Organization founded in 1960 to coordinate civil rights sit-ins and other forms of grassroots protest

Bus journeys challenging racial segregation in the South in 1961

Civil rights demonstration on August 28, 1963, where the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial

U.S. mission in which the CIA, hoping to inspire a revolt against Fidel Castro, sent 1,500 Cuban exiles to invade their homeland on April 17, 1961; the mission was a spectacular failure

Tense confrontation caused when the United States discovered Soviet offensive missile sites in Cuba in October 1962; the U.S.-Soviet confrontation was the Cold War's closest brush with nuclear war

Law that outlawed discrimination in public accommodations and employment

Law passed in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Selma-to-Montgomery March in 1965; it authorized federal protection of the right to vote and permitted federal enforcement of minority voting rights in individual counties, mostly in the South

1965 law that eliminated the national origins quota system for immigration established by laws in 1921 and 1924; led to radical change in the origins of immigrants to the United States, with Asians and Latin Americans outnumbering Europeans

Term coined by President Lyndon B. Johnson in his 1965 State of the Union address, in which he proposed legislation to address problems of voting rights, poverty, diseases, education, immigration, and the environment

Plan announced by President Lyndon B. Johnson in his 1964 State of the Union address; under the Economic Opportunity Bill signed later that year, Head Start, VISTA, and the Jobs Corps were created, and programs were created for students, farmers, and businesses in efforts to eliminate poverty

Post-1966 rallying cry of a more militant civil rights movement

Radical youth protest movement of the 1960s, named by leader Tom Hayden to distinguish it from the Old (Marxist-Leninist) Left of the 1930s

Major organization of the New Left, founded at the University of Michigan in 1960 by Tom Hayden and Al Haber

A manifesto by Students for a Democratic Society that criticized institutions ranging from political parties to corporations, unions, and the military-industrial complex, while offering a new vision of social change

Legislation passed by Congress in 1964 in reaction to supposedly unprovoked attacks on American warships off the coast of North Vietnam; it gave the president unlimited authority to defend U.S. forces and members of SEATO

"Hippie" youth culture of the 1960s, which rejected the values of the dominant culture in favor of illicit drugs, communes, free sex, and rock music.

The book widely credited with sparking second-wave feminism in the United States. Author Betty Friedan focused on college-educated women, arguing that they would find fulfillment by engaging in paid labor outside the home

Organization founded in 1966 by writer Betty Friedan and other feminists; it pushed for abortion rights, nondiscrimination in the workplace, and other forms of equality for women

A gathering place for New York's gay community, the site of the 1969 police raids and resulting riots that launched the modern gay rights movement

Movement founded in 1963 by Native Americans who were fed up with the poor conditions on Indian reservations and the federal government's unwillingness to help. In 1973, the American Indian Movement led 200 Sioux in the occupation of Wounded Knee. After a ten-week standoff with the federal authorities, the government agreed to reexamine Indian treaty rights and the occupation ended

A 1962 book by biologist Rachel Carson about the destructive impact of the widely used insecticide DDT that launched the modern environmentalist movement.

Supreme Court decision that, in overturning Connecticut law prohibiting the use of contraceptives, established a constitutional right to privacy

1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring states to permit first-trimester abortions

Surprise attack by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese during the Vietnamese New Year of 1968 turned American public opinion strongly against the war in Vietnam

Policy efforts to promote greater employment opportunities for minorities

The means of transporting students via buses to achieve school integration in the 1970s

Belief that affirmative action programs discriminate against white people

Part of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972 that banned gender discrimination in higher education.

1972 talks between President Nixon and Secretary Brezhnev from the Soviet Union, which limited the quantity of nuclear warheads each nation could possess, and prohibited the development of missile defense systems

Period of improving relations between the United States and Communist nations, particularly China and the Soviet Union, during the Nixon administration

Massacre of 347 Vietnamese civilians in the village of My Lai by Lieutenant William Calley and troops under his command. U.S. army officers covered up the massacre for a year until an investigation uncovered the events. Eventually twenty-five army officers were charged with complicity in the massacre and its cover-up, but only Calley was convicted. He served little time for his crimes

Informal name for the Defense Department's secret history of the Vietnam conflict; leaked to the press by former official Daniel Ellsberg and published in the New York Times in 1971

Law passed in 1973, reflecting growing opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War; required congressional approval before the president sent troops abroad.

The belief that the United States should be extremely cautious in deploying its military forces overseas that emerged after the end of the Vietnam War.

Washington office and apartment complex that lent its name to the 1972–1974 scandal of the Nixon administration; when his knowledge of the break-in at the Democratic Party Headquarters and subsequent cover-up were revealed, Nixon resigned the presidency under threat of impeachment

Prohibition on trade in oil declared by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, dominated by Middle Eastern producers, in October 1973 in response to U.S. and western European support for Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The rise in gas prices and fuel shortages resulted in a global economic recession and profoundly affected the American economy

A combination of stagnant economic growth and high inflation present during the 1970s

Term describes the decline of manufacturing in old industrial areas in the late twentieth century as companies shifted production to low-wage centers in the South and West or in other countries

The label for an arc that stretched from the Carolinas to California. During the postwar era, much of the urban population growth occurred in this area

1975 agreement between the USSR and the United States that recognized the post–World War II boundaries of Europe and guaranteed the basic liberties of each nation's citizens

Legislation during the Reagan-Clinton era that removed regulations on many industries, including finance and air travel

Nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, site of 1979 accident that released radioactive steam into the air; public reaction ended the nuclear power industry's expansion

Peace agreement between the leaders of Israel and Egypt, brokered by President Jimmy Carter in 1978

The leaders of the conservative insurgency of the early 1980s. Their brand of conservatism was personified in Ronald Reagan, who believed in less government, supply-side economics, and "family values."

The rightward turn of American politics following the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan. It made individual "freedom" a rallying cry for the right

Popular name for President Ronald Reagan's philosophy of "supply side" economics, which combined tax cuts with an unregulated marketplace

Scandal of the second Reagan administration involving sales of arms to Iran in partial exchange for release of hostages in Lebanon and use of the arms money to aid the Contras in Nicaragua, which had been expressly forbidden by Congress

President George H. W. Bush's term for the post–Cold War world

Military action in 1991 in which an international coalition led by the United States drove Iraq from Kuwait, which it had occupied the previous year

President Clinton's compromise measure that allowed gay people to serve in the military incognito, as officers could no longer seek them out for dismissal but they could not openly express their identity. It was ended under the Obama administration, when gay military service was allowed

Approved in 1993, the agreement with Canada and Mexico that allowed goods to travel across their borders free of tariffs. Critics of the agreement argued that American workers would lose their jobs to cheaper Mexican labor

A list of conservatives' promises in response to the supposed liberalism of the Clinton administration, that was drafted by Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and other congressional Republicans as the GOP platform for the 1994 midterm elections. It was more a campaign tactic than a practical program; few of its proposed items ever became law

1993 roadmap for peace between Israel and the newly created Palestinian Authority, negotiated under the Clinton administration

1994 genocide conducted by the Hutu ethnic group upon the Tutsi minority.

The systematic removal of an ethnic group from a territory through violence or intimidation in order to create a homogeneous society; the term was popularized by the Yugoslav policy brutally targeting Albanian Muslims in Kosovo

A series of ethnic and political crises that arose following the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Many atrocities were committed during the conflict, and NATO, the United Nations, and the United States intervened several times

Term that became prominent in the 1990s to describe the rapid acceleration of international flows of commerce, financial resources, labor, and cultural products

1990 law that prohibited the discrimination against persons with disabilities in both hiring and promotion. It also mandated accessible entrances for public buildings

Term that became prominent in the 1990s to describe a growing emphasis on group racial and ethnic identity and demands that jobs, education, and politics reflect the increasingly diverse nature of American society

Battles over moral values that occurred throughout the 1990s. The Culture Wars touched many areas of American life—from popular culture to academia. Flashpoints included the future of the nuclear family and the teaching of evolution

1996 law that barred gay couples from receiving federal benefits. Ruled unconstitutional in 2013

Set of beliefs usually associated with conservatism that stressed the superiority of nuclear family, heterosexual marriage, and traditional gender roles

U.S. Supreme Court case that determined the winner of the disputed 2000 presidential election

President George W. Bush's foreign policy principle wherein the United States would launch a war on terrorism

Global crusade to root out anti-American, anti-Western Islamist terrorist cells; launched by President George W. Bush as a response to the 9/11 attacks

War fought against the Taliban and Al Qaeda following the attacks of September 11, 2001. It remains the longest war in American history

Military campaign in 2003 in which the United States, unable to gain approval by the United Nations, unilaterally occupied Iraq and removed dictator Saddam Hussein from power

A 2001 mammoth bill that conferred unprecedented powers on law-enforcement agencies charged with preventing domestic terrorism, including the power to wiretap, read private messages, and spy on citizens

A detention center at the American naval base on the island of Cuba, where beginning in 2002 suspected terrorists and war prisoners were held indefinitely and tried by extrajudicial military tribunals. During his 2008 presidential campaign, Senator Barack Obama pledged to close the prison, but as of 2015 it remained open

2005 hurricane that devastated much of the Gulf Coast, especially New Orleans. The Bush administration's response was widely criticized as inadequate

2015 Supreme Court decision that allowed same-sex couples to marry throughout the United States

A period of crisis and steep decline in the American economy (and global economy), which occurred between 2007 and 2009 and was precipitated in particular by the housing bubble and “subprime” mortgage lending

First Supreme Court Justice of Hispanic descent. Justice Sotomayor was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2009

Environmental disaster that occurred in 2010 after an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. Hundreds of millions of gallons of oil were spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in one of the largest environmental calamities in human history

A grassroots movement in 2011 against growing economic inequality, declining opportunity, and the depredations of Wall Street banks

Civil rights movement sparked by a series of incidents of police brutality and lethal force against people of color

An insurgency that emerged from the sectarian civil wars that destabilized Syria and post–Saddam Hussein Iraq. Beginning in 2014, their forces attacked towns and cities in Iraq, Syria, and Libya, systematically murdering members of ethnic and religious minorities

An NSA contractor turned whistleblower, who released classified information relating to the United States' intelligence gathering both at home and abroad

A grassroots Republican movement that emerged in 2009 named for the Boston Tea Party of the 1770s. They opposed the Obama administration's sweeping legislative enactments and advocated for a more stringent immigration policy

2016 agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change concerned with mitigating greenhouse gas emissions

International protest on January 21, 2017, for women's rights, LGBT rights, gender equality, and racial equality following the inauguration of President Donald Trump. It was the biggest single-day protest in U.S. history

Social movement founded in 2006 by Tarana Burke to help survivors of sexual violence and oppose sexual harassment and assault, particularly in the workplace. In October 2017 it went viral on social media

The belief that the United States has a special mission to serve as a refuge from tyranny, a symbol of freedom, and a model for the rest of the world

Student-led protest on March 24, 2018, against gun violence and for gun control legislation in the United States