US HISTORY PEOPLE TO KNOW

Harry Truman – President after FDR; dropped atomic bombs, desegregated the military, started Cold War policies.

Dwight D. Eisenhower – President during 1950s; built interstate highways, promoted containment.

John F. Kennedy (JFK) – President during Cuban Missile Crisis; supported civil rights and the space race; assassinated in 1963.

Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) – Took over after JFK; launched Great Society and signed Civil Rights Acts.

Richard Nixon – President during Vietnam War, détente with China and USSR; resigned due to Watergate scandal.

Gerald Ford – Became president after Nixon; pardoned him.

Jimmy Carter – Promoted human rights; signed Camp David Accords; faced Iran Hostage Crisis.

Ronald Reagan – Conservative leader of 1980s; Reaganomics, Cold War policies.

George H.W. Bush – President during the Gulf War; end of Cold War.

George W. Bush – 9/11 attacks, War on Terror, Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina.

Martin Luther King Jr. – Leader of nonviolent civil rights movement; “I Have a Dream”; Nobel Peace Prize.

Rosa Parks – Sparked Montgomery Bus Boycott by refusing to give up her bus seat.

Malcolm X – Promoted Black empowerment and separation before moderating views later in life.

Thurgood Marshall – NAACP lawyer in Brown v. Board, first Black Supreme Court Justice.

Cesar Chavez – Latino labor leader; co-founded United Farm Workers; used nonviolent protest.

Betty Friedan – Wrote The Feminine Mystique, helped start modern feminist movement.

Gloria Steinem – Journalist and feminist leader.

Ho Chi Minh – Communist leader of North Vietnam.

Ngo Dinh Diem – Leader of South Vietnam (anti-communist, U.S.-backed).

Robert McNamara – U.S. Secretary of Defense during Vietnam escalation.

William Westmoreland – U.S. General in Vietnam.

Linda Brown – Student at the center of Brown v. Board of Education (desegregation case).

Earl Warren – Chief Justice of Supreme Court; led landmark decisions (Miranda v. Arizona, Gideon v. Wainwright, Brown v. Board).

Joseph Stalin – Soviet leader during early Cold War.

Nikita Khrushchev – Soviet leader during Cuban Missile Crisis.

Mikhail Gorbachev – Soviet leader in 1980s; reformed USSR, helped end Cold War.

Fidel Castro – Communist leader of Cuba.

Osama bin Laden – Leader of al-Qaeda; responsible for 9/11 attacks.

Saddam Hussein – Iraqi dictator; removed during 2003 U.S. invasion.

Rachel Carson – Wrote Silent Spring, sparked environmental movement.

Bill Gates – Co-founder of Microsoft; tech boom of 1990s.

Steve Jobs – Co-founder of Apple; helped lead technology revolution.