
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Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican
Vice President: Richard M. Nixon
Major Legislation: National Defense Education Act (1958): provided funding to United States education institutions at all levels; Civil Rights Act of 1960 (1960): established federal inspection of local voter registration polls and introduced penalties for anyone who obstructed someone's attempt to register to vote
Major Events: Death of Josef Stalin (1953); Rosa Parks (1955): Arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man -
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John F. Kennedy
Democrat
Vice President: Lyndon B Johnson
Major Legislation: Housing Act (1961): Provided federal funds for construction in urban areas; Limited Test Ban Treaty (1963): Agreement with the Soviets to ban above-ground nuclear testing; 24th Amendment (1964): Banned the poll taxMajor Events: Peace Corps (1961): Established to aid developing nations around the world; Berlin Wall (1961): Soviet construct barrier between East & West Berlin; Cuban Missile CrisCrisis (1963): Soviets secretly supply Cuba -
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Lyndon B. Johnson
Democrat
Vice President: Hubert Humphrey
Major Legislation: Medicare and Medicaid (1965): provided health services to the elderly and the disabled; The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (1965): suspended literacy requirements that were often used to keep blacks from registering to vote; 25th Amendment (1967): order of succession for the presidency
Major Events: Vietnam (): ; Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968); Robert F. Kennedy Assassination (1968) -
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Richard M. Nixon
Republican
Vice President: Spiro Agnew, Gerald R. Ford
Major Legislation: New federalism (1969): a system which directed money and power away from the federal bureaucracy and toward states and municipalities; Clean Air Act of 1970 (1970): environmental proposal to Congress
Major Events: Watergate Scandal (1972): Five men employed by Nixon, break-in into the Democratic National Committee headquarters; Munich Massacre (1972): Arab Terrorist’s murder Israeli Olympic team -
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Gerald R. Ford
Republican
Vice President: Nelson Rockefeller
Major Legislation: Federal Elections Campaign Act of 1974 (1974): attempt at campaign finance reform; Privacy Act of 1974 (1975): ensues rights of Americans to individual privacy; Energy Policy Conservation Act (1975): enacted for the purpose of serving the nation’s energy demands and promoting conservation methods when feasibly obtainable
Major Events: Nixon Resigns (1974); Underemployment Rise (1975): Rises to 8.7%; -
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James E. Carter
Democrat
Vice President: Walter F. Mondale
Major Legislation: Panama Canal Treaties (1977): ended U.S. control of the canal, gave it to Panama; People’s Republic of China (1979): established U.S. diplomatic relations
Major Events: New York City Black Out (1977): lasts for 25 hours; Bucharest Earthquake (1977): kills more than 1,500; Quebec (1977): French adopted as official language; European Court of Human Rights (1978): finds UK government guilty of mistreating prisoners in Northern Ireland -
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Ronald W. Regan
Republican
Vice President: George H.W. Bush
Major Legislation: Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (1981): lowered income tax rates; Tax Reform Act of 1986 (1986): simplified the income tax code, broaden the tax base and eliminate many tax shelters and other preferences
Major Events: Sally Ride (1983): First woman in space; Zimbabwe (1983): Civil war breaks out; Stock Markets Crash (1987) -
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George H.W. Bush
Republican
Vice President: J. Danforth Quayle
Major Legislation: National Space Council (1989): Plans calling for constructing Space Station Freedom; Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (1990): seeks ways to reduce smog and pollution
Major Events: Gulf War (1991): Iraq accepts a Russian-proposed cease fire agreement. The U.S. rejects the agreement, but said Iraqi forces wouldn't be harmed if they left Kuwait within 24 hrs; El Salvador signed peace agreements between rebels and its gov't (1993) -
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William J. Clinton
Democrat
Vice President: Albert Gore Jr.
Major Legislation: Family and Medical Leave Act (1993): enabled millions of workers to take up to 12 weeks unpaid leave to care for a new baby or ailing family; Violence Against Women Act (1994): new penalties, resources to prosecute more domestic violence offenders, and quadrupled funding for battered women's shelters
Major Events: Rwanda Genocide (1994): mass slaughter that took place in East Africa; Euro (1999): the single currency of the EU was born -
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George W. Bush
Republican
Vice President: Richard Cheney
Major Legislation: USA Patriot Act (2001): response to terrorists act of 9/11, united America by providing tools to obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001; Homeland Security Act of 2002; reduce the vulnerability of the U.S to terrorism, and minimize the damage, and assist in the recovery from terrorist attacks that do occur in the U.S
Major Events: 9/11 (2001): Terrorist crashed planes into World Trade Center and Pentagon; U.S. invasion of Afganistan (2002); -
Barack H. Obama
Democrat
Vice President: Joe Biden
Major Legislation: Obamacare (2010): Aimed primarily at decreasing the number of uninsured Americans and reducing costs of healthcare; State Children's Health Insurance Program (2009): provided insurance for 4 million uninsured children
Major Events: President (2008): First African American President; Gaza War (2008-09): Israel-Gaza conflict, three-week armed conflict ; Felix Baumgartner (2012): first human to break the sound barrier with only his body