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Black Tuesday
The stock market crashed. Stock prices dropped suddenly. Everyone was trying to sell but no one wanted to buy. -
Smoot-Hawley Tariff
Smoot- Hawley Tariff was a high tariff. It protected American markets from foreign competition but also prevented surplus American goods from being sold abroad. -
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Dust Bowls
Series of droughts on the Great Plains, combined with the effects of unsuitable plowing techniques to cause the disaster known as the dust bowl. Farmers could no longer grow their crops, livestock died and farmers lost their fields and homes. -
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The First New Deal
It was focused on relief and recovery. It included bills, to restore public confidence in the banking system (The Emergency Banking Relief Bill and the Banking Act of 1933); provide relief for the rural poor (the Agricultural Adjustment Act); and establish government control over industry. -
The Second New Deal
Aiming more at reform and security. It addressed the problems of the elderly, the poor, and the unemployed; created new public-works projects; helped farmers; and enacted measures to protect workers' rights. -
Neutrality Act of 1936
It tried to keep the United States out of war, by making it illegal for Americans to sell or transport arms, or other war materials to belligerent nations. It also prohibited the trade of war materials and forbade loans or credits to belligerents. -
Neutrality Act of 1937
This prohibited Americans from traveling on the ships of nations at war, but allowed Americans to sell non-military goods to countries at war on a "cash and carry" basis. The buyer had to pay cash and transport the goods. -
Kristallnacht
Nazi leaders unleashed a series of attacks against the Jewish population in Germany and recently incorporated territories. This event came to be called Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) because of the shattered glass that littered the streets after the vandalism and destruction of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues, and homes. -
Munich Conference
Permitted German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. Adolf Hitler's threats to occupy the German-populated part of Czechoslovakia stemmed from his avowed broader goal of reuniting Europe's German-populated areas -
Neutrality Act of 1939
After Germany invaded Poland in September, Congress passed the Neutrality Act of 1939 ending the munitions embargo on a "cash and carry" basis. The passage of the 1939 Neutrality Act marked the beginning of a congressional shift away from isolationism. -
World War II begins in Europe
World War II began in Europe on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland. Great Britain and France responded by declaring war on Germany on September 3. -
Battle of Britain
It was the successful defense of Great Britain against the air raids conducted by the German air force in 1940 after the fall of France during World War II. Germany had planned to gain air superiority in preparation for an invasion of Great Britain. -
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Florida grows
Florida Grows During the 1940s, Florida's population grew 46.1%. This surge began during World War Il and continued into the 1950s. Postwar prosperity brought jobs, higher wages, and the revival of tourism. Thanks to the space program, Cape Canaveral became a center for aeronautics, electrical engineering and manufacturing. -
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A Baby Boom Increases Consumption
Soldiers quickly made up for lost time by marrying and having children. Americans had put off having children because of the depression and war. Now, many married couples started families.
Between 1940 and 1955, the U.S. population experienced its greatest increase, growing 27 percent from about 130 to about 165 million. -
Four Freedoms
Due to a short closing portion in which Roosevelt described his vision for extending American ideals throughout the world. He promised Americans freedom of speech and expression, freedom of religion, freedom of want and freedom from fear. -
Battle of Midway
The U.S sank four Japanese aircraft carriers at the Battle of Midway, the turning point of the war in the Pacific. American forces then began a process of island-hopping, pushing the Japanese back island by island. -
The Potsdam Conference
During this conference it was agreed that Germany would be divided and reparations would be paid. Poland's eastern boarder would be moved west. the nazi party was banned and its leaders would be tried as war criminals. -
Yalta Conference
This conference was to discuss final strategy and crucial questions concerning postwar Germany, Eastern Europe, and Asia. The Big Three agreed that Poland, Bulgaria and Romania would hold free elections. However Stalin later reneged on this promise. -
F.D.R dies
Roosevelt won reelection in 1944 but died in 1945 after his physical health seriously and steadily declined during the war years. Since then, several of his actions have come under substantial criticism, including his ordering of the internment of Japanese Americans in concentration camps. -
"An iron curtain has descended across the Continent"
On March 5 1946, Winston Churchill have an important speech at Fulton College in Missouri, Truman's home state. Referring to a map of Europe, Churchill noted that an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. -
Eastern Bloc
The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc, the Socialist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, and Southeast Asia under the hegemony of the Soviet Union that existed during the Cold War in opposition to the capitalist Western Bloc -
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Innovative Computers Drive Economic Growth
Between 1947 and 1957, the percentage of the American workforce employed in industrial or blue-collar jobs declined 4 percent.
During the same time period, employment in the service sector, or white-collar jobs, rapidly grew. -
Truman Defeats Dewey
By the spring of 1948, Truman's standing had sunk so low that he faced challenges from both the right and the left in his own Democratic Party. Southern Democrats, angry at Truman's support for civil rights, left the party and established the States' Rights Party. They -
1952 election
The Republican candidate, Dwight Eisenhower, was so popular that both the Democratic and Republican parties had wanted him as their presidential candidate.
Dwight Eisenhower had spent nearly his entire adult life in the military and had never held a political office before 1952. -
Education Becomes More Accessible
In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that segregated schools were unconstitutional. However, it would be years before many schools were actually integrated. -
Brinkmanship
John Foster Dulles thought that only by going to the brink of war could the United States protect its allies, discourage communist aggression, and prevent war. "You have to take some chances for peace, just as you must take chances in war." he said in 1956. This approach was known as brinkmanship. -
Baby Boom
Married couples started families. This led to population experts termed a baby boom. In 1957, at the peak of the baby boom, one American baby was born every 7 seconds, a grand total of 4.3 million for the year. -
Nonviolent protests challenge Segregation
Four African American college students ordered doughnuts and coffee at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. The white waitress refused to serve them. In the south, nearly all restaurants that served whites refused to serve blacks. To protest this discrimination, the four students sat down on the stools at the lunch counter, where they stayed until closing time. -
Freedom Riders Risk Physical harm
CORE staged a "freedom ride" through the Deep South, Riders set off in two separate buses from Washington, D.C., bound for New Orleans. EN route, they defied segregationist codes. African Americans sat in the front of the bus and used "white" restrooms in bus stations. -
Martin Luther King, Jr Leads the March on Selma
In early 1965, Martin Luther King Jr and the SCLC organized a major campaign in Selma, Alabama, to pressure the federal government to enact voting right legislation. The protests climaxed in a series of confrontations on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, on the main route from Selma to Montgomery. The first of these confrontations took place on March 7 1965, a day that became known as "Bloody Sunday". Heavily armed state troopers and other authorities attacked the marchers as they cross the bridge.