America: Land I Love - Chapter 20

baby boom

Increase in the birthrate following World War II.

Billy Graham

Young evangelist who held large tent meetings in the Los Angeles area in the late 1940s; became one of the best-known people in America and around the world because of his televised evangelistic crusades.

Elisabeth Elliot

Wife of martyr Jim Elliot; wrote a book entitled Through Gates of Splendor about their missionary endeavor in Ecuador.

Jim Elliot

Missionary martyr who was killed in Ecuador by Waodani tribesman.

capital punishment

The death penalty.

GI Bill

Servicemen's Readjustment Act which made low-interest government loans available to veterans for college tuition and for the purchase of homes, farms, and businesses.

Levitt & Sons

Real estate company that introduced mass production of low-cost housing in the 1940s.

suburbs

Residential districts located just outside a city.

metropolitan

Large cities with suburban areas.

Dr. Jonas Salk

Doctor who developed the polio vaccine.

Jackie Robinson

Black American baseball player who signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers and broke the color barrier in baseball.

Marian Anderson

Woman recognized as one of the greatest opera singers of the 1900s.

Boeing 707

First successful commercial passenger jet.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Thirty-fourth president of the United States.

Alger Hiss

State Department official and adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt at Yalta who was convicted of perjury and passing State Department secrets to a Soviet agent before World War II.

Whittaker Chambers

Former Communist Party member and Soviet spy who turned against Communism when he realized its true nature.

Julius and Ether Rosenberg

Jewish Americans who were tried and convicted of treason for leaking vital atomic bomb secrets to Russian agents.

Joseph McCarthy

Senator who charged that the U.S. State Department had been infiltrated by a large number of Communist spies and who was censured by the Senate in 1954 after his televised behavior changed public perception of him.

Geneva Summit

Conference in 1955 that indicated a Soviet mindset shift from active agitation and aggression to what they called a peaceful coexistence.

Nikita Khrushchev

New Soviet premier in 1958 who led the Soviet change in methodology from aggressive tactics in an attempt to win over the peoples of Asia and Africa.

U-2 incident

Incident in 1960 in which an American spy plane or "U-2" was shot down over Russia.

Gamal Abdel Nasser

Egyptian leader who sponsored terrorist raids in Israel and announced that Egypt had entered a weapons agreement with the Soviet Union; Egyptian leader who seized the Suez Canal from Great Britain in 1956.

Suez Canal

Waterway seized from Great Britain by Egypt in 1956.

Eisenhower Doctrine

Policy adopted by Congress which gave the president the power to use force, if necessary, against Communist aggression in the Middle East.

Interstate Highway System

Great roadways linking the states.

St. Lawrence Seaway

Waterway finished in 1959 that opened up the Great Lakes region to ocean shipping, fostering closer relations between the United States and Canada.

Alaska

Forty-ninth state admitted to the Union.

Hawaii

Fiftieth state admitted to the Union.

Explorer 1

First U.S. satellite launched in January 1958.

NASA

National Aeronautics and Space Administration; government organization founded in July 1958 to help bring the United States into the Space Age.

John F. Kennedy

Thirty-fifth president of the United States; first Roman Catholic president.

Fidel Castro

Communist dictator who took control of Cuba by convincing the Cuban people that he would liberate the working class from the dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Bay of Pigs

Site where an American-trained force of Cuban freedom fighters invaded Cuba but failed when President John F. Kennedy backed away from his promise of American air cover and support.

Berlin Wall

Solid cement block wall built by the Soviets to keep their people from fleeing East Berlin; served as a grim monument to the failure of Communism.

1962

Year when President John F. Kennedy ordered a naval blockade around Cuba to keep the Soviet Union from shipping missiles and nuclear warheads to the island.

Cuban Missile Crisis

Situation that had the entire world on the brink of nuclear war after Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev refused to back down when President John F. Kennedy ordered a naval blockade around Cuba; War to decide which country would have the best weapons.

New Frontier

President John F. Kennedy's domestic policy aimed at improving the living conditions for all Americans, especially those in poverty.

Peace Corps

Government program that sent out volunteers, mostly college students, to improve the health and farming practices of underdeveloped areas around the world.

Alliance for Progress

Program established by President John F. Kennedy in which every country in Latin America, except Communist Cuba, joined to encourage democracy and investment.

Civil rights movement

The major historical movement in the United States aimed at abolishing institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement of Black Americans.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

The historic Supreme Court case and ruling that called for the desegregation of public schools.

Rosa Parks

The woman who was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

The civil rights leader who called for an end to discrimination against Black Americans in his famous speech in 1963.

Sit-ins

A form on nonviolent protest used during the civil rights movement where protesters occupied segregated spaces (such as lunch counters) to demand integration.

Freedom rides

Bus trips taken by civil rights activists through the American South to protest segregation in interstate transportation.

James Meredith

The African American student who integrated the University of Mississippi with federal backing.

Wernher von Braun

The prominent rocket scientist who helped spearhead the American space program and development of rocket technology.

Alan B. Shepard, Jr.

The first American in space.

John Glenn

The first American to orbit the earth.

Jacqueline (Jackie) Kennedy

The First Lady of the United States and wife of President John F. Kennedy, known for her restoration of the White House and cultural influence.

November 22, 1963

The date President john F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

Lee Harvey Oswald

The man arrested for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Jack Ruby

The nightclub owner who shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald while he was in police custody.