American History in Credo: 20th Century

26th President of the United States (1901–1909). Of a prosperous and distinguished family, Theodore Roosevelt was educated by private tutors and traveled widely.

27th President of the United States (1909–13)

28th president of the United States (1913–1921)

29th President of the United States (1921–1923)

30th President of the United States (1923–29)

31st President of the United States (1929–33)

32nd President of the United States (1933–1945)

33rd President of the United States (1945-1953)

34th President of the United States (1953-1961). Also an American general, b. Denison, Texas; his nickname was “Ike.”

35th President of the United States (1961-1963)

36th President of the United States (1963–1969), b. near Stonewall, Tex. Johnson lost the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination to John F. Kennedy, but accepted Kennedy's offer of the vice presidential position. After Kennedy's assassination on Nov. 22, 1963, Johnson was sworn in as president and announced that he would strive to carry through Kennedy's programs.

37th President of the United States (1969–74)

38th president of the United States (1974–77)

39th president of the United States (1977–81)

40th president of the USA (1981-89)

41st President of the United States (1989–1993). Bush was unsuccessful in his bid for the 1980 Republican presidential nomination, but served two terms (1981–89) as President Reagan's Vice President. In 1988, he won the Republican nomination for President. Bush and his running mate, Dan Quayle, easily defeated the Democratic ticket of Michael Dukakis and Lloyd Bentsen.

42nd president of the United States (1993-2001)

US Baptist minister and civil rights leader. Throughout his life, King remained committed to nonviolent direct action as a means of effecting social change. The son and grandson of prominent African American ministers, each of whom bequeathed a legacy of activism in the cause of black civil rights, Martin Luther King, Jr., born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, was the most influential leader of the American civil rights movement.

A leading figure in the second wave of U.S. feminism. Famous for her wit and incisive commentaries on women’s rights, her invention of the neutral term Ms. for single women, and her critiques of the family and gender roles.

American politician, U.S. Attorney General (1961-64), b. Brookline, Mass., younger brother of President John F. Kennedy and son of Joseph P. Kennedy. He was elected to the Senate (1964) and was campaigning for the presidency when he was assassinated in Los Angeles.

Case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954; Linda Brown was denied admission to her local elementary school in Topeka because she was black. US Supreme Court ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools violated the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

Ideological, political, and economic tensions from 1945 to 1989 between the USSR and Eastern Europe on the one hand and the USA and Western Europe on the other. George Orwell first used the term cold war in a 1945 article entitled “ You and the Atom Bomb,” which described the United States, Russia, and China as postwar “superstates” whose nuclear arsenals would involve them in a “permanent state of cold war.” Orwell borrowed this phrase from the French la guerre froide (“ the cold war”), which he translated as a state of war that lacked the overt conditions of war.

War 16 January-28 February 1991 between Iraq and a coalition of 28 nations led by the USA; The invasion and annexation of Kuwait by Iraq on 2 August 1990 provoked a build-up of US troops in Saudi Arabia, eventually totaling over 500,000.

War from 1950 to 1953 between North Korea (supported by China) and South Korea, aided by the United Nations (the troops were mainly US). Considered the forgotten war by some because it fell between the “good” war, World War II, and the “bad” war, Vietnam—was the first time in the nuclear age when the United States committed its forces to combat.

Case decided in 1973 by the U.S. Supreme Court. Along with Doe v. Bolton, this decision legalized abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy. The decision, written by Justice Harry Blackmun and based on the residual right of privacy, struck down dozens of state antiabortion statutes.

A research programme, originally managed by NASA’s Ames Research Center, aimed at using large radio telescopes to detect artificially generated radio signals coming from interstellar space. The umbrella term for all endeavors, especially those using radio telescopes, to find signs of intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe.

Oil reserve scandal that began during the administration of President Harding.

In U.S. history, the severe economic crisis supposedly precipitated by the U.S. stock-market crash of 1929. Although it shared the basic characteristics of other such economic crises, the Great Depression was unprecedented in its length and in the wholesale poverty and tragedy it inflicted on society. Of all the historical events that shaped the internal structure of America, three stand out above the rest: the War of American Independence, the Civil War, and the Great Depression. The Depression years were a time of great hardship and sweeping change.

War from 1954 to 1975 between communist North Vietnam and US-backed South Vietnam, in which North Vietnam aimed to conquer South Vietnam and unite the country as a communist state; North Vietnam was supported by communist rebels from South Vietnam, the Vietcong. Beginning in the aftermath of World War II and lasting into the 1970s, U.S. involvement in Vietnam, indeed throughout Southeast Asia, grew progressively from an advisory effort into a major war.

Demonstrations, marches, and acts of civil disobedience in protest to US involvement in the Vietnam War (1954–75), beginning around 1965. Anti-war sentiment arose from the question of the morality of participation in what many regarded as a civil war; the growing human and environmental costs; and doubts that the US war effort would succeed.

The New York Stock Exchange in 1929, where panic-selling of shares after a prolonged period of speculation brought about a worldwide economic crisis. Although this severe economic crisis shared the basic characteristics of other such crises (see depression), the Great Depression was unprecedented in its length and in the wholesale poverty and tragedy it inflicted on society.

War between the Central European Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and allies) on one side and the Triple Entente (Britain and the British Empire, France, and Russia) and their allies, including the USA (which entered in 1917), on the other side.

War between Germany, Italy, and Japan (the Axis powers) on one side, and Britain, the Commonwealth, France, the USA, the USSR, and China (the Allies) on the other.

US legislation that outlawed discrimination on the grounds of a person's color, race, national origin, religion, or sex. Rights protected under the act include a person's freedom to seek employment. The act is considered the USA's strongest civil-rights legislation since Reconstruction.

Government study of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia. Commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara in June, 1967, the 47-volume, top secret study covered the period from World War II to May, 1968.

Events following the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran by Iranian students on Nov. 4, 1979; The overthrow of Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi of Iran by an Islamic revolutionary government earlier in the year had led to a steady deterioration in Iran-U.S. relations.

Secret arrangement in the 1980s to provide funds to the Nicaraguan contra rebels from profits gained by selling arms to Iran; The Iran-contra affair was the product of two separate initiatives during the administration of President Ronald Reagan.

US movement especially active during the 1950s and 60s that aimed to end segregation and discrimination against Blacks, as well as affirm their constitutional rights and improve their status in society. The civil rights movement was a struggle to fulfill the promise, made in the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, of full citizenship and equal opportunity for African Americans

Reduction of a country's weapons of war.

The concept of feminism is not universal and has many forms (e.g., liberal, radical, womanism) and definitions. However, there are three characteristics that are shared by most, if not all, forms of feminism. First is the recognition that women are treated differently than men, and are in the subordinate role in society. Second, feminists view gender and gender roles as socially constructed (and thus capable of change) and as differentially valued within society. Third, feminism holds that women can be autonomous and self-reliant. The main goal of feminism is gender equality.

Period of political persecution during the 1950s, led by US senator Joe McCarthy, during which many public officials and private citizens were accused of being communists or communist sympathizers.

Statutory limitations placed on the number of terms officeholders may serve; Focusing especially on members of the U.S. Congress, term limits became an important national political issue during the late 1980s and early 90s and have been vigorously debated.

Demonstrations, marches, and acts of civil disobedience in protest to US involvement in the Vietnam War (1954–75), beginning around 1965. Anti-war sentiment arose from the question of the morality of participation in what many regarded as a civil war; the growing human and environmental costs; and doubts that the US war effort would succeed.