Monumental milestones: great events of modern times

At the time that Rosa Parks decided not to get out of her bus seat in 1955, African Americans across the United States were treated like second-class citizens. Sometimes they were not even considered citizens. They were not allowed to use white-only restaurants or hotels. They were kept out of public schools, parks, and swimming pools. And perhaps most importantly, they were not allowed to vote.Over the course of the next decade, African Americans...

The Great Depression was one of the worst crises of the twentieth century. For some time, the very survival of the country appeared to be at stake. Businesses failed, banks closed, people lost their homes, and thousands lined up at soup kitchens across the United States. Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed a new deal, and in 1932 he was elected president. Many of his New Deal policies shaped the country in ways that are still visible today, like Social...

The Japanese attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, was one of the worst defeats in U.S. military history. It began a string of Japanese successes that seemed to threaten the security of the United States. Many U.S. citizens and government leaders were on the verge of panic. But the attack was probably the greatest mistake the Japanese made during World War II. At that time, many Americans didn t want to go to war. The...

Describes the events and people involved in the making of the atomic bomb.

When the Great War began in August 1914, many people thought it would be over by Christmas. Instead it lasted for more than four years and claimed millions of lives.The most dominant feature of the conflict was the seemingly endless miles of trenches that faced each other, often just a few hundred yards apart. The only way of attacking was through brutal frontal assaults. Often thousands of men died in a few hours. When they werent fighting, men lived...

The Vietnam War sparkled one of the most controversial periods in American history. Although Vietnam had been fighting for its independence for thousands of years, the United States didn't enter the picture until the 1950s. Increasing tensions between North and South Vietnam officially brought the U.S. into the war in 1964. At the same time, a military draft was instituted. People struggled to understand the role of the U.S. in Vietnam. Americans...

The building of the Panama Canal was one of the great engineering feats of the twentieth century. For hundreds of years, mankind had dreamed about cutting through the Isthmus of Panama to build a canal, but the jungle, insects, and the damp, humid conditions had always combined to defeat any and all attempts to construct the waterway. It took the discovery of the mosquito as a disease carrier, the tenacity of the workmen, and the single-minded stubbornness...

It was a beautiful late summer morning, the kind of day even busy New Yorkers took a moment to appreciate. The sky was spectacularly clear, tinted an azure blue, the air stirred by a gentle breeze. The mood of the city seemed optimistic as people hurried down the crowded streets on their way to work. Then the world as people knew it changed forever. The attack on the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and New York City's World Trade Center by three fuel-laden,...