Elections, major political developments, Supreme Court cases.
Created by fordproject on Jan 23, 2011
Last updated: 01/24/11 at 09:26 PM
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Nicknamed "Obamacare" this bill is a major reform of private health care. It was signed into action by president Obama. The Act is surrounded by controversy, many claiming it unconstitutional and socialist. The bill has many delayed effects, with many of its reforms not being valid until years from its creation. An example of one of the reforms is that insurance companies cannot refuse to grant an insurance policy to someone with a pre-existing condition. The bill may not survive, as it extends past Obama's current term.
Barack Obama defeated John McCain, 365 to 173 in electoral votes.
Lehman Brothers was a global financial services firm who dealt with investment banking, equity and fixed-income sales, research and trading, investment management, private equity, and private banking. Due to heavy losses in the mortgage market, Lehman Brothers faced financial crisis. They began firing many employees and cutting back funds severely. Their efforts proved futile as they needed to file for bankruptcy. The Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy is the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history with Lehman holding over $600 billion in assets. It lead to a drop in the Dow Jones and heavy losses for many. The company pleaded for a bailout, but did not receive one as they were to made an example of sorts. The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers would be followed by many large corporations doing the same.
George W. Bush defeated John Kerry, 286 to 251 in electoral votes.
The September 11 attacks were a series of suicide attacks led by al-Qaeda, against the United States of America. The attacks consisted of the terrorist group members hijacking four large passenger airplanes after take off. Two of the planes were used to attack the two World Trade Center buildings. All the passengers and thousands of other innocent people died as a result of the twin towers attacks. One plane crashed in a field in PA after the crew and passengers attempted to retake the plane. The final plane was crashed into the Pentagon. The 9/11 attacks are a key event in modern global history, as it sparked the War on Terror, a ongoing campaign led by US, UK, and NATO forces to fight terrorist groups around the world. The 9/11 attacks showed that even a superpower like the US can still be hurt. The attacks led to a domino effect, altering lives on a global scale
George W. Bush defeated Al Gore, 271 to 266 in electoral votes.
Bill Clinton defeated Bob Dole and Ross Perot, 379 to 159 to 0 in electoral votes.
Bill Clinton defeated George H. W. Bush and Ross Perot, 370 to 168 to 0 in electoral votes.
The Soviet Union was a collection of formally independent countries under a single socialist system. Since its start in 1922, the Soviet Union has been a competing super power with the United States. The Soviets and the United States had drastically opposing political views that started the cold war at the end of WWII. The Cold War had caused mass panic, with both countries striving to advance over the other. The Cold War lead to great advances in nuclear power and weapons technology, space flight, and global communications. During the Cold War, the US and Soviets were the two largest superpowers in the world, and tensions were very high. There were times where world war III was expected to break out. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States experienced global dominance that would last a few years after.
Lee Johnson burned an American flag in protest of the Reagan's policies. He was charged with the desecration of a venerated object, and challenged this charge. The Supreme Court ruled that he was protected by his first amendment rights.
George H. W. Bush defeated Michael Dukakis, 426 to 111 in electoral votes.
Students who wrote for their school newspaper had their articles pulled at the last second by the principal because of the sensitivity of some issues. They claimed that it was a violation of their first amendment rights, and so they filed a case with the Supreme Court. The court ruled in favor of the principal, stating that his concerns with legitimate.
Black Monday was the single largest daily point drop of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It was a drop on a global scale, starting in Hong kong and ending in the United States. The drop led to global financial panic, since market values in Hong Kong had fallen 45.5%, Australia 41.8%, Spain 31%, the United Kingdom 26.45%, the United States 22.68%, and Canada 22.5%. New Zealand's 60%. Many country's markets took up to 3 years to recover fully from the drop.
A high school student in New Jersey was searched and found to be in the possession of marijuana. He argued against the search, saying that it was unlawful for him to have been searched and that there was not enough evidence to create reasonable cause. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the school, setting a precedent for more relaxed rules in school searches.
Ronald Reagan defeated Walter Mondale, 525 to 13 in electoral votes.
Enacted in 1981 the Economic Recover Tax Act amendws the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 to encourage economic growth through reductions in individual income tax rates, the expensing of depreciable property, incentives for small businesses, and incentives for savings, and for other purposes. The specifics were the act led to the decrease in the marginal income tax rates in the U.S. by 23% over three years, with the top rate falling from 70% to 50% and the bottom rate dropping from 14% to 11%. This act slashed estate taxes and trimmed taxes paid by business corporations by $150 billion over a five year period. As a result, in 1986, the annual revenue of the federal government had been cut by $200 billion. The Act was a very important. It was the governments way of indirectly helping the economy by giving relief to individuals.
Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter and John B. Anderson, 489 to 49 to 0 in electoral votes.
Allan Bakke applied to become a medical student at the University of California, and was rejected while students of minority descent were accepted with lower scores. Courts in California ruled in his favor, so the University appealed it all the way to the Supreme Court. The court ruled that it was permissible to make admissions decisions based on race.
Jimmy Carter defeated Gerald Ford, 297 to 240 in electoral votes.
During President Nixon's Watergate trial, he had tapes in his Oval Office that would have helped convict him of crimes. He refused to release these tapes, and this was challenged all the way to the Supreme Court. There, the court ruled that his privilege was not limitless and that he had to show the tapes in court.
Jane Roe, an unmarried woman, wanted to have an abortion: something that was not allowed by her home state of Texas. She challenged this law to the Supreme Court, and the court ruled that no state can forbid abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy.
Richard Nixon defeated George McGovern, 520 to 17 in electoral votes.
President Nixon first used the term "War on Drugs" in 1971. Since the initiative's start, the war on drugs has resulted in an average of 500,000 drug related incarcerations. The war on drugs is highly criticized due to the amount funds, personal, and lack of effectiveness. The war on drugs has been an important part of both foreign and domestic policy. The United States not only funds its own programs to stop drugs, they fund countries like Mexico's anti-drug programs.
John and Mary Beth Tinker wore armbands to school in order to protest the Vietnam War, and were asked to remove them. They contested this, and brought it to the Supreme Court. The court ruled in favor of the Tinkers and stated that the school was in violation of free speech.
Richard Nixon defeated Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace, 301 to 191 to 46 in electoral votes.
Ernesto Miranda was a poor man and was identified in a line-up as committing a crime. The police did not tell him that he did not have to confess, and so Miranda confessed and was convicted. His attorney said that Miranda's fifth and sixth amendment rights were not read to him, and so his confession should be thrown out. This went to the Supreme Court, and the court ruled in favor of Miranda. Police officers are now required to read a suspect's rights to him.
Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater, 486 to 52 in electoral votes.
Clarence Gideon, a former convict, was arrested and tried for a breaking and entering. During the trial, he asked the judge to give him a lawyer since he is entitled to one based on the sixth amendment. The judge refused, Gideon did a bad job of representing himself, and he was sent to jail. In jail, he wrote the Supreme Court a letter that declared his unlawful incarceration, and the Supreme Court decided to hear him out and ruled in his favor.
Dollree Mapp had her house forcibly searched by police officers without a search warrant. The officers found obscene pictures, illegal in Ohio, and handcuffed Mapp. However, Mapp challenged the officers, saying that since the pictures will illegally obtained, she should not be punished for having them. This was taken to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the evidence may not be used in criminal prosecution.
John F. Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon, 303 to 219 in electoral votes.
Dwight D. Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson, 457 to 73 in electoral votes.
a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the U.S. and other anti-communist nations. The Viet Cong, a lightly armed South Vietnamese communist-controlled common front, largely fought a guerrilla war against anti-communist forces in the region. The Vietnam People's Army (North Vietnamese Army) engaged in a more conventional war, at times committing large units into battle. U.S. and South Vietnamese forces relied on air superiority and overwhelming firepower to conduct search and destroy operations, involving ground forces, artillery and airstrikes. The U.S. government viewed involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam and part of their wider strategy of containment. The North Vietnamese government viewed the war as a colonial war, fought initially against France, backed by the U.S., and later against South Vietnam, which it regarded as a U.S. puppet state. U.S. military advisors arrived beginning in 1950. U.S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with U.S. troop levels tripling in 1961 and tripling again in 1962. U.S. combat units were deployed beginning in 1965. Operations spanned borders, with Laos and Cambodia heavily bombed. Involvement peaked in 1968 at the time of the Tet Offensive. After this, U.S. ground forces were withdrawn as part of a policy called Vietnamization. Despite the Paris Peace Accords, signed by all parties in January 1973, fighting continued. The Case–Church Amendment passed by the U.S. Congress prohibited use of American military after 15 August 1973, unless the president secured congressional approval in advance.The capture of Saigon by the North Vietnamese army in April 1975 marked the end of the Vietnam War. North and South Vietnam were reunified the following year.
the movements in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring voting rights in Southern states. This article covers the phase of the movement between 1954 and 1968, particularly in the South. By 1966, the emergence of the Black Power Movement, which lasted roughly from 1966 to 1975, enlarged the aims of the Civil Rights Movement to include racial dignity, economic and political self-sufficiency, and freedom from oppression by white Americans. Many of those who were active in the Civil Rights Movement, with organizations such as NAACP, SNCC, CORE and SCLC, prefer the term "Southern Freedom Movement" because the struggle was about far more than just civil rights under law; it was also about fundamental issues of freedom, respect, dignity, and economic and social equality.
The Plessy v. Ferguson case decision established that separate facilities and segregation was legal as long as the facilities were equal in quality. Linda Brown and her family claimed that the Topeka Board of Education was violating the "separate but equal" policy, and brought their case to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court agreed, and did away with "separate but equal" schools.
Dwight D. Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson, 442 to 89 in electoral votes.
Harry S. Truman defeated Thomas E. Dewey and Strom Thurmond, 303 to 189 to 39 in electoral votes.
The continuing state of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition existing after World War II between the Communist World – primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies – and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States and its allies. Although the primary participants' military force never officially clashed directly, they expressed the conflict through military coalitions, strategic conventional force deployments, extensive aid to states deemed vulnerable, proxy wars, espionage, propaganda, conventional and nuclear arms races, appeals to neutral nations, rivalry at sports events, and technological competitions such as the Space Race.
Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Thomas E. Dewey, 432 to 99 in electoral votes.
Japanese-Americans were moved to internment camps during World War II against their will. They suffered great financial losses and were forced to live in barracks with no running water or cooking facilities. Fred Korematsu, a Japanese-American living in California, was convicted of violating an executive order that barred him from living in the military quarter of San Leandro. He challenged his conviction on the basis that his civil rights were being violated, and pushed it to the Supreme Court. The court ruled in favor of the United States.
Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Wendell Willkie, 449 to 82 in electoral votes.
A global military conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, which involved most of the world's nations, including all of the great powers: eventually forming two opposing military alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, with more than 100 million military personnel mobilised. 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.
Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Alf Landon, 523 to 8 in electoral votes.
A series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President of the United States, from 1933 to 1936. The programs were responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call the "3 Rs": relief, recovery, and reform. That is, relief for the unemployed and poor; recovery of the economy to normal levels; and reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression. The New Deal produced a political realignment, making the Democratic Party the majority (as well as holding the White House for seven out of nine Presidential terms from 1933–69), with its base in liberal ideas, big city machines, and newly empowered labor unions, ethnic minorities, and the white South. The Republicans were split, either opposing the entire New Deal as an enemy of business and growth, or accepting some of it and promising to make it more efficient. The realignment crystallized into the New Deal Coalition that dominated most American elections into the 1960s, while the opposition Conservative Coalition largely controlled Congress from 1938-1964.
Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Herbert Hoover, 472 to 59 in electoral votes.
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