Historical Figures
He was an inspirational statesman, writer, orator and leader who led Britain to victory in the Second World War. He served as Conservative Prime Minister twice - from 1940 to 1945 (before being defeated in the 1945 general election by the Labour leader Clement Attlee) and from 1951 to 1955. He was also a prolific artist, creating 500 works in about 48 years.
Who is Winston Churchill?
A pan-Islamist militant organization led by Sunni jihadists who self-identify as a vanguard spearheading a global Islamist revolution to unite the Muslim world under a supra-national Islamic caliphate. Its membership is mostly composed of Arabs but also includes people from other ethnic groups. It has mounted attacks on civilian, economic and military targets of the U.S. and its allies; such as the 1998 US embassy bombings, the USS Cole bombing, and the September 11 attacks.
What is Al-Qaeda?
It sought to crack down on wartime activities considered dangerous or disloyal, including attempts to acquire defense-related information with the intent to harm the United States, or acquire code and signal books, photographs, blueprints, and other such documents with the intention of passing them to America’s enemies. The Act also outlawed false statements intended to interfere with military operations; attempts to incite insubordination or obstruct the recruitment of troops; and false statements promoting the success of America’s enemies. Those charged with violations were subject to a $10,000 fine and twenty years imprisonment. If the crimes were committed during wartime, the punishment could be thirty years imprisonment or even the death penalty.
She wrote The Feminine Mystique that was a major testament to second-wave feminism.
Who is Betty Friedan?
In this war, Agent Orange and napalm were used. Ideological divisions, Cold War tensions, and geopolitical interests further fueled the conflict. The war officially began with the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964, which led to increased U.S. involvement. The war would span two decades, resulting in significant loss of life and lasting geopolitical consequences.
What is the Vietnam War?
He was the secretary-general of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922–53) and premier of the Soviet state (1941–53), who for a quarter of a century dictatorially ruled the Soviet Union and transformed it into a major world power. Fun fact: he is known for loving Westerns and spy films.
Who is Joseph Stalin?
Johnson's agenda for Congress in January 1965: aid to education, attack on disease, Medicare, urban renewal, beautification, conservation, development of depressed regions, a wide-scale fight against poverty, control and prevention of crime and delinquency, removal of obstacles to the right to vote. Congress, at times augmenting or amending, rapidly enacted Johnson's recommendations.
What is the Great Society?
This 1944 idea provided World War II veterans with funds for college education, unemployment insurance, and housing. It put higher education within the reach of millions of veterans of WWII and later military conflicts.
What is the GI Bill?
He wrote Unsafe at Any Speed that criticized carelessness of the auto industry. He later ran against Al Gore and George W. Bush as a candidate for the Green Party.
Who is Ralph Nader?
A surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service on the American naval base in Honolulu, Hawaii, in the United States, just before 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, December 7, 1941. At the time, the United States was a neutral country in World War II. The attack on Hawaii and other U.S. territories led the United States to formally enter World War II on the side of the Allies the day following the attack, on December 8, 1941.
What is the Attack on Pearl Harbor?
He imposed wage and price controls for 90 days, began the war on cancer, and presided over the Apollo 11 Moon landing, which signaled the end of the Space Race. He was shamed for his involvement in the Watergate Scandal and was known for his funky victory pose.
Who is Richard Nixon?
A policy of George W. Bush, it requires states to establish student academic standards as well as an assessment system to ensure that all students are meeting the academic standards. The assessment system must be statewide, and its purpose is to establish an accountability system. It also establishes different requirements that prospective teachers must meet in order to be hired to teach.
This Act modernized our ability to monitor criminal and terrorist communications by applying our wiretap laws to new technologies such as cell phones and e-mail without modifying or reducing the legal and constitutional restraints applicable to those tools. It was signed into law by George W. Bush in 2001 as a response to events like the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
What is the Patriot Act?
She wrote Silent Spring, a book that exposed the carelessness of human nature and the way that human folly was killing the environment. Her work was a major part of the Environmental Movement.
Who is Rachel Carson?
U.S. and allied ground forces in Iraq and Kuwait decisively defeated a battle-hardened army — the fourth largest in the world — and liberated Kuwait.
What is Operation Desert Storm?
His assassination, alongside the assassination of his wife, was one of the first steps in one of the world's deadliest long-term conflicts. A member of the Black hand killed him. Fun fact: a rock band from Moscow is named after him.
Who is Franz Ferdinand?
During the summer of 1964, hundreds of college students flooded Mississippi. The students came from different backgrounds, colleges, and Civil Rights organizations. Despite these differences, they had one goal: increase voter registration among African Americans in Mississippi. The murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner occurred, but most people were not deterred from participating in this movement.
What is Freedom Summer?
In 1939, after Germany invaded Poland, Roosevelt bypassed restrictions by persuading Congress to permit the government to sell military supplies to France and Britain on a basis that provided the name for this act—in other words, they could pay cash for American-made supplies and then transport them on their own ships.
What is the Cash-and-Carry Act?
He wrote Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, which explores the history of American expansionism in the American West in the late nineteenth century and its devastating effects on the indigenous peoples living there. It led to a subsequent occupation by Native Americans at Wounded Knee.
Who is Dee Brown?
In March 2003, U.S. forces invaded Iraq vowing to destroy Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and end the dictatorial rule of Saddam Hussein. It began with preemptive airstrikes on former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's presidential palace and selected military targets. The initial assault was followed by approximately 67,700 “boots on the ground” with 15,000 Navy personnel on ships in the region.
He was a Vietnamese communist revolutionary and politician. He served as prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1945 to 1955, and as president from 1945 until his death in 1969. Followers often called him "Uncle." He was also a poet and journalist. The United States bombed a trail named after him in Cambodia.
Two types of segregation. One is a Latin term meaning "by law" and refers to segregation mandated by law. The other is a Latin term meaning "in fact" or "in reality" and refers to segregation imposed by human society.
What are de jure and de facto segregation?
On the evening of August 4, 1964, President Johnson addressed the nation in a televised speech in which he announced that U.S. ships had been attacked twice in international waters near North Vietnam. Johnson dispatched U.S. planes against the attackers and asked Congress to pass a resolution to support his actions. There was little debate in Congress, and the joint resolution "to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asia" passed on August 7, with only two Senators (Wayne Morse and Ernest Gruening) dissenting.
What is the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution?
The Things They Carried is a collection of linked short stories by this American novelist, about a platoon of American soldiers fighting on the ground in the Vietnam War. His third book about the war, it is based upon his experiences as a soldier in the 23rd Infantry Division.
Who is Tim O'Brien?
In late January, 1968, during the lunar new year holiday, North Vietnamese and communist Viet Cong forces launched a coordinated attack against a number of targets in South Vietnam. The U.S. and South Vietnamese militaries sustained heavy losses before finally repelling the communist assault. It played an important role in weakening U.S. public support for the war in Vietnam.
What is the Tet Offensive?