US History Two Chapter 30

Interstate Highway Act - 1956

Greatly sped up long-distance travel.

Baby Boom

Sharp post-World War II increase in birth rate.

John Maynard Keynes

British economist. Taught that the government could manage the economy. His theories have controlled our economic policy for decades.

Agribusiness

Small family farms began to fade out in favor of large landowners and corporations.

Prominent Labor Leaders

Walter Reuther (UAW) George Meany (AFL-CIO) Jimmy Hoffa (Teamsters)

Dr. Jonas Salk - 1955

Polio vaccine virtually wiped out the disease.

Sputnik - 1957

First manmade satellite. Launched by the USSR and shocked the world.

Alan Shepherd - 1961

First American in space.

John Glenn - 1962

First American in orbit.

Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin

First men on the moon 1969.

NASA

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. In charge of America’s space program.

Space Shuttle

Reusable spacecraft. Enthusiasm dampened by the Challenger explosion in 1986.

Disneyland

Amusement park near Los Angeles opened in 1955.

Arthur Levitt

Pioneered mass-produced housing developments at an affordable price, at first called “Levittowns.”

Suburbs

Communities on the outskirts of the great cities. Became increasingly attractive in the 1950’s.

Dr. Benjamin Spock

Wrote Baby and Child Care in 1946. His philosophies have had a large part in the permissive society we have experienced ever since.

Television

Became popular shortly after World War II. One if the history’s most influential inventions. Has been allowed to be a powerful addictive force.

Beatnicks

Writers (along with their followers) who despised middle-class America and its conformity. Wanted to “do their own thing.”

The Other America

Book by Michael Harrington in 1962 that exposed the poverty that certain groups were experiencing in the midst of the “affluent society.”

“Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education” - 1954

The Supreme Court reversed the decision of “Plessy vs. Ferguson.” (1896) and ruled that school segregation must end.

Rosa Parks

Montgomery, Alabama - 1955. A black woman refused to give up her seat to a white man. She was arrested, and the city’s black leaders started a riot.

Martin Luther King

Black leader who became prominent during the bus boycott. Founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Recognized spokesman for Black America.

Jackie Robinson - 1947

First black to play major league baseball. His contract stated that he could not retaliate if spit at.

Eisenhower’s Cabinet

Dominated by former business executives he welcomed government involvement in the corporate world.

Army-McCarthy Hearings

Televised congressional hearings in 1954 that brought McCarthy’s charges and evidence into the open. His basic lack of manners brought him discredit and official Senate censure.

Josh Foster Dulles

Eisenhower’s secretary of state. Dedicated to fighting Communism and building our nuclear capabilites as a deterrent.

Truce in Korea - 1953

The pre-war 38th parallel border. The creation of a three-mile wide demilitarized zone.

Ho Chi Minh

Communist leader in Vietnam. Fighting for independence from the French with the help of China and the USSR. Succeeded in 1954.

Founding of Israel - 1948

British troops left Palestine, and the Jewish nation proclaimed itself a nation. Immediately received hostility from its Arab neighbors.

Nasser

Leader of Egypt. Hostile to America. Welcomed help from USSR.

Castro

Revolutionary leader in Cuba. Overthrew Batista in 1959 and soon announced his Communist affiliations.

U-2 Incident

Krushchev and Eisenhower had agreed to meet in Paris but the drowning of a U.S. spy plane over the USSR prompted the Soviet Leader to call off summit.