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Robert Johnson
Robert Leroy Johnson was an American blues singer-songwriter and musician. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generations of musicians. Johnson is now recognized as a master of the blues, particularly of the Mississippi Delta blues style. He is also credited by many rock musicians as an important influence. -
Panama Canal
Panama Canal is a lock-type canal owned and administered by the Republic of Panama that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the narrow Isthmus of Panama. The length of the Panama Canal from shoreline to shoreline is about 40 miles and from deep water in the Atlantic to deep water in the Pacific about 50 miles. The canal, which was completed in August 1914, is one of the two most-strategic artificial waterways in the world, the other being the Suez Canal. -
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Dr. Jonas Salk
In 1942, Dr. Jonas Salk became part of a group that was working to develop a vaccine against the flu in the University of Michigan School of Public Health. In 1947 he became head of the Virus Research Lab at the University of Pittsburgh. At Pittsburgh he began research on polio. On April 12, 1955, the vaccine was released for use in the United States. He established the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in 1963. -
News: First Radio News Broadcast
A Detroit station airs what is believed to be the first radio news broadcast. They got permission to broadcast on Aug. 20, 1920, and for the next 10 days the station played music to work out the kinks.In 1947, The Detroit News would go on to launch Michigan’s first TV station, WWJ-TV, now WDIV-TV. WWJ is still an all-news radio station, now owned and operated by CBS. -
Television
Electronic television was first successfully demonstrated in San Francisco on Sept. 7, 1927. The system was designed by Philo Taylor Farnsworth, a 21-year-old inventor who had lived in a house without electricity until he was 14. While still in high school, Farnsworth had begun to conceive of a system that could capture moving images in a form that could be coded onto radio waves and then transformed back into a picture on a screen. -
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Ike Turner
Izear Luster "Ike" Turner, Jr. was 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. Turner began playing piano and guitar when he was eight, forming his group, the Kings of Rhythm, as a teenager. His first recording, "Rocket 88", in 1951 is considered a contender for "first rock and roll song". -
Littler Richard
An influential figure in popular music and culture for more than six decades, his dynamic music and charismatic showmanship laid the foundation for rock and roll. His music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk. Little Richard's his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations to come, and his performances and headline-making thrust his career right into the mix of American popular music. -
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Elvis Presley
In 1954, Elvis Presley kicked off a musical revolution by modernizing traditional genres such as blues, country and bluegrass for contemporary audiences. Throw in a charismatic stage presence with then-scandalous hip-swings and body contortions, and it's easy to see why Presley set the charts (and hearts) ablaze.In the '70s, Presley toured constantly. This pace—as well as growing issues with prescription drugs—took a toll on his health. On August 16, 1977, he died of a heart attack. -
LSD
LSD was first synthesized in November 16, 1938 by the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann. The main intention of the synthesis was to obtain a respiratory and circulatory stimulant (an analeptic).On April 19, 1943, Hofmann performed a self-experiment to determine the true effects of LSD, intentionally ingesting 0.25 milligrams of the substance, an amount he predicted to be a threshold dose. Less than an hour later, Hofmann experienced sudden and intense changes in perception. -
G.I Bill Is Passed
The G.I. Bill was 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. Benefits are still available to persons honorably discharged from the armed forces. -
Trinity Test
The First Atomic Test. On Monday morning July 16, 1945, the world was changed forever when the first atomic bomb was tested in an isolated area of the New Mexico desert. Conducted in the final month of World War II by the top-secret Manhattan Engineer District, this test was code named Trinity. -
Hiroshima Bombing
Hiroshima, a manufacturing center of some 350,000 people located about 500 miles from Tokyo, was selected as the first target for the atomic bomb. The bomb, "Little Boy," -
Nagasaki Bombing
The devastation wrought at Hiroshima was not sufficient to convince the Japanese War Council to accept the Potsdam Conference’s demand for unconditional surrender. The United States had already planned to drop their second atom bomb, nicknamed “Fat Man,” on August 11 in the event of such recalcitrance, but bad weather expected for that day pushed the date up to August 9th. The bomb was dropped at 11:02 a.m., 1,650 feet above the city. -
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Berlin Airlift
The city of Berlin was an island in the middle of the Soviet controlled zone. The west sent supplies there via railroads and roads, but the Soviets wanted total control of Berlin, so they Soviets blocked all rail and road traffic to Berlin. The United States and Great Britain flew around 277,000 thousand flights into Berlin and carried over 2.3 million tons of supplies into the city. -
Fair Deal
A "Fair Deal" is what President Harry Truman called his plan. It recommended that all Americans have health insurance, that the minimum wage be increased, and that, by law, all Americans be guaranteed equal rights. When Truman finally left office in 1953, his Fair Deal was a mixed success. In July 1948, he banned racial discrimination in federal government hiring practices and ordered an end to segregation in the military. -
North Korea Invades
After WWII, the country of Korea needed to be divided up. The Northern half went under the control of the Soviet Union and the Southern half under the control of the United States. On June 25, 1950 North Korea invaded South Korea. The South Korean Army fled and forces from the United Nations came to help out. The United States provided the majority of the United Nations forces. Soon the South Korea government only occupied a small part of Korea on the southern tip. -
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Korean War
The Korean War was a conflict between the divided country of Korea. North Korea, being controlled by communism, invaded South Korea, a capitalist country, starting the war. This war was the first major conflict of the Cold War, ending with little resolution. Both sides of the country are still divided to this day, a tense atmosphere surrounding the 38th Parallel, where both countries agreed to end the war. -
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Brown V. Board of Education
On May 17, 1954 the United States Supreme Court handed down its ruling in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. The Court’s unanimous decision overturned provisions of the Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which had allowed for “separate but equal” public facilities, including public schools in the United States. Declaring that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal,” the decision helped and provided a spark to the civil rights movement. -
Execution of Alger and Ethel Rosenberg
Julius Rosenberg, an electrical engineer and employee for the U.S. Army Signal Corps, was arrested for allegedly passing atomic secrets to Russia. One month later, on August 11, Julius’ wife, Ethel, was also arrested, charged with assisting her husband with his illicit activities. The Rosenbergs protested their innocence, but after a brief trial in March 1951 they were convicted. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were electrocuted on June 19, 1953. -
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show, which was the highest-rated television program of its kind in history. Dubbed the "Queen of All Media", she has been ranked the richest African-American, the greatest black philanthropist in American history, and is currently North America's first and only multi-billionaire black person. -
Polio Vaccine
Polio vaccines are vaccines used to prevent polio. There are two types: one that uses inactivated poliovirus and is given by injection (IPV), and one that uses weakened poliovirus and is given by mouth (OPV). The World Health Organization recommends all children be fully vaccinated against polio. The two vaccines have eliminated polio from most of the world, and reduced the number of cases each year from an estimated 350,000 in 1988 to 37 in 2016. The vaccine was created by Jonas Salk. -
The Death Of Emmett Till
Emmett Till was an African American who was visiting relatives when he spoke to Carolyn Bryant. After that, Bryant's husband and his half-brother went armed to Till's great-uncle's house and took him away to beat and mutilated him before fatally shooting him and sinking his body in a river. The brutality of his murder and the fact that his killers were acquitted drew attention to the violence against African Americans. Till's death became an icon of the Civil Rights Movement. -
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Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a protest by African Americans against segregated seating in buses. Four days before the boycott began, Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, refused to yield her seat to a white man on a Montgomery bus. The boycott of public buses by blacks began on the day of Parks’ court hearing and lasted 381 days. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ordered Montgomery to integrate its bus system. -
Little Rock Nine
When the Little Rock Nine went to attend the first day of school on September 4, 1957. When the students arrived, people yelling at them and telling them to go away, screaming that they didn't want them there. In addition to the other students screaming in anger, there were National Guard soldiers blocking their way into the school. The governor of Arkansas, George Wallace had deployed the soldiers to prevent the students from going to school and in defiance of the Supreme Court. -
Sputnik
After World War II both the United States and the Soviet Union realized how important rocket research would be to the military. They each recruited the top rocket scientists from Germany to help with their research. The Space Race began in 1955 when both countries announced that they would soon be launching satellites into orbit.On October 4, 1957 the Russians placed the first successful satellite into orbit. It was called Sputnik I. The Russians had taken the lead in the Space Race. -
NASA
In the wake of the Sputniks, events moved quickly toward the development of NASA, especially considering the weighty issues that had to be resolved. The Eisenhower administration passed the National Defense Education Act that provided federal funds for improving the teaching of science and mathematics in America’s public schools. -
First Sit-In
The first sit-in took place in Greensboro, North Carolina. Four African American college students walked up to a whites-only lunch counter at the local WOOLWORTH'S store and asked for coffee. When service was refused, the students sat patiently. Despite threats and intimidation, the students sat quietly and waited to be served. The civil rights sit-in was born. No one participated in a sit-in of this sort without seriousness of purpose. -
New Frontier
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 as the Democratic slogan to inspire America to support him. The concept represented Kennedy's commitment to renewal and change. He pitched his 1960 presidential campaign as a crusade to bring in a "new generation of leadership—new men to cope with new problems and new opportunities." -
The Kennedy-Nixon Debate
In 1960, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon squared off in the first televised presidential debates in American history. The Kennedy-Nixon debates not only had a major impact on the election’s outcome, but ushered in a new era in which crafting a public image and taking advantage of media exposure became essential ingredients of a successful political campaign. They also heralded the central role television has continued to play in the democratic process. -
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is a volunteer program run by the United States government. The stated mission of the Peace Corps includes providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand American culture, and helping Americans to understand the cultures of other countries. -
Bay of Pigs Invation
The CIA, was tasked with overthrowing Fidel Castro's government in Cuba, and they used exiles for the operation. After intense training, the invasion began. It was originally planned to occur at the city of Trinidad, but President Kennedy thought that they needed a more secluded place, so The Bay of Pigs was chosen instead. Once it started, it took too long for the troops and ammunition to get off the ships, along with many other problems. The mission was a failure. -
Kennedy Speech at Rice University
President John F. Kennedy’s address at Rice University, Houston, Texas, tackled the issue on the nation's efforts in space exploration. In his speech the President discusses the necessity for the United States to become an international leader in space exploration and famously states, "We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." -
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Cuban Missile Crisis
On October 14, 1962 an American U-2 spy plane flying over Cuba captured pictures of long range Soviet missiles in Cuba. President Kennedy called a meeting with his main security advisors. He opted to set up a naval blockade. Eventually the two sides reached an agreement that the Soviet Union would remove the missiles from Cuba as long as the United States agreed to never invade Cuba again. In secret, the US also had to agree to remove their nuclear missiles from Turkey and Italy. -
Birmingham March
In the early 1960s, Birmingham, Alabama was a very segregated city. In order to bring the issue of segregation in Birmingham to the rest of the nation, several African-American leaders decided to organize a mass protest. Volunteers boycotted downtown stores, marched through the streets, held sit-ins at all-white lunch counters, and held kneel-ins in all-white churches. However, because the public was not responding, they decided to use children in the protests to get more attention. -
March On Washington
The political rally known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was organized by a number of civil rights and religious groups and was an event that shinned a light on the political and social challenges African Americans continued to face across the country. The march, which became a key moment in the growing struggle for civil rights in the United States, culminated in Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, a spirited call for racial justice and equality. -
John F. Kennedy Is Assassinated
Sitting in a Lincoln convertible, the Kennedys and Connallys waved at the large and enthusiastic crowds gathered along the parade route in downtown Dallas. As their vehicle passed the Texas School Book Depository Building, Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly fired three shots from the sixth floor, fatally wounding President Kennedy and seriously injuring Governor Connally. Kennedy was pronounced dead 30 minutes later at Dallas’ Parkland Hospital. -
Lee Harvey Oswald Dies
Accused of killing President John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald was fatally shot by Jack Ruby in the Dallas County Jail while being transferred from a jail cell to an interrogation office. Ruby was tried and found guilty of murder (March 14, 1964) and sentenced to death. Ruby later said he had been distraught over Kennedy's death and that his motive for killing Oswald was "saving Mrs. Kennedy the discomfiture of coming back to trial." -
Warren Commission
One week after President John F. Kennedy was fatally shot while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas, President Lyndon Johnson establishes a special commission, headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, to investigate the assassination. After 10 months of gathering evidence and questioning witnesses in public hearings, the Warren Commission report was released, concluding that there was no conspiracy in the assassination and that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. -
Daisy Girl Ad
The "Daisy Girl" ad was a controversial political advertisement aired on television during the 1964 United States presidential election by incumbent president Lyndon B. Johnson's campaign. The ad was Lyndon Johnson's response to a statement by Republican candidate Barry Goldwater that he would consider using nuclear weapons in Vietnam. Even though it was controversial, it is considered to be an important factor in Johnson's landslide victory. -
Great Society
In his State of Union address, President Lyndon Johnson outlined his goals for a "Great Society." The legislation included "War of Poverty" programs which established jobs and youth volunteer programs. Johnson's Social welfare legislation also consisted of Medicare and Medicaid. In addition, the Great Society included the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 1965, as well as the Voting Rights Act of 1968. However, Johnson's plan for a better society were weakened by war. -
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Selma to Montgomery Marches
In early 1965, Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference made Selma, Alabama, the focus of its efforts to register black voters in the South. That March, protesters attempting to march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery were met with violent resistance by state and local authorities. As the world watched, the protesters (under the protection of National Guard troops) finally achieved their goal, walking for endlessly to reach Montgomery. -
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party's original purpose was to patrol African American neighborhoods to protect residents from acts of police brutality. The Panthers eventually turned into a more violent group that called for the arming of all African Americans, the exemption of African Americans from drafts, the release of all African Americans from jail, and the payment of compensation to African Americans for centuries of exploitation by white Americans. -
Jack Ruby Dies
Jack Ruby was a nightclub owner who lived in Dallas, Texas. On November 24, 1963, he fatally shot Lee Harvey Oswald while the latter was in police custody after being charged with assassinating John F. Kennedy. A Dallas jury found him guilty and sentenced him to death. Ruby's conviction was later appealed and he was granted a new trial. However, as the date for his new trial was being set, Ruby became ill in his prison cell and died of a pulmonary embolism from lung cancer. -
Tet Offensive Starts
During the lunar new year (or “Tet”) holiday, North Vietnamese and communist Viet Cong forces launched a coordinated attack against a number of targets in South Vietnam. The U.S. and South Vietnamese militaries sustained heavy losses before finally repelling the communist assault. The Tet Offensive played an important role in weakening U.S. public support for the war in Vietnam. The job of finding a way out of Vietnam was left to the next U.S. president, Richard Nixon. -
Death of Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. is shot to death at a hotel in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray from over 200 feet away at a nearby motel.The bullet struck King's neck and he later died at St. Joseph’s Hospital. The death of America’s leading civil rights advocate sparked a wave of rioting in the black communities of several cities around the country. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, a strong supported of civil rights, commemorated Dr. King in an address and said that Dr. King was a prophet. -
Apollo 11
Apollo 11 launched from Cape Kennedy on July 16, 1969, carrying Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin. An estimated 530 million people watched Armstrong's televised image and heard his voice describe the event as he took "...one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." -
Environmental Protection Agency
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an agency of the Federal government of the U.S which was created for the purpose of protecting human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress. It has the responsibility of maintaining and enforcing national standards under a variety of environmental laws, in consultation with state, tribal, and local governments. -
Watergate
Several men who were trying to get President Richard Nixon re-elected as president decided they wanted to spy on the Democratic Party. So, they hatched a plan to break into their offices in the Watergate building. When they tried to break in again on June, they were caught and arrested. President Nixon and his staff tried desperately to cover-up the break-in and he managed to keep his name out of the scandal through the election and was re-elected president in November of 1972. -
Title IX Enacted
Title IX begins with: “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.” As a result of Title IX, any school that receives any federal money must provide fair and equal treatment of the sexes in all areas, including athletics. -
Roe v. Wade (Decision Date)
Roe, a Texas resident, sought to terminate her pregnancy by abortion. Texas law prohibited abortions except to save the pregnant woman's life, so she decided to take her case to the Supreme Court. The Court held that a woman's right to an abortion fell within the right to privacy (recognized in Griswold v. Connecticut) protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision gave a woman total autonomy over the pregnancy during the first trimester. -
Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank. The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose policies were taken from Heritage's policy study Mandate for Leadership. Heritage has since continued to have a significant influence in U.S. public policy making, and is considered to be one of the most influential conservative research organizations in the U.S. -
VHS
The VHS videocassette format is introduced in North America at a press conference before the Consumer Electronics Show starts in Chicago. In just its first year, the VHS format took 40 percent of the business away from Sony. By 1987, about 90 percent of the $5.25 billion market of VCRs sold in the United States were based on the VHS format. Even though VHS has died off, VCRs have refused to die quickly. As of 2005, some 94.5 million Americans still owned VHS-format VCRs. -
Camp David Accords
The Camp David Accords were agreements between Israel and Egypt signed on September 17, 1978 that led in the following year to a peace treaty between those two countries, the first such treaty between Israel and any of its Arab neighbors. Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian Pres. Anwar el-Sādāt were awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1978 for their contributions to the agreements. -
Three-Mile Island
In 1979, a series of mechanical and human errors at the Three Mile Island nuclear generating plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, resulted in an accident that profoundly affected the utility industry. A combination of stuck valves, misread gauges and poor decisions led to a meltdown of the reactor core and the release of radioactive gases into the atmosphere. Although the health effects were not serious, the accident heightened public fears. -
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Iran Hostage Crisis
For many years, Iran had been ruled by a king called the Shah of Iran. However, many people in Iran did not like the Shah. They thought he was a brutal dictator. When the Shah fled to the U.S., many people got angry, which started a wave of protests against in Iran.The hostage crisis occurred when Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Iran and took a group of U.S. citizens hostage. Some of the hostages were let go after some time, but the rest were held for 444 days. -
Black Entertainment Television
Black Entertainment Television (BET) is an American basic cable and satellite television channel founded by Robert L. Johnson that targets African American audiences. Programming on the network consists of original and acquired television series and theatrically and direct-to-video-released films. The network has also aired a variety of stand-up comedy, news, and current affairs programs, and formerly aired mainstream rap, hip-hop and R&B music videos. -
Election of 1980
The United States presidential election of 1980 featured a contest between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. Reagan, aided by the Iran hostage crisis and a worsening economy at home, won the election in a landslide. Carter, after defeating Ted Kennedy for the Democratic nomination, attacked Reagan as a dangerous right-wing radical. For his part, Reagan repeatedly ridiculed Carter, and won a decisive victory. -
Rapture (Rap)
"Rapture" is a song by the American pop rock band Blondie from their fifth studio album, Autoamerican. In January 1981, "Rapture" was released as the second and final single from the album. The song reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, where it stayed for two weeks. While it was not the first single featuring rapping to be commercially successful, it was the first to top the charts. The music video became the first rap video ever broadcast on MTV. -
MTV
MTV is an American cable and satellite television channel owned by Viacom Media Networks and headquartered in New York City. The channel originally aired music videos as guided by television personalities. In its early years, MTV's main target demographic was young adults, but today it is primarily towards teenagers. MTV has toned down its music video programming significantly in recent years, and its programming now consists mainly of original reality, comedy and drama programming. -
Sandra Day O'Connor
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan, and served from 1981 until 2006. She is the first woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court, but even after her retirement, she has continued her judicial service by hearing cases in the United States Courts of Appeals. In recognition of her lifetime accomplishments, President Barack Obama awarded her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on August 12, 2009. -
Strategic Defense Initiative
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), also known as Star Wars, was a program first initiated 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. With the tension of the Cold War looming overhead, the Strategic Defense Initiative was the United States’ response to possible nuclear attacks from afar. -
Reagan Doctrine
In his State of the Union address, President Ronald Reagan defines some of the key concepts of his foreign policy, establishing what comes to be known as the “Reagan Doctrine.” The doctrine served as the foundation for the Reagan administration’s support of “freedom fighters” around the globe. In action, this policy translated into covertly supporting the Contras in their attacks on the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua (as an example). -
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Iran Contra Affair
The conflict began when Iran and Iraq were at war with each other. Reagan had hopes that if he were to supply Iran with United States military supplies and weapons, he may be able to release seven American hostages who were being held captive by Iranian terrorists. As it turned out, the money that was gained from selling the arms to Iran was used to support American contras in Nicaragua who were fighting the Sandinistas. All of this was done despite Congress saying no to the President. -
Challenger Explosion
The American shuttle orbiter Challenger broke up 73 seconds after liftoff, bringing a devastating end to the spacecraft’s 10th mission. The disaster claimed the lives of all seven astronauts aboard, including Christa McAuliffe, a teacher from New Hampshire who had been selected to join the mission and teach lessons from space to schoolchildren around the country. It was later determined that the explosion happened due to the cold temperature. NASA suspended future shuttle missions. -
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Persian Gulf War
From 1980 to 1988, Iraq had been at war with Iran. During the war, Iraq had built up a powerful army that included over 5,000 tanks and 1,500,000 soldiers. Building up this army had been expensive and Iran was in debt to the countries of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Saddam Hussein began to blame the economic woes of his country on Kuwait, saying they were producing too much oil and driving down prices. After invading Kuwait, the war escalated until George H. W. Bush announced a ceasefire. -
Rodney King Incident
Rodney Glen King was a taxi driver who became internationally known after being beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers following a high-speed car chase. A witness videotaped much of the beating from his balcony, and sent the footage to a local news station. The footage shows four officers surrounding King and striking him repeatedly. Parts of the footage were aired around the world, and raised public concern about police treatment of minorities in the United States. -
Election of 1992
The election of 1992 had three major candidates: George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Ross Perot. Bush had alienated much of his conservative base by breaking his 1988 campaign pledge against raising taxes. The economy was bad, and Bush's greatest strength was regarded as less important following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the relatively peaceful climate in the Middle East after the Gulf War. Clinton won a plurality in the popular vote, and a wide Electoral College margin. -
World Trade Center Attack
The 1993 World Trade Center 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. The 1,336 pounds urea nitrate–hydrogen gas enhanced device was intended to send the North Tower crashing into the South Tower, bringing both towers down and killing tens of thousands of people. It failed to do so but killed six people and injured over a thousand. -
NAFTA
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into creating one of the world's largest free trade zones and laying the foundations for strong economic growth and rising prosperity for Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Most economic analyses indicate that NAFTA has been a small net positive for the United States, large net positive for Mexico and had an insignificant impact on Canada. -
Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy
"Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) was the official United States policy prohibiting military personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants, while barring openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual persons from military service. According to this policy, openly gay recruits "would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability". -
Contract With America
Contract with America was a document signed by members of the Republican minority before the Republican Party gained control of Congress in 1994. The “Contract with America” outlined legislation to be enacted by the House of Representatives within the first 100 days of the 104th Congress. Among the proposals were tax cuts, a permanent line-item veto, measures to reduce crime and provide middle-class tax relief, and constitutional amendments requiring term limits and a balanced budget. -
Defense of Marriage Act
The 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. This ruling cited the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause, concluding that a denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples is unconstitutional. -
Bush v. Gore
In Bush v. Gore, a divided Supreme Court ruled that the state of Florida's court-ordered manual recount of vote ballots in the 2000 presidential election was unconstitutional. The case proved to be the climax of the contentious presidential race between Vice President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush. The outcome of the election hinged on Florida, where Bush led Vice President Gore by about 1,800 votes the morning after Election Day. -
9/11 Attacks
The attacks that were made on 9/11 were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda. The attacks killed hundreds of people, injuring even more, and caused at least $10 billion in property damage. There were four planes involved: 2 struck each tower in New York, another crashed the Pentagon, and the last plane landed in a field after passengers fought to take the plane back from the terrorists. After this dark day, security in the U.S grew. -
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a military campaign launched by the Bush Administration in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In its scope, expenditure, and impact on international relations, the war on terrorism was comparable to the Cold War; it was intended to represent a new phase in global political relations and has had important consequences for security, human rights, international law, cooperation, and governance. -
PATRIOT Act
The PATRIOT Act is an Act of Congress that was signed into law by President George W. Bush which allowed covert searches to be made to avoid alerting suspects in terrorism cases. It also made it easier to wiretap suspects in order to secretly monitor conversations and to track e-mails and seize stored voice mails. It was done to balance the need to increase the nation's security with the protections of the 4th Amendment of the Constitution against unreasonable search and seizure. -
No Child Left Behind
The No Child Left Behind Act dramatically increases the role of the federal government in guaranteeing the quality of public education for all children in the United States with an emphasis on increased funding for poor school districts, higher achievement for poor and minority students, and new measures to hold schools accountable for their students' progress and in the process dramatically expands the role of standardized testing in American public education -
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Hurricane Katrina
When the storm made landfall, it had a Category 3 rating on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. The storm itself did a great deal of damage, but its aftermath was catastrophic. Levee breaches led to massive flooding, and many people charged that the federal government was slow to meet the needs of the people affected. Hundreds of people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama were displaced from their homes, and experts estimate that Katrina caused more than $100 billion in damage. -
Barack Obama Becomes President
Barack Hussein Obama II is an American politician who served as the 44th President of the United States from 2009 to 2017. He is the first African American to have served as president, as well as the first born outside the contiguous United States. He previously served in the U.S. Senate representing Illinois from 2005 to 2008, and in the Illinois State Senate from 1997 to 2004. -
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
The Recovery Act was a stimulus package enacted by the 111th U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in February 2009. Developed in response to the Great Recession, the ARRA's primary objective was to save existing jobs and create new ones as soon as possible. Other objectives were to provide temporary relief programs for those most affected by the recession and invest in infrastructure, education, health, and renewable energy. -
Sonia Sotomayor
Sonia Maria Sotomayor is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving since August 2009. She has the distinction of being its first justice of Hispanic heritage, the first Latina, its third female justice, and its twelfth Roman Catholic justice. -
Affordable Care Act
Under the ACA, hospitals and primary physicians would transform their practices financially, technologically, and clinically to drive better health outcomes, lower costs, and improve their methods of distribution and accessibility. The Affordable Care Act was designed to increase health insurance quality and affordability, lower the uninsured rate by expanding insurance coverage and reduce the costs of healthcare.
