A student made chronological review of important events in American History
Created by aleatherwood on May 10, 2011
Last updated: 04/15/13 at 01:57 PM
A series of coordinated attacks by al-Qaeda members. They crashed two planes into the Twin Towers in New York, and one plane into the Pentagon.
http://www.september11news.com/
On this day Congress voted to impeach Clinton due to charges of perjury and abuse of power. He was accused of lying under oath about having sexual relations with someone other then his wife. This was the second impeachment of a president.
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/impeachments/clinton.htm
Clinton orders the military forces to attack Afghanistan after six terrorist attacks occurred in Afghanistan. Those attacks were led by Osama bin Laden. One of the attacks was the bombing of the East African embassy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_United_States_embassy_bombings
Clinton signed a NAFTA agreement in 1993 that would eliminate tariffs between Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Some criticized saying that all American corporations would leave the US now. However, the treaty created the largest free trade area in the world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3ooMrgXido
Clinton began this program to help Americans achieve community service activities based on their interest. He developed the AmeriCorps which help rebuild the nation where there are areas of trouble.
http://www.nationalservice.gov/about/role_impact/history.asp
A truck bomb near the North Tower was set off, and was suppose to knock the North Tower into the South Tower. The attack happened within a month of Clinton’s presidency. There were four men who were involved in the plot that ultimately failed. Even though the smoke rose to the 93 floor, there were only six deaths.
http://online.wsj.com/article/AP9d3172ad315246a7b7a91dc5e2ac874a.html
The Civil Rights Act of 1991 allowed the employees of companies to sue their employers in the Supreme Court due to discrimination in the work force. Also the act was a provision of some of the minor points in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It led to discrimination cases to become trial by jury cases.
http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/history/35th/1990s/civilrights.html http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/history/35th/1990s/civilrights.html
The United States recognized Estonia, Lithonia, and Latvia (the Baltic States) as independent nations from the Soviet Union. The result was that more land was lost from the USSR.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/332156/history-of-Latvia
START I was a reduction of arms treaty between the Soviet Union and the United States. It negotiated and controlled all of the nuclear power weapons that resulted from the nuclear race during the Cold War
http://www.fas.org/nuke/control/start1/index.html
The Clean Air Act was signed by Bush and it was deemed one of the most significant environment acts of the time. The goal is for the EPA to protect the Nation’s air and ozone layer.
http://www.epa.gov/air/caa/
West and East Germany finally reunite. This was after the Hungary Border was opened, and many East Germans fled to Hungary. As soon as the wall was torn down many East Berliners fled to West Berlin. Due to the unification of that city, the country was reunited to form Germany.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/1053880.stm
George H.W. Bush is inaugurated as 41st President.
http://www.presidentialtimeline.org/html/timeline.php?id=41
This treaty was signed in Washington, D.C and stated that all close range nuclear missiles from Europe would be banned. This was a significant breakthrough in the Cold War, leading both Reagan and Gorbachev to agree that “Nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought”.
http://www.state.gov/www/global/arms/treaties/inf1.html
Reagan supported Nicaraguan insurgents called the “Contras”. However when we heard that they Contras were torturing and murdering civilians, Congress cut off the aid towards the group; yet, the Reagan administration was committed towards the Contras to defeat the Sandinistas (Communist). They developed a plan to sell weapons to Iran, and then use the income to buy guns for the contras.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB210/index.htm
After 73 seconds of take off the space shuttle “Challenger” explodes. People were devastated due to the six astronauts and teacher Christa McAuliffe, the first civilian to go into space, all perishing in the explosion. Because of the explosion, NASA’s credibility suffered greatly, many doubted the technology required for the SDI.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4JOjcDFtBE
Reagan sent Marines to Lebanon in 1983 to establish international peacekeeping force for Israelis against Palestinians. However when a suicide bomber (October 23, 1983) crashed into Marine Barracks, killing 241 Marines, and Reagan pulled the peacekeeping force out of Lebanon.
http://www.rand.org/pubs/conf_proceedings/CF129/CF-129.chapter6.html
Reagan reduced corporate taxes and in result, corporations would earn greater profits. With more money flow companies would buy new equipment and thus hire more employees. As a result money would move down into the lower classes and reinvigorate the economy. However, unemployment rate continued to increase, rich were getting richer; while, the poor were getting poorer.
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc1/Reaganomics.html
An agreement signed by the Egyptian and Israeli leaders, to reduce tensions between the two countries. President Carter acted as a mediator for the negotiations, which took place at Camp David.
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace%20Process/Guide%20to%20the%20Peace%20Process/Camp%20David%20Accords
A campaign Ford started to try and initiate a movement among the American public to crush inflation, by implementing moderate spending habits and encouraging people to save their money. The campaign was ridiculed by the majority of Americans
http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/3283
After the backlash from the Watergate scandal, and his subsequent impeachment, Nixon was well-aware of the fact that he would likely become the first president to be impeached and forced to leave office before the end of his term. So, instead of moving forward with his trial, Nixon chose to resign
Caused the Oil Crisis of 1973-74. The Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (or OAPEC) proclaimed an oil embargo in response to Americans supplying the Israeli army with troops during the Yom Kippur war.
http://www.buyandhold.com/bh/en/education/history/2002/arab.html
Nationalist forces were attempting to unify Vietnam under communist control and the US, with South Vietnamese aid, was attempting to prevent communist expansion. At the start of the war, French forces were being backed by US intelligence; however, the French surrendered and withdrew from Vietnam in 1954. The Geneva Accords then divided Vietnam at the 17th parallel until national elections could be held in 1956. The US staged an election in South Vietnam and put Ngo Dinh Diem in power. But due to his unpopularity and corrupt ruling, when communist leader Ho Chi Minh launched an offensive attack, Diem was executed during a US-backed coup in 1963. After Kennedy’s assassination, President Johnson began sending troops to Vietnam. Bombing campaigns began, and this was the start of the “Americanization” of the Vietnam War. During Nixon’s presidency, the Vietnam War ended. Also a supporter of Americanization, Nixon continued to prolong the conflict in Vietnam. However, when he became entangled in other affairs, the North Vietnamese stepped up their attacks and eventually initiated a full-out offensive in 1975. The South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell and the war ended.
http://history1900s.about.com/od/vietnamwar/a/vietnamwar.htm
On November 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. The Warren Commission concluded that Oswald worked alone, leading to many conspiracy theories, such as the "magic bullet theory."
http://www.jfk-assassination.de/articles/index.php
c. This crisis occurred in 1962 when U.S. spy planes found definitive evidence that nuclear missile launching facilities were being built in Cuba by the Cubans and the Soviets. The U.S. responded by implementing a naval blockade of the island and calling on the Soviets to remove their missiles. In the end, the U.S. and Soviets agreed to remove their missiles from Turkey and Cuba, respectively, ending the threat of a world war. This was the closest the two countries came to nuclear war during the Cold War.
http://library.thinkquest.org/11046/days/timeline.html
This was an unsuccessful attempt by the U.S. government to overthrow the Communist regime in Cuba. The U.S. sent CIA trained Cuban exiles back to Cuba in hopes of inciting a rebellion against the government. However, the Cubans and Soviets heard about the plan and the invasion was a large failure.
http://library.thinkquest.org/11046/days/bay_of_pigs.html
In 1960, the Soviet Union shot down a U.S. spy plane over Soviet territory. Eisenhower originally claimed it was not an espionage mission, but, after the Soviets produced the pilot, Gary Powers, Eisenhower admitted that it was a spy mission. This ended any hope of an arms agreement between the two countries
http://americanhistory.about.com/od/coldwar/a/gary_powers.htm
A competition between the US and Soviet Union to launch satellites, achieve human space flight and reach to moon. On October 4, 1957, the USSR launched Sputnik I and officially began the race. Unprecedented amounts of money were spent on research and development for the next decade. In 1958, NASA is formed and the US is officially in the Space Race. By 1969, the US had the first men on the moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
http://www.thespacerace.com/timeline/
First civil rights legislation passed by Congress since Reconstruction. The goal was to outlaw any restrictions placed on black's right to vote. It made actions such as literacy tests and poll taxes illegal. It indicated the growing commitment to civil rights from the federal government.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/1957_civil_rights_act.htm
The Montgomery Bus Boycott, Sit-ins, Freedom Rides, the March on Washington and Freedom Summer were some of the most influential events during the Civil Rights Movement. During the bus boycotts, African Americans refused to use public transportation until they could sit where they pleased. Montgomery's bus system had to shut down because of the financial losses the boycotts had caused. One of the most famous events was the arrest of Rosa Parks in 1955. Sit-ins were usually student organized events in which a group would sit down at a lunch counter until they were served food. Although some claimed they were ineffective, Sit-ins showed how strong the Black community could be in numbers. Freedom Riders traveled in busses all over the country in order to spread the Civil Rights Movement even further. The 1963 March on Washington gathered a quarter- to half-million people and leaders like Martin Luther King gave some of the most famous speeches in American History there. Lastly, Freedom Summer was a campaign in 1964 with a goal to register as many African American voters as possible.
http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/civilrights-55-65/index.html
The purpose of the Geneva Conference was to determine a way to unify Korea and attempt to restore peace in Indochina. A result was the Geneva Accords. The accords split Vietnam into two zones until a further agreement could be reached. SEATO, or the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization was primarily created to block further communist expansion
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1954-geneva-indochina.html
Senator Joseph McCarthy was a leading figure in the fight against Communism. McCarthy accused many leading figures in Hollywood and in the government of being affiliated with Communism. He declared that he had the names of 57 people in the government who were Communist. This led to the Second Red Scare in which many people in Hollywood were accused of being Communist and were therefore blacklisted. The most notable of these was "Hollywood Ten." These were ten people who refused to answer questions on Communism and were blacklisted.
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=495
This court case was a landmark case that overturned the rulings of Plessy vs. Ferguson. It declared that seperate was inherently not equal and that schools and other public entities could not be segregated any longer.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/
After being divided to US and USSR portions in 1945, a civil war broke out in 1950. North Korea was supported by communist China and South Korea was supported by the United Nations. General MacArthur led US forces into Korea and had pushed back communist lines to where they had been at the start of the war by 1951. Eventually, Allied forces had reached far into North Korea, however, a Chinese counter-attack returned the division to the 38th parallel. The war ended in 1953 with an armistice that restored the 38th parallel division and created a DMZ four km wide at the border.
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/kowar/kowar.htm
Even though experts an easy victory for Dewey over Truman, Truman won a remarkable victory by winning 49.6% of the popular vote. Truman also retained the support of organized labor and African Americans. His popular campaign slogan was "Give 'em hell, Harry!"
http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?f=0&year=1948
The Truman Doctrine was a policy set forth by Truman that said the U.S. would aid Greece and Turkey in order to prevent Soviet invasion in their countries. Truman stated the Doctrine would be "the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." This was a direct challenge to the Soviet Union.
This act prohibited closed shop agreements, mandated an 80 day cooling off period before a strike, and forced unions to swear they weren't communist. It enraged labor advocates but caused them to support Truman because he vetoed the act. However, the law went into effect anyway and was even used by Truman.
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/bus/A0847620.html
Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima (August 6th) and Nagasaki (August 9th) in an attempt to end the war with Japan. The Japanese surrendered soon after the bombs were dropped. Roughly 185,000 people were killed in the two cities.
http://history1900s.about.com/od/worldwarii/a/hiroshima.htm
Stalin, Truman, and Churchill (replaced by Attlee) met in Potsdam to discuss how to take care of Germany. The three countries decided that Japan needed to surrender soon or the powers would destroy it completely. They were going to set up a council to administer Germany and a system to negotiate peace treaty. At this time Stalin announced that there would be no free elections in Eastern Europe.
http://www.historyteacher.net/AHAP/Charts/chart-WW2Conferences.pdf
A meeting between Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill at the Livadia Palace. the purpose of this meeting was to define Europe's post-war reorganization.
Allied powers assumed joint sovereign authority over Germany. Berlin, lying deep in the Soviet zone in eastern Germany, was similarly divided and governed. That is, the city of Berlin, surrounded by the Soviet Zone, was partitioned into four zones. The zones occupied by the Allies lay on the west side of the city, and east Berlin was occupied by the Soviets. West Germany and West Berlin received massive injections of U.S. capital, which attracted many workers from miserable economic conditions in the East.
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/yalta.asp
The Normandy landings, also known as Operation Neptune were the landing operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy, in Operation Overlord, during World War II. June 1944 was a major turning point of World War II, particularly in Europe. Although the initiative had been seized from the Germans some months before, so far the western Allies had been unable to mass sufficient men and material to risk an attack in northern Europe.
http://www.army.mil/d-day/
A meeting between big three world leaders: Stalin, F.D. Roosevelt, and Churchill held in Iran. The central aim of the Tehran conference was to plan the final strategy for the war against Nazi Germany and its allies, and the chief discussion was centered on the opening of a second front in Western Europe.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/1/newsid_3535000/3535949.stm
From 1942 to the end of World War II, the US government interned Japanese-American citizens, restricting their civil liberties. Fearful that they may be aiding Japan in the war after the Pearl Harbor attacks, the governemnt imprisoned over 110,000 citizens based on ethnicity alone. Korematsu v. United States (1944) upheld the internment, declaring it constitutional.
Just a day after the Pearl Harbor bombings, the United States declared war on Japan. This global military conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, which involved most of the world's nations was the most widespread war in history, with more than 100 million military personnel mobilized. In a state of "total war," the major participants placed their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by significant events involving the mass death of civilians, including the Holocaust and the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare, it was the deadliest conflict in human history, resulting in 50 million to over 70 million fatalities.
The Act, signed by Roosevelt, announced that the United States would supply its allies with war material on loans because the allies could no longer afford to pay for them.
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=71
1935: The United States would not trade with warring countries
1936: The United States would not give any loans to belligerents
1937 (Cash and Carry): The United States could trade with belligerent nations but these countries had to pay in cash for the goods and transport them on their own ships
http://library.thinkquest.org/15511/data/encyclopedia/neutralityacts.htm
The Wagner Act or The National Labor Relations Act was a big law for unions. The act said that employers could not discriminate against workers who work in unions and that unions could strike and bargain collectively.
As Roosevelt approached reelection, he wanted to stay in the publics favor, so he developed the second new deal. He took to mind the ideas of the opposition and continued to expand social welfare. The second new deal focused more on reform (see the first new deal link for important acts passed)
http://quizlet.com/1871374/second-new-deal-programs-flash-cards/
There was opposition from both sides regarding the New Deal. Republicans thought that it did too much and Democrats felt like it didn’t do enough. Francis Townsend thought that the New Deal needed to take a step further and add in pension plans for old age. Senator Huey Long wanted to tax the wealthy more and came up with the “Share Our Wealth” campaign. Opposition brought FDR to be more radical and he passed bills like the Social Security Act to make his opponents happy (came about in the Second New Deal).
http://www.slideshare.net/ccarter333/opposition-to-the-new-deal
FDR repealed the 18th Amendment or the Prohibition law which said alcohol was illegal.
President Herbert Hoover passed the revenue act in response to his failed Hawley-Smoot Tariff . The bill raised taxes but increased spending, the opposite of what the country needed at the time.
http://www.jstor.org/pss/1805167
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