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Contemporary
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G.I. Bill
created to help veterans of World War II. It established hospitals, made low-interest mortgages available and granted stipends covering tuition and expenses for veterans attending college or trade schools. -
Iron Curtain
the name for the boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West and non-Soviet-controlled areas. -
Truman Doctrine
President Harry S. Truman asked for $400 million in military and economic assistance for Greece and Turkey and established a doctrine, aptly characterized as the Truman Doctrine, that would guide U.S. diplomacy for the next 40 years. -
Period: to
Cold War
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Marshall Plan
A program by which the United States gave large amounts of economic aid to European countries to help them rebuild after the devastation of World War II. It was proposed by the United States secretary of state, General George C. Marshall. -
Fair Deal
President Harry Truman called his plan The Fair Deal, it recommended that all Americans have health insurance, that the minimum wage (the lowest amount of money per hour that someone can be paid) be increased, and that, by law, all Americans be guaranteed equal rights. -
Ike Turner
An American musician, bandleader, songwriter, arranger, talent scout, and record producer. An early pioneer of fifties rock and roll, he is most popularly known for his work in the 1960s and 1970s with his then-wife Tina Turner in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. -
Period: to
The 1950's
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Beat Generation
a literary movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-World War II era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized throughout the 1950s. -
Bill Haley and the Comets
Bill Haley & His Comets were an American rock and roll band, founded in 1952 and continued until Haley's death in 1981. The band was also known as Bill Haley and the Comets and Bill Haley's Comets. Bill Haley & His Comets' "Rock Around the Clock" is the fourth-best-selling single worldwide by sales (25 million). -
Polio Vaccine
American medical researcher Dr. Jonas Salk announces on a national radio show that he has successfully tested a vaccine against poliomyelitis, the virus that causes the crippling disease of polio. -
Vietnam War - Domino Theory
A theory prominent from the 1950s to the 1980s that posited that if one country in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect. The American failure to prevent a communist victory in Vietnam had much less of an impact than had been assumed by proponents of the domino theory. With the exception of Laos and Cambodia, communism failed to spread throughout Southeast Asia. -
Earl Warren Supreme Court - Brown v. Board of Education
Important decisions during the Warren Court years included decisions holding segregation policies in public schools (Brown v. Board of Education) and anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional (Loving v. Virginia); ruling that the Constitution protects a general right to privacy (Griswold v. Connecticut). On May 17, 1954, U.S. State-sanctioned segregation of public schools was a violation of the 14th Amendment and was therefore unconstitutional. -
Period: to
Civil Rights
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Albert Sabin
a Polish American medical researcher, best known for developing the oral polio vaccine which has played a key role in nearly eradicating the disease. -
Emmett Till Tragedy
Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955) was a 14-year-old African-American who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after a white woman said she was offended by him in her family's grocery store.Till posthumously became an icon of the Civil Rights Movement. -
Rosa Parks
A black seamstress from Montgomery, Alabama, who, in 1955, refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery city bus to a white person, as she was legally required to do.The driver had her arrested and she was convicted of violating Montgomery's Jim Crow segregation laws. -
Elvis Presley
Elvis was initially called the "Atomic powered singer" in the early-mid 1950s. However once Elvis became the greatest album, and 45 single, recording artist of all time he was dubbed "the king of rock and roll". Initially, Elvis was called "the king of rock and roll" by a radio announcer in Abilene, Texas. -
Little Richard
Helped define the early rock 'n' roll era of the 1950s with his driving, flamboyant sound. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first group of inductees in 1986. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. -
Little Rock 9 - Orval Faubus
On September 2, 1957, Governor Orval Faubus announced that he would call in the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the African-American students' entry to Central High, claiming this action was for the students' own protection. The impact that the little rock nine have on the civil rights is that the little rock nine was nine black students enrolled at formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock. Supreme Court declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional. -
civil right act of 1957
the first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. The new act established the Civil Rights Section of the Justice Department and empowered federal prosecutors to obtain court injunctions against interference with the right to vote. -
Television - Politics
Over the radio people believed that Nixon won the election because of his great ability to speak his way into someone's heart and win over their vote. Kennedy on the other hand had a physical appearance as an advantage, he won by votes because he looked good. Even though Kennedy said he didn't want make-up and Nixon followed in his path, it was later discovered that he did wear make-up. Nixon's appearance was totally opposite from Kennedy's, he would sweat and be nervous. -
OPEC
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is a group consisting of 12 of the world's major oil-exporting nations. OPEC was founded to coordinate the petroleum policies of its members, and to provide member states with technical and economic aid. -
New Fronteir
The term New Frontier was used by liberal Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy in his acceptance speech in the 1960 United States presidential election to the Democratic National Convention at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as the Democratic slogan to inspire America to support him. -
Period: to
The 1960's
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Bay of Pigs
an unsuccessful invasion of Cuba by Cuban exiles, supported by the U.S. government. On Apr. 17, 1961, an armed force of about 1,500 Cuban exiles landed in the Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) on the south coast of Cuba -
Naval Quarantine
On October 22,U.S. President John F. Kennedy ordered a naval “quarantine” of Cuba. The use of “quarantine” legally distinguished this action from a blockade, which assumed a state of war existed; the use of “quarantine” instead of “blockade” also enabled the United States to receive the support of the Organization of American States. -
peace corps
John F. Kennedy, proposed to the University of Michigan, to help the developing countries, by promoting peace. He encouraged them to go to needy countries and give them aid, financially, educationally, and physically. -
Assassination of JFK
John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. in Dallas, Texas while riding in a presidential motorcade in Dealey Plaza. -
Lee Harvey Oswald
At 12:20 p.m., in the basement of the Dallas police station, Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy, is shot to death by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner. On November 22, President Kennedy was fatally shot while riding in an open-car motorcade through the streets of downtown Dallas. -
Jack Ruby
Jack Ruby was a nightclub owner from Dallas, Texas, who shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President john f. Kennedy, two days after Kennedy's assassination in Dallas. Ruby was born Jack Rubinstein on March 25, 1911, in Chicago, Illinois. -
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater was an American politician, businessman, and author who was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President of the United States in 1964.The Barry Goldwater presidential campaign of 1964 began when United States Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona elected to seek the Republican Party nomination for President of the United States to challenge incumbent Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson. -
Daisy Girl Ad
"Daisy," sometimes known as "Daisy Girl" or "Peace, Little Girl," was a controversial political advertisement aired on television during the 1964 United States presidential election by incumbent president Lyndon B. Johnson's campaign. -
Great Society
The name President Lyndon Johnson gave to his aims in domestic policy. The programs of the Great Society had several goals, including clean air and water, expanded educational opportunities, and the lessening of poverty and disease in the United States. The main goal was the elimination of poverty and racial injustice. -
civil right act of 1964
Ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. -
voting rights act of 1965
signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. -
Chicano Mural Movement
began in the 1960s in Mexican-American barrios throughout the Southwest. Artists began using the walls of city buildings, housing projects, schools, and churches to depict Mexican-American culture. -
Counter Culture - hippies
Hippie, also spelled hippy, member, during the 1960s and 1970s, of a counter-cultural movement that rejected the mores of mainstream American life. The movement originated on college campuses in the United States, although it spread to other countries, including Canada and Britain. Hippies were laid back and lived sort of a carefree life. The counterculture, and the hippies associated with the movement, was a transition from the Beat Generation of the 1950s. -
Black Panthers
original name Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, African American revolutionary party, founded in 1966 in Oakland, California, by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. The party's original purpose was to patrol African American neighborhoods to protect residents from acts of police brutality -
Nixon's Election
the 46th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1968. The Republican nominee, former Vice President Richard Nixon, defeated the Democratic nominee, incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey. -
Tet Offensive
A series of major attacks by communist forces in the Vietnam War. Early in 1968, Vietnamese communist troops seized and briefly held some major cities at the time of the lunar new year, or Tet. -
Death of MLK
Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Event. April 4, 1968. At 6:05 P.M. on Thursday, 4 April 1968, Martin Luther King was shot dead while standing on a balcony outside his second-floor room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. -
Stonewall Riot
Also referred to as the Stonewall uprising or the Stonewall rebellion were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations by members of the gay (LGBT) community against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours, at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village -
Apollo 11
the first manned mission to land on the Moon. The first steps by humans on another planetary body were taken by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on July 20, 1969. The astronauts also returned to Earth the first samples from another planetary body. Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins were the astronauts on Apollo 11. -
EPA
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or sometimes U.S. EPA) is an agency of the federal government of the United States which was created for the purpose of protecting human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress. -
Period: to
The 1970's
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Watergate Scandal
United States President Richard Nixon, a Republican, was tied to a crime in which former FBI and CIA agents broke into the offices of the Democratic Party and George McGovern (the Presidential candidate). Nixon's helpers listened to phone lines and secret papers were stolen. -
Title IX
No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance -
Equal Rights Amendment - Phyllis Schlafly
a proposed amendment to the US Constitution stating that civil rights may not be denied on the basis of one's sex. Phyllis Schlafly, American writer and political activist who was best known for her opposition to the women's movement and especially the Equal Rights Amendment -
Roe v. Wade
The US Supreme Court, in a 7-2 decision, affirms the legality of a woman's right to have an abortion under the Fourteenth amendment to the Constitution. Along with Doe v. Bolton, this decision legalized abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy. The decision, written by Justice Harry Blackmun and based on the residual right of privacy, struck down dozens of state antiabortion statutes. -
FEC
an independent agency created in 1975 by the U.S. Congress to regulate election campaign finance in the United States. The mission of the FEC is to administer and enforce the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) that governs the financing of federal elections. -
Iran Hostage Crisis
Fifty-two American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days (November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981). It happened after a group of Iranian students supporting the Iranian Revolution took over the US Embassy in Tehran. -
Three-Mile Island
nuclear power plant in USA a cooling malfunction caused part of the core to melt in the #2 reactor. The TMI-2 reactor was destroyed. Some radioactive gas was released a couple of days after the accident, but not enough to cause any dose above background levels to local residents. -
Camp David Accords
signed by President Jimmy Carter, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in September 1978, established a framework for a historic peace treaty concluded between Israel and Egypt -
Election of 1980
United States presidential election of 1980, American presidential election held on Nov. 4, 1980, in which Republican Ronald Reagan defeated incumbent Democratic Pres. Jimmy Carter. -
Period: to
The 1980's
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Sandra Day O'Connor
was elected to two terms in the Arizona state senate. Ronald Reagan nominated her to the U.S. Supreme Court. She received unanimous Senate approval, and made history as the first woman justice to serve on the nation's highest court -
A.I.D.S Crisis
found its way to the United States as early as 1960, but was first noticed after doctors discovered clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia in young gay men in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco in 1981. -
Music Television MTV
at 12:01 am Eastern Time, MTV launched with the words "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll," spoken by John Lack and played over footage of the first Space Shuttle launch countdown of Columbia and of the launch of Apollo 11. history was made when MTV, the first 24-hour video music channel, launched onto our television sets and literally changed our lives with the birth of the music video. The first video ever played on the network was quite ironic — "Video Killed The Radio Star" by The Buggles. -
SDI
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), also known as Star Wars, was a program under President Ronald Reagan. The intent of this program was to develop a sophisticated anti-ballistic missile system in order to prevent missile attacks from other countries, specifically the Soviet Union. -
Iran Contra Affair
Contragate or the Iran–Contra scandal, was a political scandal in the United States that occurred during the second term of the Reagan Administration -
Discount Retailing
A discount store or discount shop is a retail shop which sells products at prices that are lower than the typical market price. Discount stores/shops are not variety stores, which sell goods at a single price-point or multiples thereof. Many of the largest discount stores are also chain stores, and include Wal-Mart, Target, and K-Mart. -
Reagan Doctrine
a strategy orchestrated and implemented by the United States under the Reagan Administration to overwhelm the global influence of the Soviet Union in an attempt to end the Cold War. -
Challenger Explosion
The astronauts' deaths were due to the loss of Challenger, which was caused by an external tank explosion: the space shuttle broke apart because gasses in the external fuel tank mixed, exploded, and tore the space shuttle apart. The external fuel tank exploded after a rocket booster came loose and ruptured the tank. -
Robert Johnson
He is credited by many rock musicians as an important influence; the blues and rock musician Eric Clapton has called Johnson "the most important blues singer that ever lived." Johnson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in its first induction ceremony, as an early influence on rock and roll. Johnson quickly recognized the dearth of television programming designed for the African American public and created BET to reach that demographic audience. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
as the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin's Communist Party announced a change in his city's relations with the West. ... East and West Berliners flocked to the wall, drinking beer and champagne and chanting -
Period: to
The 1990's
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Persian Gulf War
A war between the forces of the United Nations, led by the United States, and those of Iraq that followed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein 's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. -
Rodney King Incident
African-American taxi driver who became known internationally as the victim of Los Angeles Police Department brutality, after a videotape was released of several police officers beating him during his arrest -
Election of 1992
The United States presidential election of 1992 had three major candidates: Incumbent Republican President George H. W. Bush; Democrat Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, and independent Texas businessman Ross Perot. It was held on Tuesday, November 3, 1992. Democratic Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas defeated incumbent Republican President George H. W. Bush, independent businessman Ross Perot of Texas, and a number of minor candidates. -
Don't ask Don't tell Policy
The discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on gay and lesbian service members is officially in the dustbin of history. For 17 years, the law prohibited qualified gay and lesbian Americans from serving in the armed forces and sent a message that discrimination was acceptable.President Bill Clinton announced the military's policy on gay service members. -
World Trade Center Attack
Ramzi Yousef and a Jordanian friend, Eyad Ismoil, drove a yellow Ryder van into Lower Manhattan, and pulled into the public parking garage beneath the World Trade Center around noon. This bombing was a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, carried out on February 26, 1993, when a truck bomb detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. -
Lionel Sosa
He is the founder of Sosa, Bromley, Aguilar & Associates (now Bromley Communications), which became the largest Hispanic advertising agency in the U.S. Sosa is an acknowledged expert in Hispanic consumer and voter behavior and was named “One of the 25 most influential Hispanics in America” by Time Magazine. -
NAFTA
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is an agreement among the United States, Canada and Mexico designed to remove tariff barriers between the three countries. -
E-mails
The first major commercial Internet Service Providers hit the scene in the early 1990s - 1995 was the year AOL, Prodigy, and CompuServe all showed up. At the time (and still), ISPs would give users an email address automatically. Popular webmail services (such as Hotmail) started popping up in 1996/97. -
DOMA
Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is a law that, among other things, prohibited married same-sex couples from collecting federal benefits. It was overruled on June 26, 2015 by the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. -
Lewinsky Affair
had affair with Clinton who denied it under oath, but there was physical evidence; he was impeached for perjury and his resulting political battles kept him from being productive in his final term paving way for the seemingly moral Bush in 2000 -
Bush v. Gore
George W. Bush believed that the recount violated the American presidential election system. Bush believed the recount violated the preservation of equality and uniformity that existed within the administrative system. The United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of George Bush in Bush v. Gore. -
Election of 2000
The United States presidential election of 2000 was a contest between Republican candidate George W. Bush, then-governor of Texas and son of former president George H. W. Bush, and Democratic candidate Al Gore, then-Vice President. Republican George W. Bush narrowly lost the popular vote to Democrat Al Gore but defeated Gore in the electoral college. -
PATRIOT ACT
an Act of Congress that was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001. With its ten-letter abbreviation (USA PATRIOT) expanded, the full title is “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001”. -
9/11 Attack
nineteen members of the Islamic terrorist group Al Qaeda perpetrated a devastating, deadly assault on the United States, crashing airplanes into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, killing thousands. -
No Child Left Behind Education Act
federal law that provides money for extra educational assistance for poor children in return for improvements in their academic progress. NCLB is the most recent version of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act. -
Hurricane Katrina Disaster
one of the deadliest hurricanes ever to hit the United States. An estimated 1,833 people died in the hurricane and the flooding that followed in late August 2005, and millions of others were left homeless along the Gulf Coast and in New Orleans -
The Great recession
officially lasted from December 2007 to June 2009—began with the bursting of an 8 trillion dollar housing bubble. The resulting loss of wealth led to sharp cutbacks in consumer spending. -
Election of 2008
Barack Obama's victory and the 2008 presidential election in general is one for the history books. Barack Obama is the first African-American ever to be elected president of the United States. Also, Joe Biden is the first Roman Catholic ever to serve as vice president. -
Sonya Sotomayor
the first Hispanic justice nominee on the United States Supreme Court. She is recognized as a somewhat controversial and outspoken candidate whose words are sometimes misinterpreted yet she is distinguished for her many years of judicial service. President Barack Obama nominated Sotomayor to the Supreme Court following the retirement of Justice David Souter. Her nomination was confirmed by the Senate in August 2009 by a vote of 68–31 -
Affordable Care Act (ACA) "Obamacare"
generally referred to as Obamacare – is the landmark health reform legislation passed by the 111th Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama. Make affordable health insurance available to more people.
