History > USA > 20th - early 21st century > Main timeline

U.S. Service members

gather around President George W. Bush

during a visit to Al Asad Air Base, Iraq.

Bush was joined by Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates,

Secretary of State Condolezza Rice,

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace,

U.S. Central Command Commander Adm. William J. Fallon,

Commander of Multinational Forces-Iraq Gen. David Petreaus,

Commander of Multinational Corps-Iraq Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno,

and others.

Defense Dept. photo

by Cherie A. Thurlby

Date 3 September 2007 (2007-09-03)

Source:

http://www.defenselink.mil/dodcmsshare/newsstoryPhoto/2007-09/hrs_hires_070903-D-7203T-022a.jpg

 

Author Defense Dept. photo

by Cherie A. Thurlby

Permission (Reusing this image) PD

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:President_George_W._Bush_with_military_personnel_September_2007.jpg

Primary source

http://www.defenselink.mil/dodcmsshare/newsstoryPhoto/2007-09/hrs_hires_070903-D-7203T-022a.jpg

Related

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/08/bush-memoir-iraq-war

George W. Bush

43rd President of the United States   2001-2009

Iraq War

Iraq timeline

2004 presidential elections

U.S. President George W. Bush

speaks before signing H.R. 1731,

the Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act,

in the Roosevelt Room of the White House

July 15, 2004

REUTERS/Larry Downing.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/
george-bush 

https://www.nytimes.com/topic/person/
george-w-bush

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/04/
books/review-bush-a-biography-as-scathing-indictment.html

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/gallery/2016/may/10/
george-w-bush-september-11-pictures-gallery

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/
opinion/sunday/dowd-can-44-subtract-43-from-the-equation.html

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/nov/09/
bush-left-a-trail-of-destruction 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/nov/09/
british-deny-bush-claims-foil-terror

https://www.economist.com/news/2005/12/16/
bush-arm-twisted-into-a-torture-ban   

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/dec/13/usa.georgebush  

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/oct/28/usa.julianborger 

http://www.economist.com/agenda/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5099996

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/28/politics/politicsspecial1/28assess.html

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/oct/07/usa.jamessturcke 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/oct/07/iraq.usa 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/oct/07/usa.georgebush 

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/world/worldspecial/index.html

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/mar/31/usa.suzannegoldenberg

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jan/21/usa.julianborger 

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/16/national/16abuse.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/15/national/15abuse.html

http://www.time.com/time/personoftheyear/2004/photoessay/

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/elections2004/2004President.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/05/politics/campaign/05bush.html

http://www.time.com/time/election2004/electionmap/

http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/bushbubble/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jesus/  

https://www.theguardian.com/uselections2004/0,13918,1047353,00.html 

https://www.theguardian.com/Iraq/page/0,12438,793802,00.html  

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/oct/18/uselections2004.usa2 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/oct/27/uselections2004.usa 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/oct/30/uselections2004.usa 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/documentography/

https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/carnet/2004-10-26-
election2004

George W. Bush Presidency

Vice President Dick Cheney

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/17/
dick-cheney-interview-guantanamo-waterboarding

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/dec/16/
dick-cheney-iraq-war-wmd

Afghanistan war    2001-2020

Iraq > Saddam Hussein    1937-2006

Iraq War    2003-2011

August 2005

Hurricane Katrina

https://www.npr.org/series/429056277/
hurricane-katrina-10-years-of-recovery-and-reflection

https://www.npr.org/sections/
hurricane-katrina-and-beyond/

https://www.npr.org/2015/08/29/
435623921/3-views-on-a-tragedy-reporters-recall-first-days-after-katrina

https://www.npr.org/2015/08/28/
435270495/the-survivors-street-ten-years-of-life-after-katrina

https://www.npr.org/series/14009721/
katrina-two-years-later

https://www.npr.org/2015/08/27/
434385285/swept-up-in-the-storm-hurricane-katrinas-key-players-then-and-now

https://www.npr.org/series/5236558/
six-months-after-katrina

https://www.npr.org/2005/08/30/
4824333/hurricane-katrina-the-aftermath

2001

Saudi response to terrorist attacks

Saudi Arabia issued a statement

on the day of the terrorist attacks

on the World Trade Center

and the Pentagon, calling them

"regrettable and inhuman."

As of mid-November,

the Bush administration

has continued to publicly praise

Saudi support for the war on terrorism.

However,

published media reports

have indicated U.S. frustration

with Saudi inaction.

Although 15

of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers

were Saudi nationals,

publicly the Saudis

were not cooperating

with Americans wanting to look

at background files

of the hijackers or interview

the hijackers' families.

Although the U.S.

might have wanted to use Saudi bases

for its campaign in Afghanistan,

the U.S. knew it couldn't ask the Saudis

to allow American planes

to fly bombing raids against the Taliban.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saudi/etc/cron.html

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/
saudi/etc/cron.html

https://www.loc.gov/collections/country-studies/
about-this-collection/ 

 

11 September 2001 - 9/11

August 2001

Strains in U.S.-Saudi relationship

Frustrated

by the lack of U.S. response

to Israeli-Palestinian violence,

Crown Prince Abdullah

sent President George W. Bush

an angry letter on August 29,

according to an October 2001 report

in The Wall Street Journal.

He warned

that Saudi Arabia was being put

in an untenable position

and reportedly wrote:

"A time comes

when peoples and nations part.

We are at a crossroads.

It is time

for the United States and Saudi Arabia

to look at their separate interests.

Those governments

that don't feel the pulse of their people

and respond to it

will suffer the fate of the Shah of Iran."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saudi/etc/cron.html

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/
saudi/etc/cron.html 

https://www.loc.gov/collections/
country-studies/about-this-collection/

12 October 2000

Suicide bomb attack

on a US Navy destroyer

in the Yemeni port of Aden

Suicide bombers attack USS Cole

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/07/
us-airstrike-kills-al-qaida-leader-yemen 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/12/
newsid_4252000/4252400.stm

22 April 2000

Federal agents seize Elian Gonzalez

from the home of his relatives in Miami

Border Patrol agents

searching the Miami home of Lazaro Gonzalez

found Elian Gonzalez, 6,

being held by Donato Dalrymple, in April 2000.

The boy was returned to his father in Cuba

after a custody battle with Florida relatives.

Photograph: Alan Diaz

Associated Press

U.S. to Restore Full Relations With Cuba,

Erasing a Last Trace of Cold War Hostility

By PETER BAKER        NYT        DEC. 17, 2014

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/
world/americas/us-cuba-relations.html

Related

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/04/
obituaries/alan-diaz-prize-winner-for-photo-of-cuban-immigrant-boy-dies-at-71.html

https://www.nytimes.com/topic/person/elian-gonzalez

https://www.theguardian.com/world/elian-gonzalez 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/06/elian-gonzalez-cuba-picture

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/21/elian-gonzalez-cuba-tug-war

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/23/us/
elian-gonzalez-case-scene-police-fire-tear-gas-hundreds-angry-protesters-take.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/23/us/
elian-gonzalez-case-overview-cuban-boy-seized-us-agents-reunited-with-his-father.html

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/apr/22/news.fromthearchive 

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/apr/24/

https://www.theguardian.com/elian/0,2759,213941,00.html 

Death penalty

A lethal-injection gurney sits ready

at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem.

Oregon juries have imposed 73 death sentences

since voters reinstated the death penalty in 1984,

but only two inmates have been executed.

Both volunteered.

Thomas Boyd

The Oregonian

Can Oregon afford the death penalty?

by Susan Goldsmith, The Oregonian

Saturday April 18, 2009        6:56 PM

http://blog.oregonlive.com/news_impact/2009/04/deth1.jpg
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/04/can_oregon_afford_the_death_pe.html

https://www.nytimes.com/topic/subject/capital-punishment 

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/  

https://www.amnestyusa.org/issues/death-penalty/abolish-the-death-penalty/  

https://www.thoughtco.com/women-on-death-row-971323

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/history-of-the-death-penalty/

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/angel/

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/angel/timeline.html

1998

bombings

of the United States embassies

in Kenya and Tanzania

2020

Al Qaeda’s No. 2,

Accused in U.S. Embassy Attacks,

is  Killed in Iran

Al Qaeda’s second-highest leader

(was) accused of being one

of the masterminds

of the deadly 1998 attacks

on American embassies in Africa,

(...)

Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah,

who went by the nom de guerre

Abu Muhammad al-Masri,

was gunned down

on the streets of Tehran

by two assassins

on a motorcycle on Aug. 7,

the anniversary of the embassy attacks.

He was killed along

with his daughter, Miriam,

the widow of Osama bin Laden’s son

Hamza bin Laden.

(...)

Mr. al-Masri, who was about 58,

was one of Al Qaeda’s founding leaders

and was thought to be first in line

to lead the organization

after its current leader, Ayman al-Zawahri.

Long featured on the F.B.I.’s

Most Wanted Terrorist list,

he had been indicted in the United States

for crimes related

to the bombings of the U.S. embassies

in Kenya and Tanzania,

which killed 224 people

and wounded hundreds.

The F.B.I. offered

a $10 million reward

for information leading

to his capture

(...)

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/13/
world/middleeast/al-masri-abdullah-qaeda-dead.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/13/
world/middleeast/al-masri-abdullah-qaeda-dead.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/world/africa/
Al-Qaeda-Suspect-Wanted-in-US-Said-to-Be-Taken-in-Libya.html

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/10/05/world/africa/
06libya-document.html

The 1996 terrorist attack

on Khobar Towers

in Saudi Arabia (...)

killed 19

United States airmen

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/29/opinion/a-break-in-the-khobar-towers-case.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/29/
opinion/a-break-in-the-khobar-towers-case.html

1995

Oklahoma City bombing

The Waco siege,

also known

as the Waco massacre,

was the law enforcement

siege of the compound

that belonged

to the religious sect

Branch Davidians.

It was carried out

by the U.S. federal government,

Texas state law enforcement,

and the U.S. military,

between February 28

and April 19, 1993.

Source: Wikipedia, January 27, 2023

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Waco_siege

https://www.npr.org/2023/01/25/
1151283229/waco-branch-davidian-david-koresh-jeff-guinn

1993

World Trade Center Bombing

the February 1993

truck bombing

(...)

killed six people

and injured more than 1,000

at the World Trade Center

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/18/
515985157/omar-abdel-rahman-radical-cleric-connected-to-1993-world-trade-center-bombing-di

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/18/
515985157/omar-abdel-rahman-
radical-cleric-connected-to-1993-world-trade-center-bombing-di 

1993

Religious Freedom Restoration Act

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Religious_Freedom_Restoration_Act

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/chapter-21B

George H.W. Bush (1924-2018)

41st President of the USA   1989-1993

1992

After the civil war

in El Salvador ended in 1992,

US immigration policies hardened

and migrants who had

been convicted of crimes

were sent back to El Salvador,

bringing gang culture

and violence

to an already struggling state.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/22/
el-salvador-a-nation-held-hostage-a-photo-essay

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/22/
el-salvador-a-nation-held-hostage-a-photo-essay

April-May 1992

Los Angeles

Rodney King riots

https://www.npr.org/series/525773617/
the-los-angeles-riots-25-years-on

https://www.npr.org/2017/04/26/
524744989/when-la-erupted-in-anger-a-look-back-at-the-rodney-king-riots

https://www.npr.org/2012/06/18/
155296745/the-lessons-we-learned-from-rodney-king

https://www.npr.org/2017/04/30/
526250830/the-los-angeles-riots-race-and-journalism

https://www.npr.org/2012/04/27/
151526928/rodney-king-two-wrongs-dont-make-a-right

https://www.npr.org/2012/04/23/
150985823/rodney-king-comes-to-grips-with-the-riot-within

March 3, 1991    Los Angeles    Rodney King beating

In June 1991

Mr. King’s car was stopped on a June night

by four white police officers,

who beat and kicked him.

A video of the incident

was soon seen throughout the nation;

the officers were found not guilty

of using excessive force at a state trial

but later tried in federal court

for depriving Mr. King of his constitutional rights.

Photograph: George Holliday

Courtesy of KTLA Los Angeles, via Associated Press

Barry Kowalski,

Prosecutor in Rodney King Case, Is Dead at 74

NYT

July 5, 2019

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/05/
us/barry-kowalski-dead.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/05/
us/barry-kowalski-dead.html

https://www.npr.org/2017/04/26/
524744989/when-la-erupted-in-anger-a-look-back-at-the-rodney-king-riots

First Gulf War   1991

France, USA, Iraq, Iran

Attacks against U.S. and French forces

in Beirut, Lebanon   1983

AIDS epidemic

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/06/26/
736060834/1st-aids-ward-5b-fought-
to-give-patients-compassionate-care-dignified-deaths

Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)

40th President of the United States   1981-1989

Irangate   1980s

Time Covers -The 80S

TIME cover 07-20-1987 Lieut. Col. Oliver North.

Date taken: July 20, 1987

Photograph: Terry Ashe

Life Images

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=32b38e333c1b4b19

Ronald Reagan

and the 'Iran-Contra' affair

Oliver North

Central American conflict

alarmed Washington

One of the most interesting facets

of Ronald Reagan's presidency

was his apparent obsession

with Central America.

President Reagan

became convinced

that the Sandinistas'

1979 victory in Nicaragua

could spark off revolution

throughout the region

and threaten the security

of the United States.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/269619.stm

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/
reagan-iran/ 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/269619.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/5/
newsid_2772000/2772471.stm

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/16/
arts/television/fiasco-review.html

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/10/31/
behind-the-mask-scenes-from-nicaraguas-sandinista-revolution/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/269619.stm - updated 5 June 2004

https://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/26/
movies/jobless-scot-in-nicaragua-discovers-political-insight.html

Terrorist attacks on Americans   1979-1988

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/target/etc/cron.html

3 July 1988

US warship shoots down Iranian airliner

An American naval warship

patrolling in the Persian Gulf

shoots down an Iranian passenger jet

after apparently mistaking it

for an F-14 fighter.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/3/
newsid_4678000/4678707.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/3/
newsid_4678000/4678707.stm

17 May 1987

An Iraqi plane attacks

a US frigate in the Gulf,

killing 37 sailors

http://www.theguardian.com/world/1987/may/19/iraq.
davidhirst

Jan. 28, 1986

Space shuttle Challenger

blows up 73 seconds after liftoff

1986

David Jacobsen,

an American hostage

held in Beirut for 17 months

by Islamic fundamentalists,

is released

https://www.theguardian.com/fromthearchive/story/
0,12269,1341554,00.html - 3 November 1986

On 13 May 1985,

Philadelphia police

moved in to arrest

four members of a radical black

liberation group called Move

– but a bungled raid

left 11 people dead.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/13/
osage-avenue-bombing-philadelphia-30-years

https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2017/09/17/
551481017/-we-shall-not-be-moved-
a-new-opera-traces-the-legacy-of-the-1985-move-bombing 

http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/05/18/
407665820/why-did-we-forget-the-move-bombing

https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/05/13/
406243272/im-from-philly-
30-years-later-im-still-trying-to-make-sense-of-the-move-bombing 

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/13/
osage-avenue-bombing-philadelphia-30-years

1985

PLO militants hijack the Achille Lauro

US sets up task force

to handle cruise crisis

https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2015/10/08/
446974565/30-years-
after-their-fathers-murder-klinghoffer-daughters-step-onto-their-own-st

https://www.theguardian.com/fromthearchive/story/
0,12269,1321799,00.html - 9 October 1985

1984

Suicide bombers kill 23

in attack on US embassy

in Beirut

https://www.theguardian.com/fromthearchive/
story/0,12269,1308697,00.html

Jimmy Carter

39th President of the United States   1977-1981

November 1979 - January 1981

Iranian Hostage Crisis

March 28, 1979

Three Mile Island nuclear accident

near Middletown, Pa.

https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/
3mile-isle.html 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/
science/earth/19rating.html  

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/03/27/27
greenwire-three-mile-island-still-haunts-us-reactor-indu-10327.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/01/
us/normal-cancer-rate-found-near-three-mile-island-plant.html 

30 January 1979

USA / China

America puts the flag out for Deng

http://www.theguardian.com/world/1979/jan/30/china.usa

Death penalty moratorium

U.S. Supreme Court

Temporary halt to executions   1967-1977

The Supreme Court

reinstates the death penalty in 1976

https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-death-penalty-in-america-3896747

https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/428/153  

Gerald R. Ford (1913-2006)

38th president of the United States   1974-1977

Richard Nixon (1913-1994)

Watergate   1972-1974

Richard Milhous Nixon (1913-1994)

37th President of the USA   1969-1974

1994

OJ Simpson trial

football player OJ Simpson

is charged with murdering

his wife Nicole Brown

and her friend Ronald Goldman

in Brentwood, California.

The eight-month trial

becomes a national obsession.

It spawns mottos

("If the glove doesn't fit,

you must acquit!"),

reality stars (Kato Kaelin,

the Kardashian empire)

and dinner table arguments

across America.

https://www.nytimes.com/topic/person/
o-j-simpson 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/simpson

https://www.npr.org/2021/06/03/
1003042259/f-lee-bailey-celebrity-defense-attorney-has-died-at-87

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/17/
oj-simpson-trial-cameras-court-justice-culture

http://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2007/sep/19/
internationalnews

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/07/us/
a-bit-reluctantly-a-nation-succumbs-to-a-trial-s-spell.html

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/03/us/
simpson-defense-attacks-theory-of-single-assailant.html

11 September 1973

Chile

Cold war

General Augusto Pinochet

ousts Salvador Allende

in CIA-sponsored coup

and proceeds to establish

a brutal dictatorship

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1222905.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1222905.stm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/chile.shtml

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/sep/10/
chile.jonathanfranklin 

https://www.theguardian.com/
Columnists/Column/0,,305870,00.html - 8 Nov. 1998 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/1973/sep/12/chile.
fromthearchive1

Jan. 23, 1973

The Supreme Court

strikes down

laws criminalizing abortion

in Roe v. Wade

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/02/
arts/design/abortion-roe-v-wade.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/07/
podcasts/the-daily/roe-v-wade-supreme-court-jane-roe.html - NYT podcast

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/21/
opinion/roe-v-wade-abortion.html

https://www.npr.org/2018/01/19/
578620266/before-roe-v-wade-
the-women-of-jane-provided-abortions-for-the-women-of-chicago

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/18/
515972447/norma-mccorvey-roe-of-landmark-roe-v-wade-ruling-on-abortion-dies-at-69

http://www.npr.org/2017/01/27/
511607945/new-play-about-roe-v-wade-is-a-prism-for-looking-at-the-american-divide

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/01/22/
169637288/roe-v-wade-turns-40-but-abortion-debate-is-even-older

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/us/
politics/24nixon.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1973/01/23/
archives/excerpts-from-abortion-case-privacy-rights-unclear.html

August 20, 1972

Wattstax concert

https://www.npr.org/2018/08/15/
639001316/wattstax-
the-benefit-concert-from-the-past-that-echoes-into-the-present

February 1972

Richard Nixon

makes historic visit to China

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/21/
newsid_2728000/2728761.stm

1972

Title IX

was not tremendously popular

with everyone

when it first passed in 1972.

The legislation,

which bans sex-based discrimination

in schools and sports

funded by the federal government,

was originally opposed by the NCAA,

which lobbied against it.

It was ignored or minimized

by athletic departments

at many state-funded

schools and universities.

But Title IX

found ardent support

in the funny pages.

https://www.npr.org/2022/06/26/
1106886757/peanuts-one-of-the-worlds-most-popular-cartoons-pushed-for-title-ix-in-the-1970s

https://www.npr.org/2022/06/26/
1106886757/peanuts-
one-of-the-worlds-most-popular-cartoons-pushed-for-title-ix-
in-the-1970s

Sept. 9-13, 1971

New York state    Attica prison uprising

Kent State University shootings

Ohio    May 4, 1970

August 15–18, 1969

Woodstock

music festival

in the Catskill Mountains,

northwest of New York City

https://www.theguardian.com/music/gallery/2016/jul/11/
woodstock-in-pictures

https://www.theguardian.com/music/gallery/2009/jul/30/
woodstock-unseen

Man on the moon   20 July 1969

1968

Washington black riots

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/apr/04/
1968theyearofrevolt.usa

Martin Luther King Jr.   1929-1968

Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy   1925-1968

Jan. 23, 1968

North Korea's capture of the USS Pueblo

Near the end

of Lyndon Johnson’s

presidency,

North Korea undertook

an extraordinary gamble

against the United States,

attacking and capturing

a Navy spy ship, the Pueblo.

Six gunboats

and two jets

pounced on the Pueblo

off North Korea’s

rugged eastern coast

as it tried

to pinpoint radar

and other military

installations.

One American sailor died

in the Jan. 23, 1968, attack;

82 others were imprisoned.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/24/
opinion/korea-spy-ship-pueblo.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/24/
opinion/korea-spy-ship-pueblo.html

https://www.npr.org/2018/01/23/
580076540/looking-at-the-saga-of-the-uss-pueblo-50-years-later

Vietnam War

Aug. 1, 1966

America's First Modern Gun Massacre

University of Texas at Austin

http://www.npr.org/2016/10/14/
497943220/documentary-offers-a-wrenching-look-
at-americas-first-modern-gun-massacre

Oct. 3, 1965

The Immigration and Nationality Act

The Immigration and Nationality Act,

signed at the foot of the Statue of Liberty

on Oct. 3, 1965,

abolished the national origin quota system,

under which immigrants were chosen

on the basis of their race and ancestry.

The quotas set aside

tens of thousands  of visas each year

for immigrants from Northern

and Western Europe,

while many countries in Asia,

Africa, and the Middle East

were allocated barely 100 slots each.

It was a blatantly

discriminatory system.

Under the new law,

immigrants were to be selected

on the basis

of their family connections

in the United States

and the skills and training

they could offer,

with all nationalities

treated more or less equally.

Fifty years after its passage,

it is clear

the law definitively altered

the complexion

of the U.S. population.

In 1965,

the immigrant share

of the population

was at an all-time low.

Eighty-five percent

of the population was white,

and 7 out of 8 immigrants

were coming from Europe.

By 2010,

the share of the U.S. population

born overseas had tripled,

and 9 out of 10 immigrants

were coming from outside Europe.

https://www.npr.org/2015/10/03/
445339838/the-unintended-consequences-of-the-1965-immigration-act

https://www.npr.org/2015/10/03/
445339838/the-unintended-consequences-of-the-1965-immigration-act

Voting Rights Act   1965

1965

Immigration and Nationality Act

The law ended the era

of race-based immigration,

a quota system based

on national origin

that overwhelmingly favored

white European immigrants.

http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/05/
remembering-a-milestone-for-immigrants-and-america/

The landmark Immigration

and Nationality Act of 1965

eased the path across

the nation's borders

for people

from Asia and Africa

— parts of the world

that previously had

limited opportunity

to immigrate

to the United States.

http://www.npr.org/2017/02/07/
513957928/republican-lawmakers-propose-new-law-to-reduce-legal-immigration

http://www.npr.org/2017/02/07/
513957928/republican-lawmakers-propose-new-law-to-reduce-legal-immigration

http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/05/
remembering-a-milestone-for-immigrants-and-america/

August 11, 1965

Watts Riots

https://www.pbs.org/hueypnewton/times/times_watts.html 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/15/
newsid_3750000/3750939.stm

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/24/
worlddispatch.usa

During the Gemini 4 flight in June 1965,

Edward H. White became the first American

to perform a spacewalk.

During the Gemini 4 flight in June 1965,

Edward H. White became the first American

to perform a spacewalk.

Sarah Wheeler,

the head of photographs at Bloomsbury London,

which is handling the photograph auction,

said the spacewalk photographs resemble scenes

from “Gravity.”

“They remind me of George Clooney,” she said.

James McDivitt/NASA, via Bloomsbury Auctions

Rarely Seen Images From Space Including the ‘Best Selfie Ever’

By KENNETH CHANG

NYT

FEB. 23, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/24/science/space-photos.html

Voting Rights Act   6 August 1965
 

Malcolm X   1925-1965

1964

Civil Rights Act

This act, signed into law

by President Lyndon Johnson

on July 2, 1964,

prohibited discrimination in public places,

provided for the integration

of schools and other public facilities,

and made employment discrimination

illegal.

This document was the most sweeping

civil rights legislation since Reconstruction.

http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=old&doc=97

https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=old&doc=97

Civil Rights Act    2 July 1964

Alaskan earthquake   March 27, 1964

Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973)

36th President of the USA   1963-1969

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963)

35th president of the United States   1961-1963

March 29, 1961

The states completed ratification

of the 23rd Amendment,

which gave residents

of the District of Columbia

the right to vote in presidential elections

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/29/
opinion/29masur.html

https://constitution.findlaw.com/amendment23.html 

Civil rights era

Kennedy dynasty

On Feb. 20, 1962,

John Glenn became

the first American astronaut

to orbit the Earth

on the third of NASA’s

Mercury missions.

The previous two were suborbital

— they went up and then came

right back down

about 15 minutes later,

more like

a big roller coaster ride.

American in Orbit.

On Feb. 20, 1962,

John Glenn became the first American astronaut

to orbit the Earth on the third of NASA’s

Mercury missions.

The previous two were suborbital

— they went up and then came right back down

about 15 minutes later,

more like a big roller coaster ride.

NASA, via Bloomsbury Auctions

Rarely Seen Images From Space Including the ‘Best Selfie Ever’

By KENNETH CHANG

NYT

FEB. 23, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/24/science/space-photos.html


 

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963)

35th President of the United States   1961-1963  

Cuban missile crisis   1962

Description:

John F. Kennedy meeting with Willy Brandt

at the White House.

Source: This image is available from

the United States Library of Congress's

Prints and Photographs Division

under the digital ID cph.3c34151

Date: 1961 Mar. 13

Author: Marion S. Trikosko

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
File:John_F._Kennedy_meeting_with_Willy_Brandt,_March_13,_1961.jpg

http://100days.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/
missile-gaps-and-other-broken-promises/

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/
john_fitzgerald_kennedy/index.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/us/19dallas.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/18/usa

https://www.theguardian.com/news/1963/nov/23/
mainsection.fromthearchive

https://www.theguardian.com/world/1963/nov/23/usa.fromthearchive 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/1961/jan/20/usa.fromthearchive 

https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1962/oct/29/fromthearchive 

https://www.theguardian.com/news/1961/jan/21/mainsection.fromthearchive 

https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/eyewitness/html.php?section=14

https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/eyewitness/html.php?section=26

Mariner 2 was the world's

first successful

interplanetary spacecraft.

Launched Aug. 27, 1962,

on an Atlas-Agena rocket,

Mariner 2 passed

within about 34,000 kilometers

(21,000 miles) of Venus,

sending back valuable new information

about interplanetary space

and the Venusian atmosphere.

Mariner 2 recorded the planet's temperature

for the first time,

revealing its very hot atmosphere

of about 500 degrees Celsius

(900 degrees Fahrenheit).

The spacecraft's solar wind experiment

was the first to measure

the density, velocity,

composition and variation over time

of the solar wind.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_964.html

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_964.html

Patrice Lumumba,

the first legally elected prime minister

of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC),

was assassinated (...) on 17 January, 1961.

This heinous crime was a culmination

of two inter-related assassination plots

by American and Belgian

governments, which used

Congolese accomplices

and a Belgian execution squad

to carry out the deed.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jan/17/
patrice-lumumba-50th-anniversary-assassination

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/17/
opinion/17hochschild.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jan/17/
patrice-lumumba-50th-anniversary-assassination

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jan/17/
lumumba-50th-anniversary-african-leaders-assassinations

September 26, 1960

The First Kennedy-Nixon

Presidential Debate

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/
opinion/26sorensen.html 

Richard Milhous Nixon (1913-1994)

Vice Presidency   1953-1961

Vice. Pres. Richard Nixon.

Location: US

Date taken: September 1960

Photograph: Joseph Scherschel

Life Images

Richard Nixon (1913-1994)  /  Watergate   1972-1974

Richard Milhous Nixon (1913-1994)

37th President of the United States   1969-1974

Cold war

1956

President Dwight D. Eisenhower

signs the Interstate Highway Act,

authorizing the creation

of ultimately more than

45,000 miles of high-speed roads

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/
upshot/the-edsel-a-high-tech-car-undone-by-technology.html 

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/
upshot/the-edsel-a-high-tech-car-undone-by-technology.html

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)

Thirty-Fourth President of the USA   1953-1961

Description

Senior American military officials of World War II.

Seated are (from left to right)

Gens. William H. Simpson,

George S. Patton,

Carl A. Spaatz,

Dwight D. Eisenhower,

Omar Bradley,

Courtney H. Hodges,

and Leonard T. Gerow;

standing are (from left to right)

Gens. Ralph F. Stearley,

Hoyt Vandenberg,

Walter Bedell Smith,

Otto P. Weyland,

and Richard E. Nugent.

Original image caption:

"This is the brass that did it.

Seated are Simpson, Patton (as if you didn't know),

Spaatz, Ike himself, Bradley, Hodges and Gerow.

Standing are Stearley, Vandenberg, Smith, Weyland and Nugent."

NARA FILE #: 208-YE-182 WAR & CONFLICT #: 751

Source:

This image is available from the Archival Research Catalog

of the National Archives and Records Administration

under the ARC Identifier 535983.

This version downloaded from

http://www.dodmedia.osd.mil/DVIC_View/Still_Details.cfm?SDAN=HDSN9902410&JPGPath=/Assets/1999/DoD/HD-SN-99-02410.JPG

Date: circa 1945

Author Army;

part of the collection of the Office of War Information

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower

Mamie Eisenhower and Dwight D. Eisenhower

on the front steps of St. Louis Hall (St. Mary's University),

San Antonio, Texas

1916

This image comes

from the National Archives and Records Administration

Eisenhower Library File No. 77-18-15

Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Eisenhower_with_Mamie.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower

https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/
eisenhower_dwight.shtml 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/26/
newsid_2988000/2988148.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/5/
newsid_3783000/3783245.stm

http://www.npr.org/2017/08/20/
544735978/racial-issues-have-often-been-a-test-for-u-s-presidents-with-conflicted-feelings

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/05/opinion/the-permanent-militarization-of-america.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/
world/americas/an-apology-for-a-guatemalan-coup-57-years-later.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/04/
opinion/04schlesinger.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/
world/americas/24guatemala.html

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/feb/15/terrorism.usa 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/aug/10/martinkettle

https://www.theguardian.com/world/1953/jun/20/usa.fromthearchive

24 July 1959

Nixon-Khrushchev "kitchen debate"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/24/
newsid_2779000/2779551.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/witness/july/24/
newsid_3916000/3916851.stm

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/
opinion/24safire.html

Joseph McCarthy   1908-1957

MCCARTHY, JOSEPH RAYMOND.

Photograph by United Press.

1954.

Library of Congress

Location: Biographical File

Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-71719

http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/235_pom.html
http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/235_intr.html

Daniel Fitzpatrick

St Louis Post-Dispatch

23rd February, 1947

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmccarthyism.htm - borken link

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/
books/review/Oshinsky-t.html

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/dec/06/
guardianobituaries.film

Civil rights > Emmett Till   1941-1955

April 12, 1955

the U.S. government licensed

the first vaccine against poliomyelitis,

created by Dr. Jonas Salk,

after scientists announced that day

that it was found to be

80 percent to 90 percent effective.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/25/
science/mass-vaccine-drives.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/25/
science/mass-vaccine-drives.html

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1955/04/13/
issue.html

June 1954

Guatemala coup

Washington feared Arbenz

because he tried

to institute agrarian reforms

that would hand over fallow land

to dispossessed peasants,

thereby creating a middle class

in a country where 2 percent

of the population owned 72 percent

of the land.

Unfortunately for him,

most of that territory

belonged to the largest landowner

and most powerful body in the state:

the American-owned United Fruit Company.

Though Arbenz was willing

to compensate United Fruit

for its losses, it tried

to persuade Washington

that Arbenz was a crypto-communist

who must be ousted.

Dwight D. Eisenhower,

along with Secretary of State

John Foster Dulles

and his brother, Allen,

the C.I.A.’s director,

were a receptive audience.

In the cold war fervor of the times,

Eisenhower and the Dulles brothers

believed a strike against Arbenz

would roll back communism.

And the Dulleses

had their own personal sympathies

for United Fruit:

they had done legal work

for the company,

and counted executives there

among their close friends.

It is true that Arbenz’s supporters

in the Guatemalan Legislature

did include the Communist Party,

but it was the smallest part

of his coalition.

Arbenz

had also appointed a few communists

to lower-level jobs in his administration.

But there was no evidence

that Arbenz himself was anything more

than a European-style democratic socialist.

And Arbenz’s land reform program

was less generous to peasants

than a similar venture

pushed by the Reagan administration

in El Salvador several decades later.

Eisenhower’s attack on Guatemala

was brilliantly executed.

A faux invasion force

consisting of a handful

of right-wing Guatemalans

used fake radio broadcasts

and a few bombing runs

flown by American pilots

to terrorize

the fledgling democracy

into surrender.

Arbenz stepped down

from the presidency

and left the country.

Soon afterward,

a Guatemalan colonel

named Carlos Castillo Armas

took power and handed back

United Fruit’s lands.

For three decades,

military strongmen

ruled Guatemala.

The covert American assault

destroyed any possibility

that Guatemala’s fragile political

and civic institutions might grow.

It permanently stunted

political life.

And the destruction

of Guatemala’s democracy

also set back

the cause of free elections

in Nicaragua, El Salvador

and Honduras — all of which

drew the lesson

that Washington was more interested

in unquestioning allies

than democratic ones.

It was only after the cold war

and a United Nations-negotiated peace deal

with leftist guerrillas in 1996

that genuine democracy began

to take hold in Guatemala.

And even since then,

the cycle of violence and lawlessness

unleashed by the 1954 coup

has continued.

In 1998,

an assassin bludgeoned to death

the Catholic bishop Juan Gerardi

shortly after

he issued a damning report

blaming the army

for widespread massacres.

In 2007,

Guatemala had the world’s

third-highest homicide rate,

according to

a United Nations-World Bank study.

In 2009,

more civilians

were murdered in Guatemala

than were killed

in the war zones of Iraq.

Washington

took the first step

toward making amends

when President Bill Clinton

visited Guatemala in 1999

and offered a vague apology

for America’s support

of violent and repressive

forces there.

This year is an opportunity

for Washington to fully own up

to its shameful role

in destabilizing Guatemala

and honor Arbenz

for having the courage

to lead one of Central America’s

first democracies

— and send a signal

that America has learned

to stop placing

its ideological concerns

and business interests

ahead of its ideals.

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/04/
opinion/04schlesinger.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/04/
opinion/04schlesinger.html

August 1953

Iran

Mohammad Mossadeq

(1882-1967)

is overthrown in a coup

engineered by the British

and American intelligence

services

General Fazlollah Zahedi

is proclaimed as prime minister

and the Shah returns

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/806268.stm

https://www.bbc.com/news/
world-middle-east-14542438

https://www.npr.org/2020/08/18/
903505983/coup-53-
tells-the-true-story-of-the-cia-s-campaign-to-oust-iran-s-leader

https://www.npr.org/2019/07/10/
740510559/four-days-in-august

https://www.npr.org/2019/01/31/
690363402/how-the-cia-overthrew-irans-democracy-in-four-days

https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/30/
weekinreview/ideas-trends-
iran-guatemala-1953-54-revisiting-cold-war-coups-finding-them.html

1952

The United States tests

its first thermonuclear bomb

Ivy Mike was the codename given

to the first full-scale test

of a thermonuclear device,

in which part of the explosive yield

comes from nuclear fusion.

Ivy Mike was detonated

on November 1, 1952,

by the United States

on the island of Elugelab

in Enewetak Atoll,

in the now independent island nation

of the Marshall Islands,

as part of Operation Ivy.

It was the first full test

of the Teller–Ulam design,

a staged fusion device.

- Wikipedia, 31 March 2024

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Ivy_Mike

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2024/03/29/
1241234103/anthropocene-era-photos-earth-human-scars-planet

1951

U.S. and Saudi Arabia

formalize security relationship

Under a mutual defense agreement,

the U.S. established

a permanent U.S. Military Training Mission

in the kingdom and agreed

to provide training support

in the use of weapons

and other security-related services

to the Saudi armed forces.

The U.S. Army

Corps of Engineers

assisted in the construction

of military installations in the kingdom.

This agreement formed the basis

of what grew into a longstanding

security relationship.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saudi/etc/cron.html

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/
saudi/etc/cron.html

1948

U.S. Recognition of the State of Israel

https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/us-israel

Henry Ford   1863-1947

Time Covers - The 40S

TIME cover 03-23-1942 ill. of Henry Ford.

Date taken: March 23, 1942

Photographer: Ernest Hamlin Baker

Life Images

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=da2dc6ff40c2bf91

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Henry_Ford

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/jul30.html

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/
btford.html 

https://www.nytimes.com/topic/person/henry-ford

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1921/06/10/
98702481.pdf 

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1920/11/17/
103495469.pdf 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2993242.stm

1947

Marshall plan

https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/marshall/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Marshall_Plan

From 1946 to 1948,

American public health doctors

deliberately infected

nearly 700 Guatemalans

— prison inmates,

mental patients and soldiers —

with venereal diseases

in what was meant

as an effort to test

the effectiveness of penicillin.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/health/research/02infect.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/
health/14syphilis.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/
health/research/02infect.html

G.I. Bill of 1944

After the war,

Black veterans were largely left out

of the benefits created

by the G.I. Bill of 1944.

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/07/
1134756262/half-american-matthew-delmont-black-wwii

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/07/
1134756262/half-american-matthew-delmont-black-wwii

Harry S. Truman   1884-1972

Thirty-third President of the United States   1945-1953

Description: President Harry S. Truman

is shown at his desk at the White House

signing a proclaimation declaring a national emergency.

Date: December 16, 1950

Source:

http://www.dodmedia.osd.mil/Assets/Still/1999/DoD/HD-SN-99-03031.JPEG

Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Truman_initiating_Korean_involvement.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_S._Truman

From left,

Winston Churchill,

President Harry S. Truman

and the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin

in Potsdam in 1945.

Photograph: The New York Times

Harry Truman: The Everyman President

NYT

March 11, 2022

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/11/
books/review/the-trials-of-harry-s-truman-jeffrey-frank.html

https://www.nytimes.com/topic/person/
harry-s-truman  

https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/eyewitness/html.php?section=15

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/11/
books/review/the-trials-of-harry-s-truman-jeffrey-frank.html

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/
aug/04/harry-truman-grandson-hiroshima-nuclear-atom-bomb

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/
us/the-militarys-discrimination-problem-was-so-bad-in-the-1960s-
kennedy-formed-a-committee.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/us/
george-elsey-one-of-the-last-survivors-of-world-war-ii-white-house-dies-at-97.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/16/us/
16truman.html

Franklin D. Roosevelt

with King Ibn Saud aboard USS Quincy (CA-71),

14 February 1945 (USA-C-545).jpg

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FDR_on_quincy.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Saud

Saudi Arabia

gains strategic importance

during World War II

Although Saudi Arabia

officially maintained neutrality

through most of the war,

the U.S. began to court the kingdom

as it realizedthe strategic importance

of Saudi oil reserves.

In 1943,

President  Franklin Roosevelt

made Saudi Arabia  eligible for

Lend-Lease assistance

by declaring

the defense of Saudi Arabia

of vital interest to the U.S.

In 1945,

King Abdel Aziz

and President Roosevelt

cemented the tacit

oil-for-security relationship

when they met

aboard the USS Quincy

in the Suez Canal.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saudi/etc/cron.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-14703523

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saudi/etc/cron.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FDR_on_q

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Saud

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/08/
arts/television/the-american-love-affair-with-the-saudis.html

World War 2 > USA, world

Franklin Delano Roosevelt   1882-1945

32nd President of the United States   1933-1945

September 1938

The Great Hurricane of 1938,

or "The Long Island Express"

The Great Hurricane of 1938,

or "The Long Island Express"

as it was also called,

(...)

destroyed more

than 63,000 homes.

It injured thousands.

It killed more than 600 people.

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2023/07/11/
1186458991/should-we-invest-more-in-weather-forecasting-
it-may-save-your-life

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
1938_New_England_hurricane

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2023/07/11/
1186458991/should-we-invest-more-in-weather-forecasting-
it-may-save-your-life

Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938

https://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/flsa1938.htm

the Abraham Lincoln Brigade

(...)

vainly fought against

Fascism’s advance into Spain

in the late 1930s

(...)

nearly 3,000 quixotic

young Americans

(...)

volunteered

for the Spanish Civil War

in a bloody prelude

to World War II.

About 800

of those who volunteered

were believed

to have been killed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/03/us/
delmer-berg-last-survivor-of-abraham-lincoln-brigade-dies-at-100.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/03/us/
delmer-berg-last-survivor-of-abraham-lincoln-brigade-dies-at-100.html

Hollywood Cartoons

American Animation in Its Golden Age

Walt Disney   1901-1966

Walt Disney

Brown Brothers        NYT        January 22, 2006

At Disney, a Dealmaker in the Grip of Technological Change

By LAURA M. HOLSON and JOHN MARKOFF

NYT

January 23, 2006

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/23/
business/media/23iger.html

Walt Disney Productions, Jiminy Cricket,

1940.

Pencil with watercolor and ink. LC-DIG-ppmsca-03346

© Disney Enterprises, Inc. Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/artwood/aw-animation.html

https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/artwood/
aw-animation.html   

https://www.oup-usa.org/isbn/0195167295.html

Un-American Activities Committee    HUAC

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/dec/06/
guardianobituaries.film

May 6, 1937

Crash of the Hindenburg passenger blimp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hindenburg_burning.jpg

Source: Wikipedia - added 2.9.2007

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_disaster

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/
the-hindenburg-disaster

https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/eyewitness/html.php?section=5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V5KXgFLia4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGCTsqGWoUk

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/
books/review/empires-of-the-sky-alexander-rose.html

Ohio River flood    1937

Contrasts between the American image of plenty

and the needs of many citizens

have become more glaring in times of crisis.

Photograph: Margaret Bourke-White

Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

[ 1937 ]

Straggling in a Good Economy, and Now Struggling in a Crisis

The coronavirus pandemic has shown

how close to the edge many Americans were living,

with pay and benefits eroding even as corporate profits surged.

NYT

April 16, 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/
business/economy/coronavirus-economy.html

Related

First published

in Life Magazine’s February 1937 issue,

World’s Highest Standard of Living

became instantly recognizable

to many Americans during the Great Depression

for its starkly ironic juxtaposition of an idealized America

alongside the grimmer aspects of everyday reality.

Often thought to be an unemployment line,

the photo was actually taken in Louisville

after the flooding of the Ohio River,

which killed almost 400 people

and displaced about a million more across four states.

https://www.artic.edu/articles/467/
worlds-highest-standard-of-living

The Ohio River flood of 1937

took place in late January

and February 1937.

With damage stretching

from Pittsburgh

to Cairo, Illinois,

385 people died,

one million people

were left homeless

and property losses

reached $500 million

($8.723 billion

when adjusted for inflation

as of January 2019).

Federal

and state resources

were strained

to aid recovery

as the disaster occurred

during the depths

of the Great Depression

and a few years

after the beginning

of the Dust Bowl.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_River_flood_of_1937

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_River_flood_of_1937

1933

Saudi Arabi

and Standard Oil

sign

concession agreement

King Abdel Aziz

granted a concession

to the U.S. company,

Standard Oil,

which allowed them

to explore for oil

in the country's

Eastern Province.

The joint enterprise

eventually became known

as the Arabian American

Oil Company (Aramco).

The company granted

a loan of £50,000

to the Saudi government

and paid it

other assorted rental fees

and royalty payments.

In exchange, Aramco received

exclusive rights

to mine, produce and export oil

from the eastern part of the country,

free of Saudi taxes and duties.

In 1938,

efforts were rewarded

with the first discovery

of commercial quantities of oil

at Dammam Well Number 7,

located near Dhahran.

The agreement

was modified several times

over the years.

In 1950,

Saudi Arabia and Aramco

agreed to a 50-50

profit-sharing arrangement,

and a series of agreements

between 1973 and 1980

resulted in the Saudis'

regaining full control

of the company.

In 1988, King Fahd

issued a royal decree

establishing

the Saudi Arabian Oil Company,

known as Saudi Aramco,

to replace Aramco.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saudi/etc/cron.html

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saudi/etc/cron.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/26/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-
islam.html

http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/05/09/
477322007/saudi-arabias-surprisingly-assertive-80-year-old-king

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=
17188267 - Dec. 13, 2007

1931

The American dream

The term was first used

by James Truslow Adams

in his book The Epic of America

which was written in 1931.

He states:

"The American Dream is

"that dream of a land

in which life should be better

and richer and fuller

for everyone,

with opportunity for each

according to ability

or achievement.

It is a difficult dream

for the European upper classes

to interpret adequately,

and too many of us

ourselves have grown

weary and mistrustful of it.

It is not a dream

of motor cars

and high wages merely,

but a dream of social order

in which each man

and each woman

shall be able to attain

to the fullest stature

of which they are innately capable,

and be recognized by others

for what they are,

regardless

of the fortuitous circumstances

of birth or position."

(p.214-215)

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/97/dream/thedream.html

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/97/dream/

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/97/dream/resource.html

1929-early 40s

1929 crash / Great depression / New deal

Warren Gamaliel Harding    1865-1923

29th president of the United States,

serving from 1921 until his death in 1923.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Warren_G._Harding

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/13/
archive-1922-us-isolation-and-its-impact-on-europe

Woodrow Wilson   1856-1924

Twenty-eighth President of the USA   1913-1921

Description:

President of the United States Thomas Woodrow Wilson,

head-and-shoulders portrait, facing left.

Source:

The Library od Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog

http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html

Date: December 2, 1912

Author: Pach Brothers, New York

Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:President_Woodrow_Wilson_portrait_December_2_1912.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson

Primary source

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/dec28.html

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1919/
wilson/biographical/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Woodrow_Wilson

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/25/
opinion/the-case-against-woodrow-wilson-at-princeton.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/25/
opinion/readers-weigh-in-woodrow-wilson-cost-my-grandfather-too.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/24/
opinion/what-woodrow-wilson-cost-my-grandfather.html

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/10/10/
hating-woodrow-wilson

William Howard Taft   1857-1930

Twenty-Seventh President of the USA   1909-1913

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:William_Howard_Taft.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Howard_Taft

Primary source

http://www.supremecourthistory.org/02_history/subs_timeline/images_chiefs/010.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
William_Howard_Taft

23 August 1927

Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco's

execution

Nicola Sacco

and Bartolomeo Vanzetti

were Italian immigrants

and anarchists

who adhered to a movement

that advocated relentless warfare

against a violent

and oppressive government.

Sacco, a shoe worker,

and Vanzetti, a fish peddler,

were accused of the shooting death

of a paymaster and his guard

on April 15, 1920,

during a payroll robbery

at a shoe factory in Braintree, Mass.

Sacco was arrested

with a .32-caliber Colt automatic,

Vanzetti with a .38-caliber Harrington

& Richardson revolver.

Sacco was charged

with killing the guard,

Vanzetti with being

one of four accomplices.

The other three robbers

were never apprehended.

Contradictory evidence

in the 1921 trial

(both men had air-tight alibis,

neither man was connected

to the $16,000 in stolen money)

and the pair's subsequent execution

by the electric chair

elevated them to martyr status

in the Italian anarchist movement,

which had spread west

from its immigrant roots

of artisan and peasant stock

in New York and Chicago.

http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9517/sacco.html

http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9517/sacco.html

http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9901/millay.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/23/
opinion/23camillieri.html

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/17/
books/how-innocent-were-they.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1971/10/07/
archives/film-a-moving-sacco-and-vanzettilawyers-statements-have-current.html

1927

Great Mississippi Flood

27,000 square miles (70,000 km2)

inundated up to

a depth of 30 feet (9 m).

To try to prevent future floods,

the federal government

built the world's longest system

of levees and floodways.

Ninety-four percent

of more than 630,000 people

affected by the flood lived

in the states of Arkansas,

Mississippi, and Louisiana,

most in the Mississippi Delta.

More than 200,000

African Americans were displaced

from their homes

along the Lower Mississippi River

and had to live for lengthy periods

in relief camps.

As a result of this disruption,

many joined the Great Migration

from the south to northern

and midwestern industrial cities

rather than return

to rural agricultural labor.

This massive population movement

increased from World War II

until 1970.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mississippi_Flood_of_1927

- 17 April 2020

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Great_Mississippi_Flood_of_1927

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/22/841997647/aftermath

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/
as-mississippi-rises-flood-historian-discusses-great-flood-of-1927

In 1924,

the Virginia legislature

passed the Racial Integrity Act,

which outlawed interracial marriage,

in part by reclassifying

American Indians as “colored.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/22/
opinion/confederate-monuments-indians-original-southerners.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/22/
opinion/confederate-monuments-indians-original-southerners.html