American History Final

Hist 2020 PowerPoint Lecture questions for Exam 5 (Final)

Space Race & Early Cold War (1–12)

1. Which two countries competed in the Space Race?

2. What was the name of the first man-made object launched into space in October 1957?

3. Which country launched Sputnik?

4. What was the name of the first American satellite launched into space in February 1958?

5. Why were Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) a major concern after Sputnik?

6. What 1958 law improved American education in math, science, and foreign languages because of the Space Race?

7. What new U.S. government agency was created in 1958 to manage the space program?

8. Who was the Soviet Premier who visited the United States in 1959?

9. What happened to the American U-2 spy plane in 1960?

10. Why did the Test Ban Treaty talks fall apart in 1960?

11. Who won the 1960 presidential election?

12. Why were the 1960 presidential debates important?

Cuba & Kennedy’s Cold War (13–28)

13. In what year did Fidel Castro take power in Cuba?

14. What type of government did Fidel Castro establish in Cuba?

15. What was the Bay of Pigs invasion?

16. Why did the Bay of Pigs invasion fail?

17. What structure began being built in Berlin in 1961?

18. Who was the first human in space in April 1961?

19. Who was the first American in space (May 1961)?

20. On what date did President Kennedy give his “Moon Shot” speech promising to land a man on the moon before 1970?

21. Who became the first American to orbit Earth in February 1962?

22. In what month and year did the Cuban Missile Crisis take place?

23. What did President Kennedy call the naval blockade of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis?

24. How many days did the Cuban Missile Crisis last?

25. What did the Soviet Union agree to remove from Cuba to end the crisis?

26. What did the United States secretly agree to remove from Turkey after the crisis?

27. Who was the Soviet leader during the Cuban Missile Crisis?

28. Why did Castro’s relationship with the Soviet Union grow stronger after the Bay of Pigs?

Civil Rights Movement (29–50)

29. Where and when did the first major sit-in of the 1960s begin?

30. How many African-American students started the Greensboro sit-in?

31. What was the main goal of the sit-in movement?

32. What 1954 Supreme Court decision ordered schools to desegregate “with all deliberate speed”?

33. Who was the six-year-old girl who integrated William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960?

34. What were Freedom Riders trying to accomplish in 1961?

35. Who was James Meredith?

36. Why did President Kennedy send federal troops to the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) in 1962?

37. Which city was called “the most segregated city in America” in 1963?

38. Who was the Birmingham police chief who used dogs and fire hoses on protesters?

39. What tragic event happened at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham on September 15, 1963?

40. How many young girls were killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing?

41. In what month and year was the March on Washington held?

42. How many people attended the March on Washington?

43. Who gave the “I Have a Dream” speech?

44. What major civil rights law was signed by President Johnson in 1964?

45. What commission was created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to handle employment discrimination?

46. What did the 24th Amendment (1964) abolish?

47. What was the main goal of Freedom Summer in 1964?

48. What happened on “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama, in March 1965?

49. What practice did the Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlaw?

50. By roughly what percentage did African-American voter registration increase in the year after the Voting Rights Act?

Kennedy Assassination & Johnson Era (51–60)

51. In which city was President Kennedy assassinated?

52. On what exact date was President Kennedy killed?

53. From what building were the shots fired that killed Kennedy?

54. Who was arrested for shooting President Kennedy?

55. Who shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald on live television?

56. What commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone?

57. Who became president immediately after Kennedy’s death?

58. In the 1964 election, whom did Lyndon Johnson defeat by the largest margin in history?

59. What was the name of President Johnson’s domestic program to fight poverty and inequality?

60. Name two medical programs created under the Great Society (Medicare and Medicaid – either one is acceptable in an answer).

Vietnam War & 1968 (61–75)

61. What was the name of the long-term bombing campaign against North Vietnam that began in 1965?

62. Who were the Viet Cong?

63. Why was the Vietnam War sometimes called a “quagmire”?

64. What major North Vietnamese/Viet Cong attack happened during the Vietnamese New Year (Tet) in 1968?

65. Even though the U.S. military won most battles in the Tet Offensive, why did American public opinion turn strongly against the war?

66. On what date did President Johnson announce he would not run for re-election in 1968?

67. Who assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968?

68. Who assassinated Robert F. Kennedy in June 1968?

69. In which city did violent clashes occurred outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention?

70. Who won the presidential election of 1968?

71. What was the name of Nixon’s policy to gradually turn the fighting over to South Vietnamese forces?

72. What secret bombing campaign did Nixon order in Cambodia?

73. What 1971 leaked documents showed that the government had lied about Vietnam?

74. What 1973 law limited the president’s power to send troops into combat without Congress’s approval?

75. In what year and month did Saigon fall to North Vietnamese forces, ending the Vietnam War?

Watergate

76. In what year and month did the Watergate break-in occur?

77. What was the Watergate building used for by the Democrats?

78. How many people were arrested for breaking into the Democratic offices in June 1972?

79. Who did Richard Nixon defeat in the 1972 presidential election?

80. Which two Washington Post reporters investigated and broke the Watergate story?

81. What does CREEP stand for, and what was its role in the scandal?

82. What famous question became central to the Watergate investigation?

83. What did the congressional hearings on Watergate reveal that belonged to the White House?

84. What is the “smoking gun” tape, and what did it prove about President Nixon?

85. On what exact date did Richard Nixon resign as President, and who became president the next day?