History 7
Gerald Ford – became president upon the resignation of Richard Nixon
Jimmy Carter – elected president in 1976
Malaise Speech – President Carter’s television address to the nation that the press presented as a speech with a general feeling of discomfort or uneasiness
Panama Canal Treaty – President Carter to return the canal to Panama
Camp David Accords – peace treaty between Israel and Egypt coordinated by President Carter (considered to be Carter’s greatest achievement as president)
Anwar Sadat – Egyptian president who signed the Camp David Accords
Menachem Begin – Israeli prime minister who signed the Camp David Accords
Sunbelt – demographic shift in US from north and east to south and southwest
Ronald Reagan – elected president in 1980
Iran hostages – 53 Americans taken hostage at the American Embassy in Tehran, Iran and held for over a year, released on the inauguration day of Ronald Reagan
Supply-side Economics – President Regan’s plan to reduce the federal budget by reducing taxes and government spending
Strategic Defense Initiative – President Regan’s military program that utilized lasers and satellites as
shields against missiles
Sar Wars – name given to Reagan’s strategic defense initiative by the press
Geraldine Ferraro – first female candidate to appear on a national political ticket (vice president nominee
with Democrat Walter Mondale)
Mikhail Gorbachev – Soviet leader who championed the initiatives of glasnost and perestroika
Glasnost- translated as ‘openness’ policy of Mikhai Gorbachev designed to restructure the rigid and
unproductive Soviet economy
Perestroika – translated ‘reform’ policy of Mikhai Gorbachev to move the Soviet economy toward
capitalism
Tiananmen Square – mass movement in China calling for greater democratization (completely crushed by the Chinese government)
Nelson Mandela – first black president of South Africa, ending ‘apartheid’
Saddam Hussein – military leader of Iraq who invaded Kuwait (set off the Persian Gulf War)
William Jefferson Clinton – Arkansas governor (born in Hope, Arkansas) elected president in 1992
Whitewater – real estate and banking scandal surrounding President Clinton
Ken Starr – Special counsel during the Clinton investigation of accusation the president lied under oath,
recommended impeachment proceedings against President Clinton
Election of 2000 – one of the most sensational is US history, with neither candidate having a majority of
electoral votes; Florida’s punchout ‘hanging chads’ created controversy, a recount, and a Constitutional
crisis
Dotcom – new element of the US economy created by computers, the Internet, cellular phones, digital
music and the like, leading to the ‘dotcom bubble’ crash
- Rapid investments in Internet-based companies
- Rapid rise in sales of US technology stocks
- Slow down of investors pouring quick money into start-up companies
Globalization – the growing interdependence of the world’s economic, cultures, and population
Terrorism – use of violence as a form of intimidation against people and governments
Internet – a vast network of computers that allows people connected to the network to communicate worldwide
Tim Berners-Lee – British scientist who introduced the World Wide Web