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Dissolution of the Soviet Union
This was a time that marked the end of the Cold War era. The Soviet Union, which was a rival to the United States for decades, broke apart into independent nations, which led to more changes in the society. Examples of the positive changes were global politics, economics, and more. This reshaped the political landscape of the world. -
World Trade Center Bombing
A truck bomb exploded in the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. The attack killed six people and injured over 1,000 others. Marking the first major terrorist attack on U.S. soil. -
The Oklahoma City Bombing
This bombing was known to be one of the deadliest acts of terrorism in U.S. History. The attack was carried out by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, who detonated a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. The bombers were convicted with multiple federal charges, including conspiracy, and using a weapon of mass destruction (Kruse and Zelizer, 221). -
Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act
AEDPA of 1996 was signed by Bill Clinton in April a year after the Oklahoma bombing. The point of this act was to enhance the government's ability to combat terrorism and to expedite the appeals process for death penalty cases. It was aimed to strengthen national security efforts and ensure that the criminal justice system could effectively respond to acts of terrorism while also addressing concerns about the length and complexity of death penalty appeals (Kruse and Zelizer, 221-222). -
Celebrities Coming Out Publicly
Ellen DeGeneres publicly came out as gay in April 1997. She was the head of a popular sitcom "Ellen," which aired on ABC. At the time this was a very big deal to come out publicly on live TV. While the episode was praised by many for its courage and for helping to advance LGBTQ+, it also faced backlash from some conservative groups and advertisers due to the time. It paved the way for greater visibility and acceptance (Kruse and Zelizer, 229). -
Internet and Y2K
The fear of New Year's Eve 1999, when hitting 2000 was for potential consequences of the Y2K bug.Y2K refers to a computer programming issue that arose because many computer systems. There were fears of widespread power outages, financial chaos, transportation disruptions, and even safety hazards in sectors such as healthcare. With the internet slowly becoming more powerful the fears only grew strong that our world would crash (Kruse and Zelizer, 235). -
9/11
This horrific event in New York City revealed the nation's vulnerabilities and swept aside all safe aspects of America. Four commercial airliners were hijacked by 19 terrorists, with two of the planes, crashing into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center complex in New York City, respectively. After this tragic event America’s safety policies were taken more seriously (Kruse and Zelizer, 242-245). -
Hurricane Katrina
In late August of 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. This was a category-5 storm that destroyed Texas to central Florida. It was known to be the most expensive natural disaster in history, estimated property damage of $108 billion. It also resulted in 1,833 deaths, not including injuries. People from all over came to help support the families that went through this horrible time. (Kruse and Zelizer, 280). -
“The Surge”
“The Surge" refers to a key strategy implemented by the United States military during the Iraq War. It was officially known as the "Iraq War troop surge of 2007.” It was announced by President George W. Bush and involved sending approximately 21,500 additional troops to Iraq. This was put in place to focus on protecting the population and securing key areas, rather than simply engaging in large-scale military operations (Kruse and Zelizer, 287). -
Election of Barack Obama
Barack Obama was elected as the 44th President of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the office. He stated, “There’s not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian American; there’s a United States of America.” Barack Obama made an Affordable Care Act which is also known as Obamacare which gives people healthcare if they are not able to afford it, which is still used today (Kruse and Zelizer, 289).