15th Amendment Amendment to the United States Constitution stating: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
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16th Amendment This amendment, passed in 1913, made the tax on personal income permanent.
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17th Amendment This amendment provided for the direct election of U.S. senators.
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1861 The first shots of the American Civil War were fired in this year.
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1877 This is the year in which the Reconstruction Era came to an official end in the Southern United States.
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18th Amendment This amendment prohibited the sale and use of alcoholic beverages.
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21st Amendment This amendment passed in 1933 repealed the prohibition of alcohol, the 18th amendment.
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24th Amendment This amendment, ratified in 1964, forbids the national and state governments from charging a poll tax in order to vote in any election.
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38th Parallel This line of latitude separates communist North Korea and the U.S.- backed Republic of Korea.
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442nd Regimental Combat Team This is the name for the combat group made up entirely of Japanese American soldiers who fought in Europe during World War II.
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A. Philip Randolph He was the founder of the first black labor union and a prominent Civil Rights leader
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AARP This is the non-profit special interest group whose mission is to protect the rights, benefits, and services designed for people above the age of 50 years.
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Abolition This term describes the movement to end the slave trade and emancipate American slaves during the 1800s.
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Abraham Lincoln He was an Illinois Congressman and the 16th President of the United States during the Civil War.
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Absolute Chronology This is the term which describes the custom of using specific dates to mark historic events.
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ACLU This is a non-profit special interest group whose mission is to defend the rights and liberties of individuals" in the United States.
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Affirmative Action These are policies designed to promote equal education or employment access for minority groups that have previously been discriminated against.
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Afghanistan This land-locked country is located between Iran and Pakistan and was ruled for more than two decades by the Taliban.
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Agricultural Adjustment Act This law was enacted in 1933 and sought to raise crop prices by encouraging farmers to lower production; farmers were paid by the government to leave a certain amount of land unplanted.
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Al Capone This Chicago-based gangster ran a crime syndicate based on smuggling and bootlegging of liquor during the Prohibition Era of the 1920s and 1930s.
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Al Qaeda This is a terrorist group responsible for the September 11 attacks on the U.S. They were founded by Osama bin Laden.
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Alfred Mahan Admiral of the U.S. Navy who encouraged the United States to build up its military strength
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Alger Hiss This is an American State Department official accused of being a spy for the Soviet Union in 1948 by the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC).
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Alice Paul She was an American suffragist leader who, along with Lucy Burns, led a successful campaign for women's suffrage that resulted in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920.
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Alien And Sedition Acts Passed in 1798, these laws were supposed to "protect" the U.S. from foreign people looking to spread the chaos of the French Revolution and from subversive or terroristic acts.
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Allen Dulles As director of the CIA during the Kennedy administration, this man was criticized for the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
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Alliance For Progress This Cold-War program of the Kennedy administration was designed to establish economic cooperation between North and South America.
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Allied Powers These were the nations united against the Axis during World War II.
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Alsace-Lorraine This is an area of present-day eastern France annexed by the Germans in WWII; it had been occupied by the French following the Treaty of Versailles.
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Amendment Process This is a method by which the Constitution may be changed or added to.
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American Expeditionary Force This was the official name for the American military force sent to aid the British and French in 1917.
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American Federation Of Labor This was one of the first groups of labor unions in the United States that later merged with the CIO.
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American Indian Movement This was an uprising of Native Americans in the United States that included the seizure of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and a standoff at Wounded Knee.
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American Revolution This was the first successful colonial independence movement against a European power, 1775-1783.
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American Temperance Society This group was formed in 1826, advocating not only temperance but abolition and women's suffrage, as well.
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Americans With Disabilities Act This law was passed in 1990 to prevent social and economic discrimination against people with physical or mental limitation(s) that might impair a major life function.
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An Atlas This a collection of maps.
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Anaconda Plan This was the Union strategy to instigate a complete naval blockade of the Confederacy in order to prevent the export of their major cash crop- cotton- or the import of weapons from Europe.
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Andersonville This was the largest Confederate military prison during the American Civil War in Macon county, Georgia. It is estimated that nearly 13,000 of the 45,000 Union prisoners died there due to a variety of causes.
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Andrew Jackson He led American forces against the British in the War of 1812, was the seventh President of the United States, and evicted the Cherokee from the Southeast during the "Trail of Tears" era.
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Andrew Johnson This politician from Tennessee became President following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, later becoming the first President to be impeached (he was found not guilty).
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Antebellum Period used to describe Pre-Civil War in the United States.
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Anti-Federalist This series of articles was written in 1787 urging Americans to oppose the ratification of the proposed United States Constitution.
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Antitrust These are laws and regulations designed to protect trade and commerce from unfair business practices.
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Apache This is the name given to an ethnic group of Native Americans found in the southwestern portion of the United States, and represented by famous leaders such as Geronimo and Cochise.
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Apollo Theater This theater is located in Harlem in New York City and was famous for hosting mostly African-American music acts for most of the 20th Century.
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Appeasement This is a policy of accepting imposed conditions by one country to avoid combat with another.
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Appomattox Court House This is the city in Virginia where General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate forces to Union General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865, effectively ending the American Civil War.
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Arab-Israeli War This is the name of conflict between Israel and other countries, including Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq. Israel's pre-emptive air-strikes against these countries led to their victory.
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Army McCarthy Hearings This is the name given to the Senate hearings that investigated Senator Joseph McCarthy's conflicting accusations about a communist present in part of the U.S. military.
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Article III This portion of the U.S. Constitution deals exclusively with the establishment and powers of the Judicial Branch of government.
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Articles Of Confederation The first government of the United States was based on this, which was created in 1777.
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ASEAN This is a political and economic organization of 10 countries in Southeast Asia to improve economic growth.
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Assembly Line This is a manufacturing process that uses interchangeable parts added in sequence to create a finished product.
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Assimilation This is the gradual process by which an ethnic, racial, or religious group merges into the dominant surrounding population.
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Atlanta Compromise This was the classic statement on race relations by Booker T. Washington, made in a speech at the Atlanta Exposition (1895). He asserted that vocational education, which gave blacks a chance for economic security, was more valuable than social equality or political office.
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Atlantic Charter This was the document developed by Churchill and Roosevelt in 1941 that helped establish the vision for post-World War II.
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Atomic Bomb This was the nuclear weapon used by the U.S. to force Japan to surrender during WWII.
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Auschwitz This is the name given to the Nazi death camp in southwestern Poland that became arguably the most notorious of all of the camps, killing approximately 1 million people from May 1940 to January 1945.
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Axis Of Evil This term was used by President George W. Bush to describe the governments of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea.
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Axis This was the alliance of nations that opposed the Allies in World War II.
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Ayn Rand She was the author of such books as "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged."
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Babe Ruth Know as the "Sultan of Swat" this baseball great played for the New York Yankees, was the "Home Run King" until 1974, and is often credited with saving the game of baseball after the disgrace of the 1919 World Series.
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Baby Boomers These are people who were born during a population "explosion" after World War II.
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Banana Republic This is a pejorative term used to describe any Central or South American country that is politically unstable, dependent on limited agriculture, and ruled by a small, self-elected, wealthy, and corrupt clique.
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Bank Holiday This is a term used for emergency bank closures mandated by Congress to relieve financial crises.
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Bank Run This term refers to events that occurred during the Great Depression where panicked customers withdrew their deposits in fear that the banks were going to close and their investments would be lost.
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Bataan Death March This Japanese war crime resulted in the deaths of over 11,000 American prisoners as part of the Battle of the Philippines in 1942.
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Battle Of Antietam This was an important Civil War battle fought on September 17, 1862, in Maryland, significant for being both a strategic victory for the Union and for being the first major battle that took place on Northern soil.
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Battle Of Atlanta This was an important battle fought on July 22, 1864 in Georgia during the Civil War. It was a Union victory led by General Sherman and was subsequently burned to the ground and then he led his March to the Sea.
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Battle Of Gettysburg This was one of the bloodiest battles during the American Civil War. Set in Pennsylvania, it is also credited as a major turning point for the Union in the war against the Confederacy.
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Battle Of Midway This was a WWII naval battle in the Pacific Theater in June of 1942. It was a clear defensive victory for the US against the attacking Japanese and permanently weakened the Japanese Navy.
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Battle Of Monitor And Merrimack The most important naval battle of the Civil War, it was fought in March 1862 and was the first meeting of two ironclad warships.
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Battle Of The Bulge This is the name given to the World War II battle between US and German forces in Belgium in late 1944 and early 1945. It was the last attempt by Hitler to break through Allied lines.
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Battle Of Vicksburg This was a significant battle during the Civil War in Mississippi where Union General Grant got Confederate forces to surrender. This led to Union control of the Mississippi River.
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Bay Of Pigs This was the unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro by Cuban exiles. It was funded by the US in 1961.
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Beatles In 1962 they became popular, but ever since John, Paul, George, and Ringo have arguably become the most important band in Rock and Roll history.
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Beatniks This is the name given to a literary and cultural movement of the 1950s that became popularized by writer Jack Kerouac.
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Benjamin Franklin This was a printer, scientist and inventor who helped write both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
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Benjamin Mays This African-American minister and scholar was the president of Morehouse College from 1940-1967 and mentored Martin Luther King, Jr. He wrote many books and has a high school named in his honor.
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Berlin Airlift This was a delivery of supplies in a German city to circumvent the Soviet blockade.
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Berlin Wall This was the most prominent part of the GDR border system and a symbol of the cold war that separated the East and West, communist and non-communist, parts of this German city.
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Betty Friedan She was an American feminist, activist and writer, best known her book "The Feminine Mystique" (1963).
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Bicameral This is the practice of having two chambers in a legislature or a parliament.
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Big Stick Diplomacy This was Theodore Roosevelt's foreign policy in Latin America.
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Bill Clinton He won the first of two Presidential elections in 1992, defeating George H.W. Bush.
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Bill Gates A businessman and philanthropist, he took a little computer program in the 1970s and 1980s and turned it into the cornerstone of the Microsoft Corporation.
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Bill Of Rights This is the first ten amendments to the constitution, generally directed at protecting the individual from abuse of power by the national government.
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Bimetallism This monetary standard is based on the inclusion of two precious metals- usually gold and silver- and was a major issue in the Populist Movement in the United States in the late-19th Century.
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Birmingham Wartime demand for steel helped rejuvenate the economy of this Alabama city and its factories operated at full capacity for the duration of the war.
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Black Codes Special laws passed by southern state governments immediately after the Civil War. They were designed to control former slaves, and to subvert the intent of the Thirteenth Amendment.
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Black Panthers This was a political party founded in Oakland by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale on October 15, 1966, advocating a policy of protecting black neighborhoods from police brutality and supporting social welfare programs in major cities around the country.
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Black Power This is the political slogan associated with the increased sense of racial pride of African Americans in the 1960s and 1970s.
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Black Tuesday This is the name given to the day in October of 1929 when the Stock Market crashed.
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Bleeding Kansas Term coined by the New York Tribune to describe the violence between pro and anti slavery factions between 1854 and 1858. The violence was an attempt to influence whether Kansas would become a free or slave state.
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Blitzkrieg This was a rapid new attack method used by Nazi Germany in WWII.
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Block Grant This type of federal grant distributes money to states for use on general issues with only slight guidelines to their use.
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Blockade Of Charleston This is the term that describes the Union Navy controlling and cutting off South Carolina's major port from trade in 1863.
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Boll Weevil This beetle feeds on cotton buds and is credited with devastating the cotton-growing areas of the south during the 1920s and 30s.
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Bonus Army During the Great Depression (specifically 1932), this group of veterans protested in Washington, D.C., to receive their 'bonus' for fighting in World War I, though payment was not required until the next decade.
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Booker T. Washington This was a U.S. educator and reformer. He became perhaps the most prominent African American leader of his time.
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