Presidents Test

Challenger

NASA's second Space Shuttle orbiter to be put into service; exploded after takeoff; killed all onboard; used to compete with Soviet Union

Reagonomics

Nickname for Reagan's economic policies that reduced income taxes and cut taxes to business owners and the wealthy, but it hurt those in lower socioeconomic brackets.

Exxon Valdez Oil

An oil tanker ran into a reef off the coast of Alaska and spilled approximately 250,000-750,000 barrels of crude oil in Prince William Sound killing hundreds of thousands of birds, fish, and sea animals.

Gerald Ford

1974-1977, Republican from Michigan; first non-elected president and vice president; he pardoned Nixon

World Trade Organization

Opponents felt the WTO favors the developed nations because it is more difficult for poorer nations to compete in an unregulated world

Labor unions see free trade leading to the migration of jobs from higher-wage countries to lower-wage countries

Trade agreements lacked incentives for improvements in global working conditions.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)

A 1996 national act that abolished the longtime welfare policy and gives the states much more control over welfare policy that provides assistance and work opportunities to needy families

Jimmy Carter

(1977-1981), A peanut farmer from Georgia and Washington outsider; he created the Department of Energy and the Department of Education. He was criticized for his return of the Panama Canal Zone, and because of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, he enacted an embargo on grain shipments to USSR and boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and his last year in office was marked by the takeover of the American embassy in Iran, fuel shortages, and the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, which caused him to lose to Ronald Reagan in the next election.

Iranian Hostage Crisis

1979 kidnapping of American Embassy hostages in Iran. It lasted for more than a year including the failed rescue attempt of Operation Eagle Claw resulting in the loss of 8 servicemen in the helicopter crash.

U.S. Boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games

The 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan spurred Jimmy Carter to issue an ultimatum on January 20, 1980 that the United States would boycott the Moscow Olympics if Soviet troops did not withdraw from Afghanistan within one month

Kent State Riot

4 students were killed during a Vietnam and Cambodia anti-war demonstration. National guard opened fire.

Woodstock

A free 3 day music festival in upstate N.Y. August 1969, that exemplified the counterculture of the late 1960s, nearly 400,000 gathered in a 600 acre field

26th amendment

Lowered the voting age from 21 to 18; old enough to fight, old enough to vote

Title IX

A law that bans gender discrimination in schools that receive federal funds and required female students equal access to special programs, including athletics.

Executive Privilege

An implied presidential power that allows the president to refuse to disclose information regarding confidential conversations or national security to Congress or the judiciary; Nixon claimed this in Watergate, but it was denied because no person is above the law

Deficit spending during the 1980s

government practice of spending borrowed money rather than raising taxes promoted investment

Ayatollah Khomeini

Shiite religious leader of Iran, led the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and ordered the invasion of the US Embassy that took 66 hostages. Carter led the failed Operation Eagle Claw to attempt to release them.

Three-Mile Island

Nuclear Power Plant in Harrisburg, Penn. which failed, causing radiation to be admitted in the air leading to reform in nuclear safety regulations

Gideon v. Wainwright

A person who cannot afford an attorney may have one appointed by the government

Ford's approval rating plunged when he

pardoned Nixon and created a clemency plan for draft dodgers

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

An independent federal agency established to coordinate programs aimed at reducing pollution and protecting the environment

Iran-Contra Affair

This involved high officials in the Reagan administration secretly selling arms to Iran (in return for the release of Western hostages in the Middle East) and illegally using the proceeds to finance the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

Gulf War 1991

after Iraq invaded Kuwait, the US invaded Iraq to liberate Kuwait and secure stable political relations in the Middle East; Iraq set Kuwait's oil fields on fire so the Americans couldn't gain the oil; this conflict caused the US to set military bases in Saudi Arabia; also called Operation: Desert Storm

Camp David Accords

(1978) Middle East peace negotations at the presidential retreat of Camp David by Egypt's Anwar Sadat, Israel's Menachem Begin, and U.S. President Jimmy Carter. They led to a peace treaty the next year that returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, guaranteed Israeli access to the Red Sea and Suez Canal and diplomatic and economic relations between the two countries.

Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)

Popularly known as "Star Wars," President Reagan proposed the construction of an elaborate computer-controlled, anti-missile defense system capable of destroying enemy missiles in outer spaced. Critics claimed that it could never be perfected.

Sunbelt

A region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the South and Southwest. The area experienced significant population and economic growth from the 1960s onwards, largely due to its warm climate, low cost of living, and job opportunities.

Rustbelt

Urban areas in New England and Middle West characterized by concentrations of declining industries (steel or textiles).

Roe v. Wade

The 1973 Supreme Court decision holding that a state ban on all abortions was unconstitutional. The decision forbade state control over abortions during the first trimester of pregnancy, permitted states to limit abortions to protect the mother's health in the second trimester, and permitted states to protect the fetus during the third trimester.

OPEC

An organization of countries formed in 1961 to agree on a common policy for the production and sale of petroleum. When OPEC countries are unsatisfied with the price of oil, it is in their interest to cut the supply of oil which causes gas prices to rise.

Vietnamization

President Richard Nixons strategy for ending U.S involvement in the Vietnam War, involving a gradual withdrawal of American troops and replacement of them with South Vietnamese forces

Pentagon Papers

A 7,000-page top-secret United States government report on the history of the internal planning and policy-making process within the government itself concerning the Vietnam War.

NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)

An agreement for free trade between the United States and Canada and Mexico

Sierra Club

An organization founded in 1892 that was dedicated to the enjoyment and preservation of America's great mountains (including the Sierra Nevadas) and wilderness environments. Encouraged by such groups, national and state governments began to set aside more public lands for preservation and recreation.

NAFTA Concerns

US would lose manufacturing jobs to a lower-wage Mexico

Helsinki Accords

Political and human rights agreement signed in Helsinki, Finland in 1975 signed by 33 nations including the US and USSR.

United States and Russia

Reagan described their differences as a struggle between good and evil

Voting Rights Act of 1965

a law designed to help end formal and informal barriers to African-American voting

Brown v. Board of Education

1954 - The Supreme Court overruled Plessy v. Ferguson, declared that racially segregated facilities are inherently unequal and ordered all public schools desegregated.

Cesar Chavez

Organized Union Farm Workers (UFW); help migratory farm workers gain better pay & working conditions