U.S. History: 1877-2008

By Daniel.Bilton
  • 1950 BCE

    Korean War

    was a war between North Korea and South Korea. The war began on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea following clashes along the border and insurrections in the south. 1950-1953
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    Early American History

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    Civil War/Reconstruction

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    The Gilded Age

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    The Progressive Era

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    Imperialism

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    World War I

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    Roaring Twenties

  • The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

    is established, comprising a confederation of Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine, and the Transcaucasian Federation
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    Great Depression

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    World War II

  • United Nations formed

    is an international nonprofit organization formed in 1945 to increase political and economic cooperation among its member countries.
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    Early Cold War

  • Containment

    is a geopolitical strategic foreign policy pursued by the United States

  • Communism

    is a political and economic system that seeks to create a classless society in which the major means of production, such as mines and factories, are owned and controlled by the public

  • Truman Doctrine

    U.S. policy that gave military and economic aid to countries threatened by communism

  • Berlin Airlift

    A military operation in the late 1940s that brought food and other needed goods into West Berlin by air after the government of East Germany, which at that time surrounded West Berlin (see Berlin wall) (see also Berlin wall), had cut off its supply routes.

  • Marshall Plan

    program to help European countries rebuild after World War II

  • NATO established

    North Atlantic Treaty Organization, an international organization composed of the US, Canada, Britain, and a number of European countries: established by the North Atlantic Treaty for purposes of collective security.

  • Domino Theory

    the theory that a political event in one country will cause similar events in neighboring countries, like a falling domino causing an entire row of upended dominoes to fall.

  • Sweatt v. Painter

    ruled the separate law school at the University of Texas failed to qualify as “separate but equal”
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    Civil Rights Era

  • Rosenbergs trial

    Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg were American citizens who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union.

  • 22nd Amendment

    prohibits anyone who has been elected president twice from being elected again

  • First H-Bomb detonated by the United States

    the U.S. detonated the first hydrogen bomb, resulting in the first successful full-scale thermonuclear weapon explosion.

  • Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

    overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and mandated desegregation

  • Hernandez v. Texas

    Mexican Americans and all other races provided equal protection under the 14th Amendment
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    Vietnam War

  • Jonas Salk invents the Polio Vaccine

    This vaccine contains killed virus and is given by injection. The large-scale use of IPV began in February 1954, when it was administered to American schoolchildren.

  • Montgomery Bus Boycott after Rosa Parks’ arrest

  • Arms Race/Space Race

    The Space Race was an informal 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States (US), to achieve firsts in spaceflight capability

  • USSR launches Sputnik

    the earth's first artificial satellite, Sputnik I. The successful launch came as a shock to experts and citizens in the United States, who had hoped that the United States would accomplish this scientific advancement first.

  • Little Rock Nine integrated into an all-white school in Little Rock, AK

  • Bay of Pigs Invasion in Cuba

  • Berlin Wall built to prevent people from leaving communist East Berlin

  • Cuban Missile Crisis

  • Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” at the March on Washington

  • John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, TX

  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

    begins undeclared war in Vietnam

  • 24th Amendment

    Abolishes the poll tax

  • Civil Rights Act of 1964

    Made discrimination based on race, religion, or national origin in public places illegal and required

  • Medicare and Medicaid established

  • Tinker v. Des Moines

    defined the First Amendment rights for students in the United States Public Schools

  • Voting Rights Act of 1965

    Eliminated literacy tests for voters

  • Tet Offensive

  • Martin Luther King is assassinated

  • Civil Rights Act of 1968

    prohibited discrimination in the sale or rental of housing

  • First Man on the Moon

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    End of the Cold War

  • Pentagon Papers leaked

  • 26th Amendment

    moved the voting age from 21 years old to 18 years old

  • Title IX:

    protects people from discrimination based on gender in education programs

  • War Powers Act

    law limited the President’s right to send troops to battle without Congressional approval

  • Fall of Saigon, marks the end of the Vietnam War

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    1990s-21st Century