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Introduced by Henry Ford, the Model T was an automobile because it made car ownership accessible to the masses through mass production.
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The Zimmermann Telegram was a secret 1917 German message proposing a military alliance with Mexico against the U.S., offering Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona back to Mexico if it joined the war, and inviting Japan to also join
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Signed in 1918 between the Allies and Germany, it was an agreement that halted fighting on the Western Front, marking the end of four years of warfare.
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The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1920, granted women the right to vote by prohibiting the federal and state governments from denying suffrage based on sex.
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A Historic flight involved Charles Lindbergh flying solo and nonstop from New York to Paris in a plane. It took 3,610 miles and 33.5 hours.
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Black Thursday marked the beginning of the devastating 1929 stock market crash, where panicked selling caused a massive, early drop in the Dow Jones, with major banks stepping in to stabilize prices, though it ultimately failed, leading to the infamous "Black Tuesday" and ushering in the Great Depression.
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The New Deal was President Franklin D. Roosevelt's (FDR) expansive series of programs and reforms from 1933-1939 to combat the Great Depression, focusing on the "Three Rs": Relief, Recovery, and Reform.
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Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, appointed by President Hindenburg, amidst economic turmoil and political instability following World War I and the Treaty of Versailles
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The Munich Pact was a deal where Britain, France, and Italy allowed Nazi Germany to annex the German-speaking Sudetenland region in exchange for Hitler's promise of no further territorial demands
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Using the swift "Blitzkrieg" strategy of air and tank assaults, Hitler triggered World War II, as Britain and France declared war on Germany.
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The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise Japanese air raid on the U.S. naval base in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, aiming to cripple the U.S. fleet, drawing America into World War II, and resulting in over 2,400 American deaths and significant damage to ships and aircraft, including the iconic USS Arizona. This devastating event, marked by President Roosevelt's "infamy" speech, directly led to the U.S. declaring war on Japan the next day, changing the course of the war.
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The massive Allied amphibious invasion of Normandy, France (Operation Overlord), launching the liberation of Nazi-occupied Western Europe, the largest seaborne invasion in history, involving over 150,000 troops landing on five beaches (Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, Sword) supported by vast air and sea forces, marking a decisive turning point in World War II despite heavy casualties, and ultimately paving the way for German defeat in 1945.
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The United Nations was formed in 1945 after World War II to prevent future global conflicts, succeeding the failed League of Nations, with representatives from 50 nations drafting and signing the UN Charter in San Francisco.
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The U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II, marking the first nuclear attacks in history, devastating the cities, killing hundreds of thousands, and forcing Japan's surrender.
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The Long Telegram was an influential 1946 cable from U.S. diplomat George F. Kennan in Moscow, outlining his view that the Soviet Union was inherently expansionist and hostile, requiring a firm U.S. policy of containment to counter its influence, laying the groundwork for America's Cold War strategy against Soviet communism.
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Through a combination of extensive espionage, exploiting captured German nuclear materials and scientists, and a massive, state-funded crash program led by Lavrenty Beria, successfully tested their first device.
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Formed in 1949 by 12 North American and Western European nations as a collective defense alliance against Soviet aggression during the Cold War, establishing that an attack on one member is an attack on all (Article 5) to ensure mutual security, political stability, and prevent future European conflict.
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It was a brutal Cold War where North Korea invaded South Korea.
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Supreme Court case that unanimously declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, overturning the "separate but equal" doctrine from Plessy V. Ferguson
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A long, brutal war between communist North Vietnam and anti-communist South Vietnam.
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In Alabama, civil rights activist Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, defying segregation laws and leading to her arrest.
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The Cuban Missile Crisis was a tense, 13-day standoff in October 1962 between the U.S. and the Soviet Union after the Soviets secretly placed nuclear missiles in Cuba.
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The car turned off Main Street at Dealey Plaza around 12:30 p.m. As it was passing the Texas School Book Depository, gunfire suddenly reverberated in the plaza. Bullets struck the president's neck and head and he slumped over toward Mrs. Kennedy.
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The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was a congressional act giving President Lyndon B. Johnson broad authority to escalate U.S. involvement in Vietnam, authorizing him to use "all necessary measures" to repel attacks and prevent further aggression
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NASA's Apollo 11 lands on the moon.
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The internet evolved from the U.S. military's ARPANET, a decentralized network for sharing research, spurred by Cold War concerns, into a global system using TCP/IP protocols for standardized communication. Key developments included packet switching, email, and the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee, making it user-friendly with browsers like Mosaic, transitioning it from government research to public and commercial use, and leading to today's mobile, social, and ubiquitous internet.
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The Watergate break-in occurred in the early morning of June, when burglars were caught at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex
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Richard Nixon resigned as U.S. President, becoming the only president to do so, due to the Watergate scandal and a political cover-up of a break-in.
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It was a pivotal moment symbolizing the end of the Cold War, triggered by an accidental announcement that eased travel restrictions, leading to massive East German crowds overwhelming border guards who opened the gates.
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The hijacked Flight 11 was crashed into floors 93 to 99 of the North Tower (1 WTC) at 8:46 a.m. The hijacked Flight 175 struck floors 77 to 85 of the South Tower (2 WTC) 17 minutes later at 9:03 a.m. When the towers were struck, between 16,400 and 18,000 people were in the WTC complex.
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The COVID-19 pandemic was a global outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It remains one of the deadliest pandemics in history, causing over 7.1 million confirmed deaths and infecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide as of 2026. It continues to spread today.