America's Top 25

1860

Election of Lincoln; Beginning of Southern Secession

American Civil War

1861-1865

1864-1877

Reconstruction era in the South

Census Bureau announces the end of the frontier

1890

1896

Election of McKinley: end of the populist

Spanish American War

1898

1898-1917

progressive era

WW 1

1914-1918

1929

Stock Market crash, beginning of the great depression

Election of FDR

1932

1941

Pearl Harbor, the US enters WW2

Yalta Conferences, Potsdam Conference, VE/VJ Day end WW2

1945

1947

Truman Doctrine

Korean War

1950-1953

1957

Sputnik

Assassination of JFK

1963

1964

Civil Rights act; gulf of Tonkin resolution

Direct involvement of US in Vietnam

1964-1973

1968

Tet Offensive, Anti-War demonstrations, riots at the DNC, assassination of MLK and RFK

Nixon Resignation

1974

1979-1981

Iranian Hostage crisis (444 days)

Election of Ronald Regan (marks conservative political swing)

1980

1989

End of the Cold War, fall of the Berlin Wall

Persian Gulf War

1991

2000

Bush VS. Gore Supreme Court decision