20 most influential events in American history in the 20th century.
Created by ryanh on May 21, 2008
Last updated: 03/12/10 at 03:14 AM
Microsoft releases Windows 3.0
http://blogs.technet.com
The 1960's decade began, and so did the Vietnam War. Debate between politicians began as well, almost as bad as the war itself. White House records and transcripts show that the U.S. military leaders usually voted for the use of nuclear bombs, while Dwight Eisenhower and John Kennedy wanted not to get into those weapons. The Vietnam War did start in the 60's, but it sadly ended in 1973 January 27 1973
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At 6:01 p.m. on April 4, 1968, a shot rang out. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who had been standing on the balcony of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN, now lay sprawled on the balcony's floor. A gaping wound covered a large portion of his jaw and neck. A great man who had spent thirteen years of his life dedicating himself to nonviolent protest had been felled by a sniper's bullet.
http://www.princeton.edu
The assassination of John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, took place on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, USA at 12:30 p.m. CST (18:30 UTC). John F. Kennedy was fatally wounded by gunshots while riding with his wife Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in a Presidential Motorcade. The ten-month investigation of the Warren Commission of 1963–1964, the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) of 1976–1979, and other government investigations concluded that the President was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald. This conclusion was initially met with widespread support among the American public,
http://www.scientificblogging.com/graphics/JFK.jpg
I Have A Dream" is the popular name given to the historic public speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., when he spoke of his desire for a future where blacks and whites among others would coexist harmoniously as equals. King's delivery of the speech on August 28, 1963, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement. Delivered to over two hundred thousand civil rights supporters, the speech is often considered to be one of the greatest and most notable speeches in history and was ranked the top American speech of the 20th century by a 1999 poll of scholars of public address.
The 100th McDonald's opened in Chicago.
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Red Sox set AL record by smashing 4 HRs in 6th inning in 11-0 win
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Burger King was started in 1952 as "Insta-Burger King" by Keith Cramer using a broiler invented by George Read (the "Insta-Broiler")
http://illc0mmunication.org
was a decision of the United States Supreme Court, which overturned rulings in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, by declaring that state laws that established separate public schools for black and white students denied black children equal educational opportunities.
http://www.law.indiana.edu
The 7 December 1941 Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor was one of the great defining moments in history. A single carefully-planned and well-executed stroke removed the United States Navy's battleship force as a possible threat to the Japanese Empire's southward expansion. America, unprepared and now considerably weakened, was abruptly brought into the Second World War as a full combatant, Eighteen months earlier, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had transferred the United States Fleet to Pearl Harbor as a presumed deterrent to Japanese agression.
http://www.archives.gov
World War II or the Second World War[1] was a global military conflict, the joining of what had initially been two separate conflicts. The first began in Asia in 1937 as the Second Sino-Japanese War; the other began in Europe in 1939 with the German invasion of Poland.
This global conflict split the majority of the world's nations into opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers.
http://www.englishrussia.com
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuclear attacks at the end of World War II against the Empire of Japan by the United States at the order of U.S. President Harry S. Truman on August 6 and 9, 1945. After six months of intense firebombing of 67 other Japanese cities, the nuclear weapon "Little Boy" was dropped on the city of Hiroshima on Monday, August 6, 1945, followed on August 9 by the detonation of the "Fat Man" nuclear bomb over Nagasaki. These are to date the only attacks with nuclear weapons in the history of warfare.
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President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066 which allows military authorities to exclude anyone from anywhere without trial or hearings. Though the subject of only limited interest at the time, this order set the stage for the entire forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans.
http://www.unc.edu
On September 11, 1941, the President of the United States publicly declared that he had ordered the American Navy and Air Force to shoot on sight at any German war vessel. he expressly affirmed that this order was in force. Acting under this order, vessels of the American Navy, since early September 1941, have systematically attacked German naval forces. Thus, American destroyers, as for instance the Greer, the Kearny and the Reuben James, have opened fire on German submarines according to plan.
http://commons.wikimedia.org
The New Deal was the title that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave to a sequence of programs and promises he initiated between 1933 and 1938 with the goal of giving relief to the needy, reform of the financial system, and recovery of the economy of the United States during the Great Depression. The "First New Deal" of 1933 aimed at short-term recovery programs for all groups in society. Based on the assumption that the power of the federal government was needed to get the country out of depression, the first days of Roosevelt's administration saw the passage of banking reform laws, emergency relief programs, work relief programs, and agricultural programs
http://www.britannica.com
Black Tuesday is notorious for being the worst day in the U.S. stock market, but in terms of percentage loss, the honor goes to Black Monday (1987 and 1929). The market suffered a 12 percent loss.
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The Scotsman John Logie Baird invented television in the 1920s, by bringing together the work of some others, notably Paul Nipkow, who invented a spinning disk used to scan the image.The first concept of the television was a sketch done by a 14-year-old farm boy named Philo T. Farnsworth in 1922. On September 7, 1927, he finally created a television system that could not only display, but transmit signals between seperate rooms. (see above
the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution became law, and women could vote in the fall elections.
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The Ford Model T (colloquially known as the Tin Lizzie and also the Flivver) was an automobile produced by Henry Ford's Ford Motor Company from 1908 through 1927. The Model T set 1908 as the historic year that the automobile came into popular usage. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, the car that "put America on wheels"; some of this was because of Ford's innovations, including assembly line production instead of individual hand crafting, as well as the concept of paying the workers a wage proportionate to the cost of the car, so that they would provide a ready made market
On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright, built and flew the first man made aircraft. Three years after there feat, they made a big step in creating the "three-axis controll" system. This tequnice would be used in world war 2 aircrafts and would be the fundamentals of the passenger planes.
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