US History Timeline 1877-2008

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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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    Communism

    A rivalry form of government to Democracy during the Cold War. This form of government established a system in which goods are owned in common by the state (government) and are available to all as needed.
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    Roaring Twenties

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    The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

    The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was a federal socialist state in Northern Eurasia.
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    Great Depression

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    World War II

  • United Nations formed

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    Early Cold War

  • Truman Doctrine

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

    Containment was a United States policy using numerous strategies to prevent the spread of communism abroad.
  • Berline Airlift

  • Marshall Plan

    Program to help European countries rebuild after World War II.
  • NATO established

  • 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

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    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.
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    Korean War

  • Rosenbergs trial

  • 22nd Amendment

    Prohibits anyone who has been elected president twice from being elected again.
  • First H-Bomb detonated by the United States

  • 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

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    Montgomery Bus Boycott after Rosa Parks’ arrest

  • USSR launches Sputnik

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

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    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.
  • OPEC

    The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is a permanent, intergovernmental Organization, created at the Baghdad Conference on September 10–14, 1960, by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
  • 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 employers to hire on an equal opportunity basis.
  • Medicare and Medicaid established

  • 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.
  • Tinker v. Des Moines

    Defined the First Amendment rights for students in the United States Public Schools
  • First Man on the Moon

  • Kent State University shooting

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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.
  • Watergate Scandal, which leads to Nixon’s Resignation

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

  • Community Reinvestment Act of 1977

    It requires the Federal Reserve and other federal banking regulators to encourage financial institutions to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they do business, including low- and moderate-income (LMI) neighborhoods.
  • Camp David Accords

  • Three Mile Island Disaster

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    Iran Hostage Crisis

  • AIDS Epidemic

    It changed the way people thought of dating. People had to be more careful on who they wanted to be with.
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    Sandra Day O’Connor

    She is a retired attorney, politician, and the first woman associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, a position she held from 1981 until her retirement in 2006.
  • Star Wars

    Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), byname Star Wars, proposed U.S. strategic defensive system against potential nuclear attacks—as originally conceived, from the Soviet Union.
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    Iran Contra Affair

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    1990s-21st Century